Upon leaving Missouri, Hannah and John moved onto land a stone’s throw from Yelrome
(Morleyville) in Section 31 of Township 3 (Walker Township). This was land directly west of Yelrome – just
one section of 640 acres away. In the
immediate vicinity, would be found virtually all her children – with the
exception of Philip Libby Carter who was still in Massachusetts. John, though, nearing 60 was still
farming. John and Hannah were all alone
now as their last child to marry – Richard Harrison Carter – married Hannah
Parker on 29 Nov 1840 in Carthage, Illinois and appears to have moved to the
Lima, Adams County, Illinois area after their marriage. There is no record of Hannah attending this
wedding but it is possible that she (and possibly John) made the trek from their
home in Missouri for the event. The area
around Yelrome might have made a favorable impression on John as within seven
months he made the purchase of the land mentioned above.
Nothing is known specifically about their home. They were a family of means, as compared to
their Mormon neighbors. John always
seemed to have sufficient cash to pay for his lands and so it would have been
expected that their home would have been well furnished by frontier
standards. Having moved previously to
Missouri and now to Illinois it is doubtful that they had much personal
property from their days in Maine. The
only thing we know that they had – that has thankfully survived to this day –
is the leather box that appears to have belonged to Hannah’s father, Zebulon
Libby. (see Chapter of this story for more on this treasure.)
In any case Hannah had to be thrilled to be surrounded by her
family. If they didn’t live in Yelrome,
they all lived less than a day from their new home. Hannah would now get to see her children on a
regular basis and get to see the grandchildren as they grew up. At least for the first few years life was
probably fairly peaceful in the Yelrome area.
The community grew and became relatively prosperous as the crops they
grew found a willing market in Nauvoo.
It was the plan of the Mormon leaders to have numerous settlements in
the outlining areas that would supply the urban center (Nauvoo) with most food
items so the Mormon community could be self-sufficient as possible.
Morley Settlement’s place in history is well described in an article in
the February, 1986 Ensign entitled “Spokes on the Wheel: Early Latter-day Saint
Settlements in Hancock County, Illinois" by Donald Q. Cannon. The following are excerpts from this article:
While much is known about Nauvoo, relatively little is known about
other Latter-day Saint settlements in Hancock County. Joseph Smith’s vision of
settlement was not limited to Nauvoo. On 1 March 1843 he said: “There is a
wheel; Nauvoo is the hub: we will drive the first spoke in Ramus, second in La
Harpe, third Shokoquon, fourth in Lima: that is half the wheel. The other half
is over the river.” (History of the Church 5:296)
The Latter-day Saints either planned or established seventeen
communities in Hancock County besides Nauvoo. Of these, Ramus (Webster and
Macedonia) and Lima are what I would call major colonies. Other settlements,
such as Plymouth, Green Plains, Golden’s Point, Yelrome (Tioga), and Camp Creek
I would designate minor colonies.
Yelrome, or Morley’s Settlement, was located twenty-five miles south of
Nauvoo and approximately three miles north of Lima. Although Lima is
technically in Adams County, it was so close to the Hancock County settlements
that for all intents and purposes it can be included with them. Indeed, Lima,
when combined with the minor colonies of Yelrome and Bear Creek, was one of the
two major LDS colonies in Hancock County. It was also referred to by Joseph
Smith as one of the “spokes on the wheel.”
Isaac Morley was the first member of the Church to settle in the area
that was later to be called Yelrome. Seeking refuge in Illinois after being
driven from Missouri in 1839, the Morleys purchased a partially completed
cabin, which they furnished and made suitable for a home. A few other Saints
joined them, and Yelrome began to grow.
Yelrome is Morley spelled backwards, with an extra “e” for good
measure. The name may have originated from an early penchant of the Saints to
spell backwards. (The Council of Fifty was also called “Ytfif.”) Yelrome also
had other names: Morley Town, Hancock Settlement, Tioga, and Bear Creek. The
name Bear Creek has often been a source of confusion, since it was also the
name of another LDS settlement located along the stream. (The settlement of
Bear Creek was also called Knowlton’s Settlement to further distinguish it from
Yelrome.) The small town where Yelrome once was located is called Tioga, a name
that may also have LDS origins, since one of the early Latter-day Saints who
lived there was Alpheus Cutler from Tioga County Pennsylvania.
