The time drew near for our departure.
My husband not only provided for his family but had got considerable besides,
but only $30 in money. He told Faulk he wanted to settle with him for his house
rent, that he wanted him to take other property as he had but little money. He
could get no answer from him, but he was very kind and obliging. So were all of
our neighbors, those that hated us when he came into the place, appeared now
our devoted friends. It was to our advantage, for they helped us to get ready
for a journey of five hundred miles.
When we settled with the merchant
and I took a bill of the goods, I found there was not a charge for thread,
needles, buttons or any such trifles, while at one time he gave me a whole card
of buttons and told me to put them all on Tom’s coat. Tom was his constant
visitor. He stayed in the store most of the time. He was four or five years
old. But Faulk would not settle with us until we got our team harnessed to start.
Now my husband said, “We must settle.” The windows were, some of them, broken
and we expected the rent would be high. But Faulk would not settle—he did not want
a cent, nor would he take a cent. He wanted to see if Mormons were willing to
pay their debts. He hallowed to the merchant and said, “Put up a half a
pound of tea for this woman and charge to me, and another charge pound and
charge to yourself. She must not go to the Mormon swamps and drink the water, it
will kill her.” I will only add that Faulk joined the church and came to
Nauvoo afterward. How much more I don’t know and can’t say, for I did not see
him myself, but my boys did. (Sarah Studevant Leavitt, History of Sarah
Studevant Leavitt,” April 19, 1875, ed. Juanita L. Pulsipher [1919], 13. Emphasis
added; her some, Thomas Rowell Leavitt, was born in 1834, so this is c.
1838-1839)