Life Sketch of Maria Wealthy Richards Wilcox

LIFE SKETCH OF MARIA WEALTHY RICHARDS WILCOX

I feel highly honored in being requested to write a sketch of the life of one of the choice women who pioneered the trackless plains and helped in her modest way to build our fine community (Salt Lake City). A true pioneer mother.

I humbly trust I may be inspired to portray a picture that will convey to my readers the simple beauty of her personality, her staunch loyalty to her family, her undying devotion to her duty, and to the righteous cause for which she was ever ready to lay down her life if need be.  My foster mother - Maria Wealthy Richards Wilcox.

This beautiful lady was born June 17, 1827, the daughter of Phineas and Wealthy Dewey Richards, and the sister of apostle Franklin Dewey Richards.  Born of goodly parents she was destined to perform a work that endeared her to hundreds of her sisters in the church.  Raised, figuratively, among the Berkshire Hills, descended from the early Puritans, she carried the manners and habits of that noble origin.  She, with her father's family, became converts to the Mormon faith and moved to Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1843.

The early life of Marie Wealthy Richards Wilcox was devoted to her household duties, of which she was a model of neatness and efficiency.  In school she made such rapid progress that she taught school at the age of fifteen.  She was possessed of a sweet clear voice and became the leading singer of her church choir.  She was married to Walter Eli Wilcox, December 10, 1844., her father, Phineas Richards, officiating with Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball as witnesses.  Soon after her marriage she, with her husband and his mother, Huldah Lucas Wilcox, made their home in Nauvoo, Illinois.  Here her husband built a four room brick house which they were obliged to sacrifice when the saints were driven out of Nauvoo.  As the purchase price of their home they received an old wagon, a yoke of old oxen, and two unbroken steers, worth in all about $150.00.  Their house cost about $2,000.00.  In January 1846 she with her husband and his mother received their endowments in the Nauvoo Temple, the upper rooms of which had been finished for that purpose.  Brother Wilcox worked on the temple until they were obliged to leave Nauvoo.  At a time when the saints were asked to donate of their means to help the cause of the church, Brother and Sister Wilcox and his mother gave all their valuable silver to the cause, as they had no money to contribute.  These were heirlooms of great value.




PICTURE OF REBUILT NAUVOO TEMPLE

In May 1846 Sister Maria with her husband and his mother and niece started on their journey to the West.  When they arrived at Mount Pisga, Iowa a stopping place for the saints who had not enough means to take them to Zion, they found they would be obliged to leave some of their goods as their team could not carry all the load.  Here work could be obtained by those who were in need and their provisions replenished for the remainder of their journey.  Leaving Mount Pisga they arrived at Council Bluffs, Iowa, on the July 26, 1846 and camped at Mosquito Creek.  About midnight a terrific storm of wind and rain came up.  The tent in which Maria and her husband were sleeping blew over and they were obliged to seek shelter in the wagon with his mother and her niece.  It was with difficulty Brother Wilcox got them to open the wagon cover as they were holding it down so it would not blow away.  Here our mother waded ankle deep in mud and water to give birth to her first born child at 5:00 in that morning.  They named her Cynthia Maria Wilcox.

The little family stayed at Council Bluffs for a short time.  Brother Wilcox went back to Pisga for the goods they had to leave there.  When he returned to Council Bluffs he found his mother and niece very ill.  Sister Maria, always the helpful nurse, was at the camp trying to prepare some medicine for them.  Their mother died August 26, 1846, just one month after the storm, from the hardships endured on the journey, a martyr for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  


After the death of Mother Wilcox they traveled as far as Winter Quarters.  Here new troubles awaited them.  Both father and mother came down with fever and ague, from which they suffered several months.  Maria's milk failed, cow's milk was hard to get and what was obtained did not agree with the baby.  The baby dwindled to almost a skeleton.  While they were watching her dying moments they saw Patriarch, Father John Smith passing.  They called to him in to bless their little baby before she passed away.  She immediately rallied and was speedily restored to health.  They sincerely thanked their Heavenly Father, praising Him, for they new their little child had been healed by the power of the Priesthood which had been restored to the earth through the prophet Joseph Smith.  

As a family they, with many of their brethren and sisters, suffered much for the necessities of life.  Their provisions were at one time reduced to a little corn, merely enough for one meal.  They questioned whether to parch and eat it for supper or keep it for breakfast.  Brother Wilcox killed one of his oxen and they and their neighbors were supplied with meat for the winter.  Their luck was soon to change.  Brother Wilcox got work on a flat boat ferry crossing the Missouri River from Weston to Ft. Leavenworth.  At the fort he saw an opportunity to get better employment, being an expert wagon maker.  He applied to the government which was shipping supplies from Fort Leavenworth over land to Santa Fe for the U.S. Army who was fighting the Mexican war.  Here he did his work so well and was so proficient in so many ways, that they called him the handy man of the hills.  At the close of the war he was asked to remain and work with the firm but he felt he should return to his family at St. Joseph, Missouri.  

