111. As the play begins Isaac has agreed to house several treasure hunters for an old neighbor, Josiah Stowell, who is digging for a Spanish silver mine. Related Topics: Joseph and Emma Hale Smith Family, Hymns, Female Relief Society of Nauvoo. She crossed the Mississippi River, which had frozen over in February 1839. About this time, Martin Harris made his appearance upon the stage; and Smith began to interpret the characters or hieroglyphics which he said were engraven upon the plates, while Harris wrote down the interpretation. Isaac contested 40 acres of the assessment, arguing a son-in-law, Michael B. Morse, lived on 27 acres, and a son-in-law, Joseph Smith Jr., lived on 13 acres of the land, and they should pay the tax for their part of his property. MacKay, et al. 232. This I refused, and gave my reasons for so doing; some of which were, that he was a stranger, and followed a business that I could not approve; he then left the place. Onondaga projectile points, found on Hale Farm, Collection of the LDS Church. 71. 24, May 15, 1829: 3; George W. Lane Marries C. Winters,Register and Northern Farmer, September 8, 1842. The family moved to a new Latter Day Saint settlement in Illinois which Joseph named "Nauvoo". Lewis had some exposure to the use of divining rods in the search for treasure while living in Wells, Vermont, and the scant evidence suggests he had rejected these efforts early. 173. Hartgen, Report, Historic Sites, Church Historians Office, 2005; Hartgen, Archeological Field Investigations and Addenda 1 and 2; Kirk and McQuinn, personal communication to author. Others speculated the silver may not have been buried on islands off Connecticut, but elsewhere in the country. The newly married Joseph agreed with his father-in-law, Isaac Hale, that he would buy a small farm there where he "expected to work hard for a living, and was willing to do so." 1 He would need to work hard, since his parents' family had limited financial resources to draw from as Joseph was starting his own family. See BrianC. Hales, Joseph Smiths Polygamy, 3vols. An 1857 hand drawn map of the Susquehanna Valley includes a stylized sketch of the Hale home depicting a structure similar to the one Timothy Pickering hired Isaac Hale to build for him.244 Pickering designed a typical Federal style home for his plantation in the Susquehanna Valley that included a neatly balanced appearance. 210. Emma wanted William Marks, president of the church's central stake, to assume the church presidency, but Marks favored Sidney Rigdon for the role. In early 1776 Nathaniel Lewis transferred his home with its sixteen acres of land by deed to his commanding officer, David Welch, and he took his family north to the Green Mountains.73 Although the family may have traveled with relatives, Elizabeth Lewis at only eight-years-old still held significant responsibility during the move, helping her expecting mother with her brothers and sisterseven-year-old Nathaniel Jr., five-year-old John, and two-year-old Esther. 198. It is said that he did not appear to be a man like Paul, brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, though, doubtless, he was a good man. She noted they were a lovely intelligent and highly respectable Family, and their home and farm did honor to the good taste of the intelligent proprie.12 The Hale mansion fit into a class of homes described by Early American historian Richard Bushman as middling mansions.13 Their recently expanded home helped give the Hale family a level of vernacular gentility that had recently found its way into the remote valleys of the Endless Mountains. Adding to the Quary speculation, Morgan Miles, a sailor arrested and taken to London to be tried for piracy, announced his captain, a man named Stratton, had buried a cache of silver at the mouth of the Susquehanna River before returning to England.66 These stories spread and were embellished with each new telling until there was a general perception that most pirates buried treasure, a perception that worked its way into fictional narratives largely unchallenged for centuries despite the lack of evidence. . and visited at the house of Isaac Hale, Joe Smith's father-in-law, when she was seventeen years old. Emma Hale was born in Harmony Township, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, the seventh child of Isaac Hale and Elizabeth Lewis Hale. J. H. Beers and Co.,Commemorative Biographical Record of Northeastern Pennsylvania, Including the Counties of Susquehanna, Wayne, Pike and Monroe(Chicago: J. H. Beers and Co., 1900), 1232, 124748. Josiah Stows discovery of treasure in the Indian burials on his property