At first I thought I'd write a post about Mary Elizabeth Grover, and get to Thomas Grover in a later post, but I've changed my mind. Through reading Thomas Grover's history, we kind of get an idea about what things were like for his family (including his daughter Mary).So I'll start with Thomas. He is my 3rd Great Grandpa on my Grandpa Roy's side of the family. There's a lot of information on the internet about him. The following is a condensed version I found.
For a longer version of Thomas Grover's history, click on the following link. It's a great read! Thomas Grover- The Westward Movement of the Mormons and the Settlement of Utah by Julie Cannon Markham
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| A Young Thomas Grover |
GROVER, Thomas. Son of Thomas Grover and Polly Spaulding. Born 22 July 1807 at
Whitehall, Washington County, New York. Employed as cabin boy on Erie Canal
about 1819. Later became captain of boat. Married Caroline Whiting 1828. Seven
children: Jane, Emeline, Mary E., Adeline, Caroline, Eliza Ann, and Emma. Moved
to Freedom, New York, in early 1830s. Baptized by Warren A. Cowdery September
1834. Moved to Kirtland by 1835. Appointed to be ordained elder 2 January 1836.
Ordained high priest January 1836. Appointed member of Kirtland high council 13
January 1836. Moved to Far West, Missouri, by December 1836. Appointed member
of Far West high council 1 August 1837. Expelled from Missouri 1839. Moved to
Nauvoo 1839. Appointed member of Nauvoo high council 6 October 1839. Wife,
Caroline, died October 1840. Married Carolina Eliza Nickerson 20 February 1841.
Four children: Percia Corneha, Marshall, Leonard, and Data. Later divorced.
Member of Nauvoo Legion 1841. Mission to southern states from about June to
October 1841. Another mission from about September 1842 to January 1843; area
unknown. Assisted in rescuing Prophet from Dixon arrest 1843. Mission to
Michigan 1844. Married Hannah Tupper 17 December 1844. Fifteen children:
Thomas, Hannah, Joel, Pauline, Jedediah Morgan Grant, James, Evelyn, Hyrum
Smith, Silas, Josephine, Jerome, Maria Louisa, Ezra, John Ladd, 2nd Charles
Coulson Rich. Received endowment 15 December 1845. Married Lodoiska Tupper 20
January 1846. Seven children: Lucy, Moroni, Jacob, Napoleon, Edward Partridge,
Inez, and Don Carlos. Left Nauvoo February 1846. Arrived in Council Bluffs 23
July 1846. Appointed member of Council Bluffs high council 21 July 1846. Did
not accept calling. Appointed member of "Municipal High Council" in
Cutler’s Park 9 August 1846. Arrived in Salt Lake Valley 3 October 1847. Moved
to Centerville in spring of 1848. Moved to Farmington, Utah, about fall of
1848. To California 1848-49. Traveled to Missouri 1850 to purchase cattle.
Returned to Salt Lake area in spring of 1853 with 150 head of cattle. Resided
in Farmington remainder of life. Member of Utah Legislature. Probate judge of
Davis County. Married Elizabeth Walker 1856. Nine children: Clara, Walter L.,
Nettie, Zeruah, Enoch, Pollie, Alima Fredrick, Samuel, Lafayette. Married Emma
Walker in 1857. Nine children: Keturah, Rosella, Henry A., Amy Blanche,
Vernisha, William Frank, Abner, David, and Albert Isaiah. Assisted emigrating
Saints from Missouri River 1861. Mission to eastern states 1874-75. Died 19
February 1886 at Farmington, Davis County, Utah. [Cook]
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| Thomas Grover |
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| Thomas Grover |
Incidents in the Life of Thomas Grover
Written by – Margaret Hess Camp and Helen Mar Miller
Thomas Grover Senior was born July
22, 1807, in Whitehall Washington (Cayonga Co.) New York. Captain Thomas
Grover, the father died in February in 1807 in Whitehall New York, five months
before the birth of his son. Therefore the rearing and teaching of the son was
left to his widowed mother.
When the boy was twelve years old he
entered a boat on the Erie Canal as a cabin boy and eight years later became
the captain of the boat the" Shamrock."
He married Caroline Whiting, the
daughter of Nathaniel Whiting and Mercy Young and while still living at
Whitehall their oldest daughter Jane, was born. A little later they moved to
Freedom N.Y., where their other children were born. It was at this point that
he first heard the gospel and became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter Day Saints. He set out immediately for Kirtland, Ohio to see the Prophet
Joseph Smith.
As he knocked at the door, the
Prophet opened it and putting out his hand said, "How do you do Brother
Grover? If ever God sent a man he sent you. I want every dollar of money that
you have got." Grandfather went into the house and they talked over the
situation and grandfather told him that he could let him have what money he
needed. Brother Joseph then told him to look around and find a place that suited
his money would be ready for him. In a short time the place was selected, but
when the Prophet offered the money back, grandfather said he did not need it,
that he had sufficient without it to make the purchase.
