The Obedient Wife

Mary Browett Forsyth.

Mary Browett Forsyth was born on June 25, 1823 in Bottesford, England. Little is known about her early life. We know she married George Holmes at the age of 24, and was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints at 26. Shortly afterward she set sail on a ship to America where she landed in New Orleans, then traveled by riverboat up the Mississippi River to St. Louis. It was there that her husband died of cholera.

In 1852 she walked across the plains with other Saints to the Salt Lake Valley. There she married a widower from Scotland, Thomas Forsyth. They began their family and lived the first nine years of their marriage in Salt Lake City.

In 1861 they were called to settle Dixie in southern Utah. They lived for a time in Santa Clara, then Pine Valley where Thomas had plans of building a sawmill, but was later dissuaded when several others had the same idea. That brought them to their final destination, Toquerville.

Thomas and Mary Forsyth.

Toquerville lies along Ash Creek, at an elevation of 3,383 feet. It is an ideal location for growing fruits and nuts.

An article from the Deseret News in 1868 describes the little town: “Peace dwells in the hearts of the people, everyone busy, no loafers, no office seekers, no gambling saloons, no drunkards in our town. We all mind our own business⸻we are all helping to build Zion, the city of our God.”

The Forsyth home in Toquerville still stands in 2026.

In 1865, Thomas and his sons built a house in Toquerville where he and his wife would live until their deaths.

The house was two stories tall, built using rock from Ash Creek, adobe mud to fasten it together, and lumber from their own sawmill. The main floor included a parlor, kitchen and two bedrooms. On the south side of the parlor was a fireplace made of black rock, and next to that a fine wooden desk that Thomas's father brought all the way from Scotland.

The second story was designed with two rooms and a balcony on the east side. Beneath the house was a wine cellar.

That brings us to our little story.

Thomas Forsyth had his own vineyard and made wine, which was stored in barrels in the cellar. He was very proud of his wine because the church used it for their sacrament services.

Side view of Forsyth home. The cellar was accessed from the back.

Sometime before the turn of the century the church decided not to use wine for their services anymore. This was in conjunction with their admonition to obey the Word of Wisdom, which forbade the consumption of alcoholic drinks. The leaders advised all vintners to dispose of what they had and not to make more.

As Thomas heard this directive from the pulpit, he wasn't sure what to do. The wine he had in the barrels was worth a lot of money and it was some of the best he had ever made. He thought perhaps he could sell what he had and then make no more after that.

But unbeknownst to Thomas, he did not have to worry about making a decision.

As soon as Mary Browett Forsyth heard the decree, she slipped home as quickly as possible. Once in the cellar she opened the spigots and let the wine drain onto the rock floor. By the time Thomas returned, there was nothing left.

So you see, Mary followed the example of the mother of Jesus at the marriage in Cana of Galilee. She exhorted the servants: “Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it.” The servants followed His direction to fill the pots full of water, after which Jesus miraculously turned the water into wine. ♠

[Source: "Complete Utah Travel Guide to Where Ancestors Lived, by Scott Forsyth" at Familysearch.org.]

Grave of Thomas and Mary Forsyth in Toquerville. 

Out of the Mouth of Babes

Thomas Forsyth.

There are a lot of fascinating stories of the pioneers who settled Utah, early converts of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Among these are many conversion stories, some of them very unique.

The following was written from the pen of Thomas Forsyth recounting his own conversion around the year 1844. He was born in Scotland in 1813 and came to the Americas as a young boy with his family where they settled in Canada. He married Isabella Donald in 1839.

While living near Lake Huron he received a letter from his Uncle James in Scotland. His uncle asked him if he knew anything about the Latter Day Saints. “You will know them. Joseph Smith is the head one of them.”

Thomas Forsyth recounts the rest of the story in his autobiography:

“I had never heard of the Latter Day Saints till he asked me that question in his letter. In order to answer his letter I began to inquire who these Latter Day Saints were and where they were. I could find out but very little about them. But all I found out I wrote to him. But the next year there was a Mormon Elder came to my Mother-in-law's place, about seven miles from my place, and gave out notice he would hold a meeting there. I was at that time very curious to find out whether there was a God or not and if there was any way to worship him, for all I had heard in that line was a mass confusion to me. So when I heard the Mormon Elder was going to preach the next day [Sunday], I said I would go and hear him.

“My wife's youngest brother was at my home that night and was going home the next morning so I made up my mind to go with him and as soon as breakfast was over I went to fix to go. My wife was in the act of putting a necktie on me. Her brother stood close by my eldest and only son [at that time he was 20 months old] who was sitting in his little chair with a piece of pasteboard in his hand. We were not talking about the Mormons, nor about what they preached for we did not know anything about them; yet he held the pasteboard in his hand and moving his head as if he was following a line of reading, he repeated these words, “The Mormons preach Jesus' Gospel.” He repeated these words some three or four times as plain as I or anyone else could say them. When we heard him we were struck with astonishment for we knew he had never heard these words by anyone. When he noticed us looking at him, he laughed and threw the pasteboard away.

“We went to the meeting and heard the Elder preach, and I knew then and there that he preached the truth and I commenced to investigate, and very soon I was convinced that there was a God and that I had found what I had been looking for and praying for, for I had truly been praying for about two years, and no one knows the joy that filled my bosom only these that have experienced the same feeling that the finding of the Gospel brings to them.” 

Thomas Forsyth remained faithful to that gospel message for the rest of his life. ♠

[Source: "Autobiography of Thomas Forsyth" at familysearch.org.] 

Grave of Thomas Forsyth in Toquerville, Utah. He died in 1898.