Where Science Meets the Doctrine and Covenants: Come Follow Me Lesson: March 10-16: Doctrine and Covenants 20-22
We are told in Doctrine and Covenants 20:81-82, “It shall be the duty of the several churches, composing the church of Christ, to send one or more of their teachers to attend the several conferences held by the elders of the church, With a list of the names of the several members uniting themselves with the church since the last conference; or send by the hand of some priest; so that a regular list of all the names of the whole church may be kept in a book by one of the elders, whomsoever the other elders shall appoint from time to time…”
Because of all the moving about by early Church members, such records as described above are very rare. Doing a Google search for such a list produced no results of early baptism records. However, the following is an early Church membership list from that search — for the Camp Creek Branch. The second name down is L T Coons, Eld; Dr. Lebbeus Thaddeus Coons (1811-1872) is my great, great, great grandfather. The top of the document (not shown in this image) states that the Camp Creek Branch was organized May 1, 1842, with LT Coons as Presiding Elder and D. M. Gamet, Clerk.1
Lebbeus Thaddeus Coons and Mary Ann Williamson were married sometime in 1832. They had eight children; one died within the first year and seven lived into adulthood. LT was baptized by Lyman E. Johnson on 10 November 1832 and Mary Ann was baptized at the same time, or shortly thereafter. LT apparently studied medicine under Dr. Stephen Griggs Holbrook and may have attended Burton Academy, but probably did not obtain a degree. He was known as an Herbal Doctor and Physician. LT was a member of Zion’s Camp (210 total men), which left Kirtland May 5, 1834, and he returned around September or October. He was present on Saturday, February 14, 1835, when the Three Witnesses chose the Twelve Apostles. Joseph Smith organized the First Quorum of Seventy at the Temple Site in Kirtland, from among those who had been in Zion’s Camp, and LT was chosen as one of them. He was ordained a Seventy on May 2, 1835 and served his first mission July 16-December 27, 1835. The Kirtland Temple was dedicated March 27, 1836. LT officially received his Elder’s License there on 9 April 1836 and left for his second mission 12 April – 15 October 1836.2
On 2 January 1837, LT became a charter signer and share-holder of the Articles of Agreement of Kirtland Safety Society. During the bank failures in the US in 1837, the Kirtland Safety Society also failed. Many blamed Joseph and left the Church, but not the Coons. They apparently traveled toward Missouri with the other Seventies and their families in 1838. By the spring of 1839, LT had established a medical practice in Springfield, Ill. This is the same Springfield where another of my great, great, great grandfathers, Abraham Palmer (described below), was Branch President and then Bishop. LT may have stopped there in 1838, as there is no direct evidence that he actually went on to Missouri. Brigham Young was in Springfield, became ill 5 October 1839, and was attended by “Dr. Lebbeus T. Coons”. By 10 June 1841, LT had moved to Mercer County [or Hancock County], perhaps to Camp Creek, 8 miles north of Nauvoo.3 There he was called as the Branch President as per the above document.
