Wealtha Bradford, daughter of Simeon Bradford and Martha True, was born at Turner, Androscoggin County, Maine, November 1, 1804. Wealtha’s father was a great-great-grandson of William Bradford, the second governor of the Plymouth Colony. Her parents, former residents of Kingston, Massachusetts, moved to Farmersville, New York. They were among the very earliest settlers there. Some evidence points to Simeon Bradford building the first good frame home where the Farm Station now stands, but it was later abandoned.

Little is known about Wealtha’s childhood. She is described as being tall and slender, with a fair complexion, light brown hair, and blue eyes.

We first find her living in the sparsely settled, heavily wooded western part of New York State at Farmersville, Catteraugus County, as the wife of Ira Stearns Hatch, married January 26, 1824. The newlyweds set up housekeeping near his father’s farm and began their family. Ira and his father and brothers began to build up a modestly prosperous farm. Their farm was not a palace nor a mansion but they were ambitious and thrifty. Their time seems to have been fully occupied at this time by clearing of the land and the planting of the crops.

The weather was always unpredictable and sometimes very devastating. The family depended upon the skills of Wealtha to preserve enough of the harvest to last through the winter. Ira and his sons were of necessity good hunters.

Life in Farmersville was not all work. Wealtha and Ira were often drawn to social occasions such as annual election day, town meeting, quilting bees, and temperance meetings. Traveling was sometimes tedious but everyone looked forward to being together on these occasions.

Wealtha and Ira also looked forward to the visits of traveling peddlers who came seasonally. These men brought eagerly awaited news of family members left behind in other parts of the territory.

There were many Indian tribes camped around Farmersville, but there was a friendly truce between them. Wealtha and Ira always treated the Indians kindly and dealt with them fairly. Wealtha was very interested in her Indians friends and listened to stories of their traditions and heritage. She often would talk to them concerning their origin. Their origin was a fascinating one, but there were few written records which she could read.

Wealtha and Ira also seemed to survive the ever present threat of sickness and epidemics that went through the community, often leaving neighboring families grieving over the loss of loved ones.

By 1830 Wealtha had borne three sons, Meltiar, Ransom, and Orin, who required much of her time. Wealtha was ever mindful of her heritage and of the responsibilities which fell to her to maintain the purpose of life by providing a happy home for her husband and children. Wealtha was the perfect helpmate.

Church activity in Farmersville did not seriously being until around 1830. Up to this time Ira and Wealtha had not connected themselves with any church. Wealtha had always said, “No, there were none on the earth that agree with my conviction.” At this time, Elders Oliver Cowdrey, Peter Whitmer, Jr., Ziba Peterson, and Parley P. Pratt were in the vicinity visiting the Catteraugus Indians, preaching with a book which represented a history of their progenitors, the Indian race. Wealtha obtained a copy of the book and was not long in reading it. she said, “That’s what we have been looking for.” Being thoroughly convinced of its origin, she desired to be baptized immediately.

Upon the insistence of her husband and her nearby relatives, she decided to wait a short time. Wealtha hoped that by her waiting, more of the immediate family would be converted. Although most favorable to the idea, none of the other relatives were ready to join the unpopular sect. Wealtha and Ira stayed in Farmersville to be a help and comfort to Ira’s father, who was in declining years.

Early in 1832 Wealtha applied for baptism. The rite was performed after a hole had been cut in the ice of the river. Wealtha was confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at this same time. Wealtha became the first in the Hatch family and the second person in the neighborhood to join the Church. The year Wealtha joined the Church, a new baby girl, Rhoana, was born to her and Ira.

Ira did not join the Church until 1834. He was cautious about joining the Church because of the persecution. He decided to go to the headquarters of the Church in Kirkland, Ohio, where he could examine their leader, Joseph Smith. When Wealtha and Ira saw the man Joseph Smith, Ira’s impression and testimony of the prophet’s divine mission was so great that it became of great assistance to him in withstanding the trials and hardships that were to be his lot and that of others who had joined the Church in those days.

Both Ira and Wealtha hoped that Ira’s parents and brothers and sisters would join the Church, but they did not. Ira’s father said that, “A man without religion stood equal chance with the religious man with the Lord for salvation.” When Ira and Wealtha decided to leave the family farm and follow the “Saints” west, it caused a great deal of distress and uproar in the family. The brothers, to whom Ira and Wealtha had sold the farm, said they would give the farm back if they would stay. But Ira shook his head and replied, “No, I will go West.”

So soon after the birth of Ancel in 1840, Ira and Wealtha loaded their household furnishing in two wagons and traveled the distance across Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana, to the western side of Illinois. They joined the saints at Eton’s Creek, some twenty miles from where Nauvoo was being built.

Wealtha’s joy became full, for she was at last with the saints and her family. But one day Wealtha shivered and hugged her shawl, suddenly she realized she had grown cold and weary. In this weakened condition she told Ira and the children that they would find a home in the Rocky Mountains, but she would not. Wealtha and many of the other saints were strickened with cholera, which was prevalent at the time. She died on November 3, 1841.

Wealtha’s devotion to the Church was an inspiration to her family. Her spirituality was ingrained in the characters of the young children she bore. She endured the persecutions and trials of pioneering, and yet always held steadfastly to the Church.

Source: “Wandering Home, Stories and Memories of the Hatch Family”, Ira Stearns Hatch, Meltiar Hatch and John Henry Hatch, and their wives and children, with historical-genealogical and biographical data on their ancestry and descendants. By The Hatch Historical Committee, Community Press, Provo, Utah, 1988. This book was a single printing of the history of the Hatches. Thanks to Dan Hatch for typing and sending this to us.

Available at: http://www.geocities.com/familyquilt/game/card/wb1802c.html (Last visited September 26, 2002).

William Bradford

1590-1657

by Dorothy Honiss Kelso

William Bradford was born in 1590 in the Yorkshire farming community of Austerfield, England. In his early childhood, both parents died. The boy was shuttled among several relatives, never staying long anywhere.

He was about 12 when he happened into the neighboring town of Scrooby. A church service was in progress which astonished him by its fellowship and its lack of ritual. Time and again he returned, drawn to the congregation’s fervor for reform. By the age of 17 Bradford was a fully committed member, sharing the radical idea of separating from the official Church of England - a dangerous decision, for Separatist leaders were hunted and imprisoned. William wrote in his journal:

“The one side [the Reformers] laboured to have ye right worship of God & discipline of Christ established in ye church, according to ye simplicitie of ye gospell, without the mixture of mens inventions, and to have & to be ruled by ye laws of Gods word, dispensed in those offices, & by those officers of Pastors, Teachers, & Elders, &c. according to ye Scripturs. The other partie [the Church of England], though under many colours & pretences, endevored to have ye episcopall dignitie (affter ye popish maner) with their large power & jurisdiction still retained; with all those courts, cannons, & ceremonies, togeather with all such livings, revenues, & subordinate officers, with other such means as formerly upheld their antichristian greatnes, and enabled them with lordly & tyranous power to persecute ye poore servants of God.”

When the congregation learned that the king, James I, intended to “harry them from the land,” they fled to the Netherlands.

Here, for 12 years, first in Amsterdam and then in Leiden, Bradford and the rest of the exiles lived and worshiped according to their beliefs. William recorded in his journal:

“For these & some other reasons they removed to Leyden, a fair & bewtifull citie, and of a sweete situation, but made more famous by ye universitie wherwith it is adorned, in which of late had been so many learned man. But wanting that traffike by sea which Amerstdam injoyes, it was not so beneficiall for their outward means of living & estats. But being now hear pitchet they fell to such trads & imployments as they best could; valewing peace & their spirituall comforte above any other riches whatsoever. And at lenght they came to raise a competente & comforteable living, but with hard and continuall labor. “Being thus settled (after many difficulties) they continued many years in a comfortable condition, injoying much sweete & delightefull societies & spirituall comforte togeather in ye wayes of God, under ye able ministrie, and prudente governmente of Mr. John Robinson, & Mr. William Brewster, who was an assistante unto him in ye place of an Elder, unto which he was now called & chosen by the church. So as they grew in knowledge & other gifts & graces of ye spirite of God, & lived togeather in peace, & love, and holiness; and many came unto them from diverse parts of England, so as they grew a great congregation. And if at any time any differences arose, or offences broak out (as it cannot be, but some time ther will, even amongst ye best of men) they were ever so mete with, and nipt in ye head betims, or otherwise so well composed, as still love, peace, and communion was continued; or else ye church purged ot those that were incurable & incorrigible, when, after much patience used, no other means would serve, which seldom came to pass.”

Life in the old university town of Leiden was difficult. Many of the refugees, including Bradford, eked out a bare living as textile workers. The church, now led by the charismatic John Robinson, faced other problems. The Netherlands teetered on the brink of war with Catholic Spain and the Dutch government, pressured by their English ally King James, harassed the refugees. Presses printing Separatist tracts were smashed and some of the English had rocks thrown at them.

With Pastor Robinson’s encouragement, the congregation decided to make a new home overseas. Again from William’s journal:

“all great & honourable actions are accompanied with great difficulties, and must be both enterprised and overcome with answerable courages. It was granted ye dangers were great, but not desperate; the difficulties were many, but not invincible. For though their were many of them likely, yet they were not cartaine; it might be sundrie of ye things feared might never befale; others by providente care & ye use of good means, might in a great measure be prevented; and all of them, through ye help of God, by fortitude and patience, might either be borne, or overcome. True it was, that such atempts were not to be made and undertaken without good ground & reason; not rashly or lightly as many have done for curiositie or hope of gaine, &c. But their condition was not ordinarie; their ends were good & honourable; their calling lawfull, & urgente; and therfore they might expecte ye blessing of god in their proceding. Yea, though they should loose their lives in this action, yet might they have comforte in the same, and their endeavors would be honourable. They lived hear but as men in exile, & in a poore condition; and as great miseries might possibly befale them in this place, for ye 12. years of truce [the truce between Holland and Spain] were now out, & ther was nothing but beating of drumes, and preparing for warr, the events wherof are allway uncertaine.”

The decision was made to locate north of the Virginia Colony “some place about Hudson’s river.” There they could be loyal subjects of King James, live by English law and with English customs, but be far enough from interference in their way of worship.

Bradford, now 30 years old and married with a young son, was in the thick of the planning. Government permissions, financing, ship hire and provisioning, and a potentially dangerous first stop in England had to be worked out. There were heartaches as well – not everybody could go. The majority of the congregation remained in Holland and with them remained their dearly-loved Pastor Robinson. And William and Dorothy Bradford’s four-year-old son would also be left behind. Yet, as Bradford wrote, “they knew they were pilgrims, and looked not much on those things, but lifted up their eyes to the heavens, their dearest country, and quieted their spirits.”

William Bradford was now shouldering many administrative responsibilities : record-keeping, correspondence with financial backers and negotiation for a patent to give legal permission for a settlement, and a swarm of details connected with what he called “the weighty voyage.” With an instinct for the beckoning future, he carefully preserved many notes and documents. From these he later crafted his journal, known today as Of Plymouth Plantation.

Clearly, lack of money was the most persistent problem. Eventually, the “Saints,” as they now called themselves, were forced to join forces with “Strangers” – people unconnected with the church but willing to pay passage to the new land of opportunity. This alliance was uneasy, particularly when one of the two ships seemed unequal to the rough autumnal Atlantic. This meant that 102 passengers (including 35 children, along with young teens and several pregnant women) were crammed below decks on the Mayflower, a ship that was about 90 feet long and 26 feet broad amidships.

With the first of the bad weather some of the “Strangers” and crewmen began a buzz of “discontented and mutinous speeches.” Through “many fierce storms,” the Mayflower struggled westward. Nearly all the passengers were wretchedly seasick. One, John Howland, fell overboard but miraculously survived “though he was somewhat ill with it, yet he lived many years after,” wrote Bradford.

The Mayflower’s upper decks leaked. She cracked a main beam. More and more mariners wanted to turn back. But Bradford notes that “being near half seas over,” the Ship’s Master, Christopher Jones, advised continuing – particularly when the cracked beam was secured by a giant screw providentially brought by the Pilgrims for their building.

Yet even as they neared landfall certain of the “Strangers” threatened “when they came ashore they would use their own liberty, for none had power to command them.”

The Pilgrim leaders recognized the truth of this. They now knew they were not arriving at the legally designated destination of North Virginia but in New England – and winter was upon them. After 65 days at sea the exhausted company could go no further. Here must they stay – and stay together if they were to survive.

A meeting was called, attended by nearly all the adult male passengers. Both “Saints” and “Strangers” recognized that preservation was their paramount necessity. This was spelled out in a covenant outlining their decision for unity. This document binding them into a “civil body politic” is known as the Mayflower Compact:

In the name of God, Amen. We whose names are under-written, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign Lord, King James, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith, etc. Having undertaken, for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, and honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God, and one of another, covenant and combine our selves together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the Colony, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witness whereof we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cape Cod, the eleventh of November [New Style, November 21], in the year of the reign of our sovereign lord, King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth. Anno Dom. 1620.

The original Compact has not survived. The reliable, careful Bradford, however, made a true copy. Terse and specific, this agreement had ramifications far beyond the Pilgrims’ immediate necessity. It provided the basics for self-government based on the general good, tenets which would reappear many times in the future.

In November 1620, the storm-battered Mayflower finally dropped anchor off Cape Cod. The passengers, exhausted, dirty and frightened, still numbered 102. One of the “saints,” young William Button, was dead – but a baby had been born mid-ocean. Another baby arrived shortly after the ship’s arrival, Bradford noting that little Peregrine White was “the first of the English born in these parts.”

Curiously, Bradford does not mention the tragic loss of his own wife, Dorothy, who fell from the Mayflower’s deck and drowned. But his pent-up emotions are clearly revealed in this moving passage from his journal. Bradford wrote:

“Being thus arived in a good harbor and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees & blessed ye God of heaven, who had brought them over ye vast & furious ocean, and delivered them from all ye periles & miseries therof, againe to set their feete on ye firme and stable earth, their proper elemente. And no marvell if they were thus joyefull, seeing wise Seneca was so affected with sailing a few miles on ye coast of his owne Italy; as he affirmed, that he had rather remaine twentie years on his way by land, then pass by sea to any place in a short time; so tedious & dreadfull was ye same unto him.
But hear I cannot but stay and make a pause, and stand half amased at this poore peoples presente condition; and so I thinke will the reader too, when he well considered ye same. Being thus passed ye vast ocean, and a sea of troubles before in their preparation (as may be remembred by yt which wente before), they had now no friends to wellcome them, nor inns to entertaine or refresh their weatherbeaten bodys, no houses or much less townes to repaire too, to seeke for succoure. ..
Let it also be considred what weake hopes of supply & succoure they left behinde them, yt might bear up their minds in this sade condition and trialls they were under; and they could not but be very smale. It is true, indeed, ye affections & love of their brethren at Leyden was cordiall & entire towards them, but they had litle power to help them, or them selves; and how ye case stode betweene them & ye marchants at their coming away, hath already been declared. What could not sustaine them but ye spirite of God & his grace? May not & ought not the children of these fathers rightly say : Our faithers were Englishmen which came over this great ocean, and were ready to perish in this willdernes; but they cried unto ye Lord, and he heard their voyce, and looked on their adversitie…”

Almost immediately there was a frightening encounter with the Native People which convinced the Pilgrims they must find a better location as soon as possible. A handful of men, mariners and passengers, set forth in a small shallop. As they sailed north along the coast they came upon an ice storm which broke their mast. Rowing for their lives they washed ashore on a small island. By morning the weather had cleared and they saw a harbor “fitt for shipping.” Behind it was cleared land – a deserted Indian settlement with “divers cornfeilds, & litle runing brooks, a place (as they supposed) fitt for situation; at least it was ye best they could find, and ye season, & their presente necessitie, made them glad to accepte of it.”

And so the Mayflower reached Plymouth Harbor, their final destination. Several days later, Pilgrim men went ashore “to erect ye first house for comone use to receive them and their goods.” But now began their worst ordeal, the “Starving Time.” Nearly all became ill, including Bradford himself. Within five months half the company were dead including John Carver, whom they had elected their first governor, and all but four of the adult women. Bradford writes in his journal:

“In these hard & difficulte beginings they found some discontents & murmurings arise amongst some, and mutinous speeches & carriags in other; but they were soone quelled & overcome by ye wisdome, patience, and just & equall carrage of things by ye Govr and better part, wch clave faithfully togeather in ye maine. But that which was most sadd & lamentable was, that in 2. or 3. moneths time halfe of their company dyed, espetialy in Jan: & February, being ye depth of winter, and wanting houses & other comforts; being infected with ye scurvie & other diseases, which this long vioage & their inacomodate condition had brought upon them; so as ther dyed some times 2. or 3. of a day, in ye foresaid time; that of 100. & odd persons, scarce 50. remained. And of these in ye time of most distres, ther was but 6. or 7. sound persons, who, to their great comendations be it spoken, spared no pains, night nor day, but with abundance of toyle and hazard of their owne health, fetched them woode, made them fires, drest them meat, made their beads, washed their lothsome cloaths, cloathed & uncloathed them; in a word, did all ye homly & necessarie offices for them wch dainty & quesie stomacks cannot endure to hear named; and all this willingly & cherfully, without any grudging in ye least, shewing herein their true love unto their friends & bretheren. A rare example & worthy to be remembred. Two of these 7. were Mr. William Brewster, ther reverend Elder, & Myles Standish, ther Captein & military comander, unto whom my selfe, & many others, were much beholden in our low & sicke condition.”

The man chosen to succeed Carver as Governor was William Bradford. Except for five brief year-long respites, he would remain governor almost until his death in 1657, a total of 36 years of public service.

In April 1621, the Mayflower sailed away back to England. Not one of the survivors, “Saints” or “Strangers,” chose to leave with the ship. To Bradford this must have been the colony’s strongest expression of their bond. This, plus the aid of the Wampanoags under the leadership of Massasoit, signaled new hope. They had “recovered their health” and gladly planted native corn more suitable to the climate than their English seed. By autumn they had “fitted their houses against winter” and had “all things in good plenty.” So the Governor called for a celebration of their harvest, a Thanksgiving shared with their Wampanoag friends.

