Ebenezer Clawson RICHARDSON

                                         EBENEZER CLAWSON RICHARDSON  RICHEBEN.815  RIN 232

                                         MATERNAL 2ND GREAT GRANDFATHER

      Ebenezer Richardson was born August 7, 1815, in Dryden, Steuben County, New York.  He grew to young manhood in this family of eleven children, and when he was eighteen years old (1833) he  met and married a beautiful dark-eyed, brunette girl, Angeline King.

      Mormon Missionaries had converted his parents as early as 1834, and in the fall of 1834 both Angeline and Ebenezer were converted to the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  They were baptized into the church by the Prophet Joseph Smith.

      Their first child, a little girl, Mary Amanda, was born to them the 24 of August 1834 in Greenwood, New York where they continued to live for some time.  Albert Ebenezer was born to them 31 May 1837, George Allen 24 Dec. 1839, and Eliza the 17 Mar 1843.

      Sometime between 1838 and 1839 the entire Richardson clan had packed up and left New York in order to join the Mormons gathering in the west.

      Ebenezer and his families moved along with the Saints from place to place.  They migrated to Kirtland where the majority of the Saints were living.  He was requested to be a body guard to President Joseph Smith and at Joseph's request, at the time of Haun's Mill massacre, he was sent with another man to Haun's Mill to get Joseph Young's family.

      On Tuesday the 30th of 0ctober 1938, that bloody tragedy was acted.  It began about four o'clock with a large company of armed men, on horses, directing their course towards the mills with all possible speed.  People were hacked to death without reason, even little children.  The many bodies were buried in a well for lack of time and help to be buried properly.  This hasty burial was performed because of the threat of a return visit by the mob to complete the work of extermination.

(The whole story of Hauns Mill is in the history of the church page 181 through 326)

       He was sent back to get Joseph Young's family (brother of Brigham Young) and to help bury the dead.  Ebenezer  was shot by one of the mob.  The bullet struck him in the chest and lodged in his back just under the skin.  One of the brethren cut it out with a pocket knife and administered to him and helped him on his horse.  Through their faith they were able to go on their way.  He rode home and recovered rapidly.

       The church convened in conference in Commerce Ill.  On October 6,7,and 8th, in 1839 "the conference met Sunday morning the 6th. Pursuant to adjournment at 8 o'clock A.M., when Ebenezer C. Richardson and others were appointed elders.

      The minutes of the Conference held on the morning of the 6th are as follows.

      "The conference met on Sunday morning the 6th, pursuant to adjournment at 8 o'clock. A.M. When Samuel Williams, Ruben Foote, Orlando D. Hovey, Tunnis Rappleyee, Sheffield Daniels, Albert Milner, David B. Smith, Ebenezer Clawson Richardson, Pleasant Ewell, and William Helm were appointed Elders, of the church  and were ordained under the hands of Reynold Cahoon, Seymour Brunson,  Samuel Bent, and Alpheus Cutler.

      After some remarks by the President Joseph Smith, as respecting order and decorum during the conference.  Elder Lyman Wight spoke concerning the duties of Priests and Teachers.  President Joseph Smith Jr. then addressed the conference in relation to appointing a Patriarch, and other matters connected with the well being of the church."

      According to our calculations, Ebenezer would have been 24 years old at the time he was ordained an Elder.

      Ebenezer and Angeline had followed the migration of the Saints from Missouri to Illinois.  Sometime between 1839 and 1843 he made his way to Spring Prairie, Iowa.  There he hired Polly Ann Child to help care for his family.

      This was the year that Ebenezer was called to enter the covenant of plural marriage.  This casual relationship ripened into love and he took to wife Polly Ann Child, a beautiful and educated girl of twenty-two as his second wife.  This marriage was performed by Pres. Joseph Smith in November 1843.

      Angeline gave birth to Josiah on the 16 April 1844.  Ebenezer also lost his beloved mother, Lowly Foote Richardson, who died of chill fever and was buried in Nauvoo in 1844.

      Ebenezer was in Nauvoo when the temple was built.  A square hole had been chisled in the large corner stone like box.  Any one had the privilege of putting in any little memento they wished to.   Pres. Joseph Smith came up with the manuscript of the book of Mormon, and said he wanted to put that in there, as he had trouble enough with it.  It was the size of common foolscap paper and about three inches thick.  There were also deposited the book of Doctrine and Covenants, a five cent piece, a ten cent piece, a twenty-five cent piece, a fifty cent piece and one dollar all American coin.  The close fitting cover of stone had been prepared and was laid in cement and the wall built over it.  The day was clear and cool.

