Mary Cox Whiting: Angel of Mercy

By Ariel Warren Perry

James Hall, Springville City Marshall, and Mary Cox Whiting Assist the Warren Family

Source: A typed legal sheet that was among the papers of Harriet Lucinda Whiting Jensen b. 1879. Punctuation and spelling original. Typed by James W. Whiting, Springville, Utah, 12 Feb 2013.

 

I ask permission of Hatty Whiting Jensen if I may write a bit in addition to her history. We were schoolchums, the Whiting’s and I.

I was born in Springville in the year 1879. In 1882 I came to Mapleton and later began school. Hatty Whiting was born the same year as I.

I was 9 years old when my brother Wellie and Jessie B. Warren, my sisters Lucy and Myrtle, mother and father were all stricken with diptheria. Altha, five months old and I did not take the disease. We were quarantined nine weeks. No one was to come in and the children were very sick. It was a very hard ordeal we went through. James Hall the Marshall of Springville came to see what we needed. The doctor came once.

One morning Jessie seemed so sick his eyes were crossed to his nose and he seemed to strangle. When I heard someone whistle and ran to the door. Brother Hall had come on horseback. The snow was deep as it was the month of December. I called “Come in quick—Jessie is dying.” He came into the bedroom and asking his name, picked Jessie up in his arms and these are the words he said, “Brother Jessie Benonie Warren, In the name of Jesus I command you to live,” then laid him down again and anointed him. He and father laid hands on him to confirm the blessing. This was at 10 o’clock in the morning. This is one of my testimonies I ever will remember.

We were all sitting in the bedroom overcome with joy to see how improved Jessie was. The Marshall, Mr. James Hall had gone home and about 11 o’clock in the morning we heard a tapping on our window, and I went to see. There stood a lady, — our dear Aunt Mary Whiting. She bestowed kindness to those who were in need of it and must have been prompted by a soft still voice because these are the words she said to me : “Something tells me you folks might be hungry.” We were very hungry, not able to cook and had no bread baked. She had a smile on her grand, wrinkled face. Aunt Mary Whiting was always so serene. I always thought of her whenever I did sing this song “Rock-a-bye-baby on the Tree Top”. The last verse goes

“Grandma sits knitting by the fireplace
Her food on the rocker, a smile on her face
The years have passed by, yet it does not seem long
Since she rocked baby’s Papa to sleep with this song.”

U. E. Curtis’ daughter Leatha taught this song to me to sing in the program at Springville’s Twenty-Forth of July Sunday School Jubilee. U. E. Curtis was a pioneer of Mapleton Utah.

We are happy that Jessie recovered. When he was grown he married Ruby Snow. They are the parents of Burten Warren, Welby Warren and Mable Warren Hansen and a daughter Eveline who died at Salem, Utah. Jessie later died.

Fond remembrance of your dear Grandma Whiting

Your old Chum, Ariel Warren Perry