JONATHAN RUSSELL
Jonathan Russell was born on May 11, 1783 in New Canaan, Columbia County, New York, and was the youngest son of Daniel Russell and Anna Jones. He married Nancy Wilson, daughter of Stebbing Wilson and Mary Catlin. Nancy was a younger sister of Mary Wilson, who married Daniel Russell, Jonathan's brother.
Of Jonathan's early life very little is known. However, his son Allen wrote a history of his life and from that history we learn the following, in Allen's words.
"There were twelve children in my father's family, all born in Genessee County, New York, except Horace (our ancestor), who was born in Shelby, Macomb County, Michigan."
"We were living in China, New York in 1830, when I was in my sixth year, when there was considerable excitement about the new country called Michigan. My father concluded to risk his fortune, with others, in this new country, since two my mother's brothers were already located there with their families. Their names were Horace Wilson, who lived in Detroit, and George Wilson, who lived about forty miles north of Detroit. At that time most of the territory of Michigan was sparsely settled and there were many indians."
The family left New York in the middle of the summer, 1830. It consisted of Jonathan and Nancy, sons Martin and Lyman and daughters Mary, Nancy and Sally, leaving their oldest daughter Jennet (who had married Allen Twiss and had a family of four children), and Anna (who had married Trumble Walton and had two children) and Daniel, the oldest son then living.
"When we arrived at Buffalo, New York, we took the steamer, 'Niagra' and crossed Lake Erie to Detroit. We soon found my uncle Horace Wilson and moved our things to his house. He was glad to see us. We remained with them for two or three weeks. He sent word to Uncle George, who lived in the country. He came with two teams and wagons and took us to his home. He was a well-to-do farmer. This must have been about September, 1830, for they were gathering their crops. I remember helping them pick up potatoes."
"After we had finished gathering Uncle George's crop, my father and brother Martin rented a log house about two miles from Uncle George's, where we moved. After we were settled in our rented house we were quite happy and on March 10, 1831 my brother Horace was born. During the spring of 1831 my father went four miles south and built a log house on an eighty acre tract near the Clinton River, which land still belonged to the Government."
"My father was a good hunter and killed deer, turkey and an abundance of other game, furnishing us with plenty of good meat. We gathered wild fruit and berries which grew in the woods and along the river banks."
"While we were living in Macomb County we became acquainted with Elijah Fordham, the man who was (later) raised from his sickness by Joseph Smith in Montrose, opposite Nauvoo. In the summer of 1832 or 1833 my older brother Daniel married Harriet Ellistone and came to Michigan where we were living."
"Now I wish the reader to understand that my father (Jonathan Russell) was religiously inclined, although he belonged to no denomination. He believed in the Bible and that all things written therein should be taken spiritually, but he could not agree with the Methodist or Baptist churches or with any other denomination. He often had long arguments with them on the scriptures and he considered that he generally came out triumphant. He was quite well acquainted with the Bible, for he read a great deal, and could quite the Book, seemingly from morning until night and took great delight in it. He taught the people, wherever opportunity presented itself, to live a virtuous, honest and upright life, for this was his idea with regard to religion."
"In the year 1840, Hyrum Brown, an Elder in the Mormon Church, who lived in Macomb County, some thirty or forty miles distant, came to our house in Lapeer and asked permission to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as he called it, to people in that vicinity. Father told him he could if he wished. Notice was circulated that there would be a meeting at our house on Sunday. It being something new, a great number of the neighbors came. At the close of the meeting the Elders announced that there would be another meeting in three weeks. Elder Brown made his home at our house while visiting our vicinity. In the evening he and father had a long talk. Father, of course, thought he would have no trouble in baffling him in an argument on the scriptures, but when Elder Brown began quoting the scriptures and questioning him on his spiritualizing the Bible, father soon found that he had no foundation to work upon. He brought with him Elder Race, who assisted in preaching this strange doctrine."
"After a few meetings, father and one of our neighbors believed the doctrine taught by these Mormon Elders and were baptized 26 July 1840 by Elder Hyrum Brown. My brother Martin was very much opposed to Elder Brown's preaching, and also my brother Lyman. My brother Martin consented to having my father and Moses Olmstead baptized on his land, as there was no other suitable place. While they were being baptized, Martin said: 'O Foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you.' Also, I and others thought it was a very foolish move."
