I have grown up hearing from my Gma Lu what an amazing woman Ann Chatterly Macfarlane was. Gma Lu particularly liked to talk about how Gma Mac took care of herself and her family. Because of this, Ann Macfarlane has always been an inspiration and an example for me.
In my Gma Lu's own words: "My great grandmother, Ann Chatterly Macfarlane, was a very independent woman. And the things she wanted, she worked for. She was like an 1800s woman'd lib. She worked hard and she had a good life and she stayed independent all her life. She died in her eighties, and she was still paying her way, doing whatever she wanted to do. But she, through trading or however she got them, she got some sheep. And she really tended them herself. Bred them, she raised them. She sheared them, sold the wool. Sold what wool she didn't use herself, because she used to make yarn from the wool of the sheep and make their clothes, and dyed the wool the color she wanted with the plants that grew around St. George. And the money she got for selling her excess wool she called her pin money, and that was for her to do whatever she wanted to do for herself. It didn't go for food or clothes or school or anything, it was just for her. And in those early days in Utah, people paid their taxes and their tithing with things like eggs and wool and vegetables and whatever they had, that's how they paid their bills because they didn't have cash.
"Ann Chatterly Macfarlane was John Macfarlane's first wife and during the days of polygamy , John married two other wives. And when things were getting pretty desperate and the federal authorities were after all the men who had more than one wife, John decided that he would take all of his families and go to Mexico. And Ann Chatterly Macfarlane, my great grandmother, wanted no part of that. She said, 'This is my home. I worked hard to have a good home here and
my children and I are
not going to Mexico. You go to Mexico if you want, and if you ever want to come back and see me I will be here. But I will not go to Mexico.' And she didn't.
"She stayed in St. George and supported herself and her, I think, nine children, who all grew up, got families of their own eventually. But John took his other two wives and all of their children and went to Mexico and that was even a harder life than they had in St. George. But my great grandmother did not go to Mexico and when John became very ill and he came back to St. George, and my great grandmother took care of him. He died in St. George, leaving his other two wives and all those children in Mexico. They came back. They had to sell everything they had in Mexico to get enough money to came back to St. George. Originally John had said that Ann, if she wasn't going with them, and she was working for her own money herself, and she did it. She kept her own nine children in food, clothing, and shelter." (transcribed from a recorded interview, 2 May 1982)
In the book,
Yours Sincerely, John M. Macfarlane written by L.W. Macfarlane, M.D. it says of John's departure to Mexico: "It was John M.'s suggestion that Ann accompany him to Mexico, as she had to St. Thomas. But Ann, with the memories still very fresh of the pioneering she had done there, quite understandably declined. In this Tillie supported her, and the two women stood four square. Ann then made a suggestion of her own: 'Take Lizzie. She has little children who need a father. You should have your little family with you.' With this John M. agreed, and so it was settled."
The Macfarlane family. Taken on the morning Tillie and her family left St. George for Mexico, October 31, 1891. Top, left to right: Andrew Winsor, Jennie M. Clark, Sarah M. Mathis, Caddie M. Andrus, William Macfarlane *, Isaac Macfarlane * (holding Heppie Milne), Robert McQuarrie, Robert Macfarlane McQuarrie, John Morton Macfarlane *, David H. Morris. Second row: Aggie M. Winsor (holding Leon), Tillie Macfarlane,
Ann C. Macfarlane, Nellie M. Frost, Annie M. McQuarrie * (holding Irvine), Nora A. Macfarlane (holding Menzies), Front row: Tillie Winsor, Menzies John Macfarlane, Erastus Macfarlane, Ann Macfarlane, Chauncey Macfarlane, Maud M. Judd, Ruth M. Penrose, Clyde McQuarrie, John M. McQuarrie, Lottie M. Worthen, Wallace Macfarlane, Laura Macfarlane, Flora M. Brooks. (from the book,
Yours Sincerely, John M. Macfarlane written by L.W. Macfarlane, M.D.) (*) denoted Ann's children.
Here is a closer look at Ann Macfarlane in 1891.
Below is a copy of a letter that Ann wrote on 19 December 1909.
To see another story about Ann
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Direct line ancestry: Ann Chatterly Macfarlane --> Charlotte Ann Macfarlane McQuarrie --> Ruth McQuarrie Penrose --> Lu Penrose Bond --> Kathryn Bond Berkowitz --> Lora Marshall Nehring
