My Third Great Grandfather, Luman Andros Shurtliff.

Shurtliff family is shown in the Wilson Pedigree Family Line.

"Biographical Sketch of the Life of Luman Andros Shurtliff." 

To read his full autobiography (1807-1884). Click on this link: http://www.boap.org/LDS/Early-Saints/LShurtliff.html

The following is his life's sketch from 1845-1846:

    On the 25th of November [1845] I married Altamira Gaylord, my first wife's sister. Brother Samuel Bent married us. Mother Gaylord, being unable to take care of herself, we moved into her house and bargained with her that we should have all of her property and take her with us wherever we went and take care of her as long as she lived. She had good household furniture and clothing, a cow, brick house, two lots, carpenter tools.

Luman Andros Shurtliff

     The (Nauvoo) temple now was nearly finished. On the 25th of December, 1845, Christmas, my wife and I received our endowments. On the 20th of January, 1846, my wife and I were called to labor in the temple in giving endowments and labored three weeks. On the 27th we received our sealings, my second wife acting as proxy for my first wife.

     I worked hard this winter in order to get my family away, but how I should accomplish it I did not know. Most of the authorities left Nauvoo in February.

We were left to carry on the wagon shop and get away the best we could.

     This spring, Thomas Gaylord, my wife's brother, not a member of the church, came to Nauvoo and persuaded his mother to go east with him instead of west with us and took her things with her. She soon died and her children had to bury her at their expense.

     My company was ready to start but I had no oxen or provisions. I went early one morning to my cousin Vincent's and told him how things were. He bought me some groceries and counted me out nearly 70 dollars which he said would buy me a yoke of oxen. I started home, thanking God and Vincent for what he had given me.

     I bought a fine yoke of oxen for 50 dollars and proceeded to leave Nauvoo.

     On the 6th of May, 1846, we crossed the Mississippi and camped on Devil Creek. Here we organized our company by choosing John Murdock, captain, and Levi Murdock and myself, counselors. From here we took a westerly direction without regard to road or path. Our way led through a prairie county and as we passed along I carried a heavy heart.

     I had now been a member of this Church nearly ten years and had been compelled to move my family four times and start anew. I had lived in Nauvoo the longest by half of any other place since I belonged to the Church. This place was endeared to me for the sweet association I had enjoyed with the Prophet, patriarch and the apostles of the most high. Here I was leaving the body of my dear wife and child, never to behold those places again in the flesh. I turned my back to the west and took a last look at the Nauvoo Temple and its surroundings and bade them goodbye forever. Nothing of importance occurred on the journey and we arrived in Garden Grove, June 6, 1846. This is 170 miles west of Nauvoo and is the first stopping place of the Saints.

      We stopped in the edge of the timber land and here we agreed to put in a crop and if any of the company went west before the crop matured, the crop should fall to those that were left behind. We prepared our plows and harrows and planted part of our seeds. We cut and drew out the trees and made a tree fence around our field.

     While here, my wife, being somewhat out of health, thought they could not eat victuals cooked by my girls and wanted to eat with me alone, so I had to eat part of the time with her and part with my children.

     At this time Brothers Murdock and Nebeker thought they would go on to the Missouri River and join our brethren. They soon moved out and bequeathed unto us their part of the crop. Before Brother Levi Murdock left he gave me leather to fix up my family's shoes for the winter and a rifle. For this and many other favors I felt to bless him.

     Our camp appeared to be breaking up and I thought it best for me to build a house and prepare for winter. Accordingly, I went into the timber and commenced building a house. This was the month of August, the second day [1846]. I built my house of rough split logs. We had no lumber, glass, or nails. I had for my floor the earth, for carpet, hay and bark, for a door, split wood, for windows, holes between the logs, and for a partition, a wagon cover.

     Just as I finished my home, we got a letter from Brigham Young asking us to go back and bring away the poor Saints on the west bank of the Mississippi, having been driven from Nauvoo at the point of bayonets across the river in September.

     We furnished 18 yoke of oxen and wagons and teamsters. I was chosen to go as captain. A horse was furnished me to ride. The next morning when we came together to start, 75 cents was all the expense money raised to accomplish a journey of 340 miles.

     This was the best we could do so we loaded in some squashes and pumpkins for the teams and rolled out, thus equipped to gather home the poor Saints. This was the 18th of October, 1846.

