I looked further into the descendant of Oscar's sister Harriet and her husband Alexander McGinnis. They had one grandson, Walter Raymond, who we had lost track of after 1900 when he was living with Harriet on the family farm. Here is some more detail about Walter's life.
In 1918, Walter registered for the World War I Draft in Omaha, Nebraska. He listed his wife as "Nellie" and their address as 110 Golden. His occupation was Refrigeration Engineer for the Pilsbury-Becker Engineering Company with offices in the Central National Bank Building. He listed his height and weight as medium and said he had blue eyes and red hair.
In the 1919 Tulsa City Directory, Walter is now Manager of the same engineering company and his wife is "Nellie" again.
In the 1929 Houston City Directory, Walter is listed as Vice-President of Marine Service, Inc. living at 3812 Austin Street Apt 3. with his wife "Ellen".
In the 1930 Census, he is living with his wife now listed as "Helen" who is 40 years old and who was born in New Mexico. They also have two 23 year old roomers living with them, Nora Mae Clements and Alpha Barnes.
It also appears that Walter's 1952 death was big news big news back in Ohio. I discovered his death was on page 1 of the Coshocton Tribune. I suspect that his mother Bianca stayed in the Coshocton area and he visited regularly. I have sent away for a copy of the article. This should provide any information about his children, if any, and answer the question of his wife's correct name.
I obtained this article and can add this last note. The article described the death of a famous son of Coshocton. He was well known there because his wife's family continued to live in the area. His wife had died before him and it listed no children as surviving him. Apparently, this was the end of Harriet Langford's line.
Thursday, December 19, 2013
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Oscar's sister, Harriet Langford McGinnis
Pictured above about 1870, is Harriet Langford McGinnis, sister to Oscar Langford. Harriet came west with her father, Charles, to Iowa, in the early 1840s. Likely, she was the one who ran the household as one of the last older daughters still at home when they moved. In the 1850 census she is listed as living with the Hann (or Hahn or Haun) family in Elk River Township, Clinton County, Iowa. There is a little patch of land there known as Hauntown, which I believe is the correct spelling. Her age is listed as 28 and she is likely working for them helping with the household. Living in his own house in the same township, with his family was her brother Charles, his wife Hannah and four of their children. Also living in this township, was her father Charles. His age is 50 and he is living with Ellen Collins, 33, and her four children. His occupation was wool carder.
Harriet was married to Alexander Stuart McGinnis in Iowa in 1851. Her birth year was 1819, according to the script on the back of this picture. Alexander had been married before and had children to raise following the death of his first wife, Ellen Collins.
Let me reconstruct this as best I can. Alexander McGinnis married Ellen Collins on April 5, 1838, in Clark County, Ohio. They moved to Perry in Jackson County, Iowa. Jackson County is directly north of Clinton County. They had three children: Angeline L (1839-1862), Helen A. (1841-1867), and lastly William Wallace (1844-1920). According to the McGinnis genealogy, Ellen died the day after William was born from complications of childbirth.
The fact that a Collins family is living in Clinton County with Charles E. Langford while Alexander McKinnis is found in Jackson County, Iowa in the 1850 census,with only his 11 year old daughter, Angeline, may just indicate there were two farms to run.
The bigger mystery seems to me, that the McGinnis family lore is that Ellen Collins died in 1844, yet here she seems to be, living as Ellen Collins. This may be coincidence as the children in the two households vary, and the first names might be Ellen and Elizabeth. They could have been twins or sisters. I will have to work further on this.
From letters written by Oscar to others we know that Harriet moved to Coshocton, County, Ohio, where they farmed. They can be found there is the 1870 census. We also know that Alexander was appointed postmaster of Wakatomika, Ohio, from 1873 to 1891. We further know that Harriet and Alexander had two sons, both named Charles McGinnis. The first son, Charles S., only lived for a year or so. The second son, Charles E., lived to the age of 34, but did marry, to Bianca Wright, and had two children, Georgiana and Walter Raymond. Georgiana was born in late November 1880 and died the day after Christmas.
In the 1900 census Harriet can be found listed as a widow and still living on the family farm at age 77, along with her grandson, Walter, age 18.
I have not yet been able to locate a death record or burial site for Harriet. Neither have I found out what happened to her grandson, Walter. But there is a tantalizing clue provided in the picture, above. The picture is captioned "Redding" and a search for the photographer indicates he was in California. So, did Harriet retire to a nicer climate?
