Last week I had a special experience at the local family history center where I work as a volunteer. A woman my age came in for some help. She had been adopted as a young child, though she was old enough to have some memories of the event. For various reasons, she had not tried to find out about her birth parents until recently, and then had had quite a difficult task unraveling a trail that had been deliberately set up to prevent doing exactly what she was trying to do. She wanted to find out more about her ancestors especially for her son.
She came in with a birth certificate in hand and asked for assistance in finding out more about the parents whose names appeared on it. The certificate indicated some ethnicities that experienced quite a lot of discrimination at the time this woman had been born, but in her adoptive home she was able to avoid that. Our efforts weren't going anywhere for several hours, then I tried searching another site and found the parents' marriage certificate. They were married at the end of World War II four years before she was born. Everyone in the room was silent as the woman let the information and the new knowledge sink in, and there were tears in a few eyes. Finally her comment was, "I'm not illegitimate." Now illegitimacy carries little of the stigma today that it once did, and one of the other volunteers made a comment to that effect. Her reply was, "It matters to me."
The marriage certificate had the names of the parents of both the bride and groom, including the maiden names of the mothers. With that information we were able to also find the marriage certificates of both sets of her grandparents. Those certificates included the names, including maiden names, of her great grandparents. We were able to find these new names on census records and other sources.
In a few hours, a lady went from knowing no more than the names of her parents to knowing the names of her ancestors for four generations and knowing the places where they had lived. To say she was stunned is an understatement, and she indicated she was going to have to spend some time absorbing all this new information about herself.
In the course of our conversations that afternoon, she mentioned how her son had reacted when her birth certificate had arrived in the mail. He said he had thought that it didn't matter so much if he had information about his heritage. Yet when he saw the certificate and read those names, it was as if a sense of peace came over him.
I have thought about this experience a lot in the past week. I have been fortunate to know who my ancestors are from the time I was small and could see the portraits of great grandparents on the walls of my grandmothers' parlors. I heard their names and their stories. As I get older, I realize these stories have played a part in helping me create a sense of who I am. When I have faced difficulties, I have been able to tell myself to move on, to not feel sorry for myself, to persevere as a certain ancestor had done in a similar situation.
But what if I hadn't known those people and their stories? How would I be different? At a family history conference last summer, one of the keynote speakers said that people disappear in four generations because after that there is no one alive who remembers them. Unless our stories are told and passed down, we lose them. And we lose the people who lived those stories - just as the woman who came to the center last week had lost her families' stories.
Is it any surprise then that genealogy is such a widespread interest in today's world? We need to know the stories and the people that make us who we are. We also need to pass on our stories for the next generations. Good luck putting together your genealogy puzzles.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
JSL Researchers
One of the blessings I've received as a genealogist is the opportunity to make new friends who are actually relatives. Thirty years ago I was teaching the ward genealogy class in Sunday School (this was so long ago that it wasn't even called family history yet.) The class decided to meet on a week night at the local genealogy library which at that time was a combined LDS branch library and the Idaho State Genealogy Library though the two groups have since split into their own domains.
One of the sisters in the class brought out her family group sheets and pedigree charts to have me look at them. Imagine my surprise to see one of my lines on her chart. We discovered that our great grandmothers were sisters - both daughters of John Alma Lewis. We'd been together in the ward for a couple of years and had no idea we were related.
This was my first encounter with the idea that it's not my lines but our lines. In fact an instructor at the BYU family history conference in July, 2010 pointed out that if we want to get technical, they're all Adam's lines.
As I studied my new-found relative's charts, I noticed several places where names and dates that she had were slightly different from what I had. Of course, my immediate assumption was that my information was correct and that somehow the sources she'd copied from had typos or other transcription errors.
I suspect that my somewhat arrogant assumption is pretty common. Get a group of family historians together discussing newFamilySearch and you will invariably get a few rants about the errors that sombody is perpetuating on someone else's lines. While it is true, as we all know much too well, that there are errors and incorrect information and incorrect combinings in newFamilySearch, a lot of what people are ranting about doesn't matter. I had to chuckle when I opened a name on nFS to find dozens of disputes over a name spelling - the disputer was unhappy that the surname of all the individuals in the family was spelled with an A instead of the O that the disputer preferred.
