HANNAH KNIGHT LIBBY - Part 24 - Carterville Interlude

The Grand Encampment
(https://history.lds.org/place/pioneer-story-grand-encampment?lang=eng)

The first Mormon evacuees arrived in the Council Bluffs area on June 14, 1846 after a trip of 255 miles and four grueling months.  Because there was insufficient means to transport the travelers across the Missouri River, they stopped short of the river in an area that became called the Grand Encampment.  These first wagons camped close to the banks of the Missouri and as new wagon trains came they would stop just east of the last group that had arrived.  By the time the needed ferry had been built about the first of July, the Grand Encampment had grown to cover an area of nine miles east to west and three miles wide north to south.  This mass of some 10,000 people, wagons and livestock completely overwhelmed the ability of the ferry to help them to cross the river.

This large a group gathered in one location quickly became apparent that there wasn’t enough grass for the grazing animals and wood for fires and other needs quickly became scarce.  A few of the Saints were able to cross over the river but the rest were dispersed out from the Grand Encampment to between 80 and 100 smaller communities in a 30 mile radius out from the Council Bluffs area.  Carterville, some two miles north and east of the original stopping place would become one of these settlements.

Brigham Young and the rest of the leadership of the Church still had hopes of a group continuing on to the West but as the year was rapidly passing and it was already late into the travel season the decision was made to stay in this locality and wait for the following spring before crossing the Rocky Mountains.

We know that Hannah and much of her family were in the Grand Encampment by July 1.  It is doubtful that they had been dispersed prior to that day date.  It was while they were in the Grand Encampment that the long arm of the United States government reached out to the despised and displaced Mormon gathered there.

Following the 1845 annexation of Texas by the United States, tensions with Mexico grew until on April 26, 1846 fighting broke out between the U.S. and Mexico.  On May 13^th war was officially declared. At this time the Mormon refugees were in the midst of crossing Iowa.  While crossing Iowa Brigham Young and the rest of the Quorum of the Twelve had petitioned President Polk seeking assistance from the Federal Government.  On June 2^nd President Polk authorized Col. Stephen W. Kearney to recruit a few hundred Mormons to help in the war but to also “to conciliate them, attach them to our country, and prevent them from taking part against us.” (Polk, James K. (1929), Nevins, Allan, ed., Polk: the Diary of a President, 1845–1849, London and New York: Longmans, Green & Co., p. 109)  This was a symbiotic relationship as Church benefitted greatly from the financial benefits they received from this arrangement.  Young and the other leaders saw nothing but good coming from this arrangement.  Their enlistment would be a public relations victory for the church, demonstrating additional evidence of its loyalty to the United States. (McLynn, Frank. Wagons West: The Epic Story of America's Overland Trails. Grove Press. pp. 386–7.) As the men were given a uniform allowance at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., of US$42 each, paid in advance, for their one-year enlistment and as they were allowed to wear their civilian clothing for the march, the bulk of those funds were immediately donated to a general Church fund. These funds were used to purchase wagons, teams, and other necessities for the American exodus (Actual wages paid over the next year to the Mormon Battalion totaled nearly $30,000). ("The Pioneer Story: Pioneer Trail Map", LDS.org, archived from the original on March 5, 2012.)

Mormon Battalion Ball (by C. C. A. Christensen)

So how did all of this affect the Carter family?  Hannah and the other Carters were in the area when Captain James Allen met with Brigham and the other Church leaders and put forth his proposal for 5 companies of 100 men.  Though Brigham was thrilled with this prospect as noted above, the general populace of the Grand Encampment was not.  Richard Carter, Hannah’s youngest surviving son, was one of the early volunteers as he was enrolled in Company B.  Brigham was assured by Captain Allen that the Battalion would see so battle action but would instead fill a supporting role.  Thus, Richard would not face many more dangers than the Saints as a whole endured in their travels.  As the day of mustering (July 16^th) approached they held farewell dance in the Bowery at the west end of the Grand Encampment.  The Carter family probably attended with heavy hearts.  On the 16^th Richard said his good-byes and marched off to his destiny.

Twenty members of the Mormon Battalion died during the march.  All died from diseases or accidents -  as the Battalion never had to engage in any military actions.  The 2000 mile trek from Council Bluffs to San Diego was arduous and three different sick detachments were sent back to Pueblo, Colorado and then back to Council Bluffs.  Richard was a member of Lieutenant Willis's Pueblo detachment. He died 25 Nov 1846 as the detachment was traveling north along the Rio Grande.  No grave marker memorializes his last resting space though it is reported he was buried at Puerbelo, fur miles south of Socow, New Mexico along the Rio Grande.  Hannah’s heart must have been broken when the word made it back to Iowa that her son had died.  He left a wife, Hannah, and two young children.  Tragedy would strike this family again in Winter Quarters when Hannah died of smallpox sometime in 1851.  The children were cared for by Eliza Ann Carter Snow’s family and made it to Utah with the wagon trains of 1851.

