The Comforts named their son born May 15, 1811, Isaac Lewis Comfort. His Hearken, O Ye People: The Historical Setting of Joseph Smiths Ohio Revelations(2009) is a landmark study placing the revelations received by Joseph Smithin historical perspective. There may have been an additional Lewis son who became a preacher, but John and Nathaniel are the only two known. For example, when the company of cartographer F. W. Beers made his map of the township in 1872, he marked the Foundations of 1st Morman (sic) Temple on what had been Jacob/Joseph Smith land. There was not time for courting between Hales return to Vermont and his marriage, and so during the six years he was away, he must have courted through correspondence. Other sources give November 20 as the birth date, Lorraine Cook White, ed.,The Barbour Collection of Connecticut Town Vital Records(Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 2002), 23: 140; Grace E. Pember Wood,A History of the Town of Wells, Vermont from its Settlement with Family and Biographical Sketches and Incidents(N.p. She was also charged to act as a scribe to Joseph, to expound the scriptures, to exhort the Church, and to coordinate the publication of sacred music in a hymnbook. The wealthy family lived on a 90-acre farm in the Susquehanna River Valley, where Isaac shipped meat and other merchandise downriver to Philadelphia and Baltimore. The turnpike crossed the river at the bridge into Lanesville where it continued south past what locals called the Vermont settlement on Tyler Road. A transcription of the trial notes has also been placed on file with Betty Smith, Susquehanna County Historical Society, Montrose, Pennsylvania, hereafter cited as Trial Notes of Scribe A. Photocopies of the original trial notes were provided by Shari Whitney of the Susquehanna County Courthouse, Montrose, Pennsylvania. Hartgen, Report, Historic Sites, Church Historians Office, 2005; Hartgen, Archeological Field Investigations and Addenda 1 and 2; Kirk and McQuinn, personal communication to author. 2 Farmer, hunter, innkeeper. When a mine was accidentally discovered in 1985 in the same hills where Stiles thought it was located, theNew York Timesdescribed it as one of the richest concentrations of gold in North America.60 What was thought to be idle gossip gathered by Stiles apparently was based on accurate information corrupted in the retelling. The fol-lowing year, David Hale began renting property from James Westfall, but he apparently continued to live on his father's land. By then, her father had reconciled with her new husband, and Isaac Hale had offered the Smiths a place in the valley. Over the years, many RLDS Church historians have continued to state that the practice had originated with Brigham Young.[28]. I don't know how nine children fit in that little house. Comfort apparently disagreed. It is likely he drew his information from the notes of Vesta Pierce Crawford, who interviewed descendants of Emma Hale in the 1950s but likewise did not document her sources well. Timothy Pickering III (Tim Pickerings) biographical details are included in his sons work, Charles Pickering, M.D.,Chronological History of Plants: Mans Record of His Own Existence Illustrated through Their Names, Uses, and Companionship(Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1879), vii-xvi. Smith lived near Palmyra, New York, but boarded with the Hales in Harmony while he was employed in a company of men hired to unearth a "Dream Mine". But the reflection is more than human nature ought to bear, and if God does not record our sufferings and avenge our wrongs on them that are guilty, I shall be sadly mistaken. Emma Hale Smith Bidamon (July 10, 1804 April 30, 1879) was an American homesteader, the first wife of Joseph Smith, and a prominent leader in the early days of the Latter Day Saint movement, both during Smith's lifetime and afterward as a member of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS Church). When he arrived, Colonel Pickering wrote to his son Henry that Nathaniel Lewis, who has been much used to sick persons, and whose experience enables him to judge better than I, thinks your brother not likely to survive three days longer.160 Tim Pickering mentally prepared to die in good nineteenth-century fashion with a serenity of mind, flowing from a sincere and constant endeavor to preserve aconscience void of offence toward God and toward man!161 Lewis was right and his brother-in-law died three days later on May 14, 1807.162 Isaac Hale helped bury him on the brow of a hill between the mountain and Starucca [Creek]. On the day of his burial, Colonel Pickering wrote of his son, I intimated to Hail and Lewis my wish that flat stones might be set up at his grave. James T. Dubois and William J. Pike,The Centennial of Susquehanna County(Washington, D.C.: Gray and Carlkson, Printers, 1888), 72. 