Many had already left for education, or to follow spouses who preferred to live elsewhere. Byron Hale, Reuben Hales Obituary, newspaper clipping in possession of descendants of Alva Hale, copy in authors possession. Emma left the Susquehanna Valley and the Hale family for the last time, never to see her parents and many other relatives again. 101. The competing congregations produced tension. See extended online version of Staker and Jensen, David Hales Store Ledger and later entries in the original ledger. Hilborn eventually purchased his freedom, but his experience gave him more familiarity with Native Americans than was typical for the period. In one of these reports, he boasted of raising in a single season as much as 750 bushels of oats, 450 bushels of corn, and 2,560 pounds of pork, along with smaller amounts of other items. 144. This was part of the evangelist Jonathan Edwards strategy to rear missionaries prepared from their youth to take Christianity to Indian villages in southwestern New York and northern Pennsylvania, and Buck lived with the Onondaga, or People of the Hills, for ten years before the start of the war. Joseph Smith Jr. resided near me for some time after this, and I had a good opportunity of becoming acquainted with him, and somewhat acquainted with his associates, and I conscientiously believe from the facts I have detailed, and from many other circumstances, which I do not deem it necessary to relate, that the whole "Book of Mormon" (so called) is a silly fabrication of falsehood and wickedness, got up for speculation, and with a design to dupe the credulous and unwary -- and in order that its fabricators may live upon the spoils of those who swallow the deception. In the mid-twentieth century an elderly resident of the valley who had lived there her entire life still referred to it as the very lovely but quiet Susquehanna River Valley. Marietta Collwell, letter to Wilford C. Wood, October 18, 1946, Wilford C. Wood Collection, CHL. The Hales farmed near Harmony, Pennsylvania, and operated a country inn. Into this humble dwelling he moved his family on the tenth day of April, 1791. Rev. All of Isaac and Elizabeth Hales sons, except Reuben, had a daughter named either Elizabeth or Betsey. Captain Charles Williamson, who became general land agent selling Phelps and Gorham lands in western New York, was hired as the road contractor. She was descended of primarily English ancestors,[8][9] including seven passengers on the Mayflower. If my children should ever read this I hope it may be a warning to them never to trust a mans word for if he is honest he is not a frad to be bound & if he is not he aught to be, May 25, 1813, Isaac Post Diary May 1812-December 1814, Susquehanna County Historical Society. Hales brief tour of duty ended eight days after his enlistment when the younger soldiers returned home without seeing action and the seventeen-year-old private was released from service.23. [10] Beginning at age eight, she was involved in the local Methodist Episcopal Church in Harmony, reading the Bible and singing hymns. Isaac bitterly opposed their courtship, but Joseph proposed to Emma, and she, preferring him to all others she had met, accepted. William Cope, a young Quaker from a wealthy family in Philadelphia, came through the neighborhood in 1818 on a tour of the remote country, and he observed, these people do not seem to value the comforts of a good house as persons in a more cultivated country. The headstone, made by Eclectic Man, included visual symbols from Harpers life.4, As the group rattled closer to Harmony Township, they traveled the last section of the turnpike in an experience described by a later newspaper reporter as like being rolled in a barrel. He insisted the turnpike could guarantee the traveler a shaking he will not forget in a month. But the reporter acknowledged, And what is the one thing that would atone for so many inconveniences? These artifacts were in the upper layer of the topsoil and Isaac Hale likely knew of an earlier Native American presence on his property.96, Near Ouaquaga village where Daniel Buck and Isaac Hale first lived, the new settlers developed an intense interest in buried wealth. A later reminiscence ties the name Harmony to Henry Drinker Jr.s land agent John Hilborn. 120. Nathaniel Lewis brought with him negative experiences with the Rodsmen and treasure digging culture, Isaac Hale arrived in Pennsylvania without the same conflict with his Connecticut roots.93, Uncle Nate, Isaacs brother-in-law Nathaniel Lewis, and Nathaniels wife Sarah, squatted on a farm immediately west of the Hales on the north bank of the Susquehanna River ascending the foot of Oquago Mountain. But his response to their home may not have been quite as exuberant as was his mothers when she visited it three years later, since she was more attuned to its elaborate character and what it did for ones place in the community. Buck and Hale had left the Oquago Valley before it was settled, and J. [3][4][5], After the killing of Joseph Smith Emma remained in Nauvoo rather than following Brigham Young and the mormon pioneers to the Utah Territory. These may be the bodies of other family members or neighbors moved at the same time or earlier forgotten burials. 