Charlotte Liggett – A Deck of Ancestors

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.

52W Mark II – Week 33: Strength

I am not a member of the Latter Day Saints (“Mormons”), but my maternal grandfather, Leo Burgess, was. In fact, his direct paternal line were Mormons almost since the beginning. The early members of the church were required to draw on their strength as they faced persecution, exile, and hardship.

Most sources state that my Gx4 Grandfather, William Burgess (1794-1880) was baptised into the church in 1832, two years after it had been founded by Joseph Smith. However, the Kirtland Elders’ Certificates from the Joseph Smith Papers state that William joined the church and was ordained a deacon on April 6, 1830. All eight of my grandfather’s great grandparents had joined the church in the 1830s and 1840s.

“This certifies that William Burgess has been received into the church of the Latter-Day Saints, organized on the sixth of April, in the year of our Lord, one thousand, eight hundred hundred & thirty, & has been ordained a Deacon…

Joseph Smith Jr. Chairman.
F[rederick] G. Williams Clerk.
Kirtland, Ohio, April 2, 1836.”

*Kirtland Elders’ Certificates*, p. 84, *The Joseph Smith Papers*

While I am quite skeptical about much of the church’s dogma, I absolutely respect the strength of its early adherents, including many of my direct ancestors who were early members of the church. Many of them experienced and survived unnecessary suffering due to religious persecution. Several others endured an arduous – and for some, deadly – journey from Illinois to Utah over the winter of 1846-1847.

Joseph Smith sought to create a “New Jerusalem”. He and his followers moved to Ohio and soon began building a settlement in Missouri. In 1833, church members were run out of Missouri and a failed banking venture crippled the Ohio settlement. The Mormons attempted a settlement elsewhere in Missouri, but were driven out upon an executive order of the governor, calling for them to be exterminated or expelled from the state. In 1939, the church regrouped in a new community, Nauvoo, Illinois, and began to build their Zion there.

Two years after Joseph Smith’s death in 1844, tensions with non-Mormons increased, such that the Mormons were driven out of their settlement once again. They upped stakes and began the 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.

Many of the trekkers did not survive. There are varying accounts of the death toll at Winter Quarters. This is due, in part, to the lack of sufficiently complete and reliable records. It is also due to what was included in each account: some measure death only due to disease, others include deaths of all causes. The periods of time also vary: from a few months over the winter of 1846-1847, to longer periods of time, e.g.,1846 to 1848. Louisa Thomas, my 4x great grandmother, was one of those who perished at Winter Quarters. She died on November 16, 1846. An entry in the Winter Quarters sexton’s records shows that she died 19 miles up the river from Winters Quarters. Louisa’s daughter Charlotte, my Gx3 grandmother, was only nine at the time.

*The entry for Louisa Thomas in the Winter Quarters sexton’s records, 1846-1848: “Loisa Cook. 36 years, 0 months, 0 days. Wife of Aaron W. Cook [*her third husband]. Died 19 miles up the River from Winter quarters Bur[i]ed at the same place. [Died] Nov 16 1846. [Disease] chills fever. [Born] State of Mareland May 1811.”

To have survived long journeys to settle in new lands, religious persecution, and perilous migration took incredible strength – mental, physical, social, and spiritual. Their conviction and belief carried them through difficult times and experiences. For that I am grateful, because without their strength I would not have been.

52 Weeks – Week 28: Characters

This week’s 52 Ancestors Challenge theme is “Characters”. While that actually provides a wide scope, the inclination might be to write about an ancestor who had a big personality or was quite the extrovert. I’ve decided to write about an ancestor who most likely needed quite a bit of character to have endured what life sent her way.

One of my Gx3 grandmothers was Charlotte Elizabeth Liggett. Charlotte was born on October 2 or 6, 1837, to Conrad Liggett and Louisa Thomas. According to some sources, Charlotte was born born in Dover Township, Union County, Ohio, although most other accounts say it was Ostrander, Delaware, Ohio. While in different counties, these communities are about five kilometers apart.

Conrad and Louisa married on February 28, 1837. Unfortunately, Conrad died shortly after Charlotte was born. I have been unable to find definitive sources as to when and where he actually died, although it is likely that it occurred in April 1838. Several sources suggest he died at Nauvoo, Illinois sometime before 1839. However, the Latter Day Saints (Mormons), of which he was likely a member, did not really begin to settle in Nauvoo until after they were expelled from Missouri in late 1838. It may be that Conrad himself never left Ohio. According to Find a Grave, Conrad is buried in Ohio, although there is always the possibility that his remains were transported to Ohio after his death.

Louisa remarried in 1841, to Aaron Cook. This marriage may have occurred in Nauvoo. With the Mormons being driven out of Nauvoo starting in 1846, Louisa, Aaron, and Charlotte set out in the westward migration to what is now Utah. The migration, undertaken in haste and without time for proper preparations, was arduous. On the way to Winter Quarters in Nebraska, in November 1846, Louisa died. Charlotte had just turned nine.

After time spent at Winter Quarters, Aaron continued to Utah with Charlotte. According to one family history I’ve read, upon reaching Utah Aaron, he “married Charlotte off” to a Mormon elder. That was likely a reference to Charlotte’s first husband, my Gx3 grandfather, William Burgess. The marriage occurred on June 3, 1852, when William was 30 and Charlotte was only 14. Even worse, this was a polygamous marriage, as William was still married to his first wife of 12 years, Maria Pulsipher.

The marriage did not last long. Fortunately for me, it lasted long enough to produce one child, my Gx2 grandfather, Horace Burgess. Apparently Charlotte did not get along with Maria. Charlotte left William sometime in 1857, when she was 19. Many secondary sources suggest that William and Charlotte 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.

Shortly after leaving her first husband, Charlotte entered into her second marriage, with William Whitehead Taylor, on September 7, 1857. This was also a polygamous marriage, and at age 28, William was almost 10 years older than Charlotte.

While Charlotte’s early life may have been difficult, it may have been much less onerous after she joined with William. It appears that they remained together for 50 years, until William passed away in 1907. Charlotte and William were never sealed during their lifetimes, as a bishop had told Charlotte that she could not be sealed again. Apparently they were sealed after Charlotte’s death, as it was her “dying wish”.

The *Salt Lake Tribune*, April 25, 1908, Page 11

Charlotte and William had four children. It appears their second child, Louisa, may have died in infancy or childhood. Their eldest, Sarah, died at age 49, when Charlotte was 70. There was a small amount of notoriety in the press when Sarah died. She was married twice. The first marriage was to Prime Evans. The second marriage was with a J. M. Tanner. However, this was not a legal marriage. According to newspaper reports at the time of Sarah’s death, this was a secret polygamous marriage, solemnized within the church after polygamy was outlawed. Tanner had been named executor of Sarah’s will and guardian of children Sarah had adopted (young relatives of hers). However, he ultimately declined to act in either role, likely because of the scandalous nature of his relationship with Sarah.

Charlotte died at home in Lehi, Utah on February 20, 1909 due to apoplexy, a term formerly describing a cerebral hemorrhage or stroke. Charlotte is interred at Lehi City Cemetery, with her second husband.

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