Mary Adelaine (Marvin) Merrell (1847 - 1899)

Born 8 Nov 1847 in Illinois

Wife of Willis Smith Young — married 23 Jan 1863 (to after 1871) in Salt Lake City, Utah

Descendants

Died 4 Apr 1899 at age 51 in Blackfoot, Idaho

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Biography

Adalaine was born about 1846. Adalaine Marvin ... She passed away in 1898. ^[1]

MARY ADELINE MARVIN (b. November 08, 1847, d. April 04, 1899)

MARY ADELINE MARVIN (daughter of EDWARD W. MARVIN and Mary Roberts)333, 333, 333, 333, 334 was born November 08, 1847 in Quincy, Adams Co., IL, USA335, 336, and died April 04, 1899 in Soda Springs, Caribou Co., Idaho, USA337, 337, 338. She married (1) Willis Smith Young on January 23, 1863 in Salt Lake City, Utah, son of Leah Smith. She married (2) FRANCIS MARION MERRELL on October 1872 in Pioche, NV, USA339, 339, son of CHARLES BENJAMIN MERRELL and SARAH POLLY FINLEY.

Includes NotesNotes for MARY ADELINE MARVIN: Mary Adelaide Marvin, her father Edmund, her step mother and two step brothers left 30 April 1860 with the first 1860 wagon train of the Utah Pioneer Company under Capt. Warren Walling.They traveled 1000 miles arriving in Salt Lake on 9 Aug 1860. Her 4 year old stepbrother Morris E. Marvin died a few months later. Her stepmother Nancy (Buford Morris) Marvin and her father were divorced and the stepmother took her two remaining sons. Adelaide and Her father moved to "Dixie Mission" in St. George Utah. Adelaide was orphaned and raised by an Indian woman and the Mormons. The stories she told followed those told in the 'Life and Times of William Young' written by Gary Dean Young his ggg-grandson. She married Willis Smith Young. (The younger brother of William Alma Young.) as noted on Page 58 of the above mentioned book. "In the spring of 1863, William Alma and Leah Smith young's youngest son Willis Smith Young and a number of the settlers at Toquerville moved to Kanarra. Willis and Ann Young's son John Wesley (Dick) was not quite three years old at the time. The new community produced an excellent harvest that fall. Willis went to Salt Lake City during the summer and sealed to his second wife Mary Adelaide Marvin in the Endowment House. Willis and Ann Young had three more children while living in Kanarra. They now had 8 children who were living as the 1870 federal census indicates. Willis had at least one child with Mary Adelaide, named Edmund Young...listed in the census as age 1 born in Utah Territory." This book does not mention the daughter "Goldie Louise Young", the other child of Adelaide and Willis Young born 4 Jan 1871. According to family history around 1870 the Mormons were preparing their story of the Meadow Mountain Massacre (for the upcoming trial). Mary Adeline Young refused to recant what she had been told by the Paiutes her since she was ten years old (at the time of the Meadow Mountain Massacre.) She would not cooperate with the Mormon church members who wanted her to cover up the truth. Some members of the church got very angry with her and she fled Utah with her children. She declared herself a "widow" when she arrived in Pioche and worked cleaning for others. She had a hard life and supported her children as best she could in a wild territory where she was not really accepted. She suffered not only from people finding out about her past as a polygamous wife but because she was bilingual and well read which was quite unusual in the "Indian Territories". Nevada did not recognize her prior marriage because of the polygamy so she was an unmarried mother. She married Francis Marion Merrill and they moved to Blackfoot Idaho sometime after 1875. Francis got a job as a blacksmith but the company was sold and they moved to Brigham City. They bought some land and rented some more from the Central Pacific Railroad. Francis set up a blacksmith shop in a barn that belonged to his brother. This was ok for the summer but when they tried to rent in town for the winter, so the children could go to school, they found there was an edict from the President of the Church that no one was to rent to them even though there were vacancies. And they were informed that in the faith of the church they were living in sin because she had not "divorced" her polygamous husband. They were forced to move to Corrinne, Utah but the only schools were Mormon and the children were not allowed to attend.

