A hoe found at the site suggests it may have been more than simply a hunting camp since women worked there too. David was tall and straight, with eyes bright and brown, and hair dark almost black. He looked much like his sister Emma with whom he had a close relationship. Lewis reenlisted as part of the 2nd Regiment. Im also grateful to Harold N. Hoyal, Ben Park, Heidi Harris, Jason Twede, Dawn Agenti, the staff of the Bishop Memorial Library (which houses the Luzerne County Historical Society) in Wilkes-Barre, Penn., Stan Thayne, and Mary Jean Vance who each helped on elements of the project. After offering him a ride, the man declined, saying that he was headed to Cumorah, and then disappeared suddenly. 148. Almon Munsons Tavern. In 1865 the tax assessment noted a significant drop in value from $575 to $475, and Jehiel Dayton sold the land to James M. Tillman in 1868. Isaac straightened the original foundation for the log home by adding a wall in front of a previous curved foundation wall on the west side of the cellar.240 He dug out a larger area to expand the cellar with a kitchen in the new basement and added a new foundation on the east side of the cellar which included a stairway so the family could access the basement from bulkhead doors at ground level.241, When the Hales added a rearaddition to their home between 1820 and 1822 to accommodate a ground level kitchen, they did not add a cellar under the new addition.242 The larger space attached to the rear of the home provided enough room for a pantry and kitchen sleeping chamber (the borning room of later generations) in addition to including a kitchen big enough to take care of most of the familys needs with the basement kitchen useful for cooking in the summer months.243. I checked these facts after listening to a recent podcast with Grant Palmer here. When Joseph asked for Emmas hand in marriage, Isaac and Elizabeth Hale refused to allow the marriage because they disapproved of Joseph's employment in treasure digging. Rose could be forceful in business affairs, and the local postman at the county seat found this new creditor cheated him.235It was Rose who had inaccurately advertised wheat would grow so well in the valley. Press J to jump to the feed. They all still lived in the area along with stepsisters.27 Despite a possible visit with his Hale family, however, they never connected or maintained long-term ties. For many years there were no denominations save Presbyterians [Congregationalists].170, This early religious awakening in the valley did not last long because of what became known as the Buck difficulty in 1799. These prayers resulted in the "Word of Wisdom". As the Hale family and their relatives in the valley joined Methodism one or two at a time over a period of several years, the son of Timothy Pickering Jr. died and Nathaniel Lewis moved his family into the larger Pickering home.223 The Lewis family lived in the large home until Pickering sold it to John Comfort in 1808 and gave Lewis a years notice to move his family out.224 This happened just as land ownership in the valley shifted and the settlers were finally forced to resolve their land titles. . 40. The scenery, sir! Here in part is his opinion; [citation needed] As the Kirtland Temple was being constructed, Emma spearheaded an effort to house and clothe the construction workers.[21]. And Alva was born November 29, 1795. . A final report of the excavation is forthcoming and will be placed in the same files. It was on this largely unimproved farm that Joseph Smith Jr. first met Isaac and Elizabeth Hale. Harris informed me afterwards, that he followed Smith's directions, and could not find the Plates, and was still dissatisfied. She later wrote in an interview with her son, Joseph Smith III: "In writing for your father I frequently wrote day after day, often sitting at the table close by him, he sitting with his face buried in his hat, with the stone in it, and dictating hour after hour with nothing between us. After his mother died and his father remarried, Hale joined his maternal grandparents Phebe and "the enterprising Arah Ward, mill-builder and pioneer," in Waterbury, Connecticut. 243. 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 [20], On November 6, 1832, Emma gave birth to Joseph Smith III in the upper room of Whitney's store in Kirtland. Hale, Isaac Biography 21 Mar. In December 1827 Joseph began work on the Book of Mormon. He then went out of the house pretty soon about the middle of the day., Joshua McKunethink the first time I saw Treadwell after he returned from down the river was on Thursday early in the day after he had been talking at Mr. Hales around the log houseI had seen Treadwell before but had no particular conversationafter he went from Hales house I went in company with him I entered into conversation with him respecting the murder of Oliver Harper.. They have, however, long since been defaced, so as now to be invisible. Others also consistently agreed the workmen boarded with Isaac Hale. Elder Lewis is [in] good health for and old man. John Traves built a sawmill across the river a few hundred feet downstream from the Hale home. 88. Levi Fry settled in the low mountains on the northeastern border of Wells Township just east of the Lewis family. They courted for several months while Joseph worked to improve his financial situation. Blackman,History of Susquehanna County,103. the LDS Church History Department. I have concluded she was born in Goshen on the family property. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. 58. 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. The oldest sons of Isaac and Elizabeth Hale were mature when the family finished their frame home, and they may have preferred their independence staying in the log home where they had grown up. He had disapproved of Joseph's past money-digging and he strongly disapproved of the marriage with Emma. George Washington had invited Pickering to negotiate a settlement with the Seneca Indians in western Pennsylvania which the Colonel did with such success that Washington made him Indian commissioner to the Iroquois. See Bushman,The Refinement of America,especially xii. . Tax records, township records, and other contemporary sources shed light on Isaac Hale as a hunter who made a comfortable living shipping meat downriver to Philadelphia and elsewhere, and on his sons as boatmen who ran rafts downriver to the major urban markets. Chaffee,History of the Wyoming Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church,36. Vogel, Frederick G. Mather,The Early Mormons. Isaac did not pay the tax for the log home and it may have been used by others who paid the tax for that home. Joseph finished work on the Book of Mormon while living in Fayette; it was published in March 1830. But his response to their home may not have been quite as exuberant as was his mothers when she visited it three years later, since she was more attuned to its elaborate character and what it did for ones place in the community. 234. 137. Since the Lewis family, as were many Methodists, had been early promoters of temperance, but did not condemn tobacco use, the artifact pattern more likely reflects their use of the site as a Methodist meeting house than a public house. These men assessed real property in Harmony Township as directed in Section Eight of the General Assembly Act of April 11, 1799, implementing the tax laws that remained in place for many years (with some small revisions made in 1834 and 1844). Sherman Day outlined Roses management of Carmalts lands and suggests he acted as an agent for Carmalt when the latter left the region. During that year, Buck was charged with teaching false doctrine, leading some members of his congregation to try removing him from his position. That same day, Julia Clapp Murdock died giving birth to twins, Joseph and Julia. As Tim courted Lurena, and they may have already announced their planned wedding, Isaac worked on the larger, elaborate Pickering mansion. Nearly two years later, a close friend and non-Mormon,[citation needed] Major Lewis C. Bidamon, proposed marriage and became Emma's second husband on December 23, 1847. 285. He said it was a young child. 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. Emma left the Susquehanna Valley and the Hale family for the last time, never to see her parents and many other relatives again. Emma Hale Smith Bidamon (July 10, 1804 - April 30, 1879) was an American homesteader, the first wife of Joseph Smith, and a prominent leader in the early days of the Latter Day Saint movement, both during Smith's lifetime and afterward as a member of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS Church). A grandson recalled the family gathering around Isaacs bed on January 11, 1839, as he charged them, You must not believe in Jo Smith or any false doctrines, but believe in the Holy Bible. 264. Dot marks Hale cabin location north of road. Isaac Hale had initially welcomed Smith when he came to Harmony, Pennsylvania where Emma grew up, looking for a place to stay and continue his translation of the Golden Plates from which the Book of Mormon would be translated from. 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. Isaac Hale is reported to have expressed skepticism about Joseph Smith's religious claims and his story of discovering golden plates. People of all faiths and perspectives are welcome to engage in civil, respectful discussion about topics related to Mormonism. The modest headstones the men could see as they traveled were made by stonemason J. W. Stewart, known for years as Coffin Man. But it was Oliver Harpers large, ornate headstone just to the south of the two simple ones that would have likely been the focus of any discussion the men had with its neatly chiseled inscription announcing Harper had been robbed and murdered the previous year on March 11, 1824. [27] Many of the Latter Day Saints who joined the RLDS Church in the midwestern United States had broken with Brigham Young and/or James Strang because of opposition to polygamy. 109. Robert H. Rose to Miss Jane Hodge, August 21, 1806, Robert H. Rose Papers, Box 1, Folder 2, Special Collections, Binghamton University. Daniel Buck settled his young family in the middle of the Susquehanna Valley at Painted Rock, a site later known as Red Rock, because Native American inhabitants had used red paint to depict various figures, apparently turning the site into a ritual setting or sacred location.104 This was also the location of the Indian burying-ground in the area.105 The land at Painted Rock was not good farmland and before the railroad came through the area it consisted largely of a picturesque blend of massive freestanding rock formations and steep cliffs. 