In 1621, another ship, the Fortune, arrived in Plymouth. The passengers were a mixed lot and Bradford found it necessary to provide firm leadership. Bradford wrote in his journal:

“And herewith I shall end this year [1621]. Only I shall remember one passage more, rather of mirth then of waight. One ye day called Christmas-day, ye Govr [William Bradford] caled them out to worke, (as was used,) but ye most of this new-company excused them selves and said it wente against their consciences to work on yt day. So ye Govr tould them that if they made it mater of conscience, he would spare them till they were better informed. So he led-away ye rest and left them; but when they came home at noone from their worke, he found them in ye streete at play, openly; somepitching ye barr, & some at stoole-ball, and shuch like sports. So he went to them, and tooke away their implements, and tould them that was against his conscience, that they should play & others worke. If they made ye keeping of it mater of devotion, let them kepe their houses, but ther should be no gameing or revelling in ye streets. Since which time nothing hath been atempted that way, at least openly.”

By 1623 yet more ships, the Anne and Little James, found their way to Plymouth Harbor. They brought with them, in Bradford’s words, some “very useful persons … some were the wives and children of such as were here already. And some were so bad, as they were fain to be at charge to send them home again next year…” Among the new arrivals was Alice Carpenter Southworth, a young widow with two small sons. She shortly became William Bradford’s wife. Emmanual Altham, a ship captain who attended the wedding, wrote:

And now to say somewhat of the great cheer we had at the Governor’s marriage. We had about 12 pasty venison, besides others, pieces of roasted venison and other such good cheer in such quantity that I could wish you some of our share. For here we have the best grapes that ever you [saw] and the biggest, and divers sorts of plums and nuts.

Bradford’s second marriage appears to have been happy. His last will & testament describes Alice as “my dear and loving wife.” She provided a home in Plymouth for Bradford’s son who had been left behind in Leiden, and she and William had three children of their own, two sons and a daughter.

Meanwhile, the colony was growing, and so were the responsibilities of the Governor and his Court of Assistants. As Governor, Bradford and his assistants were financial managers for the colony. The Governor and Assistants were also judges in disputes and negotiators with the Dutch in New York and the new Massachusetts Bay Colony. They had to watchdog the ultimately unsuccessful trading posts in Maine and Connecticut and also to maintain friendly relations with the Native People.

What clearly distressed Bradford most was the breakup of the original colony. As the settlers moved out for more land, the church was divided and the old “comfortable fellowship” ended.

In 1650, Bradford finished piecing together his journal, bringing the record up to 1646. He notes sorrowfully the death of Elder William Brewster and the departure of Edward Winslow for England. Nevertheless, Bradford struggled on until 1656, leaving office just few short months before his death in 1657.

William Bradford’s life and influence have been chronicled by many. As the author of a manuscript journal and the long-term governor of Plymouth Colony, his documented activities are vast in scope. His remarkable ability to manage men and affairs was a large factor in the success of the Plymouth Colony. The Pilgrims “desperate adventure” was marked by Bradford’s stamina, versatility and vision.

Chronology of William Bradford’s Life

1590 William Bradford is born and then baptized on March 19 in Austerfield, Yorkshire, England.

1602 William Bradford becomes a regular attender at Puritan and Separatist meetings, coming under the influence of William Brewster and John Robinson of the Scrooby Separatist Congregation.

1608 The Scrooby Separatists begin to leave England and settle in Holland.

1609 William Bradford joins the Scrooby Separatists in Amsterdam.

1613 William Bradford marries Dorothy May.

1620 The Mayflower Pilgrims voyage to Plymouth. Dorothy May dies.

1621 The first governor of Plymouth, John Carver, dies. William Bradford is elected governor, holding the position (except for 5 years) for the remainder of his life.

1622 Mourt’s Relation, based on writings by William Bradford and Edward Winslow among others, is published in London.

1623 William Bradford marries the widow Alice Carpenter Southworth.

1630 William Bradford begins the writings that eventually become Of Plymouth Plantation.

1650 William Bradford stops writing Of Plymouth Plantation, ending with the year 1646 and adding a current list of the Mayflower passengers and their status in the year 1650.

1657 William Bradford dies.

William Brewster

1566-1644

William Brewster was the Reverend Elder of the Pilgrim’s church at Plymouth, since their pastor John Robinson remained behind in Leyden, Holland with the majority of the congregation which planned to come to America at a later time. Brewster was a fugitive from the King of England, because he had published a number of religious pamphlets while in Leyden which were critical or opposed the tenets of the Church of England. He had been a member of the Separatist church movement from its very beginning, and was the oldest Mayflower passenger to have participated at the First Thanksgiving, in his early fifties.

William Bradford wrote a lot about William Brewster in Of Plymouth Plantation, some of which follows:

After he had attained some learning, viz. the knowledge of Latin tongue, and some insight in the Greek, and spent some small time at Cambridge, and then being first seasoned with the seeds of grace and virtue, he went to the court, and served that religious and godly gentleman, Mr. Davison, divers years, when he was Secretary of State; who found him so discreet and faithful as he trusted him above all other that were about him, and only employed him in all matters of greatest trust and secrecy . . . he attended his mr. when he was sent in ambassage by the Queen into the Low Countries . . . And, at his return, the States honored him with a gold chain, and his master committed it to him, and commanded him to wear it when they arrived in England, as they rid through the country, till they came to the court . . . Afterwards he went and lived in the country, in good esteem amongst his friends and the gentlemen of those parts, especially the Godly and religious. He did much good in the country where he lived, in promoting and furthering religion not only by his practise and example, and provocating and encouraging of others, but by procuring of good preachers to the places thereabouts, and drawing on of others to assist and help forward in such work; he himself most commonly deepest in the charge, and sometimes above his ability. . . . They ordinarily met at this house on the Lord’s day, (which was a manor of the bishops) and with great love he entertained them when they came, making provision for them to his great charge. He was the chief of those that were taken at Boston, and suffered the greatest loss; and of the seven that were kept longest in prison, and after bound over . . . After he came into Holland he suffered much hardship, after he had spent the most of his means, having a great charge, and many children; and, in regard of his former breeding and course of life, not so fit for many employments as others were, especially as were toilsome and laborious. But yet he ever bore his condition with much cheerfulness and contention. Towards the later part of those 12 years spent in Holland, his outward condition was mended, and he lived well and plentifully; for he fell into a way to teach many students, who had a desire to learn the English tongue, to teach them English; . . . He also had means to set up printing, by the help of some friends . . . and by reason of many books which would not be allowed to be printed in England, they might have had more then they could do. . . . And besides that, he would labor with his hands in the fields as long as he was able; yet when the church had no other minister, he taught twice every Sabbath . . . For his personal abilities, he was qualified above many; he was wise and discreet and well spoken, having a grave and deliberate utterance, of a very cheerful spirit, very sociable and pleasant amongst his friends, of an humble and modest mind, of a peaceable disposition, undervaluing himself and his own abilities . . . inoffensive and innocent in his life and conversation . . . he was tender-hearted, and compassionate of such as were in misery, but especially of such as had been of good estate and rank, and were fallen into want and poverty, either for goodness and religions sake, or by the injury and oppression of others; . . .

Francis Cooke

of Plymouth

by David Haas

Francis Cooke came on the Mayflower with his eldest son John in 1620 and as such was one of the signers of the Mayflower Compact. His wife, Hester, soon followed on the Anne in 1623. She brought with her three additional children: Jacob, Jane, and Hester. Another child, Mary, was born in 1626.

Francis Cooke was also listed on the original list of freemen for Plymouth and was found on this list again in 1633, 1637 and 1658. As a freemen he had several duties which were thrust upon him. He served twice on the Grand Inquest, once in 1638 and a second time in 1640. Cooke also served on numerous juries from the years 1638-48. His most notable case was that of Allis Bishop. She admitted to murdering her four year old daughter by slashing her throat and windpipe with a knife. His major service to the community, however, seemed to come in the highway realm. In 1937, he was appointed to the committee to lay out highways. He followed this appointment with the job of surveyor of the highways for Plymouth in 1641, 1642 and again in 1645. He even served on a committee to find the best route for a new road.

There is no record of what kind of work Cooke was engaged in. He did have and apprentice, John Harmon, for seven years starting in 1636. Francis Cooke was also on the 1643 Plymouth list of those who were able to bear arms.

Francis Cooke was not as active in court as his jury duty. He won a judgment against John Browne, the elder, for abusing his cattle. Along with twelve others, he was given 4 black heifers and two she goats in the 1627 cattle division. Cooke appears to have been granted many different parcels of land in and around Plymouth. Some of this land he gave to his sons Jacob and John, which they sold portions of. Francis even sold some land to William Bradford. His neighbors included Isaak Allerton, Edward Winslow, and Thomas Prence as well as his two sons John and Jacob.

The will of Francis Cooke, dated 7 October 1659, leaves all his possessions to his wife Hester with Hester and his son John as joint executors of the will. John Aldin and John Howland were witnesses to the will. Francis Cooke passed away on 7 April 1663 at the age of approximately 80. An inventory was taken of his possessions by Ephraim Tinkham and William Crow on 1 May 1663. His total net worth at that time was 86 pounds, 11 shillings, and 1 pence.

Claybourne Montgomery Elder: Short Sketch

Claybourn M. Elder was born in Bedford County, Tenn.[other sources say Rutherford County, TN], June 2, 1827. He was the son of David Elder and Louise Montgomery [other sources say Martha Louise]. He had one brother, David Elder, who was older and a sister, Martha Elder, who was younger. They both died at the age of four years. His father died when he was young leaving him and his mother to face life alone.

Clayborn was very active all his life as well as a great lover. He was always on the move. He moved 23 times in one year and he said it was not a good time for moving either. He moved from Kolob Co-op cattle business to the sawmill which he bought and operated in Mountain Dell. He left Dixie and went to Parowan and got another sawmill in the canyon. Then he moved to Buckhorn Springs where he stayed on winter, then to a ranch called Greensville below Beaver on the river. This ranch location was sometimes called Pan Cake. He stayed here one summer and then moved to Minersville, then to Shauntie about 1875. His wife Frances didn’t move with him this time. She and her five children stayed in Minersville. While in Shauntie, Clayborn worked in a smelter. He then moved to Iron City in Iron County. He stayed here one winter and worked in a foundry. Then he decided to move to Antelope Springs on the Cannon Ranch about 40 miles southeast of St. George. He stayed there one summer and then moved to upper Kanab and started on the McDonald sawmill. Then he decided to change and go to Leaman sawmill 20 miles out of Glendale. Here he purchased a few mild cows, about 50 head. Clayborn worked at the sawmill and the women and children took care of the cows, the milking and the churning. Then they moved to Stanford Ranch in Arizona and stayed there for a while. In the spring of 1885 Clayborn came back to Duncan City, Utah, and rented another sawmill on the Trumble Mountains about 75 miles south of St. George and operated it for four years. They would move into St. George for the winter where the children could go to school. While at the mountain Clayborn and the older boys would run the mill and younger boys and women would milk the 50 cows and make cheese and butter. The churn was a large wooden barrel with rockers on it. Two of the children could churn the butter by rocking themselves to sleep--one on each side of the churn. The butter was put into large wooden barrels and buried until someone went to St. George and they would send it to market.

About 1880 Clayborn whent to Arizona where they contracted grading on the Santa Fe Railroad. About this time a team of horses ran away and threw Clayborn out of the wagon and broke his legs between the knee and the thigh. He never had them set so it took about two years for them to heal. He went on crutches for some time and was left with a limp.

About 1873, while living in Dixie, confusion developed somehow and Martina secured a divorce from Clayborn and she took her children and moved to Kingston, Utah, and took up a homestead. Here she and the children worked clearing and breaking up the ground with their ox teams. The older boys went to work to earn money to help run the farm and to buy seed. The first year they raised 1000 bushels of grain. Martina spun wool from the sheep she raised and made clothes for her children. Before going to Kingston she lived a year or two in Parowan, Utah. While in Parowan she married a man named Paul Smith and had a little girl named Vivian. They got a divorce. Martina lived in Kingston until her family was grown and married. She built a small home in Junction 3 miles from her homestead where she lived until her death in 1910. She was buried in the Junction Cemetery.

            Clayborn joined the church when he was 17 years old and always prided his connection with the church and retained a living testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel. He was a very rugged type of man and always wore high top boots and a large hat. He was an excellent carpenter. He could build almost any kind of structure he decided upon. He was an apprentice carpenter in his youth and he helped to build the Prophet’s mansion. He made the benches for and helped to build the school house in Hinckley in 1875.

                                       Claybourne Montgomery Elder: Life Sketch
            Claybourne Montgomery Elder was born in Bedford County, Tennessee, June 2, 1827. He was the son of David Elder and Martha Louisa Montgomery. He had one older brother, David Elder and one sister younger, Martha Elder. They both died at the age of four. Martha, feeling downcast at the loss of her two children, prompted her and David to take their young son and move to Nauvoo, during its early settlement with the Saints. Claybourne Elder was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1838 (1842?). Claybourne soon became acquainted with the Prophet Joseph Smith. They had many ball games together. He also served as an apprentice carpenter on the Prophet’s mansion.

In his early youth he suffered many hardships and persecutions that the Saints were subjected to at that time. One day Claybourne and his friends were out flying kites, when the mob came hunting Joseph Smith. They asked the boys if any of them had seen him and they said, “Yes, we saw Joe and Hyrum going to heaven yesterday on a white horse, and they were sending them their dinner in a basket on the tails of their kites.” The mob left in disgust.

Another time Claybourne was in a crowd when the mob came along hunting for Joe Smith. While they were talking Joseph Smith came along with a catfish over his shoulder and tried to sell them the catfish.

Claybourne’s father died while he was young, leaving him and his mother to face life alone. After awhile, Claybourne’s mother Martha Louisa married again. Claybourne had a mind of his own and so he resented this. It caused friction and unrest in the home and resulted in conflict between Claybourne and his stepfather. So when Claybourne was fifteen years old he decided he would go for himself. It made his mother very unhappy but he insisted that she give him her consent, which she did, and from that time on he went his way and made his own livelihood.

In the year l850, at the age of 23, he crossed the plains with an ox team company and upon its arrival in Utah he settled in Grantsville. He served through the Echo Canyon Episode of the Indian War. He also served in the Walker and Black Hawk Indian Wars.

It is believed Claybourne Elder married Nancy Williams on February 9, 18~3. She died in Grantsville.

A story told to Arvilla Theobald Swenson, a granddaughter of Claybourne Elder by her mother and father, Agnes Etta Elder and Thomas George Theobald, and her uncles Johnathan, Frank and Parley Elder, children of Claybourne Elder.

“In the early days, a younger daughter could not be married until the oldest daughter was married, which was the case of E1izabeth Frances Pratt, age 12, when Claybourne and she fell in love. In the meantime he courted her sister, Mary Caroline Pratt, in Grantsville, Utah. Mary Caroline became the first wife of Claybourne. It was customary for the husband to bring everything to the first wife and she would distribute everything to the other wives as she saw fit. This often caused tension between the wives.” Thus, Claybourne married Mary Caroline first and later in life he married Elizabeth Frances as well.

Mary Caroline Pratt was the oldest daughter of Johnathan Blackmore Pratt and Susannah Halbert. She was born February 26, 1837. Claybourne was 31 years old when they were married on January 31, l858. They were later sealed in the Endowment House, April 13, 1861. Their first child was born a year later. To this union five children were born, the first two born in Grantsville, Utah: Claybourne Pratt, born August 1, l859, and Mary Louisa, born June 5, 1861. William David was born February 4, 1864 in Duncan’s Retreat, Washington County, Utah, and Johnathan was born January l4, 1867 in Virgin, Washington County, Utah. Ellen Isabell was born July 10, 1870 at Mt. Dell, Kane County, Utah. They all grew to maturity and were married.

Claybourne Elder joined up with the Christensen hand cart company. He had crossed the plains by ox team in 1850, about six years earlier. His presence added much to the company. Claybourne was a talented violinist, or fiddler as they were called. In the evenings around the campfire he not only played for the dancing, but he also joined in the dancing. He met Micka Martina Margrete Katrine Petersen and her little daughter, Hannah, of Horsens, Skanderborg* Denmark, and danced many times with her. Micka Martina and her husband, Carl Frederick Wilhelm Gibb or Gipp, joined the Church and were baptized in Denmark on the 20th of April, l85l. Carl could not stand the persecution and ridicule from their friends and family so he withdrew from the Church. They had made plans to come to America, the home of the Saints, but at the last he told Micka Martina she could go and take their little daughter, Hannah. Micka Martina’s love for the Gospel she had embraced gave her courage to take her young daughter and go on alone. Micka’s sister Julia and brother Jorgen Pedersen took passage on the ship “Westmorland” and the anchor was raised on April 23, 1857. They arrived in Philadelphia on the 1st of June, 1857. While waiting for the handcart company to start, Julia met a man who persuaded her to marry him and stay in Iowa City, thus Micka Martina had to face the trip alone with her little daughter, Hannah, then two years old.

In November, 1859, Claybourne married Micka Martina Pederson. To this union seven children were born: Don Carlos, born October 10, 1860 in Grantsville and died in May, 1862, just under two years old; Eli Alonzo, born August 31, 1862 in Grantsville; Maria Martina, born July 13, l864, in Duncan’s Retreat, Washington County, Utah; Joseph Elder, born February 25, 1866, at Virgin, Washington County, Utah; Claybourne Lorenzo, born also in Virgin on December 27, 1867; George Henry, born February 16, 1971, at Mt. Dell, Washington County, Utah; Florence May, born June 22, 1873, in Parowan, Iron County, Utah, she died a year and a half later, December 28, l874.

In 1861, with two wives and three children, Claybourne Elder was called by Brigham Young to serve with General Wells to protect the Mormon people from Johnston’s Army. The Saints left their homes and went south and camped around Spring Lake. Claybourne was left in Salt Lake with a few other men. Brigham Young instructed them to scatter hay and straw in the crops and to set fire to homes and everything if the army came in. This plan was not carried out because Johnston’s Army was snowed in between Evanston and Parleys Canyon and remaining there all winter. While on this important mission on another occasion there were twenty-five men in this group from Bradger, Utah, in Echo Canyon; they were outnumbered several times, they had to think fast. So they kept riding their horses around on different ridges so Johnston’s Army could see them against the skyline. They would put their hats on wrong side up, coats wrong side out, and just rode in anyway to look different and to deceive the on-lookers. When General Johnston came to make a treaty with Brigham Young so they could get into Utah, he asked how many men he had in his army. President Young said twenty-five, Johnston would not believe him. He said he had counted 150 men himself, upon the ridges.

