#101 MY EARLY MORMON RELATIONS

                                             ANNA FARNUM  & EBENEZER LANDERS, JR

Anna's signature

                                             Ebenezer's mark...he was unable to read or write

Anna Farnum is my 4 times great aunt, the sister of my elusive 3x great-grandmother Huldah (Farnum) Pierson. Anna was born August 14, 1818 in Bastard Township, Leeds County, Upper Canada. Huldah, Anna and John were children of John Farnum II (1781-1873) and his first wife Sabra (1787-1819). Sabra died a few months after Anna’s birth and John remarried Sarah Matthews and they had seven children.

Anna, aged 20, married Ebenezer Landers, Jr.(1816-1896) aged 21, on Sept 25 1838 in Johnstown District, Upper Canada.

                                                        marriage register

 

CHURCH OF LATTER DAY SAINTS  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was founded in upstate New York state by Joseph Smith in 1830. Under Smith’s leadership, the church moved to Ohio, Missouri and Illinois. (After Smith’s murder in 1844, a majority of his followers sided with Brigham Young who led the church to its current headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah.) Other than the Bible, most of the church canon consists of materials revealed by God to Joseph Smith, including lost parts of the Bible and other works by ancient prophets including the Book of Mormon (which Smith translated from golden plates). Members adhere to church laws of sexual purity, health, fasting, Sabbath observance and 10% tithing. The church is led by a president, two prophet- counselors and the Quorum of Twelve Apostles.

LDS CHURCH IN LEEDS COUNTY  Because of the proximity of Upper Canada to the birthplace of this new religion, it was the first to receive the restored gospel.  In 1832, just two years after its inception, Saints missionaries arrived in Upper Canada to boldly proclaim that God had restored his church upon earth through a latter-day prophet and a book of modern scripture, the Book of Mormon, plus the Bible.  Missionary work in the early days was quite different from modern times. Missionaries went out without “purse or scrip” and relied on the generosity and hospitality of the local people for their maintenance; they preached in public places, churches, schools, even barns. Their ministerings were often accompanied by gifts of the Spirit, “good liberty”, healing others, and sometime speaking in tongues. Both Joseph Smith and Brigham Young came to preach in Canada in the 1830s. Leeds County was especially receptive to the new church. Ebenezer converted to the LDS Church in Canada on October 7, 1836, and was ordained a teacher the next month.

In 1837, more than 300 Church members attended a conference in Portland village, Bastard Township, Leeds County. Men were baptized and ordained to the priesthood. In 1838, Canadian converts from Leeds County decided to relocate and join the main body of their church in the US. Some crossed the St. Lawrence on ferry, some travelled across the Great Lakes by boat and others crossed the river ice by oxen.

Anna and Ebenezer left Canada in this 1838 exodus and quite likely were among the Canadians that went to Missouri where they faced widespread and escalating violence. The Missouri governor stated that Mormons were enemies of the state and should be executed or driven from the state; the Missouri militia arrested Joseph Smith and other church leaders. Remaining church members were disarmed after which the Missouri “attackers committed numerous outrages against women and property.” That winter, church members abandoned their property and relocated to Illinois. While some Canadian converts did return home, most including Ebenezer and Anna, remained with the Church and received temple blessings in the Nauvoo Temple in Illinois.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 NAUVOO  In the spring of 1839, the LDS church drained a swampland and established a new settlement on the banks of the Mississippi River in Illinois. The town was called Nauvoo—a Hebrew word that supposedly means beautiful place. Nauvoo was the Mormon headquarters for seven years during which time the church flourished as missionaries sent to Europe and elsewhere gained new converts who flooded into Nauvoo. With a population of 12,000, the settlement quickly became one of the largest cities in Illinois.

 

EBENEZER’S MEMBERSHIP IN LDS

CONVERSION:  Ebenezer converted to the LDS Church in Canada about October 7, 1836 and was ordained a teacher the next month.

