I, Mary Eliza Etherington McFarland, was born 19 July 1862 at West Weber, Weber County, Utah. I am the daughter of Thomas Etherington and Sarah Wheeler Etherington. The first of my fathers to become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was John Etherington, who was a church warden in the Church of England before he joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

My Father, Thomas Etherington, came to Utah 7 September 1855 with his father when he was a boy of seventeen years. He was a member of the Church and held the Aaronic Priesthood. They remained faithful and true to their death.

My mother's father, John Wheeler, embraced the same gospel about 1846 through the teachings of Joseph Fielding, one of the first missionaries of England.

My parents first settled in Slaterville, Weber County, Utah. In the spring of 1862 the water in the Weber River overflowed its banks and covered my father's farm and it was necessary for them to move over the river into the West Weber Ward where a temporary home was built and I was born the following July. After the high water, my parents moved back to Slaterville and remained there for about five years, returning again to West Weber where they lived the rest of their lives.

I was baptized 7 July 1870 by my Father, Thomas Etherington, and confirmed by William Barton. My Father being a farmer and a stock raiser, an active man in both church and commercial circles, and my Mother a quiet, even tempered woman. I was obliged to leave my Mother with housework and do considerable work outside.

I was the third child of a family of twelve children, nine girls and three boys and was taught the virtue of economy and how to utilize ways and means of making a living. I was educated in the public schools and attended Sabbath Schools and meetings.

Married to James Rankin McFarland 13 April 1882 in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City by David H. Wells. I have labored as teacher in the Relief Society and was set apart as second counselor to Margaret Ann Hogge in the West Weber Relief Society 24 June 1909 acting until June 1911. I was then chosen as counselor to Harriet Hadley and worked in that position until April 1927, making seventeen years of service in Relief Society.

I have a family of nine children, eight living, the second one died at the age of 14 years. I am comfortably situated in the West Weber Ward. My time is taken up caring for my family and assisting in relief work.

The herd house, spoken of, or temporary home across the river was just across the street from the Thomas Charlton home. It belonged to John Etherington, Thomas Etherington, and my Uncle George Stanger.

The first summer after being married I went with my husband in the mountains to red rock just west of Monte Cristo. We took our herd of cows and we milked them and I made butter and delivered it down to Ogden once a week to W. H. Wright and Sons Mercantile Store and sold it. When we came from the canyon in the fall, we move to the present sight(sic) and built 3 rooms and have remained here all my life.

In my later years I have made a lot of quilts and have helped quilt most of the Relief Society quilts.

I am now 85 years old.

Note: Taken from a handwritten copy, by Margaret McFarland Thompson, of Mary Eliza Etherington McFarland's journal.