Item Detail
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Freeze, Mary Ann Burnham
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1846-1912
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MSS 993
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Diaries
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Mary Ann Burnham Freeze was born October 12, 1845 in Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois to James Lewis and Mary Ann (Huntley) Burnham. As a young girl Mary Ann traveled west with the Saints to Utah, where she later married James Perry Freeze on March 8, 1863 in Richmond, Cache County. After seven years of marriage her husband entered into the covenant of plural marriage and wed three other women. Their household was a busy one with the three women and their children. Mary Ann lived in Salt Lake City, where she interacted with many prominent Latter-day Saints such as Brigham Young, Susa Young Gates, Emmeline B. Wells, Eliza Roxy Snow, Zina Young, and Franklin D. Richards. Mary Ann assisted in further establishing the Young Ladies Mutual Improvement Association (Y.L.M.I.A.) while serving in her stake as President of the Y.L.M.I.A. from 1883 to 1896. Following her resignation from the calling she served as a Member of the General Board of the Mutual Improvement Association. Mary Ann was very involved in church meetings and was an active participant in visiting the sick where she assisted in anointing and blessing the women. Mary Ann was also a witness several times to the gift of tongues as individuals, including herself, would speak in and interpret tongues. She was very interested in the Women's Suffrage Movement and attended suffrage meetings when she could. In May 1893, one month after the Salt Lake Temple was dedicated, she was called by Lorenzo Snow to be one of the first temple workers there. Throughout her life Mary Ann devoted herself to the Church, continually striving to become a better Latter-day Saint. Mary Ann died at the age of 66 on January 21, 1912 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
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This collection of diaries and papers that cover the dates from 1875-1899 are held in two boxes. The original journals and papers are in the first box and photocopies of the material are in the second box. Mary Ann 's diaries discuss the routine events of each day. She talks about going to Church meetings including fast meetings, Sunday school meetings, retrenchment meetings, officer meetings, and Relief Society meetings. She also often discusses visiting the sick and other neighbors, and attending parties, dinners, and funerals. Other topics in her diaries include polygamy and her feelings about it, her testimony, dedications of the Salt Lake Temple and the Manti Temple, temple work, the Y.L.M.I.A., and blessings given to her and by her. Throughout her diaries Mary Ann also mentions men put in the Utah Penitentiary for polygamy, celestial marriage, the death of Brigham Young and Wilford Woodruff, the Brigham Young College, and retrenchment. In the last folder there is a letter written by Mary Ann in 1877 in which she addresses her family members and talks about the latest news in the area. The only other item in this collection that is not a diary is a notebook in which Mary Ann wrote quotes, appointments, lists of things to do, and notes from meetings. This collection gives a good idea of what life was like as a polygamous wife in the late 1800s in Salt Lake City, Utah.
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1980-