Ann Prior Jarvis Diary — January 1–15, 1885

We move into 1885 with a reminder that Ann didn't know her own birthday. She was just a few days off, but it's a strong reminder of what it was to live life as a 19th century immigrant in sometimes desperate poverty. 

Ann records three deaths. I don't know who the first man is, but the last two are explained below in "Notes." 

If you have a few minutes, click on the link to Leslie's Monthly and look at one of the issues Ann would have been reading in Volume 18 or 19. Curious collection of information, very educational and international in its scope.

Thursday 1    January My birthday 55 Jan — 1885

Went to fast meeting went the monthly meeting Thomas and Em spent the evening

Fri 2    Weather dull heard Br Orton is killed

      are invited to a party, do not feel like going

Sat 3     Weather cold

Sun 4    Weather cold went to meeting Brig is staying he[re?]

Mon 5     Weather pleasant went for Josey

Tus 6     Weather cold washed a few peices Br Romney is in town

Wed 7

Thu 8

Fri 9     Weather cold old lady Clark is dead will be buried to day

Sat 10    Weather raining ^We have^ a letter for Brig[ham Jarvis] Father brought it from the ^Post office^

Sun 11   Weather cloudy attended meeting Br Romney preached Thomas & Em came in the evening had a bad coughing spell

Mon 12    Weather fine spent part of the day with Anne Br Everet died this afternoon A good man has gone to rest

Thus 13    Weather pleasant Br Judd came to see father about the funeral

Wed 14    Weather very pleasant spent the day cooking. attended the funeral of Br Everets went to the third ward for Josey read in Leslies monthly

Thur 15   Weather blustering went to see Sister Everet also Anne

From Charles Lowell Walker's Diary

[It's been a while, so a quick reminder that Charlie Walker was the author of the hymn Dearest Children, and Dixie's de facto poet laureate. He includes this entry and then skips to January 25.]

St George Thurs 1st Jan 1885   Clear and cold. Snow on the tops of the distant ridges and Mountains. Went to the fast meeting; assisted in blessing two children (Ben Blakes and Joseph Judd's). I spoke to the people a short time on the importance of acknowledging the hand of the Lord in all things and our dependence on him....After Meeting I visited the sick and offered kindly aid to the afflicted. Slept the rest of the day. At night on duty at the temple. And so begins the year.

Notes

My birthday — When her parents, William and Kitty Prior, had her baptized on October 30, 1831, the Curate noted to the side of the entry that Ann was born December 30, 1829. I have speculated before on the reasons Ann didn't know her birthdate. 

Br Orton is killed — ??  I can't find any one of that name with a death date in or around 1885. Perhaps it was an unfounded rumor?

Br Romney is in town — The persecutions had gotten so severe that a number of families were moving to Mexico to try to protect themselves. The Romneys headed north to St. George first before they went south to the Colonies. It was a strenuous winter trip. For more information see Jennifer Hansen, Letters of Catherine Cottam Romney and Romney, Life Story of Miles Park Romney.

old lady Clark — Beulah Rogers Clark (1806–1885) was from Vermont and was one of the earliest members of the Relief Society of Nauvoo. Her husband was a member of the Mormon Battalion. Based on how Ann phrases the news, they were probably in different wards and didn't have much interaction.

part of the day with Anne — As noted in the last installment, Anne Jarvis Milne just had a baby.

Br Everet died — Addison Everett (1805–1885) was from New York, and a member of the first pioneer company to Utah. He had three wives, the first deceased, and he must have been divorced from his third wife, Hannah, since she was living in Salt Lake in 1880, noted as widowed or divorced, so Ann would have visited Orpha Redfield Everett, one of my Eminent Women once I get back to that project. Orpha only had one living child, Mary Everett Fuller.

Leslies Monthly — A magazine marketed as "the cheapest magazine published in the world," and many issues can be read online, including the one Ann would have been reading: (Hathitrust, The American Magazine).

Sisters: Lois Graham and Margaret Overson

Just posted this on Facebook and remembered to put it here as well...

