Life Sketch of
Jane Clotilda Marsh Pettingill
(1828 – 1904)
Retold By Her Daughter:

My mother, Jane Clotilda Marsh Pettingill, was born on 7 June 1828 in Randolph, Cattaragus County, New York. She was the daughter of Josiah and Sally Powell Marsh.

Josiah Marsh, who was born in Randolph, New York in 1804/5, died in 1832 of blood poisoning as a result of an accident in which his leg was cut. Her mother, Sally Powell, was born in the year 1811 at New York. She was a very kind, self-sacrificing woman. She did washings for the poor and afflicted families, which caused her death on 29 September 1855. Jane Marsh was three years old when her father died.

In a short time her mother married a man by the name of Samuel Ferrin. He was a very jealous step-father who was very strict and allowed her very few privileges.

At the age of twenty-one she married Elihu Ulysses Pettingill on 26 October 1849.

In 1852, the family crossed the plains driving three oxen and one cow. They not only used the cow to work, but they also milked her during the entire journey to get food for their two children, John Christopher and Paulina Clarissa. It was very hard and tedious for her as she had to hold these two babies the entire trip. To read of the experiences of people crossing the plains would give a picture of the hardships they suffered.

They finally arrived in Salt Lake City that fall. They settled in Bountiful where another baby, Elihu Ulysses, was born on 6 March 1853. Her husband ran a saw mill for three years, taking in a few dollars in which they were much in need because the prices were very high. Calico and factory materials were $1.00 per yard, tea was $3.00 a pound, sugar was $1.00 per pound and other things in accordance to that scale.

While in Bountiful another baby was born, a daughter, Eliza Jane on 13 September 1854. They moved to Ogden where another son was born, Josiah, on 24 January 1856. They stayed there two years while my father worked at a saw mill.

The next move was to Willard, Box Elder County, Utah, on 1 April 1856. They purchased a farm at Willard, taking all they had but two oxen and a wagon to pay for it. By this time they were in destitute circumstances as they did not raise any crops the year before because seed grain was so high they couldn't buy any to plant.

In June 1856, another girl, Clarinda, was born. The next year was even worse. My father would drive down to the cold springs were sego lilies grew as large as onions and dig all that would keep fresh and take them home where they used them in numerous ways. This was the only year that sego lilies grew there. That fall they harvested a crop of wheat.

The next year, in 1858, they and all the other saints were ordered to move south because of Johnston's Army coming in to drive them out. This was a very difficult experience for my mother with six children, the eldest just seven years old, living in a wagon and a bulrush hut where they lived that summer. When they came back in the fall, they found a splendid crop of volunteer wheat. Their clothing by this time was nearly all gone, so she took her wedding dress and underskirt and made baby dresses. They purchased a few sheep and they sheared these and made clothes from the wool.

At this time, train loads of provisions were being taken to California which relieved the situation because they were able to purchase some badly needed supplies. At that time there were many tramps passing through on their way to California seeking gold. The people had to feed them. One day they saw one coming and my grandmother said to my mother, "You will have to refuse them." Mother said, "You will have to do it." On going to the door and seeing his hungry looks, she could not refuse him, so inviting him in, she divided her last loaf of bread with him.

Although they were very generous, they never ran out of bread, even in their most destitute circumstances. In all her life she never turned a hungry person away. Her door was always open to the homeless.

Besides rearing her own family, she helped rear a number of orphans to man and womanhood. Among other children, she took a pair of half-breed boys, their father a Spaniard and their mother an Indian Squaw. She cared for these boys for three years, until they were six years old, and then their father took them away. Some of the other young men to make their home with mother and father were Nephi Brunker, Edward Morgan, John Lish, and John Goodridge.
My parents had fifteen children, twelve girls and three boys. My mother cared for an invalid mother-in-law for fifteen years.

My father took a polygamist wife in 1862, Emma Zundel Mallory. To them was born seven children, four boys and three girls.

My mother never knew what it was like to have plenty. Her life was one of privation and sacrifice for others. She was an expert at patching and could put a patch on as nice as any tailor and with her big family was kept in constant practice. Her thoughts were ever to care for the sick and homeless. She had the power of healing as many can testify that she rubbed the pain from their body and limbs. She was a nurse to all her girls for their children. She cared for her daughter Susan for two years and lifted and cared for her until her death in 1887.

She also buried another daughter, Hannah Orinda, leaving five children, one of whom was only nine months old by the name of Ulysses Bronson. He was a job for my father and mother at their age. At the age of three, he took pneumonia and died. This was a grief my mother never got over, in fact it was the trial of her life, as she seemed to center her whole life and love on him. Of all the children my mother raised, there was not a scar or blemish on any of them.

I will always admire her little hands and feet. Her hair at the time of her death was beautiful brown and glossy and very few gray hairs were noticeable. She had great faith in her redeemer. Father died 4 April 1899 leaving her alone as all her children were married.

Jane Marsh Pettingill died of pneumonia on 6 June 1904 at Willard, Box Elder County, Utah, leaving a posterity of ten children living, ninety-eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.