Daniel Spencer Jr.

Daniel Spencer is my 3rd great-grandfather. He joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in New England, served as the mayor of Nauvoo, a captain during the saints' exodus to the Rocky Mountains, the 1st Stake President of Salt Lake, a counselor in the British Mission's Presidency and as a member of Utah's Legislature. This is his story and testimony in his own words:

"I was one of eleven children, born to Daniel Spencer and Chloe Wilson, my birth being on the 20^th day of July, 1794, at West Stockbridge, Berkshire County, Massachusetts. My father enlisted in the Continental Army at the age of sixteen and remained with it until he witnessed the surrender of Yorktown. He was the son of Peter and Ruth Emmons Spencer. Peter was a descendant of Gerard Spencer who settled at Lynn, Massachusetts in 1645, and whose daughter Mehitable, married Daniel Cone who was the first Cone that settled in America, the site of Hadam, Connecticut, purchased from the Indians March 1662. In the fall of that year, Gerard Spencer, Daniel Cone and twenty-six others, founded the settlement there. Gerard’s English ancestors were numerous in Bedford, England.

During my childhood, the young and growing family of my father left no surplus means over and above their kind and generous support. Both parents were members of the Baptist church. They gave their children excellent advice by precept and example, and were held in high esteem by their neighbors, both rich and poor. They sent me to the district school during the winter months until I about eleven years of age. Through this opportunity I obtained a fair common school education. At twelve years of age I was sent to freight marble with a team to Hudson, distant about thirty miles. At the age of fourteen I was placed in charge of my father’s farm, and was accorded much praise for my successful management. In these early years I indulged a desire and hope to at some time become a merchant. At the age of nineteen years I promised my father if he would let me begin life on my own account, I would present him with the first hundred dollars I could save up. He consented to this, and I was hired by one Joseph Cone, living at Herr----ton, Lichtfield County, Connecticut, who sent me with team and wagon loaded with merchandise to sell in North and South Carolina. I worked for him for two years and then entered into business on my own account, and soon had several of my brothers engaged with me in merchandise in the two states named, and in Georgia and Alabama. We spent the winters South and the summers in the New England States. I made quite an amount of money and was able to do much more for my father than the hundred dollars I had promised him. About 1820, I entered into mercantile business in my native town, forming a co-partnership with Charles and Bilson Boynton, as silent partners. I turned in most of my salary as manager, together with my profits, into the general store, intending in time to become sole proprietor. During the time of this partnership, I embraced "Mormonism." Not long after this those two took the benefit of the bankruptcy act, through which I lost much means. Charles Boynton afterwards became a minister and acted as chaplain in the House of Congress. Sharp criticisms of their course in bankruptcy were very prevalent, and I presume would have been more so if a Mormon had not been the chief loser.

January 21, 1823, I was married to Sophronia E. Pomeroy, who was the daughter of General Grove Pomery (who was a member of the state assembly of Massachusetts, I think the year of 1801-2) by whom I had one son, Claudius Victor. She died October 5, 1832. Something over two years after her death I married Sarah Lester Van Schoonoven, who bore me two sons, who died early, and two daughters, Amanda and Mary Leone.

In my early years I had entertained great reverence for God, and had sought Him often in secret prayer, but could not unite with any of the churches, nevertheless, at one time there came to me the conviction that baptism by immersion was essential, and I journeyed about forty miles to my brother Orson’s, who was a close Baptist minister, and he buried me in the water, in the likeness of the burial and resurrection of Christ, but I refused to take membership in the Baptist Church.

During the winter of 1838, I met a Mormon elder on the street of our town who said he had been trying through the day to get a place where he could preach. He was poorly clad and some of his extremities were frost bitten and he was altogether a peculiar looking minister. Being chairman of the School Board, I told him he could have the schoolhouse to preach in, and I sent Edward Morgan (who for many years afterward kept a hotel at Lee, Mass.) to light and warm the room. When Morgan reached the house he found parties inside who had locked him out and refused him admission. When he reported this, I told him to take an axe and if the parties did not open the door to chop it up and warm the room with it. I took pains to spread notice of the meeting, and sent my son to invite the Presbyterian minister, Nathan Shaw, to hear the Elder. His answer was, "Tell your father I would as soon go to hear the Devil preach." This coming from an old friend, from one noted for his guarded and sanctimonious speech seemed to me marvelous. Later experience has solved it. The meeting was largely attended by members of the different churches, but at the close, when the Elder states that he was a stranger, 1300 miles from home without purse or script and asked if anyone would keep him over night, for Christ and the Gospel’s sake, not an answer came from any church member. After a painful silence, I stepped from my seat into the open aisle, and invited him home with me. I refused to discuss Mormonism with him, and next morning I took him to my store and clothed him comfortably. In about a month he came again. I obtained for him the Presbyterian meetinghouse, and entertained him as before. On leaving he left some books, these I read and soon became interested to the extent that I closed my store and business and gave my whole attention to comparing the claims of the Mormons with the Bible, and one forenoon while reading the Book of Mormon, the conviction came to me with great power that Mormonism was true, and involuntarily I exclaimed, "My God, it is true but it will cost me friends, kindred, and all I have on earth!"

