Ordinary biographics never have appealed to me very much for the reason that describing men and women's "birth places, family trees, etc.," the writer is always obliged to use a lot of space that might be subject matter of this sketch, but this is not an ordinary sketch, hence our interest in the subject.
Mary Elizabeth Layne was born on Christmas Eve, 1832, in Clay County, Indiana. She came of excelolent Hoosier stock, the Laynes and the Bybees, her forebears, being prominent in early Indiana history.
The Christian names of her parents, David and Lucinda, indiacte that they were some of the good old-fashioned people that James Whitcomb Riley, the Hoosier poet, tells us about in his poems of Indiana life.
The family home of the Laynes was located in the backwoods country, as it was known in those days, far away from the so called civilization and while that home was no doubt sadly lacking in some of the things that stand for refinement, yet there were many redeeming features that were always held in the fondest remembrance by Mary Elizabeth - the dear old cabin constructed by her father. The woods with their wealth of elm and hickory and the wonderful sugar maple, the dropping nuts in the fall, wild cherries, paw paws, and the thousand and one wonders of the undefiled forest that mean so much to a child were there.
In this environment, she spent her happy childhood days that she loved to talk about to her dying day.
A gret sorrow came into her life before she reashed her eighth year; her father took sick and died, leaving a poverty stricken family of seven - two boys and five girls - some older and some younger than Mary Elizabeth, but all of them under twelve years of age.
It was while they were in this condition that a Mormon Elder reached their door and although objectly poor and downhearted, they gladly received him and with consideration, the true and everlasting gospel won. They sold out their farm and with what few household belongings, team, etc., they had, were soon on their way to the gathreing place of the Lattery-day Saints which was then in Nauvoo, Illinois.
Here they went through all the privations, mobbings, etc., so well known to readers of Mormon history. Later on following the fortunes of their people, they arrived at Council Bluffs to made ready for the journey to the valley of the mountains.
It was at Council Bluffs that Mary Elizabeth met her future husband, George Wilding. The Wildings were from Preston, England, being among the first Mormon immigrants from that land. Courtships were usually short in those days, so before the first immigrant's train was ready to start on the long trek across the plains, they were married. It was a happy trip for the young and handsome couple, although their stock of worldly goods did not amount to much, at which they were not dismayed.
Their wagon was not a new one and the team that pulled it across the plains consisted of a cow and a horse hooked up together, but having started on the long journey early in the spring, they landed in the valley in pretty fair shape in the fall of 1852, having been four months on the way.
The winter of 1852 was an extremely hard one and the Wildings had no home to go to other than the wagon box which had been their domicile on the trip across the country. It was in this same wagon box that their frist girl was born in the following spring.
It no doubt would be iteresting to detail some of the history of Mother Wilding's earlier experiences, her struggle for existence under the most trying circumstances, how she raised flax, spun it, wove it into cloth from this same cloth made her own and her husband's underwear as well as dresses for the children. How, with a few pounds of brand and shorts, together with roots and thistles which she dug with her own hands, kept the wolf from the door until her husband reaped the first little harvest of grain. How, from her scanty fare she helped feed hungry immigrants who settled in her neighborhood until they could be better provided for. How she did many other things that only heroines, such as she, would have done, but space will not permit; suffice it to say that she was one of God's noble women, played the part of a heroic soul when called upon to make the many sacrifices that our pioneer women were obliged to make in early days of Utah history.
In the years that followed, Mrs. Wilding took an active part in all of those things that our Mormon mothers are noted for - faithfulness to duty, taking care of the sick and the afflicted; feeding the hungry, etc., in short, being a real mother in Israel. But it was in the home that she appeared to best advantage.
Her home life was ideal. As an entertainer, she had few equals. She was happiest when all of her children were gathered around the big family table partaking of the bounties of life with which it was always so generously laden.
She was exceptionally kind and thoughtful of the wants of little children, considerate of every one who lived in her neighborhood, in fact, if there was ever a person that observed the injunction of he Master when he said, "Love thy neighbor as thyself," it was Mother Wilding.
Of her seven daughters and granddaughters, whose pictures make up the beautiful group of ten, around which this brief sketch is written, the same splendid thing may be said, because they are all exceptional women. Most of them have taken more or less pominent parts in the buildings of the state.
They have been willing to assume responsibilities of motherhood and all tha name implies. In their respective wards they have been active in both church and social work, and in their family life, have followed the pattern of their Mother to which their host of friends will testify. They are a whole souled, splendid group of women of which any one or any community might be proud.
Prepared by Stephen H. Love
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