Thomas Grover -- the Westward Movement of the Mormons and the Settlement of Utah by Julie Cannon Markham, 2Nd Great-Granddaughter
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Thomas Grover -- The Westward Movement of the Mormons and the Settlement of Utah by Julie Cannon Markham, 2nd great-granddaughter Nativity in Whitehall, New York, 1807 Thomas Grover was born with a destiny. Six generations from Puritan emigrants1 and the grandson2 and great-grandson of Revolutionary War veterans, Thomas Grover was an instrumental figure in the early days of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The farm in upstate New York which Thomas’s father settled bordered the southern tip of Lake Champlain. It was the location of the northernmost British fort during the French and Indian War in the mid 1700s. The town, a known Tory base, was captured by American patriots in 1775 and was the site of the first Revolutionary War action in New York. Due to a natural harbor on the lake known at that time as Skenesborough Harbor, the location became a logical place to build ships. Workmen, including carpenters and military personnel, relocated here, and at this point in time the town became known as Whitehall. It was from this harbor that Benedict Arnold formed a sixteen-vessel naval fleet and the area became a center of shipbuilding. Thomas Grover’s grandfather and namesake reportedly swam across Lake Champlain during some kind of military activity at this time.3 This grandfather also took part in Daniel Shay’s rebellion after the Revolutionary War, joining a group of veterans who used guerilla warfare tactics to halt what they considered to be unjust legal proceedings against retired soldiers who were unable to pay their taxes. With a groundswell of community support, the New York governor eventually backed down on his strict stance, pardoning Daniel Shays. After the pardon, the rebels, including Thomas’s grandfather, were able to come out of hiding. Thomas was born in 1807 on the Whitehall farm, two years after Joseph Smith’s birth, in the midst of the industrial revolution. His father, also named Thomas, had died of pneumonia five months earlier, leaving his mother to raise him and four older siblings. His father had older children by a first wife who had died, so Thomas had extended family who assisted in his education and support. His infamous grandfather had died only a few years earlier. Young Thomas Grover was raised in the thick of war activity with a heritage of military service. Whitehall harbor was a supply station during the War of 1812 when Thomas was five. After the war, construction began on a sixty mile canal which connected Lake Champlain to the Hudson River. As a result, when the Erie Canal was completed, those living inland had easy access to the Atlantic Ocean and many businesses were created and became profitable. At the age of twelve, Thomas began working as a cabin boy on the freight boats that moved along these busy waterways, traveling between ports in Canada and New York City. According to his son Joel, “At an early age [my father] became captain of a canal passenger & freight boat serving between White Hall & Albany N.Y.” Just a few miles from Whitehall was the site of an ironworks foundry. Thomas had an interest in this field and studied the ironworks and likely other blast furnaces during his lifetime. While Thomas Grover and his family were descendants of Puritans, we do not know that they were members of the Congregational Church, or any church, for that -1- matter. In 1829, at the age of twenty-two, Thomas had accumulated some savings and married Caroline Whiting, a young woman with family ties to Whitehall. Their first child, Jane, was born in 1830. Move to Western New York, 1831; membership in the LDS Church Fifty years earlier, the Iroquois ceded tracts of land in western New York to the new US Government. This land ultimately came into the hands of a land speculator who sold the tracts to the Holland Land Company. A surveyor subdivided the land into townships and lots, which were then sold to settlers. Thousands of families from eastern New York followed a natural corridor west, known as the Mohawk Trail because it led through the Mohawk River Valley. This route, from Albany to Lake Erie, is known today as the New York Thruway. New settlers would have traveled near the towns of Palmyra and Manchester, where Joseph Smith’s family lived. With peace prevailing and access to better harbors became available, the Whitehall supply station closed. In 1831, at the age of twenty-four, Thomas Grover was among these settlers, moving over three hundred miles east to Freedom, New York, one of the new communities. The first postmaster of Freedom was William Cowdery. His family, including his sons Warren and Oliver, had settled there previous to the Grover family’s arrival. There were several churches established in