And God made a promise to Abraham: He said, “ I will give you this land for your descendants. I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you. I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky.” And so it was.
And through time and generations, this became true for others. A girl born in New York in 1833 would see this promise fulfilled in her and her descendants. Her name was Mary Etta Soule.
Mary Etta, like Abraham, would travel far from her birthplace to her final destination. After the death of her father when she was 14 years old, she went with her remaining family down the Erie Canal, across Lakes Erie, Huron, and Michigan and then to the newly formed state of Wisconsin. They caught a grain wagon to Watertown, Wisconsin. What drew them there? Destiny…fate…God’s plan? For awhile, her mother Jane was the only adult female in the area. Native Americans camped near them but left them in peace. From her mother, Mary learned to be resilient and strong willed.
At the age of 19, she worked for Andrew Storer who managed a brickyard. Her brothers were also in his employ. Andrew was a widower originally from Maine. He, too, set out to find himself far from home. They wed in 1852 in Wisconsin. Wanderlust would take hold of them and lead them on to their final home in Osborne County, Kansas, twenty years later.
A home at last…settled…established…part of a community…matriarch of a family. Mary Etta spent her days in relative domestic happiness. Under the prairie skies and stars, the promise to her of many descendants was unfolding. When she went to meet her God in 1887, she could tell Him, “Yes, as many as the stars.”
Mary Etta Soule and Andrew Storer are my second great grandparents…I am counted among their stars.
Note: This is my 175th blog about my family and their history.