became well known. While living in Connecticut, Arah Ward joined thirty-two others in 1757 who petitioned the church to not require his family to attend meetings during the winter months because of difficult travel on bad roads, Anderson,The Town and City of Waterbury,398. A whole list of rules about how to speak, listen, and interact with parents, social superiors, and the public in general had developed as part of proper and refined life.301 Unless a young man had read the popular etiquette books of the day, he was unlikely to know all of these rules. Isaac Hale is a Guitarist, zodiac sign: Cancer. One Sabbath morning, in the year 1812 when provisions were scarce, he sat reading his Bible preparatory to preaching, when he discovered a deer near his house. Wendy Schnur, Collections Access and Research, Mystic Seaport, The Museum of America and the Sea, Mystic, Connecticut, Personal communication to author, February 7, 2008. Lurena also became a popular name with future generations of the family. Born on July10, 1804, in Willingsborough (later Harmony), Pennsylvania, Emma Hale was the seventh of nine children of Isaac and Elizabeth Lewis Hale. The wealthy family lived on a 90-acre farm in the Susquehanna River Valley, where Isaac shipped meat and other merchandise downriver to Philadelphia and Baltimore. In summer this was their means of travel. . Dubois and Pike,Centennial of Susquehanna County,73. Karen Lynn Davidson, David J. Whittaker, Mark Ashurst-McGee, and Richard L. Jensen, eds.,The Joseph Smith Paper, Histories, Volume 1: 18321844(Salt Lake City: Church Historians Press, 2012), 236 (hereafterJSP,H1). 204. Blackman,History of Susquehanna County,53; Wilkinson,Annals of Binghamton, 102. The home they moved into was a frame home built by Isaacs son Jesse. Soon after this, I was informed they had brought a wonderful book of Plates down with them. Early settlers referred to the place where the river entered Pennsylvania as the east bend and where it returned into New York as the west bend, while the entire river as it passed through the valley was the great bend.41 Although the valley remains officially unnamed, early residents along this great bend called it the Susquehanna Valley.42 During the twentieth century that name has generally come to refer to a much larger region that includes the entire river drainage system through upper Pennsylvania. Life on the Hale farm remained difficult and isolated during the early years of settlement. 168. Others also consistently agreed the workmen boarded with Isaac Hale. Richard L. Bushman,The Refinement of America: Persons, Houses, Cities(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992), 115. In 1860, Emma affiliated with the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (later renamed Community of Christ). New Patient Forms; The detailed reports of this excavation are available in the unpublished documents: Hartgen Archaeological Associates, Inc., Report, Historic Sites, Church Historians Office, 2005; Hartgen Archeological Associates, Inc., Archeological Field Investigations and Addenda 1 and 2, Joseph Smith Jr. House Site, Town of Oakland (Formerly Harmony), Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, May 2005. The Hales helped Emma and Joseph obtain a house and a small farm. Emma Hale Birth: 10 July 1804 Harmony Township, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, United States Death: 30 April 1879 Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois, United States Remains: 1879 Smith Family Cemetery, Hancock County, Illinois, United States Father: Isaac Hale (1763-1839) Mother: Elizabeth Lewis (1767-1842) Skills: (Isaac divided up a farm he had sold to his son Jesse and sold the northern rocky portion to Morse and the southern arable portion to his son-in-law Joseph Smith); but Morse may have planted Indian corn somewhere else more susceptible to mountain shade, such as Isaacs island in the middle of the river, which Morse plowed late in the season on July 11 and 13, 1828. During the short time of his employ, Joseph and other workers boarded at the homestead of Isaac and Elizabeth Hale of Harmony. Nancy Mess has suggested Eclectic Man may have been a brother or son of J.W. While the Hale property changed owners, Pennsylvania sold 9,000 acres of remaining land in the valley to Colonel Timothy Pickering Jr., a Harvard graduate, intellectual, military officer, and politician. Horses, cows, and oxen were taxed, but mules, sheep, goats, and pigs were not. 44. 