No, not the kid who starred in the eponymous Canadian children’s show that aired in the mid-naughts. (Did we ever decide what to call the first decade of the 21st century?) I mean my Great x4 Grandfather, Daniel Cook.
Daniel was born on December 14, 1769 in Preston, Connecticut, to Isaiah Cook and Mary Palmer. Daniel was the third of eleven children – nine boys and two girls – all of whom were born in Preston.
Daniel has deep New England roots going back four generations on his father’s side, in both Connecticut and Massachusetts. His maternal grandparents were also born in Connecticut, but don’t know much, if anything, about his maternal great grandparents.
However, a quick look at FamilySearch shows that shows a tree on Daniel’s maternal side going back at least five generations on most lines. Until I look at the sources supporting the connection to the individuals identified in that tree, I won’t be adding them to my database. I know if I did that now, it would be another six weeks before I even return to drafting this post, so instead I simply created a “Person To-Do Task” for Daniel in my RootsMagic database. At most, I will mention that the tree on FamilySearch indicates that on his mother’s side, Daniel’s ancestry also goes back at least three or four generations in Connecticut and Massachusetts.
This tree on FamilySearch shows some of the ancestry of Daniel’s maternal grandparents, Samuel Palmer and Sarah Andrus, none of which I’ve verified or checked sources.
Somehow Daniel came to be acquainted with Miriam Fellows. While she too was born in Connecticut, she lived about 100 kilometers away in almost the opposite corner of what is now the state. Nevertheless, meet they did, as they married in Preston on April 1, 1796.
After they married, Daniel and Miriam did not reside in Preston for long. By 1798, they were living in Kingsbury, New York, almost 250 kilometers from Preston. I do not know the motivation for the move, but based upon the 1800 census, Daniel was not alone. Three of his brothers – Ephraim, Chester, and Samuel – are listed as neighbours living in Kingsbury.
Extract from the 1800 US Census, showing brothers Daniel, Ephriam, C(h)ester, and Samuel Cook.
All six of Daniel and Miriam’s children were born in Kingsbury. It appears that only two survived childhood and the teen years, including my Gx3 Grandfather, Henry Lyman Cook.
Daniel lived the rest of his life in Kingsbury. He died there on July 12, 1825. Daniel died intestate and the court appointed his son Marvin and brother Chester as the administrators of his estate.
Letter of Administration of Estate issued by the court after Daniel died without a will.
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”.
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.
As is typical of many of our female ancestors, there are not many primary records for my Gx3 Grandmother, Sarah Florilla (“Rilla”) Cook. Most of my sources are second or third-hand – or worse. Rilla was born, married, and died before vital records were kept in Utah, which was not yet a state during her lifetime. The few times Rilla is mentioned in the records are some of the US censuses or in the death registrations of some of her children.
Rilla was born on November 3, 1857 in Cedar City, Utah, to Henry Lyman Cook and Susan Ann Elizabeth Turple. Both of her parents seem to have had colourful lives. Henry was married four times; the last three were polygamous, with Susan being the last of those three. Susan had been married once before, in Nova Scotia, to a musician from Massachusetts. Henry and Susan each moved to Utah after joining the Mormon church. Rilla was the second of four children born to Henry and Susan. While Henry passed away when Rilla was 12, Susan outlived her daughter by 12 years.
When she was 18 years old, Rilla married Horace Conrad Liggett Burgess in Goshen, Utah on March 3, 1876. They had their first child, William Henry, on August 4, 1877. Over the next 16 years, Rilla had eight more children. The youngest, also named Sarah Florilla and who also went by “Rilla”, was born on December 19, 1893.
Sadly, Rilla died two weeks later, on January 4, 1894. While it is largely a matter of speculation given the timing of her death, I would not be surprised if Rilla died due to some complication following childbirth. Rilla was only 36 when she died.
It doesn’t even appear that she has a permanent marker on her grave. The only result I could find after consulting a wide variety of online sources was on Find A Grave. There is a photo of a “temporary” marker, which was taken in 2011. It does not appear that anything more permanent has been installed in the following 14 years.
A Deck of Ancestors 