John Esplin

“Command Thy Passions, Control Thy Thoughts”
John Esplin

                                                             
Photo of Tanner Esplin: a descendent of John Esplin 
Photo taken by Jodi Esplin 

Web site: jodisperception.com, used with permission

 

            The sky was clear and especially blue.  The grass brushed John's legs and the wind blew across his face. As he hurried along the cow trail in his mind he chanted the words, “Command thy passions, Control thy thoughts” He did not know where the words had come from, maybe something his mother had drilled into the heads of his stubborn older brothers.  John did know that his passion was being out with the livestock. He loved the freedom and peace of the outdoors.

            John Esplin was born in a little cottage in Warden, Perth, Scotland.  He was the youngest of seven children: a tough wirily little guy, the shortest brother even after he was grown. 

At the age 9 John was excited to be trusted as one of the regular cattle herders among the Angus cattle in the highlands of Scotland.  

John wrote, ""From 9 years old to 15, I tended or herded cattle in summer and went to school three or four months in the year. Then I was engaged to James Jack for 3 years to learn tailoring."  John was a good reader, wrote a clear hand and was good with math. He walked 6 miles each way to school. He and his brother William must have enjoyed boyish pranks on those long walks. 

John's mother died when he was nineteen years old. A month after her death the family left the highlands and moved to Locke, Scotland, where they owned some houses and lots. Locke was a city with a large number of Irish workers and jute mills. 

One day in the spring of 1849, Johnny Robertson, a school buddy told John the most exciting news he had ever heard.  It was about a prophet on the earth today.

John was so excited about what he heard he wanted to learn more. He attended meetings with the missionaries. (Elder Richard Brown and Elder Hugh Findlay) and spent several months studying the gospel. What an exciting message.   He was baptized in the river Tay at Dundee  (Aug. 4th, 1849 Elder Brown and confirmed by Elder Findlay.)

            After being baptized by John was filled with happiness and hope. In his journal he wrote, “I rejoiced under the cheering influence of the Spirit of the Lord… and wondered why others could not believe and embrace the glorious principles.”  

           He tried to get his family, his father, older brothers and his sisters to see the light of truth he enjoyed in being a member of the restored gospel but they were not impressed by its teachings. 

A year after his baptism John made a decision. He would leave his home, and sail to America to join the saints. The Esplin’s were a close family and leaving them was one of the hardest things John would ever do. 

John with two boxes of apparel and one gun listed his occupation as Tailor and sailed to America, September 4, 1850 on the “North Atlantic” a ship with over 300 other Latter day Saints. 

Of that day John wrote, "A gentle breeze during the day.  A severe gale arose that night and continued unsettled till Saturday the 14th. During that time I suffered severely from sea sickness and fever. The rest of the passengers with a few exceptions also suffered most severely.”

For two long months they sailed. They arrived in New Orleans and then went up the Mississippi River on a steamer. John worked the winter in St. Louis and by spring he made his way to Council Bluffs, where many Mormons were waiting to make the trek west.

John wrote, “I worked my way across the plains by driving a team for Joshua Grant who was hauling freight for Dustin Amy, a tin smith. I arrived in Salt Lake Valley on September 28, 1851.”

After his long journey to America John received letters from home. His father wrote, “It was with much pleasure that I received your letter informing me about your pleasant voyage and safe arrival as I was very much concerned about you. …You mention your stability in the faith you profess. May God bless you in it, and may you ever bear in mind that Christ is the rock on which to build. If you build the house of your hopes on any other it may glitter in the sunshine of prosperity but will not stand in the day of God's wrath.” 

John cherished the letters he received.  His brother William wrote and said he would like to join John in America if they would accept someone of another creed. His brother-in-law David Annand said, "William is very steady at his work and drinks no spirits…Your father is in good health at present always ernest for a little more of this worlds treasure he thinks often of you and complains he is never to see you again,"

A letter from his brother David stated, "We have only one boy, two and one half years old…. He is a fine little fellow just like what you were yourself at his age" 

John had only been in Utah a little over a year when he received a letter from his brother-in-law containing sad news.  “I cannot delay any longer writing you owing to what has befallen your aged father, when I tell you that he is not more. After suffering sorely for ten days with a cold, under heavy distress, died on the 16th of December. Your father showed great signs of repentance and submission before he died.”  The letter also said “William sailed to Australia. He headed to the gold mines and was never heard from again”.

Years latter as John read the letters form his family he scribbled across a letter from his brother William, “O' Willie, where are you now?" April 1859, J. Esplin.

John hired on with Charles A. Harper in Big Cottonwood.  When Brother Harper was called on a mission to England  John rented his farm for a year. 

Margaret Webster, a cute little gal from Lancashire England caught his eye.  They married in November 1853 and moved to Salt Creek, now Nephi where they built their first home of willows woven together with a dirt roof.   Joseph Heywood, the first Utah Marshall and others had been called to settle the Salt Creek area.  The Ute Indian Chief, Chief Walker, was the terror of the whole western area, carrying on an extensive slave trade as well as a horse trade. John and Margaret fought the Indians at the time of the Walker War along with the other settlers. 

The day their 8th child, David, was born the Esplins were called to help settle what is now Nevada. They called it the Muddy Mission. In the Nevada desert they fought sand flies, mosquitoes, extreme heat and Indians.  In an Indian raid on ST. Joseph, the Indians carried off 60 head of cattle that were never recovered. This must have been devastating.

In 1870 the government shifted the Nevada State Line. The conversation would have gone like this, “They are making this area a part of Nevada? We have three years of back taxes to pay?  How in the world will we pay back taxes?  The Indians have carried off 60 head of cattle.  We may not even be able to feed our families.

Brigham Young recognizing the hardships of living on the desert and the impossibility of paying the high Nevada taxes released these destitute settlers from the Muddy Mission. He strongly suggested they help settle Long Valley and establish the United Order. John once again followed the direction of the prophet. In Long Valley as the United Order was set up John was given the responsibility and care of the livestock.

In the family bible John wrote, “we as a family lived and labored in the United Order until September 1885.”  When the Order broke up John bought a 20-acre farm. During his later years John had inflammatory rheumatism and also lameness caused by breaking his kneecap.  He kept on working even though he was a cripple.

John's grandchildren remember watching grandpa John trimming his beard and hair with a candle and knowing that it did not work so well when they tried it.  They remember he did his own tailoring and made a perfect buttonhole. 

Many in Long Valley remember John for his big heart and his favorite bull.  Riding a bull to town,  John would take food to widows or those in need, (always giving a whole ham, not a slice). John rode the bull to the edge of town, tied it up on a clump of cedars, and walked on in. The young boys of the settlement loved to snitch a ride while he was gone, being careful to have it tied back up before John returned. 

In his latter years as John fingered the letters he carried with him he read the saying he had written in the margin.  “Command your passions and control your thoughts.”  John realized his passion was still the open range but even more his passion was teaching his posterity to live righteously and love the Lord.  John and Margaret not only raised prize livestock but raised a righteous family of 13 children. Today it is hard to find an Esplin in the United States that do not live up to the motto of  “Command thy passions, Control thy thoughts” In the fall of 1885 while he was out working he became sick and being unable to walk, he crawled on his hands and knees to the house.  He died form the effects of a stroke October 19, 1895.