305. While the Hales did not document Isaacs marriage intentions for his children, and there is no information on Emmas choice of local marriage prospects, James eventually married another young woman in their village, Mary Ann McKune, on September 7, 1830, within a few days of Joseph and Emma Smiths permanent departure from Harmony. She crossed the Mississippi River, which had frozen over in February 1839. Isaac was continuously taxed for a second home with the few exceptions discussed and explained in the text, until 1825 when it appears his son David Hale took over responsibility for the home. Not only did David Hale believe his mother was converted to Methodism in Pennsylvania (Blackman,History of Susquehanna County,103), but neighbors of the Lewis family in Vermont indicated that some of the children in the family did not join Methodism, unaware of Elizabeth Hales later conversion, Abby Maria Hemenway,The History of Rutland County, Vermont: Civil, Ecclesiastical, Biographical, and Military(White River Junction, Vt.: White River Paper Co., 1882), 1194; Paul HilandHistory of Wells, Vermont for the First Century after its Settlement; with Biographical Sketches by Robert Parks, Esq. They courted for several months while Joseph worked to improve his financial situation. An 1857 hand drawn map of the Susquehanna Valley includes a stylized sketch of the Hale home depicting a structure similar to the one Timothy Pickering hired Isaac Hale to build for him.244 Pickering designed a typical Federal style home for his plantation in the Susquehanna Valley that included a neatly balanced appearance. John Comfort, letter to Silas Comfort, Letter, February 23, 1838. King, A Comparative Midden Analysis of a Household and Inn in St Marys City, Maryland,Historical Archaeology22, no. Mark Lyman Staker serves as a Senior Researcher in the Church History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and has beeninvolved in historic sites restoration for more than fifteen years. To read the extensive article on the Hale family and the historical setting of their Susquehanna River Valley dwellings, see, Isaac and Elizabeth Hale in Their Endless Mountain Home,Mormon Historical Studiesvol. Isaac Hales perception of Joseph was that he was not very well educated, he was a stranger, and he followed a business that I could not approve.312 Given the social position and wealth of the Comfort family, when John and Phoebe Comforts son James was born in September 1805, he must have soon become one of the most eligible bachelors in the valley. Children were to only address their parents with a title of respect, such as using Sir. They were to always bow when approaching their parents. [18] She saw upholding morality as the primary purpose of the Relief Society. 181. George Peck (Early Methodism, 33233) related a story as he heard it from Nathaniel Lewis where Nathaniel asked to try Joseph Smiths spectacles to translate strange tongues from Adam ClarkesCommentary and Critical Notes on the Holy Bibleinto English. Lorenzo Saunders, interview by William H. Kelly, September 17, 1884, E. L. Kelley Papers, Community of Christ Library and Archives, Independence, Missouri, hereafter CCA, cited in Dan Vogel, William D. Purple Reminiscence, April 28, 1877,Early Mormon Documents, 5 vols. It's worth noting that this is the historical record and there might be different perspectives on Isaac Hale's relationship with Joseph Smith. 205. Willingborough Township, Direct Tax Lists 1798, 3. After the half starved Colbert ate with a nasty dirty woman and her nasty children, he established a black class in the valley west of Willingborough and then headed home.182 Methodist classes were loose associations that gathered for Bible study and provided organized service to help the needy in a community, and the white members of the community typically organized classes independently from their black members.183 This class would have operated without formal support or direction and would not have taken religion over the mountain to the Susquehanna Valley. They returned to Pennsylvania in December 1827 to live near her family and work on the translation of the Book of Mormon. Menu and widgets But it also aligned him culturally with the local Native Americans since they considered it shameful for a man to do agricultural work; men were expected to hunt and fish.126. Done was the only Methodist family in the place, and he was as deeply involved with the Rodsmen as were his neighbors.90 Perhaps the only reason Clark felt he could call Mr. The best candidate for a residence for the treasure diggers is the Isaac and Elizabeth Hale log home. 3 Born in Waterbury, New Haven Co., Connecticut. 