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Mary Ann Ford Simmons the daughter of William and Mary Ann Knight Ford, born in Cuckfield Parish, Sussex, England, November 25, 1827.
My parents belonged to the Protestant Church and made a practice to go to church every Sunday as a rule. I did not go to Sunday School as we lived four miles from the church. I went to school and passed away my young days as most young people do. I was as a child quite religious. I often thought there was something wrong about the religion of the day.
When I was nearly 15 years old mother passed away and when I was about 16 years old the church man came around to hunt up the young folks to be confirmed and belong to the church. I told them I did not wish to, for I still felt there was something wrong or missing.
After I went to live at Brighton with my brother, it was a very large town, I went to all the chapels to hear what they preached. It did not sound right. I felt it was not what I was looking for. I was honest but I could not tell what I was looking for or wanted to hear. Time passed, I left my Brother's house, hired some rooms and started a school for small children and took in needlework.
After a time I was married to George Simmons on the 24th day of December 1849. He was a carpenter. He and his brother used to take jobs and have men to work for them. They happened to get a Mormon to work for them and they talked for and against Mormonism. After a time my husband asked me to go and hear what they had to say. He was not at all religious. I went to hear them as soon as I could. When I did hear them preach I knew that it was what I was hunting for.
I had a baby boy on the 12th of September 1851. On the 7th of September 1852, I was baptized and confirmed on the 12th. My baby was blessed by Henry Hollish at the same time, he was one year old.
The 18th of July 1852 I had a baby girl. The 14th of April 1855 we left Brighton and went to Liverpool and said goodby to old England. We sailed on the old ship Chimbarazo, under the direction of Edward Stevenson. We went on the tub as steerage passengers and we did not have a very grand time. About the same as other passengers had in those days on sailing vessels, with sometimes too much wind and at other times not any. I was very miserable from the first day to the last. We landed in Philadelphia, had a good supper and breakfast. I think the next day we went over the Allegheny mountains by train. It was very bad and dangerous traveling as the train was being pulled up by rope (cable) some of the way. We traveled in cattle cars. I do not remember where we went next but in time we went on a boat up the Mississippi river and the Missouri river. They joined together as you might put two flat pieces beside each other. One was as clear as could be and the other was thick with mud. We landed in the night at St. Louis. In the morning I took my little boy from the berth and he said "Mama we will go on shore, go into a house and have some dinner." He was three and one half years old. I did not think it could be true as we did not know any one there, but a brother we knew in England came on the boat. I do not remember his name but we went back with him and had breakfast, dinner and supper, so the child told the truth and we enjoyed it very much. The next day we went to the camping ground called Mormon Grove. We were two weeks getting ready to start on the plains. There was another company camping there and it was said they were from Texas. When the Saints were persecuted they went away and when things were quite they started to go to Utah but the Lord stopped them. They were taken down with cholera and were sick and died in a few hours. They left the grove before we did. When we started we passed by their graves. Five and six in one grave. The entire family of some passed away. All their things were put out of the wagon and left behind. They were lovely things too but no one was allowed to pick them up.
We traveled along over hills and dales sometimes the traveling was good sometimes bad but all the times thanking our Heavenly Father that we were on our way to Zion, each day bringing us nearer our journeys end.
When we were about two days journey from Laramie, a sister was making her bed in the wagon and a gun was there, It went off and shot her arm and broke the bone half way between the shoulder and elbow. She ran out in the camp swinging her arm by a piece of flesh. They took her to Laramie but she died on the way.
After we passed a days journey beyond where we camped, I do not know what for, but we were surrounded by Indians (heaps of them). They were dressed up with paint and feathers and were going to some great meeting. They wanted to trade ponies for white girls. A foolish young man was playing with his gun and it went off and the red men went too. They were gone before you had time to look. When they found all was well they came back again. I do not know what would have become of us if one of them would have been shot, but it was a sister from camp that had been shot. They took her to Laramie but she died and her husband came on by another company.
As we were going west, we met the grasshoppers as they were going east. For days we passed them and they were so thick, we could not see the sun. They had eaten everything in Utah. I had a baby boy on the 16th of August which lived only about half an hour and was buried.
