Fanny Parks

The Taggart Family is fortunate to have a short autobiography of Grandmother Fanny Parks. As provided by Walter and Hazel Hilbig at the Taggart Reunion in Salt Lake City (August 5, 1978), this is an inspiring account and a valuable part of Taggartiana.

She married George Washington Taggart on July 12, 1845, at Nauvoo. She mothered George's little Eliza Ann during his absence of almost two years while he was helping to prepare for the trek of the Saints westward and serving in the Mormon Battalion. After his return she gave birth to their three children - Harriet Marie, George Henry, and Charles Wallace. In 1852, she mothered their four small children in the company of her husband across the plains and mountains to the Salt Lake Valley.

But let us return to Nauvoo and pick up the account as she relates it:

". . .I was left in the care of John Mills with the understanding that he should take me to Council Bluffs with the avails of some property we hoped to sell, but there was no sale for anything, but Brother Mills was very kind to me. Then the call came for 500 men to go in the Battalion, my husband was one of them. I was still back there and it seemed awfully hard to me. I had no one to look to and not a penny of my own, but Brother Mills did all in his power to make me comfortable and said for me to stay with his family, and if he went I should go, but he had neither team nor wagon and no one to help him as the children were small so it looked very discouraging."

". . . When I married Mr. Taggart he was a widdower with one little girl . . . Eliza Ann. Through all the hardships and trials to come I had her with me, but she was a great comfort to me. Consequently when I arrived at Winterquarters I was alone, but I was blessed with kind friends and never was without food and raiment nor shelter, although sometimes I had to live on hulled corn for several days together, for there was no mill nearer than Missouri and our cattle all poor and if one was killed to eat it was too poor to be good meat and in consequence of being without vegetables, many of the people had the land scurvy and many died. I had a touch of it but was not prostrated.

When my husband left me in Nauvoo, I was sick with the chills and fever, but as the weather got warmer, I got better, and my health was good most of the time while he was gone, which I considered a great blessing."

"Brother Mills took his family into Iowa opposite Nauvoo and went to work to get ready to go to the Bluffs as that was the stopping place for the time being, but he had no team and there seemed to be no way opened for him to get one and as he was a wagon maker he made himself a good wagon . . . that projected out wide enough to make beds in very comfortably, but I have said there was no sale for anything and the team was still lacking..."

One day Sister Mills and myself were talking on the subject and she mentioned that her father lived below there in Illinois and belonged to the church and that he had plenty of teams and maybe he would take a notion to come out and help them to a team also, and I felt as though that might be the way that might open for us to come, so accordingly we concluded to write to her father at once and it fell to my lot to do the writing for her and it seems as if I was inspired. I wrote quite a long letter telling him of our situation and asked him to come and go with us. He soon answered the letter saying he would come and bring teams for us all, and thus the way was opened for us to come as far as Winter Quarters, for that is near the Bluffs.

But the old gentleman never unpacked his things but turned around and went back to his old home, so he was moved upon to bring us out . . . in this I can see the hand of the Lord in bringing me thus far on my journey to the valleys of the mountains . . . When I arrived at Winter Quarters I was looking for the families of the Battalion to be assisted, but everyone had to do the best they could and as I had no relatives there I did not know how to act or what to do, so I went to President Brigham Young and asked him what I had better do and he told me to hunt up some acquaintances and get in with them until I could get myself a house.

On hearing this, the tears came to my eyes, and I felt like having a good cry, and to hide my tears, I turned quickly away and said nothing. Well, thought I, this will never do, I must do something, then, wiping my eyes looked up and saw a tent and in the door stood one of the sisters. I went to her and inquired if she could tell me where Father Asa Davis lived. She showed me his house, and I went there and was made welcome to such accommodations as they had. Their house was a small log one with no floor or window, but a piece had been sawed out of one of the logs for the light to enter. When it was not too cold, I slept in their wagon, then made my bed on their floor and in the day put it on another bed . . ."

"While living there, one of the brethren living nearby, the name of Cook, wished me to come and take care of his children, as they had lost their mother and two of the children were sick. I went and did the best I could for them, the boy died, and the girl got well. In the spring, I had left there and gone in with sister Amy Ann Babcock, who had been laid up with the scurvy for two months, and her limbs were so drawn, and the muscles and cords so contracted that she could not stand on her feet nor walk a step.

I got some vinegar and pepper and rubbed them, also some relaxing oil and a pair of crutches, and she soon began to get around then. Her husband was also in the Battalion and she was on the hands of the Bishop, so he asked if I would go in with her and care for her and in that way my house and wood would cost me nothing, I accepted this offer and we each furnished our share of provisions which consisted mostly of corn boiled in weak lye water to take off the husks, then washed and boiled until tender. I can remember thinking it quite a treat when a child, but come to live on it for months, it was quite another thing."

"When spring opened sufficiently for vegetation to show itself, women and children and sometimes men were seen in all directions hunting wild potatoes, onion greens or anything bordering on vegetables, for they were starving for vegetable food and a few had bread . . . My husband sent me some money through the winter and so I was able to get the necessary articles of clothing and such food as we could get, but we were living on Indian land and so far from our settlements and our cattle so poor that there were only a few who could travel to town for food and that was of the very plainest kind, no fruit, no meat or vegetables and as for butter, we seldom saw any. During the summer, the house we lived in was sold, and we were obliged to leave it. I was wondering what I should do, but the way opened for us. Charles Lambert's family lived near, and he was at work in Missouri and sent for his family. Lambert gave me the privilege of occupying her house.