Margaret Webster Esplin

Hearing With The Heart

Margaret Webster Esplin

Margaret climbed up and began throwing furniture out of the wagon.  Her patient and kind husband John yelled at the top of his lungs. "What are you doing?  We will need every stick of furniture."

 “I will go where you go John, but I can't walk another step.”

They were coming from the hot Muddy mission in the southern desert of Nevada. When Brigham Young released them he advised the Muddy Mission saints to go to Long valley soon to be called Ordervile in southern Utah. 

Margaret longed to go to her old home in Nephi where their first 8 children had been born.  She longed for the cool evenings and dear friends.  She tucked 2 year old David against her body and nestled baby Clara, her ninth child into her arms as the wagon jolted along the rough terrain. Having crossed the river over 30 times, walking in sand and mud with 5 children under 10 years of age had taken its toll on Margaret. It took them over 3 months to make their way from the Muddy to Long Valley. 

As Margaret settled down in the wagon she thought of the first time she had heard the gospel (in 1846), at ten years old in Lancashire England. Margaret was the 8th in a family of fifteen children.      

When Margaret first learned about the gospel restored through Joseph Smith, she might not have heard all that was said but the spirit speaks louder than words. She knew in her heart it was true. In her neighborhood it was asserted that the new religion taught principles so absurd that even a Hottentot would not believe them.  In spite of the opposition all of Margaret's family who were over eight years old were eventually baptized.

In 1849 the family prepared to come to America. Surely the family gathered around to hear a letter from Margaret's sister Lydia, 8 years older than Margaret, who had already arrived in America. Six-year-old Hannah would have been one of the most excited.  I imagine she jumped up and down and clapped her hands. Exclaiming,  “When will we, get to go to America?"

A year later when the family, left for Liverpool it was a bitter sweet occasion.   It had only been three months since Hannah was buried next to the small graves of her sisters Elizabeth, Betsy and Mary.

As they boarded the ship the family consisted of Henry the father, who had finally been baptized, his wife Ann and ten children.  Margaret was fourth oldest.  There were three girls, four younger brothers and the baby twins.  The oldest brother John who had just lost a wife also traveled with them.  The family boarded the ship “Josiah Bradlee” and set sail for New Orleans. After a voyage of eight weeks and four days, the children could hardly contain their anticipation as they made their way to St. Louis where Lydia and her new husband James Brooks lived. 

After visiting with Lydia the family went on to Council Bluffs to join the saints for the trek west. 

At Council Bluffs tragedy struck the Henry Webster family. Their father Henry, died December 16, 1850 of chlorea marbus, severe stomach cramps and Rachel, age 18, died on the 30th of the same month. Henry, age 14, died 6 months later from sunstroke. The grandparents in England wanted to help, but only if the family would renounce their beliefs in the restored gospel. Ann told them they would not turn their back on the truth.

The family must have lain awake at night wondering how they would ever get enough supplies to walk all that way to the Salt Lake Valley.  Margaret missed her father and she missed her dear sister Rachel. She thought about her grandparent’s home in England.  As these things raced through her mind the spirit must have whispered peace to her heart, “All things will work together for thy good!”.

Ann Rigby Webster was industrious.  She, with her eight remaining children made preparations to make the trek west.  She would provide for her family. Ann eventually took up the profession of a mid-wife.

            Ann kept her older daughter Mary Ann to help with the family and sent 15-year-old Margaret to go to work for David Dixon, a family with four small children. 

 Ann Rigby Webster

Mr. Dixon took a liking to Margaret and wanted Margaret to accompany his family to Utah. Before starting west Margaret desired to go across the Missouri River to see her family and ask permission. Mr. Dixon refused saying, he would see her mother.  Margaret's mother, Ann told Mr. Dixon she wanted her daughter to come home.  Mr. Dixon was determined to have his own way. He told Margaret that her mother had given consent for Margaret to go to Utah with them.  

Soon after arriving in Utah, Mr. Dixon decided to go to San Bernardino California and wanted Margaret to go with him as a second wife. Margaret refused and found work with another family. She vowed to marry the first honorable single man she met.

The rest of Margaret's family came to Utah in the Uriah Curtis Company, and arrived in Salt Lake City, just as the conference of the church was in session. (Oct. 1, 1852)          

When the Webster family arrived in Utah they had a difficult time finding Margaret. They had a notice given in conference meeting.  Margaret was at the meeting but on account of deafness caused by measles as a child she didn't hear the notice.  A short time later she met one of her brothers on the street.  This was a joyous occasion.  Margaret went to live with her family at Big Cottonwood.

It was in Big Cottonwood that Margaret met a very outstanding, single man John Esplin. They soon married and raised a family of 13 children.  John and Margaret lived in Nephi, the Muddy Mission in Nevada and Long Valley, Utah.  Margaret endured many trials, and always stood strong in the gospel truths.

In her last days, Margaret became so deaf that she could not hear anything, but she was still faithful in attending her duties in the church and attending her meetings. She said she could feel the spirit even if she could not hear what was said. She learned to hear with her heart.  

Leprelet Joseph Hopkins

Leprelet Joseph Hopkins Family

Hannah,  Joseph Walter, Ann, Elisabeth Ann,

Sarah Jane, Leprelet, John Dexter, Julia

The Value of a Good Education

Leprelet Joseph Hopkins

Excitement was great especially among the school children when the circus came to Providence, Rhode Island.  Of course young Joe Hopkins was anxious to go.  He and a friend Billy had only fifteen cents between them and the tickets were twenty-five cents.  The boys came up with a brilliant plan. They went to a store and bought a dozen eggs with ten of the fifteen cents they had.  They wrapped them carefully in cotton and took them to Miss Dolly Cole, the lady with a flock of pure bred chickens.  They told her Billy's mother had sent the eggs that she had been wanting.  Miss Cole gave them fifty cents for the eggs and they skipped off to the circus with enough extra pennies for a stick of hore hound candy.

            Leprelet Joseph Hopkins was born in Providence, Rhode Island, March 28, 1835 .The family was comfortably situated and home life was happy. Abbie Ann Drew Hopkins, his mother, was of Dutch descent. She was a devout Methodist and planned to have her son Joseph become a Methodist minister. Joe had other ideas. He was unusually mischievous and had many interests outside of school.

Joseph spent most of his time playing about the wharf.  Climbing about on the boats and ships and fishing.  He dreamed of being captain of a ship.          

One day when he was in the upper grammar grades of school, about age fourteen, the sun was bright, the air sticky and hot.  Joe could not sit in school one more day.  He made his way to the Warf and either gained employment as a cabin boy or went on board a ship unnoticed and hid himself as a stow-away.

When the ship was some distance from shore he found to his dismay that he was on a pirate ship. In his own words, he said, "It didn't make a damn bit of difference to me." Thus his life for the next five or six years was a tough one. This pirate ship touched ports in all parts of the world but most of the time it spent on the coast of Sierra Leon and Cape Town. The crew was made up of tough old seasoned pirate sea­men, and Joe, being young mischievous and hot headed, learned to obey orders the hard way. 

