Sylvanus Hulet and Mary Lewis

Sylvanus Hulet was born in Killingly, Connecticut to John Hulet and Sarah Searles on November 7, 1758. At Lee Berkshire, Massachusetts about 1786 he married Mary Lewis. Their eight children were born in Lee, Massachusetts. Even of these children were known to have joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and probably the other did, also.

Sylvanus served in the Continental Army for the term of nine months from June 9, 1779 to April 10, 1780 in Colonel John Ashley’s regiment which drove the British from New London westward across Connecticut to New York. He then reenlisted on October 13, 1781 and was discharged on October 20, 1781. This latter enlistment included four days (84 miles) of travel from home marching under the command of Lieutenant Colonel John Collar by order of Colonel John Ashley, Jr. on an alarm at the Northward.

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Sylvanus was described as being 5 feet 10 inches tall and o a dark complexion. He also appears on early records as a yeoman – that is, a man who owned land and worked it himself.

Sylvanus and his brothers, John and Samuel were partners in a blacksmith and wagon-making shop and a mill on the edge of Lee township against Tyringham township, Berkshire, Massachusetts. Samuel died in 1813 and the farm was valued at $35 per acre. The estate was settled and by 1815 Sylvanus and John had moved to Nelson township, Portage, Ohio in that part known as the “Connecticut Reserve” which was used by the state to give farms to her soldiers. (Connecticut kept the northeast corner of Ohio for Revolutionary Soldiers as the “Western Reserve.”) By 1814 Sylvanus owned 640 acres. (He purchased land in Nelson, Ohio in 1814.)

Six years later in 1820 when he applied for a Revolutionary Pension, his 160 acres was valued at $3 per acre. This was partly because of ill health. The Revolutionary War pension was not granted.

The family heard of the vision of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon in 1830. Sylvester, one of Sylvanus’ sons, traveled east to New York on horseback to talk to the prophet, Joseph Smith. The prophet converted and baptized Sylvester in March of 1830, before the church was organized and then Sylvester returned to Nelson with a freshly printed Book of Mormon. In October 1830 Mormon Missionaries came to Nelson and most of the Hulet family were baptized. In 1831, Joseph Smith was in Hiram, revising the scriptures, so no doubt, the family became well acquainted with him. Hiram was seven miles from the Hulet Settlement in Nelson township.

In 1831 the Hulet family, including Mary, moved to Jackson County, Missouri. In November 1833, the family was driven with the other members of the church from Jackson County into Clay County. Mary died in 1835 and is buried in Clay County. (Some family members think Mary is buried in the cemetery at the Hulet settlement near Nauvoo.)

In 1836 the rest of the Hulet family moved north into Far West, Caldwell, Missouri. In early spring 1839 they moved to Melrose, Lima township, Illinois about 30 miles south of Nauvoo. In the fall of 1845 mobs drove them into Nauvoo. In 1846 they were driven into Iowa, later coming to the Salt Lake Valley.

Mary was left without either of her parents when she was only nine years of age. When a researcher asked Sylvanus Hulet if the Hulets/Howletts had any Indian blood in them, his reply was “not a drop.” [from: The Hulet Quarterly, September 1971]. Other family stories indicate that Mary Lewis was descended from an Indian woman named Running Deer. Quoting from a letter from Orvill Cox Day dated February 7, 1967 comes the following:

“July 6, 1966, I got Running Deer’s name from cousin Clare Christensen; he got it from cousin Howard R. Driggs, now dead. He from his grandmother, Emeline Whiting Cox who died in 1895; she was the first wife of F. Walter Cox of Manti. Emeline from her mother, Sally Hulet Whiting who died about 1846 in Iowa; she from her mother, Mary Lewis Hulet. Also apparently, on her way from Massachusetts to Ohio, Sally seems to have visited with her Mohawk Indian relatives about 1811, in northern New York. Mary Lewis was great grandaughter of Josnorum Scoenonti or Running Deer.

July 16, at 4:30 a.m., she visited me; I was awake. She said she was appearing as she looked at age 18 just before she married a white man; tall, athletic, beautiful, and very appealing; wearing yellowish-brown buckskin, beaded moccasins; leggings - ankles to waist; dress, shoulders almost to knees.

She said she was converted; wants temple work done; then go to happy paradise and learn the gospel thoroughly, then return to her people, helled and damned from progress, as a savior on mount Zion.

Had been a choice spirit in heaven; asked permission to be born to the family of Lehi that she might bring salvation to them.

July 30, got the name Josnorum Scoenonti from Utah’s representative in Washington, D.D. He got it from the Indian dictionary – for Running Deer.

Oct. 6, got permission for her temple work to be done.

I suppose she will try to convert her own family, first and then they will help us to find their genealogy. The prophet Joseph said, “The greatest responsibility the Lord has laid on this people is to seek after our dead.” Seek means search and that means research or genealogy.”

Signed, Orville Cox Day

Sylvanus is buried in Abbott Cemetery in Nelson Center, Ohio. Abbott Cemetery in Nelson Township on the West side of Ravenna-Parkman Road (SR 88), .9 mile north of SR 305 is ver hard to locate as it is on private property and behind some houses.

Four families descended from Sylvanus Hulet came early to Utah:

Elvira Mills Cox, daughter of Rhoda Hulet Mills, arrived in Salt Lake October 2, 1847. She lived in Manti and Fairview. Her descendants numbered about 2000.
Edwin Whiting, son of Sally Hulet Whiting, arrived in the fall of 1849. He lived in Manti and Springville. His descendants number about 80000.
Charles Hulet, son of Sylvanus came in 1850; lived in Springville, with descendants perhaps about 9000.
Emeline Whiting Cox, daughter of Sally, came in 1852, lived in Manti, with descendants perhaps about 2000.

This location of Sylvanus’s burial in this old cemetery was near the farm Elisha Whiting owned at the time.

Edited and collected by Ruth H. Barker, submitted 2010