Marjorie Pay Hinckley's diligence and dedication to the Lord reflects the grit and determination of her pioneer forebears.
President Gordon B. Hinckley on occasion has spoken publicly of her grandmother, Mary Goble, who was 13 when her family left Brighton, England, to make the trek to the Salt Lake Valley.
As a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, he recounted Mary's story and read from her journal in an April 1970 general conference address. After six weeks at sea, he said, the family was assigned to travel in a wagon train and assist one of the handcart companies. At Iowa City, Iowa, the youngest child in the family, less than 2 years old, died of exposure and was buried in a grave the family would never be able to visit again.
Later, camped along the Platte River, Mary wondered what made her mother cry. "The next morning, my little sister was born," she wrote. "We named her Edith. She lived six weeks and died."
In the Sweetwater country of Wyoming, the company encountered heavy snow. "My feet and legs were frozen," she wrote. "The men put my feet in a bucket of water. The pain was terrible. . . .
"When we arrived at Devil's Gate it was bitter cold. We left many of our things there. . . . My brother James . . . was as well as he ever was when he went to bed (that night). In the morning he was dead."
President Brigham Young sent rescue teams to aid the distressed company. Mary's mother sickened and died at age 43 between Little and Big Mountains on the way into the valley.
"We arrived in Salt Lake City nine o'clock at night the 11th of December 1856," Mary wrote. "Three out of the four that were living were frozen. My mother was dead in the wagon. . . . Early next morning Brigham Young came. . . . When he saw our condition, our feet frozen and our mother dead, tears rolled down his cheeks. . . .
"The doctor amputated my toes. . . . (while) the sisters were dressing mother for her grave."
Mary Goble survived the ordeal and later married Richard Pay. Their log cabin that stood in Leamington, 40 miles west of Nephi, Utah, has been restored and is now on display at This Is the Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake City. At the dedication of the cabin on May 12, 2001, before a gathering of descendants, President Hinckley said of the Pay family, "As their vision was large, may our vision be large; as their faith was strong, may ours also be strong."
E-mail: rscott@desnews.com
