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| Amos Botsford Fuller |
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| Esther Smith |
The Early Years
Amos Botsford Fuller was born 26
March 1810 in Stockholm, St. Lawrence County, New York, the fifth child of
Luther Fuller and Lorena Mitchell Fuller who had moved their family there from
New Hampshire. The Stockholm Township
was small and in a sparsely settled frontier, about 15 miles south of the point
where the State of New York and the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario
all meet. Amos grew up on his parents’
farm there and besides developing his skills as a farmer, he also became a
blacksmith by trade.
Esther Smith was born almost six
months later, also in Stockholm, St. Lawrence County, New York, on 20 September
1810 to Asael Smith, Jr. and Elizabeth Schellenger Smith who had moved to
Stockholm from Vermont. She was the
fourth child in a family of eight children. During her youth she learned to sew, knit, and
weave and to braid straw. In her early
years she was apprenticed to a tailor and became an expert seamstress for
clothes for both men and women. Before
her marriage she also taught school.
Esther grew up surrounded by her
extended family. Her paternal
grandparents, Asael (Sr.) and Mary Elizabeth (Duty) Smith had moved from
Massachusetts and New Hampshire to Stockholm in 1809 and one of their daughters, Susanna, and five of
their six living sons, Jesse, Asael Jr., Samuel (who died in 1830) Silas and
John, had moved to the area as well.
Their other living son, Joseph Smith Sr., had moved with is family to
Manchester, New York. Esther’s father,
Asael Smith Jr., was one of Joseph Smith Sr.’s younger brothers. That made
Esther a first cousin to Joseph Smith Jr.
Therefore, since the restoration of
the gospel was family news, it wasn’t long before Asael Sr. and his adult
children and grandchildren, including Esther, heard about it. Asael Smith Sr. received a letter from his
son Joseph Smith Sr. (Esther’s uncle) in the fall of 1828, when Esther was 18
years old. In that letter Joseph Smith
Sr. stated that his son, Joseph Smith Jr., had received some remarkable
visions. Soon afterwards, Joseph Smith Sr.
brought his son, Don Carlos with him to Stockholm and told the family members
about the metal plates that Joseph Smith Jr. had received. And in a later visit he brought his son,
Hyrum and a copy of the Book of Mormon for family members to read. The
discussions among family members and letters back and forth between Smith
cousins in Ohio (where the church had moved in 1831) and New York on the
subject of religion continued for a number of years. Appendix A contains a letter from Joseph
Smith Jr. to his uncle Silas, in Stockholm.
Appendix C contains excerpts from a letter written in 1834 by John Smith
(Esther’s uncle) who had moved from nearby Potsdam, New York to Kirtland in
1833, to his brother Silas in Stockholm.
The latter indicates Amos’s involvement in the conversations. “Tell Amos the Lord prospers the church here
and it increases in numbers,” he wrote, “ I repeat it — the Church of the Latter Day Saints will prosper in spite of wicked men
and devils until it fills the whole earth
. . . . The walls of the Lord's house are nearly
completed. The roof will go on next week.”
However, not everyone received it
well. Esther’s oldest uncle, Jesse, was
particularly opposed to the new church and family relations became a bit
strained when other members of the family received baptism and became members
of it in the years that followed.
Beginning a New Life Together
Much had happened in Esther and Amos’s life by the time her
cousin Joseph sent that letter to her Uncle Silas in 1833 and her Uncle John
admonished Amos in his letter of 1834. . Esther and Amos had married each other on 8
March 1832 in Stockholm, NY, and records indicate that Amos purchased land in
Stockholm a couple of months later on 24 May 1832. Amos and Esther’s first child, a son, died
the same day he was born, 15 May 1833. And
their second child, a daughter, was born less than a year later on 3 April 1834
and died just five days afterwards. The heartbreak must have been considerable.
As previously mentioned, Esther’s
Uncle John had received baptism in early 1833 and had moved to Kirtland,
Ohio. Conversations and letters back and
forth continued among family members and by the summer of 1835 Esther’s uncle
Silas and his wife Mary, her parents Asael and Elizabeth and her widowed
grandmother, Mary Smith were all members of the older generation that decided
that they wished to do as well. However,
her Uncle Jesse who was Mary’s eldest son, absolutely refused to permit his
mother to receive baptism. So though the
rest were baptized that summer, as well as a number of Esther’s siblings,
including her oldest brother, Elias, Esther’s aging grandmother was not. Esther and Amos were also not among those
baptized that June and July of 1835.
Perhaps that was because their third child, Jesse Johnson Fuller was
born in Stockholm on 1 June 1835 and the careful care of this new son, after
losing their first two children at birth, would have been the anxious focus of
both parents. They decided to wait.
Months later Esther was baptized on 1 January
1836 and Amos’s baptism is recorded as happening some weeks later on 17
February 1836. The following spring they
made plans to travel to Kirtland and arrived there in May of 1836. The family group that arrived in Kirtland,
all within a few days of each other, included Esther’s widowed 92 year old
grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Duty Smith as well as Esther’s father, mother, her
uncle Silas and his wife and various other
family members. Mary’s sons, Asael Jr. and
Silas, who made the trip, mindful of their mother’s frail health, planned the
journey to be primarily by the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes rather
than by road, in order for Mary to be able to survive it safely. Appendix B contains Joseph Smith Jr.’s
journal entries about the joy of the reunion that followed.
Early Years in Kirtland, Some Financial
Decisions and a Mission to the Northeast
Shortly after their arrival in
Kirtland Esther received a patriarchal blessing from her uncle, Joseph Smith
Sr. on June 17, 1836.
Amos received the same on 18 June 1836.
.
In his patriarchal blessing Amos was told that he was called to preach
the gospel and that he should teach the Lamanites in their various
languages. He was called to stand with
the 144,000 at the coming of the Savior and told to go his way and prosper. And he was told that he would have visions
and angels minister to him. He was
warned to be faithful and promised the blessing of one day talking face to face
with the Savior.
In 1836 the country was undergoing an
economic boom. The residents of Kirtland
were enjoying the benefits of that good year but they lacked monetary
reserves. They were producing goods and
could carry on an active barter system, but they lacked cash with which to make
purchases and payments. Many thought that if Kirtland had a bank that would
provide a way for currency to begin to circulate more easily in the local
economy. The founders’ application for
a bank charter from the state was denied so they called their new entity the
“Kirtland Safety Society Anti-Banking Company”.
Amos’s name appears again in the
Journal History of the Church when he was involved in the creation of the
Kirtland Safety Society. In the Journal, in January of 1837, is recorded the
following:
January 2, 1837—The Kirtland Safety
Society formed a bank with stock by the society. Amos B. Fuller was named as a member of the
society.
January 3, 1837—The Seventies met in
the loft of the Lord’s house at Kirtland, Ohio [the Kirtland temple, which had
been dedicated in March of 1836].
President Zebedee Coltrin made a few brief remarks upon the responsibility
of the office of Seventy. He and Pres.
Hazen ordained several to the 3rd Quorum of Seventies. Amos B. Fuller was one of those ordained by
Zebedee Coltrin.
With a new ordination as a member of
a Quorum of Seventy it is not surprising that within a few months Amos was
called to serve as a missionary for the LDS church. Leaving Esther and three year old Jesse in
Kirtland with Esther’s extended family nearby to help, he departed to work as a
full time missionary, traveling by foot and coach through northern
Massachusetts
(where members of
his father-in-law's extended family lived), southern and central New
Hampshire, central Maine
, and
central Vermont, before heading west in the fall and preaching in New York and
Ohio. You can read two volumes of the
journal he wrote while he was a missionary.
It is available online at the Harold B. Library web site. Volume one commences on July 2, 1837. The
transcription has some errors due to the challenges of deciphering old
handwriting, so it is worth reading the transcription and the digital copy side
by side to get an accurate understanding of where he was during his mission
work.
Amos’s stops on this mission were
often with members of the church where he strengthened and assisted them and,
whenever possible, he arranged to speak in schoolhouses and other
churches. Some days were spent in
meditation, study and prayer. Others
were spent working to help members and relatives with whom he stayed with their
farm work. His journal contains his
words of delight at receiving a letter from his family in Kirtland.
