Edwards Family 1961

One of my cousins recently posted a family picture that was taken about fifty-five years ago. There were eighty-four people in the photo and I could only identify less than 20 of them. I took the photo, numbered each person, and reposted the picture on Facebook. With the picture, I also posted a link to a Google Doc with numbers listed 1 to 84. I asked everyone to identify the ones they new and to put the person's parents in parenthesis after their name.

With a collaborative effort from many cousins, some of which we had to search out, we were able to identify every member of the family in that picture! It is priceless to me. It also brought us closer together as an extended family. It was fun!

Ruby Eliza Reid Barlow

The most memorable thing I remember about Grandma Barlow is that her birthday was on Valentine's Day. Every year on Valentine's Day, even to this day, I still think about Grandma Barlow and how her birthday was on this day. As a child, I have fond memories of our family driving up to Salt Lake to visit her on her birthday. She would have dishes of Valentine's Day candy out on the living room tables for us to enjoy. She would smile and give us hugs as we wished her a Happy Birthday and a Happy Valentine's Day! 

I feel fortunate to have known Grandma Ruby Eliza Reid Barlow for the first eleven years of my life. She was alone for eight of those years as Grandpa Willard Elmer Barlow passed away when I was three years-old. Their cute home was in a beautiful part of Salt Lake with large trees lining the streets. Their yard was beautifully landscaped. I remember walking in their front door and immediately drawn to the large deer head that was hung near the pantry down the hall. I remember thinking how old-fashioned her kitchen seemed to me with old appliances and lacy doilies, yet it was very clean and tidy. I loved the smells and warmth felt by Grandma Barlow. I still remember her laugh. I enjoyed her candy dishes! I remember being fascinated with the confectionery Sweetheart candies she had with sayings on them such as "Kiss Me", "Be Mine", and "Call Me"!

Elizabeth Haven Barlow

I have written the last couple of weeks about Israel Barlow. Today, I would like to write about his incredible wife, Elizabeth Haven Barlow. I am amazed when I read about everything she went through and experienced in her life. Her mother died when she was only nine years old. This was very difficult for little Elizabeth and she wept and refused to be comforted for many days. As she grew, she developed a passion for reading. Her favorite book was an old family Bible that her ancestors had brought from England in 1645. She quickly became very acquainted with the stories and teachings of the Bible and began teaching Sunday School in her father’s Congregational Church.

Elizabeth wanted with all of her heart to become a school teacher but finances were difficult at that time, so she learned to braid straw hats, sew delicate laces and dresses to earn money for her education. While attending Amherst College, she would lead many lengthy discussions about religion and began searching for a church that held all the truths of the Bible. She graduated with a teaching degree in 1836.

Shortly after returning home from college, her two cousins, Brigham Young and Willard Richards came to her house from Kirtland, Ohio, bringing a new book called “The Book of Mormon” and preaching a strange gospel, based on angels and revelations. After several visits and bearing their testimonies, they left. Elizabeth’s father shook his head, being sorry that his family relations had been led astray. Elizabeth, however, being of curious nature, shut herself up with the strange book and within a week of reading and praying, announced to her father that she had received a religious experience and knew, for sure, that “The Book of Mormon” was divine and that her cousins taught the true Gospel. She and her brother were soon baptized by Parley P. Pratt. She desired to join the Saints and to meet the Prophet, Joseph Smith, so at age twenty-six she left her family and set out on the 1,500 mile trip to Missouri.

Brigham Young, who knew of Elizabeth’s college training quickly assigned her to be a school teacher and she taught his children along with Joseph and Hyrum’s children and many others. Joseph Smith was aware of Elizabeth’s writing abilities and suggested to her that she save all of her letters and journals. She took the prophet’s advice and her writings have been used in many references in Church History as well as being preserved in the family book, “The Israel Barlow Story and Mormon Mores”.

At age 27, she met Israel Barlow, a stalwart man of thirty-three years in Quincy, Illinois and they were married the next year. They settled in Nauvoo where they anxiously awaited their firstborn child, but sadly, little James Nathanial only lived a few short hours. She did have three more children in Nauvoo, but she was forced out of their Nauvoo home by mobs only one month after giving birth to her fourth child, Ianthus. Less than two years later, while expecting her fifth child, she and her family were also forced out of her Illinois home by mobs and she delivered little John Haven Barlow on the trek towards the Rocky Mountains.

Only five short years after getting settled in the Great Salt Lake area, her husband, Israel, was called to serve a mission in England. She was supportive of his call, even though she was expecting another child within months. She was prompted inside to ask her husband to stop at their old Nauvoo farm on his way to move their firstborn’s grave to the Old Nauvoo Burial Grounds. You can read about this touching account of a mother’s and father’s love for their child in last week’s post, “Daddy, Do Not Leave Me Here”. The child she was expecting while Israel was on his mission turned out to be twins. One of the twins died 9 months after birth and the other twin, Wilford, was my Great-Grandpa Barlow’s father.

Elizabeth was called as Relief Society President and served in that capacity from 1857 to 1888, three years before her death. Her daughter wrote this about her: “To mother, the gospel meant everything. No sacrifice was too great in order to send her husband or kindred into the mission field. Nothing stirred her soul more than repeating the events she had passed through in Missouri and Nauvoo. The gospel, coupled with seeing her family live righteously, was the joy of her life.

http://neelfamilyhistory.com/ui45.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Barlow

Israel Barlow, Horse and Whip

This is another story that I had heard before, yet I didn’t realize it was about my third great-grandfather until recent family history research.

Israel Barlow helped build the Nauvoo temple by transporting large slabs of rock from the quarry to the temple site. One day while he was backing up his wagon at the quarry, Joseph Smith came over to him and said, “Israel, on your next trip, stop and buy yourself a buggy whip.” Now Israel trusted his pair of beautiful black mares and had never carried a whip because he didn’t think he had use for it, but on the way he decided to stop in town and buy himself a whip.




Israel arrived back at the quarry and picked up his load of stone. In order to leave, he had to back up the wagon until he could turn down the right road to town. The horses backed up as usual, but when he gave his “Whoa” to stop them, they would not stop. Looking behind him, Israel realized that he was approaching the edge of a large cliff. He continued to shout, “Whoa!” but the horses refused to listen. In a final attempt to stop them, Israel quickly grabbed the whip and cracked it above their heads. This new sound jolted them to instantly stop, right at edge of the cliff! 

Fortunately Israel decided, against his own judgment, to follow the Prophet and it saved his life.

https://www.lds.org/manual/doctrines-of-the-gospel-teacher-manual/chapter-17-obedience-a-law-of-heaven?lang=eng