Annie Taylor Hyde
Born: 21 October 1849
Called as First Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency: 10 November 1901
Died: 12 March 1909
Called as First Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency: 10 November 1901
Died: 12 March 1909
Biographical Articles
Biographical Encyclopedia, Volume 1
Biographical Encyclopedia, Volume 4
Young Woman's Journal, August 1904, Annie Taylor Hyde, A Daughter of the Pioneers
Young Woman's Journal, April 1909, Annie Taylor Hyde
Biographical Encyclopedia, Volume 4
Young Woman's Journal, August 1904, Annie Taylor Hyde, A Daughter of the Pioneers
Young Woman's Journal, April 1909, Annie Taylor Hyde
Jenson, Andrew. "Hyde, Annie Taylor." Biographical Encyclopedia. Volume 1. pg. 702-703.
HYDE, Annie Taylor, first counselor to Bathsheba W. Smith, president of the Relief Societies of the Church, is the daughter of Pres. John Taylor and Jane Ballantyne, and was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, Oct. 20, 1849. She was educated by private instructors and in the Deseret University. At the age of eighteen she became a teacher in the Relief Society. For more than six years she served as a Sabbath school teacher in the Fourteenth Ward, and she was private teacher in her father's family school for five years. Dec. 15, 1870, she was married to Alonzo E. Hyde, a son of Apostle Orson Hyde, the fruits of which union are eight children, four boys and four girls. all of whom are living-. Sister Hyde has taken an active part in the work of the Y. L. M. I. A., and for many years she labored in the presidency of the 17th Ward association. June 15, 1895. she was appointed to be first counselor in the presidency of the Relief Societies of Salt Lake Stake, and held that position till Nov. 10, 1901, when she was chosen to be first counselor to Sister Bathsheba W. Smith, in the general presidency of Relief Societies of the Church, and she is at present laboring to fulfill the duties of that responsible calling. Sister Hyde has also been called and set apart to officiate in the Salt Lake Temple as one of the regular workers. She has traveled quite extensively in Europe and America, but notwithstanding this, and the time occupied in the discharge of her public duties, she has creditably reared a large family, and proven herself a model wife and mother, feeling always that her first duty was to her family, and that the grandest and noblest aim of a woman should be to make her home bright and happy and raise her children in the faith of the gospel. April 11, 1901, she organized the Society of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers and was chosen as its first president. She has been given the permanent title of "Founder of the Society."
HYDE, Annie Taylor, first counselor to Bathsheba W. Smith, president of the Relief Societies of the Church, is the daughter of Pres. John Taylor and Jane Ballantyne, and was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, Oct. 20, 1849. She was educated by private instructors and in the Deseret University. At the age of eighteen she became a teacher in the Relief Society. For more than six years she served as a Sabbath school teacher in the Fourteenth Ward, and she was private teacher in her father's family school for five years. Dec. 15, 1870, she was married to Alonzo E. Hyde, a son of Apostle Orson Hyde, the fruits of which union are eight children, four boys and four girls. all of whom are living-. Sister Hyde has taken an active part in the work of the Y. L. M. I. A., and for many years she labored in the presidency of the 17th Ward association. June 15, 1895. she was appointed to be first counselor in the presidency of the Relief Societies of Salt Lake Stake, and held that position till Nov. 10, 1901, when she was chosen to be first counselor to Sister Bathsheba W. Smith, in the general presidency of Relief Societies of the Church, and she is at present laboring to fulfill the duties of that responsible calling. Sister Hyde has also been called and set apart to officiate in the Salt Lake Temple as one of the regular workers. She has traveled quite extensively in Europe and America, but notwithstanding this, and the time occupied in the discharge of her public duties, she has creditably reared a large family, and proven herself a model wife and mother, feeling always that her first duty was to her family, and that the grandest and noblest aim of a woman should be to make her home bright and happy and raise her children in the faith of the gospel. April 11, 1901, she organized the Society of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers and was chosen as its first president. She has been given the permanent title of "Founder of the Society."
Jenson, Andrew. "Hyde, Annie Taylor." Biographical Encyclopedia. Volume 4. pg. 188.
