Brief Life Sketch of Martha Jane Herns

Written by Julia Chappell great-granddaughter: Sources and Information of this life history come from extensive research.

John Boice was born 20 February 1814 in Fredricksburg, Ontario, Canada. He was the tenth child of Benjamin Boice and Margaret Bartley Shuman formerly of New York. On the 7th of June 1835, John married Martha Jane Herns. She too was born in Fredricksburg, on the 3rd of March 1816, the daughter of Thomas Herns and Martha Jane Cronk who were of Scottish origin. Martha became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on the 6th of February 1835, just before she was married, but John was not baptized until the 7th of October 1836. On March 2, 1836 a little girl was born to them and they named her Martha Jane after her mother and grandmother. Their second child, Thomas, was born two years later on 15 February 1838. That same year the little family decided to move from Canada to Kirtland, Ohio, to join with the Saints there. The following year, 1839, the family again pulled up stakes and began the move from Kirtland to Missouri. Somewhere in Illinois, presumably in Barry, the Boice family met some of the members of the Church who, having been driven out of Missouri, were on their way back to Kirtland. The stories they must have heard of the mobs, persecution and violence, coupled with the imminent birth of a new baby, forced the family to remain for a time in Barry, Pike County, Illinois where their third child, Benjamin, was born on the 7th of October 1839. Near the end of the year, when baby Benjamin and his mother were well enough to travel, the family began the perilous journey back to Kirtland. By February 1840, they had arrived at Hudson, Ohio when Martha became desperately ill from quick consumption, no doubt as a result of the hardships of travel with a new baby and two little children, plus exposure to the bitter cold. Weakened by her physical suffering, depressed because of the persecution they had had to endure, and realizing that she did not have long to live, Martha promised that after her death her three little children, the oldest not yet four, would be given to a certain woman she knew who was not a member of the church. Martha had lain ill for days when on the evening of February 13, 1840, she apparently died. Her body was laid upon a bed at the end of the room. Tallow candles cast a restful glow upon the women who were busily engaged in fashioning her burial clothes. A sorrowful husband sat there too. His occupation through the night was to keep the fire alive that glowed upon the hearth and made the long shadows dance in the dim-lit room. The children slept. In the still hours of the morning a voice called out from where his dead wife lay. "John. John, please raise me up." John hastened to Martha's bedside and gently raised her up. She cautioned him not to be afraid, and told him that she had been in the spirit world but had obtained permission to return for a few hours only. She said that she had come back to tell John that she now knew that she wanted her husband to rear their little ones and not the woman she had promised. "But just two of them" she said "for I am going to take one of them with me." Martha also told John that she had made a grave error in allowing herself to grow weary of the Church. She declared a sure testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel and praised God for what had been declared to her by angelic spirits of the Latter Day works. She testified that "Joseph Smith is the great prophet raised up to open up this last dispensation" and was full of joy for being able to return and bear this testimony and rectify the mistake of giving away her children, and "she continued bearing her testimony until her last breath." Those present thought that she would get well, as she ate and slept, and "talked in a strong voice" for the hours allotted to her. That night at 8 o'clock, precisely twenty-four hours from the time of her death the night before, her spirit took flight once more and she passed from this world on the 14th of February 1840. Upon returning from Martha's burial the next day, John found little Thomas "was dying but not with any sickness perceivable." And so it was that on the same day Martha was buried, and on the very day Thomas turned two years old, the 15 of February 1840, that he left this world to be with his mother and was buried beside her in Hudson, Ohio. John took his little daughter, Martha Jane, and the four month-old baby, Benjamin, on to Kirtland. There he married his second wife, Mary Ann Barzee three month later, on May 7, 1840. They received their endowments and were sealed in the Nauvoo Temple on the 22nd of January 1846 just before the exodus from Nauvoo began. John and Mary Ann had nine children born to them, number eight being my grandfather, Elijah Boice. John and Mary Ann moved west with the Saints, stopping for a time in Council Bluffs, Iowa and on from there to Salt Lake City. They were sent to help settle Spanish Fork, Utah, Camus, Utah and Oxford, Idaho. John and Mary Ann were called to work in the Logan Temple. Much of the temple work done for their family members and friends was done by them and their children. John died a Patriarch on March 31, 1886. Mary Ann joined him more than 16 years later on the 7th of October 1902. They are both buried in the Oxford Cemetery, Oxford, Idaho.