Thursday, December 5, 2013
William G. Langford in Vancouver, Washington
Over the Thanksgiving weekend we visited our son and his family in Vancouver, Washington. This Vancouver is just across the river from Portland, Oregon, and is always confused with the Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada, to the north about 5 or 6 hours.
We had a few free moments and visited the Clark County Historical Museum there. We knew from Oscar Langford's writings that his brother, William G. Langford studied law in Vancouver, and practiced law there. We were hoping to find any information that we could about his time there.
Once we had reviewed the exhibits at the Museum, we went downstairs to their research library. And while we didn't find a lot, we were encouraged to learn that they are in the process of digitizing the entire collection of Vancouver Chronicle newspapers.
We also found a mention of William G. Langford. He was one of four attorneys who advertised in the very first issue of the Vancouver Chronicle, on June 30, 1860.
Another mention was found that he only stayed in Vancouver until 1862.
Here are pictures of William and his wife, Julia, taken in Walla Walla about 1880.
These photos and some others were generously shared with us this fall by Langford cousin, Pierce Eichelberger. Unfortunately, not all of them had identification. I will be posting the others soon.
We had a few free moments and visited the Clark County Historical Museum there. We knew from Oscar Langford's writings that his brother, William G. Langford studied law in Vancouver, and practiced law there. We were hoping to find any information that we could about his time there.
Once we had reviewed the exhibits at the Museum, we went downstairs to their research library. And while we didn't find a lot, we were encouraged to learn that they are in the process of digitizing the entire collection of Vancouver Chronicle newspapers.
We also found a mention of William G. Langford. He was one of four attorneys who advertised in the very first issue of the Vancouver Chronicle, on June 30, 1860.
Another mention was found that he only stayed in Vancouver until 1862.
Here are pictures of William and his wife, Julia, taken in Walla Walla about 1880.
Thursday, August 15, 2013
Another Letter from Oscar
It seemed like I had found everything that there was to find about Oscar Langford, his parents and siblings. My next step in recording a family history, is to write the story. So, I set out a rough outline and began to write the first chapter "Finding Oscar Langford".
The key factor in finding Oscar was genealogyintime.com, a web site recommended to me on Twitter. It was here that I got the first inkling that Oscar had written a number of letters to a newspaper in Fredonia, New York, where he spent his youth. I tracked all these down and they led to me to many other discoveries until I finally had the whole story, or so I thought.
They say that the things that you really learn are the things you learn after you know it all and that was the case for me. In writing Chapter One, I tried to recreate the original search I did last November. And, this time, I found a new poem and a new letter. The poem was from the same time frame, the mid 1920s, as the letters I found last year. The new letter, however, was written much earlier, 1913. It is a rehash of some of Oscar's 1920s letters with a couple notable exceptions. He mentions meeting his brother Charles E. Langford and calls him "a wealthy farmer". He also mentions his sister Eliza and that she was living in Monroe, Wisconsin. Eliza is the one sibling that I have struck out on. Its almost like Oscar is feeding me information!
Here is the full letter:
Boyhood Reminiscenses
I was born in Erie County in 1833, and reared in Chautauqua County. My mother died in Fredonia when I was about three years old, leaving a family of eleven children, of whom I was the youngest. My father, a mechanic, then went west, some of my older brothers and sisters being left to take care of the younger children. Afterward I was adopted by Benjamin Griswold, a farmer, living about half way between Fredonia and Laona. The rest of the family except my sister, Jeanette, were scattered to the four winds, several of them before my birth. Jeanette was adopted by a Fredonia merchant named A. H. Walker, with whom she lived until about 1845, when she married Peter Wise, a cabinet maker, at Laona. My brother, James, died at their home a few years after their marriage.
I was brought up to believe my surname was Griswold and that Jeanette’s name was Walker, and did not know she was my own sister until her marriage, when I found out her real name and my relationship by reading the marriage notice in the Censor with the name of Langford. Finding it then useless for further concealment, my foster parents informed me of my forgotten but true name, by which I was afterward known. It would not probably interest many of the present generation in your region to be told of my humble boyhood spent on the farm, and at “the old red school house” on the hill at Laona, at intervals up to about the age of sixteen. Then the Griswold family broke up and I was left to get along the best I could.