19. Seba Smiths novel about life on the Susquehanna,Way Down East; or, Portraits of Yankee Life,(New York: H. W. Derby, 1857), included an entire chapter detailing the horrors of this tragedy. McCune, George Moody, ed. William Cope, A Journey to Great Bend and Return to Philad-a, Cope Family Papers, Pennsylvania State Archives, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, capitalization added for clarity. 38. Map by Brandon S. Plewe. George Peck,The Life and Times of Rev. Both Isaac and Elizabeths families came from the villages of New Haven County in Connecticut before settling in Vermont, which may have contributed to an emotional bond between the two. On being told that there was no such word in common usage, the elder said,I dont care, it was applicable.203. Several members of the Catlin family joined the Methodists and were active in the same congregations where Nathaniel Lewis preached and the Hale family attended. But it is not clear how productive these mills were or how long they stayed in operation. In 1777 fifty-nine-year-old grandfather Ward was killed at Addision, Vermont, while fighting against General Burgoyne and a large Native American force that had mostly come from the Susquehanna Valley in northern Pennsylvania after 1,200 American soldiers burned their villages and massacred their families.22 In 1780, when Hale was seventeen, he enlisted, along with his uncle David, to fight under Colonel Ebenezer Allens command as they sought to prevent Canadian military raids into the Mohawk Valley. In June1844, immediately preceding her husbands death, Emma wrote, I desire with all my heart to honor and respect my husband as my head, ever to live in his confidence and by acting in unison with him retain the place which God has given me by his side.7. Colonel Pickering sought the advice of Benjamin Rush, formerly surgeon general in the Continental Army, and other prominent physicians who diagnosed Tim as having throat cancer. Emma and her family followed and made a new home on the frontier in the Latter Day Saint settlement of Far West, Missouri, where Emma gave birth on June 2, 1838, to Alexander Hale Smith. Although Nathaniel Lewis enlisted for two separate terms during the French and Indian war, he enlisted again in 1775 as talk of revolution moved through Connecticuts churches and taverns, and he served in the Continental Navy under Lieutenant David Welch when it was first formed until his enlistment expired on November 10, 1775.72 Since the navy was initially made of up merchantmen, Lewis may have been working in the shipping trade when he enlisted, or he may have presented his earlier navy experience at enlistment. Joseph and Emma in a home nearby while he translated most of the Book of Mormon with Oliver Cowdery serving as scribe. On December23, 1847, Emma married LewisC. Bidamon, a non-Mormon resident of Nauvoo. Blackman,History of Susquehanna County,95. tiger woods mini golf arizona. Shortly before the Hale family moved from Harmony, provisions were also enacted to tax pleasure carriages and watches, of which they had none. 309. While boarding at the Hale house in Harmony, Pennsylvania, Joseph Smith met Emma and began courting her. On 23 December 1847, which would have been Joseph's 42nd birthday, Bidamon and Smith were married in Nauvoo by a Methodist circuit rider. Vogel, Josiah Stowell, Jr., to John S. Fullmer, 17 February 1843,Early Mormon Documents,4:78, 80; Vogel, Lyman Stowell Reminiscence, 1901,Early Mormon Documents,4:86. George Peck,Wyoming: Its History, Stirring Incidents, and Romantic Adventures(New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1858), 193. The bridges loose stones were worked out of its walls the previous spring when Jason Treadwell, a local sandy hair, red bearded, cross-eyed prankster accused of murdering Oliver Harper, had frantically pulled them out searching for a hidden four hundred dollars he claimed was placed there. 308. He sold to the railroad the portion of the farm where his fathers body was buried with the agreement the railroad would move Isaac Hale to the cemetery before laying down track over the burial spot. See Day,Historical Collections of the State of Pennsylvania, 61924). Timothy Lee, before Mrs. [Emma] Smith was born.189 Emma was already born and baptized into the Congregationalists before Reverend Lee arrived in the valley. Privacy Policy. He asked the brethren who were gravely remonstrating with him: What do you suppose the Lord sent that deer into my field for? Well, I suppose it was to try you, one gravely answered. [a] Although the company was unsuccessful in finding the suspected mine, Joseph and Emma secretly met several times at a friend's house. This group of men left the Stowell farm heading southwest out of South Bainbridge, New York, crossing the Susquehanna River at the bridge leading into Harpursville, continuing south through Colesville by climbing Coles Hill past Badgers tavern on the west side of the road at the crest, then dropping down the other side sliding toward the shallow Susquehanna River where the Windsor Bridge Company had earlier that year finished a toll bridge precluding the need to cross it using a ferry, and finally rattling down the Harmony Turnpike toward Pennsylvania into what they called the Endless Mountains.3, Four miles south of Colesville, the work party passed the Stow Cemetery, a small collection of burials abutting the east side of the road that would have caught their attention. 