Richard and Mary Steele in Nauvoo, 1845-46

My third great grandparents, Richard and Mary Ann Reese Steele, were converted to the LDS church in England, and met and married in July 1845 in Nauvoo, Illinois. Here is an excerpt from Richard's journal, from the the time they married till they were driven from Nauvoo in September 1846.

“I was married on the 13th of July 1845 to Mary Ann Reese.

Sept 8 I paid 58 dol in ware for tithing from the 16 to the 22.

We were mustered in order to be ready to march to any part of

the country.  On the 21st I went to Warsaw with

about 200 more but the mobbers were all gone over the river.

The disturbance lasted about three weeks. 

Conference was held on the 6 of October in the temple and

continued 3 days. It was moved and seconded that we move

in a body to some part where we can live in peace out of the

boundaries of the United States.  And the rich expend all their

means to help the poor.  Carried….

Nauvoo Temple

Jan 31 I received my endowments in the temple. I was working on the temple from Oct 22nd 1845 till April 26, 1846. The temple was dedicated on Thursday 30 of April.  I had a son born on the 27 of April about half past eleven o’clock in the morning.  His name is Thomas Grafton Steele.  I settled up with the trustees.  I had 33 dol and 20 cents  at fifty cents on the dollar, for we agreed to take 50 cents in cash when we settled up. 

On the 12 of June we were called out to muster for

the mob was collected again at Goldens Point with the intent of driving us from Nauvoo, for most of the Saints were gone with the first camp and to work in other places.  And a few poor were left that could not get away and some that were waiting to sell their property.  On the 14 we mustered with the intention of going to Goldens Point but the mob was dispersed. 

On Fri July 10 some of our brethren were wipt by some of the mob for

eating some wheat belonging to Amos Davis.  They had had

20 lashes each.  On Sat 11 our brethren got writs and arrested

Brattle and another and brought them to Nauvoo.  On Sun 12

P.  Young, his son, Valentine, James Standing and another

were taken by the mob as they were coming from the mill with a team. 

On the same even a posse was called out and went to Pontoosuc and

arrested 15 and were near where our brethren were confined.  They

found some of our brethren’s things and brought them to Nauvoo on

Monday,  F.  Higbee was one of the 15.  Our brethren went in

search of Young and the others but could not find them.  The

mob were tried and sent to Quincy.  Our brethren came home

on Sunday 26th of July having been dragged from place to

place and they were near having been shot several times.

Aug 6 I was taken with a bilious fever and then the ague [malaria].  I was sick about nine weeks.  On the 10 and 11 of Sep the mob and our

brethren were firing at each other with a cannon.  And on the

12 the mob were determined to come in the city and they near

the breastworks of our people and the small arms were used

and the mob was driven back with great loss.  There was 8

killed on our side -- Br Anderson, his boy and a blacksmith.  On

Sunday 13th the mob was burying their dead.  On the 14--15 and 16

they fired a few cannon at each other. 

Battle of Nauvoo, by CCA Christensen, painted about 1878

Br Babbitt made a treaty with them. We was to lay down our arms and

leave the city in 10 days.  The mob was to come in the city at 3 o’clock the next day. On the 17th they came into the city -- about 1500 of them and we could not muster more than 200.  They marched about and took possession of the temple. 

On the 18th I moved down to the river with a one horse wagon and had my gun took away by the mob and no horses and moved over the river on the 21st. [Their daughter Sarah later wrote, "When [Thomas] was only five months old they were driven out of Nauvoo by the mob. Grandfather was not well, so it fell to grandmother's lot to gather their belongings together, put them in a cart, and pull them down to the river, so they could be taken across on the ferry. As she was pulling her load some of the mob called to her

saying that she made a good horse."]

Parley Street in Nauvoo, looking west across the Mississippi

On the 24th we left and went to Farmington and Bonaparte till the 31st of Oct.  Then I commenced to work a little potting [pottery making] but did not make much. “

Bonaparte, Farmington, and Nauvoo

My ancestors and polygamy

My ancestors and polygamy

I have 26 ancestor couples who were married and Mormon during the polygamous era of Mormonism, roughly 1840-1890. 20 of the couples were monogamous; 6 were polygamous, though not all inside the specific marriage of my ancestors. While none of the 26 couples’ lives were without difficulties in pioneer Utah and Idaho, it’s noteworthy that none of the 20 separated or divorced, while half of the 6 did. Here is a very brief summary of the 6.