HYDE, Annie Taylor, first counselor in the general presidency of the Relief Society, was born Oct. 20, 1849, in Salt Lake City, Utah, a daughter of Pres. John Taylor and Jane Ballantyne. She was educated by private instructors and at the University of Deseret and was a teacher in her father's family school for five years. She was a Sunday School teacher in the 14th Ward, Salt Lake City, for six years, a member of the presidency of 17th Ward Y. L. M. L A.; first counselor in the Salt Lake Stake Relief Society from 1895 until called to serve on the General Board of Relief Society in 1900, in which capacity she was active until her death March 12, 1909. She was a regular Temple ordinance worker and was among the first called by the Presidency of the Church to work as a missionary on the Temple Block. She has the title of "Founder General of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers" and was the first president of that organization. On Dec. 15, 1870, she was married to Alonzo E. Hyde, son of Apostle Orson Hyde, and became the mother of eight children. (See also Biographical Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, p. 702.)
HYDE, Annie Taylor, first counselor in the general presidency of the Relief Society, was born Oct. 20, 1849, in Salt Lake City, Utah, a daughter of Pres. John Taylor and Jane Ballantyne. She was educated by private instructors and at the University of Deseret and was a teacher in her father's family school for five years. She was a Sunday School teacher in the 14th Ward, Salt Lake City, for six years, a member of the presidency of 17th Ward Y. L. M. L A.; first counselor in the Salt Lake Stake Relief Society from 1895 until called to serve on the General Board of Relief Society in 1900, in which capacity she was active until her death March 12, 1909. She was a regular Temple ordinance worker and was among the first called by the Presidency of the Church to work as a missionary on the Temple Block. She has the title of "Founder General of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers" and was the first president of that organization. On Dec. 15, 1870, she was married to Alonzo E. Hyde, son of Apostle Orson Hyde, and became the mother of eight children. (See also Biographical Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, p. 702.)
Smith, Alice K. "Annie Taylor Hyde, A Daughter of the Pioneers." Young Woman's Journal. August 1904. pg. 357-359.
ANNIE TAYLOR HYDE.
A DAUGHTER OF THE PIONEERS.
Alice K. Smith.
The word Pioneer touches a tender chord in our being, when applied to our pioneers, our fathers and our mothers, who, under the leadership of President Brigham Young, led the way to these valleys in the Rocky Mountains. The saints of God had been driven from their homes in Missouri and Illinois. The terrible bloodshed, misery, and woe that they had suffered is enough to chill one’s blood.
But in all the sorrowful times, was the purpose of God defeated? Did the enemy prevail? Did the work of our Heavenly Father cease? No, indeed, Zion prospered in the midst of her afflictions. Our parents were driven out of weakness into strength, from obscurity to prominence, from poverty to wealth, from sojourning among strangers and enemies to the possession of their own lands and homes. How plainly all these things resulted in the good, the triumph and victory of the people of God. Had our parents been allowed to remain there in peace, this people would never have been where and what they are today.
The daughters of these pioneers do not need to go back hundreds of years to find noble characters to emulate. Many grand and noble women have lived in our time: many still live. We find some of them in the Temples, clothed in white, many of them with hair as white as snow, and others scattered throughout the length and breadth of the land. They have not generally been cradled in the lap of luxury, but they are usually those who have born the burden and the heat of the day. who have known privation and want, who have suffered trials and persecutions, who have been through the refiner’s fire, and are as gold purified. We can recall many of these loved ones, who have fought the good fight, who have finished their work and gone home to their rest. They have left behind them grand and noble examples of their faith in God, and in the principles of the Gospel as revealed by the Prophet, Joseph Smith. And we are left to emulate their example, to treasure up the beautiful words of faith, hope, love and encouragement that fell from their lips, and were practiced in their lives. But we feel sad and lonely when we see one after another laid away to rest. Sooner or later we will reach that farther shore.
“Tell me not in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers.
And things are not what they seem.
Life is real! life Is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal.
Dust thou art to dust retumest,
Was not spoken of the soul.
Lives of great men all remained us.
We can make our lives syblime.
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints, on the sands of time.
Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.”
Nothing will help the daughters of the pioneers to take heart again in the midst of trials, more than to study the lives and characters of their fathers and mothers. The sorrows that many of us have passed through are mere vapors and thin mists compared to the terrible mobbings and persecutions of the saints in the early days of the church. In Missouri organized mobs were formed; they burned the homes of the saints, tarred, feathered and whipped many of our brethren and drove them from their habitations, leaving them homeless to wander on the bleak prairies. Many died from exposure, many were murdered in cold blood. And defenseless women and children were compelled to flee in the cruel storms of winter, leaving the crimson marks of their bleeding feet on the frozen ground, while their husbands, fathers and brothers were in enforced exile, or were chained in dungeons.