From that day the devotion of Thomas
Grover to Joseph Smith never wavered. From that day he was a most trustworthy
friend and brother.
February 4, 1841 when the Nauvoo
Legion was organized with Joseph Smith as Lieut. General, Thomas Grover was
chosen as and aid-de-camp on the General's staff and on January 28, 1842 he was
named as one of his body guards.
When Joseph was kidnapped by Wilson
and Reynolds, Brother Thomas was one of the number who rescued him, also when
he was imprisoned at Rock Island, Brother Grover and Brother Markham effected
his release.
He was sent on three missions by the
Prophet from 1840 to 1844. While doing missionary work in Michigan, near
Kalamazoo, he was warned in a dream to return to at once to Nauvoo. He
hesitated about the matter until the warning was repeated three times, when he
awakened his companion, Brother Wilson, and they got up and made it a matter of
prayer and were told to go at once to Nauvoo. They did so, taking the shortest
route possible. They arrived at Carthage just after the martyrdom of Joseph and
Hyrum and hurrying forward overtook the company and accompanied them to Nauvoo
where grandfather was requested to assist in the preparation of the bodies of
the martyred Prophet and Patriarch for burial. During that service at the
request of Emma Smith he cut a lock from the Prophet's hair which she divided
with him.
During his lifetime, the Prophet gave
a sword to Thomas which has been a precious heirloom in the family and is now
in the hall of relics in the State Capitol of Utah.
In October 1840, Brother Grover's
wife Caroline died leaving six little girls. Feb 20,1841 he married Caroline
Elize Nickerson Hubbard, the widow of Marshall Hubbard. She became the mother
of Percia born Dec. 27,1841 and Marshall born on the 27th of Sept. 1846. This
wife Caroline E. Nickerson wrote in her journal that the principle of plural
marriage was taught by the Prophet Joseph Smith and that her husband Thomas
Grover believed and accepted that law and on Dec.17,1844, he married Hannah
Tupper, as a plural wife. The first child of that union Thomas Jr. was born
November 17, 1845 in Nauvoo. In Dec. 1845 they had their endowments in the
Nauvoo Temple and their sealings Jan. 20, 1846. Just before they were driven
out of Nauvoo he also married Laduska Tupper, a sister of Hannah.
Feb. 8, 1846. This family along with
many others left their comfortable homes and started the long trek across Iowa.
When they were crossing the Mississippi river on a flatboat, the boat was sunk
by a plank being stamped off by the oxen that they were leading behind the
wagons. In trying to loosen the oxen grandfather had got off the boat and was
down the stream some little distance when he saw only the covers loose and told
the folks not to move an inch and not a hair of their heads would be harmed.
There were twenty-two souls on the boat and they clung to the bows and not one
soul was lost. His wife Hannah held her ten-week-old baby on her shoulder to
keep him above the water; and little three year old Percia cried, "Lord,
save my little heart." For four months they travelled in the snow and cold
until they reached Mount Pisgah. They arrived at Winter Quarters July 23,1846.
Grandfather at once began to prepare
for winter. He went down into Missouri and bought a load of fresh pork which he
sold for enough cornmeal to last the family all winter. He was appointed
butcher for the entire camp and killed and cut up, without any help except that
of his own family, one or two beaves everyday besides many hogs.
When the plan came up to organize the
first company of Pioneers, grandfather was one of the first ones to join with
President Young and help effect that organization. Leaving his family at Winter
Quarters to follow with the seasons' emigration, he himself set out with the
pioneer company. Brother Thomas with the pioneer company, took his full share
of the work and also faced the dangers. One day two large male buffalo came up
to the camp as if to look it over. Grandfather and Thomas Bullock walked out to
within a few rods of them and studied them in their wild life. May 8, Brother
W.C.A. Smoot's horse ran away, it being the second time in a week. President
Young, and Heber C Kimball rode out to stop them, but Thomas Grover and John
Brown set their horses out at full speed and after riding more than a mile
right through an immense herd of buffalo, they finally overtook the runaways
and brought them back.
When the company came to the Platte
river it was necessary to build a ferry to carry the wagons across. Brother
Grover was appointed to supervise the construction of this ferry and to take
charge of operating the same. He selected his men to go to the timber with him
and they got out two large trees, hewed them out canoe fashion and then lashed
them together to make the raft. After ferrying the Pioneer company across, they
also took over a large company of Oregon emigrants for which they were paid in
provisions that was a great blessing to them. Sufficient food was received to
last the entire pioneer company twenty-three days. After this crossing had been
successfully made, President Young and his counsellors decided to appoint
Thomas Grover and eight other ferrymen and one blacksmith to remain at the
ferry and attend to the crossing for the oncoming emigrants as well as the
later companies of Latter Day Saints. They remained at the Platte until the
water went down and then started back along the trail. They ran out of
provisions and had only one skunk in three days, until they met the company
with whom their families were traveling and joining with them they arrived in
the Valley Oct. 2,1847 with Charles C. Rich's Company.