BAPTISM:  Membership into the LDS Church is granted only by baptism. The LDS Church does not recognize baptisms performed by any other denomination; thus, the church practices rebaptism as all converts must be baptized under the direction of local church leaders. Baptism is by immersion and for the remission of sins (meaning past sins are forgiven.). Baptism occurs only after age of accountability (defined as age 8). It must be performed by a priesthood holder (i.e. a worthy male member at least 15 years old and overseen by a bishop.) The person administering the baptism must recite the prayer exactly, and immerse every part—limb, hair and clothing of the person being baptized; if there are any mistakes, the baptism is repeated until it is correct. Two witnesses ensure it is performed properly. Ebenezer was rebaptized in the Nauvoo Temple in 1838.

LDS scripture makes it clear that baptism is necessary for salvation and there is no scriptural prohibition against being baptized more than once (e.g. before serving missions or when marrying to show determination to follow the gospel during their mission or marriage.) The LDS Church also practices baptism for the dead “vicariously” or “by proxy” in temples for anyone who did not receive these ordinances while living.

By the 1840s, especially in Nauvoo, thousands of people—both men and women—were being baptized upon their conversion to the faith. It is unknown if Anna was rebaptised along with her husband, but it is quite likely.

                                                        19th c Mormon baptism

PATRIARCHAL BLESSINGS: This is a declaration of a person’s lineage in the house of Israel—as a descendant of Abraham—and also contains personal counsel from God who knows one’s strengths, weaknesses and eternal potential; patriarchal blessings may contain promises, admonitions and warnings. It was Joseph Smith, as officiator, who gave Ebenezer his patriarchal blessing in Nauvroo on July 17, 1840.

ORDINATION TO THE OFFICE OF SEVENTY: Men were ordained to different priesthood offices granting them authority to perform sacred ordinances and blessings. Ordained to the Seventy on February 9, 1845, Ebenezer was to act as a travelling minister or “especial witness”  of Jesus and help oversee various Church activities.

ENDOWED:  Ebenezer and Anna were both endowed in the Nauvoo Temple on January 22,1846. This involved a special ceremony in the temple designed so participants could become kings, queens, priests and priestesses in the afterlife. Participants took part in a scripted reenactment of the Biblical creation and the fall of Adam and Eve. The ceremony included a symbolic washing and anointing, and receipt of a “new Name” which they were not to reveal to others except at a certain part in the ceremony; they also received temple garments which Mormons were expected to wear under their clothing, day and night, for the rest of their lives. Participants were taught symbolic gestures and passwords considered necessary to pass by angels guarding the way to heaven. Ebenezer’s endowment was just two weeks before the saints were driven out of Nauvoo.

Anna received a Patriarchal Blessing on June 23,1845 in the City of Joseph (aka Nauvoo). Women were promised the same spiritual blessings as men (but could not be endowed with priesthood.) Anna was “sealed to her spouse” on July 23, 1852; this ceremony was designed to unite a man, woman and their children for eternity. Anna was again baptized, (over 150 years later) on April 9, 1979; a baptism for the dead is a practice where living members act as proxies for deceased individuals and are baptized in their place (this stems from the belief that baptism is necessary for entry into the Kingdom of God.

 

WITNESSES TO LDS HISTORY:   Ebenezer and Anna were living in Nauvoo and paying taxes from 1841 to 1845. Thus, they were witnesses to some very tumultuous times for the LDS church. In 1844, Prophet Joseph Smith was mayor of Nauvoo, he commanded a quasi-public military force, that with 2,500 men was almost one-third the size of the U.S. Army, and he had just declared himself a candidate for American President. The Nauvoo Expositor, a newspaper run by ex-Mormons excommunicated from the church, criticized Smith and other church leaders, correctly reporting that Smith was practising polygamy, marrying the wives of other men and intending to set himself up as a theocratic king. When Smith ordered the newspaper’s press destroyed, neighbouring communities were outraged that he was violating freedom of the press. After Smith declared martial law and called out his militia, he was charged with treason and was arrested by the State of Illinois. An armed mob of 150-200 men stormed the Carthage jail and Smith was shot several times as he attempted to escape. (He was armed with a gun smuggled into the jail by a friend.) Smith’s body was returned to Nauvoo, cleaned, examined and death masks made to preserve his facial features. An empty coffin was used at the public burial to prevent mutilation or theft of the body. Five defendants were tried for Smith’s murder but they were acquitted by a jury of all non-Mormons. 