A very dear friend of Joe Hopkins, Price W. Nelson, said that Joe passed the "Supreme Penalty" at least twice. One day the captain told Joe to go down into the hold and peel potatoes for the cook, but Joe, being too proud refused. The captain ordered the supreme penalty for this young upstart for disobeying orders. This penalty consisted of throwing a heavy sea rope over the bow of the ship and drawing it up until it was around the middle of the ship. The rope was then tied around the person, who was thrown over board, and pulled under the ship and up the other side. It is said that very few survived this punishment, because of the infested waters and sharp barnacles that were attached to the bottom of the ship. The danger of drowning was also great, but despite everything Joe underwent this twice, and survived.

Later on while sailing in the Caribbean Sea the ship struck storm and rough waters and was wrecked. Young Joe, with others managed to hang onto a piece of drifting timber. Some hours later they were picked up by a passing cargo ship and taken to New Orleans.            

It had been about five years when Joseph returned to his home in Providence, Rhode Island.  By now he had learned the value of reading, writing and arithmetic. Joe returned to school and completed the grammar grades.  He then went to Baltimore where he apprenticed in a molding shop and worked in a blacksmiths shop.  (His, progenitor, Stephen Hopkins signed the Declaration of Independence.)

            When Joe's roaming spirit took over again he went by boat down the Mississippi River to Fort Leavenworth.  Here he met a number who were going to Utah with Johnston's Army.  A spark of excitement entered him and he joined the army as a teamster or mule skinner.  They left in the spring of 1858 to quell what was perceived to be a rebellion in Utah Territory.

             When Johnston's Army broke camp to return east. Joe deserted along with many others and remained in Utah. He preferred the company of the Utah Mormons over the crude, drinking quarreling army men. The army had spent a cold winter with substandard rations, inadequate clothing, and poor shelter.

It was in 1861while living in Payson, Utah that Leprelet Joseph Hopkins was baptized by Willard Glover McMullin. 

Scrappy old Joe who could fix anything was of great value to the colonizers.  He was called by President Young to settle the Dixie country. He went to Virgin.  The work was so hard and results so discourag­ing that many of the settlers returned to the north. Everyone was extremely poor. The Indians constantly annoyed them by stealing from them. 

One day Joe saw an Indian watching his cows from a high place on the hill, and took a long shot at him. The Indian left and years later came back. When he saw Joe Hopkins he recog­nized him and said he was a pretty good shot. He then showed the mark on his thigh where he had been hit. 

Joe was always good for a joke. It was conference time in the very early days of Dixie. Joe had walked over 20 miles to St. George to attend conference. When the day ended, Gus Hardy asked if he’d take a ride back to Virgin.  Hardy drove a span of fancy mules and was very proud of them. Grandfather said, "Well Gus I'd like to but you see I'm in a hell'uve a hurry."  There upon he set out on foot to beat Gus to Virgin. Each time he came in view of Gus he walked steadily. Each time he lost sight of Gus he ran at top speed. He got into Virgin just enough ahead of Gus that he was sitting on a log whittl­ing as tho he had always been there

"Well Gus, how was the trip?" he called. He never tired of jokes and his eyes twinkled with mischief when he was thinking of one.

The men of the town had a habit of gathering at the co-op store, around a tall pot bellied stove to crack pine nuts and swap yarns. One day Joe rushed into the store and up to the crowd around the stove and asked them to come help him pull a man out of the mud. They all got up and when at the door one asked, "How bad is he stuck."

"Oh up to the ankles," remarked Joe

"That’s not bad!" said the man in disgust and started back to the stove.

Joe remarked. "Bad enough,  he went in head first." 

Joe spent about two years on Buckskin Mountain where he helped put up a saw-mill.  He kept the saw mill in repair while some of the timber for the St. George Temple and Tabernacle was being cut. His work as a blacksmith was very important to the small communities in which he lived. He kept in repair and in good running order the flour mills and saw mills. He was always able to put new machinery together, patch up the old or invent a new part to keep things running.

Joe never went into debt and was always ready to lend a hand.

Joe never forgot the value of education. He often made loans, interest free, to young people to help them with their education.  One day a young woman, Annie Englestead, from Mt. Carmel came in to make a final payment.  She was so very grateful she had walked seven miles to make the payment.  As she sat before the fire Joe asked why she did not have any rubbers on.  She said because she saved every cent to meet her obligation.  When she left she was wearing a pair of new rubbers.  

At age 82 Joe said, “The ideal of my childhood was to become the captain of a ship.  After joining the church my aim in life was to rear an honest and respectable family, and to give them an education so they might be men and women of influence among their associates.”

Ann Victoria Spendlove Hopkins

 OF Dignity and Dreams

Ann Victoria Spendlove

As Ann Victoria Spendlove prepared to sail to America we can imagine the conversation she had with her sisters who had raised her.

 “Forget this dream of going to Zion. The United States is in a civil war, and the church has gone astray.” 

” You will loose your dignity in that barren waste land where people are so destitute and poverty ridden.”  

A little niece piping up, “There will be no place to wear the fancy dresses with satin and lace you so like to wear.” 

“You watch me!”  The audacious Ann must have replied. “I can dress anyway I like wherever I like. I believe in the dream.”  

Ann's older brother William had gone to Utah in 1849. William’s letters home caused serious doubt about the truth of the LDS church in the Spendlove family. Before he went off to the gold mines in California he wrote a letter back saying that the church had gone astray. Their father renounced his membership until a few days before his death. Others of the children had serious misgivings, but the oldest brother John who had helped pay for Williams passage never wavered.  Before John left for the land of Zion he did all that he could do to prevail upon their father to change his mind.  

With the help of their oldest brother, John, Ann, and her brothers James and Joseph stayed true to the faith. At the age of 27, Ann, set sail for New York. (On the ship “General McCellan” on Jun 23rd 1864 out of Liverpool.)

Ann made her way to Utah in the William S. Warren Company arriving in Salt Lake City Oct. 4, 1864.  

On the trail the wagon train dodged the Indians who seemed to be at war with the settlers.   Stott Edwin of that company recorded, “The country was being settled ... men were coming out and taking up ranches and building homes. Indians, feeling like their hunting grounds were being over run were killing the settlers and setting fire to their homes and stealing their belongings…As we were traveling along at night we could see the homes burning on the horizon."

Traveling with a covered wagon company was hard, tiresome and taxing on mind and soul.   The last half of the journey rations were so tight it seemed that their stomachs were always empty and their energy drained. As the wagons rolled along Ann had plenty of time to think of her homeland and the family members she had left behind.

Ann Victoria Spendlove was born in a two room adobe house in Stanion England in 1835 the youngest of 13 children. Her father was a thick, stout man about 5 ft. 6 inches tall with gray eyes and a stern disposition. Ann could not remember her mother because she passed away when Ann was only a year old.  Her father never remarried.  She was loved and raised by her older brothers and sisters.  They often played games such as Tag, Ring Around the May Pole, Toss Over and Hide and Seek. Watching three sisters 8, 10 and 15 years older than her, Ann must have learned about style and dress.  With 6 older brothers to tease her she learned to fend for herself.

All the family looked up to their oldest brother John. He was always considerate to his brothers and sisters and did much to help the family.  Ann went to stay with John and his wife Elizabeth after they married.  

Elizabeth had something almost no one had in those days. Elizabeth had a family bible that was very old.  It is written of Elizabeth by one of her sons, "She was a good reader . . . she would take the old Bible down after we children had gone to bed and read to us …The Bible was very old; not less than 100 years old and had been passed down through the family for years…Bibles were very scarce in those days and not many families had them." 

