LYMAN CURTIS
Lyman Curtis was born on January 21, 1812 in New Salem, Franklin County, Massachusetts to Nahum Curtis and Millicent Waite. He learned to build canals and work with sawmills and wood.
Lyman heard the Restored Gospel preached by missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, along with his parents and family, and they were baptized. Then they all moved west with the Mormons.
Lyman married Charlotte Alvord during the summer of 1834, when he was 22, in Clay County, Missouri.
Lyman was personally acquainted with Joseph Smith and the leading brethren of the Mormon Church. Lyman enlisted in Zion's Camp, as did Charlotte Alvord, one of few women permitted to enlist. Zion's Camp was an army of 200 volunteers organized in Ohio to march to the aid of their brethren in Missouri. The men were heavily armed and well provisioned. They were organized into companies of tens, fifties and hundreds, with officers over each. The men marched the entire 1,000 miles, while the supplies were hauled in wagons.
On June 19, 1834 while Zion's Camp was settled for the night, the mobs consisting of 330 men made an appearance. However, a sudden and terrific storm scattered the mobs, so they returned to their homes without fighting Zion's Camp. The Prophet Joseph received a revelation: "For behold, I do not require at their hands to fight the battle of Zion; even so will I fulfill, I will fight your battles." (D & C, Sec 105)
Zion's Camp continued peaceably into Clay County, where on July 3 it was disbanded; Lyman and Charlotte Alvord returned home and married at that time.
Although Zion's Camp failed in its initial mission, the form of organization was later used by Brigham Young to guide the Saints into the Rocky Mountains. Also, from this camp the first Quorum of the Twelve Apostles was chosen. The willingness of two hundred men and a handful of women, including Lyman and Charlotte, to give their all, even to their life's blood, to help establish Zion in her place, is a lasting monument to the faith and courage of the Saints. (This is recorded in the History of the Church.)
Lyman helped in the building of the Kirtland and Nauvoo temples and was one of the Prophet Joseph's body guards. After the martyrdom, Lyman and his brother George had been among those who had stood guard over the dead bodies.
< namespace="" prefix="o" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xml="true"> Lyman had been at Winter Quarters with his wife and family when Brigham Young, who he got to know during Zion's Camp, asked him to be a scout on the first journey across the plains and provide meat for the party. After arriving, Lyman quickly went back to Iowa and got his family and brought them and another group to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake.
Lyman and his family remained in Salt Lake City only a short time before going down to Pondtown. Here he and his brother, George and William McClellan bought an old run-down sawmill propelled by a water wheel, repaired it, and hauled lumber for it from the Lofer Mountains. Then the irrigation canal project succeeded and brought thousands of acres of land under cultivation. Pondtown thrived. In time, the name of Pondtown gave way to that of Salem, in honor of Lyman Curtis' birthplace, New Salem, Mass.
Lyman died in Salem, Utah on August 5, 1898 at the age of 86.