1886-01-15,From,SnowErastus,UtahSaltLakeCity,To,SnowElizabethRebeccaAshby,UtahStGeorge

Salt Lake City Jan 15th 1886 [Satl Lake City, Utah Friday 15 Jan 1886]


Dear Elisabeth [Elizabeth Rebecca Ashby Snow, b. 1831] Although your reply to my last from Manassa Col [Manassa, Colorado] has not yet reached me, yet knowing your anxiety about me, I pen a few lines today to let you and your family know of my whereabouts and health which is quite good and I am among trustworthy friends and feeling in good spirits. My presence here is known, I trust, only to my brethren of the Apostles [Quorum of Twelve Apostles] & First Presidency and a few special friends. Levi [Levi Mason White Snow, b. 1861] has a birth in the Legislature and is boarding with & looking after his Mother [Minerva White Snow, b. 1822]. I shift among special friends. Anything addressed under cover to Heber [Heber J. Grant] or Levi [Levi Mason White Snow, b. 1861] will find me. Cant [can't] now say how or when I will be able to get home, Trust it may not be long. I hope you and yours are well. Amelia [Amelia Snow, b. 1871], Dear girl, ended her sufferings quickly and almost before I learned her dangerous condition. It would have shocked me much, but for learning the day previous to her death, of her severe illness, and each effort to exercise faith for her recovery; met a rebuff rather than any assurence [assurance]; until I said “Lord not mine but thy will be done”. and when her death was announced I said God be praised who has taken her to himself and from evils to come. May the temporary loss prove a permanent gain to the Mother [Julia Josephine Spencer Snow, b. 1837] & rest of her children and to us all. I only stoped [stopped] in Provo from Friday night [8 Jan 1886] till Sunday afternoon [10 Jan 1886] and left while the Deputies [Deputy] Marshalls, closeted near by, contemplated a raid, as it afterwards [afterward] appeared on Bish [Bishop] Bromley and others at American Fork [American Ford, Utah], and they were only half an hour behind Bro Thatcher [Moses Thatcher] and myself at the latter place. Several successful raids have since been made in various parts of this city [Salt Lake City, Utah] and county [Salt Lake County, Utah] as well as elsewhere. The enemy is on the alert and quite vigorous, your family relatives hereabouts are all well at least so reported. Louisa and children same place as where we saw them. Have heard nothing of Mary. How do you and Georgia [Georgiana Snow, b. 1862] get along with your work without Josephine [Josephine Snow, b. 1859] and Martie [Martha Ellen Snow, b. 1865. I just got a letter from Elder J.M. Tanner from Constantinople. He writes hopefull [hopeful].


You know how I planed and desired to return home by way of the South route and yet I seemed forbidden to do so but was urged on to this city [Salt Lake City, Utah], where I find my presence was much needed in council [counsel] with my brethren to help audit account and make such wise disposition of our church property as we hope may retard if not quite forestall the wholesale robery [robbery] contemplated in the New Edmunds Bill lately passed the U.S. Senate & likely soon to pass the House. Bro Lorenzo [Lorenzo Snow ?] is to be sentenced tomorrow. How would you like an eight months trip to California, Arrizona [Arizona] & Mexico after a little. Keep this to yourself. Lovingly yours etc. F. [Fairbank – Erastus Snow]


P.S. Is Arthur [Arthur Eugene Snow, b. 1870] in school or at work: I can hardly reconcile my feelings to the idea of Willie [William Spencer Snow, b. 1867] and Arthur [Arthur Eugene Snow, b. 1870] being out of school this winter. I trust you will try to have them either in evening school or else interesting reading or writing at home during these long evenings. What is the status of work on your House? Are front steps & Portico up or any material and work upon the South and East Porches? Probably the New Theatre [theater] has interfered with it? Hope it will soon be renewed and carried on to completion. Am laboring for an appropriation to help establish and sustain our St. George Academy and trust to see it opened next fall Where is Missia [Artimesia Snow Woolley Seegmiller, b. 1849]? Has she returned from San Francisco Mts [Mountains]. When I saw her at Snowflake she thought of returning in December [Dec 1885]. The cold is giving way here and snow melting. Frank’s [Franklin Richards Snow, b. 1854] telegram of yesterday [Thursday 14 Jan 1886] about Amelias [Amelia Snow, b. 1871] funeral also mentions a storm prevailing at St. George [St. George, Utah]. This evenings News gives an account of William Jennings death. Who next?