Testimony of
EXPERIENCE ("SPEEDY") BROWN ELLSWORTH JOHNSON
(1820-1896)
(written at age 60 -- 18 Feb 1881 in Payson, Utah
to be sealed in a time capsule)
"I, SPEEDY JOHNSON, desire to leave to my
posterity a biography of my life, that they may in fifty years hence
be benefitted thereby.
"I am the daughter of David Brown and Lucinda Bachelor. I joined
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1841. I was married
to German Ellsworth in 1837. We immigrated to Illinois (from Michigan)
in 1842, where we remained until the spring of 1846, where by the order
of the Governor of Illinois we were driven from our homes along with
the Saints. We went to Winter Quarters where we remained until the
spring of 1849, when we started for Utah. We arrived in Salt Lake City
the 23rd of the following September (1849). On the 9th of the next
November (1849) my husband died (of mountain fever), leaving me with
seven children, named respectively:
ELIZABETH ELLSWORTH b. 29 Dec 1839,
EPHRAIM EDGAR ELLSWORTH b. 25 Jul 1841,
EVALINE ELLSWORTH b. 7 Sep 1842,
ESTHER ELLSWORTH b. 12 Sep 1844,
NANCY MINERVA ELLSWORTH b. 16 Jan 1846,
ISRAEL ELLSWORTH b. 14 Apr 1848,
GERMAN ELLSWORTH, Jr. b. 29 Sep 1849,
"I married again in 1850 to PHILO JOHNSON,
by whom I also had seven children, as follows:
PHILO JOHNSON, Jr. b. 15 Aug 1851,
EMILY JOHNSON b. 31 Aug 1853,
MELISSA JOHNSON b. 15 Aug 1855,
HANNAH MOSLEY JOHNSON b. 1 Oct 1856,
REUBEN WILLIAM JOHNSON b. 9 Sep 1858,
CELESTIA ADELAIDE JOHNSON b. 8 Feb 1861,
SPEEDY ALICE JOHNSON b. 29 Apr 1865,
"We remained in Salt Lake City until 1858, when the Church was
called to move south, at which time we moved to Payson where I now
live. In the spring of 1863, my youngest son, a boy of (nearly) five
years, was accidentally shot. It was a terrible sorrow to us, but I
felt to acknowledge the hand of God, that gives and and takes away, and
blessed be His name.
"In 1865 the Relief Society was organized in Payson, my name being
among the first enrolled. In 1877, the Church was requested to renew
their covenants. My husband and myself were re-baptized. In 1878 the
Relief Society was reorganized in the wards, and I was set apart
President of the second district, by JOSEPH S. TANNER and council, which
place, with the help of God, I have tried to fill to the best of my
ability.
"I am now in the sixty-first year of my life. I have been forty
years a member of the Church of God, and I have never for one moment
doubted the truth of His work, and my constant prayer is that I may
prove faithful to the end. I have ten living children and thirty-three
grandchildren, and I pray God, my Eternal Father, to enable them to be
faithful to the cause of Christ, and that they may gain for themselves
an exaltation in the Celestial Kingdom of our God, and that we may meet
in Heaven to enjoy the society of our loved ones that have gone before,
with the just and the true.
"When you read this I shall be sleeping in the dust, but I hope and
trust that my memory may be dear to you, and that it may be a guiding
star to you to walk in the straight and narrow way that leads to life
eternal, which is the sincere desire of your mother and grandmother."
The above testimony was sealed to be opened fifty years later (in 1931).
|
Information from Various Sources
|
 |
INTERNET Adaptation
|