Martha Matilda McGill Nelson - Life Story Part Eleven

Martha Morgan:A Journey to Zion

Story by Allen Morgan Kendall

Joys and Sorrows

Martha Morgan was true to the faith she had embraced in Scotland, and for which she had sacrificed so much, to the end of her life. As with all who seek for a Zion, her faith was surely tried: tried by noble plans that somehow failed to be realized in spite of every possible effort; tried by the nature of dear ones who probably failed to rise to their divine potential in this life.

She must have been disappointment to learn of the excommunication from the Church of her brother John Nelson in 1874. John had served well in the church in Scotland, emigrated to Utah and settled in Cache Valley becoming very wealthy through his abilities. However, he had failed to give heed to a statement of President Brigham Young. Brother Brigham said,

“The worst fear that I have about this people is that they will get rich in this country,

forget God and His people, wax fat, and kick themselves out of the Church...”

John Nelson

John Nelson Mansion in Logan, Utah

John pretty much fulfilled the prophetic statement to the letter. Martha's sorrow would have been multiplied had she heard of the escapades of John's son, who became the infamous “Black Jack” Nelson, a notorious cattle rustler and stagecoach robber in 1880's southern Idaho.57

John and Catherine Williamson Nelson

Black Jack is the one seated on far left.

But disappointment must have come closer to home when her son James was excommunicated on 10 Aug 1901. Levan Ward records show the charge of “neglect of duty, unbelief, and contempt” being leveled against him and 10 other Levan men, for which they were cut off from church fellowship.58 Martha and James lived under the same roof for 5 years with this little rain cloud probably never very far away. Happily, James was reinstated before the end of his life (but not Martha's). He was again ordained to the office of Elder by his brother John on 28 January 1917, about a year before his death.59

A Life in Review

All things considered, Martha had much for which to rejoice as her mortality came to a close. She still possessed in her heart the conviction of an ideal which had sustained her through persecution, the crossing of an ocean, and the walking of a continent. She had escaped a social system which had held her forefathers captive for centuries, and was now enjoying the benefits of the rich heritage her late husband had bequeathed her: land of her own, and strong sons to work it. And she must have smiled kindly as she observed the majority of her children following the trail she and William had blazed, notwithstanding their shortcomings.

Martha Morgan had found her Zion.

Martha Matilda Nelson Morgan died the day after Christmas at 6 pm in the year 1906 . Her oldest living son Edward was present from Beaver and acted as the informant as the death certificate was duly filled out. The cause of death: old age. She had lived for 82 years, 1 month and 7 days.60  She was laid to rest in the Levan cemetery, next to her husband, whose absence she had quietly endured for 30 years. The grave of her daughter Jane was very near.

Today, the grave site is distinguished by a marker, stately and slate gray. It reminds us of the names of those whose remains wait there, and the duration of their lives. And it offers us this warm reassurance, engraved permanently in the stone and framed neatly in palm leaves, the symbol of eternal life: “The faithful are certain of their reward.”

Sources:

57. A. J. Simmonds. The Gentile Comes to Cache Valley: A Study of the Logan Apostasies of

1874 and the Establishment of Non-Mormon Churches in Cache Valley, 1873-1913. Logan:

Utah State University Press, 1976. p. 79-82.

58. Records of Levan Ward.

59. ibid.

60. Utah Death Certificates, 1904-1956. FamilySearch. Www.familysearch.org. Martha M.

Morgan.