Sisters. Lois Jarvis Graham and Margaret Jarvis Overson. They were fifteen years apart and lived in different states most of their lives in the days before inexpensive long-distance telephone calls and email, so they preserved their affectionate relationship through hand-written letters and very occasional visits. Margaret was a pioneer photographer in those days when women rarely had careers, and she was my grandpa Tanner's grandmother. Lois was a nurse educated by an LDS Relief Society program, and the mother of notable racer Athol Graham.

* * *

Here's a little movie my son and I just watched about Athol Graham. Because of the differences in age between these two sisters, Athol's son Butch, featured in the film, was Grandpa Wallace Tanner's second cousin, but the age of his children. 

The film led to an interesting discussion about taking risks and living life to the fullest. Also, because of my son's age, we discussed some of the language used in the film. Due to thematic content, parents of small children would want to prescreen the film.

Ann Prior Jarvis Diary — December 20–31, 1884

After almost a year here is another installment in the journal of Ann Prior Jarvis. This deals mostly with the weather and with family matters including the birth of her granddaughter Josephine Jarvis Milne. I had to smile at her note on December 31, "The last day of the old year good luck to it."

Josephine Jarvis Milne and her younger brother.

Sat 20  Weather cloudy

Sun 21  Weather dull I went to meeting and heard a snowstorm took Em for a ride had rather a bad night Brig come home

Mon 22  Weather cloudy was bad the after part of the [unfinished]

Tus 23  Weather bright beautiful sunshine It ought to be a bright day as it is Joseph Smith birthday there will be a Party to night to celebrate his natal day he would be seventy nine if he had lived untill to day

Wed 24

Thur 25  Weather raining spent Christmas with Thomas & Em

Friday 26  George had the buggy to get the Doctoress to Eleanor

Sat 27 Weather ^Fine Fine^ George has the buggy to fetch and take the doctor^Ss^ Father got me a new black dress Brig came home last night

Sun 28  Weather cloudy attended Meeting had a good sermon from Bro Snow

Mon 29  Went to the Sunday School party in the afternoon went to the first ward party at night Anne had a new baby weighed eleven pounds

Thus 30  went to the relief society was to late they had dismis^s^ed

Wed 31  the last day of the old year good luck to it

Notes

George — Remember when she says "George" she means her son. "Father" means her husband, George.

Doctoress — That's what it says! I have no idea what she means. Eleanor had a gap in children for a few years around this time, so could she mean the midwife, and Eleanor was having a late miscarriage or stillbirth? Eleanor was in very bad health from a heart condition, so she could also mean the traditional doctor, but I can't think of a female doctor that would have been practicing in St. George at this time. (Or for many, many years.)

New Baby — Josephine Jarvis Milne Hamblin (1884–). Josephine and her husband Edwin O. Hamblin took care of her mother Anne for many years after she went blind and aged.

Missionaries Wearing Fezzes

Several weeks ago a grandson of Joseph Marion Tanner added a picture to FamilySearch showing his grandfather on his mission in Constantinople. I saw the picture when I got my weekly change list from FamilySearch and clicked over to see the changes made to Myron Tanner's entry. (He was one of John Tanner's sons, and Joseph Marion Tanner was his son, and the father of O.C. Tanner and many others.)

F. F. Hintze, Jacob Spori, J. M. Tanner

I spent a few minutes identifying the two other men in the picture, Jacob Spori and Ferdinand Friis Hintze. After I checked that the picture wasn't in other collections, including the Church History Library, I contacted Ted Jones, the Tanner grandson who owns the picture, to request permission to post the picture at Keepapitchinin: The Mormon History Blog. A number of enjoyable discussions ensued at Keepa, on Facebook, and by email between historians and Tanner and Hintze descendants. Here is a link to the post at Keepapitchinin:

Missionaries Wearing Fezzes

Just One New Year's Resolution for 2016

Just one New Year's Resolution this coming year: finish my book.

