Sunday, January 25, 2009

Biography of Susan Ellen Johnson

Taken from the Johnson Bulletin


Susan Ellen Johnson, fifth child and second daughter of Joel Hills Johnson and Annie Pixley Johnson, was born 11 July 1836, in Kirtland, Ohio. When two years old her parents were driven from Kirtland, they started for Missouri, but were held up at Springfield, Illinois, by illness. They later moved to Carthage where Seth, her youngest brother, was born. From here they moved to Deharts Mill on Crooked Creek, where they built a house of logs, consisting of two rooms connected by a shed room open in front and closed at the back. This was where her mother died, 11 September 1840, at the age of 40. She was a kind and patient mother and a faithful Latter-Day Saint. She was buried at Ramus, Illinois.

Susan Briant came to live with them as housekeeper and her father soon married her, as his little children needed a mother's care. Soon after they moved to Ramus, where her father built a house for them to live in. Her Aunt Almera came to live with them and taught school, during that time she was sealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith as a plural wife. After a time they went back to the mill, and one day she and her brother Seth were playing near the woodpile, their parents having gone to Nauvoo. They saw some men marching toward their house. They ran in, fastened the door, and dove under the bed. The men came to the door and knocked on it with a club and said, "Come out of there, or it will be the worse for you." They went out and stood in the door hand in hand and very much frightened. They were asked where their parents were, and when told, the men said, "Tell your father when he comes home, he must leave here immediately or he will lose his life and all his property". Her father tried to sell out, but could not, and on account of illness remained until April when in the night an armed mob on horseback called him out to find out why he had not gone as ordered. He told them of their illness and was told that if they were not gone by the middle of May, they would burn the roof over their heads. Later they traded the property to a man for some property in Knox County, and in company with her Uncle Joseph E. Johnson, they made the trip of several hundred miles to a cold bleak prairie country, where they remained some time.

In February 1848, her Uncle George Johnson went to Nauvoo and Susan went with him, to live with her grandmother, who was quite old and feeble. They came near freezing several times. The last night out they went into a log hut and she was so cold that she shivered over the fire all night. In the morning they went on to the home of Almon W. Babbit where her grandmother lived with her daughter, Julia Babbit.

On May 8,1848, her father, with his family, came to Nauvoo on his way across the plains. Susan went with them one day’s ride and then returned to Nauvoo, heartsick and lonely at being left behind. On July 4 the Nauvoo Temple was hired by some gentiles for a grand ball and supper. She being twelve years old, wished to go, as she had never been to a ball and thought it was a grand thing. When she approached her grandmother on the subject, she wept and said, "The Temple has been desecrated and will be destroyed." Which proved true. In November they were awakened by a bright light. She ran to the window and saw the steeple in flames. The fire must have started in the room below the steeple, for there was no light in the lower story until the steeple fell in.

In June she left Nauvoo in company with her grandmother, Julia Hill Johnson, David Wilson, William O. Johnson and family, David LeBaron and family, Aunt Hannah and Uncle George Hales and Aunt Delcina and family. They arrived at Council Bluff on July 11, 1849, her thirteenth birthday. They then moved to Plum Hollow, where during the winter she attended school.

In June 1850, Susan started her trip across the plains with her mother's sister, Sarah Johnson and her family. They left Kanesville June 25, and camped by the Missouri River. There were 28 wagons with Stephen Markham as Captain. In the morning a woman died of cholera, and was buried in the banks of the river. She was a stranger, just having arrived from England on her way to Utah. From that time until the fifteenth of July, someone was buried almost every day. Here Aunt Sarah's husband, his mother and his sister Mary, died July 11, her birthday. They were buried when they stopped at noon the day of July 12,1850.

Susan also had the cholera, but was healed by administration of the Elders. When she felt the disease coming on, she went into her tent by herself and prayed to the Lord that she might be spared to wait upon the others. She had a testimony that she would be spared. Fourteen persons died in the company. After July passed there was no more cholera in the company. They laid over one day at Ash Holler for repairs. The next day they passed Fort Kearney and the following day a soldier who had deserted came to their camp and asked if he might go with them. The Wriston boys took him in and put him in bed with a night cap on and when the soldiers came after him and searched the wagons they found only a sick woman. They said if they only knew his character they would have nothing to do with him, which proved true for he stole the clothing of those who befriended him. Susan saw him once in Salt Lake City in 1851, he was working on the street with a ball and chain fastened to his leg.

