Biography

Mary Ann Church was born into slavery on November 28, 1863, in Maury County, Tennessee, at the height of the Civil War.[1] Her father, Thomas Holiday Church, was a white Mormon farmer and slaveholder. Her mother, Harriet Elnora Burchard, was biracial and was enslaved to her father. Remarkably, Mary Ann and her entire family converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and moved to Utah Territory following the Civil War. There, Mary Ann would travel to the St. George Temple in 1879 with her father and receive her endowment ritual at age sixteen. She would go on to marry and then be sealed to her husband in the Salt Lake temple in 1915. Mary Ann is thus one of only three known formerly enslaved women to receive full temple rituals while living. She did so long before the 1978 revelation lifted the racial restrictions for people of Black African descent. Her life story thus offers evidence of the uneven application of those restrictions over time.

Mary Ann was born about a year after her father returned from his service in the Civil War as a Confederate officer. Mary Ann, together with her mother and her older sister, Laura, were legally the enslaved property of Thomas Church.[2] They were not emancipated until 1865, after the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution following the Civil War.

After they were free, Harriet and her eldest daughter Laura, may have continued to work for Thomas as domestic servants. In any case, in 1870 Harriet and five children, including Mary Ann, lived near Thomas Church, but in a separate dwelling. Thomas’s wife had died in 1861 and his children from his first marriage were deceased, except for one son who was still living with him. The 1870 U. S. Census listed Harriet, Mary Ann, and the rest of Harriet’s children with the surname “Church” and described them as “Black”.[3]

Harriet joined the Church in about 1876. Two years later, she and Thomas, who now had eight children together, began the journey to Utah Territory. They settled in the small farming community of Deseret in Millard County. It seems that before they left Tennessee, all the Church children who were at least eight years old were baptized and confirmed. Mary Ann later gave her baptism date as sometime in 1878, but whether that date referred to her first or second baptism is not known. Mary Ann did receive a second baptism and confirmation in the Deseret Ward on July 29, 1878.[4] After arriving in Utah, evidence suggests that those with whom she associated accepted Mary Ann as being white. As a result, she did not experience any impediments to full participation in the Church and its higher temple ordinances.

At the end of 1879, Mary Ann and her father, Thomas, traveled to St. George in Southern Utah to receive temple endowments, a ritualization of the biblical creation narrative conducted in Latter-day Saint temples. On December 11, 1879, Mary Ann was endowed, becoming one of only three formerly enslaved women to receive endowment rituals during their lifetimes.[5] The following day, she stood as proxy for her father’s first wife, Nancy Maria Bryan Church, in a vicarious marital sealing.[6] The reason Mary Ann, rather than her mother, Harriet, acted as proxy is not known. It would be over twenty-three years before Harriet enjoyed temple privileges. She was finally endowed and sealed to Thomas, her husband and former slaveholder, in 1903.[7]

Over the next few years, Mary Ann lived with her parents and family in Deseret and was able to attend school for a short period.[8] In 1883, Mary Ann married a Latter-day Saint convert, William Clegg, Jr. in Utah County in the town of Springville. William had come from England to Springville with his parents and siblings in 1863. William gave his occupation as “miner” in the 1880 census. A family reminiscence says William met Mary Ann in Price, Utah while he was working for a railroad company laying track.[9] After their marriage, William changed his career and the couple began farming on a plot just south of Springville.[10]

Throughout the 1880s and 1890s, Mary Ann and William stayed in Utah County, working their farm as their family grew. They were the parents of ten children born between 1883 and 1900. Seven sons were born first, followed by three daughters. Three of the boys died as babies or young children while the three daughters lived to old age (Lula died at the age of 96, Blanche lived to be 101, and Bessie was 94 when she died).[11]

