Sketch of the life of Agnes McIntire Austin
Written by herself
I was born in Hammond. St. Lawrence County, New York, 11 October, 1830.
My parents, Simeon McIntire and Isabel Nicol McIntire joined the church
when I was about seven years old. I was eight years old when my parents
left New York and started west. They worked their way into the eastern
part of Illinois. While we were living there, two Mormon elders came to
our house and they made it their home for quite a while, while they traveled
around and preached the Gospel in that neighborhood. Then we moved into
Nauvoo, I think in the year of '41. I have seen the Prophet Joseph Smith
and his brother Hyrum and heard them preach quite a few times. I was present
at the conference held at Nauvoo, 6th October, 1843, and heard the Prophet
Joseph say concerning Sidney Rigdon, "I have thrown him off my shoulders
and you have again put him on me. You may carry him, but I will not."
I was baptized in the Mississippi River, I think it was in May, 1844,
by Agustus Stafford. May 5, 1844, my parents moved away from Nauvoo for
the summer thinking they could get more work, but they moved back again
in September, 1844, and remained until the Saints left for the emigration
westward. We crossed the river in April and worked our way westward. We
came to Bentonsport in the spring of forty-six and in the fall or 1847
we came to Winter Quarters, Nebraska. We suffered hardships with the rest
of the Saints. In 1852, we started for Utah. We crossed the plains that
summer in the Robert Wimmer Company. He was captain over fifty wagons.
I walked most of the way. My mother was taken sick at Green River, with
mountain fever. She died and we buried her a little east of the Cache Cave
in Echo Canyon. We arrived in Salt Lake on 8 October, 1852.
Agnes McIntire Austin was the second wife of William Austin and the
mother of his children. She married him 15 July, 1853 in the Old Endowment
House, Salt Lake City. The family moved to Trenton, Utah, in the year 1871.
June 2, 1877, she was set apart as President of the Relief Society (Trenton)
with Annie Bingham and Rosa Koford as counselors and Kate Griffeth as secretary
and Annie Jordine, Treasurer. She passed away 8 July, 1900, at Trenton,
Utah.
A copy of the letter written to Agnes McIntire by her uncle, David
Nicol, sent from Hammond, New York in 1852. Copied 1936 by her granddaughter,
Verna Ransom Sederholm.
Agnes McIntire,
Dear Niece, your letter was received and read with pleasure, but too
late to return an answer to Council Bluffs. In addressing you, I find it
somewhat difficult to direct my mind from the prattling girl that you were
when you left this place to her in the bloom on womanhood which now must
be the case, but time has wrought changes in me as well as you. A fair
demonstration that time waits for no one. May this teach us to improve
on the time given us. We have a great deal to accomplish for here God has
put into our hands a great many means of comfort. His own word stands at
the head, besides this many good books. I hope you will read much, acquire
the habit and it will be a great comfort to you even in solitude. In writing,
too, you will receive pleasure.
Please write to me
Your affectionate Uncle
David Nicol