still gathering photos
A SHORT HISTORY OF MARY ELIZABETH PULSIPHER TERRY
Facts gathered and arranged by Nora Lund, wife of Terry Lund, a grandsonI loved my Mother very much as did everyone who ever knew her. She was lovingly called “Aunt Mary” by the town’s people. She was a mid-wife and devoted a good share of her time to the care of the sick. When she was very young circumstances forced her to take care of a woman in confinement. She had such good success that it was the starting of her experience in making a life’s work of nursing. She secured books on the subject and studied from them, but most of her knowledge was gained in the school of experience.
Being a very religious woman, she relied greatly on the Lord for His help and guidance in every case. She never forgot to give the Lord due credit for her success.
Mother would go out anytime, day or night to assist her neighbors and friends. I remember her telling of a little incident she had on a dark summer night. She had been sitting up with a lady who was sick and was coming home for a little rest about 2:00 a.m. The darkness of the night was intensified by a threatening thunder storm. Instinct told her she was near home, but she knew she could be sure of her exact whereabouts if she could locate two trees that grew nearby. She put her hand out and was feeling around in the dark, but instead of a tree she touched the hairy back of a large hairy back, and was startled when a loud bray of a donkey bray fairly shook the still air.
I have often marveled how mother accomplished so much work. I know however, that as well as being ambitious, she was a wonderful manager and organizer and taught us children early in life how to work and take responsibility.
The date father and mother were married was December 18, 1878, in the St. George Temple by David H. Cannon. The had a large family, namely:
Dudley Edgar, born November 18, 1879 - married Bertha Hafen
Zerah Royal, born August 28, 1881 - unmarried
Alonzo Milton, born April 16, 1883, died 1883
Orson Welcome, born September 8, 1887, died October 1915, unmarried
Mary Ann, born December 3, 1889, died February 6, 1890
Mable Lydia (twin), born February 15, 1891 - married Fredrick Rushton
Martha Minerva (twin), born February 15, 1891 - married William Clark McKnight
George Albert, born May 17, 1893 - married Christie Prescott
Laman Pulsipher, born July 21, 1985 - married Donna Rushton
Retta Vivian, born July 3, 1897 - married Lawrence Prescott
Camilla Adeline, born July 10, 1900 - married Hollis Hunter
They all grew to maturity, but Alonzo Milton and Mary Ann, who both died in infancy. Orson Welcome filled a mission for our Church, returned in April 1915 and was killed October 22 that same year. This was very hard on mother and the rest of us.Besides caring for her family and doing so much for the sick, she made many beautiful quilts, not only for herself, but for the town’s people who wanted her lovely work or needed her assistance.
She was apt at mending shoes also. She could tack a half sole on as neat as you please, and do a fine job of repair sewing. She did this for other people as well as her own family.
In later years when there were doctors to take care of the sick and bring the babies, father and mother were called on a Temple mission to St. George. The did ordinance work there for five or six years. They did a fine job and enjoyed their mission very much. It was not without quite a sacrifice on their part however, because in order to get means to pay rent and live on while they were away, they were obliged to sell their home in Bunkerville. But that was their code of living, when they were called upon to do something in way of service they did it, with no questions asked.
Consequently, when they were released, my husband and I invited them to come and live with us at Beaver Dam. Owing to a heart condition, mother was unable to do strenuous work, and I wanted her to rest and take it easy. But she insisted upon doing the mending for may large family of little children and other light chores.
After being with us for six years, she passed away, November 21, 1925 at our home in Beaver Dam and was taken to Bunkerville for burial. She was 67 years old. Father was very lonesome without his companion but he lived six more years and died February 21, at Salt Lake City and was laid to rest beside mother in the Bunkerville Cemetery. My father, Dudley Leavitt Jr., was born November 30, 1856 in Santa Clara, Utah - the first white child born in Utah’s Dixie. He was the second child and first son to be born to Dudley and Mary Huntsman Leavitt (1st wife) sturdy pioneers of Utah and Nevada. His father had five wives and 48 children.
============
A BRIEF HISTORY OF MY MOTHER’S LIFE
By Laman Pulsipher LeavittI, Laman Pulsipher Leavitt, have been asked to write a few memories of my mother, the second daughter of Zerah Pulsipher and Martha Hughes Pulsipher. This second daughter, unlike her elder sister [Martha] Ann [who was] a large lady (whom we loved very much), was very small. As a matter of fact, she could walk under my arm when I held it straight out. But, as has been said, the smallness of her structure did not stop her from doing many of the big things in life. Not only did she act as mid-wife for the two little communities of Bunkerville and Mesquite, where we were raised, but traveled for miles, even to Las Vegas and Good Springs, to care for mothers and babies who were unable to get a doctor’s care.
