| Description |
Of Bygone Days lock, the widow of James Bullock, the people who had cared for his children during his mission to Britain. Orson Spencer also had become involved significantly in many contemporary civil and religious developments. He was a member of the secret Council of Fifty, served in the legislatures of the State of Deseret and of the Territory of Utah, and was chancellor of the University of Deseret. No career in Mormon Utah looked brighter than his. However, Ellen's pleasure in that career was subsequently overshadowed by his absences and her loneliness. The missionary father left the valley September 1852 and arrived in Prussia the following January but was prohibited from preaching and was banished February 2. He returned to Salt Lake Valley August 24, 1853. He was home one year before his next mission. During that year Ellen gave birth to her third child, a girl, Catharine Chloe, born February i, 1854. But the infant, named for Ellen's deceased mother and sister, lived but three-and-a-half months when she died May 12. That summer Orson Spencer was called on a mission to the United States. On this mission he spent about a year in Cincinnati, Ohio, when he was called to the editorial chair of the church's St. Louis Luminary in July 1855. He undertook a mission to the Cherokee Nation when in September he was taken ill, returned to Saint Louis, and there died October 15, 1855. One year later, during the course of the correspondence between the two Ellens, his remains were brought to Salt Lake City for interment by his brother Daniel. One month after the death of Orson Spencer, but a month before news of his death reached the City of the Saints, Ellen's sister Catharine was married to Brigham Young, Jr., November 15, 1855. As the correspondence opens, Ellen Clawson has received news of her father's death (this may have stimulated the correspondence), and Catharine has recently married Brigham Young, Jr., "Briggy" in the letters. Ellen's children are: Brad-15 |