Think what a life of jeopardy and persecution our beloved Prophet spent. At one time, he said, “I do not regard my own life. I am ready to be offered as a sacrifice for the people. For what can our enemies do?—only kill the body, then their power is at an end. Stand firm, my friends. Never flinch. Do not seek to save your lives, for he who is afraid to die for the truth, will lose eternal life. Hold out to the end and we shall be resurrected, and become like Gods and reign in kingdoms, principalities and eternal dominions; while this mob will sink to the portion of all those who shed innocent blood.” In Illinois, he and his brother Hyrum were martyred. And the saints were again driven from their beloved city and sacred temple, and from their homes and possessions,—compelled to wander through regions of deserts and mountains.
Under these conditions, and after these terrible experiences, our parents, many of them, came to these valleys in the mountains. They had witnessed the murder of their beloved Prophet and Patriarch, Joseph and Hyrum. They were stirred to the depths of their souls. They had a testimony of the truth of the Gospel as firmly engrafted in their hearts as though they too had conversed with the Father and Son. And here in the midst of privations and want, their hearts were filled with praise and thanksgiving to God.
Under these conditions, and in the early history of Utah many of our brethren were called to leave their families in destitute circumstances and go to the nations of the earth, to proclaim the Gospel. President John Taylor was among the number. He was called to leave his home and loved ones, and go on a mission to France. He was obliged to leave his family in a destitute condition. The day after his departure, which was October 21, 1849, his daughter, Annie, was born. She first beheld the light of day in a little log cabin of one room, opposite the old Pioneer square. The only food in the house, at that time, was part of a pan of flour. But neither the father nor mother, doubted for one moment that God would provide. He, like others of his brethren, left his loved ones in the hands of God. He was clothed upon with the power and spirit of his mission, and he went forth a nobleman among men. “Nature had given him a noble presence in the flesh, worthy the God-like stature of his spirit.” And what of the mother, Jane Ballantyne Taylor? She bade farewell to her husband with the ordeal of child-birth ahead of her. A mission to Europe in those days, which is only a pleasure trip now, seemed like a voyage to another world. And she was destitute of all those comforts that seem so necessary at those times. Do we read in a blaze of glory of her unswerving faith and integrity to principles, to God and His laws? Is there a record kept of her struggles? No. not on earth; but there is above. Her life like many of our mothers, who were quiet, peaceful, unassuming, is similar to that of the good women in the scriptures. There is so little said that we are left to learn from our own human natures what must have been their trials, struggles, their hopes and fears through the journey up the steep and rugged pathway.
Annie Taylor Hyde though born in the midst of privation and want, was blessed above the queens of the earth. With such a God-like father, such a saintly mother, we do not wonder at her noble and useful life. At the age of fourteen, she was appointed teacher in the Sunday school of the Fourteenth ward, Salt Lake City, in which position she acted for more than six years. At the age of eighteen, she became teacher in the Relief Society. She was also a private teacher in her father’s family school for five years. She received her education in private schools and the Deseret University. She was married to Alonzo E. Hyde December 15, 1870, and is the mother of eight children, four sons and four daughters, all of whom are still living.
She took an active part in the Mutual Improvement Association work. For a number of years she was associated in the Presidency of the association of the Seventeenth ward. On the 15th of June, 1895, she was appointed first counselor in the presidency of the Relief Society of the Salt Lake Stake, which position she held until November 10, 1901, when she was chosen and sustained at a general conference of the church as First Counselor to Sister Bathsheba W. Smith, the President of the Relief Societies in all the world. She has also been set apart to officiate in the Salt Lake Temple, and is a constant worker there. She is also an active missionary of the Church Bureau of Information.
The thought came to her, how beautiful it would be to have, in our city, a society of the daughters of the pioneers, where they could meet and study the lives, characters, faith and hopes of those noble men and women. After consulting with the church authorities, and gaining their approval, she invited a number of the daughters of the pioneers to her home to celebrate her mother’s birthday, the eleventh of April, 1901. At this time an organization was effected of the society of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers. And she, Annie Taylor Hyde, was chosen and unanimously sustained as president of the society with sisters Maria Young Dougall and Sarah Ellen Richards Smith as her counselors. This position, though full of trials and perplexities, for it was new, she held with honor for two years. On the eleventh of April, 1903, Alice Merrill Horne succeeded her as president of the society. At this time the title of Founder General was created and conferred upon Sister Hyde. From the depths of our hearts, we feel to say, God bless the Founder General, Annie Taylor Hyde.[1]
[1] Read at the meeting on the third anniversary of the organization of the Society of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers.
