Joseph Harker

Harker/Johanson-Haigh/Cornwall

Joseph Harker, father of Mary Ann Harker, Maternal Grandfather of Mary Alice Johanson, Great Grandfather of J. Shirl Cornwall, Great Great Grandfather of Kent Neeley Cornwall.  The story is a bit lengthy, but it is such beautiful writing I had trouble cutting it down - so just enjoy!!!

Joseph Harker was an empire builder. His story is the story of the Mormon West. Coming to know him is a thrilling experience, for he is the symbol of an era that was one of the most significant eras of all history. A strong man, in physique as well as in character, Joseph Harker was admirably suited for life on the frontier. His loyalty to his church, family, and to the communities in which he lived, coupled with another trait (perhaps his most significant one), fine self-reliant individualism, marked him for a long life of leadership and service. Capable and conscientious in all his work, astonishingly versatile in his talents and gifts, hardened in every muscle by the labors involved in wresting an inhospitable land from its natural condition, he was also a spiritual man, susceptible to those forces real, though intangible, that have influenced the minds of sensitive men since the beginning of history, and have contributed more, perhaps, than any other thing to man’s progress. It is fortunate for us that Joseph Harker kept a journal. It's pages reveal a man and his times to us.

Joseph Harker was born on February 28, l8l8, in the little town of Pointon in Lincolnshire, England. The shire of Lincoln is located on the North Sea, it southern boundary beginning about 70 miles north of London. The shire is noted primarily for fishing and agriculture, and it is this latter pursuit that secured a livelihood for the Harker family. Joseph’s father, John Harker, had first married Susan Tyler of Grantham. John had no family by her. After her death, he married Mary Proctor of Scredington, Lincolnshire, by whom he had seven children: John, William, Amos, Friday, Joseph, Mary Ann, and Job.

Nearby lived a young girl, Susannah Sneath, fresh and lovely in appearance, neat in her dress, intelligent in aspect and conversation. She and Joseph were friends, then sweethearts, and perhaps their fondness for one another is best attested by the violence of their first quarrel. Through false reports, probably the usual village gossip, “our wooing was abandoned for awhile.” Joseph tried to find consolation and compensation in the company of his cousin Jane and others, but inside he never could escape the remembrance of Susannah’s flashing eyes and quick, intelligent smile, and after a year the two were sweethearts again. Joseph was successful in other things besides love. He was appointed constable for Pointon parish when he was twenty-one, and in the same year took a blue ribbon at the Bourn Agricultural show for showing the best three ewes in the eighteen-month class. The following year, he was appointed overseer of the poor of the parish. He says, “It was then that I realized my great lack of education, for I had much writing to do in assessing and collecting taxes which occupied a great portion of my time.” Susannah was working “in a gentleman’s family, and was much respected in her situation.” But Susannah wanted more than respect. She wanted love and a family of her own. There seemed innumerable obstacles in the way of the young people’s marriage. Joseph’s mother, needing her son desperately on the farm from which most of the profit went to maintain John in the asylum, opposed the marriage. Too, the young people had not enough money to set up a separate establishment. But Joseph, already self-reliant and desperately in love, refused to delay. The thing that troubled him most was his mother’s attitude. “Although I was twenty-four years old, I did not wish to marry against her will.” Finally, however, he told his mother that if she would not consent to the marriage, he would leave the country. With this, his mother consented, and the couple were married November l, 1841.

The widow Harker was immediately attracted by the neat, intelligent Susannah and Joseph, relieved, recorded in his diary. “After we were married, my mother became very much attached to my wife.” For economy, the young couple adopted what to a modern seems to be an extraordinary measure. They lived apart. Joseph with his mother, managing the farm, and Susannah with her parents. This arrangement proved temporary. A son, John, was born to the pair on Sept. 19, 1842. At this time, Joseph rented a house close by and moved into it. Joseph, after the birth of his son, began to ponder more seriously the meaning of life, and turned to religion to find answers. He attended the meetings of the Wesleyans in company with his brother Amos. Amos had had a religious experience consisting of a vision that he related to the younger, Joseph. The latter was deeply impressed and he says, “I sought the Lord with all my heart to get a testimony from the Lord.” One night after earnest prayer, “I saw a personage coming over the top of the trees at the back of the house, and he came and stood at my bed foot and the room appeared as bright as day. This left such a joy and feeling upon me, as I cannot forget. I know that the Lord heard and answered my prayer.”

We know nothing more of the family until two years later in 1844. On April 1st of that year a second child, Job, was born. In that year also, the family moved to Moulton Chapel where Joseph had rented a small farm.  Here at Moulton the Harkers met Mormon missionaries for the first time. George Hyre had made the necessary personal sacrifice to carry the gospel message to Britain, and in the Harkers he found people prepared to receive his teaching undaunted by the prospects of life on the American frontier. George Hyre believed that he brought a family into the church, but in reality he converted a small army: over thirteen hundred people [at the time of this writing] who have been bishops, patriarchs, high councilmen, missionaries, stake board members, officers and teachers. On the 25th day of May 1845, Joseph and Susannah were baptized by Amos, the second brother, who had joined the church earlier. Joseph, two weeks later, was ordained a priest and sent out to preach the Gospel. However, he tells us nothing of these labors except to affirm “the spirit of the Lord was with me in all my labors.”

NEXT WEEK - the Harkers journey to Zion!!!