Then I became a boy wanderer or tramp for many years, often facing starvation where there was plenty, without any place I could call home in Chautauqua County or anywhere else. I remember becoming so hungry one day in autumn, near Fredonia that I went to a field, dug potatoes out of a hill and tried to eat them raw. Failing in this, I took a few of the vegetables, dug a hole in the sand and roasted them. Afterward I managed to get to Jamestown by riding on the seat with a stage-driver. There I had similar experience as a “hobo” among strangers. To try to describe my varied experiences there might be interesting, but it would intrude too much on your space.
I finally got to Erie, Pa., after enduring many tribulations. I there came across A. P. Durlin, one of the publishers of the Observer, and a relative of W. McKinstry, editor of the Fredonia Censor. Applying to Mr. Durlin to learn the printing trade, I found out the above facts and that he knew my brother, James, when working on the Censor. I served three years with Durlin and Sloan, the name of the firm, and then went to Iowa, where I had a brother, the oldest in the family, whom I had never seen. He was a wealthy farmer. Mr. and Mrs. Peter Wise lived on his farm. At the latter’s home I was introduced to my own father, whom I then met for the first time since I was an infant.
I worked on many different newspapers in that region, which was then a new country, and more thinly populated then Colorado is today. I saw many small towns in Iowa grow into big cities, among them Clinton, which was plotted in 1854 and now contains some 25,000 inhabitants. In that city I worked for Charles E. Leonard, publisher of the Herald, who in 1860 became the father of Lillian Russell, who is now the the reputable, much-married but retired actress. I there met another sister I had never met, and a brother whom I had never met but once, who lived with still another brother (William), at my sister, Jeanette’s home in Laona, in the late 40s. The last named many years afterward became a noted lawyer and a judge of court and died in Spokane, Washington, in 1893.
Several years later I came upon a married sister, Eliza, at Monroe, Wis., and another one, Jane, with family at Two Rivers, on Lake Michigan. They both were total strangers to me until these first introductions and subsequent acquaintances.
Among my school mates at Laona I recall the names of Floyd and David Ramsdell, Frances Graham, the mother of Postmaster Clark of Fredonia, Wm. Cook and sister; the Hall brothers, Fred Boynton and three brothers; Avis Sage (now Reed), Dorinda Thompson, nee Clough; (deceased) the Moore sisters, and Cooper sisters, Henry Skidmore, Tom Morian, Jule Miller, John Russell (afterwards a Fredonia lawyer). Theron Winship, and many others I might mention if your paper had room for them. I would be glad to correspond with any of those who are living and may read this letter.
Well, I am getting old, near four score years. It seems but yesterday when I worked about the old Harrington farm and played “I spy” with the boys at the old school house at Laona. Strange that in my infirmity I can remember those youthful experiences so much better than recent events, of which my memory grows dim. God Bless old Laona!
I give you this above condensed autobiography for what it is worth. I trust it may awake some pleasant memories among the surviving comrades who may read in in your grand old paper, whose appearance is as welcome as a visit from God’s angels.
Oscar Langford
Union Printers Home
Colorado Springs, Colo.
December 3, 1913
The key factor in finding Oscar was genealogyintime.com, a web site recommended to me on Twitter. It was here that I got the first inkling that Oscar had written a number of letters to a newspaper in Fredonia, New York, where he spent his youth. I tracked all these down and they led to me to many other discoveries until I finally had the whole story, or so I thought.
They say that the things that you really learn are the things you learn after you know it all and that was the case for me. In writing Chapter One, I tried to recreate the original search I did last November. And, this time, I found a new poem and a new letter. The poem was from the same time frame, the mid 1920s, as the letters I found last year. The new letter, however, was written much earlier, 1913. It is a rehash of some of Oscar's 1920s letters with a couple notable exceptions. He mentions meeting his brother Charles E. Langford and calls him "a wealthy farmer". He also mentions his sister Eliza and that she was living in Monroe, Wisconsin. Eliza is the one sibling that I have struck out on. Its almost like Oscar is feeding me information!
Here is the full letter:
Boyhood Reminiscenses
I was born in Erie County in 1833, and reared in Chautauqua County. My mother died in Fredonia when I was about three years old, leaving a family of eleven children, of whom I was the youngest. My father, a mechanic, then went west, some of my older brothers and sisters being left to take care of the younger children. Afterward I was adopted by Benjamin Griswold, a farmer, living about half way between Fredonia and Laona. The rest of the family except my sister, Jeanette, were scattered to the four winds, several of them before my birth. Jeanette was adopted by a Fredonia merchant named A. H. Walker, with whom she lived until about 1845, when she married Peter Wise, a cabinet maker, at Laona. My brother, James, died at their home a few years after their marriage.
