B EAUTIFUL UPON THE MOUNTAINS Pioneer Journals, Letters, and Discourses Testimonies of Obedience and Sacrifice Compiled and Edited by HEATH & MELISSA PARKER Copyright © 2010 by Heath Parker Beautiful upon the Mountains Publications Seattle, Washington All Rights Reserved First Edition Printing Family Heritage Publishers Salt Lake City, Utah Title Page Illustration: Wagon Tracks on the Prairie PIONEERS OF THE GOOSE CREEK VALLEY 671 JAMES DAYLEY & ISABELLE MCBRIDE Jacob Dayley 1787 – Feb. 11, 1811 James Dayley B: Bedford, Pennsylvania March 26, 1811 – July 23, 1905 D: Little Pigeon Roost, Ohio B: Little Pigeon Roost, Ohio D: Basin, Idaho Elizabeth Baker Dec. 12, 1791 – 1834 Enoch Rhodes Dayley B: Bedford, Pennsylvania Sept. 19, 1837 – Nov. 13, 1892 D: Licking County, Ohio B: Grand River, Missouri D: Basin, Idaho Thomas White McBride March 12, 1776 – Oct. 30, 1838 Isabelle McBride B: Loudon County, Virginia March 28, 1816 – Jan. 18, 1861 D: Hauns Mill, Missouri B: Lancaster, Ohio D: Grantsville, Utah Catherine John 1778 – July 27, 1841 B: Frederick County, Maryland D: Nauvoo, Illinois JAMES DAYLEY Eleven children were born to this union: Elizabeth, 1835; Enoch Rhodes, 1837; Isaac Morley, 1840; Sarah Ann, 1841; George, 1844; Heber Chase, 1845; Thomas John, 1847; James Carlos, 1850; Jacob, 1852; Isabelle Rebecca, 1853; and Nancy Vilate, 1856. Born March 26, 1811, at Little Pigeon Roost, Belmont County, Ohio, James was the only child of Jacob and Elizabeth Baker Dayley.675 His father tragically drowned shortly before James was born while the former was en route to Ohio. Elizabeth and her son remained in Ohio, leaving behind their ancestral lands in Pennsylvania where the Dayleys had held residence since colonial times. James’ maternal grandfather, George Baker, was a soldier in the Pennsylvanian militia during the American Revolution.676 675 Cf. There is some discrepancy as to where Little Pigeon Roost is actually located. It is very likely James was born at a place called Pigeon Point, Belmont County, Ohio. For further explanation see Keith Dayley’s Our Dayley Line, 1999, Vol.2. 676 See Progressive Men of Southern Idaho, 1904, A.W. Bowen & Company, Chicago. “The grandfather of James was a soldier in the American Revolution and served six years in that memorable and decisive contest.” Another anonymous source indicates that “George Baker was severely wounded and scalped while a soldier under George Washington’s command.” 672 JAMES AND ISABELLE DAYLEY James had little opportunity for formal education when he was a child; having no father at home, he was obliged to help on the farm at an early age. He also spent a few years of his early life helping out his maternal grandparents on their farm. When his mother, Elizabeth, passed away at Licking County, Ohio, in 1834, the twenty‐three‐year‐ old James left behind all that he had known and struck out on his own. Conversion to the Gospel (1834) In February 1834 James was baptized a member of the Church, most likely as a result of his affiliation with the Thomas McBride family, particularly the young Isabelle McBride.677 The two married shortly thereafter on March 18, 1834, in Richland County, Ohio. Eleven children were later born to this union. The McBrides were introduced to the gospel some years earlier, and Isabelle herself had been baptized in April 1831 at the age of fifteen.678 Some family histories mention that both Thomas McBride and his son‐in‐law, James, were associated with the Prophet Joseph Smith 677 An anonymous account indicates that James was baptized at Johnstown, Licking County, Ohio, on February 10, 1834, by Thomas Tripp, the same man who baptized his wife and in-laws. This account also notes that due to the season, a hole had to be cut out of the ice in order to perform the baptism. 678 See DUP, Women of Faith and Fortitude, 1998, Vol.1:793. “Isabelle was born in Ohio on March 28, 1816. She was the twelfth of fifteen children. When she was four, her father took a lease on a section of the land called Red Haw at Wayne County, Ohio, and moved the family there. “In August 1833 her father sold the lease and started moving the family to Jackson County, Missouri. Due to the lateness of the season, they were only able to go as far as Richland County, Ohio. It was here that she met James Dayley.” Cf. The Nauvoo Endowment Index lists the date and location of Isabelle’s birth as March 29, 1817, at Fairfield, Ohio. PIONEERS OF THE GOOSE CREEK VALLEY 673 while in Ohio.679 James eventually came to affiliate with the Prophet in Far West, Missouri, and also in Nauvoo, Illinois, where the former served for a time as a bodyguard to the Prophet.680 Persecutions in Missouri (1834‐1838) The newlyweds accompanied Isabelle’s parents that summer to