One noon while camped at the foot of some steep hills which were covered with ripe chokecherries, she with some of the others went to gather some, intending to overtake the wagons, but on reaching the road they were entirely out of sight. They followed all afternoon and at dark came to a fork in the road and feeling along the tracks with their hands, found they had taken the wrong road. They soon found a young man waiting for them on horseback. He knew they were gone and feared they might get lost. His name was Andy Kelly (the deserter). It was ten o'clock when they reached camp and that was the last time she ever wandered from camp. They traveled up the Platt River and came upon a band of Cheyenne Indians who were hunting buffalo for their winter meat.

Her Uncle George G. Johnson having died, Susan traveled with Captain Forsaythe, working for them to pay her way. They were very kind to her. She walked many weary miles every day. At night when the ground was smooth enough, they would join in the dance to rest their weary feet or have songs, recitations, or plays, until called to prayers by Captain Markham. Then all went to rest but the guards who went on duty for the night. They passed hundreds of graves, many every day. They also saw great herds of buffalo, thousands of them in a herd. They passed independence rock, it was probably 200 yards long and ten or fifteen feet high, rising out of the level plain. On the smooth face of the rock were carved or written hundreds of names of those who passed.

One night they camped by a band of Cheyennes, the following day being rainy, they remained in camp. The Indians, old and young, came into camp trading moccasins and robes. Among the rest was a fine looking Indian who wanted to buy a squaw, offering six ponies. Andy Kelly asked him who he wanted and Susan was pointed out as his choice on account of her dark eyes and rosy cheeks. Kelly finally made a trade for five ponies, a buffalo robe and the silver ornaments in his hair. In the evening he came with the ponies and Kelly told him it was a joke, that the girl belonged to another family. This made the Indian mad, he said a trade was a trade. Captain Markham came to explain that Kelly was no good and had no right to do as he had done. The Indians finally went away very indignant. That night there was a high wind which blew down her Aunt Sarah's tent. The tent was placed facing the wagon, with the back toward a deep ravine full of willows. Her Aunt Sarah was holding the front pole and Susan the back one, while two men were driving the stakes at the sides. The night was pitch black, lightened at intervals by flashes of lightning. Suddenly she felt strong arms lift her to the back of a pony. She gave a terrified scream. At that instant a flash of uncommonly long duration revealed the horse, which the Indian mounted and rode away. He had been hiding in the ravine awaiting his chance for revenge and but for the flash of light, would have carried her off. Extra guards were placed for the night, but when morning came everything that was loose such as frying pans, skillets and cooking utensils, which had been put under the wagons, had disappeared, leaving the company short of those things. The band of Indians disappeared also and were seen no more by the company.

Sometimes the river was quite deep so the teams swam across while the wagons were ferried over. At other times the teams were driven across and the women and children were carried over by the men, which made it very hard for the men. Susan preferred to wade rather than be carried. Being a pretty good weight she might have been dropped in the water, and the bottom of the river was quite muddy in places. On October 3, 1850, they arrived in Salt Lake City, tired, weary and footsore, she having walked a great portion of the way barefooted, but she never faltered. Many others were in the same condition. They went to her Uncle B. F. Johnson's home and had dinner. Her Aunt Sarah having married a young man, William Mills on the way, went with Susan to her father's home on Big Cottonwood. She found that her sister, Sariah, had married John Eagar. Her father, Joel H. Johnson, was called to go with George A. Smith and company of about fifty others to settle Iron County. In March 1851, her father took his wife Janet and family to Iron County, leaving his wife Susan to come later. Susan attended school in Salt Lake City, taught by Mrs. Ann Goodrich Blair. Her father sent word to sell their home and get ready to move, which they did. After a trip of two weeks they reached Parowan, Iron County, September 1, 1851.

