(My 3rd great, Grandpa Larson's great-grandmother)
In 1837, the Lord revealed to the Prophet Joseph in the Kirtland temple that Heber C. Kimball should open the door of salvation to the people of Great Britain. Elder Kimball naturally felt weak and shrank from the responsibility but accepted the call. He and the other elders arrived in Liverpool on July 16, 1837. After only a few days they felt constrained by the spirit to go to Preston, 30 miles away. After 8 days of preaching, they had 9 candidates for baptism, including Ann and her husband, Thomas Wamsley.
Ann was born August 24, 1807 in Chipping, England. Ann was one of the first visits for the missionaries and she had been confined to her bed for months with the dreaded consumption. She was a mere skeleton of skin and bones according to her son, and had been given up for dead many times. When Elder Kimball testified to her of the gospel truths he raised his hand and declared, "Sister Wamsley, I promise you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that if you will repent and be baptized you shall recover." Ann believed Elder Kimball and on July 30, 1837, she was carried to the River Ribble and baptized as the first woman convert in England/Europe. 7000-9000 people came to witness the baptisms. At her confirmation her disease was rebuked and she was healed completely a week later.
After her husband Thomas died, Ann immigrated to America, suffering the persecutions with the saints, crossing the plains, and married Isaac Palmer. They settled in Bear Lake, ID, where Ann raised her children and lived to be 82 years old. Rumor has it that Isaac left Ann some time between 1850 and 1860 for the gold mines in California, and never came back. He later died in Warren, Illinois the same year Ann died in Idaho. It would seem that Ann had even more trials in her life than initially appear, and ended up raising her children alone in the harsh pioneer conditions. She bore 11 children and buried three in childhood, one at the age of 22. Yet she seems to have been a devoted and faithful woman who endured her trials with courage. Ann was known as an excellent housekeeper, orderly and neat, a fine lady and a humble, devoted member of the church.
Her son, Isaac, said this of her miraculous healing and baptism:
"Through this healing and baptism, President Kimball is responsible for bringing many hundreds into the church, because in her one child, myself, the church has over a hundred members- for I have eleven children, 64 grandchildren, and 32 great-grandchildren."
One of Ann's granddaughters, Zilpha Sophronia Palmer, later married Heber C. Kimball's great-great grandson, Stanley Kimball Larson. And those are my Grandpa Chuck Larson's parents! Perhaps my own mother inherited some of her great-great grandmother's grit, faith, and courage to raise the six of us mostly on her own. Coincidentally, Ann died the same date my mother was born. I am thankful for the many great women I have to look up to as examples of faith and courage!
Grandpa Chuck Larson's parents-
Zilpha, Ann's granddaughter, and Stanley, Heber C. Kimball's great-great grandson.
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