The book is called Slaves in Zion: African American Servitude in Utah Territory, and is under contract with an academic publisher. It will tell the story of approximately 100 African American slaves who lived in Utah Territory between 1847 and 1862. 

Why 1847 and 1862? 

In 1847 the first three African American slaves, Oscar (Crosby) Smith, Hark (Lay) Wales, and Green Flake, entered the Salt Lake Valley several days ahead of Brigham Young.

In 1862 Congress ended slavery in the territories and the blacks who remained enslaved in Utah were freed.

About a quarter of the 100 slaves in the story went to San Bernardino in 1851. At least one man lived his entire life in Utah, from birth to death, and some of his descendants still live in the Salt Lake Valley. It has been a real pleasure to work with the descendants of the slaves, and with local historians, academics, and librarians all over the Western United States.

A number of authors and historians have told parts of the story of African American slavery in Utah Territory, but the time had come to use the many resources now available online to figure out what was legend and what was fact, and give an accurate and honest account of the lives of these many men, women, and children.

Votes for Women!

Don't miss this great summary of the history of women suffrage in Utah.

Votes for [Mormon/Utah] Women!

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Keeping the Saints Informed: John Morgan and the Southern States Mission

While he served as President of the Southern States Mission, John Morgan or his missionaries sent regular letters to the Deseret News keeping the Saints in Utah Territory up to date about the missionaries and converts. Here is a letter I saw today while looking for something else.

The letter is written from Covington, Indiana, December 1879. Morgan describes the immigration of the Southern converts to Manassa, Colorado, both a company that left in November and one scheduled to leave in March. Negotiating with the railroads was an important part of his mission, and he mentions a detail or two about that. He mentions specific missionaries and encourages those missionaries called at Conference to show up: "...it would lighten the burden on the rest of us materially, and be the means of doing much good; thousands and thousands of people in this mission have never met an Elder and are in absolute ignorance of what we teach."

He tells about a visit to St. Louis, and, "Passing through Illinois, I called to see my parents, whom I had not met with for four years; a church house was opened for me and I was invited to preach, which I did to a crowded house who paid close attention." He met Elder George Nebeker in Covington, and was planning to head immediately to Kentucky.

Asking an interest in the faith and prayers of Israel, that our missionary labors may be crowned with success, I remain your brother in the Gospel of Christ,

John Morgan.

Maria Tanner Lyman, Plural Marriage, and the Godbeites

I am slowly starting to build a case that the Tanner family disliked plural marriage and, with the possible exception of Nathan, only practiced it later and with great reluctance, and then largely as a social safety net for needy women. Here is one more data point.

In 1872 more than 400 Utah women sent a petition to Congress requesting that the Territory not be admitted as a state as long as the Church was still practicing plural marriage. The petition was created and circulated by the spiritualist Godbeites, who were seeking to wrest political and economic power from Brigham Young. 

In the case of a similar petition the Church claimed that its signers did not know the exact contents of the petition, but it is probably impossible to tell if it was the case with the women listed in this petition. There were a number of acute stresses in the Territory in the early 1870s, and many families would have been struggling.

Here are three excerpts from the petition; the first from the cover letter, the second from the actual petition; the third from the list of names.

The language is very strong, but Louisa Maria Tanner Lyman had suffered greatly as the first of many wives of the polygamist and probably mentally ill Amasa M. Lyman. By this point he had been ousted from the Quorum of the Twelve and excommunicated. Is it possible that he put her name on the petition without her consent? It's probably impossible to say.

(In case anyone questions the identification, although she went by the name "Maria," she usually went by the name Louisa M Lyman in government documents, and there were no other women of the same name in the Territory.)

Additional Reading

Edward Leo Lyman, Amasa Mason Lyman: Mormon Apostle and Apostate, A Study in Dedication, 2009.

Ronald Walker, Wayward Saints: The Godbeites and Brigham Young, 1998.

