HANNAH KNIGHT LIBBY – Part 14 – THE MORMON MOVEMENT IN MAINE 1832 – 1836

               Hannah was not baptized in a vacuum on 4 July 1834.   Putting her baptism into historical context will help to explain the events that transpired after that date and their effect on the Carter family.

                The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was founded on 6 Apr 1830.  Mormon… “missionaries first arrived in Maine in 1832, and in that year they baptized Timothy Smith in Saco, after which a branch of the church was formed.  Missionaries Wilford Woodruff and Jonathan Hale converted approximately one hundred persons from the Fox Islands—now Vinalhaven and North Haven—in 1837-1838.  Forty-six converted in Bethel/Newry, Maine, between 1833 and 1870 (mostly during the 1830s)…” (Carole York, “WESTERN MAINE SAINTS [Part 4]- The York and Carter Families: Conversion to Mormonism and Western Migration, in The Courier, Volume 31, No. 4 (2007))

                The arrival of missionaries and their success in converting people in the local communities was accompanied with much controversy and outright adversity to the new Church.  A chapter in the town history of Saco, ‘The Mormon Invasion,’ describes the reaction to the missionaries by many townspeople: “The Mormon elders were unwearied in their efforts to enlarge the circle of their influence and to drum up recruits for their semi-religious community.  Like flaming heralds, they traveled from town to town, and their evident sincerity and unbounded enthusiasm drew thousands to them.  But there was determined opposition.  The ministers of the gospel stood outside and openly warned their people to keep clear of these missionaries of a strange faith.  The culminating effect proved that the spirit of the Mormons was identical to Cochranism [one of the new sects that grew out of the Second Great Awakening].  Both systems produced the same ruinous upheaval in the domestic circle, and the wreckage of blasted homes was scattered all along the coast where the devastating storm held sway.”  (Ibid.)

                In June of 1832 two Mormon missionaries arrived in Letter B (the present Upton, Maine about 20 miles northeast of Newry on the road to Errol, New Hampshire.)  These men, Horace Cowan and Hazen Aldrich, obtained lodging in the home of Daniel Bean, Sr. Both Daniel Bean, Sr., and his son and namesake had, since coming to Letter B in the 1820s, welcomed clergymen representing various denominations—Baptist, Congregational, Methodist, Unitarian—and offered them a meeting room where they could preach.  In that remote pioneer settlement, visitors “from away” were usually welcomed for the news they brought from the “civilized” world, and for many the preaching provided a change from the daily round of farm work and homemaking chores.  The next day Hazen Aldrich arrived and the two Latter-day Saints (Mormons) began telling their story to anyone who had the time or interest to listen.  One of Daniel Bean’s sons later reported that the preaching of Hazen Aldrich and Horace Cowan was so well received that the Mormons soon organized a church of a large number of members, entirely breaking up the Free Will Baptists and the Congregationalists.  As Peter Smith Bean later recalled, “They took whole families . . . Half the settlers left and were believers in the Mormon doctrine.” (Mary E Valentine, WESTERN MAINE SAINTS, [Part 1] - Mormon Missionaries in the 1830s, in The Courier, Volume 29, No. 1 (2005))

               

John F. Boynton

                Daniel Bean, Jr., was baptized 23 March 1833 into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  He became active as an Elder, missionary and leader of the LDS branch in the western Maine mountains.  It was this same Daniel Bean, Jr., who with John F. Boynton (a member of the quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the LDS Church) arrived at the door of the Carter home on 4 July 1834.  They had been busy converting several of the community previously.  Dominicus Carter apparently had been baptized a few days earlier and just two days earlier they had baptized Patty Bartlett Sessions in the Andover West Surplus (now North Newry.) (Ibid.)  It was mentioned earlier that Hannah’s miraculous healing and baptism led to the growth of the Church in Newry but it appears the group had already begun to grow prior to her baptism. 

                The joy that Hannah experienced surely led her to want her other children to partake of spirit of this new faith of hers.  Along with Dominicus, who appears to already be a member, Hannah was joined in baptism by her children John H (age 18) and Eliza Ann (age 16).  The exact baptism date of another unmarried child, Richard Harrison (age 14), appears to have been about 31 Oct 1834.  Two other married children William F (baptized 17 Nov 1834) and Hannah (who was baptized between the time of her mother's baptism and 1837 when she and Aaron M York moved to Kirtland) shows the effect of the married children having a harder time to convert.  Her oldest daughter Almira, who was already married in 1834 never did join the church.  Her then 21 year old son, Philip Libby, soon left home for Massachusetts and didn’t join the church either, though he and Almira and their families joined the family in Tioga, Illinois years later.  Lastly, the youngest daughter Mary Jane, just 11 in 1834, never joined the church but lived with John and Hannah until her marriage in Missouri in 1840.

William McLellin

                There are no particulars known about how the Church functioned in Newry.  Surely this growth of the LDS Church did cause some commotion within the community.  The Mormon leadership didn’t leave these new members entirely to their own devices.  Daniel Bean, Jr. and an Apostle, William McLellin, were in this area from Newry to Errol, New Hampshire in August of 1835. (Ibid.)

