52 Ancestors – Page 11 – A Deck of Ancestors

52W Mark IV – Week 35: Card B9 Susan Ann Elizabeth Turple

What rhymes with “purple”. Nothing? Not so fast! Meet my Gx3 Grandmother, Susan Turple!

Susan was born on March 17, 1818 in Halifax, Nova Scotia to William Turple and Frances “Fanny” Robinson. While she was born on St. Patrick’s Day, it’s unlikely that Susan was even the least bit Irish. Her direct paternal line came to Nova Scotia from what’s now Germany around 1750. The rest of her lineage was most likely English and was in Nova Scotia by the mid-1700s.

Around 1841, when she was in her early 20s, Susan married Charles Brady, a musician who was born in Boston. I don’t know when Charles came to Nova Scotia and have no idea how he met Susan. It was a short marriage, lasting long enough for the couple to have a daughter, Amelia, who was born in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island in 1842. Why Charles and Susan were living in Charlottetown at the time, again, I do not know why.

Some sources I’ve found suggest that Susan was widowed following the “untimely death” of Charles. This probably would have come as a surprise to Charles, who lived to be 67 and died in Washington in 1881, eight years before it became a state, as well as his second wife, Anne Dillon, who he married in 1855.

Rather, first-hand accounts written by Susan and Amelia show that Susan left Charles around 1843. Susan wrote that Charles was away from home a lot and that when he was home he mistreated her. Amelia stated that she did not know much about her father, because her mother left him when she was 11 months old. As far as I can find, Susan and Charles never formally divorced.

After Susan separated from Charles, she and her daughter Amelia moved back to Halifax and moved in with her parents. Apparently Susan’s parents primarily raised Amelia during that time.

Around 1838, the first Mormon missionaries began preaching in Halifax and the Latter Day Saints established a church there in 1843. Susan, her mother Fanny, and several of her siblings joined the church in the late 1840s. Susan was formally baptized into the church on May 18, 1849.

At that time, the Latter Day Saints were in the midst of a succession crisis, which had been ongoing since its founder Joseph Smith was killed in 1844. Susan, as well as her mother and some of her siblings, aligned herself with James Strang, who claimed to have a letter from Joseph Smith appointing Strang as his successor. It appears that many Halifax Mormons simply found themselves following Strang by default rather than actually taking an active interest in who their leader should be.

Strang’s faction of followers was about a fifth the size of those following Brigham Young. The schism resulted in the establishment of a separate church, also known as Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, often distinguished as the “Strangites”. The Strangites fell into decline after Strang’s death, and further fractured into two separate groups. By 2000, neither branch of Strangites had more than a few hundred adherents.

In 1851, a delegation loyal to Brigham Young travelled to Halifax to re-establish their control over the Mormons there. Once there, this delegation excommunicated those who were loyal to Strang. This included Susan and those of her family who were members of the church.

Susan “confessed” her “error” shortly afterwards and was rebaptized back into the church on October 13, 1851. While Susan’s family members also recanted their “error”, they ultimately left the Mormon church. It seems that Susan’s family had stronger feelings about the church leadership and would not follow Young. Only Susan remained with the Mormon church.

This led to estrangement from her family, based upon Susan’s desire to leave Halifax for Salt Lake City. This estrangement is evident from her father’s will, which made provision for every one of his children – including a son from a first marriage – but left nothing to Susan.

Susan set out with her daughter for Boston in April 1853, aboard the Brig Halifax, with the intention of joining the Mormon migration to the west. They arrive in Boston on April 14, 1853. Susan was still using the surname Brady. As well, while Susan was 35 years old at the time, the passenger record lists her as having been 30.

The passenger list for the Brig Halifax showing Susan and Amelia travelling to Boston.

From there, Susan and Amelia moved westward and joined a wagon train that formed part of the William Atkinson company. The company consisted of 79 individuals and 12 wagons. The company left Keokuk, Iowa in May 1853. After a brief sojourn in Kanesville, Iowa, the company resumed its journey in July 1853. The company arrived in Utah by September 11, 1853.