We will probably never have complete agreement on some of the information on the JSL lines until the millennium when the people themselves can tell us who was whose parents. Nevertheless, there is much work that can be done and for which we can locate the necessary records. And Grandfather James himself gave us the example that what really matters is not neat rows of data on a pedigree chart or family group sheet - or even perfection on newFamilySearch - but the performance of saving ordinances that will allow these families to have eternity together if they wish.
If you live in the Salt Lake City area, we are going to have a JSL sharing session at the Family History Library on Wednesday, April 27 at 7 p.m. We have classroom B2 in the second lower level reserved for our use. I hope you can join us to share what you've found out about our lines.
One of the sisters in the class brought out her family group sheets and pedigree charts to have me look at them. Imagine my surprise to see one of my lines on her chart. We discovered that our great grandmothers were sisters - both daughters of John Alma Lewis. We'd been together in the ward for a couple of years and had no idea we were related.
This was my first encounter with the idea that it's not my lines but our lines. In fact an instructor at the BYU family history conference in July, 2010 pointed out that if we want to get technical, they're all Adam's lines.
As I studied my new-found relative's charts, I noticed several places where names and dates that she had were slightly different from what I had. Of course, my immediate assumption was that my information was correct and that somehow the sources she'd copied from had typos or other transcription errors.
I suspect that my somewhat arrogant assumption is pretty common. Get a group of family historians together discussing newFamilySearch and you will invariably get a few rants about the errors that sombody is perpetuating on someone else's lines. While it is true, as we all know much too well, that there are errors and incorrect information and incorrect combinings in newFamilySearch, a lot of what people are ranting about doesn't matter. I had to chuckle when I opened a name on nFS to find dozens of disputes over a name spelling - the disputer was unhappy that the surname of all the individuals in the family was spelled with an A instead of the O that the disputer preferred.
We will probably never have complete agreement on some of the information on the JSL lines until the millennium when the people themselves can tell us who was whose parents. Nevertheless, there is much work that can be done and for which we can locate the necessary records. And Grandfather James himself gave us the example that what really matters is not neat rows of data on a pedigree chart or family group sheet - or even perfection on newFamilySearch - but the performance of saving ordinances that will allow these families to have eternity together if they wish.
If you live in the Salt Lake City area, we are going to have a JSL sharing session at the Family History Library on Wednesday, April 27 at 7 p.m. We have classroom B2 in the second lower level reserved for our use. I hope you can join us to share what you've found out about our lines.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
James Joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Traveled to Missouri - In his own Words
In 1831, James Lewis was a young man of 17 living in Randolph County, Indiana, presumably with his older brother Joel (often referred to as Joel Jr. to differentiate him from their father also named Joel Lewis.) His life was forever changed when he heard the message of Mormon missionaries. This is how he described the event later in his life.
"When about seventeen years of age, a man, an ex-preacher, came near where I was staying, late in the evening, did not dismount but said he had rode forty miles that day to overtake two mormonite preachers that have a golden Bible taken out of the earth, that they were preaching the ancient apostolic doctrine and that next Sunday they would preach in Mock's barn. All of this was said almost without taking a breath. My own thoughts I cannot explain, but my first thought was that this is the very thing I have thought would come in the course of my days. The words I had heard went through me in every part of my system. I remembered the Bible, also what I had learned of the ancient peoples of America, and above all the secret whispering now settled more strongly than ever before."
James went to hear the speakers: Thomas B. Marsh who spoke about the prophecies of Isaiah and Selah J. Griffin who explained the coming forth of the Book of Mormon and the testimony of the three and eight witnesses to the Book of Mormon.
James also wrote: "Squire Jones, an ex-preacher, was put forward to talk to them. . . .Squire Jones could ask questions they could not answer, but they answered many questions he had never heard answered before. And my father-in-law, Squire John Jones, went home a wiser and better man than he came, for he never raised his voice against their doctrine." John Jones wasn't James' father-in-law in 1831, but he would become so two years later.
He described his own conversion and baptism this way: "Soon after, two other Elders came, Levi W. Hancock and Zebedee Coltrin, and began baptizing my associates and many others. . . .Of myself, I think I was better prepared to endure than many of my own age. The Elders quoted liberally from the scriptures. I was careful to see every one of them with my own eyes and knew they were in my mother's Bible. . . .Taking in all of my evidences of scripture . . . and above all those secret whisperings that no human could give, the last of the baptisms in our place was Sister Jackson, her sister Anna Jones, and myself. I was baptized by Levi W. Hancock in water and the Holy Ghost before I set my feet on dry land, where I was confirmed by Zebedee Coltrin July, 1831, Randolph County, State of Indiana." Anna Jones, of course, was James' future wife. Her sister would be Elizabeth Jones Jackson who was the wife of Henry S. Jackson.