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. The youngest Hale son, Reuben, could write well enough to serve as Joseph Smiths scribe, and the younger daughters were apparently also educated. 136. Blackman,History of Susquehanna County,92. 226. Travelers complained in letters and reminiscences how during wet months of the year the hard clay became deep ruts, supporting treacherous puddles on the Harmony Turnpike.1Despite their complaints, the turnpike was the quickest route from western New York to the urban areas of southern Pennsylvania and the thoroughfare was always busy. [citation needed] Joseph had also been in debt when he died, leaving the responsibility to pay it on Emma Smith's shoulders. Frisbie,History of Middletown,58. 106. As Joseph courted Emma during the winter of 18251826, much of this was apparently done through customary letters. . 117. Their father, Isaac, spent his time in the backwoods and had no known formal education. His mother recalled after Joseph first met Emma, he immediately commenced paying his addresses. Anderson,Lucys Book,361. This lady was a very intelligent woman, when young she moved in the first circles of society. We will do it, said Hail; we will fix the stones, so that Charles, when grown up, if he should come this way, may find the spot where his fathers body was laid. These words were uttered with so much affection and respect for the deceased as showed how greatly your brother was beloved.163 Colonel Pickering wrote to his son Henry, Mr. Affidavit of Isaac Hale, father-in-law of Joseph Smith, Jr., given at Harmony Township, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania on 20 March 1834 Source: "Mormonism," Susquehanna Register, and Northern Pennsylvanian 9 (1 May 1834):1, Montrose, Pennsylvania, emphasis omitted. Emma served the needy: in Kirtland, she and Elizabeth Ann Whitney coordinated feasts for the poor, and in Nauvoo, she opened her home to the sick, orphaned, and homeless. It may be that more than one house was rented during the digging process and Jeriah Mumford & Co. took over all of these houses (see below). Deacon Stowells Long Hunt for GodHis Belief that Smith Could See Fifty Feet into the Earth,Bainbridge Republican,August 23, 1877, 2; reprinted inMontrose Democrat,September 19, 1877. During this period, the government approved a plan to build new twenty-foot wide roads to replace meandering trails and increase access to the area. [21] She also traveled with a committee to Quincy, Illinois, to present Illinois governor Thomas Carlin "a memorial in behalf of her people" after the Latter Day Saints had experienced persecution in the state.[21]. The Hale family had a 130-acre farm, with orchards of apples and pears, a large garden, and groves of maple trees. The other families were those of John Hilborn, Martin Lane, and John Comfort. Joseph introduced the practice carefully and incrementally, marrying many additional wives, each of whom vowed to keep their participation confidential. This is the same version that was picked up by late nineteenth century religious publications and reprinted many times.295, Alva Hale sold the rest of his parents farm to the Dayton family in 1842, and the Daytons then rented it to Peter Blodgett. 310. Elizabeth Hales brother Nathaniel had joined the Methodists in Wells, Vermont, with his parents along with some of [their] children and neighbors. But Elizabeth had not.181 Because of her fathers conversion, however, she may have been sympathetic to Methodism early. But he was more interested in preparing formal, well-polished sermons than in getting out to serve the poor or minister to his community. This continued a struggle Joseph Smith faced for several years over how his taxes were determined. Timothy Pickering III (Tim Pickerings) biographical details are included in his sons work, Charles Pickering, M.D.,Chronological History of Plants: Mans Record of His Own Existence Illustrated through Their Names, Uses, and Companionship(Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1879), vii-xvi. Almon Munsons tavern in Taylortown, two and one-quarter miles west of the Hale home, was the only one near the Hale home in 18241825.271 It was in the Munson tavern where the Hale familys neighbors regularly gathered for activities, and it was in the Munson Tavern where Isaac Hale sat on the Grand Jury investigating Jason Treadwell for the murder of Oliver Harper in 1824.272 That tavern building still stands today.273 Charles Hatch operated a tavern in Lanesville, three miles east of the Hale farm, but not until 18281829.274. The wooded mountains rising from the landscape were stupendous. The next day after this happened, I went to the house where Joseph Smith Jr., lived, and where he and Harris were engaged in their translation of the Book. Relations between Young and Emma steadily deteriorated. 143. The Stow Cemetery is also known as Lyons Farm Cemetery and North Windsor Cemetery. Stonemasons work in a distinctive style that makes it possible to identify headstones as coming from a particular individual as is done with other works of art.