The “Journal of Church History” which
was being kept in Kirtland at the time also mentions his work in New Hampshire
with an entry:
Sunday, August 27, 1837—A conference
was held in Lyman, Grafton Co., New Hampshire.
The conference was organized and Amos B. Fuller was called to the
Chair. The Chairman (Amos B. Fuller)
addressed the conference. Others
representing the branch of Chittenden Co. spoke etc. The second meeting was addressed by the
Chairman on the Word of Wisdom.
The time spent in Maine includes a
time when he stayed with a Brother D. Carter.
At times in the journal he calls him “Uncle Carter”. By September 9, 1837 he had moved into New
York state where he stayed with his cousins, Edward Mix Fuller and James. Two weeks later he left his cousins and
headed back to Kirtland, having completed this mission work and looking forward
to his reunion with his wife and young son.
Trouble in Kirtland
Upon his
return to Kirtland Amos continued his church involvement and his name appears
twice more in the Journal of Church History in the fall of 1837.
November
28, 1837, Tuesday—Quorum of the Seventies met in the loft of the Lords House at
Kirtland. Several spoke. Amos B.
Fuller gave a brief history of his labors the past season. Brigham Young
addressed them at length.
Tuesday,
December 26, 1837—The Seventies meeting was held in the loft of the Lord’s
House in Kirtland. Amos B. Fuller spoke.
Why did
he speak that day after Christmas? Perhaps due to another mission call
because, sure enough, Amos left in the first week January 1838 with Elder
Thomas Hale as his companion on another mission, traveling this time to the
area of Ohio south of Kirtland. The journal existing from this mission
work is very short, ending on January 18 but indicates that Amos and Thomas
traveled by foot defending the LDS doctrine against many false rumors. On one
occasion the Mormon Elders were challenged to a debate, complete with
moderators, to be held on 10 January 1838. Amos and Thomas Hale accepted the
offer and after preaching about the authenticity of the Book of Mormon the
Elders allowed their opponents the opportunity to speak. Amos recorded that
"Mr. Eddy then aros [sic] and brought forth many false and scurrilous reports
enough to sicken a dog to hear and then stated that the character of Jo Smith
was sufficient testimony against it which closed his remarks we then had ten
minutes to reply and showed the weakness of his argument by comparing the deeds
of Jo Smith (as he was pleased to call him) to those committed by Moses David
and Solomon."1
But things were not well at home. Within a month
of his departure the Kirtland Safety Society, which had been formed and of which
he had become a founding and investing member the year before, failed
spectacularly. His mission work was
short. He returned home quickly.
Struggle
We know Amos had returned to Kirtland
by March of 1838 because his name appears as one of the signers of the
constitution of the “Kirtland Camp” dated in March 1838 as one of the people
who planned and hoped to move his family to Missouri and to the Zion that the
church hoped to build there. The church was suffering great persecutions in
Kirtland, partly due to bigotry, partly due to the resentment of disenchanted
members and partly due to the frustration people felt at the financial losses
they had suffered and the chaos that ensued triggered by the failure of the
Kirtland Safety Society. The failure of
the bank had a devastating financial impact on Amos and Esther as well as many
others. In January 1838 Joseph Smith and
other church leaders had fled violence aimed at them and gone to Missouri. By
March of that year those faithful church member who were left in Kirtland were predominantly
the sick and the very poor. Amos and
Esther and their son were among them. In
the ensuing months persecution by disaffected members of the church who were
incensed at the financial failure of the Safety Society was fierce along with
threats of increased violence if members of the church who were still in
Kirtland tried to abandon the town to join those who had already fled. (Likely because the exit of the last
members of the church would give those who had lost money in the Kirtland
Safety Society failure the sense that the last hope of their recouping their
losses was irrevocably gone.) During the summer of 1838 many of
these remaining members of the church counseled among themselves as to how they
could follow their leaders to Missouri and escape the persecution in Kirtland.
John Pulsipher who was in Kirtland at
the time wrote, “The church in Kirtland was now broken up and the poorest of
the poor were left, only because they could not get away. Only about ten teams were all that was in the
possession of the whole of them between five and six hundred persons, but they
all covenanted that they would go together or stay together.
“This was the spring of 1838. The presidents of the Seventy took the lead of
business. They advised every man that
could work to go into the country and work a few months, for horses, cattle,
wagons, harnesses, money, store pay, etc., which they did. They worked and prayed and the Lord worked
with them. Signs and wonders were seen
and heard which caused the Saints to rejoice.
“The power of the Lord was manifested
in various ways. Angels were seen in
meetings, who spoke comforting words, that inasmuch as we would be faithful the
Lord would help us and we should be delivered from our enemies.
“In June the company met, brought in
their property which had been earned and behold they had means sufficient to
move all the Saints from Kirtland. The
company was organized with James Foster, Zerah Pulsipher, Joseph Young, Henry
Harriman, Josiah Butterfield, Benjamin Willer and Elias Smith [Esther’s
brother] at the head as counselors, to lead the camp.
“On the 6th of July at
noon the camp started all in order. The
company consisted of 515 souls—249 males, 266 females, 27 tents, 59 wagons, 97
horses, 22 oxen, 69 cows and one bull.”
Amos and Esther and their little boy,
Jesse, were members of this Kirtland Camp that left the town that July of
1838. Esther began the journey when she
was five months pregnant with their fourth child.
Pulsipher wrote “Our enemies had
threatened never to let us go out of Kirtland two wagons together, but when we
got ready to start, the largest company of Saints that had ever traveled
together in this generation started out in good order without an enemy to
oppose us.”
The challenge of providing food for
so large a company when so many had so little to begin with was a
challenge. The company had an Engineer
appointed, Jonathan Dunham, whose business, Pulsipher wrote, was “to go though
the rich settlements and towns where he could buy provisions cheap and bring a
wagon load to the camp each night. The
rations were given out once a day to the several families according to their
number; he that gave in money and he that had none to give, all fared alike.”
“We traveled along in fine order”, wrote Pulsipher, “and after a few
hundred miles we got out of money.”
By this time the camp had gotten as
far as Dayton, Ohio and once again the men in the company, including Amos,
hired out to work until they had raised enough money to fund the rest of their
journey.
It was not an easy road. Pulsipher wrote, “…sometimes the weather was
good and sometimes bad. Sometimes our
tents would blow over in the rain storms in the night when all within—beds,
people, and all—would get as wet as drowned mice, but we could sleep in wet
beds and not get sick by it. The people
in the towns, cities and country thru which we passed looked and gazed at us as
we passed along. Sometimes they tried to
stop us. Once they threw eggs at us just
because we were Mormons.”
In spite of the challenges most of
the members of the Kirtland Camp traveled all the way to Far West safely and a
few days after that, on 4 October 1838, traveled on to Adam-ondi-Ahman, Daviess
County. However, Esther, Amos and Jesse
did not make the entire journey. By August Esther’s delivery date was rapidly
approaching and at the rate the company was traveling they realized that they
would not reach their goal of Far West and Adam-Ondi-Ahmen before the new baby
arrived. So after traveling 680 miles the little family stopped in the Missouri
town of Fredricksburg in Ray County, (now known as Clay County), located or
built a small cabin in which to stay and awaited the birth of their new
child.
Loretta Alice Lewis Cowan, Mary
Adelia’s daughter and a granddaughter of Esther and Amos recounted the
following: “At the time of my mother’s birth
(31 August 1838) the mobs were terrible. This was in Zion. When Mary Adelia was two or three hours old
the mob surrounded the house of Amos Fuller.
They told him they would give him time to get his family out and then
they were going to burn the house. He
explained to them to wait [sic] until his wife until his wife was
stronger. But his persuasions did no
good. He had to make a bed in a wagon
and put his wife and two children in it.
Before they had driven far, the house was on fire.”
We do not know where the family spent
the following two months but they did not stay in Missouri long. Missouri Governor Lilbourn Boggs Executive
order 44, commonly known as the “Mormon Extermination Order” was issued on
October 27.
The Winter of 1838-39
The family’s survival and journey to
Illinois with two tiny children over the ensuing winter months, hard on the
heels of their journey from Ohio to Missouri must have been extremely hard.
