November 1996 Blazer

The long, hard life of Mary Jane Palmer

I THE HISTORY BLAZER I ( XEIY" OF UTAH'S PAST FROAf THE I Utah State Historical Society 300 Rio Grande Salt Lake City. VT 84101 ( 801) 533- 3500 FAX ( 801) 533- 3303 The Long, Hard Life of Mary Jane Palmer WHEN MARY JANE EWER PALMER DIED in Grantsville in 1934, her son said of her: " Few women of civilized countries gave more and asked less of life.. . . Thousands like her have been missed by historians. " Mary Jane was born in 1846 in Banbury, England, the fourth of eleven children. Because cottage industry was being supplanted by factory production, her family, home weavers, lived in rented quarters and " struggled constantly for a meager living." The parents and older siblings worked on two looms. By the time Mary Jane was six, she was spending long hours each day winding bobbins. When the warp caused her fingers to bleed, her mother wrapped the cuts in linen so she could keep working. Mary Jane's biography states that she was converted to Mormonism at age 14 through missionary Charles Penrose's preaching. But genealogical records show she was actually baptized at age 10. The elders had to cut away a layer of thin ice to perform the ceremony. Her younger brother's name- Moroni- suggests her parents also converted. Also when she was 10, Mary Jane's older brother obtained a factory job, and she took his place as apprentice weaver. Her very first day at the loom she wove a whole yard of cloth- a notable feat for a beginner. At 14 Mary Jane and her family relocated to Coventry. There she worked in a private home as a weaver for 2 to 3 shillings a week. In time she was weaving ribbons and " plush" ( velvet) for 3 to 4 shillings a day. But in Coventry, too, home weaving was dying out. When a job opened up in a local dress goods factory, Mary Jane watched and learned for three weeks before finally being put to work on " an expensive piece of linsy" ( probably linsey- woolsey, a sturdy wool and cotton fabric). Docked half a day's pay for an error, she never made another mistake. Factory girls worked 12- hour days, six days per week, with half- hour breaks for breakfast and lunch. At 6: 01 A. M. the factory was locked, and latecomers had to wait out in the cold for the doors to reopen at break time. Since Mary Jane was too poor to own a clock, she leamed to tell the time by the street lamps. It is no wonder that Mary Jane was eager to " gather to Zion," as was then custom among Mormons. Besides paying tithing and her share of chapel upkeep, each payday she gave her father a few shillings to deposit to her Perpetual Emigrating Fund account. It took her five years to save enough to emigrate. Then tragedy stack: she and several siblings contracted smallpox. Two younger children died. Mary Jane's father came to her bedside and asked if he could use her ( more) savings to bury them. She said she would have to think about it. Ultimately, she reksed. Perhaps she reasoned that she had already spent 13 years supporting the family. If she remained in England she might never have a life of her own. Town officials helped her father bury the family dead, and Mary Jane prepared to sail. Afkr reaching New York, she had to work and save some more to continue to Utah. While crossing the plains she tripped over her blanket in the night and broke several ribs. Arriving in Salt Lake City, she found a job and joined the Tabernacle Choir. A year later she became the third wife of James Palmer, an English contractor, mason, and stonecutter. He took her first to Tooele, where they could not get anythmg to grow, and then to Skull Valley, where she lived 20 years and raised 10 children. Despite the hard work, isolation, and " years of poverty [ and] trial," Mary Jane liked her new life. A daughter wrote, " She had trained herself to take pleasure at her work, no matter what situation arose." James was only a part- time husband, but when he was around he taught her to read and write and the children to play the clarinet and sing. In 1887 Mary Jane's oldest son died of appendicitis. She felt that good medical care would have saved him, so after that " she was no longer happy on the farm. " When her oldest daughter married and moved to town, Mary Jane sold the farm. She spent her remaining 47 years raising teenagers and gardening and storekeeping in Grantsville. Did Mary Jane regret her decision to leave England? She once said, ' I have no regrets except that I might have lived a more perfect life." Source: Fannie Palmer Gleave, " History of Mary Jane Ewer Palmer, Pioneer of 1866," photocopy of typescript, Utah State Histoical Society, apparently typed by a WPA writer from Gleave's handwritten manuscript. THE HISTORBLYA ZFi~ s produced by the Utah State Historical Society and fuoded in part by a grant from the Utah Statehood Centennial Commission. For more information about the Historical Society telephone [phone] ( BB)