DECEMBER 1994 NEWSLETTER
Thanks to all for writing and keeping the research going. We received many letters like this one each month:
October 15, 1994 "Dear Jerry, During our vacation in Utah this year, my mother (Viola Mower) showed me some of your Newsletters. I would love to receive a copy each month if you would be kind enough to add us to your mailing list.
Enclosed you will find a small check to be used to help research the Amelia (Anderson) Mower line.
The past few years we have not been able to attend the temple very often because of my husband's health problems. However, he is doing better, I have just retired and have more time, and we have recently moved much closer to the Atlanta Temple. It would be exciting to be able to do work for my own ancestors. What name is the family file listed under in Atlanta? [Jerry Mower]
Your newsletters are extremely interesting. Mother gave me some of her copies and I am compiling them into a book. Look forward to hearing from you. Sincerely, Sheril (Mower) Muir, P.O. Box 1618, Seneca, South Carolina 29679"
Update from Nelson Eddy: October 17, 1994 "Hi Jerry and family, Hey was I ever surprised today to get your package. Thanks for the new disk [all the GEISSINGERS]. I'll find someone to read it for me as I have a lead on a lady who can. Also thanks for the other disks. [various GEISSINGER lines not related.]
"Well Jerry, Nellie and I went on a weeks vacation she drove over 800 miles and we did not leave Indiana. We didn't visit anyone and I didn't do any genealogy, all we did is drive some of the back roads of Indiana and see the trees as they were turning red, yellow and green....
"Nellie is feeling so much better and she seems to be so happy just like the good old days were. I'm so happy for her because first to see her smile again means so much to me. She will be returning to her doctor Nov 17 for a complete workup again to see if the cancer has arrested. I feel sure it has, but one never knows until after a check up.
"As for my health, all I can say is it couldn't be better. I am recovering from my two strokes very well, In fact my doctor told me I am a strong willed person... I give all the thanks to God. If it hadn't been for Him, all would have been lost for me...." Nelson Eddy
It is interesting to note the blessings that have come into Nelson's life since last winter when we asked so many of you to pray for him and his wife who were in dire health. Nelson has given us so many GEISSINGER relatives' information it is hard to count. He is a fine person and I feel that the Lord has intervened in his behalf and blessed him greatly.
Thanks to Elma BRADSHAW for the following information entitled: "Gleanings from a Diary" of Lucretia (Hupper) MOWER. (Spelling has been corrected.) Lucretia was the second wife of Henry MOWER Sr. She married Henry MOWER on 5 Feb 1847 in Council Bluffs, Iowa shortly after the death of Henry's first wife, Mary AMICK, who is reported to have died in Council Bluffs in the winter of 1846-1847. This diary entry would have been written about a year before her marriage to Henry MOWER, as the Saints were being expelled from Nauvoo about February 1846. She obviously is writing to relatives back in Maine who were not Mormon:
"You write that you think I had better return to the land of my nativity. What inducement have I to return to Maine? What is there for me? I have long ago resigned the pleasures of earth--- this world has no charms for me, it is not my home. If I was to return back to Maine, I should deny the faith or be crazy, and you would wish me in Nauvoo or somewhere else for you would soon get tired of a Mormon apostate. You say you cannot bear the thought of me going to a wild country where there is nothing but savages. If there is any more savages on the face of the earth than the people of these States, take them as a body, Lord, deliver me from them. We cannot expect much worse treatment from the savages of the wilderness, allowing we go where they are, than we have received from the enlightened Christians of the nineteenth century. You say you have a kind of presentiment that the religion of Joseph Smith will come to naught. I, too, have a presentiment concerning it which is that it will stand the wreck of matter and the crush of worlds and when all other systems of religion are lost in oblivion, Mormonism will stand erect like a rock in the midst of the ocean. You desire my prayers? What good will they do you if I am not in the right track. You say you are an unworthy sinner before God. I would advise you to be baptized for the first thing, and then by obeying all the commandments of the Lord you may come to a knowledge of him.
"I have concluded that you have experienced a hope by your style of writing. It is so different from your other letters, but I would advise you not to place your hopes on a heaven beyond the bounds of time and space and upon a God without body or parts who can do nothing, who professes no power, who cannot deliver in time of trouble. But the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, has an arm almighty to save. And, although earth and hell are combined against his Saints, he can b ear them off conquerors of all opposing elements and bring them to the haven of eternal rest. And, although we lay down these bodies in the dust, we will come forth in the morning of the first resurrection when the earth shall be resurrected to its primeval state as it was in the morn of creation--- to bloom in immortal freshings in the presence of God and the Lamb forever. This is what we hope for.
"You say you expect we have been abused without cause, so say I. Many are now compelled to leave their homes at this season of the year and encamp on the open prairie or in scattering timber with young children crying with exposure to the cold.
"You write is with feelings of sympathy you address me on this occasion-- doubtedly your motives are good, but the question is whether I need your sympathy or not. You entreat me to return home and not wander any further in the dark image of sectarianism to value the principles of light and knowledge and cannot resign my interest in the kingdom of God, although we are surrounded by mobs and those who are opposed to the principles of truth and righteousness who are trying to overthrow the church. But they will not do it, dear friends. I cannot express my feelings better than in the following:
'O God, my eternal Father, I ask thee in the name of thy son, Jesus Christ, to look in mercy upon my friends and kindred, and bring them to an understanding of the principles of eternal truth and save them in thy kingdom, Lord, hear the prayer of thine handmaiden in their behalf, and all the glory shall be given to God and the Lamb, worlds without end. Amen.'
"These are the feelings of my heart. May God bless and save you in His Kingdom." Lucretia Hupper Mower