Where exactly the small family stayed
upon arrival in Illinois is unknown, perhaps in Quincy, a town that took many
refugees in. However, by June of 1839
the church had begun to purchase land in and surrounding the town of Commerce. One of the men who owned land in Commerce,
Isaac Galland, also owned land across the river in the town of Nashville, Lee
County, Iowa which he had founded, about 8 miles north of Keokuk. The church purchased the Nashville land and
20,000 acres surrounding it on 24 June 1839.
They also during that time purchased further Iowa land, including
Montrose, totaling about 120,000 acres in all.
The town of Commerce was renamed
Nauvoo and plots were laid out for families to build and farm. As the city plots were designed Amos and
Esther were designated owners of a four acre plot of land on the northwest
corner of Water Street and Main Street in that city, not far from the home of
Joseph and Emma Smith, but if they ever stayed there they did not stay there
long. A meeting was held the following
summer in Nashville on 23 Aug 1840 at which Joseph Smith and Hyrum Smith and a
large assembly of Saints voted to begin building the city of Nashville. Sometime in 1839 Amos and Esther had chosen
to move their family there. Many of
Esther’s extended family members who had joined the church, including her
parents, sisters and brothers, were living there. Having that family support nearby would be
important to her. Her son, Asahel Luther
Fuller, who was born several years later, would subsequently attribute her
being “very frail in body” to the commencement of symptoms of consumption that
had began to show up in her life after the harrowing winter of 1838-39. So perhaps that slowly and increasingly
debilitating health issue that was beginning to make itself known was also
contributed to the family’s decision to settle across the river in Iowa nearer
to family support.
Early Days in Nashville
The Nashville Branch of the church
was organized in July of 1839 and Amos and Esther were accepted into that
branch that year. Also appearing on
records as members of that branch were a number of extended family
members. As previously mentioned, Asael
Smith Jr., brother to Joseph Smith Sr. and father of Esther was one of the
earliest settlers of Nashville. Asael Jr., his wife Betsy, and Esther’s
siblings, Elias, Silas, and Martha comprised one household in the new
town. Other households included Asael
and Betsy’s married children Esther (md. to Amos Botsford Fuller), Mary Jane
(md. to George Washington Gee, Sr.), Julia Priscilla (md. to Moses Martin) and
Emily (md. to Samuel Pierce Hoyt). So
Esther had her parents and all of her living siblings nearby. Esther’s uncle, John Smith, lived nearby as
well.
Esther and Amos’ fifth child, a son,
Luborn Livonia, was born to them in Nashville in December of 1840.
On 20 March 1841 Joseph Smith wrote
the following about Nashville, Lee County and the area west of Nauvoo:
About this time I received a revelation given in the city of Nauvoo,
in answer to the following interrogatory—“What is the will of the Lord,
concerning the Saints in the Territory of Iowa?” Verily, thus saith the Lord, I say unto you,
if those who call themselves by my name, and are essaying to be my Saints, if
they will do my will and keep my commandments concerning them; let them gather
themselves together, unto the place which I shall appoint unto them by my
servant Joseph, and build up cities unto my name, that they may be prepared for
that which is in store for a time to come.
Let them build up a city unto my name upon the land opposite to the City
of Nauvoo, and let the name of Zarahemla be named upon it
.
And let all those who come from the east, and the west, and the north and the
south, that have desires to dwell therein, take up their inheritances in the
same, as well as in the City of Nashville, or in the City of Nauvoo, and in all
the stakes which I have appointed, saith the Lord.
Amos began to work to provide for his
family as soon as he could and within a short time had constructed a sturdy
home. A letter written by Esther’s brother, Elias, to their uncle, Jesse Smith
in New York, dated 31 August 1841 mentions his brothers-in-law, Samuel Hoyt and
Amos Fuller. “Samuel Hoyt and A.B. Fuller
live here and both have a hand some [sic]
property.
Amos B. built him a fine two story stone house last season and Samuel is
building a framed one this summer…”
Though family tradition says that
Amos was a member of the Nauvoo Legion in Nauvoo, that’s not exactly
right. Church history records in 1841
show that Amos was a colonel in the militia of Lee County, Iowa and a member of
the Nauvoo Legion regiment that was located across the river from Nauvoo in
Montrose, Iowa.
Nashville was located in the township of
Montrose. That is probably the reason
for the military hat that he wears in a photograph taken of him during that
era.
In the meantime, Amos’s father,
Luther Fuller and his wife, Lorena Mitchell Fuller had also made the journey to
Nashville, probably coming from Stockholm, NY to be with their son.. Little is known about their lives before
Luther’s name appears in the membership record of the Nashville Branch of the
church in 1840 where he is listed as a teacher.
His wife, Lorena is not listed.
Questions, Family and A Wary Peace
In December of 1841 Amos approached
Joseph Smith with a question. The prophet recorded:
Nauvoo
22 December 1841
Elder
Amos B. Fuller of Zarahemla stated to me that he had settled all his debts,
made all necessary provision for his family, and desired to know the will of
God concerning him.
Revelation:
Verily
thus saith the Lord unto my servants the Twelve, let them appoint unto my
servant, A.B. Fuller a mission to preach my Gospel unto the children of men, as
it shall be manifested unto them by my Holy Spirit, Amen.
Amos was appointed to serve a mission
to Chicago in 1842 and another to Vermont in 1843. There are no records of that mission work. Esther
gave birth to their daughter, Sophina Alcesta in Nashville in May of 1843. And Amos’ mother, Lorena, died and was buried
in Augusta, Iowa in August of that same year.
Unlike their friends across the
river, the Nashville Saints felt safe among their Iowa neighbors. Emily Smith wrote in her journal, “The people
where we lived were friendly to the Mormons and those who lived in Iowa had no
trouble with any mob while we lived there.”
Esther’s cousin Joseph Smith would visit his Iowa Smith relatives both
in times of peace and in times of danger.
Mary Adelia who was a child during those years recounted how on
different occasions Joseph would romp with the children. He would turn a chair over on the floor, lie
upon it in a reclining position and roll and tumble the little ones over
him. And she also remembered one occasion,
during mob violence across the river, that the prophet found protection in
their home.
And then the Prophet Joseph Smith was murdered
on 27 June 1844. The subsequent two
years were a tumultuous time.
Vision, Comfort and a Move to the North
Amos and Esther had joined with many others in their anticipation of
being able to worship in the temple being built in Nauvoo and they
received their endowment there on 10 January 1846. And four days
later they received their second patriarchal blessings. These they
received under the hand of Esther’s father, Asael Smith. In this
second blessing Amos was told, “…And as touching thy ancestors
thou shalt have power to redeem many of them and to bring them forth
in the first resurrection. By thy faithfulness and thy diligence
thou shalt become master, temporally speaking, of all things below
and by they faithfulness thou shalt yet bring thy father and thy
mother into the kingdom. Thou shalt be of the one hundred and forty
and four thousand that shall stand on Mount Zion and thou shalt
reign as a king and a prince on the earth with the Savior during the
millennium.” He was also told, “I have once declared that thou
wast of the seed of Abraham through the loins of Manasseh; therefore
thou are a lawful heir to the Priesthood.”
In his words to Esther in her 2nd patriarchal blessing,
her father calls her “Dear Daughter” and says the Lord loves her,
watches over her and has watched over her since her birth and right
up to that moment. He tells her the Lord is aware of the many
afflictions she has endured, that the Lord has comforted her in her
many afflictions and that she will have peace in later years. The
blessing also states that she would lay her hands on the heads of
sick member of her family and heal them and when there was no Elder
present she could also do the same for friends. It says that she,
with her husband, will teach and save his ancestors to come forth in
the first resurrection and that she would walk in the New Jerusalem
with her husband and dwell forever in peace.
