Patty Bartlett Sessions

She is best known for her diaries, which recorded the daily activities of the Latter-day Saints during the first year of the Mormon migration to the Salt Lake Valley, and the earliest days of their settlement there.

These diaries document the physical, social, and religious circumstances of the settlers, especially of the women, and are frequently cited by historians.

[3] After attending a conference in 1836 where church leaders preached the importance of gathering the Saints, the Sessions family moved to Far West, Missouri,[2] until they were driven out by the Extermination Order.

[9] In 1846, Brigham Young instructed Latter-day Saints to head west, beyond the western frontier into what was then Mexico.

[10] He instructed Patty Sessions to go with the pilot company to care for the sick and afflicted, as well as to serve as midwife.

About the journey she wrote, "I have drove my wa[g]on all the way but part of the two last m[oun]t[ain]s."[14] When David died on August 11, 1850, Patty was left as a widow in a time where women struggled without a husband.

[citation needed] When she died on December 14, 1892, at the age of 97, she was survived by two sons, 33 grandchildren, 137 great-grandchildren, and 22 great-great-grandchildren.

[2] Her second child, Sylvia Lyon Clark (née Sessions), was also sealed as one of Joseph Smith's wives in 1842.

When she reached Utah Territory, she bought a farm near her mother's home in Salt Lake City.