 1779 - 1839 (60 years) Submit Photo / Document
Has more than 100 ancestors and more than 100 descendants in this family tree.
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| Name |
Daniel Whipple |
| Birth |
27 Aug 1779 |
Brattleboro, Windham, Vermont, United States  |
| Gender |
Male |
| Death |
27 Sep 1839 |
Elyria, Lorain, Ohio, United States |
| Initiatory (LDS) |
17 Aug 1910 |
SLAKE |
| FamilySearch ID |
LDBB-NZK |
| Burial |
Ridgelawn Cemetery, Elyria City, Lorain, Ohio, United States |
| Person ID |
I685 |
mytree |
| Last Modified |
25 Feb 2024 |
| Father |
Daniel Whipple, b. 7 Sep 1749, Somers, Tolland, Connecticut, United States d. 1798, Susquehannah Valley, Pennsylvania, United States (Age 48 years) |
| Mother |
Deborah Hildreth, b. 5 May 1755, Westford, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States d. Abt 1789, Pennsylvania, United States (Age 33 years) |
| Marriage |
1776 |
Brattleboro, Windham, Vermont, United States |
| Family ID |
F589 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Family |
Mary Tiffany, b. 17 Jun 1777, Barkhamsted, Litchfield, Connecticut, United States d. 12 Sep 1845, Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois, United States (Age 68 years) |
| Marriage |
1804 |
Brattleboro, Windham, Vermont, United States |
| Children |
| + | 1. Cynthia Whipple, b. 15 Jan 1805, Deposit, Broome, New York, United States d. 1889 (Age 83 years) |
| + | 2. Samuel Whipple, b. 21 Dec 1808, Deposit, Broome, New York, United States d. 9 Jan 1887, Deposit, Broome, New York, United States (Age 78 years) |
| + | 3. Almira Whipple, b. 13 Jun 1810, Sanford, Broome, New York, United States d. 4 Feb 1889, Provo, Utah, Utah, United States (Age 78 years) |
| + | 4. Phoebe Whipple, b. 13 Aug 1813, Deposit, Broome, New York, United States d. 18 Nov 1846, Zarahemla, Lee, Iowa, United States (Age 33 years) |
| | 5. Carum Whipple, b. 12 Aug 1815, Sanford, Broome, New York, United States d. 1843, Garden Grove, Decatur, Iowa, United States (Age 27 years) |
| | 6. Gerua Whipple, b. 12 Aug 1815, Sanford, Broome, New York, United States d. 18 Sep 1848, Council Bluffs, Pottawattamie, Iowa, United States (Age 33 years) |
| + | 7. Nelson Wheeler Whipple, b. 11 Jul 1818, Sanford, Broome, New York, United States d. 5 Jul 1887, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, United States (Age 68 years) |
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| Family ID |
F68 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Last Modified |
21 Nov 2024 |
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| Event Map |
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 | Birth - 27 Aug 1779 - Brattleboro, Windham, Vermont, United States |
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| Marriage - 1804 - Brattleboro, Windham, Vermont, United States |
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 | Death - 27 Sep 1839 - Elyria, Lorain, Ohio, United States |
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 | Initiatory (LDS) - 17 Aug 1910 - SLAKE |
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 | Burial - - Ridgelawn Cemetery, Elyria City, Lorain, Ohio, United States |
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| Notes |
- SOURCE: LDS Collectors Library: Early LDS Membership Data, (c) 1995 Info b ases, Inc.
SOURCE: Clair A. Hemenway Newton, Captain John Whipple, 1617-1685, and H i s Descendants (Naperville, Ill., 1946), p. 62.
SOURCE: Email from B. Huckins to Weldon Whipple, 14 Feb 2008. "Daniel Wh i pple was a Methodist and after his death Mary became a Mormon and wen t t o Nauvoo with Nelson Whipple in 1844."
Occupation: Lumbering, Farmer
Daniel died of inflammation of the bowels or the brain.
My father Daniel Whipple was born in Brattleboro, Windham County, Vermo n t on the 27th of August in 1779. He resided there until he was six yea r s old, when his father moved to Pennsylvania. There they lived until h i s mother died. How long that was I do not know but when or shortly aft e r her death he went from his father's house to different places unti l h e was married in or about the year 1804 at which time he was about 2 5 yea rs old. At what placed they lived at I do not know, but shortly h e move d to Deposit, a small village in Broom County, New York. Here fol lowed l umbering most of the time for about five years, when he moved t o Sandfor d in the same county about 4 miles from Deposit on Aoquage cree k in the f orest in a valley between two mountains where the soil was ext remely poo r subject to frost in the summer and deep snow in the winter . Here he bu ilt a house and cleared off a farm of twenty or thirty acre s of the heavi est of lumber which cost him much labor for which he recei ved small pay a s the soil was not productive.
While living at this place my mother did much towards the support of t h e family by dewing, carding and spinningwool, spinning flax etc., for h e r neighbors and by this means clothed her children and mostly fed the m .
In this place they lived thirteen years. Here four of the children we r e born including myself. I being the youngest. My father was not at ho m e but little, being off attending a saw mill or running timber to Phila de lphia down the River Delaware. My father laboring hard and having mad e b ut poorly taught to seek a better location in some other place. So h e an d my eldest brother, Samuel went to look out a place in Thompkins co unt y in the same state where some of mother's kin lived. Having foun d a s I supposed a better place they returned and made preparation to mov e . He sold his place and most of his house furniture and hired my cous i n Erastus Stewart to haul us to the new location he staying behind to a rr ange his busness around 1828.
We after three days travel arrived at my uncle Nathan Stewart's who marr i edkl my mother's sister. Here we stayed for several days and then wen t tw o miles to my uncle Jared Patchin's and lived with them several mont hs.
My father came here in fourweeks after us and he and Samuel went to movi n gablock house which my father had baught and began to put it up on th e fa rm head taken and during this time we lived at my Uncle Jared's.
After having completed the house we moved into it. This was upon a hig h h ill or mountain where we had an extensive view of the surrounding cou ntr y in almost every direction. I was then nine years of age and had t o per form a great deal of the outdoor labor, such as ploughing, harrowin g, cut ting wood, making fence etc.,.
The winter of 1828 and 29 was very severe and in living on a high hil l w here the wind had a fine sweep we found all we could do to keep ourse lve s and our cattle alive. Having passed this winter, my father commenc ed f arming, a business that he was not much used to but he did very wel l at i t for some years.
But the price of grain being very low and money scarce he did not succ e ed in paying for the land he had taken which was to be four dollars pe r a cre. The interest had run up to about eight dollars per acre. Circu msta nces being as they were he found it impossible to pay for the land a nd th erefore concluded to sell his improvements and try somce other plac e.
He sold to Joseph Baker and Jefferson Collins for the small sum of for t y dollars. The improvements had cost him not less than three hundred d ol lars. He then rented part of a farm belonging to Jacob Tester. Hebui l d a house on it but the land being very poor he soon gave it up for a b a d bargain. During the same time he was on these two placed he did some th ing at lumbering and shinglesl so that he made a lliving with the litt l e that he raised.
Soon he left the above mentioned place and went to a worse oone. He to o k a farm on a high hemlook hill where nothing would grow but buckwhea t an d turnips and they were not a sure crop. Here he built a house in t he wo ods and endeavored to raise some wheat but did not succeed .
My Uncle GeorgeTiffney and his family and two of my sisters had gone t o O hio a year before we went to the last mentioned farm. We had receive d le tters from them which spoke much in praise of that country. This in duce d my father to go to Ohio.