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. These roads would open trade to the Genesee Valley where men like Joseph Knight Sr. and Josiah Stowell could purchase large supplies of grain inexpensively and take their loads down to the river destined for the higher priced urban markets in Pennsylvania. B. Buck, one of Daniels grandsons, who was not there during the early years of occupation and appears to be reporting the memories of others, later suggested that what he described as the first diggings done in their area were at the Painted Rock site.106 He recalled his uncle found the foundation of a house on the island in the river at Painted Rock, where they targeted their initial digging. Two months after the Pickering death Asbury stopped in the dark at Taylors Tavern a half mile west of the Hale home on Emma Hales third birthday, July 10, 1807. Vogel, Hiel Lewis Reply, 6 August 1879,Early Mormon Documents, 4:316. The modest headstones the men could see as they traveled were made by stonemason J. W. Stewart, known for years as Coffin Man. But it was Oliver Harpers large, ornate headstone just to the south of the two simple ones that would have likely been the focus of any discussion the men had with its neatly chiseled inscription announcing Harper had been robbed and murdered the previous year on March 11, 1824. And she wrote them of the great city her fellow believers were building called Nauvoo where the entire Hale family could come to live, even if they did not accept her religion.291. And Alva was born November 29, 1795. [7] Her funeral was held May 2, 1879, in Nauvoo with RLDS Church minister Mark Hill Forscutt preaching the sermon. After concluding their new Methodist minister was more interested in money than he was in fulfilling his ministerial duties, Comfort wrote, My Dear Son if this is christianity or Methodism How I have been deceived for more than thirty eight years.284. 218. 276. 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. Tell us. But he is never mentioned in later accounts of Rodsmen activity. The tax records also confirm the Hale family had a log home in 1798 and imply one of their two homes taxed in 1813 was a log home. Tax Assessment, Great Bend Township, 1823, Susquehanna County Courthouse. Stone hoe used by Onandaga women to grow corn, found on Hale Farm. Her cousins named their son Algernon Sidney Lewis after the English philosopher Algernon Sidney who opposed absolute or divine right monarchy, and the Litchfield area became a central base for operations during the war where the Continental Army could rely on consistent support, store supplies, and keep prisoners of war. Isaac Hale and James Westfall, 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. He quickly found himself alone in the darkness surrounded by the cries of howling, ravening wolves, and greedy bears, in these regions of barreness. In that isolated country, Colbert found the occasional smoky cabin tucked back from the river hidden in the woods. Buck was avidly interested in finding salt mines or springs essential to hunters preserving and shipping meat downriver, and his travels in the area gave him a rare familiarity with a region little understood by outsiders.32. Even in his old age, Nathaniel Lewis was referred to by John Comfort on occasion as old Brother Lewis. John Comfort to Silas Comfort, Harmony, January 17, 1840. Chaffee, who wrote after Nathaniel Lewiss death, still referred to him as a local deacon, but also wrote that John Hilborn advised Lewis to procure a license to preach in conforming with the rules of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Mr. Lewis being a firm believer in the doctrines of Methodism and fully competent to teach. But she unfortunately married a British Officer who had a wife in England which was afterwards discovered. See Harmony Township tax records for unseated lands for Jacob, William, and Joseph Smith, Unseated lands for William Smith (364 acres) and Jacob Smith (401 acres) 1815 recorded for January 1816 assessment; 1820 it is William 364 and Jacob 402. The author wrote, Meantime Deacon Stowell purchased a farm at Susquehanna and moved his family there from Afton. 121. They were not allowed to come into a room where their parents were talking with strangers, unless they were invited in; and if a stranger came in to talk to their parents, they were to bow and withdraw from the room.300 A good son would wait to speak to his father until spoken to, and then answer in as few words as possible. Isaacs distinction between my house and near my residence is similar to a later account by one of Emmas Lewis cousins whose family was also taxed for two houses on their property. She described one of these homes in which achinkin the wall was its only window, the panes being irregular bits of glass fitted in as well as they could be, and in dark weather it was necessary to light a candle to do the washing.. Thomas and Mary Buck Tarble became part of the same Presbyterian community near Ouaquaga village where Josiah Stowell served as a deacon.After her husband Thomas was killed in an accident and buried on Abel Stowells farm, Mary moved to father-in-law John S. Tarbeles home a little south of the Hale family. Emma first met Joseph Smith Jr. in 1825, while he boarded with her family. She later married Major Lewis C. Bidamon in 1847. . The land was rocky without a good soil base and could not be farmed, its only resource available to Morse was the old growth forest growing on its steep slopes. J. H. Beers and Co.,Commemorative Biographical Record of Northeastern Pennsylvania, Including the Counties of Susquehanna, Wayne, Pike and Monroe(Chicago: J. H. Beers and Co., 1900), 1232, 124748. Her family was glad to see her. 26. Press J to jump to the feed. Blackman,History of Susquehanna County,103. 