Hooper, Utah Cemetery boasts the grave of "The Last Leaf on the Tree'

  

 

                              The modest Mary F. Garner grave at the Hooper Cemetery.

THE Hooper, Utah Cemetery can rightfully brag about having the grave of “The Last Leaf on the Tree” –  Mary Field Garner ---- The last person in mortality who was acquainted with the Prophet Joseph Smith, first president in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Is this not significant? 

After all, Clarkston, Utah, in Cache County’s key claim to fame is that “The Man Who Knew” – the last home for Martin Harris, one of the Three Witnesses of the Book of Mormon, is buried in that City Cemetery.

                                      The elaborate Martin Harris Grave in Clarkston, Utah.

A Deseret News story on August 21, 1943, by Bishop Marvin O. Ashton of the Church’s Presiding Bishopric is the source of “The Last Leaf on the Tree” comparison.

Mary Field Garner was born in England on February 1, 1836. She died at age 107 on July 20, 1943. At the time, she believed to be the oldest ever member of the LDS Church.

“At the time of the (Prophet’s) martyrdom she was eight years old and remembers vividly the day that people rose in their seats, when Brigham Young, as it were, was transfigured into the personality of the prophet,” Bishop Ashton wrote in the Deseret News.

Ironically, she also had a rather embarrassing confession about that transfiguration story – she was tending an infant on her lap in that meeting. Her parent’s had brought a tin cup along as a plaything for that baby and yet just as Brigham Young rose to his feet, the tin cup fell to the floor and created an embarrassing noise.

Sister Garner had lived in Slaterville, but moved to Hooper and resided there for many years, where her last five of 10 children were born, and where she passed away.

                         A view of the Hooper Cemetery.

Of course, with 107 years of life, Sister Garner has a long, long story to tell of traveling across the plains to Utah and of the territory and the State of Utah’s early history. 

This writing will not delve into all of that, as the detail is substantial – but can be accessed on other sources listed below:

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/74672893/hooper-utahs-claim-to-fame

https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/overlandtravel/sources/6068/garner-mary-field-autobiographical-sketch-ca-1940-8-9

http://archives.lib.byu.edu/repositories/14/resources/5367

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/26082465/mary-garner

https://mchangroverheritage.wordpress.com/2019/01/06/the-last-leaf-mary-field-garner/

 

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