In 1862, several families were called by Brigham Young to go to Dixie to help quell the Indian disturbances in that section of the territory. Claybourne Elder, with his two wives, Mary Caroline and Micka Martina, and their three children were among those called. Claybourne was asked to take his sawmill, so they could colonize Southern Utah. Travel was slow so it took weeks to make the journey. One of the hardships was finding something to eat. Their principle diet was caneseed bread and sorghum.

Claybourne Elder and William Wright were helping to care for the Kolob Co-op herd of cattle. At this time they were taking their cattle to the winter range up near the Canaan Ranch, known as Short Creek. They had a bunch of Indians helping with the cattle. They were riding through a thicket of cedars, when all at once the Indians began pointing to the ground, calling Navaho track and led Claybourne to the wagon where the two Berry Boys, Robert Madison and Joseph Smith Berry, and Isabell, one of their wives were found. The two men in the wagon were shot full of arrows, and Isabell was tied to the wagon wheel with her hands full of Indian hair, and her body full of arrows. The Berry Boys had been to Salt Lake City to get their endowments and Robert had just been married to Isabell and they were on their way back home when they were murdered, Sunday, April 2, 1866. These same Indians that were helping with the cattle were the ones that had done this terrible crime. Claybourne and ____________ (Calvin?) camped that night at Short Creek with the Indians all around. During the night there was one Indian that crept to Claybourne’s room three different times to see if he was asleep, but he was always awake. He warned the Indian not to come any more as he was watching them. He had no writing material except for a pencil he found and an old book and he wrote a message on it. He gave it to the Indians to take into Grafton Town. This message was to tell the Bishop of the Berry’s massacre. Claybourne kept watch until help came.

Later two men came up missing in the winter time. Whitmore and Makentire, (McIntire). This Makentire is a brother to Sam and William Makentire, that used to live in Leamington, Utah. Also in the book “The Giant Joshua” Claybourne was in the searching party under Captain Joseph Andrews. They were riding where they knew the men should have been on a flat stretch of desert country, when one of the horses brushed snow from one of the dead men’s elbows. The men were buried in 1 1/2 feet of snow. They gathered up the bodies and took them to Pipe Springs. This same group of searchers got up early the next morning, searching the desert with field glasses for some signs of Indians. They discovered a small line of smoke. They made for it as fast as they could ride. When they arrived they surrounded the smoke which was coming from Box Canyon near Kanab. Claybourne saw an Indian with a long knife going to or did cut the hand of one of the men. The word “shoot” was said and then what a battle until only one Indian that got away, and was finally shot when he was going up the side of the hill.

Mary Caroline and Micka Martina had their children, one about every year for five years. On July 25, 1863, Claybourne married Francis Elizabeth Pratt, a sister to Mary Caroline, his first wife. She was born October 1, 1846 in Tishomingo County, Mississippi. Frances Elizabeth was 19 years younger than Claybourne. To this union eleven children were born. At one time Claybourne had three babies born, one to each of his wives, within three months of each other in the year 1864, two girls and one boy. Mary Caroline’s baby, William David, born February 4, 1864; Francis Elizabeth’s first child, Martha Susannah, born May 4, l864, died the same year; and Micka Martina’s child, Maria Martina, born July 13, l864.

Frances Elizabeth and Claybourne had eleven children, they were: Martha Susannah, born May 4, l864, she died that same year; James Edward was born November 4, 1865; Hyrum Pratt was born December 1, 1867, and died April 18, 1874; Ann Elizabeth was born November 5, 1869; Walter Wallace was born June 19, 1871. These five children were born in Duncan’s Retreat, Washington County, Utah. Agnes Etta was born June 5, l874 in Iron Springs or Greenville, Beaver County, Utah. Franklin Pratt was born January 19, 1877, in Glendale, Kane County, Ira Milton was born January 2, 1880, also in Glendale. Parley Pratt, was born September 25, 1882, in Snow Flake, Navajo County, Arizona. Charles Pratt was born January 5, l885 at Duncan’s Retreat and died November 13, 1896. Edgar Pratt was born April 2, 1887 at St. George, Utah and died May 11, 1887, Frances Elizabeth also died with this child.

In the early 1860's, Claybourne married a Nancy Williams Fergusen Ott, who was a widow with one son, David Benton Ott. She was the daughter of David Barrows Fergusen and Nancy Pegram. She was born August 27, 1822. Her husband Frederick Ott, born July 26, 1818. They were married March 25, 1841. They had a son David Benton Ott, born March 10, 1842. Frederick and Nancy W. Fergusen Ott were baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, June 11, l842. They had another son, Fredrick J., born July 13, 1844, he died February l846 at Winter Quarters. Frederick Ott (the father) died in January 1846 leaving his wife and two sons. Nancy and her son David Benton Ott came to Utah with the Saints, where she met Claybourne Elder and married him sometime in the early 1860's. This could be the first marriage, we do not know, as the Nancy Williams could be the first part of her name. We also have located a patriarchal blessing given to Nancy Williams Fergusen Elder by Patriarch John Young, on January 10, 1860. Nancy Williams Fergusen Ott Elder died at Duncan’s Retreat some where about 1864-l871 while they were living there. She is buried with another grave of an unknown child along the side of the road, on the higher ground at the foot of the hill on the north of the settlement. (Actual year of death is 1863.)

Claybourne was very active all his life, as well as a great lover. He was always on the move. Having moved 23 times in one year, and he said it was not good time for moving either. He moved from the Kolob Co-op cattle business to the sawmill which he owned and operated, at Mountain Dell, and then he left Dixie and went to Parowan and got another saw mill in the canyon. Then he moved to Buckhorn Springs, where he stayed one winter, then to a ranch called Greenville, below Beaver, sometimes this ranch location was called Pan Cake, which was located upon the South Fork of the Beaver River. He stayed there one summer. Then he moved to Minersville, then to Shauntie, about 1875. His wife Frances didn’t move with him this time. She stayed with her five children in Minersville. While at Shauntie, Claybourne worked in a smelter, where he got leaded. Then he moved to Iron City, in Iron County. He stayed here one winter and worked in a foundry. Then he decided to move to Antelope Springs, on the Canaan Ranch about 40 miles southeast of St. George. He stayed there one summer and then decided to go to Upper Kanab and started on the McDonald sawmill. Then he moved to Seaman Saw, 20 miles out of Glendale. Here he stayed for two years and purchased a few milk cows, about 50 head. Claybourne worked at the sawmill and the women and children took care of the cows, the milking and the churning.

In 1873, while living in Parowan, confusion developed somehow and Micka Martina secured a divorce from Claybourne. With seven children to feed and clothe, Micka Martina and her children gleaned the fields and pounded the grain out with clubs, to make flour for the winter. Florence May was born June 22, 1873. While in Parowan, Micka Martina married a Paul Smith, which didn’t last long. After her baby’s birth, Vivian Smith, born November 2 1877, she divorced Paul. In 1878, she sold the house and lot that she had been awarded by Paul Smith and moved her family to Kingston, Utah and took up a homestead. Here she and the children worked cleaning and breaking up the ground with their ox team. The older boys went to work to earn money to help run the farm and to buy seed. The first year they raised 1,000 bushels of grain. Micka Martina spun wool from the sheep. She raised and made clothes for her children. They lived in Kingston until her children were grown and married. She then built a small home in Junction, three miles from her homestead, where she lived until her death on February 8, 1911. She was buried in the Junction Cemetery.

In 1880, Claybourne moved his two wives (sisters) and their families to Arizona, where he contracted grading on the Santa Fe Railroad, from John W. Young.

This is a story we have often heard Claybourne tell that happened while working on the railroad. “One day a Salvation Army Lady carrying a tambourine came into camp. She began to pass it around trying to getup a collection. When she came to a Swede, she asked if he didn’t want to work for Jesus Christ, he said “No tank yo, got a yob, I work for Yon W. Young, I get $2.00 a day---somedays.”

While in Arizona they lived at Snowflake, and contracted making pine shingles, contract for 50,000 shingles at $5.00 a thousand. If they had a good day maybe they could get a hundred shingles made.

While in Arizona, a team of horses ran away and threw Claybourne out of the wagon and broke his legs between the knee and thigh. He never had them set, so it took about two years for them to heal. He went on crutches for some time and was left with a limp.

They also had Indian troubles in Arizona. The Indians had been killing women and children. One day Frances saw a bunch of Indians coming, so of course she thought it was their turn. She hurriedly took her children down to the creek and hid them in the willows. She left her son Jim (James Edward) at the house and told him to feed them melons, as they had a large crop. When the Indians came, they asked Jim if the Squaw was afraid. He said, “Yes.” He fed the Indians melons and more melons til they could hold no more. They finally left, but the next day they saw the same Indians coming again, only there were more than the day before. The women took the children and left again, but this time Claybourne was home. When the Indians rode up they asked about the squaws and papooses. They wanted him to bring them back as they had a big deer all roasted. They wanted to treat them. So Claybourne sent for the women and children, and although they were scared they came and enjoyed the meat. The Indians ate melons while the family ate the meat.

They moved to Stanford’s Ranch in Arizona and stayed there for a while. In the spring of l885, they started moving back to Utah. When they were moving they had to cross Lee’s Ferry, which was a raft just large enough for a team and wagon to ride on. They had not unhitched the mules and when they were in the middle of the Colorado River the mules began to buck. They almost backed the wagon into the river. “I’ll tell you there was some fast unhitching of those mules.” Charles Pratt, son of Frances and Claybourne, was born in Duncan’s Retreat on January 5, 1885. That spring Claybourne rented a saw mill up on Trumbull Mountain about 75 miles south of St. George, and operated it for 4 years. They would move into St. George for the winter, where the children could go to school. While at the mountain, Claybourne and the older boys would run the mill. Some of the young boys and the women would milk the fifty cows and make cheese and butter. The churn was a large wooden barrel with rockers on it. Two of the children could churn the butter by rocking themselves to sleep, one on each side or the churn. The butter was then put into large wooden barrels and buried until someone went to St. George, then they would take it to market.

On April 2, 1887, Edgar Pratt was born to Frances Elizabeth and on April 19, 1887 at St. George, Utah she died of complications from childbirth, at the age of 4l. The baby lived almost a month and died May 11, 1887. Claybourne stayed there until 1888 and then moved to Panguitch, then on to Hinckley, where he stayed for 5 years. By this time, most of his children were raised and married.

Claybourne moved to Ferron, Emery County, where his wife Mary Caroline died on February 8, 1905. While at Ferron he met and married a Mrs. Pulsifer in 1908 at the age of 81. They didn’t live together long. Claybourne then went to Leamington and lived with his son Parley for three years. He died at his home January 9, 1912. He was laid to rest in the Leamington City Cemetery.

Claybourne was a very good musician. He could really make the old fiddle talk. He played for many a square dance in different communities, and in all the neighborhoods in which he lived through out his life.

Claybourne joined the Church when he was l5 years old and always prided connection with the Church, and retained a living testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel. He was a very rugged type of man and always wore high top boots and a large hat. He also was an excellent carpenter. He could build almost any kind of structure he decided upon. He was an apprentice carpenter in his youth, and helped to build the Prophet Joseph Smith’s mansion. He made the benches for and helped build the school house in Hinckley, Utah in 1878.

He had 24 children in 28 years. His first being born in 1859 and his last one born in 1887. It is reported that 19 children survive him. Besides 116 grand-children and 26 great grand-children.

Taken from histories written by Eva Elder Kelsey, a granddaughter, and Golda Elder Mangum a grand-daughter. Compiled by Eda Theobald Maxfield

John Ellis

1814-1871

John Ellis, the first child of John Ellis and Hannah Stone, was born in Scarborough, York, Ontario, Canada on Jan 4, 1814. Very little is known about his parents or his boyhood days, but we know that this area of Canada had only recently opened to settlers. Many of these settlers came directly from England, but many others were United Empire Loyalist who fled into Canada from the United States rather than fight against England at the time of the Revolutionary War. This new country was covered with great forest of maple, beech, elm, ash, oak, birch, spruce and cedar trees. There were also many lakes and streams which supplied these pioneers with fish, some of which they salted for winter use. They may have caught fresh fish through the ice during the cold winter months when the streams were frozen. It is likely that these frozen streams and lakes also provided the settlers with winter sport in the form of skating.

As was the case in all pioneer communities, the young boys assumed the responsibilities of men. They became carpenters, masons, harness makers, shoe makers, blacksmiths, and millers, as the occasion demanded. John Ellis undoubtedly had experience in all these trades during his boyhood. A history of Scarborough states that early meetings were held whenever a congregation could be gathered in a barn, a wagon, shop or school house. The circumstances under which John Ellis first heard the Gospel are unknown, but he did hear it and became a member of the church in 1836, when he was about 22 years old. After he joined the church, he was not welcome in his father’s home. Our records show his baptism in 1838.

The story passed down through the family is that he left Canada during the winter, taking with him only his skates. He probably skated on the frozen streams, skirting the edges of lake Ontario and lake Erie, and finally arriving at Kirtland, Ohio where he joined the body of Saints. Our family stories say he worked in a large burner as a cooper or barrel maker. Barrel making may not seem too important to us in this day, but in the pioneer days there were no cardboard boxes or plastic bags, and most everything had to be packed or stored in barrels.

John Ellis was with the Saints at the time of their expulsion from Kirkland and moved to Far West in 1838. From there he went to Quincy, where the Saints were given refuge. It was in Quincy, Adams County, Illinois that he met and subsequently married Harriet Hales on Oct 31, 1839. Harriet was the daughter of Stephen and Mary Ann Hales. (They were first cousins.) This young couple consisted of blue-eyed Harriet, who was of medium height and had dark brown hair, and John, who was a large man at six feet with very dark hair and blue eyes. They lived in Quincy, Illinois for a time. In the minutes of the Quincy Branch the members of the church were recorded June 21, 1840. Among the names listed were John Ellis and Harriet Ellis, also listed were Stephen and Mary Ann Hales (Harriet’s parents) and three of her brothers: Charles Henry and wife Julie Ann, Stephens Hales Jr. and George Hales. On Dec 30, 1840, while in Quincy, the first Ellis child was born - a little girl named Mary Ann. Some time after this, possibly in the Spring of 1841, the John Ellis and Stephen Hales Sr. families moved to Nauvoo, Illinois. John and Harriet’s second daughter, Hannah Isabella, is recorded as being born there December of 1843.

The first son born to John and Harriet was born at Fort Madison, Iowa about three miles from Nauvoo, Illinois. It was a mystery to the family why John and Harriet were in Fort Madison until further research and information gathered from Brother Pettit’s journals were obtained. The land near Fort Madison had dips and swells in the topography. In the low place, a sort of scrub oak grew in abundance. While Brother Pettit was serving on a mission, he visited Nauvoo and the surrounding area. While he was there he saw slats which he was told had been cut from this scrub oak. These were wet and curved to form the rounded boards for making barrels, buckets, and wash tubs. It is possible that while John was pursuing his trade as a carpenter and cooper, moved there where he could obtain materials for his trade. John Henry Ellis, a second son of John and Harriet, was born at Appanoose, Illinois on March 18, 1849. Now John and his wife had four children to provide and protect against those perilous times.

A check of LDS records reveals there is not a card file for John and Harriet having made the trek across the plains into the Salt Lake Valley. However, Harriet’s mother remarried after the death of her father Stephen Hales to William Thompson. William and Mrs. Thompson are listed in the Garden Grove Company arriving in Salt Lake Sept 24, 1851. The roster of persons in this Garden Grove Company included the following: Brother William Thompson and Sister Thompson. His children Marie and Orville and her children who were Hales. Charles and Julia Hales are listed with small children, Stephen Hales and wife Eveline with small children, and Henry Hales and wife Eliza Ewings Hales. No mention of John and Harriet Hales Ellis. In the biography of Harriet Hales, it states that her younger brother Henry, and his family traveled in the same company with John and Harriet Ellis. The family also related that Harriet said her mother (Mary Ann Hales Thompson) died on the plains. Further statements were made that the family took a wagon box to make a coffin for her and Harriet expressed extreme sorrow in leaving her mother buried on the plains. Harriet was disturbed by the evidence of wild animals desecrating the graves of the fallen Saints who had traveled in the previous companies. From these evidences, along with the fact that a child was born to John and Harriet on Dec 21, 1851 in Bountiful, Utah is that John and Harriet Ellis along with the Thompson and Hales families traveled together in the Garden Grove Company, reaching Salt Lake on Sept 24, 1851.

When the Ellis family reached Utah the covered wagon was used for sleeping quarters for some of the family members until a one room log cabin could be built. The log cabin served as the main residence of the family until 1869 when a four room adobe house was constructed. While living in the log cabin seven more children were born to John and Harriet. These children were: Jose Ezra, Sarah Ann, Elizabeth Jane, Laura Victoria, Charles William, George Franklin and James. George Franklin died of scarlet fever when he was fourteen months old and James died from measles when he was nine months old. The first four years in Utah were not easy, but they experienced the joy of building for the future.

In 1857 this future was threatened by the advent of Johnston’s Army. While the family moved south to Cove Fort, John was stationed in Echo Canyon. The muster roll of Company D, 2nd Battalion, 4th Regiment Infantry, Nauvoo Legion shows John Ellis was the captain from November 9 through November 28, 1857. Upon returning to their home, the Ellis family did some farming and stock raising. A small flock of sheep furnished wool, which Harriet
prepared for clothing. John Ellis was a miller for John Taylor in Farmington.

The following is copied from the book East of Antelope Island, page 153, “John Ellis, a millwright and cooper who had brought his tools to the valley with him, made furniture for his home. One rocking chair is still is use in the home of his daughter-in-law, Robenia M. Ellis.” John also made wooden tubs, barrels, buckets, churns and washboards, all very important items in those days. The first molasses mill in the community was owned by John Ellis. It was located near the site of the present Bountiful City Cemetery. The family referred to this piece of land as the mill ground. Stephen Ellis had charge of the mill ground while Charles Ellis was responsible for the meadow ground.