In1885 Adeline had a break with reality. She hallucinated that the house was on fire and threw the children out into the snow. She was committed to the state asylum for the insane and remained there for the rest of her life.

Goldie took over the role of mother to her younger siblings. There were emigrant trains passing through on the way to California, Oregon etc. She got the children to earn money to support the family by peddling food to the emigrants. They were still the "enemy" of the Mormon community so they decided that they must move again and they changed their spelling of the name to Merrell. They moved into Idaho where the Mormons were not as strong. They watched as Mormons lost their voting rights and many other rights for advocating plural marriages. There was a lot of desention between the Mormons and the Gentiles at this time. Many Mormons quit the church or returned to Utah. In the fall of 1890 Francis, who was well known for his opposition to the Mormon power, was elected to the lower house of the Idaho State Legislature (the first legislature, statehood had only been obtained the prior July). The story of Francis Marion is on his page.

I would like to say a little more about Goldie. Goldie was the only mother my grandmother could remember. The other children worshiped her. I heard so many wonderful things about Goldie I was stunned when I heard a physical description. Goldie was described as a "hunchback", having a spinal injury when she was very young. She never grew much over four feet tall. She never married but devoted herself to the other children. I was shocked to discover she died at the age of 23. The other children loved her very much and placed a large monument on her grave in Soda Springs, Idaho. Mary Adeline Merrell died April 4, 1899. She was buried in the cemetery at the Idaho Insane Asylum at Blackfoot rather than in the family memorial plot in Soda Springs, Idaho.

More About MARY ADELINE MARVIN: Date born 2: 1847, Kanarraville, Iron, UT, USA.339 Residence: 1880, Brigham City, Box Elder, Utah, United States.340

More About MARY ADELINE MARVIN and Willis Smith Young: Marriage: January 23, 1863, Salt Lake City, Utah.

More About MARY ADELINE MARVIN and FRANCIS MARION MERRELL: Marriage 1: October 1872, Pioche, NV, USA.341, 341 Marriage 2: October 1872, Pioche, Nev.

Children of MARY ADELINE MARVIN and Willis Smith Young are: Edmund Young, b. October 31, 1868, Utah341, d. June 15, 1915, Kanarraville, Kane, UT, USA341. Goldie Louise Young, b. January 24, 1871, Saint George, UT, USA341, 342, d. July 19, 1894, Soda Springs, ID, USA343.

Children of MARY ADELINE MARVIN and FRANCIS MARION MERRELL are: Francis Marion Merrill, b. November 14, 1873, Panaca, NV, USA343, 343, d., Lima, MT, USA343, 343. Sarah Perdette Merrill, b. September 20, 1875, Soda Springs, ID, USA343. Mary Sophia Merrill, b. August 15, 1877, Soda Springs, ID, USA343, 343, d. 1979, Santa Cruz, CA, USA343, 343. Charles Merrill, b. 1879, Soda Springs, ID, USA343, 343. Myrtle Stella Merrill, b. February 13, 1880, Thurman, Fremont, IA, USA343. Pearl Adeline Merrill, b. February 1881, Brigham City, UT, USA343, 343, d. 1948, Soda Springs, ID, USA343, 343. +VARA ELIZABETH MERRILL, b. September 30, 1885, Soda Springs, Caribou Co. Idaho343, 343, 343, 344, d. March 1969, Knoxville, Tioga, Pennsylvania, United States of America345.

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Sources

No sources. The events of Adalaine's life were either witnessed by Tanya F or Tanya plans to add sources here later.

(1) http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/a/l/e/Patricia-Alexander-CA/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0078.html

Footnotes

1. ↑ Entered by Tanya F, Sunday, July 14, 2013.

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Tanya F for creating Marvin-290 on 14 Jul 13. Click the Changes tab for the details on contributions by Tanya and others.