      Among the great things preached in this same conference Pres. Joseph Smith said on the third day of conference "the Saints could be baptized for any of their dead relatives or friends who have not been murderers..."

      It was on the after noon of the 4th day of the conference that they watched as Pres. Joseph Smith was talking, "All at once his countenance brightened up, and he said 'Verily thus saith the Lord.  Let there not be another general conference held until it is held in mine house.'"

      They were driven from Nauvoo eventually, and we find Ebenezer and families in Council Bluffs, Iowa, at Winter Quarters in 1846.  Here Angeline gave birth to a little daughter, Lola, and 1848 another daughter Jane.  Both of these little girls died in 1848 and are buried in the Council Bluffs, Iowa, cemetery.

      Ebenezer rose rapidly in the church and was given many responsible positions during his lifetime.  When the church became embroiled in the Missouri perse-cutions, he was selected to be one of Joseph Smith's bodyguards. More about Sugar Creek later.

       Grandfather Richardson lived just across the river from Nauvoo in a place called Sugar Creek.  He had many holdings of worth.  He traveled across when ever there was need to go with of for Pres. Smith.

      Upon receiving the word of the Prophet Joseph and his brother Hyrum, Ebenezer went immediately to Nauvoo, as further trouble might need his presence, as he was always at his post, when necessary to defend the Prophet and the cause of truth.  Ebenezer attended the funeral of President Smith.  ( Being a bodyguard of the President, I wonder if he helped arrange the burial when they hid the bodies so that the mob could not ravage them further)  (see history of the church for the whole story of their deaths.)

                     Book ---------- Page ---------

      The saints were horrified and heartbroken when the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum, the Patriarch, were martyred, but the church soon had at its helm the able leader Brigham Young.  During this trying period there were many unable to stand the mob violence and persecutions who left the church, but the Richardsons remained faithful and accepted the persecutions as the will of God.

      Why they moved to Galena and where they lived prior to this is not known.  The first question may be answered, in part perhaps, through speculation.  Galena in the 1840s and 1850s was a river-port where huge shipments of grain, lead and zinc were freighted to the east for consumption.  The move to Galena might indicate the need for work.  Perhaps Ebenezer hoped to support his families by working on the docks or in the mines.  The latter may be the most justifiable if we take into consideration his later activities in the gold mines of California.  At any rate, by the fall of 1845 the two families had returned to Nauvoo.

      Nauvoo by this time was a beehive of activity.  The Saints had been given until spring to dispose of their property and leave the state to avert mass blood-shed.  The old prejudices, misconceptions, political ambitions, etc., had again raised the ugly head of mobocracy, and it would not be lowered until the Mormons were driven from the state.

      If we consider Ebenezer's former close relationship to Joseph Smith and undoubtedly to other authorities of the church, it becomes a feasible possibility that he came to Nauvoo to help in preparing for the spring exodus. This can only be a speculative, since no definite information is given.  Without a doubt, however, Polly and her husband knew that they must follow the Mormons westward come spring.  If for no other reason, they came to Nauvoo to get their own affairs in readiness.

      Had they been allowed to continue their hurried preparations, Polly and Ebenezer and the Mormons in general would have left Illinois with much less hardship and suffering.  However, mob violence had reached such a extremity by February 1846 that they were forced to flee--woefully unprepared as they were. Polly describes the heartrending scenes as follows:

      "In February 1846 we were all driven from Nauvoo" and we now find Ebenezer and his families in Council Bluffs, Iowa, at Winter Quarters.  Here Angeline gave birth to a little daughter, Lola, and 1848 another daughter Jane.  Both these little girls died in 1848 and are buried in the Council Bluffs, Iowa, cemetery.

      Here Ebenezer married as his third wife, Phoebe Wooster Child, a beautiful girl and sister to Polly Ann.  A little son, Alfred Bosworth, was born,Feb 8, 1848, to Polly Ann and also was buried, the 16 May 1848 in Council Bluffs, Iowa, beside little Jane and Lola.  In 1849 Phoebe's first baby, Amanda Melvina, was born, and she felt favored of heaven in being able to keep her.  So many little babies were buried in Council Bluffs.  This was to be her only girl, for in due time she became the mother of ten more children, all boys, and raised all but John Lawson, who died when three years old.

      There was some that stopped until summer but they fared very hard for they had trouble and some were killed.  We crossed the river on ice, the snow was about a foot deep and we camped about seven miles out on a stream called Sugar Creek in the state of Iowa...We made shanties of brush and blankets and wagons were our homes.  We were obliged to stop there until the roads were fit to travel and grass big enough for our teams to eat...We were then in barren Indian country, uninhabited and to the mercy of the savages, but to us (they the Indians) were more merciful than the whites.

