Both Don Carlos Smiths would die the next year. Blackman,History of Susquehanna County,103. 1. I have not been able to confirm this purchase in the land deed records. [citation needed] She and Bidamon had no children of their own. 77. Peck,Early Methodism,306. Rachel Cope, A Sacred Space for Women: Hymnody in Emma Hale Smiths Theology, Journal of Religious History (2017). His Hearken, O Ye People: The Historical Setting of Joseph Smiths Ohio Revelations(2009) is a landmark study placing the revelations received by Joseph Smithin historical perspective. Some historians have speculated the Stowell work party stayed in Elizabeth Hales tavern when they arrived.270 While contemporary sources indicate the group of workmen stayed on the Hale property for an extended period, the Hale Family did not own a tavern, and archaeology suggests there was no room in their frame home for a number of guests for an extended period. But her placement of the ruins on the Westfall property is supported by early sources.268The map Blackman described marking the town suggests it was a small settlement and it was likely affiliated with the larger community at Oquago to the norththe connection between the two places may explain the name of Oquago Mountain. The value listed for the Hales under house jumped from $20 to $98 when the additional structure was included in 1819 but the value only dropped to $40 in 1822. You can contact the owner of the tree to get more information. But he may have also selected the site because of its sacred nature. And she wrote them of the great city her fellow believers were building called Nauvoo where the entire Hale family could come to live, even if they did not accept her religion.291. Florence Hartley,The Ladies Book of Etiquette, and Manual of Politeness(Boston: G. W. Cottrell, Publisher, 1860), 124. 2 (Fall 2015): 1-105. Joseph and Emma first met through Isaac Hales association with Josiah Stowell, a Presbyterian who belonged to the congregation of a close friend of the Hales, and who had come looking for silver in the remains of an Indian village on the neighboring Westfall property. Lewis was apparently later ordained an Elder.197 But circuit riders regularly visited the local congregations and preached in the Susquehanna Valley throughout Lewiss tenure as a preacher. 88. . Tench Francis dictated his will on April 4, 1800, leaving his large tract of Susquehanna Valley property to his wife. What had been a small denomination ridiculed by members of the established Churches, a denomination that in Harmony included shouts of praise, falling to the floor in religious ecstasy, and above all direct and immediate answers to prayers, had become the largest denomination in America by 1820. Vogel, Josiah Stowell, Jr., to John S. Fullmer, 17 February 1843,Early Mormon Documents,4:78, 80; Vogel, Lyman Stowell Reminiscence, 1901,Early Mormon Documents,4:86. Joseph boarded at the nearby home of Isaac Hale, where he met Emma, Isaac's twenty-year old daughter. In 1834, Isaac Hale, who was the father-in-law of Mormon prophet Joseph Smith, swore a legal affidavit against Joseph saying that Joseph was involved in trea. 110. August 1830, Deed from Isaac and Elizabeth Hale, 25 August 1830, as Frisbie,History of Middletown,58. July 4, 2022 . Many other land owners in the valley were taxed on an additional home that same year. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. Daniel Buck settled his young family in the middle of the Susquehanna Valley at Painted Rock, a site later known as Red Rock, because Native American inhabitants had used red paint to depict various figures, apparently turning the site into a ritual setting or sacred location.104 This was also the location of the Indian burying-ground in the area.105 The land at Painted Rock was not good farmland and before the railroad came through the area it consisted largely of a picturesque blend of massive freestanding rock formations and steep cliffs. Anderson, Ancestry and Posterity of Joseph Smith, 302. Blackman,History of Susquehanna County,57. [11] Emma first met her future husband, Joseph Smith, in 1825. 116. Early settlers referred to the place where the river entered Pennsylvania as the east bend and where it returned into New York as the west bend, while the entire river as it passed through the valley was the great bend.41 Although the valley remains officially unnamed, early residents along this great bend called it the Susquehanna Valley.42 During the twentieth century that name has generally come to refer to a much larger region that includes the entire river drainage system through upper Pennsylvania. A successful farmer, sawmill operator, and grain trader, Stowell hired the men either because he had heard something of a silver mine having been opened by the Spaniards or an old document had fallen into his possession, which minutely described the spot where a mine had existed in that valley. Kirk and McQuinn, personal communications to author, July and August 2014. Blackman noted that the region is filled with sources of salt, Emily Blackman, Susquehanna County, in William H. Egle, ed.,An Illustrated History of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania(Harrisburg: De Witt C. Goodrich & Co., 1876), 1019. Not everyone in the Hale family participated in the search for silver, however, as Isaacs brother-in-law Nathaniel Lewis seems to have separated his family from these efforts. and [I] have sometimes suspected, that instead of being a guard against him [a malicious gnome or the evil spirit] it only adds to his power; so that I have been a whole day together afraid to behold it. Robert H. Rose, letter to Miss Jane Hodge, January 24, 1808. It would be twenty years before forests would become cultivated fields. After Isaac Hale established a farm, he returned to Wells to marry Elizabeth Lewis. He was also an avid reader and was better (self) educated than most. 181. 