As I happened to be her ninth child and youngest son, I remember mother more at the age when she should have slowed down a little, but she never did. We could never be sure when we could find mother at home. She would be out caring for the sick. My memory goes back to many times when a rattling wagon or buggy would drive up to our front door in the middle of the night and a voice would call “Aunt Mary” and mother would say, “I’m coming.”
Not only did she care for the sick, but a lot of the time did it free of charge. If a family could afford it they paid her five dollars for delivering the baby and caring for both mother and babe for ten days.
She was also a great hand for knitting. She would carry her knitting everywhere she went. She could knit just as well in the dark as in the light. I don’t think father ever wore a pair of socks that wasn’t knit by mother as long as she lived. She even prepared the wool. I would sit and watch her cord the wool after she had thoroughly washed and dried it and then she would run it on the spinning wheel. In fact, the spinning wheel mother used is in a museum here in Las Vegas.
Mother had a way of getting her children to do what she wanted them to do. We all earned to respect her word as law. We loved her dearly.
In all my life I have never seen a couple more devoted to each other than mother and father. Her faith in prayer was great. No trouble arose beyond her understanding.
On my last visit home to see mother just before her passing away, I shall never forget when I went by her bedside. She said, “Son, I am ready to go. My tithing is paid up in full and it appears that my energy and strength are gone.”
We sang a lot, with mother and dad joining in. In mother’s patriarchal blessing she was told her life’s work was to administer and wait upon her sisters. To give unto them strength, power and assistance in bringing sons and daughters to earth, and to help the sick.
She didn’t live long, as the work and raising a large family of nine children was too much for her frail body. All her life she longed to go away from the desert country and to live in the mountains.
She died with her children’s love and everyone that knew her, blessing her for all the kindly deeds and loving things she did to make their lives more complete. Happy will be the day when we will all be together again.
=============
MARY ELIZABETH PULSIPHER LEAVITT
By her daughter - Mable Leavitt RushtonMary was Zerah and Martha’s second daughter, born in Salt Lake City, March 13, 1861. She had black hair, hazel eyes, not a very big girl, but full of life and a lot of courage. She had the life of any child raised in a family of more than one wife.
She always spoke with a lot of love and respect for grand-father’s second wife. She adored her father. She loved her mother with all her heart. She believed, and taught her children to honor their father and mother. She never told us much about her early life.
Mary Ann Stucki, a Swiss girl, told me about grandfather Zerah. She was just a little girl when they came to Salt Lake City. On her first Fourth of July in America, grandfather took her to the store, bought her shoes, dress and stockings. She thought he was the best man she ever knew. She said he had auburn curly hair, was short and stout, and was a kindly man. I imagine that my son, Fred, is a lot like him - a real peace-maker.
Mary and Dudley were ideal lovers. She had a happy home. Was very industrious. Did all the things that early mothers had to do to get along. Was a good seamstress. Could make our shoes, cut hair, taught us to knit. We used to help her make the yarn on an old spinning wheel. She crocheted, tatted, made quilts by the dozen, and helped her neighbors with their work.
Mary was stern in making her children mind. There was no story-telling or deceiving. She impressed us to tell the truth, and when she said “no” it always meant no more asking.
We girls used to be annoyed by the fact that she was always away from home helping the sick, but now we realize that women whose life is full of service are superior mentally, spiritually and morally than those that go quietly through life.
Mary was one of Southern Nevada’s mid-wives. She brought hundreds of babies into the world, never loosing one mother or baby. Her greatest gift was her faith in her God. Her faith was tested many times. It was a common thing to catch her on her knees asking for help for those depending upon her to save their lives. She could tell many times the Holy Spirit had prompted her to do certain things to save the lives of mothers that seemed as they would go into the Valley of Death.
A flood in Virgin River never stopped her from going to the sick. Her children all had fear in their hearts when she had to cross a raging flood to deliver a baby.
She loved outdoor life. I remember when she often went hunting and always came back with her game - quail, wild geese and rabbits. They were a treat to us. She never had patience with me much because I was afraid of guns and horses. My twin sister and mother were alike. they would send me in the house to hide while they went for a good ride and to hunt.