     We traveled on cheerfully as though we had been rich and plenty of money at our command. All things prospered with us.-- I came onto the highland, in sight of the river and once again saw our lovely city, Nauvoo, I could not help weeping aloud with joy. Not that I wished my family living in Nauvoo, no, but thankful that my life was spared to me that I might again behold the city of the prophets.

     -- I came to the camp of the poor, sick and persecuted Saints. Many places where there had been camps were now desolate and without inhabitants. In others, a ragged blanket or quilt laid over a few sticks or brush comprised all the house a whole family owned on earth.

     Among the occupants lay stretched on the ground either sick or dying, others perhaps a little better off had a few boards laid up on something and had more sick than well. Others not well ones, took care of the sick. While looking about among these poor helpless people, I was not a little surprised to hear them relate the blessings of God in the deliverance from disease, death and starvation.

   -- I made up my mind to take the poorest of the poor and the sickest of the sick and only take well ones enough to care for the sick and cook for the company.

     Early the next day I crossed the river into Nauvoo, walked up through the thickest part of town, saw but few inhabitants. I went to the temple and took a view of the beautiful homes of the Saints, but are now a desolation. From here I walked to my former place of residence, viewing the premises, shed a few tears over the grave of the partner of my youth and mother of all my children, and bore my testimony that she was a good woman and a kind wife and mother.

     From here I walked east on Main Street to the east part of the city where the last battle had been fought and viewed the destruction of the mobs and the desolate, deserted village.

     When I had satisfied my feelings, I crossed the river into Iowa, and spent the next day helping those families I intended to take west.

    On the last day of October, 1846, we loaded in our loads, nearly 60 persons and all they owned in this world, and most of them sick. All the provisions put together would have made only one good meal and we were now about to start in November with this poor sick company on a journey of 170 miles through an uncivilized and mostly uninhabited wilderness. I felt like crying, "O, God, help us" as we left. I looked back and saw a few weeping Saints left behind; how to live through the winter I knew not, but God knew.

     The first night in camp our souls actually rejoiced like the children of Israel after their deliverance from the Egyptians. We had prayers morning and evening, and the Lord blessed us, and a flock of quail was sent like manna from heaven for food, which saved our lives.

      We arrived in Garden Grove, November 15, 1846. In 30 days we had accomplished a journey of 340 miles without means, except the Lord had furnished almost without exertion on our part. Our teams looked well and the teamsters had no sickness and the sick we brought were on the gain except one sister who died soon after we arrived.

     My wife Altamira gave birth to a son on the 25th of November, 1846, while I was away bringing in the poor Saints. My house was not comfortable for a sick woman and it took more of my time and attention than otherwise.

     Brother Bent, president of Garden Grove, died; he who had married my cousin Elisha Shurtliff's widow, Cynthia, and had four children by him and all living with their mother. Shortly before Brother Bent's death, his wife asked him what he wished her to do. He told Cynthia that his request was for me, Luman A. Shurtliff, to take care of her family and do the best I could for them and when we got to the authorities, for her, Cynthia, to be sealed to me for time, this life, and give her oldest daughter, Mellissa, to me for time and eternity if we could agree to marry.

     On examination we found that our numbers in the (Garden) grove amounted to between 500 and 600 and only provisions enough to last until April as prudent as we could possibly be and clothing very scant.

     From April to July we should be in suffering conditions.    

     -- ­­I reviewed in my mind all the events of the Saints and prophets and knew that I would be cast into all kinds of company, many of whom would hate the Mormons, and I felt like no other man could feel unless in similar circumstances. I felt lonely and alone.

Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel, 1847–1868

Easton Kelsey Company (1851) Departure: 29 June 1851 Arrival: 22 September - 7 October 1851 Company Information:  100 wagons were in the company when it began its journey from the outfitting post at Kanesville, Iowa (present day Council Bluffs). They originally departed about June 10, but turned back due to Indian trouble. They left again June 29. Luman A. Shurtliff was captain of the 1st Fifty and Isaac Allred was captain of the 2nd Fifty.

     To learn further of Captain, Luman A. Shurtliff's pioneer company trail to the Great Salt Valley, read the following: Shurtliff, Luman Andros, Journal, 1841 May-1856 Apr., fd. 1, 282-91.   Read Trail Excerpt http://www.lds.org/churchhistory/library/source/1,18016,4976-5462,00.html

My Second Great Grandfather, Robert Wilson.