gather with the Saints in Pike County, Missouri. They arrived in June 1834 and there remained for about two years, until the spring of 1836, before they pulled up stakes and moved to Ray County, Missouri, for about three months. From there they moved to Caldwell County, Missouri, where they settled near Haun’s Mill.681 It was there that James enlisted in the local militia as a member of Henry Hardman’s Company.682 James and his two brothers‐in‐law, James and Amos McBride, were three of only four members of Henry Hardman’s Company to survive the Haun’s Mill tragedy on October 30, 1838. Seventeen Saints were killed that day, Thomas McBride included.683 James Dayley and the McBride brothers helped to bury the bodies of those seventeen 679 Dayley, Rhonda, James Dayley Sketch, 1960; On file at the DUP Library. 680 See Dayley, Keith, Our Dayley Line, 1999, Vol.2. Keith Dayley quotes an anonymous source: “At one time [in Ohio] the Prophet told him [James] if he would be faithful he would live until he was satisfied with his days, and that bullets would fly around him like hail. This was fulfilled at the Haun’s Mill Massacre. The bullets pierced his hat crown and brim, passed through his coat between his arm and body, and through his pant legs. At this terrible massacre, his father-in-law, Thomas McBride[,] was shot with his own gun and hacked up with a corn cutter.” 681 DUP, Women of Faith and Fortitude, 1998, Vol.1:793. 682 Dayley, Keith, Our Dayley Line, 1999, Vol.2. 683 See the Thomas McBride and Catherine John chapter of this compendium (p.383- 408) for further details surrounding the Haun’s Mill Massacre. 674 JAMES AND ISABELLE DAYLEY casualties by converting (and dedicating) a nearby well into a mass grave. During the massacre, Isabelle took her one‐year‐old son, Enoch, who had been born near the mill, and hid among the willows in the stream for safety. The survivors had very little time to regroup as the mob soon returned, took both James Dayley and Amos McBride captive, stripped them of their weapons, and beat them severely for about three days while they interrogated them.684 One source indicates that James, who would not “testify against the Prophet to satisfy the demands of the mob,” carried scars from this incident for the rest of his life. The remaining Saints were forced to leave Haun’s Mill on February 24, 1839.685 Flight from Missouri and Persecutions in Illinois (1839‐1846) Despite a particularly cold winter, the families were determined to start for Illinois. James Dayley and the McBride boys had only gone about nine miles when news reached them that their guns, previously confiscated by the mob, had been taken to Richmond in Ray County, and that they could claim them at a price of 60¢ for each weapon. James Dayley and James McBride made a short deviation from their course in order to retrieve their rifles. The family continued on to 684 Cf. Dayley, Rhonda, James Dayley Sketch, 1960. “James Dayley and his brother-in-law[,] Amos McBride[,] assisted in putting the eighteen bodies of the Saints that were slain into a well where their bones rest today. The bodies were put there to keep them from being destroyed by a herd of hogs [sic] the mob was bringing up to the mill for that purpose. He dedicated the well as the grave. James Dayley, Amos McBride[,] and David Lewis were taken prisoners, kept, tormented, and harassed for a few days and then set at liberty.” 685 DUP, Women of Faith and Fortitude, 1998, Vol.1:793. See also McBride, James (brother), Autobiography (abridged), 1876; As published in the Tooele Transcript Bulletin, February 15, 1924. PIONEERS OF THE GOOSE CREEK VALLEY 675 Nauvoo later that spring; no sooner had they arrived than James Dayley was called upon by Church leaders John Smith and Brigham Young to join with a quorum of brethren assigned to assist in the complete removal of the Saints from Missouri. Little is known about the years that the Dayleys spent in Nauvoo except that James was ordained to the office of seventy on April 9, 1845, and sustained a member of the Twenty‐second Quorum of Seventy organized that same day.686 James and Isabelle were endowed in the Nauvoo Temple on February 6, 1846.687 It was only a few weeks later that the young family was driven out yet again to fend for themselves in the wilderness. Isabelle remembered looking back and seeing her own home burning as they left Nauvoo. Refuge in Iowa (1846‐1850) In April of 1846, James, his family, and other members of the McBride family stopped at Farmington, Iowa, where they found work grubbing (clearing land) for a wage of 25¢ each per day.688 In September of the same year, they left Farmington and moved down the Des Moines River to Tom’s Mill where they made preparations to spend the winter.