(https://winterquarters.byu.edu/Settlements/KanesvilleArea)

The Carters were dispersed from the Grand Encampment and settled some two miles northeast of the Bowery along the trail into Council Bluffs.  The community was named Carterville and it was here they made their home for nearly 5 years when they would leave for Utah.  Hannah most likely lived with Dominicus and his family though many of her family were probably also in the immediate area.  The location of Carterville was significant as it was the first community travelers on this portion of the Oregon/Mormon Trail would pass through.  The Carters being mostly blacksmiths were located ideally to provide repairs to the travelers.  A story is told of William Furlsbury coming in to eat lunch each day and emptying his pockets of piles of coins he had already earned repairing wagons of those passing by. These funds were given to the Brethren and helped to fund the needs of the community as a whole. (William actually moved to Kanesville – modern day Council Bluffs – sometime during this period.)

Kanesville Tabernacle (restored)

While living in Carterville with her son Dominicus, Brigham Young was sustained as the second Prophet of the Church and the First Presidency was formally reorganized:

It was discussed occasionally that the First Presidency would be reinstated and it was clear that Brigham Young would be the one most likely sustained as the Prophet and President of the Church.  On December 5th, 1847, the Quorum of the Twelve met at Orson Hyde's farm home about eight miles southeast of present day Council Bluffs.

A unanimous approval reorganized the First Presidency with Brigham Young as Prophet and President, Heber C. Kinball as First Counselor, and Dr. Willard Richards as Second Counselor.  The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles comprised of Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, Parley P. Pratt, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, George A. Smith, Orson Hyde, Willard Richards, Lyman Wight, Orson Pratt, Amasa Lyman, and Ezra T. Benson.  The precedent set in the tabernacle of reorganizing the First Presidency following the death of a Prophet continues today.

Church policy is to sustain the reorganization by church members.  Immediately, Bishop Henry W. Miller was assigned the task of building a tabernacle large enough to accommodate a large gathering of the members in order to present and sustain the new First Presidency.  A log tabernacle was built in the near downtown area of current day Council Bluffs, and the gathering occurred on December 27th.  This means that Bishop Miller had to build the 60' x 40' tabernacle in approximately 18 days.  This allowed him 2 or 3 days to gather 200 men to complete the monumental task in a cold and bitter December.  The building would need to accommodate 800 to 1,000 people, and was packed when at least 1,000 showed up. (http://www.allaboutomaha.com/Omaha/Mormons/KanesvilleTabernacle.htm)

There is no record of Hannah, or the other members of the Carter family attending this event but they lived so close it is highly likely that they were there or at the General Conference on 6 April 1948 when Brigham was again sustained as the Prophet.

This was only a temporary arrangement, and indeed the Carters hoped to be with the first wave of emigrants to cross over the Rockies with Brigham but they were asked to stay behind and help outfit those passing through.  Though we know very little of this time period we can assume that it was a relatively peaceful interlude compared to the previous ten years.  Hannah would be able to watch her grandchildren grow up in a climate much safer than that which they had left.  Of her family left in Illinois we can only guess that Hannah probably corresponded by mail with them on occasion.  Eventually the call would come to head west but that is another story.

Sources:

Coleman, Arthur D, “Carter pioneers of Provo, Utah : a biographical, genealogical and historical account of the Dominicus and other Carter families” (1966).

Carter, Barton L, “Dominicus Carter Latter-day Pioneer” (1997)

Scharrer, Leora Carter, “Life of William F. Carter” (197?) FHL  921.73 A1

Jensen, Andrew, “The Historical Record, Vol. 9” (1890)

Wikipedia Articles – “Mormon Battalion,” “Winter Quarters,” “Mexican-American War.”

Mormon Battalion Fact Sheet (http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/additional-resource/mormon-battalion-fact-sheet)

Mormon Local History (http://www.allaboutomaha.com/Omaha/Mormons/index.htm)

Historical Pioneer Research Group, “Early Latter-day Saints – A Mormon Pioneer Data Base” (http://earlylds.com/index.php#Walk Where They Walked - Visit Historic Sites)

HANNAH KNIGHT LIBBY – Part 23 – Crossing Iowa to Carterville

We now enter a great black hole in Hannah’s life.  Little is known of her from the time she leaves Nauvoo and her death in Provo, Utah twenty-one years later.  Unfortunately, the family kept few records of this period so we are left to surmise what happened from the few records that exist.