Mary Ann and her family participated in the Springville Ward, their Latter-day Saint congregation. As their children were born in Utah County, she and William took each one to church where one of their local leaders presented the new baby to the assembled congregants, blessed the child, and gave him or her a name. In addition, while they lived in the Springville Ward, all their children who lived to the age of eight were baptized and confirmed.[12]

Late in the 1880s, horticulturists, the Church, and Mormon capitalists “renewed” attempts to grow sugar beets in the Intermountain West to replace imported cane sugar.[13] William Clegg became interested in sugar beet cultivation and tried growing beets in Utah County. Eventually, he wanted to try a different location with a wetter climate. Sometime shortly after the summer of 1900, the Cleggs moved their large family to a farm in eastern Oregon, near La Grande in Union County. The farm, located in a valley, proved to be a fertile spot for growing sugar beets. By the fall of 1902, William had fifteen acres to harvest with beets as large as ten pounds each, so it seems the Cleggs found success in their new venture.[14]

That success was interrupted by the untimely death of a fourth young child. On November 23, 1902, Mary Ann gave birth to the couple’s eighth son, Ernest. He died just a few weeks after his birth.[15]

After moving to Oregon, the Clegg family continued to participate as Latter-day Saints. The names of family members are listed in the records of the La Grande Ward. Those records show the Clegg children’s baptisms, marriages, and priesthood ordinations for the boys.[16]

The Cleggs carried on cultivating sugar beets over the next few years, until the winter of 1908 when William died of pneumonia.[17] Mary Ann was not left without support, however. Her oldest sons were able to work and help support their widowed mother and the younger children.[18] As her older children began to marry and establish their own families within the next few years, Mary Ann was still responsible for providing for her three young daughters. She turned to nursing and found a job working in a local hospital.[19] 

In January 1915, Mary Ann traveled back to Millard County in Utah to pay a visit to her parents. Her father, Thomas, celebrated his 91^st birthday with family and friends and Mary Ann was one of eight of his children who attended the celebration.[20] 

Six months later, in June 1915, Mary Ann again traveled to Utah. On this occasion, she went to Salt Lake City to participate in temple ordinances. Her three teenage daughters, Lula Mary, Blanche, and Bessie accompanied her. Although William and Mary Ann were Latter-day Saints at the time of their marriage, their marriage had not taken place in a temple and their children were not sealed to them (rituals which Latter-day Saints believe bind families together for the eternities). On June 2, 1915, Mary Ann was sealed to her deceased husband, William, by proxy, in the Salt Lake Temple.[21] After the marital sealing, her three living daughters and her four deceased sons were sealed to their mother and father creating the beginning of what Mary Ann undoubtedly hoped would be an eternal family unit.[22]

These were not the only temple ordinances the Cleggs participated in or that were done on their behalf. Two of Mary Ann and Williams’ sons and one of their daughters received temple endowments and marital sealings in their own lifetimes. In 1933, Mary Ann’s son, Elmo, while still living, participated in a sealing ordinance to bind himself to his parents. Her other two sons were sealed to William and Mary Ann by proxy.[23]

After their deaths, her remaining two sons and two daughters received vicarious temple endowments and marital sealings. In addition, Mary Ann was sealed to her own parents, Thomas and Harriet, in a proxy ordinance in 1926. Most of the many temple ordinances performed by or for this family of African descent took place before 1978, this despite Latter-day Saint policies designed to prevent such rituals for those of African ancestry.

After Mary Ann’s journey to Salt Lake in 1915, and the completion of the temple ordinances she and her daughters participated in, Mary Ann returned home to La Grande where she continued to work as a nurse. She worked for another decade until she developed a kidney condition that became serious enough that she found it necessary to enter a Portland, Oregon, hospital for treatment in February 1925. Her family hoped her “dropsy” could be cured, but after staying several weeks in the hospital, she died on March 17, 1925, of kidney disease.[24] Her funeral took place on March 20, 1925, at a Latter-day Saint house of worship, after which, she was buried next to William Clegg in the Hillside Cemetery in La Grande, Oregon.[25] 

By Tonya S. Reiter

[1] Mary Ann’s birth date was recorded between 1862 and 1866 on various documents. When she received her temple endowment, Mary Ann gave November 28, 1863 as her birth date.