I was brought up to believe my surname was Griswold and that Jeanette’s name was Walker, and did not know she was my own sister until her marriage, when I found out her real name and my relationship by reading the marriage notice in the Censor with the name of Langford. Finding it then useless for further concealment, my foster parents informed me of my forgotten but true name, by which I was afterward known. It would not probably interest many of the present generation in your region to be told of my humble boyhood spent on the farm, and at “the old red school house” on the hill at Laona, at intervals up to about the age of sixteen. Then the Griswold family broke up and I was left to get along the best I could.
Then I became a boy wanderer or tramp for many years, often facing starvation where there was plenty, without any place I could call home in Chautauqua County or anywhere else. I remember becoming so hungry one day in autumn, near Fredonia that I went to a field, dug potatoes out of a hill and tried to eat them raw. Failing in this, I took a few of the vegetables, dug a hole in the sand and roasted them. Afterward I managed to get to Jamestown by riding on the seat with a stage-driver. There I had similar experience as a “hobo” among strangers. To try to describe my varied experiences there might be interesting, but it would intrude too much on your space.
I finally got to Erie, Pa., after enduring many tribulations. I there came across A. P. Durlin, one of the publishers of the Observer, and a relative of W. McKinstry, editor of the Fredonia Censor. Applying to Mr. Durlin to learn the printing trade, I found out the above facts and that he knew my brother, James, when working on the Censor. I served three years with Durlin and Sloan, the name of the firm, and then went to Iowa, where I had a brother, the oldest in the family, whom I had never seen. He was a wealthy farmer. Mr. and Mrs. Peter Wise lived on his farm. At the latter’s home I was introduced to my own father, whom I then met for the first time since I was an infant.
I worked on many different newspapers in that region, which was then a new country, and more thinly populated then Colorado is today. I saw many small towns in Iowa grow into big cities, among them Clinton, which was plotted in 1854 and now contains some 25,000 inhabitants. In that city I worked for Charles E. Leonard, publisher of the Herald, who in 1860 became the father of Lillian Russell, who is now the the reputable, much-married but retired actress. I there met another sister I had never met, and a brother whom I had never met but once, who lived with still another brother (William), at my sister, Jeanette’s home in Laona, in the late 40s. The last named many years afterward became a noted lawyer and a judge of court and died in Spokane, Washington, in 1893.
Several years later I came upon a married sister, Eliza, at Monroe, Wis., and another one, Jane, with family at Two Rivers, on Lake Michigan. They both were total strangers to me until these first introductions and subsequent acquaintances.
Among my school mates at Laona I recall the names of Floyd and David Ramsdell, Frances Graham, the mother of Postmaster Clark of Fredonia, Wm. Cook and sister; the Hall brothers, Fred Boynton and three brothers; Avis Sage (now Reed), Dorinda Thompson, nee Clough; (deceased) the Moore sisters, and Cooper sisters, Henry Skidmore, Tom Morian, Jule Miller, John Russell (afterwards a Fredonia lawyer). Theron Winship, and many others I might mention if your paper had room for them. I would be glad to correspond with any of those who are living and may read this letter.
Well, I am getting old, near four score years. It seems but yesterday when I worked about the old Harrington farm and played “I spy” with the boys at the old school house at Laona. Strange that in my infirmity I can remember those youthful experiences so much better than recent events, of which my memory grows dim. God Bless old Laona!
I give you this above condensed autobiography for what it is worth. I trust it may awake some pleasant memories among the surviving comrades who may read in in your grand old paper, whose appearance is as welcome as a visit from God’s angels.
Oscar Langford
Union Printers Home
Colorado Springs, Colo.
December 3, 1913
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Nathaniel Pitt Langford and Yellowstone
On our recent trip to Yellowstone Park and Grand Teton National Park, we revisited several locations in search of more information about Nathaniel Pitt Langford. We had been to the park about two years ago, before we realized the familial connection. N P Langford was Oscar Langford's first cousin. He was known for being on the 1870 Washburn-Langford-Doane expedition that first surveyed the Yellowstone area. A follow up survey was done by the US Geological Survey the next year, on which he also served. There is a Mount Langford in Yellowstone. He was the first superintendent of the first National Park in the world.