James doesn't mention exactly where he was baptized. Presumably it was one of the rivers in Randolph County. The Mississinewa runs west in the northern part of the county and is not far from the farm of James' brother Joel. The White River runs north and then west through the middle of the county not far from the county seat of Winchester. The Whitewater River starts its southward journey in the southwest part of the county.
Thus began James' devotion to a church which would require him to travel to numerous states and territories - and not always of his own choice. But he seems never to have wavered or doubted the spiritual witness he felt at the time of his baptism. He worked to help spread the word of his new-found religion. In December of that year, James traveled with an Elder Fallis as a missionary in Ohio. I don't know who this Elder Fallis was, but think he was probably a relative of James. James' brother Joel was married to Mercy Fallis and his sister Rachel was married to William Fallis. I have found reference to an Isaac Fallis living with the Saints in Missouri, but I don't know if this is the same man. If anyone has any information on this, I'd welcome it. In March, 1832, James also traveled with Levi W. Hancock as a missionary in Greenville, Ohio. Then in April, 1832, he went with Elder Jackson to the White Water River area to hold church meetings. (The Whitewater River is a tributary of the Miami River; one of its branches starts in Randolph Co., Indiana.) James noted that some who were baptized at that time crossed the plains with him in 1852. Possibly the Elder Jackson mentioned was James' future brother-in-law Henry S. Jackson.
James decided to join the Latter-day Saints who were congregating to Jackson County, Missouri. "In June, 1832, I started to gather with the saints in Missouri on foot and alone, going by Logansport [Indiana] on the Wabash River to see my sister and continued down the river and joined a company of saints also going to Missouri. Fortunately for me, as I was coming into camp, Brother Rawson, a man I had never seen before, met me and asked me if I would go with him and help him with his team. At once, I told him yes, as I wished to go with someone. On going to the tent, to my surprise, there was sister Anna Jones. She was engaged to help Sister Rawson on the way to Missouri. I was of some benefit to the company as a kind of commissary to go ahead and purchase supplies and have them ready by the time the teams came up."
"In going to Missouri the company traveled pitching their tents by the way, stopping over Sunday and having a meeting. . . .Arrived at Independence September the 2nd day of 1832. I now set about finding a place to get work. Went to Big Blue River, worked for Father Rockwell and Porter Rockwell. Stopped over Sunday and went on to Lyman Wight's and seen him once on a mission. He directed me to the Whitmer settlement."
Obviously, James and Anna were acquainted in Randolph County, Indiana. We are left to wonder how well they knew each other, however. Did their romance blossom before they each left Randolph County, on the trail to Missouri with the Rawson family, or after they arrived in Missouri. There are various family traditions about the matter, but no specific mention as far as I know in James' writings. We do know that on May 10, 1833 James and Anna were married in Jackson County, Missouri by W. W. Phelps.
Ten months later they were living in Clay County, Missouri when their first son, Joel Jones Lewis was born on February 27, 1834. Anna's sister Elizabeth Jackson died in July 1835 and was buried on Shoal Creek west of Liberty. Their second son John Alma Lewis was born 22 August 1836 (that date is sometimes given differently.) James wrote that he "settled in 1837 on Crooked River, Ray County, Missouri, in what was known as the Dutch settlement of Mormons." Their next son James Ammon was born February 6, 1838; I have seen his birth given as Ray County and as Cass County.
The time James and Anna spent in Missouri was tumultuous. Here is one incident he described: "Late in December of 1832, the house that I was in, Brother Fallises, was assailed on the outside around the doorway and on top, unroofing and pitching the timbers on the inside where were three beds - all occupied and asleep, at the first. Any of the pieces pitched in would have crippled or killed any that it might have hit. Those at the doorway shot through, there being only a quilt hung up, the walls in the opposite side of the house. Was just opposite the pillow where Brother and Sister Fallis lay and about eighteen inches from it. Providentially I lay on the floor. Had I raised on my knees as naturally I would attempt to go under one of the beds, would have been shot through the body. Thanks to a kind providence no one in the house was injured."