The following details are drawn from several sources:

1.       The Pioneer Trek from Nauvoo to Winter Quarters by William G. Hartley (Ensign Magazine, June, 1997) See:  https://www.lds.org/ensign/1997/06/the-pioneer-trek-nauvoo-to-winter-quarters?lang=eng

2.       Kanesville Area – BYU College of Life Sciences article.  See:  https://winterquarters.byu.edu/Settlements/KanesvilleArea

3.       MTA Official Guide “The Mormon Pioneer Trail” by Stanley B. Kimball.  See:  http://files.lib.byu.edu/mormonmigration/articles/MormonPioneerTrailMTA1997OfficialGuide.PDF

Hannah’s story is also the story of the expulsion of the Latter-day Saints from Nauvoo so a good place to start is to learn about the waves of emigrants from Nauvoo to the West in 1846.  The origins of this expulsion from Illinois were discussed previously.  Initially Brigham Young planned that the exodus would take them directly to the Rocky Mountains that year.  That was the plan but reality quickly set in and those plans had to be scrapped for 1846.

The Mormon exodus from Nauvoo consisted of three distinct phases beginning on February 4, 1846 when the first Mormon crossed the Mississippi and ending with the last groups leaving Nauvoo at gun point in mid-September of the same year.    This exodus is broken into three parts:  Winter, Spring and Fall.   Brigham Young had initially wanted to wait to leave until spring when the grasses would be growing as food for their livestock.  In October, 1845 Brigham had actually appointed captains for 25 companies of 100 wagons each and ordered the wagons to be built for a spring departure.  His reasoning was that Nauvoo had about 12,000 people at this time and another 2,000 to 3,000 Saints lived in nearby towns making approximately 15,000 people that would need to evacuate.  With 76 people per wagon it would take approximately 2,500 wagons.  By November 23, 1845 it was reported that 3,285 families were organized for the trek – some 800 more families than predicted wagons.  Our Carter families were surely a part of this planning.

Crossing the Mississippi on Barges

 By January’s end, LDS leaders heard of disturbing threats about attacks on Nauvoo, arrests of the Twelve, destruction of the Nauvoo Temple, stealing of wagons “to prevent us from moving west,” Illinois governor Thomas Ford’s sending troops into Nauvoo to enforce arrest warrants, and other designs to prosecute and persecute the Mormons. Taking all of these threats seriously, the Twelve decided to leave quickly—partly for their own well-being and partly to remove themselves as a target that might bring attacks and result in harm to other Latter-day Saints. So departures started early, in February 1846 instead of springtime.  What had been planned as a small vanguard group quickly swelled to an unwieldy size.  This winter exodus of the Camp of Israel involved about 3,000 Saints and nearly 500 wagons, although 100 wagons returned to Nauvoo during March to help move other Saints. They journeyed 300 miles across southern Iowa, a three-and-a-half month trek. 

Fanciful 1870 Drawing 

The first to cross the Mississippi River was Charles Shumway who ferried across on February 4.  For three weeks the temperatures dropped causing the Saints to dodge ice chunks as they crossed the river.  On February 25 Charles C. Rich actually crossed the river on foot and so for a time the wagons were driven directly over the frozen river.  The travelers camped along Sugar Creek some 7 miles west of the Mississippi. Here Brigham organized the people into groups and developed camp rules.  Following a path blazed by a vanguard company, the main body of the “Camp of Israel” left Sugar Creek on March 1, 1846.  For this first group the trip had to be difficult.  It was winter, and they had to travel over snow covered ground.  They took a southerly route at first – skirting the border with Missouri where there were more settlers that they could obtain need for themselves and their animals.  They stopped near Richarson’s Point for 11 days so the men could work for money and provisions.  They initially wanted to cross the Missouri River above St. Joseph, Missouri and join the Oregon Trail to the west of there.  This was a time of great suffering by all.  March snow, cold, rain, and awful mud made the trek miserable and exhausting.  When they left Chariton Camp on April 1st, they exited Iowa’s last organized county and moved into what could be called wilderness but still followed rudimentary roads. They made slow progress, being hampered by rain and mud.  It was during this time that William Clayton penned the song “All is Well” following the birth of his son.  Shortly after April 15, the leaders changed the route to the northwest and headed across this wilderness part of Iowa for Kanesville (known today as Council Bluffs.)  Along the way groups were left to form small communities with farms that would feed those that followed.  Garden Grove and Mount Pisgah are good examples of these way points along the trail. On June 14, the camp reached the Council Bluffs area on the Missouri River, and the first portion of the march was nearly over. The vanguard had taken 130 days, over 4 months, to cross some 265 miles of

southern Iowa, averaging only about 2 miles per day. Here on both sides of the Missouri River, especially in present Nebraska at Winter Quarters, the Mormons spent the winter of 1846-47.

