--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Allen, James X. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 13 number: 10 published: 1910-08 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'James X. Allen, "Patriarch Samuel J. Sudbury—My Friend," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 10 (August 1910): 917–919.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera13010unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera13010unse start_page: 917 end_page: 919 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1910-08) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera13010unse publication_year: 1910 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1910, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Patriarch Samuel J. Sudbury—My Friend Patriarch Samuel J. Sudbury-My Friend. BY JAMES X. ALLEN, M. D. I hope the Era will grant me a small space to pay my respects to my life-long, but now deceased friend, Samuel J. Sudbury. A short statement in the Deseret News emphasized his heartfelt and profound spirituality; but while all that was said of him was true, not a small fraction of his life history was even hinted at, nor do I expect to do more than give a reverent and brief epitome of his character. I became intimately acquainted with Brother Sudbury in Sheffield, England, in 1852. He attended the meetings of the Saints and was very much interested. We became intimate friends, and when he concluded to take a wife, he honored me by choosing me as father to give away the bride. In January of 1853, we sailed from Liverpool in the ship Golconda, for America. We arrived in Salt Lake City in the fall of the same year. That fall the greater part of the emigrants were re-baptized — it being considered that the task of driving oxen from Keokuk, Iowa, to Salt Lake City, together with PATRIARCH SAMUEL J. SUDBURY. Born, England, Sept. 9, 1829; died Dec. 28, 1909. 918 IMPROVEMENT ERA. wading rivers, guarding cattle at night and cooking our food with buffalo chips, had not contributed much towards our spiritual growth. Brother Sudbury and wife did not join the Church until after their arrival in Zion. For fifty-nine years we were fast friends. I cannot tell how proud I have always been of that friendship. Somebody has said, "On the choice of our friends our good or evil name depends." I can assure you that no man was ever the worse for the friendship of Patriarch Samuel J. Sudbury. I have verified Solomon's description of a friend: A friend loveth always, not only in prosperity but in adversity. . There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother; he is more hearty in all friendly offices. He reproves when he sees anything amiss. Iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend. Brother Sudbury's friendship never made him blind to the shortcomings of his friends; but his rebuke partook more of the character of a mother than that of a schoolmaster. It has been said, "The only way to have a friend is to be one yourself." But how often are we disappointed in those whom we befriend! The friendship of our brother was perfect, undeviating. No earthly treasure can compare with that of a trusty friend. Homer defines friendship as, "Two friends, two bodies with one soul inspired." Somebody has said that "True happiness consists, not in the multitude of friends, but in the worth and choice of them." Shakespeare makes Timon of Athens say, "I am wealthy in my friends:" Poor old man! He had none except his faithful servant. Those old and tried friends, how dear they are to our hearts! Well may Shakespeare make the Prince of Denmark say, "Those friends thou hast and tried, grapple them to thy soul." I have, and still do thank God for the friendship of so good and noble a man as was Samuel J. Sudbury. Well may Mr. Blair say, "Friendship, mysterious cement of the soul, sweetener of life, solder 'of society." Some other writer thus expresses it, "Pure friendship is something which men of inferior intellect can never taste." Samuel J. Sudbury was a man of superior intellect, exalted PATRIARCH SAMUEL J. SUDBURY. 919 spiritually, with a guileless heart. Byron also expresses himself beautifully on this same subject, "Friendship is love without its wings." Henceforth I call you not servants, but friends. The servant know. eth not what his Lord doeth; but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father, I have made known unto you (John 15: 15, 16). Brother Sudbury was in possession of that good spirit that partaketh of the things of God and reveals them unto men. He was a friend of God. After the disciples had proved their loyalty by faithful servitude they were admitted to the more holy communion of intimate friendship, and no man ever acquired that holy intimacy with God in any other way. "No man who is an enemy of God can be a true friend to man;" enmity to God is enmity to the family of God. While we were sorry to part with Brother Sudbury, there is comfort in the thought, there is one more attraction drawing our thoughts towards the great beyond. When children, parents and friends pass away, our interests here are weakened, as they are strengthened in our blessed future home. Ogden, Utah. The Mound Builders. Mr. N. H. Winchell, writing in the Popular Science Monthly dwells upon the enormous antiquity in their present habitat of the Indian tribes who constructed the "mounds.'' The great variety of dialects, none of which are connected with those of Europe or Asia, indicates, he says, either that the present population originated from a number of successive migrations, or, which is more probable, from a continuous occupation of American soil. It is certain that the mound-builders were the ancestors of some of the existing tribes. Both the Algonkian stock in the northeastern United States and Canada, and the Siouan stock in the great plains west of the Mississippi, were mound-builders. In Minnesota the two stocks coincidentally occupied the territory, dividing it between them, at the same time, when the white man's invasion began.— Youth's Companion.