Item Detail
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Henrie, Amanda Bradley
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1829-1903
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MSS SC 872
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Biography
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Amanda Bradley Henrie was born January 15, 1829 in Clarence, Erie, New York to Betsy Elizabeth Kroll Bradley and Thomas Jefferson Bradley. Thomas died in 1833, and Betsy was remarried to Thomas' brother, George Washington Bradley. They became members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1843 and then traveled with their family to Nauvoo, Illinois where they rented and ran a farm owned by the Prophet Joseph Smith. They experienced difficult times in Nauvoo with the death of a child, persecution, and the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Later, they moved to Iowa, making camp at Pottawattamee and then moving on to Winter Quarters. They traveled to Utah in 1848 in a company led by Lorenzo Snow. They were in the group of wagons led by Daniel Russell which was called 'The Big Company.' On the journey, Amanda kept company with a young man named Daniel Henrie. When Daniel enlisted in the Mormon Battalion, Amanda told him that she would wait for him and meet him in Zion. Upon arriving in Utah, Amanda's family first settled in Willow Settlement (now South Bountiful). When Daniel returned from the Mormon Battalion, he and Amanda were married by Brigham Young in Amanda's parents' home on October 29, 1849. They began a farm in Bountiful, but were soon called to go to Manti, where Amanda's parents had already been sent to colonize. 'Daniel felt that since he had been called by authority he could not refuse to go. Amanda was delighted.' In Manti, Daniel ran a butcher shop and built a little stone house for the family. When they outgrew this house, Daniel built another and allowed new immigrants to stay in the stone house. Amanda and Daniel were the parents of 14 children: Mary, Myra Elizabeth, Susan, Daniel Jr., Diantha, James B, Jerome B, Margaret, Melinda, Luna, Thomas, Jediah, and Loren. Their last three children died in infancy. Amanda also adopted an Indian baby that her daughters found abandoned in a canal, and she bought a seven-year-old Indian girl out of captivity. In 1856, shortly after Amanda gave birth to one of their children, Daniel was called on business to Salt Lake City. Upon his return he 'brought a tall pleasant 18 year old girl to the bedside and said, 'Amanda this is Susan Coleman, she is my new plural wife.'' This was a shock to Amanda and she never quite forgave Daniel for breaking the news to her in this manner, but she and Susan became good friends. In her later years, Amanda was bothered by a cough (which was actually caused by asthma) that affected her heart and sometimes kept her bedfast. Amanda died on March 7, 1903 and Daniel died June 28, 1914 in Manti, Utah. Both were buried in the Manti City Cemetery.
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The biography of Daniel and Amanda Bradley is a 19-page typewritten manuscript which was complied by Amanda's great-granddaughter Callie O. Morley. For the first eight pages of the manuscript, Morley gives genealogical information on Daniel's family and traces his immediate family's conversion to the church and their moves to Nauvoo and eventually to Utah. Morley goes into great detail about Daniel's experiences in the Mormon Battalion and panning for gold in California before arriving in Utah. Then, Morley gives some background on Amanda's family and their conversion to the church. A more complete account of Amanda's family is given in her mother's biography, 'Pioneer History of Betsy Elizabeth Kroll Bradley: Pioneer of 1848,' which is a part of this collection. The rest of the biography is about Amanda and Daniel's family, but it tends to focus mostly on Daniel and on situations that arose with the Indians. Once, Daniel and Amanda went from Bountiful to Manti to visit Amanda's parents. Along the way they stopped to visit with Daniel's friend, Chief Walker, and learned that travel was unsafe because an Indian had been killed recently by white men. They were given an Indian guide, but along the way they were trapped in a canyon because of the deep snow. When a wounded Indian stumbled into their camp, they cared for him. This deed later saved their life because a band of Indians found them, but did not harm them when they saw the wounded Indian. Amanda and Daniel were finally taken out of the canyon by a rescue party from Manti. Another time some Indians came into the house and wanted food. Amanda held them off with a hot poker from the fire until she was ready to feed them. Morley describes Amanda as a good cook and notes that she was skilled in the use of herbs.
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1882-1915