31. See Harmony Township tax records for unseated lands for Jacob, William, and Joseph Smith, Unseated lands for William Smith (364 acres) and Jacob Smith (401 acres) 1815 recorded for January 1816 assessment; 1820 it is William 364 and Jacob 402. Even decades later, the Hale men were hired by their neighbors to cut meat, soften it with saleratus, and smoke it for eating in later months. It was likely the array of comforts that impressed her most. Paragraphs are shortened for easier reading. But she unfortunately married a British Officer who had a wife in England which was afterwards discovered. Silas Comfort, a boy who grew up with Emma and who attended church with his parents in her familys home, preached in the late 1820s and early 1830s. 136. Rose overcame his melancholy feelings as he worked to create a place for his intended bride. 247. Sharpe,History of Oxford,12. . For many years there were no denominations save Presbyterians [Congregationalists].170, This early religious awakening in the valley did not last long because of what became known as the Buck difficulty in 1799. Life on the Hale farm remained difficult and isolated during the early years of settlement. Benson Bobrick,Angel in the Whirlwind: The Triumph of the American Revolution(New York: Penguin Books, 1997),50-51, 148. . Franklin Bowditch Dexter, ed.,The Literary Diary of Ezra Stiles(New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1901), 3:264, 266, 368, 488. Wilkinson,Annals of Binghamton,35. His lack of education and resources contrasted with Emmas respectable situation, but she was immediately impressed with his character and morals. Emma Hale Smith (1804-1879), wife of the Prophet Joseph Smith, was born July 10, 1804, in the Susquehanna Valley in harmony township (now Oakland), Pennsylvania, to Isaac and Elizabeth Lewis Hale, the first permanent settlers in the valley. [11], On March 17, 1842, the Ladies' Relief Society of Nauvoo was formally organized as the women's auxiliary to the church. The other families were those of John Hilborn, Martin Lane, and John Comfort. Ch.2) This quote is not from The History of the Church, Volume 1, Chapter 2, as claimed. If correct, this places the Hale land payments at somewhere around $35.00 a year for a decade. Records, Letter to Church Leaders in Jackson County, Missouri, 25 June It was at a very Low ebb with us, he complained.283 The whole nature of Methodism changed during the years he and the Hales were members, and many of the first generation converts in Harmony did not comfortably change with it. Isaac Hale may have also gotten his interest elsewhere rather than in Wells since the practice was so widespread in America at the time. 170. Understanding the physical setting of the Hale farm and its mansion,helps us to not only better place the events of 1825-1830 Mormonism within their physical and cultural setting, but also enlarges our appreciation of the Isaac and Elizabeth Hale family. Willingborough Township, 1798 Direct Tax. This may help explain why Isaac Hale purchased less land than he occupied in 1798. It was while here that Joseph Smith began translating the Book of Mormon from the gold plates. Personalities in the Doctrine and Covenants. A proper young lady or gentleman was to write to a slight acquaintance in the third person, was not to write in a frank, friendly style, and was not to keep letters confidential from his or her parents.303 Emma likely showed her father Josephs courting letters, and Isaac Hales evaluation of his abilities was likely similar to that of Emma, who noted, Joseph Smith . The creek was named Lewis Creek and ran down from Turkey Hill through Jameson Hollow (now Bedbug Hollow) until it emptied into the Susquehanna River. Isaac Hale worked for the Pickering family over the next few years. Eclectic Man carved the Oliver Harper headstone. Andrew Tracys 17991801 diary as cited in Blackman,History of Susquehanna County,11516. This is the same version that was picked up by late nineteenth century religious publications and reprinted many times.295, Alva Hale sold the rest of his parents farm to the Dayton family in 1842, and the Daytons then rented it to Peter Blodgett. isaac hale father of emma smith. When the deeds were all registered and the debts paid, the 130 1/2 acre Hale farm included the 90 acre Rose section and 40 1/2 acre Carmalt section and was likely a subset of the original 150 acres for which Hale was taxed in 1798. . Since the Lewis family, as were many Methodists, had been early promoters of temperance, but did not condemn tobacco use, the artifact pattern more likely reflects their use of the site as a Methodist meeting house than a public house. Post noted in his journal: I thought R. H. Rose to be a gentleman & a man of honour & that his word might be depended upon but Alas! Hilborn eventually purchased his freedom, but his experience gave him more familiarity with Native Americans than was typical for the period. Elizabeth laid her arms across her chest and passed quietly away with out stiring or makeing any motion whatever at two oclock in the morning on February 16, 1842. 17. Isaacs distinction between my house and near my residence is similar to a later account by one of Emmas Lewis cousins whose family was also taxed for two houses on their property. 2 Farmer, hunter, innkeeper. Early Life and Marriage Emma was born July 10, 1804, in Harmony Township, Pennsylvania, the seventh child of Elizabeth Lewis and Isaac Hale. 86. Done a Methodist was because he convinced Mrs. Upham,Life of Timothy Pickering,119. Harmony, February 22, 1826, Elial T. Foote Papers, 26:137; and Paul,History of Wells,119. His sister Emma began attending the Methodist classes that same year.207Emma became a member of a class in the Methodist Episcopal Church when only seven years old. Hale Farm, left of center line; Morse Farm, top right of center. Almon Munsons tavern in Taylortown, two and one-quarter miles west of the Hale home, was the only one near the Hale home in 18241825.271 It was in the Munson tavern where the Hale familys neighbors regularly gathered for activities, and it was in the Munson Tavern where Isaac Hale sat on the Grand Jury investigating Jason Treadwell for the murder of Oliver Harper in 1824.272 That tavern building still stands today.273 Charles Hatch operated a tavern in Lanesville, three miles east of the Hale farm, but not until 18281829.274.