While reading the bible they talked about the dream of Grandma Susanna Mossindew. Their Grandmother related that she had seen, in her dream, her son reading the old bible to his family when two young men came into the room. They took the old bible out of his hands and gave him another book that had a shinny cover. After reading from this book, for a while the family got up and went with the strange men. When she awoke she wondered what the new book was.  She told her son about the dream, saying that something very important would come into his life some-day and he should prepare himself to receive it.

In her brother Joseph's  journal is the story of finding strange men and the new book.

“While (our oldest brother) John was working on the railroad …he heard the men talking about a new religion that was being preached in the countryside and that some strange men were going two by two saying there had been raised up a prophet in America that had restored the new church as of old with apostles and all the gifts as then.  John wanted to find these men and learn more about their teachings.” 

“The idea of a church with apostles, prophets and the authority struck me with conviction,” John told his brother Joseph. 

            John also had a dream before he was converted. “ Mother appeared to me and she stood before a large curtain.  She was dressed in white and had a look of distress on her face.  She did not smile but motioned for me to come and look behind the curtain.  This I wanted to do but waited for her to pull it aside so I could see.  As I continued to hesitate she shook her head and vanished.” (In Mar. of 1849 John was baptized.)  After his conversion to the gospel John came to understand the meaning of the dream.

            There is no record that John's wife Elizabeth ever joining the church and her daughter remembered that she did not like the missionaries coming to their home and wanted them to leave John alone. 

One day, according to one record, Elizabeth was found head long on a hill.  She had taken a fall and did not survive. It was a very sad day for Ann and the dear children of John and Elizabeth.   Ann and her sisters helped care for the children after that.

As a missionary John preach the gospel, going door to door.  He stated that he had read the bible so much that he felt like the Apostle Paul was near him every time he went out.   

After a few years John married again.  John and his new wife Mary immigrated to America on a ship called the Amazon.  Before they set sail Charles Dickens entered the ship to get a first hand look at the Mormons.  

“I went on board their ship,” he said, “to bear testimony against them if they deserved it,” Of the people themselves Dickens wrote that had he not known they were Mormons, he would have described them as, … “the pick and flower of England”.

            Ann desired to follow her brother John to Utah.  Travel was made possible by the Perpetual Emmigration Fund.  Records show that Ann traveled in the William S. Waren Company arriving in Salt Lake City on Oct. 4, 1864.  After arriving in Salt Lake City she found her way down to Virgin, Utah where John and his wife Mary lived in a dug out.  Life was hard.

Ann, small in stature, with dark wavy hair and very good looking, was dignified and proud.  She met the spunky Joe Hopkins who had just lost a wife in childbirth. It did not take Joe long to talk Ann Victoria into becoming his wife. 

            Two children Joseph Walter and Ann Elizabeth were born in Virgin and then the family moved to Toqueville about 1867 where two more children were born. Joe and Ann had 6 children in all.  They endured many hardships and happy times as they helped settle southern Utah.  They ended up in Glendale Utah. 

Ann always believed in the dream and the book of Mormon. She also found times to dress in her beautiful dresses of satin and lace. 

Her granddaughter Lucy remembers, “Grandpa and Grandma Hopkins made a trip to Virgin, to visit old friends, where they were married and lived some length of time before moving to Long Valley… Grandma wore a lovely little fine straw and silk bonnet (she had more than one for she showed them to me many times). She had lovely black silk dresses other women didn't have. She had a brother in England who was a goldsmith who sent her lovely earrings, broaches and rings so she was really a lady when in full dress. … I was old enough to see the poverty of those fine people and tried to understand why Grandma could do such a thing to old friends.

Surely these old friends understood Ann Victoria Spendlove; A woman of poise and dignity with unyielding faith.  Ann did not have to give up her fine dresses of satin and lace to follow the Savior and believe in the dream.

Haden Wells Church

Mobsters and Missionaries In Tennessee

Haden Wells Church

Tennessee was an isolated and rough country when the first Mormon missionaries come to the area in about 1835.  The only way to get around was by boat; on foot or horseback there were barriers such as high mountains and wide rivers. There was danger of being attacked by wild animals, Native Americans and mobs.  There was almost no safe place to lodge for the night.    

Parley P. Pratt and Wilford Woodruff were some of the first missionaries in Tennessee. Wilford Woodruff wrote in his journal, "A. O. Smoot and I preached at Mr. David Crider's, after the meeting Mr. Crider was baptized. A mob gathered and threatened us, and poisoned our horses so that the one I rode, belonging to Samuel West, died a few days after. This horse had carried me thousands of miles while preaching the gospel." (Wilford Woodruff, Leaves From My Journal, Sunday, the 31st of July 1836 Ch.8)  (Weakly County, Tennessee). 

It was in these parts in about 1840, that Haden Wells Church first heard of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. His cousin Molly Church Anderson wrote that when the visiting missionaries sang the first song Haden new they spoke the truth and desired to know more.   

With extreme opposition to these teachings about a living prophet Haden, the oldest son of Abraham Church headed out on a four hundred mile journey to Nauvoo Illinois to meet this Joseph Smith; the man they called a prophet of God.  Haden's bosom burned within him as he met the prophet Joseph Smith.  He would dedicate his life to this truth.  Haden was a school teacher 23 years of age and unmarried.  He was baptized in Nauvoo by Joseph Smith on April 5, 1841.   

Haden was excited about the knowledge of the restored gospel.  He was fully committed to this new religion.  Haden accepted the priesthood and the call of a seventy.  A seventy is charged with the mission of preaching the gospel to the entire world under the direction of the Twelve. (Haden Wells Church was ordained a seventy on Oct. 8, 1843 while serving his first mission.  (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus>>,)

Haden would spend much of his life in missionary service in the face of mob violence, sickness, and rejection. A patriarchal blessing recognized this; " The Lord has called you to preach the gospel to push the people together from the ends of the Earth.  You shall go from Land to Land from Sea to Sea … and proclaim salvation to the children of men teaching them repentance and remission of sins and shall baptize thousands."

We do not have the journal of Haden Church.  We do have some journal entries of other missionaries that served with him. He served his first mission in 1843.

Haden's first missionary companion John Brown recorded in his journal. " I left home on the 29th of May, … in company with brother H. W. Church, on a mission to the south.  …  The night after we arrived there a mob of 18 or 20 prowled through the neighborhood, threatening to drive the elders from the country…After remaining a few days, brothers Haws and Church went to Mississippi, and I proceeded to Perry County…. About ten days after, brother Church returned from Mississippi and joined in with me again we had calls on every hand, prejudice gave away; and many embraced the truth.  We continued our labors there until we had baptized forty-five, and organized another church of sixteen members.  The spirit was abundantly poured out, and the word was confirmed with signs following. The saints spoke in tongues, and the interpretation was given, and many that were sick were healed by the prayer of faith in the name of Jesus."  

In another journal entry in which Elder Brown mentions H W Church he records, "On the 25th of Oct. 1843 I baptized Sarah Ann Arterbury."  Two weeks later, he recorded the baptism of Samuel Utley and his wife Maria and on the 7th of December he wrote, "We ordained Brother Elias Arterbury an elder."  (Haden would soon marry Sarah Arterbury and Samuel Utley is the great grandfather of Allen C. Feller.)

