Letters of Ellen Briggs Douglas Parker

The following letters were written by Ellen Douglas to her mother, Isabell Briggs and family. Ellen was born November 7, 1806 at Lancashire, England. As a convert to Mormonism she and her husband, George, had left their home to join the Saints then living in Nauvoo. These letters were presented by Annie W. Connell.

 

• Nauvoo, June 2, 1842.

Dear Fathers and Mothers:—

I now take up my pen for the third time to address you, hoping these lines will find you in good health, as it leaves us at present. I sent one letter from New Orleans, with an Englishman, which I expect you will get soon. He was not setting off for England until the beginning of May. I also sent another with one of our brethren who was coming to England to warn them for another time to prepare for the coming of Jesus Christ, which we believe is drawing nigh, and I expect that you will get this first. I sent the other about a month since and I am going to send this by Amos Fielding. He has come over from England with some of the Saints and is returning to Liverpool, so I sent this letter by him so that you will have less to pay.

Dear Father and Mother:—

I am at a loss what I can say to you. I feel so thankful for what the Lord has done for me and my family, for truly all things has worked together for our good. You will see in our former letters, how all things did work for which I feel to praise my Heavenly Father, but I will now say something about our situation. We rented a house at 5 shillings a month and we have fire wood on at that, and a good garden, about an half an acre. It lies on the side of a hill close before our door. Our house is not such a fine one, but there are many that are much worse, and I prayed that we might have one to ourselves for there is three or four families in one room, and many have to pitch their tents in the woods or anywhere they can for it is impossible for all to get houses when they come in for they are coming in daily. Scores of houses have been built since we have come here and they still continue building and it is eight weeks this night since we came in.

We have got our garden plowed and planted. All our seeds have come up and look very well. We have planted corn, potatoes, beans, peas, onions, punkins, melons, cucumbers and many other things too numerous to mention, and we have also got a pig. A man came one day and wanted one of our boys to go and clear him off a piece of ground before he ploughed it, and he would give him a pig, so he went about one day and got it. In England it would cost fifteen or sixteen shillings at least. It was Ralph that got it. We also have got a flock of chickens. We have thirteen and I have bought eleven besides, so you have account of all our property, and I think we are far better here than in old England.

We wish all our fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters and all our friends were here, for there is plenty of work and plenty of meat and we can afford to play a day or two anytime when we please and not get into debt. Butter is five pence a pound. Sugar the same. We have not had much fresh meat, but we have had plenty of good bacon and ham. I wish the people in England could get as much as we can. As to prices of other goods I need not mention because you have heard before. I sent you word in my last letter what we all were doing but I will mention it again.

George and Ralph are working at the Nauvoo house and Richard has been working at a farm house close by and Isabell at the same place. Richard is now going to work for another man and I expect he will receive for wages five dollars a month beside his board, but we have not exactly agreed till we see how both sides likes. George is walling when he is at the Nauvoo house, but they are now waiting for some good work, so he is ditching until they want him again. They love their work at the Nauvoo house very well. I forgot to tell you what Richard was going to work at; but he is going to plow and break up prairie. It has been his work ever since he came here.

James Smithes and his family are all in good health. Ann got another child on the 31st day of May. I have been over to see her and she is doing well. I also mention Hannah Thornbet and her family. Henry is in good health at present. Jane has been sick, but she is beginning to mend. Ellen and her husband are well. Old John and Ellen Parker are both in good health and spirits and are expecting their daughter Mary every day. Give their kind love to all enquiring friends. Joe Spencer, Joe Elison and Alis Cotam and Ann and Joe Rushton and William and Betty Mors are all in good health and spirits. Wm. Moss is building him a house not far from where we live.

There is now in this city a Female Charity Society of which I am a member. Jos. Smith's wife is the head of our society and we meet on a Thursday at one o'clock where we receive instructions both temporally and spiritually. I must say something about the Prophet the Lord has raised up these last days. I feel to rejoice that I have been permitted to hear his voice, for I know that this is the work of the Lord and all the powers of earth or hell can not gain say it. The time is not far hence when all will know that this is the work of the Lord and not of man. The time is near at hand when all proud and they that do wickedly shall be as stubble and the day that cometh shall burn them saith the Lord of Hosts. I pray that the Lord may remove all darkness from your minds so that you may see clearly the way which you should go, that at last you may enter in at the gates into the city.

Give our kind love to all inquiring friends and to all our brothers and sisters. Tell Jo Thornber that Henry will write soon and we will send some particular word in his letter.

