Elders Eardley & Camp Strike Out On Their Own

The following is a letter written to John Morgan. Two of the incoming missionaries got tired of waiting for instructions and struck out on their own. One of them [Richard Camp] having relatives living in the area who had not joined the church, they decided to go find them. The other [James W Eardley] wrote this letter.

Dresden Tennessee

December 14, 1880

John Morgan

     Elder John W Taylor and myself arrived at St. Louis on time. We stopped four days and no tidings of Brother [Matthias Foss] Cowley. In the meantime Brothers Camp and [Abraham O.] Smoot rejoined our party, and thinking proper Brother C[amp] and myself wended our way to Dresden. Brother C[amp] found many who was acquainted with his parents but no relatives nor have we found any saints. Immediately after arriving, I wrote Bro. [Lorenzo] Hunsaker, Benton Co., but up to the present time, being five days since our arrival I have received no reply. Notwithstanding our delay we have not been idle; by conversing with this family and that, we found a great spirit of inquiry in regard to the Latter-day Saints. They visited us and a great many seemed very anxious, even requesting us to hold a meeting, although we felt that a little experience would be of great service. Still under the circumstances we felt the duty resting upon us.   We engaged the Court House, the largest building in the town, places up a few notices, and soon after the appointed hour, to our surprise, the house was full, with the humble and the meek and aristocracy, men and women. You may imagine that with comparitively(sic) speaking no experience, we felt our weakness, and we needed to rely upon some one beside ourselves, and I can assure you we were assisted. They paid the utmost attention. We entertained them about an hour and a quarter. At close of service by request, I gave away over thirty tracts, which I had with me, and had calls for more, and could have sold several Books of Mormon if I had had them. Brother Camp has loaned several of his books to inquiring parties. Notwithstanding this spirit of inquiry, there is an opposition spirit; the Methodist minister is greatly opposed to us; another party threatened us, "should we have a meeting we should be tarred and feathered." but the opposition comparatively speaking, amounts to nothing.
     Brother Camp having and inclination to go to Paris, Henry county, 25 miles east, to see some of his relatives, I have concluded to travel with him. We will travel on foot, taking it slow, and advocating our principles as we journey.

[Post Script]
I imagine they got retroactive permission for their initiative since they continued preaching in the Weakley and Henry county area for three months before returning by way of Carroll County. "In Huntington, Carroll County, they had obtained a hall and held a meeting with a good attentive audience." Afterwards the two were split up, Eardley going to Perry county and Camp going to Kentucky. Elder Cowley arrived in St Louis shortly after Camp and Eardley struck out on their own. Cowley and John W Taylor went on to Dawson, Georgia.  Abraham O Smoot went to Owen County, Kentucky.

Williams Washington Camp

Williams Washington Camp was born December 11, 1800, in Georgia. His unusual given name comes from his mother's maiden name; Margaret Williams. This did not prevent many people from using his name incorrectly.

While traveling in Alabama he met Diannah Greer, a wealthy Southern Belle. They married there in 1822 and later moved to Tennessee in 1832. They had a large home near Dresden Tennessee on 95 acres. They, with the help of many slaves, raised cotton, cattle and ran a blacksmith shop. He also joined the Campbellite church and soon became a preacher there.

Various biographies disagree on the details of his conversion. One claims that while living in Alabama, they heard of the Mormon Church, but they did not join the church until after they moved to Tennessee. Another says that they first heard about the church in Dresden, Tennessee where Williams saw two missionaries holding a street meeting. Williams approached the missionaries when they were done and asked to know more. He arranged for them to speak at his church.

Williams decided to be prepared in case there was any trouble and he placed an armload of hickory saplings just inside the door. When it came time for the meeting, Williams took his place by the door. Only a few came to hear the preaching. The meeting was just beginning when there came a knock and as Williams opened the door he could see a troublesome mob with pails of tar and several bags of feathers. The leader, which was one of his own Campbellite members, said in a burly voice that they had come to give those "blankety blank" and "you too" a little dose of real religion. Williams said they better not try it. As the leader stepped through the door, Williams soundly tapped him with a hickory stick and he fell to the floor as if he were shot! Others tried but each was treated to the same firm tap. After eight or ten unsuccessful tries, the mob took their stunned leader and their pails and feathers and left with their little dose of real religion. (Shauna S Pusey, History of Williams Washington Camp)

Williams was baptized "right after the meeting" on August 1st 1841.