109. Ch.2) This quote is not from The History of the Church, Volume 1, Chapter 2, as claimed. American Legal and Political Institutions, Christian Churches in Joseph Smiths Day, Daily Life of First-Generation Latter-day Saints, Joseph Smiths 1844 Campaign for United States President, Lectures on Theology (Lectures on Faith), Martin Harriss Consultations with Scholars, Printing and Publishing the Book of Mormon, Religious Beliefs in Joseph Smiths Day, Restoration of the Melchizedek Priesthood, Temple Dedications and Dedicatory Prayers, Vision of the Redemption of the Dead (D&C138), Emma Hale Smith, Church History Topics, Emma Smith, wife of Joseph Smith, played a prominent role in the restoration of the Church. Tell us. In addition to being church president, Joseph had been trustee-in-trust for the church. They then became discouraged, and soon after dispersed. Isaac believed that Joseph was a treasure seeker and con artist. : Sharp D. Lewis, 1830), 173. James Westfalls headstone stands in the cemetery known today as the McKune cemetery just east of the Joseph Smith property. When Isaac and Elizabeth Hale settled the valley, they had only nominal religious involvement. This second home gave the Hale family more living space; it provided a place for David Hale to live with his new bride after his marriage; it served as the Methodist church for a period; and it may have been the residence of some of the money-diggers that stayed in the area. Onondaga projectile points, found on Hale Farm, Collection of the LDS Church. Emmas influential prayer seems to not only have made a difference for her father, but her missionary spirit seems to have influenced others as well. [citation needed] She and Bidamon had no children of their own. Plumbing brought water from a nearby well to the house in later years, and since the well was built early and the Hale family did not have a cistern under or near the house, a hand pump likely brought water directly from the well into the kitchen during Hale occupation to make the tasks of the women easier. . Pickering negotiated the treaty of Canandaigua in 1794, and he served as the United States expert on Indian relations until he became Washingtons Secretary of State, a position Pickering held until disagreements with John Adams led to his dismissal on May 12, 1800. Personalities in the Doctrine and Covenants and Joseph SmithHistory. Nathaniel Lewis enlisted in the Connecticut 2nd Regiment 9th Company, Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society,Rolls of Connecticut Men in the French and Indian War, 17551762, 34445; Jacquelyn L. Ricker, ed., and Alvan Talcott, comp.,Families of Guilford, Connecticut. Isaacs grandmother may not have lived long afterward, however, or others agreed to take over responsibility for her care, since in 1784 Hale deeded the property earmarked for her care to his uncle David Ward, and he left for Connecticut.26 Hale may have returned to his birthplace to reconnect with the rest of his Ward relatives, particularly his uncles and aunts Jesse and Eunice Ward Cady and Daniel and Tryal Ward Curtis, since he later named two of his children Jesse and Tryal. David followed on March 6, 1794. 60. David Hale as cited in Blackman,History of Susquehanna County, 103. The Hale family had a 130-acre farm, with orchards of apples and pears, a large garden, and groves of maple trees. David Hale became a legal adult and was listed in the tax records for the first time as a single man on January 1, 1816. The artifacts have been placed in bags and marked storage boxes and can be accessed in the collections of the LDS Church History Museum. 171. When he did share limited information with her, she struggled, shifting her perspective and support over time. (Rutland: Tuttle & Co., 1869), 33; see also, Almon Chandler Hopson, Wells,Vermont Historical Magazine,in Abby Maria Hemenway, ed.,The History of Rutland County, Vermont: Civil, Ecclesiastical, Biographical and Military(White River Junction, Vt.: White River Paper Co., 1882), 1191. After contesting the 1828 assessment, Isaac was taxed for 63 acres of unimproved land and 28 acres of improved land, consisting of two acres of first rate land that included a kitchen garden and large work area around his house, 16 acres of second rate land along the river that included a pasture for his sheep, and ten acres of third rate land between his home and the mountain that included an orchard just north of his home, wetlands north of the orchard of little agricultural use except for as afee area for pigs, and sugar maple trees in the rocky, ascending portions to the north. 