Then we started on our journey. After about a week or so we had a stampede. It was dreadful to hear the oxen bellow, the women and children screaming and the wagons rattle, but our wagon did not. They turned it on one side and stood around the oxen but they did not start. I think if they had, it would have killed me. No one in camp thought I would have got to Salt Lake, but I did and am alive yet. But our troubles did not end. There was nothing to eat and no one had any thing to spare, for the hoppers had eaten up everything. How we lived through the winter I could not tell. The Lord only knows he blessed us or we could not have got through. We were without fire and the children had to sit with myself on the bed with the bed clothing around us to keep warm. We lived two months on frozen potatoes that were taken from the top of a potato pit and they were badly frozen. We had the coarsest of the sifting of cornmeal. Our neighbor used to make milk hot, thicken it with flour, invite us to go to her house and have a good supper. She was Sophrania Martin, her husband was on a mission. My little girl was sick all winter and sister Martin used to bring in a cup of milk every evening warm from the cow. In time she got all right.
When I got better I went around all over town to try and get some needle work to do to get something to eat. I got a mans shirt to make. When spring came we used to go and dig Sego Lilies and in time the garden stuff began to grow and we got beet greens. Things were getting better and work was to be had. I suppose we got along the same as others did. In the spring we went to the Endowment House. The Johnsons Army was kept back and could not get to Salt Lake City and then went on south. On the 5th of June I had a baby girl. She was one week old when they took me away to Provo. I was taken to a sister Youngs house. We were there three weeks. My baby was a month old when we returned home. That was a great thing to do for all the people to move away and leave all the things and the City empty, with the exceptions of guards to take care of things. In 1861 we moved to Morgan. There we had a log house with a dirt roof and floor. When it had been raining and got through it would still be raining in the house. For seven years we had the grasshoppers and one year they laid their eggs and the next year they hatched out and in so doing they made us poor. One year we lost our crop by drought. We had to go to Salt Lake to get matches or anything we wanted. We had no money so we sent eggs and butter. We made soft soap or anything we had to trade. I have taken and sheared sheep, washed the wool and picked it ready to have it carded and made into rolls then spun it into cloth and stocking yarn. In making the soap, we made the lye out of ashes, starch out of potatoes, molasses from beets. We had no sugar, we made currant preserves with molasses and it was very nice. We had no fruit but after a time we had apples, plums, gooseberries, currants, pie plant and strawberries and other kinds of fruit. We had the first brick house in South Morgan. It had seven rooms. In March 1877, I was called to be first counselor in the Relief Society of South Morgan Ward. In 1884, I was called to be second Counselor in the Morgan Stake. In 1889 the Ward was reorganized. I had a brother and wife in Australia. They sent me money to go there and visit them. So I resigned being counselor in the Stake in 1899 and I made up my mind if I came back all right I was going to Salt Lake to live to work in the Temple. My husband passed away in September 1897. In May 1898 I went to Australia. I returned home May 1899. In November 1899 I moved to Salt Lake City. Before this I had been to the Logan Temple several times to work there. I joined the Genealogical Society to hunt up names. I did not find but a few so I had to send to an agent in England, a Brother Minns for him to get me names of my relatives. My Sister in law had passed away and my brother sent for me to go again to Australia and I went. They knew the first time I was a Mormon but a neighbor of my brothers did not want me to come, so they were not backward in telling him what bad people the Mormons were. That was in the year of 1906. He was rich in the worlds goods. He disowned me and wanted me to go back home which I did in 1907. While there I bought books and tracts of the Elders and went among the people to leave a tract with them doing missionary work. The first one to do missionary work in Williamstown, Australia. I took much pleasure in doing it. I converted one lady. It was not long before I came away. I do not think she had been baptized. I think her family was against it. She still writes to me. I returned back to Salt Lake City and started again to work in the Temple. In 1914 my brother died and did not give me a cent. He had no one belonging to him, he had no relative but myself. He gave it to others that was nothing to him. I want to say and feel at all times the Lords will be done. I am now living at Farmington, Davis County. I am in my 89th year and I have 12 children. Seven are living, five dead, 73 grandchildren, 9 of which have passed away and 36 great grand children, seven of which have passed away and one great great grand child.
Dated March 1916Mary Ann Simmons
