Annie Hicks Free

For THEY HAD FAITH LESSON BOOKLET (December)

by Lenore M. Ruesch (a great granddaughter)

As an example of great faith, "Grandma Free" has always appealed to me as a very special, worthy person.  She was a handcart pioneer, and she met many tests of faith throughout her life.  To her dying day, at the age of 89, she was strong in faith, never wavering, "enduring to the end."

Her life has always been an inspiration to me.  I have cherished the memory of who was so strong in her convictions; and I am proud that I knew her well when I was young.  Her strength has been a guide to me especially when my own faith has not been as strong as it is now.  I have told my children so many stories about Grandma Free that they too revere her memory.

My daughter a talented artist, has made a pencil portrait of her from the only snapshot  I have of Grandma Free, and guests in our home are introduced to "grandma" via this framed artistic reproduction.  Of all my pioneer ancestors, she stands out above all the rest for her faithfulness.

My mother Gertrude Tan Rock McFarlane. wrote the following comments about her grandmother: "When I was a small child, I remember Grandma Free sewing a great deal and ladies coming to her home to be fitted.  At that time I didn't realize she was doing it to make her living, but later I did.  I knew that while she sewed I could sit beside her and she would tell me stories,, recite poetry, or tell me her own life's story.  She told me much about the Gospel and how she knew for herself that it was true, and then instructed me how I could find out for myself.  As I look back now I realize that she was very sorry for me when Winnie (Gertrude's older sister by 2 years) died, because she told me many times that Winnie was our 'binding link' to Heaven and that I would see her again.  I dearly loved to visit with Grandma and to her dying day I never missed going over there each time I went down home.

In the Old Farmers Ward Relief Society Grandma was secretary for many years and on those meeting days I waited at school and walked home with her.  She had a beautiful voice and she would sing familiar songs.  She was tall and slim and had a dignified walk.  As we came home one afternoon I was embarrassed when the Newel boys called out after her, 'There goes Mrs. Free--Walking on her dignity!' When I told her to go to their mother and tell her to punish them, she said, 'Let's rise above it.'

At her knee I learned much about the Gospel and I am thankful to her for her wonderful teaching.   Many times when she was having Sunday morning sacred hour I went to join her.  She played the organ very well and sang many songs.

Mother (Gertrude Rock McFarlane) tells in a written message which is addressed "To All my Children" the influence of her grandmother's faith on her own life.  She says:

"I was born of honorable and upright parents and through them was born under the true and everlasting covenant.  Form them and Grandma Free I was first taught 'that the Gospel was true', that it was the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that our Prophet Joseph had restored to the earth'.  When I was just a tiny tot I can remember Grandma telling me to get 'the stool' that I always sat on and she would tell me about her life  I seems that I can almost hear her now was she would say, and I quote, 'My father was a sea Captain and he would go away for a very long time.  I never saw him until I was four years old and then when I did see him I was afraid of him, because I thought he was a black man.' (Her mother had told her that he was a black man when she kept asking if her father was like different men she saw on the street.)  He was of very dark complexion and had a heavy beard and mustache which he always wore.

When we ate our dinner mother asked him how he enjoyed it, and this is what he said "Thank the Lord for this meal although it was but small, I could east some more if I had some more, but thank the Lord for all.' And mother said 'damn the man'.

My mother was a Wenlock; her uncle was the Earl of Wenlock.  Father went away again and Mother took me with her to the 'work house' where she earned her living.  It was there I learned to knit as I sat on a stool by Mother's side.  My life was uneventful until I heard two missionaries preaching the gospel in the streets of London.  I loved it the first time I hear it; it seemed so quiet and peaceful.  I embraced the Gospel and was baptized on January 17th, 1855 in the White chapel Branch in London, England...Shortly after my baptism and before I was confirmed my relatives sent me a terrible book against the Mormons, marking it in many places for me to read....

When I heard Grandma's testimony I knew she told the truth and I had faith in her.  She taught me that the Lord hears and answered prayers.  She always said 'the Lord is close by and will protect  you in time of danger.'

She always held a sacred hour in her home on Sunday and we Grandchildren were always welcome.  She dressed up in her best dress and then put on a white apron, then would go to her organ and play and sign religious songs.  Then she read the scriptures.  Those were wonderful experiences to us as a child and it was then I learned to love and read the Bible."

