The Faith of Phebe
The Amazing Story of a Mormon Pioneer Woman, Phebe Draper Palmer Brown
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Phebe climbed down from the wagon, stretched her back and turned her face to the blue Pacific Ocean. She was forty-nine years old, thin and browned from the months of travail with the Mormon Battalion. She was the oldest of the four women who had finished the trek. But she may well have been the strongest. With them she had cooked, washed clothes, delivered babies, cared for the sick and encouraged the others with her fervent desire to move one. She had felt the pangs of hunger, the thirst for water and the fear of wild bulls. The heat of the sun had weathered her skin and the cold desert nights had chilled her bones. She was still a thousand miles from her destination. But today she could rest and enjoy the warm and comforting sea air. As the waves crashed against the rocks and receded back into the calm waters they were a mirror of the happiness and hardships she had and would endure. Ebenezer left the men under his command and came to her side. His arm encircled her waist and she leaned on his shoulder. They had sent he last of their money north to the main body of the church to help pay for the great migration of Saints. The joy of their arrival was dimmed by the stark realization that hard decisions lay ahead of them. They had few options. They could re-enlist as Colonel Cook had urged them to do, or they could travel northward to the Great Salt Lake Valley with some of the other Battalion members who had been mustered out, which would require them to live off the land and enter the new Zion with nothing to start their new life. They quietly climbed into the back of the wagon where they knelt and asked the Lord to guide them in their decision. Phebe called to Zemira, her sixteen-year-old son who was an aide to Colonel Cooke. He helped her lift down the large pots from the side of the wagon and before leaving to fill them with water, turned to question his mother about their future. Phebe put her hand on his shoulder and said, “We will know tomorrow. The Lord will let us know.” Zemira lifted the heavy pot and accepted the answer to his unvoiced question. He could wait until tomorrow. Mother always seemed to know what was best. Hadn’t her faith saved them ‘til know?
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About the Book
Phebe journeyed over fi ve thousand miles on an heroic odyssey of faith that began after being baptized by the then Mormon Missionary Brigham Young.
After her trek with the pioneers to Winter Quarters she became one of only four women who traveled all the way to San Diego with the Mormon Battalion.
Th en, with her husband Ebenezer, Phebe traveled to Sutter’s Mill to pick up gold tithes to deliver to the Prophet Brigham Young in Salt Lake City.
After this extraordinary journey she and her husband co-settled Draper, Utah.
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About the Author
Beverly B. Thompson is a life-long educator and author of several books. She is retired, but still writing and lives with her husband of over sixty years in Washington, Utah. This paperback edition of The Faith of Phebe is a reprint of the original which sold in hundreds of bookstores throughout the mountain west. The Faith of Phebe is an historical novel that chronicles the life of Phebe Draper Palmer Brown, an early Mormon Pioneer. Her story is unique because after being baptised by a then young Mormon Missionary by the name of Brigham Young, she and her husband trecked with the Mormon Pioneers westward. Phebe then became one of only four women who marched with the Mormon Battalion to the border of Mexico and then on to San Diego. She and her husband were then sent to Sutter's Mill to pick up Mormon tithes in the form of gold and then carried it on to Salt Lake City. In the final chapter of her life she co-settled the town of Draper, Utah which has now grown to a population of over fifty thousand people. A statue memorializing Phebe and her husband is currently erected in the Draper Arts Park.