(I would love to know more about this Elder Fallis. James' sister Rachel and brother Joel both married into the Fallis family. Was this a relative-in-law? Is that one reason JSL lived with this family before his marriage?)
This is how James described his Missouri experience in 1900: "In Jackson County, Missouri, I made a very fair start - cleared and fenced a small field, built a good log house, raised and gathered a crop just in time to be obliged to leave it to a mob. At Crooked River I rented a farm and leased land for a term of years. After putting in my crop, I surprised my employer and his neighbors by hiring some help, clearing my lease, and putting it in and raising a fine crop on it too; thus, paying my rent for several years in advance. I barely sold enough to a mobocrat friend to pay my hired help. . . .Many strong men were apostatizing, and among the number were the best friends that I had in the world, such as Oliver Cowdrey, the Whitmers, David and John, Jacob Hiram Page, a brother-in-law [Henry S. Jackson]. Some of the twelve staggered and some fell. Times were precarious. . ."
"When about seventeen years of age, a man, an ex-preacher, came near where I was staying, late in the evening, did not dismount but said he had rode forty miles that day to overtake two mormonite preachers that have a golden Bible taken out of the earth, that they were preaching the ancient apostolic doctrine and that next Sunday they would preach in Mock's barn. All of this was said almost without taking a breath. My own thoughts I cannot explain, but my first thought was that this is the very thing I have thought would come in the course of my days. The words I had heard went through me in every part of my system. I remembered the Bible, also what I had learned of the ancient peoples of America, and above all the secret whispering now settled more strongly than ever before."
James went to hear the speakers: Thomas B. Marsh who spoke about the prophecies of Isaiah and Selah J. Griffin who explained the coming forth of the Book of Mormon and the testimony of the three and eight witnesses to the Book of Mormon.
James also wrote: "Squire Jones, an ex-preacher, was put forward to talk to them. . . .Squire Jones could ask questions they could not answer, but they answered many questions he had never heard answered before. And my father-in-law, Squire John Jones, went home a wiser and better man than he came, for he never raised his voice against their doctrine." John Jones wasn't James' father-in-law in 1831, but he would become so two years later.
He described his own conversion and baptism this way: "Soon after, two other Elders came, Levi W. Hancock and Zebedee Coltrin, and began baptizing my associates and many others. . . .Of myself, I think I was better prepared to endure than many of my own age. The Elders quoted liberally from the scriptures. I was careful to see every one of them with my own eyes and knew they were in my mother's Bible. . . .Taking in all of my evidences of scripture . . . and above all those secret whisperings that no human could give, the last of the baptisms in our place was Sister Jackson, her sister Anna Jones, and myself. I was baptized by Levi W. Hancock in water and the Holy Ghost before I set my feet on dry land, where I was confirmed by Zebedee Coltrin July, 1831, Randolph County, State of Indiana." Anna Jones, of course, was James' future wife. Her sister would be Elizabeth Jones Jackson who was the wife of Henry S. Jackson.
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| Mississinewa River in Randolph County, Indiana. This river is near the farm of James' brother Joel. James was probably baptized in a river much like this, perhaps even this one. |
Thus began James' devotion to a church which would require him to travel to numerous states and territories - and not always of his own choice. But he seems never to have wavered or doubted the spiritual witness he felt at the time of his baptism. He worked to help spread the word of his new-found religion. In December of that year, James traveled with an Elder Fallis as a missionary in Ohio. I don't know who this Elder Fallis was, but think he was probably a relative of James. James' brother Joel was married to Mercy Fallis and his sister Rachel was married to William Fallis. I have found reference to an Isaac Fallis living with the Saints in Missouri, but I don't know if this is the same man. If anyone has any information on this, I'd welcome it. In March, 1832, James also traveled with Levi W. Hancock as a missionary in Greenville, Ohio. Then in April, 1832, he went with Elder Jackson to the White Water River area to hold church meetings. (The Whitewater River is a tributary of the Miami River; one of its branches starts in Randolph Co., Indiana.) James noted that some who were baptized at that time crossed the plains with him in 1852. Possibly the Elder Jackson mentioned was James' future brother-in-law Henry S. Jackson.