Two weeks of arriving in Utah, on September 28, 1853, Susan married Henry Lyman Cook. How they met or how that came to be I do not know. While some secondary sources suggest otherwise, I doubt Susan and Henry knew each other before Susan arrived in Salt Lake City.

While it might be little more than speculation, I’ve wondered whether this was a marriage arranged by the church. Henry was already married; in fact, Susan was his fourth wife. Henry’s first wife died. His second marriage lasted only a few months, but there does not seem to have been a formal divorce. Henry’s third wife, Lovina, was still alive when Henry married Susan and I have no evidence the two ever separated.

Thus it seems that Henry’s marriage with Susan was polygamous, and conducted only in accordance with Mormon custom. I have no marriage record; rather, all I know is that Henry and Susan were “sealed”, a Mormon rite that binds spouses and family members for eternity. Henry was also a father to Susan’s daughter Amelia, who took on her stepfather’s surname. However, being 11 years old, it likely was not Amelia’s decision. In fact, later in life Amelia used the surname Brady.

Regardless of the nature and circumstances of their spousal union, Susan and Henry remained together until Henry died in 1869. Within a year of marrying Susan and Henry moved to Iron City in the southwest corner of Utah. Looking at the map, if the middle of nowhere had a middle of nowhere, it would be Iron City. In Iron City Susan gave birth to the first two of her children with Henry; a son who was also named Henry Lyman and a daughter, Sarah Florilla, my Gx2 grandmother. By the start of 1860 the family was in Goshen, a small town not far from Provo, Utah.

Susan lived out the rest of her long life in Goshen, on October 24, 1906, at the age 88. She was 63 when Henry died. Not only that, Susan outlived three of the four children she had with Henry. Her eldest son Henry Jr. passed away two months after his mother. Even Amelia, Susan’s oldest child, passed away within seven years of her mother. Susan is buried at the Goshen City Cemetery.

Having an ancestor whose surname rhymes with “purple”, I now need to find ones whose surnames rhyme with “orange” and “silver”.

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.

52W Mark IV – Week 33: Card B7 Charlotte Elizabeth Liggett

I wrote quite a lot about my Gx3 Grandmother, Charlotte Liggett, when I first participated in the 52 Ancestors Challenge in 2022, particularly in Week 28, Characters. Over the last few years, particularly in the last few months, I’ve learned a lot more about Charlotte, and have managed to clarify a lot of things since I last wrote about her.

Charlotte was born on October 6, 1837 in Ostrander, Delaware County, Ohio; however, by a few accounts she was born on October 2, 1837, in Dover Township, Union County, Ohio. While in different counties, these communities are five kilometers apart. My speculation is that it may be that one set of information relates to Charlotte’s birth and the other set relates to her baptism or christening. Given the Liggett family roots and connections to Ostrander, I believe that is more likely the correct location.

While Charlotte was born in Ohio, both sets of her grandparents were from Virginia, albeit the part of the state that is now West Virginia. The Liggetts were in Virginia at least by the mid-1700s. Charlotte’s Gx2 Grandfather, James Alexander Liggett, likely came from Londonderry, Ireland and settled in Pennsylvania around 1740, before relocating to Virginia. Charlotte’s maternal line was also likely in Virginia by 1750, if not by 1800, but originated in Württemberg and Switzerland.

Charlotte was the only child of Conrad Liggett (1815-1838) and Louisa Thomas (1811-1846). Charlotte was eight months old when her father Conrad died. When I first wrote about Charlotte in 2022, I was uncertain as to where Conrad had died. After more research, I am now pretty certain that Conrad died in Ostrander and that it was highly unlikely he ever joined the Mormon church.

With the death of her husband, Louisa had to find work to support the family. As a result, Charlotte’s grandparents, James Liggett and Susana Carr took her in, possibly along with her half brother (Louisa’s son from a previous marriage).

