5 Member of Methodist church. George Peck(New York: Nelson and Phillips, 1873), 68; Trial Notes of Scribe A. Peck also referred to Isaac as old Brother Hale, George Peck,Early Methodism within the Bounds of the Old Genesee Conference from 1788 to 1828(New York: Carlton and Porter, 1860), 256. Skilled farmers could grow a little of both wheat and barley when managed properly, but they never became major crops. He married Elizabeth Lewis on September 20, 1790, two months before her twenty-third birthday.91 Isaac and Elizabeth Hale took Nathaniel and Sarah Lewis, along with Sarahs mother and her eight-year-old sister, Lurena Cole, and quickly left for Pennsylvania since they would travel over two hundred miles to their new home barely ahead of the winter weather using a small, single ox drawn cart to carry all their goods with those of the family members that accompanied them.92 When the Hale and Lewis families arrived in the Susquehanna Valley, winter had already arrived and the struggle for survival began. Wells Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 17322005, Wells, Vermont, Family Search, accessed 2008,http://FamilySearch.org. 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. Zenanah Gilbert, Diary, September 2, 1810, Special Collections, Dickinson College. He reminisced in his letter to his brothers and sisters of their childhood with their faithful parents. Photograph by Mark L. Staker. Carol Cornwall Madsen, My Dear and Beloved Companion: The Letters of Joseph and Emma Smith, Ensign, Sept.2008, 1015. Pickering negotiated the treaty of Canandaigua in 1794, and he served as the United States expert on Indian relations until he became Washingtons Secretary of State, a position Pickering held until disagreements with John Adams led to his dismissal on May 12, 1800. While the Spanish had discovered or appropriated gold and silver mines in Peru and other places in South America, the British had not been as successful, and so they turned to the more common way of getting goldtaking it from others. The author wrote, Meantime Deacon Stowell purchased a farm at Susquehanna and moved his family there from Afton. 184. 199. [11] The Latter-Day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia records that Emma Smith "filled [the position] with marked distinction as long as the society continued to hold meetings in that city [Nauvoo]". When we are gone, his family will move into the other house.164 Pickering took Lurena, who was then pregnant with her second son, Edward, and the young Charles back to Salem, Massachusetts, to live. 312. 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. Daniel Bucks Congregational churches became the foundation of the religious community in the region. August 1830, Deed from Isaac and Elizabeth Hale, 25 August 1830, as MarkL. Staker, A Comfort unto My Servant, Joseph: Emma Hale Smith (18041879), in RichardE. TurleyJr. and BrittanyA. Chapman,eds., Women of Faith in the Latter Days, Volume One, 17751820 (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2011), 34362. The Reverend Elam Potter had grown up in the same villages as the Hale family, and he was an ardent abolitionist. 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. Presumably each of the other children also inherited a small sum from their parents.297. It appears that most of the residents were opposed to slavery but were not particularly sympathetic to abolitionists. When Joseph Smith arrived at the Hale farm in the fall of 1825, he found a family living in fashionable comfort incorporating in their lives American ideals of refinement and sophistication. 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. After a meeting on August 8, a congregation of the church voted that the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles should lead the church. Although Mr. Hale was remembered as a stiff old Methodist, and . The tune existed in American folklife earlier than the comic opera and may have made its way to Shuckburgh through another source, but the connection of the two would have been apparent to many Pennsylvanians. Emma became a member of the RLDS Church without rebaptism, as her original 1830 baptism was still considered valid. Isaac Hale is the son of the wealthiest farmer in the village where Feyre Archeron and her family live. 29. While Emily Blackman took a consistently negative approach in her description of Isaac Hales relationship with Joseph, she also acknowledged: It is thought that Mr. Hale was a little deluded at first, as well as others, in regard to Joes prophecy. Blackman,History of Susquehanna County,103. 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. It was there that he met Emma Hale, daughter of . The home and farm then passed on to others.296 Alva moved west to Amboy, Illinois in the general area where the Hale family had gathered again. . Most of Isaacs sons were boatmen on the river during their younger days, and these men typically traveled in groups of three to six through the German settlements of southern Pennsylvania.123, While the valley soon produced carpenters, weavers, blacksmiths, and other craftsmen, Isaac Hale spent the majority of his time pursuing the other major profession available to the settlershunting and fishing. While Hale and Lewis worked on the Pickering property, they associated with Colonel Pickerings son, Tim Pickering. When John and Phoebe Comfort moved to Harmony in 1808, built a large sawmill, opened a mercantile institution, farmed hundreds of acres of prime land, and purchased the large Pickering country house, they instantly became not only one of the wealthiest families in the township, but members of this same elite group that established social order and respectability for the rest of their remote mountain valley.When the Comforts joined the Methodists the year after their arrival, during the period when Methodism became Harmonys dominant religion, they became closely allied with the prominent Hale family. Joseph Smith Jr., who was a passive employee of Stowell, said, I was put to board with a Mr. Isaac Hale, of that place,JSP, H1:236. 