1846 Tails in Red

During April, May, and June 1846, three times as many Saints left Nauvoo as went with President Brigham Young’s advance group. Among the 10,000 spring evacuees were Apostles Wilford Woodruff and Orson Hyde, many of the 300 men who had been guards and pioneers in the Camp of Israel who now had returned to Nauvoo for their families, workmen who had finished the Nauvoo Temple, and new LDS arrivals from out of state. Because of grass and springtime weather, their treks across Iowa took only 4 to 5 weeks, compared to the Camp of Israel’s 14 weeks. Economic, health, and family difficulties prevented these people from leaving sooner. Thousands had trouble obtaining adequate outfits and provisions. They counted on selling, bartering, buying, and luck. When they tried to market their farms, houses, livestock, furniture, utensils, dishes, clocks, books, and other nonessentials, they found many sellers but few buyers. Most Saints sold or traded for pittances, suffering major financial losses.  During this time three major waves of departures occurred.  There was no major organization – when people could leave they did – few companies had more than 30 wagons.  Typical outfits consisted of a wagon and two yoke of oxen.  Most of the people walked and many were engaged in driving the loose stock.  Because of the abundant spring grasses these Saints took a more westerly route rather than going south to skirt Missouri.  Because of their quick passage of Iowa some of these Spring immigrants caught up with the Winter group by May 15^th near Garden Grove.  Early in July President Young counted 1,805 wagons between his Missouri River camp and Mount Pisgah—1,300 more wagons than his Camp of Israel started with—and hundreds more were still east of Mount Pisgah. By the end of July most of the spring exodus groups had caught up with President Young’s company and merged with it beside the Missouri River.

The final group to leave was called the Fall Exodus.  On 13 September armed anti-Mormons attacked these Nauvoo defenders and won what is called the Battle of Nauvoo. The Saints signed a formal surrender of the city three days later, whereupon victors drove them out at gunpoint. LDS refugees swarmed across the river to Montrose, and many camped a mile north at Potter’s Slough, on the river’s shore. Most were destitute and sickly. Scores found temporary work and lodging in eastern Iowa while others took to the trail to Kanesville.  One mid-September count found between 600 and 700 Saints camped by Potter’s Slough. Many of these had moved out by the time Thomas Bullock counted only 17 tents and 8 wagons in camp on 4 October. “Most of those are the poorest of the Saints,” he said. “Not a tent or wagon but sickness in it.”  Two different relief parties were sent from Kanesville in September and many arrived in Potter’s Sough by October 6.  On 9 October 1846, Saints camped by Potter’s Slough participated in the “Miracle of the Quail,” when large flocks of exhausted quail flopped into the camp, landing on and under wagons and in tents. “Every man, woman and child had quails to eat for their dinner,” Thomas Bullock wrote.

The fall exodus essentially emptied Nauvoo of Latter-day Saints who desired to go west. As noted earlier, Nauvoo and nearby areas held perhaps 15,000 Saints who could have joined the exodus, augmented by hundreds of newcomers. Where were they at year’s end? Based on incomplete data, the estimate is that by the winter of 1846–47 perhaps 5,000 exiled Saints were at Winter Quarters, Nebraska; 7,500 were in LDS camps across the river from Nebraska and elsewhere in Iowa and at Ponca Camp north of Winter Quarters; 69 and 1,500 were in St. Louis or other Mississippi River towns. At least 1,000 and possibly 2,000 or even more defected from the Twelve’s leadership and scattered from the Nauvoo area. A few members, including Emma, the Prophet Joseph Smith’s widow, and Lucy Mack Smith, his mother, later returned to and stayed in Nauvoo.

Modern Replica Cabin at Mount Pisgah, Iowa

And what of Hannah Knight Libby Carter?  We will never know for sure which group she left with.  It appears that she traveled with Dominicus and once her son Richard was endowed on February 7^th they could have left.  If they did they experienced a long, bitter and trying passage across Iowa.  I doubt that the rest of the family waited for William’s wife, Sarah, to give birth in April.  One would imagine that William’s family didn’t leave until about May.  In any case these early months were a trial for all involved.   The family would never be together again – not just because of those left behind – but for those who left Nauvoo too as they would be scattered as well.  Hannah Carter York and her family stopped at Mount Pisgah and didn’t move to the west until 1850.  As we shall see shortly Richard left Iowa never to return not long after the family reached the Kanesville area.

Next:  The Grand Encampment and Mormon Battalion 

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.) 

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.