The following is from the autobiography of Mary Elizabeth Rollins (Lightner Smith Young) (1818-1913; the holograph is in the Susa Young Gates Papers, 1852-1932, box 12, fd. 6, MSS B 95, USHS; there is also a related holograph, Mary Elizabeth Rollings Lightner diary, 1863 May-September, MS 750, Church History Library
Joseph
Prophesies as Mary Leaves Nauvoo
But
as we could get no more work in Nauvoo, Mr Lightner found a job of cutting Cord
wood, 15 miles up the River at a place called Pontoosuc. he got a little log
Room with a Puncheon floor, made of logs split in too [two], and very Rough.
Joseph [p21] on learning that we were going to leave there, felt very sad,
and while the tears ran down his Cheeks—he prophesied that if we attempted to
leave the Church, we would have plenty of Sorrow; for we would make property on
the right hand, and lose it on the left, we would have sickness, on sickness,
and lose our children. And that I would have to work harder than I ever dreamed
off [of]; and at least when you are worn out, and almost ready to die you will
get back to the Church. I thought these were hard sayings, and felt to doubt
them.
But
the sequal proved them true. before leaving Nauvoo, on the 4th of July there
was a general parade of the Legion, about noon Emma came to me to borrow my
dining table, as the officers were to dine with her, and Joseph came also, he
said the Lord commanded him to Baptize us that day. Emma sked why is this? they
have always been good members of the Church? and another thing, dinner
will be ready soon; and you certainly wont go in those clothes? No he said he
wanted us to be ready by the time he was, for he would not wait for dinner.
As we lived on the Bank of the River, we were soon ready. Brother Henry and
Wife, Aunt Gilbert and Myself were Baptised, and Confirmed. (In Sacred
Loneliness: The Documents, ed. Todd M. Compton [Salt Lake City: Signature
Books, 2022], 160-61)
Compton notes that
The
rest of this autobiography is cast in the form of a fulfillment of Joseph’s
prophecy. So Mary Elizabeth the autobiographer made sense of the hard times she
and Adam would endure in the upcoming years, she being punished by God for disobeying
the prophet. (Ibid., 202 n. 153)
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