HIS LIFE'S MISSION FOUND—EXTENSIVE GENEALOGY OBTAINED—BLESSED IN HIS WIVES AND CHILDREN—DEATH OF WIFE AND OTHERS—THIRD MARRIAGE—LEG AMPUTATED A SECOND TIME—HIS BENEDICTION.

FROM the time the Salt Lake Temple was completed in 1893 Thomas felt it to be his chief mission in life to obtain genealogical information and labor in the Temple for his dead kindred, and he devoted every dollar that he could spare as well as his time scrupulously to this cause.

He heard of a man in England who was engaged in the business of tracing up genealogies, and employed him to trace up his—which he was able to do all the better for the start Thomas made while on his trip. He succeeded so well that after awhile it taxed Thomas' limited resources to obtain means to pay for the names he was getting for him, and a request had to be sent to suspend the genealogical research until more funds could be accumulated. The English genealogist, however, had got the spirit of the work, found unusual opportunities for getting the information and became so enthusiastic that he didn't want to quit, and furnished quite a lot of names without charge.

Thomas was so grateful to the Lord for inspiring him to undergo the operation and to recover therefrom, and experienced such a feeling of relief in being rid of the diseased limb, with its running ulcers, after having been encumbered therewith for thirty years, that he felt that he couldn't do enough to show his appreciation for what the Lord had done for him. He could put up with the inconvenience of wearing an artificial limb so long as he could feel assured that personally he was clean and wholesome and not offensive.

It must not be supposed that he was entirely free from pain, even after his severed leg had been exhumed. It might be comparatively painless when at rest, but the exertion of walking after he got his artificial leg always caused more or less pain. The pain, however, had been so much more intense before his leg was amputated, that, instead of feeling disposed to complain, he rejoiced over the improvement.

Nor did he feel that his labors in the Temple ought to excuse him from serving in the ward. He could only serve in the Temple three, or at most four, days in the week, and even on those days got home early enough to do some work in his garden or some visiting among the poor who were his special charges, it being his duty to receive and distribute the fast offerings among them and see that none were allowed to suffer. Then during the three or four days a week when he was not required to be at the Temple he devoted himself almost exclusively to home and ward duties.

Sunday was usually one of his busiest days. Attendance at meetings and visiting and exhorting the High Priests (over whom he helped to preside) or others who, because of sickness or sorrow or grievance required his fatherly attention and care, kept him constantly employed.

It was natural for him to be doing something. He was always an early riser, and if his own needs didn't furnish him with a sufficient incentive for constant exertion, his concern for others never failed to. He neither had the time nor disposition to be idle. Work to him was a tonic. He gloried in doing things, and in seeing the results of his labor. He many times felt the better for his exertion. At other times when fatigue might have furnished him ample excuse for refraining from further exertion, the work served as a counter irritant, in making him partially forgetful of his constant pain, and so he praised the Lord for his ability to work.

He had other things also for which he praised the Lord. He was grateful to the Lord for the faithful humble, congenial wives he had been blessed with, who found pleasure in simple lives, who could make the most of the bare necessities, who were good, economical and thrifty housekeepers, who preferred to make home attractive by its simplicity, to incurring a burden of indebtedness by incumbering it with incongruous luxuries. If their tastes had differed from his, if they had been extravagant and wasteful, and scattered while he gathered, if they had been lacking in sympathy or interest in the public duties to which he devoted so much time and attention, Thomas would have had a different story to tell of his life. His service would have been minimized and his suffering must have been greatly aggravated.

His children also had brought him much comfort and comparatively little sorrow. They developed no criminal tendencies; they were virtuous, honest, industrious and frugal, and if not as full of zeal as their parents, they at least retained the faith and enjoyed and deserved the respect of their fellows. They manifested great love and respect for their parents also, and the numerous occasions upon which his posterity assembled voluntarily around the parental hearthstone, to show special honor, afforded grateful relief to his pain-racked and strenuous existence. On one of these happy occasions his posterity presented him with a gold headed cane; upon another a costly gold watch, which, of course, he appreciated—not so much for their intrinsic worth as for the love that prompted their bestowal.

If any man ever loved his children, and gave them good counsel, and set before them a good example, and frequently and earnestly testified to them of the truth of the Gospel, Thomas Briggs certainly did. And if any of his children ever depart from the faith, adopt bad habits or fall into sin, they will not have their father to blame for it.