I would like you to send me a letter the first opportunity and let me know how you are going on and how my sister Mary is and all her family.

Tell all the Saints that come here to bring all these necessary things with them such as pots and pans and tubs and all your necessary things. Tell John Thornbet to bring plenty of print and check light prints and a little patren of anything he pleases.

We remain,

Your affectionate son and daughter

George and Ellen Douglas

• Nauvoo, June 12, 1842

Dear father and mother, I am at a loss what I can say to you. I feel so thankful for what the Lord has done for me and my family, for truly all things have worked together for our good. …
There is now in this city a female charity society of which I am a member. We are in number eight or nine hundred. Jos. Smith wife is the head of our Society and we meet on a Thursday at ten o’clock, where we receive instructions both temporally and spiritually.
I must say something about the Prophet the Lord has raised up in these last days. I feel to rejoice that I have been permitted to hear his voice, for I know that this is the work of the Lord, and all the powers of earth or hell can not gainsay it. … I pray that the Lord may remove all darkness from your minds so that you may see clearly the way which you should go, so that at last you may enter in through the gate …
Your affectionate daughter,
Ellen Douglas

Commentary on Nauvoo, June 12, 1842:      So Ellen Briggs Douglas wrote to her family in England, reporting on her arrival with her husband and seven children at Nauvoo. This was only the first of several major moves Ellen would make in response to her testimony of the gospel.
Ellen was born in 1806, and married George Douglas in 1823. They and their oldest sons were baptized in 1838 by Heber C. Kimball. None of her parents’ family ever joined the Church, despite Ellen’s repeated efforts to share her faith.
George was a hard worker and taught his sons to work, but there is evidence that it was Ellen’s careful management that set the family’s standard of living. Soon after their baptism, Ellen’s goals changed from raising her family’s temporal status to saving money for emigration to Zion. Reaching Nauvoo in March 1842, Ellen set about rebuilding the family fortunes. While her husband went to work building Joseph Smith’s Nauvoo house and her sons and oldest daughter hired out to work for neighbors, Ellen worked at home. She planted her half-acre garden with vegetables; she bought chickens and built a healthy flock. When her teenage son received a young pig as payment for one day’s work clearing land, she gleefully described for her parents how valuable the pig was and how it would contribute to the family’s welfare.
But only three months after the Douglas family arrived in Nauvoo, George Douglas died. Ellen and her children stayed together, pooling their wages for the good of the family and feeding themselves as much as possible from their own garden.
Early in 1846, as the Saints were having to flee from Nauvoo, Ellen married widower John Parker, adding his three small children to her own. As many of the Saints did, the Parkers moved to Saint Louis to earn money for the outfit they would need to take them west. There John’s skills and Ellen’s management eventually led them to open a soda water and rootbeer bottling factory, which proved to be extremely profitable. The Parkers could have stayed in Saint Louis and become very wealthy, but they wanted to join the Church in Utah. In 1852 they sold their business.
The family bought eleven wagons with teams to pull them, and a threshing machine, and filled the wagons with family supplies and goods that were badly needed in Utah. Ellen sewed vests for her husband and sons, with false linings concealing pouches filled with twenty dollar gold pieces. Along with the Douglas and Parker families, John’s extended family were members of the Church. The family was so large that John needed to hire only one teamster besides his own relatives to drive the wagons west. The family traveled as an independent company, and arrived without accident in the Salt Lake Valley on 28 August 1852.
Following ten years in Salt Lake City, the Parkers again pulled up stakes in response to the call for families to settle in Dixie. They began all over again in Virgin, near Saint George; Ellen lived there until her death in 1886.
Ellen’s management skills, added to the willingness of her family to work hard and work together, enabled her to provide well for her family’s temporal needs. Yet she cheerfully – and repeatedly – put a higher value on her family’s membership in the Kingdom than on earthly wealth. “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

• Nauvoo, Feb. 1, 1843

My dear Father, Mother, Bros. and Sisters:—

I take the present opportunity of sending a few lines unto you, hoping they will find you in good health as they leave us at present. I know not whether you will have heard or not of the great and un-remedied loss that I have sustained in the death of my husband, my children of the loss of the kindest, most affectionate father, and you, my fathers and mothers, of a son and brother, and sisters of a beloved brother. What shall I say, my heart is too full to dwell on this subject by looking on the melancholy loss, as it were, from him being took from us. I should have informed you by letter before now but Bros. Thos. Cottam sent a letter to his friends and mentioned about George and all about us, but as to whether the man that brought it arrived safe or not we cannot tell. George had been working at the Nauvoo house and they were not so busy at harvest time, so a neighbor was going about twenty five miles to harvest and he was to take a man with him so George thought he would like to go, so he took Richard with him. This was on the 5th of July when he left us. He took sick on the 12th about noon and died in about six hours, the man that he went with took a horse and came to tell us. When I got there he was in the coffin, it being night he got to us, so I started in the morning early and brought him to Nauvoo to inter.