On 15 August 1835, Brigham Young and Lyman Johnson visited Newry.  They held a conference at the home of David and Patty Sessions, and Brigham Young crossed the Androscoggin River to preach at the Middle Intervale Meetinghouse, in Bethel, which at the time was without a settled pastor.  At the meeting in the Sessions home, Young spoke of “establishing Zion” somewhere in the west, a place where Saints could live together and practice their religious beliefs without fear of persecution.  He encouraged the local Saints to sell their farms and travel to Missouri to join others in this endeavor.  On August 21 of the same year, the Sessions were visited by another Mormon elder and missionary, William McLellin, who recorded in his journal that he had preached about two hours at a “bro Cessions… Brigham Young and other members of the Twelve Apostles visited Newry again in August 1836, and once more preached in at Middle Intervale.  He again urged the members of the Newry branch to sell their farms in Maine and travel to Missouri where the Saints were gathering.”    (Mary E. Valentine, WESTERN MAINE SAINTS, [Part 2] - A Newry Family Who Joined the Latter-Day Saints in Seeking a Home in the West, The Courier, Volume 29, No. 2 (2005))

Middle Intervale Church, Bethel, Maine

So as Hannah became familiar with her faith the leaders of the Church were already imploring the members to leave Maine and head out west where the Church was gathering.  Hannah had to be conflicted in this – especially with a husband that didn’t believe in her new faith.  Her married sons Dominicus and William did heed this call and left for Kirtland, Ohio in 1836 (probably in the spring.)  At this point Hannah faced a difficult dilemma. She had two single children, John approaching 20 and Eliza 18, who if they stayed in Newry would find it difficult to find someone of the faith to marry.  Surely it was their mother, Hannah, who was behind the fact that these two unmarried children left with their married siblings that spring and traveled to Ohio.  Hannah would be vindicated for this move as both John and Eliza found mates and married within the Mormon faith during the short time they were in Kirtland.

This left Hannah and her younger son, Richard Harrison as the only Carter family members of the Church left in her home in Newry by the end of the year 1836. (Her married daughter Hannah, who had married Aaron M York, and had joined the Church at some point, was also still in Newry, too.) John apparently saw no reason to be leaving Newry and Hannah, having to make a choice, chose to stay with her husband.  She and John surely loved one another as though the family was being pulled apart, they stayed together.     

There is evidence to support the assertion that John and Hannah remained in Newry.  His wife and some children did affect his standing in the community as he held no office in Newry from 1833 until March of 1836.  At that time, he was elected a Fence Viewer (inspector).  Later in March 1838 he was chosen as a Highwayman (overseer) on the same day he was elected Constable and Tax Collector.  So any assertion that John and Hannah were in Kirtland during this time simply can’t be true.

(Coming up – The Carters finally leave Maine for Missouri.) 

HANNAH KNIGHT LIBBY – Part 14 – THE MORMON MOVEMENT IN MAINE 1832 – 1836

               Hannah was not baptized in a vacuum on 4 July 1834.   Putting her baptism into historical context will help to explain the events that transpired after that date and their effect on the Carter family.

                The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was founded on 6 Apr 1830.  Mormon… “missionaries first arrived in Maine in 1832, and in that year they baptized Timothy Smith in Saco, after which a branch of the church was formed.  Missionaries Wilford Woodruff and Jonathan Hale converted approximately one hundred persons from the Fox Islands—now Vinalhaven and North Haven—in 1837-1838.  Forty-six converted in Bethel/Newry, Maine, between 1833 and 1870 (mostly during the 1830s)…” (Carole York, “WESTERN MAINE SAINTS [Part 4]- The York and Carter Families: Conversion to Mormonism and Western Migration, in The Courier, Volume 31, No. 4 (2007))

                The arrival of missionaries and their success in converting people in the local communities was accompanied with much controversy and outright adversity to the new Church.  A chapter in the town history of Saco, ‘The Mormon Invasion,’ describes the reaction to the missionaries by many townspeople: “The Mormon elders were unwearied in their efforts to enlarge the circle of their influence and to drum up recruits for their semi-religious community.  Like flaming heralds, they traveled from town to town, and their evident sincerity and unbounded enthusiasm drew thousands to them.  But there was determined opposition.  The ministers of the gospel stood outside and openly warned their people to keep clear of these missionaries of a strange faith.  The culminating effect proved that the spirit of the Mormons was identical to Cochranism [one of the new sects that grew out of the Second Great Awakening].  Both systems produced the same ruinous upheaval in the domestic circle, and the wreckage of blasted homes was scattered all along the coast where the devastating storm held sway.”  (Ibid.)

                In June of 1832 two Mormon missionaries arrived in Letter B (the present Upton, Maine about 20 miles northeast of Newry on the road to Errol, New Hampshire.)  These men, Horace Cowan and Hazen Aldrich, obtained lodging in the home of Daniel Bean, Sr. Both Daniel Bean, Sr., and his son and namesake had, since coming to Letter B in the 1820s, welcomed clergymen representing various denominations—Baptist, Congregational, Methodist, Unitarian—and offered them a meeting room where they could preach.  In that remote pioneer settlement, visitors “from away” were usually welcomed for the news they brought from the “civilized” world, and for many the preaching provided a change from the daily round of farm work and homemaking chores.  The next day Hazen Aldrich arrived and the two Latter-day Saints (Mormons) began telling their story to anyone who had the time or interest to listen.  One of Daniel Bean’s sons later reported that the preaching of Hazen Aldrich and Horace Cowan was so well received that the Mormons soon organized a church of a large number of members, entirely breaking up the Free Will Baptists and the Congregationalists.  As Peter Smith Bean later recalled, “They took whole families . . . Half the settlers left and were believers in the Mormon doctrine.” (Mary E Valentine, WESTERN MAINE SAINTS, [Part 1] - Mormon Missionaries in the 1830s, in The Courier, Volume 29, No. 1 (2005))

               

John F. Boynton

                Daniel Bean, Jr., was baptized 23 March 1833 into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  He became active as an Elder, missionary and leader of the LDS branch in the western Maine mountains.  It was this same Daniel Bean, Jr., who with John F. Boynton (a member of the quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the LDS Church) arrived at the door of the Carter home on 4 July 1834.  They had been busy converting several of the community previously.  Dominicus Carter apparently had been baptized a few days earlier and just two days earlier they had baptized Patty Bartlett Sessions in the Andover West Surplus (now North Newry.) (Ibid.)  It was mentioned earlier that Hannah’s miraculous healing and baptism led to the growth of the Church in Newry but it appears the group had already begun to grow prior to her baptism. 

