Running with the saints: day 8 & 9.

Seizures

Bartlett gives us a short but somewhat harrowing entry for June 8, 1861.

Started at 8.—cool and cloudy. Took dinner on the ; 6 miles—In camp on Badger Creek. Dist. 16 miles. Last part of the road quite bad. many bad sloughs—Bro. P.B. Jolley had a very violent attack this morning resembling a fit. Train halted some 20 m. He is much better at night though weak.

What must it be like to be 100s of miles from civilization and to have a member of your party lapse into a seizure. Even if you were in some urban setting in 1861 would the medical professionals of the time really bring much hope with them? I was once the night manager of a motel. One Sunday afternoon I received a call from the spouse of a guest. He told me that his wife must be having a seizure in her room and asked if I would simply go and sit with her until medical personnel arrived. It was awkward to go to her room, sit by the bed, and hold her hand while she had this episode. I felt impotent, powerless. Yet, her husband thought it a kindness to just have another human being be with her. The whole wagon train stopped for this brother Jolley and waited with hopeful anxiety. He recovered that day but sadly he would only live another year. He was just 27 when he died.

Baptisms and Polygamy

On Sunday the 9th their Sabbath services included a number of baptisms.

Still cool and cloudy. Fine weather for travelling cattle. Came out 7½ A[.]M. so far as the Junction of the roads leading from the Genoa and Columbus Ferry. —Preaching P.M. by Bro. W. L. Jolley. and remarks by Bro Cannon[.] Miss Emma Morris had a very bad fainting fit at the close of the services—Evening 15 were baptized. Names as follows[:] Wm. Desumer. aged 38. Born N.J. [;] John Allred. 39. Tenn. Michael Yeamans [Yeaman]. 53. New Bruns.[;] David Allred 35 Tenn: Wm Yeamans [Yeaman] 28. U[pper]. C[anada]. Emily Desumer 33 N.Y.[;] Susan Dean. 18. Ark.[;] Cynthia Yeamans [Yeaman] 49. N.J.[;] Sop[h]ronia Barlow 19. Ill.[;] Rach[el]. Desumer 15 N.Y.[;] Mary Allred 24 Ohio.[;] Jas. Bosworth. 77. Eng.[;] C[hristopher]. C. Williamson 19. Mich: Levi Desumer 20. N.Y.: Thomas Yeamans [Yeaman] U. C.

You’ll note that Susan Dean was a member of our pioneer family. According to a life history written by her granddaughter, Devone J. Densley, Susan’s mother died when she was about three years old. Her father and brothers, travelling musicians, cared for her until she was about 12 or 13 when her father also died. Her brothers scattered with the passing of their father. Susan was taken in by an aunt an uncle who operated a merchant ship that plied the waters of the Mississippi. When Susan was about 17 or 18 she joined the Latter-day Saints and was subsequently disowned by her aunt and uncle. She found a home with Solomon and Ruth Despain and was soon heading for Zion.¹

Nine months after they arrived in the valley, Susan became the second wife of Solomon Despain. He was 20 years her senior. They would go on to have ten children. Susan and Ruth lived together as sisters, though I expect that relationship was fraught. Polygamy is exceptionally complicated, both for those that lived it, and we that grapple with it from the lofty heights of time and progress. I won’t play apologetics here. Being a believing Latter-day Saint, it is a topic I must wrestle. I will just say that sometimes God sends an angel to stay the hand of Abraham from the murder of his beloved son, and sometimes there is no redeeming angel at the critical hour. Sometimes we are cast into the fiery furnace and walk out unscathed, and at other times the fire consumes us. Polygamy was such a blade and such a fire. It cut and nearly consumed our people. Yet from that scorched earth something remarkable has grown. I am reminded that God’s ways are not my ways. I can only hope that should sword and fire come for me I might endure it well.

My Running

These last two days of running have required me to push through some limbic resistance. It was hard to get started. Though I managed it in the end. These aren’t short distances. They take time. On Saturday I made two 13k loops starting and ending at my house. This allowed me to fuel and hydrate half way through without carrying these things with me. It has been cool and overcast so travelling these kinds of distances unburdened is possible. On Sunday, I was tired and annoyed that these saints can’t just take a break already. Bartlett didn’t record mileage for the day. He just gave a reference that would require me to do much more research to determine the distance travelled, so, this is one of those 12 mile days.

Despite my tiredness I am getting stronger. I can feel it. Still, I need to manage my rest and nutrition a little better.

catch up

• Lakeland Circuit Review: Gorgeous, Gritty, and Worth It
• Running with the saints: days 56 to 73 and the end
• Canadian Death Race: enduring the suck with joy
• Running with the saints: days 52 to 55
• Running with the saints: days 41 to 51

1. Life History of Susan Dean Despain by Devone J. Densley. Family Search. https://www.familysearch.org/memories/memory/165580444?cid=mem_copy. Accessed June 9, 2024. ↩︎