[2] Harriet may have had two daughters before she gave birth to Mary Ann. See: United States, 1870 Census, Tennessee, Maury County, District 17.

[3] United States, 1870 Census, Tennessee, Maury County, District 17.

[4] Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Record of Members Collection, Deseret Ward, microfilm 25,885, Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[5] Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, St. George Temple, Endowments of the Living, 1877-1956; Indexes, 1877-1956, microfilm 170,577, entry no. 735, Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah. The others were her mother, Harriet Elnora Burchard Church and Rebecca Henrietta Foscue Meads.

[6] Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, St. George Temple, Sealing for the Dead, Couples and Children, 1877-1943; Heir Indexes, 1877-1943, microfilm 170,597, page 142, entry 2753, Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[7] Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake Temple, Sealings of Living Couples, 1893-1956, vol. A, microfilm 1,239,565, item 2, page4, entry 63, Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[8] United States, 1880 Census, Utah Territory, Millard County, Deseret.

[9] Thelma B. Carter, “William Clegg, Jr.,” FamilySearch, William Clegg (KWZH-1XG), Memories, (accessed 19 Feb 2024).

[10] United States, 1900 Census, Utah, Utah County, Springville.

[11] William Franklin (Frank), born November 22, 1883, Charles Herman, born August 17, 1884, Edgar Milten, born September 24, 1886, Myron Nathaniel, born September 12, 1887, Louis, born November 12, 1889, Elmo, born March 1892, and Leroy Thomas, born January 9, 1895. Three daughters, Lula Mary (Marylu), born May 5, 1896, Blanche, born August 2, 1898, and Bessie Reynolda, born September 26, 1900.

[12] Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Record of Members, Springville Ward, 1851-1892, microfilm 26,459, Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[13] Matthew C. Godfrey, Leonard J. Arrington, “The Sugar Beet Industry,” (accessed 18 August 2024); Matthew C. Godfrey, Religion, Politics, and Sugar: The Mormon Church, the Federal Government, and the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company, 1907-1921 (Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 2007).

[14] “From Oregon,” The Springville Independent (Springville, Utah), 18 December 1902, 1; “Mr. William Clegg,” LeGrand Observer (LeGrand, Oregon) 4 November 1902, 4.

[15] Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake Temple, Sealings of children to parents, 1893-1942, microfilm 1,239,617, Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[16] Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Record of Members Collection, La Grande Ward (Oregon), 1901-1924, annual genealogical report, Form E., 1907-1924, microfilm 20,313, Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah; “Clegg,” Presiding Bishopric stake and mission census, 1914, Church History Library, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[17] Oregon, State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Certificate of Death, Registered No. 6391, William Clegg, Oregon State Archives, Portland, Oregon.

[18] United States, 1910 Census, Oregon, Union, La Grande, Ward 4.

[19] United States, 1920 Census, Oregon, Union, La Grande, Ward 4. A family history claims that she also did domestic work.

[20] “Oasis,” The Millard County Progress (Fillmore, Utah), 29 January 1915, 1.

[21] Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake Temple, Sealings for the dead, couples, 1893-1942, microfilm 184,600, Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[22] Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake Temple, Sealings of children to parents, 1893-1942, microfilm 1,239,617, Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[23] Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake Temple, Sealings of children to parents, 1893-1942, microfilm 1,239,617, Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

[24] “Mrs. Mary Clegg Passed Away in Portland Mar. 17,” La Grande Observer (La Grande, Oregon), 19 March 1925, 1; Oregon, State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Certificate of Death, Registered No. 713, Mary Ann Clegg, Oregon State Archives, Portland, Oregon

[25] “Mary Ann Church Clegg,” Findagrave.com.

Documents

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