An Unbroken Chain:

Faith Promoting Experiences

From the Lives of

John and Janet Hilton

And Their Ancestors



Preface. 4
Part I. 6
John and Janet Hilton. 7
Eugene and Ruth Naomi Savage Hilton. 10
John Hugh and Maria Parker Hilton. 14
Levi Mathers and Hannah Adeline Hatch Savage. 16
Hugh and Isabella Pilkington Frost Hilton. 19
John and Maria Jackson Normington Parker 22
Levi Jr. and Jane Mathers Savage. 24
Lorenzo Hill and Catherine Karren Hatch. 27
Isaac and Esther Fern Shumway Fenn. 30
John and Lucy Ann Brown Fenn. 31
Clarence and Esther Smith Shumway. 34
George and Elizabeth Ann Dyer Fenn. 35
Daniel and Ann Davenport Brown. 37
Wilson Glen and Mariah Janette Averett Shumway. 38
Jesse Nathaniel and Janet Mauretta Johnson Smith. 40
Part II. 42
Get out of Debt and Honor Your Parents. 43
The Prophecy of Grandfather Smith. 44
A Life Preserved. 45
The First Convert to the Church. 46
The Word of Wisdom.. 49
There Thy Best Friends Dwell”. 50
Adventures in Kirtland. 51
A Trip to Missouri—Cut Short 53
Brigham Young and the Widow Smith. 54
Standing up to Persecution. 55
The Gospel or My Family?”. 56
Not Wed to His Gold. 58
A Secret Combination. 59
Recollections of the Prophet Joseph. 61
I Know This For Myself”. 63
Our Lime Still Lies There”. 66
Nauvoo Mobbings. 67
Unwilling to Break Her Covenant 69
The Miracle of the Quail 70
Follow the Prophet 71
The Savage Crickets. 72
A Mission to England. 74
I will help if I can”. 75\
On Hands and Knees”. 76\
The Rescue. 78
An Adventure in the Desert Mission. 79
Two Decently Dressed Girls”. 80\
Trouble with the Indians. 82
Marcus Holling. 83
Submission Instead of Controversy. 85
Taking Another Wife. 86
Struggles in Parowan. 87
Never Shirk Your Duty. 89
A Prompting in the Night 91
The Healing of Hannah Adeline Hatch Savage. 92
The Prophecy of Hannah Adeline Hatch Savage. 94
Clarence Shumway and the Loaf of Bread. 95
Clarence Shumway and the Loaf of Bread. 95
A Missionary Matchmaker 96
The Mission of Isaac Fenn. 97
No Righteous Man is Ever Taken Before His Time. 98
Opa and Temple Hill 100
Opa and Henry. 107
Eugene Hilton and The Living Prophets. 112
Preaching to a Hostile Congregation. 101
A Tracting Healing. 103
Coming Back From Defeat 104
Lifesaving Interventions. 105
A Healing of Ruth Naomi 106
The Lord Will Prepare the Way. 113
An Inspired Calling. 114
Know Your Knots. 115
A Naval Missionary Experience. 116
The Engagement of John and Jan Hilton. 117
Part III. 118
A Letter From Joseph Smith. 119
Lines Dedicated to the Prophet, Joseph Smith, JR. 121
A Poem for Jane Mathers Savage. 122
A Discourse on Polygamy. 123
A Pioneer Poet 125
Letters to and Regarding Jesse Nathaniel Smith. 127
Family History Trivia. 129
Family History Facts. 130
Quotations. 133
Messages to Posterity. 135



Preface

As children of Israel we have a rich heritage. When we talk of family history stories we might well discuss Joseph fleeing from Potiphar’s wife or Abraham having the faith to sacrifice Isaac; for they are our ancestors. Nevertheless, the descendants of John and Jan Hilton do not have to look back that far to discover a legacy of faith in their family.

Over the last several months I have been consumed with a desire to compile faith promoting family history stories. In the process of doing this my testimony and faith in Jesus Christ has greatly deepened. I have begun to appreciate what a rich legacy I have been given. It s amazing to think that of the thirty ancestors written about in this anthology (seven generations from my children) ALL thirty remained faithful to the gospel throughout their life.

President Hinckley said, “Many of you are descended from pioneers in this Church. They struggled so hard; they paid such a terrible price for their faith. Be true to them and true always to the Church they loved so much.”[1]

The title I selected for this book, An Unbroken Chain is inspired from a series of talks President Gordon B. Hinckley has given to college students. I quote excerpts from two of these addresses here[2]:
“I thought of an experience I had long, long ago. In the summer we lived on a farm. We had a little old tractor. There was a dead tree I wished to pull. I fastened one end of a chain to the tractor and the other end to the tree. As the tractor began to move, the tree shook a little, and then the chain broke.
“I looked at that broken link and wondered how it could have given way. I went to the hardware store and bought a repair link. I put it together again, but it was an awkward and ugly connection. The chain was never, never the same.
“As I sat in the celestial room of the temple pondering these things, I said to myself, ‘Never permit yourself to become a weak link in the chain of your generations.’ It is so important that we pass on without a blemish our inheritance of body and brain and, if you please, faith and virtue untarnished to the generations who will come after us.
“You young men and you young women, most of you will marry and have children. Your children will have children, as will the children who come after them. Life is a great chain of generations that we in the Church believe must be linked together.
“I fear there will be some broken links. Do not let yourself become such, I pray.
“Never become a weak link in the chain of your family's generations. Do whatever you are asked to do, and do it with a glad heart. Do not worry about office or position in the Church. Simply do whatever your calling requires, and do it with joy and gladness.

“To you I say with all of the energy of which I am capable, do not become a weak link in the chain of your generations. You come to the world with a marvelous inheritance. You come of great men and women…Never let them down. Never do anything which would weaken the chain of which you are a fundamental part.”

I pray that those who read this work will feel the fire of faith that our ancestors had. They lived and died building up The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. May the same be said of us.

Before I conclude, a few business items:

I have tried to be an “invisible editor.” Consequently I have tried not to use phrases such as “our ancestors” in the text of this book. I have also tried to limit the amount of ellipses as I quote various authors. The endnotes provide original citations and every effort has been made to preserve the original words.

In some cases, I have made little effort to designate which parts of a life sketch are being quoted and which words are my own. This is particularly true with the life sketches taken from Our First Fourteen Ancestors by George Hilton. George compiled his book by individuals; the life sketches in this volume are done by couple. Therefore I did a lot of cutting and pasting from his work to merge the sketches of each couple (think of what Mormon could have done with a Word Processor)!

I apologize to all original authors if I have given them less credit than they deserve. Over ninety percent of the text in this book is not written by me (I quoted other sources). Please excuse any citation errors.


Part I

Life Sketches John and Janet Hilton[3]

John Hilton was born in Woodruff, AZ and moved to Berkeley, CA in his infancy. John grew up in a big city delivering newspapers, riding streetcars, but also spending much time hiking and camping in the Oakland and Berkeley hills which were then a wi1derness.

The only unexpected part of his childhood was that he couldn't learn to read. He seemed bright enough, absorbed all sorts of information, could understand arithmetic, but could not read. His parents took him for intelligence testing, and the results showed he was capable of college prep high school and college courses. Dyslexia didn't have a name then, but when he was 14 or 15 his mother took him in hand, tutoring him with old fashioned phonics and he learned to read very adequately.

John was baptized and advanced normally in the priesthood. He loved primary and Sunday school classes because at church, unlike school, he always knew the answers. He also built a ham radio shack and learned old fashion vacuum tube electronics as a hobby. John received his Eagle Scout award when he was seventeen, a major highlight of his life.

After graduating early from high school, John enlisted in the navy and was sent to radar school in Chicago. Eventually he was assigned to a seaplane tender, USS San Carlos, sailed to Panama and patrolled in the Caribbean area. He was seasick most of the time when at sea, and rejoiced when the war was over and he was discharged.

The immoral lives of most of his sailor associates made him eager to return to an atmosphere of righteousness and he eagerly enrolled as a freshman at BYU at age 19. It was here he met the lovely Jan Fenn from Gallup, NM.

Janet Ruth Fenn was fatherless from infancy, her father having died while on a mission for the church. Her earliest memories are in her Grandparents home in Pinedale. She didn't mind being an only and fatherless child because she had six uncles and Aunt Beula to love her.

She was very happy living with Mother, or Grandma, Aunt Nell or whoever. She learned to read on her own at age four. When she was five, she was reading Little Women and her mother's magazine.

When Jan’s mother married Walter Courtland Mason, Jr. she was almost six, and considered the wedding was of the three of them. Highlights of Jan’s young life were the visits to Grandmas, or from Grandma and family. By the end of the third grade she had attended ten different schools, some more than once. Finally her family settled for a three year stretch in Franklin.

Her Eighth grade through high school years were in Gallup, NM. They were not particularly stimulating schools nor community, but Jan didn't know any better and was happy. She loved playing in the band; the clarinet was incidental.

A cousin, Rey Fenn, stopped by to visit during her junior or senior year. He'd been attending BYU and had felt impressed by Uncle Isaac to come to tell Jan about BYU. Although Jan had a full scholarship to the University of New Mexico, she went to BYU, which she never regretted as she fell in love with John Levi Hilton.

The courtship of John and Jan was cut short by John’s departure to Brazil to serve a full time mission for two and a half years when there was but one mission and 425 partially active members in the entire nation..

With no training Portuguese was not easy to learn. Through hard work and miracles, John learned the language, to love the Brazilian people, and taught the gospel which started the spiritual boom Brazil has today.

Meanwhile, Jan was in school and taught first grade the next year at an Indian School.

John said that the greatest blessing from his mission was that Jan was still around when he returned. They were married in the Arizona Temple, August 7, 1950.

In September they were both in school again at BYU. Jan was a senior and John a sophomore. They worked their way through college and their first child. They moved the Albuquerque where they lived for five years. John worked at Sandia for five years mostly on classified programs but he did publicly receive several patents.

In December 1957, John took employment at Aerojet Nucleonics, in San Ramon, CA, and they built a home in Walnut Creek, CA where we lived for thirty years. John worked on the H-Bomb and fusion energy for 12 years and then worked for the Cyclotron Corporation in Berkeley, developing a high energy neutron generator for radiation therapy which was helpful in the treatment of a number of cancers.

Perhaps their greatest accomplishment was raising eight righteous children in the Bay Area in the 60's and 70's. All eight were good scholars, many were highly gifted in music, and most importantly all loved the Lord, four served missions and all married in the temple.

Aside from mothering her brood, Jan got in the habit of running six miles a day, five days a week. She has run in several 10K marathons, taking first place in most. When she was almost fifty and ward Relief Society president she began playing the cello. Eventually Jan played in the American Fork Symphony.

Jan taught Relief Society and also served as counselors, and president. She had a lot of involvement with Girls Camp and was Stake YW president for several years followed by teaching seminary. She also taught Gospel Doctrine class twice and had several primary callings. John served as Bishop's counselor, Scout Master, Bishop, High Council, Gospel Doctrine teacher and a choice three year mission call to work with Cambodian refugees. Another great satisfaction was serving on the school board for nineteen years.

In 1980 John became intensely interested in a computer study of author attribution called word prints, learning how to do computer programming and statistics as by products. When their youngest child was married in August of 1988, the week of her wedding, they sold their home without putting it on the market, resigned from the school board, and accepted an invitation to come to the Statistics Department at BYU where John worked as an adjunct professor concentrating on word print research, with a primary focus on the Book of Mormon.

In this work John was able to show much internal verification in the Book of Mormon as well as many secular writings.

During their Provo years John and Jan traveled twice to Mexico and Guatemala doing Book of Mormon geographical research; they also traveled to as tourists to Russia.

On March 12, 2000 John unexpectedly died of cardiac arrest; he had been fighting colon cancer prior to that. Jan reported that “Joy was possible only because of the sure knowledge or the resurrection and exaltation in the Kingdom of God.”

One year later Jan received a mission call to proselyte in Sao Paulo Brazil. Of this event she said, “Those eighteen months were those most challenging and difficult in my life—yet very gratifying and rewarding and filled with much spiritual and character growth.

Upon her return Jan was called to be the First Counselor in the Young Womens Presidency. She continues to be strong in her testimony that “Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the son of God, and that He and God the Father and the Holy Spirit love each of us and give us challenges for our personal growth and have innumerable blessings waiting to be claimed by us.”

Eugene and Ruth Naomi Savage Hilton[4]

Eugene Hilton was born in the town of Virgin, Utah, November 12th, 1889. His first ten years were spent in Virgin and then the family moved with all their belongings in the family wagon to Church Farm. A few years later that area was renamed Abraham, Utah.

The years at Church Farm were difficult ones. Eugene remembered that it was necessary to dilute the milk with water in order to have enough for the whole family of eleven children. A few years later they moved a short distance to Hinckley which became the permanent headquarters for the Hilton family.

Eugene had a thirst for knowledge and education. He loved school. At one point in his young adult life he was working his way through school at the Brigham Young Academy in Provo when he received a message that he had to come home to help on the family farm. Reluctantly he left the B.Y.A. and returned home.

It was uncommon for young men of Hinckley, Utah to go on missions. So it was rather a special event when Eugene was called at age 24, to serve a mission for the Church in the Eastern States Mission. He had a very successful mission. His last duty was that of Conference President of the East Pennsylvania Conference, covering most of the eastern part of that state, including Philadelphia.

A very providential event took place at that time. He was asked to stay on an extra three months, making it a 27 month mission, to continue his administration of that Conference in Philadelphia. During that three month extension the first two lady missionaries were called to serve in the Eastern States Mission. He had the duty to meet and orient them and assign them to their duties. There was one sister from Idaho and Sister Ruth Naomi Savage from Woodruff, Arizona. A few months later Eugene was honorably released and returned home to finish his high school education. He circumspectly corresponded with Sister Savage throughout the duration of Ruth Naomi's mission. She returned home from her mission just in time for April Conference in Salt Lake City and Eugene was waiting at the train station. The first day after her return she accepted his proposal for marriage.

Ruth Naomi was born in Snowflake, Arizona on July 10, 1891. At the tender age of three months she moved with her family to the nearby town of Woodruff where her father was called to be the first Bishop.

Ruth had a happy childhood in the town of Woodruff despite the very humble circumstances of the two dozen families that made up that small community. Seventeen times they dammed up the Little Colorado to obtain irrigation water and seventeen times the dam was destroyed. But they were all there on a mission and did not know the meaning of the words "give up”. Today a beautiful, permanent concrete dam controls the Little Colorado River.

In 1906 Ruth completed the district school and then went off to the Snowflake Academy where she was an outstanding high school student during the years of 1907- 1909. She then went to Thatcher, Arizona where she lived awhile with her older sister, Alivinia. Her studies there included the subject of public speaking. This course brought out her great native talent and she has thrilled innumerable audiences throughout her life with her unusual skills of elocution.

In 1912 she went to Los Angeles with her "dearest friend" Mettie Peterson. She worked as a clerk in a department store and continued her studies at the Manual Arts High School. She had a straight "A" record and obtained her high school diploma. Most of the next two years were spent in teaching school, especially at Taylor, Arizona. During this time she managed to save five hundred dollars which proved to be adequate for her mission in the Eastern States.

Prior to her mission she received her temple endowments on May 29, 1914 in the Salt Lake Temple. She then reported to the mission home in Brooklyn, New York. After just one month she was assigned to the East Pennsylvania Conference with headquarters in Philadelphia. Ruth loved her mission; she wrote following in her journal.

This call to be a missionary, representing my Church was the beginning of one of the most outstanding experiences of my life. I loved the peoples my companions our President, the elders, the towns and cities of eastern part of our great land. In fact, all of it gave me a zest for living which cannot be told in words. I found that daily tracting could be a most glorious experience. I am still reaping an abundant return from the faith, study and personal work which I put into my mission.

Eugene and Ruth were both outstanding missionaries and were married in the St. George temple, as both of their parents had been, on September 28, 1916.

Their love of education made their first step quite clear - obviously they must go back to Provo and complete his academic work. These were happy days that included playing the trombone in the dance band, serving as class president and participating on the debating team.

The church encouraged Eugene to take a position to open the seventh seminary of the Church, in Lehi, Utah. Off to Lehi they went. Next he was drafted by the Church to open the seminary work in Blackfoot, Idaho. Then back to Salt Lake for an assignment on the faculty of the LDS University with a calling to serve on the General Sunday School Board. They had a lovely brick home and settled into what looked like a permanent home.

But the Church had need of a strong administrator to get accreditation for the Church College (Gila College) in Thatcher, Arizona, and Eugene was tapped for the job. So in their model "7" they went all the way to southern Arizona where he served as President of the College. Among the happy memories of those days were the occasions when Eugene was called upon to sing in Church or in the Rotary Club. The Stake Clerk, Spencer W. Kimball, usually accompanied him.

During their Salt Lake years, he had earned his Master's Degree at the University of Utah. With Ruth’s encouragement they decided to go all the way for a doctorate. So they moved to Berkeley, California and Eugene was successful in earning his third academic degree as a Doctor of Education. His Doctoral dissertation was accorded unusual recognition and when the University elected to publish it in book form, a rather special acknowledgment of an outstanding dissertation. That was 1930; in that same year he took a position with the Oakland Public School District as Superintendent of Social Studies. He spent his entire professional career in the Oakland School System with several important responsibilities, including principal.

These years were busy ones. Despite Ruth’s varied activities it was always clear that she regarded her calling as wife and mother as her top priority. She helped each child along the way and shared in their joy as each of them fulfilled a full time mission for the Church.

Ruth worked hard as a wife and a mother and always cheerfully did household jobs. She once wrote, “No matter what the task may be, if it's the thing which needs doing, I enjoy it. People who say. ‘Oh! I detest dishes’, or ‘I just can't do that’, or, ‘I wouldn’t think of doing that kind of work’, try my patience. If I need to scrub floors - then scrubbing goes and it can be just as dignified as anything else I might do. It seems to me that one loses dignity or social importance (whatever that may be) only by failing in one's obligations.”

Another role Ruth often found herself filling was that of a hostess. She wrote, “To [be a good hostess] is extremely satisfying. Not just greeting people with a smile or being a good conversationalist, but being able to sense the likes and dislikes of people. Make them feel easy. To be thoroughly unselfish in the how and wherefores of what goes on. To be able to plan and execute entertaining at home within the scope of her particular budget…To do this is one of the challenging, charming tasks of women.”

Ruth was an able seamstress and wrote that, “I began on the 4th of July that I was 13 years old to make my own dress and I made everything from then until I bore my 8th baby, except two suits and my coats.”

Most of Ruth’s accomplishments went unheralded but she did receive two significant recognitions. In 1961 she and her husband were invited to the Brigham Young University where they were given the "Joseph F. Smith Living Award." In 1966 her name was submitted by some friends to the "California Mother of the Year" contest. A lovely blind lady was chosen as Mother of the Year and Ruth Naomi was selected as Runner Up.

Those Oakland years were also busy for Eugene and he liked to reflect back on those years as he states it, as the "wearing of four hats".

His first hat was the calling from which he would never be released, that of husband and father. He expressed great gratitude in noting that each of the eight children completed a mission for the Church, each was married in the Temple, and each of the boys graduated from college. His second hat was that of professional educator in his work in social studies, teaching and school administration.

The third hat that he wore was that of author. He wrote and published many articles as well as ten books. These covered a variety of subjects—religion, history and civics. The most notable was a two volume work, "Problems and Values of Today" for which Eugene received a four thousand dollar prize from the Atlantic Monthly. Four thousand dollars seemed like a fortune in the 1930's.

Ruth was also an accomplished author and had several articles published in the Improvement Era, the Woman’s Journal and the Relief Society Journal.

Eugene’s fourth hat was that of tireless Church worker. He served as a counselor in the Stake Presidency, followed by twelve years as Stake president. During that time the Oakland Stake became the largest stake in the Church. He later served as a Patriarch and Temple Sealer.

Ruth also loved the church and never refused a call to serve. A partial list of her Church callings includes seven ward or stake relief society presidencies, stake literary leader and three years of service as an Ordinance Worker in the Los Angeles and Oakland Temples.

Throughout their life Eugene and Ruth loved sharing the word of the Restoration. Their first mission together was right after Eugene’s retirement in l96l when they served a proselyting mission in Scotland. This was later followed by two academic missions at the Church Colleges in Hawaii and New Zealand. Eugene drew on his experiences at Gila colleges to perform the same task in Laie, Hawaii, getting the academic accreditation for the Church College.

After their third mission, they purchased a beautiful home a half block from the Oakland Temple and settled in for what they thought would be the golden years of Temple work. They were both ordained as ordinance workers in the Oakland Temple where Dad also worked as Sealer. That dream was interrupted by the passing of Ruth.

It was not too many months thereafter that Eugene rediscovered the biblical truth that "It is not good for man to be alone". His path then crossed that of Ruth Catherine. She had lost her husband Jim and it was a beautiful opportunity for the two of them to spend their later years together.

They loved each other and both peacefully ended their mortal probation with their eyes firmly fixed on the Lord Jesus Christ.




John Hugh and Maria Parker Hilton[5]

John Hugh Hilton was born in Salt Lake City on November 17, 1857. The actual place, as near as he could later tell was 538 South 4th East. His father, Hugh, was absent at the time because of an assignment to ride with Lot Smith in their efforts to inhibit the progress of Johnston's army. After an arrangement had been made with The Army all the Saints moved from Salt Lake to Lehi and John Hugh, at age five months, was among that group.

They continued to reside in Lehi until John was about five years old. At that time they were called to move to Utah's "Dixie" and establish a new community on the Virgin River. The purpose of this calling was to raise cotton, and this effort came to be known as the "Cotton Mission".

His father built two one-room log houses. They were about ten feet apart with a roof of dirt over them all. Grape vines climbed over this arbor. A tent was used for storage purposes.

On one occasion five or six Indians who came to John’s house when his father and brother were away and demanded some melons. They had a tent about a quarter full of melons. John’s mother gave the Indians a few melons, but one buck pulled his knife --a big butcher knife -- and flourished it over Mother and pointed to the melons demanding another. She gave him one.

John had only a limited chance at an education. School was held only during the winter months. The people were poor because of pioneering in this far-off land. The teachers, except those residing locally, were paid in farm produce. Also they "boarded round" with the families who had children in school. His entire schooling occupied not more than eight or ten months altogether.

The John Parker. Jr. family was called to Dixie about the same time the Hiltons were. John Parker (the first Bishop in Virgin) and Maria Jackson Normington Parker had one daughter, Maria. She was married at nineteen to John Hugh in the Saint George Temple.

John and Maria set up their household in Virgin where eight of their children were born. They subsequently moved to Abraham and then to Hinckley, Utah where they lived for the rest of their life together except for a time in 1918 when they went to Salt Lake City and worked in the temple for several months.

One of Maria’s sons wrote about her as follows.

“Our mother was indeed a marvelous, efficient, loving, devoted mother. We never ceased to marvel at her success at meeting and overcoming the tremendous difficulties encountered in raising a large family under adverse pioneering conditions. Her love for the restored Gospel and her efficient teaching were prime factors in the life of each of her faithful children.”

John Hugh made his living by farming and tending cattle; he had many adventures as a cowboy. He had many talents and participated in singing and drama and had a great sense of humor which helped lift the spirits during those early pioneering days. He was known as an expert horseman with an uncanny ability with the lariat.

John Hugh was also a man of integrity who always served where he was called. He served for a time on the High Council in a stake presided over by Alonzo A. Hinckley.

John and Maria, like their forebears died as faithful members of the church.






Levi Mathers and Hannah Adeline Hatch Savage[6]

Levi Mathers Savage, was born January 11, 1851. His mother Jane died when Levi Mathers was only eleven months old. His widower father, Levi Savage Jr. was called by President Brigham Young to go on a mission to Siam when Levi Mathers was not quite two years old. While his father was on his mission, young Levi stayed with his father's sister Hannah.

Hannah and her husband. Ira Eldredge. were very kind to the boy and some years later Levi Mathers stated, "she mothered me very carefully'. His record also notes: "I do not remember when my father started on his mission to Asia but I do remember well when he returned'. His father's return was in company with the Martin Handcart Company.

As a young adult Levi attended school in Salt Lake City and obtained his credential as a schoolteacher. He was a very literate person and had particularly beautiful penmanship.

Levi was married three times. His first wife was Marintha Wright. They were married October 6, 1874 and had three children. Unfortunately this marriage ended in divorce. His second wife was Lydia Hatch. They were married on December 24, 1879 and had six children. He subsequently took another wife, Lydia's younger sister, Hannah Adeline Hatch.

Hannah Adeline or "Addie," was born in Franklin, Idaho in 1867. Addie learned her three R's at home and had just three months of formal schooling. But she loved good books and read extensively. She was raised in a plural marriage household and developed a great respect for her father's other wives and her many step-brothers and sisters. The evidence all indicates that it was a triple home of love and happiness. She had a generally happy childhood and often went to her play house, made in the willows along the river bank.

She had a very serious nearly fatal accident at the age of four. The family was building a rock house at the time and there was a large lime pit. As the workmen were passing near the lime pit, an Indian spied the tip of a calico apron protruding above the surface of the white lime. He pulled on it and found that Addie had become completely immersed in the lime. He shouted the alarm and she was rescued. Many hands cleaned the lime from her eyes~ nose, and mouth. It was a frightful experience that left her upper respiratory tract somewhat damaged for a number of years with more than her share of respiratory illnesses each winter.

In 1875, Bishop Hatch was called to leave Franklin and go to Arizona. He took Catherine and several of their children but little Addie had to stay in Idaho because of her frail health. Two years later she was able to join with her family in Arizona. Her father served as a counselor in the Stake Presidency in Arizona and her mother Catherine served as the first Relief Society President of Woodruff, Arizona. Addie was known as a very competent seamstress and pattern maker. She sang in the ward choir and was said to have an unusually clear soprano voice.

On September 28, 1883 she became the plural wife of Levi Mathers Savage. The other wife in the home was Addie's older sister, Nora. These two sisters were unusually compatible and it was a very happy household. For the marriage it was necessary to travel by wagon for approximately two weeks to reach the St. George Temple.

Two couples traveled together on this trip. The two brides slept in the wagon and the two men slept on the ground. On the way home their honeymoon trip had the extra dimension of a cattle drive. As Addie road in the wagons her husband Levi drove some cattle which he had obtained from his father in Toquerville, Utah. She helped her husband get the cattle across the Colorado River.

Levi Mathers provided for his large family primarily as a teacher. He taught all grades and all ages for all types of pay in several cities including Coalsville and Tocqueville, Utah and Sunset, Woodruff and Taylor, Arizona. He was County superintendent of Public Schools in Kane County, Utah, in 1876, and served for two years as principal of the Snowflake Academy in Arizona. He served in some position on local school boards most of his adult life.

Levi and Addie were both dedicated to the gospel. Levi served as Bishop of the United Order of Sunset (the United Order was later abandoned and became the Sunset Ward) for almost 7 years and was then called to be Bishop of Woodruff Ward for 27 years. This life-long work as Bishop was surely his great calling. In addition to his administrative responsibilities he was a powerful preacher of the truth. He spent his latter years working in the Salt Lake Temple.

Adeline was an ardent student of the scriptures. One of her favorite tricks was to mark her favorite passages with a little figure of a hand with an outstretched index finger. In one of her copies of the Book of Mormon there were 57 such hands. One of these small hands indicates her interest in the 35th Chapter of Alma, verse 11, which reads, "Thou didst hear me because of my afflictions."

There was considerable difficulty with reference to the practice of plural marriage in the United States and therefore the family heeded the advice of The Brethren and moved to Old Mexico in 1885. Her first baby, Alvenia, was born in a simple dug-out in Old Mexico. Adeline's mother, Catherine, managed to send her one and a half yards of muslin from which she fashioned a beautiful frock for the baby's blessing. Mexico was full of hardships. There was an unfriendly government, a diphtheria epidemic, and an earthquake.

But there were some light moments. On the fourth of July Adeline participated in a married women's foot race that she managed to win, receiving a rooster as a prize.

Her second baby, Louie May, was born in September 1887. This was the major turning point in Adeline's life since her health deteriorated at this time. She was only 21 years old but she was never really well again. Her son's birth was accompanied by a great loss of blood and extensive laceration of her tissues. For many years she was confined to bed. With the loss of her physical health, she gained even more spiritual power and she enjoyed many spiritual gifts including the gift of tongues, interpretation of tongues, and healings. Her poor health doubled the physical duties of her sister Nora who willingly stepped forward to do what must be done.

In December 1888, Adeline left Old Mexico and went to Logan, where she lived from 1900 to 1902. Her very kind and attentive bishop at that time was Melvin J. Ballard. Eventually her health improved slightly and she had three more children.
Adeline had a special calling for which she was never formally sustained and that was friend, confidant, and comforter. People would come from great distances to seek a few hours with her. She had a certain spiritual gift which made her presence an unusual experience for people who were carrying a heavy burden.

Adeline taught her children many principles including the law of tithing. She did this by having the children carefully count the eggs and weigh the butter so that the Lord's tenth would honestly be given from Adeline's meager supply. During these years she also served as secretary of the MIA, as a Relief Society Instructor, and as a member of the Stake Relief Society Board. She also served as the corresponding secretary of the Women's Suffrage club.

Adeline passed away on June 14, 1916, at the age of 49, her husband followed her several years later on 15 Mar 1935.

Hugh and Isabella Pilkington Frost Hilton[7]

Hugh Hilton, was born in Bolton, Lancashire, England on July 10, 1821. He came from a family which is said to be `the oldest family entitled to bear arms in Great Britain" (Reference: Encyclopedia Americana, V 16, p. 168). It has also been said that "the Hilton family is the most ancient in England" (Reference: Hutchison, History of Durham England, V 3, p. 17). Through the years the family name spelling has been noted in various forms including: de Hulton, Hulton, Hylton and Hilton.

His first ancestor of record, Blethyn, lived during the reign of King Henry the Second (reigned 1151-1189). This was less than a century after the pivotal event of English history when William the Conqueror invaded the British Isles from Normandy and became King of England. This famous date of 1066 is a key point in British history. Did Blethyn's father come from Normandy with William the Conqueror? We have no positive answer on this but we think that he probably did not because there is evidence that people with the surname of Hilton and Hulton were placed in both Lancashire and Durham some 200 years before 1066.

Hugh Hilton's grandfather was William Hilton of Bolton, born in 1765. He was a weaver and was married to Martha Taylor. Hugh's father was also named William, born 1796. His wife was Sarah. They had nine children; Hugh was the third.

Hugh was born in Bolton on July 10, 1821. His father William was a brewer. These were very hard times in Bolton and the early childhood of Hugh was quite pathetic. When he was a young child, Hugh’s mother spread sandwiches and laid them on a shelf with his cap on it; then his shoes were put in line. At 5:00 AM he would get up, slip into his clothes and shoes, grab his cap and lunch and eat as he hurried to work. If he was late, he was whipped or sent home to stay until 8:00 and his wages were docked. He worked from 5:00 until 8:00 then had half an hour off for breakfast, then he worked until 12:00 when there was an hour off. He worked again until 4:00 and then there was a half hour off for tea; after which he worked until 8:00 PM. On Saturdays he quit work a little earlier. He could read and write although he went to school only at night and to Sunday School. As an older boy, Grandpa bought eggs and sold them on the streets, but people would always pick out the biggest eggs and he had to discount the little ones that were left and so lost his profit. Later on he worked in the brewery; when he got asthma, it was thought to have been brought on by working over so much steam in the brewery.

