Charles Emerson Griffin Biography
Chapter-2 Nauvoo
From Munson, Ohio to Winter Quarters, Nebraska.
Charles Emerson Griffin in his autobiography describes the journey that he took with his parents, Albert Bailey Griffin and Abigail Varney Griffin, from their farm in Munson, Ohio to Nauvoo, Illinois and eventually on to Winter Quarters on the banks of the Missouri River.
“In the fall of 1844, my father having completed his preparation for moving, we started for Nauvoo, going by water first, by canal to the Ohio River, then by steam boat down the Ohio to the Mississippi and then up that river to Nauvoo. Arriving there in the fore part of Winter my father rented a room of brother Alfred Randall, where we lived through the Winter. In the Spring we moved out about fourteen miles from Nauvoo to a place called Pilot Grove my father having bought a farm in the neighborhood, as he supposed from a man by the name of Brooks, paying for it before he left Ohio by turning out property to the amount of four hundred dollars. Brooks proved to be an Apostate and all we could find of the supposed farm was about twenty acres of wild prairie land. We resided at Pilot Grove through the Summer.
I was now eight years old and was baptized into the Church.
In the Fall it was advisable to move back to Nauvoo as the mob were committing depredations all around us and we knew not what day or night they might visit us.
Accordingly, in the Fall, we moved back to Nauvoo, living in a rented house through the Winter and making what preparations we could to leave Nauvoo in the Spring with the rest of the Saints. I well remember the busy times there were that Winter, everybody doing all they could to forward their work as fast as possible. Wagon making and mending, parching corn for food to take along on the journey.
I spent my time in various ways. Often I visited the Temple and its vicinity. My father succeed in getting one yoke of oxen and an old wagon that he repaired sufficiently to venture to start West with the rest of the Saints.
In the month of April I think, we started, not knowing where we were going but glad to get away from persecution.
The State of Iowa or rather Territory was very thinly settled and our journey was mostly through a wild country.
After crossing the Mississippi River we traveled in company with a few others over good and bad roads until we came to a place called Garden Grove, so named by the Mormons. Here we found quite a camp, and a number of the Twelve.
We stopped a day or two and then started on with a small company headed by brothers Parley and Orson Pratt, two of the twelve. We had our own roads and bridges to make as we went along. We traveled some distance in this way until we came to a place called Mt. Pisgia. Here we stopped, I believe two weeks, until Pres. Young and company came up. We then journeyed on in company of different ones until we came to the Missouri River which I believe was four hundred miles from our starting point.” Here was a small trading post owned by a half breed named Scarpe. (Peter Sarpy) This was the only sign of habitation we had seen for a long time. Here all hands went to work to build a flat boat to cross the river on.”
It took some three or four weeks to complete the boat. We then crossed the river with the rest of the Saints who were there.”
As you read Charles Emerson Griffin’s autobiography you get the sense that the move from Munson, Ohio to Nauvoo then on to Winter Quarters represent one chapter of his life the events all flowing into a single story. His description seems more than a little muted given the dramatic period of history that is involved. As with much of his writing he is very circumspect and understated in his descriptions. Some of this can be explained as the actions of a very humble man. Another perspective is to remember that his autobiography was written late in his life as he tried his best to set down the memories of his early youth. He was seven when the family left Ohio and turned ten somewhere in the middle of Iowa. The task at hand is to use contemporary accounts to fill in the gaps in Charles’ narrative.
The history of the Nauvoo that the Griffin’s entered in the Fall of 1844 is very familiar to Latter Day Saints. Driven out of Missouri the church had relocated at a bend on the Mississippi renaming the place Nauvoo. The same biases that had plagued the Church in Missouri followed them to Nauvoo. In June that year the persecution had reached such a level that the mobs were bold enough to take the life of the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum. By that fall the mobs had turned their attention to the remaining church leadership. They began a campaign, couched in supposed legal arguments, to arrest and detain the church hierarchy. As their determination to rid themselves of the Mormons grew they began an active campaign to force the Mormon community to abandon their homes and farms and leave Illinois. Homes and farms were burned. State and federal agents entered Nauvoo looking to arrest church leaders. The fatal stroke was the revocation of the city’s charter by the state legislature. Their argument, the citizens of Nauvoo had abused the provisions of the charter for their own benefit at the expense of their neighbors. In the fall of 1845 a truce was negotiated. The opposition paused to consider the ramifications of further depredations. The church sough a reprieve from the persecution hoping to use the time to finish construction on the temple and make the necessary preparation to leave. There had long been an understanding that the future of the church was to be found in the west. Parley P. Pratt gave a famous sermon declaring that the Saints needed to broaden their vision and prepare to establish the church in multiple locations. By February of 1846 the church leadership had left Nauvoo taking up residence in a camp they called Sugar City across the river in Iowa. With the withdrawal of the church leadership the persecution lessened. Over the next several months the rest of the Saints, including the Griffins, abandoned Nauvoo and followed Brigham Young and the church leaders into Iowa with the idea of relocating to the mountains of the west.
