The Prophet and the Salt Lake Temple. A Poem

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908 IMPROVEMENT ERA.

where they had relatives. From that place, Ellen went to Ottawa, where she hired out. In the year 1842, missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints came preaching in the neighborhood where some of the Saunders family were living, and some of them, including Ellen, embraced the gospel. Two years later Ellen went to Nauvoo, and in January, 1846, she was married to Heber C. Kimball; and when the band of pioneers was organized for the purpose of seeking out for the exiled Saints a dwelling place in the unexplored western deserts, she with her husband was numbered with it, and gained the distinction of being one of the three pioneer women of Utah. As she lived nearly a quarter of a century in the valleys of Utah, she had the satisfac- tion, in her lifetime, of realizing to some extent the importance of

the work of that courageous band, and of beholding some of the beneficial results of their efforts. That this woman became one of the illustrious pioneers of Utah may be regarded as a chance incident; and it may be thought that her being chosen as one of that company was not because of any special fitness for such a work. Such might have been the case so far as human agency was concerned; but the fact that she proved equal to the undertaking — that she was enabled to endure the severe hardships of the journey, and to battle so heroically with the difficulties and trials that confronted the early settlers, after the journey to the mountains was ended— is an indication that her early life experiences were for a purpose, and that to prepare her for the strenuous career that awaited her. Had her arduous undertaking been passed in ease and life previous to this

wealth, she no doubt would not have been possessed of the phys- ical power nor the determination of will to perform such a labor. And what is here said of this lady might be applied to the pioneers of this country generally. They were men and women eminently fitted by prsvious training for the parts they were called upon to perform. And there is no doubt that they were prepared for their life-work under divine direction. It is true that among those who undertook to reach these valleys, in those early days of hardship and privation, some fell by the way— their spirits were willing but their bodies were weak and they succumbed to the terrible hardships of the journey. But