Life Sketch of Isabell McPherson Bevan

Written by her daughters:  Anna Speirs, Martha England, Maria Bollschweiler, and granddaughter Mrs. Mabel Speirs Lougy

  Mother was born in Glasgow, Lanark, Scotland on September 22, 1837. The daughter of Hugh McPherson and Isabell Sutherland.  When she was three months old her father died, having been bitten by a rabbid dog.  Not knowing of the Pasteur treatment, he suffered a terrible death.

  The McPhersons were quite well to do and took good care of grandmother and her little girl.  When mother was five years old she married again to Alex Murbrook.  This did not please the McPhersons, so they were quite unfriendly.  Mother told the story of how her mother would take her part way to her grandmother’s home and she would go the rest of the way alone to visit them.

  Grandmother and Alex Murbrook had a son and when he was seven months old, she was left a widow again.  She went to work in the factories, so mother was left home to take care of the baby brother.  The lived in the same building as the Shields family.  Sister Shields looked after the children while their mother was at work.  It was at this time that mother received what was called the gift of tongues.

  She was alone with the baby when she became frightened, so she knelt down to pray.  As she was praying she started talking in a strange language.  This frightened her all the more so she ran to Sister Shields and told her about it.  Sister Shields told her she must have the gift of tongues, but that she should never speak it only when she was in meeting.

  Years afterwards, when she was a young lady she spoke in this strange language at a fast meeting.  Another young girl gave the interpretation of it.  It happened that a very learned man was also in the congregation and he said that the girls had spoken in an Arabian tongue.  This incident interested the man and he investigated the gospel and later joined the church.

  When mother was sixteen years old she and five other young girls whom she knew, decided to come to America to work in the woolen mills in Boston, Mass.  Franklin D. Richards was the president of the mission at that time and he gave each of the girls a blessing and promised them a safe voyage.  Although it was a very hard, long journey, they landed safely.  She worked in Boston until she earned enough money to pay for her mother and brother come to America.

  They then came West with a company of other pioneers.  Mother walked most of the way and as she walked she knitted lace.  She said she would run ahead of the wagons a ways and then sit down on a rock to rest and knit until the wagons, which were drawn by oxen, caught up to her.  They arrived in Salt Lake in the Fall of 1859, and stayed a few days at the Beesly home and then came out to Tooele to stay with the McLaws family.

  The Shields family were already here in Tooele, having come at an earlier date.  Mary Shields was a very dear friend of Mother’s and had married James Bevan.  Mother was very anxious to see the man that Mary Shields had married and one day, while at the McLaws home, Mrs. McLaws called mother to come to the window and see Mary Shield’s man.  Mother laughed and laughed and said, “So that is Mary’s man!  She sure didn’t marry him for his looks.”

  In a few days mother went up to see her friend Mary and got acquainted with her husband.  She stayed and visited there awhile and Mary proposed that mother marry her husband as his second wife.  She said she knew of no other girls she would rather have him take as his second wife, so they were married, having known each other only six weeks.  She and Mary lived in the same house for a long time until father could get her a house of her own.

  Mother had eleven children--six girls and five boys.  Three of the boys and one girl died in infancy.  The girl being a twin to Martha.

  She went through many hardships as did all the early settlers.  Before her twins were born she walked to the Kelsie farm to pick black currants and carried them to pine canyon to sell to get money enough to buy flannel to make a baby shirt.  When they were born and they told her that there were two babies, she said “Oh my, what will I do, I only have one shirt.”  Another shirt was borrowed and Martha was the one to get the borrowed shirt.

  Another time, she worked all summer drying peaches and other fruits.  She and Aunt Mary and Betsy Gollaher took the ox team and covered wagon and all their children and went to Salt Lake to sell their dried fruit.  It took two days to go in because the oxen travel so slowly.  At one place the oxen saw a stack of hay off the side of the road.  They tried to get the oxen away but they couldn’t.  The oxen went around and around the hay stack dragging the wagon after them.  After they had eaten all they wanted, the women finally succeeded getting them back on the road.  They then continued on their way to Salt Lake, having stayed all night by the cave.

  Mother was a Relief Society worker and teacher and did many things of service to the community.  One thing she did was keep a community yeast jar.  Everyone went to her for their fresh yeast, bringing a little sugar, which she added to the yeast to keep it fresh for them.  She also knit many yards of lace and many pairs of stockings.  She was a very faithful and charitable person.

  At one time an old man who said he was a traveler came to her door to ask for something to eat.  She brought him in and gave him a meal and when he had finished, he gave her a quarter, much against her unwillingness to accept it.  As he gave it to her he said, “May the Lord bless you that you may never be without money in your purse.”  From that day on it seemed she was never without as much as a quarter in her purse and seemed to get along better.

  She was a widow for 17 years before she died on September 5, 1909 at the age of 73.  She was buried here in Tooele.  At the time of her death her descendants numbered 144 in all.  Eleven children, 49 grandchildren, 79 great grand children, and 5 great, great grand children.

To return to the H.E. Christensen Index Page, click here.

.