John Ellis was a happy, fun-loving person. He enjoyed having young people come to his home and they came often. Harriet was a refined and very capable person. The couple enjoyed singing and often held “singing school” in their home. This love of singing has been handed down through the generations to their descendants. John was not well during the last years of his life. He had what was probably cancer of the face and suffered very much from it. It became necessary to feed him with a cup having a spout. One time when he was returning home after having treatments in Salt lake City, the freight train stopped at the land where his boys met him and carried him home in a rocking chair. John died on April 3, 1871. He was 57 years and nearly three months old at the time of his death. He was patient in his suffering and was always a true and faithful Latter-day Saint. He was survived by Harriet, ten of his twelve children and nine
grandchildren. Harriet lived 39 years as a widow, and she too was a faithful Latter-day Saint. She raised her family under trying conditions, teaching school to support them. She taught Sunday School in South Bountiful for 25 years and must have been a living example of an ideal Latter-day Saint woman. The last thirteen years of her life were spent in the home of her youngest daughter, Laura Victoria Ellis Hatch, who made her comfortable and happy. At her death on May 24, 1910, she had 101 grandchildren, 205 great-grandchildren and 38 great-great-grandchildren.

Sources:
June Jansson Ellis, History of John Ellis, edited by Veoma M. Stahle.
International Society: Daughters Of The Utah Pioneers
East of Antelope Island P. 153

Obituary of John Ellis:
At Bountiful, April 3, 1871, of cancer, John Ellis, aged 57 years and three months. Deceased was born near the city of Toronto, Upper Canada, where he embraced the gospel in the year 1836. In 1837 he moved to Kirkland, Ohio and in 1838, he moved with the saints from there to Far West, Missouri. He then went to Quincy, Illinois, where he married the daughter of Stephen and Mary Ann Hales. He went to Nauvoo, where he resided until the expulsion of the Saints from the state. He then, with his family, started for the Rocky Mountains, stopping by the way to recruit, at Garden Grove. He reached the Salt Lake Valley in the year 1851, since which time he has been a resident of Bountiful until his decease. He has ever been true and faithful in the church and was patient during his afflictions. He leaves a wife, twelve children, twelve grand children,
and many relatives and friends to mourn his loss. John Ellis was laid to rest in Bountiful City Cemetery.

Available at: http://www.intellex.com/~ronspiez/Html/nti03232.htm (Last visited September 24, 2002).

Mary Ann Ellis

1840-1914

Excerpts from story by Abram Workman

Mary Ann Ellis was born December 30, 1840, at Quincy, Illinois. She wax a daughter of John Ellis and Harriet Hales. They came to Utah in September, 1851, when Mary was eleven years of age. She married Meltiar Hatch, May 6, 1856, in the old Endowment House in Salt Lake City.

I would like to relate a little experience that was told me by Meltiar himself. I always understood this was his first acquaintance with Mary Ann Ellis. The two families were neighbors there in Bountiful. I think the story is too clever not to be retold.

Meltiar had bought a little pig; it kept getting out of the pen. One day little Mary saw him trying to catch it and she ran and caught it for him.

A few years later, President Brigham Young advised several men to take another wife;

Meltiar was one of them. By now, Mary had grown to be a beautiful young lady. He thought,

‘Why not her?’ So it happened.

They were called to go to Parley’s Park, where they lived for a few years. While there, Mary’s first three children were born: John H., Elias, and Julia.

Mary had the experience of the Eagle Valley Mission - which ended with the exodus and sacrifice of property when it was learned they were in Nevada instead of Utah. The state of Nevada started a suit against them for back taxes. This would have taken about all they had. They moved in a body from both the Muddy Valley and the West Valleys back to Utah. Mary had three more children while at Eagle Valley.

As there had been a number of towns in Utah abandoned on account of Indian troubles, they were advised to occupy those abandoned towns. The Muddy Valley people were to settle in Long Valley and the Eagle Valley people were to settle in Panguitch and Kanab.

Those who had gone to Panguitch had quite a lot of cattle, so they formed a co-op herd and located them 15 miles south of Panguitch at the Mammoth Fork of the Sevier River. Here Meltiar built a log house on the ranch and Mary moved here where she did the cooking for the ranch hands. She made much butter and cheese and extended a hearty welcome to all newcomers. Everyone who came there praised her for her delicious well-prepared meals.

It was in the fall of 1878 when I first met Mary Ellis Hatch. It seemed to me a most ideal home. Her children were well-behaved, the house was clean and home-like. Her husband was with her a good deal of the time, but he was quite feeble and the way she cared for him made me love her.

She was one of the most pure and faithful of wives and mothers I ever met. She had 10 children. In her declining years, the government of the United States passed a law legalizing her children, but making her marriage to Meltiar Hatch unlawful. Although she had been a faithful wife to him through the years, he was forbidden to live with her, under threat of being put in jail. This, of course, was a great sorrow to both of them in their declining years. He dared not even visit her lest some spy make trouble.

She died at the home of her son, John H. Hatch, in Tropic, Utah, on August 26, 1914, after a long illness of Bright’s disease. Mary, too, was laid beside her husband in the local cemetery that bears his name.

Selections from Windows: A Mormon Family

Skyline Printing, 1985

Selections from the autobiographies of Mary Isabella Hales, Charles Henry Hales, Stephen Hales and from the biography of Harriet Hales in Kenneth Glyn Hales, comp. and ed., Windows: A Mormon Family

Autobiography of Charles Henry Hales

[The oldest child of Stephen and Mary Ann Hales, Charles Henry Hales wrote his biography which is recorded on page 208 of the record of the Second Quorum of Seventies as follows:]

I, Charles H. Hales, was born in the parish of Rainham, county of Kent, England on the seventeenth of June 1817. I was educated and raised under the doctrines of the Church of England. I was baptized in infancy and had godfathers and godmothers to stand responsible for my conduct until I arrived at the age of fourteen. At this age they were no longer held responsible since those being confirmed took the responsibility upon themselves. I did not receive this ordinance myself, since I was not quite old enough to when the bishop visited our parish for confirmation it was established by law that the bishop should visit each parish twice in seven years. At this time all those who had arrived at the age of fourteen were confirmed while the remainder waited for the next term. I was one that had to wait on account of my age, but before the next term my father with his family emigrated to upper Canada in North America. This was in the year 1832.

My father was a boot and shoe maker by trade and he taught me the same business until I was fifteen years of age. I was somewhat adverse to this trade, and when we came to Canada I was permitted to follow any occupation I chose. Accordingly I chose to follow farming which I did until after the time I embraced the everlasting gospel. My father was a professor of religion. He was called a Wesleyan Methodist when we came to Canada, and continued the same faith until Elder Parley P. Pratt came into the providence of Upper Canada and proclaimed the everlasting gospel. I had never embraced any of the systems of the present age, but had been greatly addicted to the reading of the old and new testament. I was subject to many serious reflections and wonderings as to why we had not apostles and prophets on the earth at the present age as was true in former ages. Since I was destitute of the priesthood I could not understand the scriptures. I always endeavored to be honest in my dealings with my fellow men. I had been trained to observe the sabbath very strictly and to be upright and honest in all things; principles which I always endeavored to inculcate and practice according to the knowledge we had of right and wrong.

I embraced the everlasting gospel in the month of June 1836. I was baptized by Parley P. Pratt and confirmed by Elders Orson Hyde and Parley P. Pratt in the fall of the same year. After embracing the truth I went on a visit to Kirtland, Ohio where the church as a body was located. Here I first became acquainted with Joseph Smith the Prophet and Seer of this last dispensation. I also became acquainted with his father, Joseph Smith, Sr., the Patriarch of the Church for I received my patriarchal blessing. I stayed in Kirtland till spring, and then returned to Canada. I was well pleased with my visit, and had heard many good instructions in the house of the Lord. The same year I left Kirtland, I was ordained a priest in the Aaronic priesthood at conference held in Scarborough Township in December 1837. I was then sent out to preach with Brother Eli Maginn who had been ordained a priest at the same conference. We continued to preach until spring at which time the word of the Lord through his servant Joseph was for the saints to sell their farms and move to the state of Missouri. Accordingly, we gathered a small company together, and after selling our farms, started our journey on the twentieth of March in 1838.

We had a very tiresome journey since we started just as the roads were breaking up in the spring. We arrived in the state of Missouri in the early part of June, coming to a place called Huntsville. We stayed a short time, since we found quite a big branch of the church there. Some of our company concluded to buy and settle there which they did. I stayed with my father, and went to work for a few months here. I first became acquainted with Julia Ann Lockwood at this place. She was the daughter of Joseph and Annis Lockwood, and was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Sometime in the month of September, I started for Far West, but on coming to DeWitt I was requested to stay by George M. Hinkle, who was president of the Branch. I was asked to assist them in defending the place as they were threatened with the mob. I did so, although the first time the mob came to make an attack on us we were but 23 in number while they numbered from 150 to 175. I stayed in DeWitt until the brethren were counseled to leave. Joseph Smith, Hyrum-his brother, and many other brethren came to assist us from Far West. I did not leave DeWitt quite as soon as the rest of the brethren as I stayed behind to assist one of my Canadian brethren, who was not quite ready when the rest were. We, however, calculated to overtake them soon, but one of his horses gave out, and he was compelled to stay. I was then under the necessity of going to Far West on foot, and alone, since he, himself, gave up the idea of going.

The first day I lost my way as I crossed the prairie of the Big Mound. I continued traveling till night, not knowing but that I was on the right road. On coming to a cultivated field I found a man putting up corn. I inquired if I could stay with him for the night. He made no reply, but asked me if I was a Mormon. I replied in the affirmative. He then told me that I could not stay with him, and further told me that I was greatly out of my way for Far West. I then told him that I was a perfect stranger in the county, that I had lost my way, that my feet were much torn by my boots, and that it was now sunset, and I could not go any further. He then said, as a reason for not keeping me, that during our difficulties in DeWitt, he had himself entertained seventeen of the mob, and that he had sworn never to keep a Mormon. He did, however, tell me where I could stay for the night.

In the morning I started again for Far West, and arrived there in October. I arrived just a few hours before the Crooked River Battle. I was one of the company engaged in that affair, although I was lame and tired. I borrowed a horse and a gun, (for I had neither) and went to defend my brethren. I saw Brother [Patrick] O’Banion when he fell. Soon after the battle the governor’s troops came to Far West, and demanded every man that was engaged in the Crooked River Battle. At this time, we were under the necessity of having our houses and grain burnt and our cattle driven off, or else if we stood up for our rights and defended ourselves like men and saints of the Most High we must be hunted by an authorized mob and be driven from our homes and families, or be killed, just as they pleased.

As soon as we learned their intentions were to take every man that was in the Crooked River Battle we all started for Illinois, going by the way of Diahman, [Adam-ondi-Ahman] since we were surrounded on every other side. Before we arrived at Diahman my horse gave out, so the brethren counseled me to stay in Diahman as I was not known by any of the mob in that county. Accordingly I stayed till the arms were given up and the brethren returned again to Far West.

I then went to Fort Leavenworth and worked until spring. Then I left the fort and came to Quincy, Illinois. Here I married Julia Ann Lockwood on the last day of October 1839. On the following year on the twenty-seventh of November, my eldest daughter was born which we called Eliza Ann.

The next April I left Quincy and went on a mission in company with Elder Andrew Hamilton to the southern part of the state of Illinois. We baptized some and left quite a number believing. After I came back I continued to live in Quincy till next spring when I moved with my family to the city of Nauvoo.

As soon as I arrived in Nauvoo I joined the brass band and continued to play with them at every public festival. We played for the Nauvoo Legion, for the dedication of the Seventies Hall, and for the laying of the capstone of the Lord’s House. The first summer after I arrived at Nauvoo, in the month of June, my second daughter was born which we named Julia Ardena. This was June 1842 and in the month of March 1844 my wife delivered of a son which we called George.

In the fall following, at the October conference, I was ordained one of the Seventies and was organized in the Second Quorum. On the twenty-third of December 1845 we were called to go into the temple to receive our endowments. We were fully satisfied that the present organization of the church is as it should be, and that the priesthood is again restored to man on the earth with all its attendant gifts and blessings as in ancient days, that all men must sooner or later bow to that priesthood, held by the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We knew that Joseph Smith was the instrument in the hands of God in bringing forth the fullness of the gospel and that he lived and died a prophet of the Most High God, sealing his testimony with his blood as did the ancient prophets and apostles.

(After crossing the plains with the saints, Charles Henry Hales made his home in Spanish Fork, Utah where he became a prominent builder and farmer. He married a second wife, Frances E. Brunyer, on October 31, 1856 at Salt Lake City. He was the father of twenty-five children by his two wives and is the ancestor of the Spanish Fork branch of the Utah Hales family. Charles Henry Hales and his two wives are buried in the Spanish Fork, Utah cemetery.]

Biography of Harriet Hales

[Sylvia Barlow, granddaughter of Harriet Hales, tells this story about her grandmother:]

Harriet Hales was born in Kent, England, on June 10, 1824, the daughter of Stephen and Mary Ann Hales. In June of 1832 the family, then consisting of the parents; five boys, Charles, George, Stephen, Henry William and Elias, and two girls, Isabella and Harriet; emigrated to Canada. They sailed on a ship and the voyage took them eleven weeks. The subject of this sketch spent her eighth birthday anniversary on the ocean had the sad experience of seeing one of her brothers, Elias, buried at sea.

They settled in Toronto Canada. Here the family joined the Mormon Church. When they were first invited to attend a Mormon meeting the father agreed to go to the service but he said he would soon knock that into a cocked hat. However, before the service was over he knew that he had found the truth. Soon after this the whole family was baptized.

In the spring of 1838 they started by team to join the body of the saints at Far West, Missouri, arriving in the fall of the same year. While at Far West they endured the persecutions by the mobs with the rest of the Saints. It was here they met the prophet Joseph Smith. After their expulsion from Missouri they moved to Quincy, Illinois. There on October 31, 1839, Harriet married John Ellis, a native of Canada, who had joined the church and emigrated to Quincy.

Four child were born to Harriet and John Ellis while they lived in Quincy; namely, Mary Ann, Hanna Isabella, Stephen Hales and John Henry. In 1842 they moved to Nauvoo where they lived until the expulsion of the Saints by the mob.

Harriet’s father and mother joined them in commencing the journey across the plains. One day the oxen strayed away, and Harriet’s father went in search of them. He became fatigued and reaching a spring of water, drank from it. It was later learned that the water was poisoned, and it caused his death. His wife, Mary Ann, started the journey, but she also died while crossing the plains. They started for the Rocky Mountains in the spring of 1851, and it is believed that they were in John Taylor’s company. Harriet’s younger brother, Henry, and his family were also in the same company. They arrived in Salt Lake Valley in September of 1851. Harriet’s sister Isabella’s two sons, Joseph and Henry Horne, met them in Parley’s Canyon and took them to the Horne Home. Isabella and her family had come west with the second company of pioneers in 1847.

After resting a few days they went on to Bountiful where they proceeded to make a home. Four months after their arrival a babe girl was born to the family, and she was named Harriet Louisa. They built a one room log house in which they lived for a number of years. Later, in about 1867, they built a four room adobe house. It was located a quarter of a mile south of the Wood’s Cross depot. It was quite a roomy house with a large attic, and was built on their homestead. Six more children were born to the family; Joseph Ezra, Sarah Ann, Elizabeth Jane, Laura Victoria, Charles William, George Franklin (who only lived one year), and James (who died at ten months).

The family engaged in stock raising. They kept a little flock of sheep to supply wool for clothing. The wool was prepared for use by the industrious mother. She sewed for her family by hand, even making trousers for her husband and sons. She also made them straw hats by braiding the straw and sewing the braids together. They made their own soap and candles. When the grain was ready for harvest it was cut and cradled by hand. During the harvest when the men worked hard Harriet prepared lunches and a cool drink and sent them to the fields during the morning and afternoon. They raised sugar cane and had a molasses mill on the bench land farm. This mill was one of the first in Bountiful. Youngsters came from miles around with their pails to get the skimmings to make candy.

The Ellis home was a hospitable one. The mother, and subject of this sketch, was a capable, refined woman, and her husband was a happy, jovial man who loved young people. Naturally their fireside was often the scene of social gatherings. These two often sang together for the entertainment of their family and friends. Singing school was often held in their home.

Tragedy struck the family when the father died, after a severe illness of several months duration. He left his widow and ten surviving children. Some of the cattle and property were sold to pay the doctor bills. The mother kept her family together, and in spite of her strenuous household duties, she always found time to take an active part in church affairs. She was a Sunday School teacher for twenty-five years, and when the Relief Society was organized she served as treasurer of the ward organization. She pieced several quilt tops for the Relief Society; she was a very fine needle woman.

She was matron at the Deseret Hospital for about two years. In 1897 she went to live with her youngest daughter, Laura, and she made her home there until her death on May 24, 1910, after having been a widow for thirty-nine years.

Autobiography of Mary Isabella Hales

(From Mary Isabella Hales’ Journal):

I was born on the 20th of November, 1818, in the town of Rainham, county of Kent, England. I am the daughter of Stephen and Mary Ann Hales, and am the eldest daughter of a large family. My parents were honest, industrious people; and when very young I was taught to pray, to be honest and truthful, to be kind to my associates, and to do good to all around me. My father was of the Methodist faith, but my mother attended the Church of England. As I was religiously inclined, I attended the Methodist Church with my father, who was faithful in the performance of his religious duties, although he never became a very enthusiastic Methodist.

In the year 1832, when I was in my thirteenth year, there was great excitement in the town where I lived, over the favorable reports that were sent from Van Diahaan’s land, and the great inducements held out to those who would go to that country. My father and mother caught the spirit of going, and began to make preparations for leaving England. Before arrangements had been completed for us to go, however, letters were received from Upper Canada, picturing, in glowing terms, the advantages of that country. My father changed his mind immediately and made arrangements to emigrate to the town of York, afterwards called Toronto. Accordingly, on the sixteenth day of April, 1832, our family, consisting of my parents, five sons, myself and a younger sister, bade adieu to England. We had a tedious voyage of six weeks across the ocean, and my mother was sick during the entire voyage. During the passage across there were three deaths on board--one of the three being my brother Elias, whom we sorrowfully consigned to a watery grave.

Our ship anchored at Quebec in May, and after a tedious passage up the St. Lawrence bysteamer, we landed in safety at the town of York, June 16, thankful that we were at our journey’s end. Here we were in a strange land. And to our dismay, we found that the cholera was raging fearfully in that region; but through all of those trying scenes the Lord preserved us in health.

In the spring of 1833 we removed into the country about eight miles, to a place located in the township of York, and in the spring of 1834 I attended a Methodist camp-meeting in that neighborhood, where I formed the acquaintance of Mr. Joseph Horne, who is now my husband.

