Lewis Dunbar Wilson
Journal

Submited by Erold C. Wiscombe

Two accounts of this journal are in the Church Historians Office.  One single spaced, the other triple spaced.  Both documents are identical except that the other typed document states that the original document was written in blood.

 

Most people have John Martin Brown marrying Lovina Wilson and her cousin Louisa Wilson on the same day.  This is an error.  John Martin Brown was sealed to both women the same day, but this journal gives the date L. D. Wilson’s eldest daughter, Lovina married John M. Brown.  He later married Lovina’s younger sister, Almeda Wilson as his 4^th wife after her husband died.

 

Lewis Dunbar Wilson is mentioned in the D&C 124:132 as a member of the High Council.

Page 5: Lovina Wilson md. John Brown 25 Feb 1854.

 

Above notes from Erold C. Wiscombe, 2008.

 

Record of Lewis Dunbar Wilson And Nancy Ann Wilson

      L.D. Wilson and ?.W. Wilson left Adams County, Illinois on June 4, 1839, and went on a mission to preach the gospel to the world.. We traveled eastward on the Illinois.  Arrived there on the evening of the sixth day; gave out an appointment to preach on the 7^th, but on account of a hard storm the people did not come out to hear us.  Preached to the people the following day and then traveled east twelve miles and preached on the month day at Brother Lyman Richard’s at four o’clock in the afternoon.  The next morning we baptized Alvin Richards and then crossed the river at Harydosia (sp) and went to Chambersburgh.  On the evening of the 11^th we preached to nearly all of the inhabitants there.  Left in the evening and stayed with an old Baptist all night and the next morning started for …..(?)

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N.A. [Nancy Ann Cossett] Coulson
 

[md. to George Coulson (1802-1851)]
[md. to Lewis Dunbar Wilson in 1854]
 

Children’s Birthday

Sarah Francis Coulson born December 25, [1824]
Henry Crandall Coulson born November 6, [1826]
Mary Clara [Elizabeth Cossett] Coulson born February 23, [1828]
Nancy Jane Coulson born February 3, [1831]
Epaphroditus Coulson born May 5, [1834]
[Thomas Coulson born November 19, 1836]
Caroline Telilah Coulson born November 9, [1839]
George Coulson born February 17, [1843]
James C. [Cossett] Coulson born September 24, [1845]
 

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Garden Grove, December 7, 1846
History of L.D. Wilson, Sr.

     May 16, 1837, Elders George Wilson and myself started on short mission to the West.  Did some preaching ordained one priest, blessed his family by the name of Behanon. 
On the 30 day of August, 1837 we started for the Land of Zion.
On the 14 day of October we landed in Caldwell Co., Missouri.
On the 21^st day of October we landed on land of our own
On Nov 6^th we moved into Cabin.  From the 30^th day of August to the 6^th of November we had traveled 300 miles, and my wife was not in but one house during that time.

 On July 27, 1838 Unes [sp]Wilson was baptized by E.L. Wilson.
On August 13, 1838 I started from Caldwell Co., Missouri for Ohio.

I returned home on November 2^nd and found things in great confusion, in consequence of Governor Boggs order that all saints leave. 
The following February we left our homes for Illinois.  Lived out in the open air for six weeks, then I built another cabin in Illinois.

 In 1828 Lewis D. Wilson was ordained a Seventy.

On September 24, 1838 we started for Nauvoo and reached there on the 26^th.  I was appointed one of the High Council of that place on October the 6^th that following October conference after the organization of the Church.  I was ordained as High Counselor by Pres. Hyrum Smith at High Priest Service.  I worked faithfully in that office until the Saints were driven out of Nauvoo.
On September 25, 1844, myself and wife, and Rodean Davis received our sealing blessing according to the New and Everlasting Covenant. 

In December 18^th following received similar blessings with Unis Gifurd and Polly Gifurd and Mandy Darrow.

On September 11^th I baptized Willard Darrow into the church.

December 15, 1845, my wife, Nancy and myself went through the temple and received our endowments, after which I labored some weeks in the temple.

Jan. 19, 1846 Nancy and myself received our sealing and anointing in the house of the Lord.

