 1822 - 1894 (71 years)
Set As Default Person 
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| Name |
Frances Jessie Swan |
| Birth |
20 Jun 1822 |
Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland  [2] |
| Gender |
Female |
| _UID |
5D0C1529EAFE1046B352BD8F1375ACDD47A6 |
| Death |
30 May 1894 |
San Francisco, California, U.S.A. |
| Person ID |
I145 |
Watson Clan Tree |
| Last Modified |
30 Jul 2011 |
| Family 2 |
 Heber Chase Kimball, b. 14 Jun 1801, Sheldon, Franklin, Vermont d. 22 Jun 1868, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, USA (Age 67 years) |
| Marriage |
30 Sep 1844 [2] |
| Divorce |
7 Dec 1851 |
| _UID |
B876A3EC7C413D4A8CA8BB1190C02C70EDDE |
| Children |
|
| Family ID |
F194 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Last Modified |
30 Jul 2011 |
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| Sources |
- [S98] Misc Websites (Reliability: 1).
Secrets from the Research Library
Thursday, October 12, 2006
By Ardis E. Parshall
My Utah history columns for the Salt Lake Tribune have a limit of 650 words; the Relief Society articles need to fit a single page. The brevity of these accounts may mask the complexity of the work behind them, so put on your deerstalker caps and Iâ??ll recreate the process, using Frances Swan Clark as the example.
The first step is finding the indication of a worthwhile story. I may notice something in the course of research for other projects. Reading through the old Relief Society Magazine often yields a potential story, although I wonâ??t merely retell anything that is spelled out there or in any other single source. With Frances Swan Clark, the first hint came from a reminiscence of Elizabeth Kane:
We knew Tom had landed in California; but that was all. On the 31st of May a strange letter reached me from a Mormon woman of San Bernardino, California. She was a bereaved mother, whom he had told to appeal to me for comfort. I knew no one but Tom would stop in the midst of his anxiety to pity her; and certainly no one but Tom would give me credit for such powers of consolation. The disconnected story she told was easily pieced out by the paragraphs we read, quoted from California newspapers. It was Tom who was the mysterious, soi-disant naturalist, Dr. Osborne, suspected of being a Mormon spy.
Who can resist strange letters, spies, and lost loved ones?
Mrs. Kaneâ??s 1858 diary provided the first clue to the Mormon womanâ??s name:
A very fatiguing day ? I had a long letter from a Mrs. Clarke of S. Bernardino telling me about Tomâ??s being there, and her husbandâ??s accompanying him to Salt Lake, about her babyâ??s death etc. I am asked to write her news of him. God grant I may have good news to give!
With this, I could begin compiling a list of candidates using the 1860 census, the San Bernardino mission journal, and letters written to Brigham Young from anybody in San Bernardino who mentioned other local members. That search turned up Augusta Joyce Crocheronâ??s reminiscences about her California childhood. She referred to Frances only as â??Mrs. Clark,â?? but she did record much detail about the experiences of the Clarks and Jacksons (Col. Jackson was her stepfather), including this version of Francesâ??s â??You did not deceive me ?â?? speech (I wonâ??t invent conversations â?? these may or may not be Francesâ??s precise words, but they are the words preserved by a witness).
I found Francesâ??s letter to Mrs. Kane, signed â??Frances Jessie Clark.â?? It was as disjointed as Mrs. Kaneâ??s journal suggested, but it was valuable as a first-hand account of Kaneâ??s visit to San Bernardino.
Finding Mrs. Clarkâ??s first name allowed me to zero in on the Frances living with George Clark in San Joaquin County, not too far from San Bernardino. Working back and forth between George and Frances in the Churchâ??s FamilySearch and other typical genealogical sources, I uncovered Francesâ??s maiden name, her connection to Heber C. Kimball, Georgeâ??s background (he was the son of the first mission president to Hawaii), and the identity of the baby (Margaret Jane). In the process I discovered that apparently no one else had really identified Frances â?? the published Kimball histories and genealogies, for example, record that she married a Clark after leaving Heber C., but didnâ??t name George. Clark family records likewise donâ??t record Georgeâ??s marriage to Frances.
Writing is straightforward â?? tell what happened first, and then next, and then after that. I emphasize storytelling over the presenting of mere facts. General readers, like newspaper audiences and ward sisters, are more engaged by reading something with a beginning, a middle, and an end, with close connections between background facts and the events of a specific life.
These pieces have to fit in small spaces, but I write without regard to length until I have the story down. First drafts are always twice as long as the final draft. Itâ??s a challenge â?? one I face as a game â?? to prune dead phrases and replace several weak words with a single powerful one.
Along with trimming the word count, I refine according to storytelling techniques I have worked out. I donâ??t know the technical names for these techniques (if Margaret Young reads this, perhaps she can identify them for us). I inserted early in this piece the fact that Frances had buried her baby in Iowa as a clue to her recognition of Kane, because when I read mystery novels Iâ??m dissatisfied with solutions that come out of nowhere. I also included a cross/doublecross arrangement learned from novels: Osborne reveals himself as Kane and the reader thinks thatâ??s the denouement. But that â??crossâ?? pales when Frances reveals her â??doublecrossâ?? â?? not only did she see through Kaneâ??s secret, she successfully kept one of her own.