Each of the biographies have problems. One claims David Patten and Joseph Smith visited the Camp home in Tennessee. However, Patten had been dead 3 years by the time Williams joined the Church and Joseph Smith never visited Tennessee. Others disagree on the date of his baptism, sometimes by years.

Williams' wife Diannah waited about a year to be baptized on 12 May 1842. I find it interesting that that same summer Williams Camp assisted Amasa M. Lyman on his mission to collect money for building of the temple and the Nauvoo house (Amasa Lyman's Journal, MS, No. 4 1842, p 32-34). Perhaps it was Elder Lyman's visit which prompted Diannah to join the church. One biographer, however, wrote that it was during a visit to Nauvoo that Dianna was baptized by John Taylor.

Brother Camp shows up in Abraham Smoot's mission journal beginning on May 14th 1844. Brother Camp offers shelter to  the missionaries, opened his home for for preaching, accompanied Elder Smoot, preached himself at least once, and even provided armed protection for the next 30 days.

Abraham O Smoot May 18, 1844
... I had secured ready a subject to my congregation before the truth of it was witnessed. A pistol was fired at the window like a thunder storm and was followed in quite succession by a shower of brick bits against the window glass. The congregation seemed much frightened & immediately began to leave the house. I hastened to inform them that if they wished to stay that I would protect them, from the fact that I knew had such mobs would abscond as soon as they had executed their diabolical designs. Brother Camp too offered the people protection by standing guard around the Court-house, while I would preach the words of eternal life, which I did in as plain manner as possible, for the space of one hour, then closed and returned to Brother Camp's house and spent the night. (Abraham O. Smoot, Missionary Journal, p 195)

Also Brother William Camp, ... somewhat noted as a fighting character, arose and called on the fleeing people to stop. He told them if they would only sit and listen to the preaching he would go out and look after the persons who were creating the disturbance. About two thirds of the audience again became seated, and he went outside and procured a shot-gun with which he patrolled around the court-house the remainder of the evening,... (A. O. Smoot, "Early Experiences of A. O. Smoot," Early Scenes In Church History, Eighth Book of the Faith Promoting Series. p 23)

The next night at another meeting at the same court house, an unnamed lawyer tried to stop the service. But after being prevented from doing so by a number of Freemasons in the crowd, he was forced to listen to the entire sermon in silence.

...at the close of the meeting Mr. camp took vengeance on the lawyer by knocking him down and kicking him around the courthouse yard (C. Elliott Berlin "Abraham O. Smoot, Pioneer Mormon Leader" p 32)

On May 27th Williams Camp was appointed Joseph Smith's elector for the district in the upcoming presidential election (Time and Seasons, Vol. V, No. 12, p 574).

On June 14th, Williams Camp made his last appearance in Smoot's journal. Williams sold a horse to Smoot for him to use for the remainder of his mission that summer. Smoot left for Benton county, and never returned to Dresden.

Williams was a blacksmith by trade. Just before the family moved to Nauvoo, he was fixing a wagon with the help of Ike, one of his slaves. His daughter Catherine was there as well. According to Catherine a mob of 15 men arrived with panted faces. They said they were there to give him some tar and feathers. William responded by first throwing or swinging the hammer he was using at them, which reportedly knocked down two of them. Then he picked up hot "irons in every direction and went after them." Ike and Catherine hid behind the bellows. In short order Williams had routed the mob and returned to the shop. When he got back he said

"Ike, you black rascal, why didn't you help fight those men?" Ike didn't look up but said, "Well, Massa William, I thought you was enough for them few men." My father laughed but said no more to him. (Catherine Ellen Camp Greer, Autobiography, BYU)

Williams' relationship to slavery appears to be more complex than stereotypical. His daughter Catherine recalls he offered Ike and his family their freedom if he helped him make it to Nauvoo. Yet, Ike shows up in one family story that happened at Nauvoo. When the family went to Salt Lake they reportedly took only three slaves with them, leaving the rest behind. One biographer wrote that he freed the slaves, telling the ones with him in Salt Lake that they should consider themselves free. Another wrote he sold some and sent the rest to the home of his father-in-law. On a later trip from Salt Lake to Tennessee, the family returned with four more slaves. The exact fate of each of Williams' slaves is a subject for another day, perhaps by someone with experience in this field. (Yes, I'm talking about you, Amy)