6 Peter Ingersoll (ca 1789-1867) 7 Alva Hale (1795-1881) Born on July10, 1804, in Willingsborough (later Harmony), Pennsylvania, Emma Hale was the seventh of nine children of Isaac and Elizabeth Lewis Hale. This I refused, and gave my reasons for so doing; some of which were, that he was a stranger, and followed a business that I could not approve; he then left the place. 88. Emma Hale was born in Harmony Township, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, the seventh child of Isaac Hale and Elizabeth Lewis Hale. Lucy had her scribe insert every with a carat in front of appendage in her history, assuring the reader would not just imagine a few conveniences but every one. The Hale and Lewis families began to make themselves comfortable on this land as the early settlers cut timber along the river floodplain that could easily be floated downstream to market without special equipment turning the bottomlands into rich garden loam. For additional documentation of the Hale and Wallace wedding, see Marriage Record of Antha Hale and Joseph Wallace, Enfield, Connecticut Town Records, 16821854, Enfield, Connecticut, June 23, 1789; Francis Olcott Allen,The History of Enfield, Connecticut(Lancaster, Pa.: The Wickersham Printing Co., 1900), 2:1786. Emma served the needy: in Kirtland, she and Elizabeth Ann Whitney coordinated feasts for the poor, and in Nauvoo, she opened her home to the sick, orphaned, and homeless. Robert H. Rose to Isaac Hale, Deeds, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, 11:444. 52. Several decades later, some of the valleys residents were successfully growing marketable crops. He then returned to Palmyra, and soon after, Alva, agreeable to the arrangement, went up and returned with Smith and his family. See Julia A. Perhaps because their public discussions of religion differed from what was commonly accepted, their neighbors described them as religious agitators. A detailed exploration of this home, including images of the construction plans, and the Pickering family interaction with Isaac Hale and his family is in Mark Staker, Emma Hale Smith and Her Family in Harmony, Pennsylvania, Historic Sites Files, CHL, 2010. 227. See Timothy Pickering to Levi and James Westfall, June 15, 1825, Susquehanna County Property Deeds, 5: 41819; Samuel and Mary Hodgdon to James Westfall, April 21, 1823, Susquehanna County Property Deeds, 23: 61516; Israel and Patty Skinner to Joseph McKune, Susquehanna County Property Deeds, 23:616. In addition to the daybook, the 1820 census that included David as part of his fathers household also documented the business activities of each household. Joseph and Isaac Hale, Emma's father, had a tumultuous relationship due to Emma and Joseph eloping, Joseph's treasure digging, and Isaac's frustration with Joseph constantly borrowing. 110. Here in part is his opinion; As with Zachariah Tarble, Hilborn had been captured by Indians, but his capture occurred in 1773 near Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, 85 miles south of the Susquehanna Valley, after which he was also sold into slavery in Canada. Trial Notes, Scribe A and Trial Notes, Scribe B.. There was no means of earning money in the valley except by hunting or making shingles.122 Wood was more plentiful than wild game and most of the settlers focused on it as their main commodity. at whose house the apostles, and traveling evangelists, frequently preached, and were entertained. Adam Clarke,The New Testament of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, The Text Carefully Printed from the Most Correct Copies of the Present Authorised Version, Including the Marginal Readings and Parallel Texts with a Commentary and Critical Notes(New York: Methodist Episcopal Church, 1831), 2:890. They listened to one sermon in the forenoon, and then came back to the canoe and ate dinner, then went back to second service; Daniel Buck was minister. In1811, when Samuel Thompson became the circuit rider through the Susquehanna Valley,David Hale joined the Methodists at age seventeen. Blackman,History of Susquehanna County, 578. With increase of families the means of communication increased. Searle, diary, June 1832Nov. 314. As Alva Hale sat on a jury September 3, 1827, just a few weeks before he rode to New York to pick up his sister Emma and her new husband and bring them back to the valley, the court described him as among the good and lawful men sworn to render a verdict.307 The citizens of Harmony Township frequently elected Alva constable, and he often traded the position with Joseph McKune or John Comfort.