203. Carolyn Butler Skeen, the rest of the story -- sewing on a thumb, knitting mittens from a buffalo mane.
This is to follow yesterday's entry about my 2nd great grandmother, and her experiences as a true pioneer. ----------- (was blog # 72, in January, 2014)
I wrote about my 2nd great grandmother, Caroline Farozine Skeen yesterday. I decided the rest of her story would be good to include now, so you can get a fuller picture of her life. This entry may be a bit longer than others --
She was born April 15, 1812, in Tennessee, the seventh child in a family of ten children. On February 3, 1831, at the age of 19 she was married to John Lowe Butler. To them 12 children were born. Most of their leisure time was spent in reading the Bible, but the religions of the day did not satisfy them. According to John's diary, he was literally thirsting of a knowledge of his Creator. He had prayed many times, very earnestly for light, until he became rather discouraged. (I'll tell more of him later.)
As an answer to their prayers, one evening in 1835, an invitation came to attend a cottage meeting given by two Mormon Elders. The message filled their hearts with joy and after the meeting, John Lowe and Caroline both applied for baptism. It was just what they had been looking for. From then on their lot was cast with the body of the saints in the trials and persecutions in Missouri, Illinois and Iowa and later in Utah.
Being driven with the saints from one place to another, she and her children lived for six weeks on nothing but wild crab apples and honey, when her husband was on a mission to the Indians; and herself in delicate health at the time. John was gone a long time on a mission to the Indians, and when he returned he had lice from living with them. So his wife had to get him a whole set of clean clothes for him. The Indians told her to put his clothes on an ant hill and the ants would eat the nits (or fleas). His clothes were just white with knits but the ants cleaned them up.
Caroline was very resourceful and they nearly always had something to eat, even when others went hungry. She used to parch corn (the hard kind) and pound it, then put new milk over it for them to eat. When she had flour, she would very often make her bread the day before they ate it, so as not to have hot bread all the time while traveling. Then too, cold bread lasted longer.
During the building of the Nauvoo Temple they lived on a farm on the outskirts of the city. John Lowe, being one of the Prophet's bodyguards, was away from home much of the time, and most of the work on the farm was left for Caroline and her children.
During the troublesome times at Nauvoo, most of the care of the family was left to Caroline. One day a mob of men with blackened faces came hunting for John. After a fruitless search they demanded that Caroline give them some supper. She didn't have much to cook so they made her kill a mutton and cook some of it for them. When they sat down to eat, one of them demanded a fried egg. Great grandmother Caroline broke it into the frying pan and was going to cook it when he said, "Bring it to me, that is done enough." As she did so she recognized him as her brother, and said, "Oh, Alex why would you bring trouble to your sister like this?" He said "I've come to take you away from this damned outfit." She told him that she was better off than he was and she didn't want any of his help.
To supply her family with soap to wash with, she was as usual ever ready to meet every emergency. She used to gather what fat she could from dead animals along the way, the marrow from the bones etc. and cook it with water that she had soaked cottonwood ashes in. She made it into soft soap, and used to keep a barrel of this soft soap in the back of the wagon, when they were coming across the plains.
On their journey west, they met a wagon train and traded something for a sack of flour. Caroline made a pan of biscuits and gave one to each little child. One little girl, Sarah Adeline (our great-grandmother) wanted to feast her eyes on it awhile and accidentally dropped it into the soft soap barrel, in the back of the wagon. But she was so hungry for bread, she fished it out, wiped it off and ate it anyway.
They settled in Spanish Fork, Utah, about 1852. John Lowe Butler surveyed the cite for the city and laid it off into city blocks. He was the first LDS bishop in Spanish Fork. He moved his family into a three-sided shanty on the back of someone's house and went to find work. Caroline's baby took sick and cried for meat he could smell cooking, she traded a piece of handwork for a piece of meat for her sick baby. Many a time she walked 5 miles to milk a cow to get milk for her family. She was a good manager and they always had something to eat. When flour was scarce, she would parch corn and grind it and put milk over it to feed her family.
Caroline had one grievance. While she was away helping to provide for her family, her husband had the chance to get his endowment in the Nauvoo Temple. Caroline always felt badly over this. She never got her endowments until she went to the endowment house in Salt Lake City.
I wrote about my 2nd great grandmother, Caroline Farozine Skeen yesterday. I decided the rest of her story would be good to include now, so you can get a fuller picture of her life. This entry may be a bit longer than others --
She was born April 15, 1812, in Tennessee, the seventh child in a family of ten children. On February 3, 1831, at the age of 19 she was married to John Lowe Butler. To them 12 children were born. Most of their leisure time was spent in reading the Bible, but the religions of the day did not satisfy them. According to John's diary, he was literally thirsting of a knowledge of his Creator. He had prayed many times, very earnestly for light, until he became rather discouraged. (I'll tell more of him later.)
As an answer to their prayers, one evening in 1835, an invitation came to attend a cottage meeting given by two Mormon Elders. The message filled their hearts with joy and after the meeting, John Lowe and Caroline both applied for baptism. It was just what they had been looking for. From then on their lot was cast with the body of the saints in the trials and persecutions in Missouri, Illinois and Iowa and later in Utah.
