295. Isaac Hale (1763 - 1839): Father of Joseph Smith's lawful wife, Emma Smith. 4. 253. The only child of theirs to be baptized after the controversy began was Isaac and Elizabeths daughter Emma, who was baptized by Buck not long after her birth in 1804, just before Methodism arrived in the valley.173, The slave Sylvia Dubois attended the same congregation where Emma was baptized and described it as the Calvinistic faith . Isaac Hale noted the money-diggers boarded at my house while they were employed in digging for a mine.277 Hale could have meant by board either taking meals somewhere or regularly sleeping somewhere for an extended period.278 Both meanings were used in local contexts at the time.279 He could have meant by my house either his log home or his frame home. isaac hale father of emma smith isaac hale father of emma smith. Jesse reduced the value of Isaac Hales land on appeal by $150.00. 228. Against the wishes of Emma's father, Emma and Joseph married on January 18, 1827. Net Worth: $1 Million - $2 Million (Approx.). Since Elizabeth died in 1842, Blackmans date would put her initial conversion at 1792 when William Colbert took Methodism to upper Pennsylvania but not the Susquehanna Valley. The Lewis family arrived among the earliest settlers, and they would have spent most of their time clearing land to make it productive. 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. That same day, Julia Clapp Murdock died giving birth to twins, Joseph and Julia. He established another congregation about ten miles upriver from the Hales in South Bainbridge, New York, and found success in other valleys in the region. 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. Alvin, their first child, was born and died in this home. In 1788 more white settlers came to the valley where Hale and Buck first met, and Daniel Buck became their first minister.51 He also established a congregation in the Susquehanna Valley where the Hale family and their Lewis in-laws attended his services.52 Jonathan Bennett served as the deacon of the congregation.53. 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. 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. 158. The turnpike crossed the river at the bridge into Lanesville where it continued south past what locals called the Vermont settlement on Tyler Road. Upham,Life of Timothy Pickering,119. Alva Hale, Letter to His Brothers and Sisters, February 20, 1842, Wilford C. Wood Museum Collection, Bountiful, Utah. Thomas Houghton,Royal Institutions: Being Proposals for Articles to Establish and Confirm Laws, Liberties, and Customs of Silver and Gold Mines to All the Kings Subjects(London: Daniel Poplar, 1694), A23,68. Comfort wrote, Nathaniel Lewis Jr. [Nathaniel C. Lewis] had his leg broke last spring by the kick of an ox & has had it amputated above the knee. The words purported meaning of place of hulled-corn soup may have had reference to several pits containing charred corn Buck and Hale found near the ancient apple trees.44 No matter who named the mountain, that name permanently connected the Hale family and their mountain to the Onandaga people who lived there before. On December 21, 1819, John Comfort assessed Isaac Hale a tax for three homes on his property. It helped shape their place in that community as the residence of a pious, Christian family. He covered the meat with locally gathered salt to keep it from spoiling, holding it into place by heavy stones until snow covered the ground, and he could drag the meat filled troughs through the woods over the snow. Jacob C. Ullery,Men of Vermont: An Illustrated Biographical History of Vermonters and Sons of Vermont(Brattleboro, Vt.: Transcript Publishing Company, 1894), 5354; John E. Goodrich, ed.,The State of Vermont: Rolls of the Soldiers in the Revolutionary War 1775 to 1783(Rutland, Vt.: The Tuttle Co., 1904), 20809. After Nathaniel Lewis Sr.s brief war service, he built a two-story frame house in the mountains to accommodate his growing family. Blackman,History of Susquehanna County,103. Remains of the stone portion of a stringer fence along the Carmalt eastern property line. Benson Bobrick,Angel in the Whirlwind: The Triumph of the American Revolution(New York: Penguin Books, 1997),50-51, 148. His large farm was on the best land in the valley and others grew significantly less produce. Jane C. Nylander,Our Own Snug Fireside: Images of the New England Home, 17601860(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994), 5465. 