We entered the Park from the West entrance since we were driving down from Butte, Montana. The first ranger station is located at Madison, Wyoming. It is a very small and off the road place. We found a small building manned by a few rangers. I identified our reason for being there to the young Ranger who was available, explaining Nancy's relation to N. P. Langford. He was excited to learn this and let us know that we were at the very location that the 1870 expedition camped on their last night. There was a plaque on the site commemorating this event.
For many years the National Park Service identified this spot as the place where the idea of a National Park was first suggested around that last campfire. More recently, readings of the personal journals of the men on the expedition has caused this theory to be questioned. Nevertheless, it is the location of that last campfire and this was just great to see in person.
Here are two pictures. The first is Nancy and I, albeit windblown, with the rivers in the background and the plaque to the left. The second is National Park Mountain, so named because of the 1870 expedition and lore.
This was our first day in either park and we were not done making some discoveries.
Our next stop were the Upper Falls and Lower Falls. Nancy had read NP Langford's book about the expedition and loved his description of these falls. Here are a few pictures of the falls.
After seeing these awesome falls, we checked in at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where we had easy access to both parks for the week. It turns out N P Langford also had a controversial contact with Grand Teton. He was on a survey team again, that went to the Grand Teton area. He claimed to be the first white man to climb Grand Teton, the highest mountain in the Teton Range. Because of the description that he and his climbing partner provided, this has been questioned. Evidently, he had a long running disagreement with another pioneer who also claimed this climb, and this was written about in several newspapers.
Below is a picture of Grand Teton.
Our last day in Jackson, we drove back to Yellowstone to see the Visitor's Center at Mammoth Hot Springs near the north entrance, and to visit the Yellowstone Library located in Gardiner, Montana. At Mammoth Hot Springs, there is a large display about the early visitors to the Park. On display and related to N P Langford are two of his hand guns, his derringer and his saddle.
The last stop of the day was the most fruitful. The Yellowstone Library, in Gardiner, has the personal journals of N P Langford. These he hand wrote immediately after the 1870 expedition. They are the notes that he used for making speeches about the expedition. They are almost 150 years old and we got to hold them and look through them. The Library also did a search of their holdings for us and found about thirty different documents and books associated with N P Langford. We did not have time to view them all but we have the list and we have found ways to access this material after the trip.
One other fascinating document that we looked at was a report from the 1983 Langford Expedition which recreated the 1870 survey. This survey was conducted by William P. Langford, a second great nephew of N P Langford. He, and a group of interested parties and presumably, some other cousins, rode on horseback to some of the uninhabited areas of Yellowstone only accessible this way. The also climbed Mount Coulter and reclaimed it as Mount Langford.
It was especially pleasant for us to revisit these national treasures now that we know what a strong Langford connection exists to their very discovery and founding.
We entered the Park from the West entrance since we were driving down from Butte, Montana. The first ranger station is located at Madison, Wyoming. It is a very small and off the road place. We found a small building manned by a few rangers. I identified our reason for being there to the young Ranger who was available, explaining Nancy's relation to N. P. Langford. He was excited to learn this and let us know that we were at the very location that the 1870 expedition camped on their last night. There was a plaque on the site commemorating this event.
For many years the National Park Service identified this spot as the place where the idea of a National Park was first suggested around that last campfire. More recently, readings of the personal journals of the men on the expedition has caused this theory to be questioned. Nevertheless, it is the location of that last campfire and this was just great to see in person.
Here are two pictures. The first is Nancy and I, albeit windblown, with the rivers in the background and the plaque to the left. The second is National Park Mountain, so named because of the 1870 expedition and lore.
This was our first day in either park and we were not done making some discoveries.
Our next stop were the Upper Falls and Lower Falls. Nancy had read NP Langford's book about the expedition and loved his description of these falls. Here are a few pictures of the falls.
Below is a picture of Grand Teton.
The last stop of the day was the most fruitful. The Yellowstone Library, in Gardiner, has the personal journals of N P Langford. These he hand wrote immediately after the 1870 expedition. They are the notes that he used for making speeches about the expedition. They are almost 150 years old and we got to hold them and look through them. The Library also did a search of their holdings for us and found about thirty different documents and books associated with N P Langford. We did not have time to view them all but we have the list and we have found ways to access this material after the trip.