I accordingly accepted the offer, and the sister that I had taken care of went with me and stayed until her husband came home late in the fall, then I was left alone, but in a few days and old acquaintance of my husband's called to see me and wished to stop with me awhile and I was glad to have her stay for company. Her name was Mary Moss."

"The little girl, Eliza, had forgotten her father though she was two years old. My husband got home on the 17th of December, 1847, while I was living in this house of Brother Lambert's. Early in the spring of 1848 the saints had to leave there and we crossed the river on the ice and went 30 miles above Kanesville to a place called Harris grove, Pottawattama Co., Iowa Territory, and my husband in the company of John Ney settled there. There my three children were born . . . Here we stayed until July 1852, then we started on our journey to the valley of the mountains, and arrived in Salt Lake City in the month of October 17th, 1852."

" . . . Most of the money that was sent to the wives of the soldiers was sent to Missouri and laid out for goods. I had the chance of trading some articles of store pay for wool, and by getting it corded into rolls, I had the good fortune to pay for the warp and weaving and spinning, and thus I made enough for my husband two pairs of pants and myself a linsy dress."

"My husband brought home a span of mules and a horse. These he traded for young stock, some cows, and a yoke of oxen, and immediately went to work on a farm, preparing all the time to come to the valley just as soon as possible. In the fall of 1850, he went down to Missouri to work and earn the means necessary to make the journey. Came home in the spring, planted his crops, made his own wagon, and we started for the valley. The journey was anything but pleasant. Some new roads, many mud holes, mountains to climb, bad water, and sometimes none at all.

The cholera was in our midst and may have died but as we came nearer to the mountains, it left us, and we enjoyed fairly good health. My own youngest child was now about four months old, and when we walked, I had to carry him. At one time, I walked five miles up a canyon, and there we found snow that lay from one year to another. The fact seemed very strange to us. We traveled in companies of ten and assisted one another through the bad places and got along without any serious trouble, only occasionally the oxen would give out, or a tire would come off.

When the men would stop to repair the wagons, the women would bake and wash, but we did not iron because we were not prepared for this. But we were glad to get the chance to wash our clothes. In many places, there was no fuel except buffalo chips, and I baked many times with them, and the men set tires with them. I used to make what the southerners called corn pone and baked beans."

"When we first landed in Salt Lake, we camped for a few days in the first ward near the Brine Tannery. My husband went to President Brigham Young for counsel as to what he best do, and he set him to work for him on a grist mill. He gave us a house to live in, in the 12th ward, but we had no stove, bed, table, or chairs, and the house leaked, and with our beds and all on the floor, it was very hard.

Thus, we lived for a year, and they were very anxious to finish the mill for the convenience of the people. My husband improved all this time and finally got one bedstead made, but we still had one on the floor. He finally made a table and, in the fall of 1853, bought a stove from Heber C. Kimball. About this time, he went to work for Brother Kimball and built him a grist mill, and Brother Kimball sold him a lot on the hill a little below the Old Arsenal. Here he built a house, and in the fall of 1865, he came to Richville, Morgan County, Utah."

With respect to the house in the 12th ward, Fanny's first child, Harriet Maria, recalled that they had a small garden: "I well remember having weeded onions one morning, we were in the house for dinner and a little rest, when a terrific storm suddenly arose, seemingly a cloud burst above the 20th ward. Water rushed down the street in torrents, taking our garden and cutting gulches on both sides of our house, which we could not cross until they were bridged. The water also ran through our house, it being of logs, and we could keep dry only by getting up on the beds."

"Of course, these conditions looked discouraging to father when he returned that night from work, and we soon moved to a lot one block north of the Temple, which my father purchased from President Kimball. This entire lot he planted to peach trees." (Life Sketch of Harriet Maria Taggart, Wife of George Albert Goodrich. No date.)

Concluding with Fanny's own account " . . . I am still living in Richville, April 11, 1877. April 25, 1877, I was chosen to act as President of the Relief Society, also to act as Treasurer for the same . . . March 15, 1884. Am still living in Richville, acting in my appointed place to the best of my ability . . . I held the position as Relief Society President of the Richville Ward until I was sixty-nine years old, and as my health was failing, I resigned my position after serving for thirteen years. I had been able to gather some of the names of my dead ancestors, and in 1885, I went to the Logan Temple and labored a few days. The next year I went again and labored for more of my dead. ."

In a patriarchal blessing given to Fanny by her father, William Parks, in 1843, while still living in Nauvoo, she was promised: "Thou shalt be numbered among the virtuous and thy mind stored with understanding, and in the due time of the Lord thou shalt have a companion. He shall be a mighty man of God, and thou shalt raise up posterity endowed with the holy Priesthood that shall go forth to carry the gospel to nations yet unborn . . ."

Fanny's autobiography also contained a number of her own verses. This one, written for C. W. Lindsay, is an example:

Ever may your path be peaceful
Duty is the road to fame
Great and glorious things await you
As you strive for a crown to gain
Right and truth be ere your motto
May you true and faithful be
On your God rely in trouble
Never fail to bow the knee.
Right and truth will always conquer
Of your father, now take care
Ever listen to his counsel
Love and cherish him while here.

Fanny ends her autobiography with an eyewitness testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith: "I often think of the many happy hours I have spent listening to the words of life that flowed from the lips of the Prophet. No one could help but like him, for he was kind and good. I have heard him reprove men for their wrongdoings and talk pretty sharp but it was always in such a good spirit that it appeared to me that no one could be offended. I have heard him talk a great many times and can bear testimony that I always felt benefited, and I know he was a prophet of God and that the Lord called him in his own due time to lay the foundations of his latter-day work."