General Notes

Also Known As:<_AKA> Polly
Married Name:<_MARNM> Dansie
Cause of Death:<CAUS> Myocarditis
SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF PAULINA SILCOCK DANSIE
Born October the Fourth, Eighteen Hundred and Sixty-One
Written by her in different periods of time.

I was born of goodly parents them being true Latter Day Saints, who were converted in England and moved to Nauvoo, Illinois and went through all the persecutions of the Saints in the early days.

My Father being a very good carpenter helped to build the Kirkland and Nauvoo Temples, was one of the Prophets body guards, therefore he was very closely connected with the Prophet Joseph Smith and knew lots of wonderful things that pertained to his life.  He was living in Nauvoo at the time the Prophet and his brother were killed.  But the work of the Lord progressed and the Saints moved to the West and settled in Salt Lake City, Utah.  For a short time my parents moved to Grantsville, Tooele County, Utah and there I was born.

I was about two and a half years old the first I can remember was the scare with the Indians.  We were compelled to move to Sam Green's place, he was a batchelor that lived about a mile from our place.  Father was working at his trade in Salt Lake City, and Mother and family lived in one room log house and large cellar, which we had for a kitchen and for general work room.  Brother Green came down and moved us all up to his place.  He had two large rooms, but no furniture.  We made our beds on the floor and got along just fine, as the scare only lasted about two weeks and then we all went home again.

There was no schools to go to learn so Mother taught us our alphabet and how to read and write and was always kept busy.  Father built us a loom and everything that went with it.  Big, little, tiny had to help.  My sister Sarah and I had to stand at the spinning wheel and make spools to put in the shuttle that the one that wove used to make the cloth.  When I was about five I was taken very sick and I did not know anything for days.  The fever was dangerously high and the first I remember was Mother had hot rocks placed around me to make me sweat which surely did quick work.  When I awakened I was terribly billious.  The substance that was removed from my stomach was about as long as my finger and as large around as my thumb, hard and dark green.  Mother thought I must have swallowed it sometime and that was what made me so sick.   I soon got well after that.

About that time Father made we children two large sleighs and there was a very steep hill where we lived.  We used to coast down putting on as many as the sleigh as possible and would go possibly a half mile or across the meadows.  We thought this a very fine sport and were thrilled with excitement.  It used to take about all morning for the trip going up was such a long walk, but just a few minutes to come down.  This is the way we used to spend our long winters.

When Father came home he would take us out to a pond that was as slick as glass and taught us to slide, as there were no skates in those days.  In time we got so we could go all across the pond and not fall.  We enjoyed that a great deal too.

When summer came I had to take care of the cows and I had to stay out with them most of the time to keep them from crossing the Jordon River, as some of the people that lived in Draper had farms on the otherside.  I also had to bring the cows in for noon and to rest awhile.  I had a real good time, I just lived in nature and had the birds and animals and all kinds of things for pets.  I used to talk to them and they seemed to know me.  I knew them and we had good times together.  I would get in the shade of the willows, as much as I could and when I got tired of hunting birds nests I would set down and sing and all the birds would come and sing and that made me happy as I just loved them all.  Every year came and went in about the same way.  But one of our best cows got on top of our coasting hill and los