HANNAH KNIGHT LIBBY - Part 21 - John and Hannah at Morleyville

There are no contemporary records of the location or home that John and Hannah resided in when they lived in Illinois.  It has long been a desire of the extended family to know more about them during this period of time but there just aren’t any accounts that survive to today about this – or are there?  It is the great fortune for all of us that we have reconnected with many of our long-lost cousins.  Well, they weren’t lost but we had lost track with them.  The family that remained in Illinois, when Hannah and six of her children left for the west, have a long and rich history.  They also have many answers to our questions as some of their family were excellent record keepers.

So for a discussion of the location and description of Hannah and John’s home we have to turn to our cousin Joe Irvin Conover.  Joe is our cousin twice as he is the 3^rd great grandson of Hannah through Philip Libby Carter and the 4^th great grandson through Almira Carter Tripp.  He was raised on the land that Philip Libby Carter purchased and actually lived on starting in 1851.  So to our cousin Joe we are indebted for much of the following information.

There are a couple of excellent references for information on Morleyville that help us to understand the life of our ancestors who settled in early Morleyville.  The first is a book written by William G. Hartley, “The 1845 Burning of Morley’s Settlement and Murder of Edmund Durfee,” (Salt Lake City: Primer Publications, 1998 Reprint), iv. This booklet was written for the descendants of Edmund Durfee, but has historical importance for other Latter-day Saints whose ancestors lived in the area of Morley’s Settlement.  From this book we learn Morleyville was a mostly rural settlement that spread over three square-mile sections of Walker Township in Hancock County, Illinois.  Morleyville had a “downtown” settlement in Section 32.  The Carters mainly settled in a more rural area in the eastern half of section 31 to the west and south of the main Morleyville settlement.

Hartley went on to state that “It is clear that Saints moved onto land and farmed it and lived there before any of them formally purchased the land.  It is also clear that most did not buy land but lived on lands that their fellow-members bought—the Morleys, Hancocks, and Carters, and others.  They leased, rented, or squatted, while they farmed and built their log homes. (Hartley, p. 65)

Another good site is at mormonhistoricsites.com, specifically at their site on Morleyville.  See:  http://mormonhistoricsites.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/NJ11.1_Historic-Sites.pdf  Though not specifically sited here, it contains good information on Morleyville.

1874 Plat Map of Part of Walker Township

 Above is a portion of the map of Walker Township from the Hancock County Road Plat Book, 1874-1893.  Tioga is the modern name for Morleyville.  That is the “downtown” part of Morleyville and is mainly in the northwest part of Section 32.  After 1851 when Philip Libby Carter arrived in the area, he owned two large tracks of land in Section 31.  The two Dooly Est. tracks obviously belonged to Mary Jane Carter and Jacob Dooley.  Almira Carter Tripp and her husband also owned land south of this area in Adams County.

So back to our narrative on Hannah.  It would be nice if we could know what her home was like while in Morleyville.  At one point we thought we might have found information about it.  Joe Conover is a descendant of Philip Libby Carter (and was, in fact, born in the area we know today as Carter Hill which was land originally purchased by Philip.)  His grandfather wrote in his journal about moving an old cabin to the site of the home built on Carter Hill in 1885.  It was at first thought that this might have been John and Hannah’s cabin but in later thinking we determined it was more likely the original homestead of Philip and his wife Martha since it was located on the land he purchased in 1851.

So where did Hannah live?  We can confidently state that she most likely lived about a half mile north of Philip’s land on a track of land John purchased from his son William in May of 1841.  To simplify the various transactions the following have been prepared.  First is a list of known deeds and following that is the Walker Township map overlaid with numbered boxes representing the various deeds as best as we can determine.  At this time doing this is problematic as many deeds appear to be missing.  Record keeping wasn’t as precise as it is today.

