"I have been reading my journal and feel to thank the Lord that I have passed through what I have."
Diary Five 1856-62
Diary Five
During the years 1856 to 1862, Patty bent her back to her garden and plied her fingers to the needle and the loom in ever more intensive fashion. She continued to give care to the sick and needy through her expertise in midwifery and in mixing medicines, and she shared her hard-earned money and produce for worthy purposes.
But these years encompassed events of lasting historical importance: The Utah War drove the saints from their homes for a brief period. And in 1862 a ferocious flooding of City Creek threatened to destroy Patty's property. In all circumstances, she showed her grit in marshaling her own energies and recruiting help from others in order to survive these and other challenges.
On 16 July 1862 the Deseret News ran a small article from the London Magazine entitled, ''Keeping a Diary." It began, "If a man keeps no diary, the path crumbles away behind him as his feet leave it; and days gone by are but little more than a blank, broken by a few distorted shadows. His life is all confined within the limits of today. Who does not know how imperfect a thing memory is?"
Although Patty's entries are cryptic, she knew what and where and whom. She wrote and noted enough to encourage a reader to discover the details. Who knows how history may be enriched by exploring the shadows within the allusions she didn't trust to memory alone.
Diary Entry: 1853
"He left lice enough to pay me for my trouble had they all been coppers and cents."
Diary Four 1853-55
Diary Four
During the years 1853 through 1855, as always, Patty's days were full of domestic and medical activities. But these years invited her into new avenues as well. She went to dancing school. She attended lectures given by Dr. William France, a convert to Mormonism in England and a doctor of fine reputation. She joined a "theological society." She participated in community concerns, such as petitioning for a transcontinental railroad to pass through the territory. She continued to try to name every person with whom she had contact, although, as the population increased, people became increasingly harder to identify. And she wholeheartedly used her energy to be "presidentess" of a society to aid the poor.
"If I should not live long enough to become famous, this journal will be interesting to the psychologist. The record of a woman's life, written down day by day, without any attempt at concealment, as if no one in the world were ever to read it, yet with the purpose of being read, is always interesting and I write down everything, everything, everything. Otherewise why should I write?"
These words were written by Marie Bashkirtseff in the preface to her journal. Patty didn't exactly write "everything, everything, everything." But she mentioned what we could call everything in passing. What she didn't reveal should fascinate a reader and amateur psychologist as much as what she did.
Diary Entry: 1852
"The heavens gave me light over bad places as my candle went out when I first started."
Diary Three 1851-53
Diary Three
The years 1851 to 1852 were a time of settling in. Patty, always involved in taking care of those around her, provided more than obstetrical services; she also plunged into general health care. The women began a health council of their own, perhaps because of Brigham Young's diatribe against male doctors given in December 1851. He said, ''A doctor, if He had good sens would not wish to visit women in child birth. And if a woman had good sense she would not wish a man to doctor them on such an occasion"
Patty herself was sick more often than usual during this period. She tended to dramatize her illnesses but placed great faith in the power of the priesthood and the support of friends to heal her. And she took little or no time off from work to be sick. She continued to plant and expand her garden. She had her portrait painted and her "likeness" taken. For her, life became more normal, though for the reader, it still seems frantic and too busy. Being busy made up her life and her diary.
Gertrude Stein wrote, "A diary should be instantly in recording a telegram. Also in recording embroidery also in recording having wished to buy a basket. That is it." Impulsively, subconsciously, the diaries of Patty Sessions follow Stein's dictates.
Diary Entry: 1849
"This day will be long remembered by thousands. This is the begining of a new era with us."
