LEGACY
#1 Hannah Hodson Forsyth Beck
#2 Truelove Latham
#3 Joseph Ellison Beck
Joseph Ellison Beck was born on May 31, 1810, in New Hanover Township, Burlington County, New Jersey. Joseph was the second son born to James and Hannah Antram Beck. As a young man, Joseph joined his father in the family meat processing business in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Joseph’s industry made him quite affluent. During 1840, Joseph attended a public meeting where Orson Hyde, an apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. Joseph was quite impressed with the apostle’s earnestness of purpose and enthusiasm for the gospel. Orson Hyde told the crowd that he was traveling without “purse or script” and was on his way to Palestine in the Holy Land to dedicate the land for the gathering of the Jews. Joseph was so impressed that he gave Orson Hyde a purse of gold and requested the apostle to remember “Ellison” in his missionary work and in the dedicatory prayer at the Mount of Olives. In response, Elder Hyde gave Joseph a blessing that he would never be in want and that he should go to Zion in safety. Later, Joseph joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and left Kanesville, Iowa, and successfully crossed the Great Plains with the Ezra Taft Benson Company on July 4, 1849. In fulfillment of the blessing by Elder Hyde, the family survived the ordeals of the crossing, including a Cholera epidemic, and arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on October 28, 1849.
#4 Sarah Elizabeth Bates
Sarah Elizabeth Bates was born on January 20, 1807, to John Bates and Sophia Anderson Bates of Drafton, Ireland. Sarah and her family lived in Ireland until the potato famine that started in 1845 and forced the family’s immigration to America. Sarah’s family settled in New Hampshire, where her father initially worked in the lumber industry. Her father’s pioneering spirit urged him west to Buffalo, New York. At this time, Sarah was a young lady. The Bates family lived near a British Army outpost near Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was during this time that Sarah met the handsome British soldier, John Murray. John and Sarah were married on October 28, 1833, and made their home in Lucerne, Michigan. Sarah and John had seven children while they lived in Michigan. After joining the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Sarah and John moved their family to Nauvoo, Illinois, and ultimately joined the John Tidwell wagon Company and traveled to the Salt Lake Valley, arriving in 1852. They moved to Spanish Fork and started a farm, but in 1865 were called by the Prophet Brigham Young to be one of the fifty families to serve a mission in “The Muddy”, an area seventy miles southwest of St. George, Utah. The Murrays lived there until 1871, when, due to crushing tax demands from the state of Nevada, combined with years of extreme physical hardship, geographical isolation, and crop failures, Brigham Young advised the settlers to abandon the mission. Sarah and her family returned to their farm in Spanish Fork, Utah.
#5 Mary Curtis
Mary Curtis was born on November 15, 1832 in Highland, Oakland County, Michigan. She was the daughter of Jeremiah and Ruth Statton Curtis. She was the ninth of eleven children. In about 1836, the Curtis family moved from Michigan to Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois. In Nauvoo they heard about the gospel of Jesus Christ and were baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. When Mary was twelve years old, her older sister died, leaving two young children. After their mother’s death, Mary took care of her sister’s two surviving children, Francis and Louisa Houghton. Later, Mary married the children’s father, Ornan Houghton. Ornan and Mary had one child. On June 27, 1844, the Prophet Joseph Smith was murdered in Carthage, Illinois, jail at the age of 38. Mary was among the mourners who lined the roadside as the bodies of the Prophet Joseph Smith and Hyrum Smith were brought back to Nauvoo from Carthage. Mary was present on August 8, 1844 when Brigham Young spoke to the assembled members of the church in Nauvoo and taught that the Prophet Joseph Smith taught that the keys to the kingdom were held by the apostles, and that the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles held the authority to lead the Church. In 1845, when Mary’s father urged her to come with their family and the apostle Lyman Wight to Texas, Mary chose instead to follow her testimony that the mantle of leadership had passed to Brigham Young, the most senior of the apostles. In 1847, Ornan Houghton died and was buried in Nauvoo. Mary’s father sent her older brother back to collect Mary and bring her to Texas, but Mary refused to leave the leadership of Brigham Young. Angered, her brother too all of Mary’s possessions, including a gold necklace that had been handed down for many generations, and left for Texas. Gratefully, Mary still had a milk cow and calf that she had loaned to a neighbor with a young baby. Seeing her plight, Brigham Young gave Mary a pony cart, and Mary drove this pony and cart across the Great Plains with the cow and calf trotting along behind the cart. Brigham Young assigned Mary to the Stephen Markham company. After arriving in Salt Lake Valley, Brigham Young performed the marriage of Mary Curtis and Stephen Markham.