                The joy that Hannah experienced surely led her to want her other children to partake of spirit of this new faith of hers.  Along with Dominicus, who appears to already be a member, Hannah was joined in baptism by her children John H (age 18) and Eliza Ann (age 16).  The exact baptism date of another unmarried child, Richard Harrison (age 14), appears to have been about 31 Oct 1834.  Two other married children William F (baptized 17 Nov 1834) and Hannah (who appears to have waited until 1844 to be baptized) shows the effect of the married children having a harder time to convert.  Her oldest daughter Almira, who was already married in 1834 never did join the church.  Her then 21 year old son, Philip Libby, soon left home for Massachusetts and didn’t join the church either, though he and Almira and their families joined the family in Tioga, Illinois years later.  Lastly, the youngest daughter Mary Jane, just 11 in 1834, never joined the church but lived with John and Hannah until her marriage in Missouri in 1840.

William McLellin

                There are no particulars known about how the Church functioned in Newry.  Surely this growth of the LDS Church did cause some commotion within the community.  The Mormon leadership didn’t leave these new members entirely to their own devices.  Daniel Bean, Jr. and an Apostle, William McLellin, were in this area from Newry to Errol, New Hampshire in August of 1835. (Ibid.)

On 15 August 1835, Brigham Young and Lyman Johnson visited Newry.  They held a conference at the home of David and Patty Sessions, and Brigham Young crossed the Androscoggin River to preach at the Middle Intervale Meetinghouse, in Bethel, which at the time was without a settled pastor.  At the meeting in the Sessions home, Young spoke of “establishing Zion” somewhere in the west, a place where Saints could live together and practice their religious beliefs without fear of persecution.  He encouraged the local Saints to sell their farms and travel to Missouri to join others in this endeavor.  On August 21 of the same year, the Sessions were visited by another Mormon elder and missionary, William McLellin, who recorded in his journal that he had preached about two hours at a “bro Cessions… Brigham Young and other members of the Twelve Apostles visited Newry again in August 1836, and once more preached in at Middle Intervale.  He again urged the members of the Newry branch to sell their farms in Maine and travel to Missouri where the Saints were gathering.”    (Mary E. Valentine, WESTERN MAINE SAINTS, [Part 2] - A Newry Family Who Joined the Latter-Day Saints in Seeking a Home in the West, The Courier, Volume 29, No. 2 (2005))

Middle Intervale Church, Bethel, Maine

So as Hannah became familiar with her faith the leaders of the Church were already imploring the members to leave Maine and head out west where the Church was gathering.  Hannah had to be conflicted in this – especially with a husband that didn’t believe in her new faith.  Her married sons Dominicus and William did heed this call and left for Kirtland, Ohio in 1836 (probably in the spring.)  At this point Hannah faced a difficult dilemma. She had two single children, John approaching 20 and Eliza 18, who if they stayed in Newry would find it difficult to find someone of the faith to marry.  Surely it was their mother, Hannah, who was behind the fact that these two unmarried children left with their married siblings that spring and traveled to Ohio.  Hannah would be vindicated for this move as both John and Eliza found mates and married within the Mormon faith during the short time they were in Kirtland.

This left Hannah and her younger son, Richard Harrison as the only Carter family members of the Church left in Newry by the end of the year 1836.  John apparently saw no reason to be leaving Newry and Hannah, having to make a choice, chose to stay with her husband.  She and John surely loved one another as though the family was being pulled apart, they stayed together.   

There is evidence to support the assertion that John and Hannah remained in Newry.  His wife and some children did affect his standing in the community as he held no office in Newry from 1833 until March of 1836.  At that time, he was elected a Fence Viewer (inspector).  Later in March 1838 he was chosen as a Highwayman (overseer) on the same day he was elected Constable and Tax Collector.  So any assertion that John and Hannah were in Kirtland during this time simply can’t be true.

(Coming up – The Carters finally leave Maine for Missouri.) 

HANNAH KNIGHT LIBBY - Part 13 - HANNAH'S BAPTISM

               We left John and Hannah coming into the year 1834 with 4 married children and 10 grandchildren and counting.  Life seemed to be going well.  Their continuation of living in Newry attests to the fact that their farm, and John’s blacksmithing, were bringing in the necessities of life.  But, then as now, life can change in a twinkling of an eye.

               We know that in the following account of Hannah’s baptism that she was sick in bed and supposedly dying. What ailed her we are never told but it could have been any number of things from a simple flu to any of a number of contagious diseases like typhoid. Whatever the ailment was, the family considered her live to be in danger of being snuffed out.

               Newry being really just a scattering of small family farms and communication not being like today, John probably sent out Philip and/or John to tell the married children of their mother’s sickness.  If the traditional baptism date of Dominicus, 30 Jun 1834, this would mean his mother took ill almost immediately after his baptism and the missionaries that miraculously appear at Hannah’s door were probably sent by Dominicus. 

               The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints practice baptism by immersion.  Candidates for baptism are usually taught by missionaries over several meetings so they can be exposed to the various teachings of the Church and understand the commitment that the convert is making.  The location for a baptism today is usually at a church building that has a specially designed fount, but a candidate for baptism can be baptized in any body of water that is deep enough to immerse them.  My own father was baptized in a horse trough. 

Early LDS baptism - ca. 1830 

                This picture doesn’t depict Hannah’s baptism but is actually depicting the baptism of the parents of Joseph Smith in New York four years previous to Hannah’s baptism.  Except for the largeness of the water body I would imagine that the event probably looked something like this.  The number of people who gathered may not have been as many but I am sure this event did draw a crowd besides Hannah’s own children.

Eliza Ann Carter

               So now we finally come to the day of Hannah Knight Libby Carter’s conversion and baptism, 4 July 1834. There is only one first-hand account of this event and we can thank Hannah’s daughter, Eliza Jane Carter Snow, for that.  If it was not for the recollections of a 15-year-old girl, who later in life in 1892 felt inspired to write down her impressions, we would have been left without any hard evidence of what happened that day.