      I have no concrete source documents of Robert Wilson's birth, marriages, death records other than what has been shown in 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880 US Censuses. In the US 1880 Census it has his age as being 57 which he would be born in 1823 and in the Illinois Territory, USA. His children are listed in the 1860, 1870, and 1880 censuses. His son, Robert Rich Wilson's death certificate lists his father as Robert Wilson and mother as Mary Elizabeth (no maiden name). -- Searched by Daniel E. Jacobsen, second great grandson.

Biography: Robert Wilson:

     Part of a letter written to Ilah Allgood Jacobsen from her Uncle Bernard John Wilson, about his father Robert Rich Wilson and grandfather, Robert Wilson:
     Dad's  father  (Robert Wilson) was a colonel having come west from the State of Virginia.  I'm not sure but somehow I seem to have it deep in mind that he eventually became a post trader at some western out-post and that was when dad (Robert Rich Wilson) was still a baby.
     Some history research by Ilah Allgood Jacobsen, great granddaughter of Robert Wilson:
1814-1821?
     Robert Wilson was a store-keeper in the army. He established the first post-office in Davis County in 1853.  He had daughter, Clara and son, Robert Rich.  The Newspaper-- the Smoky Hill and Republican Union, "states on 1 Apr 1871 a brief account of career of Robert Wilson.  At Fort Leavenworth from 1833 to 1842 as a sutler; in 1844 a sutler at Council Bluffs, Iowa, and also at Vancouver Island.  He was a sutler at Fort Kearney and Fort Riley,(Kansas).  Later years a superintendent of the Davis County, Poor Farm."
1862
     He was a Post-Trader at Fort Riley in Sep 1862 with his family with him.  He was a member of Pawnee Township association, organized 27 Sep 1854.  In 1844 he established a trading post in Salt Creek Valley near Salt Creek Bridge, and sold it in 1852 and became a sutler in Fort Riley.  With others he started a town in Humbolt in the summer of 1857.  In 1861 he was still a sutler in Western Kansas.  He was in Omaha, Nebraska in 1872.
1871
     Article written about Robert Wilson in the Union Paper, Saturday, April 15, 1871:
                                        A WESTERN CHARACTER:
     "We mentioned, not long since, that Robert Wilson, Esquire, was in Leavenworth, and took occasion to give some account of the varied life and experience of the man.  His first visit to Fort Leavenworth was in 1833, when Leavenworth was known only as a favorite retreat of coyotes and a good hunting ground.  He remained at the Fort til 1842, and then made a pleasant trip to the Rocky Mountains. Returning to the Missouri we find him next sutler at Council Bluffs in1844. He surrendered this position to join a party going to California, and soon reappeared on the surface as a sutler on Vancouver Island.  Once more he takes the back track and sutlerizeds at Fort Kearney, on the Plains.  He then returns again to Kansas, starts the town of "Pawnee," builds the first house at Fort Riley, and starts both the town and the first paper of Junction City.
      The sketch of Mr. Wilson's career is a mere skeleton outline of what he has really experienced.  One year he would be rolling in wealth and the next penniless, but his spirits never flagged, his heart never failed.  When things looked darkest he only worked harder.  He is still young, the picture of health and as full of new projects as an egg of substance. Although now located at Omaha we count him a 'Kansas man,' and a good type of those brave and intelligent pioneers to whom our country is so largely indebted for its rapid progress and development." - (Times and Bulletin.)

