Emily Dow Partridge was born the third daughter to Edward Partridge and Lydia Clisbee on February 28, 1824 in Painesville, Geauga County, Ohio. Her father was a well to do hatter and provided a comfortable home for his family.
In her autobiography (1), she states that the family had a vegetable cellar “which was sometimes used for shutting up the children when they needed punishing… I do not remember ever being shut in there myself, but if I was not, it was because I was not old enough, not because I did not deserve it; for I was the most mischievous of the whole flock.”
The children had ample room to roam and play, yet young Emily used to “run away to the neighbors’ and then I would be brought back and tied up to my mother’s bedstead with a long rope that would reach to the sitting room… But they would not keep me tied up always, so I would be off again.” (1)
“I think I must have had a rummaging disposition for I remember every nook and corner of the house, store, shop and from garret to cellar, inside and out… I remember we had plenty to eat and wear and would sometimes ride in a spring wagon and I wore the sweetest pink calico dress that ever was, and little yellow shoes.”
“Well I think my father must have been almost a rich man when I look back and consider the amount of property he owned. But when "Mormonism" came, our home went (whether it was sold or not, I do not know.) And I have never had such a home since…”
The family was converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1830. Emily’s mother was quick to accept, but her father was a little more hesitant. He studied the matter out and then was baptized by the prophet, Joseph Smith, in the Seneca River in December 1830.
After their conversion, the Partridge family gathered with the Saints to Kirtland, despite strong criticism from friends and family back in New York. While living three miles outside Kirtland, “some of the Saints stopping at our house, brought the measles and mother's children all took them… When I was recovering from measles, I took the canker, and could not eat for a long time. I well remember the day I could eat a little custard. Oh! how good it was. Mother had company that day and how nice the table looked with the old-fashioned blue and white china. Well, my mouth got well, but my ear was sore for years and I can't tell you how I suffered with it both from pain and mortification of pride. When my ear did get well, it left me deaf and I have been deaf (in that ear) ever since.” (1)
The family then gathered to Independence, where they rented a room from Lilburn W Boggs (the same governor who later took an active role in driving the Saints out of Missouri). The following winter, they took in a widow and four children into the room, making twelve or thirteen people living in that simple room. Eventually, they built their own home in Independence and the children were able to attend the newly constructed schoolhouse.
It wasn’t long before mob persecutions made life unbearable. “Children had heard so much about the mob that the very word was a perfect terror to them. They would often cry out in their sleep and scream, ‘the mob is coming, the mob is coming.’”
“In the summer of 1833, my youngest brother was born. When he was about three weeks old, mother sent me with Harriet to the spring for water, when I looked back and saw the house surrounded by an armed mob. We remained at the spring until they had gone. Then we got our water and went up to the house. They had taken father up to Independence. We did not know what they were going to do with him; it might be kill him, as they had threatened. He had been put in prison once or twice before. After he had been gone awhile I was standing by the window looking the way the mob had gone, thinking of father, when I saw two men coming towards the house. One I knew. It was Albert Jackson, a young man. He was carrying a hat, coat, and vest. The other I thought was an Indian, and as they were coming right to the house, I was so frightened that I ran upstairs. When they came in, it was our dear father who had been tarred and feathered, giving him the appearance of an Indian. They had done their work well for they had covered him with tar from head to foot except his face and the inside of his hands. I suppose hundreds witnessed the outrage. I have heard one woman affirm that she saw a bright light encircle his head while the mob was tarring him... I remember blankets were hung up around the fireplace to screen him while the tar was being scraped from him.” (1) The narrative continues on, describing in detail all the Saints suffered during those times. To read the full account, see Note 1 below. Said Emily, “As the heart sickens at the recital, how much more at the picture!”
During this time of persecution, Emily was baptized and eventually the family removed to Clay County, then to Caldwell County, where her father was imprisoned and, after being released, “was compelled to flee from his family and home. Mother, soon after, put what she could of her effects into a wagon and, with her family, started for--well, anywhere out of the state of Missouri.” (1) They were exiles and homeless once again, in the freezing cold of winter.
“How mother managed to live I cannot tell; only the Lord did provide.” (1)
They found a temporary home in Quincy, Illinois and then moved to Pittsfield, Commerce, and finally, Nauvoo.
