Letter from Margaret (Mantle) Haddock to her son Richard
Mantle Haddock dated 5 November 1934
My darling boy:
Just a few lines to let you know how we are getting along. Your father
is feeling fine-he is still working in the Temple every week, and I am feeling
much better than I did feel a while ago, and I am so thankful to my Heavenly
Father for restoring my health, that as soon as I am able to I am going to the
Temple with your Father.
In one of your letters you asked me to relate to you how we both joined
the Church. Before I was married I used to go to the Baptist Church, but for
some reason or another I never would be baptized there. The Minister would ask
me "why I wouldn't get baptized," and I would say, "Well, Mr. Jones, when I am
ready I will ask for baptism," but I never got ready.
One evening just after your Brother Benjamin was born [Benjamin was
born 30 April 1875, in Middlesborough, Yorkshire (now Cleveland), England], I
was passing a house where the Mormon people had meetings upstairs, and I
thought I never heard such beautiful singing in my life, and it was next door
to my Mother's house (Middlesborough), so when I got to Mother's house I said
to her, "Mother, what religion are those people holding meetings next door?"
She said, "Why they are Mormons." And I said, "Well, I never heard such
beautiful singing in my life." And Mother said, "Well they are the right
religion."
So I got interested and went to hear them preaching, and from then on I
couldn't keep away. It seemed like a magnet to me-the more I went the nearer it
drawed me, and when I joined them I found out I could sing better than the
bunch of them-but oh the night I first heard their singing it seemed sweet to
me.
So I applied for baptism, and in those days we had to go in the middle
of the night to be baptized or else they would run us into prison if they
caught us. There was eleven of us baptized the same night in the River 'Tees,'
and when I got ready to go to be baptized I left your brother Benjamin asleep
in the cradle with your Father tending him. Your Father was so mad because I
was going to join the Mormons that he could have killed us all and he whipped
the baby while I was away.
After that, your Father and I would talk often about different things
about the Mormons, and sometimes I would get him to go to meeting with me, and
when we would go some of the speakers would speak about the same things your
Father and I had been talking about, and your Father would get mad at me and
say that I had been to see them and told them to talk on that subject, but, in
truth, I hadn't seen them at all-they just happened to talk about it.
One Sunday I was getting ready to go to the 2 o-clock meeting-we had it
there the same as they do here-and I got my baby ready and put him in the
cradle, and I went upstairs to get myself ready. When I got ready I came to the
top of the stairs to come down and something took hold of me and pushed me from
the top of the stairs to the bottom and I struck my knee against a door that
was a little ajar at the bottom of the stairs.
It hurt me pretty badly, and no sooner did that happen than a cat came
from the back yard and into the front room where your Father was and tore my
curtains all to pieces and went after your Father. But I didn't let that keep
me home-I picked up the baby and went to meeting and when I got to the meeting
I told the President what had happened to me and how I hurt my knee. The President
sent two of the sisters back here with me and gave them the authority to anoint
my knee and pray for me and from that moment on it never hurt me again-it got
better immediately, but your Father was still bitter against them.
Your Father would say to me, "Don't you know they will take you to
Brigham Young because he wants all the good-looking women?" Sometimes when I
would go to meeting he would go home and take the tea-kettle and put the fire
out.
It was a year after I joined the Church before your Father joined. This
is how he came to join it:
Grandma just finished telling how she joined─now this is Grandpa
telling why I joined. I was always praying for light and understanding and your
Mother asked me one night to come to meeting with her. I went, and it was just
a little upstairs room in an old house (they wouldn't rent rooms to them to hold
their meetings they were so bitter toward the Mormons), and I always carried a
little Bible with me. An Elder by the name of Andrew Galloway, from Utah, was
preaching that night. He told the congregation that had their Bibles to follow
him and he started preaching from Peter, wherein it says "Christ suffered for
sins, the just for the unjust that he may bring us to God, being put to death
in the flesh, quickened by the Spirit, by which he went and preached the Gospel
to the spirits in prison." Then he said, "Where do you think he went to?" And
then my hair stood up and I thought to myself, "You darn crank, where do you
think he went-he went to Heaven." Then Mr. Galloway turned around and explained
to us where he went, and what he told the thief on the cross. And then my hair
stood up again and from that time forth I began investigating Mormonism
seriously.
A while after this meeting I asked for baptism and then I backed out.
When I asked for baptism, the President said, "right away," and I said, "Oh, no,
not yet, you shall baptize me Tuesday night." And then on Tuesday night I went
away about five miles to another town so they couldn't find me to baptize me.
Then in about a week I did get baptized-that was in February 1877-on
the 25th day. Grandma says that they should have drowned me when
they baptized me like they done with the Jew while he was in the faith. From
that time on I believed in Mormonism. I'm like Paul says, "prove all things,
and hold fast to that which is good," and "intelligence is the glory of God,
and the higher you come in intelligence the closer you get to God." Now this is
my testimony in regards to intelligence.
This is Grandma speaking again "I had an accordion at the time I joined
the Mormons, and I used to play the hymns for them to sing. Grandpa says I was
the organist on the accordion-how's that?"
Grandpa speaking again. I never saw any miracles performed, but one
thing that made me join Mormonism more than anything else was the intelligence
that came to me in regards to the marriage question. When I found out that I
wasn't married by the Laws of God, and could only have my wife and child until
death did us part, then I knew that I loved enough that I wanted them in this
world and all the worlds to come, so I joined the Mormons.
Grandma speaking now "My darling boy, your sister has been writing and
telling us what lovely times you and Bessie have been showing her and I sure do
appreciate it and thank you both for you kindnesses to her for I would like her
to have a little pleasure while she is there. I'm sorry she is so far away from
you, for I know how hard it must be for you to get back and forth and we
appreciate it a lot to think you have gone that far for her.
You asked me in one letter what I thought of Naomi's husband. He seemed
a very nice young man to me and I hope they get along good together. She is a
good girl and deserves a fine boy.
I am sorry I haven't been able to write myself and answer Ruth's sweet
letters, but, bless her, I do love her. I love them all, my little Ray and all,
and I am glad he is going on as he is in the work of the Lord. He is a fine
little boy and I am proud of him.
Your Father met George A. Smith and Joseph Fielding Smith in the Temple
and they told your Father that you were doing a wonderful work out there and it
sure made us happy and made us feel good to hear it. It made us proud of you,
indeed.
On our wedding day David Cannon called us up and told us that you asked
him to call and it sure made us feel good.
The Bishop of our Ward, Bishop Kesler, wanted us to be sure and
remember him to you and also Bishop Beesley wanted to be remembered to you.
By the way Ray, did they bother you any more about Dave Allan? We saw
in the paper about them arresting him down there. I sure hope they keep him in
jail.
Well, my darling boy, it is getting late and I have no
more news to interest you now, but Pray the Lord to bless you all.
Lovingly, Father and Mother
P.S. Let me know if you get the papers I send you.
love and kisses