304. Farmers, ministers, and school masters were exempt from a tax on their trade. George Edward Anderson, 1909, Courtesy LDS Church History Library. Whatever the ultimate motivation for Hales decision to ignore the controversy, after having worked one summer in Connecticut, he concluded to try the West.29. 124. A photograph of the map is in the authors possession. Church History Department. 60. Joseph Smith III, Last Testimony of Sister Emma,Saints Herald26 (October 1, 1879): 290. 72. Although first chartered in 1761 as part of the New Hampshire land grants, the township was only recently organized by members of the Ward family and other local civic leaders. Near the end of that year, an assessor appraised the Hale family 15 x 30 foot log home as worth $26.133 The tax assessment noted they lived on a 150 acre farm owned by Charles Francis, using either an alternate name for Tench or that of an as yet unidentified son.134 Isaacs brother-in-law Nathaniel Lewiss family was also listed as occupying 100 acres of Charles Franciss farmland just west of the Hale family that included a 15 x 28 foot log home and a log stable of unspecified size.135 Francis paid the tax for the land, not Isaac Hale or Nathaniel Lewis. Willingborough Township, 1798 Direct Tax. Then the elder Pickering came back to the valley to take his son away for better medical treatment. 300. 103. But Lewis clearly increased his ties to the movement shortly after the Pickering death. Home; Services; New Patient Center. 55. Annotated Record of Baptisms for the Dead. Major Buck still lived in the village July 13, 1787, when William Macclure wrote General James Clinton about a survey of the area and the desire of local men to purchase land nearby, Hinman and Hitt,The Letters and Diaries of William Macclure, 1112. It drew from the King James Bibles phrasing of a blessing given by Jacob to his son Joseph promising him blessings unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills (Genesis 49:26). poor Backsliden Lanesboro is left to mourn her barrenness and Distance from her Duty and privilege.286 The call of better opportunities elsewhere continued to draw the Hale family out of the valley until Alva Hale was the only child of Isaac and Elizabeth who still lived near them. [citation needed] She and Bidamon had no children of their own. There must have been a good mill seat in addition to an emotional connection between the sacred site and Bucks Native American upbringing since Buck built a sawmill on the river there. Isaac Hale was not a Methodist during his residence in Vermont and appears to have been involved in treasure digging in Harmony, Pennsylvania. Onondaga projectile points, found on Hale Farm, Collection of the LDS Church. . . Upham,Life of Timothy Pickering,3641. Emma told her mother they were called Mormons, a development that occurred after they had left the Susquehanna Valley. The newlyweds then settled six miles north of Litchfield in Goshen, Connecticut, where their first child was born November 19 or 20, 1767.71 They named her Elizabeth Lewis. F. W. Beers and Company,Atlas of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania(New York: A. Pomeroy, 1872), 17; Blackman,History of Susquehanna County,105. In late 1806 Joel Smith replaced Stier and Lee as the Methodist circuit rider assigned to the Tioga circuit that included Harmony. 225. Susquehanna County, Township Incorporations, 1790 to 1853, Susquehanna County Historical Society, Montrose, Pennsylvania. 245. Rose could be forceful in business affairs, and the local postman at the county seat found this new creditor cheated him.235It was Rose who had inaccurately advertised wheat would grow so well in the valley. 274. 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. 283. Emma Hale was born in Harmony Township, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, the seventh child of Isaac Hale and Elizabeth Lewis Hale. Emma Smith letter to Joseph Smith, Mar.7, 1839, in Joseph Smith Letterbook 2, 37, josephsmithpapers.org. Hale gave me a cordial reception, and in the afternoon I preached in a little log school-house to a small but earnest congregation. Peck must have used the log home on the Hale property for some of his sermons. Black and Black, Annotated Record of Baptisms for the Dead, 6:3355; Susquehanna Co, PA, Wills and Administrations, 18121921, vol. 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. 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. 271. which was then sanctioned by the government.69 Nathaniel Lewis reenlisted in the navy at Sea Brook, Connecticut, where he served until July 22, 1763.70 But after his father, Gershom, died in Litchfield Township October 18, 1766, 27-year-old Nathaniel returned to Guilford to marry Esther Tuttle January 16, 1767. Emma was born 10 July 1804 to Isaac and Elizabeth Lewis Hale. 194. [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. John Comfort, letter to Silas Comfort, Letter, February 23, 1838. 