I will tell you that when he left us he was in perfect, good health and quite cheerful, felt to be quite pleased that he was going. A thot struck me as he was going, that if we could never see him again alive what a thing it would be, but if I had known that it would have been so he should not have gone, for I have thought that if he had not gone he would not have died then. You will perhaps want to know what he died on. I think he felt to be unwell, but did not give up working until it was too late, but he did not complain before he did give up. He felt to rejoice that he had got here and was firm in the faith, so I do not mourn as those that have no hope, for I trust that on the morn of the resurrection of the just I shall there behold him amongst the sanctified and have the privilege of enjoying with him in those things that remains for the people of God. Now my dear father, mother, brothers and sisters I would say do not mourn for him neither for me nor the children, but mourn for yourselves for the judgments that are coming upon the inhabitants of the earth unless they repent of their sins and do those things He requires at their hands and by those that have authority from God to execute his laws, for we know that this is the work of God, and unless we be obedient to those things which he requires at their hands the judgment of God will fall upon them as it did in the days of Noah, of Lot and many more I might mention, for I declare unto you and to all that hear this letter that this is the work of God and that Joseph Smith is a Prophet of the Most High God.

As respects a living. We can get our living without troubling anyone if we have our health and we have enjoyed good health as ever we did in England. Ralph can earn as much as will maintain us. I have all my family at home and have had all through the winter. The last work that Richard did he earned fifteen hundred brick toward building us a house and since then I have had him at home. I can have an acre lot of land if I will without paying anything for it if I will, but I do not know whether I shall have it or not (belonging to the Church.) We have had plenty of beef, best kind at 1 1/2 cent and some at a penny per pound and pork at a penny or two cents per pound as good as any in England. We had twenty bushels of potatoes beside wheat we grew ourselves, potatoes is two bits or a shilling a bushel. Ann and Isabella was living off the most of it this summer.

Isabella came home sick. She was sick about three weeks and now is very well. Ralph is a very good boy and does the best he can to get us a living and so is Richard. Henry Thornbet got a letter from John on the 25th of last month. I am very glad to hear they are all well. He sends his best respect to George, but is sorry he is not here to receive it but we are and desire to be remembered to him. Henry and his mother and Jane all well. Ellen got a son on the 30th and is doing well. Abraham and Margaret Shaw is well. James Smithes and family is well. He received a letter from Durham and am sorry to hear of sister Mary's misfortune. Wm. Moss and Betty, Thos. and Ann Cottam, John Rushton, John Ellison and wife, all from Waddingham is well. I would mention that John Rushton has made me a present of seven bushel of wheat. Give my respects to Thos. and Wilkinson of Liverpool and Alice and James at Accrington, Thomas and Nancy Sharp of Burnley, John and Nancy Dusbury of Hatwood, and I want you to let them know that George is dead and I pray that the Lord may inspire their hearts to do his will and be obedient to his commandments that they may have a right to the tree of Life and enter in through the gates into the City. I will now give you a few lines of the feelings of my mind:

To my sister Mary I would say a few words, I am sorry to hear of her daughter Elizabeth being poorly and, likewise, of Henry having his leg cut off but I hope by the time these few lines reaches you they will be got well and as God has appointed means whereby those that had not the privilege of obeying the gospel, not having heard it, it is the privilege of men to be baptized for my friends. I shall then be baptised for her husband, so that she can please herself about preparing to meet him, for as Paul says,

"Why are they then baptised for the dead, if the dead rise not at all." 1st Cor. 15 c and 29 verse. I send my kind love to her and all the family and hope you will either send her this letter or a copy of it, and hope they will be wise and do those things that God commands them to do and as there is but one way, one Lord, one faith, one baptism and one God and Father of all, so I hope she and all of you will seek where the authority is and be obedient so that we may all meet together in the Kingdom of God with those we love as is gone before.

I remain your affectionate daughter and sister

Ellen Douglas.

