52W Mark IV – Week 34: Card B8 Henry Lyman Cook

My Gx3 Grandfather, Henry Lyman Cook, is another of my maternal ancestors who were early converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (the Mormons). He also may or may not have been one of the earliest practitioners of polygamy in the Church, although on closer examination it might be on a technicality.

Henry was born on July 8, 1803 in Kingsbury, New York, to Daniel Cook (1769-1825) and Miriam Fellows (1773-1830). Henry has deep roots in colonial New England on both sides of his family. Most, if not all, of his Gx2 Grandparents were in Massachusetts and Connecticut by the mid to late 17th Century.

I do not know anything about Henry’s early life before his first marriage, to Nancy P. Bingham, sometime around 1828. However, Henry and Nancy’s first child, Daniel, was born in Kingsbury in 1829, which suggests they were married in New York state. However, the young family did not remain in Kingsbury for long, as they were living in the Wisconsin Territory in 1831, where there second child, William, was born.

By 1833, Henry and family were living in Upper Canada, now Ontario, Canada. Their next five children were born there, with the last occurring around 1840. It was while the family was in Ontario, most likely Essex, that Henry joined the Mormon church in 1837. Henry’s obituary suggested he was living in Detroit at the time, which is less than 30 kilometers from Essex. However, it may be more likely that Henry went to Detroit to hear the missionaries and to be baptised into the church.

By June 1840, Henry and family were living in Quincy, Illinois, where many Mormons had settled. Nancy did not live long after the move; she died in Quincy in April 1842. Henry did not let the grass grow under his feet, as he married Mary Hoag on June 13, 1842, in Nauvoo, Illinois, another significant Mormon settlement.

^{Henry and Mary’s marriage registration}

I know very little about Mary beyond the fact she had married Henry. The marriage was short and abusive. According to the Nauvoo High Council Minute Books, Henry and Mary’s marriage “quickly proved disastrous”. Henry claimed Mary abused his children, set bad examples before them, and would frequently use expletives. Henry whipped Mary in hopes of controlling her.

In an academic paper regarding early Mormon polygamous marriages, author Gary James Bergera speculated that Henry and Mary either separated or divorced; however, he cited no evidence of a divorce. It is unlikely there was a divorce, as Mary and her next husband, John Wells Taylor, were charged with marrying while Mary was still legally married to Henry. According to the officiant of John and Mary’s marriage, John C. Annis, Taylor reported that he had purchased Mary from Henry “for her weight in cat-fish.” Given that Mary and John married on November 27, 1842, it is extremely unlikely that prior to their union there had been a divorce between Mary and Henry. John and Mary were subsequently excommunicated by the church on January 28, 1843.

Henry married for a third time, to Lovina Thayes, on November 5, 1843 in Nauvoo. As far as I know, Henry and Lovina never had any children.

^{Record of Henry and Lovina’s marriage}

In his paper, Bergera concluded that this was not a polygamous marriage because Henry and Mary had divorced. However, while the two had separated, I can find no evidence that Henry had divorced Mary before marrying Lovina. Thus, at least technically, Henry was a polygamist but not as a result of the growing Mormon adoption of the practice. Rather, he simply married Lovina regardless of his legal status with Mary. In any event, Bergera did not give any regard to Henry’s fourth marriage, to my Gx3 Grandmother Susan Turple, which occurred while Lovina was still alive and married to Henry.

While still in Nauvoo, Henry was ordained a “Seventy”, a level of priesthood in the Mormon church. He and his family fled Nauvoo in 1846 when the Mormons were driven out of the town. They resided in Winter Quarters, Nebraska, from about 1846 to 1848. This was a major Mormon encampment north of what is now Omaha that had initially been established to wait out the winter before they moved further west. Henry established himself in by 1850.

Henry married Susan Turple in Salt Lake City on September 28, 1853, less than two weeks after Susan had arrived in Utah from Nova Scotia via Boston. Together, Henry and Susan had four children. The couple spent most, if not all, of their married life in Goshen, Utah. Brigham Young had directed a number of Mormons to settle in Goshen, believing that a new roadway would run past that location. I’m not sure if the road envisioned by Young ever came to be. While Utah Highway 6 now runs through the town, it was built many decades after Goshen was founded.

Henry had a farm or a ranch in Goshen where he raised cattle. Henry had a cattle brand recorded on December 2, 1868, which was a capital “H” placed at the right jaw of the animal.

Sometime around September 1869, Henry developed gangrene in one of his legs, apparently due to some illness rather than injury. As a result, Henry’s leg was amputated above the knee, probably around the beginning of October. A November 10, 1869 newspaper account stated that Henry was recovering well, but it was not to be. Henry died in Goshen on November 17, 1869.

Henry was buried in the original Goshen Pioneer Cemetery, along with 18 others. A new cemetery was opened around 1880 and no further interments occurred in the Pioneer Cemetery. Many of those buried at the Pioneer Cemetery were relocated to the new cemetery, but there is no record of those whose remains were moved.