A Sketch of My Mother's Life

By Rachel Clemency Neel
(Deon R. Hulbert's Grandmother - Mother's Side)

My mother Clemency L. Casper Neel was born in Ohio, July 19, 1816.  From Ohio she
moved to Missouri.  There she met my father, John Neel; Mother being twenty years of
age and Father twenty-six years of age.  They were married December 31, 1837.

She joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, when she was eighteen.
She was a member of the Methodist Church before becoming a Mormon.  When a girl, she
worked in the home of the Patriarch Hyrum Smith, which was before they came to Utah.
Mother was a resident of Carthage, when Joseph and Hyrum Smith met their death. The
morning after they were killed, she was at the jail and saw their bodies.  While
there, a man rode up on a black horse, went inside the jail, examined the bodies and
then placed his fingers in the wounds; then asked the question, "Who will be your
leader now?"  Mother replied, "The Lord always provides for his own."

While the firing was in progress, Mother became very frightened as Father was at the
flour mill.  She did not think she would ever see him again and she didn't know when
her turn might come.

In the year 1855, they started across the plains and while so doing, she gave birth
to a baby girl.  At the age of one month she died and was buried on the plains.
Mother had a trying time as all the children had the whooping cough very badly. They
arrived in the fall of 1855.  They went to Ogden, though proper arrangements were
not made, the oxen and two cows died, thus leaving the family in a very trying
condition.  They nearly starved during the winter, but in the spring, Father dug
segos and Indian potatoes for food.  From Ogden, they moved to Union Fort, from
there to Peoa, Summit County, Utah.

Mother was a midwife for almost fifteen years in the village of Peoa, where she died
in the year 1891, March 8th.  She was a faithful, much respected Latter Day Saint.

            Signature of Applicant:    R.C. Neel Bills
            Address:            708 Wall Street
            Recommended By:        Harriet Dyer

Signed in the presence of Samuel S. Howard

John Neel was a Pioneer of 1855, entering this village in the fall of 1855.