     Additional History research of Robert Wilson by great-great grandson, Daniel E. Jacobsen:
                   Leavenworth - Beginning to Bicentennial, By J. H. Johnson III:
                         KICKAPOO AND THE "OLD KICKAPOO" CANNON
      "Kickapoo was the outgrowth of disappointed town speculators who failed to get an original foothold in Leavenworth, and only partially so in Atchison," wrote H. Miles Moore in his "Early History of  Leavenworth City and County."
      "The truth was, Leavenworth was thought to be a little too strongly tinctured with Free Soilism and Atchison was already supplied with a full measure of the opposite extreme; and it required a fresh outbreak, a special geyser of their own, from which their super-abundant amount of gas, wind, froth, steam and mud might be emitted; for that reason Kickapoo was hatched or incubated from the mental and physical womb of old Mrs. West on, and which last effort threw the old lady into a decline from which she never rallied."
      Moore's reference was to the town of Weston, Missouri, from where pro-slavery adherents crossed the Missouri River with the objective of colonizing the Kansas Territory along slave state principles.
      Kickapoo township, situated in northeast Leavenworth County, was home first to the Kickapoo Indians, and beginning in 1844, a homestead for white settlers.
      Andreas places Major Robert Wilson as the first white resident of Salt Creek Valley and keeper of a trading post a short distance west of Salt Creek Bridge.
      On June 10, 1854, the first squatter meeting in the Territory was conducted in that trading post, Wilson having sold it to Major M. P. Rively.
      "It is generally admitted that Kickapoo City was laid out as a premeditated rival of Leavenworth, by citizens of Weston and Platte County, Mo.," stated Andreas."
      A large portion of the township, including the town site, was open to preemption, under the laws of the United States, and for this reason it was supposed that Leavenworth would find it hard to compete with her rival. And Kickapoo was, for some time, a bitter political as well as business rival." Emigration to Kickapoo was lively by November of 1854. with town lots being sold for up to one hundred and ten dollars each.      [page 47].
     These are a few statements or paragraphs I found in the book "The History of Fort Riley," about Robert Wilson:
     "Fifteen in all died on the third of August - Major Ogden, Mrs. Armistead, Mrs. Wood and two children, the major's orderly, and nine workmen. A few men were at work all the time and Mr. Sawyer encouraged them to continue, but their surroundings were distracting. A delegation waited on Mr. Sawyer and earnestly insisted that the balance due them should be paid and they allowed to go. Sawyer explained to them that, even if they were entitled to more pay, it would not be given to them, as there was no one to pay them, and the money was locked up in the safe, which could not be opened. A little after noon I galloped off to my camp on the Republican, found everything all right and no sickness among the fifty men there. I did not dismount, nor did I allow anyone to come near me. I returned to the cost about three o'clock and saw Mr. Sawyer and Reverend Mr. Clarkson sitting on the latter's front porch looking at a band of men in the middle of the parade ground. Sawyer called to me, and I hitched my horse and joined them on the porch. Mr. Clarkson made the following statement; Mr. Robert Wilson, the post sutler, who had a very large stock of goods in his store, had locked up everything and taken his family away in the morning accompanied by one of Major Ogden's clerks. Soon after I left, about one o'clock, the store was broken into by a gang of men, some goods scattered about, a barrel of whiskey rolled out, the head knocked in and, with tin cups, the men helped themselves. When well liquored up, led by a big stone mason, some of them broke open the building used for the ordnance department and armed themselves with guns, pistols and ammunition."     [pages 68 and 69].
1862
     There were no troops at the post at the time. Mr. Robert Wilson was post trader. Sept. 1862.    [page 84].
     The Chaplain's quarters, occupied by Chaplain Clarkson of Mr. Low's narrative, for several years and utilized as the chaplain's quarters until the rebuilding of the post in the eighties, is now building Ho. 123 and is occupied as a dwelling by southwest of the old chaplain's quarters, now designated as building No. 124, and occupied by a warrant officer of the school staff, was originally occupied by the post trader or sutler. It was built by Bob Wilson, the first sutler. Back of this building are two or three graves and there is a story to the effect that one of them is that of a woman who drowned herself In a deep well because of unrequited love. This house got the name of being haunted from that fact. In regard to this Mr. Faright states: " I told Mrs. Waters (wife of Mose Waters, who was then occupying the quarters) of this and asked her if she ever heard anything to annoy her. She did not know the house as the haunted house until I told her. She answered that when they went to live in it they heard terrible noises at night like a log chain being dragged. [page 88].
1854
     September 27, 1854, the Pawnee Town Site Association was organized, consisting of Major Montomery, Second Infantry, Commanding Officer at Fort Riley; W. A. Hammond, afterward Surgeon-General of the Arny; C. S. Lovall; Ed Johnson; Nathaniel Lyon; M. T. Polk; R. F. Hunter; R. S. Ogden; M. Mills; G. McR. Hudson; Janes Simons; D. H. Vinton; Alden Sargent; J. T. Shaaff; H. Rich; W. S. Murphy; Robert Wilson; J. M. Dyer; R. C. Miller; A. H. Reeder; A. J. Isaacks; J. B. Donalson; Rush Elmore, and L. W. Johnson.
1861
     Mr. George V. Martin in his article, "The Territorial and Military Combine at Fort Riley," states that fourteen of the above were officers of the army and five were territorial officials. Lyon, a captain in the 2nd Infantry, was afterward quite intimately connected with the history of Fort Riley and Kansas and was known as the "Hero of the Battle of Wilson Creek" where he was killed August 10, 1861.
1844
     Andrew Jackson Isacks was a lieutenant of infantry in the Mexican War and was honorably mustered out July 25, 1848. Robert Wilson was a military storekeeper in the army from 1814 to 1821. In l844 he established a trading post in Salt Creek valley near Salt Creek bridge. This he sold out in 1852 to Major M. P. Rively and became sutler at Fort Riley. Johnson, Ruch Elmore, Donaldson, Isaacks and Reeder ware territorial officers,  [page 102 and 103].

