Item Detail
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Bell, Lucy Payne
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1860-1943
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MSS SC 175
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Biography
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Lucy Payne Bell was born March 16, 1860 in Wingate, Durham, England to Edward and Emma Powell Payne. At the age of four, Lucy immigrated with her family to America to be closer to the other members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. When grasshoppers destroyed her family's small crop in Heber City, Utah, Lucy and her family moved to Coalville, where her father mined. In 1874, Lucy and her family moved to Glenwood to begin a second farm. Lucy worked as a schoolteacher and also served as the first secretary in the Young Ladies Retrenchment Society until her marriage to Herbert H. Bell in the Saint George Temple on December 5, 1878. With the money Lucy earned as a schoolteacher, she furnished their first home in Glenwood with a bedstead, kitchen table, and six chairs. In April 1884, Lucy's husband left to serve a mission in the northern states. To finance his mission, Lucy and her husband sold their land and Lucy began teaching school and classes in needlework. During her husband's absence, Lucy gave birth to their first child, who died in infancy. When her husband returned, Lucy remained supportive of him when he was called on a second mission and she remained in Glenwood to run the farm and care for their children. Lucy served in nearly every organization of the church while her husband served as bishop for thirty years. Of the fourteen children to whom Lucy gave birth, six died in infancy. In her older years, Lucy stayed busy doing genealogy and spending time with her eight children. After the death of Lucy's husband January 4, 1938, Lucy's daughter and young family moved to Lucy's home to take care of her. She died October 27, 1943.
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Lucy's brief biography is included in a collection of biographical materials related to the Payne family. Her biography is only one typewritten page which chronicles important events in Lucy's life without supplying many details. It does, however, give information about Lucy's parents, who became very involved with missionary work after their baptism into the church. In 1863, Lucy's father emigrated to Pennsylvania, where he worked as a miner to earn money to pay for the rest of the family's passage to America. A few months later, Lucy's mother and three siblings sailed to America to meet her father. With the hopes of earning enough money and provisions to farm in Utah, Lucy's father sent the family ahead with a different company, while he remained in Pennsylvania. It was a happy reunion when Lucy's father joined them one year later, in 1865. The biography also includes a few of Lucy's memories. As a child, Lucy fearfully watched a band of Indians do a war dance around a pole with a scalp placed on top. When her family moved to Glenwood, they began living the United Order, a program instigated by the church that required its members to share their possessions, land, and skills. Lucy contributed her skills by gleaning wheat, spinning yarn, and sewing clothing.
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