112. After two years of unseasonably cold weather many families were at a breaking point.121 They turned increasingly to the river for support. Others worked up or down river.One of these mill operators left an account of the rafting that played a role in his mill operation, noting, I stayed in that country about eight years and labored very hard rafting on the Susquehanna River, and many times my life was much exposed. Zera Pulsipher, History of Zera Pulsipher, typescript, Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University. Isaac's attitude towards Joseph Smith was one of disapproval and did not like him as a person. 193. Wed hardly get over one frolic when wed begin to fix for another.154 Settlers held a big frolic on Wednesday, July 4, where they enjoyed dancing and eating as they worked together while honoring Isaac Hale and the other men in the valley who had served in the Revolutionary War. 204. Once they settled in, Joseph began work on the Book of Mormon, with Emma acting as a scribe. John Travas (also spelled Traves and Travis), a neighbor of the Hales, had a 15 x 30 foot home valued at $16, which was likely the value of a single story structure. 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. The 1828 assessment on the land included a detailed description of its use and, when combined with information from a 1937 aerial photograph and a careful walk of the property to discover stone fence remnants or land use details, gives a picture of how the Hales organized their land. I have named one of the judges Scribe A (see Trial Notes Scribe A) as he recorded the following testimony, confirming the log home still stood in May 1824. I have concluded she was born in Goshen on the family property. In a short time they returned, bringing with them a Peter Ingersol, and subsequently came to the conclusion that they would move out, and reside upon a place near my residence. She wold often say to those that came to see hir for they ware many that she knew that hir Redemer liveth and she longd to bea at rest in the paradise of god.292, After Elizabeths death, Alva saw that his mother was buried in the family plot in the nearby cemetery. Mumford owned a large lumbering company elsewhere in the county and along with the four residences in the Susquehanna Valley, the company also paid taxes on a sawmill. I have interpreted Blackmans fifty years as a round number meaning for a long time. Since Blackman only mentioned Elizabeth as a consistent member and not Isaac, either he was a late joiner or had not initially been consistent. Colbert, Journal of the Travels of William Colbert.. 4 Son of Reuben Hale and Diantha Ward. Blackman noted, William Smith arrived in the valley the same year as Isaac Hale and occupied the land east of him later purchased by the Westfall family.259 It is possible William Smith was already on the property when Isaac Hale arrived since Pennsylvania surveyed the Smith property early during the Pennamite Warson either July 2, 1784, with Jacob Smiths neighboring tract of land in number 236, or on April 4, 1785 with George Rupers land, part of which was later purchased by Isaac Hale.260 William Smith was sometimes known as Governor with his 364 acres.261 Jacob Smith was sometimes assessed a tax as Joseph Smith but it is not clear if that was his alternate name or the name of his son.This Joseph Smith was first assessed for 434 acres in 1823.262, The similarity in names between this Smith family and Isaacs later son-in-law Joseph Smith has caused some confusion over the years. Lucy Mack Smith, Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1845, 190, josephsmithpapers.org. isaac hale father of emma smith isaac hale father of emma smith. He suggested to her the women in the valley were unusually strong and healthy, and he hoped if the sickly Jane were to come north and join him it would improve her health as well. But her placement of the ruins on the Westfall property is supported by early sources.268The map Blackman described marking the town suggests it was a small settlement and it was likely affiliated with the larger community at Oquago to the norththe connection between the two places may explain the name of Oquago Mountain. The village post office officially changed the name of the village from Hopbottom to Waterford in 1823 but in 1825 it changed again to Brooklyn although locals continued for many years to refer to it as Hopbottom. The valley was essentially a hunting preserve, but there was a small settlement on the east end near where three apple trees stood that formed the rallying point and headquarters of all the Indians in the neighborhood. and our Her mother Elizabeth Lewis Hale died in 1842. It was during this troubled period that other religious denominations began to appear in the valley. However, since Drinker was himself a Quaker, it is likely that the name reflected the sentiments of both owner and agent. On January 17, 1827, Joseph and Emma left the Stowell house and traveled to the house of Zachariah Tarbill[12] in South Bainbridge, New York, where they were married the following day. Provo, UT: Center for Family History and Genealogy, Brigham Young University, 2002. While the early treasure lore Stiles collected may have been more accurate than much of the gossip about treasure typically shared during the period, his own search for and failure to find any gold was unremarkably