Catherine Curtis Spencer

In the same spirit of Flashback Friday, every Sunday I would like to devote a post to sharing a story of our family heritage calling it Heritage Heroes.

I will start this tradition with the sharing of the story of my great-great-great-great grandmother Catherine Curtis Spencer. She was the mother of Aurelia Spencer Rogers ( who was the great grandmother to my Grandma Allen).

Her story is filled with: sadness, heartache, endurance, dedication, courage, love and devotion. I am posting her story from a file I retrieved while in Nauvoo IL last year. I would post a photo of her, but there isn't one that exists.

Her story:
On March 12, 1846, at Indian Creek near Keosauqua, Iowa Territory, Catherine died, just nine days short of her 35th birthday. She was the youngest daughter of a large and affluent family, and she had become accustomed to her father's fond and tender care. But when she joined the Church, she had to give up the refined life her father had given her and take up the persecuted life her membership offered.

In the trying conditions of the exodus, she often sang to her six children to relieve their hunger and chill. But the changes from a warm, brick home to an icy floor and canvas roof proved too much for her to endure. When her little ones came to the wagon to inquire of her condition, she would respond, "Oh you dear little children, how I do hope you may fall into kind hands when I am gone!"

A night or two before she died, she asked her husband, Orson Spencer to gather her children and friends around her. After she had kissed her loved ones, she said to her husband, "I love you more than ever, but you must let me go. I only want to live for your sake and that of our children." When asked if she had any advice for her father's family, she replied, "Charge them to obey the gospel."

Soon afterwards, she asked to be taken to a house, because the incessant rain had soaked her bedding and had made comfort impossible. Immediately a man named Barnes consented to have her brought to his house, which was not far from the camp. There she died in peace with a smile upon her countenance, and a cordial pressure of her husband's hand.

After her death, Orson Spencer buried her in Nauvoo next to thier youngest child, who had died nearly six months before. Brother Spencer notes in his wifes eulogy "her unceasing and dutiful bearing to her husband, and her matronly diligence in infusing the purest and loftiest virtues into the minds of her children." He explained that he did not write such a tribute in order to mourn for the dead;the dead would be taken from many evils to come. He wanted only to preserve his wife's image in their young children's memories.

John R. Young records a few more details about Orson and Catherine Spencer. Orson had graduated from an eastern college, Brother Young writes, and had become a popular Baptist minister. But when he heard the teachings of Joseph Smith, he and his highly educated wife gave up their home, friends, popularity and occupation and followed the Savior. Almost overnight, they had become strangers to their own kindred.

John R. Young comments add to the pathos of Catherine's death, particularly his account of the exchange between Catherine and her husband after they had received a reply letter from her parents: " The sorrowing husband wrote imploringly to the wife's parents, asking them to receive her into their home until the Saints should find an abiding place. The answer came "Let her renounce her degrading faith and she can come back, but never until she does."

This is someone I can't wait to meet on the other side!