The last installment left Cora, excommunicated, suicidal, irrational to the point of believing herself already dead. Only the apostles, she claimed, could make things right. Neighbors and local Church leaders pressured her to deed her 40 acres of meadowland to James Leavitt, who had prevailed in the Church courts – her stake president went so far as to tell Cora’s mother, Mary, that Cora was under the control of “an evil power” that could only be relieved by complying with the judgment and signing a deed. At Cora’s insistence, and in fear of Cora, Mary took her to Richfield, where they stayed at the house of Elsie Taylor, Cora’s widowed younger sister. They learned that a stake conference would be held at Richfield that weekend and, realizing that she could not take Cora all the way to Salt Lake City by herself, Mary hoped that the visiting authorities could do something to help. During the several days that Cora stayed at Elsie’s house, she did not eat, drink, or sleep.

Mary did her best to care for Cora at Elsie’s house. One evening when a local Church leader came to talk to Cora, Cora tried to leave the house. “I [Mary] hurried past her to stop her, and she tried to shove me aside to get out. She said, ‘Let me out of here, let me out of here.’ Of course I tried to detain her. She struck me with her fist and cut my lip on my teeth. She gave me another lick that knocked me down. That was unnatural in Cora; she was always of a very kind disposition.”

Elsie recalled, “I talked to her every opportunity about signing the deed. I said I thought it would be better for her to sign the deed and be reinstated in the church and be restored to her former blessings. I did this because I considered her standing in the church of more value than anything else, and that her condition of mind was of more value than her property.”

Cora consistently answered, “No.”

Elsie did not let up on her pressure for Cora to deed her land to Leavitt. On her own initiative, without direction from Cora, she went to Samuel G. Clark, a notary public in Richfield with some experience in routine land matters, and asked him to prepare a deed from Cora to Leavitt, giving him the information as to names and property description. She said that when Cora was ready to sign, she (Elsie) would telephone him to come to her house to notarize the deed. Then Elsie went home and continued her efforts to persuade Cora to obey the decision of the Church courts.

I wish she hadn’t. Elsie is my great-grandmother, and I wish she had played no part in Cora’s troubles beyond comforting her. But I realize that Elsie had complete faith in the Church; membership and the blessings of baptism and other ordinances were essential to Cora’s eternal happiness – it is that same complete faith that led Elsie not to talk about Cora’s history with her grandchildren, trying to let the story remain buried and not pass along to her descendants any criticism or gossip that might hurt their own faith. And, too, after reading Mary’s account of Cora’s behavior – the way she injured her own mother – there was probably some desperation involved. Cora’s behavior was getting worse. Something had to break.

Even so, Elsie did not believe the outcome of the Church trials was a correct one. “I thought she was gaining more by signing [a deed] and being reinstated in the church than to have the land … I thought it was right for her to comply with the decision because I considered her standing of more value, and I considered it right to yield to a wrong for a right principle. … I hadn’t seen the justice of it [the decision] … I had never been able to see where it was right.”

On Monday, June 13, Elsie telephoned the notary, Sam Clark, and asked him to bring the deed to her house. She also called William Seegmiller, the stake president, telling him that she thought she could persuade Cora to sign the deed that day, and asking him to come and administer to Cora. He came, with other local Church leaders – John Coons (Cora’s bishop), Virginius Bean (Elsie’s bishop), Simon Christensen, Morten Jensen, and perhaps others.

Mary Birdsall, Cora’s mother, was not happy to have them come. She did not think Cora was in any condition to know what was best for herself. “I was not willing but let them go ahead. I didn’t object hard enough. Mrs. Taylor [Elsie] did her best to get her to sign it.”

Unlike earlier occasions, Cora did allow the visitors to speak with her.

Simon Christensen asked Cora, “Do you know us?”

Cora replied, “Yes, I know you. You were once my friends.”

Cora’s actual willingness to meet with the men is debatable. Her mother’s recollection was that “She didn’t do it voluntarily. … The elders were called to administer to her … they went into the little back room and someone came with their hand on her back and brought her into the room in that way … They told her that her trouble was caused by disobeying counsel. They told her that if she would abide the decision, her health and other blessings would be restored to her. … There were nearly enough elders to fill the little room at one time. I should judge they had been there about one and one-half hours before the deed was signed. Cora was pretty well exhausted.”

Cora was in tears, and kept repeating that signing the deed would do no good – she was too far gone. The men assured her that signing the deed and being baptized again would help her. “Whenever they spoke to her,” Elsie recalled, “she made the remark that she was willing to give up everything, and she didn’t care for anything, but to be relieved of her suffering.”

Someone put the deed in front of her. She signed it, Sam Clark notarized it, then Cora quickly left the room without another word.

