Emma Lee French
| French, Emma Lee | |
|---|---|
| Emma Louise Batchelor Lee French | |
| Personal | |
| Nationality | British |
| Born |
April 21, 1836 Uckfield, East Sussex, England |
| Died | November 16, 1897 |
| Resting place | Winslow, AZ |
Emma Louise Batchelor Lee French (April 21, 1836 – November 16, 1897), better known as Emma Lee French, was an English woman, born in Uckfield, East Sussex who travelled to Utah and Arizona, in the United States, where she became well known as a carer for the sick.
After being converted by the Mormons, Emma Lee arrived in Chicago from England, then headed to Iowa, where she pushed a cart filled with goods given by her church and headed to Salt Lake City, Utah. She pushed the cart herself for the entire 1,400 mile walk, as one of the many Mormon handcart pioneers.
She joined a company of her church's members for that trip, of which 150 died during snowstorms. Many others suffered other illness, such as frozen feet, noses and other diseases. Emma Lee helped care for them, eventually leading to most of them having a full recovery. During the trip, she also served as midwife to a pregnant woman, carrying her in the cart as the woman was close to delivering.
Upon arriving in Salt Lake City, she worked for seven years as an indentured servant to pay for her trip from England. Afterwards, she met John Doyle Lee, a prominent man among Latter-day Saints members. Brigham Young himself married the couple on January 7 of 1858.
John Doyle Lee is said to have participated in a of California immigrants (see: Mountain Meadows massacre) that left 140 people dead. For this, John and Emma Lee were followed by federal marshals for about twenty years. At one time JohnLee was tried but was freed after a hung jury. In 1868, George Hicks, a columnist from Harmony, Utah, wrote in a local newspaper that the Lees had to leave town in ten days or John would be hanged.
Emma then spoke personally with George Hicks, warning him not to keep making threats against her and her husband. Hicks relented, never speaking against the Lees on his column again. He did, however, complain about the Lees to the town's Bishop, who proposed that Hicks and Lee should be baptized together. Emma Lee agreed, but not without complaining; she told the bishop she'd do it "seeing that (the bishop) are so inconsiderate as to require a woman to be immersed when the water is full of snow and that too for defending the rights of her husband". She continued on, saying: "Perhaps if (the bishop's) backside gets wet in ice water (he) will be more careful how (he) decide again". Impressed by her speech, the bishop then agreed not to go on with the baptism.
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