#6 Stephen Markham
Stephen Markham was born February 9, 1800 in Rush, Livingston County, New York. He was the second son born to Dinah Merry and David Markham. His father fought in the Revolutionary War. Stephen met and married Hannah Hogleboon of Manchester, Vermont. Stephen worked very hard as a young farmer and became a well-to-do farmer. Elder Abel Lamb met Stephen and taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ. Stephen was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in July of 1837 in Chester, Ohio. After Stephen’s conversion, the prophet, Joseph Smith, asked Stephen to sell his property and used the money to finance and lead a group of about sixty members of the Church from Kirtland, Ohio to Far West, Missouri. When tensions in Missouri boiled over between the members of the church and the other settlers, Stephen was one of the 380 members of the church, including Joseph Smith, who signed the “Covenant of Removal”. The Covenant of Removal was a promise to leave no poor behind in their exodus from Missouri. Stephen was one of the committee chosen to supervise the exodus from Missouri. While Joseph Smith was imprisoned in Liberty Jail, Stephen testified in court on April 11, 1839, in defense for Joseph Smith against the State’s felonious charges. As Stephen left the courthouse, a Mr. Blakely yelled at him, “**** you **** Mormon. I’ll kill you!” and struck at Stephen with his fist and club. Stephen took the club from the man and threw it over the fence. Ten rioters rushed Stephen to kill him, including Colonel William P. Penniston, captain of the guard. Stephen threatened the rushing mob that he would kill each of them with one blow apiece, and drove the attackers away with his threats. As Stephen slept with Joseph Smith and the other men in the prophet’s cell, Joseph woke and told Stephen to flee. Joseph said that he had seen a vision that his “beloved Brother Markham” was in great danger. Joseph promised Stephen if he left, Stephen would arrive in Far West safely. Joseph warned that if Stephen did not follow his counsel, the mob would shoot him on his way back to Far West. Stephen followed the prophet’s counsel and safely returned to Far West, collected his family, and moved to Nauvoo. Stephen was made an officer in the Nauvoo Legion and remained a trusted protector and confidant of Joseph Smith for the rest of the prophet’s life.
#7 John Murray
John Murray was born June 20, 1815 to Andrew and Christenia Murray of Edinburgh, Scotland. John served in the British Army and came to North America during the Canadian Border troubles. Rather than returning to Scotland, John joined the Americans and settled in Monroe County, Michigan. John met and married a young Irish girl, Sarah Bates. In October of 1844, at the age of 30, and while the family lived in Monroe County and Sarah was expecting the delivery of their seventh child, a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints came to their home and taught the family the gospel of Jesus Christ. The missionary’s name was Jeremiah Hatch, a Patriarch in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. John and Sarah readily accepted the gospel. Eleven days after their son was born, John and Sarah were baptized, and they named their son Jeremiah Hatch Murray. In 1851, at the age of 36, John served a proselytizing mission for the church as Seventy in the Eastern States Mission. On June 4, 1852, at the age of 37, John and his family joined the John Tidwell Company and traveled west to the Utah Territory in 1852 by a covered wagon pulled by an ox team. He was a patriarch in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and he and his family served a mission to the Muddy, where he endured many hardships and took an active part in developing that country. John was a veteran of the Black Hawk and Walker Indian Wars. He supported his family financially as a farmer and wheelwright.
#8 Thomas Ward, Sr.
Thomas Ward was born on January 2, 1801 a Queniborough, Leicester, England to William Ward and Hannah Clements. He was the 6th child and the youngest member of the family. Thomas married Hannah on May 22, 1822 in Quenibrough, England. They had eleven children. Thomas was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on August 18, 1864 while the Civil War was raging in the United States. When the call came from the leadership of the church, Thomas, Hannah, and their granddaughter, Mary, emigrated from England to the United States about May 30, 1864 on the ship General McClellan. During the voyage, the ship, crew, and passengers encountered near hurricane storms, evaded Confederate warships, and dangerous icebergs. They arrived in New York on the hot day of June 23, 1864. Military authorities tried to enlist Thomas into the Civil War, but Thomas was able to prove he was an English citizen and was released. Thomas, Hannah, and their granddaughter, Mary, made their way to Wyoming, Nebraska, about 40 miles south of Omaha, Nebraska, where they made preparations to join a handcart company. Thomas and Hannah’s granddaughter, Mary, crossed the Great Plains in Captain Joseph S. Rawlins’ company. There were 437 pioneers in the company, and they left Wyoming on July 15, 1864. The company experienced severe trials and hardships during their 1,100-mile trek, including disease, fording cold and dangerous rivers, and danger from Indians and runaway soldiers. They used “Buffalo chips” for fuel for their fires. Finally, on September 20, 1864, they arrived in the Salt Lake Valley. Thomas and his family cultivated a farm in Spanish Fork, Utah. Thomas died in Spanish Fork on September 18th, 1878, at the age of 77 years, 7 months, and 18 days.