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Isabella Mitchell McFarland

1837-1925

In her own words, Isabella said, "I was born on the 5th day of March 1837, in a little village called Little Mill, Dunbartonshire, Scotland. My father, William Mitchell, whose family were of the old mountain stock of Scotland. . . My mother's (Isabella Nimmo) family were of the Saxon families of the south of Scotland. I attended school in the vicinity of Linlithgow until my mother died, me being then in my fourteenth year. I had then to assume the care of my father's children.

"My father moved his family to Bonness, in the same county, a year or two after my mother's death, where I first heard the Gospel preached as taught by the Latter- day Saints. . . In a little more than a year after my baptism my future husband came to the town, joined our branch, where we became acquainted, which altered the future of my whole life. On the 3 Aug 1854 we were married, and began preparations for our emigration to Utah." (the Latter-day Saint Elder was Daniel McLean)

They left Scotland 17 Dec 1854 and was on the ocean over two months, arriving in New Orleans 5 March 1855. 9fter traveling from one place to another they stopped where Atcheson now stands. There they gathered together wagons, cattle and supplies for their trip to Utah. While there, some of the men in the company homesteaded 640 acres of land. They plowed and planted corn and beans for the next years emigration. They also built some log houses.

They began their long, tiresome journey; walking most of the way and reached Salt Lake City in the summer of 1855. This was the year the grasshoppers had taken every green thing in the valley.

Their first baby was born 26 Jan 1856, and times were so hard, they could not get a mouthful of bread, but by the blessings of the Lord, they pulled through.

They moved to 9merican Fork in the summer of 1856, and built their first home. On 27 9ug they lost their baby.

In her own words, Isabella said, "In the spring of 1859, on the 10th day of March, we left American Fork, to seek a location on the Weber River. . . on the 20th of Dec 1859, the first white child, as far as we know, born on the south west side of the Weber River. . . For a year or two after our settlement we had very few neighbors, there being no settlers from Kaysville on the south to Slaterville on the north."

In the year 1866, her husband was called to Preside over the West Weber District under the direction of Franklin D. Richards, who presided over Weber County. This took a lot of her husband's time and left much of the responsibility on her.

Isabella's words, "At the October conference in 1873 my husband was called upon to fill a two year mission to Great Britain, when I was left with the responsibility of looking after a large family. Margaret was just seven days old when he left. I was at this time greatly assisted by my father. . . While he was gone I did not run him in debt one dollar. . ."

There were many other times when the care and responsibility of the family fell on Isabella's shoulders. Her husband served a second mission to Great Britain from 1886-1887, he shared his time with two other Polygamous wives, but she was a hard worker and accepted her lot without complaint.

Isabella was secretary of the first Relief Society organized in West Weber in 1886. She had a strong testimony of the truthfulness of Mormonism and wrote, "In looking back over my life I can see the purposes in part and the hand of God that has been with me and over me and the family that I have raised."

Isabella (affectionately called Bell by her husband) was the mother of twelve children. The nine who survived to adulthood were: James R., Charles Blair, Isabella, Archibald, John, Albert Rae, Margaret (who married Joseph Nelson); Janet (who accompanied her husband, Thomas R. Faddis to Canada on a mission and died there following childbirth) and Daniel. Most of the children lived for a time in West Weber after their marriages, but only James, Charles and Isabella (Mrs. Joseph Hogge) remained permanently. Bell also raised Janet's two surviving sons.

After her husband's death in 1915, Isabella McFarland lived in West Weber with her daughter, Isabella Hogge, dying there 10 April 1925, at the age of eighty-eight.

Information submitted by Ruth McFarland White and Dee and Virginia McFarLand -- from the "Book of Remembrance" of Irene Weatherston McFarland.

Source:

In The Bend Of The River

History Of West Weber 1859-1976

 

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