Freeborn DeMille - Life History

Born: March 3, 1795, Plattskill, Ulster, New York Married: March 11, 1819, Anne Knight Died: January 23, 1881, Manti, Sanpete, Utah Children: Mariah, Orpha, Lora Ann, Oliver, Adelia, Ellias, Lovina Ester, Freeborn DeMill and Annie Knight Joined the church one year after it was founded. They lived neighbors to Joseph Smith. The family went through the persecutions and lived in Jackson Co, Kirtland and Nauvoo. Freeborn helped build the Kirtland and Nauvoo temples. In the spring of 1850 the parents, two sons and two daughters started for Utah and reached Manti late in the fall. They took up a piece of land and farmed and worked with the church, til death. The family endured all privations incident to pioneer life, during the grasshopper plague they saw many days when greens was all they had to eat. Indian troubles were among the difficulties here too. Freeborn DeMill married Anna Knight on March 11, 1819. Their first child was a daughter, that they named Mariah, who was born May 12, 1820. On December 24, 1822, a second daughter was born and given the name of Orpha. The third child was also a daughter, that they named Lora Ann, born June 2, 1828. Their 4th child, a son was born March 30, 1830 and given the name of Oliver. This was just a month before the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized. In Freeborn’s own record he states that he was baptized in the Susquehanna River at Colesville and a few months later his wife was baptized in September 1830 in New York State. He does not give the date of his baptism but his church record gives it as June 30, 1830. Church history shows a number of the Colesville members were baptized in June 1830. However, all the Knight family had joined the church and became members in 1830. Freeborn and wife were numbered with the total of seventy members in all of New York State in Dec. 1830. In Dec. 1830, the section thirty seven of the Doctrine and Covenants was received by the Prophet in which the Lord told him to visit and strengthen the church at Colesville and commanded the church members in New York State to assemble in Ohio. The latter part of January 1831, the Prophet Joseph Smith and his wife with Sidney Rigdon and Edward Partridge left New York for Kirtland, Ohio, with instructions from the Prophet that the members of the church in New York should follow in the spring. In Freeborn’s own written record, he states that on April 21, 1831, he with his wife and family, the oldest being eleven years old and the youngest thirteen months, left Colesville for Ohio. They arrived in Thompson, Ohio on May 16, 1831. The church history relates that the members of the Colesville branch, (which included all the Joseph Knight family) were instructed to settle in Thompson, Ohio, about ten miles east of Kirtland, where arrangements had been made for them to settle. Leman Copley had a considerable tract of land in Thompson, that he (a member of the church) had offered to let the saints from Colesville occupy. A contract was agreed upon and work commenced in good faith. However, Copely broke the agreement and some trouble over it caused the Prophet to receive the 54th section of the Doctrine and Covenants early in June 1831. As a result of this revelation, the church at Thompson composed of the members of the Colesville branch made all possible haste to leave Ohio for Missouri. In John Whitmer’s history of the church, Chapter 8, it states that Newel Knight was appointed leader of the company which was made up of the Colesville branch and under his leadership, they made the entire journey from Thompson, Ohio to Missouri. In the record of Freeborn DeMill, he states that they left Thompson, Ohio, June 28, 1831 and arrived in Independence, Jackson County, Missouri on July 25, 1831. (Twenty seven days). The Colesville branch did not settle in Independence, but in Kaw Township a few miles of Independence, in the valley of the Blue River. The saints rejoiced in the revelation of Section 57 of the Doctrine and Covenants naming the land of the Missouri as a gathering place for the saints and the place for the City of Zion; here they felt they could make their home in peace and safety. History of the Church, Chapter 16 starts out, and I quote, “On the 2nd day of August, 1831, I (Prophet Joseph Smiht) assisted the Colesville branch of the church to lay the first log for a house, as a foundation of Zion in Kaw township, 12 miles west of Independence. This was in between Independence and Kansas City, and is now covered by suburbs of Kansas City. The log was carried and placed by 12 men, in honor of the 12 tribes of Israel. At that time the land of Zion was consecrated and dedicated by Elder Sidney Rigdon for the gathering of the Saints.” Freeborn DeMill was one of the 12 men and it was from his record I gave the church historian the names of the 12 men. The church did not have the names of all 12 before I gave it to them. I quote from the same chapter 16 of the History of the Church as written by the Prophet as follows: “On the 4th of August, I attended the 1st conference in the land of Zion. I was held at the house of Brother Josua Lewis, in Kaw township in the presence of the Colesville branch of the Church. The spirit of the Lord was there. On August 7, 1831, I attended the funeral of Sister Polly Peck Knight, the wife of Joseph Knight, Sen. This was the first death in the church in this land, and I can say, a worthy member sleeps in Jesus Christ til the resurrection.” She was my great-great-grandmother. According to her son, Newel, her health had been failing for some time and she was very ill during the journey from Thompson, Ohio to Missouri. Yet she would not consent to stop travelling. Her greatest desire was to set her feet upon the land of Zion and to have her body interred in the land. While travelling on the steamer down the river, Newel went on shore at one of the stops and bought lumber to make a coffin, in case she should die before they arrived in Missouri. History of the Church, Chapter 20, the Prophet states he visited the saints in Kaw township a few miles west of Independence. He reported that the Colesville branch in particular, rejoiced as the ancient saints did with Paul. The foot note states that the Colesville saints were among the 1st to receive the gospel and were mostly converts of the Prophet that his heart was very tender toward them. Sept. 29, 1832, Freeborn DeMill