1853 

     Robert Wilson was the first sutler and post trader at Fort Riley. He served from 1853 when the post was originally esablished, until June 27, 1863. He built the first house there, and operated a large dry goods establishment, which supplied soldiers and civilians at the fort. Wilson had been a military storekeeper and sutler at other military posts, including Fort Leavenworth and Council Bluffs, Iowa.

1855
     By order of Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War, the boundaries of the reservation of Fort Riley were enlarged to include Pawnee. This order was not executed until the fall of 1855 when Colonel Philip St. George Cooke arrived from Texas with the Second Dragoons and pulled the houses down. At its height, Pawnee had about five hundred  inhabitants. Most accounts state that the capital building and Pawnee was planned for that purpose by Robert Wilson. Mr. George W. Knapp who was a settler in old Pawnee, stated that as near as he could remember the building was about 150 feet from the river bank, as the military road ran between the building and the river,      [page 108].
1857
     In the summer of l857 a town company was organized by Thomas Reynolds, A. J. Mead, J. R, McClure, Robert Wilson and Abram Barry. The company started a town, or rather selected a site, to which they gave the name of Humboldt. The object of the organizers was to locate their town on the abandoned town site of Mlllard but the attempt was a failure.   The history of Junction City actually began with the organization of the Junction City Town Company in the fall of 1857. The name Junction City was derived from the location proposed townsite at the junction of the Republican and Smoky Hill forks of the Kansas River. The nickname "Junktown"  was first applied to the town by plainsmen in the early  days and was not first used in derision by military offers at Fort Riley, as has been commonly supposed J. R. McClure was president of this company. Daniel Mitchell secretary and Robert Wilson, treasurer. Other members were F. N. Blake,  John T. Price and P. Z. Taylor. The survey of the town site was begun in the latter part of December and finished in the summer of 1858. Work on the first building in Junction City began in May 1858. It was near the intersection of  Washington and Seventh Streets."    [pages 121 & 122].
1853
     The first post office in Davis County was that established by Robert Wilson, the sutler, at Fort Riley In 1853.  [page 126].