Some sources claim that Williams took his family to Nauvoo in 1843. Another says that as early as 1842 he had two homes, one in Nauvoo and another in Tennessee, and that he moved back and forth for a few years. Another says the Camps arrived in Nauvoo in the midst of the turmoil surrounding Joseph's death. According to Williams' daughter they spent two summers in Nauvoo (probably 1844 & 1845) and then resettled in Iowa.

In June 1850 they joined a wagon train heading for Salt Lake City, arriving in September of the same year. On a trip back to Tennessee in 1852, Diannah went to settle her father's estate while Williams served a mission to Texas. Diannah became ill delaying their return. It took them two years to get back to Utah. Williams spent the rest of his life in Salt Lake where he died on November 21st 1875.

Richard C. Camp Reports from Weakley County Tennessee 1881

On this day in 1881

March 22nd 1881

Elder R[ichard C.] Camp writes of his experiences doing missionary work in Kentucky and Tennessee. He and companion, James W. Eardley, had made a circuit through Weakley, Henry and Carroll Counties in Tennessee recently. They were unable to obtain houses in which to hold meetings, officials making different excuses for refusing the Elders. In Huntington, Carroll County, they had obtained a hail and held a meeting with a good attentive audience. Elder [James W.] Eardley was sent to Perry County, and Elder Camp labored for a time in Kentucky. Shortly after returning to Dresden, he was joined by Elder D[aniel] R. Bateman of West Jordan, Utah . Elder Camp reports that they had held a number of meetings, and friends had been raised up to them in time of need.

The Jolley Family of Dresden Tennessee

In 1825, Henry Jolley and his wife Frances Manning took their family from their prosperous plantation in North Carolina to Weakley County, Tennessee. They were wealthy enough to own slaves and they brought several with them. There was a big move to settle this part of the Tennessee Valley, in part because the land had been opened following the end of the War of 1812. Henry served in that war in the 2nd Regiment of the North Carolina Militia under Captain George. He served from September 1814 to March 1815. Henry and Frances had eight chilren. As their children married they stayed nearby and worked together growing tobacco and cotton.

In February 1842, Henry and his two sons met two missionries from the LDS Church. From his autobiography we can read about his conversion.

One rather warm February afternoon my sons and I were working in the field when our attention was drawn to two distinguished looking gentlemen who were approaching us. They wore black Prince Albert suits and tall smoke stack hats. We rested on our shovels and waited for them to reach us. They introduced themselves as Elder McIntosh and Elder Wilson, Mormon missionaries. After the usual exchange of greetings, they stated their mission, and told us how the boy prophet, Joseph Smith, had beheld a vision of God the Father, and His Son Jesus Christ. They told us about the Mormons at Nauvoo and the persecutions that were being heaped upon the Prophet and his people. We were especially interested in the new Book of Mormon which gave a history of the ancient inhabitants of America. We were so impressed with their message that we invited them to return and see us again. They left us a Book of Mormon and promised to see us again in about two weeks. I said to my sons, "No more work today. We must tell your mother and your wives of the glad tidings." I could think of scarcely anything else for days except the strange story about the Nephites and the Lamanites as told in that wonderful book.   As promised, in about two weeks our Mormon friends returned and we sat in awe until the wee hours of the next morning listening to an explanation of the Principles of the Gospel. On the morrow I was ready for baptism...

By February 18th, Henry along with his oldest son and his wife, Reuben and Sarah had been baptized. Most of the rest of the family soon followed.Frances, however, was not convinced. Before the end of April 1842, they sold their land and their slaves and headed to Nauvoo. Three of their daughters stayed in Tennessee with their husbands.

After meeting the prophet, Frances too was baptized. Being farmers, at first they settled on land north east of town, but the only stayed ther long enough to raise one crop. With the growing troubles they moved into the city. Then the Prophet and his brother were killed. It was a trying time for the saints and the Jolley family. A few months later the family matriarch, Frances Jolley, grew ill and died too. In the midst of this, the family did all it could to help finish the temple.