Land Deeds:
1. Film 954598 - Hancock Co – William C Wilson to Wm Carter

   Book I, p 227-8 - 27 Oct 1840
   Part of the East half of the NE quarter of Section 31 – 22 acres
   Begins at SE corner – east 71 rods, north 50 rods, west 71 rods, south 50 rods

2. Film 954598 - Hancock Co - Wesley Williams to William Carter
   Book I, p. 198-99 - 1 Mar 1841
   Part of the NW quarter of section 25 starting in NW corner of said quarter
   20 acres

3. Film 954598 - Hancock Co – William Carter to John Carter
   Book I, p. 300-1 - 26 May 1841
   Land from #1 above

4. Film 954282 - Hancock Co – John Carter Jr to John Carter Sr

         Book 93, p. 92 - 17 Feb 1846
         In the SW quarter of the NE Quarter of Section 3   
         Beginning at the SE corner of land of Dominicus Carter
         ?? acres

     5. Film 954601 - Hancock Co – William C Wilson to John Carter
         Book 19-0, p. 505 - 30 Mar 1846
         In the NW quarter of Section 31 (SE corner of that quarter)
         ?? acres

    6. Film 954604 - Hancock Co – John Carter to Jacob Dooley
        Book 5, p. 418 - 8 Aug 1846
        Same land as #5 – called Dooly Est on map

    7. Film 967548 - Adams Co – John Carter to Jacob Dooley
         Book 4, p. 352-3 - 30 Mar 1848
         In Adams Co -  North half of the East half of the SE quarter Section 5 of Township 2

    8. Film 954600 - Hancock Co – John Carter to Adam Snyder
         Book X, p. 215 - 6 Nov 1848
         Beginning at the SE corner of Jacob Dooly’s land – run East on the south line of the NW Quarter of    Section 31 then North (rectangle 20 by 24 rods) – Just west of the original John Carter purchase.

    9. Film 954347 - Hancock Co – George W Pollard to Philip L Carter
         Source? - 6 Sep 1851
         (Copied wrong deed - !!!)  This should be the south half of the SE quarter of Section 31
         92 acres – tax receipt of 1854

   10. Film 954351 - Hancock Co – Wm J Turner to Philip L Carter
         Book 37, p. 89-90 - 4 Mar 1853
         SW quarter of the SW Quarter of Section 32

  11. Film 954283 - Hancock Co – Robert Gillham to Philip L Carer
        Book 96, p. 338 - 20 Oct 1873
3      3 and a half acres – SW quarter of the NW Quarter of Section 31 and
        8 and a half acres of the west end of the SE Quarter of section 31

  12. Film 954789 - Hancock Co – Mortgage
         Philip L Carter & Mary J Gillham to J. M Tr…
         Book 29, p. 291-2 - 22 Sep 1875
         NW quarter of the NE Quarter of Section
         40 acres

  13. Film 954285 - Hancock Co – Philip L Carter to Charles Carter
         Book 100, p. 40 - 8 Jan 1876
         SW quarter of the NW Quarter of Section 31   - 33 and a half acres
         West end of the SE Quarter of the NW Quarter Section 31 – 8 and a half acres

  14. Dominicus Land – from a book – no specific source
         NE quarter of Section 31 beginning at the NW corner of the farm of said Carter – south 21 rods,          East 26 rods, North 21 rods, west 26 rods

Carter Land Holdings

Remember that each of the numbered boxes is a Section of land that is one mile square.  Morleyville (centered at the modern day Tioga) actually covered Sections 29, 31 and 32.  It is easy to see that the colored boxes are predominately in Section 31.  John and Hannah owned two parcels of land – the one in yellow numbered 1,3 and the purple box numbered 7, which was actually in Adams County.  Most likely their home was located in the yellow box 1-3.  Joe Conover remembers as a child walking up White Oak Creek from his home on Carter Hill (Philip’s land at the Green number 9 box.  Ironically the family had forgotten that north of their farm was where John and Hannah had lived.

John and Hannah were surrounded by properties owned by their children.  Hannah surely must have loved this.  Dominicus owned land number 14 (which we couldn’t specifically identify.)  William besides selling his parents number 1-3 also owned the blue number 2.  Son John Jr (John H Carter) owned the red box numbered 4-8.  Hannah’s daughter, Mary Jane Carter Dooley, owned the orange boxes numbered 5-6 and 12.  Not showing is daughter, Almira Carter Tripp, whose family was about 2 miles south in Lima.  When Philip arrived in 1851 he first bought the green box number 9 and shortly afterwards the blue box number 10.  The box at number 9 would be called the main part of the Carter Hill Farm. 

