I, Mary Eliza Etherington was born July 19, 1862 at West Weber, Weber County, Utah, the daughter of Thomas Etherington and Sarah Wheeler Etherington. The first of the family to become a member of the Church, was John Etherington, my grandfather 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 then a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and held the Aaronic Priesthood. They remained faithful and true to their death.

My mother's father John Wheeler embraced the same Gospel about 1830 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 end covered my father's farm and it was necessary for them to move over the river into West Weber. They moved into what was then called a herd house, a place where the cattle were rounded up and fed. This house was located south of Thomas Charlton on the bank of the slough. I was born the following July at this place.

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. This being where John Blanch lives at the present time.

I was baptized July 7, 1870 by my father Thomas Etherington and confirmed by Milliam Barton. My father was a farmer and stock raiser and an active man in both church and commercial circles. My mother was a quiet even tempered woman. I had to do considerable work outside the home as the only fuel we had was wood which we had to go out and gather. We had to milk cows as father always had a herd of cows and the only water available was a spring down by the slough.

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 the Sabbath School and meetings. The first school I remember was located up by Lance Greenwell. Boards were used to sit on and we had no back to them as they have now. We had slates to write on as pencils and paper were luxuries. School teachers were paid in produce, or whatever people happened to have.

We had no coal oil lights at that time and we would either burn twisted rag dipped in grease or later candles made from mutton or beef tallow.

The first coat that I remember having was when my sister Adelia and I pulled wool from a sheep skin and so1d it and bought us a coat. The first sewing machine that I remember mother having is one that fastened onto a table and had to be turned by hand.

I was married to James R. McFarland April 13, 1882 in the Endowment House at Salt Lake City by President Daniel H. Wells. I have labored as a teacher in the Relief Society and was set apart as second counselor to Margaret Ann Hogge in the West Weber Relief Society June 24, 1909 acting until June 1911. I was then chosen as first counselor to Harriet Hadley and worked in that position until April 1927, making 17 years in Relief Society.

I have a family of nine children, eight living and the second one died at the age of 1l years.

I have a testimony of the Gospel and a desire to live it as long as I am permitted to remain upon this earth.

Mary Eliza Etherington McFarland died on April 4, 1948.

Source:

In The Bend Of The River

History Of West Weber 1859-1976