The final step is reading the piece aloud, buffing out anything that catches my tongue. Many readers hear words internally even when they read silently, and I donâ??t want any awkward phrasing to pull them out of the story.
And thatâ??s my research and writing process, as well as I can consciously reconstruct it.
- [S169] US & International Marriage Records (Reliability: 2).
Name: Heber Chase Kimball
Gender: Male
Birth Place: VT
Birth Year: 1801
Spouse Name: Frances Jessie Swan
Spouse
Birth Place: SC
Spouse Birth Year: 1822
Marriage
Year: 1844
Number Pages: 1
- [S98] Misc Websites, http://timesandseasons.org/index.php/2006/10/frances-swan-clark-a-kindness-remembered/ (Reliability: 1).
Frances Swan Clark: A Kindness Remembered
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
By Ardis E. Parshall
Many of Utahâ??s early pioneers did not remain long in the Valley. In defiance of counsel, some rushed to the California gold fields. A few went to California as missionaries, and the two apostles who founded a ranching colony in San Bernardino found no shortage of volunteers to accompany them there. Still more drifted west in apostasy or because they were unable or unwilling to dedicate themselves to the difficult task of building the new Zion.
In the fall of 1857, when fully a third of the U.S. Army was marching against Utah in what threatened to be a larger, more terrible repeat of the Missouri and Illinois persecutions, there seemed to be only two kinds of Mormons in California: those who packed their wagons in obedience to the call to return to Utah, and the hundreds who angrily rebelled against their former brethren, vowing to destroy the Saints in California and form a volunteer unit to attack Utah from the west. By February 1858, no Latter-day Saints remained in southern California.
Or so the mobbers thought ?
Frances Jessie Swan and her family joined the Church about 1840. Frances married Heber C. Kimball in Nauvoo, buried their infant daughter in a refugee camp in Iowa, and emigrated to Utah in 1848. She left her husband and moved on to California with her father by 1853. There she married George L. Clark, who had followed a similar path from Nauvoo to Utah to California. The Clarks did not return to Utah when called home by Brigham Young.
Neither did the family of Alden Jackson. â??Colonelâ?? Jackson, as he was known in California, was a faithful supporter of the Church. For some reason, however â?? perhaps because he was a lawyer who seemingly defied the summons of Brigham Young â?? the apostates of San Bernardino assumed that he, too, had abandoned his faith. To the contrary, his family quietly watched for missionaries who trickled into San Bernardino on their return from foreign lands, and aided them on their way.
One evening in February, 1858, Col. Jackson was at work in his office in the front of a San Bernardino hotel, when he noticed a feeble, travel-weary man arrive. Something about the man, who had registered as â??Dr. Osborne,â?? seemed familiar, but Col. Jackson could not place his face. He sent his card to Dr. Osborne and was invited into the manâ??s room.
He learned that Dr. Osborne was seeking some rapid transportation to Salt Lake City. Although he did not confide his business, he impressed Col. Jackson as a friend, and Col. Jackson promised to help him.
Within a day or two, rumors of Dr. Osborneâ??s plans began to circulate. Threats were made: â??He ? escaped lynching once, but the Vigilance Committee would not be fooled again,â?? read one newspaper.
The danger seemed so imminent that Col. Jackson asked the hotel landlord to distract a gathering crowd while he spirited Dr. Osborne out of the hotel by a side door, giving him no time even to snatch up his extra clothing and personal papers. He hurried Dr. Osborne to the farm house of George and Frances Clark, whom he knew could be trusted.
Frances Clark, aided by Caroline Jackson, began to prepare for Dr. Osborneâ??s journey. They baked bread and cake, and bottled milk, and gathered blankets and a thick comforter for his travel bedding.
â??When I found out who was going to accompany him to Utah,â?? Frances wrote later, â??I knew they were not suitable men to take care of a sick person. I proposed to the Doctor to let my husband go along with him, as ? he had had a great deal of sickness in his own Family.â?? Dr. Osborne didnâ??t want to take her husband away from Frances, who would be left alone in a hostile land, but Frances insisted.
Finally, just before embarking on their dangerous winter-time dash to Salt Lake City, â??Dr. Osborneâ?? revealed that he was really Thomas L. Kane, the Pennsylvanian who had aided the Mormons during their desperate days in Iowa. He was hastening to Utah (via Panama and California) to act as peacemaker and prevent bloodshed between the Saints and the approaching federal troops.
Frances startled the group with her response: â??Colonel Kane, you did not deceive me. I knew you the night you were brought here. You came to my wagon when my child lay dying, on the bank of the Mississippi river. I knew your voice, you could not disguise your eyes â?? did you think I could ever forget you?â??
The men departed, and Frances penned a letter to Elizabeth Kane back in Pennsylvania, assuring her that her husband had safely reached California on his hazardous journey.
(originally published September 2005)
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