Pleasant Depriest & Martha Fuller

Pleasant Whitfield Depriest was born on 28 January 1849 in Hickman County, Tennessee to William Andrew Depriest and Nancy Harder. On 23 September 1870 he married Martha Fuller.

Martha Elizabeth Fuller was born on 7 December 1851 in Hickman County, Tennessee to William J. Fuller and Mary B. Davidson.

The Depriests had several children, but had many of them died at a young age.

Sarah Ann Laura Depriest was born on 18 August 1871 and was baptised and confirmed a member of the Mormon Church on January 1 1881.

Alonzo Depriest was born 6 November 1872. He died one week later.

William Jason Depriest was born on 2 April 1876 and would have been 8 at the time of the massacre and old enough to get baptized. But the earliest baptismal date I have for him was 1 July 1885.

Mary Jane Depriest was born on 15 February 1879 and would only have been 5 at the time of the massacre. She was baptised on 3 May 1888.

Pleasant and his family were among the early converts to the Mormon Church in Lewis County, Tennessee. He was baptized Sunday the 8th of February 1880 by Martin Garn, after a meeting at Elisha Talley’s. Church records show Martha was baptised on 8 February 1881. I believe the correct date is 1880.

In Elder Gibbs journal, there are a couple of references to his going to Hohenwald to visit Pleasant DePriest at his home. Though he was part of the branch, he may have lived in town instead of on the creek. Hohenwald was only about 4 miles from Cane Creek.

Their next child was Martha Depriest, who was born 22 June 1882. She died six weeks later.

Pleasant and Martha were very likely to have been at the Conder farm on the day of the Massacre in 1884, although I have no evidence of where there were at the time of the shooting.

This is one of the few families that I can prove that they left Tennessee for Colorado following the Massacre. Pleasant already had two brother’s living in Manassa, Colorado.

On 10 March 1888, Martha gave birth to a girl which died the very same day. The birth must have been hard on her for she died less than 3 weeks later on 30 March 1888 in Manassa, Colorado.

Their oldest daughter, Sarah, married in 1889 but tragically died just ten years later in 1899 at the age of 28.

On 13 November 1901, Pleasant was sealed to his deceased wife in the Salt Lake City Temple.

Pleasant died in Manassa, Colorado on 27 March 1919.