James decided to join the Latter-day Saints who were congregating to Jackson County, Missouri. "In June, 1832, I started to gather with the saints in Missouri on foot and alone, going by Logansport [Indiana] on the Wabash River to see my sister and continued down the river and joined a company of saints also going to Missouri. Fortunately for me, as I was coming into camp, Brother Rawson, a man I had never seen before, met me and asked me if I would go with him and help him with his team. At once, I told him yes, as I wished to go with someone. On going to the tent, to my surprise, there was sister Anna Jones. She was engaged to help Sister Rawson on the way to Missouri. I was of some benefit to the company as a kind of commissary to go ahead and purchase supplies and have them ready by the time the teams came up."
"In going to Missouri the company traveled pitching their tents by the way, stopping over Sunday and having a meeting. . . .Arrived at Independence September the 2nd day of 1832. I now set about finding a place to get work. Went to Big Blue River, worked for Father Rockwell and Porter Rockwell. Stopped over Sunday and went on to Lyman Wight's and seen him once on a mission. He directed me to the Whitmer settlement."
Obviously, James and Anna were acquainted in Randolph County, Indiana. We are left to wonder how well they knew each other, however. Did their romance blossom before they each left Randolph County, on the trail to Missouri with the Rawson family, or after they arrived in Missouri. There are various family traditions about the matter, but no specific mention as far as I know in James' writings. We do know that on May 10, 1833 James and Anna were married in Jackson County, Missouri by W. W. Phelps.
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| From Marriage Records of Jackson County, Missouri, the third entry is the marriage record of James Lewis and Anna Jones of Blue Township. |
The time James and Anna spent in Missouri was tumultuous. Here is one incident he described: "Late in December of 1832, the house that I was in, Brother Fallises, was assailed on the outside around the doorway and on top, unroofing and pitching the timbers on the inside where were three beds - all occupied and asleep, at the first. Any of the pieces pitched in would have crippled or killed any that it might have hit. Those at the doorway shot through, there being only a quilt hung up, the walls in the opposite side of the house. Was just opposite the pillow where Brother and Sister Fallis lay and about eighteen inches from it. Providentially I lay on the floor. Had I raised on my knees as naturally I would attempt to go under one of the beds, would have been shot through the body. Thanks to a kind providence no one in the house was injured."
(I would love to know more about this Elder Fallis. James' sister Rachel and brother Joel both married into the Fallis family. Was this a relative-in-law? Is that one reason JSL lived with this family before his marriage?)
This is how James described his Missouri experience in 1900: "In Jackson County, Missouri, I made a very fair start - cleared and fenced a small field, built a good log house, raised and gathered a crop just in time to be obliged to leave it to a mob. At Crooked River I rented a farm and leased land for a term of years. After putting in my crop, I surprised my employer and his neighbors by hiring some help, clearing my lease, and putting it in and raising a fine crop on it too; thus, paying my rent for several years in advance. I barely sold enough to a mobocrat friend to pay my hired help. . . .Many strong men were apostatizing, and among the number were the best friends that I had in the world, such as Oliver Cowdrey, the Whitmers, David and John, Jacob Hiram Page, a brother-in-law [Henry S. Jackson]. Some of the twelve staggered and some fell. Times were precarious. . ."
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Mount Pisgah, Iowa
The place names on James Stapleton Lewis' family lines are an American history text on a pedigree chart. The families followed pioneer migration patterns and trails. Today I want to write about Mount Pisgah, Iowa.
From the time I was small, the place name held a fascination for me that I can't explain. It isn't one of those places that immediately comes to mind when you think of the Mormon Pioneer Trail the way Council Bluffs or Winter Quarters or Martin's Cove does. Yet it is a place I always wanted to see.
When my husband and I planned a road trip to Pittsburgh in 2007 to visit our son, daughter-in-law and grandson, we decided to make it a Mormon Pioneer Trail trip as well. Since both of us have pioneer ancestry, I researched to find what ancestors had been at the various sites and when they were there. I created a section in an accordion file for each location we planned to visit and included a family group sheet of each family that had been at that location. I also filed information from the Internet about each site, including addresses, driving directions, and hours of visitor center operations. When we made each stop we could talk about what ancestors had been there, what their experiences must have been, and look for their names on any markers or visitor center displays. It made our experience on the trip even more personal and interesting.