ANNIE TAYLOR HYDE.
A DAUGHTER OF THE PIONEERS.
Alice K. Smith.
The word Pioneer touches a tender chord in our being, when applied to our pioneers, our fathers and our mothers, who, under the leadership of President Brigham Young, led the way to these valleys in the Rocky Mountains. The saints of God had been driven from their homes in Missouri and Illinois. The terrible bloodshed, misery, and woe that they had suffered is enough to chill one’s blood.
But in all the sorrowful times, was the purpose of God defeated? Did the enemy prevail? Did the work of our Heavenly Father cease? No, indeed, Zion prospered in the midst of her afflictions. Our parents were driven out of weakness into strength, from obscurity to prominence, from poverty to wealth, from sojourning among strangers and enemies to the possession of their own lands and homes. How plainly all these things resulted in the good, the triumph and victory of the people of God. Had our parents been allowed to remain there in peace, this people would never have been where and what they are today.
The daughters of these pioneers do not need to go back hundreds of years to find noble characters to emulate. Many grand and noble women have lived in our time: many still live. We find some of them in the Temples, clothed in white, many of them with hair as white as snow, and others scattered throughout the length and breadth of the land. They have not generally been cradled in the lap of luxury, but they are usually those who have born the burden and the heat of the day. who have known privation and want, who have suffered trials and persecutions, who have been through the refiner’s fire, and are as gold purified. We can recall many of these loved ones, who have fought the good fight, who have finished their work and gone home to their rest. They have left behind them grand and noble examples of their faith in God, and in the principles of the Gospel as revealed by the Prophet, Joseph Smith. And we are left to emulate their example, to treasure up the beautiful words of faith, hope, love and encouragement that fell from their lips, and were practiced in their lives. But we feel sad and lonely when we see one after another laid away to rest. Sooner or later we will reach that farther shore.
“Tell me not in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers.
And things are not what they seem.
Life is real! life Is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal.
Dust thou art to dust retumest,
Was not spoken of the soul.
Lives of great men all remained us.
We can make our lives syblime.
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints, on the sands of time.
Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.”
Nothing will help the daughters of the pioneers to take heart again in the midst of trials, more than to study the lives and characters of their fathers and mothers. The sorrows that many of us have passed through are mere vapors and thin mists compared to the terrible mobbings and persecutions of the saints in the early days of the church. In Missouri organized mobs were formed; they burned the homes of the saints, tarred, feathered and whipped many of our brethren and drove them from their habitations, leaving them homeless to wander on the bleak prairies. Many died from exposure, many were murdered in cold blood. And defenseless women and children were compelled to flee in the cruel storms of winter, leaving the crimson marks of their bleeding feet on the frozen ground, while their husbands, fathers and brothers were in enforced exile, or were chained in dungeons.
Think what a life of jeopardy and persecution our beloved Prophet spent. At one time, he said, “I do not regard my own life. I am ready to be offered as a sacrifice for the people. For what can our enemies do?—only kill the body, then their power is at an end. Stand firm, my friends. Never flinch. Do not seek to save your lives, for he who is afraid to die for the truth, will lose eternal life. Hold out to the end and we shall be resurrected, and become like Gods and reign in kingdoms, principalities and eternal dominions; while this mob will sink to the portion of all those who shed innocent blood.” In Illinois, he and his brother Hyrum were martyred. And the saints were again driven from their beloved city and sacred temple, and from their homes and possessions,—compelled to wander through regions of deserts and mountains.
Under these conditions, and after these terrible experiences, our parents, many of them, came to these valleys in the mountains. They had witnessed the murder of their beloved Prophet and Patriarch, Joseph and Hyrum. They were stirred to the depths of their souls. They had a testimony of the truth of the Gospel as firmly engrafted in their hearts as though they too had conversed with the Father and Son. And here in the midst of privations and want, their hearts were filled with praise and thanksgiving to God.
