Martha Payne, (Paine), Jones Thomas, 1808--1895

Martha Payne Thomas in the great-great-great grandmother of Janet Carol Sanderson Marler. Martha married Daniel Stillwell Thomas on 3 February 1826 in Sumner County, Tennessee. They were later sealed for time and eternity in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City, Utah on 27 September 1852. Daniel was a close associate of Brigham Young and drove a team and wagon with records of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the valley of the Great Salt Lake under the direction of Brigham Young.

The following account is taken from their journals:

Six inches of snow covered the ground when mob violence forced Martha Payne Jones Thomas, her husband, and their four children to leave Far West, Missouri in 1839. Martha was pregnant, expecting to deliver her baby at any time. They were waiting to cross the Missouri River when some brethren took Brother Thomas aside. Martha records in her history:

“After they had talked a few minutes, Mr. Thomas came back in a hurry, saying, ‘What do you think of our horses and wagon going back back to Far West? The brethren and sisters are all to be shot if they are not out [soon].’ “ ‘Well, dump the things out of the wagon by that log,’ I said. “ ‘What will you do if your pains begin?’ he asked. “ ‘I will do as well as Sister Wight did in Davis County, when she had her baby by a log in a snowstorm.’ “ ‘According to your faith, so shall it be,’ said my husband. “Out went everything by the log. Sure enough, that night I was taken sick. I sent for Sister Margaret Smoot, and she asked me where my bedroom was. There we were in the open, by the river. ‘Oh, there is plenty of room,’ I said. ‘All we need is a bed.’ ”

So Sister Smoot and some of the men made a bed for Martha by the fire. Other women may not have considered themselves well off under these circumstances, but Martha said, “I have often thought a queen never enjoyed such a bedroom. It was a comfortable place, and I got better.” She delivered a healthy baby boy several days later.

Martha gave us an insight into the source of her strength when she wrote in her journal the day her husband died: “June 27, 1878. D. S. Thomas was buried. This leaves me standing in the midst of the Saints surrounded by a numerous posterity, which is a great comfort to me. At times the clouds of sorrow will hover over me. Then I call on my Father for help, and he is sure to comfort me.”

In 1881 Martha wrote a short history of her family and concluded that history with her testimony as follows:

I leave this short account together with my blessings and my testimony to the truth of the work of God, in the which I have passed most of my life and on account of which I have had to sacrifice the homes I have made and to pass through the trials consequent on such drivings and journeyings. To my descendants together with my prayer that all my descendants may prove faithful to the cause for which we have contended and may realize all the blessings contemplated by the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth. Amen.

Martha is another example of the faith and courage of our family ancestors who have blazed the trail that we are blessed to follow.