average. That fall, Joseph obtained the gold plates and continued his mission of being an instrument in the hands of God in restoring the gospel. A wing (no longer extant) was added to this house, which Emma operated as a hotel. Blackmans use of the phrase a little deluded suggests in her published history the Hale family initially believed Joseph Smiths revelations. While helping Josiah Stowell look for the rumored Spanish silver, Joseph Smith Jr. took lodging on the rocky farmstead of the Hale familyan unproductive lot running from the riverbank north to Oquago Road above the floodplain. Versaggi, personal communication to author, September 13, 2013. Jane C. Nylander,Our Own Snug Fireside: Images of the New England Home, 17601860(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994), 5465. If the Hale home included wallpaper it would have impressed.246 The Hale home became a civic center and a church as it was used for a variety of meetings.247 The Hale family left remnants of a high quality tea pot made of fine Jakefield pottery, a style of ceramics used by English royalty roughly during the second half of the eighteenth-century (17401790). isaac hale father of emma smith. Selah Payne, who was a fellow Methodist of the Hale family, and who provided his home as the second meeting place along with the Hale family, began to build an African college on his property, but abandoned the project, Blackman,History of Susquehanna County,105. 1833, Letter to David Hale, 1219February 1841, Travel Account and Questions, November 1837. Larry C. Porter, Reverend George LaneGood Gifts, Much Grace, and Marked Usefulness,BYU Studies9 (Spring 1969): 327. He experienced some melancholy while he was away from his fianc, Jane Hodge, and he wrote her of his homesickness, Even the talisman around my neck, which I fondly thought would have defended me against all mischance, cannot shield me from this evil spirit . This would explain the August 23, 1877, account reported by theBainbridge Republicanthat relied heavily on William Purples account of Joseph Smiths trial for glass looking, but may have had other sources at its disposal as well. Recorded in Susquehanna County Deeds, Deed to Joseph McKune Jr., 28 June 1833, as Recorded in Bushman,Refinement of America,3060. Posted on July 4, 2022 by . But as part of what then existed of an American aristocracy, he immediately gave status to the Lewis and Hale families, a relationship the family still referenced a half-century later. Report filed in the Historic Sites Files, Historic Sites Division, LDS Church History Department. But although the term summer kitchen is anachronistic in this context, it is so widely known and helps to describe the purpose of the work kitchens that Ive retained it here to refer to the extra kitchen that was part of the Hale home. 143. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. Joseph boarded at the nearby home of Isaac Hale, where he met Emma, Isaac's twenty-year old daughter. Peck,Early Methodism,306. 40. George Ruper owned their land only briefly after he acquired it from Pennsylvania. He had no other wife but me; nor did he to my knowledge ever have. 14. He had been hired by Josiah Stowell, of South Bainbridge, New York, to dig for Spanish treasure. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, had recently coined the phrase, cleanliness is next to Godliness, and his thinking clearly influenced Colbert who frequently used the word filthy in his journal to describe the cabins he saw, the people he met, and the meager food they shared. Ben Pykles, personal communication to author, December 28, 2011. Upham,Life of Timothy Pickering,119. Hiland Paul,History of Wells, Vermont for the First Century after its Settlement; with Biographical Sketches by Robert Parks, Esq. David recalled his father killed most of his wild game in the fall when it was the fattest and harvested about 100 deer each year along with bear, elk, and small animals. http://www.sidneyrigdon.com/dbroadhu/IL/miscill3.htm#043079. Events of the 1838 Mormon War soon escalated, resulting in Joseph's surrender and imprisonment by Missouri officials. My heart is entwined around yours forever and ever, Joseph wrote to Emma in 1838.3 Emma wrote to him in Liberty Jail in 1839: I still live and am yet willing to suffer more if it is the will of kind Heaven, that I should for your sake.4, Emma struggled deeply with the principle of plural marriage. George Peck, Memorandums of Circuit Travels, 18161818., 248. Wilkinson,Annals of Binghamton,106. 2 Farmer, hunter, innkeeper. The partial cellar under the original log home was dug out and expanded to create a basement for the later frame home. 239. He did not have time to put his boots on before leaving his home. George Peck,The Life and Times of Rev. 300. Because Luzerne County tax assessments are missing for the period before Susquehanna County was created, there is a fourteen year gap without tax information on the Hale property. Phoebe was born on May 1, 1798, Elizabeth followed February 14, 1800, Isaac Ward (who went by Ward) on March 11, 1802, Emma on July 10 1804, and Tryal on November 21, 1806. This lady was a very intelligent woman, when young she moved in the first circles of society.
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