• Nauvoo, April 14, 1844

Dear Fathers and Mothers and Sister and Brothers:—

I now take my pen to write a few lines to you to let you know that we received your kind letter dated Nov. 19th, hoping to find us all well in health. We received your letter on the 9th day of Mar. How it came here we know not. We are all in good state of health and spirits at present, for which I feel thankful. We have had some sickness in our family since we wrote last. Ralph and his uncle went up the river about ten miles to work on a brick yard. They hired each for one month. They came home every week, and Ralph when he had done his time, came home in good health, but the next day was taken very ill. This was about the middle of Aug. He was very ill the first nine days, not able to sit up while I made his bed, after that he began to have the ague and fever which is a common complaint in this land. He was about ten weeks before he could work much and before he got well I was taken very ill with the same complaint but a great deal worse. I was four or five weeks very ill: indeed not to do anything. Ralph gave me some medicine to throw it off and I began to get a little better so that I would try to wash a few clothes and it just brought me down again. I was just thirteen weeks and never washed but that one time. Sometimes I thot I should die and then I thot of my poor children. I prayed for their sakes that I might live. I didn't pray alone, but many of my brothers and sisters prayed likewise and our prayers were answered and I now am living in a good state of health at present for which feel to praise my Heavenly Father.

Richard has been very healthy ever since we came to this land and he looks as well as ever you saw him. Ann and all the rest of the children but Isabella have had good health. Isabella has been ill two or three times, two or three weeks at a time. She looks about the same as she did when we left you. After I begun to get well I went down into the city on a visit to where Ann lived and I staid two nights and I had a horse to ride home on. The woman where Ann lived would have me make application to the female Relief Society for some clothing which I needed for myself and family. I refused to do so, but she said I needed something and that I had been so long sick and if I would not do it myself she would do it for me. I agreed and we went to one of the sisters and she asked me what I needed most. I told her I needed many things. While I was sick my children wore out their clothes because I could not mend them so she said she would do the best she could for me. Ann came over in a few days and they brought a wagon and fetched me such a present as I never received before from no place in the world. I suppose the things they sent me were worth as much as thirty shillings. I wrote before and told you that I would have a house of my own before now by the assistance of the church but I have not got one yet. We was sick so long. Ralph and James got a cow up the river and we have kept her all winter without giving any milk but we expect her to have a calf every day. She has had one calf and is but three years old. She cost nine dollars in work. She is a very pretty cow. We live where we did when we first came here and expect to do till we get a place of our own. We raised about 35 chickens, we keep them for our own use. How long do you think we might have stayed in England before we could have a cow?

Ralph and James is ditching on the prairie and Richard is sawing in a saw pit close by where we live. They have all of them earned a little money this spring. I have told you before that money was scarce. We can buy good strong cotton here now at five pence or six pence a yard, a yard wide, good print at six pence, thread and pots are the dearest of anything here.

You also want us to give you some account of Margaret Wilkinson. I expect you have heard of her death before now. She lived at a place called Happanooci, she had a very good place. She was sick about ten days and died. James was with her when she died. It was at the time that Ralph and James was working up the river and he came down to let us know that she had died. James Spencer and me went and brought her down to Nauvoo and had her buried close by my husband. They were very nice to her and thought a great deal of her. They said she was a good girl. She came to Nauvoo on the 4th of July on a visit and stopped one week. She was a night at my house and we went the next day to old John Parker's and Nancy Smith's and Jane Hall was there also. We had a happy day all together and did not think it was the last time we should meet on earth, but you see in the midst of life we are in death. She died firm in the faith that she professed. There is a letter at James Smithes she wrote herself and wished them to send along with one of their own, but they have never had the opportunity, but they will send it and then her friends will know how she enjoyed herself. You also wanted to know something about James Spencer. He is well and he is married about two months since and I was very glad of it because he is old and needed a home so that he could be comfortable in his old age, and I think he has acted wisely in choosing a companion, I mean near his age. She had a house and a cow, two horses and two mules, and she is a widow. Her husband died about the time Isabella died. She is a American, no children.

Dear parents there are many things which I would like to mention which would do you good, but I have not room. Ralph wants William to come to Nauvoo, and I say that he would do better here than in England. We should be glad to see any of you. I never in my life enjoyed myself better than I do now. We had conference here which began on the sixth day of April and lasted four or five days. I attended it four days and it is supposed that there was from fifteen to twenty thousand present and the teachings which we heard made our hearts to rejoice. I for one feel to rejoice and to praise my God that he ever sent the Elders of Israel to England and that He ever gave me a heart to believe them. I want to know whether you believe my testimony or not concerning the Prophet of the most High God, because the day will come when you will know that I have told you the truth.