When I told my husband (I have to admit I didn't allow for any negotiations on this one) that we were going to include Mount Pisgah as one of our stops, he was less than enthusiastic. It was out of our way because it is off the Interstate. But he surrendered when I told him I'd wanted to visit Mount Pisgah ever since my grandmother told me about James Stapleton Lewis living there.
Using our Rand McNally Road Atlas, I navigated our route as we meandered and zigzagged through farmland and small Iowa towns south of Interstate 80 to Union County. We arrived in the late afternoon to find a most beautiful and peaceful spot. The feeling that permeates so many of these pioneer sites is hallowed - there's no other way to describe it. No one else was near as we wandered quietly around the area.
Mount Pisgah isn't so much a mountain as a hilly, elevated area above the Grand River Valley. The view from the settlement area looks to the valley with a view worthy of any movie scenery. We could easily see why Parley P. Pratt was taken by the loveliness of the area and chose it as another stopping point for the Mormons who were trudging their way west following their expulsion from Nauvoo. Mount Pisgah was the first permanent white settlement in Union County. About two thousand homes were built there and thousands more traveled through the place.
Our family tradition told me by my grandmother is that James was asked by Brigham Young to stay at Mount Pisgah and plant crops to help feed and supply the pioneer companies traveling through on their way to the Salt Lake Valley. I don't know if the tradition is fully accurate, but I have found that one of the purposes of the Mount Pisgah community was to do just that. There was rich farmland that the Saints quickly cleared and cultivated. The crops grown there provided for many who were on the trail. Mount Pisgah was a site where men were recruited for the Mormon Battalion. James and Anna were there with their young family for several years.
Alva Tippits Lewis' birthplace in 1846 is sometimes listed as Mount Pisgah, but is usually given as Marion, Iowa. Today Marion is on the outskirts of Cedar Rapids in Linn County. Marion is northeast of Mount Pisgah. This birth undoubtedly shows the westward progress of the JSL family from Nauvoo. Wilford Woodruff was born in 1848 in Mount Pisgah. A monument at the cemetery reminded us that James and Anna buried a child here. William Fallis Lewis was born and died the same day in 1851 though he isn't listed on the monument.
William Fallis was among many who are buried in the Mount Pisgah cemetery though most graves aren't marked and the monument list is only a partial list of the dead. More than one hundred fifty died in the first six months of the settlement.
A replica of a log cabin has been constructed at Mount Pisgah to show the type of shelter families like James and Anna's would have had. It is small and dark. My six-foot husband had to duck to get in the doorway. The roof is sod with grass growing on it. The cabin was so small; I think many household tasks would have taken place outdoors. That would be fine on a pleasant day such as the July evening we were there. But in the middle of a cold, wet winter day it must have been a difficult life. I picture Anna trying to wash clothes for her family of boys for example.
I have lately wondered about the childhoods of Joel and John Alma, James and Anna's two oldest sons. Both were born in Missouri and as young children went through the forced exodus from Missouri. Two little brothers died at age two, one in Missouri and one in Indiana. Then they settled in Nauvoo where another brother, Isaac, was born. When Joel was 12 and John Alma was 10 they again were forced from their home and began their journey through Iowa. As hard as life as a pioneer farming family in Mount Pisgah must have been, I'd like to think that maybe the six years the family spent there were a stable and happy respite from mobs and fear.
In 1852, the Saints still living in Mount Pisgah were counseled to finish their journey to the Salt Lake Valley. James, Anna, Joel, John Alma, Isaac, Alva, and Wilford once again traveled to a new place where they had to begin to build a new life. But that's a story for another blog.
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| Marker at the Mount Pisgah site showing the Mormon Pioneer migration through Iowa |
From the time I was small, the place name held a fascination for me that I can't explain. It isn't one of those places that immediately comes to mind when you think of the Mormon Pioneer Trail the way Council Bluffs or Winter Quarters or Martin's Cove does. Yet it is a place I always wanted to see.
When my husband and I planned a road trip to Pittsburgh in 2007 to visit our son, daughter-in-law and grandson, we decided to make it a Mormon Pioneer Trail trip as well. Since both of us have pioneer ancestry, I researched to find what ancestors had been at the various sites and when they were there. I created a section in an accordion file for each location we planned to visit and included a family group sheet of each family that had been at that location. I also filed information from the Internet about each site, including addresses, driving directions, and hours of visitor center operations. When we made each stop we could talk about what ancestors had been there, what their experiences must have been, and look for their names on any markers or visitor center displays. It made our experience on the trip even more personal and interesting.