One other fascinating document that we looked at was a report from the 1983 Langford Expedition which recreated the 1870 survey. This survey was conducted by William P. Langford, a second great nephew of N P Langford. He, and a group of interested parties and presumably, some other cousins, rode on horseback to some of the uninhabited areas of Yellowstone only accessible this way. The also climbed Mount Coulter and reclaimed it as Mount Langford.
It was especially pleasant for us to revisit these national treasures now that we know what a strong Langford connection exists to their very discovery and founding.
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Mary Ann Angell Young
I mentioned in an earlier post that the Langford family had a connection to the Mormon trek from east to west which ended in Salt Lake City in 1847. This summer we visited two of the historic sites where they stopped along the way, Winter Quarters near Omaha, Nebraska and Nauvoo, Illinois.
In essence the Mormons faced a lot of persecution and violence along the way. In Kirtland Ohio, they were forced to leave. In Liberty, Missouri, they were forced to leave. In Nauvoo, Illinois, where they thought they would be safe, they constructed a town and a temple in six years. Only Chicago was a bigger city in Illinois in 1844, and only by a little. But, in the end, they were forced to leave Nauvoo also. History has told their story a lot of times and ways, but the reason for their persecution comes down to being different.
Mary Ann Angell struck out on her own from Vermont at the age of 25. She had been given a Book of Mormon by a missionary and decided to join them in Kirtland, Ohio. This is where she met Brigham Young. His first wife had died two years earlier, leaving him with two daughters. He and Mary Ann were married in Kirtland. They began their family there, adding children. It was the calm before the storm.
It was in Kirtland that violence was first brought to bear on the family. Brigham Young had his home ransacked in the middle of the night. He was thought to be a leader of the church, although Joseph Smith was clearly the visionary. The Mormon leaders fled Kirtland and found a home in Liberty, Missouri. The Governor of Missouri ordered them to leave the state or they would be exterminated. They were taken in by the people of Quincy, Illinois, for one winter. About 1500 residents of Quincy took in over 5000 Mormons, before they moved to Nauvoo, Illinois.
Brigham Young actually had a house in Montrose, Iowa, just across the Mississippi River from Nauvoo. Shortly after arriving in Nauvoo, he was sent on a mission and left Mary Ann and the children in their home in Montrose. She would have to row across the river, in winter, for any supplies or food she needed. When he returned Mary Ann had already arranged to buy land in Nauvoo for a home site.
While Brigham Young was on another mission, Joseph Smith and his brother Hyram were taken prisoner and locked up at the Carthage, Illinois jail, where a mob killed them both. It was left to Mary Ann to write Brigham and tell him what had happened. Her letter is on display at the Brigham Young home in Nauvoo. Also there were pottery she used. The house is original and was built by Brigham Young. It was in this house that the plans were made to move to the west. We saw the fireplace that Mary Ann would have cooked on, the outdoor root cellar built by Brigham Young and displays of her dishes and pottery.
Nancy would be Mary Ann's second cousin, three times removed. She is considered Brigham Young's "real" wife. She was known as "Mother Young" to friends and family. She was skilled at the healing arts and especially good with roots and herbs for those afflicted. When Brigham Young reached Utah and established the Mormon community there, he sent missionaries all over the Utah Territory. Brigham Young also took her mother, Phebe Angell, and her sister, Jemima Angell as his wives. Phebe was 59 and Jemima was 42 when they were sealed to Brigham Young. These were marriages of duty or obligation, as were most of his plural marriages. The Mormon Church no longer practices plural marriages.
In essence the Mormons faced a lot of persecution and violence along the way. In Kirtland Ohio, they were forced to leave. In Liberty, Missouri, they were forced to leave. In Nauvoo, Illinois, where they thought they would be safe, they constructed a town and a temple in six years. Only Chicago was a bigger city in Illinois in 1844, and only by a little. But, in the end, they were forced to leave Nauvoo also. History has told their story a lot of times and ways, but the reason for their persecution comes down to being different.
Mary Ann Angell struck out on her own from Vermont at the age of 25. She had been given a Book of Mormon by a missionary and decided to join them in Kirtland, Ohio. This is where she met Brigham Young. His first wife had died two years earlier, leaving him with two daughters. He and Mary Ann were married in Kirtland. They began their family there, adding children. It was the calm before the storm.