The most of the time for the next two years I lived in service in the city of Toronto, going once in three months to visit my parents. On the ninth day of May, 1836, I was married to Mr. Horne. He owned a farm about one mile from my father’s house, and I removed to his residence soon after our marriage. I now felt that I was settled in life, and, although I had not been used to farm work, I milked cows, fed pigs and chickens, and made myself at home in my new situation, seeking to make my home pleasant for my husband, and working to advance his interests. About the first of June, of that year, report came to us that a man professing to be sent of God to preach to the people would hold a meeting about a mile from our house. My husband decided that we should go and hear him. We accordingly went, and there first heard Elder Orson Pratt. We were very much pleased with his sermon. Another meeting was appointed for the following week, and Elder Pratt told us that business called him away, but his brother, Parley P. Pratt, would be with us and preach in his stead. I invited my father to go with us to hear him, and the appointed evening found all of his family at the “Mormon” meeting.

Elder Pratt told us that God was an unchangeable being--the same yesterday- today, and forever--and taught us the gospel in its purity; they showed from the Bible that the gospel was the same in all ages of the world; but many had wandered from God and the true gospel, and that the Lord had sent an angel to Joseph Smith, restoring to him the pure gospel with its gifts and blessings. My father was so delighted with the sermon that he left the Methodist Church and attended the “Mormon” meetings altogether; and in a short time every member of his family had received and obeyed the gospel.

This made quite a stir among the Methodists. One of the class leaders came to converse with us, and used every argument he could to convince us that Mormonism was false, but without avail. “Well,” said he, finally, “there are none but children and fools who join them,” and left us to our fate. In July (1836) I was baptized by Orson Hyde, and ever after that our house was open for meetings, and became a home for many of the elders. In the latter part of the summer of 1837 I had the great pleasure of being introduced to, and entertaining, the beloved prophet, Joseph Smith, with Sidney Rigdon and T. B. Marsh. I said to myself, “O Lord, I thank thee for granting the desire of my girlish heart, in permitting me to associate with prophets and apostles.” On shaking hands with Joseph Smith, I received the Holy Spirit in such great abundance that I felt it thrill my whole system, from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet. I thought I had never beheld so lovely a countenance. Nobility and goodness were in every feature.

The saints in Kirtland removed in the following spring to Missouri. We started from Canada in March, 1838 with a small company of saints. The roads were very bad, as the frost was coming out of the ground, consequently I had to drive the team during a great portion of the journey, while my husband walked. On arriving at Huntsville, one hundred miles from Far West, we found several families of saints, and tarried a short time with them. There I was introduced to the parents of the prophet, and also to his cousin, George A. Smith. At a meeting held in that place I received a patriarchal blessing from Joseph Smith, Sr. He told me that I had to pass through a great deal of sickness, sorrow and tribulation but “The Lord will bring you through six troubles, and in the seventh He will not leave you;” all of which has verily been fulfilled.

[Mary Isabella Hales Horne, with her husband and family, reached Far West in August of that year, and received their full share of the privations incident to the settlement of that city, and also a full share of exposure, sickness and peril incident to the expulsion of the saints from Missouri. Finally thereafter they gathered to Nauvoo.]

Autobiography of Stephen Hales, Sr.

[Stephen Hales, third child and second son of Stephen and Mary Ann Hales, records the following biography in the Second Quorum of Seventies records:]

I, Stephen, son of Stephen and Mary Ann Hales was born in England, Rainham parish, county of Kent, in the year of our Lord 1820. My father was a professor of religion. When I was eleven years old, my father removed to America, with all his family. We located in Canada.

We all tarried there five or six years when Parley P. Pratt came and preached to the people where my father resided. In a short time my father and mother united themselves with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and removed to the place of gathering in Far West, Caldwell County, Missouri. At the age of eighteen I was baptized by Elder Hunter in Daviess County, Missouri. [Stephen Hales was caught up in the activities of the saints to protect themselves from the spirit of mob-fever that was rampant in Missouri during these trying times. No doubt Governor Bogg’s “extermination of the Mormons” order caused some of this activity. The Haun’s Mill massacre where wives and children of many of the saints were killed also led to protective feelings among the saints. Stephen’s story continues:]

A number of the brethren started off on an expedition and I with the rest, to search out the designs of the mob. We came to the place where they had camped the night before where they had buried a cannon. I found the cannon and some powder and balls. And, from there we returned home to our city.

In a short time, I heard the mob was letting the brethren’s fences down and turning the cattle into the corn fields. A small number of the brethren including myself went in search of them. We left our homes about the twelfth hour of the night. About the break of day we found the mob, encamped on a small stream called the Crooked River. We marched down in battle array. Their guard shot one of our men and a number of our men shot their guns at him. The mob fired on us and we returned the compliments. We returned home with three killed and six wounded and a short time later left our homes as exiles and came to Quincy, Adams County, Illinois. We resided there four years and came to Nauvoo in the twenty-fourth year of my age.

I was ordained into the Quorum of Seventies under the hands of President Joseph young and Isaiah Butterfield. I was united to the Second Quorum of Seventies and by the assisting grace of God, I shall try to stand in my lot and station as long as I live on the earth. And, when I leave this world of trouble, I hope to meet my brethren in the next better world and praise God through all eternity.

(Stephen Hales married first Eveline Lydia Carter, daughter of Simeon Doget Carter and Lydia Henyon Carter at Nauvoo, Illinois on October 16,1842. He married second Henrietta Heyes, daughter of Samuel Heyes and Nancy Ann Delgarn Heyes, on December 23, 1851. Stephen was the father of fourteen children by his two wives. He and his wives are buried in the Bountiful, Utah cemetery.)

Available at: http://www.math.byu.edu/~smithw/Lds/LDS/Early-Saints/HalesF.html (last visited September 24, 2002).

George Hales

1822-1907

The fourth and fifth children of Stephen and Mary Ann Hales were twins. George and William were born at Rainham, Kent, England on October 30, 1822. William lived only a few years and died in 1825. In the spring of 1832 when George was in his tenth year, his parents and family emigrated to Canada, settling in Scarborough. In later years, George told of gathering cranberries in the marshes of Canada with others in his family. While in Canada in 1836, his parents joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

In March of 1838 while in his sixteenth year, the Hales family left Canada to join the Saints at Far West, Missouri. The following spring they were driven from the state, along with the rest of the Saints by mob violence. The Hales family removed to Quincy, Illinois.

In the autumn of 1839, George began to learn the printing trade as an apprentice in the office of the Quincy Whig. He worked there three years with board and clothes as his only remuneration. While in Quincy, George was baptized into the church in April 1840 by Elder Orson Hyde. In January 1843 he went from Quincy to Nauvoo and worked for several months in the Times and Seasons office. He left his job to cut stone for the Nauvoo Temple. On the thirtieth of November of that same year, he returned to Quincy, Illinois and married Sarah Ann Gregory.

The following spring he and Sarah went to Cincinnati, Ohio to visit her parents. They remained there for about a year and their first child was born in Cincinnati. The family returned to Nauvoo and George again worked in the Times and Seasons office, printing the first copy of the Nauvoo Neighbor.

George Hales continued to work on the temple at Nauvoo. He and Sarah received their endowments on December 23, 1845. When the Saints were driven from Nauvoo early in 1846, George was with the first company to leave for the west. He told tales to family members of crossing the Mississippi in his wagon on the ice. On March 26, 1846, he was made clerk of the fourth fifty in William Clayton’s company when it was organized into fifties. George and Sarah went as far as Garden Grove, Iowa, where they remained until 1850.

In July 1846, George along with two brothers, Charles Henry and Stephen were sent to Council Bluff by Brigham Young to go as musicians with the Mormon Battalion. They left their families and traveled 150 miles to join the Battalion. Upon arriving in Council Bluff, the three brothers learned Captain Allen was not entitled to a brass band. The threesome stayed in Council Bluff awaiting orders from Brigham Young whether to join the Battalion or to return home. They were released from their assignments with the Mormon Battalion to rejoin the main body of Saints.

By early 1850 George and Sarah Ann with three small children were ready to leave Kanesville, Iowa to make the long trek to Utah. They were in the Edward Hunter Company. This company left July fourth and arrived in Salt Lake City on October 13, 1850. Upon his arrival he was engaged to work in the office of the Desert Evening News where he printed off the first edition.

In the spring of 1852, George was made foreman of the office, a position he held for about a year. On October 17, 1852, George married his second wife, Louisa Ann Eddins, daughter of George and Ann Smith Eddins. In 1855 while the state capitol was at Fillmore, George went south with the legislature to do the official printing for the session. Later in 1858 when Johnson's army was approaching, the "News" plant was divided. One section was set up in Fillmore and the other part was left in Salt Lake City, with the issues alternating from the two towns. George Hales was sent to the Fillmore office, with George Q. Cannon as editor. In the fall, he returned to Salt Lake and spent the winter as foreman of the Valley Tan, a gentile paper, and remained until the paper was discontinued.

He was called to help settle the southern part of the state. George left Salt Lake in the spring of 1861 for Spanish Fork where he remained until 1862. In the autumn, he moved to Beaver where he spent the remainder of his life with the exception of one year. At the request of Angus M. Cannon he returned to work for the Desert News office from 1869-1870. This writer would like to say that George spent the remainder of his life farming, shoemaking and printing but this was not the case.

In 1882, the Edmunds - Tucker Act was passed into law by Congress. This law was a
tool whereby marshals and judges could attempt to crush the Mormon movement by arresting the men who practiced plural marriages. This act carried penalties for two types of offenses. If a man was already married to more than one wife with whom he lived, his offense was designated as “unlawful cohabitation.” If a man already had one wife after this law was passed, and then married another wife, the offense was designated as “polygamy.”

On a cool evening in March 1885, George Hales knocked at the door of Thomas Scofield. Thomas discovered several of his friends had just learned that a deputy marshal was on his way to arrest Thomas Scofield, George Hales, William Robinson, R. Sudweeks, and James Farrer. These men were not willing to be “taken in” nor were they willing to renounce one or more of their families. That summer and winter the men of Beaver hid themselves in places frequented by outlaws in an attempt to keep their families in tact. George Hales wrote to Thomas Scofield who was in hiding at Robber's Roost, “I for one am going home.” With that message the men began returning to Beaver.

In May 1886 the deputy marshal and his assistants again returned to Beaver. George Hales was arrested. He stood before the judge and swore to return before the next term, and plead guilty if the court would release him so he could put his affairs in order. George was released. An unknown correspondent (believed to be George Hales writing under the name Moonshee) kept the readers of the Desert Evening News abreast of the events at Beaver.

The September 18, 1886 issue in the column “For Conscience Sake” which was devoted to those faithful Latter-day Saints who had been arrested and sentenced was the following article:
Beaver, UT., Sept 18, 1886. the cohabitation cases are distributed as follows: James Farrer, an invalid, was indicated last May. This indictment was quashed and three additional ones were found against him. Thomas Scoffield, indicted eighteen months ago, has been arrested on another indictment. Richard Sudwick, arrested recently on three indictments, was again arrested this morning on another, found this term. The trials of the foregoing cohabitation cases, together with that of Geo. Hales, was set for next week. No new victims. Moonshee George Hales pleaded guilty on September 22, 1886 and was sentenced on September 25 in the Second District Court at Beaver to four months penitentiary time and $300 fine. He was sixty- four years old. The judge asked the men if they intended to keep the law in the future, but they respectfully declined to make any promises. They were sent to prison at 2:30 P.M. the next day.

“Free again, May 30, 1887 Brother Geo. hales, James Farrer, Wm. Robinson and Thomas Scofield of Beaver and Richard H. Sudweeks of Junction were released today”, according to the report in the Desert News.

George Hales’ life uneventful after that. On September 8, 1907 at Beaver, George attended church that morning and died later in the evening. He is buried at the Beaver Cemetery.

Source:
History and Life Sketch of George Hales by daughter Rhoda Alice Hales Tanner
Story of the Hales families of Kent by Kenneth Glyn Hales

Available at: http://www.intellex.com/~ronspiez/Html/nti04031.htm (Last visited September 24, 2002).

Mary Isabella Hales Horne:
Faithful Sister and Leader

By Lyneve Wilson Kramer and Eva Durrant Wilson

Lyneve Wilson Kramer and Eva Durrant Wilson, “”Mary Isabella Hales Horne: Faithful Sister and Leader,” Ensign, Aug. 1982, 63

Isabella and Joseph Horne knew immediately that the earnest strangers were speaking the truth——as did Leonora and John Taylor and many others in their Toronto, Canada, neighborhood who had come to hear the Mormons one June day in 1836. The occasion was a fulfillment of prophecy: “Thou shalt go to Upper Canada, even to the city of Toronto, the capital,” Heber C. Kimball had said to Parley P. Pratt in an April 1836 blessing, “and there thou shalt find a people prepared for the fulness of the gospel, and they shall receive thee, and thou shalt organize the Church among them, and it shall spread thence into the regions round about, and many shall be brought to the knowledge of the truth and shall be filled with joy.”

For the Hornes, their introduction to the gospel was truly a new beginning. Married only weeks earlier, the young couple would dedicate their lives to building the kingdom and serving the Lord. And Isabella, then seventeen, would bear and nurture many children, provide valued leadership as a prominent and respected woman in the Church, and would yet enjoy the company of prophets.

Mary Isabella Hales was born to Stephen and Mary Ann Hales on 20 November 1818 at Rainham, Kent County, England. The Hales and their family of five sons and two daughters emigrated to York (later renamed Toronto), Canada, where Isabella met Joseph Horne at a Methodist camp meeting in 1834. They were married two years later (9 May 1836), joined the Latter-day Saints, and offered their home as a residence for the elders and a meeting place for investigators.

“I first met the Prophet Joseph Smith,” writes Isabella, “in the fall of 1837, at my home in the town of Scarborough, Canada West. When I first shook hands with him I was thrilled through and through and I knew that he was a Prophet of God, and that testimony has never left me, but is still strong within me. …… While in Canada he visited all the branches of the Church, and gave the saints instructions. …… Brother and Sister Taylor, my husband, and I enjoyed the privilege of accompanying the Prophet on these visits. …… I heard him relate his first vision when the Father and Son appeared to him: also his receiving the Gold Plates from the Angel Moroni. …… While he was relating the circumstances, the Prophet’s countenance lighted up, and so wonderful a power accompanied his words that everybody who heard them felt his influence and power, and none could doubt the truth of his narration.”

March of 1838 found the Hornes, together with a small company of Saints, on the road to Far West. Isabella carried in her arms “a little baby girl in very delicate health and was herself far from strong,” being about five months pregnant and “so exhausted at night that it seemed as though nature would yield.” The tiny settlement of Huntsville, a hundred miles from Far West, became their new home, where “they lived in wagons with the exception of one week, when Mrs. Horne was sheltered at a neighbor’s house where her son Henry James was born.” In August they joined the larger body, of Saints at Far West.

Mob persecution was a constant menace to the Saints during this time, and in less than a year the Hornes and others had been forced to leave their homes for the shelter of Plattsburgh, Missouri, some twenty miles distant. Here, recalled Isabella, they had an interesting encounter with the townsfolk:

“At first the people threatenend to mob us, but upon becoming acquainted with us, finding us peaceable and industrious urged us to settle among them. They said if they had known we were intelligent people they should not have disturbed us. …… While [we] were there, the Prophet and his brethren were removed from Richmond to Clay Co. and passed one night at Plattsburgh. The citizens flocked to see them, seemed astonished to see such fine looking intelligent men, and so joyful.”

By May of 1839 the little family had emigrated to Quincy, Illinois. Here “they had to begin at the beginning. Mrs. Horne earned considerable with her needlemade shirts for the men in the printing office; they stayed there for three years. Mr. Horne also earned money teaming, etc. …… Here another son was born, and this baby and their oldest daughter died.”

Isabella met the Prophet again in Quincy; this time he was only a few steps ahead of the mobsters. “Bro. Joseph Smith and several of the brethren and sisters came to Quincy,” she recalled. “They came to [my] house, partook of refreshments and scattered. Bro. Joseph was in the best of spirits. He said laughingly: ‘Sister Horne, if I had a wife as small as you, when trouble came I would put her in my pocket and run.’ “

On another occasion, Isabella recorded that “the Prophet Joseph, in company with a number of the brethren, came to Quincy, and the Prophet laid the condition of the affairs of the Church before Governor Carlin.

“On his return from his visit to Governor Carlin, the Prophet sent the brethren ahead on their return trip, telling them he would follow later. When he reached Lima, where they intended to remain over night, he found officers of the law awaiting him. They arrested him and brought him back to Quincy. …… About noon the next day the Prophet came to our house and said, ‘Sister Horne, the Spirit always draws me to your home.’ ‘Brother Joseph,’ I said, ‘you are always welcome. But how is it you are here when I thought you were almost home?’ ‘Haven’t you heard that I have been in court all morning?’ he asked. …… ‘I told the officers that I would be forthcoming at any hour in the morning they might name, if they would let me go, so here I am. What am I to do? They won’t let me have my trial in Nauvoo, but are going to take me to Walla Walla. I thought I should be at home by this time where my wife would look after my clothing. ……’ ‘I will wash your clothing,’ I answered. ‘Indeed, Sister Horne, you do not look able to do it.’ I insisted, and he finally consented, as I told him my Saturday’s work was all done. I prepared his clothing that afternoon, so that he was ready for his journey in the morning.”

In March 1842, Joseph and Isabella and their family moved to Nauvoo and commenced building a house about half a mile east of the temple. When their home was completed, Joseph went into the mercantile business.

Isabella soon became a member of the newly-organized Relief Society, and later recalled President Emma Smith’s instructions: “She exhorted us to faithfulness in the discharge of our duties and especially to humble ourselves and not ask God to humble us as He might do it in a way that would not be very pleasant to us. These remarks made a lasting impression on my mind.”

Nauvoo was home for four years, in the midst of hardship and persecution. Then it was time to begin the long, arduous journey that would ultimately end in the valley of the Great Salt Lake. Closing their business in February of 1846, they crossed the Mississippi River and camped at Sugar Creek in the snow. Progress was slow in the face of freezing temperatures, illness, and scarcity of supplies, and it was late spring before they arrived at Winter Quarters. A daughter, Elizabeth, was born to Isabella along the way.

In their eleven years of marriage, Isabella had given birth to seven children. Two sons and a daughter had died. Now, in June 1847, they began the trek toward Salt Lake with sons ages nine, five, and three, and young Elizabeth.