When a branch of the Church was organized at Yelrome, the members
sustained Isaac Morley as branch president, with Frederick Cox and Edward
Whiting as counselors. Later, when the Yelrome Branch became part of the Lima
Stake, the stake had 424 members. (Richard Henrie Morley, “The Life and
Contributions of Isaac Morley,” M.A. thesis, Brigham Young University, 1965, p.
81)
Members of the Church in Yelrome had almost as many opportunities to
hear the Prophet Joseph Smith speak as the members in Ramus did. On Sunday, 14
March 1843, the Prophet preached on the subject “Salvation through Knowledge,”
teaching that “knowledge through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the grand
key that unlocks the glories and mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.” (Andrew
F. Ehat and Lyndon W. Cook, comp. and ed., The Words of Joseph Smith (Provo,
Utah: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1980), p. 201.)
While the residents of Yelrome had their share of blessings, they also
had problems with persecution. As pressures against the Saints in Hancock
County increased, Yelrome became the target of mob attacks. Yelrome was
vulnerable to attack for several reasons. First, it was located on the
outskirts of Hancock County and was rather isolated. Second, it was situated
between Warsaw on the north and Adams County on the south—both of which
contained strong anti-Mormon elements.
The people of Yelrome were especially vulnerable to attack because of
the presence of the noted anti-Mormon leader Colonel Levi Williams, who lived
in Green Plains, about ten miles distant.
Whatever the reasons, trouble came in great measure. On 14 February
1845, Isaac Morley arrived in Nauvoo with news of the arrest of five brethren
on false pretenses. By September, reports from Yelrome indicated that mobs had
burned some LDS homes in the vicinity. An editorial in the Times and Seasons in
November 1845 reported that nearly two hundred buildings had been burned. Many
of these buildings belonged to settlers in Yelrome. On Saturday, 15 November
1845, a mob shot and killed Elder Edmund Durfee, a resident of Yelrome. Members
of the mob later boasted that they killed Durfee over a bet of a gallon of
whiskey that they could kill him with one shot. (History of the Church, 7:373,
439, 444, 523–24.)
The savage attacks against Yelrome attracted not only the attention of
the Saints, but of nonmembers as well. Describing these events, Governor Thomas
L. Ford wrote:
“At a Mormon settlement called Morley a few miles from Nauvoo, a band
of incendiaries, on the night of September 19th began operations. Deliberately
setting fire to the house of Edmund Durfee, they turned the inmates
out-of-doors and threatened them with death if they did not at once leave the
settlement, Durfee they subsequently killed. The mob continued its nefarious
work until Morley was in ashes, and its people homeless.” (Thomas L. Ford,
History of Illinois, From Its Commencement as a State in 1818 to 1847 (Chicago:
S. C. Griggs and Co., 1854), p. 406)
The account of this time differs slightly: “In the space of 5 years
fertile farms had been developed and the community was a veritable hive of
industry. On June 15, 1844, a mob of two
thousand men headed by the bitter anti-Mormon Col. Levi Williams, came upon the
Saints at Morley’s Settlement and ordered them to make a choice of one of three
alternatives. First they were to take up
arms, join the mob and go with them to Nauvoo and help them arrest the Prophet
Joseph Smith and 17 other leaders. They
must abandon their homes and go to Nauvoo, or third give up their arms and
remain neutral. They were given until
eight o’clock to decide and told that if they did not join the mob they would
‘smell thunder.’
These brave and devoted Church members did not join the mob or remain
neutral, so they were compelled to leave their homes and flee to Nauvoo for
safety. The Prophet heard their story
and sent messengers to report this outrage to Governor Ford. Before any action was taken, however, the
martyrdom of the Prophet and Hyrum occurred on June 27 at Carthage Jail.
In the months that followed the situation became more peaceful and the
group returned to their homes in Morley’s settlement, and peace reigned until
September 10, 1845.” (Anonymous,
Biography of Hannah Knight Libby (1786 – 1867 in Arthur D. Coleman: Carter
Pioneers of Utah, (Provo UT: J. Grant Stevenson, 1966), pp.137-145.)
Hannah’s world was rapidly unraveling.
In September, 1845 the Carters and the others from Morley Settlement
were forced to flee. Most of those from
the settlement fled to Nauvoo for safety.
John and Hannah may have done so but it is likely that they could have
gone to their daughter, Mary Jane Carter Dooley, to live.