215. Isaac Hale, son of Reuben Hale & Diantha Ward, was born Mar. The Hale home not only offered Isaac and Elizabeth Hales children a measure of respectability, it added to Isaac and Elizabeths own prominence in the community lending gentility to their lives. Jared Sparks,The Works of Benjamin Franklin(Boston: Hilliard, Gray, and Company, 1840), 1:59697. However, as the time passed Isaac had concerns about Joseph's character and history. Quary was responsible for capturing smugglers, but this time he was convinced the men he captured were not just smuggling goods into Pennsylvania but had taken a detour somewhere to bury Kidds famous treasure in its mountains.65 Where, he did not know. Emma Hale was subpoenaed to testify, but Isaac gave details about the breakfast in his testimony, and Emma was not called. 133. Outline of Hale home basement, as suggested by archaeology. ; The character development appearing in later volumes received mixed comments by Isaac Hale and Sam Kusek from the same site. His mother recalled after Joseph first met Emma, he immediately commenced paying his addresses. Anderson,Lucys Book,361. [17], Emma was baptized by Oliver Cowdery on June 28, 1830, in Colesville, New York,[13] where an early branch of the church was established. See also, Mark Ashurst-McGee, A Pathway to Prophethood: Joseph Smith Junior as Rodsman, Village Seer, and Judeo-Christian Prophet, (masters thesis, Utah State University, 2000); Dan Vogel, The Locations of Joseph Smiths Early Treasure Quests,Dialogue27 (Fall 1994): 20407. Augustus B. Easton, ed.,History of the Saint Croix Valley(Chicago: H. C. Cooper Jr. & Co., 1909), 2:1115; Commonwealth vs. Jason Treadwell, Susquehanna County Court of Oyer and Terminer, August 1824, Susquehanna County Courthouse, Montrose, Pennsylvania; Staker and Jensen, David Hales Store Ledger: New Details about Joseph and Emma Smith, the Hale Family, and the Book of Mormon; Byron Hale, Reuben Hales Obituary, March 21, 1887; John Travis to Jesse and Isaac W. Hale Deed, April 30, 1827, Susquehanna County Deed Books, 6:255. Isaac Hale is the son of the wealthiest farmer in the village where Feyre Archeron and her family live. The only library in the region for many years was his personal collection he allowed others to use. . 189. Vermont war hero Ethan Allen, who helped create Vermont from New York and New Hampshire, had agreed in late 1785 to travel there the following spring with a detachment of Green Mountain boys and create a new state from the land.28 Although Allen never followed through, Hale may have become caught up in this Vermont enthusiasm. isaac hale father of emma smith . McCune, Personalities in the Doctrine and Covenants, 49. The following publications provide further information about this topic. The partial cellar under the original log home was dug out and expanded to create a basement for the later frame home. 235. This was when Isaac helped build the Lewis home and just before he built his own. Emma Hale never saw her parents again after the Kirtland era. 25. The Hales were among a small number of prominent families in the valley who established a standard of ethical behavior for the community. Trial Notes Scribe A. The high assessed value for his sugar house and high subsequent value for his sugar suggests the Hale family were major sugar producers in the valley, Tax Records 1819, 1820, and 1821. Pickering negotiated the treaty of Canandaigua in 1794, and he served as the United States expert on Indian relations until he became Washingtons Secretary of State, a position Pickering held until disagreements with John Adams led to his dismissal on May 12, 1800. Barnes Frisbie,History of Middletown, Vermont(Rutland, Vt.: Tuttle & Company, 1867, 59. attended a Girls school for one year, he did not document his source. In late 1806 Joel Smith replaced Stier and Lee as the Methodist circuit rider assigned to the Tioga circuit that included Harmony. This was the home the Lewis family briefly occupied. B. Wilkinson dated the initial settlement of that valley to 1788, (Wilkinson,Annals of Binghamton,110112). 124. There is some evidence that Crawford may have been correct. Joseph introduced the practice carefully and incrementally, marrying many additional wives, each of whom vowed to keep their participation confidential. The rise of the Rodsmen placed Methodists in the community such as Lewis in direct opposition to the local treasure digging culture that had been part of their Connecticut roots. I am grateful to Nancy Mess for helping me find the location of the current Timothy Pickering headstone in the Lanesboro Cemetery. Personalities in the Doctrine and Covenants and Joseph SmithHistory. 