The Autobiography of Ann Prior Jarvis

In 1890 Ann Prior Jarvis sat down with a new blank book and wrote out a clean copy of her autobiography. She got 33 pages in and then never finished, so years later her daughter Josephine copied the rest of her mother's history from another book, added some biographical information, added a history of her father, and donated the book to the Washington County DUP.

DUP President Jeanine Vander Bruggen kindly sent a copy of the book along with biographies for the other women in the Eminent Women of the St. George Temple project, a project I'm planning to resume once I finish my book on the slaves in Utah Territory.

There is a copy in the Church History Library in Salt Lake City, and several years ago I added a link to the catalog entry. The link became broken over time and a Jarvis cousin wrote to ask about the document, so I added the entire autobiography to Ann's FamilySearch Family Tree Memories section, split into three parts since it's so large. (Look in the "Documents" section and click "More..." The three files are near the end.)

Ann Prior Jarvis: Memories

Here are images of the first few pages.

Finding John Tanner among the Country Roads and Farms of Greenwich, New York

From Flickr, used as is.

Sometime in 1810, perhaps in the later half of the year after the harvest was over, a census taker followed the winding country roads of Greenwich, New York, to provide an accurate list of all the inhabitants of the town, black or white, free or slave.

The census taker recorded two John Tanners in Greenwich, both men with families of about the same age.

Unfortunately neither entry matches our Tanner family genealogy. The most likely scenario is that the second John Tanner is ours, since he is listed close to his mother Thankful, but neither entry is a perfect match.

Here are the numbers. The first group is how the Tanner family should have looked in the census, based on the genealogy. The next group is a John Tanner family living with two free blacks. The third group is the John Tanner family living close to the widowed Thankful Tanner. Neither family has slaves; by 1810 there were only eight left in Greenwich.

Note that extra individuals in the family do not matter one way or the other since families were often more fluid than today due to early deaths. The more concerning data points would be the lack of small children who should have been at home with their mother.

FAMILY HISTORY

Males

Under 10  2-3 William (age 7-8), Sidney (age 1), possibly Elisha (age 9-10) unless he was living with the Bentlys

Under 16  0-1 possibly Elisha (age 9-10)

Under 26  0

Under 45  1   John Tanner (age 31-32)

Females

Under 10  1  Matilda (age 5-6)

Under 16  0

Under 26 0

Under 45  1  Lydia Tanner (age 26-27)

OPTION 1 (Page 4, bottom half, line 6)

Males

Under 10  2

Under 16  1

Under 26 0

Under 45  1

Females

Under 10  0

Under 16   0

Under 26   1

Under 45   1

Free blacks 2

Slaves  0

OPTION 2 (Page 5, top half, line 14)

Males

Under 10  1

Under 16  1

Under 26 0

Under 45  1

Females

Under 10  2

Under 16  0

Under 26 0

Under 45  1

Free blacks 0

Slaves  0

MUSINGS

The first entry works if Elisha was counted as 10, Matilda was put in the wrong age group, and the Tanners had two free blacks living with them. The second entry works if Elisha was counted as 10 years old and the census taker accidentally recorded one of the little boys as a girl.

Note that Thankful's entry is strange: she is listed in the under-45 category, but she was actually in her 50s. She also has four boys ages 10-26 living with her (Pardon, Francis, Joshua, and William) and one girl under 10 (perhaps a granddaughter; could this be Matilda?).

Another option is that John Tanner was living elsewhere, but this is not supported by the family history or by any online indexed copy of the US Census. If anyone wanted to read through the entire Washington County Census to check for a wrongly-indexed entry, the easiest way would be to read the copy at archive.org:

Washington County Census

Washington County starts on page 291 and goes through 379. Greenwich is at the very end, and the concluding page of the census (381) notes that it was filed on February 7, 1811.

Another avenue of investigation would be to figure out the identity of the other John Tanner and decide out if he is an obvious match for one of the census records.

CONCLUSION

This is a case where we do not have enough data to make a final decision, but since John was shown farming his father's land in the tax records, it's likely that he was located close to his mother, if we can assume that the census was geographical in nature.

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