Eventually, the saints had to leave Nauvoo. The Jolleys went too. But the family continued to scatter. The oldest son, Reuben died in Iowa. Their daughter Lina fell in love and married a local boy in Iowa. It was with great sadness that they parted ways, knowing they would not likely see each other again.

Once in Utah they settled at what would become Pleasant Grove in Utah County. There, Henry finally ended his journey. After completing their new home, Henry contracted pneumonia and died in 1850.

Where is Dresdon Tennessee?

This is a story in which I almost make a fool of myself. But before I do, I want to let you check my work. I started out trying to track the travels of Elder William Shanks Berry just prior to his being killed in Aug 10, 1884. One aspect that confused me was that he noted that he was visiting his relatives and that he went to see his father’s old cabin in Dresdon, Tennessee. But at no time could I tell that ever went to Dresden in Weakly County Tennnessee where so many biographies say he was born. So I started tracking his travels day by day, using his journal as a guide.

Elder Berry’s visit with his relatives comprise much of the month of July. Starting on the 4th of July which he spends in Nashville, he makes his way east of the city by train to Lebanon, the Wilson County seat. From Lebanon he walks and hitch-hikes seven miles to the tiny postal town of Shop Springs. There he meets several relatives. Some he even meets by accident. At one point he asks a total stranger if she knows where Mrs. Sims lives and it turns out he is talking to Mrs. Sims herself.

Over the course of three weeks he meets dozens of cousins and spends his time, apparently sans companion, visiting and collecting names. It is almost as if he is writing for his mother’s benefit, elaborating on his exact relationship only when it comes down to second and third cousins, and then only by adding who their parent or grandparent was, as though that were enough to properly identify their relationship.

At one point he made a side trip to his father’s old cabin.

Thursday July 17th. I went to Shop Springs post office to send a letter home.

I walked to Dresdon, Tennessee and saw my father’s house. It is 18 by 30. It is made of logs and lumber. The two chimneys are of stone and brick. It has one door in the west, one in the north and one in the south. The windows and in the west, north and south and two up stairs. There is a spring about 6 rods south east of the house. There are few peach and locus trees about the place. I met and old black man by the name of Eliga Tompson. He said he knew my mother. He said his father was Joe Shanks and that he belonged to grandfather Shanks. He said he saw my father have a fight with Bill Belt. I stayed here all night.

The next day he walked back to a cousin’s house in Shop Springs. So where ever he went it wasn’t too far from Shop Springs.

From this I start thinking... maybe he wasn’t born in Dresden, Weakley County, but in Dresdon, Wilson County. It isn't uncommon for genealogist to know only the town and have to look up the county from an index of some kind. But a quick search turned up no such location. I checked with historians more familiar with Wilson County and still nothing.

I started to doubt myself when I found an 1840 census listing Jesse Berry (William’s father) as living in Dresden, Weakley County. Maybe they moved from Wilson County to Weakley County and William was just confused when he named the place in Wilson County Dresdon. Not everything people write in journals is correct.

But the 1840 census doesn’t name anyone except the head of household. So it might not even be the right Jesse Berry. And as I start looking at birth records for each of William’s siblings, I start to see more conflicts. Some were born in Lebanon in Wilson County, others were born in Dresden in Weakly County. And there doesn’t seem to be a pattern for when they moved from one spot to the next.

I start looking at the support documents others have collected for the Berry family living in Weakley County. None of them are really county specific. But marriage records in Tennessee are specific to the county where the marriage was issued. I know Jesse married Armela Shanks in 1820 in Wilson County. Their oldest son John Williams Berry, William's older brother, was married in Wilson County in 1842.
I know they joined the church in 1842, though the baptism record doesn’t say where or by whom they were baptized. By 1844, they are living in Nauvoo, where Jesse died and was buried.

So here is my theory. The family knew they lived in Dresdon, Tennessee. So that is what they recorded. Years later, more nitpicky genealogists filled in the counties where the family had left it off. Not knowing where Dresdon was, they looked it up. What they found was Dresden, in Weakley County. They assumed it must be the right one, since it was the only one they found. I know I haven't proven this theory yet, so help me out here. Are there holes in my logic, and how would you go about proving or disproving this?