A.O. Smoot, a fellow missionary recorded this experience.  "On arriving at Dresden, Tenn., I rented the courthouse to hold a meeting in, and while in the act of preaching to a good-sized audience, a mob gathered outside and a shot was fired at me through the window. The bullet passed near my head and lodged in the ceiling, and immediately afterwards a few brickbats were also thrown through the window. Considerable excitement followed and the audience began to scatter, when a man by the name of Camp, somewhat noted as a fighting character, arose and called on the fleeing people to stop. He told them if they would only sit and listen to the preaching, he would go out and look after the persons who were creating the disturbance. (Four Faith Promoting Classics, Early Scenes in Church History, p.23) 

We do not know if Haden was present at this meeting but he surely had similar experiences as he preached the gospel in his home state of Tenn.

With very few safe places to spend the night the Church home became a haven to the missionary effort.  Haden's family lived in Duck Creek Tennessee.  Elder Roberts worte, "...the Church family were a reliable source of missionary sustenance in the south since their home was open day and night to the Elders."    (Elder B.H Roberts)

When the missionaries received the news that Joseph Smith had been killed they were called back to Nauvoo.  The trek back was no easy ordeal. Elder Smoot described the trip, “I was at Father Church's, on Duck river, in Hickman Co., Tennessee, when I received the news of the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, six days after the consummation of that bloody deed. I immediately proceeded down Duck River to the Tennessee River by canoe, and, on arriving there, in company with three other Elders, purchased a skiff, and made my way to Paducah on the Ohio river, from which place I took steamer to Nauvoo. (Abraham O. Smoot recorded, Four Faith Promoting Classics, Early Scenes in Church History, p.24)

After returning to Nauvoo Elder Church did not stay long because there was more than missionary work calling him to the mission field.  Haden went back to Perry County Alabama held a conference with the saints and married Sarah Ann Arterbury.   (On Dec. 19, 1844 in Perry County Alabama Haden married Sarah Ann Arterbury with Samuel Utley performing the ceremony.)   

In 1845 they were in Nauvoo where Sarah Ann received her first Patriarchal Blessing The saints worked feverishly to complete the Nauvoo temple before they were expelled. Elder Haden W. Church and his wife Sarah Ann were some of the first to receive the ordinances and blessings that would help them withstand the trials to come. They were endowed in the Nauvoo Temple on January 9, 1846 and sealed there on January 21, by President Brigham Young.  

On February 4th saints began crossing the Mississippi river on the trek west.  It was a difficult time leaving the city “Beautiful” behind in the dead of winter with mob threats at their heels.  Hyrum Smith Church, their first son, was born during this time on Monday, March 9, 1846.

That summer on the plains of Iowa, Haden became "Private Church" when he enlisted as a member of the Mormon Battalion.  He left his beloved wife and five month old son.  He was in Company "B".  A private's pay was $27 a month.  In addition a clothing allowance of $42 was paid in advance to each soldier.  This pay and clothing allowance sent back to the destitute families provided a way for them to survive and buy crucial necessities for crossing the plains.

John Hess described service in the Battalion, "I feel that the year's service… is one of the noblest and grandest acts of my life, for the reason that Israel was on the alter of sacrifice, and the "Mormon Battalion", of which I was a member, went as the "Ram in the Thicket", and Israel was saved". (Hess, John W., Journal, fd. 2, 8-9, in John W. Hess, Autobiography and journal [ca. 1887-1895].)

After a long march to Santa Fe, Haden was released in the 3rd sick detatahment. The winter of 1846-47 was long and hard.  A soldier's normal food ration usually included eighteen ounces of flour per day.  This detachment was given a five -day ration of ten ounces per day for the three hundred mile trek.  This would be equal to a couple of waffles in the morning and a couple of waffles at night with nothing for lunch and no food on the weekend.  The sick men suffered greatly from such a meager ration while traveling in a mountainous country in the winter.  Haden arrived in Salt Lake City just a few days after Brigham Young. His wife and baby were not there yet.

Haden was anxious and excited to see his dear wife and little son.  He made his way from Salt Lake City half way back across the plains to be with them.  A journal entry from one in the A.O. Smoot Company reads: "Aug. 16, 1847, Bro. Church met with us and camped with us," A month and a half later on Sept. 26 the little family arrived in Salt Lake City. 

After living in Salt Lake for two years Haden was called to go to the British Mission.  He left Sarah and two young sons. This group of 45 elders was the first to leave the Salt Lake Valley as missionaries.  

The missionaries left their homes in the dead of winter to travel across the plains and fill this important mission call. Elder John Taylor wrote, (Dec 11, 1849) "We found our journey to be very toilsome and unpleasant at this inclement time of year, and were it not for the missions … we should have felt great reluctance of leaving our comfortable homes and firesides, to combat the chilling winds and pitiless storms of the Rocky Mountains and Desert Plains,"  

On The 12th of November a party of two hundred Cheyenne Indian warriors attacked the missionaries.  They escaped without harm.  They arrived in Liverpool on April 19, 1850.  

Haden had much success as a missionary. He cherished the letters he received from his wife and family.  He must have shed tears as he learned of the death of his mother-in-law and of his own father Abraham Church who was only 60 years old.

After serving for two years Haden was released from his mission and boarded the ship Ellen Maria to start the long trip home. He again walked across the plains with a wagon train under the direction of his friend and companion A. O.  Smoot.  They arrived In Salt Lake City About 3 years form the time they had received the mission call. (Aug. 18, 1852)

Imagine Haden's consternation the very next year in 1853 when a third mission call came in General Conference. Just before his 3rd little boy was born.   Haden received a call to go to the United States; back home to the Tenn. Alabama area to teach the gospel and combat the mob violence again. 

In a letter to Erastas Snow Haden wrote, "...as soon as I began preaching and baptizing it made both priest and people angry, yet that did not hinder or impede the onward progress of truth, as it is mighty and will prevail...In conclusion, we pray that the great work of Jehovah may continue to roll on, until every honest person may be gathered out of every nation, kindred, tongue, and people under the whole heavens. Even so Amen.  H. W.  Church" 

On this mission Haden had the opportunity visit his mother and to preach and travel with his brother Robert R. Church.  He guided a group of saints from his wife's birth place, Perry Alabama as they started their trek to Salt Lake City.

After much success Haden was released and yet again he crossed the plains anxious to see his family.  The two month old son he had left was now two and a half years old, another son had just been baptized and his oldest son was almost 11.  Haden testified in Oct General Conference "to the truth of the work we are engaged in."  

            That spring Haden was asked to take another wife. He married Catherine Gardner. She was born in Hampshire England. Her English enunciation was a delight to the family. Aunt Kate was seven years older than Haden and was 46 when they married.  No children were born from this marriage.  Catherine needed a home and Sarah Ann needed company and help with the endless chores and income while Haden served as a missionary. (Marriage On March 15, 1857)

That summer Sarah had her fourth child, her first and only daughter Paralee Amanda. Two years later another son was born. 

In Oct of 1861 the family was called to help settle St. George.  Three hundred families were called to the Dixie Mission.  The first Christmas in St. George the pioneers planned a wonderful celebration.  Early in the evening it began to rain and it rained for a period of forty days. 