In his autobiography Charles offers a brief description of the family’s move from Munson, Ohio to Nauvoo, Illinois. The early part of the trip was on the canal system found in the state of Ohio. One of the great migrations in early American was from the eastern states to the Western Reserve in present day Ohio. This area was destined to become a breadbasket for America. The key to Ohio’s agricultural success was the canal system constructed between 1825 and 1847, which linked much of the state with the Ohio River. The first leg of the canal system extended south from Cleveland to meet the Ohio River at Portsmouth. A number of smaller feeder canals connected to this main branch of the Ohio and Erie Canal. One of these, the P&O Canal, flowed west out of Pennsylvania passing within twenty miles of Munson the home of the Griffins. By transporting their family’s belongs the twenty miles they would have been loaded onto the barges that were used to transport goods on the canal system. The typical cargo barge was about 70 to 80 feet long and 14 feet wide and could carry 50 to 80 tons. Teams of horses or mules with one team pulling and one riding on the barge pulled the canal barges. They each pulled for a six hour shift averaging about 4 miles per hour. The cost on the cargo barges was one or two cents per mile. At that rate the canal trip would have taken the Griffin’s about a week to make the 250-mile trip. The P&O connected to the Ohio and Erie at Akron, Ohio. The trip took them to Portsmouth, Ohio, which served as an inland port on the Ohio River. Charles recorded that they then boarded a steamer for the trip down the Ohio to where it meets the Mississippi at Cairo, Illinois. The steamer then headed north up the Mississippi, past St Louis, to off load the Griffin family at Nauvoo. Charles recorded that the trip was made in the Fall of 1844.
There are two different dates given in church records for the baptism of Charles’s parents. Some records list their baptism in 1842. Other church records list it as July, 1843. Whatever the date, Albert and Abigail heeded the call to gather with the body of the Saints in Nauvoo. The story seems to indicate that in 1844, after the harvest was gathered, Albert sold his land and property and made the move to Nauvoo. What was the mindset of the Griffin family as they stood on the docks at Nauvoo? They had lived in Munson, Ohio for the past seven or eight years. In Munson they had owned and worked some very beautiful farm ground. We do not have very much information that tells us how successful they were although the deed records indicate that Albert was engaged in expanding his holdings. As early as 1841 the church had begun to encourage the Saints in Kirtland to join with the main body of the church in Nauvoo. We can only imagine the level of faith in the family circle that prompted them to leave an established home and extended family to strike out for Illinois. In June of that year they had received the news of the death of Joseph Smith. That news injected a level of uncertainty in the Church. It raised questions of what would happen now. In certainly interjected the issue of what shape future church leadership would take. For many in the church searching for that answer led to apostasy. But all of that uncertainty and the news of the persecution of the church did not deter the Griffin’s from making the journey. The move from Munson to Nauvoo was not the simple journey that Charles describes in his autobiography. The move is a testament to the type of Latter Day Saints that the Griffin’s were. They traded an established life for a very uncertain life. We can pay them their due respect by imaging the levels of faith and commitment that they had achieved that gave them the strength to jump into such an uncertain future.
Charles wrote that the family moved into a room that his father Albert rented from Alfred Randall. From Alfred Randall’s history he learn that he was also from Munson, Ohio having joined the church in 1840 and moved to Nauvoo in 1841. I cannot but imagine that the two families knew each other in Munson. If that is true I think it is no accident that they reunited in Nauvoo. I would also venture to say they the living arraignments had been made before the Griffin’s arrival. From information that we can gather the Randall’s lived in the Fourth Ward, which was located on Temple Hill. There is also another historical references to Ezra Taft Benson at one point rooming at the Randall home. Given this history it is easy to imagine the Randall home served as something of a boarding house.