A few days after this, I sent notice to the entire townspeople that at noon of a certain date, I should be baptized by the Mormon Elder. A vast concourse came to see the ice broken in the river, and the ordinance performed. After I was confirmed, I spoke to the people in a new language, which knowing me as they did created a profound sensation. I was ordained an Elder and did much preaching in Berkshire County.

On the 19^th of April, 1840, Elder Franklin D. Richards and Elder Stephen Burnham organized a branch in our town of thirty members. Among these was a merchant by the name of Crandall, and his wife, a sister of senator Concklin, another merchant by the name of DeVol who for some years was a judge at Council Bluffs, and still another merchant, a Mr. Hunt. Indeed without exception the standing of the members in society was the best, and few sections of our country have had greater testimonies of the truth of Mormonism than did that region. From the adjoining town came the Richards family, prominent for so many years among our people.

After my baptism, my good father and mother and my good Baptist brother Orson told me in an interview that they did not wish any further association with me until I gave up my awful delusion. However, in time I performed the same ordinance for my brother as a Mormon elder that he had once performed for me as a Baptist elder and I had the pleasure of gathering Father and Mother to Nauvoo.

I had accumulated considerable property, owning much real estate, but I learned that a general impression prevailed that all Mormons must gather to Nauvoo, and that this property would be got from me very cheap if they combined to without offers. Under these circumstances I approached a man who had been trying for some time to sell a heavily wooded and timbered farm of a hundred and sixty acres, with a share in a sawmill. I told him I would give him so much for the property on the condition that no one should know of my offer until the execution of the deeds. He complied with this, and as soon as the townspeople knew it the reports flew around that I was not going to Nauvoo, that I was too smart to let the ‘Mormon’ leaders get my means.

In the meantime I contracted with the proprietor of the Angles Iron Furnaces to deliver several hundred cords of wood; bought horses and wagons, entering in to business as though I should remain there a lifetime, using my mill right to saw whatever timber was fit, into lumber. This placed me on about the same business vantage ground that I had held before baptism, which I improved in disposing of all my real estate, except the 160 acres farm to good advantage. I realized in wood and lumber from the farm almost its first cost, and had it left for sale on the basis that whether it brought much or little, it was almost all clear profit. I traded it for a good figure for broadcloth and satinet, and with short warning, in company with my brother Hyrum, Daniel Hendricks and their families and mine, started with teams and wagon for Nauvoo, and in that way traveled from West Stockbridge, Berkshire County, Massachusetts to Salt Lake City, presumably as long a wagon ride as any of the gathered Saints have had. In leaving my native town, I had many warnings from many well meaning friends, who were so fully prejudiced against Mormons as to consider that no good thing could come to me and my family by going among them. Prophecies were plentiful that I should lose all my worldly possessions and promises abundant that if I would write back that I wished to return they would raise means for my deliverance.

Though I have been peeled, robbed and driven by a mob, I have prospered in worldly things far more than those who gave me warnings, and the acquaintance I formed with Joseph Smith confirmed my faith in the work I embraced. I entered considerable government land adjoining Nauvoo, fenced and improved a 160 acre farm six miles out of Nauvoo, built a good substantial two-story brick house and a good barn and outhouses in the city.