Diary Two 1849-50
Diary Two
The Book of Mormon (Ether 2:3) records, "And they did also carry with them deseret, which, by interpretation, is honey bee. " This symbol captured the imagination of the Mormons, as well it might. Their social ideal resembled a swarm of bees buzzing around the same hive. Indeed, the desert they settled came to be known as the State of Deseret. No one fit the image of honeybee better than Patty Sessions. Approximately a year and three months in the Salt Lake Valley had elapsed when she began her second diary, which reflects a flurry of activities in her personal life and in the settlement. Zion was proliferating as an influx of new persons—babies and emigrants—entered the scene. From the first moment any of the Latter-day Saints arrived, they were caught up in the building of the Mormon kingdom. They sought not only to provide for their families but to establish a stable economy for others who were treading the increasingly well-worn trail west.
Local government emerged during these years, but it was not very distinguishable from the church. The place was building, we can visualize, with a fervor akin to a frantic frenzy. Although the severity of the winters of 1848 and 1849 created trials, although hunger proved to be a major foe, the saints worked unitedly to solve their difficulties. Patty's racing entries reflect the energy expended in Zion.
Virginia Woolf, a dedicated diarist herself, understood that mindset:
"I have just re-read my year's diary and am much struck by the rapid haphazard gallop at which it swings along, sometimes indeed jerking almost intolerably over the cobbles. Still if I stopped and took thought, it would never be written at all, and the advantage is that it sweeps up accidentally several stray matters which I should exclude if I hesitated, but which are the diamonds of the dustheap.
This is such a great description of the diaries of Patty Sessions.
Diary One 1846-48
Diary One
Beginning a diary signifies faith that one's life is going somewhere for some reason. When Patty Sessions began her trail diary, she knew she was on the move to an unknown destination. She had faith in God's intervention in the affairs of the church that held her unswerving allegiance. She trusted her leaders. She had faith in the body of Latter-day Saints and particularly in the spiritual powers of the women who were her counterparts. She believed that the migration was necessary. She had confidence in her ability not only to endure to the end of the journey but also to use her considerable abilities to help others endure. Patty gave her perspective of the journey to the valley of the Great Salt Lake with matter-of-factness but enough poignancy to awaken us to her complexity.
“The form [of diary keeping] has been an important outlet for women partly because it is an analogue to their lives: emotional, fragmentary, interrupted, modest, not to be taken seriously, private, restricted, daily, trivial, formless, concerned with self, as endless as their tasks," wrote Mary Jane Moffat and Charlotte Painter, the editors of Revelations: Diaries of Women.
Patty's Demeanor
Patty's photograph shows just how serious she was. She called it a "likeness". That chiseled and determined jawline, the wide, unflinching eyes that stare into the camera without a hint of a smile, the prominent nose. Her face is framed by one of the caps she sewed from time to time; her slender hands that worked at so many tasks hold her needles and something she is knitting. She wears a dress of dark brocade, with a long, pointed collar and a round, hand-crocheted one.
Even though photographs took a long time to take making people sit very still, Patty's stern character is still permanently etched. Her photograph shows one view only, yet her writings leave a trail of information, beckoning the reader to explore all kinds of inexhaustible byways and hidden paths.
Even though photographs took a long time to take making people sit very still, Patty's stern character is still permanently etched. Her photograph shows one view only, yet her writings leave a trail of information, beckoning the reader to explore all kinds of inexhaustible byways and hidden paths.
Importance of Education
Patty was interested in education and her diaries provides information about that aspect of early life in the Salt Lake Valley. Patty took advantage of whatever learning experiences arose. She availed herself of public lectures, was a participating member and leader of the Council of Health established by Willard Richards, and studied the Deseret Alphabet (the Mormon attempt to invent a universal language). Among some loose papers, a small scrap contains a list of dates and two words, "Dancing school." She enjoyed that dancing school and bragged that she could dance with her grandchildren and have fun. She recognized the worth of schools and teachers and even paid to build a school in Bountiful, the Patty Sessions Academy, for her grandchildren and the children of those who could not afford the cost of education.