Hugh was the first Hilton to respond to the call of the missionaries who brought the message of the restored Gospel to Bolton. He was 18 years of age at the time of his baptism, which was on February 27, 1840. On the same day a young lady named Jane Hewitt was also baptized.

Hugh and Jane were married five years later on February 8, 1845. They were very active in the Bolton branch and the records indicate that Hugh performed several priesthood ordinances between 1840 and 1851. During the Bolton years Hugh and Jane had four children. Two died in Eng1and one died at sea and the one surviving child, Charles Hewitt Hilton, went with his father to Utah. Hugh Hilton was a weaver, a schoolmaster and brewer. Despite his very limited education, his small account book is very easy to read, with excellent handwriting, and gives evidence of considerable self-education.

Hugh and Jane left Bolton for America, sailing to St. Louis, Missouri by way of New Orleans. They arrived in St. Louis on March 26, 1851 with their one surviving child Charles. Jane only enjoyed America for three months and passed away in St. Louis on June 18, 1851. Isabella Pilkington Frost was also a member of the Bolton branch having been baptized in 1849, and also came to St. Louis. Hugh married Isabella approximately ten months after the passing of his first wife Jane.

Isabella Pilkington Frost was born in Bolton, Lancashire, England on January 30, 1825. Her father, William Frost Junior, died near the time of her birth.

Isabella's mother, Ann Pilkington came from a well known family. She was a descendant of Sir Alexander Pilkington. Ann was baptized at age 46, on July 22, 1841. Isabella would have been 16 years old at the time of mother's baptism. Isabella was baptized at age 23 on June 27, 1849. No doubt she was well acquainted with the young married couple Hugh and Jane Hilton who lived in their same area. Little did she realize that she would someday become Hugh's second wife.

Isabella was described as being of medium height and weight with large blue eyes and light brown hair. Hugh was just slightly under average height, 5 foot 10 inches, had very dark brown eyes, black curly hair, and had heavy eyebrows. He usually wore a full beard. Their brief stay in St. Louis was dominated by their intent preparations for their trip across the plains to join the Saints in "the valley," that is the Great Salt Lake Valley.

Hugh, Isabella and Charles arrived in Salt Lake City in November 1850. The marriage of Hugh and Isabella was eternalized as they were sealed in the endowment house November 13, 1855. In November 1857 the Saints were shocked to hear of the impending invasion of Johnston's army. Hugh was called to go with Major Lot Smith eastward in a effort to delay the progress of the Army. While he was away their child John Hugh was born on November 17, 1957.

Because of the threat of Johnston's Army, Salt Lake City was vacated and Hugh's little family joined the exodus as they all moved to the community of Lehi, located near the shore of Utah Lake. They stayed there for four years. At this time Hugh made a beverage referred to as beer, and it is assumed that this was the non-alcoholic type. He sold this to the soldiers who were located at Camp Floyd about ten miles away. During the general conference of October 1861, the Hugh Hilton family was among several called on a mission to move to southern Utah and establish a new community near the Virgin River. The purpose of this mission was to raise cotton because it appeared that the normal source of cotton from the southern states would be interrupted due to the Civil War.

Hugh, Isabella and their young family moved to Virgin in November 1861. They had two large wagons which they had purchased from the army as well as a large army tent. The pioneer world of Isabella was very demanding and she developed great skills to cope with this primitive culture such as carding wool, spinning yarn1 weaving cloth, making clothes, making soap and tallow candles, and weaving carpets. She also enjoyed raising flowers for both the yard and the interior of their home. Isabella was an accomplished hostess. In 1863 Isabella and Hugh had the opportunity to entertain President Brigham Young and his party as they traveled through Virgin City.

She was a good soprano singer, and participated in the ward choir. She also joined with Hugh in dramatic presentations. She was always faithful in the Church and very active in the Relief Society.

Hugh passed away 19 September 1873. Isabella died four years later on June 4, 1877. They were buried side by side and there is now a dual marker placed over their graves.



John and Maria Jackson Normington Parker[8]

John Parker was born in Lancashire, England on February 14, 1812. His parents were John Parker, Sr. and Ellen Heskin. He was converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and subsequently moved to Utah and took up residence in Salt Lake City. In 1833 he married Alice Whitaker and in 1846 he married Ellen Briggs. He would not meet his third wife, Maria Jackson until 1857.

Maria Jackson was born on Christmas Day, 1819, in Haggate, Lancashire, England. She was the fifth of twelve children. Her father was Robert Jackson and her mother was Jane Thornton, born in 1771 in Lancashire.

There was little or no opportunity for schooling at that time. Maria started working in a factory, winding bobbins at the age of four. When she was twenty, Maria was married to Thomas Normington. Thomas and Maria were blessed with a family of eight children. Maria came into the Church through baptism on November 21, 1840 and Thomas followed her nine days later, being baptized on November 30.
They were enthusiastic about the gospel and wished to gather with the saints. Maria left her little ones at home in the care of the older children and worked with Thomas in a factory to obtain money so they could emigrate. They crossed the Atlantic Ocean on the ship "Horizon" which left Liverpool May 22, 1856 and reached Boston, Mass, June 30, six weeks later. They arrived in Iowa City, Iowa July 8, 1856.
Maria and Thomas were members of the ill-fated Martin Handcart Company. The men pulled the handcarts and the women and children pushed or walked along. The first part of their journey, though hard, was no worse than they expected. They loved to sing. One song they often sang was the "Hand Cart song". "For some must push and some must pull, as we go marching up the hill, and merrily on the way we go, until we reach the valley-o." Maria was a good singer and had a jolly and cheerful disposition. Her favorite song was "Come Come Ye Saints".
There were many trials along the trail. First their four year old Ephriam died. Not long after Daniel, age one, also died. The grieving Mother was permitted to ride half a day with her dead child until the company stopped and he could be buried.
In mid-October cholera came to the starved and suffering camp. In one night Thomas Normington and 16 others died and were buried in a common grave. Due to the cold the travelers could not dig a proper grave and the seventeen were covered mostly with snow. The survivors had no choice but to leave them and struggle on.
Miraculously, Maria and her three young daughters (Lovenia 10, Mary Ellen 8, and Hannah, 6) survived the difficulties and were rescued by a young man named William Parker. Maria and her girls went to live with William’s father, John Parker Jr; eventually Maria became John’s third wife. Together they had two children: Richard and Maria. In 1877, Maria was sealed for time and all eternity to her first husband, Thomas Normington.
The Parker family was among those called to the "Dixie Mission" to raise cotton. Cotton had become extremely scarce due to the Civil War and President Brigham Young called a number of Saints to establish a Cotton Mission. They left a comfortable home and went to build up the rough and desolate desert land.
John Parker was called to be the first bishop of Virgin, Utah. He was the leader of a small band of seventeen families who left the relative comfort of the Salt Lake Valley to become pioneers establishing a new community on the banks of the Virgin River. Numbered among that pioneer band was the family of Hugh and Isabella Hilton.

The establishment of a new settlement was exciting and challenging business. At first, they lived in their covered wagons and tents and were occupied with building. What would pioneers build? They immediately set to work building a church house, school, store, blacksmith's shop, bridges, corrals, barns, etc. How did those pioneers occupy their time? Consider this partial list: making flour and cornmeal, spinning yarns knitting wool over-the-knee stockings, half-soling shoes, making rugs, making furniture (such as chairs laced with rawhide), making straw hats, drying fruit, making molasses and peach preserves, filling bed ticks with straw or corn shucks, making jerky meat, cheese, and sausage—pickling pigs' feet and so on.

Their lives were closely tied to their livestock, which included chickens, pigs, cows and horses. Water was a serious problem. They had to haul water on a sled, with barrels, from the nearby river. Unfortunately, at least 25% of the barrel would be filled with mud after it had settled out. Agriculture was the main industry. This involved clearing and leveling of land, plowing, harrowing, planting, irrigating, cultivating, weeding and harvesting.

They lived in a dugout at first and later a log house. Maria was thrifty and industrious and helped in every way she could. She washed and scoured the wool, then carded it and dyed it with dock roots or madder and wove it into cloth for their dresses and suits, which she also made. They raised their own cotton. She sewed, knitted, tatted or netted. She was able to make most of all she had and soon was comfortable in their home.

She was a most faithful Latter Day Saint, and felt that the Gospel, for which she had endured so many trials, was the most glorious of all blessings. She was never heard to censure anyone for her trials, nor complain because her lot was hard. She had a cheerful, jolly disposition and she loved a good joke, and loved to sing. She sang in the choir for many years.

John and Maria were both dedicated to the gospel and lived it faithfully until their deaths in 1881 and 1886 respectively.


Levi Jr. and Jane Mathers Savage[9]

Levi Junior was born 23 March 1823 in Huron County, Ohio, son of Levi Savages Sr. and Polly Haynes. He was the second of fifteen children. He grew to young manhood on his parents' homestead, located on the wooded lands of southern Michigan, where the family moved from Ohio. Here, zealous Mormon missionaries from the newly founded city of Nauvoo visited him and found him ready with his parents and entire family to listen, believe and embrace the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.

They left Michigan to join with the saints in Council Bluffs. The following account is taken from Levi’s own record.

“We arrived at Council Bluffs, Missouri River in July 1846. Here we met Colonel Allen, a United States Officer, offering to enlist 500 men from the Mormon immigrants in the United States Army against Mexico. Not withstanding our government allowed us, the Mormons, to be mobbed from our homes; our leaders advised the enlistment, or at least approved of it, and the battalion of 500 was raised. I was one of the ones to enlist.”

Levi traveled over a thousand miles during his time in the battalion, but never saw a battle. He returned to the Salt Lake valley a year later and renewed an acquaintance with one Jane Mathers.

The family of Jane Mathers had deep roots in the county of Tyrone in Northern Ireland. Jane's parents were James Mathers and Margaret Marshall who were both born in Tyrone in 1797. The young couple emigrated to New York City in 1823 and soon moved to upstate New York where Jane was born in Seneca. Her birthdate was May 12, 1828.

The Mathers family was caught up in the westward movement and pushed on to the Northwest Territory where they cleared land and established a new home near Kalamazoo, Michigan in about 1835. Shortly thereafter some elders from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints came from church headquarters in Kirtland, Ohio.

Despite the martyrdom of the Prophet in 1844 Jane remained faithful to the Restored Church and heeded the call of president Young for all Saints to gather in Nauvoo. She said goodbye to her family in Kalamazoo and never saw them again. She was in Nauvoo for several months before the Saints were driven out by angry mobs. Just prior to her exodus, she was endowed in the Nauvoo temple on January 29, 1846. She moved with the vanguard of fleeing Saints as they crossed Iowa in that fateful winter of 1846-1847. They moved from Montrose, to Mount Pisgah, to Council Bluffs, and on to Winter Quarters. During this winter she became acquainted with the family of Levi Savage Sr. and his wife Polly Haynes. She also met their eligible son, Levi Jr. but this was a brief acquaintance as he was called to participate in the Mormon Battalion. They said goodbye at Council Bluffs as he marched off to the southwest. Shortly after the departure of Levi Jr., his mother, Polly Haynes Savages died. Therefore, Jane was recruited by Levi Savage Sr. to join their little family and she stayed with them all the way through Iowa and across the plains to their destiny in the valley of Salt Lake. She was a nanny, a cook a loving "big sister" and in many ways helped to compensate for the untimely death of Polly Savage. Jane and the Savage family moved west with the first group of emigrants in the summer of 1847.

In accordance with a revelation received by President Brigham Young, the Saints were organized into companies. The Savage Family and Jane were assigned to the first ten of the first fifty in the fourth hundred. The leader of their group of fifty was George B. Wallace, and the Captain of their company of one hundred wagons was Abram O. Smoot. They left Winter Quarters on June 11, 1847. There were 570 wagons with over 1500 Saints crossing the plains that summer. It was a journey filled with challenges and adventures. They experienced Indian murders, lost livestock, observed numerous deaths and births, but they maintained their optimistic spirit with the frequent refrain of "All is Well." The first pioneer company arrived in the Valley on July 22. Jane with the Savage family arrived on September 29, and the last of the 570 wagons rolled through Emigration Canyon on October 5, 1847. All wagons were accounted for.

Shortly after Jane's arrival in the Valley, on October 16, they were delighted by the surprise return of Levi Savage Jr. He was dressed in an Indian jacket with fringed buckskin trousers. He had finished his duty with the Mormon Battalion. Levi Jr. and Jane were married on the 23rd of January, 1848.

In the spring of l849 Jane and Levi built their own cabin in an area known as Sugar House or Canyon Creek, at what is now 13th East and 21st South, Salt Lake City. It was common in those days for pioneer women to have children join their homes shortly after marriage. But after 20 months of marriage, Jane was still barren and she and Levi both went to the Stake Patriarch and received their blessings on September 30, 1849. In Jane's blessing she was promised a "numerous posterity" that would "love to call her blessed."

Six months later Jane had some good news. Levi Mathers Savage was born to Jane and Levi on January 11, 1851. The mother and child thrived until a sudden severe hemorrhage caused her premature death when the baby was only eleven months old. Jane Mathers Savage died on December 29, 1851.

Notwithstanding this tragedy, Levi was called on a mission to Siam. He sailed from San Francisco to Calcutta and from there on to Rangoon, Burma. Unfortunately, difficult conditions prevented him from reaching Siam.

Eventually, Levi made it back to Iowa City where he joined the ill-fated Willy Martin Handcart Company. They were not ready to leave Winter Quarters until 19 August 1856. Levi raised serious questions about going on so late in the season, but was nevertheless overruled. He traveled with the company and endured many hardships with them. One fifth of the group died of freezing and starvation before they arrived in Salt Lake on 9 November 1856.

On 31 October 1858, Levi was married to Ann Brummel Coopers widow of George Cooper, who had died in England before Ann immigrated to Salt Lake City with her two daughters Mary Ann, now nine years old, and Adelaide, two years younger. Levi now had a household to care for. Ten years later Levi married these two girls a week apart: Adelaide on 17 October 1868 and Mary Ann on the 24 October 1868. He had three children with Mary Ann.

Levi and his wives eventually settled in Toquerville, UT. They and the three children lived in a little adobe house, sharing all the common illnesses, ordinary difficulties, deaths of grandchildren, sacrifices to send boys on missions and children to school, weddings, special family dinners, and being helpful to their neighbors. Indeed, this was a closely-knit family tied together with love for one another and for the gospel. Each was willing and happy to carry their share of the load. They traveled 23 miles to St George by horseback frequently for church conferences, paying taxes, taking care of business and visiting the children in school. Frequent company for meals and overnight was a definite part of their lives.

The Church was the dominant part of Levi's life. Everything else took second place. He was never critical of church officials under any circumstances. He was privileged to enjoy the association with authorities of the Church from president Brigham Young and the Apostles to those on a local level. He always went to church.

He was farmer and faithfully carried out his duties. And one point, he was involved in a legal dispute over the boundary of his land in Toquerville. Before the matter was finally settled in 1878, several councils, both civil and ecclesiastical, had heard it. When a final decision was given against him he went along with it, though he felt like he was in the right. He said, "I had to comply to save my fellowship."

In the year 1885 the United States Federal Marshals were arresting, under the authority of the Edmund's Law, those brethren who had entered the L.D.S. order of plural marriage. Though Levi went underground, he was nevertheless arrested for "unlawful cohabitation," fined $300 and sentenced him to six months in the Utah Territory penitentiary. Levi's day by day account of prison life for the brethren who were convicted "for conscience's sake" is a lesson in humility and an evidence of his faithfulness to a doctrine he knew to be right even though against the law of the land.

Levi Savage Jr. passed to his reward 13 December 1910 in Toquerville, Utah.

Lorenzo Hill and Catherine Karren Hatch[10]

Lorenzo Hill Hatch was born at Lincoln, Addison County, Vermont, 4 January 1826. He assisted his parents on the farm. At the age of fourteen, he accepted the Gospel as taught by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints, and was baptized with his mother in February 1840 by Elder Sisson A. Chase. It was so cold on his baptism day that a saw had to be used to open a hole in the ice large enough to perform the ordinances. He emigrated with his father, Hezekiah, to Nauvoo, Illinois in 1843. In 1844, he went on a mission to his native state. He was there when he heard of the assassination of the Prophet Joseph Smith, and he returned home at once. With his brother, Jeremiah, he made arrangements to gather with the Latter-day Saints in Utah, since they were being forced to leave Nauvoo due to persecutions. He went with the early company of emigrants and became well accustomed to building bridges, making roads, and doing other pioneer work.

He married Hannah Fuller on 3 February 1846. He met Hannah at her father's home in New York in 1844 while on his first mission. The privations incident to pioneer life were more than she was able to bear. She died on August 1847, in Nebraska. Lorenzo was very ill at the time of her death and hardly knew when she died.

Early in the Spring of 1850, Lorenzo and his brother Abram left for the Rocky Mountains. They became part of a company consisting of fifty wagons, with David Evans as the appointed captain. They entered Great Salt Lake Valley by the way of Parley's Canyons 15 September 1850.

As a widower he married Sylvia Eastman on 27 February 1851. Their first home was in Lehi, Utah, where they were among the first settlers. Mr. Hatch's past experiences as a pioneer were valuable in building up this new town. He helped build the first grist mill near there in American Fork Canyon.
He entered plural marriage 11 November 1854, by taking Catherine Karren as a wife. Catherine was a beautiful woman, small in stature. She was five foot two inches tall and approximately 120 pounds. As was typical in her days she had very little formal schooling. This was limited to a brief period of night school in Lehi where she studied writing and also learned dancing. She was very literate and enjoyed extensive reading throughout her life.

Catherine Karren, was born in Liverpool, England on August 12, 1836. Her parents were Thomas Karren and Anne Ratcliffe. Her father was a native of the Isle of Man, and her mother of the old line of the Ratcliffes of Lancashire, Eng1and, whose name was derived from the red cliffs of that locality at the time of William the Conqueror, 1066. Thomas obtained employment from Mr. Ratcliffe who was the owner of a bakery, and it was there that Thomas learned his trade as a baker. Of greater importance, it was there that he met his wife, Anne, the daughter of his employer. They were married and moved out to establish their own independent bakery. Not long after they were taught the Gospel by Elder John Taylor.

Thomas and Anne Karren were caught up in the spirit of gathering; Catherine could remember the huge packing boxes used to prepare for their trip from Liverpool to America. A six-week ocean voyage brought them to New Orleans. An additional two weeks brought them up the Mississippi to the city of Nauvoo. They arrived in April of 1844; the era in which Nauvoo was at its zenith. They met and were inspired by the Prophet Joseph and saw a beautiful flourishing city. Catherine could clearly remember hearing the Prophet Joseph despite only being seven years old. Just two months later they were shocked at the martyrdom of the Prophet and his patriarch brother, Hyrum. Catherine was old enough to recall the famous meeting in August 1844 when the mantle of the Prophet Joseph fell upon Brigham Young, clearly establishing him as the Lord’s chosen successor as President and Prophet of the Church.

Thomas and Anne were endowed at midnight just before they were forced to leave Illinois and flee with the Saints into Iowa. Catherine was just ten years old at the time of their exodus. On arriving at Council Bluffs, Iowa, they learned of the plan for establishing a Mormon Battalion. Thomas was recruited and marched off to the southwest leaving his wife Anne with five children. Catherine was the second of these five and her mother Anne was expecting the sixth child. These were very difficult times. The baby was born in a wagon box during a drenching rainstorm in Iowa.

Catherine was a great help to her mother in Iowa where they raised 500 bushels of potatoes to sell. They also sold some bakery goods. Thomas returned from his duty in the Mormon Battalion and was reunited with his family after about eighteen months' absence. He returned to them in the winter of 1847-48. In the spring they set up a bakery by the roadway leading west and were blessed in a successful business which allowed them to be outfitted for their trek westward. They arrived in Salt Lake City in 1850 and immediately were called to join with others in establishing a community south of Salt Lake. This new town, Lehi, became the permanent home of the Karren family.

Two years after Catherine's marriage, her husband, Lorenzo, was called on a mission to England. He made some provisions for his two families, but Sylvia and Catherine had to maximize their pioneer thrift in order to provide for the growing family during their husband's absence.
Lorenzo was called on a mission to Europe in 1856 with about forty other Elders. He returned in 1858. During his absence his wives, who had been well supplied with food when he left them, suffered from the lack of necessities of life because they shared with less fortunate neighbors.

Upon Lorenzo’s return, he was elected Mayor of Lehi, and he served three terms in the Utah Legislature. On 2 January 1860, Lorenzo married Alice, the daughter of Thomas and Caroline (Barker) Hanson.

Catherine and Lorenzo were blessed with eleven children. One died as a child, but the other ten lived to adulthood and reared large families and they all remained faithful in the Church. Four of their children were born in Lehi, Utah; six in Franklin, Idaho; and the eleventh was born in Woodruff, Arizona. The building of the west and the development of the church made great demands on her husband, and Catherine was separated from Lorenzo about two-thirds of their married life because of his duties as a missionary (at least five missions), Bishop, Mayors Legislator, Counselor in two Stake presidencies and Patriarch.

Her homemaking consisted of love, faith, mothering, and good housekeeping skills. She was well known as a skillful nurse. Her many skills included the ability to make clothes, candles, and soap.

In 1863, Lorenzo was called by the Church Authorities to Franklin, Idaho to preside as a bishop. Up to this time his three wives had lived in one home in harmony, but were now forced to separate. Alice with two small children accompanied him to Franklin. He later moved Catherine there and still later Sylvia went. He served there in the capacity of Bishop for 13 years and was the first Mayor of Franklin. He traveled extensively as a home missionary. In 1876, he was asked to visit the Saints in Arizona in company with Daniel H. Wells and others.

The Hatch family of Franklin had frequent contacts with Indians. These were generally peaceful but on one occasion there was a serious crisis. A drunken Indian accosted a young lady on the street of Franklin, and a man killed the Indian. The threat of an Indian uprising resulted. Lorenzo, who was serving as mayor was able to negotiate a peaceful settlement.

Upon returning to Utah he was called to take part of his family and return to Arizona and New Mexico as a missionary to the Indians. This he did by taking Catherine and her unmarried children as far as Obed, Arizona where he left them and proceeded to the Indian villages in New Mexico. He visited at the Mexican town of San Lorenzo, where he and his fellow missionaries baptized a number of Indians. He then returned to his family at Obed and removed them to San Lorenzo. In 1878 he went back to Utah for Alice and her family and located them at what is now Woodruff, Arizona, where he later united his two families. They suffered untold hardships in New Mexico and Arizona but witnessed many miraculous manifestations of the power of God over themselves and the Indians.

Both Lorenzo and Catherine were dedicated to the gospel. Coming from a typical English family, she never questioned her tea habit. But when Brigham Young announced that the "greeting" of the Word of Wisdom should now be understood to be an absolute commandment of the Lord she put away her teapot and never took another drink of tea for the rest of her life.

Catherine was the first Relief society President of Woodruff. In those days the Relief Society functioned as doctor, undertaker, nurse, midwife, and so on. By temperament Catherine was well suited for these benevolent services. Many guests were entertained in Catherine's home including many of the General Authorities, several Apostles and Presidents John Taylor and Wilford Woodruff.

Catherine and Lorenzo were always very generous to travelers and their home was always open. On one occasion a certain Mr. Wilson stayed at the Hatch home. Catherine made him comfortable in an upstairs room and he reported that he was not feeling well. The next day Catherine brought him breakfast and was horrified to find that he had developed the classical signs of smallpox. Catherine quickly moved her family three miles away to live with neighbors. Despite tender nursing care, Mr. Wilson subsequently died from smallpox, but all of Catherine's family was spared.

Lorenzo traveled extensively as a missionary and helped to found and organize settlements on both sides of the Mogollon Mountains. They settle in Woodruff, Arizona. He was Stake patriarch and 1st Counselor in the Stake presidency until January 1901 when he was honorably released. Then he and Catherine returned to Logan, Utah, where Sylvia was then living. Here they spent the last years of their lives in Temple work and other church activities. Catherine died 24 February 1910 and less than two months later, Lorenzo passed on. They were buried in Logan.

Isaac and Esther Fern Shumway Fenn[11]

Isaac Fenn was born in an adobe house at Colonia Morelos, Mexico on February 4, 1905. Due to the Mexican Revolution the Fenns left Mexico when Isaac was seven. Isaac graduated from Benson High School in Benson, Arizona went to part of a year of school at the University of Arizona in Tucson. He was employed as a school bus driver when he became acquainted with the new school teacher, Esther Fern Shumway.

Esther was two years younger than Isaac and an Arizona native. After graduating from college she applied for several teaching positions. She records, “I took a train to Benson. I was met by a Walter L. Fenn, a member of the school board. They, the Board, had found me a one room apartment with a widow, Agnes and & three little girls. This was on December 31st. Next day there was some sort of celebration for New Years. Mrs. Jean introduced me to Mr. Fenn and a date was made for the dance that night. Next day I went to school & got acquainted with the other teachers & my first graders. Ike (Isaac Fenn) drove the school bus so I saw him everyday; sometimes to speak to and others at a distance.”

“Being a little Mormon town there was a dance almost every week end & there were movies & traveling shows in Benson, Church & M.I.A. I was made a teacher in the Primary & I substituted organist and chorister in Church & Sunday School. We were engaged & he wrote to my parents to get their consent to marry me, which was given although they only had my exuberant words to describe him to them.”

Isaac and Esther were sealed in the Arizona Temple on February 18, 1928, after a very brief courtship. At the time of their marriage Isaac already had a mission call to the Southern States Mission (which was soon divided and he wound up in the East Central States Mission.) Esther planned to work and save money while Isaac was on his mission.

Isaac left in May and in December Esther went home to live with her family so that they could be help her with the birth of Ruth Janet Fenn, born December 6, 1928. In less than a year Esther Fern had graduated from college, secured a job, gotten married and had a child!

Eight months later Isaac died while on his mission. Esther, now widowed relied heavily on her extended family to help her raise her daughter. Esther served a mission and five years later married Walter Courtland Mason, Jr. and had five more children with him.

Esther Fern Shumway Fenn Mason died November 7, 1977 at Show Low Arizona and was buried in Shumway, Arizona.

John and Lucy Ann Brown Fenn[12]

John Fenn was born April 2, 1854 at Eaton Bray, Bedfordshire, England; the first child to parents George and Eliza Ann Dyer Fenn. At the age of one John traveled to St. Louis and spent his toddler years in Genoa, Nebraska and Council Bluff, Iowa. John’s mother died when he was only five. When John was six his father remarried and he gained five sisters and one brother. When he was sixteen John began work as a freighter and he was married to Matilda Sorenson at age twenty.

After their marriage John worked in a rock salt mine that he had found. He sold tons of rock salt that he blasted out. He boiled it into fine, white table salt and earned a very good living by this means. As the law of polygamy was in practice, John took a second wife when he was twenty nine years old, Lucy Ann Brown. He was to have twelve children with each of his wives.

Lucy Ann Brown was born February 19, 1859 in Lehi, UT. She had grown up in the hard country of Salina, UT and was used to frontier life. In 1877 she married and had two children. She separated from this man two years after their first child was born because “her husband was not good to her children. He seemed to feel that they were a necessary evil, but one he did not wish to accept so he was very unkind to them.”

Due to persecutions of polygamy John to Lucy Ann with him to Mexico. When Matilda became sick he went back from her and brought her to Mexico as well. They traveled back and forth between Utah, Mexico and Arizona over the twenty years. The marshals were persistent so the Fenns never remained in one place. John was often dubbed “The Rambler”, “The Wanderer”, or “The Rolling Stone.” Because he dual citizenship in the United States and Mexico, John would live in each country about six months at a time.

John’s children and grandchildren later recorded the following impressions of him:

“Grandpa (John) Fenn was about 5' 8 1/2" in height and weighed around 160 pounds. He
stood erect, shoulders squared, and gave the impression of a fine physique. He had a high
forehead and rather heavy eyebrows. One of his large dark eyes had a red-looking growth on the corner, giving an impression of sternness or anger, yet in all my dealings with him I would say he was kind, almost to a fault.”

“His heavy head of dark hair (before it greyed) was usually neat looking and well combed. In later life he wore a long grey beard which gave him a patriarchal expression. Sometimes we would scarcely know him when he would appear clean shaven, or with a small Van Dyke, or mustache. His voice was loud and clear. ... He seemed not to be able to speak in a whisper. A loud voice was becoming to his personality.”

“Considering his meager chance for education, his language was clear cut and expressive. He was a very hard-working man, too hard for his own good. Farming was his delight, but at times he resorted to freighting as a means of livelihood when forces of nature made farming impossible. He loved and understood mules and took good care of his teams. He was a great trader, which in those early pioneer days was equal to business now that way they exchanged horses, cows, wagons, pigs, sheep, scrapers, plows, harnesses lumber, sorghum, wheat, oats, corn, barley, hay or whatever they had in surplus for what the other fellow had to let go. If he took it and didn't need it, he would, in turn, trade it to some one who did. Sometimes it took several turn-overs to get what he needed: In that way they built themselves materially. Whenever I was around him he was sure to be talking trade. In fact, Brother John McGuire, a neighbor and friend expressed it this way. ‘You could put the Fenns on an island by themselves and give them $500.00 and in a few years they would all be rich.’”

“My father, John Fenn always enjoyed living on the frontier. He was at home in the wide open spaces where there was water and green pastures with plenty of wild game. He always enjoyed hunting and prided himself on being the best marksman with his rifle. He was often solicited to hunt game for his neighbors.”

“John Fenn was a powerful instrument in the establishment of Zion on this land. He believed the Lord led him to the land of Mexico to help colonize it. He was instrumental in doing a great work among the Lamanites. He was lived and respected by the Mexican people as well of the Americans. He worked for the ideal, but found that along the way there were rocks in the road. All his dreams didn’t come true, but he played his role with sincerity of purpose, with courage, with strength , with zest and with faith and conviction.”

“John observed the Sabbath Day faithfully, kept the fast, never used obscene language, always spoke the truth, was a good neighbor, and tried to live an exemplary life. He was a man of great faith and was blessed spiritually both by inspiration and significant dreams, being oft-times warn of sickness or danger in his family, when away from home. He was given admonition of what do in their behalf. He foresaw some future events. He delighted in bearing his testimony to truthfulness of the Gospel.”

Regarding Lucy Ann, members of her posterity have written:

“Lucy Brown Fenn, always had a nice garden, in which everything she planted seemed to always grow. She would also have a big pot of soup ready, enough for all, her young ones plus Matilda's young ones too, who seemed to always know where to find a good meal when they were hungry.”

“I wish to commend my mother on her resourcefulness in making out with the things at hand. She always saw to it there was a garden planted. In later years we always had a bin full of wheat that we could take to the mill and bring back flour, bran shorts, cereal, or Graham flour. Each year we planted enough potatoes to store for the entire winter and seed for the following summer. We usually made two crops of potatoes a year. Mother always had a flock of chickens so she could trade eggs and butter to the store for a few essentials she needed. She always lived according to the advice and counsel of the Presiding Authorities, to live within your means and to stay out of debt. I've always been proud of my birthright and heritage, having been born of goodly parents. I have always been thankful that I was born under the new and everlasting covenant. I don't know how we can ever repay [them] for the trials, tribulations and sacrifices made by our pioneer parentage. The best we can do is to honor and obey the wonderful example they left us.”



