Rachel Cook Drollinger - Muddy Mission

Rachel Cook Drollinger - Muddy Mission

Rachel Cook Drollinger was not only known for her faith and generosity, but also her skills with cloth, weaving and sewing. That specific talent came to the attention of Brigham Young who called people with special skills to help in settlements.

While serving as Relief Society President in Payson, Utah for about ten years, in 1866 at age 68, she received a call from Brigham Young specifically to help in the Muddy Mission. She was sent to help teach them how to spin cotton into skeins, and weave cloth. She had this knowledge and experience. When she left for the Muddy Mission, the Relief Society in Payson was suspended for the time she was gone.

The Muddy Mission (modern day Logandale and Overton, Nevada, in the area of the Virgin River, between Mesquite and Las Vegas) was extremely difficult. It was abandoned in 1871 when state boundary lines clarified it was in Nevada.(It is now covered by water from Lake Mead.) Far from being a weak, frail widow to be protected and looked out for, the prophet sent her to one of the toughest, most discouraging areas in the Church to help out the younger folks, to teach them how to make fabric for clothing. (Fashion was not a priority in the Muddy. The women thought they were very well off if they had two dresses- an extra to wear while the one was being washed- a value Grandma helped install?)

Rachel not only helped in spinning and weaving cloth, but she was a kind and compassionate care giver. She had these skills as a Relief Society president. She had a lot of experience in dealing with tough things. She had faced devastating losses, including having an infant die, and losing her young husband and a child to typhoid fever in Missouri. She had to deal with the mobs driving the Saints out of Nauvoo. She crossed the plains. She didn’t stop and feel sorry for herself and wait for people to help her. She settled in Payson and started up a Relief Society there.

Grandma probably was someone who would sit beside you and hold your hand when the river swept away your crops, or the sun baked them dry, or your baby died from illness, or your children cried because they were hungry. She knew what it was like to be sent by the prophet to a forsaken piece of desert. She understood. She knew hurt and struggle. She would know what to say, or not say.

So Rachel Cook Drollinger was Brigham Young’s specially assigned helper for the Muddy Mission Saints. She fulfilled her assignment (no surprise there), going there in 1866, at age 68, and then returned to Payson, where she helped them get the Relief Society going again.

Compiled by Ralph C. Miller ggg grandson 16 August 2020 from the books, Experiences of Payson Pioneers pages 186-187 and The Birth Of A Town, Payson, Utah page 55 by Ivan Y. Haskell, 1998-1999