In that uncertain era many members of the church were confused about
the leadership of the church as several possible solutions for the
leadership vacuum created by Joseph Smith’s death presented
themselves. One of these possible solutions was led by a man named
James Jesse Strang who Joseph Smith had sent to Wisconsin to see
about establishing a stake there should the Saints be driven out of
Nauvoo. A recent convert to the LDS church, Strang claimed that
Joseph Smith had sent him a letter stating that he should be the
prophet after Joseph died. He also claimed that an angel had visited
him at the very moment Joseph was murdered and the angel had
confirmed that he should lead the church and gather the members with
him in Voree, Wisconsin. The majority of the LDS church rejected
Strang's claim and he was excommunicated by the Quorum of the Twelve
Apostles of the LDS church on 26 August 1844, but a sizeable number
of people did follow Strang then and in the following couple of
years. Estimates figure that the number was close to 12,000.
His claim that a prophet was necessary (Brigham Young proposed
leadership by the Quorum of the 12 Apostles) made sense to them as
did the administration of angels which seemed to them to follow the
pattern that Joseph Smith had set and which many of them recalled
experiencing in Kirtland.
Among these who followed Strang to Wisconsin were Amos Fuller and his
family who moved to Wisconsin, likely sometime in 1846. The members
of the church who followed Strang became known as "Strangite
Mormons” though their official name is “Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter Day Saints” (no “The”, no hyphen between Latter and Day,
and the “D” is capitalized) and they settled first in Voree (now
Prairie Springs), a town that had had Mormon members living there
since 1835, just outside of the town of Burlington, Wisconsin.
During the
years of 1844-1846 those Saints who believed in Strang’s claims
gathered in Voree, where Strang set up his leadership by patterning
the basic organization of his church after the one instituted by
Joseph Smith. Tithing was required as early as 1845, and by 1846 the
saints were commanded to build a house for the prophet and a temple
for God.
Family history stories talk about the Fuller family’s time in
Wisconsin with reference to his being a bishop there. The records of
the church that James Strang organized also make references to Amos.
Amos was called by Strang to be the Assistant President of the Voree
Stake in 1846 and shortly thereafter, likely early 1847, bishop of
that whole church. In the meantime, on September 28th,
1846 Esther gave birth to their seventh child, their son, Amos
Botsford Jr. in Voree.
Divisions in Voree
Strang’s
followers faced many challenges, including an acute shortage of
available land for immigrating Strangites to occupy and internal
problems and defections due to disenchantment that continually
plagued the church.
By the end of 1846 there was significant
dissension amongst the leadership of James Strang’s church. The
church’s high council, in Strang’s absence, had charged John C.
Bennett, who held the church titles of “pontiff, general and chief
master of ceremonies”, with “teaching False Doctrine, (such as)
Polygamy, and Concubinage and attempting to carry them into practice”
and “threatening Life, and ridiculous sacred things”. The high
council unanimously agreed that “the charges preferred against him
were sufficiently sustained” and that he was “legally expelled
from the church”. In turn, Bennett ignored both the council and
the verdict.
When Strang returned to Voree from a mission
trip he also refused to abide by the council’s verdict and removed
a number of dissenters from their positions of authority including
Isaac Scott and Willard Griffith who were both, in turn,
excommunicated, and he required other church leaders to sign a
document professing their allegiance to both Strang and to Bennett.
Amos B. Fulller, Bishop, was one of the signators.
What Happened Next
A
number of the men who had, at this point, either left or been
excommunicated from the church began publishing a newspaper “New
Era and Herald of Zion’s Watchman”. According to that
publication, Bennet began predicting a forthcoming “illumination”
at which those present “should see with their eyes, hear with their
ears, and handle with their hands those angels which should minister
unto them” and that if members were quiet the illumination would
take place in a few weeks and would “be so marvelous and public as
not only to perfectly satisfy the faithful that the Covenant (a group
of church members who were given special status as members of that
group) was of God, but that it should be a condemnation to the
rebellious and traitors who should dare to expose the Covenant.
When Strang returned from a trip away, he
renewed that promise, saying that it would be a public manifestation
but that membership in the Covenant it had nothing to do with
salvation.
On New Year’s Day, 1847 Strang gathered the
inner circle of his disciples, including Amos Fuller, for a
ceremonial meeting that involved passwords, the Bible and the Book of
Mormon and Bennett’s declaration that “We acknowledge no God but
the God of J. J. Strang” with all those congregated responding with
“amen”.
An article in
“Zion’s Reveille”, the Wisconsin church’s newspaper,
describes that meeting and mentions Amos.
"The
First of January, 1847
"The
brethren, under the direction of Uriel C. H. Nickerson, Daniel Avery,
and James M. Adams, (three tried and faithful veterans in the service
of God and the church) prepared a most sumptuous feast on New Year's
Day, at Josiah Sumner's, of which one hundred and thirty partook,
notwithstanding the weather was extremely inclement. This was one of
the most pleasant festivals the church has ever witnessed. It was
truly a feast of love, (as well as a corporal feast) an outpouring of
the most noble feelings of the human heart -- a flow of soul
commingling with the Spirit of God. The houses of Brothers Strang and
Avery were dedicated with appropriate ceremonies, in which Brothers
Fuller, Nickerson, Avery, Strang, Bennett, and Greenhow officiated in
their respective offices. The meetings at Brother Strang's, during
the day and evening, were most interesting and instructive. The
sacrament of the eucharist was administered, addresses were given by
Brothers Strang, Bennett, Greenhow, Adams, and Nickerson, and
universal satisfaction prevailed. May such peace and harmony ever
obtain with the faithful."
In
that same newspaper the following was also printed:
“Amos
B. Fuller This worthy brother, who is numbered amongst the few
surviving relations of the martyred prophet, Joseph, has been
appointed a bishop in the church, for which he is most admirably
calculated both by his faithfulness, talents and Christian integrity”
This
appointment had likely taken place in December of 1846 upon Strang's
return to Voree
“Illumination”
and Disenchantment
Those
who had participated in the meeting during the day on January
1st met again that evening to receive the Lord’s supper and then,
on January 2, met in the basement of Strang’s recently completed
home. At this point accounts of what happened there vary.
According
to John Greenhow, who was a believing member of the church, they
gathered “for the purpose of praising and magnifying our God, and
whilst engaged in singing and the Prophet [Strang] on his knees
washing feet, there appeared a light, as a consuming fire, and it sat
upon each of our heads, and while the fire burnt still more
increasingly not a hair was singed, and we united in singing, ‘The
Spirit of God like a fire is burning, &c.”
According
to the editors of “New Era and Herald of Zion’s Watchman”, at
the gathering members of the church were annointed with consecrated
oil upon their heads unaware that the oil contained phosphorus, a
nonmetalic element that glows in the dark (and is also toxic). And,
true to form, it glowed.
Several
months after this event, the editor of the “Ottowa Free Trader”,
published in Illinois, reported that the ceremony entailed head
washing, feet washing and concluded with an anointing of heads with
oil “that had a queer smell”, after which the members were
directed into a dark room where “they were to receive the
endowment, which was to be in the shape of an extraordinary and
visible manifestation of the spirit, rendering them at once
impregnable thenceforth to all the shafts of Satan.” And it was
in this darkened room that the “illumination” happened.
Isaac
Scott, who was one of the editors of the “New Era and Herald of
Zion's Watchman stated, forty years later, in a letter to the “Saints
Herald”, an RLDS newspaper in Lamoni, Iowa, that Amos Fuller was
the man who, after the ceremony, kept the the bottle of oil that had
been used in the illumination ceremony in his home and had given it
to him, at his request, so that he could have it and see if the event
was reproducible..
He wrote:
“James Strang in Voree
“I have been a subscriber for the Saint’s Herald
ever since its publication…now as James. J. Strang has been spoken
of in late numbers of the Herald by some correspondents as the
successor of Joseph Smith, the Seer, I think that a little of my
experience with this man who claimed that an angel “set him”
above all his fellows might be interesting…
“The “endowment” that I have mentioned given by J.
J. Strang and John C. Bennet, was performed in the basement of
Strang’s dwelling house at night, with the lights turned down; and
they positively did use a mixture fo phosphorus and oil to produe a
pale looking blaze of light on the heads of all those who were
present and received this “endowment”; and Strang said that the
light (produced by this imposition) was the power of the Holy Ghost,
the same as was manifested on the day of Pentecost.
