Elizabeth Thompson Groesbeck ... then I went to my sewing ... concluded.

(Elizabeth's journal entries regarding her friendship with Harriette White, continued from here.)

March, 1877, Thursday 15^th don the work up stairs   then I had to tack another trip to the store for sheating bot 20 dolers worth [1]   met Sister Hook on the way to see me   she cum hom with me and helpt to make eaight sheets   Brother Groesbeck had gon to York  and would not be home til evening  I went to the Society for afew minets after that we went to see Sister [Harriet]White

That was Elizabeth’s last journal entry wherein she mentioned Sister White.  Elizabeth wasn’t writing in her journal at all leading up to Harriette’s October 14, 1877 [2] passing.

Early the following year Brother White went to talk with Elizabeth.

February 1878, Monday 11^th started to cut out sum shirts for Joseph just then Brother [John] White cum in and asked for me   I told him to cum in and so he did    he told me that his Daughter Maryann had seen her Mother agane   I felt rather seuryesus [serious] as she had seen me in the room with her Mother

Elizabeth wrote a week later that she went up to see Brother White and found both of his daughters at home with him. Elizabeth didn’t write anything further about that visit. Nor did she write about their mother Harriett. Nor did she again mention Maryann having seen Elizabeth with her mother.

On Thursday April 9, 1878, Elizabeth wrote that she took the cakes over to the school house and told the sisters she would help, if there was anything she could do. They told her there was plenty of help without hers.

I cum home went and got Mellie and then we attended Brother Whites weding  had areal nise time

John White (1808-1885) married Sarah Wheeler (1813-1895) on April 9, 1878.

Elizabeth wrote on Sunday, August 25, 1878

read sum in the morning  attended meating in the after noon  Mellie and Josephine ware both at home with  us   sister White[‘s] [Harriet Prosser White] Daughter Betsy [Elizabeth White, 1840-1908] cald to see me the first time sence hers [mother’s] deth

October 1878, Wedenesday 23^rd went to see Josephine  found her prity well  went over to Mellies and she was better then she had ben the day befour   got [back] at noon   went with my Husband down to see William and his family  found them all well  from thare I went to see Brother [John] White but he was not at home  had avery plesent talk with his wife  the wether had ben very blustry in the morning but cleared up fine in the after noon

Thurday 24^th had acall from Brother [John] White  I told him to cum and stop with us  I finished a scirt I had comenced sum time befour  attended the society in the after noon  the wether very fine

October 1878, Monday 28^th felt sick in the morning yet I helpt with the work  cut out acupel pair garmen[ts] for brother Groesbeck  Rosena [White] Barnet came to spen[d] a littel while with me  Sister Susana [Susannah] Hunter cald in to see us   after that Sister [Miranda] Hide came to git alittel help for a family that was in want

I presume Sister Miranda Hide continued as the Seventeenth Ward Relief Society President, the calling she received the evening Elizabeth was assigned to the 6th block.

—compiled by great great granddaughter Bessie Sanborn, October 7, 2015, from Elizabeth’s newly published (September 11, 2015)  journal transcription.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Notes:

[1] Elizabeth frequently sewed bedding and made rugs for her husband’s hotel.
[2] Obituary of Harriet Prosser from the Latter-Day Saints’ Millennial Star, No 46, Vol. XXXIX, Monday, November 12, 1877 (Volume 39, p. 752). Ancestry. Com.

[3] I recently took the picture of the marble bench facing East in the Salt Lake Cemetery where Harriette White and another White family member were buried. Nothing remains of any 1870 gravestones near that knoll. The bench was placed there following the April 6, 2014 passing of another White family member (perhaps a descendant).

Elizabeth Thompson Groesbeck journal ... then I went to my sewing ... Part 3.

Joseph Smith Groesbeck was born December 18, 1864

Samuel Smith Groesbeck was born July 14, 1860

(Continued from here.)