When I told my husband (I have to admit I didn't allow for any negotiations on this one) that we were going to include Mount Pisgah as one of our stops, he was less than enthusiastic. It was out of our way because it is off the Interstate. But he surrendered when I told him I'd wanted to visit Mount Pisgah ever since my grandmother told me about James Stapleton Lewis living there.
Using our Rand McNally Road Atlas, I navigated our route as we meandered and zigzagged through farmland and small Iowa towns south of Interstate 80 to Union County. We arrived in the late afternoon to find a most beautiful and peaceful spot. The feeling that permeates so many of these pioneer sites is hallowed - there's no other way to describe it. No one else was near as we wandered quietly around the area.
 |
| Looking toward the Grand River from the Mount Pisgah settlement site |
Mount Pisgah isn't so much a mountain as a hilly, elevated area above the Grand River Valley. The view from the settlement area looks to the valley with a view worthy of any movie scenery. We could easily see why Parley P. Pratt was taken by the loveliness of the area and chose it as another stopping point for the Mormons who were trudging their way west following their expulsion from Nauvoo. Mount Pisgah was the first permanent white settlement in Union County. About two thousand homes were built there and thousands more traveled through the place.
Our family tradition told me by my grandmother is that James was asked by Brigham Young to stay at Mount Pisgah and plant crops to help feed and supply the pioneer companies traveling through on their way to the Salt Lake Valley. I don't know if the tradition is fully accurate, but I have found that one of the purposes of the Mount Pisgah community was to do just that. There was rich farmland that the Saints quickly cleared and cultivated. The crops grown there provided for many who were on the trail. Mount Pisgah was a site where men were recruited for the Mormon Battalion. James and Anna were there with their young family for several years.
Alva Tippits Lewis' birthplace in 1846 is sometimes listed as Mount Pisgah, but is usually given as Marion, Iowa. Today Marion is on the outskirts of Cedar Rapids in Linn County. Marion is northeast of Mount Pisgah. This birth undoubtedly shows the westward progress of the JSL family from Nauvoo. Wilford Woodruff was born in 1848 in Mount Pisgah. A monument at the cemetery reminded us that James and Anna buried a child here. William Fallis Lewis was born and died the same day in 1851 though he isn't listed on the monument.
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| Mount Pisgah cemetery monument |
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| Looking downhill in the cemetery area |
A replica of a log cabin has been constructed at Mount Pisgah to show the type of shelter families like James and Anna's would have had. It is small and dark. My six-foot husband had to duck to get in the doorway. The roof is sod with grass growing on it. The cabin was so small; I think many household tasks would have taken place outdoors. That would be fine on a pleasant day such as the July evening we were there. But in the middle of a cold, wet winter day it must have been a difficult life. I picture Anna trying to wash clothes for her family of boys for example.
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| Mount Pisgah pioneer cabin replica |
I have lately wondered about the childhoods of Joel and John Alma, James and Anna's two oldest sons. Both were born in Missouri and as young children went through the forced exodus from Missouri. Two little brothers died at age two, one in Missouri and one in Indiana. Then they settled in Nauvoo where another brother, Isaac, was born. When Joel was 12 and John Alma was 10 they again were forced from their home and began their journey through Iowa. As hard as life as a pioneer farming family in Mount Pisgah must have been, I'd like to think that maybe the six years the family spent there were a stable and happy respite from mobs and fear.
In 1852, the Saints still living in Mount Pisgah were counseled to finish their journey to the Salt Lake Valley. James, Anna, Joel, John Alma, Isaac, Alva, and Wilford once again traveled to a new place where they had to begin to build a new life. But that's a story for another blog.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
The James Stapleton Lewis Families Project
James Stapleton Lewis himself was a genealogist. In the 1880s he compiled the names of many of his family members, as well as the families of his first wife Anna Jones and his second wife Mary Swenson. Apparently he had this recorded in some sort of a notebook or ledger book. What a find that would be if it still exists in someone's basement or attic!
JSL (as the family refers to him to save writing that long name) was born February 22, 1814 near Bellbrook, in Sugar Creek Township, Greene County, Ohio. I started this blog on the 197th anniversary of his birth. His parents Rachel Stapleton and Joel Lewis Sr. were American pioneers in every sense. They followed early pioneer trails from North Carolina through the Cumberland Gap to Kentucky and then to Ohio.
