Elizabeth Anderson Howard (1823-1893) Her Testimony

Elizabeth Anderson Howard (1823-1893) Her Testimony

"I Elizabeth Anderson, was born 12 July 1823, in Carlow ,Carlow, Ireland. My father, Robert Anderson, born in Dublin, Ireland, 1 October, 1797, was the son of Lockhart and Elizabeth Webster Anderson. My mother, Lucretia Ward, was born near Eniscorthy, Wexford, Ireland, in 1798, and was the daughter of John and Mary Webster Ward. On my maternal side, I am descended from Quakers.

The New Garden Cemetery in County Meath, Ireland, is the burying ground of many of my ancestors.

My father was a great reformer and poet. Among the poems he wrote was "The Premier" addressed to the Right Honorable Sir Robert Peel.,Bart., written in 1884 Carlow, Ireland. He was a great admirer of Sir Robert Peels "National Reform" and took quite an interest in politics on the Conservative side, though not with bigotry, but full of the love and freedom on conscience in religion and politics, that all persons should be allowed to enjoy. He was a sound philosopher. He took a course in life of uprightness and kindness that won for him respect and esteem form rich and poor. His charity was unbound. A poor person was never known to leave his door unaided. When offered interest for money he loaned, he would invariable refuse, saying, "Usurers would not go to heaven". He lent money for the sake of obliging. He took treat delight in making all who associated with him happy and giving them enjoyment.

The days of my youth were glorious; I had every felicity given me to make me happy. Little books, etc., ect. Part of almost every summer was spent at the seashore, and I never shall forget the magnificent grandeur of the scenes I then enjoyed. I delighted in the rough, rocky shore. I was always pleased when we went to such a place. The smooth shale and fine sand I cared very little for. I loved the climbing. Then the delight in the grand scenery to repay me for my labor of a perilous ascent of a precipitous rock. My mother, watching me many times, fearing I would destroy myself or lead my young sister into the same danger.

My father also took great delight in taking us, and his young friends, to visit old ruins of Castles, Abbeys, and Fortifications and exploring every nook and corner of the towers containing the awful "Keep" or " Dungeon", where state prisoners used to be guarded, and looking through the old port holes in the 6-8 foot thick walls. I recollect peopling, in my imagination, the Grand Drawing Room, and fine old halls with Knights and Dames of olden times in their chains and plate armor and rich old silk brocade dresses, and wondering what became of the romantic and beautiful places on my Lovely Native Isle.

I was educated strictly moral and religious. I was never allowed to shirt from my prayers, night and morning. My mother generally read family prayers with her children in her own room. The servants being Roman Catholics, of course would not come, but when we had Protestants they always attended, I never asked why, I used to think he looked on this custom as a little too religious. I only thought so. I never heard him hint anything of the kind, but I, many a time, heard him remark, when in conversations with members of the different denominations he was acquainted with, that "the religion Jesus taught would be restored again". I looked on him a model of perfection. I also considered him a Prophet, for I will recollect hearing him read for his friends, paragraphs out of what he called "My Prophecy". I don't remember whether there was any religious subject in it or not. The portion I recollect was political. He wrote when very young. He would take it out of his "secretariat" and read the part of it that was fulfilled by some "Act of Parliament" very much rejoiced at his predictions being accomplished.

He was never considered very much religiously inclined, neither was I. I had sense enough to see for myself there was something wanted that none of the Sects that I was acquainted with(and that was five of six) corresponded with the teachings of Jesus and His Apostles. Therefore, I felt inclined to wait for the time my father used to speak of would come. Tho' young when thinking of the "Hereafter", I had the idea that something would transpire to bring to pass what so many of the old Prophets wrote and prophesied about. I recollect that our revered Minister, Rev. Warrand Carlisle, Used to pray every Sunday for "the gathering of the Jews to Jerusalem", I fully believed such a time would come. Mr. Carlisle and my father had full faith in a literal Millennium, not a spiritual one, an many of the sectarian ministers of this present time try to persuade themselves and their valaries to believe in. I looked forward to all these things being literally fulfilled. I gave myself no trouble about them. I felt sure such a time would come, I am amused not when I look back to the time I went with my dear mother to the Methodist "Watch Night". Just before the old clock struck twelve, there was a profound silence, after that, what crying and sobbing. I tried to cry too (lest they might think I was a hardened sinner) just to keep them company, but I certainly did not know what we all cried for.

