“Remembering Utah's Forgotten Black Pioneers”

Last week I had the amazing experience of giving a presentation at the Church History Museum in Salt Lake City. Here is a promotion for the event.

Here is an advance notice in the Salt Lake Tribune. The quotes were from an interview for a story that did not run.

Historian to discuss black Mormon pioneers such as Green Flake and Utah’s relationship with slavery

Here is a write-up of the event from Deseret News.

Histories of black Mormon pioneers remind us ‘all are alike unto God’

And here is one from KSL.

“Remembering Utah's Forgotten Black Pioneers”

Note: Salt Lake Tribune commenters will complain about anything and everything (it’s best to leave them alone) but one woman left a touching comment on the KSL story about the experience of living in the Samuel and Amanda Chambers house.

I will be giving the presentation again at my stake's upcoming women's conference, and possibly also at a meeting of the local chapter of Sons of Utah Pioneers.

Researching Your Mormon Ancestors

... reposting from 2014 ...
Here is a short guide to researching Mormon ancestry, 

including a summary of some of the more useful resources.

Collect and Examine Family Records

What genealogy work has already been done in your family? Do you have a copy? If not, who has a copy of the research? Can you get a copy? Who did the work? When? Which family lines did your relative research? What resources were available at the time? How reliable is it? What line do you want to work on?

At this point you can choose one of two methods:

(1) Do a purely genealogical search: confirm vital records and census entries. Source and correct Family Tree and your own files. This can be a valid and rewarding process.

(2) Go on a grand adventure and get to know your ancestors and their families and experiences and communities. Collect pictures and stories and write biographies. This process will include all the same kinds of work as (1), but will turn up more information about your ancestors' circumstances and life experiences.

It is good to look to the past to gain appreciation for the present and perspective for the future. It is good to look on the virtues of those who have gone before, to gain strength for whatever lies ahead. It is good to reflect on the work of those who labored so hard and gained so little in this world, but out of whose dreams and early plans, so well nurtured, has come a great harvest of which we are the beneficiaries. —Gordon B. Hinckley

A Note Before Starting

Remember the basic rules of genealogy:

1. Work from the known to the unknown. You don't want to start researching the wrong people. For example, there were two pioneer couples in Utah Territory named George and Ann Jarvis. If you don't know anything more than their names, how do you know you have the right couple?

Start with the information you know to be a fact, which may mean you have to start with yourself and work backwards through the years.

2. Always cite your sources. Here are a few examples of adequate citations:

Overson, Margaret Jarvis. George Jarvis and Joseph George DeFriez Genealogy. Mesa, Arizona: M.J. Overson, 1957. 

Tanner, Amy Thiriot. "Ann Prior Jarvis: Strength According to My Day." In Richard E. Turley and Brittany A. Chapman. Women of Faith in the Latter Days: Volume Two, 1821-1845. Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book, 2012, 136-148. 

Washington County News. "Another Pioneer Called." [Ann Prior Jarvis obituary.] January 16, 1913, 8.

Each of those citations includes enough information that someone could find the source and double check your work or find additional information in the source. The exact format or order of information is not as important as simply having enough information.

3. Use standard formats and spell out everything. No abbreviations. For example, a United States location would be written as "St. George, Washington, Utah, United States" (town or city, county, state, country). An English location would be written as "Harlow, Essex, England" (town, county, country).

4. Research the entire family. If you go back from generation to generation, concentrating on only your direct line you'll miss much of the story. Make sure you know the identities and stories of all children, in-laws, siblings, parents, aunts and uncles, grandparents.

Take a Look at What's Already Online

Online family trees tend to be full of errors and faulty connections, so looking at them can give you a general idea of what has been done, but none of the information should be taken as gospel truth unless fully sourced.

Rule of thumb #1: the more sources an online tree has, the more accurate it tends to be.

Rule of thumb #2: primary sources (created on or close to the date of an event by someone with personal knowledge of the event) tend to be more reliable than secondary sources (created or compiled after the event, sometimes by people with no personal knowledge of the event).

Rule of thumb #3: try to collect at least three reliable sources for every person in your tree. Try to find census records, birth, marriage, or death records created at the time of the event, and so forth.

Here are some sources for online family trees:

FamilySearch Family Tree

Ancestry

You can use Ancestry at your local Family History Center or at many public libraries. If you are LDS, you can get a free subscription to Ancestry, FindMyPast, MyHeritage, and other organizations.

