Matilda Betts Boswell
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In order to come to America to join the Church, it was necessary
for Matilda and Eliza to escape their mother. How did they get their clothes
out of the house without their mothering knowing?
a.
Mailed their clothes to Utah
b.
Carried them under the hoops of
their skirts
c.
Had the elders take them in their
suit cases
d.
By stuffing them in a milk can
Yesterday’s answer:
D Through a dream
The autobiography of Cordelia Calista Morley Cox also demonstrates
the manner in which LDS women used visions to gain authority. Cox converted to
Mormonism with her family in 1831 in Kirtland, Ohio. More than a decade later,
while living in Nauvoo, Illinois, Cox and her community experienced persecution
from non-Mormons. In about 1846, she privately sought refuge in prayer when
non-Mormons told her that her religion “was false” and that she “had been
deceived.” She wrote, “I began to worry and to wonder if I had in these ears
been so deceived, I longed for a testimony from my Father in Heaven, to know
for myself whether I was right or wrong.” Cox described the dream that she had
one night after praying for such a testimony: “I thought I was in the midst of
a multitude of people. President Young arose and spoke to the people. He then
said there would be [a] spirit go around to whisper comfort in the ear of
everyone. All was silent as death as I sat. Then the spirit came to me and
whispered in my ear these words, ‘Don’t ever change your condition or wish it
otherwise,’ for I was better off than thousands and thousands of others.” Cox
thus came to peace with this issue. She wrote, “The Lord has been my guide; in
Him I put my trust.” Cox’s dream demonstrates the importance these women placed
on seeking answers to problems for themselves and their belief in the power of
religious mechanisms, like the dreams and visions used by LDS leaders. These
women may not have had powerful positions within the LDS Church; but to help
them understand the faith, they used the same methods as the male leadership.
In Cox’s dream, her certitude came as she listened in faith to Brigham Young’s
promise that a spirit would speak comfort to her.
Katherine Sarah Massoth, “Writing An Honorable Remembrance:
Nineteenth-Century LDS Women’s Autobiography,” Journal of Mormon History, Spring
2013, 132-133.
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