The Nauvoo that the Griffins entered in 1844 was a hotbed of activity. In October of 1844 there were plans afoot to try the murders of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. The Griffins would have been aware of the machinations of the state and county officials in their pretense at justice. These efforts eventually all came to naught, no one was ever found guilty of the deaths. The Griffin’s would have soon became aware of the actions of the mob in the outlying communities as they harassed and burned houses and farms. I am quite sure that the Griffins were uplifted as they witnessed the whirlwind of activity in the Church in Nauvoo, new doctrine was being preached, quorums were being organized and missionaries dispatched. The Quorum of the Twelve issued several epistles to the church for their general edification. They would have been privy to outpouring of the spirit that attended the dedication of the Seventies Hall that December. The move from Munson was probably validated as they found themselves thrust into the middle of the movement to build up the kingdom. There was probably not a week that passed in which they were not party to a profound sermon delivered by one of the Church’s leading lights. They were also more likely than ever to be aware of the debate over the future of the church leadership with all of the major players in residence in Nauvoo. Their faith was both uplifted and challenged as they processed all that was Nauvoo. But the centerpiece of Nauvoo was the Temple. By the early part of October the exterior walls had risen to the height of the tops of the thirty pilasters, which were ready to receive the capitals. The capitals, that toped the pilasters, were made up of five parts, a base, a sunstone, a trumpet stone and two capstones. The sunstones and the trumpet stones took on a special significance for the Mormon community. The stones represented the dawning of the restoration and the coming of the gospel to illuminate the earth. The two hands holding trumpets heralded the events. The laying of the sunstones was a much celebrated even. Their raising not only had a religious significance it also meant the Temple was nearing completion. The placing of the last of the thirty sunstones on December 6, 1844 was noted in almost every contemporary diary. It is not incomprehensible to imagine the Griffins being on hand for the event. In May of that year a large congregation gathered for the ceremony of laying the capstone on the competed outside walls. President Young on the occasion stated,
“The last stone is laid upon the Temple, and I pray the Almighty in the name of Jesus to defend us in this place, and sustain us until the temple is finished and we have all got our endowments.”
The services concluded with the Hosanna Shout.
Charles was to note that the next winter he visited the Temple site quite often. But he does not provide more detail for the family’s involvement in the project. There were ten wards in Nauvoo. Every tenth day one of the wards drew the assignment to furnish a work crew for temple construction. In addition the Church had adopted a policy that allowed you to pay your tithing by donating your labor to the Temple project. That winter of 1844/45 Albert did not have a farm to occupy his labor. I can not but imagine that he was part of the ward and probably the tithing donation efforts and spent time working on the Temple project. The labor force provided by the wards must have provided a fairly significant amount of the necessary labor on the temple. There are a number of references in the official correspondence directed at organizing and maximizing the effort. Wards were directed to be more particular in supplying men on their appointed days. There were also instructions that they should bring all necessary tools with them. The same is true of Abigail Griffin. The Relief Society had been deeply involved with the Temple project since its inception. As the Temple walls were raised the Relief Society accepted the challenge to provide all the funds necessary to furnish the nails and glass needed to finish the project. On those days the Temple and Albert’s labors were sure to be the main subject at the dinner table. That Winter the main effort was aimed at quarrying the stone to finish the project. By February the stone baptismal font, which marked a major step in the temple project, was ready to be installed.
In his history Brigham Young recorded for February 1, 1845,
“The Seventies met at their hall in the evening. Elders George A. Smith, Joseph Young and others preached; several were ordained into the quorums, and several presidents were set apart for the eighteenth quorum.”
The seventies’ records note that Albert Bailey Griffin was ordained into the Eighteenth Quorum of the Seventies in February 1845. By the time of their next regular meeting they had moved on to organizing the nineteenth quorum. That Saturday night Albert in all likelihood announced to the family that he had been ordained a seventy that very evening. The next week Albert would have listened to a fire and brimstone sermon delivered by Joseph Young. Joseph’s brother Brigham described it,
“President Joseph Young said he meant by the assistance of the great God to cut off all liars, swearers, bogus-makers and bogus-circulators and endeavors to purify the bodies of the seventies form filth and wickedness.”
How did Albert relate to that message and what did he teach his family? Was it enough to put the scare into seven-year-old Charles? In the records for Sunday, February, 23 the minutes note that Joseph Young spoke of the principal of receiving revelation from God. Residence in Nauvoo and membership in the Seventies certainly exposed Charles and the Griffin family to new levels of doctrinal instruction.
With the coming of Spring the Griffin family story turns to farming. In the Spring of 1845 there was still a great deal of uncertainty as to how long the body of the Church would remain in its current location. However long that might be the Griffins needed to make a living. Charles’ description of the events surrounding the farm that they would purchase poses some interesting questions. He wrote,
“In the Spring we moved out about fourteen miles from Nauvoo to a place called Pilot Grove my father having bought a farm in the neighborhood, as he supposed from a man by the name of Brooks, paying for it before he left Ohio by turning out property to the amount of four hundred dollars. Brooks proved to be an apostate and all we could find of the supposed farm was about twenty acres of wild prairie land. We resided at Pilot Grove through the Summer.”
