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Dear Ellen and others. Ellen was there to assist her aunt "in every possible way." On this visit, Uncle Jonathan must have been pleased when the president, in meeting, "related several incidents in his early life, among the rest spoke of borrowing money of Mr. Crosby in Kirtland, Ohio, said no money of the same amount ever did him more good." Not only was there good food and conversation, but the local women took in and did the laundry of the visiting company and had it ready for them when they departed. (Thus the Beaver women gained the benefit of seeing all the new fashions and taking off patterns if they wished.) Always there was the prophet's blessing and an invitation to Caroline "to come to the city, and make his house my home, while I staid," an invitation repeated by the president's wife. On January 29, 1861, Ellen gave birth to a daughter named Ellen Caroline (called Nellie), and on July 6, 1863, a son named William Addison. Shortly before the birth of the little / boy, Ellen's father returned to his family and Utah. Mrs. Pratt had made a visit to San Bernardino and convinced Addison and Lois and John to move to Utah. Addison arrived in Beaver in May 1863. In a short time Ellen and William moved to Ogdcn and Ellen's father accompanied them to help them get settled, He visited old friends, loaned his journals to the Church Historian's Office, and then returned to Beaver. During the fall of 1864, when the cold of winter struck Beaver, Pratt's son-in-law Jones Dyer came through Beaver en route to California from a freighting trip and induced Pratt to join him. To the dismay and sorrow of Mrs. Pratt, Addison returned to the coast, where he spent his remaining years with his daughter Frances. Ellen and William were together in Ogden from 1864 until the spring of 1867. During that time, William set up business as a cabinetmaker and appeared to do well. By July 1866 he was doing a flourishing business; Ellen was "quite happy and cheerful." William was now "steady and hard working," not 64 |