Carter Hill about 1930

Carter Family Cemtery 2009 (after restoration)

When the Mormon part of the family fled Illinois in early 1846 some sold their land to Philip or John.  Others sold to other individuals.  Philip and his descendants, over time, eventually came to own most of the land in Section 31.  The home built in 1885 by Philip’s son Charles on Carter Hill (and Philip’s original cabin) were located at the black dot in box 9.  Adjacent to the home was the Carter Family cemetery where Philip was buried when he died in 1876.  Charles descendants believe Philip to be the first Carter buried in that cemetery so John, when he died, must have been buried elsewhere so tradition that he was buried in the Fletcher Cemetery is probably true. Charles Carter and the others of early days in this area attended an early Mormon school house at the dot just to the west (left of box 9.)  By Joe Conover’s day he had to walk along the lane which was the line at the west edge of box 9 to the center of Section 31 and then across fields until he reached the school house just inside section 30.

Thus Hannah, though living in a largely rural area, was surrounded by her family and resided only a half mile from the settlement at Morleyville.  Unfortunately, her idyllic surrounding remained idyllic for only a couple of years.  Conditions rapidly would deteriorate until they would have to flee Illinois to avoid mobs intent of driving them out or even killing them.

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 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 7 - MARRIAGE AND FIRST CHILDREN

               In the history of the Carter family there are a handful of genealogical problems that have caused much consternation between the genealogists and non-genealogists of the family.  The biggest one has always been how many Richards are in our pedigree starting with the immigrant Richard Cater. (And yes, the last name was originally Cater not Carter – but that is another story.)

                So in this episode of Hannah’s life we are going to discuss the correct date of Hannah’s marriage to John Carter.  Anyone not well versed in the Carter genealogy might have cause to wonder as to why this is a big deal.  In short the issue revolves around the year of the marriage – whether it was 1805 or 1806.   For as long as I can remember most everyone in the family subscribed to the 1805 date.  We will discuss how this came to be – whether by accident or as a deliberate act we may never know but for a century or more the wedding date stood in the records of the family as 1805.   For moral reasons this was perfect as it would place their first child’s (Dominicus) birth some fifteen months after their marriage.  The facts will show that this isn’t the case and Hannah was a full five months pregnant on her marriage date.  It is not my plan to point fingers at anyone but the truth does need to be stated.  This fact doesn’t diminish my opinion of my third great grandparents at all.  Knowing this does help to explain many things that went on about this time in the life of John Carter.  So let’s get back to the story.

                In 1805 Hannah was 18 years old.  She was probably still living at home and as the fourth eldest child (and second oldest girl) in the family of Zebulon and Lydia Libby, and as such she probably had many major responsibilities in the home.  The children ranged from Amos who was 25 down to the baby Clarissa, who was three.   At this point none of the children were married and we suppose that all the kids were still living at home.  Zebulon’s farm was called “substantial” in one record which leads you to think that it probably required all the effort of this large family to run it effectively.

                John had been raised on a farm within a very short distance from the Libby farm.  It is most likely that the Libby family and the Carter family were well acquainted though there is no physical proof of this assumption.  Little is known of his early life until in 1804 a remarkable deed is found that describes his purchase (with another man) of a home in Portland.  John is described as being a “mariner” on the deed.  Family lore has always said that he was a sea captain at one point in his life and that rumor, at least, has some substance as the 22-year-old John is living in one of the main seaports of New England in 1804.

 

                History then steps in and appears to change the course of John’s life.  The year 1805 must have arisen full of great hope and much financial prosperity for the mariners of Portland.  Profits had gone up and up in the previous years and the city was in the midst of a great boom.  But as in many financial situations things can change rapidly – and within two years the bottom would fall out of the maritime industry centered in Portland due to two events.  After the Revolutionary War the relationship of the new United States and Great Britain remained strained.  Simply put the British may have lost the war but they weren’t through exerting their supremacy, as they saw it, over their former colonies.  Politically the situation deteriorated until in 1806 the British formally passed the Non-Intercourse Act which forbid any American ship from trading with any foreign country except Britain.  At that point the only shipping was done was by individuals who were willing to risk being captured by the British if they were discovered.

                By 1805 John and Hannah had begun to see each other.  Whether he would visit her when he was in Scarborough to see his family or if she was going the 5 miles or so into Portland is a question we will never answer.  Most likely knowing the general morality of the day I suspect that they began courting during his visits to Scarborough. Whatever the case their love must have blossomed and eventually turned intimate as Hannah became pregnant sometime in October of 1805. 

Based on the events as they unfolded I seems most likely that John had already made a decision to leave the life of a mariner for life on the farm.  For on 7 Nov 1805 John purchased 72 acres of land that was between the farms of his parents and Hannah’s parents.  There is no way the couple would have known that Hannah “was in the family way” at that point so, I believe, they had already decided to get married and John had chosen to leave the sea and be with his wife.