“To show the wicked fraud that Strang and Bennet
perpetrated upon the people I went to Bishop Fuller (Strang’s
Bishop) and got some of the stuff from the same bottle used by Strang
and Bennett and I gave the same “endowment” in the presence of a
packed house of spectators, several of those who had received
Strang’s fraud being present who said it was the one Strang and
Bennett used and that no change had been made of it since they used
it.
“Isaac. F. Scott, Sen. Pardeeville, Wisconsin,
December 7th, 1888”
According to the Ottowa Free Trader, it was
William Smith, a member of the church and Joseph Smith's brother, who
first asked for, received and arranged for the oil in Amos’ home to
be chemically analyzed.
Perhaps it was Smith’s test results that were
the catalyst for Scott’s attempt to reproduce the event. Whatever
the sequence of events was, the results of the analysis must have
come as a shock to Amos and Esther. According to the analysis done,
the oil that had been used in the “endowment” in which Amos had
participated contained phosphorus. And Isaac Scott was able to
reproduce the glow in the dark with it,
According to James Strang, Amos, with that
information now clear to him, also accused Strang of using phosphorus
to fake the “illumination”. And in the Voree Herald, volume 1,
No. 5 in early 1846, Strang tried to discredit Amos and his
accusation by portraying him as doubleminded.
Strang wrote:
“Amos Fuller, the first one of the number,
who asserted the use of phosophorus, gave me on the 10th
day of February following a letter directed to Emma Smith, in which
he expressed the most unqualified confidence in me as a prophet of
God, and an honest man. The very day of his apostacy he scouted the
least suggestion of imposition, and declared that it had never been
pretended that the glory of God was more manifest in the illumination
of the eucharist. “
On the other
hand, the unnamed editor of that same issue the “Voree Herald”
was sure that Amos’ accusations were wicked and treacherous. He
wrote:
“In short, Jesus had his Judas Iscariot and
Peter James and John, and Paul suffered much because of false
brethren. Joseph Smith had is John C. Bennet, his William Law, the
Cowderys and the Fosters and Higbees and many others; all men of high
standing in the church, as a matter of course James J. Strang had his
enemies among his leading men. Among these were William Smith,
U.C.H. Nickerson, Amos Fuller, George J. Adams, J. M. Adams, William
E. McLellan and to these others might be added “
Amos's tenure
as Bishop of the church was short. He was excommunicated from the
church led by James Strang on 4 April 1847, two days before the
church’s annual conference, four months after the “illumination”
and about five months after his call to the office of Bishop.
It must have
been, theologically, a difficult time for him and his family. As
Strang began the process of resettling his followers on Beaver
Island near the northern end of Lake Michigan, Amos
and Esther decided to leave this new church in Wisconsin and
join those who hoped to travel west with the body of the church that
had followed Brigham Young. The family decided that after the
harvest of 1847 they would move.
The Struggle to Iowa
Within seven months of Amos’s excommunication by the Strangites,
Amos and Esther loaded up wagons and moved with their children
towards Iowa, hoping to join the saints in Council Bluffs. They
began their journey in the early part of November of 1847 knowing
that they were facing the prospect of dealing with a rapidly
approaching winter.
Their five
living children then ranged in age from 13 to 2 and Esther was pregnant with
their 8th child. There must
have been some urgency in their reasons for departure from Voree for them to
start that journey so late in the year rather than wait for spring. Their daughter, Sophina, who was a young
child at the time, wrote about her recollections of traveling for days on wet,
sodden roads through what was then the territory of Iowa. After many days they arrived at a fort, Fort
Des Moines which was sparely manned by a few soldiers who had been left to
maintain the fort and was occupied by them and a few Native Americans. It included a number of vacant barracks. She recalled arriving in the rain and being
taken to a large room in a double log house with a leaky dirt roof. The supper there consisted of soup which at
first tasted very good, but as the dirty water from the roof dripped into the
bowls of soup it became unsavory with grit.
They decided to leave the log structure and find something more
palatable from the supplies in their wagons.
This
Fort Des Moines, (not to be confused with the Fort Des Moines built in 1834) was
located where the city of Des Moines now stands. It was built in 1843,
and at first was christened Fort Raccoon. In May, 1843, the steamboat
Ione landed troops at the mouth of the Raccoon River. They built the fort
on the ground at the angle formed by the meeting of the Raccoon and the Des
Moines Rivers. The commanding officer was Captain James Allen. He
had under him a company of dragoons and a company of infantry.
The
soldiers were stationed here to watch over the Indians until settlers were
permitted to occupy the territory. The rights of the Indians to the land
were looked after, and settlers were not allowed to cross the border into the
New Purchase, or west of Redrock, until the time appointed. But by the
time the Fuller family arrived, in 1847, most of the Sac and Fox tribes had
been forcibly removed to Kansas and the former reservation opened for
settlement. Only a few soldiers were left to maintain the fort.
The next day after their arrival at
Fort Des Moines the family headed towards Council Bluffs, Iowa but before they
had gone far a violent snowstorm came up and they were obliged to return to the
fort for protection. The storm continued
for several days, the temperatures dropped below freezing, the roads became
impassable, and the family decided to overwinter where they were. They moved their belongings from their wagons
into one of the abandoned barracks.
Amos’ blacksmith training and
experience came to his aid in this unexpected location. He set up his forge and began shoeing horses
and ironing wagon wheels for residents of the fort as well as immigrants headed
westward. On 13 January 1848 Esther gave
birth to their daughter, Esther Victoria, and nearly died from complications. And on 26, June of that year, Amos’s father,
who likely had been with the family through their time in Wisconsin and was now
with them in Iowa, passed away at the fort.
About this time they were visited by
Esther’s older brother, Elias Smith.
Elias came to see if he could move his family from Iowaville, where they
had moved following the commencement of the exodus west, to Des Moines as a
first step of their westward journey..
Since the summer of 1846 he had been trying to assist a small group of
relatives, including his aging parents, and friends make their way to the Rocky
Mountains. On his return to Iowaville,
Elias found his father too ill to be moved and so that plan was abandoned and
the group in Iowaville settled in to do what they could to live and work until
they would be able to travel.
In the meantime church leaders decided
to make Fort Des Moines one of the way stations for members of the church
traveling west and asked Amos to remain at Des Moines to provide strategic blacksmithing
assistance to church members making their trek west.
Blooming Where They Were Planted
In the spring of 1848 a man with the
last name of “Haymond” who was a wagon maker joined Amos and they set up a
business which provided a much-needed service for emigrants. Often Amos and Mr. Haymond would take old,
broken wagons for partial payment for their services. These they would remake and re-iron and sell
to others who would need them.
Some time later a shoemaker/harness
maker from Holland joined them and set up shop in a corner of the
establishment. He could repair boots,
shoes, harnesses, and other leather work needed by travelers. Esther, who was a skilled dressmaker and tailoress
of men’s suits also found good employ repairing or making clothing. The discovery of gold in California in 1848
greatly increased the number of immigrants passing by the old fort and by 1849
Amos’ demand for the business these four workers provided became immense.
Their granddaughter, Ina Gee Hodson
wrote that her mother remembered that at many times the demand for their
services was so great that the yard around the shop was filled with travelers
and their outfits for days and weeks at a time waiting for their turn for
necessary repairs to be done. And so it
was that Esther’s continued precarious health, the call to stay issued by
church leaders and a booming business resulted in the family staying in Des
Moines far longer than they had expected.
The success of the business allowed
the family to save up enough funds to purchase a 160 acre farm on what had been
part of an unused Indian reservation prior to their own arrival in Iowa but was
no longer being used due to the removal of the Fox and Sac tribes to Kansas in
1846. It was located about two and a
half miles west of the rapidly growing town of Des Moines on the road used by
travelers through the city. This was a
great benefit in that it provided the family a way to grow food as well as more
room for the children to grow, work and play.
The Fullers built a three room house on the farm. Amos created a new blacksmith shop there and
continued his smith work. Mr. Haymond
and the Dutch harness maker headed west. The new farm and its location provided
timber as well as land for planting crops and a number of small streams and
cool springs. There was also an
abandoned orchard with plumb, apple, and cherry trees on the property when they
purchased it. The family also grew and
gathered blackberries, goose berries, strawberries and grapes.