                                                         murder of Joseph Smith by mob                             

                                                              death mask of Joseph Smith

The persecuted Saints left Nauvoo. The death of their beloved and charismatic leader brought much uncertainty to the church. A succession crisis occurred in the Church, but ultimately a majority of Mormons followed Brigham Young to the Utah Territory. Before they left, many were endowed in the Nauvoo Temple; Ebenezer was one of those endowed at this time.

Forced into exile, 15,000 Latter Day Saints, like Ebenezer and Anna, strung out across Iowa. Many died of starvation, exposure and disease; they had no home and only what they carried in their wagons. Food was scarce. They were bitter at the disinterest of the U.S. government in their plight.

 

The MEXICAN-AMERICAN WAR (1846-48) began when the   U.S., driven by its dream of Manifest Destiny, annexed Texas and the subsequent border conflict led to war with Mexico. Military victories and a $15 million payment ultimately brought significant territorial gains for the U.S. including present-day California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico. 

On June 26, 1846, U.S. President James Polk called for 500 Mormon volunteers to enlist for one year in the  U.S. Army, march to Fort Leavenworth (in present-day Kansas) and then on to California. Mormons were incredulous; the government had ignored them; they felt they owed nothing to the U.S.; and what would their wives and children do with the fathers so far away? But Brigham Young, then at Council Bluffs, saw it differently. The soldiers’ pay and uniform allowances would provide much-needed income for his western trek. Men volunteered as an act of faith, because they trusted Young's counsel, whom "God had authorized to dictate the affairs of His kingdom."

                                                Mormon Battalion mustered at Council Bluffs, Iowa

The Battalion mustered at Council Bluffs and each volunteer was given his uniform allowance of $42 and paid in advance. As men were allowed to wear their civilian clothing for the march, most of these wages were donated to the Church which then purchased wagons, teams and other supplies for its trek to the Salt Lake valley. On July 20, 1846, the 549 Mormon soldiers marched off; they were accompanied by 33 women, who would act as laundresses, and 57 children. The Battalion was poorly trained. Some would not return for a year or two, some for almost a decade, some never.

                            Brigham Young calling for Volunteers for Mormon Battalion

Ebenezer, aged 29,  signed on as a private and became a teamster (oxen, horse, wagon driver) in Company C. Anna went with him. At least 15 members from eastern Ontario enlisted in the Mormon Battalion. Two days before Ebenezer left, he, like all the volunteers, met privately with President Brigham Young, who gave him his "last charge and blessing" which included a promise that his life "would be spared and the expedition would result in great good and his name would be handed down in honourable remembrance to all generations." Young also promised this group of non-soldiers that "they would have no fighting to do."

In October, some of the sick men and most of the women were dispatched to winter in Pueblo, Colorado. Quite likely, Anna did this. This group later went on to Salt Lake where ultimately they would be united with their husband.

The Mormon Battalion “conquered” New Mexico without firing a shot and then was ordered to blaze a "practical" wagon Trail to California so that the US could claim that territory.  The only “battle” they fought was in Arizona against a sizeable herd of wild cattle. When the bulls caused damage to some of the mules and wagons and injured a few men, the Mormons loaded their guns, charged the bulls, killed 10-15 of them. This was called the Battle of the Bulls.