LT was ordained a High Priest 12 November 1843, received his High Priest “License” on 18 May 1844 and served a mission in Tennessee until 15 June 1844. After Joseph and Hyrum were martyred in Carthage, 27 June 1844, LT was sent back to Tennessee, 8 October 1844 to preside for a few months and then to Camp Creek September 22-24, 1845 to bring those Saints into Nauvoo. On 31 December 1845, Lebbeus Thaddeus Coons and Mary Ann Williamson Coons received their Temple Endowments Nauvoo Temple and were sealed 24 January 1846. At the time of the exodus from Nauvoo, there were more single adult women in the Church than men, including “…many widows, usually with families, who had no way of providing transportation to leave nor the provisions for outfitting the trip. Some of the Priesthood brethren were ‘called’…to take additional wives…LT…with Mary Ann at his side in the Nauvoo Temple on 24 January,…took two additional widow ladies into marriage.” They were Elizabeth Maria Dixon and Sarah King Hillman. On the same date, LT served as proxy for Mayhew Hillman, Sarah’s deceased husband, receiving his endowment and Mayhew’s sealing to Sarah.4
In the winter of 1846-47, only about 1/3 of the Church-member refugees from Nauvoo were able to cross the Missouri River into Winter Quarters on the western side. The majority remained scattered in eighty settlements in western Iowa, along the eastern side of the river. In July 1846, LT and his families arrived in Kanesville (again where Abraham Palmer would be Branch President). LT settled a town called Bethlehem, 18 miles south of Kanesville. He served first as Branch President and then Bishop in Bethlehem for the next six years. In 1848, LT laid out the plans for another town 5-6 miles from Bethlehem called Coonsville. His calling as Bishop was also extended to Coonsville and other communities in the “Lower Area”. Adeline Coons and her husband John Buchanan (my great, great grandparents) had their first child, John Lorenzo Buchanan (my great grandfather), on 24 January 1852, in Coonsville, and left for the Salt Lake Valley 7 June 1852 in the Thomas D. Howell Company. LT and Mary Ann moved out of Coonsville as it was emptied on emigrants in 1852, back to Bethlehem in 1853, and then farther north to Magnolia, Harrison County where he raised medicinal plants and practiced medicine. Finally, in 1865, they moved to Utah.5
We also read in Doctrine and Covenants 20:84, “All members removing from the church where they reside, if going to a church where they are not known, may take a letter certifying that they are regular members and in good standing, which certificate may be signed by any elder or priest if the member receiving the letter is personally acquainted with the elder or priest, or it may be signed by the teachers or deacons of the church.” My Google search revealed no such extant letters that I could find.
Furthermore, in Doctrine and Covenants 20:64, we read, “Each priest, teacher, or deacon, who is ordained by a priest, may take a certificate from him at the time, which certificate, when presented to an elder, shall entitle him to a license, which shall authorize him to perform the duties of his calling, or he may receive it from a conference.”
Again, I was unable to find such a certificate. However, I was able to find the following: The following form and manner of Recording Licenses Guaranteed in this Church, has been considered sufficiently approved of by Hyrum Smith Patriarch and James Sloan – Church Clerk Appnitade by the general Conference October 2nd 1841 Abraham Palmer received a License as a High Priest, the 4th October 1841, James Sloan - Clerk
Another of my great, great, great grandfathers was Abraham Palmer (1807-1875). His is the last name on the above record. He was married in 1825 to Patience Delila Pierce (1809-1894). He was 18 and she was 16. They had eleven children. Their first baby, Isaac Pierce Palmer, died the same year he was born. Of their remaining ten children, five died at ages 1, 7, 8, 11, and 13. The other five would cross the plains to Utah.
The following is an account “Taken from the records of Leslie L. Palmer,” a grandson, (1897-1969):
“Abraham Palmer in the year 1833 was on a boat on Lake Champlain and was reading and studying his Bible. A middle aged man came and sat down and talked to him, asking him if he understood his Bible. Abraham said no! They talked and he explained for an hour or more. As he left he said, ‘You will hear about me a year from today.’ Abraham went on studying and came to another part that he didn't understand, and went to look up this gentleman. He hunted all over the boat, even asking the Captain. The captain said there was no-one by that description on the boat.
“One year later to the day, two missionaries came to Mr. Palmer's home, brought the gospel to him and gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon. One of the first things on opening the Book of Mormon was the story of the three Nephites who asked of Jesus the privilege of staying upon this earth until his second coming. (3 Nephi 28)”
Abraham and Patience joined the Church on February 14, 1835; they were baptized through a hole in the ice. Abraham was ordained an Elder by Hyrum Page in 1836 in Oswegatchie, St. Lawrence, NY, where he “raised a branch of 68 members”. He led the branch toward Far West, Missouri in 1838, and they were almost to Hawn’s Mill, 17 miles east of Far West, just before the mob attack in the afternoon of October 30th.