In the latter part of the summer of 1833 my father made preparations t o r emove to the state of OHio. He therefore soldl off everything he had ...c attle, and wagon, household goods etc.,. in the month of November 18 33 . He hired a young man by the name of Madison Knettles to take his fa mil y to the head of Cyuga Lake, a distance of twelve miles and from her e wet ook a steam boat fro Montaguma.
This lake is a small lake in the central part of New York. It is fort y m iles long and eight or nine miles wide. A small steam boat named DeW it t Clinton was the only boad that run upon it except for canal boats.
We arrived there late in the evening and stowed our goods in a warehou s e till morning. We then took the boat for the bridge. This bridge wa s b uilt across the foot of the lake two miles long. Here we shipped abo ar d a canal boat and went to Montasuma, seven miles and here we had to s hi p again on board another for Buffalo where we arrived in six days.
Buffalo is at the foot of Lake Erie in the state of New York. From he r e we shipped again on board the old Pennsylvania steam boat for Clevela n d Ohio.
The first night we were on this boat we sittnessed the long to be rememb e red signs in the heavens above. Between two and three o'clock in the m or ning I heard the watch come down into the cabin where I lay and tel l th e passengers of the sight to be seen in the sky. I immediately go t up an d went to the upper deck of the boat to behold a wonderful sigh t .
And a wonderful sight it was for the stars were flying in every directi o n through the heavens. I stood and looked at them till I was nearly ch il led through for it was very cold. I returned to my bed wondering wha t su ch a thing could mean. My father did not go up to see it .
In the morning the wind blew almost a hurricane and was very cold. Th e l ake rolled tremendously, and the captain was afraid to start out an d her e we lay for three days but the wind did not cease but rather incre ased . But the passengers were so anxious to go that the captain said h e woul d go to hell trying for he could stand it if they could. He put f orth af ter four days but found rough weather
and we all wished ourselves back in Buffalo again. We went on twelve mi l es to Point Evernew on the Canadian side where we anchored and lay thr e e days. A severe snow storm came on with heavy wind which drove sever a l boats back to Buffalo. On the fourth day we started from there and w en t as far as Erie. In Pennsylvania where the boat belonged. Here Capt ai n had the boat drawn up a said he would not go any further that winte r . We had to make the best shift we could for Cleveland. We stayed he r e three days when the Fairport steam boat came up with heavy freight a n d passengers for Cleveland. Most of the passengers shipped on board th e S helden Thompson which doubled her cargo. This boat was out of repai r an d dangerous at best. We had to pass from one boat to the other in t he ni ght in a steam scow, it raining and freezing which made it extremel y dang erous.
After having got aboard we went toward Cleveland and had no chance to l a y down or even sit down as the passengers were so thick in the cabin , s o we spent the night in standing up amused with the jokes and fun o f som e among the crowd. The next day we tacked it Fairportin Ohio and st ayed t ill the following day for repairs. As the boat started out for Cl evelan d we met a heavy snowstorm which came on with such fury as to caus e the c aptain to turn back to Fairport. We again stayed here for anoth er night .
The next day we started a second time for Cleveland which we made ou t t o gain, the day being fair. We had then been two weeks on Lake Eri e an d landed almost without money and food or clothing as we had lost so me cl othing on the boat.
My father hired a cart boy to take us out of the city that we might
have some chance to get to Eaton in Loraine County, the place of out des t ination. Having gone a few miles we came across an old farmer going ho m e from Cleveland. We got him to take us out to his house and here we s ta yed over night and left all our goods in a barn and persued our journ e y on foot in the mud, a distance of twenty miles. My sister was sick a n d hardly able to walk. We got as far as Ridgeville that night and stop pe d at a house of a Mr. Ribby over night and they treated us with grea t kin dness.
On the following day we arrived at George Tiffany's in the town of Eato n , Loraine county, Ohio the place of our destination. We found our rela ti ves settled in the woods half leg deep in water in a small log shant y wit h a few acres cleared around them .
On arriving at my brother-in-law's to our surprise we found Sylvanus Ald r ich and his family living in the same house. This was my half brother , m y mother's oldest child. He had come from the state of New York. W e ha d seen him for many years. The meeting with our friends somewhat ch eere d us, not withstanding our hard fare and past troubles. Here we liv ed th rough the winter in a house fourteen by sixteen feet, all together , fifte en in number. We were mostly dependent on them for our provision s as cou ld not earn anything, my father being sick all winter.
In the spring my father assisted George in building another house an d w e lived in the old one. My father worked in a saw mill of Mr. Abby a n d I chopped for five dollars an acre through the summer .
In the fall we moved to Carlisle and took a saw belonging to Phieneas Jo h nson in the village of L Porte. Here we lived until the spring 1838 wh e n we moved to Elyrin the county seat of Loraine county .
Here my father took a small piece of land of Herman Ely on which we liv e d and worked for a year and did job work of different kinds fo a livin g . In the spring of 1839 we moved across the river and took another sma l l piece of land on which was a good orchard. We repaired the house an d f ences of this land and had much hard labor
We raised considerable corn, vegetables etc., which with what we earne d o ther ways made ourselves quite comfortable.
On the 18th of September 1829 my father and I was gathering corn wit h a y oke of yearling steers, the only team we had at the time. The weat her be ing wet and unhealthy we were both taken sick at the same time .
My father was taken with inflammation of the bowels and I was taken wi t h the bilious fever. On finding ourselves in a bad stat we went for D r . Howard, a skillful physician who attended us faithfully but in spit e o f all endeavors my father died on the ninth day of his illness and th us e nded the days of Daniel Whipple at the age of 61 and one month.
He was a man of remarkably strong constitution. He had very little sick n ess in his life or met with any accidents to harm him except the he on c e fell from a building and hurt his back which made him grown crooke d a s he grew older. He was a man of good morals but did not belong to a ny c hurch at the time of his death, although he had been a Methodist fo r a fe w years of his life but had left them on account of the inconsiste ncy o f some of the doctrines and notions .
Had he lived to the hear the Gospel he would have embraced it no doubt f o r he condemned all churches because they had not the gifts and ordinanc e s according to the order that Christ and the Apostles taught.
He also tole me that the time would be that a church would be establish e d according to the order in the last days for the scriptures said plain l y that it should be.
He also tole me that if I lived to be fifty years old in all probabili t y I would see it. In less than one year after his death the gospel wa s p reached in the same house that he died in, by Elder John Hughes, bu t my f ather did not live quite long enough to hear it.
History of Daniel Whipple written by son, Nelson Wheeler Whipple
A few sketches of the history of my fore-fathers according to the best i n formation I have been able to gather from my father and others.
My great-great grandfather was among the first settlers of the State o f V ermont in the Town of Brattleboro, Windham County. He had one brothe r als o who came over from England, so says the History that Edsom Whippl e obta ined while getting up the genealogy while on a mission east. He as sertain ed that there were three brothers, and from them sprang the Whipp le tha t I have ever found in the United States, which are a considerabl e number . I believe that all by that name have sprung from them as I hav e ever fo und any old countrymen that ever heard the name before they cam e to Ameri ca.
The above mentioned man, I suppose, died in the town of Brattleboro, a t w hat age I know n ot. His name I believe was Timothy, though as to th i s I am not certain–(Samuel was his name–Anor Whipple)
My great grandfather’s name was Daniel as I was informed by my father . H e also lived and died in the same place as I suppose. I have but litt le k nowledge of him at the most, but have often heard my father tell o f seein g him when my father was quite a child.