The Mormon Battalion faced discrimination from regular army troops; they had to endure the medical incompetence of an army doctor whose remedy for every ailment was a large dose of mercury compounds, a cure worse than illness. And the men faced great physical hardship—searing sun, thirst, cold winds, hunger, thirst, sand, more sand, thirst, rock and thirst. Six months into their trek, most of the men had traded away any spare clothing for food. Shoes were rags and pieces of hide; hair and beards were unshaven and uncombed; skin darkened to a deep leathery brown; bones and ribs of man and beast protruded through stretched flesh. "We were all weary and fatigued, hungry and nearly naked, but our burning thirst drowned every other suffering." The battalion endured several long marches without water; they often relied on contaminated water sources; some strained "water through their teeth to keep back the live and dead insects; others used quills to suck water through cracks in rocks or by putting stones or buckshot in their mouths to generate moisture." Many became so weak they had to leave which reduced the battalion numbers from about 500 to about 300. Nonetheless the men maintained a positive attitude through their suffering. "Their attitude was grounded in their trust in God and their gratitude for His mercies."

The Battalion of 339 survivors arrived in San Diego, California in January 1847. They had marched over two thousand miles.  The Treaty of Cahuenga, signed January 13, 1847, ended the conflict in California. The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed February 2, 1848, ended the Mexican War and Mexico ceded territory, including Utah, to the U.S.

 

ESCORT DUTY: Armed conflict had essentially ended by the time the Mormon Battalion reached San Diego, but the volunteers still owed six months of military service so they were dispatched to other construction projects in California. Ebenezer was assigned as a team driver to a 15-man group escorting a high-profile prisoner to his court martial in D.C. During their journey over the Sierra Nevada, these men came across one of the Donner Party campsites. (In 1846, the Donner Party—consisting of 87 settlers—set out for California but became trapped by early snowstorms in the Sierra Nevadas. After taking an unproven route, which delayed their journey and exhausted their resources, they were forced to build makeshift camps with limited food. Starvation set in over the brutal winter of 1846–47, at least half of the group died, and some survivors resorted to cannibalism before rescue parties arrived in February.) The Mormon troops were ordered to bury the human remains, burn the cabins and clean up the area. It was on this escort that Ebenezer was thrown from his horse which caused a lifetime disability.

                                                        site of Donner Party tragedy

Ebenezer was discharged from the Army on July 16, 1848.

Ebenezer and Anna relocated often—Salt Lake (1 year), Provo, Utah (2-3 years), San Bernadino, CA (3-4 years), Cache Valley, Utah (4 years), Eureka, Utah (3-4 years) and lastly in Salem, Utah. The censuses list him as a farmer, but he had only a little property and was unable to work. They initially came to Salt Lake Valley some time prior to 1851. (The 1850 census--enumerated in April of 1851--places them in Utah County. A rebaptism on 1 January 1852 in the Utah Stake City Ward confirms their presence in the valley that early.) At some point they continued on to settle in San Bernardino, California but they then returned to Utah in January 1858 with the Nathan Tenney Company and 71 other Mormons.. Brigham Young had ordered all of his people living in outlying colonies in Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, and California to come back to Utah Territory because in the spring of 1857, President James Buchanan had sent U.S. forces to the Utah Territory to quell a "Mormon Rebellion." After spending the winter camped out near the burnt out remains of Fort Bridger, (now in Wyoming) they entered a deserted Salt Lake City on 26 June 1858. Of course there was no rebellion, but the Saints obeyed the Prophet and had returned back to Utah Territory.

 

UTAH:  Ebenezer and Anna lived through Utah’s early growth years. In 1850, the U.S. government created the Utah Territory. From 1850 to 1890, it was a territory marked by rapid settlement, religious influence, and growing tensions with the federal government. The area was dominated by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who had fled religious persecution and established a theocratic society centered in Salt Lake City. The LDS Church played a central role in everyday life, guiding politics, economics, and social norms. The practice of polygamy, publicly acknowledged in the 1850s, became a major point of contention, leading to increasing federal intervention, including the appointment of non-Mormon governors and anti-polygamy laws.