July, 1875, Wednesday 14^th had a good deal of werk on hand as it was the Berthday of John and Samuel [John [26] and Samuel [15] and I wanted them to eat supper at home and so they did   I sent for Mellie and her Husband   Brother and Sister White …

August 1875, Tuesday 3^rd cut my rapper and prity near mad it  Sister [Harriet] White cum down  she felt very poorly  I baitherd her faice with cumfeur   so she felt better… said I shold  have my reward but I told her I get it every day    we talked about the goodeness of hour hevenly Father to ward his children … 

August 1875, Sunday 8^th looked to the mornings work then drest and laid down for a littel while but had not laid but afew minets when Josefine cum and asked me if I wold like to see Brother Heaton   I rose and went in to see him   he wanted to see Brother [John] White   I tuck him up to see him I  stopt about four hours  herd Brother White relate sum of his expearence which was very interesting to me …

Monday 9^th helpt with the washing in the four noon then I cut out a pair of pillow slips fer Sister f White   maide them and tuck them to her

Tuesday 10^th attended to the work in the morning  Mellie cum over  cut out my duster and I worked on it the rest of the day

Wednesday 11^th after breckfast Josephine and me went to the store  got sum print fer cumfirts  in the after noon I maid the cape of my duster and visited with Sister [Harriet] White                                                                                         

Thursday 12^th at home all day   worked sum on my duster   sister White cum down to spend a littel while with us … 

[December 1875] Monday 6^th I helpt to wash and worked on Brother Whites garments

Tuesday 7th maid Rosenia [Rosena Lemon] a cloak  started her to school

Wednesday 8^th finished John Whites drawers and went to the store  bot sum dishes and abuten [a button] for Hyrum

Thursday 9^th went around the Block in the four noon and attended the Society in the afternoon …

Elizabeth made only six journal entries during the entire year of 1876 and she did not mention Harriett White in any of them.

(To be concluded.)

Elizabeth Thompson Groesbeck's journal ... then I went to my sewing ... Part 2.

Part 2, continued from here.

[March 1875] Thursday 11^th helpt too do the work in the morning and then I went to dress and Elizabeth cum to tell me that I had compney and shareneph [sure enough] they had packed Sister White down on a chair and so she spent the day with me …

Saturday 02th [20th] don the backing and then I don sum sewing went to see Sister White spent a few minets with her and then returned to help git supper ...

Saturday 27th  don the backing cakes and pies and bread then Brother pool cum in spent an hour with us then Willey Rounds called in and by this time Elenor com with Ann  they cum to go with me to surprise party at Sister [Harriet] Whites  we had a very splesent afternoon ...

April, 1875 Thursday 8^th don sum bakeing and finished the carpet   felt rather poorely all day   went to see Sister [Harriet] White and we had a few minets talk about that better land whare sorrow never cum and I often think how cairful we shold be to keep hourselves wright and speak nothing that wold not bair investigating by any faithful saint …

May, 1875 Firiday 7^th helpt with the work in the morning and then I went over to see Ann stopt and tuck diner   then Ann lent me her buggy to take sister White out for adrive …

Monday 10^th helpt with the washing and then I went to the store with Josephine bot sum cups and sasers [saucers] also a dress for sister [Harriet] White a young man by the name of Ford cum to see Hyrham  

Tuesday 11^th at home all day  Mellie and sister White and sister Volce spent the afternoon with me I told them about this friend of Hyrhams  Brother [Robert] Ford thay all said that they shold like to see him and I said I was shure thay wold recive grait light by visiting with him as the gospel was all his thiem …

Robert Henry Ford (1831-1890) served a mission to Engalnd in 1887. Died in an accidental fall while working to build the Salt Lake Temple (ancestry.com)

June, 1875 Wednesday 30^th helpt to do the work in the morning  then I finished sum shirts that I had been making  I maid an apron for myself  went to see Sister [Harriet]White for a littel while just then Ann cum over and wanted father and me to go over to her house to take supper and so we did  she was allway very kind to us both and I thot a grait meney times I should be very lonely with out her … 

(To be continued.)

from Elizabeth Thompson Groesbeck's 1875-1883 journal . . .