The small city of Des Moines
continued to grow. By 1850 the
population in the city and county was nearly 13,000. And the number of pioneers traveling though was
large. Sophina recorded in her history
that as many as thirty or forty wagons would camp in the groves of the farm for
days at a time. The women and children
bathed in the streams and washed their clothes in the shade of the trees. She wrote that they would want to be
accommodated with almost every kind of household article which Esther willingly
loaned them.
Almost…
When Esther and
Amos had moved to Wisconsin, her sister Emily Hoyt and her husband and children
had remained, peacefully, in Nashville.
As previously mentioned, Esther’s parents, Asael and Elizabeth had moved
to the area around Iowaville with their son Elias and his family and also their
daughter, Mary Jane (Smith) Gee, and her two young children, Elias S. and
George W. Gee. (Mary Jane’s husband,
George Washington Gee, had died on 20 January 1842 while on a church mission to
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, of “black measles” acquired while tending to a sick
child. ) Esther’s brother Silas had also
removed his family to Iowaville.
Iowaville, Iowa,
is a no-longer existing town between the towns of Selma and Neldon Iowa, though
its cemetery is still there and well kept.
Esther’s parents, brothers and sister and their family members stopped in
Iowaville while they tried to gather the necessary resources to make the rest
of the trek west. Esther’s mother, Elizabeth
Schellenger Smith died in Iowa in 1846.
Her father, Asael Smith Jr., passed away in Iowaville in 1848. By the spring of 1851 three of Esther’s
three siblings mentioned above (Emily Hoyt and her husband Samuel who were
still in Nashville with their children, and Elias Smith his family and Mary Gee
and her two boys who were in Iowaville) had gathered the means to make the
trip. Amos and Esther planned to make
the journey with them. The families of
Emily, Elias and Mary made the long trip to Des Moines and stayed at Amos and
Esther’s home for six weeks waiting for the weather to settle. Ultimately the
continuing rain and snow which made the roads extremely difficult that spring
caused Amos to decide to wait for another year when his wife’s relatives
decided they could not delay any longer.
It was a difficult parting.
Not Yet and Not At
All
By the spring of the next year, Esther was
expecting her 9th child.
Amos, remembering how difficult her last birth had been did not wish to
subject his wife to the perils of giving birth on the plains on a journey west
by wagon. The family postponed their
journey for another year and on 3 July 1852 Esther gave birth to her ninth
child, Asahel Luther Fuller, in Des Moines.
Ultimately, Amos was not able to take
his family to the Salt Lake Valley. He
was, as were many others, stricken with Typhoid Fever in early 1853 and, after
suffering for several weeks, died in Des Moines on 29 March 1853, a few days
after his 43rd birthday. He
left Esther with seven children ranging in ages from 8 month old Asahel to
not-quite 18 year old Jesse.
Keeping the Faith
The family continued to try to gather
the resources to make the trip to Utah.
Esther’s second patriarchal
blessing stated that “she would live to see her children gathered in the
Valley’s of the Mountains” and, in despite of her fragile health, she was
determined to do what she could to make that happen. But it was not easy. She and Amos had acquired some considerable
property in and around Des Moines. The
process of getting it probated was long and challenging. The farm was well stocked with cows, horses
and machinery. It would take some time,
far more than she wished. In the
meantime Esther’s older children, Mary Adelia and Jesse attended the academy
now in Des Moines, and later, when he turned 15, so did Luburn. Having taught school, Esther felt that she
was able to school the younger children at home and did so.
Esther’s brother, Elias, had
succeeded in reaching Salt Lake in the trip undertaken in 1851 and had become a
lawyer in Deseret (Utah) and by now was a probate judge. Esther turned to him for advice and direction
in settling her affairs. Though the
distance was far and the mails slow, she wrote many times for counsel from him
and received much valuable help in the settlement of her estate.
Meanwhile Mary Adelia met and fell in
love with Jesse William Lewis and, after a two year courtship, married him in
Des Moines on 27 December 1855. And Esther’s
oldest son, Jesse, married Hialett Atkins on 21 February 1856.
In 1856 Esther finally succeeded in
selling her farm stocked as it was.
Though she didn’t receive full value there was quite enough to provide the
necessities and some few comforts for their journey. The children who were of age, Jesse, and Mary
Adelia, received their share of the estate and those under age had their
portions left with an executor. Luburn
made a trip back later to receive his share.
Church pioneer immigration records
indicate that Esther and four of her children, Jesse, aged 21, Sophina (13),
Amos (9), Esther Victoria (8) and Asahel (4)
successfully made the journey to the Salt Lake valley, though there is
no record of which company they traveled with. Esther’s son, Asahel, later wrote, “Mother
succeeded, after a long and tedious delay in getting the estate probated and
sold, and on June 4, 1856, she started on the journey to the valley [with] all
her children, except my oldest sister Mary who had married the fall before,
from whom mother exacted a promise to follow as soon as circumstances would
permit.”
Besides the assistance of her married
son Jessie and her younger teenage son, Luburn, Esther sought further
help. The equipage consisted of two
wagons, each pulled by four oxen and a two-seated buggy drawn by two horses for
the younger children to ride in. One
account mentions a third wagon drawn by two horses for Jesse and his wife Hialett
and their belongings and others state that there were only two. Sophina wrote about the first day of that
journey: “Our hearts were full of joy and thanksgiving to our Heavenly Father
that we were really on our way. Our
first stop was at Sunset, 20 miles from home.”
Esther’s son Luburn does not show up
on the church history library pioneer immigration records until 1862, the same
year he married Minerva Brown in Des Moines.
But his biographer in Prominent Men of Utah indicates that he did
make that journey in 1856. Luburn is recorded as having, married Minerva Brown
in Des Moines in 1862 and his name appears with hers in pioneer immigration
records to Utah that year. Perhaps that
was in conjunction with his trip back to Iowa to receive his portion of his
father’s estate, a trip his sister Sophina recalled him taking when he became
of age. Mary Adelia first made the journey west with her husband in 1861 and
then returned with him to Iowa for a year to sell their farm there before
returning to settle permanently in Utah in 1862 where her husband engaged in a
variety of successful businesses, including work as an out-and-back teamster
from Provo. Perhaps Mary’s first return east
across the plains is how Luburn returned to Iowa to meet collect his
inheritance and also, in the process, marry Minerva.
Besides the assistance of her married
son Jessie and her younger teenage son, Luburn, Esther sought further help for
the journey west. When she reached
Council Bluffs she procured a young man to drive one of the wagons in exchange
for his board on the journey west. From
then on the loose cows were driven by Luburn who up to then had been driving
one of the wagons. She also hired a young widow, who had also buried a child,
to assist with the cooking for the large group in their family party. Her name was Emily Parkins and Sophina
described her as one of the dearest souls who ever lived and a good companion.
Arrived At Last and Pressing On
Esther and her family arrived in the
Salt Lake Valley on the 17th of August, 1856, a little over two months
from the day they left Des Moines.
Esther’s brother, Elias Smith, met the family at the mouth of Emigration
Canyon and took them to his home. They
lived with him for two weeks until they found a place to live, located a little
north of the Temple Block on West Temple and just one-half block from Elias’s
home. Esther and her children rented one
large room in a home and Jesse and his wife rented a small room under the same
roof.
Sadly, Esther’s precarious health
continued to fail and after only three months with her family in Utah she
passed away on 31 October 1856 at the age of 46. Her youngest child, Asahel Luther Fuller, who
was only 4 years old at the time later wrote about her passing, likely
mirroring the sentiment expressed by his older siblings and uncle, saying, “My
mother was very frail in body, having suffered with consumption for a number of
years, caused by exposure in being driven from Missouri with the Saints,
through the exterminating order of Governor Boggs. She had been promised in a Patriarchal
blessing given by her father many years before that she would live to see her
family gathered to the “New Jerusalem” and her greatest desire had been to
accomplish this, but her anxiety in making preparations for, and hardship of
the long tedious journey proved too hard for her frail little body…”
After her death Esther’s younger
children were subsequently taken in and cared for by their older brother, Jesse
and his wife Hialett. In 1857 Jesse took
his wife and siblings with him to Provo where he found employment in a
blacksmith shop. They lived in a small
house south on Fifth West and then, tragically, in September of 1857, both
Hialett and young Esther who was 9 years old became ill and died within a day
of each other. That left four brothers,
Jesse, Luburn, Amos and Asahel, and one sister, Sophina alone together. On the
24th of July in 1858 Asahel (6) and Sophina (15) returned to Salt
Lake to live with their uncle Elias and his wife Lucy. Sophina, when later speaking to her own
children, described her Uncle Elias and Aunt Lucy as good and kind to her. Amos Jr. (12) may have moved with his sister
to Salt Lake or he may have stayed with his brothers Jesse and Luburn in
Provo. It is not known.