Search the Internet

Use a search engine to look for family associations, websites, biographies, and blogs. Here are some examples of sites with extensive family history information:

Jared Pratt Family Association

George and Ann Prior Jarvis Family Association

The AncestorFiles

Sometimes when you search online for an ancestor's name you will find documentary collections or local histories.

Check Online and Archival Resources

Church History Library Catalog

The Church History Library is a building in downtown Salt Lake City north of the Church Office Building and east of the Conference Center. It has extensive holdings related to the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Some of the holdings is useful for genealogical research. Some collections are available online, some can be digitized by request, others can be viewed on site. Search in the online catalog for family names and locations. Ward and stake and mission records can contain valuable genealogical and historical information.

Daughters of Utah Pioneers (DUP)

This organization has been collecting pioneer histories and pictures for over a century. Check the online index, and if you're a descendant, you can request copies of histories and pictures. Remember that these biographies are not always accurate.

Also check the collections of Sons of Utah Pioneers and regional Daughters of Utah Pioneers collections. (For example: Washington County (Utah) DUP.) 

Family History Books

FamilySearch's collection of more than 350,000 digitized copies of family and local history publications. They range from excellent professional works to known fraudulent genealogies, so check the identity of the author and the accuracy of the information before using the contents.

FamilySearch Catalog

FamilySearch has huge holdings available either online or on microfilm. When you search, look for both family names and locations (town or city, county, state). Court records may be worth looking through in case your family is mentioned. Additionally, the Family History Library in Salt Lake City (west of Temple Square) has a Special Collections Area with historical temple records which can help you confirm what temple work your family did, and in some cases this can help you confirm the identity of family members.

FindAGrave

Check this database for gravestone pictures, sometimes also obituaries and family pictures. (See also BillionGraves.) Remember that this is a compiled source and you'll want to find original copies of cemetery records.

Library of Congress: Chronicling America

A large collection of historical newspapers. Be creative in your search terms; for example, search for "Mrs. George Jarvis" as well as "Ann Jarvis." There are also good subscription newspaper services like newspapers.com and genealogybank.com.

Utah Digital Newspapers

An important local newspaper collection for Utah. Other states may have similar collections; for example, California has the extensive California Digital Newspaper Collection.

Mormon Migration

If your Mormon ancestors crossed the ocean to America, even as missionaries, check this database for names and accounts and copies of the emigration books where available. Even if your ancestors didn't leave an account of their voyage, read all the other accounts of their voyage for an idea about their experiences.

Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel

This large database contains all known Mormon pioneers and is continually being updated and improved. Check when your ancestors crossed the plains. Once again, read all the accounts for the wagon or handcart company.

Mountain West Digital Library

A search portal for regional university and library collections. (See also WorldCat. You may need to be very specific or creative about your search terms.)

A Few Other Useful Links

Mormon Battalion

Mormon Missionary Diaries

Order Your Ancestors' Patriarchal Blessings

Perpetual Emigrating Fund

Utah Vital and Court Records

Western States Marriage Records Index

Winter Quarters

Zion's Camp

Use Research Guides for Directions on How to Find More Information

FamilySearch Wiki

(research guides, some more complete than others)

On Granny's Trail

(links to free online databases for Western states)

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Ebenezer Godfrey Defriez: A History

Ebenezer DeFriez was the older brother of Charles Godfrey DeFriez Jarvis. Jim Bowden has just written an excellent, detailed history of Ebenezer. The pictures above are from his history. He kindly provided the document on Ancestry and FamilySearch, and it should be of interest to any descendant of Dr. Joseph George DeFriez and his wife Mary Ann Godfrey DeFriez. Here's a link to the copy at FamilySearch.

Biography of Ebenezer Godfrey DeFriez

Note that Ebenezer has those distinctive eyes that still show up occasionally among DeFriez descendants.

"Teething as a Cause of Death": Frances Ann Elizabeth Glade

The parents of Frances Ann Elizabeth Glade were recent immigrants to the United States. Frances's mother, Eliza Mary Litson, arrived in Salt Lake City in 1863 and married widower James Glade, who had been in the country just two years longer. Eliza was from Wales and James was from Devon, England, by way of Wales. James's wife Mary died while crossing the plains, and he had one young daughter.