Under these conditions, and in the early history of Utah many of our brethren were called to leave their families in destitute circumstances and go to the nations of the earth, to proclaim the Gospel. President John Taylor was among the number. He was called to leave his home and loved ones, and go on a mission to France. He was obliged to leave his family in a destitute condition. The day after his departure, which was October 21, 1849, his daughter, Annie, was born. She first beheld the light of day in a little log cabin of one room, opposite the old Pioneer square. The only food in the house, at that time, was part of a pan of flour. But neither the father nor mother, doubted for one moment that God would provide. He, like others of his brethren, left his loved ones in the hands of God. He was clothed upon with the power and spirit of his mission, and he went forth a nobleman among men. “Nature had given him a noble presence in the flesh, worthy the God-like stature of his spirit.” And what of the mother, Jane Ballantyne Taylor? She bade farewell to her husband with the ordeal of child-birth ahead of her. A mission to Europe in those days, which is only a pleasure trip now, seemed like a voyage to another world. And she was destitute of all those comforts that seem so necessary at those times. Do we read in a blaze of glory of her unswerving faith and integrity to principles, to God and His laws? Is there a record kept of her struggles? No. not on earth; but there is above. Her life like many of our mothers, who were quiet, peaceful, unassuming, is similar to that of the good women in the scriptures. There is so little said that we are left to learn from our own human natures what must have been their trials, struggles, their hopes and fears through the journey up the steep and rugged pathway.
Annie Taylor Hyde though born in the midst of privation and want, was blessed above the queens of the earth. With such a God-like father, such a saintly mother, we do not wonder at her noble and useful life. At the age of fourteen, she was appointed teacher in the Sunday school of the Fourteenth ward, Salt Lake City, in which position she acted for more than six years. At the age of eighteen, she became teacher in the Relief Society. She was also a private teacher in her father’s family school for five years. She received her education in private schools and the Deseret University. She was married to Alonzo E. Hyde December 15, 1870, and is the mother of eight children, four sons and four daughters, all of whom are still living.
She took an active part in the Mutual Improvement Association work. For a number of years she was associated in the Presidency of the association of the Seventeenth ward. On the 15th of June, 1895, she was appointed first counselor in the presidency of the Relief Society of the Salt Lake Stake, which position she held until November 10, 1901, when she was chosen and sustained at a general conference of the church as First Counselor to Sister Bathsheba W. Smith, the President of the Relief Societies in all the world. She has also been set apart to officiate in the Salt Lake Temple, and is a constant worker there. She is also an active missionary of the Church Bureau of Information.
The thought came to her, how beautiful it would be to have, in our city, a society of the daughters of the pioneers, where they could meet and study the lives, characters, faith and hopes of those noble men and women. After consulting with the church authorities, and gaining their approval, she invited a number of the daughters of the pioneers to her home to celebrate her mother’s birthday, the eleventh of April, 1901. At this time an organization was effected of the society of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers. And she, Annie Taylor Hyde, was chosen and unanimously sustained as president of the society with sisters Maria Young Dougall and Sarah Ellen Richards Smith as her counselors. This position, though full of trials and perplexities, for it was new, she held with honor for two years. On the eleventh of April, 1903, Alice Merrill Horne succeeded her as president of the society. At this time the title of Founder General was created and conferred upon Sister Hyde. From the depths of our hearts, we feel to say, God bless the Founder General, Annie Taylor Hyde.[1]
[1] Read at the meeting on the third anniversary of the organization of the Society of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers.
"Annie Taylor Hyde." Young Woman's Journal. April 1909. pg. 198-200.
Annie Taylor Hyde.
Annie Taylor Hyde, first counselor to Bathsheba W. Smith, President of the Relief Society, died Friday, March 12,1909, surrounded by her husband and six of her eight children, two sons being in foreign lands laboring as missionaries.
Sister Hyde was born in Salt Lake City, October 21, 1849, and so knew by actual experience much of pioneer history. She appreciated the sterling worth of the men and women who endured so much in those early days. She often expressed the fear that many of their children were not worthy of their parentage, that they were prone to bask in a father's or mother’s glory rather than to shine because of their own worth; so she again and again urged the young people to make teacher in the 14th ward. She rose from position to position in this great organization until she was made one of the presidency. So thoroughly familiar was she with every phase of the work that she was called an encyclopedia of Relief Society work. She has visited most of the stakes in its interest urging those under her jurisdiction to be faithful in the performance of their duties. She was very anxious that the organization should continue to advance and fulfill its high destiny.