In the deed records for Hancock County we find a deed that was not recorded until March 16, 1846. The deed read,
“This indenture was made this the 20thday of June 1845 Between Lester Brooks of the County of Hancock and State of Illinois of the first part and Albert Griffin of the county and state afore said.”
The purchase price was $300.00. The land was described as being the south west quarter of the north west quarter of section 3, less twenty acres. That describes a purchase for twenty acres of land. The story differs from that related by Charles. Both parties to the transaction were then living in Nauvoo. Lester Brooks at that time was a well-regarded member of the church, a member of the first Stake Presidency organized in Kirtland and a confidant of Brigham Young. He did in fact leave the church at a later date becoming an apostle in the Strangite movement. Lester Brooks is also on record as having baptized the young Charles Emerson Griffin. So what to make of the seemingly conflicting pictures? Many of the leading men in the church, whose time was occupied with church service, had farms that they in fact did not work on fulltime. Joseph Smith for example had a large farm that was managed by John D. Lee. The same was certainly true of Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball and a number of others. Did Lester Brooks have such a farm? Did Albert go to work for Brooks on his farm eventually buying a piece of ground for himself? In the deed is a description of holding back twenty acres. This would seem to suggest the Lester Brooks was farming those acres. Charles notes that the family stayed in Pilot Grove for the entire growing season. This certainly suggests that they planted with the anticipation of harvesting a crop. That winter he describes the family being involved in parching corn. Those acres today are found in the midst of beautiful cornfields. That Fall Brigham Young reported that there was enough grain grown in the area surrounding Nauvoo to last the members for two years if it were all successfully gathered. These hints suggest that the Griffins may have been able to enjoy some level of success with their farm. Another argument for Albert working for or with Lester Brooks is the description offer by Charles of his father’s efforts to obtain a wagon and oxen for the move west. He notes that they took their farm implements west with them. If they did not obtain their own wagons and oxen until 1846, What did they use to transport themselves and their farm implements to Pilot Grove? What did they use for draft animals? Was part of the arraignment with Brooks the right to use his draft animals as payment for laboring on his acres? Was the whole story colored by Charles’s negative views of a traitor to the Church an apostate?
In the Fall of that year, in response to the growing persecution and the increase in mob activity, the Griffins made the move back to Nauvoo. The Griffin Home in Pilot Grove was very close to Carthage. The three hundred-man militia, the Carthage Grays, provided the core for the mob activities against the Church. Most of the homes and farms that were raided and burned were in the outer districts like Pilot Grove. Still I think it is quite lucky that the Griffins avoided a similar fate. A careful reading of Charles’s autobiography indicates that they rented a “house” instead of just a room. Charles’ writings also indicated that the decision had been made for the family to make all the necessary preparations to leave Nauvoo in the Spring.
There were two great themes being played out in Nauvoo in the fall of 1845. One was the decision to leave Nauvoo and move the headquarters of the Church to the west. The other was the effort to finish the Temple and begin to provide the blessings of the Endowment to the Church membership.
There were many facets to the issue of beginning the move west. The most pressing was dealing with the growing persecution. The level of danger was growing to alarming proportions. Outlying communities were being forced to flee to Nauvoo for safety. Brigham Young recorded on September 14,
“I counseled the brethren to bring their families and grain here, and called for volunteers with wagons and teams to aid in removing the saints to this place; one hundred and thirty-four teams were procured and started forthwith.”
You can gain some sense of the level of frustration felt by the Saints from this entry by Brigham Young,
“ I dreamed last night that I was chased by a mob to a place like a barn full of corn or grain, one chased me so close that he got into the same room with me and it was Thomas Ford, (Governor Ford) who appeared only two and one-half feet high. I took his wrist between my fingers and stepped to the door and knocked down one after another of the mob with him till I discovered he was dead. “
There were all sorts of machinations between the state and county officials and the citizens of Nauvoo. It is hard to judge where these officials drew the line. There were actions taken by these officials seemingly in support of the Church and many of their actions can truly be seen as supporting and encouraging the mobs. It is easy to conclude that all of the involved parties had came to the same conclusion, the only way to resolve the issue, whatever the injustices involve, was for the Church to withdraw from Illinois. The only real credit that can be offered to the key members of the establishment, including Governor Ford, was that they did help in the negotiations of a truce that lasted most of that winter. In this regard one of the leading opposition groups, based in Quincy, wrote a letter “To the First President and the Council of the Church in Nauvoo”.
