History of Martha Mary Barrett Tolman
(Wife of Aaron Alexander Tolman)
1864 – 1955
Daughter of Henry and Nancy Mary Winter Barrett, Jr.
I was born in Deptford, Kent, England on February 1,1864. My father was Henry Barrett, Jr. and my mother was Nancy Mary Winter. My father was a ships carpenter and sailed with Capt. James Cook on one of his early voyages around the world. My family joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and we left Liverpool, England in 1867. While crossing the ocean on the ship, mother was quite sick. Elder Horton Haight was the captain of the pioneer company we traveled with on our way to Utah. We arrived in Farmington, Utah, six months after leaving England.
My father walked most of the way and usually carried one of us children. While traveling across the plains, our little baby fell sick and died. We were obliged to bury him on the plains. Father also got dreadful sick on the journey but was saved by faith and prayers.
After we arrived in Farmington, father and a friend made adobe bricks and built us a house and we moved in before it was plastered. It only had enough flooring in it to put our beds on. We had no furniture, only boxes and an old stove. Father, being a carpenter, soon built us a table, chairs and bedsteads.
When I was three, I was almost burned to death and that was a severe trial for my parents. There were no real doctors and it seemed that all they did for me never helped. The cause of the burn was that while we were moving we had a small, cast iron stove. Someone decided that would be a good place to store shot and powder for the guns. When the stove was set up, a fire was built and the powder exploded causing the stove to fly apart and 1 was severely burned. I kept getting worse until the “doctor” told mother she would need to have my arm amputated. Mother would not do it. She paid one dollar a pound for lard and one dollar a bar for castille soap to use on my arm. Mother got desperate so father met an elder in the church who worked with him. He asked him to come home for supper and he and father administered to me. After supper they prayed for me again and when Elder Isaacson went home he couldn’t get me off his mind. He was walking in the yard when he heard a voice say to him, “Go and tell her to brown flour and put it on the burned arm and it will get better.” it was repeated three times and then he went around the corner of the house and couldn’t see anyone so he thought it must be from the lord. He went back to our house and told mother. She did as he said and I got better. That strengthened our faith.
When I got older, I helped mother cut and dry peaches. Mother taught me that every tenth pound was for tithing. When I was about ten years old, diphtheria broke out and it was something dreadful. There were so many dead that father was kept busy making coffins. He made four one day and I helped him trim them.
I was in attendance at the first primary meeting ever held in the church. It was held in Farmington and Sister Aurelia Rogers was the Primary president. I remember how the primary children and mutual youth would go out gleaning wheat. One day we gleaned 20 bushels.
The first dance I was invited to was by a boy friend in Bountiful. I was visiting with my sister and he asked her if she cared if I went with him to the dance. It was a house party and we had a nice time. After that I went to a good many parties with him. He was like a brother to me. afterwards, I went with other boys down there as I spent some of my time there. I went with one boyfriend in Farmington for four years. Our amusement was coasting down the hills in the winter, dancing and sleigh riding. One night 1 went sleigh riding with my boyfriend and another couple. The horses got scared and ran away. We kept the team in the road for several miles, then the runner struck a rock and turned over and we landed on the ground under the sleigh. We got out all right with only a few scratches and, as good luck would have it, nothing was broken. We finished our ride and got home safely.
When we first moved to Farmington, we lived on what was known as “the bench”. The Wasatch mountains have flat areas where the old Lake Bonneville once was and these are called benches. The local Indians knew that mother made good baking powder biscuits so every so often they would come up on the bench on their horses, whooping and hollering while they rode around and around the house. Mother would make all of the children hide under the bed and she would whip up a batch of baking powder biscuits with lots of homemade butter on them and give them to the Indians. Brigham Young told all the settlers that it was better to feed and befriend the Indians rather than fight with them.
In the summer, we went to wool picking bees, peach cutting bees and candy pulling bees. We made candy out of molasses made from cane. They had a large frame building with wooden vats in it and pipes running from the mills to the vats. The mills were two rollers that squeezed the juice out of the stalks of cane and it would run through the pipes into the vats and then they would boh, and skim it until it was clear. Then it was strained into barrels. It was sure nice.