My grandfather, I have some more knowledge of. He was born in Brattlebor o , Windham County, Vermont, in the year of 1749. I know but little of h i s life until he came to the State of Pennsylvania about the year 1785 . H e settled in the wilderness on the Susquehanna River, 13 miles from a ny w hite inhabitants. Here he lived until the country became more settle d an d died suddenly of the pleurisy in the 51st year of his age and in t he ye ar 1798.
His family consisted of four sons and three daughters of whom my fathe r w as the eldest. They were Daniel, Samuel, Richard, and Roswell, Cynthi a, P olly and Lucy.
Roswell was a chair maker by trade and lived in Pennsylvania, I think, b u t I have little knowledge of him after I was 5 years old, when he cam e t o my father’s house and brought a set of common kitchen chairs, whic h wer e kept in our family 34 or 35 years.
Roswell went to the State of Ohio, Zainsville, Muskeegum County, on th e M uskeegum River and built mills there and probably died there but I ha ve n ot heard from him in many years.
Samuel was a tailor by trade and went to Canada and my father never hea r d from him after about the year 1800.
Cynthia and Polly, I cannot remember hearing my father say much about, a f ter he left home but whether either of them married I do not know but L uc y married a man by the name of Bingham and went to Ohio with Roswell a n d was killed in a saw mill.
My grandmother’s maiden name was Hildreth (Deborah). She was confine d t o her bed eight years, before her death, with slow consumption. She d ie d some years, before my grandfather did but I do not know in what year . H er father lived to the age of 104 years and died in Vermont, but wha t pla ce I do not know. I do not have knowledge of any more family.
My father Daniel Whipple was born in Brattleboro, Windham County, Vermo n t in the year 1779, Aug. 27. He resided here until he was 6 years old w he n his father moved to Pennsylvania.
Here they lived until his mother died. How long that was I do not know b u t when or shortly after she died, he went from his father’s house and l iv ed about in different places until he married, which was about the yea r 1 804, at which he was 25 years of age.
At what place they lived when they were married, I do not know, but shor t ly after he moved to Deposit, a small village in Broom Co. N.Y. Here h e f ollowed lumbering most of the time for about 5 years when he moved t o San ford in the same county about 4 miles from Deposit on Acquago Cree k in th e forest, in a valley between two mountains where the soil was ex tremly p oor and subject to frost in the summer and deep snow in the wint er.
Here he built a house and cleared off a farm, of 20 or 30 acres, of th e h eaviest timber which cost him much labor for which he received smal l pa y as the soil was not productive.
While living at this place, my mother did much towards the support of t h e family by sewing, carding and spinning wool, spinning flax for her ne ig hbors and by this means clothed her children and mostly fed them.
In this place they lived 13 years. Here four of the children were born , i ncluding myself, I being the youngest. My father was not at home bu t litt le, being off attending a saw mill or running lumber to Philadelph ia, dow n the River Delaware.
My father laboring hard and having made but poorly thought to seek a bet t er location in some other place in Tompkins Co., in the same state whe r e some of my mother’s kin lived. Having found, as they supposed, a bett e r place they returned and made preparations to move. He sold his plac e an d most of his house furniture and hired my cousin Erastus Stuart t o hau l us to the new location, he staying behind to arrange his business .
We, after three day’s travel, arrived at my uncle Nathan Stuart’s who ma r ried my mother’s sister. Here we stayed for several days and then wen t tw o miles to my Uncle Jarrid Patchin’s and lived with them several mon ths.
My father came here 4 weeks after us and he and Samuel went to movin g a b lock-house which my father had bought and putting it up on the far m he ha d taken, during which time we lived at my Uncle Jarrid’s.
After having completed the house we moved over to it. This was upon a hi g h hill or mountain where we had an extensive view of the surrounding co un try in almost every direction.
I was 9 years of age and had to perform a great deal of outdoor labor, s u ch as ploughing, harrowing, cutting wood, making fence, etc. But I wil l c ontinue the history of my father down to his death and then that of m y mo ther and of the older children, my brothers and sisters and my uncle s an d aunts and of their families before I commence upon my own.
The winter of 1828-29 was very severe and we living on a high hill whe r e the wind had a fine sweep, we found all we could do to keep ourselve s a nd the cattle alive.
Having passed this winter my father commenced farming, a business he w a s not much used to but made out very well at it for some years.
The price of grain being very low and money scarce he did not succee d i n paying for the land he had taken which was to be four dollar per ac re b ut the interest had run up to about 8 dollars per acre.
Circumstances being as they were he found it impossible to pay for the l a nd, and therefore concluded to sell his improvements and try some othe r p lace.
He therefore sold to Josep Baker and Jefferson Collins for the small s u m of forty dollars. The improvements had cost him not less than 300 dol la rs. He then went to the farm of Joseph Teeter, a part of which he rent ed . He built a house on the part he had taken but this land being very p oo r he soon gave it up for a bad bargain. During the time he was on thos e t wo places he did something at lumbering and shingles which inclined m y fa ther to go to Ohio.
In the latter part of the summer of 1833, my father made preparation s t o remove to the State of Ohio. He therefore sold off evrything he had , hi s cattle and wagon, household goods etc. etc., in the month of Nov . 1833 . He hired a young man by the name of Madison Knettles to take hi s famil y to the head of Cyuga Lake, a distance of 12 miles, there to tak e the St eam boat for Monesuma.
This lake is a small lake in the center of part of the State of New Yor k . It is 40 miles long and 8 or 9 miles wide. A small steamboat named De Wi tt Clinton was the only boat that ran upon it except small boats.
We arrived at the lake late in the evening and stood ourselves in the wa r ehouse till morning, and then took the boat for the bridge. This bridg e w as built across the foot of the lake two miles long.
Here we shipped aboard a canal boat and went to Montesuma, seven miles . H ere we had to ship again on board another boat for Buffalo, where w e arri ved in six days.
Buffalo is at the foot of Lake Erie, in the state of New York. Here we s h ipped again on board of the old Pennsylvania steamboat for Cleveland, O hi o.
The first night we were on the boat we witnessed the long to be remember e d signs in the heavens above.
Between 2 and 3 o’clock in the morning I heard the watch come down int o t he cabin where I lay, and tell the passengers of the sight to be see n i n the sky. I immediately got up and went to the upper deck of the boa t t o behold to wonderful sight.
And a wonderful sight it was for the stars were flying in every directi o n through the heavens. I stood and looked at them till I was nearly chi ll ed through, for it was very cold. I returned to my bed wondering wha t suc h a thing could mean. My father did not go up to see it .
In the morning the wind blew almost a huricane and very cold. The Lake r o lled in tremendously and the Captain was afraid to start out and her e w e lay for three days, but the wind did not cease but rather increased .
The passengers were so anxious to go that the Captain said he would g o o r go to hell trying, for he could stand it if they could. So on the f ourt h morning he put out but found rough weather and we all wished ourse lve s back in Buffalo again.
We went on 12 miles to Point Evernew on the Canadian side where we ancho r ed and lay three days. A severe snow storm came on with heavy wind whi c h drove several boats back to Buffalo.
On the 4th day we started from there and went as far as Erie in Pennsylv a nia where the boat belonged. Here the Captain had the boat drawn up an d s aid he would not go any further that winter so we had to make the bes t sh ift we could for Cleveland.