               We have to realize this was just four years after the Church was organized and the Carters lived literally in the back woods.   The original document is housed in the LDS Church History Library in Salt Lake City.  It is so fragile that you are not allowed to see or handle the original, so you have to deal with an aged microfilm.  Her entire diary written with pencil in a notebook is all of 6 pages long and the bulk of the story is the conversion story.  Being ever the skeptic I spent an afternoon pouring over the film trying to read each word so I could see if the transcription we have is accurate or not.  Not every word was readable on the original but I am satisfied that the transcription is an accurate record of what Eliza Ann wrote.

Bear River south of Hannah's baptism site

               Eliza Ann Carter Snow wrote of that day: “I first embraced Mormonism in 1834, in the town of Newry, Oxford County, State of Maine.  The first Mormon elders I ever heard preach were John F. Boynton and Daniel Bean.  They came to my father's house, and my mother lay very sick.  The doctors had given her up.  The elders told her they were preaching a new doctrine and they told her that she could be healed if she could have faith, that they would hold hands on her.  They did lay hands on her and said, 'In the name of the Lord Jesus be thou made whole.'  And she was made whole and arose and called for her clothes and said I must go to the water.  She walked one-half mile and was baptized in the river called Bear River and confirmed.   And there was a large branch raised up in that place."   (Eliza Ann Carter Snow, Autobiographical Sketch, 1892 April 10, LDS Church History Library, MS 9676 – microfilm of the original handwritten record transcribed by the author, 14 Feb 2012.)  The quote of the day was John’s comment on this event, “That beats doctor bills.” (Ibid.) The date of the baptism is not recorded by Eliza Ann, or anyone else in the family for that matter.  It can be inferred by the fact that the consensus date recorded in new FamilySearch for the baptism of most of the members of the family is 4 July 1834.

               The effect of Hannah’s being brought back from near death and subsequent baptism sowed the seeds of division in this family on religious grounds.  It is true that the family seemed to migrate together over the next 20 years but evidence will be presented that they really didn’t make the trek west together.  Those who appear to share the baptism date with Hannah were John Jr., and Eliza Ann.  Richard Harrison probably was baptized at that time as he lived in the home even though his recorded baptism date is 31 Oct 1832 – an obvious error.  Dominicus, as previously mentioned,  was baptized about this time.  In fact, his traditional baptism date is 30 Jun 1834.  William, who was married, joined the church a little later on 17 Nov 1834.  One of the girls who did join the church lacks a baptism date – Hannah and Aaron M York had to have been baptized between when Hannah was baptized and 1837 when they left for Kirtland.    Besides their father, John, Almira, Philip and Mary Jane never joined the church.  Almira was already married and pregnant with her 5 child on July 4, 1834, so she may have not witnessed the healing of her mother.  Possibly the need to be loyal to her husband, who may have not been receptive to the gospel, played a part in Almira’s failure to convert.  The whereabouts of Philip who was 21 in 1834 is not known for sure but most likely he was there.  Why he didn’t join is not known.  The surprise in the family would have to be Mary Jane, the baby of the family, and only 12 when this event happened.  Again it is only for us to guess as to why she didn’t join.

               One last issue for today – I have long been a champion of John Carter.  I realize he has been a much misunderstood figure in our family history.  It is unfortunate that four words recorded by his then 15-year-old daughter would define his life – “That beats doctor bills.”  It just isn’t right to define a person based on four words.  John was a good man.  As time will show he will keep his wife in contact with her LDS family members, but for him organized religion was not necessary.    It would be so nice if we knew more about him.  Unfortunately, what we have is what we got and that is all.

               In any case, the event of 4 July 1834 will begin the physical schism of the family over the following few years.  Regardless, Hannah never appears to look back and have any regrets for what transpired that day.  Surely she was relieved to have been healed and the miraculous way the events transpired left her with an undeniable faith in God and her new-found religion.  This faith would carry her through the remaining 30 plus years of her life, providing her with the needed strength to endure the many challenges – both physical and emotional – that she would experience over the ensuing decades.

HANNAH KNIGHT LIBBY - Part 12 - EVENTS LEADING TO HER BAPTISM

(I have now written about this event several times - most recently in the blog entries on the Life of John Carter.  For the most part this will be a repeat of the entry in John's life.  If I add information to the previous narrative I will put it in italics.)        

          One last episode before we explore the day of Hannah Knight Libby’s baptism into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints .   We, who have done any family history know where this story is headed but before going there I would like to take you where most members of the family has never gone – to learn about the climate of religion in Newry and the appearance of missionaries for the Church.  One other topic needs to be addressed – the actual first baptism in the family.  You see, in spite of family lore, it appears that Hannah wasn’t the first member of the Church in the Carter family.

          To tell this story I will need to rely heavily on the research of our cousin Carole York.  Carole wrote her master’s thesis for the University of New Hampshire in 2010 on Western Maine Saints: The First Mormons of Western Maine 1830—1890.  This thesis is about the forty-nine individuals and ten families who converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) in Bethel and Newry, Maine and the missionaries who brought them into the church.  So of all members of the family Carole is the best researched this phase of the family’s history.  Parts of her story were posted online after be published in The Courier (the publication of the Bethel Historical Society – See http://bethelhistorical.org/legacy-site/Western_Maine_Saints.html).

There was no organized religion in Newry in 1834.  In fact the first church was built there in 1865.  Services were sometimes held on the Sunday River and baptisms were administered at Artist Bridge.  There was a Baptist Church in Middle Intervale on the opposite side of the river in Bethel.  This church served the Newry area and parts of Hanover and Bethel.  To reach it, people in Newry would have to row a boat across the river or take a ferry if it was in operation.  It is unknown if the Carter’s worshiped with the local Baptists.  They had been members of the various Congregationalist churches in Scarborough.

Umbagog Lake from Letter B Township (Upton, Maine)

In June of 1832, two years after Joseph Smith published the Book of Mormon, there came a young man to the home of Daniel Bean, Jr., in Letter B (now Upton), an unorganized territory in the western mountains of Maine, just east of Lake Umbagog.  (This was about 15 miles NE of where the Carters lived.)  This man was Horace Cowan and he was joined shortly by Hazen Aldrich.  The two men began preaching the Latter-Day Saint doctrines and were so well received that the Mormons soon organized a church of a large number of members, entirely breaking up the Free Will Baptists and the Congregationalists.  As Peter Smith Bean later recalled, “They took whole families . . . . Half the settlers left and were believers in the Mormon doctrine.”  It was this Daniel Bean Jr., who with his companion, John F. Boynton would in 1834 bring Mormonism to the Carter family.