After living in the Mexican colonies for some time, the Fenns finally settled in Arizona. John successfully farmed for many years; attended his priesthood meetings and was a home teacher. He lived the Word of Wisdom faithfully. He died of cancer and was buried in Pomerene, Arizona. Lucy Ann was supported and loved by her children and grand children for the next eleven years and when she died, she too was buried in the Pomerene Cemetery.



Clarence and Esther Smith Shumway[13]

Clarence Shumway was born in a dugout with a dirt roof and when it rained the roof leaked and his parents had to put pans on the bed to keep mother and baby dry. Clarence grew up surrounded by uncles and cousins and loved being associated with them. He worked as a hired farm hand and also herded sheep.

He spent two years at the L.D.S. Academy in Snowflake and was reportedly discouraged because he did not find a girl. Apparently his father, Wilson Glen Shumway was disappointed as well. Clarence reported that his father said, “The time was when you [Clarence] could say ‘who will I have?’ But now it was ‘Who will have me?’”

Fortunately for Clarence he was to be “had” by Esther Smith Shumway, daughter of Jesse Nathaniel and Janet Mauretta Johnson Smith. Esther grew up in Snowflake, Arizona; she had a happy and normal childhood.

About a year after their wedding day they welcomed their daughter Esther Fern Shumway to their family. A second daughter, Janet passed away when she was only two and a half months old. At Janet’s birth Esther became very ill; however through faith and prayers Esther recovered.

Clarence and Esther were always faithful in their church callings. Esther served in many capacities, including Primary and Relief Society President. Clarence worked in the Sunday School and in a bishopric. In the summer of 1915 Clarence received a call to serve in the Eastern States Mission and left his family (now of three children) for a period of two years in which he served with honor.

Upon his return, Clarence found work with the forest service and was a diligent worker who always followed policy.

When Clarence retired, he and Esther moved to Mesa where they worked as temple workers in the Arizona Temple for several years, until they passed away.


George and Elizabeth Ann Dyer Fenn[14]

George Fenn was born in Billington England on May 8, 1830, just weeks after the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized. This church was to play a large role in George’s life.

George heard the missionaries and was baptized when he was sixteen and many of his family members followed him. Five years later he sailed from Liverpool to America with his grandparents. In 1851 George arrived in Manti, UT where he made he lived for a year until he was called on a mission back to England.

While on his mission, Elder Fenn married Elizabeth (“Eliza”) Ann Dyer Ward July 31, 1853 at Dunstable, Bedfordshire, England.

Eliza was born March 3 1, 1829 at Eaton Bray, Bedfordshire, England, the daughter of Maria Proctor and Thomas Dyer. Eliza Dyer Ward was baptized a member of thee Church August 19, 1850. She was the widow of Charles Wil1iam Ward and had a four year old daughter, Ann Ward when she met Elder Fenn.

Eliza was a plaiter. A plaiter made straw hats, baskets, etc. from wheat straw which
was plentiful in this area. Many of the forebears of both George and Eliza were plaiters, or engaged in the business of making and selling these wares before the industrial revolution.

George was influential as a missionary in persuading many Saints to come to Zion among whom was his father, William Fenn. He and his large family sailed from Liverpool April 4, 1854 on the ship only two days after George's son, John was born in company with George, Eliza and Ann.

The passage to America was a difficult one. The wind and waves were rocky and many of the 700 passengers were seasick for much of the journey. The Fenns settled in St. Louis where many of their family members were living and a second son, Alfred was born to them.

In 1857 the George Fenn family was called to settle Nebraska by establishing a colony in Genoa, Nebraska. Genoa was a stop along the emigration trail; emigrants would usually arrive half-starving and use their time in Genoa to recuperate and continue on to Utah.

The Fenn’s trip to Genoa was tedious. The boat averaged three miles per hour, and outbreak of the measles occurred and snow covered the deck of the ship at times. When the Fenns arrived in Genoa they found a scant food and scantier shelter. Eliza gave birth to a third son who died before age two.

The settlers in Genoa faced many problems, including trouble with the Indians. An Indian Agent forced the Saints off of land that they had rightfully settled, and eventually all of the saints in Genoa moved to Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Six weeks after arriving in Council Bluffs, on January 14, 1860, George and the older children went out to gather wood. When they came back, they found that Eliza had given birth to twin sons. All three were dead when George found them—a complete shock. Eliza had seemed in good health when they had left. Nobody was present to witness her decease.

The next year George, Ann, John and Alfred trekked to Provo, UT, which they made their home. During the next few years George married two women, Sarah Ann Jarvis and Elizabeth Brunelle. He had six children with Sarah.

George worked as a mail carried and drove between Gunnison and Monroe during the Black Hawk Indian War, a very dangerous route. He considered it his duty, regardless of the perils it entailed. He also hauled rock. Eventually his family settled in Salina, Utah. In his later years George worked in the Manti temple.

George died on April 26, 1904. George was a missionary, and together with his wives they were colonizers, they were good people, hard workers and loved and respected.






Daniel and Ann Davenport Brown[15]

Daniel Brown was born February 26, 1817 at Stanford LeHope, Essex, England. Both he and his father John were husbandmen. Daniel was married at the age of 37 to a woman named Lucy Brown, who was 50.Daniel was baptized the day after their marriage, and Lucy followed a few weeks later.

Four months after being baptized, Daniel was called to be President of the small (about twelve members) branch in which he resided. This branch was disbanded eight months later. Daniel and Lucy sailed for Zion on February 18, 1856. They were part of a company led by Daniel Tyler. Along the trail to Utah, Lucy died.

Daniel arrived in Lehi, Utah at about the same time as Ann Davenport, who was also from England. Daniel and Ann settled in Salina, Utah and made that their home. It was a difficult place to live; food was scarce and there were constant struggles with the Indians.

The Browns lost nineteen head of cattle in two years. The Indians did not hesitate to murder those who got in their ways. Daniel’s daughter recorded, “My father always carried an ax on his shoulder, and he didn’t go anywhere without a gun.” Nevertheless the Browns loved Salina, and called in home.

Daniel helped make the first canal in Lehi and also raised sheep, freighted goods and farmed. When food was scarce he and Lucy gleaned from the fields, on one occasion at great peril. This resulted in many lives being saved.

Ann taught Relief Society and was Vice President of the Silk Organization. Both she and Daniel remained true and faithful to the church throughout their lives.

Wilson Glen and Mariah Janette Averett Shumway[16]

Wilson Glenn Shumway was born in Manti, Sanpete County, Utah, December 6, 1850. He was born in a wagon box, the wagon standing on the hill, perhaps on the very spot where the Manti temple has since been erected, He was the son of Charles Shumway by his second wife, Louisa Minnerly Shumway. Charles was the son of Purley, who was the son of Peter, the son of Jeremiah, son of Peter, son of the first Peter who was a French Huguenot coming to Massachusetts in the time of the Pilgrim fathers,

The family moved to Payson, Utah when Wilson was a small child. They moved to Cottonwood before he was eight and there as a boy he saw long columns of Johnston’s army as they marched along the road near his home. In 1859, his father and mother moved to Wellsville, where the boy was baptized in the winter time when the snow was deep.

The Indians were trouble some at times; Wilson was given the task of herding the horses, which job continued from daylight until night time, One morning while at breakfast, the family dis­covered that the Indians had stolen the horses. They were never recovered.

The Shumways moved from Wellsville to Mendon where Wilson grew to manhood. Like most boys of those times, he knew all about hard useful work. He interspersed farm work with such jobs as were to be had on the roads, thrash­ing machines and saw mills.

Charles Shumway received a call from Brig­ham Young in 1875 to go south. He left in September, taking Wilson along to drive the cattle. They went as far as Kanab where the family made its first home in southern Utah. Here, Wilson met a seventeen-year-old girl, Mariah Janette Averett. Wilson recalled an event that happened while he was courting Mariah.

By way of background, in Southern Utah, the Shumways were considered wealthy because they had a buggy and finer things than most people there. Many of the wealthiest people in southern Utah at that time had come from Cache Valley; hence, people jealous of their wealth would call them “Cashlitters.”

On one occasion, Charles allowed the older boys to take the buggy to the dance. On the way they encountered a bullwhacker driving some oxen, very drunk and very ill-mannered. He ordered them off the toad and to avoid trouble they complied with his request. Soon they were at the dance and as it turned out Wilson found himself dancing with a Miss Averett. Just as the dance reached its crescendo, someone tapped his shoulder and told him his brother was fighting outside. Wilson later recalled subsequent events as follows:

“I asked Miss Averett to excuse me and went outside. There were half a dozen fellows who were drunk, wanting to fight and shouting, 'to hell with the Cashlitter.' Tom Dobson, who was a stranger to me, but a Cashlitter, was holding the crowd back while Norman [Wilson’s brother] and the bullwhacker fought. Norman had his anta­gonist On his back and was choking him.

“I started to pull Norman off, but Dobson, thinking I was one of the Kanab mob, hit me. Then the whole crowd jumped into the fray and we began to roll down the hill together. We landed in the basement of the mill. This stopped the dancing and everybody went home.”

The following morning Charles witnessed his sons' arrest for breaking the peace, The County judge, allowing no plea nor a trial, fined the boys $7 each and gave them the privilege of either paying cash or working on the road. Wilson, using his ingenuity, hired another man for less than the $7 to work on the road for him, thus saving himself some expense and exertion.

Despite interruptions at dances, Wilson married Mariah on the 28th of May, 1876. Their first son was born a year later, and the following year the couple went to be sealed in the St. George Temple in an old buggy drawn by an old mule and a pony.

Wilson worked at several jobs, in saw mills, freighting, and herding cattle. He also ran a grist mill. Early in their marriage they lived in Concho, where conditions were very poor. Their family lived in a dug­out. There was only a dirt floor and a dirt roof which leaked streams of water and mud when it rained. Sometimes Wilson held a quilt up over the bed to protect Mariah and the children.

Indian troubles led by Geronimo caused the people of the little settlement of Concho to build a fort one hundred feet square. In a corner of the fort, Wilson built a one-room log house, which was much better than the dugout.

About this time, Concho was organized into a ward. Wilson and his wife joined the choir and other social activities, which did much to relieve the monotony for the settlers who lived in poverty and isolation in those early days.

The mill Wilson’s father had built in Spring Valley was in operation by 1883. He induced his son to move with his family to that place where two of Father Shumway's families were living. Wilson Glenn Shumway lived the remainder his life in this one place, rearing his family of nine children, four girls and five boys, on a little farm of ten or twelve acres of land. He always had plenty of field produce and garden truck as well as fine apples and other fruits in his little orchard. He served as Presiding Elder and was active in the branch of the church there. During the course of his life he built four or five homes for himself as well as helping his neighbors build. He was always ready and willing to help or donate on schoolhouses, meeting houses, roads, dams and other projects.

The little settlement got its first district school, post office and the name Shumway in l891. It was named in honor of Wilson’s father who spent his last days in the little valley.

The few people of Shumway and the outlying were organized into a ward in 1915. Wallace, Wilson’s second son was made the Bishop. On July 22, 1924, Mariah died suddenly. After this, Wilson seemed to lose his desire to live. On 19 April, 1925 he passed away. He and Mariah lie side by side in the little cemetery near Shumway, Arizona.
Jesse Nathaniel and Janet Mauretta Johnson Smith[17]

Jesse Nathaniel Smith was born December 2, 1834 in Stockholm, New York, son of Silas and Mary Aikens Smith, and first cousin to the Prophet Joseph Smith. Jesse experienced first hand many church history events, including Missouri drivings, the erection of the Nauvoo temple, and the Nauvoo exodus. His father died when he was only five years old.

Jesse crossed the plains to the Salt Lake Valley in 1847 with the Mormon pioneers. He was called to help colonize Paro­wan in 1851, he acted as a scout and surveyor for Church colony sites in southern Utah. He served as city clerk, city council­man, mayor, and city magistrate of Parowan, district attorney of Iron County, Captain in the militia, a member of the Utah Territorial Legislature, and a member of the Parowan Stake presidency—all before he had reached the age of twenty-six.

In 1860, he was called on a mission to Denmark. He later presided over the Scandinavian Mission (and was to preside over it a second time still later in life). Though always faithful in serving the Lord, Jesse N. was not without trials. Upon returning from his first service as Mission President, when three weeks from home, he wrote,

“Bread stuffs were scarce and I started for home with a very scanty supply of provisions, no grain for my poor horses, and no money to buy with, however, my hopes were high with thoughts of home. Reached Provo in process of time, but called on no one for the scarcity was felt in nearly every house. As I was slowly wending my way through the wide lane southeast of town, I met Bro. Soren Christoffersen of Manti with several teams.

“He expressed the liveliest pleasure at seeing me and said he remem­bered a turn I had done him in collecting and forwarding to him from Denmark about 2400 Rdlr. As he thrust his hand in his pocket, visions of dinners for myself and grain for my poor horses, flitted before my imagination, but alas for the unreality of my dream, he withdrew his hand slowly and sadly from his pocket, remarking that he had heavy purchases to make in the city of a threshing machine and other farm machinery, and his expenses would doubtless be heavy but if I ever came to Manti and would kindly call on him in his own home he would do something right handsome for me.”

Jesse N. made it home; upon arriving he had little time to mourn the death of his second wife, who had passed while he was in Scandinavia. Shortly after this he met and married his third wife, Janet Mauretta Johnson.

Janet was born Dec. 17, 1848 in Salt Lake City, six weeks after her parents reached Salt Lake Valley. Her mother, Janet Fife Johnson, joined the Church with her parents in Scotland; her father was of New England descent. Her great-grandfather Ezekiel Johnson gave his life for his country at Bunker Hill. Her grandfather, also Ezekiel, pioneered the area where Chicago now stands. Her father, Joel Hills Johnson, one of Utah's most active colonizers, helped to build up 11 different places, so Janet had a natural heritage rich in courage, thrift, and industry.

Since her father always lived on the frontier, opportunity for schooling in book learning was very limited, but her training in pioneer life was very effective, and she early learned to do all household tasks, to card, spin, and weave. She wove all the cloth for her trousseau—even her wedding dress.

She was married to Jesse N. Smith Oct. 9, 1866, and spent her early married life in Parowan, Utah. That the principle of plural marriage can be lived on a holy plane was demonstrated when Janet labored most diligently with her husband's first wife and daughters to support the family while her husband filled a second mission to Denmark.

When Jesse N. Smith was called to make a new home in Arizona he took Janet and her five little girls to pioneer the way. It was a trial for her to leave home, parents, friends, and all things endeared by lifelong associations, having buried two children at Parowan. They reached Snowflake Jan. 16, 1879 after six weary weeks of mid-winter travel. During that first year in Snowflake they lived in a wagon box.

In Snow­flake, Jesse was a farmer, stockman, cooperative mercantile and bank organizer, a probate judge, and served in the Arizona Territorial Legislature. Widely traveled and self-educated, he amassed a large library and became conversant in five lan­guages. He served the Church in Arizona as the first president of the Eastern Arizona Stake from 1879 to 1887, and as the first president of the Snowflake Stake from 1887 until his death June 5, 1906. He was also called to be a patriarch.

His five loving and devoted wives bore him forty-four children. Thirteen of those children were from Janet; twelve of those were girls. Janet learned the millinery game from braided straw to finished hat. She wove and sold hundreds of yards of carpet and rugs, made tallow candles and soap, half-soled shoes, knitted stockings, and made children's clothes. She was an expert gardener. Her beautiful flowers were always in evidence. Janet Smith served over thirty years as nurse, midwife, and doctor to the whole community.

A woman of outstanding faith, she was active in Church and taught her children not only habits of thrift, industry, and helpfulness, but featured also the great spiritual values.

Janet died in Snowflake May 21, 1933. It was said of her at her funeral “She always manifested a deep respect for her husband and the family. Her husband to her was the greatest man on earth.”













Part II

Faith Promoting Experiences

Get out of Debt and Honor Your Parents[18]

“The name of Asael Smith (grandfather of Joseph and Jesse N. Smith) connotes honesty and responsibility. He in turn was the son of Samuel Smith, an influential man in Topsfield, Massachusetts, who exercised local leadership through the Revolutionary War. Samuel’s oldest son (another Samuel) had priority of inheritance of his father’s land, so Asael, the second son, learned a trade and purchased a farm in Derryfield (now Manchester), New Hampshire. There he was town clerk for seven years, and his handwriting can be easily seen in the microfilm of his town record book, which includes the personal notations of the births of most of his children.

“Asael faced crossroads at the death of his father, taking the path of personal sacrifice. Everyone ultimately faces such crossroads, and many apparent sacrifices are disguised opportunities for personal development through serving others. In Asael’s case, his brother came from Massachusetts to explain that the obligations against his father’s estate exceeded the assets, so he recommended settling the debts on a percentage basis. But Asael said simply that he would not allow his father’s name to go down as that of an insolvent debtor. So he and his brother exchanged farms, and Asael moved to Topsfield to attempt the impossible. The postwar depression decreed minimal profits on farming, but for seven years he applied his total resources to supporting his large family and reducing the debts of his father. Finally he sold the land to satisfy every creditor, and moved to Vermont with just about $100, enough to buy timbered land there and start over in a log cabin.

The Prophecy of Grandfather Smith[19]

“Asael Smith, grandfather of Joseph (and Jesse N.) Smith, was a deeply religious man who strictly encouraged scripture study among his family members. Although he felt partial to the Universalist faith, he generally kept himself aloof from the sects of his day because he was unable to reconcile their conflicting teachings with the truths found in the scriptures.

“But Asael Smith had great hope for the future. His great-great-grandson, Elder Joseph Fielding Smith, wrote of him: “At times the spirit of inspiration rested upon him. On one occasion Asael said: ‘It has been borne in upon my soul that one of my descendants will promulgate a work to revolutionize the world of religious faith.’ Perhaps he did not expect to live to see that day, but such proved to be the case.”

“Indeed, shortly after the organization of the Church and the restoration of priesthood authority, his son Joseph Smith, Sr., and grandson Don Carlos Smith visited him and gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon. While reading it, the old gentleman rejoiced, stating that he was certain the work of his grandson Joseph was of God. According to another grandson, Elder George A. Smith, when the aged gentleman “heard of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, … he said it was true, for he knew that something would turn up in his family that would revolutionize the world.” Thus the prophecy was fulfilled.

“The prophet Joseph further supports the account by his cousin in his narration of the event. “My grandfather, Asael Smith, long ago predicted that there would be a prophet raised up in his family, and my grandmother was fully satisfied that it was fulfilled in me. My grandfather, Asael, died … after having received the Book of Mormon, and read it nearly through; and he declared that I was the very Prophet that he had long known would come in his family.”

“Because of advanced age and poor health, Grandfather Asael Smith was not baptized; he died in October 1830 at the age of 86, firmly believing in the restoration of the gospel. A daughter-in-law who was present at the time of his death recorded: “F[at]her Asael Smith … on his deathbed declared his full and firm belief in the everlasting gospel and also regretted that he was not baptized when Joseph his son was there and acknowledged that the doctrine of universalism, which he had so long advocated, was not true. For although he had lived by this religion 50 years, yet he now renounced it as insufficient to comfort him in death.””

Jesse N. Smith wrote the following about his grandfather’s prophecy:[20]

Asael Smith predicted that something would come forth in his family which would transmit his name in honor to posterity. When near his death, his son Joseph, the father of Joseph the Prophet, visited him at my father's house, bringing with him the Book of Mormon and the glad tidings of the Gospel. Grandfather received with glad­ness that which his son Joseph communicated, and remarked that he had always expected that something would appear to make known the true Gospel.

A Life Preserved[21]
Joel Hill Johnson, father of Janet Mauretta Johnson Smith wrote “There appears to have been some special providences over my early life. I will relate one which preserved it:
“When about twelve years old, I was walking along the bank of the Ohio River, and saw a company of boys in bathing. I desired to bathe, but the boys being strangers to me, I preferred to do so alone.
“Seeing other boys wading out a considerable distance in shallow water, I did not for a moment doubt but what I could do so in safety. Before proceeding far, however, I suddenly stepped off a steep bank into water over my head. Not being able to swim, after struggling awhile, I went to the bottom. I lay there perfectly helpless, and supposed that my time had come to leave this world. Suddenly a strange power came over me. Something said, "Turn over on your face, and crawl on the ground." I made the effort, and, without knowing which way I was going, got out of the water.
“The same power impressed me to crawl to a little knoll nearby, and get my stomach on it, with my head down. Succeeding in doing so, I became insensible for a time. When I came to my senses again, much water had run out of my mouth, my blood had begun to circulate, and I was in much distress but I recovered.


The First Convert to the Church[22]

Joel Hill Johnson, father of Janet Mauretta Johnson Smith was the first ancestor of John or Jan Hilton to join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The following is account of his conversion, in his own words:
“I shall now relate a few incidents of my religious experience up to the day of my marriage. When I was very small child, my mother, being a very strict Presbyterian, would often converse with me and tell me about Heaven and Hell, God, Jesus Christ, the Devil, etc., and when but eight years of age I had quite a correct idea of those beings according to the precept of men in those days, and sometimes when meditating upon them, I would weep bitterly, considering myself a sinner in the sight of God. I well recollect a time when my parents both gave me a scolding upon some trifling occasion. I thought I had not a friend in heaven, earth, or hell, and went by myself and wept.
And thought unto the brook I'd go, And drown myself and end my woe, For if I drowned myself, thought I, My soul will under water die.
“So I started and went to a small brook not far distant, and selected a place for that purpose, but while reflecting upon the subject a thought occurred to me that it was a temptation from the devil, and so I desisted from my purpose and returned home.
“When reading the New Testament, I would often wonder why people did not baptize for the remission of sins and why the gifts of the gospel did not follow the believer as anciently and thought if I ever became a servant of God, I never would be satisfied without the power to preach the gospel and heal the sick that the ancients had. I sought every opportunity to attend religious meetings of every denomination with no other motive than to obtain a knowledge of the religion of Jesus Christ. When fifteen and sixteen years of age, my mind was greatly wrought up in reference to this subject. I would often sit up all night to read religious tracts and papers by fire light, for my father, being poor, could spare me no time to read by daylight. I also read the Bible with much attention, and joy would come springing into my heart with a testimony that the time would come when I should come in possession of that which I most desired: namely, the faith that was once delivered to the Saints.
“When eighteen years of age, my mind became more at rest because professors of religion of all denominations told me that I had experienced religion. But yet I was not fully satisfied myself because I had not been baptized for the remission of my sins and received the Holy Ghost, or spirit, according to the New Testament, but was told that all these things were done away; so I concluded to content myself for the time being, seeing that they were not practiced. About this time I commenced writing religious songs and hymns upon various subjects.
“In my 23rd year, I was baptized by Elder Richard M. Carey, a Free-Will Baptist preacher and united with the Free-Will Baptist at Forest Ville, Chataqua County, New York. About this time the Universalists had formed a church in the neighborhood where I lived and were making many proselytes, upon the subject of which I wrote a poem entitled "Anti-Universalism" which put a damper on their proselyting and gained me much credit among the different religionists of other denominations. I having gained some credit as a poet (though I took none to myself) the Presbyterians offered to give me a collegiate education if I would embrace their tenets and become a preacher of their sect.
“I thanked them and told them I could not bring myself under an obligation of that kind to any people. About this time I was married to Miss Anna Pixley Johnson.
“In the fall of 1830 I left home for the state of Ohio, and after traveling the state mostly over to find a location for my family, I found an old acquaintance of my boyhood in the town of Amherst, Lorain County, by the name of John Clay, who invited me to move my family in to his house and join him in building a saw mill. I accordingly entered company with him and went to work. I sent for my family who arrived in the month of January. By the first of April, 1831, we had a saw mill nearly half completed. About this time there was considerable excitement about the Mormons at Kirtland where there had been a branch of the church built up, and Joseph Smith had arrived at that place and held a conference and was sending out elders through the country; and many evil reports were in circulation concerning them which most of the people believed to be true.
“I obtained the Book of Mormon and read it. [There were so many] evil reports in circulation that I returned it before I had read it through. But soon there arrived two Mormon elders in the neighborhood by the names of Harvey Whitlock and Edson Fuller who preached upon the first principles of the Gospel, treating upon faith, repentance, and baptism for the remission of sins with the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, with signs following the believer, etc. This preaching filled me with astonishment, it being the first discourse that I had ever heard that corresponded with the New Testament. But when they spoke of the Book of Mormon, they made it equal to the Bible.
“But my prejudice was so great against the book, that I would not receive their testimony. I heard them twice and concluded to stay at home, but they continued preaching in the vicinity and soon commenced baptizing. In a few days Lyman Wright, Samuel H. Smith, and others came to their assistance, and in a few weeks they baptized about fifty in the vicinity. All this time I had kept at home except for the first two meetings. My wife, who had always been a strong Methodist, had a desire at this time to attend their meetings which were held every day, and I gave my consent, for I never would abridge one's liberty in religious matters.
“She attended several meetings and began to believe in the work, and myself having searched the Bible daily while staying at home, began to think that work might possibly be true. I therefore concluded to adhere to the advice of Paul "to prove all things and hold fast the good." I accordingly came to the conclusion to take my Bible in hand and attend all their meetings and investigate and subject thoroughly with prayer for Divine direction which I did for several days, comparing their preachings with the scriptures which brought me to the following conclusions: Firstly, that as all Protestant sects had sprung from the Church of Rome, they have no more authority to administer in the ordinances of the Church of Christ than the Church of Rome had, and if she was the mother of harlots, they must consequently be her daughters; therefore, none of them could be called the Church of Christ. Secondly, that a supernatural power did attend the Mormon Church, and it had risen independent of all denominations; therefore, its origin must be from Heaven or Hell. Thirdly, that it is unreasonable to suppose that God would suffer the devil to bring forth a work with the gifts and blessings of the ancient Church of Christ corresponding with that which he has promised to bring forth in the last days for the gathering of the House of Israel and by that means lead astray all the honest men of the earth. And fourthly, that as the principles taught in the Book of Mormon corresponded with the Bible and doctrine of the Church was the same that was taught by Christ and his apostles with signs following the believer, I concluded that the work was of God and embraced with all my heart and soul, and was baptized on the first day of June 1831, by Elder Sylvester Smith. My wife had been baptized a few days previous.
“I then immediately sold out my share in the sawmill and endeavored to prepare myself for whatever my calling might be, and on the 24th of August, 1831, I was ordained a teacher; and on the 20th of September 1831, I was ordained an Elder.”

The Word of Wisdom[23]
Joel Hill Johnson, father of Janet Mauretta Johnson Smith wrote:
“I was with Joseph Smith, the Prophet, when the Word of Wisdom was given by revelation from the Lord [D&C 89], February 27, 1833, and, I think, I am the only man now living who was present.
“I was then thirty one years of age, and had used tobacco somewhat extravagantly for fifteen years. I always used some strong drink, and tea and coffee.
“I knew that God had spoken and condemned the use of these things, and, being determined to live by every word that proceeded from His mouth, I laid them all aside, and have not used them since.
“I well remember that, soon after the publication of the Word of Wisdom, the same excuse was made, by some of the people, for drinking tea and coffee that is now made--that hot drinks did not mean tea and coffee.
“On a Sabbath day, in the July following the giving of the revelation, when both Joseph and Hyrum Smith were in the stand, the Prophet said to the Saints:
“"I understand that some of the people are excusing themselves in using tea and coffee, because the Lord only said `hot drinks' in the revelation of the Word of Wisdom. "The Lord was showing us what was good for man to eat and drink. Now, what do we drink when we take our meals?
“"Tea and coffee. Is it not? "Yes; tea and coffee.
"Then, they are what the Lord meant when He said `hot drinks.'"
“Brother Hyrum Smith spoke to the same effect. It is said all wholesome herbs are ordained for the use of man. Physicians tell us that tea and coffee are not wholesome. And the Lord says they are not for the body or the belly. When children see that their parents slight the Word of Wisdom, they are apt to follow their example. I have recorded this testimony that all who read it may be without excuse. How pleasant it would be at last, if we could say to our Heavenly Father, "I have obeyed all your counsels," and hear these kind words in return: "Well done! thou hast been faithful over a few things, be thou ruler over many."”

“There Thy Best Friends Dwell”[24]

When the family of Silas and Mary Smith (parents of Jesse N. Smith) moved to Kirtland there must have been some family dissension. For though Silas, Joseph Smith’s uncle, had been baptized, Mary was a devout Presbyterian and faithful in her church. Jesse reports:

“When my mother came to Kirtland it was not with any intention of uniting with the Mormon Church, and she reported herself to the Presbyterian Church in the neighborhood of which she became a member. She had taken me, then a little over two years old, to this Church one Sunday.

“The services had not been interesting to her, and after the concluding services the front view of the Kirtland Temple was very vividly presented before her eyes and these words borne upon her mind, ‘There thy best friends and kindred dwell; there Christ thy Savior reigns.’

From the contemplation of which she was aroused by my shout, “Mother, get the [umbrella] and let's go home.’”

Shortly after this experience Mary joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and remained a faithful member of it her entire life.


Adventures in Kirtland[25]

In 1834 Joel Hill Johnson reports:
“I went to Kirtland and being counseled by Pres. Joseph Smith, I made a purchase of land and moved my family to Kirtland about the last of July and commenced making brick for the House of the Lord, then to be built in that place, in which business I labored until the 25th of September of the same year. But the brick was not used for that purpose, because the church concluded to build the house of stone.
“I also built a sawmill to cut lumber for the Lord's House, on a small stream near Kirtland Village, and labored for the benefit of my fellow creatures, by preaching the gospel wherever opportunity presented within the vicinity of Kirtland. In some towns I preached almost every Sabbath until the first of August, 1835, having baptized five persons; but many others were baptized in Huntsburg and other places who were the fruits of my labors. I also ordained two Elders and one Priest.
“On the 26th of August 1835, I left home in company with Elder Ezra Thornton to travel and preach the gospel for a short time in the south east part of the state of Ohio. I preached in Huntsburg, Parkman, and Paris, and on the 29th came to Palmyra, and stopped at Ezra Gilbert's and found himself and family some believing. In the evening we were visited by a (would be) learned Baptist Priest, by the name of James Macalva, who swelled himself up like the toad in the fable and spoke many words about his college learning, knowledge of language, etc, and said that he had debates with, and wiped out the best of the Mormon preachers, and was acquainted with the Book of Mormon, and its origin and placed many a themes upon its author etc, and then gave us a challenge for a debate.
“We told him that we were ready to establish at all times the gospel and necessity of the Book of Mormon from the scriptures. I then asked him what fault he found with the book, and he answered that it was ungrammatical. I told him that we might condemn the Bible upon the same principle. He then said that there was not an ungrammatical sentence in the Bible. I referred him to a few passages, and asked if they were written according to the rules of grammar, but could not get him to say anything more upon the subject, but began to back out from his challenge by saying if we would go the town of Hyrum, he would debate us there. But we told him that we would not go there, where Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon, and others of the saints had been shamefully mobbed, but would debate with him in Palmyra at any time, and place he would mention, but he would not agree to that and so went home.
“I [labored] but little with my own hands on the [Kirtland Temple] on the account of bodily infirmity, but yet I have contributed of my means such as cash, lumber, stock, and other property—all that lay in my power consistent with my poor health and indigent circumstances.
“The building of the temple in Kirtland was a great undertaking considering the poverty and minority of the church, and it required the utmost exertion of every member to accomplish so great an undertaking; for we had but very few friends among the world while we had thousands of enemies who were holding their secret meetings to devise a plan to thwart and overthrow all our arrangements. We were obliged to keep night watchers to prevent being mobbed and our workers being overthrown; but the Lord had promised [prophecy] to keep a stronghold in Kirtland for the space of five years; therefore we were warned of all the devices of our enemies in time to elude them until the temple was completed, the saints endowed and the five years expired.
“On the eighth day of March, 1835, all the male members of the Church were called together to be blessed under the hands of the First Presidency of the Church for their faithfulness in building the Lord's House. I was also blessed with the rest of the brethren at the same time. I was present at nearly all the most important meetings and councils of the Church; was present at the calling and ordination of the Twelve Apostles, also at the calling and ordination of the First Seventy Elders and their presidents. I also received my endowments in the House of the Lord in the winter and Spring of 1836 with the rest of the Elders by ordinations, washings, anointings, sealings, etc. I attended all the meetings previous to the dedication and also the dedication on the 27th day of March, 1836, with the meetings and councils that followed and saw and heard much of the power of God manifested as mentioned in the life of Joseph Smith. I was also chosen a member of the second quorum of Seventies and received my ordination as such.
“My health continued very poorly as it has done for many years, and brethren thought that I was declining with the pulmonary consumption in consequence of which I told them at a fast meeting in the Lord's House (Father Joseph Smith presiding) that I was contending against all their faith for they all believed that I would not live long. But I believed that I would live many years, and if they would pray for and exercise faith with me, I believed that I should measurably recover; to which they all agreed, and from that time began to enjoy better health.
“In the summer of 1836, [winter of 1836-1837] the brethren in Kirtland formed themselves into a banking institution called the Kirtland Safety Society. This institution could have proved the salvation of the nation if it had been left to carry out its own measures, but the enemies of the church crushed it in its bud.
“From the above date to December 7th, 1837, I have traveled but a little but preached in company with Father Joseph Smith and others in the vicinity of Kirtland and other places whenever the opportunity offered and baptized during the time ten persons.”