All too often women engaged in public work neglect their homes and children. Sister Hyde was not one of these. She was considered a perfect mother and home-maker by those who knew her best, her house was beautifully kept, her children were well trained. She was very hospitable, those who entered her home went away feeling better for having partaken of the spirit of peace which was found there and were anxious to return. Her father’s large family were very dear to her: often did many of his children gather under her roof. This mother was one with her girls, their Wends were her friends. They liked to visit her and were delighted when she accompanied them on their little pleasure trips. Many sought her in trouble for they felt that she understood them. They left her door encouraged and strengthened.
Sister Hyde was fortunate in her parentage. President John Taylor, her father, was noted as a gentleman and her mother, Jane Ballantyne, was lady-like in deportment, beautiful in character. Sister Hyde often told her friends that she had never seen her mother perform an unladylike act nor heard her say an unkind word. Their beloved daughter, Annie, too, possessed innate refinement. She too was progressive, active, and thorough. She was a woman of infinite faith, and joined the Psalmist in saying, “Our soul waiteth for the Lord: He is our help and our shield.
“For our heart shall rejoice in Him because we have trusted in His holy name.
“Let thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us as we hope in thee.”
When one has lived a life rich in good deeds peans of joy, not requiems of mourning; praises to God, not lamentations of despair should celebrate the passing into the great beyond. Relatives and friends feel keenly the separation, but rejoicing over the guerdon won should exceed the pain of parting. For the righteous, death is swallowed up in victory, hence we do not mourn the demise of Annie Taylor Hyde. We shall miss her, but we are glad that the spirit has left the pain racked body. The seeds she has sown, the example she has set will live on.
She has left her family and friends a rich heritage. May they emulate her virtues. She has passed from death unto life, from mortality, to immortality. Blessed be her memory.
Annie Taylor Hyde.
Annie Taylor Hyde, first counselor to Bathsheba W. Smith, President of the Relief Society, died Friday, March 12,1909, surrounded by her husband and six of her eight children, two sons being in foreign lands laboring as missionaries.
Sister Hyde was born in Salt Lake City, October 21, 1849, and so knew by actual experience much of pioneer history. She appreciated the sterling worth of the men and women who endured so much in those early days. She often expressed the fear that many of their children were not worthy of their parentage, that they were prone to bask in a father's or mother’s glory rather than to shine because of their own worth; so she again and again urged the young people to make teacher in the 14th ward. She rose from position to position in this great organization until she was made one of the presidency. So thoroughly familiar was she with every phase of the work that she was called an encyclopedia of Relief Society work. She has visited most of the stakes in its interest urging those under her jurisdiction to be faithful in the performance of their duties. She was very anxious that the organization should continue to advance and fulfill its high destiny.
All too often women engaged in public work neglect their homes and children. Sister Hyde was not one of these. She was considered a perfect mother and home-maker by those who knew her best, her house was beautifully kept, her children were well trained. She was very hospitable, those who entered her home went away feeling better for having partaken of the spirit of peace which was found there and were anxious to return. Her father’s large family were very dear to her: often did many of his children gather under her roof. This mother was one with her girls, their Wends were her friends. They liked to visit her and were delighted when she accompanied them on their little pleasure trips. Many sought her in trouble for they felt that she understood them. They left her door encouraged and strengthened.
Sister Hyde was fortunate in her parentage. President John Taylor, her father, was noted as a gentleman and her mother, Jane Ballantyne, was lady-like in deportment, beautiful in character. Sister Hyde often told her friends that she had never seen her mother perform an unladylike act nor heard her say an unkind word. Their beloved daughter, Annie, too, possessed innate refinement. She too was progressive, active, and thorough. She was a woman of infinite faith, and joined the Psalmist in saying, “Our soul waiteth for the Lord: He is our help and our shield.
“For our heart shall rejoice in Him because we have trusted in His holy name.
“Let thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us as we hope in thee.”
When one has lived a life rich in good deeds peans of joy, not requiems of mourning; praises to God, not lamentations of despair should celebrate the passing into the great beyond. Relatives and friends feel keenly the separation, but rejoicing over the guerdon won should exceed the pain of parting. For the righteous, death is swallowed up in victory, hence we do not mourn the demise of Annie Taylor Hyde. We shall miss her, but we are glad that the spirit has left the pain racked body. The seeds she has sown, the example she has set will live on.
She has left her family and friends a rich heritage. May they emulate her virtues. She has passed from death unto life, from mortality, to immortality. Blessed be her memory.