The First Vision
(LDS Museum of Church History and Art)

          The Carters may not have even heard of this new religion.  Formerly organized in up-state New York on 6 Apr 1830 and starting with 6 official members, it had been growing slowly amid much persecution.  The doctrine of this faith had it origins in this era with a singular event that occurred in the spring of 1820 involving the then 14 year old Joseph Smith Jr. in Manchester, New York.  Joseph, who had been on a search for the "true" church for two years took himself into some woods besides his father's farm one day to to ask of God which faith was true.  What transpired - called "The First Vision" - involved God the Father and Jesus Christ appearing to Joseph and telling him that none of the churches were correct and that in time he "the fullness of the Gospel" would be made known unto him.

          Over the next 8 years Joseph received visitations by several heavenly beings and in time he received the golden plates that contained writings of ancient Prophets who lived upon the American continent and were later translated by Joseph and became our present day Book of Mormon - named after the last ancient Prophet who had hidden up the plates before his death.  The book was first published in March of 1830 and the Church organized the following month as noted above.  Following it's organization missionaries had been sent out spreading the word of the Book of Mormon.  The religion slowly grew in the face of stiff persecution led by religious leaders of established religions. Beginning as early as 1831 many of the new converts had begun moving to Kirtland, Ohio to escape this persecution.  This was in this climate in the world that the message of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was brought to upstate Maine.

Daniel Bean Tombstone in Wisconsin
(image by Alva Van Houton at
Findagrave.com)

          Not an awful lot is known about the life of Daniel Bean Jr.  He was the son of Daniel Bean Sr. and Margaret Shaw.  Daniel Bean, Jr., was baptized 23 March 1833 into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  He became active as an Elder, missionary and leader of the LDS branch in the western Maine mountains.  Daniel’s grandparents were Jonathan Bean and Abigail Gordon.  For any of us who are descendants of Aaron M. York (and Hannah Carter) or Sarah York, wife of William Furlsbury Carter, this brings us a pleasant surprise.  Daniel Bean Jr. was actually our cousin as we too are descended from Jonathan and Abigail Gordon Bean.  Sarah York Carter and her brother Aaron M. York were actually 1st cousins once removed from Daniel Bean.  This might account for the success he had in preaching to the Carters in Newry.

John F. Boynton

John F. Boynton was born September 20, 1811, in Bradford, Essex County, Mass.; baptized in September, 1832, by Joseph Smith, in Kirtland, Ohio, and ordained an elder by Sidney Rigdon. He performed a mission, together with Zebedee Coltrin, to Pennsylvania in 1832 and another one to Maine in 1833 and 1834. February 15, 1835, he was ordained an apostle in Kirtland, Ohio, under the hands of Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer and Martin Harris, after which he accompanied the Twelve on their mission to the Eastern States and Canada. During his last mission he borrowed all the money he could among the brethren, with which he entered into the mercantile business with Lyman E. Johnson, and followed it until he apostatized and was dis-fellowshipped from the quorum of apostles Sept. 3, 1837, in Kirtland, Ohio. On the following Sunday he made confessions and was forgiven, but as he did not repent of his evils, he was finally excommunicated from the Church. (http://www.gapages.com/boyntjf1.htm)

So who were the first Carter converts of  Daniel Bean Jr. and John F. Boynton?  Though there is some discrepancy in the records it appears that Dominicus Carter was baptized 30 Jun 1834.  One record I have seen showed 30 June 1832 but the 1834 date appears to be the accurate one.  If this is correct it was Dominicus who was baptized five days prior to his mother’s conversion and baptism.  This fact could have a big part to play in the story of his mother’s conversion story.  That story sill be coming next.

HANNAH KNIGHT LIBBY – Part 11 – NEWRY 1817 – 1833

               1817 – The Year Without a Summer was in 1816 but the effects didn’t just go away.  In many place in New England in 1817 municipalities were forced to find seed for their farmers to plant so there wouldn’t be widespread starvation as the individual farmers often had nothing to plant after their failed crops of the previous year.  We don’t directly know how the weather change effected the Carter family.  The tax records show he added two oxen and a 1 year old cattle but had no 3 year old cattle after having two the year before.  In 1817 they increased their mowing acreage to 2.5 acres which is what he would have the rest of the years in Newry.  Hannah was probably grateful to have survived this potentially disastrous event with her family intact.  Dominicus at 11 was probably a help to his father and Almira and Hannah at 9 and 8 would have been able to provide their mother some support.

                It should be noted that another member of the Libby family actually moved to Newry after John and Hannah.  Hannah’s next older brother, John Libby and his wife Anna moved to Newry around 1814.  John Libby is found on the tax rolls of Newry from that time until they left probably after Anna died in 1838.  John lived out his last years in Gorham, Maine, which is just outside Portland, back on the coast.  In any case, Hannah probably enjoyed having a family member living nearby.

                1818 – 1827 -  Little or no details about the family are known during this time.  The family farm seems to have done well.  For the most part John tilled 1.5 acres, though some years just a half acre.  He consistently mowed 2.5 acres to provide food for his livestock and finally had about one acre of pasture.  His livestock usually consisted of two oxen, a horse, between 2 and 4 cows, between 2 and 8 cattle, and between 2 and 5 swine.  Assuming that John was probably earning extra income from blacksmithing, the family was probably doing fine on Newry standards.

                During this time, they had the rest of their family on a fairly regular two-year cycle.  Eliza Ann was born on 28 Sep 1818, Richard Harrison on 8 Aug 1820, Mary Jane on 13 Mar 1823 and finally Rufus on 9 Oct 1825.   If our records are accurate Rufus died on his second birthday, 9 Oct 1827.  That left the family with 9 living children.  All nine would live to marry and leave posterity.   Considering the time that they lived the Carters were very blessed as many families lost more children than they did.