A Trip to Missouri—Cut Short[26]

After living in Kirtland for two years, Silas Smith (father of Jesse N. Smith) and his family left for Far West, Missouri, (Caldwell Co.) traveling with a horse team. As they neared Missouri, trouble began. Jesse described the events thus:

“We pursued our journey to within five miles of Hunts­ville, Randolph County, Mo., where we met a man living in the state named William A. Hickman, with a copy of Gov. Boggs' exterminating order, as it was called, which he read. It was to the effect that all the Mormons at Far West should leave the state forthwith and all who were on the road should turn back, on pain of death.

“Some who persisted in going on in the face of the order, had their teams taken from them and were themselves whipped with green hickory sprouts the size of whip stocks. Here we halted for the night, and remained the following day, but Hickman informing us that the Missourians were gathering to mob us, we started back early the next morning; we were soon after overtaken by quite a company who were fleeing before Boggs' order like ourselves; among them were William Marks and family.”

The family settled across the river in Illinois where they stayed until Silas took ill and died in September of 1839, a victim of the Missouri drivings.
Brigham Young and the Widow Smith[27]

Mary Aikens Smith and her two children (one of whom was Jesse N. Smith) were living a few miles outside of Nauvoo. She was a widow at this time. Jesse N. Smith relates the follow story of how Brigham Young helped his mother one day.

“There was a little horse mill or corn cracker one mile away where we took a sack of corn to be ground, after long waiting we got it home, but so badly mangled that it could not be eaten. Pres. Brigham Young, happening to pass that way, called at Uncle John's where mother was relating her disappointment over the spoiled grist. "Let me carry it back to the mill again," said Bro. Young, "It is just on my way," and despite all remon­strance he took the sack and marched off with it. When he reached the mill, dryly remarking to the miller, "The widow's meal is too coarse for her sieve," he passed on his way. We got the grist home the second time and it was all that could be asked in the way of meal.”


Standing up to Persecution[28]

Charles Shumway was no stranger to persecution. Following his baptism in 1841 he traveled to Nauvoo, and returned home. Somewhere on his journey home, an anti-Mormon named Joseph McConnel caught Charles, beat upon, and physically abused him until he lost consciousness and almost his life at the same time. While still in critical condition, he was administered to by Elder Amasa Lyman, who had accompanied him home, and remarkably healed. According to family tradition, when he regained consciousness, he said to his family, “This is the time for us to move,” and they moved to Nauvoo.

That McConnel could do this to him, in a way attests to the man’s strength. At Charles' funeral, years later in Taylor, Arizona, Bishop Hunt remarked that Charles Shumway was the “Nearest a fearless man of any man” he had ever known. Continuing, and further illustrating his point, the Mormon Bishop told the following story:

“An armed mob had assembled at one time and berated the leaders of the Church with some vile epithets. Charles listened to them for awhile, and unarmed, walked up to the leader of the mob and grabbed his no se between the two forefingers of his right hand and gave it a vicious tweek, and said "shut up" and he shut up.”



“The Gospel or My Family?”[29]

Sometime during the 1840s, Jane Mathers, along with some of her family members was introduced to some Mormon missionaries. They taught the gospel to her, and baptized her and some of her family members. At this time the Mathers family lived in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

This was a turbulent time for the church. After the martyrdom of the prophet Joseph, the Apostles, under the leadership of Brigham Young moved forward; and, in spite of persecution and the loss of their great Prophet, the work of the Church did progress. But more and more it became apparent that the Mormons would inevitably leave Illinois and seek a home farther west. In fact, by late September, 1845, this action was determined upon the leaders.

Missionaries in all directions, north, east, and south, were instructed to urge the saints to gather into Nauvoo, or Montrose, or adjacent places, for the expected move that was imminent.

Some of the L.D.S. members in Kalamazoo, Michigan began to move (they were few in number), leaving their flourishing homesteads. Among the first to go was Ann Earl, Jane's friend. The Earl parents were very upset that Ann went with the saints and grew bitter in their feelings. Soon they refused to let any Mormons come to visit or to teach at their home.

At the Mathers home the question of whether the family would join with the saints hung in the air. Finally it was determined that the family would go. A new outfit was procured—wagon, team and harness, and the family began packing the wagon. The wagon was packed and everything that could not be carried with them was disposed of, and one evening the command went forth that “tomorrow we start for Utah.” Jane was seventeen.

The night before they were to leave, Ann’s father, Mr. Earl spent the whole of that night, until daylight, trying to convince Jane’s father to give up those "wicked" Mormons and abandon the idea of going into their country.

Jane’s father sat on the wagon tongue, with his chin in hand and elbows on his knees, trying to determine what to do. On the morning of the Mathers family departure date, he came inside the house to announce quietly, but firmly, “The Mathers folk are not movin. We can live good as we know how right here. We’ve got a good start. It’s a grand country…and the lakes…and besides all of us ain’t Mormons.”

Jane was forced to make a choice. Should she stay with her family, or should she follow the church leaders and gather with the saints? At length, she made up her mind.

Jane packed a small bundle of personal things tied up in a shawl; that was all. It was not heavy; at least she carried it easily under one arm. As she started walking from the house toward the path which led across that "clearing" which was home, the family all stood watching.

After watching for a moment, Jane’s sister Annie, six at the time, broke into a run and followed after the departing sister. Jane reached down and took her hand without a word and they walked together to the edge of the clearing. Here Jane put the bundle down and picked Ann up in her arms as she stepped behind a tree.

Annie felt Jane’s love as her big sister raised her high and then cuddled her close kissed her over and over, on her forehead, on her cheeks, her mouth, her hands. At last the little girl was released from the close embrace and placed on her feet as Jane said: “Now you run back to mother, and sister will watch.” The little girl ran back across the clearing with the firm assurance that Jane's eyes followed her all the way.

Jane never saw her family again. She went on to receive her endowments in the Nauvoo temple and travel to Salt Lake. Today she has a numerous posterity that are grateful she chose to follow the counsel of her church leaders.

Not Wed to His Gold[30]
From the journal of Lorenzo Hill Hatch comes the following story about Charles Shumway:
“Monday (1895) I went to the mill with my grist. Spent an hour with old Father Shum­way. He was quite bright. He told me about coming into Nauvoo one day and finding our men in prison held On false charges. One was Joseph Holbrook and one was Brother H. Reid. He (Father Shumway) attended the trial and when the name of Brother Reid was called, he went to him and in the midst of a great crowd of Gentiles, they shook hands and wept as only tried and true friends can weep.

“Brother Holbrook told the crowd that he had prayed in the old jail for four days and that an angel would come and deliver them. And here he has come. These men were fined fifty dollars each and Brother Shumway paid the fine of $200 in cash and took the brethren and gave them food at the hotel. Here a ruffian came in and swore fearlessly and demanded ten dollars for some service he had supposedly done for the prisoners. He said they should not go to their homes until he got the money. Brother Shumway gave him the ten dollars. These were hard times, but Brother Shum­way was not wed to his gold.”


A Secret Combination[31]
Joel Hill Johnson recounts a time during the Nauvoo Period in which he encountered a secret combination. At the time he was President of the Ramus Stake of Zion. Ramus was about twenty miles east of Nauvoo and eight miles North of Carthage.
“In the month of November 1840, I moved my family into Ramus having previously sold my farm and sawmill, etc. I continued to preach to the church almost every Sabbath during the winter and spring of 1841 while our town increased rapidly and love and union seemed to prevail, and peace and plenty filled our hearts with joy; but in the latter part of the summer we began to discover that false brethren had crept in among us unaware who began to preach things contrary to the revelations of God by saying it was no harm to steal from our enemies, especially the Missourians and there was no harm in meeting together and drinking spirits and having a spree now and then, shivareeing our neighbors together upon wedding occasions to make them hand over the grog and good things.
“To carry out their object of stealing and other wickedness more fully, they formed themselves into a secret combination and held their weekly meetings secretly. I protested against their principles as they taught which caused them to try to influence the brethren against me which they in their part succeeded to do by their smooth words and fair speeches, for some of them stood high in office, both ecclesiastical and military. One of them was my first counselor and captain of a rifle company in the Nauvoo Legion, and another was a bishop of the stake and brevet major in the Nauvoo Legion, with four of the High Council, one of which was a captain of a company of Lancers in the Nauvoo Legion, with ten or twelve elders, which formed a quorum which thought themselves someone.
“At the September muster of the Nauvoo Legion, the companies from Ramus encamped by themselves, and the officers, suffering drunkenness and lewd conduct in camp, disgusting many of the brethren who on their return to Ramus made bitter complaint to me of their conduct; therefore on the next Sabbath I took the stand and commenced preaching on the subject of intemperance, whereupon the Bishop arose and ordered me to desist, declaring that I should not preach upon that subject. I told him if the Church had appointed him to preside that I would sit down and let him go ahead; if not, to sit down himself and pay attention to his own business, upon which my first counselor arose and declared that they had heard that I was going to preach upon the subject and had come to stop me—upon which I called a vote of the congregation to know whether I should proceed with my discourse or not. The vote carried in the affirmative. I then called for order, but the Bishop and his colleagues kept up such a confusion that no order was to be had. After hearing their abuses for a while I left the house and went home.
“A few days afterward I called the church together to know what was to be done, upon which some of their men brought a complaint against me for leaving the house on the Sabbath before I acknowledged that I had done wrong in leaving the house on the Sabbath before, and accordingly asked forgiveness of the church which was unanimously granted. I told them that I had ought to have sent for a peace officer and had those peace breakers punished according to the law instead of leaving the house for which neglect I felt to regret; but the clan being determined to justify themselves in their proceeding, we concluded to adjourn the meeting for a few days for further consideration at which time the church came together again to see what could be done in reference to our difficulties; upon which those men (after finding all their eloquence and smooth words they could not gain the majority of the church in their favor) concluded to make a partial confession which they did to keep themselves from being disfellowshipped by the Church.
“I soon found that their hatred towards me was not diminished in the least for upon all occasions when we met in council to transact church and other business, they would lay a snare for me by trying to make me an offender for a word, etc.
“On the 4th day of November 1841, the High Council met (this meeting proved to be the last) to transact business, when the Bishop (though not a member of the Council) endeavored to take the lead of all the business for which I rebuked him which made him very angry with me; upon which my first counselor with the four High Councilors (before to) took sides with him and seemed very much pleased at the disagreement. My first counselor said that he had been praying that something would transpire that would place the odium of all the difficulties in Ramus on the right one, to which I responded, "Amen," insinuating that I was the black sheep.
“The next day after this meeting, my first counselor with four others of the clan left Ramus upon some business meeting of their own secret concoction, and in a few days we received a letter from some of them that the whole five were in Mammoth Jail for stealing. Then I saw that my first councilor's prayers were answered upon his own head, he being one of the principal leaders of the clan. On the 18th day of November the church being together with Elder Brigham Young, Richards and Savage from Nauvoo, and having examined witnesses on the case of the above named five persons who were in jail it was unanimously resolved that the whole five be expelled from the church. On the 4th of December, 1841, the church met in conference, Hyrum Smith, B. Young, John Taylor, Heber C. Kimball, Willard Richards, and others from Nauvoo were present.
“After considering our difficulties it was resolved to disorganize the stake, after which John Lausen was appointed to preside which relieved me from cares and perplexities of the mind from which I had long wished to be honorably released on account of my poor health.”
Recollections of the Prophet Joseph[32]
Lorenzo Hill Hatch was a young man in Nauvoo during the prophet’s last year as a mortal on earth. He was drawn to the Prophet Joseph Smith and sought every opportunity to get as close to the Prophet as possible when he spoke in public. The Prophet, with his commanding, yet musical voice seemed to the young Lorenzo to possess inspiration and the gift of prophecy. The young man attended a cottage meeting of twenty or thirty people and heard the words of Joseph and of Apostle Orson Hyde, who had just returned from Jerusalem. Lorenzo later remembered, “The meeting was at house of a German neighbor. Perhaps I was an intruder, but nevertheless I was at that meeting. The Prophet talked of the great beauty of the German language, [and] also extolled the German Bible. He spoke of the confounding of the languages at the Tower of Babel, and how it would be restored.

“I heard Joseph say he would soon take a rest, and the responsibility of building up the church and sending the gospel to nations would be required of the Twelve Apostles.”
**
Jesse N. Smith first saw the Prophet in Kirtland, though he was then but a child. Afterwards he met him at Nauvoo. Of his estimate of the Prophet's character he says: he was “Incomparably the most Godlike man I ever saw.”
On one occasion, Jesse recounted an experience he had with the prophet Joseph.

“In 1843, for a short time, I attended a school kept by a Miss Mitchell in Hyrum Smith's brick office. Passing the Prophet's house one morning, he called me to him and asked what book I read in at my school. I replied, "The Book of Mormon." He seemed pleased, and taking me into the house he gave me a copy of the Book of Mormon to read in at school, a gift greatly prized by me.”
In his own words, this is Jesse’s testimony of the prophet Joseph: “I know that by nature he was incapable of lying and deceitfulness, possessing the greatest kindness and nobility of character. I felt when in his presence that he could read me through and through. I know he was all that he claimed to be.”
**
Joel Hills Johnson said:
“I became acquainted with Joseph Smith, Jr., at the October conference held by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, October 6, 1831.
“When I was introduced to him, he laid his hands upon my shoulder and said unto me, “I suppose you think that I am a great, green, lubberly fellow.”
“His expression was an exact representation of his person, being large and tall, and not a particle of beard about his face. I conversed with him very freely upon many subjects relative to his mission and received much instruction and was highly edified and blessed of the Lord during the conference and returned home rejoicing.
“I was with him, more or less, in public, in private, in council and in all the associations of life. I had many business transactions with him. This intercourse continued about thirteen years, and it gave me, probably, as good an opportunity to understand his character, as was had by any man now living. I was often present when the word of the Lord came from His mouth, and was written down by his scribe.
“I knew, and now know, that it was the word of the Lord to all men, whether they receive it or not.
“He was a man of sterling worth. He was naturally affectionate and kind. His reputation was good among all who were acquainted with him; but among those who knew him not, his name was cast out as evil. Like many of the ancient Saints, his life was sought from the time he announced to the world that the Lord had spoken to him. “Thus saith the Lord,” has never been received by any people, except saints, with pleasure.”





“I Know This For Myself”[33]

Lorenzo Hill Hatch, left Nauvoo for his first mission on a cold, rainy April day in 1844. He wrote, “Imagine my feelings only and 18 year old boy preaching to strangers and doors and derided.”

A seventy-year-old uncle was interested and called a meeting of the neighbors. Lorenzo “felt so small” at the prospect of preaching alone; he “spent the day in prayer & reading my pocket Bible. The time came. A full house assembled.”

And the results? “I had great liberty,” said the young elder, using a phrase that, in those days, meant inspired discourse. He wrote several years later, “Now that I am 69 years of age and have held thousands of public meetings & have been greatly blest but no time have I felt more of the power of God than at that meeting.” At its end, two women, including his aunt, testified “that I had brought them the gospel.”

Two months later, Lorenzo was holding meetings with Elders Erastus Snow and William Hyde when Brother Snow “Said Something was wrong in Nauvoo and he must go and see the Saints.” It was June 27, the day of the martyrdom. Of this event, Lorenzo wrote:
“At first I could not believe it, but at last was convinced that it was a fact. Then I mourned and wept as the children of Israel did when Moses was taken from them…I was alone, a young man being but eighteen years old, 1500 miles from home. The question in my mind was, who would lead the Church now that the Prophet Joseph was gone?
“In about a month, a letter came from my Uncle Jeremiah Hatch who had married a daughter of Sidney Rigdon. He claimed that the Lord had called Sidney Rigdon to lead the Church. I was at the home of one of my cousins in the town of Bristol. It was about twelve o’clock noon. I stood in the middle of the sitting room reading the letter of my cousin when a voice plain and distinct said, “Brigham Young is the man that God has chosen to fill the vacancy.
“I so declared it to my cousin. It was a glorious revelation to me and I was filled with the spirit of prophecy. So positive was I that Brigham Young was the man to lead the Church. I had no doubts and can testify to all the world to this day that I know this for myself. My uncle denounced Brigham Young. I lost my respect for my Uncle. My father had gone on to the great beyond and Brigham Young was a father to me all the remainder of his eventful life.

Recollections of Nauvoo Persecutions[34]

Jesse N. Smith was present for many moving church history moments. Of the events transpiring in the spring and summer of 1844 and thereafter he wrote:

“Detachments of State Militia came frequently to Nauvoo, evidently with the view to overawe the people. I joined the boy company, and with my wooden gun drilled under Capt. Bailey. We carried our little banner proudly on which we in­scribed the following: “Our Fathers We Respect; Our Mothers We'll Protect.”

“I remember well the time that Joseph and Hyrum Smith went to Carthage. I also remember the visit of Governor Ford to Nauvoo with his military escort, and the speech he made near the Mansion from the unfinished frame building; I heard it; he charged the citizens of Nauvoo with insubordination. Among other things he said, “The torch is already lighted to demolish your beautiful city; a little more mis­behavior on your part and it will be applied.”

“I need not dwell on the scene of the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, the subject has been treated on by others; the deep Borrow of a whole people who in their hearts called on God to avenge their wrongs. I saw the martyrs at the Mansion House as they were laid out before burial.

“During the summer of 1845, the old mob spirit began again to manifest itself. As soon as the harvest was gathered, and even before, mob parties attacked the smaller settlements of our people in Han­cock County, burning their houses and stacks of grain, and the fugi­tives came to Nauvoo for shelter and protection. It was thought that Nauvoo would be attacked, and we were told to rendezvous at a certain place when we heard the big drum beat at night.

“My mother received her endowments in the House of the Lord at Nauvoo. In the latter part of 1846 Uncle John Smith having left for the West with the authorities of the Church, and many others, we moved into his house where we lived until May. Meantime William Smith had tried to start a church for himself, also many others; he came to our house and asked us to join his church; this, we however, declined to do. In May we crossed over into Lee County, Iowa. Abraham Newbury furnished us an old house to live in.

“The summer passed drearily enough. When the forces of Illinois attacked those of our people who remained in Nauvoo, we could hear the cannon shots. Unable to afford any assistance, I deeply sympathized with the sufferers. There was still another great source of annoyance. We heard the most extravagant tales about the leading camps of the saints, and although we did not credit the stories, still they were continually thrown into our teeth by our neighbors who seemed to wish to discourage us from ever return­ing to the body of the Church.

“In the midst of our troubles a team came for us in charge of an old man named Fisher. He belonged to O. M. Allen's company, and had promised Uncle John Smith when he left the camp that he would bring us on. The prospect which was thus held out of joining the leading camp of the Saints in their great exodus was more gratifying to me than I can express. We at once set about preparing for the journey. I gave away my dog, quite a trial to me ; we killed our pigs, and disposed of a few of our household things to the neighbors. One thing which I also counted a trial we left a large book of Grandfather Asael Smith's writings, also some papers which we had clung to in all our movings hitherto; leaving the family clock among other objects endeared by association.

“We at length set out, driving our two cows, which last was made my especial duty. My heart bounded within me, though a child, as I thus turned my back upon the intolerant world which had persecuted so many of my friends unto death…We at length reached Winter Quarters the last day of November; were welcomed by Uncle John's folks and other acquaintances.”

“Our Lime Still Lies There”[35]

In 1845 Lorenzo Hill Hatch and his brother Jeremiah were living six miles outside of Nauvoo. This was a very turbulent time. In the summer of 1845 antagonistic local newspapers again raised their voices against the Mormons. In September, as Lorenzo and Jeremiah Hatch cut prairie hay and gathered materials to build a home on their farm, Lorenzo wrote, “The devil commenced raging and mobs commenced burning the houses of the Saints in the surrounding country and the inhabitants had to flee for their lives [into Nauvoo].

That same month the anti-Mormons under Colonel Levi Williams began burning Mormon homes. In all more than two hundred homes and farm buildings were destroyed. Church leaders ordered all Saints living in rural areas to sell their property if possible and move into the city of Nauvoo.

Lorenzo and Jeremiah had lumber and lime on the ground where they planned to build their home. The brick were ready to be hauled from the kiln when they received the evacuation order. “Our lime still lies there and our brick is in the kiln to this day as far as know” were the words of Lorenzo as he wrote of this time ten years later.

Of the retreat to Nauvoo, Lorenzo only says, “I went to Nauvoo and stood guard with the rest of my brethren. I went to put down the mob. We went to Warsaw and the town was all vacated, the had devils gone, so there was no fight for us.”

Though Lorenzo and his brother had spent a great deal of time and energy building a home on the outskirts of Nauvoo, when direction came to leave, they left—and left the lime there lying.

Nauvoo Mobbings[36]
Joel Hills Johnson, father of Janet Mauretta Johnson Smith lived twenty miles from Nauvoo in Ramus, Illinois. Here he was a Stake President and had many intimate experiences with Joseph Smith; he was likely present for the receipt of Section 130 of the Doctrine and Covenants. After the martyrdom however, things were difficult. He recounts:
“On the 13th of Nov. [1844]I moved my family to a farm four miles from [Ramus] where I labored making rails, fencing and hauling timber for building, etc. I was here appointed to preside over a small branch of the church called the Pleasant Vale Branch to which I preached on the Sabbath, through the winter and spring.
“But in the spring, finding that I could not procure teams to break the land that I had fenced, I sold my town property in [Ramus]for a share in a sawmill on Crooked Creek, to which I moved my family, expecting to procure some means by sawing for the benefit of my family, which was very destitute. But on the 4th of August, I was taken sick by the bilious fever. The season proving to be very dry and water poor, I was compelled to move back again to my farm as soon as we were able, and on the 31st day of December 1845, myself and wife received our endowments in the Lord's House in Nauvoo, and on the 5th day of January 1846, I moved my family back again to the mill, in order to run it through the sawing season that I might obtain means to move my family out of the country for my life was constantly threatened, and land and household property would not sell at any rate.
“But in February I was taken sick with the winter fever, and was not able to do much labor until April. And the Hancock mob having prevailed in driving the Saints from the county, I had to leave with the rest, and having swapped my share of the mill for a soldiers right of 80 acres of land in Knox county, on the 30th day of May 1846, I started with my family to move to my land in Knox and arrived on Thursday the 4th of June having been driven from my possessions in Hancock county, and robbed of almost everything that I possessed on earth.
“In the middle of a broad Prairie in the bend of French Creek, a miserable sickly place, I found my land, without a friend I knew anything about, or a face that I ever saw to glance on ray on my dismal prospects. Without a house of cabin of stick of timber for miles to build one. However we went to work and hauled time and built us a small cabin, and then I sent my boys back again to Hancock for my father. After they returned, we broke up some ground and sowed some buckwheat and made a garden, (although very late,) I then went to work out by the day at harvesting which business I continued until the first day of August when I was taken sick with the fever and ague.
“I am poor, destitute and distressed, having been robbed of all that I possessed and driven to this place contrary to will, and sickness compels me to winter in a cabin twelve feet by sixteen feet square without any floor with a family of eight persons. My possessions in Hancock from which I have been driven, I estimate at two thousand dollars at a low rate.
“I was running my saw mill on Crooked Creek, and sometime in March [1846] myself and wife were absent to Nauvoo, an armed mob surrounded my house and told my little children that if their father and family did not leave the country immediately that they would take their lives and destroy their property. But I ha[d] no means to get away with for I could not sell property for anything that would move me away. So I kept on running the mill and fulfilling a few small contracts that I had taken in order to raise a little means to help myself away.
“[I continued] until about the first of May when about 2 o'clock in the morning I was awakened by the tramping of horses and heard a voice calling me to the door I arose and went to the door and discovered that my house was surrounded by a mob of about one hundred men with guns, swords, pistols, and dirks who asked me if I was prepared to leave. I told them that I was. They then told me that if I did not leave the county by the first of June my life would be taken and property destroyed and after warning and threatening me very sharply, they left.
“I made every exertion in my power to get away by the time specified by the mob and the last week in May I left the mill…But the night after I left an armed mob surrounded the house, where they supposed that I was and called for me but I had gone the morning before and saved the trouble of killing me as they had anticipated.”





Unwilling to Break Her Covenant[37]

Jane Mathers left her family behind when she followed the Saints to Nauvoo. There were many places where a willing, competent girl could help out around a house in exchange for room and board; it is assumed that this is how Jane was employed when she first arrived in Nauvoo.

Some time after arriving in Nauvoo she became reacquainted with Edward Milo Webb, the missionary who had taught her family the gospel. Undoubtedly she admired Edward as the missionary who brought her the gospel and had special feelings for him. Edward was already married, and took Jane as his second wife.

Fanny Young, older sister of Brigham Young reported that going into the marriage Jane had high hopes for a joyful family. Jane said “that she thought [Edward] as good a man as lived on the earth. it was through his preaching that she with many others were brought into the church, she considered him a kind of guardian Angel; gave herself to him with full purpose of heart, and had no other thought than to live in his family in peace and harmony all her days.” Jane said “she felt a pleasure in doing everything she could to please his wife, and thought they should be sisters and friends forever.”

Unfortunately her anticipation of marital bliss were not realized at this time. Sister Young continued her report of what Jane told her:

“If Mr. Webb spoke to her, or paid the least attention to her, his wife would appear crazy, and would abuse her in the most unmerciful manner—not only with her tongue, but would fly at her like a Tiger and try to tear her to pieces; said [Jane] she was afraid she would destroy her eyes. [Jane] said she was sure Mr. Webb was sorry to see [his first wife] do so, for he would say “Amelia don’t, I entreat you” but he never put forth his hand to prevent any abuse she pleased to heap upon Jane.”

When Fanny asked Jane why she didn’t leave Edward Jane replied that she was afraid to break the sacred covenant of marriage that she had made with Edward. When Fanny asked whether Jane still had feelings for Edward Jane said, “She never could bear such things; she had loved him as well as she was capable of loving, but when she saw what his feelings were towards her, it soon weaned her from him”

This conversation between Fanny and Jane transpired while Jane and Fanny were at Winter Quarters. Jane asked Fanny to approach her brother Brigham Young and ask his advice as to what she should do. Even though Jane had been terribly mistreated by the man who had brought her the gospel she would not break a covenant she had made. It is impressive that the experience she had did not shake her testimony nor weaken her resolve to keep her covenants.

Brigham told Fanny that Jane “had no covenant to break, that the sacred covenant was already broken, and she might consider herself free, from that hour.” When Jane heard this news “she said it was a great relief to her mind.”

Jane later married Levi Savage, Jr. and lived happily with him.
The Miracle of the Quail[38]

In July, 1846, the Karren family was camped near Council Bluffs, Iowa with the main body of Saints when Mormon Battalion Members were recruited by the U.S. Army for war with Mexico. Brigham Young asked for 500 volunteers willing to make the march west with the army. Thomas Karren volunteered and marched away leaving his young wife with five children and pregnant with another.

The two oldest Karren children were John, who was twelve and Catherine, ten. The family was camped in a place called “The Bottoms" with over six-hundred other Saints.

There were a few covered wagons with covers; tents were constructed by stretching quilts and blankets over frames made of small poles; other shelters were made by weaving brush between stakes driven into the ground; here were huddled women and children destitute of both food and adequate clothing.

Ann Karren was ill with malaria when her new baby was born. On that day a drenching rain swept the camp, flooding the wagon box where Mother Ann lay. John and Catherine dipped water out of their make-shift home with a wash basin. Many others in the camp were sick and when the newborn, a girl, died after a few weeks, twelve-year-old John made the crude wooden coffin and the children went alone to bury her.

Living at The Bottoms, young Catherine had an experience she would relate to her children and grandchildren. It happened in October, 1846. "In the midst of our greatest hunger something wonderful happened... the Lord sent great flocks of quail [into our camp]. They would walk right into some of the tents and everyone could get them. I was the only one in our family well enough to go out, and I caught them in my apron. This coming of the quail brought us good food. We all had plenty and were sincerely thankful to the Lord for sending those birds to us in our sore need.

Follow the Prophet[39]
When the Saints were forced to leave Nauvoo, Charles Shumway and his family followed. Charles worked hard to assist the saints in many ways. Often he would hunt for food and share his bounty with others.
On one occasion he received a call from Brigham Young to travel to Kansas in search of several Indian chiefs to get them to come to Council Bluffs, Iowa to meet with Brigham Young. This assignment required him to ride for more than nine days with little sleep and with very little food. When Charles returned, after having successfully completed the assignment, he was sick man.
Charles rejoined his family and traveled on to Winter Quarters. The Shumways and several other families continued west after arriving in Winter Quarters. They had camped in an area which was inhabited by Pawnee Indians and waited for the other saints to catch up with them.
Late one night in October of 1846, they were sitting by a fireplace in a cabin which they had occupied. A loud thumping knock rattled the door and a voice called, "Shumway!" Two tired men came in. They had come from Winter Quarters with a message from Brigham Young, stating, “For all companies camped at the Pawnee villages to move immediately back to Winter Quarters.”
The men said, “Reliable intelligence has been received from mountain men and from knowledgeable Indian sources that the Sioux are preparing to again attack the Pawnee tribes, striking first at the missions, the government station and the fort....There's no time to spare. They may strike at day's first light, tomorrow morning.”
Charles and his family quickly got the teams of oxen and all of their possessions loaded in the wagons and long before daylight, began moving away from the Indian camps. The company of pioneers traveled in fear that they would meet Indians along the trail, but they never saw any.
After they had traveled for nearly twelve miles and found their wagons on a low rise where they could see many miles to the west, they looked back to the west and above the horizon, they saw billows of smoke! The Sioux had attacked and the fort and all the rest of the buildings on both banks of the Lupe River were on fire. The entire Pawnee campsite where the Shumways had been was ablaze.
In later years, when remembering the close encounter with the warring Indian tribes, Charles would tell his family that this experience had taught them to listen to the words of the Prophet of God and follow without question.
The Savage Crickets[40]

Early in the spring of 1848 Levi Savage and his wife Jane Mathers Savage planted corn, beans, peas, potatoes, and wheat. As the crops were growing, food became scarce. Many of the Saints were without shoes and adequate clothing, so they made moccasins and other clothing out of animal skins. The people were placed on rations. They also ate crows, thistle tops, bark, roots, and sego lily bulbs.

