Daughter of Russell Kilburn Clark and Elizabeth Towne

Married Thomas Callister, 16 Dec 1845, Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois

Children: Margaret Jane Callister, Isabella Callister, John Warren Callister, Sarah Melissa Callister, Catherine Eliza Callister, Russell Kilburn Callister, Elizabeth Ann Callister, Susan Delilah Callister, Zina Precenda Callister, Thomas Clark Callister, Helen Marr Callister, Daniel Porter Callister

Helen was born July 17, 1829, on a farm in Onondaga County, State of New York. Her father died when she was but two years and two months old. She was married to Thomas Callister December 16, 1845, by John Smith, uncle of the Prophet Joseph Smith. On the 10th day of February, 1846, the family crossed the Mississippi river on its journey to the Rocky Mountains and spent the first winter at Winter Quarters where, on September 26th, their eldest daughter, Helen Mar, was born in a wagon. On the 9th day of June, 1847, the family resumed its journey westward and reached the Salt Lake Valley September 25, and spent its first winter in the "Old Fort" on Pioneer Square.

In the spring of 1848 with her husband and two small children she removed, to their farm on Mill Creek, and for three months subsisted upon, a scanty ration of milk with thistle greens, and day after day witnessed the heart-rending scene of her eldest child crying herself to sleep pleading for bread when none could be had. Pursuant to a call by President Brigham Young, the family removed to Fillmore, in 1861, where her husband had been called to preside. Here she was prominently identified with the Relief Society, over which she presided for many years, freely giving of the best efforts of her life in alleviating the sufferings of the poor and distressed.

Her husband died on the 1st day of December, 1880, leaving to her tender care the rearing of her large family, but with indomitable courage she bravely battled through these many years of widowhood, always admonishing her children to lives of purity and faithful labor in the service of the Lord, in whom she has confidently trusted.

In the 84th year of her age, although crippled by a fractured hip, she is comparatively hale and hearty and rejoices in the many testimonials which she has received of the truthfulness of the everlasting Gospel, and of the divine mission of the Prophet Joseph Smith, with whom she was intimately acquainted.

Her posterity, numbering two hundred and seventeen, is as follows: Twelve children, Helen Mar, Elizabeth Ann, Catherine Eliza, Thomas Clark, Sarah Melissa, Isabella, Margaret Jane, Daniel Porter, Russell Kilburn, Susan Delilah, John Warren and Zina Prescinda; seventy-six grandchildren, one hundred and twenty-five great grandchildren and four second great grandchildren.

She has always been a consistent Latter-day Saint and her devotion to the work of the Lord will be a beacon light to her posterity for all time.

Jas. T. Jakeman, Daughters of the Utah Pioneers and Their Mothers, p. 104