and his wife had their fifth child born to them. A daughter given the name of Adelia. She was born in Kaw township, Jackson County, Missouri and is my grandmother. I will not take the time and space to tell of the persecution and hardships of the saints in Missouri as it is on record in the Church History. It must have tried the faith of the best of them after coming to the land of Zion and rest of them to have mobs and persecution drive them from their new made homes. In Freeborn’s own records he relates that on Dec. 1, 1833 as winter was settling in they were driven from their homes by mobs and out of Jackson county. They crossed the Missouri River to the north into Clay county where they took up new homes. Here a little over two years later, in the spring of 1837, they were driven with the rest of the Saints out of Clay county and went north-east to Far West, Caldwell County, Missouri, Here on January 12, 1838, their sixth child, a son was born, and given the name Ellias DeMill. Freeborn states that in the spring of 1839 they, with the rest of the Saints were driven out of the state of Missouri, they crossed the state for about one hundred miles to the east, came to the Mississippi River, crossed that and settled in Quincy, Ill. on the bank of Mississippi River. While here in Quincy, their oldest daughter, Mariah, at the age of 21 on April 22, 1841 was married to Daniel Buckley Funk. After coming to Utah this made their home in Sterling, Utah (six miles south of Manti) and raised a family of nine children, Freeborn’s record states that they left Quincy in 1842 and moved to Navuoo, Ill. Here on Jan. 8, 3.843, thei.r second daughter, Orpha, at the age of twenty one was married to Perry Davis and she died the same day. Here also in Navuoo on May 13, 1843, the seventh child of Freeborn and Anna was born. This was their last child, a daughter and was named Lovina Ester. On Thursday, Dec. 25, 1845, (Christmas day) Freeborn and his wife received their endowments in the Nauvoo Temple. (There were 107 endowments given that day. On January 27, 1846 they were sealed in the Nauvoo Temple. Freebom states in his record that they left Nauvoo for the west on April 22, 1846, being driven out of their homes by the mobs. They arrived in Mt. Pisgah on May 26, 1846. Freeborn DeMill had injured his leg with a saw and was laid up for about five years while in Missouri. Most all the time they were in Mt. Pisgah he was laid up with fever sores. Here in Mt. Pisgah on Oct. 1, 1848, their third daughter Lora Ann married Samuel K. Gifford. After coming to Utah, they were called with others to settle in Utah’s Dixie and made their home in Shonesburg, southeast of Springdale. They were the parents of ten children. In the spring of 1850 they left Mt. Pisgah for the valleys of the Great Salt lake and arrived in Salt lake City Sept. 17, 1850, with the Capt. Warren Foot Company. After a short rest in Salt Lake , they left for Manti, Utah and arrived there Nov. 5, 1850. Freeborn was now past fifty five years old and his wife past forty six. Manti was their home for the rest of their lives, never again to he driven by the mobs. On Dec. 31, 1852, their fifth child, Adelia married John F, Squire, Jun., Manti’s first schoolteacher. They made their home in Manti and had a family of 8 children. More will be told of them later. On May 13, 1855, the oldest son, Oliver at the age of 25, married Emily Almina Deal. They had eleven children. He married a second wife, Fidelia Winget June 3, 1865, and they had seven children. This family was also called to settle in Utah’s Dixie and made their home in Shonesburg later moving to Rockville, On Dec 11, 1859, the youngest child, Lovina Ester, not quite 17 married John Alma Beal. They had eleven children and lived in Manti until about 1875 and them moved to Shonesburg. On June 11, 1863, the youngest son, Ellias, the last to marry, was married to Malvina Winget. He was 25 years old. They made their home in Manti and were the parents of nine children. Freeborn was a member of the first High Council organized in Manti and was a member for many years after. Ann Knight DeMill died on July 28, 1878 in Manti at the age of seventy~four and is buried in Manti, Cemetery. Freeborn DeMill died in Manti, Jan 23, 1881 at the age of eighty-five and is buried in the Manti Cemetery next to his wife. On May 3, 1856, Freeborn DeMill married a second wife by the name of Lynittee Janett Richards and to them two sons were born. Orrin, born Jan 29, 1858, Manti, Utah, and Benjamin born Jan 23, 1860, in Manti, Utah. In his record he relates that one died and the other was living in Ephraim with his mother, dated April 21, 1864. 1 have been unable to find any trace of this other son. I don’t know if he died before age of marriage or not. Taken from a book written and published by Loren DeLance Squire. The following are exerts from an article that appeared in The Pyramid”, date unknown, by David Mackey, entitled “Lines from Hwy 89”. “Vast distance in time and space separates the communities of Sanpete County from the remote hamlets of Rockville and Springdale. The little towns are tucked away between the crimson canyon walls and the Virgin River on the south road to Zion Canyon. … This pocket of the planet was largely settled by people transplanted from Sanpete. Settlers beaqring surnames of Petty, Black, Gifford, Brown, DeMill, Averett, Larsen, Stevens, Isaacson, Lemmon, Funk, Millet, Washburn, Klingensmith, Allred, Beal, Thaxton, Stocks, Siler, Kenner and Whitlock, were among those who would become residents of the area. … It was Isaac Behunin who had been the first to stake out a lone claim at the site of present-day Ephraim. When others began to encroach on the Sanpete land immediately around him, reportedly told a friend that while he would like him for a neighbor, there was only water enough for one family. So the founder moved. This same Behunin pioneer later moved his family into what is Zion National Park today. Eventually the small settlement known as “Zion” consisted of about six families but for various reasons the town ceased to exist by 1875 when people moved away. … The headstone of Oliver and Emily DeMille stands amidst numerous relatives. DeMille was born in 1830 and not only represented the early days of Sanpete, but his parents, Freeborn and Anna Knight DeMill, were among the first to be baptized into the new church founded by Joseph Smith that same year. …”