Item Detail
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Bradley, Betsy Elizabeth Kroll
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1811-1893
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MSS SC 872
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Biography
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Betsy Elizabeth Kroll Bradley was born July 4, 1811 in Clarence Hollow, Erie, New York to Jacob Kroll and Mary Waltman Kroll. Betsy married Thomas Jefferson Bradley in 1828. They were the parents of four children: Amanda, Jerome Bonapart, Elizabeth, and Cynthia Abiah. Thomas died on April 13, 1833, and their last child, Cynthia, was born five months later. Betsy married Thomas' younger brother, George Washington Bradley on March 2 in either 1834 or 1835. George loved his brother's children and raised them as his own. Betsy and George had ten children together: Betsy Louise, Lydia Mary, George Henry, Melinda Euphemia, Jacob Joseph, Levina, Hyrum Moroni, Amos Alma, Zepheniah, and Sylvia. Betsy and George were taught the gospel by Elder Zebedee Coltren in Clarkson, New York, where George was working as a cooper. Betsy and George were baptized members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Elder John P. Greene on July 2, 1843 and then traveled 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 their son Jacob Joseph, persecution, and the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Later, they moved to Iowa, making camp at Pottawattamee, where their daughter Levina died, before traveling on to Winter Quarters. They traveled to Utah in 1848 in the company led by Lorenzo Snow. They were in the group of wagons led by Daniel Russell which was called 'The Big Company.' In Utah, they first settled in Willow Settlement (now South Bountiful), and also helped to establish communities in San Pete County, Green River, Manti, and Salt Creek (now Nephi). In 1859, they moved to settle Moroni, Utah. Betsy's husband George entered into plural marriage with a second wife, Cynthia Wagel, and had two children: James and Lucy. Because George was very involved in the community, Betsy often had the responsibility of serving food for visitors. In later years, she had trouble with pain in her feet, and this made her household duties difficult. However, Cynthia refused to help even though she was much younger. This caused contention between Cynthia and George, and finally George took the serious step of divorcing Cynthia. They divided custody of their children between them. Lucy remained with Cynthia while James lived with George and Betsy. George died March 8, 1891 and Betsy died March 17, 1893. Both are buried in the Moroni City Cemetery.
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Betsy's biography is an 18-page typewritten manuscript which was complied by her great-great-granddaughter Callie O. Morley. It is entitled 'Pioneer History of Betsy Elizabeth Kroll Bradley: Pioneer of 1848.' The biography begins with genealogical information on Betsy's family lines. It also mentions some information on her husbands' family. There is very little information on Betsy's childhood and on her first marriage, but beginning with her marriage to George and their conversion, there is more detail given on her life. Morley relates several stories which occurred on the trek to Utah. One day Betsy found that her oldest child, 17-year-old Amanda, was covered in black canker sores. The sores got worse until they were the size of fifty cent pieces. Then, an old woman came to their wagon and gave Betsy some canker medicine that looked like catsup. The woman told her that this would cure Amanda's illness, and she taught Betsy how to make the medicine. Amanda recovered, and Betsy never forgot the old woman who had helped them; Betsy always made the canker medicine for others. At the point in the biography where the family reaches Moroni, there are many stories and insights about Betsy and her personality. She was known as being a good mixer, laughing often, and being very friendly with townspeople and neighbors. She always made a point of telling people that her family was of High Dutch descent. At times Betsy was said to have a sharp tongue, and she was accustomed to giving orders and being obeyed. She always kept a hired girl to help her in the house. One of these girls was used to rinsing the butter before salting it and putting it in a mold, but Betsy never rinsed her butter. One of Betsy's sons told the girl to rinse the butter and see if Betsy could tell the difference. When the girl came out with the butter, Betsy tried it and told her it was a good thing she had not rinsed it because it wouldn't have turned out as well if she had. Betsy also hired an Indian girl to help with the wash. Once, when the girl was at the river with their wash, an Indian boy came up and asked her to steal vegetables from the Bradleys' garden. The girl refused, and the boy threw the wash in the river. Betsy saw this, and came after him with her pistol. George was coming up the road with Brigham Young and some other men and asked the boy what was wrong. All he could say was, 'mean white squaw kill with pooch gun.' Other subjects mentioned in the biography are the Black Hawk War, pioneer medicine, epidemics and preparing the dead for burial, and Indian missions. Other settlements mentioned include Wales, Fountain Green, Fairview, and Chester.
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