Most of the information I have regarding Charlotte’s life after her father died is from secondary sources, and the accounts vary somewhat. Thus, it is not clear if Charlotte’s grandparents had full-time custody and care of her or whether they only looked after her during Louisa’s working hours. Based upon the descriptions of their custody, it appears that James and Susana had full-time care of Charlotte.

When Charlotte was three, her mother Louisa remarried, to Aaron W. Cook. (This was only six months after Charlotte’s husband to be, William Burgess, married his first wife!) According to her grandson in his memoire, George Burgess, this marriage occurred in secrecy. At the same time, the couple joined the Mormon church.

Shortly after the marriage, Louisa asked her in-laws if she could take Charlotte home with her for a week or a weekend. However, Louisa never returned Charlotte to her grandparents. In George’s words, they “ran off” with Charlotte and joined the Mormons in their westward migration. George said that Louisa had three daughters with Aaron when they were living in Nauvoo, plus another child about 12 miles out of Nauvoo after the Mormons were driven out of there. The child and Louisa died during childbirth. Charlotte was nine years old at the time. Aaron continued to Utah with Charlotte and raised her – if you can call “marrying her off to a Mormon elder” at age 14 raising a child.

Several of the accounts I have were from or by Charlotte’s non-Mormon relatives and their descendants. Some of these have a clearly anti-Mormon bias. I have several stories of how families shunned and broke off relations with family members who joined the church. However, whatever one might think of the Mormon religion, it seems to me that Louisa was well within her rights to keep her daughter with her and that her in-laws never had any form of legal custody of Charlotte.

The secondary sources indicate that Charlotte’s grandfather had made provisions for her should she ever be found. Apparently, years later her family in Ohio subsequently managed to find Charlotte, who then received her portion of her grandfather’s estate.

The “Mormon elder” I referred to was most likely my Gx3 Grandfather, William Burgess (1822-1904). They married on June 3, 1852. He was 30, she was 14. More accurately, William and Charlotte were “sealed”, a Mormon ritual meant to bind familial relationships for eternity. When he joined with Charlotte, William was still married to his legal wife, Maria Pulsipher.

William and Charlotte’s marriage was short lived, lasting long enough for Charlotte to have one child, my Gx2 Grandfather Horace Burgess. Charlotte left William sometime before September 1857, before she was 20. Most secondary sources suggest William and Charlotte divorced. However, being a polygamous marriage, there was no formal civil registration of the marriage and, therefore, no formal divorce. According to the secondary accounts, Charlotte left William because she could not get along with his first wife, Maria. Other accounts suggest Charlotte became disenchanted with polygamy.

According to my great aunt Fon, Charlotte had her sealing to William annulled in 1890 “after the manifesto and was not sealed to second husband until after her death, as [she had been] told by the bishop she couldn’t be sealed again. This second sealing was her death wish.” Fon’s reference to “the manifesto” is likely the proclamation made by the Latter Day Saints’ President banning polygamy as one of the tenets of the Mormon church.

If Charlotte had become disenchanted with polygamy, it did not last long. On September 7, 1857, Charlotte entered into a polygamous relationship with and was sealed to William Whitehead Taylor, a man ten years her senior. William was already married to a woman, Nannie Standring, who he wed around 1855.

Charlotte and William’s polygamous marriage occurred before the practice was outlawed in Utah by the federal government in the 1860s and banned by the Latter Day Saints in 1890. Even so, William and Charlotte played down the nature of their relationship. For example, in the 1880 census Charlotte was listed as “keeping house” separate from William and his legal wife, Nannie. There was no entry for the box indicating her status as head of house, spouse, or relative of others. Charlotte’s children with William were reported as those of Nannie. However, Charlotte’s surname was reported as “Taylor”.

Nevertheless, the relationship between William Taylor and Charlotte was a durable one, lasting until William’s death in 1907. William Taylor and Charlotte had five children together.

