Sons of the Utah Pioneers

Sons of the Utah Pioneers

Sons of the Utah Pioneers-Ancestor Histories, presented by members of the East Mill Creek Chapter.

Pioneer Facts Presented During 1978-1983, by Members of the East Mill Creek Chapter SUP

East Millcreek Chapter - Sons of Utah Pioneer - Pioneer Fact given by Mary

Stevens, September 21, 1981 at Distinctive Catering

The genealogy of Lyman Stevens has a starting point in America with Thomas Stevens, who died in 1658. He was the father of Obadiah Stevens who married a Miss Rose in 1678. He died in 1702 in Stamford, Connecticut. Their first child Thomas Stevens was born there in 1679. He married Sarah Adams and they were the parents of Daniel Stevens born in 1711 in Stamford, Connecticut. Daniel married Judith Webb daughter of Jonathan and Judith Webb. Their son Amos Stevens was born April 2, 1743 in Stamford, Connecticut. Amos married Mercy Weed, the daughter of Hezekiah and Mercy Seely Weed, also of Stamford. They were the parents of Jonathan Stevens born in Stamford Connecticut. Jonathan married Olive Hyatt, daughter of Uzziel and Rachel Smith Hyatt. They moved from Connecticut to Danby, New York where Lyman was born on February 12, 1812. They were members of the church but further records of them has not been found . There is nothing on record concerning the early youth of Lyman Stevens but he must have been in search of the truth, for on May 27, 1831, at the age of 19, he was baptized at Kirtland, Ohio, into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

On January 21, 1836, Lyman married Martha Durfee. She was the daughter of Edmund and Magdalena Pickle Durfee and was born November 17, 1811, in Lennox, New York. She and her parents had joined the church and had come to Kirtland to live with the saints.

Lyman and Martha were staunch admirers and friends of the Prophet Joseph Smith and of his brother, the Patriarch, Hyrum Smith, after whom they named two of their sons. They followed them steadfastly through many trials and tribulations. After their marriage, they migrated to Missouri and from there to Yelrome, Illinois, and later to Nauvoo, Illinois.

Lyman Stevens was ordained an Elder in May 1838. The certificate is still in the family and bears the signature of Joseph Smith and Frederick G. Williams and also his certificate of being ordained a high priest on May 11, 1843

remains in the family.

Lyman and Martha became the parents of eight sons. The first two died young while they were being driven from their homes in Illinois. The next three sons were born at or near Nauvoo in 1840, 1843, and 1845.

Lyman Stevens participated in the building of Nauvoo and the Nauvoo Temple, he was a carpenter and joiner.

Lyman had been the door keeper of the Kirtland Temple when Joseph Smith cast out the devil from Hyrum Smith. Lyman later said that Joseph used all his power and authority to prevent the devil from accomplishing his fiendish desires. He also stated that Joseph Smith was a second cousin of Lyman Stevens's grandmother, Rachel Smith. Lyman also had one specific assignment of being one of the Prophet Joseph Smith's bodyguards. He was faithful in his assignments and filled them to the best of his ability. Following the martyrdom of Joseph Smith in 1844, Lyman and Martha, though discouraged, continued in faith to be staunch members of the church. They had had their home burned in Yelrome, Illinois and Martha's father was killed in cold blood when one of the mob bet

he could kill him with one shot for a gallon of whiskey. While sorrowing with the saints over the loss of their leaders, Lyman and Martha aided in the completion of the Nauvoo Temple where they received their endowment on January 21, 1846, just prior to the expulsion of the saints from Nauvoo and were in Council Bluffs, Iowa when the alarm was sounded that the Army of the United States were on their way to destroy them. It turned out,

however, to be representatives of the United States Army led by Captain James Allen, who requested an Army of 500 able men to join the army to go fight the Mexicans. Lyman was private #72 in Company B. of the Mormon Battalion. He left his wife and three small sons at Carterville, Iowa, and went on the longest infantry march in the history of the U. S. Army. They arrived in San Diego on January 29, 1847. He returned with those who were ill by the way of Pueblo, Colorado and arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in July 1847. Lyman helped to build the road coming down Immigration Canyon and helped to break the first ground in Salt Lake City and helped put in the first crops.

Grandfather was with the Brigham Young Company who returned to Iowa to bring back their families. When Lyman arrived he found his wife Martha in mourning. She had just lost her mother.

Grandfather helped build Fort Holladay. Lyman and Martha and their sons moved to the mouth of Big Cottonwood in Salt Lake County. They were there for five years. Grandfather was a member of the Bishopric in the Holladay Ward. Brigham Young told him they needed his help elsewhere and he and Reuben Allred were

sent to San Pete to settle that country. He was wounded in the war around Fort Ephraim. They helped settle Mountain Pleasant, Ephraim, Manti, Sterling and Fountain Green.

Marvin's Grandfather Ezra William Stevens was born in Holladay, Utah. They moved again this time to Cedar Fort where Martha and Lyman ran a small store and Martha baked pies and cakes to sell to the soldiers stationed at Camp Floyd. Lyman also served in the bishopric while living at Cedar Fort. Lyman had plural wives. Five in all.

Martha and her sons moved to the southern part of the state settling in a beautiful little hamlet surrounded by mountains, beautiful cliffs and three streams nearby. The name of this town was called Shonesburg. Lyman followed this part of his family and they lived there until Martha died.

The United Order of the church was organized at Mt. Carmel in the spring of 1874 and Lyman Stevens and his family moved there and joined with them. This is where Marvin's father, Hyrum Wallace Stevens, was born. The family later moved to Orderville after Marin's maternal grandfather, Howard Orson Spencer, was sent there to be the first Bishop of Long Valley and to take charge of the United Order.

It was here at Orderville that Lyman was the Head Gardner of the United Order, after three years he left and went to Sanpete County, Utah where his sons Reuben, Hyrum, Joseph and Amos and their families lived.

When Emery County area was opened to settlement, Lyman and four of his sons and their families moved to Ferron and established homes there. It was here in his old age that he married a widow woman named Hannah Wardle. Lyman Stevens died in Ferron, April 18, 1886, and was buried in the southwest corner of the Ferron

Cemetery where his grandson Joseph S. Stevens, Jr. later erected a stone to his memory with the aid of the government as he has served with the Mormon Battalion.

Courage, faith, fortitude, and persistence are strong, desirable qualities to be found in some rare human beings. Such were the qualities possessed by our dearly loved Great-grandfather, Lyman Stevens.