Four months after her arrival in Parowan, and after a whirlwind courtship, at age 15 1/2, Susan married James Henry Martineau, who was eight years her senior and the village school teacher. This happened on the 8th of January, 1852. Her wedding dress was made from material which she herself had woven, as were her other dresses. They started life together with little of this world's goods. Cupboard, table, chairs, and bedstead were homemade. The bed had strands of rope woven cries-cross on the bottom to hold the straw tick on which they slept, and she did her cooking on the fireplace.

Marriage is a challenge to any 151/2 year-old girl, but to Susan life had been one challenge after another and she was older and wiser than her years, and able to do her part, be it milking a Cow or doing any of the many tasks involved in pioneer life. Her husband, eight years her senior, born and raised in upper New York State, was well educated and had worked at various professions, but had little rural experience. Besides teaching, he was an excellent accountant or clerk and a trained surveyor.

In the next seven years she had four children. Henry Agustus, Moroni Helaman, Susan Elvira and John William. Two years before this last son was born, her greatest trial came to her, and that was when her husband married her cousin Susan Julia Sherman on the 18th of January, 1857, as a plural wife. Though she had been reared in a polygamous family, yet sharing her husband and home with another wife was not easy, though she did it with a good grace. When their husband said "Susan" each of the wives could tell which one of them he was speaking to. In 1860 he was called to Cash Valley, because his service as a surveyor was needed. They made the trip by covered wagon, of course through Indian infested country, but arrived safely. They settled in Logan, where seven more children were born to Susan. Nephi, George Albert, Joel Hills, Gertrude, Theodore, Anna Sariah and James. Here death made its first visit to her home, as John W., her four-year-old son, died 4 May 1863. Grandfather acquired a large comfortable brick home, which was needed for so large a family. Death's second visit to the home took Susan Julia, the plural wife, leaving six children for grandmother to raise. Her youngest son, James E., died 17 October 1880, and two years later they adopted a baby girl, Dora, that had been abandoned on a neighbors doorstep. There seemed to be room in grandmothers heart and home for as many as needed her.

There were merry times also in their homes, as the family liked to gather around the organ and sing songs, and have parties. And of course there were weddings, Henry A., Moroni H., Susan Elvira, and Nephi all married while they lived in Logan, also the two older sons of Susan Julia. In 1884 grandfather's skill as a surveyor was needed in the settlements of Arizona, so grandmother left her comfortable home in Logan and moved with the younger members of her family to a new frontier. They spent four years in Pima and Graham Counties, then moved on into Old Mexico, joining the colonists at Colonia Juarez, where they lived for 20 years. George A. and Joel H. married Arizona girls, and Gertrude, Theodore, and Anna married in Juarez. Dora died in 1900 at age 18, at Juarez, Mexico.

Grandmother endeared herself to all that knew her. Her mild disposition, usually calm and serene, always bearing her trials with dignity. Grandfather said, "I married her a month after I met her, I believe that we were mated in the preexistance, and chose each other there. We lived together 67 years and not once did she complain. Her purity of heart was great and so was her faith and gift of healing. She had many visions and dreams and they all came to pass. She was a true loving wife and mother, she has gone to rest with a crown of glory. God bless and preserve her memory."

Susan was a large woman, tall and large of frame, and weighing over 200 pounds. She suffered for a great many years with rheumatism, which coupled with her weight made it necessary for her to walk with the aid of a cane, and got around with great difficulty. I lived with them during 1913, and was with her at the time of her death. She told me many interesting things. She told of her patriarchal blessing, where in she was promised that polygamy would never bother her again. Her husband married other wives after this. That she should see her Savior while she yet lived, and that she would live until her 83rd birthday and as much longer as she desired. But she said life was a burden and she did not desire to live longer. This only a few weeks before her death. One little story to show she was human. She told me that she had never cared for mutton. "Why not?" I asked, "Did you ever taste it?" "Oh no, but I just knew I wouldn't like it." she answered. A short while later my husband brought home a leg of lamb. Cautioning him to say nothing, I roasted it, then sliced the meat to another plate for the table. Grandmother ate heartily of it saying, "This is the most delicious veal that I have ever tasted." The next day she caught me cutting the rest of the roast from the leg, and said very disappointedly, "Oh, it is lamb and you told me it was veal." "No, grandmother it was you that called it veal," I answered. But she ate no more of it.