Charlotte died at home in Lehi, Utah on February 20, 1909 after having a stroke. She is buried at the Lehi City Cemetery, alongside William Taylor.

52W Mark IV – Week 32: Card B6 William Burgess

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints – the Mormons – was founded by Joseph Smith in April 1830 in Fayette, New York. In July 1832, Harrison Burgess of Putnam, New York, heard a Mormon missionary by the name of Simeon Carter. Harrison converted to the new religion and was baptized in October 1832. By the end of that year, Harrison’s parents and siblings (of whom there were at least nine at the time) also joined the Mormon church.

This included my Gx3 Grandfather, William Burgess Jr., who was about nine years old at the time. He was born on March 1, 1822, in Putnam. He was the sixth of twelve children born to William Burgess Sr. (1794-1880) and Violate Stockwell (1794-1880).

The Mormons relocated to Kirkland, Ohio in 1831. By September 1833, William was living there with his family. However, according to secondary sources, William Jr. lived in Joseph Smith’s house for a considerable period of time.

In the meantime, Smith was trying to establish Missouri as the church’s headquarters. However, between the Governor of Missouri driving the Mormons out of the state and a financial scandal involving the Kirtland Safety Society, a joint stock company intended to become a bank, the Mormons relocated to Nauvoo, Illinois in 1839. The Burgess family joined the fledgling church there by 1841, if not earlier.

While in Nauvoo, William joined the Third Company, Fifth Regiment of the Nauvoo Legion, a state-authorized militia that existed from 1841 to 1845. During his time with the Nauvoo Legion, William attained the rank of Colonel. As well, William was ordained as a “Seventy”, a level of priesthood within the Mormon church. He also participated in constructing the Latter Day Saints’ temple in Nauvoo.

William married his first wife, Maria Pulsipher, in September 1840 in Lima, Illinois. More accurately, William entered into a legal marriage with Maria. His next two wives were polygamous unions. Early church leaders secretly began the practice while the church was in Nauvoo. The church did not openly start the practice until 1852, after Joseph Smith had died and it had established itself in Salt Lake City. William and Maria remained married until her death in 1892. They had nine children together.

The Mormons were driven out of Nauvoo in 1846, which marked the beginning of the Mormon Migration to Utah. During the westward migration, over the winter of 1846-1847, about 2,500 church members encamped at Winter Quarters, which was just north of where Omaha, Nebraska came to be. The first settlers arrived in what is now Salt Lake City in July 1847, in what was still Mexican territory.

William and Maria were part of this great migration. They were in Winter Quarters from at least September 16, 1846 to May 1848. They set out as members of Brigham Young’s company, which consisted of about 1,220 people. William arrived in Utah by September 1848 and settled in Huntington, about 175 kilometers southeast of Salt Lake City.

William was not in Huntington for long. By the next year, 1849, he was in Salt Lake City where he joined the militia. Upon enlisting he was made a captain; by 1853 he was a colonel. William also took up farming near Salt Lake City.

Militia record showing both William and his older brother Harrison.

While in Salt Lake City, William entered into a polygamist marriage with my Gx3 grandmother, Charlotte Liggett, on June 3, 1852. William was more than twice Charlotte’s age at the time – he was 30 and she was 14. Sadly, that kind of age gap, and the incredibly young age of the girls, was not uncommon with the early Mormon polygamists.

Shortly after marrying Charlotte, William entered into a mission. It appears that he may have or was to have carried out his mission in Great Britain; however, it is more likely that he performed his mission within the United States. At or around the time William completed his mission, he was ordained as President of the Ninth Quorum of Seventies.

By the start of 1854, William and family were living in Lehi, Utah, which is about 40 kilometers due south of Salt Lake City. The city of Lehi established a school board on February 17, 1854 and held an election for trustees three days later. Three men were elected: William, Preston Thomas, and Daniel Collett. Sixty five years later, William’s grandson, Milton Burgess, married Preston’s granddaughter, Hazel Nelson. Milton and Hazel are my great grandparents.