In any case once it became obvious that the couple would have to marry they put in motion the plans and were married on 2 Mar 1806.  So if it wasn’t someone concerned with morality and wanting preserve Hannah’s dignity by moving the marriage date back a year, how else can it be explained.   A look at the original record of their marriage – which first came to light some 80 or so years ago can help explain the “problem” of the date.

Record of Marriage for John and Hannah (Records of the First Parish of Scarborough)

Above is a photocopy of the original town record of Scarborough, Maine that includes John and Hannah’s marriage.  A partial transcription is as follows:

A list of Marriages in the Second Parish in the Town of Scarborough

Returned by the Rev. Nathan Felton, Pastor of the said Parish

From April 1805 to April 1806
Record by Robert Hart, Town Clerk…
1806…

…
Mar 2, John Carter & Hannah Knight Libby

                The confusion with the record is that it starts in 1805 and that date is very prominent.  The 1806 year is buried in the middle of the page and, in fact, looks a little like 1805 itself.  If the reader of this record was not careful they might miss the 1806 and assume that the date was 1805.  In any case this is what I think might have started the 1805 date in our genealogy.  But once it was uncovered morality seems to have set in among some of the descendants that insisted that that date had to stay in spite of evidence to the contrary.

                Since John had previously purchased his 72-acre tract of land one would presume that this is where the newly wedded couple moved after their marriage.  There is no indication in the deed for this land that there were any buildings on the property.  If that was the case, John probably wouldn’t be able to build a home between the purchase of the land in November and their marriage in early March as this spans winter and conditions would make it difficult for John to construct a house at that time.  In that case they may have spent the first few months of their married life living at the home of one of their parents – probably the Libby family as Hannah would probably want her mother to be with her in the birthing of her first child.

Dominicus Carter

                On 21 Jun 1806 the Carter family welcomed their first child, Dominicus, into the world.  Dominicus was named after John Carter's youngest sibling - Dominicus who was baptized 11 Aug 1796 and probably died young - possibly before John and Hannah's first child was born.   If John and Hannah were living in the home of Hannah’s parents their life would have been reasonably comfortable.  Over the next couple of years John did build a dwelling on his property and the little family surely moved into it.  About a year and a half later, on 3 Jan 1808 their second child, Almira, was born.  By then they were in their home on their farm but still essentially neighbors of both sets of parents.  It is doubtful that John could, on his own produce enough to sustain his family but with parents’ farms close by they surely were able to have what was needed.  John also probably helped out on the farms of the parents.

(Up next:  Preparing for the move to Newry.)

LIFE OF JOHN CARTER - Part 16 - SO WHERE WAS JOHN CARTER?

            John was one of the leaders of Newry.  He was a major land holder and tax payer.  He had held various offices over the years in the town government.  It is possible that John was not willing to give up his standing in the community and join the Mormon faith.  This is only speculation but the facts as we know them would support this view.  As his family began to emigrate from Newry John continued to stay on.  He paid taxes in 1837 and 1838 as he had since 1811.  It is interesting that on the 1838 tax roll John no longer had any oxen – in fact his total livestock consisted of 1 horse, 2 cows and 1 swine.[1]  Most of his family was now gone and not much livestock was needed or maybe he was making plans for leaving himself.  The following is a list of his elected offices in Newry:

John Carter's Elected Offices While in Newry, Maine

            How long did he stay in Newry?  On 15 Mar 1838 John was elected collector and constable of the town.  He actually called a meeting for 10 Sep 1838 and was present and was paid $1.50 for his expenses in calling the meeting.[2]  At the next meeting on 25 Oct 1838 John was being replaced as collector and constable as he had vacated his office.[3]  Therefore he must have left town sometime after 10 September.  Was Hannah with him?  There is no evidence that she was or wasn’t.  Logic would hold that she was with him and after they heard that the rest of the family in Ohio was leaving for Missouri, it isn’t hard to see that Hannah prevailed on John to move out West to be near them.  If Hannah hadn’t been there, this writer doubts John would have left Maine.  With them were surely Mary Jane and most likely Richard Harrison, as they were the youngest offspring of the family and at this point not married.  

