Mary Ann Pulsipher Terry

Wife of Thomas S. Terry

Facts Gathered and arranged by Nora Lund a wife of Terry, a grandson

Mary Ann Pulsipher was born November 20, 1833, in Scott, Courtland County, New York. She was the eighth child born to Zerah Pulsipher and Mary Brown Pulsipher. An odd coincident was the fact that this couple's daughter (oldest) which was born May 30, 1816 was also named Mary Ann - she died in infancy. It is strange they would name their fourth daughter, who lived, by the same name. It must have meant a great deal to them.

Mary Ann's parents were good up-right people. They were just waiting to hear the true gospel and when Zerah heard a minister say that an ancient record or Golden Bible was causing quite a bit of discussion in Manchester, he said the remark went through him like a shock of electricity, and when there was a Book of Mormon brought into town, he borrowed it, read it twice and knew it was true.

Elders soon followed and proclaimed powerful sermons to large congregations. A few days after, Zerah was thrashing in his barn when a ray of light came from Heaven, he looked up and saw Angels with the Book of Mormon, telling him of its great revelations and truths.

Needless to say he and his family were soon baptized, as most of his Baptist Congregation. This was in 1831. Soon after Mary Ann's birth her father was on a mission and he baptized Wilford Woodruff who later became the President of the Church. This was in December of 1833 that he baptized him.

When this little girl was two years old the family moved to Kirtland, Ohio, where her father assisted in building the Temple. In 1838 he was ordained to the Council of the First Presidency of Seventies. From here on out the persecutions of the Saints were very great. They were obliged to go from place to place in an effort to have a little peace. During these trying days Mary Ann's grandmother Pulsipher died at the age of 85 years, at Far West, Missouri.

We are all familiar with the hardships of crossing the plains. At this time Mary Ann was 15 years old, so she was able to assist in camp duties, and was obliged to walk a good share of the way. Her father was Captain of a company, and was advised to take ten wagons and go ahead to assist in making roads.

With this responsibility of looking after other people, I imagine lots of the hard work of the journey fell on the mother and older boys, John and Charles.

The family arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on the 23rd of September 1848. They all began working to make a home and get something around them. Her father built a grist mill and ground wheat for other people to obtain bread for his family. He also erected a saw mill and soon had them a comfortable home built.

Mary Ann had some schooling, but she was just the type of a girl that any young man would consider very favorable as a wife. Consequently, when young Thomas S. Terry met her it was love at first sight. She was 16 and he was 24, but let us have his exact words.

"During the past winter I became acquainted with John Bills, by which means, on the 29th of July, 1849, I became acquainted with Miss Mary Ann Pulsipher who afterwards became my wife. I now thought of changing my situation in life. I, accordingly, made Miss Pulsipher my constant companion. She being the fifth daughter of a respectable family, who was of log and high standing in the Church. On the 25th of September, I visited her parents and family. I now obtained my anxious with from Mr. Pulsipher, which was the company of his daughter.

"On the 25th of December, 1849, I received the hand of Miss Mary Ann Pulsipher in marriage by Heber C. Kimball, I being at the time 24 years of age and my wife 16 years of age. I was married in the house of Mr. Pulsipher in the 16th Ward, Great Salt Lake City. Mr. Pulsipher honored his daughter and friends with a good wedding supper. The next day, the 26th, I moved my wife to Brother John Bills where I lived."

In November of 1850 the young husband gave up the Bills farm which he had rented and took up 40 acres of land on Little Cottonwood. He built a house there, a little log cabin which they moved into December 1. On the 14th day of December, at 8:00 o'clock in the morning, Mary Ann became a mother to a fine daughter, which they named Mary Ann to honor her 17 year old mother.

The young couple worked hard to make a living on their new land, but they were happy together, although they had good and bad luck with their crops and livestock.

On the 16th of February, 1853 at 5:00 o'clock in the afternoon, Mary Ann became a mother for the second time; another girl, whom they named Adelia.

The grasshoppers came during the summer and devoured nearly all their crops. As if that wasn't enough trouble, the Indian Chief Walker went on the warpath. The people living out on their farms were instructed to move together and build forts to protect themselves, which they did and the Indian's plan was thwarted.

On the 18th of August, 1853, Thomas and Mary Ann were sealed by President Brigham Young in the Council House in Salt Lake, and in March they received their Endowments at the same place.

Thomas rented his farm and moved his family into Salt Lake and built a house there. On the 14th of October 1854, at 6:30 in the morning, Mary Ann again gave birth to a baby; another daughter, whom they called Celestia.

Along about this time the practice of plural marriage was extensively encouraged and practiced by the Church leaders. So, Thomas decided to take another wife. He chose Eliza Jane, a younger sister of Mary Ann. They were married May 5, 1855. Eliza's first child was a boy, Zerah Pulsipher Terry.

In the fall of 1855 Thomas Terry was called on a mission to the East, laboring in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, his old home states. Before he started his labors, he went to see his mother and sister, Elizabeth. During his absence the wives and children got along as best they could, with the help of their brother, Will, and their father and mother. But what made it difficult for Mary Ann was the fact that after her husband had been gone a few months, she again passed through the shadows and gave birth to another girl, January 19, 1857, Sarah Alydia, this time.

When the mission was completed and her husband was there to take care of things, it was a little easier. But he soon sought another wife, this was a very young girl by the name of Lucy Stevenson. He raised this girl from the dead through prayer and the power of the Priesthood, while crossing the plains. She liked to go dancing all the time and Thomas had other things to do, so she left him after a year or so.

In due time, two more daughters were added to the family, Wilhelmina, born April 14, 1859, and Almira, born March 9, 1861.

At the October Conference of 1861, a large company of Saints were called to the Dixie Cotton mission. This call included all of the Pulsipher family. Mary Ann's father and mother, her sister, Almira, and her husband, Horras Burgess, Mariah and William Burgess, Sarah and John Alger, as well as her own husband and her sisters, Eliza Jane and herself. Her brothers John, Charles and William had come south with the Vanguards in 1861. Records show, however that these boys came back to Salt lake to dispose of their property and they assisted their aging father and mother in the trip south.The trip south was hard and a tiring one; then the children had whooping cough which added to the discomforture and danger of the trip, it being in the dead of winter. But Mary Ann was never one to complain.

The Pulsipher family traveled together until they reached a valley that lies between Johnson's Fort and the present site of Cedar City. Here they separated; the brothers taking their parents with them, went west to Shoal Creek where they were engaged in taking care of the Church cattle. The others went to St. George, arriving on New Years Day, 1862/3.

The site for a future home was uninviting enough, the little valley with alkiline soil, surrounded by red and black hills with the ever challenging Virgin River to the south. Mary Ann's first home was a wagon box, here she gave birth to her seventh baby girl, March 30, 1863; they named her Lenora.

The Terry’s weren't to remain in St.. George, however, because in May of 1863, Apostle Snow called them to join the Pulsipher’s at Shoal Creek. No doubt Mary Ann was pleased to be with hr family again.

There were friendly Indians living in this locality and other marauding bands who were not quite so peaceful. Apostle Snow advised the settlers to move closer together and built a fort for protection. So the families came from Clover Valley and they all moved to the elbow in the main Canyon or Big Willow Bend where there was some fertile land for farming. Here they built a fort.

In the center was built a log meeting house where all could assemble for public meetings.

Father Zerah Pulsipher presided at these meetings. On one occasion he told the people...pg (25)