I then work for several weeks in the temple and saw many of my brothers and sisters receive the same blessing.

February 2, 1846 [plural wife] Patsey M.[Minerva Reynolds] Wilson was washed and anointed in the House of the Lord.

February 3, 1846 Patsey received her sealing and anointing in the House of the Lord at the age of seventeen exactly.

Feb 18, 1846, I started with my family of ten from Nauvoo for California, with five of them without a shoe to their name, or hardly a change of shirts to their backs, and with a borrowed wagon and team, and five bushel of parched corn-meal and 100 lbs of flour and 25 lbs. of pork, with myself just out of a sick bed and my wife not much better.  After a tedious journey of two or three months we reached Garden Grove where we are now.

The forgoing is a very short and brief account of our travels.  We have belonged to the church at this time about eleven years.  Have passed through the Missouri wars of 1838, and from that we went to Illinois and stood the brunt of the hard times at Nauvoo from its rise to its downfall.  Left Nauvoo with the first camp and came to Garden Grove and there was left without one day’s provisions ahead.  I went to work and made improvements and raised a crop sufficient to winter my family and then went back to “Bony Part” and with my empty hands labored to procure a load of bread stuff and helped W.W. [William Wellington] Wilson [son of Stephen Fairchild Wilson] to move up to Garden Grove, then gathered my crops and returned to Bonaparte and procured another load of provisions, and helped Bro. D.W.[David Waggoner] Wilson to move up to the Grove.  I also received an injury by a log falling across my body, which laid me up for two weeks, so I was unable to labor.  We are now at Garden Grove on this date of January 1, 1847, all enjoying good health, while a most severe snowstorm is on hand.  At 9 o’clock at night the snowstorm is over and the weather has cleared but there is one foot of snow on the ground.

On January 1, 1847 we have belonged to the Church of Latter Day Saints, 10 years and 7 mo. and 8 days and have traveled at this time with our family 12 hundred miles and lived one year of that time exposed to all kinds of storm without a house to shelter us in.  First from Ohio to Missouri in which we lived three months without a house.  Second from Missouri to Illinois in which we lived 2 ½ months without a shelter, not so much as a tent of any kind to shelter us from the storms, which were many and very sever.  Third, from Illinois to Garden Grove which was a dreadful, tedious journey of about two months without a house.  We passed through more mud and rain than I have ever seen in the same length of time, in my life before.

On the twelfth day of February, Bro. L. O. Littlefield left Garden Grove for Mount Pisgah. 

On the seventh day of February I was appointed captain of ten in the organization of the Saints at Garden Grove.  I organized a ten as follows:  Lewis D. Wilson, Capt., W.W. Wilson 2, B.W. Wilson 3, George Carson 4, Wm. Carson 5, John Carson 6, Hugh McKiney 7, R.W. Withnell 8, Johnson Lake 9, and Nathaniel Worthin 10.

Nancy Ann Wilson was born in [One-leg Township], Tuscarawas County, Ohio July 10, 1810.

Samuel Wilson was born July 19, 1851 at Pottawattamie County, Iowa.
Melissa Wilson was born Feb. 22, 1847 at Garden Grove in the midst of our afflictions and distress, while we were fleeing out the midst of civilization and wickedness, even Babylon according to the commandment of God in our day.  I say fleeing out of the midst of civilization or wickedness because of the prophesied civilized world being arrayed against us on account of our religion, or the religion of Jesus Christ.

April 27, 1847, W.W. Wilson and B. W. [Bushrod Washington] Wilson started to the Bluff from Garden Grove under very unfavorable circumstances, in consequence of their poverty and want of means.  George Miles Wilson was born in Garden Grove, May 13, 1847 in the midst of our afflictions while still fleeing from the gentiles even from Babylon.

Garden Grove, Jan. 13, 1850. Even at this date I find myself still at the Garden after spending three years in the most distressing circumstances that I ever met with.  I was left without team or any means of cultivating the soil to any extent.  Under those circumstances of poverty I was compelled to go among the gentiles to labor and earn all that we had to wear and part of what we ate.  because of our poverty I was unable to make any arrangements to make clothing until the winter of 1848 when we commenced to make clothing.