______________________
Appendix A
Letter from Joseph Smith to His Uncle, Silas Smith, in Stockholm,
New York, 1833
Kirtland Mills, Ohio, September 26, 1833.
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 on that 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 that you will agree with me,
that men will be held accountable for the things they have done, and not for
the things they have not done. 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, 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 the world to
understand, by anything heretofore revealed, that he had ceased forever to
speak 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 Abraham 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 at 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 upon 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 given 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 twenty-sixth 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 men of this age. I admit that
he was a peculiar man, and 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.
The same might be said on the subject of Jacob’s
history. Why was it that the Lord spake to him concerning the same promise,
after he had made it once to Abraham, and renewed it to Isaac? Why could not
Jacob rest contented upon the word spoken to his fathers? When the time of the
promise drew nigh for the deliverance of the children of Israel from the land
of Egypt, why was it necessary that the Lord should begin to speak to them? The
promise or word to Abraham, was, that his seed should serve in bondage, and be
afflicted, four hundred years, and after that they should come out with great
substance. Why did they not rely upon this promise, and when they had remained
in Egypt, in bondage, four hundred years, come out, without waiting for further
revelations, but act entirely upon the promise given to Abraham, that they
should come out?
Paul said to his Hebrew brethren, that God being
more abundantly willing to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of
his counsel, he confirmed it by an oath. He also exhorts them, who, through
faith and patience inherit the promises.
Notwithstanding, we (said Paul) have fled for
refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us, which hope we have as an anchor
of the soul, both sure and steadfast and which entereth into that within the
vail, yet he was careful to press upon them the necessity of continuing on
until they, as well as those who then inherited the promises, might have the
assurance of their salvation confirmed to them by an oath from the mouth of him
who could not lie; for that seemed to be the example anciently, and Paul holds
it out to his Hebrew brethren as an object attainable in his day. And why not?
I admit that by reading the Scriptures of truth, the saints, in the days of Paul,
could learn, beyond the power of contradiction, that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
had the promise of eternal life confirmed to them by an oath of the Lord, but
that promise or oath was no assurance to them of their salvation; but they
could, by walking in the footsteps, continuing in the faith of their fathers,
obtain, for themselves, an oath for confirmation that they were meet to be
partakers of the inheritance with the saints in light.
If the saints, in the days of the apostles, were
privileged to take the saints for example, and lay hold of the same promises,
and attain to the same exalted privileges of knowing that their names were
written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, and that they were sealed there as a
perpetual memorial before the face of the Most High, will not the same
faithfulness, the same purity of heart, and the faith, bring the same assurance
of eternal life, and that in the same manner to the children of men now, in
this age of the world? I have no doubt, but that the holy prophets, and apostles,
and saints in ancient days were saved in the kingdom of God; neither do I doubt
but that they held converse and communion with him while they were in the
flesh, as Paul said to his Corinthian brethren, that the Lord Jesus showed
himself to above five hundred saints at one time after his resurrection. 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 a renewal of
the covenant made to Abraham by the direct voice of the Lord. I may believe that
Jacob conversed with holy angels, and heard the word of his Maker, that he
wrestled with the angel until he prevailed, and obtained a 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, 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 theirs, if I come to him in the manner they
did? Or, is he a respecter of persons?
I must now close this subject for the want of
time; and, I may say, with propriety, at the beginning. We would be pleased to
see you in Kirtland; and more pleased to have you embrace the New Covenant.
I remain, yours affectionately,
JOSEPH SMITH, JUN.
Smith, Lucy. Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith the Prophet, and His Progenitors for Many Generations, 1912, p. 251
Appendix B
Joseph Smith’s account of the family reunion in 1836
May 16 [1836]…My cousin, Elias Smith, arrived from St. Lawrence county, New York, with the information that his father and family, and Uncle Silas and family, were on their way to Kirtland, and that my grandmother [Mary Duty Smith, wife of Asael Smith] was at Fairport.
May 17.--I went in company with my brother Hyrum, in a carriage to Fairport, and brought home my grandmother, Mary Smith, aged ninety-three years. She had not been baptized, on account of the opposition of Jesse Smith, her eldest son, who has always been an enemy to the work. She had come five hundred miles to see her children, and knew all of us she had ever seen. She was much pleased at being introduced to her great grand-children, and expressed much pleasure and gratification on seeing me.
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 in East Stockholm, St. Lawrence county, New York, 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.
On the 18th, my uncle Silas Smith and family arrived from the east. My father, three of his brothers, [Asael Jr., Silas and John] and their mother, met the first time for many years. It was a happy day, for we had long prayed to see our grandmother and uncles in the Church.
On May 27, after a few days' visit with her children, which she enjoyed extremely well, my grandmother fell asleep without sickness, pain or regret. She breathed her last about sunset, and was buried in the burial ground near the Temple, after a funeral address had been delivered by Sidney Rigdon. She had buried one daughter, Sarah; two Sons, Stephen and Samuel; and her husband, who died October 30, 1830, and left five sons and three daughters still living. At the death of my grandfather, who had kept a record, there were one hundred and ten children, grand children and great grand children. My uncle Stephen, and aunt Sarah, were buried side by side in the burial grounds in Royalton, Windsor county, Vermont. Stephen died July 25th, 1802, aged seventeen years, three months, and eleven days.
History of the Church, Volume 2, p. 442-443
Appendix C
Excerpts from a letter written by John Smith in
Kirtland, Ohio, to Elias Smith in Stockholm, New York, 19 October 1834
You say the
things that you
have seen and
heard of late
look like absurdities
to you. Suppose
you mean the
Gospel which I
have embraced of
late . . . I
tell you in the fear
of God that
these things are
true as the
Lord lives, and
I would that
you would search
out these things
for yourself, for
I know that
it is within
your reach if
you are willing to
humble yourself before
the Lord, as
you must . . .
or you cannot
enter in the kingdom
of God. It is
because I love
you and seek
your best good
that I tell
you these things. .
. . Now
I advise that
with candor and
prayers, you will
learn many things that you
never thought of
before and you
will not have
reason to complain
of your benighted understanding. Your
light would shine
in darkness and
unfold to you many
mysteries which seem
to trouble you
now very much.
If you will
give heed to the
council which you
have heard you
will have peace
like a river
and righteousness like an
overflowing stream. Tell
Amos the Lord
prospers the church
here and it increases
in numbers. I
repeat it — the Church
of the Latter
Day Saints will
prosper in spite of
wicked men and
devils until it
fills the whole
earth . . . . The
walls of the Lord's
house are nearly
completed. The roof
will go on
next week.
John Smith to Elias Smith, October 19, 1834, copied by Zora
Smith Jarvis from original, Emily Smith Stewart Collection, Special
Collections, Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City
Full text also can be found in
Jarvis, Zora (Smith) Ancestry,
Biography and Family of George A. Smith
Appendix D
John Smith’s account of Joseph Smith Sr.’s 1830 visit
to Potsdam and Stockholm, New York
"The next morning
after brother Joseph arrived, we set out together for Stockholm to see our
father, who was living at that place with our brother Silas.
We arrived about dark at the house of my brother Jesse, who was absent with his
wife. The children informed us, that their parents were with our father, who
was supposed to be dying. We hastened without delay to the house of brother
Silas, and upon arriving there were told, that father was just recovering from
a severe fit, and, as it was not considered advisable to let him or mother know
that Joseph was there, we went to spend the night with brother Jesse.