We also had dramatic plays. There were also pleasure resorts down by the lake (Salt Lake). One was called Pappa Park. It was in Farmington. My girl friend and I would go down there horse back riding and we used to go bathing in the lake and boat riding. One night there was a crowd of us who went out in a sailboat. There was a sailor with us and when we got out in the middle of the lake, the sailors said that we had better get back to the shore as there was a storm coming up. We couldn’t see any clouds, but, by the time we got back to the shore it was raining and blowing. We were glad to be safe on land once again. So much for Utah.
My sister, Minnie Marentha, married Albert Hale and moved to Goose Creek Valley, Idaho (now known as Oakley). I went to stay with her and met Aaron Alexander Tolman. We were married in the Logan Temple on November 27, 1889. Aaron had built a nice little home of hewed logs with a shingled roof. He had it already to move into. We moved to our new home in a covered wagon and a four horse team. Before we got to Ogden, the mud was so bad that we had to hire a span of mules to help pull the load thru the mud. It took us five days to come from Farmington to Oakley. We were certainly glad to get into our new home. It had two rooms. We lived in it for three months without windows as the team that was pulling the wagon that was bringing them ran away and broke them. Otherwise, we were very comfortable.
We lived in Marion, a small community a few miles from Oakley, for 17 years. (Marion was named by Bishop Adam Gibson Smith, the father of Esther Jones Smith who would later marry Cyrus Henry Tolman). All three of our children were born in Marion. Elva was born on sept. 30, 1890; Alice was born on march 11, 1896; and Henry was born on February 8, 1906. When my second daughter, Alice, was a year old, my husband, Alex, was almost killed by a bear, he and his brother had a sheep operation.
While herding sheep in the hills of southern Idaho, on Harrington Fork, his dogs ran into a clump of young pine trees. There was mother bear with two cubs biding in the trees and she chased the dogs out of the trees. Naturally, the dogs ran to Alex and the bear attacked him and almost killed him. (See Grandpa Tolman’s bear story). He finally just lay still on the ground and the bear left. He was so weak that he could only crawl on his hands and knees up the canyon trail to the top of the ridge. It just happened that another sheepman and his camp mover were passing by. Alex called to them but was so weak that he fainted. They took him by wagon to the camp. It was raining and the tent had a leak in it so that the bedding was all wet. They took the bed out of the tent and built a fire around it. Then, one of the men stayed with him while the other went 20 miles or more on horseback to town to get the doctor and me. I got the children up and took them to my sister. The next afternoon we got him home. He was all covered with blood. The doctor didn’t want to disturb the wounds until he got home for fear that he would bleed to death. It was a hard time for all of us. Alex developed pneumonia from loss of blood and exposure. He was very bad and the doctor said that he had gangrene in his leg and would not live. He lay for four weeks in terrible agony. The flesh would not heal. However, when the elders administered to him, they promised that he would live to a ripe old age. The doctor just shook his head.
That night, I prayed constantly that help and inspiration would be given to the doctor that Alex would be permitted to live, to be a companion to me and a servant unto the lord. The next morning I walked out to the porch and there stood a handsome man. He was about 5′ 8″ tall and there were streaks of gray in his hair. He was clean shaven and very neat. He said, “good morning. How are you this morning?” I replied, “I am well but my husband is very ill. He was attacked by a bear and his leg is badly mangled.”
He led me over to a juniper bush and an aspen tree and he said, “We well gather some wood and bark from each tree and burn them; then take the ashes, make a poultice from the ashes and apply it to the leg which is so badly infected.” I did as he said then I turned to talk to him, but there was no one there. I stood on the porch in amazement for I could see for a quarter of a mile in each direction and no one was there. Alex immediately began to get better and the doctor could not understand how such a change could take place overnight. Alex continued to improve and soon the gangrene was gone and the flesh was new and healthy. My husband did live to a ripe old age. He died October 31,1942, at the age of 75.
To this very day I believe and testify that it was one of the Three Nephites or John, the Beloved, who came to our ah). We learned from that experience how many friends we had at that time and how prayers can heal the sick. Again, our testimonies were made stronger as a result of our experiences.
