The Autobiography of Patience Loader Rozsa Archer
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Utah State University DigitalCommons@USU All USU Press Publications USU Press 2006 Recollections of Past Days: The Autobiography of Patience Loader Rozsa Archer Sandra Ailey Petree Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/usupress_pubs Part of the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Archer, P. L., & Petree, S. A. (2006). Recollections of past days: The autobiography of Patience Loader Rozsa Archer. Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press. This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the USU Press at DigitalCommons@USU. It has been accepted for inclusion in All USU Press Publications by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@USU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Recollections of Past Days The Autobiography of PATIENCE LOADER ROZSA ARCHER Edited by Sandra Ailey Petree Recollections of Past Days The Autobiography of Patience Loader Rozsa Archer Volume 8 Life Writings of Frontier Women A Series Edited by Maureen Ursenbach Beecher Volume 1 Winter Quarters The 1846 –1848 Life Writings of Mary Haskin Parker Richards Edited by Maurine Carr Ward Volume 2 Mormon Midwife The 1846 –1888 Diaries of Patty Bartlett Sessions Edited by Donna Toland Smart Volume 3 The History of Louisa Barnes Pratt Being the Autobiography of a Mormon Missionary Widow and Pioneer Edited by S. George Ellsworth Volume 4 Out of the Black Patch The Autobiography of Effi e Marquess Carmack Folk Musician, Artist, and Writer Edited by Noel A. Carmack and Karen Lynn Davidson Volume 5 The Personal Writings of Eliza Roxcy Snow Edited by Maureen Ursenbach Beecher Volume 6 A Widow’s Tale The 1884–1896 Diary of Helen Mar Kimball Whitney Transcribed and Edited by Charles M. Hatch and Todd M. Compton Volume 7 No Place to Call Home The 1807–1857 Life Writings of Caroline Barnes Crosby Chronicler of Outlying Mormon Communities Edited by Edward Leo Lyman, Susan Ward Payne, and S. George Ellsworth Patience Loader Rozsa Archer, August 23, 1827–April 22, 1921. Photo courtesy of Drusilla Smith. Recollections of Past Days The Autobiography of Patience Loader Rozsa Archer Edited by Sandra Ailey Petree Utah State University Press Logan, Utah 2006 Copyright © 2006 Utah State University Press All rights reserved Utah State University Press Logan, Utah 84322-7800 Manufactured in the United States of America Printed on acid-free paper Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Archer, Patience Loader, 1827-1921. Recollections of past days : the autobiography of Patience Loader Rozsa Archer / edited by Sandra Ailey Petree p. cm. -- (Life writings of frontier women ; v. 8) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-87421-626-5 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 0-87421-531-5 (e-book) 1. Archer, Patience Loader, 1827-1921. 2. Mormon women--United States-- Biography. 3. Mormon women--England--Biography. 4. Edward Martin Emigrating Company. 5. Mormons--Emigration and immigration. 6. Utah Expedition, 1857-1858. I. Petree, Sandra Ailey, 1945- II. Title. III. Series. X8695.A72A3 2006 973.5092--dc22 2005036652 Contents Maps and Illustrations vii Foreword Maureen Ursenbach Beecher ix Acknowledgments vii Introduction 1 “Reccolections of past days” England, 1827–December 1855 21 On the John J. Boyd, December 1855–February 1856 49 America, February–July 1856 55 Starting Westward, July 3–July 28, 1856 58 On the Plains, July 28–November 30, 1856 62 In the Valley, November 30, 1856 –December 1858 89 Camp Floyd, December 1858–July 27, 1861 98 On the Trail to Washington, July 27–November 1861 107 Washington, November 1861–April 1866 123 Back to Utah, April 18–July 21, 1866 135 Back in the Valley, July 21, 1866 –1872 142 Afterword 158 Appendices Appendix 1 James and Amy Britnell Loader Family 165 Appendix 2 John and Patience Loader Rozsa Family 167 Appendix 3 The Latter-day Saints Millennial Star on Handcart Emigration, December 22, 1855 169 Appendix 4 The Mormon on Handcart Emigration, December 1, 1855 175 Appendix 5 Patience Loader to John Jaques and his reply, The Latter-day Saints Millennial Star, June 14, 1856 182 Appendix 6 Marshall Loader to Amy Britnell Loader, August 6, 1857 188 Appendix 7 Patience Loader Rozsa Archer to Tamar Loader Ricks, November 17, 1914 189 Notes 192 Bibliography 249 Index 257 Illustrations Patience Loader Rozsa Archer frontis Front cover of Patience Loader’s writing tablet 16 First page of “Reccolections of past days.” 17 Gardener’s cottage, Aston Rowant, England 22 Front door of gardener’s cottage 23 Patience’s mother, Amy Britnell Loader 24 Map of England 28 Illustrations of bathing machines 37 Jacob’s Ladder, Ramsgate, England 38 Map of the United States 64–65 Page 175 of the autobiography’s second notebook 78 Devil’s Gate 82 Mormon missionaries in England, 1855–1856 83 Inside