"As soon as we were settled, brothers Jesse and Joseph
entered into conversation respecting their
families. Joseph briefly related the history of his family,
the death of Alvin, &c. He then began to speak of the discovery and
translation of the Book of Mormon. At this, Jesse grew very angry, and
exclaimed, 'If you say another word about that Book of Mormon, you shall not
stay a minute longer in my house, and if I can't get you out any other way, I
will hew you down with my broad axe.'
"We had always
been accustomed to being treated with much harshness by our brother, but he had
never carried it to so great an extent before. However, we spent the night with
him, and the next morning visited our aged parents. They were overjoyed to see
Joseph, for he had been absent from them so long, (15 years) that they had been
fearful of never beholding his face again in the flesh.
"After the usual salutations, enquiries, and
explanations, the subject of the Book of Mormon was introduced. Father received
with gladness that which Joseph communicated; and remarked, that he had always
expected that something would appear to make known the true Gospel.
"In a few minutes brother Jesse came in, and on hearing
that the subject of our conversation was the Book of Mormon, his wrath rose as
high as it did the night before. 'My father's mind,' said Jesse, 'is weak, and
I will not have it corrupted with such blasphemous stuff, so just shut up your
heads.' Brother Joseph reasoned mildly with him, but to no purpose. Brother
Silas then said, 'Jesse, our brother has come to make us a visit, and I am glad
to see him, and am willing he should talk as he pleases in my house.' Jesse
replied in so insulting a manner, and continued to talk so abusively, that
Silas was under the necessity of requesting him to leave the house.
"After this, brother Joseph proceeded in conversation,
and father seemed to be pleased with every word which he said. But I must
confess that I was too pious, at that time, to believe one word of it.
"I returned home the next day, leaving Joseph with my
father. Soon after which, Jesse came to my house and informed me, that all my
brothers were coming to make me a visit, 'and as true as you live,' said he,
'they all believe that cursed Mormon book, every word of it, and they are
setting a trap for you, to make you believe it.'
"I thanked him for taking so much trouble upon himself,
to inform me that my brothers were
coming to see me, but told him, that I considered myself
amply able to judge for myself in matters of religion. 'I know,' he replied,
'that you are a pretty good judge of such things, but I tell you, that they are
as wary as the devil. And I want you to go with me and see our sisters, Susan
and Fanny, and we will bar their minds against Joseph's influence.'
"We accordingly
visited them, and conversed upon the subject as we thought proper, and
requested them to be at my house the next day.
"My brothers arrived according to previous arrangement,
and Jesse, who came also, was very careful to hear every word which passed
among us, and would not allow one word to be said about the Book of Mormon.
They agreed that night to visit our sisters the following day, and as we were
about leaving, my brother Asael took me aside and said, 'Now, John, I want you
to have some conversation with Joseph, but if you do, you must cheat it out of
Jesse. And if you wish, I can work the card for you.'
"I told him that I would be glad to talk with Joseph
alone, if I could get an opportunity. "'Well,' replied brother Asael, 'I
will take a certain number in my carriage, and Silas will take the rest, and
you may bring out a horse for Joseph to ride, but when we are out of sight, take
the horse back to the stable again, and keep Joseph over night.'
"I did as brother Asael advised, and that evening
Joseph explained to me the principles of 'Mormonism,' the truth of which I have
never since denied.
"The next morning, we (Joseph and myself) went to our
sisters, where we met our brothers, who censured me very sharply for keeping
Joseph over night—Jesse, because he was really displeased; the others, to make
a show of disappointment.
"In the evening, when we were about to separate, I
agreed to take Joseph in my wagon twenty miles on his journey the next day.
Jesse rode home with me that evening, leaving Joseph with our sisters. As
Joseph did not expect to see Jesse again, when we were about starting, Joseph
gave Jesse his hand in a pleasant, affectionate manner, and said, 'Farewell,
brother Jesse!' 'Farewell, Jo, for ever,' replied Jesse, in a surly tone.
'I am afraid,' returned Joseph in a kind, but solemn manner,
'it will be for ever, unless you repent.'
"This was too much for even Jesse's obdurate heart. He
melted into tears; however, he made no
reply, nor ever mentioned the circumstance afterwards.
"I took my brother twenty miles on his journey the next
day, as I had agreed. Before he left me, he requested me to promise him, that I
would read a Book of Mormon, which he had given me, and even should I not believe it, that I would not condemn it;
'for,' said he, 'if you do not condemn it, you shall have a testimony of its
truth.' I fulfilled my promise, and thus proved his testimony to be true."
(From Lucy Smith, Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith, the
Prophet, and His Progenitors for Many Generations, p.154, 1853)
Appendix E
Patriarchal
Blessing given to Esther Fuller Smith by Joseph Smith Sr., June 17, 1836
Blessing of Esther Fuller, the wife
of A.B. Fuller who was born in Stockholm, St. Lawrence County, N.Y. Sept. 20th
1810
Dear Sister, In the name of Jesus
Christ of Nazareth, & by the authority of the Priesthood, I lay my hands on
thy head in company with thy father. I
seal the blessing of God on they children: The blessing of Abraham shall rest
on thy head, thou art of his seed & lineage, thou art of the Covenant
people of they God. Thou standest in the
Fold of Christ by the power of faith, for thy good thou art called to endure
afflictions. Thou must be patient in
tribulation. Thou shalt be blessed with children,
they too shall stand in the covenant, and while young shall be in the spirit
and prophesy, they shall be among the prophets and prophetesses.
Thou art called to a holy
calling. Thou must listen to thy husband
and receive his instructions. Thy heart
shall be filled with joy and thou shalt see the vision opened. Thou shalt be instructed in wisdom: thy
wisdom shall enable thee to do much for they fellow creatures. I feel to bless thee with all good
things. All thy desires which thou shalt
make in Righteousness shall be realized and every such desire shall be
gratified. Thou shalt tarry with thy
husband and shall see all things fulfilled which are promised him in his
blessing. Be faithful, Dear Sister, and
no blessing shall be to great for thee.
By the authority of the priesthood I seal these blessings upon thy head
& seal the up unto eternal life, even so, Amen
Kirtland June 17th 1836
W.A. Cowdery asst. Red. [Recorder] [Patriarchal Blessing Book 1:95]
Appendix F
Patriarchal Blessing given to
Amos B. Fuller by Joseph Smith Sr., June 18, 1836
Blessing of Amos B. Fuller who was
born in Stockholm county of St. Lawrence in the state of N.Y. March 26th,
1810
Amos, In the name of Jesus Christ
the great Redeemer of Mankind and by the Authority of the Holy priesthood I lay
my hands on they head in company with thy father, that thou mayest receive a
blessing which shall rest on thee and on thy seed. They posterity shall see thy name and
blessing written in a book. I confer
upon thee the priesthood, Thou art a descendant of the holy patriarch
Abraham. Thou art of his seed and
lineage Thou hast been called to preach the Gospel. Thou hast been faithful & done good in the
church of thy God & Savior. Thou
hast done good in this generation, thy skirts are free from their blood, go on
thy way & prosper. Thou shalt see
the Lord face to face and rejoice in his free salvation. If thou art faithful and puttest thy trust in
the God of Israel, ere long the heavens shall be opened to thy sight, in open
vision thou shalt see angels who shall minister to thee. Thou must go and preach the gospel to the
Lamanites in their various languages.
Thou must preach to the nations of the earth. Thou shalt have many souls among them as
crowns of they rejoicing when Jesus Christ shall come in the clouds of
heaven. Thy years shall be many for thou
shalt stand on the earth and proclaim the Gospel to the nations of the Gentiles
and to the seed of Abraham as long as the earth shall stand. Thou art called to stand among the one
hundred & forty and four thousand with the lamb on mount Zion, dressed in
white robes. Be faithful brother and
they soul shall be satisfied with the things of time and eternity. By the authority of the priesthood I seal
thee up unto eternal life, Amen & Amen.
N.B. the above blessing was
conferred upon the[e] by the patriarch of the Latter-day Saints as the blessing
of they father June 18. 1836
W.A. Cowdery Assit. Recorder [Patriarchal Blessing Book 1:96]