Being driven with the saints from one place to another, she and her children lived for six weeks on nothing but wild crab apples and honey, when her husband was on a mission to the Indians; and herself in delicate health at the time. John was gone a long time on a mission to the Indians, and when he returned he had lice from living with them. So his wife had to get him a whole set of clean clothes for him. The Indians told her to put his clothes on an ant hill and the ants would eat the nits (or fleas). His clothes were just white with knits but the ants cleaned them up.
Caroline was very resourceful and they nearly always had something to eat, even when others went hungry. She used to parch corn (the hard kind) and pound it, then put new milk over it for them to eat. When she had flour, she would very often make her bread the day before they ate it, so as not to have hot bread all the time while traveling. Then too, cold bread lasted longer.
During the building of the Nauvoo Temple they lived on a farm on the outskirts of the city. John Lowe, being one of the Prophet's bodyguards, was away from home much of the time, and most of the work on the farm was left for Caroline and her children.
During the troublesome times at Nauvoo, most of the care of the family was left to Caroline. One day a mob of men with blackened faces came hunting for John. After a fruitless search they demanded that Caroline give them some supper. She didn't have much to cook so they made her kill a mutton and cook some of it for them. When they sat down to eat, one of them demanded a fried egg. Great grandmother Caroline broke it into the frying pan and was going to cook it when he said, "Bring it to me, that is done enough." As she did so she recognized him as her brother, and said, "Oh, Alex why would you bring trouble to your sister like this?" He said "I've come to take you away from this damned outfit." She told him that she was better off than he was and she didn't want any of his help.
Caroline suffered many hardships and privations. They had to move around a good deal and most of the care of the family was left to her. Once when she was ill in Nauvoo with malaria, she wanted the Prophet to come and administer to her, but he was too busy as there were many who were sick so he sent his handkerchief to put over her face and so great was her faith that she was made well.
(The following story was in the Children’s Friend):
The women of Nauvoo were asked to contribute their dimes and pennies for the Temple fund. One day when a committee called for Caroline's donation, she had nothing to give. She felt very badly. A few days later, she and her children were going into the city in a wagon, when they came across two dead buffalo. To her thrifty hands this find was a great boon. She had her boy stop the wagon and they pulled the long hair from the manes of the buffalo. They got a large sack of the long hair off it's mane. This she took home and washed, corded, and spun into yarn. Out of this yarn she made eight pairs of gloves (mittens) for the rock cutters on the Temple who were working in the dead of winter to rush the building to completion. Like the widow's mite she did her bit to help carry on. Many times she was able to get this hair from where buffalo had fought and killed each other. This she made into quilts, pillows, beds, socks, etc. to help provide for her family.
To supply her family with soap to wash with, she was as usual ever ready to meet every emergency. She used to gather what fat she could from dead animals along the way, the marrow from the bones etc. and cook it with water that she had soaked cottonwood ashes in. She made it into soft soap, and used to keep a barrel of this soft soap in the back of the wagon, when they were coming across the plains.
On their journey west, they met a wagon train and traded something for a sack of flour. Caroline made a pan of biscuits and gave one to each little child. One little girl, Sarah Adeline (our great-grandmother) wanted to feast her eyes on it awhile and accidentally dropped it into the soft soap barrel, in the back of the wagon. But she was so hungry for bread, she fished it out, wiped it off and ate it anyway.
They settled in Spanish Fork, Utah, about 1852. John Lowe Butler surveyed the cite for the city and laid it off into city blocks. He was the first LDS bishop in Spanish Fork. He moved his family into a three-sided shanty on the back of someone's house and went to find work. Caroline's baby took sick and cried for meat he could smell cooking, she traded a piece of handwork for a piece of meat for her sick baby. Many a time she walked 5 miles to milk a cow to get milk for her family. She was a good manager and they always had something to eat. When flour was scarce, she would parch corn and grind it and put milk over it to feed her family.
Caroline had one grievance. While she was away helping to provide for her family, her husband had the chance to get his endowment in the Nauvoo Temple. Caroline always felt badly over this. She never got her endowments until she went to the endowment house in Salt Lake City.
Caroline was very resourceful, serving as nurse and doctor for those in need. One morning Caroline saw a crowd down the street. She told her little girl to watch the children while she hurried down to see what was the matter. It was in the spring and one of the men was trying to shear his sheep, so his wife could make the wool into clothes, for their family. The old buck had jumped up so hard, that the shears had cut his whole thumb nearly off, just hanging on.Caroline was skilled in making buckskin gloves.
Someone shouted, “If we only had a doctor,” but there was not a doctor for miles. Then they asked everyone around the circle if they could help and each said, “Not me.” When they came to Caroline she said, “I can try.” Just wait till I get my buckskin needle and thread. She was an expert buckskin glove maker. She hurried home and put some of her homespun thread she had made from their cotton in Tennessee on to boil in a little water with her buckskin needle. She had a bottle of sticky pine gum, to use, as there were no disinfectants.
Then as they held the man, she put the needle through each side of the cut, then clipped the thread and tied it. She did this all the way around the base of his thumb. Then she plastered it over with sticky gum and wrapped it up and put it in a sling. Someone said, “He’ll never use that hand again.” But when it was healed it was as good as new!” (From “History of Iron Co. Mission and Parowan, page 70.)
After her husband died, she lived with her children in Panguitch and Paragonah. She died in Panguitch but later was taken to Spanish Fork Cemetery to be buried by her husband.
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