Frances was Eliza and James's second child, born on Pioneer Day in 1866. She probably would have been walking and starting to talk when she fell ill, then died at the age of fourteen months. The burial record showed the cause of death as "teething." Drs. Harry Gibbons and Kent Hebdon studied the Utah death records and suggested that this probably meant cholera infantum. (West J Med. 1991 Dec; 155(6): 658–659.)  Cholera infantum happened in the warmer months and mainly struck children who had just been weaned. It was likely caused by bad milk, and the disease all but disappeared once the government started to require pasteurization.

The grieving young parents buried their little girl in the Salt Lake City Cemetery, grave B_1_2_W/2. They may have marked the grave, but based on burial databases like FindAGrave, there is no longer a marker.

Happy Labor Day

It's Labor Day tomorrow. The picture to the left is Rose Biodo of Philadelphia, ten years old in 1910. She had already worked for three summers, minding a baby and carrying berries, two pecks at a time. "This is the fourth week of school and the people here expect to remain two weeks more." 

It was the plight of children like Rose Biodo that led my grandfather's grandmother, Utah State Senator Elizabeth Hayward (bottom right), to support progressive legislation against child labor. The button to the top right was Elizabeth's, from a national campaign to levy an extra ten percent tax on those who used child labor. In 1922, the Supreme Court declared the Child Labor Tax Law of 1919 unconstitutional, but the battle to protect children continued and ultimately prevailed.

Mapping History: Sidney Tanner Homes

When I pulled up the map of Sidney Tanner's homes that I embedded in a previous post, I noticed that it had been viewed 180 times. It's a great way of representing data, and worth explaining. There may be other ways to create maps like this, but Google provides a nice platform, and will probably be around for some time, so that's the method I've chosen to do several recent maps.

I first used this kind of map for my book project. I was constantly pulling out a copy of the Nicholas Morgan/J. B. Ireland Pioneer Map of Great Salt Lake City to see where someone lived, and figured it would be useful to plot my data in one central location. I now have seventy data points on a map about Early Black Utah/Mormon History and may make it available to the public at some point. It has been very useful to me to see where people lived in relation to one another, and to historical events.

Here's the Sidney Tanner map.

As noted, it is "in progress." A couple of the locations are exact, to the very foot, such as Fort San Bernardino, but some are more general and could stand some additional research. In the process of making the map, I discovered that I cannot see Sidney Tanner's home at 195 E. 200 North in Beaver although it was on the National Register of Historic Places and noted to be in excellent condition.

Does anyone know about the home? Is it this one, significantly altered?

Remember the trials of Missouri; forget not the courage of Nauvoo . . .

The years of 1838–1839 were a tragic and unstable time in our nation's history as the Mormon War raged in Missouri. The Mormons were trying to protect their right to establish homes as a religious and cultural minority, and although they may have acted unwisely, nothing they did justified being driven out of their lawful homes and persecuted and murdered and the women and girls subjected to awful crimes.

At the time the state of Missouri sought to prosecute him for a variety of charges, Sidney Tanner had a wife, Louisa, and four young children, Allen, Lydia, Emma, and Mary. The oldest was only seven years old. Like so many others, the Tanners left few records of their sufferings, but Sidney's father, John Tanner, was taken prisoner and badly injured, struck on the head with a gun, "which laid his skull bare to the width of a man's hand."

Here is Sidney Tanner's land patent from July 28, 1838. He filed two claims at the General Land Office in Lexington.

The first land was eighty acres in Clinton County, Missouri, Township 56N, Range 30W, Aliquots W1/2SE1/4, Section 13. It was just north of what is now Wallace State Park, and is just west of Plum Creek, and located on the eastern edge of Clinton County.

The second land was forty acres in Clay County, Missouri, Township 56N, Range 29W, Aliquots NW1/4NE1/4, Section 21. It was a couple of sections east of the first land, just over the county line in Clay County, and just west of Goose Creek.

When the conflict heated up, the local government indicted many of the Mormon residents. Here is some news coverage from New York.

"The St. Louis Republican is doubtful as to the final result of these prosecutions," wrote the reporter. He noted that after driving out and indicting so many Mormons, the Missourians were snapping up their land and homes. "Great distress and suffering exists among the plundered Mormons, many of whom were formerly quiet, inoffensive residents of northern Ohio. . . . There can be no possible excuse for the murder and rapine with which they have been desolated since emigrating. The infamy will be as lasting as the name of Missouri." (January 15, 1839, Hudson River Chronicle (Ossining, New York), 3.)