 

Grandma Free influenced my faith too.  When I was a child I remember visiting Grandma Free often.  She always greeted us with a smile and often would tell us pioneer stories and sign with us as she played her little "foot pedal" organ.  Especially do I remember her singing the old pioneer song, whose words still echo in my memory:

"For some must push and some must pull

As we go marching up the hill,

And merrily on the way we go

Until we reach the Valley- O"

Grandma Free truly was a person of much faith even as a child she believed strongly that God would protect her.  Then she first came in the  contact with the Gospel she "loved it", and was promptly called upon to prove her faith.  Her relatives all tried to talk her out of joining the Church.  Her own story tells of this.  A marvelous manifestation came to her because of her faith in God.  She received a direct answer to prayer and she never doubted after that.  In later life when others pointed the failings of even some of those high in the Church, she didn't let that affect her faith.  She said, "People and principles!  People sometimes change, but principles never do."

Once she had joined the Church, she gave it a full lifetime devotion.  She proved her faith when she set out alone, without a relative or friend, to come to Utah from her beloved England.  She broke up with a young man she had planned to marry because he didn't approve of her joining the Church.  She was among those sturdy folks, who lacking funds for wagons, pushed handcarts all across the plains.  She belonged to the ill-fated Edward Martin Company which was the last to reach Utah in 1856.  After a rescue group  to those who still survived (out of 575 persons who started out 135 died en-route) she and the other survivors arrived in Salt Lake City on November 30th 1856.

She tells in her brief writings how she, along with others, almost froze to death on the journey. She claimed her life was saved only because a women chided her into getting some water, asking her if she was going to shirk her responsibility and let "an old women get it".  Even that experience didn't diminish her faith.

When she reached Deseret, alone and friendless, she was given a job at 75 cents a week.  She worked at that until she married my great-grandfather, Absalom Pennington Free, a patriarch of the Church and a member of Brigham Young's second company, which arrived in Utah in 1848.  He had children older than she was.  One daughter, Emeline, was the wife of Brigham Young; and two daughters married Daniel H Wells (Louisa and Hannah).  Grandfather Free was almost 61 years and Grandma Free was just 20 when they were married.

Once again her faith was tested when he had been married only a short time.  The young man who had been her sweetheart in England came across the ocean and over the plains to tell her that now he too, had joined the Church and they could be married.  When she told him she was married, both were sad.  Grandma would not even consider a divorce.  She had given her vow.  She told him to go away.  She still loved him; so the decision was hard; but once again her faith in the Church guided her in her actions.  Her vow, to her, meant what it said and could not be broken.  She had faith that all principles of the Gospel with right and she had made a decision when she was baptized to follow all of them.

Grandma Free had a hard life.  As a child, she worked at the London Work Shop at the side of her mother.  She was poor all her life, suffering  privation such as all pioneers suffered, and the extra suffering that was typical of hand-cart pioneers.  She was a polygamist wife (one of three living at the time), and was left a widow at the age of 40 with 7 children to provide for and only a small farm as her share of her husband's property.  She had to sew for a living.  Yet when wealth and power and social prestige were offered her, she proved her faith once again and rejected all those things in order that she could live in Zion, be amongst the Saints, free to practice her religion as she believed it, and to raise her children in the church.

Her mother was a Wenlock and her uncle was the earl of Wenlock.  Her mother had been disinherited by the family because she married a sea captain.  Proudly and defiantly she went to work in a work shop rather than ask her family for help when her husband was away to sea for years at a time and their money was gone.

However her brother, Earl of Wenlock, died without issue and Grandma Free received official word that she had inherited  the family estates, title and wealth, but she must come to England to claim them.  According to English la, it was also necessary that she live in England.  She would have the title of Lady, English equaivalent of European Countess.  Had she been a male, she would have been an Earl.

Grandma Free surely must have been tempted to accept this wonderful offer of wealth  and power, but she made her decision to stay in Utah and leave her estate unclaimed.  Even after she became a widow and had to sew for a living, she still did not claim her inheritance.  She was proud of her family connections in a way.  She named one of her sons Wenlock.  I have heard my mother say that Grandma Free often said, "When, oh when, will I ever  be the great lady I'm supposed to be?"

To me she was a great lady, one of the greatest I have ever been privileged to know.  Her faith made her great.