Dominicus Carter

William F. Carter

                1828 – 1833 – Families in those days were large so that there would be plenty of children to help in running the farm.  One downside is that eventually the children would grow up, marry and move off the farm leaving the farmer with less hands to do the work.  This is the dynamic that began to happen to the Carter family.  On 21 May 1828 Dominicus, just a month short of his 22^nd birthday, became the first to leave when married Lydia Smith.  Dominicus would remain in Newry so even though he began to be taxed on his own, the and his father may have jointly run their farms.  The next year saw the marriages of the two eldest daughters.  On 15 Jan 1829, two weeks after her 21^st birthday Almira wed Alvin Baron Tripp.  They would remain in Newry and raise a large family there before eventually moving to Illinois.  Hannah was the next to marry on 2 Dec 1829 to Aaron Mereon York.  They moved to nearby Reedsville and Bethel for several years before moving back to Newry about 1837.   Finally, on 1 Mar 1832 just short of his 21^st birthday, William married Sarah York (Aaron M York’s sister).  William and Sarah stayed in Newry for the first several years of their married life.

                So as 1833 John and Hannah’s family had shrunk to 5 children at home.  At this point John was 51 and Hannah was 47.  Their life was comfortable.  The five children at home were a big help to their parents in the operation of the farm.  The family was growing though.  They had 4 married children and 10 grandchildren.  Life must have been good at this point.

HANNAH KNIGHT LIBBY – Part 10 – EARLY YEARS AT NEWRY

               The move from Scarborough to Newry for the Carter family was nothing to be taken lightly.  Scarborough in 1810 had a population of over 2000 and had been inhabited for several generations.  John and Hannah lived close to the farms of the Carters and the Libbys.  They had family to help them and support them as they established their family. 

                Moving to Newry was like moving from day to night.  Newry was out in the backwoods.  It’s first settlement had been destroyed in 1782 after one year by the Indians.  “Then John J. Holmes of New Jersey purchased the land in 1794 with his sister's surname on the deed: Bostwick. On June 15, 1805, Bostwick Plantation was renamed by settlers that had come from Newry in what is now Northern Ireland.

The trade route (now Route 26) from Portland to Errol, New Hampshire, completed in 1802, passed through Newry. Farms were established on the intervales, which had excellent soil. Hay was the principal crop. Slopes of the mountains provided pasturage for grazing animals. A sawmill and gristmill were built on the Bear River “ (Wikipedia – Newry, Maine) and by 1810 Newry had a population of 202 souls.

Life in Newry was close to being at a subsistence level.  Farms had to be as self-sufficient as possible as this northern forest land required great effort to clear it and the growing season was short.  Most of the arable land was used to grow foodstuffs for the family or to produce forage for their animals.  Hunting, trapping and fishing was important for food and for the skins that could be traded for needed food.  The forest, which was everywhere and plentiful, was a source for logs and cut timber.  Still the bottom line was everyone needed food so food was king.   John Carter had an extra skill that would help them in this time of resettlement.  He had learned the blacksmithing trade since his marriage to Hannah.  He probably learned this from Hannah’s father Zebulon Libby who was a farmer-blacksmith back in Scarborough.  John most likely plied his trade on the side accepting barter in commodities which his family would need.

With very little known about these year we will attempt to reconstruct their life from the tax records of early Newry.  Much can be gleaned from these records as they listed the animals raised, dwellings built and land possessed and used.  A careful study of these documents found in the early town records of Newry give us more than a glimpse of John and Hannah’s life. (Office of Town Clerk, Newry, Maine, Town Records, 1805 - 1846, Family History Library Film #11589, pages unnumbered.)

Typical New England Home

1811 – We know John and Hannah were in Newry in 1811 as they paid taxes there for the first time.  This first year in Newry had to be full of challenges for the whole family.  The early settlers of Newry must have been allowed to claim land in addition to the actual purchases that they made as John was credited with 260 acres of land (30 acres were listed as waste land) yet he had no acres of land in tillage, mowing or pasture.  How they raised food to eat or for their 3 three-year-old cattle cannot be explained. The rolls also showed 1 swine which was raised to provide more protein for their diet.  They also had no dwellings on their land so one must guess that they lived in the bed of their wagon – assuming they had a wagon when they arrived in Newry.  Possibly John’s ability to work as a blacksmith provided them with cash or bartered goods.  Their three cattle disappear from the tax roll by the next year so they were probably a food source.  It was into these circumstances that the young couple welcomed their fourth child, William, into the family on 1 May 1811.  This meant that Hannah had 4 children under the age of 5.  Challenges had to be many and comforts few for the Carters.

1812 – The tax rolls still show John as having no dwelling but we would have to assume that this meant there was no finished dwelling but surely by this time that had at least part of the family home built to augment their initial living arrangements.  The family this year was taxed for an acre of tillage.  Tillage would be land being used to raise crops.  Knowing how a single acre of land would have hundreds of trees and each one would have to be removed before the land could be plowed and planted even this single acre of cleared land was an achievement.  This one acre would provide much of the family’s food supply.  Their livestock supply changed as they had two oxen (surely to plow the land) and two cows, that if lactating, would supply the family with dairy products. They also had two swine.   Dominicus turned six that year and probably began to help out around the farm.

1813 – The year began with the birth their fifth child, Philip Libby Carter, on January 13.  Also, for the first time in Newry, the family was recorded as having a dwelling on their property.  This had to be a momentous event for the Carters.  This year they tilled the one acre from the previous year.  They were also taxed for two cows and two swine.  The tax roll shows no oxen in their care.  The small farmers of the village of Newry probably shared these work animals as it wouldn’t take long to plow one acre of land.

1814 – For the first time the family had, besides its acre of tillage for growing foodstuffs, half acre of mowing land.  We would have to assume this was land used to raise grains or other crops to feed the livestock.  Coincidentally this year they had two oxen, two cows, one 3-year-old cattle and two swine.  They were beginning to settle in and exhibit the outward signs of building a comfortable life for themselves.

