Autobiography of Warren Foote Vol. 2 Jan. 1, 1880 To
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WARREN FOOTE VOL. 2 JAN. 1, 1880 TO DEC. 31, 1893 2 CHAPTER 1 P. 1 Jan. 1 The New Year came in on Thursday. It being fast day I went to meeting. Many new resolves were 1880 made to live more devoted to the work of the Lord during the year just ushered in. The winter is very severe and cattle are perishing on the range. Several are out hunting stock and driving them South. Jan. 3. Our mail was brought over from Hillsdale on snow shoes. I got a letter from my daughter Olive. She is coming here and has got snowed in at Little=s Ranch. Teams cannot get over the divide. There has just been a very heavy snow storm. Jan. 4. My daughter has had to go back to Hillsdale, so I learn by the mail carrier who came in tonight. Jan. 7. It is now pleasant days but cold nights. Snow is about a foot deep. Jan. 23. Quite a number of head of stock has died on the range. My son, George, succeeded in getting home with a heifer and calf. The heifer is nothing but skin and bones. It is doubtful if she recovers. The first team with a sleigh came over the divide today. Jan. 26. I got a letter from Mary Foote my brother David=s wife, dated Jan. 15th 1880 from which I make the following extract: AWe saw Marcus Lane at a wedding in December, and he told us to come over and he would show us the Genealogy of the Lane Family. We have not been yet but will before long. He told David that he had received a letter from you and was going to copy the records and send them to you. We are all in usual health - you say you would like to have some of us come and see you. We should be very glad to do so if our circumstances would permit. David often says if he had the means he would take a trip that way. Sumner Howard, the one who caused the arrest and conviction of Lee is one of our Flint boys, and he is considered one of our smartest lawyers.@ Marcus Lane is my cousin, and I think an Episcopalian preacher. He never sent me the record of the Lane family, but I obtained a small one from a Mrs. Jackson who is of the Lane family which goes back to William Lane who came from Dorchester, England in 1635 and settled in Dorchester, Mass. I have been copying the names from it and the Foote Genealogy for baptism in the Temple at St. George, as we intend to go down soon. P. 2 Jan. 28. Snow fell, about five inches today. I wrote a letter to my nephew, Warren McLean, Dryden, 1880 N.Y. and one to Lovisa Foot, Pa. Feb. 1. It is clear and very cold. I received a letter from my daughter Olive. She writes from Hillsdale Jan. 24 and says that she feels homesick and discouraged to think that she has got so near and cannot get over to go down to St. George and work with me in the Temple. The mail carrier brought Olive over on the 5th and on the7th my daughters Mary Irene, Artemisia, Olive and Clarissa were baptized by Elder Erastus Carpenter and confirmed by John Carpenter and Homer A. Bouton. Morton B. Cutler (Mary Irene=s husband) is going with his family to the Temple to get their Endowments. Homer A. Bouton is also going to do some work for his dead relatives. February 9, 1880 - We started on our journey for St. George. It is a fine day. February 10, 1880 - It snowed a little all day. We camped in the cedars near the Seep Spring hollow. It is a disagreeable time. February 11, 1880 - The forenoon was clear and pleasant. Morton's horses out traveled ours and got to Short Creek before we did and stopped to noon. After we had nooned and started on again, there came up a furious snowstorm which lasted two hours. Snow fell five inches. It blew right in our faces and we had to stop a while, but Morton had got out of sight, and the snow obliterated his tracks, but when we came to the forms of the road, we saw that he had taken the road leading to the new road down the Hurricane hill, so we followed on and found him camped at the gap under the shelter of some rocks, with a good fire. February 12, 1880 - The snow was so deep we were fearful that it would be very dangerous to go down the Hurricane hill as the brakes would not hold, so we concluded to cut across to the old road and go by Virgin City and Toquerville. We drove to Workman=s Ranch and stayed over night. 3 February 13, 1880 - Last night it was very clear and cold. This morning when the sun got up a little it became very pleasant. We drove to Toquerville and put up with cousin Moses Clauson's widow. (Moses died about a year before). Morton went to Rockville to stay until Monday with some of his cousins. February 14, 1880 - It is very pleasant today. Got to St. George about sundown. I had hired a room of P. 3 Bro. Hall near the Temple to stay in during our labors in the Temple. 1880 February 15, 1880 - Sunday. We kept our horses in Bro. Hall's corrall and bought hay of Wm. Lang to feed them. Hay cost $1.00 per horse. February 16, 1880 - Morton Cutler got here towards night. February 17, 1880 - This is the day for baptizing for the dead. I was baptized for 39 and Olive for 27. There was a large number of the dead baptized for. February 18, 1880 - Mary Irene and Artemisia were Endowed and Sealed. I was endowed for my mother's grandfather Ebenezer Lane, and my wife Artemisia for mother's grandmother, Berthia Shawl. February 19, 1880 - Our daughter Clarissa was Endowed, so all our baptisms, Endowments and Sealings for the dead are recorded in my Book of Records for the dead. I will pass them over in this book. February 20, 1880 - My daughter Olive was Endowed today for herself. As I have previously stated I wrote to President John Taylor last December for certain information. I will here copy my letter and also his answer: President Taylor, Dear Brother: Glendale Dec. 17, 1879 Some thoughts having arisen in my mind of late with regard to the legality of the baptism of my mother, I thought I would write to you on the subject and get your opinion. The circumstances of her baptism was as follows. We were living twelve miles south of Nauvoo at a Place called Chana Creek in 1845. She was taken very sick with the chills and fever. She was so very low that she did not sense anything, and while in this state my father took sick and died. After she became sensible and learned of father's death, it so affected her that she resolved to join the Church as soon as she got able to be baptized. She continued to mend very slowly until the middle of winter, when she was taken down again. She now desired very much to be baptized. The weather was very cold. A few of the brethren came together, and we concluded to make a trough large enough to baptize her in, which we did on the 28th of February 1846, Elder Pleasant Ewell being mouth. Elder Ewell stood by the side of the trough and not in the water. I have had some dubiety on my mind of late, and I wish it removed, as two years ago my wife went through the ordinances of the Endowments and Sealing for her in the St. George Temple. P. 4 1880 She was baptized in the presence of five or six elders, but I do not know whether her name was recorded in the branch or not, as we were all on the point of leaving Illinois at that time. She died a few days after baptism. Now with regard to my father. He embraced the gospel in the fall of 1833, and in 1834 moved to Kirtland and stayed over the winter in one of Stephen Markham's houses in Chester, and in 1838 went to Missouri, left there with the saints in the spring of 1839, and settled in Adams County, Ill. He was organized in the Freedom Stake, and in the spring of 1845 moved into Hancock County in obedience to the instructions of the Twelve Apostles where he died as stated above. He was ordained an elder soon after joining the Church, and was ordained a High Priest in Nauvoo. He was 77 years old when he died. He was a man of great faith, and was always on hand to obey the counsel of his superiors. Two years ago I labored in the St. George Temple about two months in behalf of my dead relatives (having obtained my own endowments in Nauvoo). I performed all of the ordinances for him excepting the second anointing. Now I wish to know if I can have the privilege of attending to that ordinance in his behalf this winter (I will state here that I have received that ordinance for myself). I am getting somewhat along in years, being 62, and would like to finish up his work myself if possible.