MARY
CAROLINE BARTON
(January
12, 1832 – August 10, 1910)
Mary
Caroline Barton was born January 12, 1832, in Wilmington, Delaware, the
daughter of William Allen Barton and Mary Ann Swain. Her parents were converted to the Church and
gathered with the Saints to make the journey to Utah.
In Nebraska Territory – near what became known as Cutler’s Park – Mary was sealed to
Wilford Woodruff by Brigham Young on August 2, 1846, along with Sarah Elinor
Brown and Mary Ann Jackson.[1] Wilford Woodruff obliquely references the
occasion in his journal, simply stating that Brigham Young and Willard Richards
came to his tent that evening and “President Young delivered an interesting
lecture upon the priesthood and the principal of sealing. There being present: Phebe W. Woodruff, [Mary]
Caroline Barton, Sara [Elinor] Brown, Mary [Ann] Jackson.”[2] Six days later he recorded that he rebaptized Phoebe twice and then also
rebaptized Mary Caroline, Sarah, Mary Ann, and Rosetta King.[3]
The
personal lives of the three women sealed to Wilford that day were very
different. Both Mary Ann’s parents were
deceased. Sarah Elinor’s father had died
on the journey from Maine to Illinois in 1839.
Both Mary Caroline’s parents were members of the Church and living among
the Saints in the Iowa camps. Mary Ann
Jackson had known the Woodruffs for about a year and had worked as a
housekeeper for them when Phoebe and Wilford were living in Liverpool, England. Wilford Woodruff had introduced Sarah Elinor
Brown’s family to the gospel on his mission to Vinalhaven, Maine in 1838 and
the Browns had been part of the group of Saints from the Northeast that he led
to Nauvoo. On the other hand, I have not
been able to determine his long-term relationship, if any, with the Barton
family.
Mary
Ann Jackson was 29 years old in August 1846, Sarah Elinor was 18 and Mary
Caroline was 17. The ages of the two
younger women at the time of the sealing was apparently a factor in their
subsequent behavior. It is not clear if
they considered their sealing a spiritual one – not an earthly or physical
union – or if they simply chose to continue socializing with others their own
age regardless of their marital status.
According
to Wilford Woodruff, Mary Caroline and Sarah Elinor spent 15 nights straight,
sometimes until 2:00 am, in the company of three young men in camp: Daniel
Barnum, Jack Clothier, and Peletiah Brown.[4] Wilford forbade them from such “night
ramblings” and said they would be expelled from his family if they continued
their unrighteous behavior.[5] On August 28, Mary Caroline and her parents
were at a meeting with Wilford Woodruff, Brigham Young and Willard Richards
where both Mary Caroline and Sarah E. Brown were given the option to stay and
follow the rules, or leave.[6] Both Mary and Sarah chose to leave. Mary returned to her parents’ and Sarah was
sent to live with the Bakers. The three
young men were whipped for their alleged sexual misconduct with Mary and Sarah. Hosea Stout carried out the punishment and
felt it was just given the fact that he believed the punishment for their
actions under territorial law was death.[7]
Sometime
between August 1846 and February 1848, the Bartons moved to Georgetown,
Ohio. Mary Caroline married Erastus
Curtis there on February 4, 1848.[8] Erastus and Mary Curtis then moved to Holt,
Missouri where their first child, Oceania was born in 1850. Their second child, Phoebe Martin Curtis, was
also born in Holt, Missouri on February 2, 1852. Phoebe traveled with them when they made the
journey to Utah later that year. They
were part of the 365 Saints in the company led by Erastus’ father, Uriah
Curtis.[9] They started from Council Bluffs, Iowa, on
June 24, 1852 and arrived in to Salt Lake City October 1, 1852.
Erastus
and Mary Caroline Curtis had a total of eleven children between 1850 and
1872. Their third child, Matilda
Caroline was born in 1853 in Parowan, Utah before they moved with Mary
Caroline’s parents to help settle San Bernardino, California. Their fourth child, William Barton, was born
in San Bernardino in 1856. (Mary
Caroline’s parents remained in San Bernardino until their deaths.) However, Erastus and Mary Caroline returned
to Utah, and their fifth child, Erastus, was born in Springville in 1858. Emmaline Joan, their sixth child, was born in
1860 in Spanish Fork, Utah.
Erastus
was the Marshal of Moroni, Utah and later the Sheriff of Emory County. He married a second wife, Joanna Price
Fullmer, in 1860 in Moroni. Erastus and
Mary Caroline had five more children while living in Moroni: Florilla Ann in
1862, Eliza Jane in 1864, Rosetta
Parthenia in 1866, Joseph Boulden in 1869, and Homer Franklin in 1872. Erastus and Joanna had eight children
together.[10]
Deseret News, October 24, 1863.
Frank
Ellwood Esshom, Pioneers and Prominent
Men of Utah.
Juanita
Brooks, On the Mormon Frontier: The Diary
of Hosea Stout 1844-1861.
Journal
History, Supplement to 1852.
Leonard
J. Arrington, Latter-day Saint Settlement of Eastern Utah: A Story of Faith,
Courage and Tolerance.
The Manuscript History of Brigham Young
Wilford Woodruff’s Journals.
Journal of Willard Richards.
William Clayton’s Journal.