Elizabeth Barnes

Dear sisters, It seems I have found a way to make writing my stories more fun. Telling my stories to you on this blog!  It's like I am telling my stories to you instead of to a piece of paper.  So you are going to get sick of me because I have about 200 more stories to write. Hope you don't mind.  This is the story of Elizabeth Barnes. Our Great-Great-Grandmother.

The beauty of high mountain country of Coalville, Utah could almost take your breath away.
      Nineteen year old Elizabeth and her younger sister, Nellie were best friends. They were walking arm in arm, laughing at each other, when they noticed a gray haired man working with his horses across the street.
     "How would you like to marry an old man like him?" Nellie asked Elizabeth, poking her in the side as they walked along.
     "Brother Stallings? He is way too old for me.  I want to marry someone who is young and handsome. Besides, he already has two wives."  Elizabeth whispered, so as not to be heard by anyone but Nellie.
     Joseph Stallings climbed up onto the wagon seat and grabbed the reins up tight, pulling his horses into the street. Waving to Elizabeth and Nellie as he passed, he headed home to Caroline and Charlotte. His wives were anxiously awaiting the sugar and lard he had just picked up at the Mercantile, so they could make sugar cookies for the church social that evening.
     Joseph remembered the first time he had seen Caroline. Cold and hungry, the exiled Mormons were suffering through the winter of 1849 at Council Bluffs, Iowa.  Joseph had just buried his sweet wife, Margaret, in the frozen ground of the plains, as his four little children clung to his legs. Death had come to many couples. Brigham Young introduced Joseph to Caroline, a widow with two children. Daniel, who was seventeen and Charlotte, eleven. They married soon after they met, which was a blessing for Joseph and his small children. The two families combined their wagons, oxen and supplies and made the long trek west, arriving in the Salt Lake Valley on October 1, 1850. Finally they could feel safe and have some land to call their own.  Joseph and Daniel cut logs to build a home at the mouth of Millcreek Canyon.  It was a great day when Caroline moved from the wagon bed into her log cabin. Joseph and Caroline had two children born to them in the Millcreek home.
     Plural marriage was widely practiced in the valley, after Brigham Young introduced it to the saints in General Conference in 1852. The people accepted this commandment as a revelation from God to the Prophet Joseph Smith.
    Joseph accepted this principle and asked Caroline for permission to marry his step-daughter, Charlotte, who was eighteen years old. They drove into Salt Lake on  June 1, 1856  and were married by Brigham Young in his office. They returned home to Millcreek to live.  Joseph was forty-three years old.
   
      Elizabeth wrapped her winter scarf tighter around her ears and hurried home from church. She could hardly wait to get home to tell Nellie the news.  She was getting married. "Remember that old man I said I would never marry." She asked Nellie.
    "Yes, what about him?" Nellie asked.
    "Well, I'm marrying him."
    "Why?'
    "Because he asked me and I am getting old. Besides he is kind and good. And I need a husband who is kind and good." Elizabeth said, trying to convince herself.
     Joseph and Elizabeth were married in the endowment house in Salt Lake City, on November 18, 1865.