Alvah (1799-1890) and Phoebe Houston Alexander (1804-1861) were married in 1822, joined the church in Vermont, and ended up settling Mill Creek, Utah. They entered polygamy in 1857 when Alvah married a widow, Caroline Limpert (born 1821). After Phoebe’s death, Alvah married two additional widows: Sarah Brentlinger (born 1807) in 1862 and Cathrina Nilsson (born 1835) in 1866.

William (1825-1905)and Ellen Close Butler (1839-1872) were married in 1857. She was his third wife. William (from Ireland) had joined the church in Salt Lake City, Ellen in England. They settled in Marriott, Utah. About 1868, Ellen separated from William. In 1869, she was severely wounded by a worker on the transcontinental railroad. William came to her aid. After her recovery, they lived amicably together until her death in 1872.

Simmons P.  (1818-1880) and Emmeline Buchanan Curtis (1820-1899) married in 1840, had joined the church with their parents in the US, and settled Springville, Utah. Simmons entered a polygamous marriage with a woman named Elizabeth that ended in divorce in 1861. In 1870 he married  Asenath Lawrence (born 1840). Emmeline and Simmons separated in 1873. She eventually moved to live with a son in Woodside, Utah.

Jeremiah (1823-1903) and Louisa Poole Alexander Hatch (1825-1869) married in 1842, had joined the church in Vermont, and settled several places in Utah. After Louisa’s death, Jeremiah married two women,  Aurilla Hadlock (born 1852) in 1870, and Henrietta Clark (born 1862) in 1877. They settled Vernal, Utah.

Robert (1825-1891) and Mary Ross Henderson (1823-1896) were married in Scotland in 1846. They joined the church in 1848, and settled in Logan, Utah. Robert married a widow, Christina Andersen (born 1830) in 1863. According to family history, Brigham Young asked Robert to marry Christina. She then lived near Robert and Mary in Logan, and is buried next to them.

William Marks (1828-1897) and Martha Jane Curtis Miles (1841-1904) married in 1859. She had earlier entered a polygamous marriage in the spring of 1857 with Cornelius van Leuven (1805), but had left it after a few weeks, and a divorce was granted in October 1858. William had been married to Orpha Alexander, who died in 1858. William and Martha eventually settled Orangeville, Utah and had nine children.

Note: Several of these people are closely related.

·      Alvah and Phoebe Alexander are Louisa Poole’s parents.

·      Simmons and Emmeline Curtis are Martha Jane’s parents.

·      William Miles’ first wife Orpha was also a daughter of Alvah and Phoebe.

Mark Steele

August 2014

Callings

In the Mormon church, members are "called" by local leaders to formal positions of service--as teachers, administrators, helpers, etc. The leaders who extend the callings try to do this through the spirit, matching people with service opportunities in ways that God would approve of. 

The callings last anywhere from a few months to a few years--there is a constant coming and going in positions, usually just to give opportunity to serve in different ways. In addition, the "importance" or scope of the calling is always going up and down. For example, a man may serve five years as the leader of the local congregation, then as his next calling teach five-year-olds in the children's organization. 

This is a list of the callings I've held since I became an adult. I've written it down, not to be boastful of things I've done, but to demonstrate the many, and often repeated ways Mormons are given opportunity to serve others and their God. Being given callings doesn't make anyone special or bullet-proof; it just means you have been given formal ways to think of others.