Jeremiah & Lavinia Murphy

Another early Tennessee family that joined the Mormon Church was Jeremiah and Lavinia Murphy. They joined the Church on 24 June 1836 after being introduced to it by his cousin, Randolph Alexander, and taught by Elders Wilford Woodruff and Abraham O. Smoot. Unfortunately, Jeremiah was dissatisfied with not having a spiritual manifestation upon receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost. Although he continued to associate with the saints and allowed his house to be used as a gathering place, he eventually apostasized. Shortly thereafter, Jeremiah died on 5 October 1839.

For a short time in the early 1840's Lavinia took her family to Nauvoo, where they continued their association with the Church. But by 1843 they had returned to Tennessee. Their stay in Tennessee was not to last. Lavinia was soon infected with the desire to go west to California.

In a lecture he gave in 1896, one of Lavinia's sons, William Murphy, described their move west.

"In 1845 we heard wonderful stories of a wonderful country in the far West, between the Pacific ocean and the Rocky mountains, a country of sulubrious climate, perrenial spring time indeed, of deep and inexhaustible soil, why, they said that wheat grew wild higher than a man's head, and the Mexican Government that exercised some kind of control over it, would grant land to settlers; so my mother, was a widow, with seven children, two sons-in-law and three grand children, suggested that we emigrate to the far off fairy land. She ordered a suitable wagon to be manufactured, a son-in-law did the same, and early in 1846, we started out with two ox teams from West Tennessee, crossed the State of Kentucky, the Ohio river below Paducah, up through Illinois, to Ballville, opposite St. Louis, crossed the Mississippi there, taking a family of three of ours who lived there, completing our number-thirteen. Across the State of Missouri to Independence, then the great entry port of the overland trade of Northern Mexico and Santa Fe; here we learned that the great overland caravan for Oregon and California had departed. We concluded to overtake them, which we did at the Big Blue, in Kansas, where they were water bound. Here we first met the Donners.

Yes, that's right, the Donner Party; famous for how the survivors fed themselves in the face of starvation [if you don't know what I'm talking about, go look it up]. The events that led to the deaths of two thirds of the Donner party are beyond the scope of this post. But the party found themselves trapped in the Sierra Nevada mountains in the winter of 1846/47. Lavinia did not make it. She died in a hastily built snowbound cabin the last week of March 1847, too weak and frail to be rescued. Seven of the family survived: five of her children, one son-in-law and one grandchild. Five others did not survive: two of her children, one son-in-law and three grandchildren.

References

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~tnweakle/DonnerParty_Murphy.htm

http://www.donnerpartydiary.com/

http://www.mormonhistoricsitesfoundation.org/publications/nj_spring1997/Dorius.pdf

Randolph & Myrza Alexander

One of the families that joined the Church in Tennessee was that of Randolph and Myrza Alexander.

Randolph Alexander was born on 22 March 1802 in South Carolina to Angus Alexander and Unity Murphy. He and Myrza Alexander (a distant cousin of Randolph's) were married on 11 June 1830 in Weakley Co, Tennessee. They had three children: Thomas in 1831, Susan in 1830, and Adaline in 1835.

While they were living in Weakley Co, Tennessee, they met Wilford Woodruff and David Patten. The missionaries were refused permission to preach at the Thompson Creek Baptist Church. Randolph, however, owned the land next to the Church and invited them to preach there. Soon afterwards Randolph and his family accepted the gospel and were baptized on 7 August 1836. Some of Randolph's cousins also joined the Mormon Church.

Randolph allowed missionaries to preach at his home and preached himself at least a little since he had been "run off for preaching Mormonism" in an unnamed town some twenty miles from Murfreesboro, Tennessee. At a conference in September 2-4, 1836 Randolph was ordained and Elder.

Although Myrza was pregnant, they decided to join the saints in Far West, Missouri. Along the way, in Memphis, their fourth child was born on 4 March 1837. They choose the name Moroni Woodruff Alexander, with an obvious reference to the Book of Mormon and to honor the missionary that taught them, Wilford Woodruff.

They were driven from Far West and moved to Quincy, Illinois, and later to Nauvoo. There they lived until the saints were driven out. After a year in Winter Quarters, the moved to Utah and eventually settled in Washington County. Randolph died 12 March 1879. Myrza died 23 July 1880.