262. The Smiths lived in the homestead until 1843, when a much larger house, known as the "Mansion House" was built across the street. 263. 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.. He in turn hired Isaac Hale the following summer of 1793 to make sure the road on this last segment was properly constructed from Colesville south through the eastern edge of Willingborough Township.109 The segment of road Hale supervised construction on became the Harmony Turnpike as it passed along the eastern edge of Oquago Mountain.110 But the side roads remained barely passable for years afterward. 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. This did not happen quickly. 311. Men spent their winters felling trees and dragging them over the frozen ground to the river where they floated logs to sawmills powered along its banks. Smith Sr., 9 December 1834, Deed from Isaac and Elizabeth Hale, 25 279. B. Buck noted most residents of the valley were drawn into Methodism during this early period, but religious enthusiasm quickly waned as the fires of conviction soon died down and the valleys residents largely returned to their previous indifference.210Some members of the Hale family continued their persistent involvement in religion despite the declining interest. Bartlett, Crawford and Stearns Architects. Grant held his meetings in both the Comfort home on the east end of the township in the village of Lanesville (John Comfort joined the Methodists in 1809) and the Hale home on the west end of Harmony Township near the hamlet of Taylortown.206Grant likely preached at the Comfort home in the morning hours and the Hale home in the afternoon hours to keep up his long list of scheduled preaching locations downriver. [13] The bank's demise led to serious problems for the church and the Smith family. It's worth noting that this is the historical record and there might be different perspectives on Isaac Hale's relationship with Joseph Smith. Both Don Carlos Smiths would die the next year. Upon this surface the early settlers found painted in an ingenious, though rude, style, the representations of various animals, such as panthers, bears, wolves, and wild cats. 258. [18] She saw upholding morality as the primary purpose of the Relief Society. It would be twenty years before forests would become cultivated fields. Lewis reenlisted as part of the 2nd Regiment. It was here on April 30, 1831, that Emma gave birth to premature twins, Thaddeus and Louisa; both babies died hours later. Jesse purchased the property from his father and married Mary July 23, 1815. Tax Assessment, Great Bend Township, 1823, Susquehanna County Courthouse. Joseph Smith's father in law, Emma's father, the hunter and farmer and innkeeper Isaac Hale (17763-1839), was anything but a fan of his son in law. By implication the Presbyterian minister seemed to think praying for direct answers and prophesying would invite influence from the devil on him as well.184, Although Colbert left the region and never went into the Susquehanna Valley where the Hale family lived, his type of Methodism became widespread in the region as others did not seem to share the concerns of the Presbyterian minister. 157. One of Emmas young female contemporaries described what she considered tragic circumstances connected to another woman in their area. [citation needed] As the Kirtland Temple was being constructed, Emma spearheaded an effort to house and clothe the construction workers.[21]. 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. He also did not agree with his daughter's decision to join the church and move with Joseph to Ohio. 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. The drought and frost forced some local residents to walk for days trying to find enough food to feed their families.120 During the following summer of 1801, freezing temperatures and biting frosts again killed crops on July 26, August 5, August 25, and September 1213. 138. For example, Hymn 15 changed Isaac Watts's Joy to the World from a song about Christmas to a song about the return of Christ (see Joy to the World (Phelps)). After Joseph and Emma Hale Smiths marriage, they returned to the neighborhood that became for them a significant place in their familys timeline. On September 2, 1831, the Smiths moved into John Johnson's home in Hiram, Ohio. The Hale home was a place for tea parties and other social gatherings that included religious worship and tied the Hale family to their community. Jesse Hale served in various elected positions including superintendent of the local schools for District 3 while John Comfort served for District 1. 4 Juli 2022 4 Juli 2022 iatse local 800 initiation fee pada isaac hale father of emma smith. John Comfort, a fellow Methodist and Isaacs close companion in community leadership, regularly wrote to his son Silas, after he left their valley to study for the ministry, and described the changes in their community as they occurred. Thou hast grieved for the hardness of the hearts of thy fathers house, and thou hast longed for their salvation. 07/03/2022 . 