1815 – Again in January on the 13^th the family was blessed with their sixth child and fourth son, John Harrison.  Their joy was short-lived as two days short of three months later he passed away.  The sorrow of his passing had to be great.  Hannah’s great sorrow had to be tempered by the knowledge that her first five children were growing up to be strong and healthy.  This year they continued to have their acre of tillage land but their pasture land had grown to one full acre.  Their livestock consisted of two oxen, cows and swine.

1816 – This was a year of terrible physical and economic turmoil in New England and most of the Northern Hemisphere.  With this as a background the records of Newry give no indication that there were problems.  The Carters were taxed for an acre and a half of tillage and mowing.  Thus they should have increased their production by a third.  They had a horse, three cows, two cattle and two swine.  Additionally, they welcomed yet another child into the home – John Jr (later called John Harrison) on October 6.  Nothing noted above alludes to the challenges that year – The Year Without a Summer – brought the family.  Since nothing written by the family has been found we will have to turn to historical accounts to educate us on this event.

Many of our generation have never heard of this event.  “The Year Without a Summer was an agricultural disaster. Historian John D. Post has called this ‘the last great subsistence crisis in the Western world’.  The unusual climatic aberrations of 1816 had the greatest effect on most of New England, Atlantic Canada, and parts of western Europe… (the event is) now generally thought to have occurred because of the April 5–15, 1815, Mount Tambora volcanic eruption on the island of Sumbawa, Indonesia (then part of the Dutch East Indies, but under French rule during Napoleon's occupation of the Netherlands), described by Thomas Stamford Raffles.  The eruption had a volcanic explosivity index (VEI) ranking of 7, a colossal event that ejected at least 100 km3 (24 cu mi) of material. It was the world's largest eruption since the Hatepe eruption in 180 AD.” (Wikipedia – Year Without a Summer)

The following is a description Maine during the year of 1816: 

                The summer of 1816 was the coldest ever experienced by any person then living, according to the old Portland Eastern Argus newspaper. It was also known as the Year Without a Summer. In fact, the wording “…eighteen hundred and froze to death” is a genuine colloquial expression commonly found in historical literature about the summer of 1816. In that year, frost was reported in every month.

                A diary kept by an unknown person near Fryeburg, Maine, (some 50 miles south of Newry) described the 1816 weather as follows:

“January was so mild that most persons allowed their fires to go out and did not burn wood except for cooking. There were a few cool days, but they were few.

“February was not cold. The first of March was windy, but the month went out like a very innocent sheep.

“April came in warm, but as the days grew longer the air became colder and by the first of May there was a temperature like that of winter, with plenty of snow and ice. In May the young buds were frozen dead, ice formed half an inch thick on ponds and rivers. By the last of May in this climate the trees are usually in leaf and birds and flowers are plentiful. When the last of May arrived in 1816, everything had been killed by the cold.

“June was the coldest month roses ever experienced in this latitude. Frost and ice were common and every green thing was killed. All fruit was destroyed. Snow fell 10 inches in Vermont and there was a 7-inch snowfall in Maine.”

The Eastern Argus newspaper in Portland printed that on June 5th and 6th, 9”-12” of snow fell over Down East. Newly shorn sheep froze to death, crops failed. Birds died. People were not far from starvation. Throughout New England it snowed during five days in June. Wild temperature swings throughout the area were common. In some places, the high temperature on June 6th was 27 degrees lower than it had been on June 5th.

In June “…there were only a few moderately warm days. Everybody looked, longed and waited for warm weather. All summer long the wind blew steadily from the north in blasts laden with snow and ice. Farmers who worked out their taxes on the county roads wore overcoats and mittens. On June 17th, there was a heavy fall of snow. The morning of the 17th dawned with the thermometer below the freezing point. A farmer, searching for a lost flock of sheep, was out all day in the storm and failed to return at night. He was found three days later lying in a hollow on a side hill with both feet frozen.

“July came in with ice and snow. On the 4th of July, ice as thick as window glass, formed throughout New England, New York, and some parts of Pennsylvania.

“August proved to be the worst month of all. There was great privation and thousands of persons in this country would have perished but for the abundance of fish and wild game.”

 Newspapers of the day all suggested that people continue to replant fodder crops on nice days. They gave many solutions for feeding the farm animals, many of which were dying for lack of food, but seemed to have no suggestions for feeding the people.

Many packed up and moved west to Ohio to escape the cold.

Not only were domesticated animals starving, but wild animals were, too. Packs of wolves, made so hungry by the unseasonable summer, were attacking farmer’s sheep and chickens. It was so bad in 1816 that four Maine townships voted bounties on wolves up to $40.00.

In 1816 there were no railroads. There were freight-carrying wagons but limited roads. Bulk cargo could be transported economically only by water. This meant that inland towns & farms were very much on their own as nothing could be imported.

Isolated as they were, accustomed to the privation caused by subsistence farming, 90% of the population of New England was essentially self-sufficient. Without public utilities or access to markets, most people were probably quite capable of surviving for a season on shortened rations. They knew how to improvise. Each family was an economic unit, though neighbors depended on one another for many things and trading goods & services was common.  (http://www.milbridgehistoricalsociety.org/previous/no_summer.html)

                We are handicapped since no one in the family left any written record of the exact effect of this Year Without a Summer had on John and Hannah but we do know that none of the family died.  In one article on the year of 1816 it was noted that one crop did survive the rigors of the climate that year and that crop was oats.  Interestingly oats were one of the main crops grown in Newry.  Possibly the half acre of mowed land that John had was sewed in oats.  If so this could account for their survival.  In any case once the year ended the family would have been extremely grateful to God for their preservation.  Little would they know that this event would only foreshadow the difficulties the family would experience in the next decades mostly at the hands of their fellow men.

