Historical Sketch of James HENDRICKS and Drusilla DORRIS
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Penniless in Nauvoo

"Leaving Missouri," by C.C.A. Christensen. © Copyright by the Museum of Art at Brigham Young University. Used by permission for educational, personal use.

We started March 17th 1839 for Ouincy, Illinois. On the first of April as soon as the brethren found we were there, secured a bottle of oil, consecrated it, and came with Father Joseph Smith at their head, (seven in number) while we were camped out and got him on a chair and anointed and administered to him again, then assisted him to his feet and he walked, between two of them, some thirty yards and back.

We soon got into a room, partly underground and partly on top of the ground. The room was very close and he took sick and I had to lift him at least fifty times a day and in doing so I had to strain every nerve.

We had the cattle which had hauled us here but could not sell them, but could hire them out for a small sum to break prairie, so we hired them. We had one small heifer that the mob did not take that gave us a little milk for twice a day, but in less than two weeks there came a drove of cattle from Missouri and they drove her off with them, so we were like Job of old and my husband was as sore for his blood cankered and he broke in sores all over his body so that you could not put a pin point on him without putting it on a sore, from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet.

In two weeks we neither had bread or meat so we sent our oldest son, William, three miles out on the prairie to the man who had hired our cattle. We had one spoonful of sugar and one saucer full of corn meal so I made mush of the meal and put the sugar on it and gave it to my children. That was the last of eatables of any kind we had in the house or on the earth. We were in a strange land and among strangers. The conflict began in my mind. "Your folks told you your husband would be killed and are you not sorry you did not listen to them." I said, No I am not. I did what was right if I die I am glad I was baptized, for the remission of my sins for I have an answer of a good conscience. But after that a third person spoke, it was a still small voice this time saying hold on for the Lord will provide. I said I would for I would trust him and not grumble.

I went to work and washed everything and cleaned the house thoroughly as I said to myself, If I die I will die clean. Along in the afternoon Brother Rubin Alred came. He lived fifteen miles away. He went to the bed where my husband lay and asked him if we had any prospects for bread at all and received the answer that we had none. He asked me for a sack and then went to his wagon and brought in a sack of meal and he also made me a present of a washboard saying you had to leave everything and I felt you were out of bread so I came by the mill to get my grinding done before I came here and it made me late. I thanked him and he started home. In a few moments my son, William, came in with only fifty cents. We thought he would get three dollars as that is what was due us for the hire of our cattle. The man had lost the cattle and wanted the boy to go and find them. I made the best of what we had for I took the money and went down to the river and purchased flour 6 lbs., pork 2 1/2 lbs. and 1/2 bushel of potatoes, so I had quite a supply and we were thankful but could take the honor to ourselves, so we lived sparingly for at least two weeks but when that was gone we were in the same condition again for we had nothing. I felt awful but the same voice that gave me comfort before was there to comfort me again and it said, hold on, the Lord will provide for his Saints. I said if He provided for us this time I should think He owned us for his children. I washed and cleaned as before and was just finishing the doorstep when Brother Alexander Williams came up to my back door with two bushels of meal on his shoulder. I looked up and said Brother Williams, I have just found out how the widows crust and barrell held out through the famine. He asked how. I said just as it was out someone was sent to fill it. He said he was so busy with his crop that he could hardly leave it, but the Spirit strove with him saying Brother Hendricks' family is suffering, so I dropped everything and came by and had it ground lest you would not get it soon enough. I soon baked a cake of the meal and he blessed it and we all partook of it and water. Hunger makes sweet, cakes without sugar.

He told us that he had baptized the man and his wife that he was living with. He was tending the farm and that he should come again. But when he wanted more corn, the man he was working for, whose name was _____ Edwards, said to him, "You shall not work for me for corn and take it to the Saints who have been driven and robbed. Tell me where you go and I will go myself." So he came just as we were out. I remarked that the Scriptures said, "In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established and the D. & C. says it is the Lord's duty to look after and provide for his Saints, which has been proven true to me to a demonstration.

My husband could turn on his elbows, turn his feet out of bed and begin to take things in one hand. I began to take in work, some sewing and washing, but mostly washing, for I could make the most at that. And I found that there was more blessing to give than to receive so I made our own living from that time on.

Sister Emma Smith accompanies her husband, Joseph, as he reviews the Nauvoo Legion.

"Joseph Mustering the Nauvoo Legion" by C.C.A. Christensen. © Copyright by the Museum of Art at Brigham Young University. Used by permission.