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Publisher's Note:  Tuberculosis was known as "consumption" in the 1800's.

Death of Julia Boice

Benjamin Boice and Martha Eliza Philpot

DEATH OF JULIA BOICE


This life story is located in Leta Boice Boutwell’s Book of Remembrance

(Spelling and punctuation corrections have been made– no changes were made to the sentence structure or voice – other corrections will be shown in parenthesis –Linda Fretwell Duchaine – June 2007)

This story was originally written by Julia’s stepmother Samantha Tryphena Brimhall Boice Foley Daughter of Benjamin Boice and Martha Eliza Philpot, sister of John Edwin Boice. The beautiful young woman of whom I am about to write died at the age of sixteen, about two miles south of the village of Oxford, Idaho 10 June 1876.

Her mother who had passed on about three years before had been a survivor of the Hand Cart Company
(Martin Hand Cart Company not sure she was with the Martin company, but this is a historic reference) of 1856. Julia was the oldest of her mother’s eight children whom she was called to leave at the age of twenty-nine years.

One child had gone before her to the other side, leaving a family of five boys and two girls. The Mother had always been frail on account of helping to draw a Hand Cart across the Continent at the age of 13, and her natural faculties had caused Julia to be burdened with many of her Mother’s cares in the raising of the younger children. Although her mother was frail, she was very exacting as to her own appearance as well as that of her house and children. After the demise of her Mother, Julia allowed her energy to slacken and was not so precise in her dress and housekeeping. Tired and listless, one day she lay down upon a day bed and soon fell asleep, and when she awoke, she said that her Mother had appeared to her and as her wont was dressed very neatly as she had always appeared during lifetime. Julia took this as a gentle rebuke for the listless habits which she had fallen into. She also stated that she felt her mother’s hand upon her head as she said: “Julia, You will live three years to help take care of my children and then you will come to me where I am.”

Many of Julia’s friends tried to persuade her that it was only a dream and best to forget it, but she knew and was not turned aside from her convictions. Strange things happen: and after all the many years of my sojourn on earth I have never found a suitable reason to explain why I have become the stepmother of Julia before her Mother had been gone a year. Perhaps it was because I had been raised in a large family and that the raising of the children was the one and only object in life. She was scarcely past thirteen years of age, and I scarcely past fifteen years of age when our relationship began. We were neighborhood children and had gone to the same school, yet she had learned more of cooking and housekeeping while I could take a bag of wool – card, spin and ye it and then weave it and cut and make me a dress. So while she know some things, I knew others, and we got along with the care of the six children. We worked and we played as other children do. I was clever with a needle and loved to make clothes for the children, especially the younger girl Ellnora, who was about five years old, a very pretty but delicate child.

About one year went by quite smoothly until a mortgage long over due on the home was foreclosed, and we were compelled to go out and live in Stringtown, about two miles from the village, where neighbors lived on farms some distance apart and the main highway ran along the east side of a lofty and verdant mountain chain. Here in a one log house with a bowery over the east door the family were huddled to begin life anew.

Julia’s health was on the decline, and so was that of her little sister. The fraternal grandparents had taken the little one to their home and were caring for her and her younger brother. It was here in this room that Calvin, my own first child was born in the month of Oct, 1875. Julia was there, and with the aid of my own mother, I was soon able to assume the duties of the household. Will say here of Julia, that she was a true and honest friend.

A girl of remarkably good sense. She realized the great responsibility had fallen on me in the care of her mother’s helpless children. She had confidence in me and always treated me with respect. The winter months of 75 & 76 fell hard upon her and a consumptive cough revealed the danger she was in. Yet, she came and went with friends and bravely enjoyed the strength she had which she well knew was on the wane. Her bed and mine were on a line with each other on the same side of the room. This was for her convenience for her voice had failed, and she could only speak in a whisper which she knew always awakened me from my sleep at night. She called me “Smantee” as that was a nickname from my school days, and which I preferred the children to call me.