Isabella tells of an incident that occurred on their journey west. “In the month of July, when camped on the north side of the Platte River, we saw a large band of Indians located on the other side about half a mile ahead. In the morning Apostle John Taylor had invited my husband to drive on before the company to meet the Indians who were swimming over the river to trade. One Indian brought a pony to my wagon and wanted to trade for my baby girl fourteen months old. I said, ‘No trade.’ He brought a second and third pony and indicated that he was very determined to have my baby. She was born in a wagon while we were traveling through the Pottowattamie nation of Indians when coming from Nauvoo to Council Bluffs. Sister Hoagland, who rode with me, was very much excited for fear he would snatch her from my arms and run off. While he had gone for the fourth pony, the main body of the train came up. I had no further trouble with him.”

The wagon train arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on 6 October 1847; it was evening, and “we traveled in the dark, having no guide but the flickering light of the campfires on Pioneer Square,” Isabella writes. “Our tent was soon pitched, and we felt thankful to our Heavenly Father for preserving us on our long and arduous journey of four months, and that we had arrived at a place of rest. We lived in a tent until logs could be obtained from the canyon for a house.”

As the Saints grew in numbers, President Brigham Young “found it advisable to organize a Relief Society.” Isabella Horne was appointed first counselor to President Phoebe Woodruff in the Fourteenth Ward; the leadership was reorganized in 1867 with Isabella as president. Thus began her remarkable tenure of leadership among women of the Church.

Ten years later, by unanimous vote, Mary Isabella Horne was sustained as “President of the Relief Society of Salt Lake Stake of Zion.” She held this office until the stake was divided into six stakes when she was eighty-five years old in 1903——twenty-six years.

In the fall of 1869, Isabella was issued another challenge. President Young, touring southern Utah with other Church leaders, was troubled by the fact that wherever they went, great preparations were made for their entertainment. The sisters even stayed at home instead of going to meeting. When he arrived in Gunnison, where Isabella was visiting her son, he spoke with her about the matter. “Sister Horne,” he said, “I am going to give you a mission to begin when you return to your home——the mission of teaching retrenchment among the wives and daughters of Israel. It is not right that they should spend so much time in the preparation of their food and adornment of their bodies, and neglect their spiritual education.”

Isabella took the president’s concern seriously. Upon returning to Salt Lake, she, together with Eliza R. Snow and Margaret T. Smoot, visited with President Young and received further direction. Following a series of informal meetings with ward representatives in her home, the Senior Retrenchment Association was organized on 10 February 1870 with Mary Isabella Horne as president and Sarah M. Kimball as secretary. Afterward, “Mrs. Horne carried out the theory of the meeting by seating the entire company at a neatly spread Retrenchment Table, consisting of good bread and butter, with stewed dried apples, one kind of cake, blancmange and cream and preserves and cold water.”

Brigham Young’s idea of retrenchment extended to the younger generation, as well. In late November 1869, he called his daughters together at home and organized them into a Junior Retrenchment Society. Later, at their first meeting as an organization, Sister Horne met with them to help establish guidelines and refine the organization, which was a forerunner of the Young Women’‘s Mutual Improvement Association. The Senior Retrenchment Association apparently functioned separately from the Relief Society, although Isabella served as the Retrenchment president for thirty years (1870-1900) and as stake Relief Society president for twenty-six years (1887-1903).

But her labors were not confined solely to religious endeavors. She served as a member of the Deseret Hospital committee for twelve years; as a counselor to Zina D. H. Young in the Silk Association; and as president of the Women’s Cooperative Mercantile and Manufacturing Institution.

Active in the suffrage movement, Isabella was chairman of the “Mormon Women’s” Mass Protest Meeting held in the Salt Lake Theater on 6 March 1886 at which “the dense but orderly multitude thronged into the building, which was soon packed from pit to dome.” The meeting had been convened “to protest against the indignities and insults heaped upon the wives and daughters of ‘Mormons’ in the District Courts, and also against the proposed disfranchisement of those of their sex who are innocent of breaking any law.”

At a general Relief Society meeting held in the Fourteenth Ward Assembly Hall on 19 July 1880, President John Taylor set apart the officers of the newly-called Central Board. (The name was later changed to General Board.) Eliza R. Snow was named general president. Mary Isabella became treasurer, a position which she held until 1901 when, at the age of 83, she asked to be released. Even so, she continued on the board until her death in 905.

Emmeline B. Wells, also prominent among Utah women and a long-time friend and associate of Isabella in civic and religious endeavors, said of this remarkable woman: “[she] was a born leader, a sort of General among women, and indeed in this respect might surpass most men. …… ——A woman of great force of character, and wonderful ability, such a one as might stand at the head of a great institution and carry it on successfully. …… Even President Young once nominated her for Justice of the Peace, and in character and ability to judge, she was not unlike Deborah of old, or Queen Elizabeth of modern time. …… Sister Horne can appropriately be called a stalwart, a champion for the rights of her own sex, and indeed for all mankind. …… Sister Horne had a fine presence on the platform, or in the pulpit, spoke with great earnestness and was wise in her utterances, prophetic in nature, familiar with the scriptures and handled her subjects well. Like others of her time, she was undoubtedly a woman of destiny.”

This “woman of destiny” who had borne fifteen children, including three sets of twins, was a much-loved mother and grandmother. From the Journal History, as well as from the journal of her granddaughter, Elizabeth Horne Durrant, we learn that on 10 November 1893, her seventy-fifth birthday, a surprise party was given her in the Fourteenth Ward Assembly Hall. “Among the invited guests,” reads the account, “were the First Presidency of the Church, members of the council of Apostles, Presiding Bishopric, Presidency of the Salt Lake Stake, the Bishop and his counselors of the ward in which she now resides and where the gathering took place, the local officers of the Stake and National Relief Societies and a large number of other prominent persons.” The hall was beautifully decorated with bunting, flowers, and plants, and a place in front was reserved especially for the Horne family. Words of praise and gratitude flowed. Mary Isabella Hales Horne received the honors as graciously as she had lived her life.

Ira Stearns Hatch

Pioneer of 1849

1800-1869

When the News of the successful venture of the Pilgrim Fathers’ reached the homeland, other honest, sincere people were seized with a desire to also seek a haven of religious freedom in the new land. The Hatches were mostly middle class, neither rich nor poor, mostly small landowners and farmers, pious industrious people, in fact good citizens. One of the descendants of the above mentioned Hatches was Ira Hatch, the son of Jeremiah and Mary Stearns Hatch, who was born at Tolland, Tolland, Connecticut in 1772. The family later moved to Winchester, Cheshire, New Hampshire, where a son, Ira Stearns, was born to Ira Hatch and Lucinda Rice Hatch on February 9, 1800.

The early settlers of our country were constantly on the lookout for opportunities to better themselves temporally, so the Hatch family again pushed out and established themselves in the sparsely settled, heavy timbered western part of New York State at a place named Farmersville, Cattaraugus. Here the family spent much time and energy clearing the land. The boy, Ira Stearns, when but eleven years old, made himself useful in the community by supplying wood for seven families whose husbands and fathers were engaged in the War of 1812.

On January 26, 1825 Ira Stearns married Wealtha Bradford, a daughter of Simeon Bradford and Martha True, who was born at Turner, Oxford, Maine in 1803. Wealtha was a direct descendant of William Bradford, the second Governor of the Plymouth Colony. This couple resided on the Hatch Farmstead at Farmersville, where the following seven children were born: Meltiah, July 15, 1825, Ransom, November 13, 1826, Orin, May 9, 1830, Rhoana, May 19, 1832, Ira, August 5, 1835, Ephraim, November 30, 1837, and Ancel, June 9, 1840.

Being averse to the intolerance of the religious leaders of the day and satisfied to live peaceful, honest, industrious lives, these people did not affiliate themselves with any religious sect. When the early missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were preaching the gospel to the Cattaraugus Indians, the Ira Stearns Hatch family had the privilege of hearing the gospel message and readily accepted it. Wealtha, who was the first to read the Book of Mormon and recognize it as truth, wished to join the Church immediately, but her husband advised waiting on account of the persecutions. Ira and Wealtha were baptized in 1832, and were the only members of the Hatch family in those parts to join the unpopular faith.

Soon after this time the construction of the Kirtland Temple was commenced and they soon decided to make a contribution to it. Ira was also very eager to visit the Prophet Joseph and feel the spirit of the man, so they prepared to make the trip to Kirtland, taking their contribution of $200.00 with them. Three days were required to make the trip and upon arriving at Kirtland Ira inquired for the Prophet. After being informed that he could be found in the grove where they were cutting timber for the Temple, Ira Stearns made his way to that place. As he approached the workmen, one of them stuck his axe into a tree and came toward him. When close enough he shook the hand of Ira Stearns Hatch and said ‘Brother Hatch, I have been expecting you for three days; the money you have brought will be used to build the pulpit in the Temple.” Thus, left with no chance for doubt, Ira Stearns Hatch was convinced that Joseph Smith was indeed a true Prophet, and his testimony was steadfast for the remainder of his life. No one in Kirtland was acquainted with Ira nor knew of his visit with the Prophet.

Ira returned to his home and in 1836 with his wife was given a blessing by Joseph Smith, Sr.. Later he returned to Kirtland to assist in the building of the Temple and on July 4, 1838 was ordained a Teacher in the Priesthood. In 1840 the family joined the Saints at a place near which the beautiful city of Nauvoo was to be founded. They lived at Eaton Farm on Job’s Creek, Hancock, Illinois, at which place Wealtha was stricken and died on November 3, 1841, of a fever that was epidemic [cholera] among the Saints. Thus leaving Ira with the responsibility of a family of young children.

In 1842, Ira Stearns Hatch was ordained an Elder. He and his oldest son, Meltiar were members of the Nauvoo Legion. At the time of the expulsion from Nauvoo, the Hatches went with the Saints and made their home at Bonary Lake on the Missouri River.

While living there, recruits for the Mormon Battalion were called for and Ira’s sons Meltiar, who was 21 years old, and Orin, who was just 16 years and 2 months, were enlisted as members of Company C. The Hatch family left without the assistance of these two young men was unable to accompany the Saints to the Rocky Mountains at that time, so they rented a farm near St. Joseph, Missouri, where they remained until the summer of 1849.

About one year after the death of his first wife, Ira Stearns hatch married Abigail Whitney, who in February 1847 gave birth to a son and both mother and child died.

After their discharge from the Mormon Battalion, Meltiar and Orin journeyed eastward to the Rocky Mountains, the gathering place of the Saints. Coming over the route followed by the California Gold seekers around the north end of the Great Salt Lake, they went directly to Sessions Settlement (present day Bountiful, Davis, Utah) where they found that there was little opportunity to obtain a suitable piece of land on which to locate. Upon going about one and a fourth miles west of the Settlement, they found a spring upon which they made some minor improvements and camped near it for some five weeks or from the latter part of July until the last of August 1847-48. Early in September of the same year, they resumed their journey eastward to the Missouri River, where they had left their loved ones.

With their assistance, the Hatch family was able to make the preparations to immigrate to the Rocky Mountains, which journey they commenced on July 4, 1849. They were members of the Enoch Reese Ten of the Taylor Allen Company, which company after three months of time filled with usual incidents of pioneers journeys, arrived in the valley just prior to the October Conference of 1849.

Soon after their arrival, the Hatch family was taken to the land adjacent to land upon which Meltiar and Orin camped on in the summer of 1848. Here they erected a log cabin and were soon comfortably established with daughter Rhoana, the Miss Hatch in Utah in 1849 as the housekeeper. The spring near which they settled was some three hundred yards south of what was in 1939 the O.S.L. Depot at Woods Cross, Davis, Utah, and the one hundred sixty acres of land to which they acquired a squatters right extended one fourth mile south of what in 1939 was the Deseret Livestock Street and one mile west of the State Highway.

On November 27, 1852, Ira Stearns Hatch married Jane Tinto Bee, a widow with three children, who had recently immigrated to the area from Scotland. Eight children were born to them, Stearns, Philander, Abram, Rueben, Lucinda Jennette, Leonard, Ira Etta, and Alvin Willard.
On March 20, 1857, Ira Stearns Hatch married Jan Ann Stuart, a handcart emigrant from Scotland. Three children were born to them, Wealtha, Gilbert Stuart, and Stephen Cornelius.
Most of the children of Ira Stearns Hatch and his three wives, married and located near their original home in Utah. Their descendants are numerous and have helped in the settling of many new communities in the inter-mountain region from Canada on the north to Mexico on the south, where they are known for their honesty and integrity, filling many important positions both civil and ecclesiastical.

Ira Stearns Hatch’s son Ira performed missionary labors among the Indians from his early manhood until his death. He spoke 13 languages and spent most of life working with the Indians in Southern Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona. Another son, Ephraim, served in the Black Hawk War. Ransom, Orin, Ephraim, and Ancel married pioneer women and settled in Woods Cross; Rhoana married James Henrie and settled permanently in Panguitch, Utah.

Ira Stearns Hatch was appointed one of the three trustees of the first day school established in Bountiful, Utah in March 1850. He and his sons were associated in farming, stock raising, dairying, brick making, and sheep raising, thus helping in the establishment of the great inter-mountain commonwealth. Ira was ever mindful of the weary emigrants and to many of them he gave material assistance. The Indians were very proud to own him as their friend and called him “Bobuke”, meaning “truly a great man”.

Ira Stearns Hatch was always true to the faith he embraced. He was a true friend of the Indians. At the close of his life he was a weary traveler. He was found dead one morning lying by his wife. He had passed to the great beyond September 30, 1869, after a long and useful and active life.

By Edith Folsom Hatch (1937)
Edited by Jason Hatch (2001)

Available at: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~hatch/ISH.html (Last visited September 26, 2002).

Meltiar Hatch, Sr.

1825-1895

Meltiar Hatch was born in Farmerville, New York, July 15, 1825, a son of Ira S. Hatch and Wealtha Bradford. He became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1842 and was ordained an Elder by President Brigham Young about 1852. Later he was ordained a High Priest. His baptism took place at Job’s Creek, Hancock, Illinois, where a branch of the Church had been organized. His family had moved to this place in 1842. The following year, 1843, an epidemic of fever broke out. Many saints died: among them was his mother, Wealtha Bradford Hatch. This brought deep grief to the family.

Elder Hatch was intimately acquainted with the Prophet Joseph Smith and heard him deliver his last speech before going to Carthage where his life ended. Brother Hatch carried messages to and from Carthage Jail while the Prophet and his brethren were confined there. During these trying times, Meltiar served as a Lieutenant in the Nauvoo Legion. He attended the funeral of the martyrs and was present at the notable gathering in Nauvoo when Brigham Young was acknowledged to be the right man to stand at the head of the Church.

In January, 1846, he married Permelia Snyder. In the early spring they started for the Rocky Mountains in the company of President Brigham Young. They traveled quite peacefully until they reached Council Bluffs, Iowa. While preparing to continue their journey to the West, Captain J. Allen of the U.S. Army came with orders to recruit 500 young, able-bodied men to form a battalion to cross the continent to California to take part in the war raging between the United States and Mexico. Although the Saints had been cruelly persecuted before leaving for the west and had been refused government aid, President Young told Mr. Allen he should have his men.

Within three days, the army of men was organized. They started on their march on July 20, 1846. Meltiar, belonging to Company C, was one of them. He was advised to take Orrin, his youngest brother, with him. His wife remained at Winter Quarters with her parents.

The winter was one of much sickness. Many of the Saints died. When Meltiar and Orrin were discharged after the long and perilous march to San Diego, California, without engaging in any military encounters, they returned to Winter Quarters. Meltiar found a son had been born to him during his absence.

On July 4, 1849, the company crossed the Missouri River and once again journeyed toward the valley of the mountains. For three months they traveled, meeting with many hardships and trials, yet all remained true and faithful, ever trusting in the goodness and blessings of the Lord. Just before October Conference, 1849, they arrived in Salt Lake Valley.

Meltiar took up a farm in the settlement of Bountiful, Utah, where he made his home for a few years until a call was made for him to go to Carson Valley in 1856. He was then called to Lehi, Utah, at the time of Johnson’s Army. Here he spent the winter with his family. He then moved to Snyderville, the ranch of Grandfather Snyder near Parley’s Park, where he lived a few years. Then came the call in 1862 to go to the Dixie Mission to help settle that country. He moved from place to place there, finally settling in Santa Clara for three years. By this time, he had married his second wife, Mary Ann Ellis, which gave him two families.

The call to go to the Western Valley came at the semi-annual Conference of the Church, Monday, October 7, 1867.

In Western Valley, or Eagle Valley, which was in Nevada, they opened settlements until 1872. They were advised, when released from this mission by President Brigham Young, to move to an area on the Sevier River near the forks of Mammoth and Asay Creeks, as there would be good range for their sheep, cattle, and horses which they had acquired while living in Dixie.

He located his ranch at a site which later became Hatch Town, about one mile south of the present town of Hatch, Garfield, Utah. He also had a home in Panguitch where the first wife, Permelia, lived. However, he spent most of his time at first--and later all of his time--at the ranch where he had comfortable homes for both of his families. He died at his ranch July 8, 1895, following a series of strokes which finally proved fatal.

At the time of his death, he was a member of the High Council of the Panguitch Stake, active in the performance of his every duty, faithful always in teaching the gospel to his family. Having had two wives, he left a large posterity: nineteen children and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. As promised in his Patriarchal Blessing, all are inclined to believe in the principles of the gospel.

The following inscriptions are found on the stones marking the graves of this noble pioneer and his two noble wives:

Meltiar Hatch.............Permelia Hatch...............Mary Ann Hatch
Born July 15, 1825.......Born Oct. 7, 1827...........Born Dec. 30, 1840
Died July 8, 1895.......Died Sept. 21, 1917.........Died Aug. 26, 1914

Orin Hatch

1830-1906

It was not a palace nor a mansion, no not even such a house as people in ordinary circumstances could afford to build today, but it was a happy home, the dwelling place of people highly favored of our Heavenly Father. The inmates of this home were not a people of wealth,

as the world judges wealth, but what is more important, they were sincere, stalwart pioneers of a new wilderness.

This home situated in the extreme western part of New York, in the county of the Cattaraugus Indians, densely timbered, sparsely settled land, of sterling quality and strong determination to undertake the conquering of such country. On May 9, 1830, a third child, a son, came to bless the lives of the inmates of this home. The parents, Ira Stearns and Wealtha Bradford Hatch, christened him “Orin.”