2. Father of Jesse Hale , David Hale , Alva Hale , Elizabeth Hale , Isaac Ward Hale and Emma (Hale) Bidamon. A local slave recalled when she arrived in the valley, already several people had moved to the neighborhood, had erected log houses, cleared the lands, and begun to cultivate fields and raise stock.139 Each family built a log-house covered with bark, which differed from a log cabin in that the logs were smoothed with an adze to create straight edges, and the bark was generally used to enclose the upper portions in lieu of sawn lumber as was the case with the Hale familys neighbor John Osterhout (as seen in the illustration).140, Despite the great insulating qualities and durability of logs, even when they were hewn and nicely shaped settlers considered them less refined than sawn lumber in frame homes, and they tried to improve the look of their homes as soon circumstances allowed.141 The 1798 direct tax lists noted three sawmills in the valley, including that of Sylvanus Traves (or Travis) who lived on the farm immediately east of the Hale property. 79. Nathaniel Lewis led his congregation along the east bend of the river while the west continued with their traditional worship increasingly under the influence of Daniel Bucks son, Captain Ichabod Buck. 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. Early map makers of the region acknowledged their lack of information about the area by writing Endless Mountains across a large section of unmapped land without trying to include details they did not know.33The name stuck and is still used for the region today. 267. 8. 147. 33. Buck closed his labors,apparently,as pastor over the church in 1799(? But his observation captured a difference in attitude between the working men and women along the Susquehanna River and the gentry in comfortable Philadelphia homes. Lewis, Lewis Family Collection (15501984), gives the dates of birth for the children as, Elizabeth, November 19, 1767; Nathaniel, May 27, 1769; John, October 3, 1770; Esther, May 31, 1774; Jekiel, August 20, 1776; Molly, June 9, 1779; Reuben, January 13, 1782; Amos, April 7, 1785. This may help explain why Isaac Hale purchased less land than he occupied in 1798. 52. Bucks neighbors later wrote of those foundations being evidence of the presence and work of civilized man in it [the valley] before any known settlement of it.107The foundation was grown up with trees and only became evident when the land was cleared and plowed.108 The site has never been examined by archaeologists to evaluate if any evidence remains of what the men found. And Elizabeth Hale expected a child again. They also developed a close relationship and identification with local Native Americans, perhaps in part because of Daniel Bucks knowledge of their language and culture. The wealthy family lived on a 90-acre farm in the Susquehanna River Valley, where Isaac shipped meat and other merchandise downriver to Philadelphia and Baltimore. ), his question mark after the date expressing some uncertainty as to when Buck was replaced. Governors, academic leaders, businessmen, country farmers, and poor day laborers were all equally interested in finding hidden wealth in late eighteenth-century America and were equally disappointed in their failure to find anything of value. . 59. Elwin G. Davis, Lewises Who Served Their Country,Lewisiana: The Lewis Letter, 8(8) 1898: 117; Milton Cemetery Records, The Hale Collection, Connecticut State Library, Hartford, Connecticut, November 1416, 1934. Jesse moved his fifteen-year-old bride immediately into her new frame home. The information presented in this article is an outgrowth of my research for the Historic Sites Division of the LDS Church Historical Department in conjunction with the reconstruction of the Isaac and Elizabeth Hale farm (17871841) and the Jesse and Mary Hale/Joseph and Emma Smith farm (18131830) in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania. David rented the entire James Westfall property in 1825 and thus controlled the potential silver mine on the Westfall farm.258 The Westfall family continued to pay the tax for the James Westfall home indicating someone, likely the Widow Westfall, continued to live there. Thou shalt be blessed with understanding, and have power to instruct thy sex, teach thy family righteousness, and thy little ones the way of life, and the holy angels shall watch over thee and thou shalt be saved in the kingdom of God, even so, Amen., Copyright 2023 The Joseph Smith Jr and Emma Hale Smith Historical Society, Joseph Smith Jr and Emma Hale Smith Historical Society 2023, Short Biographies of Joseph, Emma, and their family. Versaggi, personal communication to author, September 13, 2013. Anne SMITH daughter of Thomas Smith died 11 February 1880 aged 33 years 140b. 178. John Traves built a sawmill across the river a few hundred feet downstream from the Hale home. Blackman,History of Susquehanna County, 578. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. So far, however, it has not been possible to identify a specific carver, Nancy Lynn Mess, Cemetery Historian, Ithaca, New York, Personal communication to author, March 6, 2015. Recorded in Susquehanna County Deeds, Deed to Joseph McKune Jr., 28 June 1833, as Recorded in Young Smith gave the "money-diggers" great encouragement, at first, but when they had arrived in digging, to near the place where he had stated an immense treasure would be found -- he said the enchantment was so powerful that he could not see. Others also consistently agreed the workmen boarded with Isaac Hale. Some of the later tax assessment booklets include a printed version of the General Assembly act with a list of taxable items that matches the handwritten one cited here rather than the formally published one that became part of the legal code in later years.