Today we are going to share the story of Hyrum Spencer. (The blue section of the fan above.) He is the father of Charles H. Spencer, Grandfather of Mary Ellen Spencer, Great grandfather of J. Spencer Cornwall, great great grandfather of J. Shirl Cornwall and great great great grandfather of Kent Cornwall. He was born in 1798 in West Stockbridge, Berkshire, Massachusetts. Nice to have a little Cornwall heritage in Massachusetts.
Here are some excerpts from his niece, Aurelia Spencer Roger's, life sketch.
"Hyrum Spencer was a man of large stature and great physical power; and as void of fear as men are made. In 1838 a marvelous vision was given him, in which was shown the Southern Rebellion, and other troubles that were to come; with which manifestation he received an assurance of the truth of the Latter-day work, of which, from that time, he was enabled to testify. He embraced the gospel and moved to Nauvoo. The day that Joseph and Hyrum Smith were martyred he was on his farm six miles east of Nauvoo, and was so influenced that he could not work; and he three times saddled his horse to go to Carthage, but rebuked himself for nervousness."
" He was among the first in that memorable exodus of the winter of 1846. At the time he left the camp at Garden Grove the weather was very unfavorable. He rode fourteen days on horseback through that, then wilderness country, and not one twenty-four hours but what it rained. Arriving in Nauvoo he disposed of one farm for a hundred and ten head of cattle, and some wagons, to a citizen at Alton. A mob resident of Nauvoo hearing this, procured writs of attachment to the stock, until the second mob could arrive in Nauvoo, and give him a confiscation benefit . . . That same day the stock crossed sixty miles above Nauvoo, and it was a race (from that to the first Mormon camp) . . . Six days and a half, and six nights, in the heat and flies of early August, were these cattle driven and guarded by him, and his nephew Claudius, with only six hours sleep, except on horseback. The strain was too much; he rode until 4 o'clock on the afternoon of his death, when his nephew seeing him reel, rode to his side asking him what was the matter. The reply was, "Not much, only I cannot last through; help me down and I will die here." That night at 11 o'clock his labors were ended and he lay, with the peaceful smile of a child, a few feet from the trail, with only one relative to hear his last words, to witness the heroism of a voluntary martyr's death. There was not a groan or a murmur, "Say to my family, live and die with this work." These were among his last words. He left eight children by the wife of his youth [Mary Spencer - Mary's maiden name is Spencer, perhaps a distant cousin as Spencers settled in Mass. in the early 1700s. Mary died in Mass. in 1840. The Cornwall's come through Mary's line.], and two by his then living wife, formerly Miss Emily Thompson, whom he married in Nauvoo. After Uncle Hyrum died, two or three men from a camp near by assisted Claudius in preparing for the burial. This was done by taking some boards from a wagon-box and forming a rude coffin, in which he was taken to Mount Pisgah, and interred in the burial ground of the Saints."
No comments:
Post a Comment