Not much is told concerning the early childhood of Orin, but we are left to surmise that his time was fully occupied with the tasks usual to a pioneer farm. It seems that the members of this family were ambitious and thrifty, evidenced by the fact that they not only provided themselves with the necessities of life, but also became quite prosperous. They were favored in spiritual matters by Our Heavenly Father, for very early they had the privilege of hearing the Gospel as presented by the missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who were laboring among the Cattaraugus Indians in that vicinity. Recognizing it as the Gospel of the Master, the parents readily accepted it and Wealtha, who was first to read the Book of Mormon, was baptized in 1832, when Orin was two years old, thus becoming the first person in that neighborhood to accept the new faith.

The family wished to join the Saints at Kirtland immediately, but was dissuaded by their relatives, who urged them to remain at their home and live the Gospel there. Some time after this, Ira Stearns Hatch went to visit the Prophet Joseph Smith at Kirtland at which time he received a miraculous manifestation of the Prophet’s divine mission, which determined the course of the family to pursue. They immediately decided to forsake all their earthly possessions, if necessary and cast their lot with the Saints, so the summer of 1840 found them located at Eton Farm on Job’s Creek, Hancock County, Illinois, some twenty miles from the site of the new home of the people at Nauvoo. Here, Orin and his two older brothers, Meletiar and Ransom, cared for sixty head of cattle, several horses and one-hundred sheep during the winter, while the remainder of the family made their home at Nauvoo.

For a short time, the family occupied themselves clearing and cultivating the land and erecting buildings preparatory to making their permanent home, but Satan was not satisfied to allow them this privilege and soon his emissaries were obeying his commands and these good people, along with the other Saints, were forced to seek another place of refuge.

Ira Stearns Hatch and his oldest sons were members of the Nauvoo Legion and at the time of the martyrdom, Orin was near enough that he heard the firing of the guns. He was acquainted with the two martyrs for whom he had the sincerest love and respect, but although he had this deep regard and respect for the Prophet and his teachings, he desired a personal testimony of the same before he was willing to become a member of the Church. His father tried many times to persuade him to be baptized, but to no avail, until in May 15, 1844, Orin, with others, was standing on the bank of the Crooked Creek in Hancock County, Illinois, watching the Elders perform that ordinance. As he watched, some power seized hold and shook him so violently that he was about to fall to the ground. He said that he felt as though somebody was thoroughly out of patience with him for his abstinence, so he crossed the creek and asked to be baptized, fully convinced that he was doing the right thing.

His mother died on November 3, 1841 at Eton Farm, when he was eleven years old, leaving a family of seven children, ranging in age from one to sixteen years old, the only daughter, Rhoana, being two years younger that Orin.

Upon their expulsion from Nauvoo, in the early spring of 1846, this family made their camp at Bonary Lake on the Missouri River, at which place the eldest son Meltiar, age 21 and Orin, age 16 and 2 months, were enlisted in Company C of the Mormon Battalion. Although Orin was so young, in fact the youngest member of that organization, he was large in stature and so passed muster.

During their enlistment in the Battalion, these two brothers were inseparable, so when Orin became so ill with scurvy that it was necessary for him to walk supported between two companions, Meltiar was by his side, and when he was twice left to die, in obedience to the commanding officer’s order, Meltiar went back and carried him into camp when the Battalion had stopped for the night. Finally the officer relented and Orin was taken with the company, strapped to the back of the horse of this same officer.

Upon reaching San Diego, Orin was one of the five men selected to go into the timbers to secure the pole upon which the first American Flag was flown in the newly acquired territory.
Upon their discharge from the service in the Battalion in 1847, the two brothers remained in California and secured employment at Sutter’s Fort and were there when gold was discovered and took part in panning the same in the millrace.

In the early summer of 1848, Orin and Meltiar left California for the Salt Lake Valley. Coming in over the route followed by the California gold seekers, around the north end of the Great Salt Lake, they went directly to Session’s Settlement, were they expected to secure a parcel of land upon which to settle their father’s family when they arrived in the valley. Finding none there available, they went about one and a fourth miles west of the Settlement, where they discovered a good spring, upon which they made minor improvements and camped there five weeks, during the last part of July until the first part of September 1848.

Their father’s family, which had been deprived of the assistance of these two sons, was unable to continue with the Saints to the Great Salt Lake Valley, so rented a farm near St. Joseph, Missouri, where they remained until Orin and Meltiar returned from the Pacific Coast in the late fall of 1848. With their assistance, the family was ready to be assigned to the Enoch Reese Ten of the Taylor Allen Company, which left the Missouri River on July 4, 1849 and crossed the plains, arriving in the Valley just prior to the October Conference in 1849, after three months of travel. They remained at the Fort until the early part of November, when they moved north to the land adjacent to the spring upon which Orin and Meltiar had camped during the summer of 1848. Here they built a log cabin and were comfortably located for the winter.

Later they acquired a squatter’s right to 160 acres of land at this location. This parcel of land extends one mile west from the new state highway (1946) and one-fourth mile from the Deseret Live Stock Street. The most of this land is still in possession of the descendants of the Hatch family.

Orin’s pioneering days was not yet ended, as he in company with others was called to go to various parts of the Intermountain country to establish settlements. In 1853, he accompanied the group headed by Orson Pratt and helped establish Fort Supply at Smith’s Fort on the Green River in Wyoming. In 1856, the call came for him to join the company that was to establish settlements in Carson Valley, Nevada. This group returned to the Salt Lake Valley at the time of the invasion by Johnson’s Army. He later answered calls to assist others in establishing the Saints at Fort Hall, Idaho and in Southern Utah and Northern Arizona.

Bountiful was his home, as it was here that he established his residence when he married Elizabeth Melissa Perry, a daughter of John and Grace Ann Williams Perry, on October 10, 1855. They were sealed November 10, 1855 in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City. He married Maria Thompson, May 2, 1856, who accompanied him on his trip to Carson Valley, where their first child William Ira, was born.

His first wife was the mother of thirteen children and his second wife bore him eight, all of whom manifested a spirit of love and respect for each other, due to the wise judgment and kindly consideration of the parents.

With his families, he accompanied the Saints in their move to the south at the time of the invasion of Johnson’s Army in 1858, where they camped on the river bottoms near the present site of Provo.

Farming, dairying and stock raising were followed as a means of gaining a livelihood for his large families. His first venture outside of the home farms was the establishment of a milk and cheese dairy at Silver Creek, Summit County, Utah, where he was associated with the Moss, Pace and Atkinson families. In the fall of 1876, in response to a call from President Brigham Young, he went to Arizona with a view of locating there, but the soil was so sterile, he with others was released and they returned to Bountiful about six months later.

Sheep raising was also an added source of revenue and very early he and his older sons were the owners of quite a large bunch of sheep. These were joined with those belonging to the neighbors and were herded on the hills adjacent to the Bountiful settlement by members of several families.

At an early date the formation of a sheep company was suggested and the flocks of Orin Hatch and sons and John Moss Sr. and sons were joined under the name of Moss and Hatch Sheep Company. This company later became the nucleus of the Deseret Livestock Company, which was organized in 1889.

Orin Hatch was a Sunday School Teacher, a District Ward Teacher, a Seventies President and a Patriarch to which office he was ordained on June 19, 1899 by Apostle George Teasdale. All of these offices were sacred obligations, faithfully performed. He never aspired to worldly honors or prominent positions, but was content to live a consistent honorable life, devoted to good deeds. There was no man in community more sought after nor more willing to respond to the calls of neighbors in the time of trial, sickness or death and every project for the up building of the community received his moral and financial support.

The fifty-eight years spent in this and surrounding communities proved him to be a man of honorable deeds and exemplary life for the testimony which he received at the time of his baptism, when a boy of fourteen years, never wavered nor weakened and in all the trials and hardships, incident to frontier life, through which he passed, he was fortified by his trust in God and reliant upon his power.

As rodents were quite a problem in pioneer days, granaries were built upon piles to keep them from getting into the stored grain. This left an open space beneath the building. Orin and his brother, Meltiar, were attempting to dispatch a skunk that had gone under their granary and as Orin stooped to look under the building, his brother shot the skunk from the opposite side. Some of the shot entered Orin’s face, causing him to lose his eye. Although deprived of the use of this organ, much of his time was spent in reading and studying, thus he became especially well acquainted with the Standard Works of the Church.

He died at 2:20 p.m. on Saturday, September 8, 1906 at his residence at Woods Cross, Davis County, Utah, surrounded by most of his large family, now grown to maturity. At the time of his death, he was survived by his two wives, nineteen children, one hundred eleven grandchildren and eighteen great-grandchildren, and today his posterity is numbered in the hundreds. His children are: Orin Perry, John Edward, Grace Ann Hatch Moss, Amelia Elizabeth Hatch Jackson, Joseph Irvin, James Ernest, Alice Hatch Jackson, Chloe Adelaide Hatch Grant, Ezra Taft, Wilder True, Myra Rhoana Hatch Mann, Algie Lydia Hatch Grant, and Jabez Bradford, children of the first wife, Elizabeth Melissa Perry; and William Ira, Orville, Daniel, David (died in infancy), Walter, Elizabeth, George and Ella Maria (died in infancy of diphtheria), children of Maria Thompson, his second wife.

Written by Edith F. Hatch
Edited by Jason Hatch

Available at: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~hatch/OH.html (Last visited September 26, 2002).

Brothers

By Sheila Kindred

(Based on an oral history passed down in the Hatch family)

He that loveth his brother abideth in the light (1 Jn. 2:10).

Meltiar Hatch leaped to his feet and saluted the man on horseback. The Mormon Battalion had been on the march since dawn. Meltiar had taken advantage of a break to bring his sixteen-year-old brother, Orin, to rest in the shade of a tree. He hadn’t heard the officer’s horse until it was right next to him.

Lieutenant Smith returned Meltiar’s salute. “At ease, soldier.” He looked down at Orin, who lay unmoving, his eyes closed. “Your companion looks to be very ill.”

“Yes, sir,” Meltiar said sadly. “He contracted the fever at Fort Leavenworth, but I know that in time——“

”Time? Time?” Lieutenant Smith loudly interrupted. “This troop has no time. The untimely death of our former commanding officer has set us back two weeks. We cannot defer to the sick and the weary. Leave him.”

Meltiar’s protests were ignored as Lieutenant Smith turned and gave the order to assemble. As the drums sounded, men began to scramble to collect their provisions and line up. Meltiar sat down heavily and put his head in his hands.

“Meltiar,” Orin’s voice was barely audible. “Forgive me. I joined up only because I wanted to finally be useful, like you were in Nauvoo. I never imagined it would end like this.”

“Well, none of us imagined we’d ever be led by Lieutenant Smith, either. Few of the Gentile leaders have been unkind; he’s just the worst of the lot. Let’s not forget the promises given by Brigham Young and the Twelve,” Meltiar said with conviction. “If we conduct ourselves properly on this march, our lives will be spared.” He put his pack and canteen in Orin’s hands. “Here are some extra food and water to keep you for a while. I must go now, but I’ll be back, I promise.” He got to his feet.

“I never meant to be a burden.”

“Brothers can never be burdens.”

Later that night Meltiar awoke with a start. He wondered why he was alone in the woods in the middle of the night. Then he remembered that he was on an urgent mission, that someone’s life depended on him. His first thought was that he was still a messenger in the Nauvoo Legion.

Meltiar shook his head to clear his jumbled thoughts. He spoke aloud to himself. “The Prophet Joseph is dead. I couldn’t have prevented his assassination. However, I should’ve gotten help when my horse went lame, instead of trying to walk to Carthage. Then I might’ve delivered the last message from his loved ones before he died.” He shook his head sadly. “But I was young and full of pride, just as Orin is now.”

At the thought of his brother, Meltiar stumbled to his feet. That’s whose life depended on him now! Weary as he was, he had to keep walking. The two previous nights, Meltiar had another soldier help him bring Orin back to camp on horseback. Each morning, when Lieutenant Smith discovered what had happened, he angrily ordered that Orin be left behind again. Last night Commander Smith had informed Meltiar that if he wanted to keep up his “foolhardy venture,” he could no longer disturb the sleep of other men or beasts. That was why he was now alone and on foot. And he knew that he must be only about a third of the way back to where he’d left his brother.

Meltiar had prayed fervently for help when he’d set out. He knew he had an impossible task. Even if he had not been exhausted from lack of sleep, it would take him most of the night just to reach Orin on foot. Although Orin was much improved and could probably walk, he couldn’t travel very fast in his weakened condition. Meltiar knew that if he didn’t reach the battalion before it pulled out at dawn, it would leave them both behind. But he also knew that he could never leave Orin.

Several times on these night trips, Meltiar had had the uneasy feeling that he was being watched. Now he was certain he saw movement by a large rock up ahead. He stopped walking and slowly reached for his pistol. But the pistol was gone! He must’ve dropped it back where he’‘d fallen asleep. He started to reach for his knife but froze when an Indian stepped out of the shadows. In the light of the moon something glinted in the Indian’s hand. It was Meltiar’s pistol!

As Meltiar stood wondering what to do, he heard the sound of a horse approaching. Could someone from the battalion be following me? he wondered. Or could it be another Indian? The Indian appeared not to have heard the sound, but stood unmoving, the gun down at his side.

When the horse came into the clearing, Meltiar’s heart sank when he saw that it was an Indian pony with two riders. Meltiar closed his eyes and prayed for help.

“Meltiar?” a familiar voice said.

Startled, Meltiar opened his eyes to see that one of the riders had dismounted and was approaching him cautiously.

“Meltiar?” the voice repeated, “Is that you?”

“Orin?”

The two brothers rushed together in a brief, fierce hug, then turned to face the waiting Indians. The Indians had both mounted the pony, leaving the brothers’ guns and packs on the ground. One Indian slowly raised his hand in a salute. “Brothers,” he said before they turned and rode off into the shadows.

“That’s what he said when he came and got me,” Orin said. “I thought he meant that something had happened to you, so I went with him, even though I was scared. How did they know we were brothers?”

“They’ve been watching us these past few nights,” Meltiar said with sudden realization. “And maybe they could see how much we cared for each other. They could also see how much we needed their aid, so they helped us! Or——“ he smiled at Orin——“maybe he meant that we are all brothers.”

“I’m grateful for their help,” Orin said softly, “but sometimes it isn’t easy to accept help from others.”

“I know what you mean.” Meltiar leaned on Orin. “But if you are as strong as you look, now it’s time for you to be useful. I need your help to walk back to camp. I hate to be a burden, but I am very tired!”

“I am much stronger now, Meltiar. Don’t worry,” Orin told him with a smile. “Brothers can never be burdens.” Sheila Kindred, “Brothers,” Friend, July 1994, 35

Charles Westover & Eliza Ann Haven

Legacy

DOUGLAS M. CHABRIES

Douglas M. Chabries is the dean of the BYU College of Engineering and Technology.
This devotional address was given on 7 October 1997 in the Marriott Center.

I am honored to be with you this morning. As this sesquicentennial year draws to a close, I would like to reflect upon the legacy left by a special set of pioneers who are perhaps not well known. These pioneers, my ancestors, experienced the trials of the trek westward, converted to the Church, and left a noble heritage but left us little to understand their everyday feelings and experiences. Still, they left a great legacy, even though my first acquaintance with them occurred as I helped my parents copy the pages of pedigree charts for our family.

Mary A. Johnson wrote:

I’ve always known your names
But,
You were flat people on a white page
Until
I read your stories.
Now you are more than names
And
I know that your blood flows also in
My veins.

[Excerpt from a poem by Mary A. Johnson, quoted in Sarah Jane Cannon, “Pioneers Exemplify Faith, Courage,” Church News, 22 July 1995, p. 5]

For each of us here today, the path to Utah is marked with special events. For some the story is recent, whereas for others those events are recorded in the memories of our families. My father, whose parents emigrated from Yugoslavia to the now-dormant logging town of Bridal Veil, Oregon, used to chide my mother for following an ancestry of her people that she hoped to trace to the Mayflower. My father’s rhetoric was silenced when Mother discovered the migration of the 19-year-old Puritan Jonas Westover to a Pilgrim colony in the Massachusetts Bay area in 1647. It was the desire for freedom to worship God according to the dictates of his own mind that precipitated his departure from a Dutch port where his family had worked to reform the Church of England, in opposition to the British Crown. For well over a century the Westovers meandered the plains and hills of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont. The end of the American War of Independence opened opportunities for migration to the west at a time when heavy frost and drought forced many from New England.

Charles Westover was born in Ohio during the fall of 1827. His father died in Ohio during the spring of 1834, but shortly before his death he described a dream in which he saw people being baptized by immersion in something that resembled a “tan vat.” This dream would later have dearer meaning for Charles. After the death of his father, young Charles lived with many different families. At times he was ill-treated, and he never seemed to really fit in.

Charles heard about the events that surrounded the rise of the LDS Church in Ohio and became prejudiced against it, even though his aunt and cousin had been baptized. Finally, two elders (Goodale and Howe) arrived and left the message of the restored gospel. Although Charles’ prejudices vanished at that time, he did not commit to baptism. He recorded:

The house was jammed full. Such a sermon as we heard that night I never heard before. That night with all my prejudices, I was converted to the truth of Mormonism. I tell you all who read this sketch that Elder [Goodale] was most powerful and that he was filled of the Holy Spirit. His words pierced you through and through. [Charles Westover, Pinto Ward Membership Records]

Charles was intrigued by what he had heard. The occasion arose for Charles to attend a conference of the Saints only 15 miles north. Again he wrote about the special feeling that attended that conference. A few months later young Charles accompanied his mother and his brother’s family to Council Bluffs on the Missouri River. From there he ferried across the river to Winter Quarters. He tried without success to find Elder Goodale. Discouraged, without money, and 1,000 miles from home, he wandered out to the graveyard, where there were buried more than 600 people from the areas where the Saints camped.

Then, though Charles had still not been baptized, Brother Erastus Snow engaged him to drive one of his wagons across the plains. This must have been an exciting moment for a rough young man whose independence had caused him so much trouble in the past. He noted, “It was a beautiful team to drive--a yoke of large stags on the tongue, a yoke of cows and a yoke of yearling heifers on the lead” (Charles Westover, “A Short History of My Life,” family archives).