The following is Patience’s personal account as recorded in the Utah Magazine of February 1892:
“It was in the fall of 1838 that eight families of us were on our way from New York to Far West in Missouri where many of the Saints were gathered. In our journey we had had our wagon searched by mobs and our books and guns taken from us. When we came to Shoal Creek we could go no farther on account of surrounding mobs, so we camped there four miles below Haun’s Mill, the night before the massacre. At the mill the saints and mob had made a treaty that neither party should molest the other.
“The day following was beautiful and warm, and in the afternoon the other sister and myself were washing our clothes in the creek and the children, with shoes and stockings off, were playing about when a boy on a horse, came riding furiously down the creek. He told us that the mob was killing the saints at the mill. What were we to do? There were no arms in camp, so we were unable to defend ourselves. Without stopping to put shoes or stockings on our children we hastily fled towards the woods. Our husbands remained.
“I had six small children at my side and a baby at my breast. [The six children would have included the baby. They were: Luther Moses Morris Palmer 1827–1915, John Quincy Palmer 1829–1840 (died in Springfield at age 11), Elizabeth Palmer 1831–1844 (died in Nauvoo at age 13), Ann Eliza Palmer 1833–1904 (my great, great grandmother), Susannah Charlotte Palmer 1835–1853 (died in Salt Lake City from child-birth at age 17), Abraham Pierce Palmer 1838–1846 (died in Greenwood, Lee, Iowa at age 8)]. We ran over brush, over hills and hollows and as our children ran over the rough untrodden ground stains of blood were left from their tender feet. When we would stop for a short rest mothers would take their clothes from their backs to lay on the ground for the children to stand on and warm their cold raw feet. Once for a rest, while in the woods, we drawled under a tree that had fallen down. During the night we traveled through the woods and over burnt prairie. In the morning we heard the call of our husbands, and returned with them to camp.
“The mob at the mill killed eighteen and instead of coming down to our camp as they had intended, they became frightened lest an army of saints from Far West were coming down the creek and fled over a twenty five mile prairie that night. Thus we see, “the wicked flee when no man pursueth.” This we subsequently learned from Brother Standing, one of our company who had been taken prisoner previous to the massacre.
“After our return to camp our husbands went to the mill to prepare the dead for burial. While they were away, we saw a mob, armed and on horses, approaching. They rode down toward us to the brow of a hill a short distance away and stopped. Another sister and myself went to them and the captain with drawn sword advanced. I asked him what they intended to do with us. He said, to our surprise, his company should not harm us, but he advised us to leave the vicinity for a mob of furious men were coming. He told us of an unguarded back wood road, from which the guard had been taken and also of a man who could act as guide. He then requested us to promise we would not reveal what he had told us for, if it became know, his life would be in danger.
“We did as advised, broke up camp and started for the woods. When we had traveled about fifteen miles we stopped for several days waiting for orders from Far West. While there, one of the brethren arrived with the news that the saints had agreed to leave the State. We then moved on. Our food soon gave out and we had nothing to eat. My husband got some corn, and that was all we had for three weeks. We would parch the corn and then eat it, but the small children could not do that. We had to partly chew it ourselves, it having been parched, and then feed it to them. We lived in this way for three long weeks, and then our corn gave out and we were without food of any kind for two days and a half. On the night of the third day we procured a sack of flour and then having nothing but the flour, we lived several days on spoon cakes, made by mixing four with water and baking in dry skillets…
“My sister, Ruth Crosier, with husband and children went with us. We soon got a house to live in for the winter and Mr. Palmer (being a carpenter by trade) took a contract to build and finish a frame church…In March 1839, we again started to leave the state, ourselves and teams being now recruited. We had bought food and clothing with the product of our labor, but could take but little of the former with us, as our teams were light, and the winter was just breaking up. The roads were muddy and we encountered frequent storms, all of which made the journey unpleasant,…At last, we arrived at the Mississippi, opposite the city of Quincy. There we found hundreds of the families of the saints, camping of the banks of the river, awaiting their turns to cross in the one ferry boat that was plying back and forth carrying the exiled saints from the cruel State of Missouri to the friendly shores of Illinois. What a scene!”6
The Palmers would have four more children: James Albert Palmer 1841–1842 (died in Springfield, Ill at age 1), Patience Delila Naomi Palmer 1844–1851 (died in Kanesville, Iowa, age 7), William Moroni Palmer 1846–1929, and Hyrum Smith Palmer 1849–1893.