We moved to Murtaugh, Idaho, in 1907 and lived in our granary and buggy shed all summer while we built our house. It is hard to leave old friends and come among strangers but we adjusted ourselves to it and made a great many new friends. There was no LDS church when we first got to Murtaugh but all denominations joined together in Sunday School and bible class. We had some good times together. Soon we organized a Sunday School of our own. We had the first 4th of July celebration at our house. We served homemade ice-cream and strawberries; had a good program; played games and danced at night.
In a few years we moved to Twin Falls so our girls could have a better chance at schooling. We hived there until the girls got married then Alex, Henry and I moved south of Twin Falls to a newly opened farming area known as the salmon tract. We were real pioneers there and had a tough time. Just when things were getting better, we had a fire that burned everything we had in our home. My little boy, Henry, and I fought the fire in our night clothes and those were the only clothes we saved. Everything was burned before help came. My husband, Alex, was away at work. We soon found that we had friends who came to our aid and helped us get another house and clothing. It was only a few years later that the water company cut the water acreage and left us without water to irrigate our land. All our work was em vain and the only thing left for us to do was to find a new home. We decided to go back to Murtaugh where we found our old friends and made new ones who were all ready to help us. The old song is true, “It is new friends and old friends. We love all the new that is good and true, but old friends we cannot forget.” we managed to get along well in Murtaugh. I ran the hotel that was located near the railroad station while Alex & Henry ran the school buses. On October 31,1942, Alex was called to his home on high.
(Mary Martha Barrett Tolman lived by herself for several years. Her grandson, Dick, stayed with her at night. Later, when she was no longer able to care for herself, she stayed with her daughters, Elva and Alice, in their homes until her death on may 31, 1955, in Ogden, Utah, at the age of 91. She and Alex were very well respected in the community. In fact, Alex was a friend of the local Methodist minister who didn’t like Mormons very well. The minister said of Alex, “no greater man ever walked the face of the earth than Alex Tolman except that he was a damn Mormon!” Grandma Tolman is remembered for her hooked rugs, a penchant for wallpaper, her homemade biscuits and dumplings and the fancy hats she trimmed with pheasant feathers.)
(Additions/clarifications by A. R. (Dick) Tolman, Grandson, September 26, 1997)
Martha Mary Barrett Tolman and the First LDS Primary Meeting
My grandmother, Martha Mary Barrett Tolman, was one of those attending the very first LDS primary meeting held in Farmington, Utah, Sunday, August 25, 1878.
Aurelia Spencer Rogers was concerned about the rough and careless behavior of the neighborhood boys in Farmington, Utah. She expressed her concern that, “What will our girls do for good husbands, if this state of things continues. Could there not be an organization for boys to train them to become better men?” she was told, “yes.” with the approval of President John Taylor, the encouragement of the general Relief Society President, Eliza R. Snow, and after receiving a calling from her bishop, Sister Rogers began planning for the first meeting of the primary association, and it was an overwhelming success. On Sunday, August 25, 1878, Sister Rogers stood at the entrance to the meeting house and welcomed 224 boys and girls to primary. Girls were invited because Sister Rogers thought they could help with the singing that she believed to be a necessary part of the instruction. During that first meeting, Sister Rogers instructed the children to be obedient and to be kind to one another.
From the very beginning, primary included songs, poetry and activities. The boys wore uniforms to the meetings. All the children met together during the first 10 years. After that they were divided into age groups. During that first decade, the primary association was organized in almost every lds settlement. During one trip through southern Utah, Sister Snow and her first counselor in the relief society presidency, Zina Young, organized 35 primaries. (A bit of a side note: both Zina Young and Eliza R. Snow were married to Brigham Young at the same time and lived in the lion house. I believe that they were sealed to Joseph Smith, also. Eliza R. Snow was the sister of President Lorenzo Snow.)
Grandma Tolman was born on February 1, 1864 or 1865 in Deptford, Kent or Liverpool, Mersyside, England**, so she was 13 or 14 when the first primary meeting was held. It was at some later date that only children under age 12 belonged to the primary organization. I suspect the older girls were used to help with the little ones as well.
The information above is from my personal recollection of grandma telling me the story, from her personal history and from the 2005 Church Almanac published by the Deseret Morning News.
**Grandma’s history says 1865 and Liverpool. My family group sheet for she and Grandpa Tolman says 1864 and Deptford. As of this moment, I don’t know which date/place is correct. If I can find better information, I will share with you. 22 June 2005.
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