Though James eventually left the midwest and continued the pioneer's quest to Utah and Idaho, he remained in contact with family members still in Indiana and Ohio. One of the goals of the JSL Families Project is to bring far-flung family members together again - through technology if not in person. Maybe we'll figure out a way to have a family reunion with virtual elements to celebrate his 200th birthday in three years!
If you'd like to read a well-written biography of the life of James Stapleton Lewis, check out the one written by Janis Durfee (a Lewis cousin I met because of our common interest in JSL). It's on Janis' website genealogybyjan.com
JSL (as the family refers to him to save writing that long name) was born February 22, 1814 near Bellbrook, in Sugar Creek Township, Greene County, Ohio. I started this blog on the 197th anniversary of his birth. His parents Rachel Stapleton and Joel Lewis Sr. were American pioneers in every sense. They followed early pioneer trails from North Carolina through the Cumberland Gap to Kentucky and then to Ohio.
Though James eventually left the midwest and continued the pioneer's quest to Utah and Idaho, he remained in contact with family members still in Indiana and Ohio. One of the goals of the JSL Families Project is to bring far-flung family members together again - through technology if not in person. Maybe we'll figure out a way to have a family reunion with virtual elements to celebrate his 200th birthday in three years!
If you'd like to read a well-written biography of the life of James Stapleton Lewis, check out the one written by Janis Durfee (a Lewis cousin I met because of our common interest in JSL). It's on Janis' website genealogybyjan.com
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Grandma's Genealogy
I have three vivid images in my mind of my Grandma. In the summer Grandma was often found among her petunias, zinnias, lilies, and peonies. In cold weather she liked to stand in front of the heat vent in her kitchen or living room. But the third picture is my favorite. I can still see Grandma with pedigree charts and family group sheets and letters spread out on her table. That was the best time to catch Grandma because it meant stories from the lives of those whose names were on the charts. It also meant an explanation of the results of the latest response she had received in her genealogy research.
I heard about "Grandfather James Stapleton" among many others. Grandma was six when he died. I heard about Grandma's frustrations in trying to locate more information about John Jones (James Stapleton Lewis' father-in-law). She had his will but still had many brick walls on the Jones lines. Grandma and I shared a joke that when she passed on to the other side, she would look up John Jones and get messages to me about where to find the needed information.
So, it isn't surprising that I grew up to be a genealogist. My grandmother spent her time carefully filling in blank forms listing births and deaths and marriages. She wrote letters and awaited responses. She located probable places for wills or marriage certificates, sent her money, and hoped for positive results.
When I took my first genealogy class in 1967, I did much the same thing. By this time, though, microfilmed records were available. Today I'm a jammie genealogist who loves being able to look for records online in my pajamas at 2 a.m. and plug that information into my computer software. My grandmother would marvel at how much "doing genealogy" has changed - and how much it has stayed the same.
Forty years later, I'm still trying to verify information about John Jones. Stories of James Stapleton Lewis still hold my attention. I'm planning to share my love of these men and my quest to know more about them with you. I hope it is your quest as well.
I heard about "Grandfather James Stapleton" among many others. Grandma was six when he died. I heard about Grandma's frustrations in trying to locate more information about John Jones (James Stapleton Lewis' father-in-law). She had his will but still had many brick walls on the Jones lines. Grandma and I shared a joke that when she passed on to the other side, she would look up John Jones and get messages to me about where to find the needed information.
So, it isn't surprising that I grew up to be a genealogist. My grandmother spent her time carefully filling in blank forms listing births and deaths and marriages. She wrote letters and awaited responses. She located probable places for wills or marriage certificates, sent her money, and hoped for positive results.
When I took my first genealogy class in 1967, I did much the same thing. By this time, though, microfilmed records were available. Today I'm a jammie genealogist who loves being able to look for records online in my pajamas at 2 a.m. and plug that information into my computer software. My grandmother would marvel at how much "doing genealogy" has changed - and how much it has stayed the same.
Forty years later, I'm still trying to verify information about John Jones. Stories of James Stapleton Lewis still hold my attention. I'm planning to share my love of these men and my quest to know more about them with you. I hope it is your quest as well.
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