“ Having had a free and full conversation with you this day in reference to your proposed removal from this county, together with the members of your church, we have to request you to submit the facts and intentions stated to us in the said conversation to writing, in order that we may lay them before the governor and the people of the state. We hope that by so doing it will have a tendency to allay the excitement at present existing in the public mind”.
It is hard to imagine the Griffins or any other Mormon family learning or reading of these maneuvers and not reacting with anger and disgust and a deep sense of injustice. But the truce did in fact take hold. The local opposition papers themselves took up the cause of arguing for a season of calm.
What was the mindset in the Griffin household that fall? As they played out in their minds eye the events of the past two years were they content with their lot in life? Was their appreciation of the bigger picture and their faith enough to overcome the sense of injustice? Were they simply swept up in in events bigger than and beyond their control? Their subsequent actions argued for the former. The Griffins were part of a Church tradition that pointed toward a Kingdom of God on earth. A major aspect of the tradition was the establishment of a Zion. That idea of Zion had already led the church form New York to Ohio then on to Missouri and now backs to Nauvoo. Even thought the idea of a Zion held a prominent part in Mormon theology human frailties probably still argued for a slower easier path toward the goal. But now the issue was forced upon them. Certainly the concept of moving to a Zion made accepting the reality of leaving Nauvoo a lot easier. Parley P. Pratt had long argued that the Saints must change their mindset to establishing the church in many places. On September 9ththe Council of Fifty met and resolved that a company of 1500 men be selected to go to the Great Salt Lake Valley. When the Council met on the 30thPratt had made the calculations for what a family of five would need for the trip; one good wagon, three yoke of cattle, two cows, two beef cattle, three sheep, one thousand pounds of flour, twenty of sugar and 5 pounds of tea or coffee among other items. Charles himself describes the scene and resolve in Nauvoo that Winter, “I well remember the busy times there were that Winter, everybody doing all they could do to forward their work as fast as possible. Wagon making and mending, parching corn for food to take along on the journey”.
That winter also saw the first major divisions in the Church play out. Sidney Rigdon and James J. Strang both made their claims on the church presidency. The apostle John E. Page was dismissed from the Church. The status of the church leadership during this time period has been the topic of much discussion over the years. As their descendants we cannot help wondering how the Griffins processed all that happened. The evidence suggests that they followed Brigham Young’s argument,
“I say let them go…..and make their own course for salvation.”
With the decision having been made to abandon Nauvoo the last great story to unfold was the completion of the Temple. In May, 1845 the capstone was laid, By June work was well under way on the roof. By the end of June, Brigham Young reported that the framework for the attic was finished and the roof was ready to be shingled. On August 23, 1845 he wrote to Wilford Woodruff, then serving in England that,
“the Temple is up, the shingles all on, the tower raised and ready to dome up. The joiners are now at work finishing the inside.”
When the Griffins returned to Nauvoo after the harvest they would have viewed a temple that on its exterior looked almost complete.
The first great event held in the Temple was a Sunday service held on October 6th, 1845. The first floor of the Temple included a design to hold 3,500 people in its pews. The report of that first service was that there were about 5,000 in attendance, probably including the Griffins. That number may have represented almost the entire adult population of Nauvoo. Brigham Young in offering the opening prayer presenting the Temple, thus far completed to the Lord, as a monument of the Saint’s liberality, fidelity and faith. He concluded, ‘Lord, we dedicate this house to thee and ourselves to thee.” Thereafter most of the Sunday services were held in the Temple.
On October 6th, 7thand 8tha General Conference was held in the Temple. The highlight of the first session was the rejection of William Smith from his office as an apostle as the names of the general authorities were offered for confirmation. Plans had been previously put forward to organize and dispatch a select company to pioneer the way to the Great Salt Lake Valley. The major theme of the remainder of the conference was the commitment to take every Saint who wanted to go with them on the move west. The morning session held on the 8thwas probably the most anticipate and attended. Mother Lucy Smith had expressed a desire to speak to the membership. With the issue of succession of the Presidency of the Church being a much-discussed topic and a future source of division, most of the church membership was interested in hearing her views on the matter. From the history of the Church,
“She commenced by saying that she was truly glad that the Lord had let her see so large a congregation. She had a great deal of advice to give, but Brother Brigham Young had done the errand, he had fixed it completely.”