A few days later, while camped at the Elkhorn River waiting for the arrival of President Brigham Young’s company, Charles’ eye caught sight of a lovely young lady--
Eliza Ann Haven. Eliza’s roots were also in Massachusetts, where she had been born on May 15, 1829. I have asked my mother to read a part of the letter Eliza wrote to her son, since my mother and Eliza knew each other and together their lives span the history of the Church from the time of the restoration of the Aaronic priesthood by John the Baptist to the present day.

The first Mormon Elders that I saw, I was eight years old, were President Brigham Young and Willard C. Richards. . . . In 1838 my father and mother joined the Church. In 1841 we left our native home for Nauvoo. Arrived there in May, traveling by canal, rail and steamboat. The first to greet us on landing were the Prophet Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. After shaking hands and bidding us welcome, Brother Joseph’s first question: had we anyplace to go. . . . Brother Joseph was a great lover of children. I never met him but I had a bow and one of his sweet smiles. Used to love to hear him preach although then I was but a child, he was always interesting.

We lived on the main street going East out of Nauvoo, less than a half mile from the temple. Seldom a week but Brother Joseph would go by, either horseback or in his family carriage with his family. He was a noble-looking man. . . .

Brother Joseph, with the other brethren and heavy guard, rode past our house on their last ride. When word came that our Prophet and Patriarch were killed, what a gloom was over the city. Everyone was in tears. We were a flock of sheep without a shepherd. The question was a general one: What shall we do without a Prophet?

I was then 15 years old and I felt so sad. I was to [the] meeting when Sidney Rigdon declared himself our true prophet and leader. Very few responded to the call, I am happy to say none of my father’s family felt that he was. Soon after Brother Brigham came home from the East where he was on a mission. I was to [the] meeting he said he was our Prophet and Seer. When he spoke it was in Brother Joseph’s voice. I gave a jump of[f] my seat and said, “our Prophet Joseph has come to life, we have our Prophet back!” I looked up and there stood Brother Joseph just as slim as I ever saw him when alive. For a minute I heard Br. Joseph’s voice and saw his features then a mist seemed to pass from Brighams face and go up. Then there stood Brother Brigham talking to us. Hundreds saw the same thing I did, but not all that were present. I forgot to tell you. I saw Brothers Joseph and Hyrum after they were in their coffins, the cruel bullet hole in Brother Hyrum’s head. It was a sad day for the saints in Nauvoo.

After that, all seemed at peace for a short while, but our enemies found out they had not killed Mormonism by killing our Prophet. The temple was built through much persecution (dedicated) so the saints could receive their endowments. Father’s family, myself included, received our endowments there. Persecution continued. Father sold his home and we left Nauvoo before the big battle. . . .

In the Spring of 1848 we left for Winter quarters, the general gathering place for the saints, then started for Salt Lake City in President Brigham Young’s company, a large one. I had a very pleasant time. I was young. No cares. Father had a team of two yoke of oxen and two cows in the company so we had milk along the way. It was on the plains I first met your father. [Eliza Ann Haven Westover, letter to her son Lewis, 2 July 1916, Church Archives; copy in possession of the author]

Although the family journals do not record much of the final exodus of the Saints to the Salt Lake Valley, it was begun in the spring with the goal to reach their destination before the winter months set in. Charles was assigned guard duty once every six or seven days. They observed hundreds of buffalo on the slope of the river going to drink. They had dancing and music, for the Nauvoo brass band was in the company. We read from the previous journey that the travel across Iowa was slowed by the heavy spring rains that made the trail a path of mud. Brigham noted that one day they only had one mud hole to contend with, but it was six miles long. It must have been similar on this trek. Charles was baptized on May 17, 1848.

Eliza and Charles were sealed for time and eternity as husband and wife in the home of apostle Erastus Snow on October 14, 1849, by President Brigham Young. Family tradition has it that they were the first couple to be married in Utah, but the late date of this sealing makes that unlikely.

Why is this legacy of our forefathers so important? I am reminded of the words of Alma:

And behold, he preached the word unto your fathers, and a mighty change was also wrought in their hearts, and they humbled themselves and put their trust in the true and living God. And behold, they were faithful until the end; therefore they were saved.

And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?

Do ye exercise faith in the redemption of him who created you? Do you look forward with an eye of faith, and view this mortal body raised in immortality, and this corruption raised in incorruption, to stand before God to be judged according to the deeds which have been done in the mortal body? [Alma 5:13 15]

Charles Westover, Sr.

First Man Married in Utah Passes Away

Charles Westover, Sr. passed peacefully away in this city at about 11:30 a.m. Monday, Nov. 3, 1919, of the infirmities of old age. He managed to get about until the day before he died, getting out on to the porch of his home to get his photograph taken, along with his wife on the Friday preceding his death.

Charles Westover, Sr., was born at Licking, Ohio, Nov. 25, 1827, a son of Alexander and Electa Westover. His mother and brother joined the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and went to Winter quarters, Charles accompanying them and being baptized into the church at Winter Quarters by Apostle Erastus Snow in the spring of 1848. He crossed the plains in Capt. Brigham Young’s company and it was while crossing the plains that he met his wife, Eliza Ann Haven, who was loading oxen when he first met her.

Mrs. Westover, whose memory is still very keen, relates what she considers the most exciting incident during the long toilsome journey as follows: The company was encamped near the Platte River when a very large herd of buffalo, estimated at between four and five thousand came to the river to drink. The whole company were afraid that this vast number of animals might stampede in their direction and felt considerably relieved when they left. When arriving in Utah Mr. Westover settled in Great Salt Lake City.

When Apostle Erastus Snow was about to leave on a mission for Denmark in the fall of 1849, he asked young Westover to take charge of his place while he was away, and advised him to get married. Westover and Miss Haven were agreeable and they were married by President Brigham Young in Apostle Erastus Snow’s house on Oct. 14, 1849.

They were the first couple to be married in Utah and celebrated their 70th Anniversary of their wedding day on Oct. 14th this year.

Of this marriage there were 11 children, seven of whom are living, also 45 grandchildren, 67 great grandchildren, and two great great grandchildren. The children are Charles Westover Jr., of Washington; Mrs. L. Redd, of Bluff, San Juan Co.; Mrs. H. A. Gracey of San Francisco, CA,; who is here taking care of her parents; Mrs. L. S. conger of this city; William A. Westover of Washington; L. B. Westover of Lewiston, Utah; and Mrs. A. A. Paxman of Washington.

Besides this family a second wife and family a second wife and family are living at Huntington, Utah, they are: Mrs. Mary Shumway Westover, wife; two sons George and Alberto; and two daughters, Mrs. Julia Rowley and Mrs. Louisa Johnson.

Mrs. Eliza Westover is the only person living who received her endowments in the Nauvoo Temple. She is 90 years old and enjoys good health; she spends most of her time knitting; her memory is keen, but she is deaf to a considerable extent. While her husband was engaged in the Indian War in the early days she melted lead in a spoon and made the bullets which he used.

Mr. Westover was granted an Indian War pension in Jun, 1918.

Mr. and Mrs. Westover came to Saint George in the fall of 1861, being called to the Dixie Mission to settle this country. They moved to Pinto in 1869 and stayed there 13 years, moving thence to Washington where they resided until three years ago when they made their home here. with

All the children by the first wife except Lewis were here with their father when he passed away.

Mr. Westover was of a kindly disposition and a cheerful temperament. He suffered considerably toward the last with severe pains in his chest, but bore up with fortitude and looked longingly toward the end when he would go to meet his reward. He was faithful to the end and sought a glorious home in the great beyond.

Funeral services will be held in the tabernacle this afternoon

John Workman

1789-1855

He was married to Lydia Bilyeu on March 11, 1809 in Overton County, Tennessee. As a young man of 19 and unattached, he left the Maryland home of his father, going first to the Kentucky country but soon continuing on to Overton County, Tennessee, where he became attached to the Bilyeu family. That he had known this family before coming to Tennessee is certain. They had gone through the same migratory stages as had the Workman family and shortly before this John’s elder brother, Benjamin, had married Hannah Bilyeu.

While in Overton County, Peter Bilyeu and John Workman were among the signers of a petition of September 27, 1813 for a militia to protect the settlers from the indians. In 1814, John and his family moved to Kentucky and bought land in Nicholas County, just ten miles north of where his father, Jacob, had settled in Bourbon County, two years previously. By industry and economy the Workmans soon found themselves in good circumstances both in land and money. John built a fine home in Carlisle. The Workmans were very sincere in their religious beliefs belonging to the Tunkers or German Baptist church (like their cousins who were settling further up the Ohio river in Belmont and Knox Counties, Ohio).

John had a very comprehensive understanding of the teachings of Christ. He tried to show the other members of the church the better understanding of the scriptures. This led to arguments and contention among them, bringing the hatred and envy of the members of the church upon John and his family. For this reason John left Carlisle and went back to Overton County, Tennessee. Because of the bitterness in the community towards them over religious disputes it was impossible for John to sell his holdings in Carlisle so he abandoned them.

Back in Overton County, again, John bought much land and had slaves to work it. He laid his farm out in sections for the different kinds of farm crops; had his own grist mill, grocery store and flocks and herds. He attended but could not accept the popular interpretation so in due time he quit the church altogether. After that he carried on a distillery of whisky and brandy and got to drinking moderately himself.

In 1839 two Elders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints came to Overton County and they had a hard time finding lodgings. They came to John Workman’s door. As John had never turned a traveler from his door without food and rest these elders found a welcome in his home. The message they brought struck a familiar chord in the heart of John Workman. He brought out his compendium and found his classification of scriptures to be similar to the one the elders used. Their explanations were those he had tried to convey to the church members and for which they had cast him out and abused him and his family. On the July 22, 1840 John, his wife Lydia, and several of his children were baptized by Abram Owen Smoot and Julian Moses and were confirmed July 30th that year as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

This step increased the hatred and persecutions by the local church and community. In 1843 he abandoned his vast holdings in Tennessee and emigrated to Nauvoo, where he could associate with those who had the same religious convictions that he cherished. Here he bought a farm four miles east of Nauvoo where he lived most of the time. Two of his sons had previously located in the city of Nauvoo.

In the summer of 1845, John had harvested a good wheat crop and threshed some of it. One day in early evening he saw some of the farm homes of other saints in flames. He knew at once that this was the work of mobs whose fury had raged unabated since the Nauvoo charter had been repealed. He had a wagon there with boards across the running gears. John put what he could of the sacked wheat on this wagon and his family on top of the wheat and drove to Nauvoo for protection. The severe persecutions the saints suffered at this time proved too much for John’s wife, Lydia, and she succumbed to the trials, dying in Nauvoo and was buried in the Nauvoo cemetery.

John passed through the trials incident to the expulsion of the saints from Nauvoo. This was the third time he had abandoned his earthly possessions for his spiritual convictions. He remained in the city of Nauvoo until the late spring of 1846 when he was driven into the wilderness with the saints. He joined his son, Jacob Lindsay at Mt. Pisgah, Iowa, where he had a temporary cabin. John remained there until 1851 when he emigrated to the Great Salt Lake Valley. In Salt Lake, he lived part of the time with his children and part of the time in the small home that Jacob had built for him on the lot Jacob had drawn at the time the city was laid out. John had left some of his family in Illinois, they having elected to stay there, but others had followed the course of the church and were with him in his devotion to the cause he had espoused. He labored with his own hands for a living and because of his beautiful penmanship had been given the assignment of being scribe to the church, spending most of his time transcribing patriarchal blessings and family histories.

His son Jacob L. Workman, writing of his father’s death, said, “He continued his labor of transcribing blessings and family records until the spring of 1855 when his health became very poor. His affliction increasing upon him in spite of all our faith and prayers and all we could do. On the 14th of April, I could see that his days were numbered. I asked him if he wanted to die. He said that he would rather live, but if it was the Lord’s will to take him he was ready. We had frequent talks upon the gospel of salvation. He remained in his rational mind until the evening of April 20th, when he went to sleep, but still continuing to breathe until 20 mins. to 5 a.m. the morning of April 21 he passed away surrounded by his family and friends.

Available at: http://members.fortunecity.com/kgoofy7/d112.htm (Last visited September 26, 2002).

Jacob Lindsey Workman

1812-1878

Jacob Lindsey Workman was born on 7 July 1812 in Overton County, Tennessee, the son of John Workman and Lydia Bilyeu. He was baptized on 22 Jul 1840 by A. O. Smoot. He died on 28 Jul 1878 in Virgin City, Washington Co., Utah. He was buried on 31 Jul 1878 in Virgin City, Washington Co., Utah. Jacob was given only one name at birth, but later added the name of Lindsey for his own identification in the records. He seldom used the name preferring the initial.

Jacob worked well in his father’s family, showing himself to be responsible and industrious. As a youth, his father entrusted him to make a journey to Kentucky to transact some family business. Of this trip he says, “After spending several weeks there I returned to Tennessee after the first trip of my life in good health and high spirits.”

Jacob’s father gave him a tract of land for his own use and Jacob appreciated the gift so much that he spent all of his extra time improving this land and soon had it in good shape. He says, “At this time my father was making and selling brandy and whiskey at his distillery. Many people of low character would come and get drinks, spending their last cent for liquor. This put me to disgust so that I left off entirely. I was now about 18 years old. I commenced to spend all the time I could preparing timber and materials to build me a home so that it would be ready by the time I needed one. The time I spent doing this work most men and boys were drinking and rowing and spending their time and money foolishly.” By the time that he married Nancy Reader, Jacob had a comfortable home well stocked and waiting. Jacob married Nancy on 15 Aug 1834 in Overton Co., Tennessee. He was sealed to Nancy on 3 Jan 1852 done by proxy by Rebecca Willard Turner. Jacob and Nancy were baptized members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on 22 July 1840. They moved in the spring of 1842 in company with Jacob’s brother, Abraham, and his family to Nauvoo. Here they obtained two city lots across the street east of Heber C. Kimball’s home where they built two brick houses. They were two stories high. Eventually the brick homes were demolished and the brick floated down the river to Keokuk, Iowa where they were used in building a store.

The trials endured by Jacob and Nancy during the expulsion of the Saints from Nauvoo were no less hard on them than on his father’s family. Their children were younger and Nancy was frail. By the time they had reached Mount Pisgah, Iowa in 1846 her physical strength failed. Food was hard to get, housing was inadequate against the wintry blasts and sickness was everywhere. In October, the second son, Samuel, died. In November, it had been necessary to borrow flour from a farmer to sustain the ebbing strength of the little family. On the 23^rd of that month the irate farmer came to the door demanding that he be paid or the flour returned. Jacob stepped outside and closed the door to spare his ailing wife the worry and tried to explain that because of sickness he had not been able to do anything about the debt. When he returned to the house Nancy was dead. Jacob, weakened by hunger and sorrow, was now under the necessity of preparing his wife’s body for burial. The camp was so filled with sickness that there was no one to help. Kneeling by the bed, Jacob prayed for the strength needed to complete the duty and for help. As he staggered along with his sad burden a stranger came to him and asked if there was anything he could do. Together they dug a grave and buried the gallant little mother and the stranger left.

The memory of the stranger, whose name Jacob had neglected to inquire, and the help in answer to his prayer remained with Jacob and he wondered who the man could have been. Many years later, as the memory still many years later, as the memory still tortured him, he asked the Lord to make known the name of his benefactor. One night soon after that, a group of men sat around a camp fire telling the most striking experience of their lives. One man in the circle told the story of his aid to a man in need and Jacob recognized him as his benefactor. He was Oliver Stratton whose son later married one of Jacob’s daughters.

While living in Nauvoo in 1846, his second wife to be, Fanny Harris Morrison, lost her husband. He had died, leaving her and her mother, Fanny Groft Grabil Harris, to make their own way. That following February 19, 1847, Fanny married Jacob.

Jacob Workman had used his wagon box to build coffins for his wife and son. It was necessary, therefore, to recoup his fortunes sufficiently to restore the equipment before the journey across the plains could be made. Accordingly, it was not until the summer of 1848 that he was able to move his family on to Utah. They joined Lorenzo Snow’s company that year and arrived in the Great Salt Lake Valley on 26 September 1848.

Then on 3 January 1852, Jacob was married to his third wife, Rebecca Willard Turner. The Turner family, consisted of parents, Nathaniel and Elizabeth Barter, and three children, Henry, David, and Rebecca. They had joined the church in Maine in 1842. That fall they made the long journey to Nauvoo, but the rigors of the trek claimed the life of the mother on 22 January 1843, age 33, and two weeks later, 6 February 1843, the father died, age 39, leaving the three children orphans in a strange land. Three unsuccessful attempts were made by the Barter family to take the children back to Maine, but fate intervened and they remained with the Saints. Rebecca and David became wards of other Mormon families and were brought to Utah. Rebecca who was then 9 years old came with the family of Benjamin Covey; David, a child of 7 years, was brought by Israel Barlow. The older boy, Henry, was a cripple having been left so by infantile paralysis, and no one thought that he would be able to make the arduous journey. He remained in Winter Quarters, Nebraska, supporting himself by doing odd jobs and helping others to prepare for the trek. It was Rebecca’s greatest desire to bring her brother to Utah and Jacob Workman promised that as her husband he would fulfill the desire. It was a number of years before he was able to send a wagon only to have word returned that Henry had died.

Jacob Workman and his families were called by President Brigham Young to help colonize the southern part of the state of Utah in the interest of the development of the cotton industry. Jacob had been a missionary to the Indians and was always active in militia work in the northern part of the state. In the south, he supported his church and community to the fullest extent.

Children of Nancy Reader and Jacob Workman were: James Thomas Workman, Samuel Workman, Jacob Reader Workman, John Alma Workman, William Smoot Workman, Hyrum Parley Workman, Josephine Workman.

He was married to Fanny Harris on 19 February 1847 in Mount Pisgah, Iowa. She was a widow when she married Jacob. Children were: David Harris Workman, Lydia Workman, Andrew Jackson Workman, Joseph Nimrod Workman, Fanny Louisa Workman.

He was married to Rebecca Willard Turner on 3 January 1852 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah. They were sealed on 3 January 1852 in the Endowment House. Children were: Abrah Smith Workman, Elizabeth Workman, Mary Workman, Hannah Workman, Mary Jane Workman, Cornelius Workman, Nancy Workman, Isaac Nathaniel Workman, Henry T. Workman, Erastus Snow Workman, Rebecca Ella Workman, Lucy Merinda Workman, Adelia Mariah Workman, Nettie Percena Workman, George Albert Workman, Lorenzo Workman.

Available at: http://members.fortunecity.com/kgoofy7/d112.htm (Last visited September 26, 2002).