266. Blackman,History of Susquehanna County,8283. Hale would have needed a smokehouse and butchery to process his regular catch of game, and these were likely the first outbuildings he built after a privyif he built onenot everyone did in the early years. In it you will find the words of eternal life.290 Isaac died and was interred below the garden on his farm. 254. 1833, June 14, 1832. It is unlikely nineteen-year-old Joseph Smith was attuned to the Hale familys social position or that of other members of the community in November 1825. [10] Beginning at age eight, she was involved in the local Methodist Episcopal Church in Harmony, reading the Bible and singing hymns. 47. 136. Closets in homes were an innovation of the period and would provide additional storage space. [20], On November 6, 1832, Emma gave birth to Joseph Smith III in the upper room of Whitney's store in Kirtland. B. Buck, one of Daniels grandsons, who was not there during the early years of occupation and appears to be reporting the memories of others, later suggested that what he described as the first diggings done in their area were at the Painted Rock site.106 He recalled his uncle found the foundation of a house on the island in the river at Painted Rock, where they targeted their initial digging. While there is no documentary evidence to suggest why the Hale family continued to attend the Buck congregation after it encountered difficulties, the Pickerings may have contributed to a brief renewed religious interest in the family that dissipated when the Pickerings left. . Tax Assessment, Great Bend Township, 1823, Susquehanna County Courthouse. Michael Morses property consisted of 27 acres of unimproved land and a log home on the Oquago mountain foothills at the north end of the Hale farm. 203. Blackman,History of Susquehanna County, 578. When he reported receiving a calling from God to take his father's place as head of a "New Organization" of the Latter Day Saint church, she supported his decision. ", Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, "Julia Murdock Smith Dixon Middleton Family album and history", Mormon enigma: Emma Hale Smith, prophet's wife, "elect lady," polygamy's foe, Testimony regarding Emma Smith Bidamon, Nauvoo, Illinois, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints titles, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Emma_Smith&oldid=1140205784, American members of the Community of Christ, Leaders in the Church of Christ (Latter Day Saints), Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles lacking in-text citations from June 2022, Latter Day Saint biography Infobox with missing parameters, Articles with unsourced statements from August 2021, Harold B. Lee Library-related 19th century articles, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 19 February 2023, at 00:03. Father of Jesse Hale , David Hale , Alva Hale , Elizabeth Hale , Isaac Ward Hale and Emma (Hale) Bidamon. Letter from J. Their separation had been so complete, she listed her children and each of their names so her mother could learn of her own grandchildren. VIDEO: The Discovery of the Book of Mormon | Scripture Central . All of Isaac and Elizabeth Hales sons, except Reuben, had a daughter named either Elizabeth or Betsey. 1763 1 -11 Jan. 1839. King, A Comparative Midden Analysis of a Household and Inn in St Marys City, Maryland,Historical Archaeology22, no. Lewis reenlisted as part of the 2nd Regiment. Dodd, 1856), 1213. 2 Farmer, hunter, innkeeper. The first sermons heard in Jackson [which was also part of Willingborough Township in the early settlement period] were those of Elder Nathaniel Lewis, a Methodist. Stow recalled that as he began plowing he turned up numerous Indian burials that included trinkets of silver among which were the many silver nose pendants and silver ear disks worn by the earlier inhabitants.99 These silver artifacts were a distinctive element of traditional Onondaga dress. Along with their sons (and Hales uncles) David and John Ward, Arah and Phebe Ward took ten-year-old Isaac and set out on a 176-mile journey to establish a new life in Wells, Vermont, where Arah purchased a mill site in July 1773.19 The following summer the Wards donated ten acres for a Congregational church, and David Ward served as the Reverend.20 William Cowdery Sr. (whose grandson Oliver was born in Wells) became the deacon in their church.21, Isaac helped his grandfather build a gristmill in Wells and run it until the Revolutionary War transformed their community. 140. When Emma decided to marry Joseph in 1827, her parents disowned her, but did allow their daughter and son-in-law back for a time while Emma was pregnant with their first child and as Joseph continued translating the . 