RACHEL ELEANOR WAGSTAFF HAYES

DUP Book, "Women of Faith & Fortitude"

Birth: 20 May 1829, Old Caldicote, Bedford, England


Death: 31 Oct 1884, Pleasant Grove, Utah, Utah


Parents: Isaac Wagstaff & Mary Bathsheba Gillions


Spouse: John J. Hayes


Marriage: 23 Feb 1853, on board ship "Elvira Owen"


Spouse Death: 7 Dec 1897, Pleasant Grove, Utah, Utah


Children:
     John Joseph, 6 Aug 1854
     Hadahiah, 27 Jul 1855
     Eleanor Jane, 14 Jul 1856
     Elizabeth, 29 Dec 1858
     Isaac John, 19 Nov 1860
     George Samuel, 23 Oct 1862
     William Lehi, 19 Jan 1865
     Henry Nephi, 28 Jan 1867
     Sarah Emma, 5 Nov 1871


Rachel was the youngest in a family of eleven, four boys and seven girls. They lived and worked on the estate of Esquire Harvey. Her father died when she was eight years old. On account of her father’s years of faithful service, the landlord gave the family the privilege of living in their home rent free as long as her mother lived.


Rachel attended the village school and also learned to braid straw hats. At the age of seventeen she took a severe cold which resulted in a serious illness. She was bedfast till she was twenty years old.


While sick, her brother, John, never failed to visit her on Sunday. Once when he came he said, "Rachel there are some strangers in the neighboring village who claim to heal the sick by the laying on of hands, they claim to teach the true and everlasting gospel."


Rachel was very interested and wanted to hear more about them. She began pleading with her mother to let these men visit their home, but her mother was a faithful member of the Church of England.


As Rachel lay upon her bed thinking and pondering she saw a scroll let down upon the wall of the room and as it unrolled she could read it. It was a quotation from the Bible, James 5:3-17. Rachel could no longer doubt and would not give her mother any peace until she consented to let the elders come and administer to her, which they did. Soon after, Rachel decided to be baptized and was carried to the water and baptized and was immediately healed from her sickness and she walked up out of the water and was entirely well. After this great manifestation of healing power, her mother could doubt no longer and was baptized into the Church.
Soon after joining the Church they began preparation for emigrating to Utah. Rachel became acquainted with the Latter-day Saints missionaries, among whom was John J. Hayes to whom she became engaged and he started with them to Utah.


In the Spring of 1856, when Rachel and John went to Salt Lake City to receive their endowments, Sister Eliza R. Snow, general president of the Relief Society, gave Rachel a special blessing in which she said she should have a daughter who would live to be a blessing to them in their old age. Some weeks later Eleanor Jane was born and was the only daughter that lived to maturity.


Rachel did her best in helping to make a home and good living condition in every way she could. Her special work was millinery, not only braiding straw and making hats but she made beautiful artificial flowers from straw and trimming. She also taught braiding school for girls.


Rachel labored as a teacher in the Relief Society for many years and taught her children to be true Latter-day Saints. She was a very tender gentle woman, religious, very jolly and hospitable, and a devoted wife and mother.