Edwin Gordon WOOLLEY

                   Edwin Gordon Woolley:  His mother, Louisa  Chapin Gordin, was a second wife of Edwin Dilworth Woolley.  She was sickly and decided she might die soon, so she did not go west.  She did die, and the baby was sent to Boston to be raised by her parents.  His father, Edwin Dilworth Woolley was a close friend of the prophet Joseph Smith.  He was listed among the most affluent of the early businessmen in Nauvoo.  Joseph came to his store and asked that Woolley box up all the yardage goods he owned to be given to the poor.  The next morning Joseph returned.  Most of the shelves were barren, and the goods were boxed and on the floor.  There were a few rolls of cloth still on the shelves.  Woolley explained, "You asked for all I owned.  It is boxed.  What you see left is on consignment from St. Louis.  I do not own it.  I will pay for it after I sell it.  If you want it now, I will box that also, but I have no idea how to pay for it."  Joseph gave him a hug and said, "You passed the test, Brother Woolley.  Put it all back on the shelves."  When Joseph and Hyrum left Nauvoo for Carthage they stopped at the Woolley home and Joseph said, "I go like a lamb to the slaughter, but I am as calm as a summer morn."  (He also stopped at other homes along the way, saying the same thing to all.)  Edwin Dilworth Woolley went east to buy hardware and items for the Church.  He decided to go to Boston to see his now 8 year old child (?).  The parents of his deceased wife had refused by mail to relinquish the little boy to his care.  But the little boy who could not possibly have remembered his father rushed to him, hugged his leg, and would not let go.  Seeing the unexpected love and connection, the in-laws let Edwin Dilworth take his little son, Edwin Gordon, back west with him.  Edwin Gordon was sent to Dixie (St. George) with the cotton/silk mission.  He and partners opened a very succcessful mercantile business that sold goods to the miners and mines in Nevada and southern Utah.  They also bought fruit and Garden Vegetables and locally made items from the LDS and sold to the mines.  They sold hardware and houseware items to the local LDS market.  He married Lavinia Bentley.  He built the largest home in St. George at the time.  It still stands.  It is diagonally across the street from the Brigham Young winter home.  Called today "The Seven Wives Bed and Breakfast."  We have stayed there.  Grandfather Woolley did not have seven wives, but he later sold out to a man who did have seven wives.  He was very active in politics and Church affairs.