Martin’s Cove 85 Entrance to Martin’s Cove 85 Map of Utah 97 The Carson Inn 99 Patience L. Rozsa wedding picture 100 John Rozsa wedding picture 101 Military trunk used by Patience 141 Amy Rosalie Rozsa 144 Patience’s home in Pleasant Grove 147 A young William Rozsa 148 Map of American Fork, Utah 150 Four-generation photograph taken about 1921 160 Patience and sisters at Salt Lake Temple Dedication 162 Patience Loader Rozsa Archer in about 1922 164 Foreword Maureen Ursenbach Beecher With the publication of Recollections of Past Days: The Autobiography of Patience Loader Rozsa Archer comes the continuing fulfi llment of a dream that began ten years ago when John Alley, editor at Utah State University Press, agreed that Life Writings of Frontier Women was indeed a market- able series. The seven volumes already published, to personal and profes- sional acclaim, have proven their worth. Each of the women refl ected in the series has had her own unique voice, her own appeal. Now we bring you Patience Loader’s account, a captivating narrative such as would have enthralled live audiences as it does later readers. My own attachment to Patience’s story is that it was with her description of the 1856 Martin handcart tragedy that my love of these texts began. Early in my exploration of women’s life writings, I shared tidbits of Patience’s memoir with my eighty-fi ve-year-old mother, my “common reader,” the one whose judgment I most relied upon. Her response assured me that the kinship of faith and sacrifi ce, courage and sisterhood does indeed tran- scend circumstance and generation, that the women writers in our series would speak their stories as honestly and meaningfully to us as to their con- temporaries. Now, after eight volumes have appeared, I am still of that mind. As the series began, however, there was no editor for Patience Loader. Five years passed before Sandra Petree, then a PhD candidate at the University of Arkansas, completed her superb dissertation, “The Power of the Word: Self-Inscription in the Journals of Nineteenth-Century Mormon Women.” Reading her text, we realized that here was the right person to edit Patience’s narrative. She agreed and began work. Her own teaching, her family responsibilities, and the death of her husband inter- rupted but briefl y the research that would take her west to Utah and east to England in pursuit of details that would enhance her understanding of Patience and her times and places. Dr. Petree has read well, understood splendidly, and now presents with admirable scholarship the story that Patience Loader Rozsa Archer left us. We are grateful. ix Acknowledgments Because Patience’s life was long and extended over two continents and almost a century of history, preparing historical background information was an overwhelming responsibility. It would have been impossible for me to even adumbrate Patience’s history without the help of several rather remarkable people, some of whom have spent their lives in research on particular subjects, and who were always gracious in their willingness to share their accumulated information. Drusilla Smith is an untiring source of information on the Loader family. She has accumulated sources as varied as books on the Lambert estate and unpublished manuscripts written by friends and neighbors. It was Drusilla who provided the information I needed to get started, gave me copies of pictures unavailable except through family contacts, and has given enthusiastic encouragement and assistance throughout the project. Jan and Paul West contacted me, after I had made a number of queries to other family members, to tell me that they did indeed have the original, handwritten manuscript. They may never know, perhaps, how thrilled I was to drive to their front door and hold the very docu- ments in my hand. And they trusted me enough to allow me to take the originals to make copies. Later, Paul shared with me his own feelings for Patience’s manuscript, and his expressions of admiration caused me to feel a renewed respect for Patience’s endeavor. Sydne Winborg, Shannon Stearn, Robin Schroeder, and Rhonda Hunter searched out and provided signifi cant genealogical information on their branches of the family—and also expressed delight and enthusi- asm for the project. Lyndia Carter has an exhaustive library and fi le on the Martin and Willie handcart companies and the Hodgett wagon train, including a number of documents which have been entrusted to her on the provision that she not share or copy them. She knows, off the top of her head, who was where, and when, on that trail; what the weather was like at a given time; and what was going on miles away in relation to a certain event. She x Acknowledgments xi volunteered to share her extraordinary knowledge with me, and spent several hours of her time poring over maps and explaining to me what was happening “behind the scenes” of Patience’s recollections.