Because of these difficult conditions, the settlers naturally looked forward to the harvest of new crops, but late spring frosts injured much of the wheat and garden vegetables. Then a May and June drought injured more of the crops. Worse yet, great swarms of crickets descended from the foothills and began devouring what remained. Men, women, and children turned out with sticks, shovels, and brooms to combat the pests. They used fire and even dug trenches to drown the crickets, but these measures failed to stop the onslaught. Crop failure meant disaster for the present colony and no food for the more than two thousand Saints planning to immigrate that year.

Jesse N. Smith described the event in these words.[41]

“I was just at an age when my appetite was very keen, but there was no help for it. We voluntarily put ourselves upon rations; we had about half a pound of flour per day for each person, without any vege­tables, and but a little meat, sometimes none, but we had a little milk from one cow which was farrow. I herded cows the whole winter through for Uncle John and family, and for a few others. I was exceed­ingly hungry, for months my desire for food was not satisfied.

“As the spring approached preparations were made for farming and gardening. We planted considerable corn, as the seed to plant an acre did not weigh much and we could thus freight it across the plains. We also had beans and peas and some few other vegetables, but no potatoes­—a lack severely felt. It was not possible for us to carry the seed. We had an acre of wheat sown on the city plat, a little west of the Temple Block on a lot designed for my mother.

“Our corn and vegetables were large enough to show the rows nicely when the crickets appeared and commenced sweeping all before them in the way of crops. We first turned the water in the ditches around the fields, but found that the crickets pushed boldly into the water without hesitancy or turning their course, where the water was swift they were washed down a long distance, but generally managed to reach the opposite bank, and after lying in the sunshine awhile, would fall to again with as good appetite as before.

“It seemed impossible to drown them, as they would recover after being a long time under water. They were very voracious, eating every green thing within their reach, but showing some preference for the dead or disabled of their own number. I have seen crickets that had been crushed eating the hind parts of their own bodies. We endeavored to make head against this new enemy, armed with sticks and clubs. All the people near us, male and female turned out. We first went around outside the fields and killed enough for the others to eat while we went over the patches row by row and killed all we saw, when we began again at the border. A little before dusk the creatures went to roost upon the bushes or clustered under clods for the night, only to renew the attack as soon as the sun appeared above the mountains. It was wearisome work contending against such fearful odds, but help was near.

“We had thus fought two or three days, when great flocks of white gulls from beyond the lake appeared in our fields. Finding they made common cause with us against the crickets we withdrew and left to them the honors, their appetite for the crickets seemed as great as that of the crickets for our growing crops, nay more, for when the gulls had filled them­selves they would seek the water ditches and after drinking, disgorge themselves upon the ground and immediately return to fill themselves again. Something over half a mile from our cabin beyond the big field fence was a spot of ground where the gulls assembled mornings for dress parade; here they formed long lines and hollow squares like troops, and no doubt made report to, and received instructions from their officers. In a few days the crickets were exterminated and the gulls withdrew toward the setting sun to return no more. Can it be wondered that we looked with affection upon our deliverers, with their pretty eyes and dainty feet? They saved the crops for the infant colony.

“Our wheat did poorly, not having sufficient water, and we being unused to irrigating, did not apply the water properly; we had to pull the most of it, it being too short to cut. We got eight bushels, of which we saved three bushels for seed.”

The Savages, Smiths and Shumways and others were all there to witness the deliverance from the Savage Crickets. Today the seagull is Utah's state bird, and a monument to the seagulls stands on Temple Square.



A Mission to England[42]

In 1856 Lorenzo Hill Hatch was called on a mission to England. He traveled to England in company with E.T. Benson and Orson Pratt, both of the Twelve, along with Orrin Porter Rockwell. His mission was a successful one. He noted that in Bradford, where he served for a time that they baptized “some twenty persons.” Like all missions however, his was not without challenges.

When Lorenzo once visited in the home of Brother Plant, a member, "His wife said that she would not treat me with respect because I had two wives." However, after this visit he seemed to win her respect and she "did confess that I was a decent man."

One of Lorenzo's responsibilities was to see that the Missionaries who were called locally were properly clothed as they went about their church duties, One time a man named Evans who was called to travel and preach received a new suit of clothes for his work, but then denied the church and said that he had played a Yankee trick upon him. Evans was cut off of the church, but Lorenzo didn’t say if the clothes were retrieved from the fellow.

On May 10th 1857 Orson Pratt and E.T. Benson visited the district Lorenzo was laboring in. They traveled together throughout the area, many times on foot, visiting and preaching to the Saints. At many of the meetings, Lorenzo reports disruptions by unbelievers.

"Went to Rotherham...held meeting there in the barn. A mean, contemptible fellow wished to speak and disturb the meeting but we our meeting.”

On May 27th they arrived in Petersboro and found the town "all in an uproar." There were bills posted inviting the public to a meeting where they could "judge for themselves the principles, which they, LDS, teach." The posters declared that "Elder E.T. Benson, one of the Twelve Apostles of the 19th century and Elder Lorenzo H, Hatch, (both of Salt Lake City, Utah) will address the meeting. Lorenzo wrote:

"We went to the assembly room at seven thirty P.M. The people came in and filled that large hall nearly full. Brother Benson called on Brother Taylor to sing and pray, and then I was called to the stand to speak by Brother Benson. I spoke on the first principles with much plainness and much power till I came to the Prophet Joseph Smith. [I then] bore my testimony [and] all the devils boiled over in one tremendous rage. A Methodist priest by the name of Brooks headed the mob. [He] came to the stand and would speak. We told the congregation that we had rented the room, but to no purpose.

"Brother Benson tried to speak but they wouldn't hear. This wicked man tried to incense the mob by calling upon them and telling them some of the most wicked and abominable lies that could be invented by the Devil. Great confusion prevailed...the congregation was divided. We took our hats and started to leave. The door was blocked, but as we came from the stand a woman opened a [side] door and we escaped out of the hands of that mob, though they said they would put us in the river.”

“I will help if I can”[43]

Levi Savage Jr. had been called on a mission to Siam. After many adventures in the Orient, he finally returned to Iowa City in the summer of 1856. Levi knew it was too late for the saints to begin a journey to Salt Lake, but there were many others who thought they could make it in time. These were the members of the Willy Martin Handcart Company. They were not ready to leave Winter Quarters until 19 August 1856. Levi raised serious questions about going on so late in the season. It appears that he was possibly told that he would be excommunicated if he did not travel with the saints.

Elder Joseph Fielding Smith said of this moment of decision:

“While the consideration of this momentous question was being discussed the brethren were advised by Elder Levi Savage that such a journey so late in the season should not be undertaken, and it would be better to hold over into winter quarters and wait until spring. He had been over the southern route to the pacific and knew the dangers they would likely encounters but he was overruled. According to the narrative of this fatal journey, when Elder Savage was overruled he said: ‘What I have said I know to be true; but seeing you are to go forward, I will go with you and will help if I can. I will work with you, will rest with you and if necessary, will die with you. May God in his mercy bless and preserve us.’ These were noble sentiments worthy of a place in the archives of time.”

In tragic confirmation of Levi's warnings one fifth of the group died of freezing and starvation before they arrived in Salt Lake on 9 November 1856. Levi lived up to his promise to help where he could—“No man,” says the narrative, “worked harder than he to alleviate the suffering which he had foreseen, when he had to endure it.”[44]

Levi did his best to help people survive; one historian wrote that Levi performed invaluable along the way and that some of the survivors owed their life to him.[45]

“On Hands and Knees”[46]
When the gospel was taught to Thomas and Maria Normington, they gladly embraced it. Maria left her little ones at home in the care of the older children and worked with Thomas in a factory to obtain money so they could emigrate.
They crossed the Atlantic Ocean on the ship "Horizon" which left Liverpool May 22, 1856 and reached Boston, Mass, June 30, six weeks later. They arrived in Iowa City, Iowa July 8, 1856.
At this time the church had been providing handcarts for the emigrants from Europe who could not afford teams and wagons. The demand for handcarts had been so great that by the time the Normington family needed one, none were available. Thomas immediately set to work making a handcart for them. Thus, several precious weeks were lost which should have been spent traveling and provisions were being used that should have been for the journey.
At last, on July 28, 1856, the Martin Handcart Co. started westward (576 persons, 146 handcarts, 7 wagons, 6 mules and 50 cows). The five Normington children were Lovenia 10, Mary Ellen 8, Hannah 6, Ephraim 4 and Daniel 1. The men pulled the handcarts and the women and children pushed or walked along. The first part of their journey, though hard, was no worse than they expected. They loved to sing. One song they often sang was the "Hand Cart song". "For some must push and some must pull, as we go marching up the hill, and merrily on the way we go, until we reach the valley-o." Maria was a good singer and had a jolly and cheerful disposition. Her favorite song was "Come Come Ye Saints".
They were always a little hungry as their food was rationed (one lb of flour per adult, per day, less for children}. When they reached Fort Laramie their rations were cut to 3/4 lb of flour per day. A little later it was cut to 1/2 lb, then less still. They tried to help each other as best they could. It was getting colder. Sometimes they had to wade across streams of ice cold water. Because of their weakened condition, progress was very slow. They began unloading treasures, extra bedding, anything they could to lighten their loads.
About this time little Ephriam died. It was a very sad time for the family. Not long after Daniel also died. The grieving Mother was permitted to ride half a day with her dead child until the company stopped and he could be buried.
On Oct 19 they awoke to a 4 in, blanket of snow. The wind and storm was bitter cold. They were camped on the banks of the Platte River and were obliged to ford it. It was deep, up to the wagon beds. Some of the women and children were carried across by the men, but most of them tied up their skirts and waded across. The storm continued for several days until the snow was is inches deep. They struggled on, strong in their faith in the glorious gospel, and their hopes for a new life in Zion.
It was about this time that cholera came to the starved and suffering camp. In one night Thomas Normington and 16 others died and were buried in a common grave. The pioneers could not dig a proper grave and covered the dead mostly with snow. The surviving travelers had no choice but to leave them and struggle on. Their shoes and clothing were worn out. They had very little bedding and practically no food. Maria tried to eat dirt to satisfy her terrible pangs of hunger. She walked until her feet were so terribly frozen and sore she could walk on them no more Then she crawled on her hands and knees. When her hands became so frozen that she could use them no more, she crawled on her knees and elbows. For the rest of her life she carried great scars on her knees and elbows from that awful experience.
When the relief wagons Brigham Young sent to rescue them finally arrived Maria was unconscious and near death. Miraculously, she and her three young daughters (Lovenia 10, Mary Ellen 8, and Hannah 6) survived without losing any of their feet or hands. Incredible as their hardships were, their faith never wavered. They had felt God's love and comfort in their greatest hours of need. They finally arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, Nov 30, 18.
Maria remained a faithful Latter Day Saint, and felt that the Gospel, for which she had endured so many trials, was the most glorious of all blessings. She was never heard to censure anyone for her trials, nor complain because her lot was hard.
The Rescue[47]

Maria Jackson Normington (later to be Maria Jackson Normington Parker) was a member of the Martin Handcart Company. The Company suffered untold hardships as they traveled to Zion.

One evening, late in October 1856, after many had died, Maria went to inquire after one of her friends from England, James Bleak. She was told that James had become very ill and that he had been wrapped up and left to die on the trail.

This shocked Maria, because she knew that in England, James had been given a blessing promising him that he would reach Zion in safety. Though Maria communicated this to those in James’ party they were sure that it was too late for James.

Maria decided to take matters into her own hand. Though it was dark and cold, she took her handcart and went back on the trail searching for James. Finally she found him, still alive. She brought him back to the camp and began nursing him back to health.

James Bleak lived to reach Zion and became secretary to President Brigham Young.

An Adventure in the Desert Mission[48]

In 1858 Jesse N. Smith was called to work in the Desert Mission. It is unclear exactly what this mission entailed; it appears that much of the work involved taming the land and cultivating crops. It was not a proselyting mission; although Jesse N. did have encounters with people of other faiths. Relating one such experience he wrote:

“July 22—In the afternoon we saw a couple of Indians; we called them to us; they seemed very much frightened but they came and were soon joined by others. We gave them some crackers; reached a small grove of ash, when we turned back a short distance to a spring and camped. Three of the Indians remained with us overnight.”

The three that stayed with us invited us to go down and see the crops. “Brother White and myself unsuspectingly accompanied them leaving Christian with the team. We noticed that the number of Indians rapidly increased around us, and the scenery of the canyon became more and more magnificent, the sides rising almost perpendicular, the walls rich in various colors rising to a great height; the narrow, flat and winding bottom covered with a dense growth of willows and grass.

“After walking some two or three miles below where we left the wagon, two or three Indians suddenly sprang up in the path before us, and the others instantly disposing themselves around us in a circle, de­manded our shirts off our backs. One who appeared to be the chief advanced and took hold of Brother White as though to take off his shirt, talking all the while with great volubility.

“Brother White replied that we were there by their invitation, to see their country, drink water with them, etc. and appealed to the one who had invited us, but he laughed in our faces, saying, “There was nothing to see neither corn, ash-timber, water, wickiups, or anything else.”

“The odds were against us-six or seven to one-but we agreed to fight it out with our shirts on. I had my revolver and knife. White had nothing but a light ax; the Indians had bows and arrows and one of them had a gun. Perceiving our determination to fight they made professions of friendship, and renewed the invitation to go on with them, which we did a short dis­tance further, but soon halted, and after an interchange of courtesies, we left them, returned to the wagon, cut and put on the timber we wanted, and started for camp.”


“Two Decently Dressed Girls”[49]

During Jesse N. Smith’s first mission to Denmark he had many interesting experiences. Describing two days that seem to be routine he wrote:

Dec. 6, 1861: “We held evening meeting, spoke about 1/2 hour. Slept at Bro. Jensen's. Dec. 7. Bro. Mikkelsen came in and requested us to go with him and bless an infant, whose father was not in the Church; their name was Nielsen. Blessed the babe with the name of Anne. Took dinner at Bro. Hans Nielsen's whose hospitality seemed genuine. Set out facing a biting frosty wind; walked 11 1/2 miles; took some refreshment at Bro. P. T. Bertelsen's; here Bro. Mikkelsen joined us, and I went with him to Niels Jensen's, the parish Beadle, who though not in the Church, received us kindly. After some conversation about Utah, retired to bed.”

A unique experience Jesse had on this mission shows that the Lord truly does watch over and protect his missionaries. In his own words, he wrote:

“December 11—Walked 12 miles to the village of Valling, were welcomed by Bro. Niels Jensen. No appointment having been given out for meeting, [we] were passing the evening quietly when two decently dressed girls came in and inquired if we were preachers.

“Replying in the affirmative, they asked us to sing a hymn, in which they joined with great apparent devotion. Two hymns were sung, and the girls stated there were several nearby who wished to hear us preach. The bait was caught by Bro. C., who proposed to our host that we send out an appointment, which the young women volunteered to circulate. Some preparations were made, the invita­tion sent, and the door opened, when the room was immediately filled with ruffians, the two girls coming in to see the fun.

“They had simply been used as decoys to get the meeting appointed. The meeting was opened. I was asked to speak. I could easily discern that the ruffians intended to mob us. I spoke calmly and firmly for a few minute meeting with some interruption. Bro. C. endeavored to speak, but was drowned with shouts and clamor. The men sat smoking with their hats on. We concluded to dismiss. While trying to sing our single light was extinguished by some one throwing a hat upon it. Relighting, Bro. C. offered a short prayer, during which another attempt was made to put out the light.

“Bro. Jensen and wife, Bro. C. and withdrew to an adjoining room, after Bro. Jensen had requested the mob to go in peace; this they refused to do; they extinguished every light, screamed, halloed, sang low songs, broke up seats, overturned the stove breaking it, and finally left the house yelling like demons The two girls remained throughout the whole disgraceful proceedings. A bed being provided, we at length retired to rest.

“December 12. Set out in good time. The mob of last evening were many of them gathered at the blacksmith shop, at the end of the village; saluted them as we passed. After walking some time in silence, Bro C. turned to me and said: “Did you know those men intended to attack us as we came up?”

“I thought so,” I replied.

“Do you know the reason they did not?”

“No,” I answered.

“It was because they were afraid of you,” he said. “For I never saw you look as you did then; you looked larger than common, and when I looked at you I was afraid of you myself.”

Such was Bro. C's remark.


Trouble with the Indians[50]

In September of 1864, in Franklin, Idaho, there occurred an episode with the Indians that tested the courage of young Bishop Lorenzo Hill Hatch. About 500 Shoshoni on their way to Bear Lake, camped just north of Franklin. A few became drunk and began riding through the town, breaking windows in a house owned by George Alder, which was outside the fort. One of the Indians rode his horse over Mrs. Alder when she tried to stop the destruction of her home. Her screams "MIII some of the men and one of them shot the intruder.

The nearby Indian camp witnessed the incident and when their member was shot they began making war cries, which sent shudders through the settlers. Two Franklin men were at that time riding toward the Indian camp, unaware of the trouble, and were immediately taken prisoner by the Indians. One escaped and carried word back to Franklin, while the other was dragged to the Indian camp, where bucks and squaws danced around him and prodded him with knives.

Bishop Hatch immediately sent couriers to Logan for help, and ordered the entire community to gather inside the fort at the log school house. John Hatch, four-year-old son of Lorenzo and Alice remembered, in his later years, huddling in fear with the children and mothers of Franklin throughout that anxious night.

Pioneer William Woodward, who was present at the time, wrote in his diary that Bishop Hatch went to the Indian camp to plead for the safety of the captive and keep the Indians calm until help could reach Franklin, Woodward says Bishop Hatch spent part of the night in the camp and asked the Indians for a place to sleep, which was an indication to them of bravery, a characteristic they admired.

By nine o 'clock that night the Minute Men of Cache Valley began arriving in Franklin. By the light of a full moon the Indians could see the gathering in the distance and ceased the torture of their captive. At about eleven o'clock, President Maughn and E. T. Benson arrived. They joined Bishop Hatch in the hostile Indian camp and after much palaver with Chief Washakie, the parties reached a peace agreement. The Indians were promised cheese and other food. The crisis was over.

Marcus Holling[51]

On returning from being Mission President in Scandinavia, Jesse N. Smith was given the responsibility of helping Saints from Europe emigrate to Utah. On July 25, 1864 Jesse records the following experience, which he had while in the Eastern United States, in the midst of helping the European saints to emigrate.

“As I sat in the shade of the boiler deck upon a camp stool in the crowd, a middle-aged man wearing a straw hat and duster came and stopped before me and after the usual salutation, asked: “Who are you, and where are you going?”

“I replied that I was a Mormon elder on my way home to Utah. The man clasped his hands fervently: and exclaimed, “Thank God.” He then related to me some portion of his history. His name was Marcus Holling; he was born in Holstein and received a good education; he came to this country and lived n Albany, N. Y., where he practiced medicine as a homeopathic doctor. He was also a preacher, as I afterwards learned. He had some scruples about his religious ideas, and one night while lying on his bed he was visited by a supernatural personage, who said to him, “Go to Brigham Young and he shall tell thee what to do to be saved.”

“Deeply impressed, he related what he had heard to his friends, but they scouted him lunatic. Precisely the same scene occurred the two following night so he hesitated no longer but wrote to Pres. Young, recounting the experience, and asking his advice. He showed the President's reply, which was in German, in which language the letter of inquiry written. The advice was that Holling should come on to Omaha a join some of our emigrating companies and proceed to Utah.

“Against the advice of former friends he sold all his property for money, greenbacks, packed same in his trunk preparatory to starting on his journey and during the night lost all by fire except the clothes he wore, the money happened to have been upon his person. With this sea outfit he commenced the journey and was thus far on the road. I was the first Latter-day Saint he had ever met. I advised him to stop with me at Wyoming, as our outfitting point had been changed from Omaha to that place, but he held to the letter and the letter said Omaha, and there he would go.”

So Jesse N. and Marcus Holling departed company. However, a little over a month later their paths crossed again.

“In Kearney City we over­took some 50 wagons, William Adams among the number, waiting for greater strength to face the dangers of the Indian country ahead. Here Marcus Holling came to me and told a sorrowful tale; trying to drive oxen he had got sick and been left at the Fort Kearney Hospital. He was entirely out of money; he was not fully restored to health. The circumstances under which he left home were such that he could apply to his former friends for assistance, and he begged me to him a place in one of the trains, failing to do which he must die on the prairie as he could obtain no employment, and could neither go on nor return.

I was moved by his appeal and prevailed upon Bro. Young to take Mr. Holling into Captain Snow's company. Went back to Fort Kearney with Holling for his things.”

Jesse N. was successful in helping Marcus Holling make it to Utah. Family history records show that a year after arriving in Utah, Marcus was married; he and his wife had one son. This son had five children and today many Latter-day saints are descendants of Marcus Holling. All because Jesse N. was in the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing.

Submission Instead of Controversy[52]

Countless numbers of Latter-day Saints have left the church because they were offended by a “wrong” done to them by a church leader. How thankful the descendants of Jesse N. Smith can be that Jesse chose submission instead of controversy. Jesse writes:

“After being released from missionary duty at St. George, having a good team, I put on 300 bunches of cotton yarn at President Brigham Young's factory in Washington, to freight to Salt Lake City. The weather was somewhat rainy, the clouds hanging low about the mountains. I was anxious to reach home to spend Christmas with my family. Arriving about sunrise at the south run of the Sandy where Toquerville road joins the main road, I saw there had lately been a flood or freshet in the run and that the road was damaged. There was still running some muddy water in the run. In making the attempt to cross I upset my wagon.

“While engaged removing the load to right the wagon there came another flood greater than the first and swept away the loading that remained in the wagon, nearly all the yarn, my new Ballard rifle, my bedding, some clothing and minor articles, also damaging my wagon some by large rocks rolling against it in the bed of the run. I followed down the stream and saved considerable yarn, though it was badly damaged with the sand and muddy water. I worked hard till nearly dark, being quite wet and without food, not having breakfasted. I took my horses and proceeded to Toquerville.

“Next morning Bro. Johnson and a young man named Harmon went with me and helped me right up and load my wagon, and I moved on towards home. The weather was still rainy. The bows were all broken off my wagon and the box much damaged. I had no protection from the rain. I immediately reported the circumstances of the disaster to Joseph Birch, Pres. Young's agent, telling him that the loss was purely accidental and asking to be excused from financial responsibility in connection with the affair. He, however, held that I was fully respon­sible, in which I understood that President Young agreed. I sent all that I saved to its destination.

“Birch pressed me for the payment of the balance. I paid some and offered to turn out anything I possessed, not having the money, but he demanded my note which I declined to give. Finally, some three years later, I sold my farm on Little Creek and made a turn of stock in the Parowan Cooperative Herd for the balance, some $362. My friends kindly assisted me some, but their contributions were not sufficient to make good my personal losses beside the loss of freight. I never felt that I ought to have been re­quired to pay that loss, but when I learned that President Young thought I ought to pay it, I submitted rather than have any controversy with him.”

Taking Another Wife[53]

Often, Priests in Priests Quorum teenage boys joke about how they wished the church still practiced polygamy so that they could have lots of wives. Many don’t realize that polygamy was a calling, and one not always sought after. Jesse N. Smith recounts a time in which he was asked to take on another wife—even though he did not want to.

Jesse was on his way to serve his second mission in Scandinavia. He went to be set apart by the First Presidency and, in his words,

“While seated in President Young's office he said to Bro. Carrington and myself: ‘When you get over there I want each of you to select a good girl and marry her’

“I was thunderstruck, and com­menced excusing myself, saying I did not think that would do at all. Without noticing my remark he repeated the same words over again—saying it would be all right. I was troubled in my mind about this mat­ter, and meeting Bro. George Q. Cannon on the street I asked him what could be done about it.

“Do just as he says and all will be right,” was his reply; he also said that for my consolation that he would rather go on a mission to Norway than anywhere else he knew of. Being again in the President's office with Bro. Carrington, President Young again repeated the instructions he had previously given about each of us marrying a good girl and in almost the same language as before.

Nearly a month later, after reaching Europe, he asked President Carrington what to do about the advice Pres. Young had given them. President Carrington said that he didn't think he should do anything about it, as he dared not trust himself to select a wife without the help of Rhoda Maria, his first wife.

When Jesse said that he considered Pres. Young’s statement to them an imperative, Pres. Carrington just brushed it aside.

A few months later Jesse spoke with the parents of Augusta Maria Outzen and arranged to marry her. They agreed and Jesse N. again fulfilled what the prophet had asked him to do.

The trial of taking another wife wasn’t over though. Upon arriving home from his mission Jesse reported:

“I suffered a great deal on account of an unreasonably and unreasoning prejudice which was started in Parowan and the regions round about on account of my marriage with Augusta while on my late mission to Scandinavia. This sentiment was kept alive by jealousy and envy. The overgood and overpure of our community endeavored to deny my wife, Augusta, all social recognition.”

Nevertheless, Jesse and Augusta continued faithful, and all was well.



Struggles in Parowan[54]

When Jesse N. Smith returned from his second mission to Scandinavia he found that all was not well at home. He wrote:

“Several young men who had been raised in Parowan had become cattle and horse thieves, commencing their career of crime by appro­priating such stray stock as they could find on the ranges. I had a very good span of horses taken while I was on my late mission. In my public remarks I censured thieving and all kinds of dishonesty, and those who petted and apologized for the thieves took up the cause of their favorites, and I was thus very much traduced and vilified. They endeavored to inaugurate a system of blackmail against such as spoke against their operations, by stealing all the stock owned by such men. But their threats never changed my course from what I deemed to be right.”

During this time the United Order was still being preached by many. On August 22, 1875 Apostle Erastus Snow baptized and confirmed Jesse into the United Order. A week later likewise baptized and confirmed his mother and all the members of his family over eight years of age, except his wife, Janet, and he officiated in her baptism and confirmation a day or two later.

Others in the community also entered into the United Order, but it soon became evident that it would quickly dissolve. When it did, several of the members, including Jesse N. felt duty bound to try to live in the order. They communicated with Pres Young by letter and he advised them to work together. Jesse writes:

“This action on our part seemed to excite the animosity of the remaining portion of the community, although we did not interfere with the rights, liberties or franchises of anyone. With me it was entirely a matter of conscience, as I had no hope to gain any temporal advantage whatever but rather expected losses, as that had been my fortune in the two previous experiments.”

A short while later Jesse attended the dedication of the St. George temple; it was his first temple dedication. He states,

“I attended the dedication of the St. George Temple, a dedicatory prayer being offered in the basement, on the first floor and also on the second floor. Having read and heard of the great manifestations of the power of God at the dedication of the Kirtland Temple, I could not repress a certain feeling of disappointment; although I heard no word spoken, yet I thought the feeling was general. Pres. Young spoke very severely about those who had come there unworthily. For my part I was there by invitation. I felt that I had tried to do right and had not injured anyone.”

Jesse continued to struggle with members of the church who wrongly censured him.

“I also attended the general conference in the temple at St. George April 6, 1877. Pres. Young in his remarks censured a number of per­sons very severely. On his way north at Parowan he called a meeting with a view of reorganizing our stake. Nominations were called for president of the stake. Paul Smith nominated William H. Dame, but it was not put to vote. Pres. D. H. Wells nominated me, whereupon William C. McGregor arose and made objections, stating that I was arbitrary in my disposition, and that during the absence of Bro. Dame in prison, I had tyrannized over the people. I knew this last to be a lie but nobody rectified it. The vote was put and lost, the actual vote for and against being perhaps nearly even, but many not voting at all. I felt much hurt but had not the opportunity to say a word in my own behalf.

Pres. Young afterwards said at Bro. Dame's house, as reported to me by Bishop Lunt of Cedar City that all those who voted against me would apostatize. I could not blame any for voting against me, but I felt hurt that false statements should be made about me before President Young, and for them to go unchallenged.”









Never Shirk Your Duty[55]

Levi Mathers Savage was called to the Woodruff mission and was a bishop there for 28 years. All of his kids left Woodruff as they could because it was such a hard area to live. Levi Mathers continued to stay there however. He had been released as a Bishop, but did not consider that a release from his mission and so he continued to stay in Woodruff, even though it had such a difficult living environment.

Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles related the following story about Levi Mathers Savage:

“Levi M. Savage was a Latter-day Saint pioneer called to settle eastern Arizona. Year after year, he labored faithfully in his assigned area. Finally, after his large family was reared, he wanted a little rest. He would not ask to be released from his mission, but he allowed his stake president to contact President Joseph F. Smith in Salt Lake City to advise that at age 70 Brother Savage was still “doing day’s work on the Woodruff Dam, walking six miles to and from the place of his work.” The emissary asked whether Brother Savage had fulfilled his mission and could now leave and live in another place, but added that “he is willing to stay provided we think it is best for him to do so.” The president of the Church sent word that Brother Savage should ‘consider himself free to make his home elsewhere.’

“After receiving that word, Brother Savage remained for an additional time until the new dam was built to get the water into the valley again. Only then did Levi Savage feel relieved of the duty imposed on him by priesthood authority in 1871, 47 years earlier. What a heritage of faith and service for the spiritual inheritance of his posterity and others!”

**

In 1876 Lorenzo Hill Hatch was called to Arizona Mission by Brigham Young. It was a difficult mission and required a great deal of hard labor. Though he was living in a hard area, he did not seek a release from his mission, though he had been laboring there for many years. In fact, when one his son’s mentioned that he had heard a rumor that Lorenzo had been released from his mission (after being there for eighteen years) Lorenzo said, “I was surprised to hear that I was released. This is the first I have heard about the matter and conclude it is rumor. I have never sought a release and never shall.”

A year later Lorenzo’s third wife Alice died and his second wife Catherine, who was living in Cache Valley, UT wrote him a letter requesting that he come home to her as she did not feel like coming to Arizona. Lorenzo wrote to the First Presidency and acquainted them with his circumstances. He received the following reply:

Dear Brother: I am directed, by the First Presidency, to say that they are of the opinion, after reading Brother Hatch's letter, that it would be better for him to remain in the field of labor to which he has been appointed, in Arizona, than to return to Cache Valley. They also think it would be well for him to have the wife join him who could be the most comfort and help to him in his advancing years. George Reynolds, Sec.
Lorenzo made arrangements for Catherine to come to Arizona and did not complain. He continued his missionary labors until he was seventy four years old. At this time he fell from a load of hay and dislocated his ankle and displaced his heel.

When his sons heard of the accident they determined to write to the First Presidency and requested that their father be released from his mission in which he had served so long and diligently.