     William G. Cutler's History of the State of Kansas, Davis County. Part 4.
J Smoky Hill Township.--This township was organized August 7,1872. The first settler in the township was Thomas Reynolds, who settled there in 1853. The township embraces  all that portion of the county lying between the Republican and Smoky Hill rivers from their point of junction to the west line of the county. Fort Riley is within the limits of this township. It was also is this township that the old town of Pawnee was situated, the  founders of which were Col. Montgomery; U. S. A.; Surgeon W. A. Hammond, U. S. A.; Capt Nathaniel Lyon, U. S. A.; Robert Wilson, Post Sutler, and Robert Klotz. The town was founded in the fall of the year 1854, but was destroyed by the military in 1855, owing to its being located on the military reservation. In 1854, J. R.. McClure  located at Pawnee, followed m March, 1855, by G. F. Gordon and Abram and Marshal  Barry.
     A family by name of  Fleming also resided in. the township in 1854, as to this family is accredited the birth of the first child . which was born on December 20,1854, and to which was given the name of John. The first merchant in the township was John T. Price, who established a grocery store at Pawnee in 1854. The first couple married in the township were Thomas Jenkins and Ella Wicks, October 1, 1855. The first post office was established at Fort Riley in 1853, with Robert Wilson as postmaster.
1861
     The Smoky Hill and Republican Union informs us that in-November 1861, Robert Wilson was still sutler, as he was then advertising 1st paper at the "Oldest Established Trading Depot In Western Kansas." Under date of January 30, 1862, we find that the garrison of Riley consisted of two companies of volunteers.                                                               [page 144].
     On  page 155, it state: "During the years immediately following the Civil War, Wild Bill Hickcock, Buffalo Bill. California Joe, Comstock, Charlie Reynolds and other men later famous for their prowess with firearms were employed by the government as scouts. Wild Bill and Buffalo Bill were frequent visitors at Fort Riley and Junction City and, at least once or twice, Hickcock was at the Post in his capacity as scout. Mr. Henry Thiele told the writer he had seen Wild Bill stand on the corner of Sixth and Washington Streets in town, and with a six-shooter, shoot silver half dollars out of the cleft."  These scouts were often visitors to Robert Wilson's trading post in Fort Riley.
     Robert Wilson's grandson, Bernard John Wilson had giving a incident in his life, as follows: "Although very young, I still remember when Bill Cody (Buffalo Bill) visited Dad (Robert Rich Wilson) in Ogden at Grandfather's Lamoreaux's place, and they talked over old scenes of the battlefield.
1867
    Forgoing is a statement by (President) Ulysses Simpson Grant of Robert Wilson's application to become a sutler:
On April 15, , Robert Wilson, Denver, Colorado Territory, wrote to USG. "Understanding that a Military Post is about being established at or near Pueblo, on Arkansas River Colorado Ter. I respectfully apply to you for the position of Sutler. I have been Sutler at Fort Kerney Neb Ter. Fort Hall Utah, Forts Dalls & Vancouver in Orgon, and for ten years previous in 1864 at Fort Riley Kansas--I have addressed Letters to General I N Palmer, General P. St. Geo Cook, Genl James Totten, Genl Sturgess, Genl Sackett and Genl Denver---asking their recommendations to you.  All these Offices were acquainted with me during my Sutlership and I feel confident will endorse me favourably. As soon as these documents are returned, with endorsements, I will forward them to you, Soliciting your favourable consderation of this application..." ALS, ibid. On the same day, Wilson wrote to James W. Denver converning the appointment. ALS, Abid. On Apri 30, Denver, Washington, D. C. endorsed this letter. "Respectfull submitted to Gen. U. S. Grant with the remark that if Mr. Wilson is correct as to the law, the undersigned would regard it as a personal favor if he will grant Mr. Wilson his request. PayMaster Gen. Brice is well acquainted with Mr. Wilson." AFS, ibid.         
1871
    The Junction City Union of April 1, l87l, had a brief account of the career of Robert Wilson. "He was originally a Military Storekeeper in the army, serving as such from 1814 to 1821. He was a member of the Junction City Land Company and a member of the Pawnee Association, and brought the first paper press to Junction City. During his career he made and lost - several conformable fortunes for those days. He was at Ft Leavenworth from 1833 to 1842, presumably as sutler.  In 1844 he was sutler at Council Bluffs.  He was also sutler for a while at Vancouver Island and was the first sutler at Fort Kearney, as well as the first at Fort Riley. He built the first houses at the last posts. In later years he was Superintendent of the Davis County Poor Farm."           [pages 166 and l67].

My Great Grandfather, Robert Rich Wilson

BIOGRAPHY: ROBERT RICH WILSON

          A letter written to Ilah Allgood Jacobsen from her Uncle Bernard John Wilson about his father, Robert Rich Wilson:

Robert Rich Wilson

       "My father had his first marriage beyond which the door was locked  as far as we children were concerned and I believe also to great extent as far as mother too was concerned.  I'm sure this was intentional in respect for his new family. From scraps of information from different sources I ascertain the following:
       Dad's father (Robert Wilson) was a colonel having come west from the State of Virginia.  I'm not sure but somehow I seem to have it deep in mind that he eventually became a post trader as some western out-post and that was when dad was still a baby.
       It has been said, I don't remember the source, that Dad when a sucking baby was kidnapped and turned off an indian women's breast and later retrieved by his parents.
       I ascertain that Dad was a scout for General Custer, and was the first, or one of the first on the battlefield after the Little Bighorn massacre. He would have been in the battle had he not been away to the bedside of his sick sister in Chicago, Illinois.
      Although very young, I still  remember when Bill Cody (Buffalo Bill) visited Dad in Ogden at Grandfather's Lamoreaux's place, and they talked over old scenes of the battlefield.
       Dad's prior marriage was to a Carter girl of a very reputable family. By their marriage Dad had a son named Devoe, who after his mother passed away, was raised  by  the  Carter family. Devoe, my half brother, although possibly still alive, I've never seen.
      I'm finding it increasingly difficult to reveal any certainties of my father's life or of my mother's life prior to my childhood. All I know are wee bits of truths and possible some untruths which I've never given any serious consideration."