117. On 23 December 1847, which would have been Joseph's 42nd birthday, Bidamon and Smith were married in Nauvoo by a Methodist circuit rider. During that year, Buck was charged with teaching false doctrine, leading some members of his congregation to try removing him from his position. So we have travel[ed] round over the world seeking a place of abode that suits our views; but how soon all our Labors must end and we go to our Long home while the mourners go about the streets. Joseph boarded at the nearby home of Isaac Hale, where he met Emma, Isaac's twenty-year old daughter. During trial testimony, Isaac Hale mentioned walking this specific site barefoot as he took a group of angry neighbors over to the Treadwell home east of his property to confront a member of the family, Trial Notes of Scribe B.. 140. His eventual father-in-law, Nathaniel Lewis, also lived in the area and was drawn into one of these searches. While the Hale property changed owners, Pennsylvania sold 9,000 acres of remaining land in the valley to Colonel Timothy Pickering Jr., a Harvard graduate, intellectual, military officer, and politician. 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. 195. Samuel Stanton, who first helped settle Harmony Township built a 12 x 14 foot cabin with no windows, slabs split from logs for the door, and hemlock bark for a roof. After Hale returned home from military service, he inherited all of his grandfathers estate with the stipulation that he was to take into his Care his Grandmother Phebe Ward in her old age, to keep and provide for during her life, to free her from all or any cost to this State.24 Despite the presence of his uncles, Hale inherited both the property and responsibilities of a son. My belief is that the Book of Mormon is of divine authenticityI have not the slightest doubt of it, she testified in an interview she gave late in life.8 Emma Hale Smith Bidamon passed away in Nauvoo on April30, 1879, and is buried next to Joseph. Shell-edged creamware plate fragment, found on Hale Farm. On June 13, 1840, Emma gave birth to a son, Don Carlos, named after his uncle Don Carlos Smith, Joseph's brother. In1811, when Samuel Thompson became the circuit rider through the Susquehanna Valley,David Hale joined the Methodists at age seventeen. Collection of the LDS Church History Department. 221. While it is unlikely Isaac knew much about Josephs education from observing him with the treasure diggers, writing letters was an important part of courting during the period and this gave Isaac an opportunity to evaluate Josephs abilities. Her options were further limited because travel was difficult and her father had died in 1839. Thou shalt ever remember the great condescension of thy God in permitting thee to accompany my son [Joseph] when the angel delivered the record of the Nephites to his care. She remembers Emma, afterwards the wife of the Prophet, as a handsome and attractive girl, about her own age. 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. [23] As president of the Ladies' Relief Society, she authorized the publishing of a certificate in October 1842 denouncing polygamy and denying her husband as its creator or participant. 1833, Susquehanna County Historical Society, when she lived in the Susquehanna County Seat at Montrose and attended tea parties regularly; Electa Jewett, Journal, 18591865, Susquehanna County Historical Society, lived in neighboring Brooklyn Township (Hopbottom during the early Hale period). This database contains family trees submitted to Ancestry by users who have indicated that their tree can be viewed by all Ancestry subscribers. By the time Cooper published his novel, game was already harder to find, and Isaacs profession had largely become a romanticized occupation of the past. 24, May 15, 1829: 3; George W. Lane Marries C. Winters,Register and Northern Farmer, September 8, 1842. Presumably he was promoted during the war and served in all three positions. 122. 15, no. The letter has one thousand eight hundred andthirteenfourteen written which is likely a correction because of a wrong year added just after the change on January 1. Thou shalt see many days, yea, the Lord will spare thee till thou art satisfied, for thou shalt see thy Redeemer. 6 Peter Ingersoll (ca 1789-1867) 7 Alva Hale (1795-1881) 284. 28. Screen Printing and Embroidery for clothing and accessories, as well as Technical Screenprinting, Overlays, and Labels for industrial and commercial applications Emma was 21years old when she met 19-year-old Joseph Smith at the end of October 1825. 