In 1842, I filled a mission to Canada; in 1843, I filled a mission to the Indian Nation, and during that year was elected a member of the City Council of Nauvoo, and in 1844, by vote of the council was elected Mayor of that city and held the office until its charter was repealed. The same year I was sent on a mission to Massachusetts. During these years threatening of the mobs had been violent. Joseph and Hyrum Smith had been cruelly murdered while under the protection of the governor of the State, and in February 1846, I with many others were forced to flee from Nauvoo, crossing the Mississippi on the ice, and seeking refuge in the wilds of Iowa with snow on the ground. We here lost some of our dearest friends and relations by the hardships and exposures they were called to meet, principally among them my brother Orson’s wife, daughter of Deacon Samuel Curtis, Canaan, Columbia County, N. Y. Her death and that of others was directly due to our compulsory exodus from Nauvoo. Her father, mother, and kindred were according to the light they had, exemplary and devoted Christians. To such as these were the western mobocrats appealing for countenance and aid, while they were hounding their children to most cruel deaths. Not many weeks after my brother Orson lost his wife, my wife Mary weakened under the exposure and hardships of the journey, and was like many others, laid to rest by the roadside, none of their kindred having today any recognition of where they lay.

I wish here to make affectionate and honorable mention of my brother Hyrum, whose life before association with our people, and his devotion and loyalty to the Gospel after embracing it, was worthy of the highest and noblest recognition. He had left Nauvoo with the first outgoing Saints as Captain of Fifty in the Company of Hundred, organized under my presidency. During the journey from Nauvoo to Garden Grove, he organized the labor force of the camp, and took contracts from the settlers bordering our route of travel, to chop timber, split rails, and thereby procuring sustenance for the camp, and acquiring other much needed means for the feeble and ailing. The next morning after his arrival at Garden Grove he voluntarily started back to Nauvoo. Through great efforts he succeeded in emigrating from there several poor families, also sold some of the property left there by the three Spencer brothers, taking payment in stock cattle but immediately trumped up writs where manufactured, and attachments issued to hold the property until the mob which was gathering should come into Nauvoo. By almost super-human efforts, he escaped with the cattle and means, reaching the camp of the saints at Pisgah, although he did so as a martyr—his exposure, anxieties, and labors had killed him. He died some miles east of Pisgah, and his body was brought there for burial, his grave being fenced and marked by two stones, inscribed with the letters H.S.

In pursuing our journey west from this point we followed the Indian trail across Iowa to Council Bluffs, camping much of the time in close proximity to Indians, and herding our cattle on their grounds. We had not trouble with them for while we were suffering so cruelly from the Christian mobs the hearts of the savage seemed changed, and softened and true sympathy was extended by them to us in a most touching degree. It was here proved as it has been often proved by our people, that having the gospel they had also with them the power of God unto Salvation.

We tarried during the winter of ’46 and ’47 near the banks of the Missouri River. I acted as Bishop during these memorable months when the very essence of manhood and womanhood was tested, and I leave this affirmation that the test was not only heroically met, but met with that divinity of patience and that only a people can show who are divinely inspired.

I fitted out from this camp Francis Cobbs, Elijah Newman, and Levi Kendal with two yoke of oxen, wagon provisions, seed grain, farming tools, etc., and who came as pioneers, arriving at the site of Salt Lake City on the 25^th of July 1847, and if their testimony be true, these oxen drew the plow that turned the first sod in Utah Territory.

After the pioneers left, my re-organized company of 100 started west in June with Ira Eldredge as Captain of Fifty, following on the Indians and trappers’ trail which led to the north fork of the Platte River. This journey was a continuous panorama of incidents. Only an arm's length as it were, back of us was our old New England life, our New England relatives and associates, our fine homes and farms, and still nearer, only a short drive back, lay the home and farm which we had just been driven from into exile, but here morning, noon and night, this seemingly boundless plains, red men by the thousands, buffalo by the tens of thousands. Here to us was a new world. Here for weeks no rain fell, and for months no dew cooled or moistened the arid air. Here the very atmosphere seemed to lie and deceive in all the estimates of distance. Objects seemingly ten miles away would prove to be twenty or more. Here an animal could be killed at eventide, "jerked," hung by the wagon side, and cured without taint as we traveled on. We had read of the children of Israel in the Wilderness, but here were the children of Israel in very fact. These ancient ones were scientifically preserved by God. So were we. Their famine was fed by manna, ours with quail. They subdued enemies with the sword, ours, the most savage of savages, were softened and made in some respects to minister to our wants. I wish it to go on record that the hand of God was as much or more visible with the modern Israel, in bringing and planting and successfully sustaining them in this then desert land, as it was with the ancient Israel. When all the facts come to light it will be the pleasure and justice of the world to acknowledge it. Then it will be no longer said, "that the Lord God liveth that brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt," but "He liveth who hath brought Israel out of all countries in the latter days."