Sept. 26. 1850, Lewis D. Wilson, Jr. and David Wilson were baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  Lewis D. Wilson Jr. was then ten years and five days old.  David was eight yer. 3 mo. and 5 days old.  They were baptized and confirmed by father.

May 13, 1851, I left Garden Grove for the Bluff, a distance of 160 miles.  After a hard time of 27 days we reached the vicinity of Kanesville.  We had to bridge some six or eight streams 30 to 40 feet across.  We ferried two streams about a mile across.  Endured more hard rainstorms than ever heard of in the same time since the flood.  When we had been on the road 13 days we had a rainy day and after that it came nearly every night or every other night the hardest rain, thunder, and lightening that I ever saw until the 27^th of June when the saints fasted and prayed that the heavy rains would be stopped.  After this we only had a light shower before the rain stopped.

I settled on the prairie east of the Mosquito Creek.  Planted some corn and potatoes and commenced building a house.  I worked on it until July 18 when I went out about twelve miles for some clapboard timber and returned the next day about one o’clock and found my wife very sick.  Having been confined while I was gone.  She died about four o’clock in the afternoon and was buried on the 20^th of July 1851 on the hill above Kanesville. So, she, Nancy W. Wilson, departed this life at the age of 41 years having been the mother of eleven living children, nine of them on my hands differing in age from a few hours to twenty years old.  And so Nancy Wilson wife of L.D. Wilson died having been in the church 15 years, having become a member at the age of 26 years during which time she has attended every ordinance of the gospel that has been offered in her day, and in fact all that I knew anything about.  She was baptized for the remission of her sins and had hands laid upon her head for the reception of the Holy Ghost, and confirmed in the church and has received blessings from time to time since.

At the temple at Nauvoo she received her washings and anointings even to become a queen and a priestess, after which time she attended to one other ordinance which was to wash the feet of her husband and anoint him to be her king and priest and Savior, that she might have claim on him at the resurrection.

Samuel Wilson was born near Kanesville, Iowa, July 18, 1851 about 6 o’clock in the morning about ten hours previous to the death of his mother, Nancy Wilson, who knew and died in triumph of faith in the gospel of the son of God, after having lived and obeyed all the laws and ordinances of the Church that had been given in her day.  She died full in the faith of a glorious resurrection with the just and was buried on the Missouri Bluff just above Kanesville.

September 28, 1851, Lewis Wilson married [third wife] Sarah Waldo, who was the daughter of Samuel Waldo [1794-1875] and Orpha [Walker] Waldo [1799-1858].  Samuel Waldo was the son of Elijah Waldo [1764-1832] and Elizabeth “Betsey” Angier Waldo [1768-1807].  Orpha Waldo was the daughter of Asa Walker [1799- ] and Sally Perry Walker [c. 1777- ].

Lewis Dunbar Wilson died March 11, 1856 in Ogden City, Great Salt Lake Valley, [Weber County].

Sarah E. Waldo Wilson was born Dec. 14, 1819 in the town of Langdon, Sullivan County, New Hampshire..

James Perry Wilson was born July 21, 1852 and died Sept. 24, 1852.  James Perry Wilson was the son of Sarah E. Wilson.  He was born and died in Carterville, Pottawattamie, Iowa.

In the days of our affliction while journeying from Nauvoo to the Great Salt Lake Valley, because of the wickedness and persecution of this nineteenth century in which we live, the Latter Day Saints were driven from the entitled States of America and caused them to seek a shelter in the valleys of the mountains and the holes of the rocks and caves of the earth.