39. Wilkinson,Annals of Binghamton,11617. Emma told her mother they were called Mormons, a development that occurred after they had left the Susquehanna Valley. Stocker,Centennial History of Susquehanna County,550. Isaac bitterly opposed their courtship, but Joseph proposed to Emma, and she, preferring him to all others she had met, accepted. They seem to have thought of it. Seventeen homes were valued between $918 with most valued around the lower end, twelve more valued between $2030 with most falling near the upper end, and only a few homes were valued higher than thirty dollars. 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. [citation needed] As the Kirtland Temple was being constructed, Emma spearheaded an effort to house and clothe the construction workers.[21]. After cutting the meat into strips, he layered it and put it in long, narrow troughs of birch or maple, much like those used by his Native American neighbors, and an item he probably learned to make from them. DuBois and Pike, The Centennial of Susquehanna County, 1888, 36. 197. Blackman,History of Susquehanna County,485, emphasis in original. [citation needed] On May 10, 1839,[13] they moved into a two-story log house in Nauvoo that they called the "Homestead". Hartley later collected and recounted in great detail rules for correspondence during courting. 43. Such were the circumstances on the farm during the early settlement period as well. [7] Her funeral was held May 2, 1879, in Nauvoo with RLDS Church minister Mark Hill Forscutt preaching the sermon. A proper young lady or gentleman was to write to a slight acquaintance in the third person, was not to write in a frank, friendly style, and was not to keep letters confidential from his or her parents.303 Emma likely showed her father Josephs courting letters, and Isaac Hales evaluation of his abilities was likely similar to that of Emma, who noted, Joseph Smith . Joseph Smith prayed for a blessing that the corn would be good, and Morse implied his prayer had been helpful as the corn sprouted and grew. Larison,Sylvia Dubois, 57. to designate an old town of the Tuscaroras.267 She was likely incorrect about the tribal affiliation of the ruins, since others have argued the Onondaga lived on the west side of the Susquehanna River and the Tuscarora lived on the east side. Karen Lynn Davidson, David J. Whittaker, Mark Ashurst-McGee, and Richard L. Jensen, eds.,The Joseph Smith Paper, Histories, Volume 1: 18321844(Salt Lake City: Church Historians Press, 2012), 236 (hereafterJSP,H1). 204. Inez A. Kennedy,Recollections of the Pioneers of Lee Count,(Dixon, Ill.: Inez A. Kennedy, Publisher, 1893), 142; Mark H. Forscutt, Commemorative Discourse on the Death of Mrs. Emma Bidamon,The Saints Herald(July 15, 1879): 20917. In July 1830 the Lord outlined her mission, in a revelation: Thou art an elect lady, whom I have called. [17], Emma was baptized by Oliver Cowdery on June 28, 1830, in Colesville, New York,[13] where an early branch of the church was established. A man came, first to Wells, then to Middletown, [and] introduced the hazel rod.85 A number of these Rodsmen lived in Wells along the township line in the Lewis neighborhood, while most gathered in Middletown where Sarah Cole lived as she and Nathaniel Jr. courted. . 52. Joseph identified the man as the angel Moroni. See Day,Historical Collections of the State of Pennsylvania, 61924). Dubois believed, Taint no use to worryit only makes things worse. Blackman,History of Susquehanna County,92. Isaac Hale hereby Covenants and agrees to sell and convey to the said Joseph Smith J un. Mary S. and John W. Parks, present owners. Many had already left for education, or to follow spouses who preferred to live elsewhere. Pickerings surviving papers also provide detailed plans for construction of the second home and information about this larger structure. It was here on April 30, 1831, that Emma gave birth to premature twins, Thaddeus and Louisa; both babies died hours later. The massifs were reminiscent of their Vermont environs. [23 December 180530 August 1834], Agreement with Isaac Hale, 6 April 106. 37. John Comfort, letter to Silas Comfort, Letter February 29, 1836. Collection of the LDS Church History, John Osterhout cabin, 15 x 22 feet, built around 1800 in Wolf Hollow near the. He then went out of the house pretty soon about the middle of the day., Joshua McKunethink the first time I saw Treadwell after he returned from down the river was on Thursday early in the day after he had been talking at Mr. Hales around the log houseI had seen Treadwell before but had no particular conversationafter he went from Hales house I went in company with him I entered into conversation with him respecting the murder of Oliver Harper.. It was an even more idealized distant memory when Isaacs son David wrote about his fathers profession in the early 1870s. 107. Strale,United States Catholic Intelligencer,September 21, 1832, 415. 