1309. Some of my ancestors who knew the Prophet Joseph Smith

In our Family Zoom meeting last Sunday, we talked about the Prophet Joseph Smith.  My assignment for a few minutes was to talk about our ancestors who knew the Prophet Joseph Smith personally.  Between my husband and I we had 19 pioneer ancestors who knew the Prophet, some more closely than others, but at least met him.

First is Hiram Dayton, my husband Wayne D Eckman's great grandfather, born  November 1st, 1798, in a small town in the middle of New York State.  He and his wife Permelia Bundy Dayton had a fine home in Parkman, Ohio.  They had large peach and apple orchards, and a good farm with many horses, and stables. During this time when everything was going good, the Prophet Joseph Smith came to Parkman, and taught him the Gospel.  He baptized both him and his wife Permelia on February 18, 1832, the very first of our ancestors to join the Church, less than 2 years from when it was organized.

After this, people who had been friends and neighbors persecuted them so much, they decided to go to Kirtland, Ohio, with the rest of the members of the small church.  In 1834 they moved to Kirtland.    An interesting thing was written in the History of the Church.  The Prophet Joseph wrote this:

"About 70 of the brethren came together according to previous notice and drawed, sawed, chopped split, moved and piled up a large lot of wood in my yard.  The day was spent by them in much pleasantry, good humor and feeling.  A white oak log measuring five feet 4 inches in diameter was cut through with a cross cut saw in four and one half minutes by Hiram Dayton and John Tidwell."  

The photo above is an example of two men using a crosscut saw with a log.

Hiram Dayton wrote this about himself:

"I received the Gospel of the Latter Day Saints in the year 1832. Myself and wife were baptized by the Prophet Joseph Smith. I was at that time living at Parkman, Ohio. My persecutions were so heavy that I could not live there long. My friends and neighbors destroyed my property, and twice laid plans to take my life. When I left Parkman with my wife and nine children, I was forced to sell my farm for $500, It was sold three years later for $5,000. (They were baptized on February 18, 1832, while the Prophet was traveling in Ohio, and just the next month on March 24th, was when he and Sidney Rigdon were taken out in the middle of the night and tarred and feathered, in the terribly cold winter. Shortly after the Prophet’s son died.) 

 Then I moved to Kirtland, Ohio, where I opened up a farm and put it under cultivation. I broke up sixty acres and put a double ditch around the whole farm. My farm was valued at $1,000. I built a good house and set out a good orchard. I then built me a house in the city of Kirtland costing $800. also built a good frame barn, clap boarded and finished off in the best style, valued at $300. I then set out an orchard of all kinds of fruit.

 I took a job on Public Works to cut down the hills. The grade to run opposite the Temple, and I contracted to dig a canal to turn the Chignan River in. This canal was for running steamboats up to Kirtland.  We were driven from Kirtland and I could not accomplish all my works. This was in 1836.

 Then we settled in Daviess County Missouri. We bought out the settlers there. I turned over my part, one pair of good horses, one new wagon and one set of new harnesses, worth in all $600. We were driven from Daviess County in 1838, losing everything.

We then went to Far West, Mo. where we suffered considerably. When we were forced to leave here by order of the mob. I was sick and also my family of ten, except one daughter. 

One of my daughters (Nancy) the one who had been well all through my sickness, rode horseback without saddle or blanket. She caught a violent cold while going out there, and took sick in a few days and lived about two weeks and died. I took her body down to the City to bury her.. The ground was frozen very deep. I was very feeble and not being able to dig her grave. I asked several bystanders to assist me, but I could not get them to help me at all. I then borrowed some tools and went to the graveyard when a negro came to me and said, "Massah, I will dig the grave and bury your daughter." 

He wrote a lot more than that.  That is just a synopsis. After that he lived in Far West, and then Nauvoo.  He was a very hard worker, and always tried to have a nice home, and things to make his life comfortable.  He was called on several missions. 

 Hiram died 10 Dec 1881 at American Fork, Utah of causes incident to old age. He is buried at American Fork, Utah. His last years were good ones, he lived in well-earned peace and comfort, surrounded by a numerous posterity, who gave honor and joy to him. He was a devoted member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and served as a Patriarch in the Alpine Stake of Zion. 

Next comes the great great grandfather Thomas Colburn.  He joined the Church in 1834 and went with Zion's Camp with the Prophet Joseph Smith. 

 Thomas Colborn, son of Jonathan Colborn and Hannah Hamilton Colborn, was born 3 August 1801 at Genoa, Cayuga County, New York. His parents, as also his grandparents, John Colborn and Sarah Hoagland Colborn came from New Jersey into New York. Thomas Colborn had two brothers, James and John, and four sisters, Miranda, Sarah, Abigail and Catherine. As far as we can find out he is the only one of the family who accepted Mormonism, and he was opposed by his parents and some of his sisters in this action. However, he remained faithful to the cause and was a devoted Latter-day Saint all the remaining days after his acceptance. He was a faithful friend to the Prophet Joseph Smith. One of his daughters said she remembered the Prophet coming to their home and borrowing $100.00 against the objections of their Aunt Catherine. 