The Missouri officials pretended to continue with the legal proceedings, but released most of the prisoners. Joseph Smith and five others were taken to Liberty Jail and held until they were allowed to escape. The Mormons fled the state and resettled in Illinois and Iowa for a time.

Sidney Tanner is not known to have filed a redress petition with the federal government about the loss of his land. It's too bad, since the Redress Petitions contained many good biographical and historical details from those who wrote them. Note, in closing, that Sampson Avard testified under oath that Sidney Tanner was not a Danite.

Slaves in the Family: Quom and Cloe

Soldiers at Yorktown, including a black
infantryman from the 1st Rhode Island Regiment.

When he died in January 1777, Francis Tanner of Hopkinton, Rhode Island, owned an enslaved man and woman named Quom and Cloe. He left Quom to his son Joshua Tanner, later the father of John Tanner. Since Quom became the property of Joshua and not one of his older half-brothers, he probably came into the Tanner household through an inheritance from the family of Joshua's mother and Francis's second wife, Elizabeth Shelton Tanner.

"Also I give and bequeath to my said son Joshua Tanner my negro boy Quom"

Measuring Worth: Joseph Defriez Estate

Tanner Family Line

Joseph Defriez (1793–1874) was the father of Joseph George Defriez. His profession was Funeral Feather Merchant, and he had the Freedom of the City of London. (See Joseph Defriez and the Freedom of the City of London.)

When he died his estate was valued between £800 and £1000. I wondered what that would be in current dollars, and visited the site Measuring Worth. To keep it simple, I used a figure of £900. The calculator suggested a real price value of £75,360. However, with estates, I've found it more useful to use the website's relative economic status value. That gave an estimate of £661,100. In today's dollars, the real price value would be $94,109 and the economic status value $825,580. In either case, they were a family of some means, and were not the working poor like other ancestors from the UK.

Sidney Tanner, "An Old Mountaineer and Veteran Mormon"

This morning I decided to spend a few minutes on my own genealogy, and searched for Sidney Tanner in CDNC (California Digital Newspaper Collection).  One of the results was well after Sidney Tanner's death, but I looked at it anyway and saw this note. 

T. S. Kenderdina, who came to this valley in 1858, was a guest of Sam Rolfe yesterday. Mr. Kenderdina comes all the way from Philadelphia. He is an author, having published two volumes, "The California Tramp," and "California Revisited." He crossed the plains with the party of Captain Sidney Tanner. Arriving here he walked all the way from San Bernardino to San Pedro. (San Bernardino Sun, “Personal," 31 August 1910, 5.)

With that it was the task of but a minute to pull up digitized copies of both of the books. A California Tramp has extensive, very detailed information on Sidney Tanner. Kenderdine only names him twice, but he is a constant and peaceable presence through many adventures. Kenderdine later notes, "throughout the journey [Tanner and the other Mormons] showed remarkable tact, both in their dealings with the Indians and our own men." [150] Here are a few excerpts.

Our party of twenty made arrangements [to travel from Great Salt Lake City to California] with some Mormon freighters, who were going to Southern California for goods, to convey themselves, provisions and baggage to the Pacific. Their charge was $80 a piece. [Equal to about $2,400 today.] . . . 

Our means of conveyance were three four-horse springless wagons, in charge of Sydney Tanner, a veteran Mormon. The other teams were owned by the drivers. We got along pleasantly all through the long and trying journey with these men. 

We were to go the southern route, which leads through the lower settlements, and then takes across the Great Sandy Desert via the Santa Fe trail, emerging onto the Pacific at San Pedro, which is eight hundred miles southwest from Salt Lake. [Today's Interstate 15 follows this trail, more or less.] This route is only traveled in the winter season, as it is nearly impassable during the summer on account of the extreme heat. [120–121]

Between the Sevier River and Fillmore Valley, Kenderdine gives a description of the accommodations.