When 18 years old, I married a strict Methodist and went to reside in Belfast, the hotbed of aranyism. I became a formal Methodist, observing all the laws, attending class meetings, love feast, ect., ect.,, but there was a want in my heart I could not account for. I felt looking forward to something, I had still the feeling of "wait".

Soon after my marriage, my husband joined and was elected Master of Orange Lodge for which I was very sorry. I hated "Parties" and the ill feeling they engendered in the minds of excitable men. I love my birthday, but the fearful scenes and the terrible results it brought annually disgusted me, and I longed for the time when a change would come, then there would in very deed be "peace on earth" and none of this horrid destroying power stalking on the land that was continually producing ruin and death---yet, I participated in gave a dinner to the members of his "lodge", their wives, sisters, ets., then about three hundred persons sat down to partake of the "fat of the land". His next birthday, his Lodge presented him with a very fine Bible- in June 1851, he embraced "Mormonism" and discovering that his religion and anything antagonist to "Preach and Good Will" sis not agree, he sent into his "Lodge" his resignation, which they indignantly refused to accept, and had the pleasure and satisfaction of expelling him, saying "They might as well have a Roman Catholic Priest for "Master" as a "Mormon". All this time I was living very sedately, not much excitement; considerable pleasure; two great griefs, the death of my ten-month old son, and my dearly beloved father, fifteen days after.

I had good help in taking car of my family, which gave me time to read a good deal, a taste for which I was encouraged in by my husband, one of our Preachers, Rev. W. Vance, and our family physician, Doctor T.K. Wheeler. They procuring for me (what I did not get for myself) the standard works of the day. We had, of course, our daily newspapers, many of the leading articles of which, and also of the "Family Herald", tended a good deal to prepare my mind to receive something better than anything I was acquainted with at that time. We had many eminent and talented D.D.'s visit Belfast, especially to preach charity sermons, One I recollect, preaching in "Frederick Chapel" was so well learned in College lore that when coming out of meeting, I overheard one person say to another, "Oh man! Oh man! Wasn't that a fine discourse? I hardly understood a word of it". I thought to myself, there were many fine long words used, and grand oratory, but there was actually nothing in it satisfactory to a longing soul.

I attended many prayer meetings and Revival Meetings, at one time, The latter were held several nights in succession. A beloved young friend of mine, on the third night, received the forgiveness of her sins, as she stated, She prayed and entreated for some feeling to be given her that she know that she was accepted of God. She received it, she told me. " A sensation as if burning came in her chest. It was so severe she almost fainted, but she was sure of her full acceptance by her Maker". She was exceedingly anxious I should undergo the same ordeal, by going forward to the "Anxious Sear", but I firmly declined. I never could be persuaded to go there.

After ten years had passed over, my husband's health became slightly impaired. He was ordered a change of air, to go to the seaside for a short time, tho' in the winter. He went and rented rooms from a Mr. and Mrs. Daniel M. Bell at Ballygrott, bordering on the elegant and picturesque demesne of "C Candeboys", the residence of Lord Dufferen on the shore of the Belfast Long.

The Bells were "Mormons". Having read and heard so much derogatory to them in almost every publication of the period, I warned my husband to beware of them; they were a fearful bad people. I begged him to be on guard, not to listen to them, or pay any attention whatever to their conversation. While there, I went to visit him, and of course had quite a desire to see a "Mormon". I expected they should look like nothing I had ever seen. "I went. I saw", and in six months I was "conquered".