To the neglect of my own baby girl, a laundry decorated the clothes line each day and Julia was kept neat and clean. Just after midnight on the morning of 10 May, she awoke and called “Smantee”, who in turn called her father who lit a candle and went to her bed. She had been stricken with a pain in her heart and needed attention. We arranged warm applications and with simple remedies, she found relief, but not consent to our remaining up with her or even to leave the candle burning. So according to her directions we lay down again.

When I went to her in the morning, I noticed a great change in her countenance and she said: “Smantee,” I am going to die today. I tried to dissuade her, but her features revealed that she spoke the truth. I asked what it was that we could do to please her, then she began giving orders for the coming event. First, she wanted us to send for her Grandmother to come and help give her a bath, including the washing of her braided hair which was to be put on curlers after her demise. Her Grandmother came and her order as to the bath was filled.  Of course, in that neighborhood the news went from house to house of what was going on. Her many friends were allowed admittance only so far as to take a short look at her from the door. After her bath, she had desire to sit in the rocker for a while. It seemed I see her sitting there, composed with her eyes filled with a bright luster as they had never been before, her only answer to the salute of her friends was the peaceful smile which lit her face. When the noonday had passed she said: “I want to go to bed now and want my Grandfather and Brother Hepworth to come and administer to me.” She was put to bed and a conveyance went to bring the desired visitors. They came and she was anointed by Joseph Hepworth and the anointment confirmed by her grandfather Patriarch John Boice. He simply dedicated her to the Lord, and told her she should not taste of death but be gathered to her mother’s people in Peace. After leaving her with this blessing, they went away and Julia said: “Lay me down now, I want to go to sleep.”

She went to sleep while I, with three others, sat outside under the Bowery. But I felt uneasy and with my babe in my arms, I stole softly into the room time and time again. Finally, at about four in the afternoon, she looked up at me and said, “Smantee, I am dying now.” I hailed her Father and two lady friends who were sitting outside. They went to her, she said, “Raise me up.” She was sitting against the prop of pillows. She seemed to speak in a louder whisper than before and left kind regards to all her friends and appreciation of all they had done for her. She spoke of her five little brothers and told them to be good. She requested that her Temple work be done and that she should be sealed to a worthy young man whom she loved. Finally, she looked at me and said, “Smantee, I will tell Mother that you have been good to me, to which I replied, “Alright Julia.” Then her peaceful head lay back on the pillow, and she went fast asleep to awaken no more in this world where we had, had a rich experience in many arts that few of her tender age will ever know. One month later little Elnora died.

Written by Samantha T. Foley

(Samantha was the 2nd wife of Benjamin Boice and after his death she married Andrew Foley in 1899 – she died in 1948

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Some biographic details about Samantha:

Samantha Tryphena Brimhall Foley was born in Ogden, Utah, on 22 March 1858. She was a member of the "community of saints" who settled the San Luis Valley of Southern Colorado, and spent ten years in the villages of Los Cerritos and Manassa. In the Spring of 1888 or 1889, Samantha and her family left Colorado and, traveling in two horse-drawn wagons, followed the Rio Grande to Albuquerque, New Mexico. They arrived in Albuquerque at the time of a diptheria epidemic, and two of her five children died of the disease within a few days of one another. Griefstricken, Samantha prayed, and heard a "sweet small voice," which directed her to study Spanish. She began her study of Spanish while riding on the wagon seat, as she and her family continued on their journey to Mexico. Her knowledge of the language provided purpose and meaning to her life, the remainder of which was spent working with Mexican converts. She helped found the colony of Dublan in the Mexican province of Chihuahua, where she was widowed within the first year. Samantha lived in the colony of Juarez, in Casa Grandes, and in "the city of Mexico" for the next several years, teaching school and acting as an interpreter. She married Andrew L. Foley on 5 January 1899. Their son, Andrew B. Foley, was born two years later. The Foleys returned to Salt Lake City in 1904, where Samantha studied nursing at LDS University. She was certified by the Utah State Medical Board in 1905. As her health was too poor for the practice of nursing, she taught Spanish and worked as a translator. After the death of Andrew L. Foley, Samantha settled in Southern California with her son. While in Southern California, she served as Director of Theology for the Relief Society, did genealogical work, and was active in the movement to include Spanish- taught classes in the local Sunday schools. She died on 5 November 1948, in Rosemead, California.

also written by Samantha:

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Source: http://www.beadmobile.com/family_story_julia_boice.html