Margaret Gurney

GEDCOM Note

Emma's memories of Margaret GurneyWhen about ten years old my mother, who was an invalid, made us each a straw hat, as she was a braider of straw. There were six of us girls besides Lucy. She trimmed the two for Kate and me in buff, or yellow flowers and ribbons, then two in blue for Alice and Drue, and two in pink for Florence and Hattie. And oh, how grand we were with them and father took us all to Sunday School, and he surely thought that we looked fine, even if we only had calico dresses on –not such pretty cloth as we get now, but we were happy.

Of Temples and Sitting RoomsThe women of Logan 7th Ward knew they had it good. In the early 20th century, only four cities in the entire church had a temple: Salt Lake City, St. George, Manti, and Logan. The Mormons liked to say where much was given, much was expected. To be living in Logan in the shadow of the temple was to be given much. Were the women fulfilling expectations?Margaret Thompson Mitchell, a British convert to the church, wasn't so sure they were. She first broached the subject of temple attendance in a meeting of the ward’s Relief Society held in February 1911. It was a topic near and dear to Mitchell’s heart, and many of the women present must have heard Mitchell speak on this topic on other occasions. Mitchell “spoke on the importance of temple work. Encouraged all to go.”Ollie Bjorkman, 36, couldn’t have agreed more. She had three children under the age of seven; her youngest child had just turned two. She might have used her children as an excuse to stay away from the temple. But she needed the light and peace the Lord's house brought to her life. Two years earlier, her daughter Phyllis Margaret died at the tender age of eight. Mormons often spoke of the temple as a place where the veil between living and dead was thin. Did Ollie go to the temple to feel closer to Phyllis?“The last two days she had been in the Temple,” Bjorkman told the sisters, “and it was the happiest time of her life. [She] was so glad that we had the privilege of doing the work for our kindred dead.” Towards the end of her testimony, Bjorkman transitioned to a new theme. In the temple, the furniture was immaculate, and children were not allowed to climb on it. The same should not be the case in our own homes, Bjorkman said. She “asked us to be kind in the home, to our husbands and children and to consider no room in the house too good for our children. Always look on the bright side of life.” Bjorkman’s concern reflected the growing affluence of early twentieth century Utah. More middle-class families could now afford parlors or sitting rooms, places where children were not allowed to go.From that point on, the twin themes of temple attendance and parenting were woven together in the testimonies of the women who stood at the meeting. Anna Rosina Shaw “spoke of the sweet influence in the Temple.”Ragnhild Jensen Broberg was a young mother with children under 10. She returned to the theme of raising children, saying that she hoped parents would “attend the parties with their children, and thereby see what they are doing never send them out unchaperoned.” In the early decades of the twentieth centuries, the traditional system of adults accompanying young people to social events was beginning to break down. Young people, especially young women, felt freer than ever to walk the streets unaccompanied. Broberg, 29 years old and only a decade removed from having emigrated to the United States, may have been drawing on the customs she had known back in Norway.The meeting concluded with testimonies borne by the Cache Stake Relief Society presidency, who were present with the sisters of the 7th Ward on this occasion.Rebecca Williams Eames, first counselor in stake Relief Society presidency, stood first. Eames bore testimony of the power of the temple, telling the women she “would like to spend her life there.” Eames, 56, had been a widow since the age of 25. The mother of two grown children, she lived with her aged mother in Logan.In the nineteenth century, most Mormons could expect to attend the temple just once or twice in their lives. They went once for their own endowment, and may have gone again to be married. Beginning in 1894, Mormons were asked to seal all their dead relatives to themselves in temples, forming a great chain of family members who were bound to each other in the eternities. The women in the Logan 7th ward sensed the weight and seriousness of this new expectation. The temple had emerged as a place where individuals went again and again, performing the work for people whom they had never known. The desire of Rebecca Eames to "spend her life" in the temple underscored the Herculean task of doing work for a family line where little or no work had been done. Eames reminded the women that the nature of their work went beyond the dead. “There is also a great work amongst the living," she testified. She went on to ask the women perform the duties typically expected of the Relief Society: “to visit the sick and aged, to be charitable to all. [She] encouraged us to be willing to make sacrifices in this life. We should never speak evil of those placed over us we should never judge for we all have our weaknesses, so we should overlook the faults of others.”Lucy Smith Cardon, stake Relief Society president, was the last to stand and express her thoughts that day. “Teach your children while they are young, for it is harder when they are older.” She spoke from her own experience. Cardon, 57, was the mother of 11 (8 of whom had survived to adulthood). A widow since 1898, she had five of her children still living with her, according to the 1910 U.S. census. Four of these children were in their twenties. One can imagine Cardon having had some difficulty influencing these independent souls on some occasions.“Take pleasure in teaching them to be kind and obedient,” Cardon told the women, speaking of their children. “Respect each other’s rights, and they will make better citizens. If our children are taught to pray while they are young, they will not forget it when they grow up and go away from home.” Cardon was thankful for the teaching she had received at home. Her mother, Margaret Gurney, had left her native England and "come to Zion," as the Mormons called it, when she was a young mother in her early 20s. Lucy, the oldest of Margaret's 16 children, was just a year old at told the time her mother made this brave journey across the plains. My “dear Mother,” Cardon told the women, “left every relative, and embraced the Gospel but was greatly blessed for the sacrifice she made.”Cardon concluded the meeting by coming back around to furniture: “Teach our children to be careful so we won’t need to be afraid they will destroy our furniture.”Source: Minutes, Feb. 9, 1911, Logan 7th Ward, Cache Stake, Relief Society Minute Book, 1908-1912 (Book F), LR 4969 24, f. 1, p. 135-38, Church History Library, Salt Lake City; 1910 U.S. Census, Family Search; Logan 7th Ward Record of Members, Church History Library, Salt Lake City.