Her last illness lasted two weeks, and I was glad that I was there to help care for her. Other members of her family were also there. Just a few days before she died, I was keeping watch beside her bed; as she lay very quietly, then suddenly she raised up on her elbow, and gazing with bright eyes toward the corner of the room, she exclaimed in fervent and reverent voice, "My Savior." I saw nothing, but could not doubt that I had witnessed the fulfillment of her promise. She passed quietly away the 5th of December, 1918, less than a month later than President Joseph F. Smith did. Neither of them had a public funeral, because of the flu epidemic; she was buried in City Cemetery.

[The earlier part of her story was written by Susan herself, and her married life by her granddaughter, Elzada Martineau Hurst.]

[I, Joseph Elbert Johnson, stayed in their home in Salt Lake City for a night or two when I was getting ready to leave on my mission, the 1st of October, 1916. Grandpa Martineau gave me a blessing and Uncle Henry Martineau copied it.]


Written by James H. Martineau

Susan's grandmother [Julia Hills Johnson] parted from her husband [Ezekiel Johnson] and lived with her son Joel. Joseph Smith sealed her to his uncle, John Smith (Patriarch). Joseph often visited Julia in Macedonia. Revelation 131 in the Doctrine and Covenants was given in Joel's home. When commanded to take other wives, he told Julia that if she would accept the new law and give him her daughter Almera to wife, not one of her posterity should be lost.

When Susan was a child, she was bitten on the foot by a rattlesnake and fainted on arriving home. She was cured by the prayers of her father. Joel was present with three others when the Word of Wisdom was given. Oliver wrote and read it to them. Joel threw his pipe into the fire and kept the Word of Wisdom thereafter.

He cut the shingles for the Kirtland Temple. Susan and her brother saw the McDonough troops when they went to Carthage, 200 in number, and they followed them with clubs. While the family was hiding in the woods, the mob came to the house to lynch them. They asked a young man where they were. He would not tell them so they stripped him to the waist and whipped him until he fainted and his boots were full of blood. He wasn't a Mormon, just a friend. The children had a wing in the second story of the unfinished Kirtland Temple.

1851 Johnson Springs, Utah.


She was 15 and two months, but appeared 18. Matured and a beautiful girl, highly esteemed. I heard of her and determined to marry her if possible, but did not know her by sight. I met her father one day and asked if I might keep company with her. He said yes. "Will you please give me an introduction to her." He said, "Don't you know her?" I said, "No, sir." He took me to the house and he asked for Susan. She was down in the cellar. She came up barefoot and we were introduced. We were both scared. We were married in six weeks in their home in Johnson Springs by John L. Smith, January 8, 1852, at 9:00 a.m. We slept on a straw mattress in a wagon bed until I took her home to Parowan. We lived in a log house with dirt roof and floor. Our bed of straw, with a thin feather mattress, one old chair, some tin plates, two knives and forks, and two tin cups at first, but we soon got a skillet and an oven.

In all the 67 years of union she never complained of hard times. She never gave me bad or evil council against any law or principle of the gospel. Even plural marriage, a woman's most trying subject. Her faith was great and she had the gifts of healing and vision. She did much temple work for the dead and received her second anointing also for others. She was blessed to have visions and dreams.

One vision, more than 40 years ago, was part of one that Joseph smith had, so fearful that he asked the Lord to shut it up. She saw the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. silent, no living thing in sight. Tables, desks, and chairs as after flight. No railroads in operation, the rails rusty from disuse. She saw crowds of people on foot, trying to get to Utah, carrying small bundles on their backs. She saw lettered in the sky—Fire—Sword—Pestilence—Famine. These things will be in the U.S. and Zion will be the only place of safety. She frequently had significant dreams and the interpretations such a comfort and help to me. Just a week before Thanksgiving day November 21, we had a chicken dinner and she said, "We have our Thanksgiving with this fine chicken." It was the last meal she enjoyed, her appetite failed.

Now no more pain, distress, trouble or sorrow for her, all passed forever. I would not call her back. I will soon go to her.

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