I paid $56.00 for house rent and got me two bedsteads, four chairs, five falling leaf tables. Kept one of the tables myself and let Bro. Lewis¹ have one for moving us to Nauvoo, sold two to Sister Emma Smith for provisions. We moved to Nauvoo in March. I had clothing for the summer. The Brethren gave us a lot and throwed together a log house² and I hired a man to cover it and build a chimney. I and Sister Melinda Lewis³ chinked and plastered it. I still hired the same man to plow and put in my lot and we raised a good garden. We got along until the next Spring when my husband borrowed money and sent it to the mill and bought flour and sold it, so we lived on the profits. I began to make beer and ginger bread and go out on public days, this showing that necessity is the mother of invention.

I began to take boarders and we still had one yoke of cattle so my son, William, took them and hauled rock for the Temple to pay our tithing. He also paid some for others in the same way and they paid us in something we needed. I boarded the carpenters and masons and paid them to put us up a brick house; we bought the brick and paid the money for them. We still continued to keep boarders and had flour to sell, finished our house in 1842, but we had duller times then for persecution began to rage and we had hard times again.

I began another trade by making gloves and mittens. I paid a good deal of tithing by making gloves and mittens. I had about thirty pair on hand. I still went washing for bread or molasses for my children. Flour was hard to get. I secured vegetables. I had cabbage and potatoes and turnips. The winter set in early in November and very hard. I had to buy my wood. I had only corn meal for bread and but very little of that and nothing to season our vegetables with and we could not eat them without salt.

I was making a pair of gloves to pay for a load of wood, it was near 10 o'clock at night. My husband asked me to lay aside my work and have prayer. I wanted to finish my gloves for I was almost done. My youngest child asked for a piece of bread and I told him I would give him one when I was through. I was soon ready for prayer and we knelt down and my husband prayed same as usual and when he said Amen, I was so full I could not get off my knees. I began to pray and I told the Lord our situation and what had brought us to it, that I was willing to do all I could to make my family comfortable and could not do so and now if He had anything in store for us to open our way, for we had done all we could. When I was through I felt like I had poured out my whole soul to him and I knew that we should have something, I had no doubts.

My Joseph said, Mother, you said when you prayed you would give me some bread. I answered him that, He that knoweth how to give good gifts to their children, the same will give good gifts to them.

The second day after, in the afternoon there came a knock at the door and my husband said, Come in. A man came in and putting his hat under his arm said, Mr. Hendricks, you don't know me, my name is Shaw. I know you and your father and brothers and they were all honest men. I have a load of pork at the gate and I have come to sell it to you. My husband said, I have no way of making any money so I cannot take it. He said, I come to let you have it on credit for a time. My husband said he could not go in debt and would not take it. I stood in the door until he drove off. I then went upstairs and humbled myself before the Lord and asked him if he had answered my prayers and sent that man to us in the first place to hedge up his way that he could not sell a pound of his pork and send him back to us, then I would know he sent him in answer to my prayer. Then I felt better again and so went to my work. The next afternoon he came again and said when he came in, "You must take my pork for I have been all over this town and can't sell a pound of it and it is getting so sloppy I can scarce get around. I came from McComb County on purpose to sell to you. I stepped to the bedroom and called my husband to me. I told him to take the pork for the Lord had opened the way for us and if he closed it up the sin would be on him and not on my head. He went and told the man he would take it. It was the best corn fed pork, there was 1100 lbs. of it at $2.00 per hundred, so he gave his note for $22.00 payable in twelve months. I went to work, and cut up the pork, saved the sausage meat and rendered up the lard. I took in boarders they got me flour and groceries and we had vegetables so we lived well and got the money to pay for the pork. Who could not see the hand of the Lord in this miracle worked on natural principles.

NOTES

1. Probably Tarlton Lewis, brother of Benjamin Lewis, the Hendrick's first branch president in Kentucky. Benjamin baptized his brother Tarlton on 25 July 1836. (Our Pioneer Heritage, Vol. 2, p.535.)

2. "Sunday 19.--The High Council at Nauvoo voted to donate a city lot to Brother James Hendrix, who was shot in Missouri; also voted to build him a house." (History of the Church, Vol.4, Ch.4, p.76.)

3. Malinda Lewis was the wife of Tarlton Lewis. (Our Pioneer Heritage, Vol. 2, p.535.)

Historical Sketch of James HENDRICKS and Drusilla DORRIS
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Sunday, 08-Aug-2004 19:32:50 MDT