Patty Sessions Academy in Bountiful, Utah
An Independent Woman
The value of the diaries of Patty Bartlett Sessions cannot be exaggerated. Patty told her tale while she was living it, shifting attention from one scenario to another with little or no elaboration. She was too busy to explain fully what she already knew, writing, as it were, only reminders for herself. Yet she must have had some intuitive sense that her life and activities were historically important. Occasionally she assumed a more literary tone. She freely, fully, and dramatically discussed her ambiguous feelings as her husband David took polygamous wives. Obviously she resented not being consulted the way she would have liked, but she was convinced the ought to accept the principle of plural marriage. Rosilla, David Sessions's first plural wife, remained behind at the time of the exodus from Nauvoo, but in June caught up with the company in Iowa, probably traveling with Perrigrine and his family.
In 1851 Patty married John Parry (1789-1868), a Welsh convert, whose wife had died as they were crossing the plains. Although she always spoke of him with respect and affection, she bemoaned the interruption of their relationship when he took a plural wife in 1854, Harriet.
Actually Patty probably gained more from polygamy than she realized. Always of a strong nature, she became even more astute in her business dealings as she took control of her own affairs. Forced independence helped Patty to establish her success in various ventures.
John Parry
Actually Patty probably gained more from polygamy than she realized. Always of a strong nature, she became even more astute in her business dealings as she took control of her own affairs. Forced independence helped Patty to establish her success in various ventures.
Patty became a strong woman. She became independent and knew how to do things on her own. She "laid up considerable" because she worked hard as a midwife and as a consultant on other medical matters; she toiled at cultivating her gardens and orchards and in selling and preserving their fruits; and she wisely invested in other properties, saving what she made in all her endeavors. She bought stock in Zions Cooperative Mercantile Association, and by 1883 owned shares worth sixteen thousand dollars. She was as compulsive about her financial accounting as about recording her daily activities. Thus her financial ledgers become veritable repositories of information about the pioneer economy. She recorded the costs of delivering babies, of purchases she and others made at the cooperative store she operated for a while, and of items she acquired for her home; the charges for properties she purchased, the rent received from them, and construction expenses; and the value of in-kind payments for tithing. She never made a loan without noting it and crossing it out when paid. She made a record of all her business dealings with her family, including her two husbands. Patty Sessions was a formidable business woman, often seeming just plain miserly. She was not miserly, but she was frugal. She worked hard for what she accumulated. She took care of her belongings and her property. She expected the same of others and a fair accounting such as she offered for business dealings.
The Journey to the West
Brigham Young decided to move the Mormons west, to practice freedom of religion. This resettlement required preparation and planning. Like all pioneer women, before the trek began, Patty had to determine what to take and what to leave and how to pack in the most orderly way. She drove a team for virtually the entire distance, an achievement in itself, but she also cooked meals. And she never ceased to be a midwife. On April 30, 1846 she was called to attend Adeline Benson (a false alarm) and "came home could hardly reach the waggon. I went to bed rested me but could not eat. About noon I thought I could eat some peach pie I had a kettle of coals in the waggon I cooked my peaches on them and by laying down and resting several times I made me a pie went to the stove and backed it have eat some and feel better."
Patty did not discuss particulars about being female in the wagon train. Cleanliness of person and belongings must have been a constant consideration.
At least she fretted enough about washing, sometimes recruiting help for that chore. Almost once a month, she also mentioned ironing with what we recognize today as awkward, heavy irons during the journey from Nauvoo to Winter Quarters and from Winter Quarters to the Salt Lake Valley. Personal hygiene had to be a constant challenge, not to mention the implications and complications of exhaustion from dealing with illness and death and delivering babies day after day or night after night. Dust and insects, mud and wind, scorching sun and pelting rain, and swollen rivers had to be confronted daily. Still Patty wrote regularly during both reasonably good and difficult days for the following forty-one years, a time when her continuing story and the central focus of her life—socially and economically—reflected the growth of Salt Lake City and the Mormon Church.
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