This is a close as she came to offering an opinion on the succession issue. She informed the congregation that she had written her history. She also gave her first person account of the early history of the Church. She declared her determination to go west with the body of the Church but exacted a promise that her bones be brought back to Nauvoo to be buried with her family. The Griffins may have been present to witness to her testimony. If not they would certainly have had the chance to have all of the massages from the conference related to them.
The Temple had long served as a rallying point for the beleaguered Saints. The Temple and the sealing ordinances performed there were a central theme in the restoration story. The membership waited anxiously for the opportunity to partake of the temple blessings. That Winter the Griffins along with the rest of the church membership probably took special notice of each announcement relating to the Temple project. Major milestone were published in the church publications. Even non-Mormon papers reported on the progress in the construction of the Temple. November 30, 1845 brought the news that Brigham Young had dedicated the attic room for ordinance work. Brigham Young noted in his history on December 10, 1845,
“Four-twenty-five p.m. Elder Heber C. Kimball and I commenced administering the ordinances of the endowment.”
On January 7, 1846 came the news that the Alter for administration of the sealing ordinances and been dedicated. The Winter of 1845/46 was an interesting time for the members of the Church. For a group of people who had been attracted to the message of Mormonism because of its promise of a restoration of the ancient church these had to be the best of times. With the Temple came the revelation of doctrines utterly familiar to us now, Celestial Marriage, familial relationship to God, character of God, comprehensive understanding of the Priesthood, premortal existence and ordinances for the dead.
The ordinance work in the temple continued throughout December and January. On most days over one hundred plus ordinances were completed. Those attending the temple, according to Brigham Young, were by invitation only. By the end of December over one thousand such ordinances had been completed. Brigham Young noted on a number of occasions that he had spent the entire night in the Temple. By the first of February the Griffin family had not had the opportunity to enter the Temple for ordinance work. On February 3, 1846 Brigham Young wrote, “Notwithstanding that I had announced that we would not attend to the administration of the ordinances, the House of the Lord was thronged all day, The anxiety being so great to receive, as if the brethren would have us stay here and continue the endowments until our way would be hedged up, and our enemies would intercept us, But I informed the brethren that this was not wise, and that we should build more Temples”.
The decision was subsequently made to keep the Temple open for a few more days with another one thousand plus endowments being completed. The Nauvoo Temple Endowment registry on pages 328 and 329 notes that on February 7, 1846 Albert and Abigail Griffin receive their washing and anointing. The Seventies records on page 135 note that they were sealed together in marriage that same day. Albert offered up his birth date as February 28, 1809, In Essex, Chittenden County, Vermont. Abigail noted her birth in Colchester in the same county on February 6, 1810. During those hectic days the forty-four men who had been ordained as Temple workers as well as the apostles in residency were probably all engaged in the Temple. In the surviving records for the period Brigham Young usually assumed the lead at the sealing alter. Brigham Young in his history recorded a description of the Alter,
“The Alter is about 2 ½ feet high and 2 ½ feet long and one foot wide-Rising from a platform about 8 or 9 inches high and extending our on all sides about a foot, forming a convenient place to kneel upon. The top of the Alter and the platform for kneeling upon are covered with cushions of scarlet damask cloth, the side of the upright part or body of the alter are covered in white linen”.
Charles noted that the winter of 1845/46 was a busy time. The whole community was deeply involved in preparations for leaving in the Spring. Groups of people were formed into organized companies prepared to leave Nauvoo and travel west together. One of the most urgent tasks was building and repairing wagons, which was organized on almost an industrial scale. Charles noted that his father obtained an old wagon, ”that he repaired sufficiently” for their use in moving west. Charles also notes that his father,” succeeded in getting one yoke of oxen”. We have previously discussed the possibility that Albert had worked for or on the farm of Lester Brooks using his draft animals to farm his own piece of land. Now we find Albert acquiring, for seemingly the first time, animals of his own. The oxen were the primary draft animals used in the time period. It is very unlikely that the one yoke of oxen was the only animals the Griffins used to pull their wagon. In the absence of multiple yokes of oxen people added a pair of common cows to the team. In the three or four months the family spent in Nauvoo that winter they had plenty of chores to occupy their time. It seems almost an understood that Albert would have resumed his role with the wards in furnishing labor for the temple project, as would have Abigail with the Relief Society. Another layer of participation was added that year, the idea of “Tithing Hands”, men would donate their time every tenth day. Charles notes that he himself often visited the Temple. For the young Charles a visit to the Temple on almost any day that Winter was very likely to see him run into Brigham Young or any of the leading men in the Church. It is easy for me to picture him bringing lunch to his father as Albert labored on the Temple project. I hope he was there on January 30, 1846 when they raised the weather vane to the top of the steeple. Can you imagine the effect that watching that event would have had on a young man as he watch the angel being installed? The weather vane was described as,
“a representation of an angel in his priestly robes with a Book of Mormon in one hand and a trumpet in the other, it was overlaid with gold.”
