Top Five: First LDS Converts

Here are the five earliest of my ancestor families to join the LDS church. It's worth noting that through the Buchanan, Hatch, and Curtis lines, my grandchildren are tenth generation Mormons.

5. Aldura Sumner Hatch, February 1840. Taught and baptized in Lincoln, Vermont by Elders Sisson Chase and Peltiah Brown. "The ice was a foot deep; and before they could be baptized, a hole had to be cut through the ice." A son and a couple of other relatives were baptized the same day; her husband Hezekiah, parents-in-law, and most of her children were baptized by the end of the year. In April of 1842, just before the family was to leave for Nauvoo, Aldura caught 'the black tongue' and died. The heartbroken family buried their wife and mother, then began the journey west to Illinois.

4. Richard Steele, January 1840. Taught and baptized by Henry Glover in Burslem (now Stoke on Trent), England just before his 22nd birthday. Unemployed after completing his apprenticeship in pottery-making, he took to Mormonism quickly. After baptism he hung out with the missionaries and was called on a mission later that year. Emigrated to Nauvoo in 1842, helped settle American Fork, Utah.

3. Samuel Miles, March 1834. Baptized by Orson Pratt in Freedom, New York. Was a brother-in-law to Warren Cowdery and lived next to him, so heard about the church early on--proof sheets as the Book of Mormon was being printed, perhaps a visit with Oliver Cowdery, meetings with friends all crescendoed into many baptisms when Pratt visited the community. Lived in Missouri and Nauvoo, died in St. Louis in 1847. His son Samuel was in the Mormon Battalion, and his wife Prudence and most of his children settled in Utah and Idaho.

2. Emeline Buchanan, February 1834. Living with her parents in central Illinois (Tazewell County), she joined the church at age 14. Her parents John and Nancy joined a year later. Years later, she remembered lying under a hickory tree and looking across the Mississippi River and watching parts of Nauvoo burn. Settled in Springville, Utah.

1. Enos Curtis, 1831. Learned about the church from his son in law, Elial Strong, and was baptized in Tioga County, Pennsylvania. In 1832, went with the group of missionaries from the Columbia Township branch up to Mendon NY and helped teach Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball. Settled in Springville, Utah and became a patriarch. His son Simmons married Emeline Buchanan (see #2).

Top Five: Favorite Ancestors

Mostly ones that passed on before I came along. I have a fascination with ancestors that were among the first of their lines to join the church--four of the five here meet that criteria.

5. William Marks Miles, 1828-1897. Just six when his family joined the church in Freedom, NY. His father recently dead, he was bartending and figuring whether to go west with his family and the saints. Saw a dove flying west, took that as a sign, and the rest is history. I've wondered how he felt having his uncle William Marks' name. WM rose to prominence in the early church, was Nauvoo Stake President, but was against polygamy, didn't join the trek to the west, and during WMM's life, his uncle's name was a hiss and a byword in Utah. Third great grandfather, mother's side.

4. Abram Hatch, 1861-1957. I'm named for him (middle name), and remember meeting him just once, shortly before he died. Shrunken sick man in a bed, an unfortunate memory for such a vibrant man. His mother died when he was just eight, and he was raised by other relatives. A real cowboy, ran mail, killed a cougar that was leaping at him. Inactive and a smoker, he was a trail guide for a visiting mission president (Spencer W. Kimball's father Andrew) and was promised if he wanted it, he would lose all desire for tobacco. Most of his life after, he was a great contributor to the ward he lived in. Like WMM above, he helped settle Moreland, Idaho. Second great-grandfather, mother's side.

3. William Butler, 1825-1905. Left Ireland as a young man, some say under duress because of a debt. Found himself with some Mormons heading west and joined the church. Successful in life, had a fiery disposition that appears to have alienated many. His polygamous wife (our ancestor) Ellen Close Butler was attacked by a railroad worker in 1869 with an axe. William tracked down the man and killed him, thinking his wife was dead, then returned and gave her a blessing the next day that knit together her shattered head. Turned himself into the sherriff, who said go home, you've done nothing wrong. Different times. Third great-grandfather, mother's side.

2. Mary Ross Henderson, 1823-1896. Scottish, noted for her forthrightness. For example, she liked the spirit of the Mormon missionaries, but her husband Robert forbade her to be in the same room with them. So she and a friend went to their meetings and stood outside an open window. She and Robert joined the church, and came west in 1863. Some men in their wagon train didn't want to follow the wagon leaders's admonition to cross the river once more that day, so she tied up her skirts and led their wagon across. The shamefaced men followed suit. Late in life she read her first novel, and told her daughter "Ah Mary, 'tis better than the Bible!" Third great-grandmother, mother's side.



1. Richard Steele, 1818-1881. Joined the church as a young man in Stoke on Trent, England. Served a two year mission in England and Wales before emigrating to the US. Potter, farmer, proponent of literacy, tenor. I know him and love him best because he left a journal of the key years after he joined the LDS church. I'm still impressed with the time he met with his former Wesleyan Chapel minister and forthrightly defended Mormon doctrine. He told the man, "I was not going to believe him or anyone else before the word of God. For said I, I was for having God true though all men were found liars. Then said he, "You was not so bold when you was amongst the Wesleyans." Third great-grandfather, father's side.