1 Joseph Smith Jr. (1805-1844), was a treasure seeker. Both options had their advantages but the Delaware was so popular for residents of the Susquehanna Valley that the village of Deposit eventually grew up nearby, and Hale Eddy, a spot on the river just below Deposit, became a staging area to prepare lumber for spring shipments. Isaac and Elizabeth Lewis Hale Home Key Points of Interest The home currently on the property is a reconstruction, built by the church in 2015 Emma Hale Smith, Joseph's wife, grew up here with her parents, Isaac and Elizabeth Hale Joseph first met Emma when he and his father boarded here while working for Josiah Stowell nearby Emma's continuing public denial of the practice seemed to lend strength to their cause, and opposition to polygamy became a tenet of the RLDS Church. He blamed Federalists and Whigs for their problems.282, John Comfort saved his harshest words for the decline of religion in Harmony. (an old stone face down beside 140) 141. It puts his conversion to early 1779, however, which is a year before his parents were supposedly converted. Nathaniel Lewis brought with him negative experiences with the Rodsmen and treasure digging culture, Isaac Hale arrived in Pennsylvania without the same conflict with his Connecticut roots.93, Uncle Nate, Isaacs brother-in-law Nathaniel Lewis, and Nathaniels wife Sarah, squatted on a farm immediately west of the Hales on the north bank of the Susquehanna River ascending the foot of Oquago Mountain. Shell-edged creamware plate fragment, found on Hale Farm. Year-round running water in the home would have been a comfort worthy of notice. Blackman,History of Susquehanna County,23. Charles Hatchs 18281829 tavern was evidently a log structure and likely related to the log tavern Sylvanus Hatch in neighboring Great Bend Township. . On January 17, 1827, Joseph and Emma left the Stowell house and traveled to the house of Zachariah Tarbill[12] in South Bainbridge, New York, where they were married the following day. F. Russell Meyer,The Reverend Elam Potter(Enfield, Conn.: Enfield Congregational Church, 2002). Emma was supportive of Smith's teachings throughout her life with the exception of plural marriage and remained loyal to her son Joseph Smith III in his leadership of the RLDS church.[6]. Subject Files, Susquehanna County Historical Society. He recalled, the corn was good, but late, and the frost killed it. Vogel, Joseph Lewis Rejoinder, 11 June 1879,Early Mormon Documents,4:311. Robert Quary, a new customs collector for Pennsylvania, captured two of Captain Kidds seadogs inland in Pennsylvanias interior and spread the alarm that Kidds ship had been near the Pennsylvania coast. 282. 270. 148. Emma Hale, the sister of Elizabeth Wasson, was born in the town of Harmony, Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania, July 10, 1804. . By implication the Presbyterian minister seemed to think praying for direct answers and prophesying would invite influence from the devil on him as well.184, Although Colbert left the region and never went into the Susquehanna Valley where the Hale family lived, his type of Methodism became widespread in the region as others did not seem to share the concerns of the Presbyterian minister. 97. isaac hale father of emma smith. Charles W. Upham,The Life of Timothy Pickering(Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1878), 4:5. A copy of these house plans are in the authors possession. If she attended a Girls school, the only one in her vicinity was the Female Seminary that operated a few miles west of her parents home in Great Bend Township. He experienced some melancholy while he was away from his fianc, Jane Hodge, and he wrote her of his homesickness, Even the talisman around my neck, which I fondly thought would have defended me against all mischance, cannot shield me from this evil spirit . 299. Department. He did not add any value (and hence no tax) to the Morse land but increased the Smith land value by $150.00. 100. Upham,Life of Timothy Pickering,119. This would explain the August 23, 1877, account reported by theBainbridge Republicanthat relied heavily on William Purples account of Joseph Smiths trial for glass looking, but may have had other sources at its disposal as well. These sources also disagree as to where Elizabeth was born, but Andersons claim Elizabeth was born in Litchfield may be because the Lewis property was on the township line, while her family home was on the Goshen side of the line but still in Litchfield County. 