A month after William was elected to the Lehi school board, he was elected an alderman of Lehi. In addition to his electoral positions, William was one of the founders of the Lehi Dramatic Club, which was established in 1855. Its first productions were plays called “Priestcraft in Danger” and “Luke the Labourer”. The club performed in Lehi’s log schoolhouse, using tallow candles for footlights and painted wagon covers for scenery and curtains. I doubt William actually performed on stage. Rather, I believe he was one of the people overseeing the operations of the club. For example, William obtained the licence required by the town for operation of the club. Nevertheless, it is entirely possible that he may have been treading the boards!

William did not complete his term as alderman in Lehi. He resigned in March 1855, because he and his family moved to Salmon, Idaho, not far from where Sacagawea was born. While in Salmon, William embarked on a three-year mission for the church. The mission was based out of Fort Lemhi, a Mormon mission located about 40 kilometers south of Salmon. Initially, the mission consisted of twenty-seven sent to Lemhi by Brigham Young. At its peak, the mission grew to about 200 people. The Mormons were forced to abandon the mission due to conflict with the Bannock and Shoshone.

Sometime around or after moving to Salmon, likely in 1857, Charlotte left William. The marriage lasted long enough for them to have had one son, which was lucky for me, because he was Horace Burgess, my Gx2 Grandfather. By some accounts, the marriage ended because Charlotte did not get along with Maria; by others, it was because she was disenchanted with polygamy. Some sources indicate that the couple divorced. However, being a polygamous marriage, there may have been no formal civil registration of the marriage and, therefore, no formal divorce. While at the time of their marriage William and Charlotte had been “sealed” (a Mormon ritual meant to bind familial relationships for eternity), Charlotte had the sealing annulled in 1890.

After the Lemhi mission came to an end, William and family moved to Parley’s Canyon, which is now on the outskirts of Salt Lake City, where he had been granted 10 acres of land. William built a sawmill where he milled shingles for use at the nearby fort and for houses. William’s father and his brothers Harrison, Horace, and Melanchton also worked at the mill.

On February 21, 1858, William married Catherine Chamberlain, who was 18 years old at the time. Catherine had been previously married, at age 16, to a fellow by the name of William Randolph Teeples. Catherine and William had at least one child together. I have not researched the circumstances as to when Catherine and William separated, if they did at all. All the while, William was still married to Maria, who was 35 years old by this time. In fact, each of Maria’s last two children were born within a few months of each of Catherine’s first two children with William. Catherine ultimately had four children with William. This means that William fathered 14 children in total.

^{A rough sketch showing the ages of William and his three wives at the time of each marriage. As well, I’ve highlighted the relative times at which William fathered some of his 14 children, including the timing of Maria’s last two children and Catherine’s first two.}

In 1862, William established a sawmill in Pine Valley, Utah, which furnished most of the lumber for southern Utah (then referred to as “Dixie”). It was one of the first sawmills in the region. The mill was a seasonal operation, so until 1880 William divided his time between Pine Valley in the summer and St. George, Utah, in the winter. The Pine Valley sawmill provided the lumber that was used to build the pipe organ for the local church. As well, apparently some of the lumber William milled was used for the construction of the Salt Lake Tabernacle.

In 1880, William relocated to Thurber, Utah, where he spent five years. Finally, around 1885, William settled back in Huntington, where he had begun life in Utah, and spent the rest of his life there. William had many business endeavours in Huntington. He was a bee keeper, which is fitting because Utah is known as the Beehive State. William also bought into the Co-op Mercantile Company as one of the principal stockholders and served as its president for seven years. He also worked as a carpenter, farmed, and raised cattle.

William died on March 14, 1904 after having been bedridden for nine years due to rheumatism and other ailments. He is buried at the Huntington City Cemetery.

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