On the 6^th of June [1853?] we left the states for the valley of the great Salt Lake in company with Daniel Miller and J.W. Cooley and company.  We traveled with them for four or five weeks but made such poor progress that C. C. [Calvin Clinton]Wilson and B.B. [Bradley Barlowe] Wilson, two of my brothers, and myself left the crowd and went ahead, traveling about double the distance a day that we had been in the habit of traveling.  We traveled this way for about several weeks without anything r across some of the red men of the West who appeared very civil until we met a band of them who were moving.  They passed the whole crowd very civilly until they came to J.C. Wilson with pony team, who had gone back for an antelope that some of the boys had killed.  When they went to pass him and wife in the pony wagon, some of the Indians began cutting up capers, and boarded the ponies and they jumped and slipped the neck yoke ring right off the tung and both got on one side of the tung and jerked my brother right off the front end of the wagon and run over him.  His wife caught hold of one of the lines an held on to it until they ran thru rounds of a small sickle which gave boys an opportunity to catch them But after all there was not much injury sustained.  My brother was not hurt badly so we passed on for several days without any further molestation until we came up to a large crowd of them They all formed in a line across the road and called us to a stand.  We had to give them some sugar and coffee to get their consent to pass.  They followed us shaking their blankets and whooping trying in vain to scare our horses.

They followed us to our camp, some hundred and fifty of them and we had to get supper for about fifty of them to get them to leave.  While we were busy preparing supper, they stole all of our spare (couldn’t make out word.) From that time we passed on quite well until we accomplished our journey.  We reached the City of the Great Salt Lake August 29^th and found in general good health and prosperity with the exception of a little Indian fuss.  We moved North to Ogden City where we now are and where we have enjoyed good health although there has been considerable sickness and death since we came to the valley to work and build so as to make us tolerable comfortable for the first winter.  I then want to work to look up me a housekeeper and I married a Miss Nancy Ann Cosett who had been the wife of George Coulson.  We were married on the 12^th day of February 1854.

Lavina [Lovina] Wilson was married to John [Martin] Brown February 25, 1854 at which time and date we were all enjoying a reasonable share of good health and prosperity.

April 10, 1854 Nancy A. Cossett was sealed to Lewis D. Wilson in the Council House in Salt Lake for all eternity to come forth in the morning of the first resurrection, to receive kingdoms, thrones, and dominions, principalities and powers and Eternal lives.

End of this Journal.

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Lewis Dunbar Wilson, Sr.

Lewis Wilson was a resident of Richland County, Ohio in 1830. He was baptized on 23 May 1836 in Green Township, Richland County. A notice of his priesthood ordination appeared in the November 1836 Messenger and Advocate. (See M&A 3, Nov 1836, Page 415). He served a short mission with his brother, George Wilson, in May 1837. His missionary license was recorded in the "License Records, in Kirkland, Ohio, by Thomas Burdick, Recording Clerk. (Ibid. 3, June 1837, Page 528).
 

Lewis moved from Ohio to Far West, Missouri, in the fall of 1837. The extermination order in Missouri forced his removal from the state. He itemized his losses in Missouri in a redress petition:

"I hereby certify that I purchased from Congress Two hundred and forty acres of land lying in Caldwell County and State of Missouri and Was expelled to leave the same on account of the order of the executive of the State [Governor Lilburn Boggs].
 

When the Malitia came to Far West they took from me a valuable Horse which broke up my team I made exertion to obtain it again but without success. I was obliged to part with my land (in order to make up my team and for means to get me conveyed out of the State) for one sixth of the value." (As cited in Clark V. Johnson, ed., Mormon Redress Petitions: Documents of the 1833-1838 Missouri Conflict (Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1992), p. 554)
 

In Illinois, Lewis served on the Nauvoo high council from 1839 to 1846 (see D&C 124:132).
 

In July 1843 he and others volunteered to rescue the Prophet Joseph Smith from the Missourians, and he was blessed for his courage by Hyrum Smith. Hyrum told the group that "if any persons were running Brother Joseph down the river, under any pretext whatever...[they] were to rescue Joseph, at all hazards and bring him to Nauvoo." (History of Church 5:482} When Joseph was rescued, Lewis continued his watchcare of the Prophet as one of his bodyguards.
 

Lewis left Nauvoo in 1846 in the great Mormon exodus. He located in Garden Grove, and later in Kanesville, Iowa Territory, before imigrating to the Salt Lake Valley in 1853. He settled with his family in Ogden, Weber, Utah, where he again served on a high council. Lewis died in March 1856 in Ogden at the age of fifty.
 

 

Lewis Dunbar Wilson married:

(1) Nancy Ann Waggoner on 11 Jun 1830 at Willsborough, New York. Eleven children. She died July 2, 1851 at Kanesville, Council Bluffs, Iowa.