After their expulsion from Missouri, Abraham led his branch to Springfield, Ill. During the first general conference in Nauvoo, April 6–8, 1840, Abraham was ordained a Seventy. The following year, 4th October 1841, he was ordained a High Priest and bishop of the Springville Ward by Patriarch Hyrum Smith. He and Patience were endowed 29 December 1845 in the Nauvoo Temple. Abraham was called as bishop in Kanesville, Iowa, where the Palmers stayed to help fitting out other emigrants.7
They came to Utah in 1852, the year many of the Saints who had been called to stay in Iowa to outfit other emigrants were called on to Salt Lake City. Abraham (Abram) was Captain of the First Team; come west with Patience, Ann, Susan, William, and Hyrum; in James C. Snow’s Hundred and arrived in Salt Lake City 9 October 1852.8 Their oldest living son, Luther Morris Palmer had already crossed the plains in 1847. He went to California at the time of the Gold Rush (1849) and practiced medicine there for a short time. However, like many physicians of the time, he had no medical degree. He came back to Salt Lake City in 1851 and then moved to southern Utah in 1864.9 Susannah Charlotte Palmer’s marriage date on Family Search is listed as 22 January 1862 to Lyman Smith Hutchings, but that date must be wrong because she is listed in the wagon company arriving 9 October 1852. She must have been married in January 1853. She had a baby girl, Susan Delila Ann Hutchings on 17 September 1853, and died 4 October 1853; she was eleven days short of being 18. Thus, of eleven children, only four reached adulthood.
Abraham and Patience Palmer lived in Ogden for 13 years, where Abraham was councilor to Lorin Farr in the Weber Stake Presidency. Lorin Farr was Ogden’s founder and first mayor. He had many businesses, including the first lumber mill, woolen mill and flour mill in northern Utah, as well as the Farr Ice Company. His son, Asael, and grandsons would found the Farr Better Ice Cream Company in 1920.
On 16 February 1857 Abraham Palmer married Hulda Catherine Hill and Ann Bedford as pleural wives. Abraham had six children with Hulda and none with Ann. She was a widow with one child; her husband John Allen had died in England in 1836. In 1870, Abraham moved with his families to Fayette, Utah to teach school. The school was a one-room log cabin, with split logs for the benches and the children used slates. Hulda also taught school there for many years. The pay they received was mainly produce, which they used or sold to support their families. Abraham and Hulda were the first school teachers in Fayette.10
When I was young, the Church records looked like this, with all the information typed or had-written on a half-page form:
While Kathleen and I lived in Philadelphia, 1974-1977, while I worked on my PhD, she was in the Relief Society Presidency and then Primary President. I was called as a Ward Membership Clerk, with a job of transcribing the hand-written records of the Philadelphia Ward into computer records. Church membership records have remained in computers ever since.
Trent Dee Stephens, PhD
References
1. Camp Creek Branch (Illinois) 1842-1848, Historical Record and List of Names (45 pages). The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints LR 5293-21; 2356; catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/assets/4072c418-25bb-4dca-908a-c1cfefa55791/0/2
2. Lebbeus Thaddeus Coons, A Biography by Daniel D. Coons, August 1997; FamilySearch
3. Ibid
4. Ibid
5. Ibid
7. FamilySearch: Abraham Palmer
8. Emigration Card Catalog Film #BYU 929 #195 Those Who Crossed the Plains; Sources listed as J.HD Supplement p 117B, J.H. Sept 18, 1852 pg 2, and P and P Men of Utah pg 1173
9. Familysearch: Dr. Luther Morris Palmer; findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=12545704
10. FamilySearch Abraham Palmer
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