This was written by one of his daughters:

 My father, Thomas Colborn, a member of Zion's Camp, and well acquainted with the Prophet Joseph, moved from the state of New York to Nauvoo with his family in the spring of 1843. I was then in my ninth year. Upon arriving there, we camped down by the river in a little log cabin. The day after our arrival, I was out in the yard, when a gentleman rode up and inquired for Thomas Colborn. Of course I did not know who it was, but there was something so noble and dignified in his appearance that it struck me forcibly. My father soon came out and shook him cordially by the hand, and called him Brother Joseph. I knew then it was the Prophet.

 Father invited him in and he alighted and followed him into the house. He soon told his errand. It was quite an exciting time just then. The Prophet had been falsely accused of an attempt to murder Governor Boggs of Missouri. The mobbers had tried every means to take him, and had made their boast that if they got him, he never should return alive. Porter Rockwell, a firm friend of Joseph's, had been kidnapped and taken to Missouri as an accomplice, and was about to have his trial, but money was scarce wherewith to pay the lawyers' fees.

 Joseph requested my father to lend him $100.00 to pay the lawyer who defended Porter Rockwell. He explained the situation, and father freely counted out the money. "This shall be returned within three days, if I am alive," said the Prophet, and departed. My aunt, father's sister, who was camped with us, was quite wrathy, and called my father very foolish and unwise. "Don't you know, Thomas," said she, "you will never see a cent of that money again. Here are your family without a home, and you throw your money away." "Don't worry, Katie," father replied, "if he cannot pay it, he is welcome to it."

It was quite an exciting time just then. The Prophet had been falsely accused of an attempt to murder Governor Boggs of Missouri. The mobbers had tried every means to take him, and had made their boast that if they got him, he never should return alive. Porter Rockwell, a firm friend of Joseph's, had been kidnapped and taken to Missouri as an accomplice, and was about to have his trial, but money was scarce wherewith to pay the lawyers' fees. Joseph requested my father to lend him $100.00 to pay the lawyer who defended Porter Rockwell. He explained the situation, and father freely counted out the money. "This shall be returned within three days, if I am alive," said the Prophet, and departed. My aunt, father's sister, who was camped with us, was quite wrathy, and called my father very foolish and unwise. "Don't you know, Thomas," said she, "you will never see a cent of that money again. Here are your family without a home, and you throw your money away." "Don't worry, Katie," father replied, "if he cannot pay it, he is welcome to it." 

This conversation was held before us children, and I thought seriously about it. Would he pay it, or would he not? But I had strong faith that he would. The day came when it was to be paid. A cold, wet, rainy day. The day passed. Night came; 9 o'clock, 10 o'clock, and we all retired for the night. Shortly after there was a knock at the door. Father arose and went to it, and there in the driving rain stood the Prophet Joseph. "Here, Brother Thomas, is the money." A light was struck, and seated at the table, he counted out the $100.00 in gold. He said, "Brother Thomas, I have been trying all day to raise this sum, for my honor was at stake. God bless you." My aunt had nothing to say. She afterwards left the Church. My testimony is that Joseph Smith was truly a Prophet of God. This incident I have related strengthened my testimony. Sarah M. Pomeroy, "Joseph Smith, the Prophet," Young Woman's Journal 17, no. 12 (December 1906): page 539. 

And now the story of John Lowe Butler:

 John Lowe Butler, (# 26 Chart 1) was born April 8, 1808, in Simpson County, Kentucky, to James and Charity Lowe Butler, (#s 52/53 Chart 1). He was not a healthy child. When he was seven years old he was stricken with inflammatory rheumatism which spread over his body from his toes to his fingertips. This disease returned once or twice a year until he was 20. When he was 19, the pain settled in his left side and his thigh and his arm began to fail him. John became so frail that his mother could carry him about in her arms. In spite of his long, continued illness, he stood six feet tall when he was 22.

His occupation was that of a school teacher, a farmer, a blacksmith, and a wheelwright. John’s family were Methodist but he could not accept that religion and he joined the Baptist church, but he was still unhappy. John was so discouraged that he decided not to read the Bible anymore and he told this to the Lord one night in his barn. Thunder shook and lightning flashed and he heard a voice speak: “I shall put you through a refiner’s fire.” He looked around and he was alone at the time. He repented, but he was still unhappy. Mormonism was introduced to Kentucky the first part of March, 1835. His Baptist friends said “John was dissatisfied with the Methodists and he joined our Church but he is still unhappy. Now he will join the Mormons.” John read the Book of Mormon and he heard a voice say “This is the truth that you’ve been hearing, now choose or refuse.” He and his wife were baptized March 9, 1835. 

He was with the saints after that with all the trials, persecutions, and losing their homes.  He was one of the men who helped defend the Saints in Gallatin, Missouri, and the story is told in Saints, book 1, on pages 323 to 326.  He was later an ordained body-guard to the Prophet Joseph Smith, and rode with a group of about 20 men, to Carthage, where the Prophet was murdered the next day.  But the Prophet told most of them to go back home, and he went with the group. He grew and became a very strong man, as a bodyguard of the Prophet. 

He has quite a history, which you can read more of in this blog -- if you go to the "Labels", and look down for his name, John Lowe Butler, or the names of Hiram Dayton, and Thomas Colborn.  John Lowe Butler eventually came to Utah, and was the first Bishop of Spanish Fork, Utah.  There is a full, large book written about his life, by William Hartley, a Church historian.

I really want my posterity to know about their ancestors, and the difficulties they went through.  In so doing, I hope it will help them through the difficult days which still lie ahead, before the Second Coming of our Savior Jesus Christ!