It was in Kirtland that violence was first brought to bear on the family. Brigham Young had his home ransacked in the middle of the night. He was thought to be a leader of the church, although Joseph Smith was clearly the visionary. The Mormon leaders fled Kirtland and found a home in Liberty, Missouri. The Governor of Missouri ordered them to leave the state or they would be exterminated. They were taken in by the people of Quincy, Illinois, for one winter. About 1500 residents of Quincy took in over 5000 Mormons, before they moved to Nauvoo, Illinois.
Brigham Young actually had a house in Montrose, Iowa, just across the Mississippi River from Nauvoo. Shortly after arriving in Nauvoo, he was sent on a mission and left Mary Ann and the children in their home in Montrose. She would have to row across the river, in winter, for any supplies or food she needed. When he returned Mary Ann had already arranged to buy land in Nauvoo for a home site.
While Brigham Young was on another mission, Joseph Smith and his brother Hyram were taken prisoner and locked up at the Carthage, Illinois jail, where a mob killed them both. It was left to Mary Ann to write Brigham and tell him what had happened. Her letter is on display at the Brigham Young home in Nauvoo. Also there were pottery she used. The house is original and was built by Brigham Young. It was in this house that the plans were made to move to the west. We saw the fireplace that Mary Ann would have cooked on, the outdoor root cellar built by Brigham Young and displays of her dishes and pottery.
Nancy would be Mary Ann's second cousin, three times removed. She is considered Brigham Young's "real" wife. She was known as "Mother Young" to friends and family. She was skilled at the healing arts and especially good with roots and herbs for those afflicted. When Brigham Young reached Utah and established the Mormon community there, he sent missionaries all over the Utah Territory. Brigham Young also took her mother, Phebe Angell, and her sister, Jemima Angell as his wives. Phebe was 59 and Jemima was 42 when they were sealed to Brigham Young. These were marriages of duty or obligation, as were most of his plural marriages. The Mormon Church no longer practices plural marriages.
Mary Ann also became the first lady of the Utah Territory following Brigham Young's appointment to be Governor of the Territory by President Millard Fillmore. A statue of Brigham Young is in the United States Capitol Building.
The scope of Mary Ann's life is amazing. And we got to see her life in Nauvoo depicted on stage at the "Nauvoo Pageant" as well as meet the actors that portrayed her and Brigham Young. Because of Nancy's kinship with her, we were provided front row seats by an eager missionary.
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Bannack, Montana
We just returned from an aggressive vacation to three national parks: Badlands National Park, Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park. We also made stops in Bannack, Montana and Omaha Nebraska related to Langford genealogy. The first picture below is the Masonic Building in Bannack. Nathaniel Pitt Langford was involved in Masonry here and his picture still hangs on the Masonic meeting room wall on the second floor. You might wonder how one gets their picture on a wall in a ghost town. It turns out that the Montana Masons have a meeting here every fall since this is recognized as the first meeting of any Masons in the state. Langford was one of three at the first meeting. The Montana Highway Patrol wear the badge of 3-7-77 on their uniforms to this day. This was the number painted on cabins in Langford's era, by the Vigilance Committee, to let people know they had better get out of town. Our guide told us that the "3" stood for the three men at the first Masonic meeting.
The next two pictures are street scenes in Bannack. There are about 60 buildings remaining as well as a visitor's center which includes a gift shop. It is designated as a Montana State Park. Ranger John Phillips gave us a guided tour of Bannack and was fully aware of the importance of NP Langford to the Vigilance Committee, Masonry in Montana and Montana statehood. Ranger Phillips has even "acted" as Langford for the fall Mason meeting.
Lastly, the picture below is from the Masonic meeting room showing NP Langford's picture hanging there. I was also able to buy a copy of his book "Vigilant Days and Ways" at the gift shop.
The next two pictures are street scenes in Bannack. There are about 60 buildings remaining as well as a visitor's center which includes a gift shop. It is designated as a Montana State Park. Ranger John Phillips gave us a guided tour of Bannack and was fully aware of the importance of NP Langford to the Vigilance Committee, Masonry in Montana and Montana statehood. Ranger Phillips has even "acted" as Langford for the fall Mason meeting.
Lastly, the picture below is from the Masonic meeting room showing NP Langford's picture hanging there. I was also able to buy a copy of his book "Vigilant Days and Ways" at the gift shop.
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