I reached the present site of Salt Lake City with my company September 24, 1847, and was the first eastern emigrating company organized in June at the Elk Horn, to reach the valley, and to move into what has been called the Old Fort.

I engaged in farming and various industries, forming at one time a partnership with Jacob Gates, J.C. Little and my son in opening a ranch in Rush Valley, from which we were unjustly ousted by Johnson’s Army at a loss to us of many thousands of dollars, and by members of whom my nephew Howard O. was afterwards nearly murdered.

I have realized the blessings of God in sustaining a large family in this once desert, having had in addition to the wives before named, Emily Thompson, by whom I had two sons, Jared and John D., and four daughters Aurelia, Sophia, Emma and Josephine. December 27, 1856, Sarah Jane Grey was sealed to me, who bore me three sons, Orson, Mark and Grove, and one daughter, Sophronia. Elizabeth Funnel was also sealed to me, by whom I had four daughters, Georgiana, Elizabeth, Chloe and Cora, and one son Henry Wilson. The name of ‘Wilson’ was given to this son in memory of Judge Wilson of Richmond Hill, Canadagua County, N.Y. who married my sister Electa, who was the mother of Marcus Wilson, author of the series of schoolbooks known as the "Wilson Series." Mary Jane Cutcliffe was also married to me by whom I had three daughters, Alvira, Lydia, Amelia and one son Samuel G.

On February 7, 1849, I was appointed President of the Salt Lake Stake of Zion. At the general conference, Sept. 6, 1850, I was appointed with Edward Hunter and Willard Snow as a committee "to take care of and transact the business of the fund of gathering the poor." In 1852, I was appointed a missionary to Europe, arriving there December 20^th. On the 14^th of May 1853, I was appointed first counselor to the President of the British Mission. March 15, 1856, I left Europe to act as agent in the United States to forward the through emigration of Saints to Utah. The outfitting points were Iowa City, Iowa, and Florence, Nebraska, from whence I arrived in Salt Lake City, October 4, 1856, to resume the duties of my calling as President of the Stake.

I have served as member of the Legislature of Utah, in the House 1851-2, 1856-7, 1858-9; and in the Council, 1861-2, 1862-3 and 1864-5.

In reply to the oft repeated question what were my motives or expectations in coming to Utah, I can only answer they were about the same as those of my Pilgrim forefathers, to found a commonwealth where I could worship God unmolested, and to aid in the fulfillment off a prophecy made by Joseph Smith before his death "that the Saints should become a numerous people in the Rocky Mountains."

We outfitted for this great journey with oxen, cows and a wagon in which we had hard tack, bacon, beans, potato chips, potato starch, dried pumpkins, all in small amount, crossing the Mississippi River on the ice in the winter of 1846. All that I had from then till landing in Utah, Sept. 1847, I had to haul on wagons-- food, bedding, tools, seeds, all kinds of hardware, seed grain, chicken, cats; everything save our clothing which we carried easily on our person, and were not heavily weighted either, when we came to live six months on a ration of two ounces of flour a day from which to draw physical strength to carry the burden incident to carving out a home in the desert resulted in a lack of weight (physical weight) a blessing rather otherwise.

I wish at the close of this memoir to bear record of a most interesting incident. When our first sowing of wheat headed out, hordes of crickets assailed it with such destructiveness that forty-eight hours would have seen the entire settlement left without a vestige of grain substance. What would have been our fate here, left wholly destitute, over 900 miles from any supplies, in the fall of the year, can easily be conjectured, especially as we had not faster transportation than ox teams. At this critical time, thousands of gulls came to our rescue, sarcastic, infidelic statements have been made that the gulls were here before us and that they came to the destruction of the crickets by instinct. I ask how that instinct brought them in, just the forty-eight hours that saved the settlement? And I will venture the assertion that an honest person cannot be found who witnessed that occurrence, and has lived to the present, but will testify that there was a ratio of a thousand gulls to one hundred that was ever seen here by us before, or has been here since.

I foresee a future when the conditions of these people will be largely changed, when the culture of the world will seek to measure arms with the simplicity and inspiration of the Gospel.

If these voicings of the pen should ever reach the Saints of the Salt Lake Stake over which God honored me to preside for some nineteen years, it will be years after my natural voice will be hushed. But I desire to emphasize a great truth once uttered by a great worthy, ‘God revealeth his secrets to his servants the Prophets,’ and there is safety for the individual, and the people in the channels they pilot."