Haden was one of a committee of five to ascertain where to take water out of the Virgin River into a canal for irrigation. He was the first school teacher selected and sang in the first choir in Dixie.  

The history of the church states, "No missionary work was done in the United States during the civil war but it was opened again by Hayden W. Church. At the end of the civil war a Mission call was hand delivered by Erastas Snow and sustained in April Conf. 1868.  (Jensen's Encyclopedia History)

Haden attended the marriage of his oldest son, hugged his 10 year old daughter and other sons good by and once again headed out on the long journey.  As Haden walked across the country to his missionary labor he must have recited passages of scriptures and used his wonderful singing voice to pass the time. 

After two years in the mission field Haden, worn and tired had a welcome treat. He returned to Ogden, Utah by train, The Deseret News Reported.  "We were pleased yesterday to meet Elders Henry G. Boyle and Haden W. Church, just returned from missions to the East...Brother Church's labors extended through Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia.  He suffered much from ill health during his absence, He has been absent a little rising of two years.  They brought a company of 70 persons."  Haden also brought with him a Negro Man that called Haden "Massa Church".

For the next five years Haden enjoyed being at home.  During this time he was able to do many baptisms in the Endowment House in SLC.  He was one of the first to do baptisms for the signers of the Declaration of Independence.   

Haden Church was to serve one more mission.  He left in May of 1875 to preach again in the south. A short six months later a Letter from Elder Boyle, reported the death of Haden Church,  "He was interned by the side of his father and mother, near the house where he was born and raised.  I was with him to the last.  There are five brothers and three sisters of the deceased, all living near here, all members of the Church...He died of typhoid fever.  Brother Church had not been really well since our arrival here.  But as far as his health permitted, he was faithful in the discharge of every duty, and died in the harness and at the post."

Typhoid Fever must have hindered Elder Church for years and took him at the young age of 58.  Haden Wells Church was a great instrument in pushing the people together from the ends of the earth bring many souls to Christ.  

One might wonder what happened to the rest of the Church family and the missionary efforts in Tennessee. (Thomas Haliday brother settled in Utah in 1877)

B.H Roberts wrote, "…Through Uncle Robert Church's generosity and kindness the missionaries rode a dun-colored horse named Old Travelor named after the one Parley P. Pratt had ridden. 

When Elder Roberts went back to Tennessee. as Mission President in 1885 he wrote,  "…my first official act was to return to Shady Grove District where my heart drew me, knowing I was home when Old Traveler ambled up and nudged me from behind and all our journeys and adventures flooded my memory." 

As the missionary efforts in Tennessee went forth the mobsters got more forceful. (See another story: http://amateurmormonhistorian.blogspot.com/2009/07/crockett-county-mobbing-part-2.html)

The mobsters gave the members four choices.  Deny the faith, move, do not openly practice or preach, or live the gospel and be persecuted.

The mobsters cut off the ears and tail of Old Traveler and let it be known that all Mormons were subject to the same treatment.  (Kenneth Travis a great grandson of Charles Houston Church)

The Church home in Shady Grove Tennessee served as the headquarters for the Church in Tennessee for many years. Missionaries received their mail there and returned there to rest. J. Golden Kimball was resting at the Church home when he heard about the massacre at Cane Creek. (<http://amateurmormonhistorian.blogspot.com/2010/07/home-of-abraham-church.html>)

 Robert Robins Church provided a wagon and drove to the site of the Tennessee massacre to recover the bodies of the slain elders and transported one of the coffins to the railroad in Colombia.  Elders Berry and Gibbs and two members had been killed while in the act of opening a meeting for the preaching of the gospel.  Local stories tell that there were three possible roads to Colombia.  Brother Church was not sure which rode to take as rumors were that a mob was waiting to hijack the wagons and the coffins.  He decided to let the reins loose and let the team select which fork in the road to take.  The team selected what common sense would say was the worst road,  but it turned out to be providential as the mob was waiting on the other road, and by the time the mobsters discovered what had happened, it was too late to intercept the wagons carrying the caskets of the slain missionaries.  (See full Account: http://amateurmormonhistorian.blogspot.com/2008/07/cane-creek-massacre.html)

The murders of the missionaries; and the events which followed proved to be too much for Haden's brother Robert Robbins.  Within weeks, he lapsed into a delirious reenactment of the scenes of the tragedy and soon died.  Mission President B.H. Roberts paid this tribute to him: "Uncle Robbins" open door and bounteous table had been an anchor of refuge to the elders for nearly forty years.   He had often lent them horses and had been fearless in his support of the missionaries in spite of threats of mob reprisal."

The Shady Grove area is in  the Franklin Tennessee Stake and many of the members are descendents of Abraham and Mary Jane Church.  

Sarah Ann Arterbury Chruch

Southern Devotion

 Sarah Ann Arterbury – Married to a Missionary

            We know very little about Sarah Ann Arterbury. Therefore liberty has been taken to write between the lines of the facts we do have. 

            Sarah’s heart was full and almost breaking as the events of the past few months flooded her memory. So much had happened. Haden W. Church, the missionary that had taught her had come back to Perry County Alabama. She married him in December 1844 just one year after her baptism.  Immediately after their marriage Sarah helped Haden and the missionaries prepare for the very first church conference in Alabama.  Her married sister Martha Jane was there.  Martha and Sarah were just a year apart and had been so close growing up.  Four days before the conference the Arterbury family was devastated when Sarah’s younger sister Mary Louisa age 10 passed away.  Then a few days after the conference another sister, Rebecca age 12, also died.  

As Sarah and Haden prepared to return to Nauvoo she thought her heart would break having just buried two sisters.  She watched Paralee Amanda her little 7 years old sister who was very excited about her upcoming birthday and baptism.  Sarah watched as Manda sidled up to Haden and said, “Tell me again what the prophet Joseph Smith taught about baptism for the dead. Can I get baptized for Mary Louisa and Rebecca too?”

            Manda’s excitement and simple faith seemed to bring an understanding and eternal perspective.  Sarah would miss Manda and her tiny little sister Matilda as well as her two brothers James, John, and their parents. 

As Sarah and Haden returned to Nauvoo they looked forward to helping finish the temple and joining the saints.  Sarah was 8 months pregnant when they entered the Nauvoo Temple to be endowed. Saints had already started preparing to leave the city. What a powerful experience it was to have Brigham Young seal them and to know that this child would be theirs through all eternity. 

Sarah had lost two sisters at conference time last year. Now her heart ached with the recent news that her married      sister and best friend Martha Jane had also passed away. 

Leaving Nauvoo was hard.  Looking back at the beautiful city brought tears to their eyes.  The saints began leaving Nauvoo in February. of 1846.  Little Hyrum was born in March.

On the plains of Iowa Sarah held little Hyrum close as she listened to the request for a Mormon Battalion.  She knew that Haden would surely volunteer. She knew she would not stop him, she would encourage him but being alone on the plains seemed undonting. 

When Haden joined the Mormon Battalion Sarah found friends from Alabama. She traveled in the A.O. Smoot wagon train that left for Salt Lake City one year after the Battalion.  