HANNAH KNIGHT LIBBY – Part 9 – HANNAH'S PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION

              In this episode we will take a break from the narrative of the history of Hannah Knight Libby Carter and spend a little time in trying to learn a little about what Hannah looked like.  Since she died in 1867 we are severely limited in images of her.  In fact, there are no photographs and just one portrait of her in existence. 

              This portrait has a quite interesting history of its own.  Archibald F. Bennett described what he knew about the portrait in his text book, Finding Your Forefathers in America, 1962, pp. 252-255:

            “Years ago I wrote: ‘There was said to have been a picture of her in existence, but none has yet been located.’ We now believe that picture has been found.  In June 1955 my wife and I paid a visit to Mrs. Dora Bolt, daughter of Charles Carter and granddaughter of Phillip L. Carter, at Lima, Illinois.  She brought out for our inspection an old case containing letters and family heirlooms.  She showed us the portrait of a lady of the pioneer period, and said she understood it had been sent to her father from relatives in Utah.  Her father Charles had visited Provo, among the relatives.  He had corresponded with Dell Roberts and it may have come from him.  While there we took photographs of the portrait, which was badly worn away in places from being rolled for many years.

            Upon our return to Utah we made a careful investigation.  Adelbert Roberts had died 7 Nov. 1919.  His obituary spoke of him as one of Provo’s pioneers.  His widow, Martha Eliza York Roberts, died at the age of 82, on 31 Dec 1931.  She was a 1^st cousin to Charles Carter on both the Carter and York lines.

            It would be logical for the oldest daughter of Hannah Knight Libby Carter who came west (Hannah Carter York, wife of Aaron M. York), to have possession of a portrait of her mother, who stayed with her in later life, and to pass it on to her daughter, Martha, with whom I am told she spent her last years.  In comparing the face of the portrait with photographs of Hannah’s children, there certainly seems to be a family resemblance.

            Mr. Leslie A. Carter of Detroit, Mich., is descended from Richard Carter, a brother of John Carter (husband of Hannah Knight Libby).  He has done a prodigious amount of scholarly research on the Carter ancestry in Maine and New Hampshire.  On December 2, 1952 he wrote of a visit he made to Mrs. Dora Bolt at Lima, Ill.

‘The Bolts are in possession of a remarkable collection of early deeds, old letters, and miscellaneous papers dating back to Newry, Maine, 1835.  They also are the owners of a portrait done in oil of an elderly unidentified woman, with light color or blue eyes.  The enclosed color photograph is a picture of the portrait taken by me.  It is being sent to you in the hope that you might be of assistance in having the woman in the portrait properly identified by persons who might have seen the original portrait at one time or another.

It cannot be ascertained how or when this portrait was first received by Charles Carter, though it is believed to be a picture of his grandmother, Hannah Knight (Libby) Carter (1786 – 1869).’”

               The above was copied so the reader can appreciate the work that has gone on prior to the portrait re-surfacing in the last few years.  For those of us in the Utah part of the clan the portrait was virtually unknown from the 1860’s until it was “rediscovered” by Leslie A. Carter in about 1951.  A few family members were aware of its existence but its whereabouts were unknown again until the last few years when we of the Utah clan were introduced to Joe Conover, who came into possession of it after his mother’s death and has recently had it restored.

               Below are three images.  The first is a copy of the photograph of the portrait as Leslie saw it in 1951.  In the middle is a digitally enhanced version of the portrait.  Finally, a photograph of the newly restored original portrait.

Leslie Carter Photo

Digital Enhancement

Restored Portrait

               So are there any accounts of what she looked like or any personal accounts of her?  We actually have five records that I would like to provide that help bring Hannah alive for us.

               First is a second-hand account from "Sketch of the Life of Hannah Knight Libby Carter" by A. F. Bennett: “Those who remember her described her as short in stature with a round face, impressive blue eyes, and a refined and dignified bearing. She frequently wore a lace cap and was very prim and neat. She was well educated and always very industrious, keeping her knitting close by and working even in her advanced years.”

               Lastly are three first-hand accounts originally quoted in Richard Cater/Carter of Dover, New Hampshire and Some of His Descendants, by Robert E. Givens, 1972, pp. 47-48, that were originally found in Sunday school genealogy class manual that I no longer have possession of.  They date from the 1930’s.  I believe the narrator of the following is none other than Archibald F. Bennett.

“On Dec. 24, 1933, Mrs. Ella K. Miliner dictated to me the following description: She was of medium height, less than 5 feet 2 inches, very slim and proud, with a delicate face, brown hair, and big blue eyes, a handsome woman.

She always had her hair, combed straight down, parted in the middle, straight down at the the ears, and tied by a ribbon in a bow at the back. She was real dressy, and had a beautiful black dress, with a plain waist, high neck and a lace collar.”

“Francis Carter Knight, a daughter of Dominicus Carter, at 84 years of age, described her grandmother  thus: She was short and had a round face, was light-complexioned, and her eyes were a light color. She did not look as old as she really was. Her hair was grey when I knew her. She wore a little lace cap. She had a good education and was always very industrious, keeping her knitting close by, and working when she was what might be considered too old to work.”

                           

“Melissa Carter Bates, another granddaughter of Dominicus, and 79 years old, remembered Hannah, who lived in Melissa’s home in her later years: She was short, and had a round face. She wore a little black lace cap. You could not help but remember her eyes, but you could not be sure of their color. She had a good education. She lived in father’s home when I saw her.”

“Sarah York Tiffany, a great-granddaughter said: Hannah Knight Libby Carter was short and wore a lace cap. Her eyes were blue and her skin was fair. She seemed so white in comparison with my mother’s family, who lived in Arizona and were tanned with the sun. Her eyes were large and seemed so blue that I always remember them, for those in our family had dark eyes. She sat in the chair or on the bed and pieced quilt blocks, and her sewing was neat. She was childish and would cry when left alone very long.”

              The above exhausts what this writer knows about Hannah from contemporary accounts.  If anyone who reads this should happen to have any other first-hand accounts of her, please let us know.  Hopefully this has helped you better picture our ancestor, Hannah Knight Libby Carter.