Nauvoo “was very unhealthy, and nearly everybody there was sick; so much so that it was hard to find well ones enough to care for the sick, or bury the dead,” so Edward sent his daughters off to help care for the sick. The girls helped as many as they could until they ended up falling sick and remained so for several weeks until “Brothers Young and Kimball called at our tent. They were just starting on a mission, and they administered to us, when the fever broke, and we were much better, but we did not get our strength.” (1) They fell ill again shortly after with the “shaking ague.”
“Father had the chills and fever, but he felt so anxious to build a house for his family, which had to be done mostly by his own labor, that he felt he could hardly spare time to be sick, so he would take quinine and break up the chills for a week or two, so that he could labor on his house, and when the chills returned he would take more quinine and go to work again; but he saw that it would take a long time at this rate to get into his house, so he concluded to build a stable for his cows and move his family into that; but moving was the last thing he ever did in this life. He died on the 27th of May, 1840, in his forty-seventh year. My sister Harriet died a few days before, in the store house, on the 16th of May, 1840, in her nineteenth year.” (1)
Poverty and privation made it necessary for Eliza and Emily to seek work outside the home to help support the family.
“Eliza had learned the tailor's trade while in Far West, and was a good seamstress; she had no difficulty in obtaining work; but I, what could I do? I had learned to wash dishes, to sweep and scrub a puncheon floor, and such like things, and the only chance that seemed to be for me was to go out to work. We would think and talk upon this subject day after day, and I think I cried a little, for the thought of having to leave home to me was terrible. While things, with us, were in this condition, Sister Emma sent for me to come and live with her and nurse her baby. It seemed as if the Lord had opened up my way, it was so unexpected, and nothing could have suited me better, for tending babies was my delight. My sister Eliza also went there to live, which made it pleasanter for me and more home-like. Joseph and Emma were very kind to us; they were almost like a father and mother, and I loved Emma and the children, especially the baby, little Don Carlos.”
“The first intimation I had from Brother Joseph that there was a pure and holy order of plural marriage, was in the spring of 1842… I was married to him on the 11th of May, 1843, by Elder James Adams. Emma was present. She gave her free and full consent. She had always up to this time, been very kind to me and my sister Eliza, who was also married to the Prophet Joseph Smith with Emma's consent; but ever after she was our enemy. She used every means in her power to injure us in the eyes of her husband, and before strangers, and in consequence of her abuse we were obliged to leave the city to gratify her, but things were overruled otherwise, and we remained in Nauvoo. My sister Eliza found a home with the family of Brother Joseph Coolidge, and I went to live with Sister Sylvia Lyons. She was a good woman, and one of the Lord's chosen few. Emma, about this time, gave her husband two other wives--Maria and Sarah Lawrence.”
After the martyrdom of Joseph Smith, Emily was sealed for time to President Brigham Young in September 1844. They had one son while in Nauvoo before being driven from their home by mobs once again. “On one occasion, she sat for several hours on a log with a young babe, three months old, exposed to the pitiless blast of a blinding snow storm, cold and hungry; but the Lord tempered the elements and preserved her life and that of her little one.” (2)
Emily lived one winter at Mount Pisgah, Iowa, and another at Winter Quartes, Nebraska before arriving at last at the Salt Lake Valley in 1848. In all, Emily and Brigham had seven children together.
Once the Salt Lake Temple was completed, Emily anxiously engaged herself in doing temple work for her dead. Her obituary states, “for several years past and whole her health allowed her so to do, she was one of the most faithful and zealous workers in the Temple. [She] was highly esteemed and always took keen pleasure in the thought that she had so many grandchildren and great-grandchildren - there being over forty of the latter.” (3)
She was remembered by Susa Young Gates as follows:
“There was Aunt Emily Partridge in whom no more sainted heroine ever came into father’s family. If she had ever had an irritable mood, or entertained an ignoble thought, it must have passed too quickly for utterance; for the calm serenity of her life was unmarred by humanity’s usual explosions. Her room, her home atmosphere, was that of peace and motherly solicitude for all who came near.” (4)
She was also described as, “rather slim in person, but tall in stature, is of dark complexion, but good looking, and very intelligent.” (2)
She died in December of 1899 at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Emily Clawson. (3)
Notes:
1 - Emily Dow Partridge Smith Young, Autobiography, typescript, HBLL. http://www.boap.org/LDS/Early-Saints/EmPart.html
2 - Pictures and Biographies of Brigham Young and His Wives. James Cockrell - publisher.
3 - Obituary of Emily Dow Partridge Young. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/37800101/obituary_for_emily_dow_partridge/
4 - Susa Young Dunford Gates in her biography of and with her mother, Lucy Bigelow Young