Sessions, Patty Bartlett (1795–1892)

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Sessions, Patty Bartlett (1795–1892)

American midwife. Born Patty Bartlett, Feb 4, 1795, in Bethel, Oxford, ME; died Dec 14, 1892; dau. of Anna (Hall) Bartlett and Enoch Bartlett (shoemaker); m. David Sessions, June 13, 1812 (as a Mormon, he took 2 additional wives in Utah, died 1850); m. John Parry (the 1st leader of Mormon Tabernacle Choir who took a 2nd wife as well), after 1850; children: 8, including sons David Sessions Jr. and Perrigrine Sessions, who founded Bountiful, Utah, and daughter Sylvia Sessions Lyon Clark.

The mother of Mormon midwives, moved to her midwife mother-in-law's home in Ketcham, ME, after marriage to David Sessions (1812); moved to Andover West Surplus, ME, with family (1814); baptized as a Mormon (July 1834), followed by husband (1835); with the Mormons, moved with family to Far West, MO (June 1837), and eventually to the valley of the Great Salt Lake, Utah (1847); delivered the 1st Mormon baby shortly after her arrival; was a charter member (1848) and a president of the Council of Health.

See also Donna Toland Smart, ed. Mormon Midwife: The 1846–1888 Diaries of Patty Bartlett Sessions (Utah State U. Press, 1997).

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