BYU Provo, Utah  1969-1970

Priesthood leader (home teaching interviews)

Long Beach, CA  1970

Primary teacher

Munich, Germany  1970-1972

Missionary

Dependent Branch President

District Leader

Manhattan Beach, CA  1972

Sunday School teacher (Gospel Doctrine)

Centinela, CA  1973-1974

Elders Quorum instructor

Scoutmaster

BYU Provo, Utah  1974-1976

Elders Quorum Presidency

Elders Quorum President

Apia, Samoa 1977-1978

Stake Activities Committee

Ward Executive Secretary

Seventy (local missionary work)

San Diego, CA  1979-1980

Seventy

Seventy’s President/Group Leader

Dammam, Saudi Arabia 1981-1988

Sunday School teacher

Melchizedek Priesthood group leader

Primary chorister

(And others that I have forgotten)

Logan, Utah  1988-1990

Cub Scout Committee Chair

Aiken, SC  1990-1995

Assistant Scoutmaster

Young Men’s Presidency (Varsity leader)

High Priest Group Leader

Stake missionary

American Fork, UT  1995-2018

Sunday School teacher (13 year olds)

High Priests Group instructor

Sunday School teacher (Gospel doctrine)

Stake Sunday School presidency (2^nd counselor)

Stake High Councilor

Ward Clerk

Bishopric (2^nd counselor)

Sunday School President

Primary teacher

High Priest Group Leadership (First assistant)

Ward Choir director

High Priest group instructor
Prison volunteer (Family Home Evening teacher)

Cedar Hills, UT 2018-
Membership clerk

Single adult committee member

BYU Pathway Worldwide service missionary

God to the rescue

A few weeks ago at church, we talked about past 'rescues' God has made, and what our role is in assisting those rescues. Then we were asked to tell of a time when we were rescued. I shared a critical experience in my recent life, and have written it out here. This was a rescue from my own ignorance.
_______________________________________________

Almost six years ago (January 2008), our soon to be 19-year-old daughter let us know that after several years of struggle with the issue, she had determined she was gay. Before that moment we had not thought deeply about this topic, but had just accepted our church’s position that homosexuality was a sin, and to be avoided at all cost.

I believe we were outwardly calm, but inwardly in turmoil. We weren’t sure what to understand about our daughter’s sexual orientation, and about her. Was she misguided or sinful? Should we rebuke her? Ignore her state? Do as some others had done, and throw her out or turn our back on her so she wouldn’t adversely affect the younger children in our home? Coexist in love? When we asked our daughter’s bishop about it, the most memorable thing he said was, “Don’t pray for her not to be gay; just pray for her to be safe.”

In the midst of our prayer, and thinking, and confusion, Peggy and I took off on our own to Gateway Center in Salt Lake. We talked about our options as to how we should respond to our daughter and this situation. Nothing was clear. Then Peggy noticed a Barnes and Noble store across the way, and suggested we go there. Once we got in the store, Peggy went to the back, as if led to a particular area, and there in a display was a book by Carol Lynn Pearson, titled No More Goodbyes, and it was about our specific situation! Peggy excitedly brought it to me, and I spent the next hour in the store reading through it. It talked about sexual orientation and the church, prescribed a loving approach toward our loved ones with same sex attraction, and included the stories of many who had struggled with this already in their own families, some unsuccessfully as they drove away their loved, leading in all too many cases to despair and even death. Some of her concluding words seared my heart and mind:

“When we [Mormons] see a need, we respond. When we are conscious, we act. That new pioneer journey I spoke of in the first part of this book is a journey of consciousness. Now that you have the stories of anguish and of healing, have met our gay loved ones and the parents, sisters, brothers, and friends who have circled the wagons around them, you have journeyed in consciousness and have, I believe, arrived at a new place.”

“Now you know.” (p. 275)

After further reading and considering the message in No More Goodbyes, we had a new heart. We knew that we should not allow anything to separate us from our daughter and our love for her. Not fear, not anger, not what we thought we understood from our church. This was a gift from God, a new understanding. And a chance to keep things right.

This of course didn’t made everything easy. Shelly’s life path was changed, and we grieved the loss of many things we’d hoped for in her life. The science is clearer, but the mind of theology remains murky to us. How does gender identity and sexual orientation relate to the eternities? We have learned to leave that to God. Then we encountered a new round of thought and consideration a couple of years later as Shelly determined she was transgender. A whole new change of direction and expectations! A new name, Jack Kadin. A new set of pronouns. It took us time, and experiences. But six years later, I know we are still a family, working to be knit together in love. And the direction we have taken, faithful both to our son and to our church, still rings true. God had rescued us from a terrible mistake.