                                                             Salt Lake City 1850

                                            arrival of Mormons in Salt Lake City

Brigham Young and his followers had arrived in Salt Lake Valley in 1847. He had quickly ordered the construction of many temples including Salt Lake Temple (which broke ground in 1853). Young was appointed governor of the territory and as such he allowed polygamy (Young had 56 wives and 57 children), supported slavery and exerted considerable power through his semi-theocratic political system. Under his direction, the Mormons built roads, bridges, forts and irrigation projects, organized a militia, established public welfare and, after a series of wars, eventually made peace with native Americans. He authorized railway construction, established a gold mint and organized a university in Salt Lake. Young died in 1877; an estimated 12,000-15,000 people attended his funeral in the Temple. At the time of his death, he was the richest man in Utah with an estimated personal fortune of $600,000 ($17.7 million today).

 

PENSION:  It was many years later that Ebenezer tried to get a disability pension for the injury he claimed he had received in northern California while on escort duty. Ordered to lasso a wild ox food, his horse’s saddle girth broke and he was dragged by the lassoed ox. He injured his back and loins. He said he was unable to get up on his horse unassisted for a few days but felt better and continued his assignment. What medical care he got, was unclear.

                                            1st rejection of his disability clain

It seems that Ebenezer’s initial 1884 petition for a disability pension was rejected; he reapplied in 1887 when Congress passed the Mexican War Survivor Bill. Veterans and widows were eligible as long as the soldier had served at least 60 days or engaged in battle, was honourably discharged and was at least 62 years old.(Ebenezer was in his 70s.) At this point in his life, witnesses described him as stooping, grunting around and complaining of some ailment, taking his medicine on and off for kidney and liver troubles, and not able to do any work. "He was not lazy just unable to work. He had tried farming but had to give it up and now lived on an acre of land." His application took years and almost 150 pages of sworn testimonies and affidavits. ( I read them all—thank goodness for my teacher-training-- deciphering  messy, illegible handwritng.)  Many witnesses had only a vague, if any, memory of Ebenezer’s long ago accident; no officers were alive to testify (one had been killed by a threshing machine, another had committed suicide when about to face a court martial). There were medical diagnoses, but only hearsay of the cause. Also as part of the process, Ebenezer (and some of his character witnesses) had to swear that they had never voted for secession, had never served in the Confederate Army, paid no taxes to the Confederacy, had no sympathy for the Southern cause, and that they had always been loyal to the U.S government. Ebenezer resubmitted his petition in 1884 and 1887. Finally, on July 18, 1892, he was given a $8 a month pension as a survivor of the Mexican War. Ebenezer, aged 80, died October 5,1896 in Salem, Utah.

            Reunion of Mormon Battalion on the 50th anniversary of their enlistment--July 16, 1896                           Ebenezer did attend this event (mentioned in newspaper) so he must be in this photo. Could                     Anna be one of the two women in this photo?

Anna petitioned the government for Ebenezer’s pension. In her application, she noted that she had been dependent on him until his death, then she now relied on the charity of friends. She had been left a log cabin and a half acre of land, valued at fifty dollars. (abt $2000 today) Anna lived off his pension until her death, aged 85 on November 13, 1903 in Payson, Utah. They had no children and are buried together.

                                                    Payson City Cemetery, Payson, Utah

Anna Farnum                                                                                                                                                         b. Aug 13, 1818 in Bastard Twp., Leeds Co. Upper Canada                                                                        m. Ebenezer Landers on Sept 25, 1838 in Johnstown, Leeds  Co, Upper Canada                                         d. Nov 13, 1903 in Payson Co., Utah                                                                                                   my 4x great aunt  (Netterfield-Farnum line) 

Ebenezer Landers, Jr                                                                                                                                              b. Sept 29, 1816 in  Elizabethtown, Leeds Co., Upper Canada                                                                    d. Oct 5, 1896 in Salem, Utah Co., Utah

                                                     Monuments to the Mormon Battalion

                                                                        Arizona

                                                Emigration Canyon, Utah

                                                                Los Angeles

                                                                Salt Lake

                                                                Tuscon

                                                                Salt Lake

                                                            New Mexico

                                                                Salt Lake

                                                                        San Diego

                                                                Kansas