Freedom, including the Methodists and Baptists. The town also had stores, blacksmith shops and small factories.4 Living in Freedom put Thomas in closer proximity to Lake Erie and better shipping opportunities. At this time he became the captain of the Shamrock, a freight and passenger boat that operated on the Erie and Champlain canals. Three more daughters were born in the next three years, Emeline, Mary Elizabeth and Adeline. Thomas bought a fifty acre farm for $130 and improved on it, prospering financially. As early as 1829, citizens in Freedom had learned of the Mormons. Proof sheets of the Book of Mormon, even before it was published, were used as teaching tools.5 Oliver Cowdery, who had sought out Joseph Smith and assisted in translating the Book of Mormon in Palmyra, returned to his brother Warren in Freedom, less than 90 miles away, showing him some of these sheets.6 Warren began preaching to his neighbors. In October 1833, Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon, accompanied by Freeman Nickerson who had lived forty miles away in Westfield before his conversion to the LDS Church, served a short mission. They left Kirtland, Ohio and traveled along the shores of Lake Erie, preaching in Catteraugus County for about a week.7 Section 100 was received about forty miles from where Thomas was living. In this revelation the Lord told Joseph that, “I have much people in this place, in the regions round about, and an effectual door shall be opened. .” Joseph and Sidney preached to large congregations.8 Family histories indicate that Thomas Grover was taught the gospel during a visit by Joseph Smith when he was accompanied by Sidney Rigdon. Joseph Smith actually visited this area several times in the early 1830s on his way to Canada for short proselyting missions. He was accompanied at various times by Orson Pratt, John Murdock and Parley P. Pratt. William Hyde, who lived in Freedom, recorded, “Early in the year 1834 Joseph Smith and Parley P. Pratt came to my father’s house. They preached in the neighborhood -2- two or three times, and conversed much in private.” Joseph Smith recorded, “Sunday, March 9th [1834] We preached in a school house, and had great attention. We found a few disciples who were firm in the faith, and after meeting found many believing and could hardly get away from them, and appointed a meeting in Freedom for Monday the 10th, and stayed at Mr. Warren A. Cowdery’s, where we were blessed with a full enjoyment of temporal and spiritual blessings. Monday 10, We met our appointment, and preached to a great congregation, and at evening again preached to an overflowing house. After meeting, I proposed if any wished to obey, and would make it manifest, we would stay to administer to another meeting. A young man of the Methodist order arose and testified his faith in the fullness of the Gospel and desired to be baptized. We appointed another meeting for the next day.”9 Parley P. Pratt recorded, “[Joseph Smith and I] visited Freedom, Cattaraugus County, New York, tarried over Sunday and preached several discourses, to which the people listened with great interest; we were kindly and hospitably entertained among them. Soon after [thirty or forty] were all baptized and organized into a branch of the Church – called the Freedom Branch – from which nucleus the light spread and souls were gathered into the fold in all regions round.” After preaching to relatives further east, Parley returned through Freedom. “I found that a large church had been gathered during my absence. principally through the labors of my brother Orson.”10 During this early period there were several branches in the area. Families in Freedom who joined the LDS Church included Caroline Whiting’s family, the Decker family, of which a daughter married Brigham Young, the Hubbards, and the family of Freeman Nickerson, whose daughter Thomas later married. Members of the Deuel family also joined the Church. Two of Caroline’s sisters married into that family. Many of these early Freedom families stayed together, traveling to Ohio, Missouri, Illinois, and then onto the Utah Territory in the same group. In fact, on the 1850 Utah census, almost thirty percent of the residents of Farmington were from New York State.11 In the fall of 1834, Warren Cowdery was called to be the presiding high priest in the Freedom branch. Records indicate that Warren baptized Thomas Grover in September, and his brother Oliver performed the confirmation.12 In March of 1835 Thomas Grover sold his farm for $500 and moved his wife and four daughters two hundred miles east to Kirtland, Ohio, traveling with other LDS families who were resettling in Kirtland.13 Move to Kirtland 1835 Thomas’s daughter Emeline later wrote,14 “My mother did not like to break up her home and go but went because her husband went, for go he would.” When Thomas arrived in Kirtland, he sought out the Prophet.