… then I went to my sewing

Elizabeth Thompson Groesbeck’s  first journal entry is dated

 February 23^rd, 1875

It isn’t clear why Elizabeth started her journal then or if she’d been a journal keeper earlier in her life. The recent discovery and transcription of her journal for 1875 to 1883 is miraculous and it’s important for this descendant to learn some life lessons from the writings she left.

Elizabeth had been in the Salt Lake Valley since October 2, 1856 when she and her family arrived from Springfield, Illinois with the John Banks Company.  She’d been a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since her April 6, 1841 Nauvoo, Illinois baptism. In 1854 missionaries found her and her family among the “lost sheep” of Springfield, Illinois where they taught them the truth about baptism and the principle of polygamy. Elizabeth was baptized again and she and her family prepared to immigrate to Salt Lake.

She was an early member of the Salt Lake Seventeenth Ward where she’d been called to be an “assistant to the 6^th block” the night their Relief Society was organized in 1868.  It was a calling she served in all seriousness and magnified in every sense of the word. Nine times during her less than consistent journal entries she mentioned “went around the block, visited around the block, etc.”

May, 13, 1875 went around the block in the four noon and attended the society in the afternoon had the head ack

Wednesday 41th [14^th], 1877 after breckfast I went to the store bot sum bedticking and fthers [feathers]   in the after noon I maid four pilows and eaight slips   I visited around the block

March 16, 1880, went around the block and found the people very glad to see me

During the first two years of the journal her entries about a dear friend Sister Harriett White jumped out at me. They were filled with testimony and light and illuminated their heartfelt love for one another.

1875, Tuesday 2^nd attended to the work in the morning then I went to see how Sister White was giting along

Harriet Prosser White [1819-1877] and John White [1808-1885] also lived in the Seventeenth Ward. It’s unclear if they were part of Elizabeth’s 6^th block district. They were definitely very dear friends.

March, 1875 Wednesday, 10^th don sum sewing spent about all the day with Sister White  she told me many things about the poverty she had past threw in England but that she had allways felt her trustinGod and he ben her friend

This brief account of Elizabeth's association with Sister Harriett White will be continued and appear in four parts. Links will follow here after they are posted: part 2, part 3, conclusion.

Elizabeth's journal is as she wrote it. We did not add any capitalization or punctuation, nor did we change any of her spelling. Some clarification is included in brackets.

(To be continued.)

Nicholas Groesbeck purchased a corral and horse stables in Salt Lake in 1861.

Nicholas Groesbeck (1819-1884)

Amy at the Ancestor Files has been researching Wills and Probate and gave us a link to Ancestry's new collection. She is using it to gather information for several projects. In the midst of her work she located the following document and knew I would be interested. Thank you Amy.

The tedium and discipline necessary to work my way through the document evidences her skill and patience in gathering facts from this kind of record. It contributes to more than one fascinating story.

It seems my great great grandfather Nicholas Groesbeck stepped in and purchased a mortgaged coral [corral] and horse stables in Salt Lake following the 1860 misfortune of two Salt Lake business men. Thomas S. William and Palmanio A. Jackman mortgaged their properties for a venture to California where they were killed by Indians. The following year N. Groesbeck paid $1238.31 for their mortgage and interest, "in which is included one hundred dollars which I hereby agree to pay to the widows of the said William & Jackman part in gear and part in flour as they may severely need the same."  He also agreed to pay their delinquent taxes. 

This is an example of one way Nicholas Groesbeck acquired real estate in the 1860's.

William descendants include an account of this unfortunate incident on their grandmother's find a grave memorial.  

Utah State Archives Series 1621 Case 67 P A Jackman Probate