The Smoot Company had been on the trail for two months when on August 16th Sarah heard a cry, “Sarah! Your husband has come! Haden Church is here!”  Haden, had walked miles to meet the wagon train. It was a warm reunion and blessed day to be a family again. 

The Year 1848 and 49 were eventful years with good and bad sandwiched together. In June crickets attacked the Mormon crops and Sarah’s father Elias Arterbury died.  In September their second son was born.  Then they received word that Sarah’s baby sister Matilda had passed away.  Young Paralee Amanda and the two boys were the only children left to comfort her mother in Alabama. 

In 1849 the Perpetual Emigrating Fund was established to help poor Saints gather to Zion and Haden was called as one of the first missionaries to leave Salt Lake to serve with Orson Pratt in the British Mission to gather those saints.

            As winter approached Sarah prepared the supplies for Haden to carry on his journey.  It was cold, so cold. The baby was small.  The house was small.  Sarah did not know how she would provide for the two children but she would and she would find enough to send to England to help Haden on this mission.  She wrote letters as often as she could.  She told of the Sunday School being organized, the death of her mother and the death of Haden's father and all the things that happened in the Salt Lake City 14th ward. Haden returned after three years.
          Sarah received a Patriarchal blessing.  The blessing proved to be much comfort and direction to her. The blessing by John Smith Patriarch stated, “. ...Thou shalt be a mother in Israel and thy name shall be had in honorable remembrance among the saints, thou shalt have faith to heal the sick, ... All mysteries shall be revealed unto thee, and thou shalt comprehend all things in Heaven and Earth,  ...be patient sister and endure in faith to the end and these words shall not fail even so Amen”

Their 3rd son Abraham was born in Feb. 1854.  What a challenge it was to send Haden on another mission when Abraham was only 2 months old.  She packed his things and tucked letters in for her family since he was going back to the Southern United States to preach. 

Sarah received letters from Haden telling of miraculous experiences, blessings of the spirit and speaking in tongues as the people were converted to the gospel. 

Sarah labored to care for her 3 little children, keep up the home and earn a living. Sarah and Haden had been married for a little over 10 years and Haden had served in the Battalion or on missions for almost half of that time. She allowed herself to become so discouraged and blue, she almost thought she could not go on any longer.  She went to a quiet lonely field to pray.  She told her maker if He would make known to her that the Gospel was really true, she would go back and be able to face it all, and go on with her life's work.  She said that the most wonderful Spirit possessed her whole body and she proceeded to speak in tongues, and she was able to understand the message. From then on she never had a doubt of the truthfulness of the Gospel. Because of this experience she had a greater understanding of the mission experiences Haden was so excited about. 

            Sarah Ann had a little social life during her husband’s absence. She and nine other women whose husbands were on missions attended a party that included songs, music and dancing, held in honor of veterans of the Mormon Battalion.  (On February 7, 1855)

            Sarah took up the practice of being a Midwife and brought many young babies into the world and cared for them. Her wages were very meager, but they did help.  Sister Lottie Carter said Sarah waited on her at the birth of her first baby.  Sister Carter suffered as she thought she could never have another child.  She said Sarah told her she would have another child and would suffer no pain. Her very next baby came without pain and so fast they did not have time to get a Doctor.

            At Conference time in Oct of 1856 Haden returned home. Abraham, the new baby was now two years old and the boys 8 and 10.  

That spring Haden was asked to take a second wife Catherine Gardner.  Catherine was born in Hampshire England and arrived in Utah in 1856.  She was seven years older than Haden and was 46 when they married.  Catherine needed a home and Sarah could use extra help. As midwife Sarah went to help birth the baby and then for the next nine days she went to the home to take care of the household chores and children of the new mother.  

The next July Sarah was overjoyed when her first and only daughter was born.  They named her Paralee Amanda or Manda after Sarah’s only living sister.  When their last son was born in 1859 they named him after Haden’s brother Robert Robbins Church.  David Cannon of St. George said he was a friend of Robert Church, and visited the home many times.  He said as Bob (Robert) was being born, a man was being hung at the court house just across the street. 

            In 1861 the church family was called with over 300 other families to the Dixie Mission. In this desert country they met with many hardships. Sarah worked to make the community a success; She was present along with 23 other sisters at the organization of the Relief Society in St. George. She gave many hours of service and worked to support her husband and help him in his labors.

The story is told that the only time Haden got white bread, was when it was his turn to water the land all night, then somehow, Sarah would manage to come out where he was watering, with a slice of white bread and molasses.  (Kate Church Clark DUP Jan 1820)

Sarah supported Haden on two more missions. Haden passed away while on his last mission to Tennessee in 1875 when Sarah was 51 and their youngest son was 15.

Sarah Ann worked as a Temple worker for many years her granddaughter noting that she occupied room 8. She accomplished much genealogical and temple work for her relatives. 

            Sarah was a member of the Board of Directors of the Ladies Co-op when it was organized in St. George, Utah.   (1876)

            Sarah Arterbury Church, devoted to the end did some missionary work of her own.  In a history written on the Southern States mission it states, “In June, 1880, Sister Sarah Church, of Utah, visited the south, and while thus engaged made a number of appointments to preach, bearing her testimony to the Gospel as revealed through Joseph Smith. She traveled through portions of Tennessee and Mississippi. I'd like to find out more about this woman.” (http://theancestorfiles.blogspot.com/2009/04/history-of-southern-states-mission-part_09.html)  

In 1881 Sarah’s sister Paralee Amanda come to Utah. She took out her temple endowments in the St. George Temple in June while still in St. George she passed away.

Eight years later in Oct of 1989 Sarah Ann died at the age of 65. On her deathbed, her last words were, “Tell Abe, I know the Gospel is true.” (Kate Church Clark DUP Jan 1929) 

Benjamin Franklin Pendleton

Benjamin-Builder of the Kingdom

(Brigham’s Right Hand Man)

Benjamin Franklin Pendleton

 

The tenth day of April 1842 changed Benjamin Franklin Pendleton’s life forever.  As this handsome six foot tall man came up out of the water his shock of dark wavy hair brushed back and his dark blue eyes shone with a new conviction.   He came up out of the water’s of baptism a new man.  His wife Lavina looked like a china doll holding little 8 months old William. They had begun a new life, of commitment to the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.  They had no way of knowing that just two days hence their little William would pass beyond the veil thus causing them to work even harder for salvation and eternal life.  

A year later Benjamin and Lavina made the necessary arrangements and with their hope of a celestial glory and their tiny baby Celestia Ann they joined the saints in Nauvoo Illinois.   Ben set up a blacksmith shop and built a home for his family.  Ben received the priesthood and was ordained a seventy.  Threats increased and just after the birth of their third child the prophet Joseph and his Brother Hyrum were killed at Carthage.  As mob threats and violence became worse Ben worked long hours getting wagons and tools ready for saints preparing to leave the city.  Before the Nauvoo temple was even dedicated he and Lavina were among the first to receive endowments. (January 28, 1846)  Many of the saints crossed the frozen Mississippi river in February of 1846.  Ben stayed working night and day in his blacksmith shop.  Lavina had her 4^th child, John, in Nauvoo March 23, 1846 as she prepared the family belongings and packed their wagon to follow the saints.  

