50th Anniversary Letter, Joseph Dean to Mary Jane Ingham

1925 May 22     

Letter from Joseph Dean to his wife, Mary Jane (Ingham) Dean,

on their fiftieth / golden wedding anniversary.

Salt Lake City, Utah,
May 22, 1925.


A Remeniscent of My Married Life, dedicated to my Dear Wife, on this the fiftieth Anniversary of our wedding.

It is fifty years ago today since we covenanted with each other to take each other for better or for worse in sickness or in health, to love, honor and cherish each other until death doth us part.  ‘Tis fifty years go today since we gave authority to the world to pronounce us man and wife.  How faithful or otherwise we have kept those covenants, we will leave to a higher tribunal to pass judgment.

In looking back over that period of time, I fail to find one regret of ever making that covenant.  In allowing my mind to wander back over a period of fifty years, I see a beautiful picture of a young man standing by a bedside, a smile of satisfaction resting on his features as he was looking down upon a beautiful woman laying upon the bed holding a beautiful baby to her bosom, as she raised her face beaming with smiles and full of joy and satisfaction looking at the young man, and gently placing her hand in his and drawing him down towards her until their lips met in a lingering soul kiss.  Thus, my dear wife, did we renew the covenants at the birth of our first born, which we had previously made, and thus has it ever been on down the stream of life, happy in each other’s society and in the society of our dear children, when a new light burst in upon our lives, which threatened for a time to disrupt a happy and beautiful home.  It came in the shape of a message as it were, from God, borne by his servants, the missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ, bearing the everlasting Gospel truths.  I very readily accepted the Gospel and was baptized, which was a hard blow for you.  You fought it and threatened to leave me if I did not renounce my faith and quit attending the Mormon Church.  I will not dwell upon this part of our lives, but will say that in a very short time you also, accepted the Gospel and was also baptized into the Church, for which I was very thankful to My Heavenly Father.

Things went along very nicely until we decided to emigrate to Zion.  Then you decided to leave the land of your birth, and leave all that was near and dear to you by the ties of nature, amidst pleadings and persuasions of friends and relatives, and stand by me through good and evil.  Oh, what love, what confidence, for a young and beautiful wife to place in her husband, to forsake everything and go with him to a new country to start life anew among strangers.  No wonder that my love grows every day stronger towards such a confiding and faithful wife.  Then again, instead of waiting for the time that death should come and part us, we have taken a step ahead of death by going into the house of the Lord and there being sealed to each other for time and eternity, thus proving to the world and to each other that after fifty years we stand ready and willing to renew the covenants we made with each other and go on hand in hand unto the end.

My Dear Wife, I do not write these lines to you to flatter you nor to cause you to build up any false hopes, nor yet boastingly, but I thought this, our fiftieth or Golden Anniversary of our wedding, a suitable time to let you know that my love has grown stronger with each succeeding year.  I did not wish to wait until you had passed to the great beyond, then cover your grave with flowers, but I felt that I must let you know while you were in a condition to understand and realize just how I felt towards you.

Now, My Dear Wife, I hope and pray that you will receive these few lines in the spirit in which they are written, that is, the spirit of love and charity, because I realize that I have a great many weaknesses and shortcomings, but my desire is to do good at all times, and I must say that I feel this to be the happiest day so far that I have experienced.

Here we are at the fiftieth mile-post of our married life, surrounded by our children and their children.  Truly, we ought to be happy and give thanks to our Heavenly Father and pray that we may be spared to live in peace and comfort through the rest of our days.  Amen.