I want you to send us some berry trees and a few choice plum stones. You may put them in a firkin (jar made of fur) and send them the first opportunity. I will pay anyone for the trouble of them. I should also be glad of a ball of twist, you may send them with Cottams at Waddington if they come. I hope you will forgive all my mistakes.

I remain your affectionate daughter,

Ellen Douglas

• Dear Mother:

My girls wishes you to send them a lock of your hair and they want some of you to send every one of them a doll. There is no dolls to sell here. There is almost everything here now. There is one or two hundred shops in this city now and when we came here there was not more than two or three. William Tomson said he would buy Vilate Ellen another when she had done with her other, so now is the time. George wants his grandfather to come. While I have been writing he has asked more than a half dozen times if I had sent for him. My children all join in sending their kind love to you all. V. Ellen wants Uncle Robert.

I remain yours affectionately,

Ellen Douglas

On March 29th, 1846 Ellen was married to John Parker. They left Nauvoo the middle of May the same year for St. Louis where they remained for six years, coming to Utah in 1862.

Saint Louis July 30, 1851

Dear Mother:

I now sit down to write to you, I hope you will excuse me for not writing sooner. I have wrote part of a letter several weeks since, but never finished it, so now I begin afresh with determination to finish this before I lay down my pen. We received your letter and one from my Brother Richard and was glad to hear that you was all well. We are at present all enjoying tolerable good health.

I must tell you how all my children are getting along, as far as I can. I can see them all every day with the exception of Ralph. He is in the Valley of the Great Lake and is expecting to see us there soon but will be disappointed this season. We are carrying on a very large business, I will put you a small piece which I cut out of the newspaper, which gives a description of our establishment and what hands we employ, but at present we employ more than it states. We have over forty. Our establishments is headed J. Cavins & Co. Soda Manufactures, Spice Street between Second and Third. This is the name of my husband's partner.

We have had two letters from Ralph since he got to the Valley. They was well and doing as well as they could expect for the time they had been there. Richard is driving soda wagon for us. We pay him one pound thirteen shillings a week. We pay all of our men every Saturday night. Richard has one child. It walked when it was ten months old. It is now fifteen months old. The name is Ellen. Ann and her husband lives in a room upstairs that we rented to them and has done ever since she was married which is now over two years. Her husband works for us in the inside and has the same wages that Richard has. You will be surprised when I tell you Isabella has got married. She was married on the 3rd of last February and her husband drives a wagon for us and he has the same wages that Richard has.

We bought another place this spring and give twenty-one hundred dollars cash down and Isabella and her husband lives in it. They have their house free of rent for just stopping at the place. Mary is with me at home and does most of my work. Wm. Parker, that is one of my husband's sons, he goes on one of the wagons with another driver and has two dollars a week. George works in the inside and he gets two dollars a week and more when he works over time. Elizabeth is working with a lady and takes care of a baby and has three dollars a month. Mary Ann and Vilate Ellen goes to school. I have told you something about all of my children but my little Alis and if you could but see her it would do you good, for I am sure that she is one of the most intelligent children I ever saw in my life. I wish you could see her, dear mother, I have reason to be thankful that the Lord has blessed me with good children. I have reasons to thank my God that he ever sent a Latter-day Saint to England while my children was young, that they have received those things into their hearts, for it makes them good children, good men and women. Makes them happy in this life and happy to all eternity. A good example to children when they are young sometimes proves a benefit to them when they are old. I think I have said enough about my children but I know you often wonder how they get along.

I want you to be sure and write to me when you get this and perhaps I may have a little more news to tell you. Dear Mother, I was glad to hear that you enjoyed so good health and that you look so well in your old age. Give my love to mother Douglas at Downham. Tell her the last I heard from James he was in California. I also heard from the James Smithes last summer. They was well in health and spirits. I heard that Margaret Yate got married and had got a good husband and doing well. Tell my brother Wm. I am sorry he likes his spirits too well. I think if he was steady he might do well. He has no family and a good trade and I think it would be well for him to take care of what he owns and not give it away for that which will make him miserable both in time and eternity.

