Item Detail
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Johnson, Mandana Merrill
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1838-1921
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MSS 8
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Biography
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Mandana Merrill Johnson was born October 4, 1838 at Shelby, Macomb County, Michigan to Justin Jared Merrill. When she was two years old, her mother died. She traveled to Utah in 1848 and lived there with her grandmother Merrill in Salt Lake, while working for her bishop's wife. Mandana joined the choir and theatrical troop in Cedar City, and she married Nephi Johnson in 1856. Their daughter Lovina was born in Cedar City at the end of that year, and they had a son in Fort Johnson in 1858. Though they later moved to Dixie, in 1860, Nephi was called to aid migrants across the plains, and upon returning home, he was the captain of ten wagons in the William Budge Company. In 1861, Nephi took the family for a trip to Fort Johnson, traveling by ox team. Their fourth son was born in 1870, and the next year, the family moved to Johnson, Utah. They lived in a tent all summer and kept their food in a cellar. In October, after receiving word that Indians were coming, they moved to Kanab. They later moved to a Hillsdale, and life was pleasant there until the next February when Mandana's sister, Edith, grew ill and died, leaving behind seven children. In 1876, Mandana had another daughter. Mandana was later called as a teacher in Relief Society and a counselor in Primary. In 1892, she took her two youngest children and her husband's grandson to Brigham Young University. In 1893, she attended the dedication of the Salt Lake Temple. In 1889, Nephi took two of his wives and children to Old Mexico, while Mandana stayed in Kanab, Utah. In 1903, she went to Logan and did temple work. She later sold her home in Kanab and went to live with her daughter, Adith, until Mandana died in 1921 at the age of 83 in an automobile accident.
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This three-page typescript biography from the Margaret Steed Hess collection was written by Mandana's oldest daughter, Lovina Henderson, in 1931. Lovina describes Mandana as having been a frail child, often cared for by her grandmother. She had thick, auburn hair and a fair complexion. She was five feet and two inches tall and weighed 140 pounds. When Nephi was called to aid other pioneers across the plains, Mandana raised a garden, spun, colored, and wove cloth. There is a long description provided of this dyeing process, including the necessary gathering of roots to create the dyes. Polygamy
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1853-1879