The sons, Lafayette, Hezekiah, Hyrum, and Lorin, cited their father's age, (75), his recent accident and other infirmities, and his inability to support himself in Arizona without assistance from Utah, as the reason for their request. They were careful to say that the letter was written without Lorenzo's wish or knowledge. They knew their father would never approve such a request and may have felt a fear and trembling should he find

The four “boys” were quite plain in telling the First Presidency that, "We do not know how father will feel regarding a release, but if it comes from you we are sure he will accept it as being all right; while if he felt that it came through any intervention on our part, he might not accept it with good feelings. For this reason we would prefer that you investigate the matter fully, when and if, it meets your [approval] to grant him an honorable release, we shall be grateful."

President Snow must have handled the matter with utmost diplomacy, as there is no indication that Lorenzo was aware of the intervention of his sons. Released from his mission after twenty four years of labor, Lorenzo returned to Utah.







A Prompting in the Night[56]

John Fenn and his second wife Lucy had been married a little over a year and had just welcomed their first child into the world. They were living in Colonia Diaz, Chihuahua, Mexico, so that John could avoid prosecution for being a polygamist.

John’s first wife, Matilda was back in Salina, Utah. A few months after John had left to Mexico she became very ill. After many attempts to heal her, her friends and family finally gave her up for dead.

At this same, one night, at midnight, John awoke with a start and said to his wife, “Lucy, wake up! Matilda is awful sick and a voice told me if I wanted her to live to get up and pray for her.”

Aunt Lucy said, “Oh, you are just dreaming.”

But John insisted. The voice came to him the second time and they got up and prayed. Matilda said just at that time she was made well and told the folks that they all could go home, she was well. They were all astonished and George Fenn (John’s dad) said, “Oh, our John has been praying for you.”

John returned for Matilda and their children and took his entire family back to Utah with him.



The Healing of Hannah Adeline Hatch Savage[57]

On a few sacred occasions during her childhood, Ruth Naomi was referred to as “a child of promise.” This is the story of how she came to have this designation.

Ruth Naomi wrote about the day she first learned that she was ‘a child of promise’: “On the particular afternoon in question I recall very vividly the jagged rocks which were yet un-plastered either inside or out. Mother was seated in a high backed rocking chair just inside and to the right of the front door. I entered through a screen door. I was only a little girl (somewhere around my fourth birthday). I put one hand into one of the small cave like holes left in laying the jagged rock. This hole was near my mother’s knee.

‘I could steal a fan from Sister Dewitt’s store and hide it in this hole,’ I said,

“The look mother gave me I’ll never forget. Perhaps it was one of surprise, that a mere baby would voice such a thought, or was it real pain? I do not know, I do know though that she dropped her sewing and pulled me close up to the huge arm of her chair, and said, “Oh! My promised child, you will never steal anything - not even a pin, will you?”

“She was desperately earnest, almost enough to frighten me. I countered "promised child!, what does that mean?" Then she pulled me closer, I saw tears in her black eyes, as she tried to make me understand how my coming had been anxiously awaited by both my parents and the faith they had that I would grow to fine, virtuous womanhood.”

Then Ruth’s mother, Hannah Adeline Hatch Savage related to Ruth the promise surrounding her birth. The story of this special promise starts in the spring of 1889. Adeline had suffered with poor health for many years and was admitted to the Deseret Hospital in Salt Lake City. Surgery was planned for the next day, and Patriarch George W. Brimhall was called to the hospital to give her a preoperative blessing. The events of that unusual experience are recorded in the personal journal of Adeline Hatch as follows:

“I had been bound in my bed for a year and eight months... the doctor told me that I must go through an operation and I had made up my mind to do so at that time. But the patriarch [George W. Brimhall] in blessing me, told me: (1) the operation would not be performed but that (2) the Lord would heal me and (3) in 28 days I would sit up...The evil one has striven in every conceivable way to take your life, (4) but he will not have power for you shall live...The patriarch promised that, (5) I should bear another daughter (the operation that had been planned would have made childbirth impossible) and, (6) that her name should be Ruth Naomi--(7) that she would be a great woman...(8) she would be a mother of a son that, (9) would be very humble and would be a great prophet and be much beloved. That he would redeem the land of Israel in the land of Moab'. (The above blessing was subdivided into numbered sections by Eugene Hilton.)”

The fulfillment of this remarkable prophecy includes the following: the operation was not performed the Lord healed Adeline, within 28 days she did sit up, she did live, she did bear another child, which child was a daughter and the name of Ruth Naomi was bestowed. Eugene Hilton noted, “I have concluded that, except for the prediction in the Book of Mormon, where in Mosiah 3:8, and in Alma 7:10, the name of Mary the mother of the Lord is foretold, I could find no other instance where the name of a woman and a statement of her mission was given before her birth.” Truly Ruth Naomi was to be a child of promise.

The family is still uncertain as to which of Ruth's sons should be defined as "a great prophet". It several of her sons rendered such great service in building up of the latter-day kingdom that they could be defined as great prophets. Ruth’s husband, Eugene Hilton has written extensively concerning the fulfillment of both this and the Moab prophecy.[58]

As a postscript, consider this experience which happened years later. Eugene Hilton related the following, “When our first son was a baby, we went to Bro. John Hatch to get a blessing from him. When he placed his hands on Ruth's head, he at first started as all blessings are started, but soon changed, and among the other things he told her that her name had been revealed from the heavens. After the blessing was over he asked, ‘What is this I have said about your name being revealed from the hea­vens?’ Then we told him the story of the promises of which he had never heard.”
The Prophecy of Hannah Adeline Hatch Savage[59]

Hannah Adeline Hatch Savage had the gift of prophecy which she demonstrated on many occasions.

For many years the people of Woodruff remembered a special prophecy that was revealed through her. On one occasion she stated “I prophecy in the name of Jesus Christ that there will be water flowing through the ditches of Woodruff—a stable supply and it shall be clear water.” Such a thing was unheard of at the time she made this prophecy. The water of the little Colorado River was always muddy.

Grandmother Adeline passed away two years before the fulfillment of her prophecy, when there was indeed a new water system with stable clear water flowing through the ditches of her beloved Woodruff.


Clarence Shumway and the Loaf of Bread[60]

Clarence Shumway was called to serve a mission in the Eastern States mission. His call came after he was already married and had two young children. One week of his mission was particularly discouraging. He and his companion had been trying to find a convenient place to stay the night, but they weren’t able to. It was dark and they were 16 miles from the next town. His companion said that they should walk on and they continued walking until sunrise.

They stopped by a stream to rest. Clarence had not had anything to eat for 24 hours. He soaked his feet in the stream and said, “I wish I could have some of Esther’s homemade bread right now. He looked over at a bush and saw a white cloth. It looked like one of Esther’s dish towels and inside were two loaves of bread which tasted just like Esther’s bread. Clarence was grateful for the bread and kept the dish towel.

When he returned from his mission Esther saw the dish towel and said, “That’s my dish towel! Where did you find it?”

Clarence related his story, and then Esther told one of her own. On the same day that Clarence found the bread Esther had made two extra loaves of bread which she had covered with a dish towel. Later she was not able to find either the dish towel or the bread.

A Missionary Matchmaker[61]

While Isaac was a missionary in Kentucky (part of the East Central States Mission), he became acquainted with the Roberts family, who always loved the missionaries and invited them over for dinner and visits many times.

Isaac had a dream of one of their daughters, Mary Roberts, and his brother Arthur Fenn, our father. He saw them as a married couple and saw Mary flying in the sky and Arthur walking beneath her.

Arthur was 33 years of age and still not married. Isaac was impressed to tell his brother of
this young woman from Bradfordsville, Kentucky. He encouraged Arthur to write to Mary, which he did. Mary was really surprised to get a letter from a strange man from Arizona, but, after finding out the letter was from Isaac's brother, she wrote him back. After they had written to each other for a number of months, Arthur sent Mary one hundred dollars and asked her to come to Arizona to marry him. She quickly returned the money to him with a note stating that, if he wanted her, he would have to come to Kentucky for her. She told her sister, “I wasn’t going to marry someone I'd never seen.”

Arthur purchased a new Model A Ford and spent a week traveling to Kentucky. When he arrived in Kentucky, Mary had a cold. Arthur thought that Mary might have tuberculosis and got the idea in his mind to marry Nell, Mary’s sister, instead.

When Isaac heard of this he told Arthur, “No you're not marrying Nell; Mary is the one you are to marry. If you don't marry Mary, you will be very sorry.”

Arthur took his brother’s advice, Mary healed and they were married 9 May 1929…by Isaac Fenn.

As years went by, Isaac’s words to Arthur were shown to be words of inspiration or prophecy. Nell was never able to have children; Arthur and Mary became the parents of thirteen children.


The Mission of Isaac Fenn[62]

Recollections of three individuals acquainted with Elder Isaac Fenn give an impression of the type of missionary he was.

Isaac’s companion Elder Baird recorded this event on the last night of Isaac’s mission:

“We went to Brownsville where we spent two days holding meetings and visiting members. We held a meeting one night. I spoke first and didn't talk very long when Elder Fenn slid his watch on the table in front of me. I looked at it and went on talking. Then I felt a kick on the shin so I looked at him and he gave me to understand he wanted to have some time. I soon stopped and he then took up one hour and never in my life did I hear more gospel preached.”

Merlin Orme, the Missionary Secretary wrote this of Elder Fenn:

“He had a strong testimony of the gospel and had become an avid student of the scriptures. He had little interest in anything other than the gospel and the missionary work, and of course those he had left back home. [At a mission conference] all the Elders spoke and Elder Fenn talked so forcefully and with such command of the scriptures that he was just about the talk of the conference. Many people were heard to say, “He would be an outstanding missionary and an outstanding speaker.”

Upon Isaac’s death his Mission President wrote:

“I am very sorry to say that we have had the misfortune just recently of losing one of our most efficient missionaries…

“With the passing of elder Isaac Fenn, I feel that I have lost a very dear friend. He has been a staunch supporter of this mission and an able defender of the gospel of Jesus Christ, a firm believer in all of the principles as restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith, and he has left his testimony with a great many people in Louisville and the surrounding country. He has a host of friends, exclusive of the members of the church, who have listened to his message and to the testimony he has borne to them.

“I have depended a great deal upon Elder Fenn for certain phases of the work here and I deeply feel his loss at this time. It came as a great shock to us.”

No Righteous Man is Ever Taken Before His Time[63]

Isaac Fenn drowned while serving as a missionary in the Eastern Central States Misson. The circumstances surrounding his death lead add to one’s faith in the statement by Joseph Fielding Smith that “No righteous man is ever taken before his time” (Ensign, Dec. 1971, 10).

Elder Isaac’s Fenn’s companion, Elder James H. Baird wrote about the time period leading up to Isaac’s death in the following words:

“My companion Elder Fenn went to the hospital to have his tonsils removed. He was operated on Friday. The next Sunday morning after Sunday School, the office staff and Elder Knight and I were just leaving to go visit him when he walked into the room having gone over to our room taken a bath, shaved, changed his clothes. He was not supposed to leave the hospital until Monday but was so insistent that the doctor let him go.

“He seemed to be getting along nicely. As we were getting ready for bed he coughed and started bleeding again. I tried my best to get it stopped, not succeeding I called Sister Blake (the landlady) and together we worked on him. Soon we called a taxi and took him back to the hospital. The doctors worked over him all day Monday and he was getting weaker all the time. We missionaries and members called a special fast and prayed for him. He got better but had a weak leg for the remainder of his mission. The night after we fasted and prayed for him, I dreamed I took his body home to Arizona. Well for a while he was kept at the office where he did a limited amount of work. I was given another companion, and we went out in the country for a while.

“After conference I was assigned to work again with Elder Fenn. A few days later we started out to visit some members who lived across the Green River (the Green River is about 1/4 to 1/2 mile wide depending where you are, about 20 to 40 feet deep and runs with hardly any current).”

There were two ways to get across the river. A man operated a boat that went back and forth, but he was feeling ill at that time and wouldn’t take the missionaries across.

The only other way across was to use the common rowboat. It is the custom in the South, to leave a boat at the crossing, a row boat. If you came down to the crossing and the boat is on the other side, you simply waited for someone to row across to your side. Sometimes the wait is only a few minutes, sometimes an hour, sometimes a whole day.

Elder Baird continues: “We sat down in the shade of some trees on the river bank and held a study class hoping someone would bring the boat over. As was our way of doing we took turns reading the scriptures. He would read five verses then I would read five verses. When I finished reading my verses I stopped and waited for him to start. I looked up and he was looking out into the river as if in thought. He came to with a start and read five more verses. The same thing happened twice again. At the close of our study time he decided to read the words to the song, "O My Father" rather than us trying to sing it.

“When he finished he made the remark, "If everybody would read that song and believe it, there wouldn't need to be any missionaries; everyone would be converted." Then I really received a shock.

“He started taking off his clothes, and I asked what he was doing He said we had to have that boat and he was going after it. What shocked me most was the fact that while in Louisville some of we Elders went down to the Y.M.C.A. for a swim. He refused to go with (us) saying we were to stay away from water, and that a bathtub was big enough for him.”

Regarding Isaac’s rigidity of avoiding the water, the Mission Secretary wrote, “Elder Fenn lived mission rules almost to the letter. Most of the rest of us bent them a little at times. For instance, one of the rules was that we were not to swim in the rivers. Traveling in the country there was not much place to bathe but in the rivers. Most of us sneaked a little swim when we bathed so those of us who knew how to swim did practice a little although very carefully. Elder Fenn had never been in water, he bathed on the bank, nor swam a stroke in the year he'd been there.”

Isaac’s missionary handbook stated, “Elders are not to swim in open water…unless their duty would require it.” Apparently, Elder Fenn felt his duty required getting the boat in order to keep their appointment.

Elder Baird continues: “Isaac remarked about his leg hurting him and I suggested maybe I should go. His remark was he'd hate to have to get me out of the river. He said that he had swum further distances in the past.

“I stood on the bank as he began to swim across the river. About the middle of the river he hesitated a moment then disappeared and reappeared, gave one call for help and was gone. I found myself with my shoes and my pants partly off when I heard a voice which said, "Son, don't go in the water." I looked up to see my mother who had died when I was two years old, standing there. She remained only a second.

“Then the woman [we were going to visit came to where I was at.] She was visiting a sick lady on that side of the river. She had seen us pass the house and recognized us as missionaries by our stick grips. She had made several attempts to come out to talk to us, but each time something came up to keep her there.

It was later discovered that the ferry man, whose illness in some respects caused Isaac to swim across, recovered hours after Isaac’s death.

“My first thought was to get word to President Jones. After hearing the details of the drowning and looking the situation over, President Jones decided to wait until morning to do any searching for the body. Next morning after a sleepless night and with the help of the county Sheriff, who was a member of the church, we got the help of a real river man with some experience at recovering bodies. With information from President Jones, who during the night was shown just where the body lay, the body was soon recovered.

“President Jones came to me and said I should prepare to take the body back to Arizona. The dream I'd had two months earlier flashed through my mind and I knew now that it would be fulfilled.”

Opa and Temple Hill Need MorePreaching to a Hostile Congregation[64]

Eugene Hilton served in the Eastern States mission. There was a great deal of persecution against the Mormons throughout the Eastern United States. About four or five months after being out, early in the winter of 1913, Eugene was serving in Camden, NJ.

A man named Hans Freeze was training to be a lawyer in New York and came to Camden to deliver a series of seven talks in seven different Camden churches. The last of these was to be given at the Linden Baptist Church (a very large church), only a few blocks from Eugene’s apartment. Hans was to speak on the Mormons and his words would not be flattering.

Six of the Elders, including Eugene went to attend; they came with pockets full of tracts they planned to hand out afterwards, in order to counter the false message Hans would present.

Hans told the congregation that Mormons were the most peculiar people on the earth. “They baptize people as proxies for those who are dead!” He said mockingly.

After he finished his talk, there was great silence in this big auditorium. Hans had to leave immediately and so he departed.

Then the presiding minister got up and said, “I observe that there are some of these Mormon elders here in this audience. I wonder if they would like to get up and say a word or two.” The minister then asked the congregation whether it was appropriate for Mormon missionaries to speak in the church.

Many present felt like it would be a desecration to the church and they voted not to let the missionaries speak. Then a man in the back stood up and said, “We are all American Citizens. What are we doing here, to listen to Mr. Freeze tell about this Mormon elders beliefs and now we vote that they can’t explain their side of the story? Let’s reconsider this thing and give him a chance to talk.”

This man’s voice swayed the opinion in the room. The minister then asked if any of the Elders would like to respond to the remarks of Mr. Freeze. Eugene said, “I immediately arose and said yes, I’d like to say as many words as you’ll allow us to.” And he started towards the front of the room and went to the same pulpit where Hans had stood.

Eugene opened the Bible and said “I would like to quote from the bible Mr. Freeze has referred to here, and show you how unreliable the things are that he has told you are. You’ll recall that he mentioned the strange practice of the Mormons of being baptized for the dead. But he didn’t turn to the Bible and tell you that the Bible said that the saints in ancient days also were proxies and baptized for the dead. I want to read to you from 1 Corinthians 15:29, which reads, “Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead if the dead rise not at all. Why are they then baptized for the dead?”

Eugene paused, and then continued. “You heard Mr. Freeze mocking at the fact that there is baptism for the dead among the Mormons. You’ve heard me refer to your bible showing saying that there was this same doctrine in the days the Bible was written. How many of you have baptism for the dead in your church?

“Well we do in the restored church which is the true church of Christ restored to the earth again. And we invite you to investigate it and change your lives. You might even decide to become a members of the true church of Jesus Christ in this latter day.”

Eugene continued to speak for some time, until the minister got up and said, “Your time is up,” and started him back down to the congregation. As Eugene went to sit down everyone was shaking his hand and there was a general commotion. The minister rapped for attention and asked for somebody to give a closing prayer.

After the meeting was over, the elders were shooed out of the building. Crowds gathered around the elders and began to question and talk with them. They formed a street meeting and began answering people’s questions.

Finally a policeman came up and asked them to move off the sidewalk. They did so and continued to meet on the street.








A Tracting Healing[65]

The following story was related by Eugene Hilton:

“While I was serving in the Eastern States Mission, I was in Camden, NJ and while tracting there, two young men came to the door. I talked to them and said that we were sent to call repentance and tell them of the restoration of the gospel and its attendant blessing.

“They asked, ‘Does that have anything to do with healing the sick?’

“I said that many people had been heal in connection with their faith in the restoration.

“They said, ‘Our father is really sick. Would you be willing to come and pray for him?’

“I said, ‘Yes if you would like me and he would like me too.’

“So I went in and met with the old gentleman. He was about 65 years old, but it was evident that he was very sick. I placed my hands on his head and gave him a blessing that he would be comforted and relieved of his pain, and that in due time he would regain his health.

“After giving the blessing, I continued with my tracting.

“About fifteen or twenty years later I was living in Blackfoot, ID. Two young men came to Salt Lake and said that they were the children on this man who received the blessing for his health. They wanted to know where Elder Hilton was. They looked in the directory and saw that there were several Hiltons and directed them to the Hiltons in Pleasant Grove, UT where my cousins lived.

The men arrived in Pleasant Grove where they met my cousins. They told my cousins that their father had recovered and they wanted to thank me for the healing administration. My cousins wrote telling me about them and then I responded to the men by thanking them for coming to see me and my sorrow at not getting out to see them.

I told them that no thanks were due me as I was only an instrument in the hand of the Lord, but that I was glad that they had come to Utah. I advised them to investigate this church as they should be able to see that I was able to act beyond the power I had. Whether they ever joined the church, I do not know.


Coming Back From Defeat[66]

Before turning eighteen, Eugene Hilton went to the Brigham Young Academy. He had little money at the time but tried to earn some money to keep him going through school. About this time his father wrote and told him to come home as he was needed. In his own words, he wrote:

“This was a sad time for me. I had greatly enjoyed my short half year in high school at the B.Y. Academy and I greatly missed my school friends when I returned to dreary Abraham.

“The real heartbreaking sorrows started when I went as the rules of the school required, to tell President George H. Brimhall of the BYA that I had to go home. He asked me about my unpaid tuition. I replied truthfully that I didn't have the money. I shall never forget his stern remark as he ushered me out of his office, ‘You didn't have any money when you came here.’ That was all. He didn't say "goodbye" nor ask me to come back later. I returned to the drab and difficult life of Abraham with a heavy heart.”

Incidentally, Eugene lived to see the day when President Brimhall spoke very highly of him and requested that he teach a class of prospective missionaries at the Academy. (This happened when Eugene was a student in 1915 in his first college year following his mission.)

Though Eugene had to go back home he did not wallow in self pity. When he arrived back from the "Y" to see what this important work was that he must do on the family farm, he was assigned a job that would take several months, to haul all the manure from the corrals out into the fields. As the weeks went by, his heart was at the "Y".

With this, the most menial of all tasks, it would be easy for one to feel sorry for one's self. But that was not his style. He said, “Well, all the pity in the world will not change the facts: here I am, that stuff has got to be hauled, I'll do it. But I am going to make the best of this situation. I am going to learn how to sing.” So as the months went by, occasionally with help from his little brother, he learned how to sing, sitting on that wagon going back and forth. I think one of his favorites at that time was “Without a Song The Day Will Never End.” His determination paid off. Eugene developed a beautiful voice, and in later years was often requested to sing for others. Most did not know that Eugene learned to sing while hauling manure.



Lifesaving Interventions[67]

Eugene Hilton wrote:

“Just about the time I turned seventeen I was hired by Herb Taylor to make a two day trip to the mountains for fence posts. I drove his three horse team. The "third horse" was still wild. There were four wagons in our group, it was late in the fail of the year and we got caught in a freezing sleet and snow blizzard. Our loaded wagons mired down and had to be abandoned just as darkness came on us about twenty miles from home with no one living in between. I turned the team loose to find their way home while I put my quilts under the harness on the partly broken mare and got on her to ride with my gun in my hand. Mine was the last wagon and the others had unhitched and were way ahead when I finally got on my horse. Wanting to catch up I started out on a trot. The quilts slipped, frightening the mare and she threw me off. I was truly alarmed with fright, knowing the real danger I was in. I prayed earnestly for help, real help, and it came!

“I am sure that some unseen power caused that mare to stop after running out of sight in the darkness. After walking a little distance toward home I dimly saw this wild mare standing there, still like a statue. I very gently and carefully went up to her, caught her and rode her home. Had I not done so I would very likely have died of fatigue and cold. I was not dressed for such cold weather and was nearly frozen when I reached home. About a mile from home I met my brother Roy coming on a horse to hunt for me. Although it was very late mother was waiting for me at home with a hot fire and some warm food. I put my feet and hands in a bucket of cold water to draw out the frost. We finally had to cut the sox to get them off my feet.”

**

On another occasion, sometime in his seventeenth year, Eugene and some friends went ice skating. Eugene stayed behind to tie up the horses and his friends went skating ahead of him. He put on his ice skates and hurried to catch up, and in his hurry he moved into an area where the riverbank was high and couldn’t reach the side.

He was unaware that there was a hole in the ice but quickly became aware as he fell into a hole of and found himself sopping wet. The next thing he knew he was on the bank of the river trying to shake the water off of himself.

He said, “I don’t know how I ever got up on the bank, but there was some supernatural power that lifted me up there. I’m sure of that.”

A Healing of Ruth Naomi[68]

When Ruth was about 13 years old she became very seriously ill. Her finger ends were blue, with purple nails and in every way she seemed to be in a dying state. When the doctor visited her he said, “There is nothing more I can do. She will not live more than an hour or so.” Ruth's mother sent for a church member to come and dedicate the body. This good brother had the gift of healing.

When he arrived, he placed his hands upon her head, closed his eyes and instead of de­dicating Ruth’s body for death, he rebuked the destroyer; he promised her that she would get well and have health and strength; that she would study and receive an education and become a teacher; that she would fulfill missions and would hold many respon­sible positions in the church; that she would be married to a righteous man; that she would become the mother of a large family; and that she would become the mother of a Prophet.

After this man had finished the administration, he rushed home, his face very white. He said to his wife, “Susanne, that girl is nearly dead and I have promised her that she will live I. I did not promise her this of myself—I was impressed to give her this blessing. I want you to go over there and put forth works, while I put forth faith and prayer.” So saying, he went to the barn to pray.

Some of their young girls were in the room and one asked, “Mother, do you think that Ruth will die?” Their Mother answered, “You heard what your father said—of course she won't die. Now, don't you girls just stand there talking—pray!”

Susanne then took off her apron, picked up her little black bag that she always carried with her when she went on a case, and hurriedly went to Bishop Savage's home where she worked swiftly to warm up Ruth's body by bathing her in warm water and rubbing to get the blood circulating. All the time she worked, she was silently praying for assistance from our Heavenly Father.

Hours later, when she returned home, her husband was still praying. Ruth’s life was spared. She was healed and was out of bed in a few days. The blessing was fulfilled.

Opa and Henry[69]

Eugene Hilton had some sacred experiences while doing family history and temple work. The following account is a version of events written by Eugene, published in a book entitled The Celestial Connection.

Although I had sent many thousand of Hilton names to the temple, I still (as Henry later informed me) had not found all of the identi­fying information for Henry Hilton, his wife Ann, and their chil­dren. Henry’s first appearance to me in the Oakland Temple on April 1974 came as a great surprise. After that, I knew he would come again.

The 1851 census listed Henry, age sixteen, living with his parents, on Velvet Walks, Bolton, England. From an account of his wife’s death which Henry had sent to his brother Hugh in Virgin City, Utah, we knew that her name was Ann. This information indicated she had died in Bolton 22 December 1876.

On the basis of this information her temple work, including the endowment, was done in the St. George Temple in 1888. She was listed on the records there as Ann, wife of Henry Hilton.

Since no record of Henry’s death was ever found, his temple work had not been done and was still not accomplished one hundred years after his birth in 1835. We relatives living near the temple could have officiated for him then, in 1935, but all the Hilton family, including myself, thought that all possible temple work for the family had been completed years before.

Then, in 1951, we finally could submit the entry of Henry Hilton. It was not until I returned from my mission to England in 1953 that I discovered the work we thought had been done for Henry had been cancelled! I then submitted several additional items of pertinent evidence, but still approval to do Henry’s work was not granted until the spring of 1974. Without delay we proceeded to the temple to take care of his ordinances.

I reported Henry’s first appearance to President Chase, who was on duty in the Oakland Temple. He then asked me to write an account of it for the Temple history. It follows:

To the Oakland Temple Presidency and to my family. (April 24, 1974.) I had a remarkable experience last evening in the Oak­land Temple while acting as proxy for Henry Hilton, my grand­father’s brother. He was born in Bolton, Lancashire, England, in 1835, and lived and died in England.

My grandfather, Hugh Hilton, was the first of his father’s family and the first Hilton to join the Church in England. He was baptized in 1840 and finally came to Utah in 1852.

My great-uncle, Henry, for whom I was working, was named after his older brother, Henry Taylor Hilton, who died at age two years and three months just before the second Henry was born. When the work for the Hugh Hilton family was done in the St. George Temple in 1888, shortly after its dedication, the second Henry was in some way omitted from my grandfather’s family.

I became aware of this omission some twenty years ago while doing the Hilton genealogical work, and accordingly began the search for identifying information to enable me to do Henry’s work and place him in his proper position in his father’s family. A few months ago I finally succeeded, and after several unsuccess­ful tries and years of waiting I at last received authorization to do Henry’s temple work.

I acted as proxy for Henry in the ... session. . . . Never in my life was I so surprised as when I raised my head from meditating and saw the clear image of Henry Hilton standing in the empty row in front, looking down at me. He was as clear to see as a liv­ing person and looked very much like a typical Hilton with his big brown eyes, heavy brown hair and eyebrows. He was dressed in temple clothing which was very white and slightly luminous. He seemed to be standing; with a group whom I could faintly see in the background. He remained for what seemed to be almost a minute as I studied his features and looked into his very bright eyes.

I began to wonder if Joe Roy and his sons, Tom and Joe Roy, Jr., had also seen him, for they were sitting immediately to my left. In discussing the matter afterwards I found that neither of them had seen this vision. I believe that those persons in the background were likely Henry’s wife and children, but I could not see their countenances. This entire experience convinced me that my Henry, for whom I had searched so long, was indeed thankful to be endowed and that he wanted me to do the work for his entire family.

We are beginning at once the search for Henry’s family, and those of us here at the Oakland Temple will do their work as soon as possible.

This appearance informed me that he and the other spirit beings who appeared in the temple with him were pleased that Henry had at last been found and that they were there with him when I did his endowment work. Thus Henry’s first assignment to us was completed. As I learned later, each of his three visits was timed and patterned to help us with the work we were then under­taking and with that which lay immediately ahead ù but no more.

While I was greatly reassured by Henry’s first appearance to me in the temple, I knew that we faced very many difficult obstacles in trying to find our Henry and his family among the many Henry Hiltons in the Bolton, England, and nearby records.

Although my very able son Lynn had, with our hired geneal­ogist, put in many fruitless hours trying to identify our Henry, I now asked him to try once again. This time they must find an adult Henry married to a wife named Ann, and the couple must have several children. Information on him must agree with that which we already had accumulated. He must have been born in Little Bolton in 1835. His father would be William Hilton and his mother Sarah. There were to be several children, including an older brother Hugh. This brother Hugh was my grandfather. He was the key figure around which our search for the missing Henry had revolved, for it was in the vacant gap of several other siblings years below him in the family record of births that we have at long last correctly placed our Henry.

Before we began this renewed searching, Henry came again. My account of Henry’s second visit, which I wrote the morning after it occurred, is as follows:

To the Oakland Temple Presidency and to members of the Hilton family. This account of Henry Hilton’s appearance to me in a vivid dream in the night of May 21, 19574 is a supplement to his visit to me in the Oakland Temple on April 23 as reported to you in my recent letter requested by President Chase.

In both appearances Henry’s identity was clearly revealed to me. I had no question about who he was. In the temple he was dressed in temple [clothing] exactly like my own, but he did not speak to me. In my dream he was not dressed in temple [clothing] but in a vivid white robe. His countenance was much less clear than in the temple vision. Although he spoke in a whisper-like voice, it was easy to hear. His remarks were as if they could have naturally followed his temple appearance. They included refer­ence to his wife and children four or five of whom I had seen dimly behind him in the temple vision.

In my dream he began by telling of his effort to get some­one to do his temple work for him. He said that his wife, Ann, had died before him and that her temple work, together with that of his mother, Sarah, and his brother John, had been done in the St. George Temple in 1888. He explained that all but he were listed in the finished record of the family which was considered com­plete, but that he was left out and alone. He informed me that when I organized the Hilton Genealogical Society in 1918, and began to work as their genealogist, he had high hopes that I would find him. He said that he knew that my patriarchal blessing promised that the greatest of all your work in mortality would pertain to the work for the dead.

He continued approximately as follows. As time went on you continued to concentrate on gathering the numerous records of the ancient Hilton family. Finally, when your younger brother died and your sisters were sick and some of your brothers younger than you were not able to help you, I began to fear that you would die before my work was completed. It was then that I went to the Authorities… and requested that your life be lengthened until you could be inspired to gather the information for me and my family and that of my mother, and to get our temple work under way.