We encamped after night on a cedar-covered bluff overlooking the valley, and as we had plenty of fuel we managed to keep at bay the cold night air which surrounded us, and our well-fed campfires shot out brightly into the surrounding darkness. The cedar boughs spread on the stony ground afforded us excellent couches, and with our feet turned towards the fire, Indian fashion, we rolled up in our blankets, and slept like kings in state; the earth our bed, the star-lit sky our canopy. [128]

They finally arrive in Beaver, where Sidney's family lived, and spent a couple of days there. "Our abstinence so long from vegetables and dairy products made us keen for them, and they were put on to us at high figures. They also knew our failing for pie, and did a fine trade with us in that circular necessity." [133] There they attended a testimony meeting.

At night we went to a religious meeting held in the schoolhouse. The congregation was rough, and rudely clad, in homespun, calico and buckskin. I saw here what reminded me of the old-time Puritan worship: bowie knives and revolvers in church. There was no regular minister; the services being carried on by different members giving in their "experience." Their language was rough and ungrammatical, and some of the narrations so comical as to set the audience to laughing. Some grew pathetic, and their hearers cried, and on the whole they enjoyed themselves. One told how, when once afflicted with a plague of grasshoppers, prayers for deliverance were made, when flocks of a peculiar bird, strange to that country, came among them and devoured them all. [132]

Kenderdine talks at length about the Mountain Meadows Massacre, which happened about a year previous. Sidney Tanner had been traveling in the area of the massacre a couple of days after the tragedy, but it is not clear if he provided any information to Kenderdine about what happened, or if he would have known any details, himself.

The country became more rough and uneven as we advanced. Filling our casks at a little stream which crossed our path, we made a dry camp at nightfall, on the summit of the rim of the Great Basin. As we were now approaching a region infested by dangerous Indians, a council of war was held in the evening, for the purpose of choosing officers, appointing guards and making regulations for the government of our company. Sydney Tanner, an old mountaineer and veteran Mormon, was unanimously elected captain . . . The passengers volunteered to stand camp guard, while the more difficult horse guard was to be performed by the teamsters. A short but comprehensive address was made by the captain in regard to our intercourse with the Indians, so that collisions might be avoided, after which the meeting broke up with three loud cheers for the officers elected. Roughly clad, sunburnt, and "bearded like the pard," we formed quite a picturesque group, as we stood encircling a huge campfire . . . [141]

It is too bad that Sidney Tanner did not leave any record of his adventures. This book just gives a brief flavor of the longstanding relationship he cultivated with the tribes along his route. (Note that although it is used in the following two anecdotes, "Diggers" is an archaic and now offensive term.)

The head men [Paiutes] knew our conductors well from previous intercourse, and shook hands with them quite ostentatiously; winding up with the everlasting cry of "shetcop," a word which springs as naturally to a Digger's lips as does "backsheesh" to those of their near relative, the Egyptian Arab. Shortly after their arrival in camp they commenced dragging fuel from distant points for our use, for which service they expected liberal pay in food and raiment. Our animals were given in their charge. The Mormons adopted this plan altogether while traveling in these regions, and were rarely troubled with having stock stolen; for the Diggers, through interested motives, were true to their trust. [152]

At a place called Kingston Springs, the wagon train advanced with great caution. They were right to be cautious: early the next year Salt Lake merchants Thomas S. Williams and Parmenia Jackman were killed outside San Bernardino by one of these warring tribes.

Our reason for starting [just before sunset] was to avoid the Kingston Springs Indians, it being dangerous to halt among them at night. Our Mormons reported them as of large size and differing in appearance from the Diggers generally. They rarely show themselves by day, but watch from behind the desert rocks the movements of travelers, and should they halt at night, steal or kill their stock. The reader can hardly imagine how we dreaded the loss of animals on the waterless stretches of from thirty to sixty miles, and with what anxiety we watched them at night. Their loss almost involved our own lives. But by traveling much after sundown, and by the judicious treatment our conductors pursued toward the Indians, we went through safely. Lack of pasturage was made up with rations of wheat, which for the emergencies of desert travel had been carried from the settlements. This, however, was running short, and our teams were getting thin and weak. The alternations of yielding sand and jolting stones were trying to passengers as well as teams, as much of the way we were obliged to walk. [172]

These are just a few short excerpts, and any descendant of Sidney Tanner will find the story worth reading in its entirety, from page 120 to 183. (A California Tramp: Among the Mormon Settlements, Along the Desert Border, On the Great Sandy Deseret, and From the Kingston Springs to San Bernardino.)