Margaret Condie by Ruth Barker

Margaret Condie

(November 19, 1839 - June 22, 1928)

Margaret Condie was born in Clackmannan, Scotland on November 19, 1839 to Thomas Condie and Helen Sharp. In 1847 Elder William Gibson introduced the Gospel in Alloa and many were converted and baptized into the church. Margaret’s mother, Helen, was the first of her family to join the church. Margaret’s father, Thomas, was very bitter when he found out that Helen had joined the church and greatly persecuted her, not allowing her to be confirmed for six months. Eventually, Thomas’s heart began to soften toward the gospel and he allowed his children, including Margaret to be baptized. Margaret was eight years old when she was baptized.

Soon after joining the church, the family decided to immigrate. Margaret’s mother, Helen, packed their belongings and hired a team to take them and their luggage to the depot seven miles away. They took the train to Glasgow and boarded a steamer for Liverpool. The ship had no sleeping accommodations for the trip to Liverpool. It was very cold and all were sleepy and tired after the trip but very thankful to have arrived in safety on Christmas Day 1848.

After a time, when the ship Zetland, a large square rigger less than a year old was ready, saints from England and Scotland went aboard. The leader of the company was Orson Spencer and there were 358 members aboard. Orson Pratt came aboard and organized the company, and promised that if all lived right, they would arrive safely in New Orleans. On January 29, 1849 the vessel was towed out to sea. The first mate got drunk and neglected his duty and the ship was nearly dashed on the rocks in the Irish Channel. During the voyage the galley fireplace caught fire and it seemed the vessel was doomed, but again the Lord preserved them. Nine weeks later, on April 2, 1849, they arrived in New Orleans, and thence by steamboat to St. Louis.

Margaret with her family settled for a time in Grove Diggins, seven miles from St. Louis where there were coal mines for her father to work in. The family left St. Louis on March 1, 1850 and traveled by steamboat to St. Joseph, Missouri. The remainder of the journey to Council Bluffs, Iowa was made by ox team through mud and in bad weather. Margaret’s father purchased a farm located on Mosquito Creek. After living in Council Bluffs for two years and three months, Margaret and her family were ready to move on in the summer of 1852.

Margaret and her family crossed the Missouri River on a flatboat and remained on the other side a few days to be organized. They joined the Captain Thomas D. Howell Company of 293 individuals plus 10 families and about 65 wagons when it began its journey from the outfitting post at Kanesville, Iowa (present day Council Bluffs). They divided into groups of fifties and tens and left on June 7, 1852. They were with the thirteen wagons that arrived in the valley on September 2, 1852 – the rest of the company did not arrive until a few days later as they had to stopped to rest their animals. Margaret crossed the plains to Salt Lake Valley, walking barefoot much of the way, as a girl of 13. Margaret and her family liked in a dugout the first year, and then she helped make the adobe bricks to build a house. The family subsisted on roots and fought the grasshoppers during the famine of 1853.

Margaret married Joseph Sharp on March 13, 1857 in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City becoming a plural wife. Joseph had married Margaret’s older sister, Jannet, at Grove Diggins, a coal mining camp near St. Louis, Missouri on August 25, 1849. Jannet died in January 1859 and Margaret raised her children.

Margaret and Joseph were the parents of Agnes Sharp, who died at the age of four, Joseph Condie Sharp, and Cecilia Sharp. After the death of Joseph Sharp, Margaret, at the age of 25, had the responsibility for rearing her own children and the younger children of her elder sister. After the marriage of her daughter, Cecilia to Frederick Ellis Barker, Margaret Condie Sharp lived in the Barker home until her death on June 20, 1928.

Margaret was left a widow in 1864 and earned her own living and supported her family and also her dead sister’s children as she acted as “Accoucher” (French for midwife). She was called a “practical doctor” and as she had studied with a doctor. She was appointed by the ward bishop to bless pregnant women prior to their delivery. She had quite a role in the community because of her medical training and faith.

She was famous for her medicines and for her cough syrup and treated people for many ills and infections, delivered bab

ies, including her grandchildren, but she did not operate. She used poultices to draw out poisons and thus earned her living as a midwife after the death of her husband. Margaret attended the temple every day and spent much of her later life as an ordained temple worker. She was a woman of great faith and energy.

Margaret’s grandson, Alma Barker remembered a fellow who came to see Margaret for a treatment. He had stepped on a pin and the imprint under the skin was easily visible. She treated him with her bluestone poultice, one of her specialties. This poultice was made from blue vitrol or copper oxide. She bought the chemical from the drugstore and made it up. She kept a medicine chest out on the summer porch, attached to the back of the house. She would put on a shawl in the coldest weather and go out there to prepare her medicines. She sold a lot of her cough syrup, but never gave away the recipe.

Margaret felt she was very strong physically and mentally and had a strong feeling for what was right.

Her grandson, Alma said he had “three bosses,” as a child – two parents and his grandmother. Once Al was helping a friend carry a stack of newspapers a few blocks up the hill. His grandmother saw him, and immediately stopped him. “Oh, no, no, you can’t do that! Take those off, take those off!” Al meekly complied. His grandmother feared the newspapers would be too much for his strength.

She was very active until just before the end of her life when she got ill for about a month and died at the age of 89 years. She is buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery alongside her husband and sister

.

Headstone of Agnes Sharp

Margaret and Joseph Sharp's daughter

located in the Salt Lake City Cemetery

Sources: Histories in the possession of Bonnie Rice

Documents in the possession of Bonnie Rice

Complied and edited by Ruth H. Barker, submitted 2010

Click this link for more information on Margaret's sister and Joseph Sharp's first wife Janet or Jannet.