Jacob Harris BAUM

                   Sources: 1. Flora Bean Horn Record, Salt Lake City. 2. Copy of Temple Divorce in possession of Mrs. Elsie Campbell 210 W 3800 N. Provo, UT. 3. Copy of Temple sealings in possession of Mrs. Campbell. 4. Birth, Baptism and enwowment date of Melinda Ann Cummings.  Above received from Brenda Shawley.

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History of the Life of Jacob Harris Baum by his daughter, Elizabeth A. Baum Ferguson, January 9, 1926
(Received from Brenda Shawley).

On April 5, 1794 in Brandy Wine County, Pennsylvania, Jacob Baum was born. Also on September 24, 1793, Agnes Harris was born. They were the parents of Jacob Harris Baum who was born May 29, 1836
in the same place.

When Jacob Harris Baum was born his sisters, Jane and Elizabeth, were as proud of their little brother as his parents, who one morning three years previous to their great sorrow had found their other only son dead in bed. After careful thought they decided to name the new baby after his brother whom they had lost and to add a second name, Harris, his mother's maiden name. They called him Jacob Harris Baum.

Soon Jacob was a romping youngster big enough to go with his
father to work in the little rock house near their home where he did
his weaving. Weaving and farming was the father's profession.
Jacob liked very much to be with his father, but the happiest time of his childhood days was when he would go whistling down the grass-grown path to the pasture and into the Locus grove whe re the little rock schoolho use stood. He attended school here. Close by the Lqcus grove and their home ran a sparkling stream of water called the ...:\randywine Creek.

Like all other children he was very proud and happy on the morning of his first school day as he took his shining new slate which his
father had purchased for him. This slate, I, Elizabeth A. Baum Ferguson used as long as I went to school.

When Jacob was eight years of age his father and family were convinced of the truthfulne ss of the gospel and in the year 1842 th_y all joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Soon after this they disposed of their property and went to Nauvoo to be united with the other saints. Jacob's father was a bishop there for s orne time.

Jacob was young while they lived in Nauvoo but he could remember their trials and persecutions. Alth:>ugh they passed through many hardships his father was able to build a comfortable home which they thought would be their permanent abode but they were only allowed
to enjoy it four years when the cruel exterminating order was issued
for the saints to mo;ve.. out of Nauvoo. So, taking all their belongings which they could possibly load in their wagons, disposing of the rest,
and after taking a last farewell glance at their comfortable home,
they started out to where they knew not. Though they were facing
desert and wildmen they felt they would rather go than to be
harrassed by the mobs as they and the other saints had been.

-2­History of the Life of Jacob Harris Baum.

They crossed over the Mississippi river and camped with the
re st of the saints that winter. The winter was so cold it froze the Mississippi river and a number of saints crossed on the ice. In the latter days of his life Jacob talked of the hardships of the people while in camp. Many died of hunger and cold. When the ravages of hunger became so great they prayed to God for maintenance of life. In answer to their prayers great flocks of quail came as food. The next spring Jacob's fathe r moved his family to Council Bluffs where the hardships were still greater caused by the death of their mother on September 11, 1846. She was unable to endure the hardships.

While in Council Bluffs the father married again thinking it would be better for his motherless children, but it didn't turn out as he had anticipated. The stepmother was not kind to the children. Jacob and his younger sister Janet planned what they would do when they were old enough to do for themselves. They promised each other that the first one married was to give the other one a home and they made a binding promise.

In the year 1850, when Jacob was but 14 years old, the family started on their long and perilous journey across the plains to Salt Lake City, Utah. From that time on his life was filled with many
more hardships and trials of all kinds. It was a hard trip for the children as they had to take turns driving the herd of cattle their
father brought with them. When his father started, he had two wagonloads of furniture, a span of horses and a number of oxen and cows. Being a weaver, he brought boxes of cloth which he had woven himself. This cloth lasted him as long as he lived. He brought across the plains with an ox team the tall grandfather clock which stands in the relic hall in Salt Lake City in the state capitol building today.