Here we stayed 3 days when the Fairpoint steamboat came up with heavy fr e ight and passengers for Cleveland. Here the most of the passenger of t h e Pennsylvania shipped on board, the Sheldon Thompson, which doubled h e r cargo. This boat was out of repair and dangerous at best. We had to p as s from one boat to the other. As it was raining and freezing it was ex tre mely dangerous. After having got aboard this boat we went on toward C leve land and we had no chance to lie down or even to sit down as the pas senge rs were so thick in the cabins, so we spent the night standing up , amuse d with jokes and fun of some of the large crowd.
The next day we arrived at Fairport, in Ohio and stayed till the next d a y for repairs. The boat started on towards Cleveland and we met a heav y s now storm which came on with such fury as to cause the Captain to tur n ba ck to Fairport again. Here we stayed another night.
The next day we started a second time for Cleveland which we made ou t t o gain as the day was fair. We had then been two weeks on Lake Erie a nd l anded almost without money, food or clothing, as we had lost some cl othin g on the boat.
My father hired a cart-boy to take us out of the city that we might ha v e some chance to get to Eaton in Lorain County, the place of our destin at ion.
Having gone a few miles we came across an old farmer going home from Cle v eland. We got him to take us out to his house. Here we stayed over nig h t and left all our goods in a barn and persued our journey on foot in t h e mud, a distance of 20 miles. My sister was sick and hardly able to wa lk . We got as far as Ridgeville that night and stopped at the house o f a Mr . Kibby who treated us with great kindness.
On the following day we arrived at George Tiffany’s in the town of Eato n , Lorain Co., Ohio, the place of our destination.
We found our relatives settled in the woods half leg deep in water i n a s mall log shanty with a few acres cleared around them.
On arriving at my brother’s house to our surprise we found Sylvanus Aldr i ch and his family living in the same house. This was my half brother , m y mother’s oldest child. He had come from the state of New York. We h ad n ot seem him in many years.
On meeting with our friends we somewhat cheered, notwithstanding our ha r d fare and past troubles.
Here we lived through the winter in a house 14 by 16 ft., all together , 1 5 in number. We were mostly dependent on them for our provisions as w e co uld not earn anything, as my father was sick all winter.
In the Spring my father assisted George in building another house an d w e lived in the old one and my father worked in the sawmill of Mr. Abb y an d I chopped for 5 dollars an acre through the summer.
In the fall we moved to Carlisle and took a sawmill belonging to Phine a s Johnson in the village of La Forte. Here we lived until the spring o f 1 838, when we moved to Elyris, the county seat of Lorain County.
Here my father took as small piece of land of Herman Ely on which we liv e d and worked for a year doing job work of different kinds for a living.
In the spring of 1839 we moved across the river and took another small p i ece of land on which was a good orchard.
We repaired the house and fences on this land and did much hard labor a n d raised considerable corn, vegetables, etc., which with what we earne d o ther ways made ourselves quite comfortable.
On the 18th of Sept., 1839, as my father and I were gathering corn wi t h a yoke of yearling steers, the only team we had at the time. The weat he r was wet and unhealthy and we both were taken sick at the same time . M y father was taken with inflamation of the bowels and I was taken wit h th e bilious fever.
On finding ourselves in a bad state we sent for Dr. Howard, a skillful p h ysician who attended us faithfully but in spite of all endeavors my fat he r died on the 9th day of his illness.
Thus ended the days of Daniel Whipple, at the age of 60 years and one mo n th. He was a man of remarkable strong constitution. He had very littl e si ckness in his life except that once he fell from a building and hur t hi s back which made him grow crooked as he grew older.
He was a man of good morals but did not belong to any church at the ti m e of his death, although he had been a Methodist for a few years of hi s l ife, but had left them on account of inconsistancy of some of their d octr ines and notions.
Had he lived to hear the Gospel he would have embraced it no doubt, fo r h e condemned all churched because they had not the gifts and ordinance s ac cording to the order that Christ and Apostles taught .
He also told me that if I lived to be fifty years old in all probabilit y , I would see it. In less than one year after his death the gospel wa s pr eached in the same house that he died in, by Elder John Hughes. My f athe r did not live quite long enough to hear it.
Copy of the History of Nelson Wheeler Whipple 1818-1887
by Anor Whipple (His son)
Dec. 1, 1859. This Book was made in the Old Council House by Bro. Kell e y in Salt Lake City at the date above mentioned. The cost of the sam e wa s nine dollars which I paid in lumber at $6.00 per 100 feet.
--Nelson W. Whipple
Foreward
This is the history of Nelson Wheeler Whipple containing sketches of t h e history of his progenitors and relatives as far as he had any correc t k nowledge of them. It also contains many items and incidents in the h isto ry of the Church of [Jesus Christ of] Latter-day Saints since the or ganiz ation, their troubles in Nauvoo and removal from that place to th e wilder ness in 1846, and their travels to the west until they reached t he Valle y of the Great Salt Lake.
This book also contains the time in which all the different settlement s w ere made in the north and in the south and east and west [of Utah], a nd m any other events of note which will be interesting to the rising gen erati on in the future although I have taken considerable pains in writin g it , yet it is not by any means what I intended it to be when I commenc ed it . It is badly written with all different kinds of ink, poor pens , etc. , but it can, most of it, be read, and I consider it much better t han thi s page is written. Feb. 5, 1878
Daniel Whipple [Nelson Wheeler Whipple=s Father]
Recorded in this book Dec. 4, 1859 by Nelson Wheeler Whipple, his son . D aniel Whipple was born Aug. 27, 1779, in Brattleboro, Windham County , Ver mont. Mary Tiffany, his wife, [was] born, June 15, 1777. Cynthia , thei r oldest daughter, [was] born Jan. 15, 1805, in Deposit, Broome Co unty, S tate of New York. Samuel, their eldest son, [was] born Dec. 21 , 1806, i n Deposit, Broome County, New York. Almira, [was] born June 13 , 1810, i n Sanford, Broome County, New York. Phoebe, [was] born Aug. 12 , 1815, Sa nford, Broome County, N.Y. Gerua, [was] born Sep. 8, 1815, i n Sanford, B roome Co., N.Y. Nelson Whipple, [was] born July 11, 1818, i n Sanford, Br oome Co., N.Y.
Daniel Whipple died Sept. 27, 1839, age 60 years, one mo., in Elyria, Lo r ain Co., Ohio, of inflammation of the brain.
Mary Tiffany died Sep. 17, 1845, in Nauvoo, Ill. in her 69th year, of bi l ious fever. Phoebe Whipple Gibson died of fever in 1847 in Zarahemla , I owa. [The site of a settlement which had a stake but was later aban doned . Located near Montrose, Lee County, Iowa, across the Mississipp i Rive r from Nauvoo, Illinois.]
Gerua Whipple died 1848 in Kanesville [Later called Council Bluffs, Iow a , of dropsy and canker. Nelson W. Whipple died July 5, 1887, in Salt L ak e City, Utah.
Births and deaths of some of the principal men of the Church
Joseph Smith, born Monday, Dec. 23, 1805
Brigham Young, born Saturday, June 1, 1801
Heber C. Kimball, born Thursday, June 13, 1801
Orson Hyde, born Monday, June 7, 1805
W.W. Phelps, born Feb. 17, 1792
W. Woodruff, born March 11, 1807
Franklin D. Richards, born Monday, April 1, 1821
Parley P. Pratt, born Friday, Apr. 12, 1807
Introduction
The life and history of Nelson Wheeler Whipple containing an account o f m y forefathers as far back as I have ever been able to obtain any know ledg e from my father and others. This record contains many items of use ful i nformation concerning the events that have taken place on earth i n my lif etime, which probably is not recorded in any other book.