We live close by Joseph Boothman. He is well and his wife. You will have heard that he is married again, to Mary Smith. They seem very comfortable. Tell my brother Richard I was glad to have a line or two from him and would be glad to have wrote to him if I had time, but I will write all I can in this and you will let them all see it. I think my sister Mary might have wrote to me before now. It is nearly ten years since I seen her and I have not had one scratch of a pen from her. I have only written once to her, but if she had answered I should have written again. Give my love to her and family and le them know how we are getting along. Give my love to my sister Susey and her husband and tell them I should like a word or two front them in your next letter. Give my love to Uncle Robert, Aunt Ellen and their familey's and let them know how we are getting along Tell Joseph Douglas I am much obliged to him for his kindness in writing for you. I do not think that I ever behaved bad to him or anyone that belongs to him but I expect it is all right. I should have wrote sooner, but you know that Edward Corbrig and family come this spring and they had a great deal of sickness. Two of their youngest children is dead and Alis has been sick and Edward has had the Cholera and come near dying, but they are able to attend to their work, but feel rather weak. If you know Richard Parker you will please mention it to him. His family work at the low moor. We expect to go to the Valley the next spring without fail and I expect all my children to go along with me. We shall not be less than ten or twelve wagons of our family connections, I shall be glad when we all get to the Valley, for there are many there that I love and respect, and if I live to land safe with my family I expect to spend many happy days there with those I have been acquainted with in days gone by. Richard often says that he would like to see his Uncle Wm. in this country, but I often think that I shall never see any of you in this world, but I don't know what may yet come to pass. I wish you could just come and see me and how I am situated, you would think I was well off. If I was to tell you perhaps you or someone might think I was proud or boasted. I am just as proud as I was when I left England.

Give my love to Sarah—and tell her that Thomas and all the rest are tolerable well for anything I know. Give my love to Susey Lonsdail, Susannah Hanson at Downham and to all enquiring friends. I might mention many names but give my love and respects to all that enquire after me. I will just tell you how many wagons and horses we have. Eleven wagons and thirteen horses, eight that is constantly carrying out soda, as that paper states and three that we use for anything else that we want. I have wrote you quite a long letter and made many mistakes but I hope you will excuse them all. Dear Mother I must bring my letter to a close, with love to yourself and to father. I remain

Your affectionate daughter

Ellen Parker

Give my love to Ann Wiglesworth and tell her if all is well she may expect to have a few lines from me before winter. Be sure and write as soon as you get this.

Direct: John Parker,

Spruce Street No. 72

• Saint Louis, December 28th, 1851

Dear Parents: I now take the opportunity of writing a few lines to you to let you know that we received your letter and was glad to hear that you was well. We are all intending to leave Saint Louis about the first of April. We have sold out everything belonging to our business and are making preparations for our journey to the Valley of the great Salt Lake. We are all enjoying good health and spirits at present and hope this will find you all the same. I think I told you in my last that I would tell you some news in my next. I have got another boy. It was born on the 2nd of Nov. We called his name John Samuel and Isabella has got a girl. It was born on the 9th of November. They call it Mary Ellen. I expect this will be news to you. I did not mention it in my last that I was expecting any such a thing for I know it would have made you feel bad, but now I have got him in my arms and he is just as welcome as any of the rest of my family. I have just heard from Ralph. He is well but his wife does not enjoy very good health. They are getting along tolerable well. Tell my mother-in-law that I can give no account of James any further than he is in California but when we get to the Valley I will try to find out and let you know if I can hear anything about him.

I wish many times that you could come and spend a day or two with me and see my family. I have them all so that I can see them every day if anything was not right. They all seem to claim their step-father as much as if he was their own father, and asks his council almost in everything they do. He has been a good father to them all, both those that are married and those that are not. My little Alis talks about her grandmother as if she had seen you and known you all her life. I know you would like to see her dance and hear her sing.

Give my love to Uncle Robert and to my Aunt Ellen, to my cousins and to all enquiring friends, also to my brother William and wife, to Susannah and family, to Richard and wife my kind love to my mother-in-law and to all my old acquaintance. I hope you will write when you get this one so that I can write you again before we leave for the Valley. Give my love to my sister Mary and family. Let her know how we are getting along and what our intentions is, so that if she desires to write to me before we leave here we should be glad to hear from them.

I shall have to make my remarks short for I am going to send it to Liverpool with Samuel W. Richards who is expecting to start for England this afternoon. It is very likely that we shall never see one another in the flesh, but the time will come when I believe we shall see one another, if it shall be thousands of years from now, for the gospel of Jesus Christ will draw all men to himself. The desire of my heart is that you may be able to discern between Truth and error and to choose the truth, that it may be well with you, which may God grant for Christ's sake, Amen.

We remain, Your affectionate son and daughter

John and Ellen Parker.

Father Parker wishes to be remembered with love to his son Richard, as we have been informed you are acquainted with him.