At St. Joseph, Missouri, sister Maria's second child, William Wallace, was born February 2, 1849.  In the spring of 1852 they had enough money to take them to Utah.  They resumed their journey arriving in Salt Lake City September 13, 1852.  Here Sister Maria soon made an attractive home for her husband and three small children, Ellen Amelia having been born at St. Louis December 18, 1850.

One year after her arrival in Utah she gave her consent for her husband to enter plural marriage, which was then called Celestial Marriage.  When I was a young girl living with mother I wondered at her calm kind treatment of her father's plural wife and seven children, one of which had just arrived.  I could not understand how she could minister so kindly to another woman who had given birth to her husband's child.  I asked her about this and in my ignorance of the beauties and blessings of the principle I showed some heat in my remarks.  She immediately reproved me for my attitude and she explained the necessity of doing one's duty in the divinity of His work.  She concluded with this remark, "How can we become the children of Abraham unless we do the work of Abraham?"  When her son, Charles, was nine months old she took the second wife's baby and nursed it at the breast as its mother had passed on giving it life.  She was indeed a wonderful mother to this child and to every one who needed her kind care and love. 

Maria was a very efficient nurse and she was often called upon to relieve the sufferings of her sisters and their families.  She was faithful in the Relief Society work, laboring constantly for fifty-seven years in this organization.  She was selected correspondent secretary of the General 

Relief Society of Salt Lake City when the stake was organized and continued to fill that office and to visit the various wards of the stake until its division in 1903.  When the Salt Lake Temple 

was opened for ordinance work she was selected as one of the first group of workers being ordained in the temple in May 1893.  She never missed a session except for sickness doing her accustomed work on the Friday before she passed away.  She was very beautiful, even in her later years, with a sweet smile on her dear face.  Her wavy hair lent a softness to her already beautiful features and her voice was like sweet music.  Her council and advice was always welcomed eagerly by all of us.

The following beautiful poem was written by Sister Ruth May Fox and dedicated to Sister Wilcox

A long time ago in the glad month of June,

The month of roses tilting the bough which its beauty discloses,

Fast holding the rose where the sunbeam reposes,

A shy little bud burst forth into bloom.

With modesty blushing, our rose graced the tree,

So daintily, so stately,

Wooing the birds and the zephyrs inately,

Enjoying the favors of older ones greatly,

Nodding and wondering what the future would be.

To a rose fully blown we do honor today,

Of exquisite neatness,

Rounded and full--a corolla of sweetness,

Old rose we call it for sake of completeness,

A life of well-doing drove old age away.

Oh, it was such joy to the roses full,

In patience beholding,

In heart of the bud so lovely unfolding,

Their own failing freshness so greatly upholding,

To watch the results of the seed they have sown.

The dew's on the roses, they are drooping in tears, 

Soft voices are calling,

The petals are falling, fast falling,

On their mother's calm breast - her senses enthralling,

But she gathers them close and smiles at their fears.

The twilight is passing, 

Dear friends gone before,

Are calling, softly calling;

The petals are falling, fast falling,

But the way is not long, nor dark nor apalling,

There roses bloom ever and wither no more.

Ruth May Fox

I have quoted from the tribute published in the Woman's Exponent Vol. 37, Year 1909, Page 35, written by her dear friend, Emaline B. Wells.  In memorium,

No sighs are heard in the shady place

No voices of them weep;

They have fought the fight and finished the race,

God giveth them rest in sleep.

Are they dreaming, the sleepers pale and still,

For their faces are rapt and calm,

As though they are treading the Holy Hill,

And Hearkening the angel psalm.

Sister Wilcox's funeral was held in the Fourteenth Ward Assembly Hall, January 17, 1909, Bishop Elian S. Woodruff presiding.  Professor C.J. Thomas and the Temple choir furnished the music.  The hymns were "Unveil Thy Bosom Faithful Tomb" and "Farewell All Earthly Honors".  The following solos were beautifully rendered, "Sometime We'll Understand" by Miss Edith Grant, "Face to Face" by Sister Lizzie Thomas Edwards and "O Love Devine" by Sister Emma Ramsey Morris.  The opening prayer was by Elder Rodney C. Badger.  The speakers were Bishop George Romney, President John R. Winder, President Anthon H. Lund, President Bathsheba W. Smith and Sister Emeline B. Wells who represented the Relief Society.  The closing prayer was offered by Elder Adolph Madsen.  Elder Horace H. Cummings dedicated the grave.  The beautiful white casket was literally covered with flowers of every conceivable design.  The float "Big Utah" carried flowers.  The pall bearers were her sons, George A. Wilcox, Doctor Charles F. Wilcox, Franklin A. Wilcox and Doctor Edwin I. Wilcox and also her grandsons, Edward Stevenson Wilcox and Walter Arnold.

As I lived with her the last five years of her life I look back and say, "What beautiful character!  What a well spent life!"

(This sketch was written by her foster daughter, Matilda Wilcox Bliss Cummings.)