After some delay, they finally approved my request and authorized me to prompt you as necessary to insure that this work be done. I accordingly inspired you to recheck the St. George Temple records, where you could identify me. You found there that the endowment work for my wife, Ann (Mrs. Henry Hilton), who had died in 1876, had been done. I had sent the record of her death to my brother (your grandfather) Hugh Hilton, in Utah. From this you finally knew that I belonged as a child ù the second one named Henry ù in the William Hilton family and that I had grown to maturity. Thus, I had been named after my older brother, Henry Taylor Hilton, who had died in infancy shortly before I was born.

Another series of urgings on my part was for you to persist in submitting three different times my identifying information so that my temple work could be done. Finally, after some twenty years of searching and waiting, it was approved and you were so notified a short time ago.
I appeared to you in the temple when you, as my proxy, were completing my endowment work on April 23, 19747 My wife and children were among the... beings you dimly saw near me at that time. We are now prayerfully hoping that you will without further delay find our identifying information and seal my wife and children to me.

I now make an additional request: It is that you find the necessary information to do the temple work for the Hardman progenitors of my mother, your great-grandmother, Sarah Hard­man. Her maiden name has been thought to be Coltshear, but the record of her marriage to my father, William Hilton, on 3 January 1816, gives her name as Sarah Hardman. The marriage date on this certificate agrees exactly with the information in the St. George Temple of the marriage of William Hilton and his wife, Sarah. Her maiden name had not previously been known to you. Sarah Hardman’s name was found by you on her marriage certificate in the Bolton, England, parish church in January 1953 at the conclusion of your mission to Great Britain. Although you made a preliminary search, you failed to identify Sarah Hardman as my mother. Ac­cordingly, after some twenty years the work for her is still not done.

This rather long dream ended as suddenly as it had begun. Throughout it, I was listening to the words of Henry Hilton. He did all the talking and gave no opportunity for me to explain that I did search and found in the Bolton area records of four women named Sarah none of whom exactly fitted the information we already had. Also, had I been given the opportunity, I would have promised him that we would immediately begin a new search for the Hardman line.

Before we “saw the light at the end of the tunnel” in Bolton Le Moor, Lancashire, and found our Henry and his wife and family, we tested the information we had against the numerous Henry Hiltons of Lancashire, England. As the light began to grow brighter, satisfactory answers to all of the major questions were found.

The Bolton Le Moor marriage records for 1862 listed the marriage of Henry Hilton, bachelor, and Ann Morris Parkinson, widow, on May 21, 1862. Yes, this was it!

The fulfilling of the promise that my life would be lengthened is surely being realized. Of my ten siblings, three older and four younger than I have died. My three surviving brothers at the end of the family range from ten to eighteen years younger than I. Henry’s coming to me, I felt, was not because of any unusual worthi­ness on my part but because through many years of searching I know more of Henry’s case than any other mortal.

I always felt amazed at Henry’s knowledge of time and loca­tion. He came where I was, to my home at night when there was nothing to disturb, and even in the temple at the optimum time.

He utilized my ability to see, to hear, and to receive precise and clear revelation. In all there was a spirit of peace and joy asso­ciated with his visits.

Henry’s third and final visit came on the night of Novem­ber 7, 1964, six long months after his second visit. He came during the night following the receipt of a very disturbing letter from my son, Lynn, in Salt Lake City. Lynn reported that he and our genealogist had at long last located our Henry in the records at Bolton Le Moor. Here they also found the record of his marriage to a widow named Ann Morris Parkinson and the record of one child, Amelia, who had been born to Ann and her husband John Parkinson before he died. These records also told of two daughters born to Henry and Ann.

Then Lynn’s disturbing query was: What shall we do now? Ann had two husbands, with children by each. Lynn reminded me of the current practice of the Church that she should be sealed to her first husband. How then could we comply with Henry’s urgent request that this clearly identified Ann be sealed to him?

As if in answer to my prayers, Henry came again and gave clear and precise answers. The visit was as follows:

He appeared at my bedside much as he had in the second visit, in his somewhat luminous white robe, He did not speak but very clearly revealed to me, in what seemed to be a thought trans­fer process, the very timely facts listed below. He impressed these matters upon me, not as personal opinions only, but in as sure a manner as if relating the unchangeable facts of the gospel plan itself.

Henry reminded me, as before expressed in his second appearance, that they (Ann and the children) were with him and were worthy to appear in the temple to make their wishes known. He explained further that Ann, by appearing with him, was wit­nessing to me that she had used her God-given free agency and now requested that she be sealed to her second husband, Henry Hilton. By their presence, their children (the adult spirit beings who appeared with their parents) made it clear that they also had exer­cised their divine right of choice in this decision, the effect of which would extend throughout all eternity. Had Henry not come, Ann would have been sealed to her first husband. All that re­mained was the earthly sealing ordinances in the temple. It seemed that he must indeed have information which we lacked.

In full faith and confidence we accordingly set forth to the Genealogical Society authorities our request that Ann be sealed to her second husband. This request was in turn referred to the First Presidency for a final decision. On October 15, 1975, a letter arrived authorizing me to follow the request of Ann and the chil­dren to seal them to her second husband, Henry Hilton. This un­usual ordinance required the exercise of the sealing authority con­ferred upon me by President McKay at the dedication of the Oak­land Temple.

Although this joyful service for Henry, Ann, and the chil­dren was completed by the beginning of my eighty-seventh year, it is truly an inspiring experience to contemplate the fulness of joy which my grandfather’s brother, Henry, and Ann, his wife, with my grandfather Hugh, and Isabella, his wife, and all their relatives and friends are experiencing. There is joy in heaven as well as here upon the earth, for which we give glory and thanks to God.

Eugene Hilton and The Living Prophets[70]

Eugene Hilton had many intimate experiences with prophets of the church. While a missionary he took George Albert Smith around the World’s Fair.

Eugene had several opportunities to meet President David O. McKay before President McKay became the prophet. He remembered discussing education with President McKay as they were fellow schoolmasters.

Later in life, Ruth Naomi and Eugene were walking across Temple Square when he saw President McKay and four or five other people coming out of the tabernacle on the east side, facing of the temple. They were some distance apart and Eugene felt like it would be out of order for him to go and greet President McKay.

Eugene walked on slowly and nodded his head. President McKay turned around and came over to where Eugene was and reached out both of his hands and grasped Eugene’s hand. Eugene said, “I’m Brother Hilton, from Oakland.”

President McKay said, “Oh, just as well my mother would say, ‘I’m your mother.’”

He considered Joseph Fielding Smith and intimate friend and participated in prayer circles in the temple for about three years at the request of President Smith. This occurred usually once a week, while Eugene lived in Salt Lake. Following these circles Eugene and the thirteen other men present would visit with President Smith.

Harold B. Lee stayed with the Hilton’s on at least five occasions when Eugene was Stake President. One one occasion Eugene was invited into President Lee’s office and noticed that President Lee was reading a book that Eugene had written. President Lee said, “It’s a wonderful book.”

Eugene met Spencer W. Kimball in 1924 in Arizona. Eugene sang on many occasions with Spencer W. Kimball accompanying him at rotary club gatherings.

The Lord Will Prepare the Way[71]

John Hilton told the following story about how the Lord prepared a way for him and his wife to serve a part time mission together. At the time he was unemployed and vigorously looked for work.

“I was continuing to look for work when Jan and I were called in by the Oakland Stake President Bud Billiter and the Walnut Creek Stake President, William J. Parmley, to serve a part time three year mission to the Cambodian refugees living in Oakland. This call indicated that as soon as we were oriented I would be made a branch president over a new Cambodian branch.

“In my setting apart by President Billiter, I was promised employment so that I could serve this Cambodian mission. I had received much encouragement form Boeing in Seattle, but as I'd just been called to serve the Lord, and I did not feel I should leave the area.

“Almost immediately, through the help of a long time friend and colleague, Jim Call, I was offered an adequate job by Physics International in (Fremont California) We completely fell in love with and immersed ourselves into this Cambodian sub-culture. We still had home teacher contact with our own Walnut Creek Second Ward, but essentially physically and emotionally separated from them for our missionary work with the Cambodians.

“The work with the Cambodians was often frustrating, hopeless, arduous, time consuming, beloved and rewarding. We were released from this call in the summer of 1988, and almost immediately thereafter, my job at Physics International was terminated.”


An Inspired Calling[72]

When the Walnut Creek was divided, John Hilton was called to be the Bishop of the new Walnut Creek 2nd Ward. In organizing a new ward, John faced many challenges. Recounting one of these he said the following:

“We needed a leader for the new ward's Young Women's program. I personally didn't know many of the younger families that were to make up the new ward from the Pleasant Hill area, which made it difficult to make prayerful decisions with my counselors for this calling. Armand Drummond, who was to be my second counselor when the new ward and bishopric was to be announced in a few weeks, suggested that I come over to his house next Sunday after our meetings and he would invite some of active young families over for popcorn and I could get acquainted with them.

“Among others I was introduced to was Gerry Scott a recent dental school graduate and his wife and young children. I kept thinking what a wonderful leader hc would make as a scout master or something, but of course I did not mention to him of the plans for the new ward nor did I dream he would become such a good friend and my next counselor when Br. Drummond left. Anyway he went out of the room and I turned to talk with Evelyn his wife, a charming young mother with two or more beautiful children playing about her feet.

“I consciously thought to my self as we began small talk, she can't be our Young Women's leader as she needs to be home with her children on Tuesday nights. As soon as this thought passed, very clearly through my mind I began to tingle at the top of my head which tingle traveled down my back as such feeling do when I hear the Star Spangled Banner or some similar emotional occasion. But unlike my feelings before, this tingling did not stop but continued on as we continued our light conversation.

“Then I heard (it wasn't through me ears, but in my brain and it seemed like it had come through my ears), I heard the English words "John, that's the right girl, call her", I was completely taken aback and thought to my self 'John, you're overly exercised, you are working too long and hard on trying to get this organization arranged, you can't call her you haven't even met the other sisters yet.'. I was still tangling, the same inner head voice said "John, that's the right girl, call her, you haven't time to meet all the others.”

“I therefore stopped the small talk with sister Scott, and explained that we were dividing the wards, and that the Lord had called her to be the new Young Women's president, and I knew she had small children etc. . ,but. She paused only a moment to consider what I had said and answered "If the Lord has called me I will serve". Brother Drummond was flabbergasted to hear me say that, it wasn't what we had discussed in our private new-bishopric meetings, but I think he and Sister Scott both felt some of the thrill of revelation as well.

“On the way home I stopped to talk with my brother Joe Roy, first counselor in the Stake Presidency to make a report. His answer to me was "It isn't always the easy John, but wonderful, I wish it could always happen that way". When I talked to the Stake, just following the vote of organization of the new ward and the sustaining of the new Bishopric, Ire-counted this wonderful event to all, and even now when ever I see Sister Evelyn Scott I get this thrill remembering it.”
Know Your Knots[73]

Lee Hilton related the following story about a scouting trip he took with his father, John Hilton, who was the Scoutmaster.

“We took a day hike to Waterwheel Falls in Yosemite National Park. We were late in getting out of camp, but dad felt prompted to go back for a length of nylon rope—just in case. It was a warm day, and we were glad to arrive at the Falls where we could get a drink. One of the boys was either to hasty or reckless, as 13 year old scouts can be, and the next thing we knew, he was hollering and sliding down the slick granite for about 100 yards, where the water then plunged steeply down onto large rocks.

“He was a goner, but just as he went over the edge, he managed to grab hold of a large rock and pull himself to safety, except that he was in the middle of the falls with no means to escape back to dry land. Dad threw him the end of the nylon rope he had felt prompted to bring and told him to tie a bowline around his waist. Mike, who was never much for scouting skills, couldn’t remember how and tied a slip knot instead. Dad and the rest of the troop managed to pull him to safety, but not without a significant rope burn. As Dad pulled out his knife to cut the rope off, one of the other scouts shouted, “Gosh, Brother Hilton is so mad, he’s going to stab him!” Mike’s transgression was particularly egregious, as Dad placed a high priority on knowing how to tie a bowline.

“It seems that one day when Dad was in the Navy, the officer of the day called down to one of the sailors to secure the ship to the dock with a bowline. None of the sailors knew how to do it, except Dad, who quickly tied the knot and secured the ship. The officer demanded to know who that sailor was, and from then on, Dad received preferential treatment on board.”

A Naval Missionary Experience[74]

John Hilton said:

“Early on in my Naval experience, there was one sailor who was using the foulest language
imaginable. It was not the usual foul language that is almost universal in the service; it was worse than that. I was completely disgusted with him and his language. Someway I overheard someone shouting to this loud mouth with his extremely foul tongue. He said, "Oh, I'm from. . . Utah." The words just petrified me. You mean this foul mouthed jerk is a Mormon? I would have never dreamed of such a possibility.

“I said nothing to him or to anyone else. I was just disgusted. A few days later I was propped up in my bunk, and I was reading from my "Three-in-One" given to me by my older brother Lynn as I entered the Navy. This sailor came walking past, looked at me and saw that I was reading a "Three-in-One" and he burst out with, "Are you a Mormon?" I looked up to see who this was and recognized that foul mouthed jerk from Utah. I answered, "Yes I am. I suppose you know all about this book that I'm reading." He said a few words and went off. There was no serious interaction.

“Later on I think I said to him, " There's a Mormon meeting over here someplace that I'm going to go to, do you want to go over with me?" He said, "Oh, sure." I was utterly amazed. I had assumed anyone who used that kind of language wasn't one who went to church at all. As it turned out, he was very much interested in being associated with it.

“Within a few days I was able to have a serious long talk with him on how I was so revolted by his terrible language. He was able to swallow his inferiority complex that drove him into doing this and before we ever left the service he was speaking in an intelligible, decent way.”

Later, after John and the once foul-mouthed sailor were out of the navy, they roomed together while attending the Brigham Young University.

The Engagement of John and Jan Hilton[75]

Shortly after his mission, John Hilton returned to Provo and renewed his acquaintance with Jan Fenn. He recounted his proposal to Jan Fenn in these words:

“In those days we were encouraged to report our missions to a general authority of the Church. I went back up to Salt Lake City, taking Jan along for the ride, and was interviewed by John A. Widstoe. Jan waited down stairs in the old church office building.

“At the end of my report to Elder Widstoe, he congratulated me on what we had done and asked, ‘Is there anything I can answer for you.’

“I said, ‘Well, yes there is.’ I explained to him about my sweetheart, Jan Fenn.

“After he heard all of this he said, ‘Well you love her?’

“I replied, ‘Oh, yes.’

“‘Does she love you?’

“‘Oh yes, I think so.’

“‘Well then, I advise that you marry.’

“After that I went back down stairs and reported to Jan the advice I had received and formally asked her to marry me. She accepted, and we were formally engaged to be married. What a great and marvelous thing.”






Part III

Family History Potluck


A Letter From Joseph Smith[76]

Silas Smith, the father of Jesse N. Smith was baptized in the summer of 1835 by his Nephew, Hyrum Smith. According to Jesse N. Smith, “He [Silas] was slow about yielding obedience to the Gospel, owing to the determined opposition of his brother Jesse, of my mother, and of his older children.”

Silas received a letter from the prophet Joseph, encouraging him to join with the Saints in Kirtland.

Kirtland Mills, Ohio, Sept. 26, 1835.

Respected Uncle Silas:

It is with feelings of deep interest for the welfare of mankind which fill my mind on the reflection that all were formed by the hand of Him who will call the same to give an impartial account of all their works in the great day to which you and myself in common with them are bound, that I take up my pen and seat myself in an attitude to address a few though imperfect lines to you for your perusal.

I have no doubt but you will agree with me that men will be held account­able for the things they have, and not for the things they have not, or that all the light and intelligence communicated to them from their beneficent Creator whether it is much or little, by the same they in justice will be judged, and that they are required to yield obedience to, and improve upon that, and that only, which is given, for man is not to live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.

Seeing that the Lord has never given them to understand by anything heretofore revealed, that He had ceased to speak, forever, to His creatures, when sought unto in a proper manner, why should it be thought a thing incredible that he should be pleased to speak again, in these last days, for their salvation? Perhaps you may be surprised at this assertion, that I should say for the salvation of His creatures in these last days, since we have already in our possession a vast volume of His word, which he has previously given. But you will admit that the word spoken to Noah was not sufficient for Abraham, or it was not required of him to leave the land of his nativity, and seek an inheritance in a strange country upon the word spoken to Noah, but, for himself he obtained promises from the hand of the Lord, and walked in that perfection that he was called "the friend of God." Isaac, the promised seed, was not required to rest his hope alone on the promises made to his Father Abraham, but was privileged with the assurance of his approbation in the sight of Heaven, by the direct voice of the Lord to him.

If one man can live upon the revelations to another, might I not with propriety ask, why the necessity then, of the Lord's speaking to Isaac as he did, as is recorded in the 26th chapter of Genesis? For the Lord there repeats, or rather, promises again to perform the oath which he had pre­viously sworn to Abraham, and why this repetition to Isaac? Why was not the first promise as sure for Isaac as it was for Abraham? Was not Isaac Abraham's son, and could he not place implicit confidence in the veracity of his father as being a man of God?

Perhaps you may say that he was a very peculiar man, and different from men in these last days, consequently the Lord favored him with blessings peculiar and different, as he was different from man in this age. I admit that he was a peculiar man, and was not only peculiarly blessed, but greatly blessed. But all the peculiarity that I can discover in the man, or all the difference between him and men in this age, is, that he was more Holy and more perfect before God, and came to him with a purer heart, and more faith than men in this day…

…Job said that he knew that his Redeemer lived and that he should see Him in the flesh in the latter days. I may believe that Enoch walked with God and by faith was translated. I may believe that Noah was a perfect man in his generation and also walked with God. I may believe that Abraham communed with God and conversed with angels. I may believe that Isaac obtained renewal of the covenant made to Abraham by the direct voice of the Lord. I may believe that Jacob conversed with the holy angels, and heard the voice of his Maker, that he wrestled with the angel until he pre­vailed and obtained the blessing. I may believe that Elijah was taken to heaven in a chariot of fire with fiery horses. I may believe that the Saints saw the Lord and conversed with Him face to face after His resurrection. I may believe that the Hebrew church came to Mount Zion, and unto the city of the Living God the Heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable com­pany of angels. I may believe that they looked into eternity, and saw the Judge of all, and Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant. But will all this purchase an assurance for me, and waft me to the regions of eternal day, and seat me down in the presence of the King of Kings with my gar­ments spotless, pure and white? Or must I not rather obtain for myself by my own faith and diligence in keeping the commandments of the Lord, an assurance of salvation for myself? And have I not an equal privilege with the ancient saints? And will not the Lord hear my prayers and listen to my cries as soon as He ever did to theirs, if I come to Him in the manner they did? Or, is He a respecter of persons?

So I must close this subject for want of time, and I may with propriety say at the beginning—We would be glad to see you in Kirtland, we would be glad to see you embrace the New Covenant and be one with us. We sometimes think you are now one with us in heart.

I remain yours affectionately,

Joseph Smith, Jun.

In the spring of 1836, Silas emigrated to Kirtland, Ohio with his family.
Lines Dedicated to the Prophet, Joseph Smith, JR.[77]
Joel Hill Johnson, father of Janet Mauretta Johnson Smith, penned the following; the title is his own.
Thou servant of the living God,
Like thee I've sought among the sects,
To find a few that have not trod
The path His holy law rejects.
With thee, His Seer, I've found at last,
The keeper of my Father's house.
My lot, and all, with thee I cast,
To solemnize my youthful vows.
For thou art chosen of the Lord,
To gather up the pure and wise;
With Priesthood power as thy reward,
His Church again to organize.
Alone no longer can I roam;
My heart is with the pure and brave;
With thee and thine I'll find my home,
Myself and all my kin to save.
Thy holy cause I will defend,
While all thy sorrows, joys, and care,
Shall be my own, till life shall end,
With Thee eternal life to share.
A Poem for Jane Mathers Savage[78]

Jane Mathers Savage crossed the plains in company with Eliza R. Snow. Apparently they developed a strong friendship. At Jane’s passing, Eliza R. Snow wrote the following poem:

On the death of Mrs Jane Savage
By Miss E. R. Snow

Low in the dust the casket lies
In silence there to rest
The gem has gone to paradise
To shine among the blest

Twas sweet twas blessedness to die
As Jane has died and go
So early to the world on high
Secure from mortal woe

She liv'd a saint belov'd on earth
By friends, and kindrd dear
Who knew her well and priz'd her worth
And still her name revere

Tho gon from us she lives and moves
There in a lovely sphere
And yet remembers those she loves
Who morne her absence here.

Then dry your tears - weep not for Jane But faithfully prepare
To meet and dwell with her again
Where happy spirits are

To reach to masions of the blest
To join the holy song
And share the glorious day of rest
With all the ransom'd throng


A Discourse on Polygamy[79]

The following discourse was given by Jesse N. Smith on October 1, 1882. It is particularly interesting as it sheds light on how a practicing polygamist viewed polygamy and doctrinally justified it during a time period in which polygamists were persecuted by the United States Government.

“In the p.m. I spoke, first reading Gen. 5 :8. The word "concubine" is generally understood to mean something low, but such is not the case in the German and Danish Bibles. Abraham being a pure man we cannot suppose he did anything wrong in taking his second wife, who was also his wife and their son was a full heir, but the weakness of the first wife, Sarah, caused division. It has been said that Abra­ham did a cruel thing when he sent away his wife and child to the desert, but there must be something about it that we do not understand, for the Lord did not blame him for it but sent His angels to take care of the woman and the child in the desert. The Lord had respect unto Sarah also, and gave her a son in her old age.

“In the present age plural marriage is looked upon as being wrong by many, but I know of no reason why a good man cannot have more than one wife and live with them in a pure and blameless life. Men who marry for to gratify their lustful desires are not living pure lives. They are un­worthy. Those who have proved themselves worthy are the ones to take more wives. There are those in the eastern states who consider it a disgrace to raise large families of children. They take steps to prevent the increase of their species, and still indulge their passions. By so doing they violate and disobey the first great commandment, ‘Be fruitful and multiply.’ The first marriage on the earth was an eternal one. Man had not yet fallen. The union was for all eternity. God Himself performed the ceremony of marriage between the parties. This is the true type for all marriages. The sectarian priests of our day join a man and woman together in marriage until death shall them part. We rejoice that our feet have been planted upon solid ground, upon the rock of revelation.

“In the Sermon on the Mount we are admonished to build upon the rock, the rock of revelation. He who builds upon the structure of men builds upon the sand. Unless we are born again we cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven; unless we are born of the water and the spirit we cannot see the kingdom of God. Our Elders have often declared these truths. In the mouths of two witnesses every word shall be established. The gifts of God have been given unto us. In the midst of all the clamor against polygamy as understood by the Latter-day Saints the only real argument ever brought against it is this, the number of the males and females being nearly equal it is an injustice for some men to have more than one wife, as this will probably leave others without any at all. So far as proselyting goes far more women than men receive the gospel and join the Church. They will not marry outside the Church and were it not for the rev­elation restoring the principle of plural marriage they would be com­pelled to remain unmarried.

“The Gospel comes as a free gift, without money and without price, therefore within the reach of the poor, and it is generally the poor who receive it. When they have received it the spirit of gathering with the Saints rests upon them. They cannot be induced to stay away from the body of the Church for this is a gathering dispensation. Among other duties we are commanded to take our children to the Elders of the Church and have them blessed. This will fortify them against the powers of evil. In this world there is a continual warfare for man against the powers and principles of evil. In the physical world whoever cultivates the soil must contend with weeds, thorns and thistles; in the moral world the enemy throws temptations in the way of all who try to serve God. The tares are sown broadcast with the wheat; the evil one sows the weeds and they will thrive without any cultivating of them. The Saints should cling to these true principles, that there may be faith in the earth when the Lord shall come, and according to all the prophecies upon that subject He will come quickly.

“The Lord gave power to His servants to seal women unto men for time and for all eternity. If there is a good gift that can be bestowed upon man it is the gift of a pure woman. Are all men worthy of such a gift? Alas! No. Very few are worthy of it. God does not sanction the giving of a pure woman to a corrupt man. It is the desire of every woman to be the mother of pure and noble chil­dren, and God will not sanction her union with a corrupt man. What was the law of Moses? It was death to the adulterer. A society could not be established that God would acknowledge where the people cor­rupted themselves, and with Him such will always be the case, for with Him there is no variableness or shadow of turning. Can a wicked man be baptized? Yes, but it will do him no good unless he repents and the Father draws him. A man may be baptized that he may thereby get one of the daughters of Zion but such will not prosper.

“We soon go to decay, in this finite state. Not so with our Father; His work is one eternal round. A man will have to be very rebellious if he fails to gain some degree of glory for himself. If there are men approved of God above their fellowmen is it not consistent and prosper that unto them God should give good and virtuous wives? We desireth to do the works of Abraham and to be like him for he was the friend of God.”



A Pioneer Poet[80]

Joel Hill Johnson wrote ‘K have written nearly or quite one thousand spiritual hymns and ssacred songs, now in a manuscript entitle ‘Zion’s Songster, or the Songs of Joel.’ The following two poems are written by Joel, with an explanation (by him) of the circumstances that led to the second.

TRIALS
Go tell though of trials and toil,
of perils ye saints not a few,
of mobs, fire, destruction and spoils
All these I have freely passed through.
But yet to be robbed and cast down
By those that I love most dear
without any cause to me known
Are trials more keen and severe.

When loved ones to envy descent
The heart, to the center is torn
For wounds in the house of a friend
Are keenest of all to be borne
But still I will bear them in love
Nor wish any harm to my foes
And then to my father above
I'll go when life's journey shall close.
“February 14, 1857. Today I feel more to forgive and love my enemies and to rejoice and press forward in the work of the Lord than I ever did in my life before. The reformation having brought many principles of truth and virtue to my understanding that I never have before understood or realized. For which I feel to thank my Father in heaven. Although through the wrong precepts and examples, I have formerly received, and lies vanities, and things of no profit that I have inherited from my gentile forefathers, I may have neglected some of those holy principles, for which I have repented with all my heart, and feel the forgiveness and approbation of my heavenly father, and am determined to never knowingly violate any principle of the Holy religion that my soul loves through the assistance of him, whose servant I am.
I will praise the Lord, My God forever,
And will sing to his praise a thousand songs
For when I have strayed, he hath redeemed me.
And in mercy forgiven each trespass.
He hath bound up the wounds of my heart
Made by envy in the house of my friends,
He hath saved me from the hands of my foes
And wiped away all my sorrows and tears.
He hath lifted me up in his mercy
When I was forsaken and cast on the ground.
He hath anointed my head with gladness
And my board he hath spread with his bounty.
He hath given me women and offspring
And hath blest me with Priesthood and power
For which I will praise his name for ever
And shout Hosannah to the God and the Lamb.
Letters to and Regarding Jesse Nathaniel Smith[81]

In the appendix of The Journal of Jesse Nathaniel Smith there are some interesting letters to and regarding Jesse N. Smith. A few excerpts are included here.

From a letter written to Jesse N. by Joseph F. Smith, dated December 13, 1904 from Salt Lake City, Utah.

This poor old world can ill afford to part with men like you, and such of your sons as it has been my pleasure to know. And yet like some of the great and good that have passed to the great beyond you will be known better there and then than here and now.

Cousin Jesse N., I honor you and love you from the depths of my heart _ your example of life, your integrity to the truth, your patience and devotion to God's work has endeared you to all who truly understand and know you. You have my blessing, my con­fidence and my love, in which my family join me most heartily.

Yours,

Joseph F. Smith

From a letter written to Jesse N. by Matthias F. Cowley, dated April 22, 1906 from San Francisco, California.

My Dear Friend and Brother:

Your very kind and welcome letter from Salt Lake City to EI Paso reached me at this point and I assure you, dear brother, brought me comfort and encouragement…I would so much love to have a visit with you, then I could pour out my soul to you as I cannot write...You, are a good father to me… How I pray to be worthy of your love forever. Give my love to all your wives and children. Kiss little Matthias for me. I hope to come and see him by and by. Please write me. With much love.

Ever your friend and brother,

Matthias F. Cowley.

From a letter written to the family of Jesse N. by Heber J. Grant, dated August 14, 1906, shortly after Jesse’s death, from Liverpool, England.

My Dear Friends:

In the death of your husband and father I feel that not only have you been called to mourn the loss of one dear to you, but his death was a loss to the Church and there are very many men who counted him as one of their near and dear friends, and among this host of friends I counted myself. From the first time I came to his home in Arizona, now over twenty-three years ago, I have loved and respected him, and I enjoyed his company whenever opportunity was given me to visit with him…

My affections and confidence went out to him upon my first acquain­tance and I respected him for his devotion to the cause of truth and also for the wonderful store of knowledge which he had. He had forgotten more, it seemed to me, than I could hope to learn. There are some men whom it seems we have known and loved all our lives from the first time we meet them, and in my acquain­tance with your husband I always felt this way.

I say to all Bro. Jesse N's posterity, live as he has done and you are sure of an eternal reward and also a life of peace and contentment while you remain on the earth. I know of no one's life whom you can better follow after than your dear departed father. Again praying the best blessings of the Lord to attend you, and with love for one and all of you, I am,

Your affectionate brother,

Heber J. Grant

From an article written by George H Crosby, Jr. a long time resident of Arizona

“After living in all four of Arizona's Mormon stakes, and being personally acquainted with all leaders of prominence, were I asked to select the two greatest men in the settlement of my people in the state, I should surely and quickly name Jesse N. Smith and Christopher Layton…

“Jesse N. Smith was a real executive during those trying pioneer days. In 1883 the Gila settlements were added to the St. Joseph Stake. Four years later the St. Johns Stake was created and what was left became the Snowflake Stake. Mr. Smith was its leader for twenty-seven years. His power to control others—in religious life, in family life, in business-was exceptional. In intellectual life, too, he ranked high. It was most surprising to find one so well posted and so thoroughly cultured in a town so small and so remote as Snowflake. Reader, you ask, if he was such a man, why was he left only as president of a remote frontier stake? I cannot solve your riddle.

“I have often heard Heber J. Grant, now president of the Mormon church, say: “When I was made an apostle I was sent out to Arizona. There I met President Jesse N. Smith. I found him deeply grounded in a knowledge of the Gospel, well up in the learning of the day, powerful in the control of his people, splendid of judgment in settling troubles, and a man of the cleanest life. I then asked why a kid like I had been made an apostle, when he had been left out!”

“At the time of his death this remarkable man was husband of four wives and father of forty living children [four had passed away] Forty? Yes, forty. Before you con­demn look at that family with me. I was at home in any of his four homes and teacher of his children. In 1906, when that man died, he was the only member of the family ever arrested, and he for his many wives. Not one child was ever intoxicated, nor had become a frequenter of saloons; not one used tobacco; not one swore. In all those births there was never one deformity—even as much as a crooked ankle or finger, nor was one of subnormal intelligence. In that organization there never was a family quarrel. His standard of life for himself and for his homes was very high.”
Family History Trivia

Which ancestors received ordinances from the Nauvoo Temple?

Jane Mathers, Thomas and Anne Karren, Jeremiah and Elizabeth Haight Hatch[82], Lorenzo Hill Hatch (who received his endowment on the last day the temple was open),[83] Charles and Louisa Minnerly Shumway,[84] Joel Hill Johnson[85]

Which ancestors marched with the Mormon Battalion?