            The fact that they left suddenly can be seen in John's vacating his office and that no record of any land sale has been found.  Records are found for John purchasing in Newry about 262 acres of land by 1809.  In 1816 and 1817 John had previously sold two parcels of land.  Here are the abstracts:

            The first deed is found on Family History Library Film 11617, from the Eastern District of Oxford County, Book 26, p. 136:    Know all men by these presents, that I, John Carter of Newry County of Oxford and State of Massachusetts, Yeoman, in consideration of the sum of one hundred dollars paid by Josiah Smith of said Newry, Yeoman…a certain part of a lot of land lying being and situate on the North end of the lot No. Three in the third range containing fifty acres… this twenty seventh day of August in the Year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixteen.  Received November 19^th, 1825.[4]

            The second deed was recorded on the next page of the deed book:  Know all men by these presents, that I, John Carter of Newry in the County of Oxford and State of Massachusetts, Yeoman in consideration of the sum of two hundred dollars paid me by Josiah Smith of Newry aforesaid Yeoman…a certain parcel of land situated in the town of Newry on the East side of Bair River part of lots No. two and No. three in the third range of lots on the east side of the river….containing sixty eight acres and three fourths of the same more or less…this Eleventh day of March in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventeen.  Received November 19^th, 1825.[5]

            It may have been that John entered into these agreements with Josiah Smith to purchase about half of John’s land but John wasn’t really paid right away.  Since John didn’t record them until 1825 it can be guessed that it took that length of time for Josiah to pay the $300 John was owed.  Even with the sale of this land John still owned between 120 and 130 acres.  What happened to this land when John left Newry?  There is no known answer to that question.  Possibly he left it with Almira Carter Tripp as she and Alvin and their family stayed in Newry for several more years.  In any case John never entered into any deeds of sale upon leaving Newry.

            Our next post will discuss where John went when he left Newry in the Autumn of 1838.

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[1] Office of Town Clerk, Newry, Maine, Town Records, 1805 - 1846, op. cit.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Oxford County, Maine, Eastern District, Deeds, 26:136 (Family History Library Film # 11617).

[5] Ibid., p. 137.

LIFE OF JOHN CARTER - Part 15 - THE EXODUS FROM NEWRY PART 1

The exodus from Newry for the Carter is poorly documented.  There are few contemporary records that spell out when specific people left Newry.  The basic story has traditionally been that the family left Newry together for Kirtland but that just isn’t true as the facts will witness. 

Brigham Young

            Brigham Young first came to the Newry area, preaching in Bethel on 15 Aug 1835.  At that time he preached the wisdom of the local Saints moving to Missouri where the main body of the Church was moving.  Most likely the exodus probably began sometime between this 1835 meeting and the time of the August conference in 1836 cited previously.  William and Dominicus both paid taxes in Newry in 1836 but both were missing from the tax rolls the following year.[1]  

            The only independent evidences we have of the departure / arrival times for the individual members come from specific dates we can glean from their family records.  If the records can be believed – Dominicus’ daughter Sarah Emily was born in Kirtland on 11 May 1836 so they must have gone west before the 1836 conference.   William stated he was ordained an Elder in Kirtland in 1836.  After the conference of August 1836 two more of the family left:  “As was usual in those days, the spirit of gathering rested upon the converts, and agreeable to the counsel given, all who would do so gathered to the body of the Church then located in Kirtland, Ohio.  My mother prepared to take the journey with the little company that was going with the returning elders.  These were John Carter with his sister, Eliza, of Newry, Maine; Alphia Woodman and Phoebe Carter from Scarboro, Maine; and others that I do not call to mind at this time.  Eliza Carter became the wife of James C. Snow, and Phoebe Carter was the wife of Apostle Wilford Woodruff.”[2] It is interesting that John 20 and Eliza Ann 18 would be allowed to travel to Kirtland without their immediate family but they were in good hands and had older brothers already there.  As noted Eliza would marry in Kirtland on 10 Feb 1838 to James Chauncey Snow and John Jr. would marry Elizabeth Runnels Sweat near there on 11 Apr 1838.   John Jr. is the only John Carter from our family that went to Kirtland as further facts will show.

