| Show BIOGRAPHY OF DANIEL SPENCER 1 I was one of eleven children born to daniel spencer and chloe wilson my birth being on the aoth day of july f 74 at west stockbridge berkshire county massachusetts my father enlisted in the continental army at the age of sixteen and remained with it until he witnessed the surrender of yorktown he was the son of peter and ruth emmons spencer peter was a descendant ol of gerard spencer who settled at lynn mass in in 1645 and whose daughter mahitable married daniel cone who was the first cone that settled in J america the site of hadam conn was purchased ot of the indians march 1662 in the fall of that year gerard spencer daniel cone and twenty six others founded the settlement there gerard spencer was also a member of the state assembly of connecticut his english ancestors were i in bedford england during my child childhood hod the young and growing family of my father left no surplus means over and above their kind and generous support both parents we were members remembers of the baptist church they gave their children excellent advice by precept and example and were held in high esteem by their neighbors both rich and poor they sent me to the district school during the winter months until I 1 was about eleven years of age through this opportunity I 1 obtained a fair common school e uca tion t at twelve years of age I 1 was set to freighting marble with team to hudson distant about thirty miles at the age of fourteen I 1 was placed in charge of my lathers fathers farm and was accorded much praise for my successful management in these early years I 1 indulged a debare and hope to it at some time become a merchant at the age of nineteen years I 1 promised my lather father if he would let me begin life on my own account I 1 would present him with the first hundred dollars I 1 could saveur save up he consented to this and I 1 hired to one joseph cone living at Harro wiston litchfield county conn who sent me with team and wagon goaded with merchandise to sell in north and south carolina I 1 worked for him two years and aind then entered business on my own account and soon had several of my brothers ery engaged with me in merchandising in the two states stales above named and in jeorgia and alabama we spent the winter wimer south and the shimmer summer in the new england states I 1 made quito quite an amount of money was enabled to do much more for my father than the nun hun dred dollars cullars I 1 had promised him about 1820 I 1 entered into mercantile business in my native town forming a copartner ship with charles and bilson boynton as silent partners I 1 turned in most of my salary as manager together with profits into uie the general store intending in in time to become sole proprietor during ane J time ot of this partnership I 1 embraced mormonism not long after this these two took the benefit of the bankrupt tact act through which I 1 lost much means charles boynton afterwards became a minister and acted as chaplain in the house of Cou congress gress sharp criticisms of their course in bankruptcy were very prevalent and I 1 presume would have been much more so if a mormon had bad not been the chief loser january aist 1823 1 I was married to sophronia E pomeroy who was the daughter of general grove pomeroy who was a member of the state assembly of massachusetts I 1 think in t the e year 1801 2 by whom I 1 had one son claudius victor she died october ath 1833 Sum something ething over two years alter after her death I 1 married sarah lester van who bore me two sons who died early two daughters amanda and mary leone glin in my early years I 1 had entertained great reverence for god and had sought him often in secret prayer but not unite with any of the churches nevertheless Neven Never heles theles at one time there came to me the conviction that baptism by immersion im was essential and I 1 jou journeyed ye d about furty forty miles to my brother Or sons n who was a close communion baptist minister and he buried me in the water in the likeness of the burial and resurrection ur ot of christ but I 1 refused membership in the baptist church during the winter of 1838 1 I met a mormon eider on the meet of our town who said he had been trying through the day to get a place where he could coula preach he was poorly clad and some ot of his extremities were frost bitten and he was altu altogether gether a peculiar looking minister being chairman of the sendol board I 1 told him he could have the school house house to preach in and I 1 sent edwin morgan who for many years since has been hotel keeper at lee mass to light and warm the room when morgan reached the house he be found parties inside who had locked him out and refused him admission when he reported this I 1 told him to take an axe aud if the parties did not open the door to chop it up and warm the room with it I 1 took pains to spread pread notice ot of the sent my son to invite the presbyterian minister nathan sha shaw to go with me to hear the elder eider his answer was tell your lather I 1 would as soon go to hear the devil preach this coming irom from an old friend from one noted for his guarded and sanctimonious speech seemed to be marvelous later experience peri ence has solved it the meeting was largely attended by members ot of the aff different