Levi Savage Jr., Thomas Karren,

Which ancestor was jailed for being a polygamist?

Levi Savage Jr.

Eliza R. Snow wrote a poem at the death of which ancestor?

Jane Mathers Savage

True or False: On the baptism day of Charles Shumwa,y a saw was required to cut a hole in the ice so that he could be baptized.

False. This actually happened to Lorenzo Hill Hatch when he was baptized at the age of fourteen.

Which family ancestors were Patriarchs?

Charles Shumway,[86] Lorenzo Hill Hatch, Jesse Nathaniel Smith, Eugene Hilton.

Which family ancestor claims the world renowned Chaucer as an ancestor?

Charles Shumway.[87]

Which ancestor rode as part of the “vanguard” pioneer company?

Charles Sumway[88]

Which ancestor was part of the “Council of Fifty,” organized by Brigham Young?

Charles Shumway[89]

Family History Facts

Several ancestors fought in the Revolutionary War, including Jeremiah and Nathaniel Hatch[90] (grandfather and great grandfather of Lorenzo Hill Hatch), Nathaniel Aikens and Ashael Smith[91] (both Jesse N. Smith’s grandfathers), Nathaniel Aikens served under General Washington at the time the Marquis de LaFayette first visited the camp of the Americans. Daniel Savage (grandfather of Levi Savage, Jr.) also fought in the Revolutionary War. Ezekiel Johnson (great-grandfather of Janet Mauretta Johnson).
**
Hezekiah Hatch (father of Lorenzo Hill Hatch) received his patriarchal blessing from Hyrum Smith.[92]
**
John Fenn (the grandfather of George Fenn, not to be confused with George’s son John) joined the church in England in 1846. He and his family belonged to the Edelesbrough Ward, London Conference, in the British Stake. After John joined the Mormons, he was arrested because he refused to leave every tenth sheaf of grain in the field for the Church of England minister.[93]
**
Brigham Young preached at the funeral of Hezekiah Hatch in June of 1843.[94]
**
Lorenzo Hill Hatch served for several years as both Patriarch and Bishop simultaneously. Church Historian Leonard Arrington speculated that Lorenzo “may have been the only man in Mormon history to serve for an extended period as both bishop and patriarch simultaneously.”[95]
**
Penny pinching may run in the family. Once, at a time when Lorenzo Hill Hatch had very little money and was traveling, his brother gave him fifty cents to buy his dinner at the hotel. But Lorenzo said, that he “carried a lunch and saved my money to help in another way.”[96]
**
Lorenzo Hill Hatch gave patriarchal blessings to many people, including Karl G. Maeser.[97]
**
Lorenzo Hill Hatch was part of the Utah Territorial Legislature and as such, once roomed with fellow legislators E.T. Benson and Lorenzo Snow and one other man. He recorded on this occasion that the four of them “talked things over until eleven P.M.”[98]
**
Elizabeth Haight Hatch (grandmother of Lorenzo Hill Hatch) was old and crippled at the time of her baptism in 1840. She had used crutches for 13 years. She told her family that she wouldn’t be crippled after her baptism. Because of her great faith this statement came true and she never used crutches again.[99]
**
Joel Hill Johnson, father of Janet Mauretta Johnson wrote the hymns High on the Mountain Top and The Glorious Gospel Light Has Shone. Speaking of what gave him the inspiration to write these, and nearly 1,000 other poems, he wrote:
“Sometime in November [1851]my health began to decline very much so that I was not able to do any labor; and I soon discovered that my complaint was dropsy in the chest which brought me so low that I was only able to sit up part of the day at a time; and while reflecting on the scenes of my past life--the sickness--persecutions, and sorrows that has been my lot to pass through from my youth up, and probably of my soon leaving this world of affliction for one more glorious, the words of the Apostle John upon the Isle of Patmos were continually sounding in my ears by night and day: "And he said unto me, write So that I could not rest until I had obtained the necessary materials and commenced writing when my mind was led to write songs and hymns upon the suffering of the Saints, the principles that appertain to the building up of the Kingdom of God on the earth in the last days, etc, the spirit of which is like fire in my bones and I have no rest unless occupied in that way.”[100] (He wrote "High on the Mountain Top" Feb. 18, 1853.)
**
On February 4, 1846 Charles Shumway’s was the first wagon to cross the Mississippi River, marking the start of the Nauvoo exodus.[101]
**
When Wilford Woodruff, then president of the Quorum of the twelve Apostles, went into hiding from those prosecuting polygamy by taking the name, “Mr. Allen.” He would stay with various families so as to keep his whereabouts in secrecy. One of the places he stayed for a short time was at the home of Charles Shumway.[102]
**
A man named Wes Palmer said the following about Wilson Glen Shumway: “[He] is an honest man. I’d loan him a thousand dollars without a scrap of paper.”[103]
**
Brigham Young once said the following concerning Charles Shumway: “There was never a more faithful man in the Church. He was a man who was not wed to his gold. He would give everything he had to the Church, to the building of the Kingdom of God.”[104]
**
At the fifty year Jubilee celebration of the pioneers arrival in Salt Lake the twenty-four living member of that first pioneer band we re all invited to be present and receive special honors, Charles Shumway among them. Charles the oldest living pioneer of the original 143, was to receive special recognition because of his advanced age. However, because of poor health he was unable to travel to Salt Lake City and so the honors went to Wilford Woodruff instead.[105]
**
A few years before his death, Jesse N. Smith told his wife Emma that her youngest son, Samuel Francis, would stand in his place as Stake President, which he did.[106]
**
In 1863 that more tithing was paid in Scandinavia (where Jesse N. Smith was presiding as Mission President) than was paid in Great Britain.[107]
**
On one occasion Jesse N. Smith wrote, “Settled up my power of attorney business with William Clayton; he expressed himself well satisfied with me, said ‘he should never on earth forget our happy business association.’”[108]
**
Jesse N. Smith had many intimate experiences with the leading brethren of the church. On one occasion he heard Wilford Woodruff testify of “when, the Prophet Joseph Smith gave his last charge to the Twelve. He said the Prophet spoke to them for more than three hours on that occasion; that he was trans­figured before them, that his face shone like amber.”[109]

On one occasion Joseph F. Smith remarked to another brother, in the presence of Jesse N. Smith that Jesse “was the best man within the circle of his acquaintance.” At a funeral some months later Joseph F. Smith said that “He loved [Jesse] for [he] was good and noble a far better man than he, [Joseph F.] ever was or ever could hope to be.” [110]

**
One time when Wilson Glen Shumway was freighting goods he was separated from his companions his fellow freighters. While driving his wagon alone, Wilson saw a bunch of Indian women in the middle of the road. He continued on his way and just as he came to a little bridge there were two little arms around his neck—it was a very young little Indian woman.

Wilson got the idea that the woman was trying to hide. He heard horses coming and the girl got very scared and hid down under the canvas over the back of the wagon. Indians approached on horses and Wilson reported that they looked as fierce as any he had seen—perhaps one of them was the infamous Geronimo. Apparently they were looking for this young woman and the older Indian women Wilson had seen earlier. Wilson talked to the Indians for some time and finally he got them to travel along their way.

Wilson continued for a mile and a half, then the young Indian slipped out of his wagon and went on her way.[111]
**
John Fenn made a few prophecies, one of which was that airplanes would someday be as numerous as the birds in the sky. This was made many years before cars and planes came into production.[112]
**
John Fenn's dying wish to his son was for him to collect five dollars he had coming from Arthur Barney and pay the five dollars tithing he owed.[113]



Quotations

Ruth Naomi

“No matter what the task may be, if it's the thing which needs doing, I enjoy it. People who say, ‘Oh! I detest dishes’, or ‘I just can't do that’, or, ‘I wouldn’t think of doing that kind of work’, try my patience. If I need to scrub floors - then scrubbing goes and it can be just as dignified as anything else I might do. It seems to me that one loses dignity or social importance (whatever that may be) only by failing in one's obligations.”[114]

“I found that daily tracting could be a most glorious experience. I am still reaping an abundant return from the faith, study and personal work which I put into my mission.”[115]

John Hugh Hilton

“I have always paid a full tithing and keep my word as good as my bond.”[116]

John Fenn

“When anyone begins to find fault with any of the authorities, they are on the highroad to apostasy.” And, “I would rather be poor and have my children be poor and pay tithing, than be rich and not pay tithing.”[117]

When John was given the raw end of a business deal he did not get bitter. His children remember him saying many times, “Well, I’ll get four-fold in the next world.”[118]

Clarence Shumway

One evening Clarence Shumway was humiliated in front of several of his coworkers and townspeople as he was wrongly accused of mishandling his job in the forest service. He felt betrayed by some in attendance who he had thought were loyal friends. The next day he met a man who asked him what he was going to do about all the people who had turned on him. Clarence replied, “As far as I know the Lord loves these people as well as he does me and so far as I know they have just as good a chance to go to the Celestial Kingdom and if they did, and I did, we would have to get along together there, so I had just as well to start now.”[119]

Lorenzo Hill Hatch

“He that will have a crown must labor diligently and be full of self denial.”[120]

Mary Aikens Smith

“Strive to live daily in that way that you can feel an assurance that you are accepted of your Father in Heaven; that your heart is pure and your walk. is just as becomes a saint of the Most High God.”[121]

Asael Smith

“Do all to God in a serious manner—when you think of Him, speak of Him, pray to Him, or in any way make your addresses to His great Majesty be in good earnest. Trifle not with His name nor with His attributes, nor call Him to witness to anything but is absolute truth; nor then, but when sound reason on serious consideration requires it.”[122]

Wilson Glen Shumway (sharing a favorite saying of his mother, Louisa Minnerly.

“We should rather suffer wrong than to do wrong.”

Jesse Nathaniel Smith

“Let us have a forgiving spirit, for if we expect our Heavenly Father to forgive us our trespasses against Him we must be forgiving toward each other. We should remember our own weaknesses before we bring our brother to the strict letter of the law. The brethren sometimes allow themselves to speak slightingly of the Lord's anointed. When this is done in the pres­ence of young persons can we wonder that they lose confidence in those who are thus spoken against?[123]

“If we use tobacco our boys will say if that is good for the old, it will be good for the young ones likewise. We should understand that all our acts and all our words have their weight and influence.”[124]

“If there is any medicine to cure discontent let us have it.”[125]

“H. J. Grant said if we teach our children properly until they are eight years old they will not be turned away by the corrupt…There are always those who are ready to blacken the reputation of the brethren. I want nothing to do with that business. I understand the devil has that contract.”[126]


Messages to Posterity

From John Levi Hilton to His Posterity[127]

“I can honestly state that my life has been wonderful, and I feel greatly blessed especially for my wife and children and their children. I think I know enough about troubles, frustrations, etc. to understand that there is a negative side of mortality yet viewing my life overall, I am very pleased and very happy to be where I have been and where I am now.

“I'm sure that much of this satisfaction is derived from my ever more sure conviction that I first firmly realized as I became a thinking adult: that God is real and loves us. Every aspect of my growing knowledge has reinforced my conviction that Father in Heaven is really in charge. and that the whole later-day gospel restored through the prophet Joseph Smith came through revelations from His son Jesus Christ. He loves me and mine, and I love Him, and what ever comes about if I'll just try to live his ­restored commandments within His Church, all will in the end work out for eternal good and joy.

“I feel that much of this joy in life comes from my life long effort, often successfully carried out to live the commandments. I strongly recommend them for you too, and may you too feel His support and love as I do. Love John Levi Hilton Sr.

From Eugene Hilton to His Posterity[128]

So, first my blessing and hope would be that all of you will keep together and know each other as cousins, whether its first or second or third cousins as the case may be, and that you honor the name of Hilton…

This name Hilton is a very honored name and it cares down from England. “The Hilton family of 903 A.D. is the oldest family of record in all England.” The name was attached to two families, which originally were one family…

Now this family that you [are] members of is a family that was noted anciently as one of the most remarkable families in all the British history, for the quality of the people that were matters of the family. It is said that there was not known among them at any time any “base” people. That means people who lived low kind of lives. There was never known any of than addicted to vice. (If you don’t know what vice is, look it up in your dictionary.) They were known to be honest and straight forward, and were honored as the first families of renown wherever they lived and wherever they went.

The particular family from which I cane settled first (that we have immediate record of) in Lancashire, in a place known as Hulton Park. The name was spelled Hulton or Hilton. Both ways. And Hulton Park was 4300 acres near Bolton in Lancashire. Most of that acreage is still there and is known as Hulton Park.

The first Hilton families lived there something like 800 years, then a “land grant” was granted to the branch of the Hiltons from which I came a few miles away at Farnworth. I might explain that this ancient family was a very wealthy family. They had many, many tracts of land and great hates and parish houses and all kinds of wealth of that kind.

They gave portions of this wealth away to certain of the family as a new family would start up. So, after about 200 years in Farnworth, a grant of land was given to a man by the name of John Hilton over in the land of Bolton. Now Bo1ton was only about five miles from Hulton Park and that’s where my people lived until my grandfather Hugh, a nineteen year old young man, heard the missionaries, four years after the first ones ever went there in 1832.

I am giving you this background to show you that we have pride in the heritage we have received and bequeathed to you our grandchildren, our great- grandchildren and our great—great-grandchildren who may read some of these things I have mentioned. And I hope all of you will remember the heritage that you have and not abuse it, and not defile it. And not be counted unworthy of the blessings that God is anxious to give to you, because He has showered great and marvelous blessings upon all but a very few who haven’t yet seen fit to identify themselves diligently in His work.

I pray that all of you may place, first of all, the religion of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It is the true church and is the only church that will be recognized as being the church of the saints of God when the Millennium reign is ushered in - which some of you may indeed live to see. There will be no evil on the earth at that time, when Satan will be overcome. We look forward to the tine when we shall be there together. We will work with spirit beings there. Those morta1s that may be living at that time on earth will help gather out the missing spots and correct errors that have been made in genealogical work. The record will be made complete and perfect by com­paring it with the heavenly record, which is complete and perfect.

I will also assure you that the greatest responsibility and joy that can care to you will have to do with the selection of your companion to whom you will be married in the temple for time and eternity. Without that companion by your side you cannot be counted worthy to enter the upper third division of the Celestial Kingdom. Alone you can never go forward with a fulness of joy and an eternal increase with that won­derful person who will be your wife or your husband in the eternities forever. So that when you become gods, as you may become, that term will mean not just you, as one person, but it will mean your wife or your husband with you. You will know that that term God is a uni-plural word. Sometimes it means one person. Sometimes the two together, mean one, so that in the ordinary sense, God can mean both the masculine and the feminine, the man and the woman united for eternity. That is the greatest choice and responsibility that you will ever have.

I hope that many of you will read this and know what I have said is true. And I give it to you as my witness with my blessing attending, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Walnut Creek, Calif. May 9, 1977

From Adeline Hatch Savage to Her Posterity[129]

In May 1904, Adeline wrote this note to her posterity.

“I write these words for the benefit of my posterity that faith will be instilled into your hearts. I bare you my dear children this testimony that God lives and that these things were made known unto me by his marvelous power and that my joy was exceeding great. I know that Joseph Smith was a mighty prophet raised up by our Heavenly Father. And this also has been shown unto me by the Spirit of Revelation. I was so overcome and filled with joy when the Spirit related to me that I was constrained to fall upon my knees and praise my Maker. For then I know that God would also raise up another great and mighty prophet to bring forth the sealed portion of the gold plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated. it seemed to me also that his name would be Joseph with another name attached. Surely this is the work of the Lord and nothing will stay it and those who raise up in rebellion will be cut off. Now my dear children do be faithful for the commandments are plain and you need not err. This is my testimony to you and I have written these words in truth and I invoke the blessings of the Lord on my posterity. Signed Adeline Hatch Savage.

From Joel Hill Johnson[130]
“May 21, 1879. My testimony for the last forty-eight years has been and still is:
“That I know that God lives, for I have felt his hand and heard his voice and I know also that the dispensation or fullness of the Gospel brought forth through Joseph Smith is God's handy work! For His voice has declared it unto me. This is my living or dying testimony to every human being upon the face of the whole earth even so, Amen.”
From Asael Smith[131]

In 1799 Asael Smith penned “a few words of advice” to his family, an articulate 11-page document encouraging his family to follow his faith in God and in Christ by living as “scripture and sound reason” would dictate. In part he wrote:

“Make it your chiefest work to bring [your children]up in the ways of virtue, that they may be useful in their generation.”

Asael expressed a “last request and charge” that his children would share “an undivided bond of love. “Visit as you may each other. Comfort, counsel, relieve, succor, help and admonish one another. And while your mother lives, meet her if possible once every year. When she is dead, pitch on some other place … [I]f you cannot meet, send to and hear from each other yearly and oftener if you can. And when you have neither father nor mother left, be so many fathers and mothers to each other, so you shall understand the blessing mentioned in the 133 Psalm.”
[Ps. 133 reads, “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.”]

References

Note: Many of these references refer to Our First Fourteen Ancestors, by George Hilton. This is a marvelous book that discusses Eugene and Ruth Hilton, their parents and grandparents. The family history sketches in this work that follow these ancestors are largely direct quotations from Our First Fourteen Ancestors.
1 Hinckley, Gordon B. Ensign, May 1996, 93
[2] Hinckley, Gordon B. From a devotional address entitled “Keep the Chain Unbroken,” given on 30 November 1999 in the Marriott Center and Ensign, Nov. 1999, 30 (last paragraph emphasis added).
[3] Hilton, John and Janet. Brief life sketches they wrote.
[4] Hilton, George, Our First Fourteen Ancestors, 1-21.
[5] Hilton, George, Our First Fourteen Ancestors, 23-30.
[6] Hilton, George, Our First Fourteen Ancestors, 31-40.
[7] Hilton, George, Our First Fourteen Ancestors, 41-49.
[8] Hilton, George, Our First Fourteen Ancestors, 50-53.
[9] Hilton, George, Our First Fourteen Ancestors, 54-67.
[10] Hilton, George, Our First Fourteen Ancestors, 68-74.
[11] Foote, Martha Jane Ray, compiler. Fenn-Brown-Sorenson, Trail of Faith to Zion, 285-287, 294.
[12] Foote, Martha Jane Ray, compiler. Fenn-Brown-Sorenson, Trail of Faith to Zion, 82-109.
[13] Taken from autobiographies written by Clarence and Esther Fern Shumway.
[14] Foote, Martha Jane Ray, compiler. Fenn-Brown-Sorenson, Trail of Faith to Zion, 42-57.
[15] Foote, Martha Jane Ray, compiler. Fenn-Brown-Sorenson, Trail of Faith to Zion, 72-74.
[16] Godfrey, Kenneth W. Charles Shumway, A Pioneer’s Life, 75, 155-158. Much of this account is a quote from a short sketch entitled, Life of Wilson Glenn Shumway, by his son Wilson Averett Shumway.
[17] Smith, Oliver, Editor, The Journal of Jesse Nathaniel Smith, 174-175, 181, 468.
[18] Anderson, Richard Lloyd, New Era, Dec. 1973, 37.
[19] Boone, David F. Ensign, Dec. 1984, 21
[20] Smith, Oliver, Editor, The Journal of Jesse Nathaniel Smith, 2.
[21] Voice From the Mountains, Being A Testimony of the Truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as Revealed by the Lord to Joseph Smith, Jr. (Salt Lake City: Juvenile Instructor, 1881), pages 3-4, 12-16, found on http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Meadows/8918/johnjh.html
[22] Selections from Autobiography of Joel Hills Johnson, typescript, BYU-S, found on http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Meadows/8918/johnjh.html
[23] Selections from Autobiography of Joel Hills Johnson, typescript, BYU-S, found on http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Meadows/8918/johnjh.html
[24] Smith, Oliver, Editor, The Journal of Jesse Nathaniel Smith, 394.
[25] Selections from Autobiography of Joel Hills Johnson, typescript, BYU-S, found on http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Meadows/8918/johnjh.html and http://www.genealogy.org/~smcgee/genealogy.texts/jhj_jrnll.html
[26] Smith, Oliver, Editor, The Journal of Jesse Nathaniel Smith, 5.
[27] Smith, Oliver, Editor, The Journal of Jesse Nathaniel Smith, 7.
[28] Godfrey, Kenneth W. Charles Shumway, A Pioneer’s Life, 7.
[29] Hilton, Ruth Savage, Our Grand-Mother Jane—The Pioneer, 9-12.
[30] Godfrey, Kenneth W. Charles Shumway, A Pioneer’s Life, 89.
[31] Selections from Autobiography of Joel Hills Johnson, typescript, BYU-S, found on http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Meadows/8918/johnjh.html and http://www.genealogy.org/~smcgee/genealogy.texts/jhj_jrnll.html
[32] Hatch, Jo Ann F., Willing Hands, 13-14. The Jesse N. Smith account comes from
http://www.math.byu.edu/~smithw/Lds/LDS/Early-Saints/REC-JS.html, which is quoting
"Recollections of the Prophet Joseph Smith," The Juvenile Instructor 27 (1892), Selections from Autobiography of Joel Hills Johnson, typescript, BYU-S, found http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Meadows/8918/johnjh.html
[33] http://home.earthlink.net/~jameshistory/lh_hatch.html, found 26 January 2003, also, Willing Hands, Jo Ann F. Hatch, 16-17. See also, Ensign, Sept. 1979, 24-25.
[34] Smith, Oliver, Editor, The Journal of Jesse Nathaniel Smith, 8-10.
[35] Hatch, Jo Ann F., Willing Hands, 18-19.
[36] Selections from Autobiography of Joel Hills Johnson, typescript, BYU-S, found on http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Meadows/8918/johnjh.html and http://www.genealogy.org/~smcgee/genealogy.texts/jhj_jrnll.html
[37] The quotations from Fanny Young are on record in the Church Historical Department; they are from a letter she wrote to Levi Savage Jr. The letter was distributed by Christine Hilton Anderson in her compilation of quotations on the life of Jane Mathers.
[38] Hatch, Jo Ann F., Willing Hands, 272-273, Hatch here largely quotes Ruth Naomi Hilton.
[39] Shumway, Dale. http://shumway.org/june1998.htm, visited 4 Feb. 2003; also in Godfrey, Kenneth W. Charles Shumway, A Pioneer’s Life, 106-107.
[40] Background information come from the Institute Manual Church History in the Fulness of Times, p. 339-40.
[41] Smith, Oliver, Editor, The Journal of Jesse Nathaniel Smith, 13-14.
[42] Hatch, Jo Ann F., Willing Hands, 57-64.
[43] Hilton George, Our First Fourteen Ancestors, 57-58.
[44]Roberts, B.H. Comprehensive History of the Church, 4:90-91
[45] Stenger, Wallace. The Gathering of Zion, 240
[46] This story comes from an article, submitted by Lula Marie Henriksen, of Lindon, Utah. It was distributed by Janet
Ruth Fenn Hilton to members of her family.
[47] This story comes from an article, submitted by Lula Marie Henriksen, of Lindon, Utah. It was distributed by Janet Ruth Fenn Hilton to members of her family.
[48] Smith, Oliver, Editor, The Journal of Jesse Nathaniel Smith, 28-31.
[49] Smith, Oliver, Editor, The Journal of Jesse Nathaniel Smith, 67-68.
[50] Hatch, Jo Ann F., Willing Hands, 103-104.
[51] Smith, Oliver, Editor, The Journal of Jesse Nathaniel Smith, 170, 172, 174, also familysearch.org.
[52] Smith, Oliver, Editor, The Journal of Jesse Nathaniel Smith, 183-184.
[53] Smith, Oliver, Editor, The Journal of Jesse Nathaniel Smith, 185-186, 196, 216.
[54] Smith, Oliver, Editor, The Journal of Jesse Nathaniel Smith, 216, 218-219.
[55] Oaks, Dallin H. “Nourishing the Spirit,” Ensign, Dec. 1998, 11, also, Willing Hands, Jo Ann F.
Hatch, 183, 220-221, 249-250.
[56] Foote, Martha Jane Ray, compiler. Fenn-Brown-Sorenson, Trail of Faith to Zion, 145-146.
[57] Hilton, Eugene. And Her Name Shall Be Ruth Naomi, 3-15.
[58] Hilton, Eugene. And Her Name Shall Be Ruth Naomi, 3-15.
[59] Hannah Adeline Savage Record and Journal, 47 (copy on Court Hilton CD).
[60] This story has been verified from two sources, Esther Fern Shumway, and Clarence’s companion. It should be noted that this story has been designated as a Mormon Myth; however, Janet Ruth Fenn Hilton believes it to be true. The only strike against it is that Clarence Shumway never mentioned it in his journal.
[61] Foote, Martha Jane Ray, compiler. Fenn-Brown-Sorenson, Trail of Faith to Zion, 254, 294.
[62] Foote, Martha Jane Ray, compiler. Fenn-Brown-Sorenson, Trail of Faith to Zion, 290-292.
[63] Foote, Martha Jane Ray, compiler. Fenn-Brown-Sorenson, Trail of Faith to Zion, 290-292.
[64] Eugene Hilton gives this account an interview with George Hilton, copy on Court Hilton CD.
[65] Eugene Hilton gives this account an interview with George Hilton, copy on Court Hilton CD.
[66] Hilton, George, Our First Fourteen Ancestors, 1-2.
[67] Hilton, Eugene. My Second Estate, 25-26. The second story is given first hand during an interview with George Hilton, copy on Court Hilton CD.
[68] A first hand account of this can be found on the Court Hilton CD.
[69] Hilton, Eugene. This account is published in Celestial Connections, compiled by Connie Rector and Diane Deputy, 105-112.
[70] Eugene Hilton gives this account an interview with George Hilton, copy on Court Hilton CD.
[71] This story is recounted by John Levi Hilton, Sr.; copy in possession of editor.
[72] This story is recounted by John Levi Hilton, Sr.; copy in possession of editor.
[73] This story was related by Lee Hilton at the funeral of John Levi Hilton
[74] This story is recounted by John Levi Hilton, Sr.; copy in possession of editor.
[75] This story is recounted by John Levi Hilton, Sr.; copy in possession of editor.
[76] Smith, Oliver, Editor, The Journal of Jesse Nathaniel Smith, 2-4.
[77] Selections from Autobiography of Joel Hills Johnson, typescript, BYU-S, found on http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Meadows/8918/johnjh.html
[78] Christine Anderson obtained this poem from the Church Historian’s Office. The poem has the call number Ms 9313.
[79] Smith, Oliver, Editor, The Journal of Jesse Nathaniel Smith, 262-264.
[80] Selections from Autobiography of Joel Hills Johnson, typescript, BYU-S, found on http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Meadows/8918/johnjh.html and http://www.genealogy.org/~smcgee/genealogy.texts/jhj_jrnll.html
[81] Smith, Oliver, Editor, The Journal of Jesse Nathaniel Smith, 463-468.
[82] Hatch, Jo Ann F., Willing Hands, 21.
[83] Ensign, Sept. 1979, 25.
[84] Godfrey, Kenneth W. Charles Shumway, A Pioneer’s Life, 32.
[85] Selections from Autobiography of Joel Hills Johnson, typescript, BYU-S, found on http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Meadows/8918/johnjh.html.
[86] Godfrey, Kenneth W. Charles Shumway, A Pioneer’s Life, 92.
[87] Godfrey, Kenneth W. Charles Shumway, A Pioneer’s Life, 4.
[88] Godfrey, Kenneth W. Charles Shumway, A Pioneer’s Life, 39-40.
[89] Godfrey, Kenneth W. Charles Shumway, A Pioneer’s Life, 19.
[90] Hatch, Jo Ann F., Willing Hands, 1.
[91] Smith, Oliver, Editor, The Journal of Jesse Nathaniel Smith, 2.
[92] Hatch, Jo Ann F., Willing Hands, 10.
[93] Foote, Martha Jane Ray, compiler. Fenn-Brown-Sorenson, Trail of Faith to Zion, 21.
[94] Hatch, Jo Ann F., Willing Hands, 11.
[95] Hatch, Jo Ann F., Willing Hands, 121.
[96] Hatch, Jo Ann F., Willing Hands, 231.
[97] Hatch, Jo Ann F., Willing Hands, 246.
[98] Hatch, Jo Ann F., Willing Hands, 48.
[99] http://home.sprintmail.com/~hawstom/biogskg.htm#HATCH, visited 2 Feb. 2003.
[100] Selections from Autobiography of Joel Hills Johnson, typescript, BYU-S, found on http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Meadows/8918/johnjh.html
[101] Godfrey, Kenneth W. Charles Shumway, A Pioneer’s Life, 32.
[102] Godfrey, Kenneth W. Charles Shumway, A Pioneer’s Life, 83.
[103] Godfrey, Kenneth W. Charles Shumway, A Pioneer’s Life, 86.
[104] Shumway, Dale. http://shumway.org/june1998.htm, visited 4 Feb. 2003
[105] Godfrey, Kenneth W. Charles Shumway, A Pioneer’s Life, 91.
[106] Smith, Oliver, Editor, The Journal of Jesse Nathaniel Smith, 19.
[107] Smith, Oliver, Editor, The Journal of Jesse Nathaniel Smith, 174.
[108] Smith, Oliver, Editor, The Journal of Jesse Nathaniel Smith, 174.
[109] Smith, Oliver, Editor, The Journal of Jesse Nathaniel Smith, 393.
[110] Smith, Oliver, Editor, The Journal of Jesse Nathaniel Smith, 393, 414.
[111] Story told by “Aunt Beula” I believe Janet Ruth Fenn recounts it in a written account. NEED MORE.
[112] Foote, Martha Jane Ray, compiler. Fenn-Brown-Sorenson, Trail of Faith to Zion, 249.
[113] Foote, Martha Jane Ray, compiler. Fenn-Brown-Sorenson, Trail of Faith to Zion, 105.
[114] Hilton, George, Our First Fourteen Ancestors, 13.
[115] Hilton, George, Our First Fourteen Ancestors, 4.
[116] Hilton, George, Our First Fourteen Ancestors, 27.
[117] Foote, Martha Jane Ray, compiler. Fenn-Brown-Sorenson, Trail of Faith to Zion, 105.
[118] Foote, Martha Jane Ray, compiler. Fenn-Brown-Sorenson, Trail of Faith to Zion, 92.
[119] From an autobiography, copy in possession of the author.
[120] Hatch, Jo Ann F., Willing Hands, 164.
[121] Smith, Oliver, Editor, The Journal of Jesse Nathaniel Smith, 3.
[122] Anderson, Richard Lloyd. Ensign, Feb. 1971, 16
[123] Smith, Oliver, Editor, The Journal of Jesse Nathaniel Smith, 267.
[124] Smith, Oliver, Editor, The Journal of Jesse Nathaniel Smith, 272.
[125] Smith, Oliver, Editor, The Journal of Jesse Nathaniel Smith, 274.
[126] Smith, Oliver, Editor, The Journal of Jesse Nathaniel Smith, 279.
[127] These words are recounted by John Levi Hilton, Sr.; copy in possession of editor. Dated July 18, 1998 Provo, Utah.
[128] From a letter written by Eugene Hilton, Walnut Creek, Calif. May 9, 1977, copy on Court Hilton CD.
[129] Hilton, George, Our First Fourteen Ancestors, 40.
[130] Selections from Autobiography of Joel Hills Johnson, typescript, BYU-S, found http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Meadows/8918/johnjh.html
[131] Anderson, Richard Lloyd, New Era, Dec. 1973, 37.