That Winter the Griffins would have been anxiously engaged in preparations for the journey west. They would have been collecting and packaging the items on Parley P. Pratt’s list of necessities, flour, beans, sugar, tea or coffee, salt, dried beef, tent, clothing and bedding, farm implements, seed, cooking utensils, hooks and line, a keg of alcohol, dried fruit, black pepper, cayenne, nutmeg and mustard to name a few. In the world I grew up in the men who lived on the range with the sheep and cattle used a “grub box” to house all of the kitchen necessities. A tradition they in all likelihood inherited from Charles Griffin himself.
One of the interesting phenomenon that occurred that winter was the formation of, whittling and whistling brigades. Even though there was a truce of sorts in place the leading men of the church were plagued by government officers trying to serve summons or arrest warrens for one trumped up charge or another. With the revocation of the city charter Nauvoo was left with no authorized police force. The response was the organization of the whittling and whistling brigades. Adult men aided, by most of the young men in the community, would follow these government agents wherever they went all the while flashing large bladed knives in a faint imitation at whittling. The procession was accompanied by loud whistling designed to both irritate and identify the agents. The whole of the exercise was designed to intimidate and obstruct these men as they tried to serve their warrants. It is hard to imagine any rambunctious boy in Nauvoo not being intrigued by and desirous of participating in the exercise, including a young Charles Griffin.
Even with the general truce, that provided an acceptable level of calm that Winter, the church leadership still found itself bedeviled by government agents of one stripe or another looking to serve them with papers. Issues as trivial as a few missing pigs provided fodder for the local sheriff to come calling. Brigham Young in particular was forced to resort to subterfuge to avoid the harassment. Reading the writing on the wall the church hierarchy determined to leave Nauvoo as soon as practical in the Spring. Brigham Young noted in his journal that he crossed the river with his family on February 15, 1846. By the first of March some 3,000 Saints and 500 wagons were in camp in Sugar City seven miles west of the Mississippi. Over the next several months 12,000 Saints were to follow.
Charles recorded that he thought the family left Nauvoo some time in April. He wrote that the family traveled with a “few others”. While there had been extensive efforts made to form the Saints into organized companies the Griffin’s seem to have made an independent journey. Many times that was a reflection that during the period when the companies were organized that the Griffins were in a state of uncertainty, Could they or could they not get ready in time? Albert did not sell his farm until March 11, 1846. The deed denotes that it was between Albert Griffin and his wife Abigail Griffin of the County of Hancock and William Gorrell. The selling price was $50.00 much less that the $300.0 they had paid originally. In a work titled “History of Utah” there is a short biography of Albert Griffin. It describes a yoke of oxen and a dilapidated wagon as being part of the purchase price this being the wagon described by Charles in his autobiography. While the Griffins remained in Nauvoo finalizing their preparation the same history noted,
“prior to that event, speaking of leaving Nauvoo, he frequently shouldered his rifle, and with others repaired to the Temple to stand guard, sometimes remaining all night ready for any emergency.”
The main body of Saints left the Sugar Creek encampment around the 1stof March. The companies paused at a few other locations on their way to the first permanent encampment at Garden Grove arriving at the end of April. Garden Grove would serve as a major way station for the waves of emigrants heading west for the next several years. Garden Grove was one hundred-fifty miles from Nauvoo. The Griffins caught up with the main body of Saints at the Garden Grove location. Charles recorded that they were only at Garden Grove for, “a day or two” before they continued on the journey west. The leadership of the church, in the face of the growing adversity in Nauvoo, had begun to make serious plans for moving west as early as 1845. In his history Brigham Young records on September 9, 1945,
” General Council met. Resolved that a company of 1500 men be selected to go to Great Salt Lake Valley”.
That December he reported to the leaders of the Church that Parley P. Pratt had been assigned the task of leading the pioneer company. While the initial plan had been to make the trip from Nauvoo to the valley of the Great Salt Lake in one long exodus the realities of 1846 limited the vision to making it to the Missouri River. Pratt was given the assignment of pioneering the route. Charles records,
“We stopped a day or two then started on with a small company headed by brothers Parley and Orson Pratt, two of the twelve. We had to make our own roads and bridges as we went along.”