e rent churches but at the close when the elder stated that he was a stranger 1300 miles from home without purse or scrip and asked it any one would keep nim him over night for christs and the gospels sake not an answer came from any member after a painful silence I 1 stepped irom from my seat into imo the open aisle and invited him home with me I 1 refused to discuss mormonism Mormon ibm hm with him and next morning I 1 took look him to my store and clothed him comfortably in about a month he came again I 1 obtained for him the presbyterian meeting house and entertained him as before on leaving me he left some books these I 1 read and soon became interested to the extent that I 1 closed my store and business and gave my whole attention to comparing theca the caime ims ot of the with the bible and one forenoon white reading ane bouk of mormon the conviction came to me with great power that mormonism was true and in voluntary volun voluntarily tari ily I 1 exclaimed my god it is true but it will cost me friends madred and all I 1 have on earth A few days after this I 1 sent notice to the entire towns people that at noon ot of a certain date I 1 should be baptised baptized sed by the mormon elder being the only one to accept mormonism A vast cow coa course came to see the ice broken to the river and the ordinance performed after I 1 was confirmed I 1 spoke to the people in a new language which knowing me as they did created a profound oro fouad sensation I 1 was ordained an elder and did much preaching in buckshire Bick Bik shire county on the i irth th of of april 1840 elder frankiin fran kiin D ichards richards and elder stephen burnham organized a branch in ow town ot of thirty members among these was a merchant by the name of crandall and his bis wife sister of senator conklin Conk lia another merchant by the name de vol who for some years was a judge at council bluffs and still another merchant a mr hunt indeed without exception the standing of the members in society was of the best and few sections ot of our country have had greater testimonies of the truth ot of m than did that region from the adjoining town came the richards family prominent for so many years among our people Aft after ermy my baptism my grod good father and mother and my good baptist brother orson told me in an ad interview that they did not wish any further association with me until I 1 gave up my awful delusion however in time I 1 atri performed the same ordinance for or my brother as a mormon elder that he had once VW per formed for me as a baptist elder and I 1 had the pleasure of gathering father and mother to nauvoo 1 I had accumulated considerable property owning pretty largely of teal real estate but I 1 learned that thai a general eberall ene rall impression prevailed that alt alf mor mons must gather to nauvoo and that this property would be gut got from me very cheap if they combined to withhold offer boners s these circumstances I 1 approached a man who had been for some time ame trying to sell a heavily wooded and timbered farm with shares in a mill and told him that I 1 would give so much for the property on condition that no one should know my mv offer until the ext execution cution of the deeds he complied with this and as soon as the townspeople towns people kne knew it the reports flew around that I 1 was not nat going to nauvoo that I 1 was too smart to let lei the mormon leaders get my means etc in the meantime I 1 contract contracted iid with the proprietor of the algers iron furnace to deliver several hundred cords adf f wood bought horses and wagons entered into but business iness as though I 1 should remain there a lifetime life iffe time using ray my mill right to saw whatever timber was fit into lumber this placed me on about the same business vantage ground that I 1 held before baptism im which I 1 improved in in disposing of all my real estate except the timber farm to good advantage advantage I 1 realized in wood and lumber from the e larm farm almost its first cost and had it left corsale for sale on the basis that whether therit it brought much or little litile it was almost all clear prone profit I 1 traded it for a good figure lor for broadcloth and satineg sat inet and with short warning in in company with my brother hyrum daniel hendricks and their families and m ne started with teams and wagons for nauvoo and in that way have traveled from west stock bridge berkshire county mass to salt lake city presumably as long a wagon ride as any of the gathered saints have I 1 had in leaving my native town I 1 had many warnings irom from well meaning friends who were so fully prejudiced against mormons cormons as to consider that no good thing could come to me and my family by going among them prophecies were plentiful that I 1 should lose all my worldly possessions and promises abundant that if I 1 would write back that I 1 wished to return they would raise means for my deliverance though I 1 have ben been peeled robbed and driven t by a mob I 1 have prospered in worldly thin things s tar lar more than those who gave me warnings and the ac I 1 formed with joseph smith confirmed my faith in the work I 1 have embraced I 1 entered consider considerable abe government land adjoining nauvoo fenced and improved a acre farm six milis miles