This book I earnestly desire and request to be carefully preserved and k e pt and handed down to my posterity, that they may have a knowledge of t h e events that transpired in the early rise of the Church in the last da y s of my trials, labors and travels while endeavoring to assist in the b ui lding up and establishment of the same.
The writing in this book is very deficient in many respects as will be s e en. Many words are misspelled in consequence of my lack of education a n d the lack of knowledge how to arrange a history, never having had th e op portunity of learning in my younger days by attending school, but wh at ed ucation I have, was picked up of my own accord from time to time a s I ha d the opportunity, without assistance. Nevertheless this book mig ht be a rranged and printed and form a volume that would be read with int erest b y many, aside from my family.
The Whipple Name
The Whipple family originated with Henri De V. Hipple, a gentleman of No r mandy of the vale de Suere, or Suede. For his gallantry he was grante d t he manorial estates of Wraxall. Richard Wraxall, that is, Richard D e V . Hipple was knighted on the battlefield of Agincourt 1415 and give n th e motto Fidele et Brave (faithful and brave). In 1485‑1509 De V. Hi ppl e was anglicized to Whipple. Whipple B Wright Record Library, Albany , N. Y. [Copied by Anor Whipple.]
Chapter 1 - Family Roots
A few sketches of the history of my forefathers according to the best in f ormation I have been able to gather from my father and others.
My great‑great grandfather was among the first settlers of the State o f V ermont, in the town of Brattleboro, Windham County. He had one broth er a lso who came over from England, so says the history that Edson Whipp le ob tained while getting up the genealogy while on a mission east. H e ascert ained that there were three brothers, and from them spring tha t Whipple t hat I have ever found in the United States, which are a consi derable numb er. I believe that all by that name have sprung from them a s I have neve r found any old countrymen that ever heard the name befor e they came to A merica.
The above-mentioned man, I suppose, died in the town of Brattleboro, a t t he age I know not. His name I believe was Timothy, though as to thi s I a m not certain B [Samuel was his name B A.W.][This Samuel=s Grandfat her, J ohn Whipple immigrated to America from England. His Whipple genea logy ca n be traced back two more generations beyond him to a Matthew Whi pple wh o was from Essex Shire, England. Matthew Whipple was born in 153 8.]
My great grandfather's name was Daniel, as I was informed by my fathe r . He also lived and died in the same place as I suppose. [There were t hr ee Daniels. The first was born in Providence, Rhode Island. The firs t D aniel=s father and grandfather were also born in Rhode Island.] I ha ve b ut little knowledge of him at the most, but have often heard my fath er te ll of seeing him when my father was quite a child.
My grandfather, I have some more knowledge of. He was born in Brattlebo r o, Windham County, Vermont in the year 1749. I know but little of hi s li fe until he came to the State of Pennsylvania about the year 1785 . He se ttled in the wilderness on the Susquehanna River, 15 miles fro m any whit e inhabitants. Here he lived until the country became more se ttled and d ied suddenly of the Pleurisy in the 51st year of his age, an d in the yea r 1798.
His family consisted of four sons and three daughters, of whom my fath e r was the eldest. They were: Daniel, Samuel, Richard, and Roswell, Cy nt hia, Polly and Lucy. Roswell was a chair maker by trade and lived i n Pen nsylvania, I think, but I had but little knowledge of him after I w as fiv e years old, when he came to my father's house and brought a set o f commo n kitchen chairs, which were kept in our family for 34 or 35 year s.
Roswell went to the State of Ohio, Zanesville, Muskingum County, on th e M uskingum River and built mills there, and probably died there, bu t I hav e not heard from him for many years.
Samuel was a tailor by trade and went to Canada, and my father never hea r d from him after about the year 1800.
Cynthia and Polly, I cannot remember hearing my father say much, afte r h e left home, but whether either of them married I do not know, but Lu cy m arried a man by the name of Bingham and went to Ohio and was kille d i n a saw mill.
My grandmother's maiden name was Deborah Hildreth. She was confined t o h er bed eight years, before her death, with slow consumption. She die d so me years before my grandfather did, but I do not know in what year . He r father lived to the age of 104 years and died in Vermont, but wha t plac e I do not know. I do not have knowledge of any more of that fami ly.
My father, Daniel Whipple, was born in Brattleboro, Windham County, Verm o nt in the year 1779, Aug. 27. He resided here until he was six years o ld , when his father moved to Pennsylvania.
Here they lived until his mother died. How long that was, I do not kno w , but when, or shortly after she died, he went from his father's hous e an d lived about in different places until he married, which was abou t the y ear 1804, at which time he was 25 years of age.
Daniel Whipple Marries and Moves to New York State
At what place they lived when they were married, I do not know, but shor t ly after, he moved to Deposit, a small village in Broome Co. N.Y. Her e h e followed lumbering most of the time for about five years when he mo ve d to Sanford in the same County, about 4 miles from Deposit on Oquag a Cre ek in the forest, in a valley between the mountains where the soi l was ex tremely poor and subject to frost in summer, and deep snow in wi nter.
Here he built a house and cleared off a farm, of 20 or 30 acres, of th e h eaviest timber which cost him much labor, for which he received smal l pay , as the sale was not productive.
While living at this place, my mother did much towards the support of t h e family by sewing, carding and spinning wool, and spinning flax for h e r neighbors, and by this means clothed her children and mostly fed them .
In this same place they lived 13 years. Here four of the children wer e b orn, including myself, I being the youngest. My father was not at ho me b ut little, being off attending a saw mill or running lumber to Phil adelp hia, down the River Delaware.
My father laboring hard and having made but poorly, thought to seek a be t ter location in some other place. So he and my eldest brother, Samuel , w ent to look out a place in Tompkins Co. in the same State [New York] , whe re some of my mother's kin lived. Having found, as they supposed , a bett er place, they returned and made preparations to move. He sol d his plac e and most of his house furniture and hired my cousin Erastu s Stewart t o haul us to the new location, he staying behind to arrange h is business.
We, after three days= travel, arrived at my uncle Nathan Stewart's who m a rried my mother's sister [Phoebe]. Here we stayed for several days th e n went two miles to my Uncle Jared Patchen's and lived with them sever a l months.
My father came here four weeks after us, and he and Samuel went to movi n g a blockhouse which my father had bought, and putting it up on the fa r m he had taken, during which time we lived at my uncle Jared's.
After having completed the house, we moved over into it. This was up o n a high hill or mountain, where we had an extensive view of the surrou nd ing country in almost every direction.
I was nine years of age and had to perform a great deal of the outdoor l a bor, such as ploughing, harrowing, cutting wood, making fence etc. B u t I will continue the history of my father down to his death and then t ha t of my mother and of the older children, my brothers and sisters an d m y uncles and aunts and of their families, before I commence upon my o wn.
The winter of 1828‑29 was very severe, and we, living on a high hill whe r e the wind had a fine sweep, we found all we could do to keep ourselve s a nd the cattle alive.
Having passed this winter, my father commenced farming, a business he w a s not much used to but made out very well at it for some years. The pr ic e of grain being very low and money scarce, he did not succeed in payi n g for the land he had taken, which was to be four dollars per acre, bu t t he interest had run up to about eight dollars per acre.
Circumstances being as they were, he found it impossible to pay for th e l and, and therefore concluded to sell his improvements and try some ot he r place.
