Item Detail
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Hendricks, Mary Jane Andrus
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1833-1914
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MSS SC 188
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Biography
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Mary Jane Andrus Hendricks was born November 15, 1833 in Florence, Huron County, Ohio to Milo and Abigail Andrus. Her parents were members of the LDS church, and they brought Mary Jane to Kirtland for the Kirtland Temple dedication when she was two years old. Milo was called on a mission from there, so Abigail and Mary Jane stayed in Kirtland. Mary Jane was laid on a bed in the temple while Abigail preformed her temple duties. They returned to Florence, where Milo was called as the president of the Florence Branch. He was given instructions to move the saints to Missouri in the fall of 1836. They wintered in Terre Haute, Indiana and then arrived in Caldwell County, but were mobbed out and went to Illinois. They returned to Missouri and were there to witness the 'Missouri War.' Milo was called on another mission, this time to southern Ohio, but returned when Hyrum and the Prophet Joseph Smith were martyred and moved his family to Nauvoo. Mary Jane received her endowment on February 2, 1846 in the Nauvoo Temple. The family started on the trek to Utah, but when they reached Winter Quarters Milo was called on a mission to England, and Abigail was left to travel alone with five children. Mary Jane was fifteen years old, and the oldest child, so she took her turn at driving. Abigail was sick the whole way, so much of the burden of caring for the family fell to Mary Jane. They arrived in Salt Lake City in the fall of 1848, and Mary Jane worked all that winter in Emigration Canyon. She also did wash for the emigrants and for a store owner. Mary Jane was married to William D. Hendricks March 12, 1851 at the 'Bath House' in Salt Lake City by Brigham Young. In August, William took a second wife, Alvira Smith. Together, Mary Jane and Alvira worked at the Bath House at Warm Springs and were responsible for cooking for the amusements that were put on there. In the spring of 1860 the family moved to Richmond, Utah, where Mary Jane served as a Relief Society teacher. Later, they moved to Oxford, Idaho, where she worked in the Oneida Stake Relief Society. William and Mary Jane were the parents of eleven children. Mary Jane died March 18, 1914.
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Mary Jane's biography is included in a collection of Andrus family biographies. Her biography is three pages long and is typewritten on fragile paper. Some corrections have been made on the manuscript with red pen and white out. The biography was written by Mary Jane's daughter Chloe Merrill. Chloe explains that she intended to inspire the future generations of children who would read the biography with the interesting events in Mary Jane's life and her connection to early church history. Chloe spends the first part of the biography outlining the moves that Mary Jane's family made until they reached Utah. Then, she gives more insights into Mary Jane's character. She tells of the 'great joy and comfort' that Mary Jane took 'in visiting the sisters in the wards' during her time in the stake Relief Society. Once, on a visit to a ward in Pocatello, the Relief Society there surprised them by setting up tables in the meeting house for all of the ward members to come and eat with them. Of this experience Mary Jane said, 'When they called me to speak, I couldn't for crying, to think they would think so much of us to do all that work.' At the end of the biography, Chloe includes some tributes given to Mary Jane by her husband's other wives at William and Mary Jane's 50th wedding anniversary. Their comments show their great love and respect for Mary Jane. Chloe also paraphrases Mary Jane's testimony which she told Chloe many years ago that she wished to share with her posterity. At the end of the manuscript, there is a note that 'this history was copied from a book borrowed from Alta Crocket, Pocatello, Idaho.' Plural Wives.
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