(2) Martha Patsey Minerva Reynolds on February 3, 1846. "Martha Reynolds was sealed to Lewis Dunbar Wilson in Nauvoo by President Young and she is now released by President Young because Wilson is not providing for her and has not seen her since August 1846." Martha was born 3 Feb 1828 in Boonsville, Cole, Missouri, daughter of John Wesley Reynolds and Phebe Ramsey Reynolds. Martha died 23 Feb 1901 in Panguitch, Garfield, Utah and was buried there 26 Feb 1901. She bore seven children [to second husband, John Wesley Norton]: Albert Wesley Norton born 14 Jul 1852, Riley Reynolds Norton born 22 Jun 1855, Ephraim F.Norton born 10 Oct 1858, Martha Jane Norton born 6 Feb 1962, William Norton born 22 Sep 1864, Squire Taylor Norton born 2 Nov 1867, and Sarah May Norton born 18 Oct 1874." http://heritage.uen.org/pioneers/Wceb55975a1807.htm

(3) Sarah Elizabeth Waldo on September 28, 1851. One son: James Perry Wilson July 21, 1852 at Carterville, Pottawattamie, Iowa; he died September 24, 1852. Lewis and Sarah divorced after she refused to move west. She died in November 1857.

(4) Nancy Ann Cossett on February 12, 1854 [widow of George Coulson 1802-1851 with nine Coulson children] . No known children for Lewis and Nancy. Nancy died two years after her marriage, March 11, 1856 at Brownsville, Weber, Utah.

 

From Conquerors of the West: Stalwart Mormon Pioneers, Volume IV, Page 2739-2740:
 

Lewis and his parents and siblings moved to Richland, Ohio, in about 1819. His father bought some land and, as the boys grew, they worked along side of their father. They all found wives among the girls they had grown up with. They each bought a farm close to the original homestead. They all remained there for about 17 years before the missionaries found them. The missionaries weren't well received except for the Wilson family who let them meet in their house.

The family joined the Church and were baptized in 1836. They moved to Missouri and endured the problems there. They then moved to Quincy (Nauvoo) where they built a log cabin. Lewis was a member of the high council while living there. When they were driven from Nauvoo, none of them were well.  They made it as far as Kanesville where Lewis purchased some land to build a house. He went 12 miles to get some lumber and when he returned he found his wife had given birth to their eleventh child and was very ill. Nancy died the next day.
 

Lewis married Sarah two months later. Their son was born the next July and died. The following summer Lewis wanted to continue the journey to the west, but Sarah refused and went back to her family in the East. Lewis took his children and headed west in the Daniel Arnold Miller Company.
 

Upon their arrival, they went north to Ogden where his brothers were living. In February he married again and obtained some property and built a large two-story house. He was a member of the high council and remained active all his life. He was only 50 when he died.
 

 

"Record of Lewis Dunbar Sr. and Nancy Ann Wilson" Typescript, Church Archives; Account written shortly after 20 July 1851. [While writing a eulogy in honor of his wife who died following the birth of a son, Lewis Dunbar Wilson speaks of his Nancy's faith in the Gospel and her obedience to its ordinances, particularly by referring to events that occurred on or shortly after 20 January 1846:]
 

So, she. Nancy Wilson, departed this life at the age of 41 years having been the mother of eleven living children, nine of them on my hands. . .[she] died having been in the church 15 years. having become a member at the age of 26 years during which time she has attended every ordinance of the Gospel that has been offered in her day. and in fact all that I know anything about. She was baptized for the remission of her sins and had hands laid upon her for the reception of the Holy Ghost. and confirmed in the Church and has received blessings from time to time.
 

At the temple at Nauvoo she received her washings and anointings even to become a queen and a priestess, after which time she attended to one other ordinance which was to wash the feet of her husband and anoint him to be her king and priest and Savior, that she might have claim on him at the resurrection... Nancy Wilson, who knew and died in triumph of faith in the gospel of the Son of God, after having lived and obeyed all the laws and ordinances of the Church. . . died full in the faith of a glorious resurrection with the just and was buried on the Missouri Bluff just above Kanesville [20 July 1851].