He therefore sold to Joseph Baker and Jefferson Collins for the small s u m of forty dollars. The improvements had cost him not less than 300 do ll ars. He then went to the farm of Joseph Teeter, a part of which he re nte d. He built a house on the part he had taken, but this land being ve ry p oor, he soon gave it up for a bad bargain. During the time he was o n tho se two places, he did something at lumbering and shingles, so tha t he mad e a living with the little that he raised.
My uncle George Tiffany and his family and two of my sisters had gon e t o Ohio a year before he went on to the last mentioned farm. We had r ecei ved letters from them which spoke much in praise of that country whi ch in clined my father to go to Ohio.
The Whipples move to Ohio
In the latter part of the summer of 1833, my father made preparation s t o remove to the State of Ohio. He therefore sold off everything he h ad , his cattle and wagon, household goods etc., in the month of Nov. 183 3 . He hired a young man by the name of Madison Knettles to take his fam il y to the head of Cayuga Lake, a distance of 12 miles, there to take th e s team boat for Montezuma [On the north end of Lake Cayuga].
This lake is a small lake in the center of part of the State of New Yor k . It is 40 miles long and eight or 9 miles wide. A small steamboat na me d DeWitt Clinton was the only boat that ran upon it except small boats .
We arrived at the lake late in the evening and stood ourselves in the wa r ehouse >til morning, and then took the boat for the bridge. This brid g e was built across the foot of the lake two miles long.
Here we shipped aboard a canal boat and went to Montezuma [New York], se v en miles. Here we had to ship again on board another boat for Buffalo , w here we arrived in six days [This trip was made on the Erie Canal whi ch r an from Albany, New York on the east, to Buffalo, New York on the we st an d emptied into Lake Erie].
Buffalo is at the foot of Lake Erie, in the State of New York. Here w e s hipped again on board of the old Pennsylvania steamboat [On Lake Erie ] fo r Cleveland, Ohio.
The first night we were on the boat we witnessed the long to be remember e d signs in the heavens above. Between two and three o'clock in the mor ni ng, I heard the watch come down into the cabin where I lay, and tell t h e passengers of the sight to be seen in the sky. I immediately got u p an d went to the upper deck of the boat to behold the wonderful sight . An d a wonderful sight it was, for the stars were flying in every dire ctio n through the heavens, I stood and looked at them till I was nearl y chill ed through, for it was very cold. I returned to my bed wonderin g what su ch a thing could mean. My father did not go up to see it.
In the morning the wind blew almost a hurricane and very cold. The la k e rolled in tremendously, and the Captain was afraid to start out, an d he re we lay for three days, but the wind did not cease but rather incr eased .
The passengers were so anxious to go that the Captain said he would g o o r go to Hell trying, for he could stand it if they could. So on th e four th morning he put out but found rough weather, and we all wished o urselve s back at Buffalo again.
We went on 12 miles to Point Evernew on the Canadian side, where we anch o red and lay three days. A severe snow storm came on with heavy wind, w hi ch drove several boats back to Buffalo.
On the fourth day we started from there and went as far as Erie in Penns y lvania where the boat belonged. Here the Captain had the boat drawn u p , and said he would not go any further that winter, so we had to make t h e best shift we could for Cleveland.
Here we stayed for three days, when the Fairport steamboat came up wit h h eavy freight and passengers for Cleveland. Here the most of the pass enge rs of the Pennsylvania shipped on board the Sheldon Thompson which d ouble d her cargo. This boat was out of repair and dangerous at best. W e ha d to pass from one boat to the other. As it was raining and freezin g i t was extremely dangerous. After having got aboard this boat we wen t o n towards Cleveland, and we had no chance to lie down or even sit dow n a s the passengers were so thick in the cabin. So we spent the night s tand ing up, amused with jokes and fun of some of the large crowd.
The next day we arrived at Fairport, in Ohio, and stayed >til the next d a y for repairs. The boat started on towards Cleveland, and we met a hea v y snow storm which came on with such fury as to cause the Captain to tu r n back to Fairport again. Here we stayed another night.
The next day we started a second time for Cleveland, which we made ou t t o gain as the day was fair.
We had then been two weeks on Lake Erie and [had] landed almost withou t m oney, food or clothing, as we had lost some clothing on the boat.
My father hired a cart‑boy to take us out of the city, that we might ha v e some chance to get to Eaton in Lorain County [About 20 miles southwe s t of Cleveland], the place of our destination.
Having gone a few miles, we came across an old farmer going home from Cl e veland. We got him to take us out to his house. Here we stayed overni gh t and left all our goods in a barn and pursued our journey on foot i n th e mud, a distance of 20 miles. My sister was sick and hardly able t o wal k. We got as far as Ridgeville [between Cleveland and Elyria] tha t nigh t and stopped at the house of a Mr. Kibby, who treated us with gre at kind ness.
On the following day we arrived at the George Tiffany house in the tow n o f Eaton, Lorain Co. Ohio, the place of our destination.
We found our relatives settled in the woods half leg deep in water , i n a small log shanty with a few acres cleared around them.
On arriving at my brother's house, to our surprise we found Sylvanus Ald r idge and his family living in the same house. This was my half‑brothe r , my mother's oldest child [Her first marriage was to Zenos Adridge] . H e had come from the State of New York. We had not seen him for man y year s.
On meeting with our friends we somewhat cheered, notwithstanding our ha r d fare and past troubles.
Here we lived through the winter in a house 14 by 16 ft., all together , 1 5 in number. We were mostly dependent on them for our provisions, a s w e could not earn anything, as my father was sick all winter.
In the spring my father assisted George in building another house, an d w e lived in the old one, and my father worked in the sawmill of Mr. Ab by , and I chopped for five dollars an acre through the summer.
In the fall we moved to Carlisle and took a sawmill belonging to Phine a s Johnson in the village of Laporte. Here we lived until spring of 183 8 , when we moved to Elyria, the County seat of Lorain County.
Here my father took a small piece of land of Herman Ely, on which we liv e d and worked for a year doing job work of different kinds for a living.
In the spring of 1839 we moved across the river and took another piec e o f land on which was a good orchard.
We repaired the house and fences on this land and did much hard labor a n d raised considerable corn, vegetables etc. which with what we earned o th er ways made ourselves quite comfortable.
On the 18th of Sept. 1839, as my father and I were gathering corn wi t h a yoke of yearling steers, the only team we had at the time. The wea th er was wet and unhealthy, and we both were taken sick at the same tim e . My father was taken with inflammation of the bowels, and I was take n w ith bilious fever.
On finding ourselves in a bad state, we sent for Dr. Howard, a skillfu l p hysician, who attended us faithfully, but in spite of all endeavors m y fa ther died on the 9th day of his illness.
Thus [were] ended the days of Daniel Whipple, at the age of 80 years a n d one month. He was a man of remarkable strong constitution. He had v er y little sickness in his life, except that he once fell from a buildin g a nd hurt his back, which made him grow crooked as he grew older.
He was a man of good moral but did not belong to any church at the tim e o f his death, although he had been a Methodist for a few years of hi s life , but had left them on account of the inconsistency of some of the ir doct rines and notions.
Had he lived to hear the Gospel, he would have embraced it, no doubt, f o r he condemned all churches because they had not the gifts and ordinanc e s according to the order that Christ and the Apostles taught. He als o to ld me that if I lived to be fifty years old, in all probability I wo uld s ee it. In less than one year after his death, the Gospel was preac hed i n the same house that he died in, by Elder John Hughes. My fathe r did no t live quite long enough to hear it.
History of Mary Tiffany
My mother, Mary Tiffany, was born in Barkhamsted, [Litchfield County], S t ate of Connecticut in the year 1777, June 13. She went with her fathe r t o Cortland [Hartland?] in the same State, and lived there until abou t th e year 1800.