My 3rd Great Grandfather, Andrew Lacey Lamoreaux

Lamoraux Family is in the Wilson Pedigree Family Line.
     Andrew was born in Green Bay, Ontario, Canada. He became an Educated Physician by vocation, stalwart convert to Mormonism, and became Mission President to France.
     He fulfills prophecy given by Joseph Smith., "Missionary Not to Return."   Elder Erastus Snow, in writing to George A. Smith on 3 September 1865, related that in 1839 the Prophet (Joseph) had uttered a prophecy as he pronounced a blessing upon Andrew L. Lamoreaux, who was about ro depart on a mission within the United States.
        The Prophet "laid his hands on Elder Lamoreaux and blessed him, and prophesied upon his head, that he would go on a mission to France, learn another tongue and do much good." This did, in fact, occur when Andrew was called as the President of the French Mission on 15 September 1852.
         But Joseph Smith also said something during this blessing that caused him great sadness. The Prophet stated that Andrew 'would not live to return to his family.' Upon saying these words Joseph wept, but he said that "it was pressed upon him and he could not refrain from giving utterance to it.
        Elder Lamoreaux talked with his family about [the prophecy] when he left them in 1852, and endeavored to persuade them that this was not the time and mission upon which he should fall, but to believe that he would at this time be permitted to return again. When, he [Church periodical called the Luminary] brought the tidings of his death [on 13 June 1855 from cholera] they exclaimed, "Surely, Brother Joseph was a prophet, for all his words have come to pass.'"
      Andrew Jenson, Latter-day Saing Biographical Encyclopedia ( Salt Lake City:  Deseret News press, 1901), 3:667.

     Andrew Lamoreaux came with his family (included was my 2nd Great Grandfather, William George Lamoreaux) and emigrated to mountains of Zion in the Salt Lake Valley. They departed with the Willard Richards Pioneer Company on the 3 July and arrived there from 10-19 Oct 1848. There were 526 individuals in the company when it began its journey from the outfitting post at Winter Quarters, Nebraska. Read Trail Excerpt: Richards, Willard, to Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball.

The following is a biographical experience of Dr. Andrew L. Lamoreaux on April 20th 1855 as departing on the ship Chimborazo from Liverpool to Philadelphia:
      The ship Chimborazo, Captain Vesper, cleared on the 13th instant, with 432 souls on board, for the port of Philadelphia, of which number about 200 are passengers hence to Utah by the P. [Perpetual] E. [Emigration] Fund. Elder Edward Stevenson, late president of the Gilbraltar Mission, is president of the company, which consists of about 70 souls from the Channel Islands, in company with Elders A. L. Lamoreaux, late president of the French Mission; about 200 from the Principality.
      His experience is noted in: The History of the Chimborazo Emigrating Conference: Organized April 12th 1855.
       Friday, (April) 20th.  A baby, named Mary Price, aged 2 years, daughter of Jeremiah Price, being nursed by her little brother fell off the hatchway on the deck. She fell on the frontal region of the skull just over the right eye. She was picked up [p.9] in an instant, and was bleeding profusely from nose and mouth--she seemed to spit the blood out to [KEEP?] from choking. Speedily her blood [face] was covered with blood, the skull over her right eye was very much swollen, and her little eye closed up. After having bled considerably in a sitting position Elder Lamoreaux came down, and promptly and energetically attended to the case as surgeon, stripped the child, washed the blood off, applied solution of camphor and bandaged the head--then laid her in a blanket, and placed her in the charge of a sister who volunteered to be nurse. The Saints sympathized much with the parents, and rendered every assistance necessary and possible. Elders Stevenson, Jeremy & Mills, administered in the ordinance of the gospel for the restoration of the child, Mills anointing and Jeremy sealing it. Elder Lamoreaux paid every possible attention to his little patient, which seemed to revive wonderfully. Indeed had not some extraordinary power assisted, she must have been killed.