“When she signed the deed,” Mary said, “she hadn’t eaten any food or drunk any water for about ten days. Then they told Mrs. Taylor that she must eat, and Mrs. Taylor hurried to get some dinner fixed for her. When she got it ready, Cora refused to eat. Mrs. Taylor told her if she didn’t, she would send for the elders again. Cora says, ‘If I have to, I can,’ and went to doing it. She went out into the back yard, ut her finger down her throat, threw it up, and said, ‘There’s your stuff.’”

The next morning, Cora asked to see “the thing I signed.” At first Elsie would not produce the deed – she was afraid Cora would destroy it. “Inasmuch as I signed it, you can let me look at it.” Elsie handed it to her. Although she had remembered only moments before that she had signed it, once Cora had the deed in her hand she seemed not to notice that it was signed. “I will not have anything to do with this; I won’t ever sign it.” Elsie took the deed back and locked it in her writing desk.

That afternoon, Cora was baptized. Her mother’s memory of that day was that she had gone to the site of the baptism with Cora. “We had to lead her in and everything else, we had to do everything that was done, and prepare her for the water. When she got in, she clapped her hands on her head and began to hollow [holler], and when we got her out, we had to clothe her like a little child. I thought she was still out of her mind.”

Elsie did not immediate turn the deed over to Leavitt – in discussing it with President Seegmiller and others, all agreed that in addition to the $100 for the purchase of the land, Leavitt ought to reimburse Cora for the improvements she had made on the land, especially for fencing. Elsie deposited the signed deed with the local banker, then had Cora’s improvements appraised, then wrote to Leavitt, who was working at the Kimberly gold mines in nearby Piute County.

Elsie Birdsall Taylor to James E. Leavitt, 25 June 1904

Richfield., 6-25-04.

Mr. James E. Leavitt,
Kimberly, Utah,

Dear Sir:

I write to inform you that Miss Cora Birdsall has complied with the decision rendered in the case brought against her by yourself. The deed has been left in my charge, and I was instructed to have improvements on the place appraised, which was done by Mr. Goldbranson and Mr. Olsen of Brooklyn as follows: First there is the one hundred dollars per decision $100.00

Price of wire fencing — $61.00
90 poles at 10c — 9.00
435 poles at 10c — 43.50
Setting posts — 18.15
Staples and stretching wire — 16.50
Building rock — 7.00

Total — $256.00

On receipt of the amount mentioned I will turn the deed over to you. Please attend to this matter immediately, as I am contemplating going away and will not be back until fall.

Respectfully, Mrs. E.M. TAYLOR.

Leavitt disputed this bill – paying for improvements had been no part of the Church court decision, he said. He deposited $100 with the banker who held the deed, but refused to pay the balance. He claimed he had fenced the land years earlier, and that Cora had benefitted from that fencing – he refused to pay for her additional improvements. His instructions to the banker:

James E. Leavitt to Guy Lewis, 28 June 1904

Kimberly, 6-28-1904.

Mr. Guy Lewis,

Dear Sir:

I write you in regard to making a draw for $100.00. One Hundred Dollars on the Bank. If Cora Birdsall or Mrs. E.M. Taylor comes to you with the deed for the North West 1/4 of the South East 1/4 of Sec. 1, Township 25 South, Range 4 West, amount 40 acres of land, made out to me and signed by Cora Birdsall will you let them have $100.00 for me and I will send you a check by the 10th of next month. They may not call for it before that time but if they do, it would be doing me a great favor if you would attend to it for me, and send me the deed and I will pay you for the trouble.

Yours truly,

JAMES E. LEAVITT

Elsie consulted President Seegmiller, who told her to give Leavitt the deed anyway, and forget about Cora’s improvements. She did, sending the deed to the banker, who made Leavitt’s $100 available to her. Elsie withdrew $20 to buy clothing for Cora. The remaining money stayed in the bank for months, until developments to be told in future installments.

Elsie did not give Cora control of a single dollar of her money. “I have never seen the minute of that time,” Elsie said, “that I thought she was in her right mind; and from that day to the present day, I think she has been continuously insane. I would not let her have money while she was at my place because I was afraid she would run away. She ran away shortly after the 24th of July or 1st of August. She left no word; my little boy saw her at the depot and I found out where she had gone. I don’t know how she got the money to go with. I never gave her the $100 because she was incompetent to handle it, and I was afraid she would run away.”

You might wonder, with so many people aware of Cora’s condition, with the issues of church and state involved, did anybody outside of the immediate circle care? Did the newspapers take up the story? Was there any public  reaction?

Yes. That’s the next installment.

(Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4) (Part 5) (Part 6) (Part 7) (Part 8)