Parley P. Pratt in his own autobiography describes the journey,
“ I was dispatched by the Presidency with a small company to try to find another location” speaking of a place beyond Garden Grove. “Crossing the branch of the Grand River, I now steered through the vast and fertile prairies and groves without a track or anything but a compass to guide me”. “We crossed small streams daily, which, on account of deep beds and miry banks, as well as on account of their being swollen by rain, we had to bridge.”
“I took my horse and rode ahead some three miles in search of one of the main forks of the Grand River,” His search led him to the sight he was to name Mount Pisgah. “Being pleased and excited at the varied beauty before me, I cried out, this is Mount Pisgah.” I returned to my camp, with the report of having found the long sought river, and we soon moved on and encamped under the shade of these beautiful groves. It was now late in May.”
The company stayed as Pisgah for a while until the main body of Saints arrived. Mount Pisgah was destined to become a major stopping place on the Mormon Trail. A permanent settlement was established and a large number of acres put under cultivation the crops to be used by companies that were to follow.
Parley then records,
“June 1. We crossed the river, and traveling one mile, encamped; next day we travelled nine miles, the third day twenty miles. Passing on from day to day, we at length came to a large river which could not be forded”. “ We tarried here some days and built a large bridge over which the camps were enabled to cross.”
“In July we arrived at the Missouri River, near Council Bluffs. There we encamped for several weeks; opening a trade with upper Missouri, exchanging wagons, horses, harnesses and various articles of furniture, cash etc., for provisions, oxen, cows etc.”
In the meantime we build a ferryboat, fixed landings, made dugways, etc., and commenced ferrying over the Missouri. The ferry ran day and night for a long time, and still could not complete the crossing of the camps till late in the season.”
“The lateness of the season, the poverty of the people, and, above all, the taking of five hundred of our best men, finally compelled us to abandon any further progress westward till the return of another spring, The camps, therefore, began to prepare for winter.”
In the first stages of the journey across Iowa there were some established roads for the Saint to use. From Garden Grove onward the journey followed some existing primitive roads but mainly followed Indian trails. What Parley P. Pratt does not explain in any detail is that his company pioneered a usable road two thirds of the way across Iowa.
The following was copied from a sign erected on the Mormon Trail by the state of Iowa,
“The Mormon Trail across Iowa was a patch work ribbon of wagons ruts, forked routes, hastily constructed bridges and ferries both large and small. It tied together bits and pieces of older roads, wagon trails, and Indian trails. This wagon road is largely characterized by its bridges. The Mormons built, on average, one bridge per day during their journey through southern Iowa. Philadelphian Thomas L Kane spent three months in the middle Missouri Valley observing the Mormons in 1846. Four years later, in 1850, he told the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, “Those were no ordinary bridges, they were capable of carrying heavy artillery.” The Mormons worked hard to cut through wooded areas, if it saved enough miles, and graded rough or steep spots along the trail. But it was their bridges and ferry building that aided travel into the American West for many years to come.”
Having read of the role that Parley P. Pratt played in establishing the route across Iowa begs the question, What was it about Albert Bailey Griffin that caused Pratt to select him from among the thousands of men at Garden Grove to join his party? A picture of Albert taken later in his life in Kanarraville, Utah shows a very vigorous looking man. Did Pratt know something of Albert’s history as a pioneer on the frontiers of America? Had they met in Nauvoo? Perhaps as part of a building crew on the Temple project? Did Pratt make note that the Griffins made the journey to Garden Grove independently of the main body of Saints? After arriving in Winter Quarters Albert was part of an even smaller group selected to travel on to the next major obstacle on the westward trail the Elkhorn River. The group made preparations for crossing the Elkhorn in anticipation of the time when the Saints would begin the move further west. Charles writes,
“My father, with some others, was called to go still further West to the Elkhorn River to build a bridge across it. The river was eight or ten rods wide as near as I can remember and two or three feet deep. The men commenced the bridge by going up the river and cutting large logs and rolling them in to the river to float down to the place where the bridge was to be built. There the logs were moved into place by the aid of ropes. The logs were lain up as one would a log house. These bents, as they were called, were about a rod apart. I think they had the bents completed when we were called back to the main camp.”
First in Munson, Ohio then in Nauvoo followed by the journey across Iowa, there were certain characteristics that allowed the Griffins to challenge the edge of the wildness. Their actions bespeak of a strong faith, an ability to face and overcome obstacles. While we may not view it as a positive they had lived a life that had hardened them. Such a life give them an ability to perform hard manual labor, to face privation, to face down challenges all skills that served them well in their journeys across the American plains.
References; www/samuelgriffingenealogy.blogspot.com, www/griffinsofessex.blogspot.com