            When Benjamin and Lavina and their three young children crossed the river on their way to Winter Quarters the stream was high and their wagon was put on the ferry boat.  In loading the cattle some of them became upset and began to cause commotion.  The ferry began to tip, the wagon began to slide, and it looked as if Lavina and the babies would be thrown into the raging stream.  As the ferry twisted and swerved in the tumultuous water Ben remembered the dreadful day their first born son passed away.  His heart screamed, “Please don’t let another child be lost”.  Benjamin was helpless and knew that only the Lord could save them.  He prayed and asked the Lord to preserve the lives of his wife and babies. In return he promised to always work to help build and strengthen the church.  His prayer was answered and ever he worked to fill his promise.  

            In April, 1847, when Brigham Young and the first company of Pioneers left to find a place for the saints to locate in safety, Benjamin was requested by Brigham Young to remain at Winter Quarters to help further prepare the saints for the long hard trip across the plains.

            Because Benjamin was such a good blacksmith and could repair and manufacture most anything, he was advised to open a shop in the vicinity of Winter Quarters, and give his service to repairing and fitting up more wagons for the Saints who were preparing to cross the plains in the spring.  He was kept very busy during the winter of 1847-1848. 

            Ben took his family West in the spring of 1848 in the second Company of Brigham Young.  Their son Joshua was born May 24 as the journey was about to get underway.  During the journey Benjamin was closely associated with Brigham Young, even to the extent that the President spoke of Ben as his right hand man.  

After arriving in Salt Lake City Benjamin set up a homestead and blacksmith shop on  6^th South between 4^th and 5^th East.  His young brother Andrew Jackson Pendleton was assigned an adjoining lot and appears to have worked as a partner in the shop.  It was impossible to import the different tools that were needed for the settlers.  Ben would make them. Nails, bolts, horseshoes, plows, harrows, wagon parts and tools of all kinds.  He manufactured many things that helped build up the community.  There was scarcely a settlement in the territory where the products of his shop were not known or being used.  In October of 1850 he received an award for the best plow in the manufacturing division of the Annual Exhibit.  He made a molasses mill and molasses during the early 1850’s.  He also made a grist mill for making flour and a saw mill.  He was an expert in repairing guns, and many Indians as well as settlers came to him for these services.  Eventually the Pendleton’s had a nice two story adobe house, surrounded by a white picket fence, with a garden of vegetables in the back and flowers in the front.  By the local standards they were prosperous         

Ben was called to the Blackfoot Mission in Idaho, to teach the Indians and start the first Idaho settlement. Before Ben returned from this mission to the Indians in Idaho there was a tragic accident at home. Andrew his little 6 year old boy drowned in the Jordon River in Salt Lake City. Andrew had gotten into some quick sand and his brother Ben, age 12 made an unsuccessful attempt to rescue him. Tragically Ben died from this incident 4 days later.         

Ben’s wife Lavina walked on crutches.  Maybe from a broken hip that was never properly cared for.  She had eleven children and raised 7 to adulthood.  Ben always saw that she had a hired girl to help her.

The Pendleton blacksmith shop was very near the place where the emigrants landed when they arrived from their native lands and many foreigners found their way to his place looking for work. Many were given employment and a place to stay for a while.

Alice Jeffery was glad to come to live at the Pendleton home as a servant.  She was treated as a sister and a member of the family.
The story as told by their granddaughter,  "One day President Brigham Young sent word to Ben that he wished to see him in his office.  When Ben returned home, Lavina, inquired, “what did Brigham want to see you about?” 

With an ashen face Ben said, “Lavina, I hate to tell you.”

She said, “Then I’ll tell you.  He wants you to take a young able bodied wife and go settle something or other.”

Ben said, “You took the words right out of his mouth.  He wants me to go on the Cotton Mission to Southern Utah.  He thinks you have had enough pioneering and he used the words, young and able bodied just as you did.  There will be men of all trades and I am to be the blacksmith.”

Ben had no desire to take another wife.  He could not imagine being with anyone except Lavina. With his head in his hands he said, “I gave my word.  I covenanted with the Lord to always strive to build the kingdom. How can I fill this call?”  Ben could not imagine leaving Lavina and the children. “What young able bodied woman would want to marry an old man anyway?”  (Clara M. Pinkston)

Lavina had also made the commitment to help build the kingdom in any way she could, as she thought she replied,  “Ben what about our new house girl, Alice? We all love her, she is wonderful with the kids.” 

“A young girl like Alice would not dream of marrying me.” 

Lavina replied, “Ben, there isn’t a woman alive, old or young who wouldn’t be glad to marry you.”

Lavina went to the kitchen to summon Alice.  This lovely English girl was down on her knees scrubbing the white pine floor with sand. Soap was hard to come by.  They put the proposition up to her, with Lavina doing most of the talking.  Alice was more than willing.  Later as the marriage was being performed, Lavina was asked if she gave her consent to it.  She said, “I should give my consent, being as it was I who arranged it.”

So in 1861 Ben and his new wife left the family. What a heart retching winter day. Little 3-year-old Abram hung on his dad’s leg and 6-month-old Emma smiled, not a clue of what was going on. Ben hugged Lavina, again commissioned his brother Andrew and the older boys to watch over the family and with his wagon full of blacksmith tools headed south.

The trek to St. George was over 300 miles and took about a month.  Benjamin was selected as one of the leading men of the mission.  In March of 1862 he was elected as one of two Aldermen with power to make laws for the government of the city and judicial power to enforce the laws.  He was on the water committee. When the city was surveyed he received two lots on the corner of 1^st north and 1^st west.  There he built a blacksmith shop and a two room adobe house where he and Alice raised 7 children.  The Apostle Orson Pratt was a neighbor; Brigham Young later became his neighbor when he located his wife Lucy B. and her daughters across the street.

Ben traveled to Salt Lake as often as he could and took dried fruit and vegetables, smoked ham and bacon, etc.  The trip took two weeks if the wagon did not break down.

Ben prepared and maintained a lovely garden, orchard and vineyard. He had success at raising fruits, berries, and currants.  The fruit peddlers often could load a wagon full of fruits from his garden to haul to market.  He was generous, sharing much with his neighbors and friends.  Alice canned a great quantity of produce.  Ben assisted in organizing a Gardner’s Club and then a hall to house it in. (1867) The club did much to promote fruit growing in the Dixie Mission.  Through the efforts of this club many beautiful shade trees were planted along the streets, adding beauty to the city and cooling the hot Dixie summer days.  By cooperation with the United States Department of Agriculture, many new species of plants, trees and vines were obtained, which proved a great worth to the people of the area. Ben built the first cotton gin and cotton mill used by the settlers in 1863in the little town of Washington.

Ben was fond of hunting and fishing.  One evening in November 1881 he went to hunt in the foothills by Middleton with Israel Line.  Israel went to visit and spend the night with a daughter who lived in Middleton. 

When nightfall came and Ben did not return home Alice was quite worried.  She asked Gus Hardy, the sheriff to go look for him.  Hardy said it was too late; he would go early in the morning.  It was a long night.  In the morning Hardy got an Indian who was a good scout, to accompany him.  They followed Ben’s tracks through the graveyard and found him.  He had laid down probably to rest and had passed away.  In the longest funeral procession on record the community came to pay tribute to Brigham’s Right Hand Man, Builder of the Kingdom Benjamin Franklin Pendleton.