I am not certain whether she came into New York or Pennsylvania when s h e left her native state. I do not know exactly the time she was marri e d to [Zenos] Aldridge, her first husband, nor when she was married t o m y father, but her first marriage must have been about the year 1798 , an d her second about the year 1804, as near as I can learn.
After she was married to my father, she labored faithfully to help suppo r t her family. She was a woman of great patience and strong mind and go o d character. She never allowed her children to keep bad company or us e b ad language or contend with each other or anything that could be call ed b ad behavior in any wise.
She raised a family of eight children and lived to see them all men an d w omen grown and able to care for themselves. She used to say that i f sh e could live to see this, she would be willing to die. But after sh e joi ned the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she said tha t if sh e could live to see Nauvoo and hear the instructions from the aut horitie s of the Church, that she would be willing to leave this world . This sh e also lived to see. She was baptized in Litchfield, Medina C ounty, Ohio , on the 23rd day of June 1842 by Elder John Hughes.
She came to Nauvoo with me in 1843, or rather to Knox County, Illinois [ 5 0 miles northeast of Nauvoo] where we stayed >til the next year and mov e d to Nauvoo in 1844, on the 9th of May. Here she enjoyed herself wel l i n having instructions from the servants of God from time to time. Sh e wa s smart and active as women generally are at 40, until she was take n wit h her last illness.
She was a woman of rather less than middle size, fair complexion, hair a n d eyes dark. She had double teeth all round, many of which were soun d a t her death. She was remarkably strong-constitutioned and never kep t he r bed three days at a time after she was 16 years of age, at which t ime s he had a slight attack of consumption, of which she was cured b y a skillf ul physician.
A few days before she was taken sick, she walked to Almira's, a distan c e of one and a half miles, apparently as smart as when she was young . Sh e was taken with a violent fever and was deranged considerably fo r severa l days, but was rational before she died.
I called on Dr. Bernhisel to attend her, but he said it was extremely do u btful whether she would recover. After three days she did not appea r t o be in any pain, but slept most of the time until the 5th day of he r ill ness. On the night of her death, myself and my first wife Jane, an d my s ister Gerua were with her. My sister was also sick at the time an d was n ot able to help take care of her, and my wife and I took turns i n attendi ng to her in the night. She appeared to feel much better and w ished me t o comb her hair. I did so, and she talked cheerfully and tol d me to li e down and rest. My wife was lying down on a bed by the fire . We had pr epared this bed to lie on when she did not need our assistan ce.
I accordingly went and lay down, and as I did so my wife raised up and s a id she thought my mother did not breathe natural, upon which I got up a ga in and went to her bed and thought she was asleep, but behold she di d no t breathe again. She appeared to go to sleep before I lay down, an d sh e lay precisely as she did and looked perfectly natural, Sept. 17, 1 845.
Thus, [were] ended the days of Mary Tiffany. She lived a life of toil a n d hardship, but she ended her days in peace.
My mother's first husband was named Aldridge, by whom she had two childr e n, a son and a daughter. Her son's name was Sylvanus, and her daughte r w as Azuba, the history of whom will be given on another page. These a nd a nother, her 3rd child Cynthia and her 4th child Samuel, were in th e Stat e of New York at the time of her death. She had not heard from th em fo r many years. (I have never heard from any of them up to this
date, 1878)
We were obliged to keep her for three days before she was buried becau s e there were eleven buried the day my mother was, and four left unburi e d that had been dead for several days.
I tried to get someone to make her coffin but could not and had to mak e o ne myself and being quite out of health at best, I was not able to g o t o her grave. She was taken and buried by Wm. Huntington, who was th e sex ton at that time in Nauvoo.
The doctor I employed to attend on my mother in her last illness was Jo h n Bernhisel. (He is still living in Salt Lake City at this date, Jan . 17 , 1877. He is old but still hale and hearty.)
History of Nelson Wheeler Whipple
I was born in the town of Sanford, Broome County, New York in the year 1 8 18 on the 11th day of July. This place was situated in the central pa r t of the State. The country was a cold mountainous region, as all kno w t hat are acquainted with its geography. When I was quite young, my fa the r removed to Pennsylvania in the Susquehanna County, town of Harmon y wher e he took a mill and lived about three years. This mill belonge d to Mart in Lane Esq. At the end of the three years he returned to the o ld place.
When I was about five years old, I went to school to a Mrs. Jeffords , a t which time I learned the alphabet, and that was about all, for I wa s s o bashful I could not make much headway at learning.
The next summer I went a short time to Mrs. Ambrosia Jeffords. At thi s t ime I learned to spell in words of three letters. The school house w a s a Penny settlement one mile from my father's.
I will mention a narrow escape that I had while in Pennsylvania by falli n g through the sawmill floor, a distance of some 12 feet and alighted up o n a place upon my back where, if I had have moved, I should have rolle d d irectly into the crank‑pit, where I should have been instantly killed . B ut as though aware of my situation, I lay still until my father stop ped t he mill and came down and rescued me. Thus, my life was saved at t hat ti me.
The first accident of any kind that ever happened to me was when I was a b out three years of age. This was a bruise on the calf of my leg, whic h w as done against the red-hot bail of a teakettle as it was set off th e fir e. I could not have been three years old at the time. It was a ba d bur n and was more than six months getting well.
I can also remember things distinctly that happened before that, whe n I w as not over two years old. I commenced to labor very young and ha d a des ire to help my father all I could, as I saw the need he had of m y assista nce. I was the youngest, and my brother Samuel was out at wor k for himse lf most of the time.
When at the age of seven years, I went to work in a saw mill with my fat h er and learned the board rule and learned [to] measure and mark lumbe r fo r the Philadelphia market. This was my business in the mill.
Here I continued to work through the summer of 1827. The next summer , m y father moved to Tompkins Co. [New York], in the same state when I w as n ine years old. My mother and the family moved weeks before my fathe r cam e. I do not remember precisely how long it was, but during this ti me I d idn't do much but play with my new friends.
After my father came, I again went to work day by day, as regular as h e d id on the farm or lumbering or anything that came to hand. I was lar ge f or my age and growing fast. I labored beyond my strength and injure d m y constitution, so that I never was strong as I should have been.
While living here I turned my attention, as much as possible, to study a n d trying to learn to read, as I was a poor prospect of getting an educa ti on, unless I could get it myself. I took up various branches of educa tio n, geography and arithmetic and trying to learn to write as I had opp ortu nity.
Here I remained till 1833, during which time I went to school three wee k s in the winter of 1851 to a teacher by the name of Haws. This tim e I sp ent mostly in learning to write.
In the summer of 1833 my father concluded to move to the State of Ohio , a nd therefore made arrangements to leave and started for that State i n Sep tember. We went to Ithaca by (1833) land and there took a boat o n Cayug a Lake to Montezuma on the canal from Albany to Buffalo. At Mont ezuma w e took [a canal boat to Buffalo and Lake Erie and on] [the] Lak e Erie [we nt] on a boat named Pennsylvania.
As soon as we had got on the boat, the weather turned cold and stormy, a n d we remained there for three days. Here we witnessed the falling of t h e stars, Oct. 1833, the time the Church was driven from Jackson Co. i n Mi ssouri.
After three days we started for Cleveland Ohio. The storm [was] still r a ging at a high rate, the wind blowing down the lake. When the boat le f t the pier, it seemed impossible to stem the storm, but could not get b ac k into port, so we came on 12 miles to Port of Evernew on the Canadia n si de, and cast anchor.