The first winter was spent in Salt
Lake, but the following spring,' they moved up to Duel creek in what is now
known as Centerville. That season, grandfather raised three hundred bushels of
wheat in spite of the ravaging of the crickets, which the family fought
desperately to keep them from eating all the crops.
In the fall of 1846, as he and about
thirty others were starting for California, he was asked to use his influence
with this company (himself included) to pay for 500 head of Texas cattle which
had been bargained for and brought to Utah to keep the Mormons from starvation.
This they did by paying four dollars a head for them after the men had earned
it in California. At this time President Young also appointed Bro. Grover to
settle up the accounts and business connected with the saints who came around
Cape Horn with ship Brooklyn. This responsibility he also accomplished.
He worked in the gold mines for a
year; and during that time he collected $22,000 in gold just from the
California members of the Church, and turned it in to the tithing fund of the
Church. In addition of this, on the return home he was chosen captain for a
rich company of Mormons returning to Utah, when by his influence and example
the company put into the hands of Church leaders in tithings and loans such
contribution of gold dust that President Young putting his hands on Bro.
Grover's shoulders said, "Brother Thomas if every Latter Day Saint would
do as you have done there would be no need of a tithing among this
people."
In the spring of 1850, grandfather
took his family and went back across the plains to Iowa to buy cattle. He
returned in 1853 bringing one hundred and fifty cows with him. He was and
excellent marksman and thus was able to supply his family with buffalo meat and
other wild game during the trip.
After his return he again settled in
Farmington; the year of the grasshopper's destruction he had plowed he land in
the fall and during a warm spell in February he planted his wheat. It came on
early and was nearly all ready for harvesting before the grasshoppers got so
bad while the late grain was nearly all eaten. That season he harvested seven
hundred bushels of wheat which would have brought five dollars a bushel on the
public market, but grandfather loaned and sold every bushel, except enough for
his own family, it the tithing office price of two dollars a bushel.
At this time, Sister Brown, a widow
sent her boy to ask Brother Grover to sell her a little flour. Grandfather told
his son to fill the boys sack. The boy asked how much a whole sack of flour
cost for he had only a little money, to which grandfather replied, "I do
not sell flour to widows and fatherless children." The flour was put upon
the wagon and the happy boy drove away in tears.
When the Hand Cart Companies came
into the valley in 1856, two girls, Emma and Elizabeth Walker were with them.
Although both were named Walker they were not relatives. Both of these girls
were married to Thomas Grover within a few months after their arrival and both
reared large families.
Brother Grover served three-terms in
the Utah Legislature. He was Probate Judge of Davis Co.
He contributed 25 young cows-toward
the construction of the canal in Cottonwood canyon for the purpose of
transporting the granite for the Salt Lake Temple. During the winter of 1856,
he lost five thousand dollars worth of cattle.
In 1861 when the Perpetual Emigration
Fund was established, he sent a driver and wagon and a yoke of oxen back to the
Missouri river to help bring in the immigrating Saints. He continued this
practice each year as long as wagons were being sent. His son Thomas was the
driver of the team one year. He went on a mission to the eastern states in
1874, and visited his old home and kindred on that occasion.
When the Indians fell upon the Mormon
colony at Salmon River, Idaho, Brother Grover fitted out a man with a riding
horse, pack animal and provisions to go to those left helpless and distress. He
contributed half of the ground for the Farmington Meeting House and boarded the
workmen free of cost during it's construction. He never turned a person from
his door hungry.
He was punctual to the dot in all his
appointments. A common saying with him was, "If I were going to be hung, I
would go on time." In his creed a debt could never be outlawed.
Returning again to his church
activity: He was ordained a High Councilman in Kirtland January 13, 1836 under
the hands of Joseph Smith and Hyrum and Sidney Rigdon, Rigdon being spokesman.
He served also in this capacity in Farr West Missouri and also on the banks of
the Missouri river. He was called by revelation to be member of the High
Council in Nauvoo and continued on into Utah at the request of President Young
during the travel across the plains. On Monday evening Feb 17, 1886 he presided
at the High Council meeting and on Thursday February 20 he passed to the great
beyond, leaving four wives and twenty-six children to carry on his work.
Compiler: Bonnie Ruefenacht
| A bit more information that was not in the first article:
"...Thomas was a Captain in Brigham Young's vanguard
company of 1847 which lead the way for thousands of Mormons emigrating
west..."
"...Once in Utah, Thomas helped settle the area that
is now Centerville and Farmington. He was a member of the Territorial
Legislature and a Probate Judge in Davis County, Utah..."
"...From a letter written March 2, 1886 by Caroline Nickerson Hubbard to her daughter Persia Grover Bunnell, the following is taken: "It was in Freedom, Cattaraugus County, New York, where he and his wife first heard and embraced the Gospel. In 1834 the Prophet Joseph and Sidney Rigdon were the ones that bore the message to them and baptized Brother Grover and some others. He removed to Kirtland and helped to build the Temple there.
SOURCE: "LDS Biographical Encyclopedia" vol. 4
p.137-138 By Andrew Jensen
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