            What of the other children of John and Hannah?  Almira Carter Tripp and her husband, Alvin Baron Tripp, remained in Newry past the birth of her last child, Sarah, on Christmas Day, 1843. They were the last of the family to leave Newry.   Hannah Carter York had married Aaron Mareon York back in 1829 in Bethel and remained in the Bethel/Newry area until sometime between the birth of her James Chauncey Snow York on 16 July 1837 in Newry and John William York’s birth on 2 Sep 1841 in Lima, Illinois.  Hannah is stated as joining the Church in 1844 and Aaron’s church membership states he joined on 1 Jan 1846.  In either case this would make them late converts of the Church in our family.  Philip Libby Carter left Newry and was in Lowell, Massachusetts at some point before 17 Jul 1841 (based on a purchase receipt dated that day in Lowell, Mass. that was in possession of his daughter Dora Carter Bolt). He married Martha Eames York on 26 Nov 1845 in Lowell and was still there in 1850 when his family was enumerated on the census there.  He would become the last of the family to arrive in the Nauvoo area.

              In the next installment we will discuss why John Carter Sr. was never in Kirtland.

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[1] Office of Town Clerk, Newry, Maine, Town Records, 1805 - 1846, op. cit.

[2] Kate B Carter; Treasures of Pioneer History, op. cit.

LIFE OF JOHN CARTER- Part 11 - THE CARTER FAMILY IN JULY, 1834

Before we discuss in detail the day that changed the course of our family’s history, July 4, 1834 – the day the Gospel of Jesus Christ was accepted by Hannah Knight Libby Carter, I would like to describe the setting, both the geographical setting and the family setting.

Newry was a small, rural community of somewhere around 400 residents in 1834.  The population in 1830 was 345 and by 1840 it would rise 34% to 463.  This 400 person collection of people was spread out along the Bear and Sunday rivers that ran through the town on farms that were connected by trails.  This was not a modern community by any means.  Communication would be by foot or maybe horseback – if the family owned a horse.

The Carter family had matured over the years and some of the children had already married and begun to establish their own families.  Of the eleven known children of John and Hannah nine were living in 1834.  John Harrison had been born in Newry on 13 Jan 1815 and died not quite three months later on 11 Apr 1815.  The couple’s last child Rufus, was born 9 Oct 1825 and died according to family tradition on his second birthday, 9 Oct 1827.  The other nine children would live to adulthood, marry and have families of their own.  Their various situations on 4 July 1834 is as follows:

1. Dominicus Carter – the oldest born in Scarborough in 1806, had already married Lydia Smith in Newry on 21 May 1828 and had three children.  In fact on the momentous day Lydia was great with child as she would deliver their 4 child, Sidney Rigdon Carter on 30 August of that same year.   We will have more to say about Dominicus later.
2. Almira Carter – the second child was born in Scarborough in 1808.  On 15 Jan 1829 she had married Alvin Baron Tripp in Newry.  In July 1834 Almira and Alvin had 4 children and were expecting their 5^th child that following December.
3.  Hannah Carter – the last child born in Scarborough in 1809, had married Aaron Mareon York in Bethel on 2 Dec 1829.  They lived in the Bethel-Newry area but it appears their actual home was in Bethel by 1834.  At this point they had two children.
4.  William (Furlsbury) Carter – had been born in Newry on 1 May 1811.  On 1 Mar 1832 he had married at Bethel to Sarah York.  Their first child, Peter York Carter, was born on 5 Jul 1832.  In July 1834 Sarah as about to deliver their second child – who would be born in August of 1834.
5. Philip Libby Carter – Philip had been born in Newry in 1813.  So at this point he was 21 years old.  I believe he was still living in Newry but would soon strike out for Massachusetts to make a life for himself.
6. John “Harrison” Carter – the 7^th child and 6^th living was born 6 Oct 1816 in Newry.  At this point was 17 years old and living at home.
7. Eliza Ann Carter – the 8^th child and 7^th living was born 28 Sep 1818 in Newry.  In July 1834 she was 15 and living at home.
8. Richard Harrison Carter – the 9^th child and 8^th living was born 8 August 1820 so he was 13 years old and living a t home.
9. Mary Jane Carter – the last surviving child had been born 13mar 1823 so she was 11 years old and living at home.

Dominicus Carter, William Furlsbury Carter,and Philip Libby Carter

John Harrison Carter, Eliza Ann Carter Snow, and Mary Jane Carter Dooley

          So on the day that Hannah joined the Church it was likely that the household probably consisted of 7 people:  John, Hannah and their children – Philip Libby, John “Harrison”, Eliza Ann, Richard Harrison and Mary Jane.   It will be my contention that the married kids were probably not present.  There is no evidence that any of the married children joined the Church at the time of their mother’s baptism, though three of the four married children did join the Church.

        Next up will be a look at the arrival of Mormon missionaries in the Newry area.