out of N nauvoo built a good sub t two story brick house with extensive and good barn and outhouses out houses in the city in 1842 1 I filled a mission to canada in 1843 1 I tilled filled a mission to the indian nation and during that year was elected member of the city council of nauvoo and in 1844 by vote ot of the council was elected mayor of 0 that city and held the office u shtil i its cha charter rt er was repealed the same e y year e r I 1 w was s sent e t on a mission to massachusetts assac during ring these years the threaten ings of mobs nad been violent joseph and hyrum smith had been cruelly murdered while under the hedged protection of the governor ot of the state and in february 1846 1 I with man many Y others was forced to flee from nauvoo crossing the mississippi on the ice and seeking refuge in the wilds of iowa with snow on the ground we here lost some of our dearest friends and relations by the hardships and exposures they were called to meet among them my brother wite wile daughter of at deacon bacon Sain tiel curtis canaan columbia county N Y her hei death and that of others was directly directly y due to our compulsory exodus from nauvoo her father mother and kin dred were according to the light they had bad exemplary and devoted christians to such as these were the western mob brals arais appealing for countenance and aw aid while they were hounding their children children to most cruel deaths not many weeks after my brother orson lost lest his wile wife my wife mary weakened under the exposures and hardships of thae journey and was like many others laid to rest by the road side none of their kindred having today any recognition of where they lay VI 11 wish here to make affectionate and honorable mention of my brother hy rum whose lite lile before association with our people and his devotion and loyalty to the gospel a ter embracing it was worthy ot of the highest and noblest recognition he had bad left nauvoo with the first outgoing saints as captain of fifty in the company of one hundred organized under my presidency during the journey irom from nauvoo to garden gr grove r ove he organized the labor force of the camp arid and took contracts from the settlers bordering our route ot of travel to chop ti tiber iber split rails etc thereby procuring sustenance for the camp and acquiring other much needed means for the feeble and ailing the next morning alter after his arrival at garden grove he voluntarily started back to Nu through great efforts he succeeded in em emigrating rating from there several poor families also to sell some of the property let left there by the three spencer brothers others or taking payment in stock cattle but immediately trumped up writs were manufactured and attachments issued to hold the property until the mob which was gathering should come into nauvoo by almost superhuman eferts eff arts he escaped with the cattle and means reaching the camp of the saints at pisgah although he did so as a martyr his exposures anxieties and labors had killed him he died some mites miles east of pisgah and his body was brought there for burial his grave being fenced and marked by two stones inscribed with the letters H S in pursuing our journey west from this point we followed the indian trail across iowa to council bluffs camping much of the time in close proximity tu to indians and herding our cattle on their grounds we had no trouble with them for while we were suffering so cruelly from the christian mobs the hearts of the savages seemed changed and softened and true sympathy was extended by them to a most touching degree it was here proven as it has been olten often proved by our people that having the gospel they had also with them the power of god unto salvation we tarried during the winter of 46 and 47 near the banks of the missouri river I 1 acted as bishop during these memorable months when the very esaf essence nce of manhood and womanhood was tested and I 1 leave this affirmation that the test was not only heroically met but met with that divinity of pa tience dence and trust that only a people can show who are divinely inspired 1 I fitted out from this camp francis boggs elijah newman and levi ken dall with two yoke of oxen wagon provisions seed grain farming tools etc and who came as pioneers arriving on the site of salt lake city the of luly 1847 and if their testimony be true these oxen drew the plow that turned the first sod in utah territory aber the pioneers left my reorganized company ol of one hundred started west in june with ira eldredge as captain of fi ty following on the indian and trappers trail which led to the north fork of 0 the platte river this journey was a contin continuous udus panorama of incidents only an arms length as it were back of us was our old new england life our rew new england relatives arid and associates our fine homes and farms and still nearer only a short drive back lay the home and farm which we had bad just been driven from into exile to have them back we had only to deny mormonism before us lay the problem of colonizing with such people as we were in suan scattered conditions as the mob had left us the great american desert of which the ablest of statesmen stac esmen daniel rhad said it is not worth acceptance of which the great calhoun had is not |