      Four hundred wagons shared the campground at Sugar Creek with Ebenezer, Angeline, Polly and Pheobe, his wives, and his small children.  When Brigham Young arrived two weeks later he found many of the people in want--their provisions gone, shelters inadequate, and their clothing insufficient.  Eight hundred men reported that they had less than a fortnight's provisions for themselves and their teams.  By the first of March over 5,000 people were camped at Sugar Creek, waiting for orders from the church leaders. On March 1st, orders came, and the first group of Saints started on the first leg of the journey across Iowa.  Ebenezer, Angeline, Polly, Phoebe, and their children were among this group.  Behind them was to follow a steady stream of Mormons, forming a procession 300 miles long from the Mississippi to the Missouri.

       When the family left Sugar Creek I was surprised at a listing given me By Brother Smith of the Genealogy Library.  That list included names of many of our family and what amount of money in property that was left behind.
        Ebenezer Richardson        1,000.00
        Josiah Richardson          9,000.00
        Ashel Lathrop             30,700.00
        Samuel Lake                  237.00
        Jabez Lake                 1,183.00
        Vinson Knight             10,000.00
        Newel Night                1,775.00
        Nathan K. Knight           6,647.77
        Joseph,Jr Knight           1.014.00
        Reuben Foote               1,108.00
        Timothy B. Foote           1,515.00
        T. B. Foote                1,080.00
        Stephen Foot                 218.00
        David Foote                  700.00
        Warren Foote                 500.00
        Alfred B. Child              520.00

Many had lots over $30,000.00 that was left in property.  This list was made to try to get the State of Missouri to re-imburse them for their losses.
      Ebenezer and his families traveled as far as Garden Grove before their supplies gave out.  Many of the other pioneers found themselves in like circum-stances.  Consequently Ebenezer and some of the other brethren left their families and went down into Missouri to get supplies.  They took anything they could spare that might be saleable--clothing, bedding, pots and pans, etc.  It was several days before they returned, having acquired enough provisions to sustain themselves for a while longer.  Ebenezer and family remained at Garden Grove for several weeks before traveling on.  Polly describes this period with a great deal of poignancy:

     It would be impossible to describe the suffering and hardships we had to pass through the few weeks there.  Snow, rain, mud, I never knew what it was to sleep in a dry bed.  I would take my shoes and stockings off and wash the mud off and put them on again."

      The weather undoubtedly added hardship to the migrating Mormons.  It is not difficult to imagine the muck and mire resulting from hundreds of wagons and hoofs rolling and plodding over the same ground day after day.  In the morning the sharp frozen ruts of the trail would be like so many sharp knives against the hoofs of the animals and the feet of men, and women and children forced to walk.  By mid-day these same ruts would be churned to inches of sticky, thick mud, dragging the very life out of the men and animals.  Five miles a day was the most the wagons would make under these conditions.  And yet in spite of all the suffering and hardships, the people were happy.  Speaking of this, Polly makes a statement that is almost unbelievable in view of the pathetic conditions she experienced.

         We all started our journey as happy not knowing
         wither we were going or where our next stopping
         place would be.  But our leaders were ahead
         leaving marks for us to follow.

      Our historian corroborating Polly's statements says they were "cheerful, childishly confident that God and Brigham Young would look after them."

      It took Ebenezer and his family four months to travel the three hundred miles from Nauvoo to Winter Quarters.  Near the end of June 1846 their wagon rolled into this prairie city of Saints.  The party led by Brigham Young had arrived a few weeks earlier so that some degree of order had already been established when Ebenezer and Polly arrived.  The summer was spent in constructing cabins, planting crops, repairing wagons, and harnesses, cutting prairie hay, hunting game, and salting it down or drying it, gathering wild berries, etc.  All these things in preparation for the journey in the spring and the preservation of the Saints left behind.  Ebenezer was either given the job of herding the church's cattle or he took the responsibility upon his own shoulders.  This left many of the brethren free to do other essential things.  Polly comments on the situation as follows:

          "The brethren had to leave their families and
          go in search of provisions again and recruit
          up that winter, so we could start in the
          spring, and complete our journey, so your
          father took some of the church cattle to herd.
          Our teams were all cattle and had to be fed
          and got into good condition ready for the long
          journey in the spring."

      The cattle were driven short distances from the Quarters on to a place called Rush Valley.  The pasturage was better and the cattle could be kept in condition for the exodus.  Here Ebenezer
Angeline,