Zina Presendia Williams Card

SOURCE: http://www.byhigh.org/Alumni_U_to_Z/Young/Zina-Wms-Card.html

Married Thomas Williams, 12 Oct 1868, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah

Children - Thomas Edgar Williams, Sterling Williams

Married Charles Ora Card, 17 Jun 1884, Logan, Cache, Utah

Children - Orson Rega Card, Zina Young Card, Joseph Young Card

History - Zina Young Card a member of the General Board of Primary Association in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She was born in the old log row, which stood where the Emery Holmes Apartment is now located on 1st Avenue. Here her mother had a room, 12x15 feet, where she taught school. Sister Zina has a vivid recollection of the grasshopper famine, as her mother had a cow, and this was the means of feeding many needy ones, and sometimes her own children went hungry in consequence.

In 1856, the Lion House was completed and with others of President Young's family, Sister Zina and her mother went there to live. She was present at the celebration held in Cottonwood Canyon July 24, 1857, when the news was brought of the approach of Johnston's army, and in company with her mother and two brothers (Zebulon and Henry Chariton Jacobs) took part in the move south in 1858.

Upon the return of the family to Salt Lake City her mother took charge of "Aunt Clara's" (Clara Chase Young) four motherless children. This gave a broad, unselfish training to her childhood, and future years have proven that her mother's "mothering" of her husband's children has returned an hundredfold of blessings to her daughter, Zina.

Together with a number of her sisters, Zina, when quite young, played on the stage of the Salt Lake Theatre and had fond anticipations of becoming an actress, but she changed her mind at eighteen and became the plural wife of Thomas Williams, an employee of her father's office, in 1868. Two sons, Sterling and Thomas Edgar, were born to them.

When her father first called his family together to organize a Re-trenchment Association she at once complied with all the requirements made in dress, etc., and was one of the original officers selected by her father and Eliza R. Snow. She also learned to raise silk and to reel it, and has been the possessor of two fine "home raised silk" dresses.

In 1874 (July 21st), her husband was suddenly taken from her by death, but the presence of her noble parents was a source of comfort and strength to her in this hour of bereavement. She then engaged in making wax flowers and fruit and taught this art to many at home and in the settlements.

In 1878, she moved to Provo, in order that her sons might be under the care of Professor Karl G. Maeser, the beloved instructor of her girlhood. In 1879 (Feb. 12th) she left home for Washington, D. C., in company with Sister Emmeline B. Wells, having been appointed by President John Taylor as a delegate to the Woman's Suffrage Congress to be held there. Upon her return she took charge of the Primary Department of the B. Y. Academy at Provo and also acted as matron there. She was also chosen this year (1879) to fill the position of Stake president of Primary Associations in the Utah Stake of Zion.

Her second son, Thomas Edgar, was taken from her by that dread disease, diptheria, in April, 1881, and, becoming ill though grief and excessive labor, Sister Zina was compelled to resign her position in the Academy.

In 1884 (June 17th), she was married to President Charles Ora Card, and moved to Logan, where she was called to labor in the Logan Temple and also to act as second counselor to Sister Carrie Smith in the Y. L. M. I. A. of the Cache Stake.

President Card was called to go to Alberta, Canada, which country he had previously explored, and had selected a place in the southern part for a settlement of Saints. With her son, Sterling, and a two-year-old baby boy, named Joseph Young, Sister Zina started to journey northward by team, in company with Elder John A. Woolf and family, with their herd of stock. They endured many hardships from stormy weather and other difficulties of overland travel under such conditions. She was met by her husband at Helena, Montana, and they then continued their arduous journey until they arrived on Lees Creek, a little company of forty people, who were the actual pioneers of the Canadian colony of Saints.

Led by President Card, they soon had an ecclesiastical organization and were free and happy—united in their labor of firmly establishing themselves in their new abiding place. As there were no doctors to call in, Sister Card cared for and waited upon some twenty-five cases of confinement, all the patients doing well through the blessings of the Lord.

In the spring of 1888 Sister Card was chosen as president of the Y. L. M. I. A. at Cardston, a position which she filled for sixteen years. The devotion of Sister Card for her mother and the equal devotion of her mother toward herself was unusually strong, and when, in 1888, (June 12th) a little daughter was born, her mother having come from Utah to be with her at the time, the name of Zina was given to the little stranger, being the fourth girl in direct line to receive this name.

The home of President Card and his wife was ever open to the new settlers and also to travelers, as there was no place of entertainment in this new locality. It transpired that many very eminent people were entertained by them, among them being members of parliament from east and west, the president of a Montreal bank, Minister Mackenzie Bowell and President White of the Canadian Pacific Railroad, not to speak of dukes, barons, etc. The lieut-governor of the Northwest Territories with his suite was at one time snowbound in their log house of four rooms for three days, the whole settlement responding to make their stay pleasant. President Lorenzo Snow and part of his family also stayed with them for some time.

Sister Zina formed a dramatic company in Cardston which proved of great value to the people, as it kept them from feeling homesick during the long winter evenings and was also of educational value.

In 1891 (June 9th), Zina Card's youngest child (Orson Rega) was born, her mother again braving the fatigues of the long journey to be by her side.

During the building of the so-called Fifty-Mile Canal Apostle Joseph F. Smith and his wife, Julina, made their home with President Card and family, where they were honored guests.

In 1900, Sister Card moved into her new home, the construction of which she had superintended and paid for, but her joy was of short duration, for President Card's health failed him, and the family moved to Logan in 1903 where he passed away Sept. 6, 1906.

During her stay in Logan Sister Zina was matron of the B. Y. College for three years and later, moving to Salt Lake City, she held the same position in the L. D. S. University for nearly five years. During this time she acted as an aid on the General Board of Primary Associations.

Later she served as matron of the State Industrial School at Ogden and is at present a member of the Relief Society Board of the Ensign Stake, having charge of the genealogical lessons, and is second vice-president of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers.

She died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Hugh B. Brown at the age of eighty-one.

Utah Death Certificate

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Oct 10 2016, 2:54:06 UTC

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GEDCOM Note

GEDCOM Note