55. Blackman,History of Susquehanna County,57. Wilkinson,Annals of Binghamton,34, called it valley of the Susquehanna. And, Chaffee noted of Nathaniel Lewis that the place where he lived was called Susquehanna, Amasa Franklin Chaffee,History of the Wyoming Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church(New York: Eaton & Mains, 1904), 720. Latter Day Saints' Selection of Hymns was published in 1861. After they had arrived at Palmyra N.Y., Emma wrote to me enquiring whether she could take her property, consisting of clothing, furniture, cows, &c. I replied that her property was safe, and at her disposal. He was taxed that year as a single man, while he courted thirteen-year-old Mary (Polly) McKune who lived next door.250 In preparation for marriage, Jesse began building his own house on the southeastern edge of his fathers farm between his parents home and that of the McKunes (on what became the Joseph and Emma Smith property). 1. In the mid-twentieth century an elderly resident of the valley who had lived there her entire life still referred to it as the very lovely but quiet Susquehanna River Valley. Marietta Collwell, letter to Wilford C. Wood, October 18, 1946, Wilford C. Wood Collection, CHL. Meat, in fact, became the major form of currency in the region; when Isaac Hale and Nathaniel Lewis first settled the valley, they exchanged meat for help on their farms, and it became the custom to give cattle, or truck, as payment for work.124 During those early settlement years, Isaac Hale could easily have been a model for Nathaniel (Natty) Bumppo, the Leatherstocking in James Fenimore Coopers novel The Pioneers: or, The Sources of the Susquehanna, which reflected a larger than life heroic hunter dressed in buckskin with Indians as his closest friends. George Peck, Memorandums of Circuit Travels, 18161818., 248. Timothy Pickering Jr., Drawings and Instructions for a House in the Country, The Timothy Pickering Papers, 17451820, 45:4955, Massachusetts Historical Society. For additional documentation of the Hale and Wallace wedding, see Marriage Record of Antha Hale and Joseph Wallace, Enfield, Connecticut Town Records, 16821854, Enfield, Connecticut, June 23, 1789; Francis Olcott Allen,The History of Enfield, Connecticut(Lancaster, Pa.: The Wickersham Printing Co., 1900), 2:1786. 158. Jesse Hale Isaac W Hale and Reuben Hale have moved on the Allegany near Olian; and David Hale intends to go next spring. Also available as A Study of the Origins of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the States of New York and Pennsylvania, 18161831, Dissertations in Latter-day Saint History (Provo, UT: Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History; BYU Studies, 2000). By referring or linking you to these resources, we do not endorse or guarantee the content or the views of the author. 64. In July 1830 the Lord outlined her mission, in a revelation: Thou art an elect lady, whom I have called. Hanna, anna,andhonnawere all English spellings for a word the Onondaga applied to local rivers, brooks, or creeks meaning stream of water; andsusquewas the English spelling of a word whose meaning is still debated but may have meant muddy, roiling, or serpent like.43 Since the river is rarely muddy except during flooding and is only serpentine when seen from the sky, it may be the Onondaga intended to suggest by Susquehanna the rough, roiling rapids frequently found in the shallow water. 263. Anderson,Lucys Book,361; an unidentified interviewer who signed his notes as Abel, recorded aninterview with one of Emmas sons, David Hyrum Smith, and wrote down Davids description of his mother as, a little over medium highth . Commonwealth vs. Erastus Fink, September 4, 1827, Quarter Sessions Docket, Susquehanna County, 3:107. See Larry C. Porter, A Study of the Origins of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the States of New York and Pennsylvania, 18161831 (PhD diss., Brigham Young University, 1971), 118. After these occurrences, young Smith made several visits at my house, and at length asked my consent to his marrying my daughter Emma. It was at a very Low ebb with us, he complained.283 The whole nature of Methodism changed during the years he and the Hales were members, and many of the first generation converts in Harmony did not comfortably change with it. In every flowr, and shrub, and tree, Gods goodness you may plainly see.187 Hymn writing became a popular pastime in the Susquehanna Valley and Justin Clark, editor of the local newspaper The Centinel,regularly published to an interested audience information in his newspaper about religious music, including locally written hymns under various pseudonyms.188, It took several more years before Methodism made its way to the Susquehanna Valley.