Mrs. Bell was an exceedingly kind, good lady. Mr. Bell appeared to me to be a most extraordinary character. He had a most peculiar method of expressing himself, and in general conversation, mixing passages and ideas from the Bible quite new to me. I would say to him (sometimes as much for the sake of controversy as anything else) "That is in your Mormon Bible, not in mine". He would answer, "Madam, it is in the King James Translation". Before very long, the warning I gave my husband proved futile in regards to myself. I received, with pleasure, the Doctrines and Principles he offered me, He lent me a book called "The Voice of Warning". Such it proved to be. I took it, my Bible, and all the commentaries I could procure and I compared them. The Mormon Books said the Bible meant what it said in regards to laws and principles. The commentators "supposed" that such a one translated so and so, to mean such and such, and another honestly confessed they did not know anything about it, only they would take what such a one said for granted. It still seemed so unsatisfactory to me that I came to the conclusion I had found what I had "waited" for. I had lived to see the days that by Revelation the Principle, Manners, and Customs Jesus taught had been again restored. One principle, among many, I was impressed with was "Baptism for the Dead". St. Paul touches on this in one of his letters. I was delighted with it. I was satisfied. I knew I had found what my reason, my heart, and my soul had long looked for.

The sprinkling of infants was another subject I had often thought about. I did not pay much attention to it. Some of my own ten children were never christened until old enough to be dressed up very nicely and then I gave an invitation to a large company to witness the imposing ceremony. How much more preferable this religion of Mr. Bell's, that required babies to be "Blessed" at eight days old, and be given the name they would be known by forever, and then when eight years old, to be baptized and become members of the church. After that , they were responsible for their sins, not before. There was something to reasonable and consistent in that doctrine that I received it with joy. I also accepted the doctrine of a Personal God. The one great preposterous "Nothing" the Church of England presents to its Votaries as a thing to be worshiped, I could not comprehend. I never tried. But they declare "it" to be "incomprehensible", I forgot that. But the True and Living God is the Maker of Heaven and the Earth, the Father of my Immortal Spirit. I gloried in such a Personage and also in His Only Begotten Son, my Savior.

Principles like these I was quite prepared to receive and could readily comprehend them. I also knew that only through the Power of God could they be known to man, and the more I investigated the principles taught by the Latter-day Saints, the more I was satisfied that what I had long been looking for had indeed come, and in the month of August 1851, I was baptized by Mr. Bell, and from that time commenced living a new life, realizing as I did, that my sins were forgiven through obedience to the requirements of the Gospel. I felt I had a sure foundation on which to build my hopes of gaining Eternal Life and felt willing to forget everything of a worldly nature to attain it. I felt assured I had found the Truth and I was desirous my friends and relatives should also come to a knowledge of it. For this purpose, I took every opportunity of presenting to them the principles I had embraced by my books and by my correspondence, but failed to make any impression upon them, they were so wrapped up in the Theories and Traditions of their forefathers to accept or even investigate the glorious truths which had been once more revealed to mankind, but this did not influence me from following on in the path I had commenced to travel. I felt the assurance day by day that God, my Heavenly Father, had accepted of my obedience and I was quite satisfied that all would work together for good and though my friends turned their backs upon me, I had the satisfaction of knowing that indeed I had made God my friend.

There was one principle associated with the Gospel which gave me sincere sorrow, and that was the gathering of the Latter-day Saints to America. For two days I was much troubled at the idea of leaving my beloved Native Land, the homes and graves of my fathers, my large circle of relatives and friends, and all that seemed near and dear, was a great trial to me. But after that time, through earnest prayer, I received the Testimony for myself that it was commanded by God. I received it as such and felt perfectly resigned to endure the annoyance and privations incident to such a long journey. Therefore, I commenced making preparations for leaving.

During this time, my husband fully made up his mind to dispose of his business and property, preparatory to emigrating, and on the 27th of February 1853, we left our comfortable home and beloved friends for Liverpool, and on the 2nd of March 1853, we sailed from there on the steamship "City of Glasgow" in company with our friends, Mr. and Mrs. Bell, my six children (the youngest 6 weeks old), two servant girls and two servant men. We encountered hard winds nearly the whole voyage."

After three weeks on the ocean, the group landed at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

(Lorenzo Snow, Erastus Snow, and Franklin D. Richards were in Belfast in 1851. William was baptized 21 June 1851 and Elizabeth, 28 August 1851.) [ per Elizabeth's Diary]