As his posterity increased, and many of them scattered out into distant parts, he was no longer able to exercise the patriarchal supervision over them that he formerly had. His sons, James and Thomas, removed to Star Valley, and made new homes, and soon afterwards the latter met with a shocking accident through his team running away. One of his eyes was almost put out, and his skull was laid open for three of four inches, but through the blessing of the Lord he recovered. Wm. Ray Briggs, a grandson, met with a shocking death in Idaho, while digging a well, through having a horse fall down the well on top of him. His daughters, Mary Ann and Ann E., also died in Idaho. On the 3rd of July, 1898, his wife, who had been his faithful companion and shared his joys and sorrows for almost twenty years, passed away.

All of these and other minor incidents of a fatal or sorrowful nature added to the burden of his suffering, but he bore up manfully under them, regarding death philosophically, as only a temporary separation, and never doubting that in the economy of an Allwise Creator he would yet enjoy with his loved ones an eternal reunion.

The death of his wife left him bereft and lonely, and subjected him to additional hardships, but he sought and found solace in work and in devoted attention to the poor and unfortunate, a comparison of whose circumstances with his own made him frequently feel that he had very much to be thankful for.

On the 11th of May, 1904, Thomas married his third wife, after living alone for nearly seven years. She was a widow named Ann Williams, whose husband died in England, where also she had left three children when she migrated to Utah for the Gospel's sake.

Two months after his marriage his wife started on a trip to England, which she had contemplated long before her marriage, and for which she had money of her own to pay. She also made a subsequent trip to England two years later, to visit relatives.

On the last day of 1905, Brother Briggs entered in his diary the following summary of his spiritual work for the year—blessed twenty-six children, gave thirty-four patriarchal blessings, attended eleven funerals, administered one hundred and ninety-four times to the sick (and adds his testimony that the Lord had heard his prayers;) also had done or caused to be done in the Temple in Salt Lake City one hundred and thirty-three baptisms, seventy-seven endowments and one hundred and twenty-four sealings.

This year's work was not thus summarized because the showing was in excess of any previous year, but rather because he had never previously thought of totaling up his year's doings.

In addition to the foregoing, he mentioned in his diary that during the year he had dedicated a number of newly erected homes and settled differences between several of the brethren.

In January, 1906, Thomas records in his diary that his eyes were very bad, and he made it a subject of fervent prayer to the Lord that his eyes might be strengthened and his sight preserved for a few more years. He arose the next morning with his eyesight greatly improved, and was grateful beyond his power to express therefor.

On the 24th of May, 1906, Thomas recorded in his diary that he was called to administer to Sister Mark Waddoups, whom he found to be suffering from intense pain. He earnestly besought the Lord to ease her pain, and He did so; but while his hands were still upon her head the Spirit made it known to him that she would die that day. He confidentially informed the nurse of the fact, and when he called later in the day he found she had passed away. This was in contradistinction to the positive impression he frequently received, when administering to a sick person, that he would recover.

In the latter part of September, 1906, according to a casual entry in his diary, he and a number of other brethren were called to the home of Sister McNiel, in Bountiful, to administer to a very sick child who seemed to be dying. The doctor who had been treating the case was present, and afterwards admitted that he really supposed every breath the child drew, before it was administered to, would be its last, but, to his great surprise, the child immediately afterwards fell asleep, and the next morning was well. The doctor declared it the greatest manifestation of the power of God he had ever witnessed.

Several entries in his diary in the early part of 1909 indicate that about that time Brother Briggs suffered an unusual amount of pain in the stump of his severed limb, due, as the doctors said, to the first operation not having been performed properly. It was accordingly deemed necessary to make a second amputation, but grave fears were expressed lest he might not be able to stand it, as he was in his 77th year. However, he felt himself that he would rather submit to it, notwithstanding the risk, than to continue to suffer indefinitely, and on the 6th of April, 1909, he underwent the operation. He rallied in a manner that surprised his friends, and six weeks later walked to meeting and back without a crutch.

In November, 1909, while Sister Briggs was absent on her second trip to England, her husband had a stroke of paralysis, which has somewhat affected his speech ever since, and greatly interfered with his activity. His tongue throughout his life had been to him a specially useful member. It has been well guarded, and never had brought him into trouble. He had, by his wise counsel and fatherly advice, been able to comfort and bring peace to many of his fellows. He had for many years filled the office of a patriarch and blessed and brought solace and hope to many others besides his own posterity, but his service to others during the past five years has been very much curtailed. His mind is unusually clear and strong for one who is eighty-two years of age, his eyesight good enough for him to read without glasses, and his body fairly strong; he suffers less pain than he formerly did, and is able to walk about to a limited extent.

He still works in his garden, which, however is greatly reduced. He has sold off his property, including the house he lives in (with a proviso for the support of himself and wife while they live, and their burial when they die,) and invested all the surplus in the work which he has had done for the dead.

