163. My great-grandparents Haden Wells Church, and Sarah Ann Arterbury, pioneers in Nauvoo, Salt Lake City, and St. George
A brief history of these ancestors was first told in entry # 23, on Dec. 3, 2013
The enticements of new land and adventure probably encouraged newly married Abraham and Polly (Mary Jane) Emmons Church to leave home in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina and go westward about three hundred miles into Tennessee.
It was in their newly established home in Franklin, Williamson County, Tennessee, that their first child, Haden Wells, was born on August 29, 1817. While living there, seven more children were added to the family. Haden was well into his teen-age years when the family moved a few miles westward to Shady Grove, Hickman County, where the ninth and last child, Charles Houston Church, was born.
The new home was near the Duck River and also close to the Natchez Trace which was the main travel route between Nashville and the Mississippi River Town of Natchez.
Haden Wells and Sarah Ann were mentioned about fifty times in the Journal History, and it is known that he kept a journal but it has disappeared. There were several ways of spelling their names, but in their only discovered signatures they signed their names as: Haden Wells Church and Sarah Ann Arterbury Church. If their names are in a quoted source, they are spelled as it is written in that source.
The only written document located that tells about this part of Haden's life is a lone statement in a history of Hickman County telling of some of the first school teachers. It states: "Hayden Church, who also taught on this creek (Swan Creek), was a typical old-time schoolmaster who spoiled no child by sparing the rod."
Mormon Missionaries traveling through Tennessee met the Church family -- probably in the year of 1840 or 1841. Cousin Mollie Church Anderson wrote from her home in Tennessee to Sarah Miles Wallace (Pratt's sister) in Utah that Haden Wells Church embraced the Gospel in the early days. When the visiting missionaries sang the first song, Haden knew that they were speaking the truth and desired to know more of their message.
At this time Haden was about twenty-three years of age but was not married. He journeyed the four-hundred miles to Nauvoo, Illinois, to learn more. While there, he met the Prophet Joseph Smith who baptized him on April 5, 1841. The record of most of his activities between his baptism and his first mission are missing. However, one report recorded that he "was ordained a Seventy on October 8, 1843, by Joseph Young." The same document showed that Haden Wells Church was set-apart as a life-long President of the Eighth Quorum of Seventy in the year of 1851. He was serving on missions on both of these dates.
Haden was one of the first four missionaries to labor in Alabama. Elder Brown was also called to serve, and was Elder Church's traveling companion. They traveled by steamboat to Paducah, Kentucky, and then on foot into Tennessee. By June 9th, they were at the home of Abraham Church where "He and the family spared no pains to make us comfortable, though none of them belonged to the Church at that time." (Elder Brown's journal) From Hickman County they went to Sumner County, and next to Monroe County, Mississippi. The next entry in Elder Brown's journal mentioning Elder Church stated: "On the 25th of October, (1843), we ordained Brother Elias Arterberry an elder." (The father of Sarah Ann who would become his wife).
Sarah Ann Arterbury, was the eldest daughter of Elias and Matilda Wallace Arterbury and was born May 4, 1824, in Dallas County, Alabama. Her parents had been married on November 4, 1822, in Cahaba, Dallas County, Alabama. Cahaba was the first state capital of the new state of Alabama. Both of Sarah Ann's parents died in Perry County -- Elias on January 2, 1848, and Matilda on December 5, 1850, before they had a chance to go west with the Saints.
Elders Church and Brown held the first Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints ever held in the state of Alabama, in the Cypry Branch in Tuscaloosa County on February 10, 1844. About this time Elder Brown recorded that he and Elder Church baptized forty-five new members, following which he went to Mississippi, and Elder Church returned to Tennessee.
Shortly after, on June 27, 1844, Joseph Smith the Prophet and his brother Hyrum were martyred in Carthage, Illinois. The missionaries were called back to Nauvoo following these tragedies, but Elder Church was back in Alabama where about six months later, he married Sarah Ann Arterbury on December 19, 1844 in Perry County, Alabama, with Samuel Utley performing the ceremony.
They were at a meeting at the Alabama Conference on February 15 and 16, 1845. During the Conference he preached on the authenticity of THE BOOK OF MORMON. Also discussed at this Conference were the "just claims of the Twelve to lead and preside over the Church and the unlawful claims of Sidney Rigdon as are advocated by some aspirants and bigots of the age."
The newly-weds were in Nauvoo on August 27, 1845, as Sarah Ann received a Patriarchal Blessing there on that date. They were endowed in the Nauvoo Temple on January 9, 1846, and sealed there on January 21, 1846 by President Brigham Young.
Their first baby, Hyrum Smith Church, was born on March 9, 1846, either in or near Nauvoo, during the time the Saints were being expelled and driven from their homes by mobs.
That summer on the plains of Iowa, Haden enlisted as a member of the Mormon Battalion. He left his beloved wife and five-month old son to fare for themselves as he began to march westward as a member of the Battalion's Company "B". A private's pay was $7.00 per month, plus a clothing allowance of $42.00. He was given a rifle which he could keep when he was discharged. Their march began at Council Bluffs, Iowa, to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and then west and south across Kansas to Santa Fe, New Mexico. The stress and difficult conditions of the march caused many of the soldiers to become too ill to continue with the battalion to California. The first sick detachment was dispatched to Pueblo, Colorado, while the battalion was still in Kansas. A second sick detachment was dispatched at Sante Fe, and the final sick group was dispatched when the battalion was about one hundred miles west of Santa Fe.
Private Haden Wells Church was in the last group which left the battalion on November 10th and arrived in Pueblo on Christmas Eve. On the return trip, the group suffered much from hunger as well as illness. A soldier's normal food ration usually included eighteen ounces of flour per day. This detachment was given a five-day ration of ten ounces per day for the three hundred mile trek. Needless to say, the detachment suffered greatly from such meager rations while traveling in a mountainous country in the winter. Also, all of the party were in very poor health. In addition to the three sick detachments of the Battalion, a group of Saints from Mississippi, led by John Brown, wintered in Pueblo. That group were advised in Independence, Missouri, "Do not venture onto the plains or you will be killed by the Mormons," not realizing that the company were all Mormons!
The next two entries will tell the rest of their life stories.
Comments