"Elders Brown and Race continued coming and preaching in that vicinity until they had baptized about twenty-one other persons, then they baptized German Ellsworth on May 30, 1841. My mother was baptized on the same day and Almira Olmstead on May 31. My father was ordained a priest and set apart to preside over the branch in that place. Horace Russell was baptized February 12, 1843."
"In the summer of 1843 my father and brother Daniel and Moses Olmstead sold their farms and prepared to go to Nauvoo, Illinois, the home of the Church. Elders Brown and Race started for Nauvoo with us. We stopped at a small town called Laharp and stayed there until January or February, then we moved into what was called the Ramus Branch, about ten miles from Laharp. When we got into the Ramus branch we rented a house for a short time, until we could build a log house on a piece of land that we took up, it still belonged to the Government. We moved into this house and when spring came we planted garden and did some fencing."
"Father (Jonathan Russell) was crippled with rheumatism and could not work outside, but spent most of his time mending shoes. My youngest brother, Horace, and I did the heavy work. We rented ten acres of ground and planted corn on it."
"Early in the spring we were at a meeting where old Father Smith, who was a Patriarch of the Church at the time, was presiding. He ordained father an High Priest. My father and mother and my sister Sally and my brother Horace and I went to the creek where Patriarch Smith was baptizing and we were all rebaptized by Patriarch Smith and confirmed by his son, George A. Smith, at water's edge."
(Allen's history contains many details about the events that followed, including the events of Nauvoo, the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph and their crossing the plains. Jonathan's wife, Nancy Wilson, died 10 Feb 1846 at Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois. Our ancestor, Horace, her youngest child, was 13 years old at the time his mother died. Allen, the person telling the story was 22 at the time and married Harriet Messina Hutchins during 1946. According to Harriet Louisa Russell, who heard it from her mother Lydia Ann Russell, Nancy was preparing food for the journey and became over heated, dying soon after. In Allen's history of crossing the plains, etc., he tells about "my father and his wife and brother Horace," apparently Jonathan re-married but I have not yet found her* name.)
"In the spring of 1847 we started for Winter Quarters and there we planted gardens. Brigham Young was sustained as President of the Church on December 27, 1847. We decided to remain on our farms until we could make ourselves comfortable and then travel to the Salt Lake Valley. But in the fall of 1851 orders came for all the Saints to leave Iowa and come to the Salt Lake Valley. Orson Hyde and Ezra T. Benson were to organize companies of fifties and tens and place captains over each company for convenience in traveling."
"In the spring of 1852 all that could gathered near the ferry and were organized into companies. Benjamin Gardner was appointed captain over the fifty that I traveled with and I (Allen Russell) was appointed captain over one of the tens in our company. After we had traveled for some time, cholera was contracted by some in our camp. We had a terrible time. Sixteen people died in our company. My father (Jonathan) and his wife and brother Horace traveled with me."
"When we came to Deer Creek near the Black Hills we stopped while the women washed and we went hunting. It was a warm day and I became very thirsty and drank too much alkali water and nearly died. We killed one buffalo. We continued our journey the next day, but I was very sick and the next day I grew worse. For the first time in my life I thought I was going to die. I told Brother Gardner I could go no farther and that he could go on and if I lived I would follow. He stopped the company for a day and they doctored me with grease and vinegar and I got better. In a few days I was able to drive my team and we continued our journey."
"We entered the Salt Lake Valley on September 24, 1852, and I soon found my wife's brother, William B. Hutchins, with whom we stopped for a few weeks, and I threshed some wheat for him with my oxen. One of my oxen died while we were there."
"Soon my father (Jonathan) and his wife, Horace and I started for Fillmore. Fillmore was a small settlement of seventeen families. About the first of November, President Brigham Young organized these families into a branch with Anson Call as President." (Fillmore was then the capital city.)
"On January 3, 1853, word came that the Utah indians were waging war on the Saints in the Utah Valley and we were told to build a fort around Fillmore and be ready for the attack at any time. Captain Henry Standage was our military officer. We were all put under military law and we had to go in companies with our arms and ammunition to get wood and water and harvest our grain. We were not allowed to go off single handed."
"In the fall of 1853 Captain Guneson and a party of seven men were killed by the indians on the Sevier River, but the following year the indians kept quiet. In 1955 (27 July) my father, Jonathan Russell, died and was buried in Fillmore."