267. 278. Photograph by Mark L. Staker. Stow settled on the outskirts of the Old Oquago village where Buck and Hale first met. (Isaac divided up a farm he had sold to his son Jesse and sold the northern rocky portion to Morse and the southern arable portion to his son-in-law Joseph Smith); but Morse may have planted Indian corn somewhere else more susceptible to mountain shade, such as Isaacs island in the middle of the river, which Morse plowed late in the season on July 11 and 13, 1828. He concluded on February 29, 1836, Religion at a very Low ebb with us little or no spirit in the members and of course a great indifference among the congregation. John Comfort, letter to Dear Children, Harmony, February 29, 1836. Wells Town Clerk, Land Records, A: 23. It is unlikely Lurena and her mother traveled in the wilderness to Pennsylvania without support; and they had to have traveled with the Hale and Lewis families. The only library in the region for many years was his personal collection he allowed others to use. The Lord will have respect to thy cries, and by his judgments he will cause some of them to see their folly and repent of their sins; but it will be by affliction that they will be saved. Emma authorized and was the main signatory of a petition in summer 1842 with a thousand female signatures, denying Joseph Smith was connected with polygamy. They courted for several months while Joseph worked to improve his financial situation. Although Blackman notes that Daniel Buck came into the valley in 1787 and David Hale recalled his father had come into the valley in 1787 or thereabout, Blackman placed the construction of the Bennett log home to 1788, either the log home was built in 1787 when Hale arrived and Blackman had an incorrect date, or Bennett built the home specifically for Hale the following spring. 203. A Congregational minister traveled through the region in 1789 and appointed Daniel Buck as the local pastor. 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). Colbert, Journal of the Travels of William Colbert.. Menu and widgets While there is no documentary evidence to suggest why the Hale family continued to attend the Buck congregation after it encountered difficulties, the Pickerings may have contributed to a brief renewed religious interest in the family that dissipated when the Pickerings left. MatthewJ. Tench Francis dictated his will on April 4, 1800, leaving his large tract of Susquehanna Valley property to his wife. . John and Rhoda married and joined the Methodists in 1789, then moved to Wells village where John became a Methodist preacher.86 Levi Lewis, a younger brother, also moved to the village where he operated a tannery and served as the Sunday School superintendent.87 As John moved from Middletown, Nathaniel Jr. continued to live there until he married Sarah at the Justice of the Peace in February 1790.88 Since his family noted Nathaniel Jr. continuously preached from the time he was eleven, it is likely Nathaniel preached Methodism in Middletown, but it did not go well as most families remained involved with the Rodsmen and Lewis saw few if any converts. The Hale property is carefully drawn in the Rose survey maps and labeled with Isaac Hales name.232 While preparations to divide the Rose tract were underway, Isaac and his sons helped finish the Lewis familys new home in 1809 on poor farmland south of the Susquehanna River and just east of a small creek (now Bedbug Creek). 184. Since William Smith continues to be listed in the Unseated Lands section of the tax assessments year after year while the Westfall family is also taxed for property, it appears the purchase was never properly recorded and the transfer clearly noted. Robert S. Hansen, Tioga County, Pennsylvania Extension Director, personal communication to author, March 16, 2010. (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1998), 2:132. Skilled farmers could grow a little of both wheat and barley when managed properly, but they never became major crops. This meant Joseph was under the necessity of taking her elsewhere.18 Not long after Joseph married Emma, however, the two lived briefly in the home as Joseph began his work and prepared to move into his own home. I have used the early name adopted by the early settlers throughout this history to refer to the valley in the eastern portion of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania. [citation needed] She had persuaded John Taylor and Joseph Smith to call the organization the "Relief Society" instead of the "Benevolent Society".