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The Romance, and the Realities Washington over difficulties between the Mormon people and the United States government. He saw the solution to the problems and was one of the leading figures in effecting the patterns of accommodation that led to the granting of statehood to Utah in January 1896. That summer Ellen died. She had been ill for three years, but had recovered from each sick spell, and family and friends hoped for a similar recovery when she suffered severe pains Sunday morning, August 23, 1896. But her strength was insufficient to rally her and she died just past midnight, Monday, August 24, 1896. Aged sixty-three, she was survived by nine children. Her good friend Emmeline B. Wells characterized her as "one of the most patient, gentle and self-sacrificing women, lovable in every respect ... a wise and exemplary mother . . . one of the most generous, tender and solicitous" mothers. "Her gentleness and her touching simplicity of manners and of language won all hearts." Others remarked of "her sterling integrity," and of her "private and public benevolence." Through letters, poems, and diaries we have shared the rich and varied experiences of two women, close friends, so much alike yet so different, whose lives spanned the great movements of Mormon and Utah history from the foundations of Nauvoo through the pioneer period to the coming of statehood. One lived in the center of affairs of great moment throughout her years, in comfort and high position, sharing a prominent husband with three other wives. The other lived on the frontiers of pioneer settlement, knowing all the physical hardships, lacking at times a home of her own and sometimes a husband, and appreciating any small comforts. Each was devoted to family, friends, and church, and each strove in her own way to realize "those bright young hopes," "the fairy castles built in air" when the world was young and the "realities" of life were yet to come. 77 |