Here we lay three more days in a dangerous situation before the storm ce a sed, then the weather became fine, and we went on the Erie in Pennsylva ni a, where the boat belonged. Here the weather was very cold, and the C apt ain would not go any farther. So we were shipped onto another boat , an d after five more days again started for Cleveland but stopped at Fa irpor t to repair the boat. Here we stopped till next day, then starte d agai n for Cleveland. When within about 15 miles of the place we wer e met b y a heavy snow storm, and we were obliged to turn back to Fairpor t again . Stayed here till next day and made out to reach Cleveland abou t the 15 th of Oct. 1835.
After some difficulty, we got a man to take us out 5 miles toward our pl a ce of destination. Here we stayed over night, and the next day we wen t o n foot through the mud towards Eaton, until we arrived at the hous e o f a man named Kibby where we stopped that night.
In the morning we proceeded on to our place of destination in the tow n o f Eaton, Lorain County, Ohio. Here we found my half brother Sylvanu s an d his family in a log cabin 16 feet square, with GeorgeTiffany and h is fa mily which made ten, and when we arrived made fourteen in the sam e room . Finding Sylvanus Aldridge there was unexpected, as we had not se en no r heard from him for several years B 1833.
Here we lived all together through that winter, during which time we bui l t a house for George to live in, and Sylvanus built him a house, and i n t he spring they left the little house to us.
We lived through that summer, 1834, worked at whatever we could find t o d o until fall, when we moved to Laporte in Carlisle, about 3 miles fro m th e former place, where we resided until the next fall, when we agai n move d to Elyria, the county seat of Lorain B 1835.
Here we remained until the death of my father in September 1839.
I was taken sick on the 17th day of September 1839 and was near deat h a t the time my father died, but recovered slowly until late in the fal l wh en by overeating I was again taken with dyspepsia, which kept me dow n nea r a year, and which affected me more or less till the present day.
After I had recovered in part from this, I found myself alone, as it wer e , in the world, and considerably in debt from the expenses of doctors , bu t always finding employment, I soon extricated myself from this B 18 40.
After having set all matters to rights, I went to Chatham, [about 30 mil e s west of Akron, Ohio] where my sisters lived and built a house for m y mo ther to live near my brother‑in‑law, Benjamin Gibson. Thinking myse lf t o go to sea, but through the persuasion of my mother, I gave up th e proje ct B 1841.
I remained in Elyria, bought a lot and built a small house and moved m y m other back to live with me. Here we lived through the winter and nex t su mmer. During the time my mother and three sisters were living in Ch atha m and Litchfield [near Chatham].
Nelson Wheeler Whipple Joins the Church
The Mormons came preaching in that country, and they all joined the Chur c h of [Jesus Christ of] Latter‑day Saints.
On investigating the doctrines taught by these people, called Mormon s , I turned my attention to the same and soon became satisfied of the tr ut h of these principles and began to make arrangements to go to Nauvoo i n t he fall. The first sermon I heard was preached in my own house by El de r John Hughes in 1841.
Susan Jane Bailey, my first wife, was baptized about the same time tha t m y mother and sisters were in Litchfield, Medina Co., Ohio. We, havin g be en intimately acquainted for a long time, and her parents nor any o f he r relatives belonging to the Church, and knowing her desire to go t o Nauv oo, [I[ proposed to marry her and take her with us to the west. T his sh e agreed to. We were married on the 6th day of Aug. 1845 in Elyri a, Lora in Co., Ohio, by Elder John Hughes, in the house of her stepfathe r on wes t Evernew St.
Having made all necessary preparations for going to Nauvoo, through th e s ummer I left Elyria on the 7th day of Sept., 1843, in company with th e fo llowing persons ‑‑John Hughes, Betsy, his wife, Smith his son, Willi am, h is son, Brittan his daughter, Charlie, his son, Willard his son; Ge orge T iffany and his wife, Almira, and children B Cynthia, Zenos, Ira, L oyal, T homas Knoakes and wife Emma and children B Robert [?], Hubbard, W illiam K noakes and wife Rebecca; B Benjamin Gibson and wife, Phoebe, an d childre n B Clymenia, Hannah and Amy; George Gee and wife; Bro. William s and wife ; Mary Whipple and daughter Gerua and I (Nelson Wheeler W. an d Susan Jan e Bailey, my wife. This constituted the company with which w e came fro m Elyria, Lorain Co., Ohio to Henderson, Knox Co., State of Il linois . B 1845
On leaving Ohio, I and my wife left numerous friends and relatives who s e emed to regret our departure, but who could not persuade us to stay fr o m gatherings with the Church, so great was our determination to follo w ou t the plan of salvation.
We proceeded on towards Nauvoo in the above-mentioned company, by wa y o f the places mentioned below . . .
Route Travelled
From Elyria [Ohio] to Birmingham14 miles
Birmington [Birmingham] to Florence 8
Florence to Norwalk 8
Norwalk to Monroeville 5
Monroeville to Belview 7
Belview to Green Creek 9
Green Creek [Springs?] to Sandusky 7
Sandusky to Perrysburg 31
This was through what was called the Black Swamp in Ohio. The road wa s m acadamized with broken up fine stone pounded in.
Perrysburg to Maumee City 1 mile
Maumee City to Sylvania 12
Sylvania to Adsen 15 1/2
Adsen to Mosco 20
Mosco to Jonesville10
Jonesville to Coldwater 18
Coldwater to Brunson 12
Brunson to Sturgis Perrane [Michigan] 15
Sturgis to White Pigeon 12
White Pigeon to Motville 6
Motville to Bristol [Indiana] 6
Bristol to Elkhart 8
Elkhart to Mishawaka 11
Mishawaka to South Bend 4
South Bend to Laporte 28
Laporte to Door Village 4
Door Village to Valiperazo [Valparaiso] 18
Valperizo [Valparaiso] to Jolyett [Joliet, Illinois] 56
Jolyett [Joliet] to Ottawa 43
Ottawa to Peru 16
Peru to Princeton 20
Princeton to Providence 10
Providence to Ocoly 12
Ocoly to Lafayett 13
Lafayett to Walnut Grove 17
Walnut Grove to Henderson 12
Henderson to Monmouth 20
Monmouth to Nauvoo 55
Total 563
At Henderson, Knox [Now Mercer] Co., Illinois we made a halt, both myse l f and Bro. Tiffany sick with ague and out of money. Bro. Gibson had st op ped at Ottawa about 100 miles back and also Mr. Knoaks.
Placed in this situation we hardly knew what course to take, but we fou n d the people very kind, and we soon prepared houses to live in and some th ing to eat. I was directed to a doctor Cooper in the same town, who m I w as told could cure us of the ague, so I went to him and asked him i f he w ould give us some medicine for that complaint.
He said he would cure us both if we would chop him one cord of wood wh e n we got well. This I thought was reasonable enough and took it accord in gly to his directions, and it broke the ague forthwith and we got wel l so on.
On beginning to recover my health, I began to study what I should purs u e for a living while I should stay in that place. Having some knowled g e of turning, etc, I thought to make chairs and spinning wheels which p ro ved to be a good business in that place.
I therefore put up a lathe, the best I could and proceeded to prepare f o r such work. When I got ready, Br. Tiffany came in to work with me, a n d we did very well at it. Provisions of all kinds were low. Wheat 3 7 ce nts, flour one 1/2 cent per pound, fresh pork the same and good sal t por k two cents per pound, eggs three cents per doz. sugar six cen
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