One night while crossing the plains the Indians stole his two horses. It left him with his two wagons, a buggy, and a yoke of oxen. They were in an independent company and after many months of hardship and traveling over unknown paths, leaving by the roadside many of their loved ones who had died, they reached Salt Lake City. Upon reaching Salt Lake City the company numbered seventy-two people.

Some of the company settled in Salt Lake City but Jacob's father
came to Provo City where he took possession of a large tract of land. After all the hardships they had endured coming out to the West, they could not live in peace now on account of the Indians. Jacob was only a boy but he took his turn guarding on the hill where now stands the
Maeser Memorial Building against a surprise visit by the Indians. At that time it was the city cemetary however some years later
the graves were opened and the bodies moved to the new cemetary, that is, all that could be found. My mother's little brother is still sleeping somewhere on the hill in an unknown spot.

-3­History of the Life of Jacob Harris Baum.

Three years later in 1853, President Brigham Young called for volunteers to go to Laramie, Wyoming and bring back a load of Saints who got that far and on account of ill health and shortage of food were unable to come any farther without help. Jacob who was only seventeen years of age volunteered to go. President Brigham Young furnished him with a wagon and a yoke of oxen. He started out and it took him three months to make the trip. Then President Young sent him back
for the second load. Before he completed the second trip cold weather set in and his stepmother only gave him one calico quilt to take with
him and he suffered with cold but when the imigrants found out he was
so destitute of bedding they were very kind and shared their bedding
with hUn. On his return at the end of the second trip he was credited with six months labor tithing for his services. Through the exposure of these trips his health was broken down and during the remainder
of his life his health was nver as it should have been nor was he very strong.

Jacob's stepmother was so unkind to him he was forced to
leave home. He went and lived with President Brigham Young for a while. President Young wanted to keep him all the time but Jacob remembered the promise he made to his sister Janet and being young and not realizing the opportunities which President Young could
give him, he went to live with his sister who had recently married and was living in Heber City, Utah.

On July 24, 1864, Jacob was married to Melinda Cummings of Heber City. There he resided about six years then with his wife and three children he moved to Provo to care of his aged father. His stepmother had passed away sometime before.

On his way from Heber City to Provo by way of Park City and Salt Lake he had to ford the river. The river was so high there was a large stream on each side of the bridge that would swim oxen. Jacob had to sit on one of the oxen whipping the foremost yoke and spurring them th:tO,llgh the swift current. Just as they were about to reach the opposite bank the wagon box began to raise from the wagon. But with the prayers of his wife who sat in the wagon box with the three little children, their lives were spared and they reached the bank safely. The next day the bridge was washed away. It took Jacob and his wife three weeks to make the trip from Heber to Provo.  

                 ­History of the Life of Jacob Harris Baum.

In a short time after he came to Provo to live, his sister Janet wrote to him and asked him to come and bring her and her children
to live with him. She told him that her husband refused to
provide for them. Jacob being a very sympathetic man went at once and brought his sister and her six children to his ,home. The two families shared alike, both families lived from his earnings until they were large enough to work for themselves.

Jacob overworked and was stricken with a severe sickness which lasted all summer. The doctor didn't give him hope of living, and while he was in this condition he and his wife lost their only two boys, one three and the other five years old. There was only three months between their deaths. This was a severe blow for the parents. However through faith and prayer and the kindness of God, Jacob's life was spared and he lived to be seventy-four years of age. He came as near keeping the second great commandment as anyone could, that being "Love thy neighbor as thy self. "

In the year 1912, on March 21, his life's struggle ended.
He had lived a good life, was honest and true, could see good in everybody and was always willing to share with his neighbors of what he had. He was of a very quiet disposition, no one really knew what a load he carried. He was always patient and never complained. He had lived a life so that when his disrobed spirit soared to realms of glory he could say to his Fahter-in-Heaven, "Judge me as I have judged my fellow men. "