The enormous number of five thousand dead persons have been officiated for by Thomas, or by persons whom he has employed, in all the ordinances necessary for their salvation, and he still has the names of hundreds of his dead kindred to officiate for. Thus has the prediction uttered by President Brigham Young, when Thomas had but seven names, and didn't know where to obtain any more, been fulfilled. His father's charge uttered on his dying bed, to "never forget the dead," has been so faithfully obeyed that it is safe to say that Thomas will have no shame in meeting that father when he passes from mortality.

The memoir and diary which Thomas compiled, and which was brought down only to the date when he was stricken with paralysis, ends with the following address to his posterity:

To My Dear Children:—

"I wish to say a few words to you. I can see that in a few years from now I shall not be with you; therefore I pray for the Spirit of the Lord to be with me, to lead my mind to write such things as will be for your good. I hope that you and your children will carry them out in your lives, and that the same spirit with which I write these few lines will give you to fully understand them; for when my tongue is stilled in death, these words will live in my posterity.

"I bear my testimony to you, that this is the work of the Lord, and I ask you to teach it to your children, and teach them to pray, and keep the commandments of the Lord, so that they may be free from sin.

"Teach them to understand their calling in the priesthood, and impress it upon their minds, that it is of God, and not of man.

"Teach them to read good literature, for trifling reading begets trifling thoughts, and trifling thoughts beget a trifling life; for bear in mind, that impressions firmly fixed on the mind, and long cherished, are not easily erased. Then, oh, how important it is that these impressions are good ones. Teach them that foolish spending is the father of poverty. Teach them never to be ashamed of work, however much learning they may be able to acquire. See that they are proud, but let their pride be of the right kind. Teach them self-reliance, and to never give up, without conquering every difficulty that they may be called upon to pass through in life.

"Teach them to be too proud to wear clothes that they cannot afford; too proud to be in company that they are unable to keep up with in expenses; too proud to lie, to cheat or steal; and also too proud to be stingy to the poor, sick or afflicted, or widows, and to fatherless and motherless children.

"Always have kind words to give, for they are as refreshing to the troubled heart, as rain to the parched ground. Bear in mind that little drops of rain brighten the meadows, and little drops of kindness brighten the world.

"My Children, my heart is full of love for you all, but I cannot write the blessings that the Lord has in store for you if you are faithful. I hope you will preserve these few lines, and read them over as often as you can, also the 5th chapter of Alma, and live up to it, for it is the word of the Lord in these latter days, as well as in those days. And when I am in my grave, you will look upon these lines, and say that I am not forgotten, for I tell you my children, that some great things are about to transpire, that the world knows nothing of; but be of good cheer, and be humble and prayerful, and watch as well as pray, that you may stand the day of trial, for it is coming, and it is near to our doors, and so is the coming of the Son of Man.

"Never give up, but stay on board the ship; she will take you safely through.

"My children, for this cause I left my native land; that you may make good and valiant soldiers.

"The Savior said to Peter, 'Lovest thou me?' Peter answered, and said, 'Yea Lord, thou knowest I love thee.' Then the Lord said, 'Feed my sheep.' And again he said the same words to Peter, and then, 'Feed my lambs.' And now, my children, try to realize that you have both sheep and lambs in your charge; and remember you will be called upon to give account for them. And if you can say, on the last day, 'I have done the best that I could, Father; I have fed them, and clothed them, and when the wolves were howling at them, I have watched over them night and day; and now Father, none of them have I lost,' it will be well. But if, on the other hand, you have been careless, and He should say to you, 'Where are the sheep and the lambs that I gave you,' and you are unable to give a strict account of them, you must draw your own conclusions as to the result.

"Teach your children to honor the Sabbath Day, and honor the holy priesthood in all things, and do it by example. Teach them never to find fault with the prophets of the Lord. Teach them to honor their father and their mother, that their days may be long upon the land, which the Lord their God giveth them. For these promises will carry us beyond this life, to a time when the Saints will receive their inheritance on earth.

"And now, my children, whatever of my follies you have seen, forgive me for the same, and I freely forgive you. You have been very good to me all the days of my life, and may the Lord bless you all for it.

"I have many things to say to you. I have just been thinking of the time when I used to call all my posterity together once a year, but now they are scattered far and wide. At that time I could give them instruction, but it now rests with my children to finish the work.

"My children, do not make light of the composition of these few lines, for they were written with a desire for your salvation, and if you will carry them out in your lives, they will aid you in reaching the Kingdom of God.

"In conclusion, I will say that my Father in Heaven has been good to me, and may the angel of peace be with you all, through all the days of your lives. God bless you, Amen."