Samuel Waltons daughters were in Pottawattamie County, Iowa, on October 7, 1863.

In Amy’s recent post here at The Ancestor Files she explained who the Josephites were.  She explored their relationship to the Reorganized Latter-day Saint (RLDS) Church, and the use of the term Brighamites. It is a very interesting account, and while she is following her own ancestors, I recommend you read the account, because there is much there to be learned. I followed one of the links in her post and discovered a history book that led me to more answers about Samuel Walton’s family.

The book is called The True Latter Day Saints’ Herald, a Semi Monthly Magazine, Published by The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints [RLDS]., Vol. XV., 1969.

Samuel and Susan Walton traveled from Mexico, Maine in 1844, following their conversion to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They’d intended to join the Saints in Nauvoo, Illinois, but following the Prophet Joseph’s Martyrdom, they were misplaced, and caught up in the confusion in the area.

Their surviving family members were over thirty years traveling west across the continent to get to Woodruff, Utah. I discovered that during the interim some were baptized into the RLDS Church as I posted here. Great Grandmother Elizabeth Walton Frazier always said she was a “Josephine.” And she and her sister Hester, both with the last name of Frazier, were baptized into the RLDS Church. They were easy to search for and I found them in Early Reorganization Minutes, 1852-1871, Book A. pp. 133, 190.

In the history book Amy linked to in her post I found the minutes from the conference meeting Elizabeth was baptized in. Another family member was baptized the same day. I’d have never found her without the link. 

(To be continued.)

A Double Walton Wedding, October 24, 1894, Logan Temple, Utah.

Samuel and Susan Peabody Walton’s

granddaughters’ wedding day.

Daniel T. Wood and Susan May Walton

are on the left

Joseph Tolman and Rosanna Walton

are on the right

married

October 24, 1894

Logan Temple, Utah

daughters of

Samuel Augustine and Eliza
Cathryn Kent Call Walton
Of Auburn (Star Valley) Wyoming

Thanks to Samuel and Susan Walton descendant, Marla, for sharing this terrific double wedding day picture. Susan May is Marla's grandmother. [Ed. Dec 9, 2010. Thank you, Marla, for the replacement picture with softened tones.]

Samuel Walton and Susan Walton Family Histories INDEX.

One wonders if this picture of Susan Peabody Walton was taken before she left Iowa and Kansas, or after arriving in Woodruff, Utah. And how close to 92 years old was she, when this picture of her was taken? It is from my father's picture pedigree chart.

Could she and Samuel have had any idea, when they were baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Mexico, Maine in the early 1840's, and determined to gather to Nauvoo, what was ahead for their family?

Two and-a-half months after leaving Maine, Susan was widowed. She probably didn't know that for a long time. By the time it appears she reached Nauvoo, her husband had disappeared, and the Saints they traveled from Maine to join, were evacuating the area.

The following index will hopefully assist you in locating the information I've gathered about their family members and posted on this blog.

Susan Peabody Walton Virgin Walton Houghton
March 28, 1800, Mexico, Maine to

February 10, 1892, Woodruff, Utah

Samuel Walton
About 1802, Paris Maine to

August 24, 1845, Nauvoo, Illinois
Old Nauvoo burial grounds are pictured here.

Their children are:
Rosannah Virgin born 1817 to Susan Peabody Walton and Mr. Virgin.
Grace born 1824
Hannah born 1826
Benjamin Chaplin born 1830
Samanthy Ann born 1834
Hester Ann born 1837
Elizabeth born 1840
Samuel Augustine born 1842

My great grandparents’ (Stephen Vestal and Elizabeth Walton Frazier's) ranch was Up the Creek, in Woodruff, Utah. The school and church house, being in the village center, are about a mile from the Frazier Ranch. This portion of the town map, from the 1972 book The First 100 Years in Woodruff, shows Susan Walton Houghton’s place, which is marked as #8. Up is to the East, and North is to the Right.

Susan settled in Woodruff, Utah sometime between 1872 and 1875. On the book’s map legend, #8 is Granny Walton’s place.

Samuel Walton and Susan Walton

family history INDEX

Part 1--#19 (Frazier line) Susan Peabody Walton Virgin Walton Houghton 1800-1892.

Part 2--#18 Samuel Walton (Frazier line) #19 Susan Peabody Walton Virgin Walton Houghton.

Part 3--#18 Samuel Walton #19 Susan Walton, The Caravan Divides.

Part 4--The Waltons, Arthur & Martha from Mexico, Maine, arrive in the Salt Lake Valley in 1851.

Part 5--Susan Walton’s children, Benjamin Chaplin [1830-1923] Rosannah Virgin [1817-1885].

Part 6--Rosannah, Susan Walton’s daughter, is sealed to Perrigrine Sessions February 2, 1846 in Nauvoo.

Part 7--Samanthy Ann, Susan’s daughter is called Anna.

Part 8--Samuel Augustine Walton, Son of Susan Walton. 1842-1929.

Part 9--Susan Walton’s daughters, Hester Ann and Elizabeth Frazier.

Part 10--Susan Walton’s daughter, Grace Walton Crain.

Samuel Augustine Walton, son of Susan Walton. 1842-1929. Part 8.

On the backside of the picture is written:

Continued from here.

Samuel Augustine Walton was three years old in 1845 when he left Mexico, Maine with his family.

b. 7 May 1842, Mexico, Oxford, Maine

p. Samuel Walton and Susan Walton

m. Eliza Catherine Kent

d. February 9, 1929, Auburn, Lincoln, Wyoming

According to New Family Search, Samuel Augustine and his wife had six children. Samuel also came to Woodruff, Utah. He lived there for a time, and his daughter Susan Mae was born there. He later moved his family to Star Valley, Wyoming.

This picture belonged to my father, and a year ago I had no idea who he was, or why my father had kept the picture. Now I understand.

A descendant of Samuel's, through his daughter, Susan Mae, saw this blog and wrote me, looking for history of Susan Walton.

More will follow.

Susan Walton's children, Benjamin Chaplin 1830-1923, and Rosannah Virgin 1817-1885. Part 5.

(Continued from here.)

Susan’s son, Benjamin Chaplin Walton, married Mary Ellen MacGowan, a refined Quaker lady, of Salem, Iowa, in January of 1857. Mary Ellen died in Salem, Iowa in 1868.
Their children are:
Patalma Philadelphus (son), born 1858
Benjamin Chaplin, born 1862,
James, born 1864
Samuel, born 1866, died 1868.

Benjamin, and his motherless children, and his mother, Susan Walton, arrived in Woodruff, Utah in 1872. There, Benjamin homesteaded and raised his children, with the help of his half-sister, Rosannah (Virgin) Perrigrine Card, who came from “back East” to help him. She was known as Aunt Rose.

Rosannah Virgin [Susan Walton’s oldest daughter], one of the teenagers traveling from Mexico, Maine in 1845, was in the Nauvoo Temple, and did her own temple work, on January 20, 1846. Family records say she was married to Perrigrine Sessions, who is listed in family records as working as a carpenter on the temple in Nauvoo, Illinois. In 1847 he pioneered to Utah and was founder of the settlement of Sessions, Utah (now Bountiful). Divorced.

How many different ways are there to spell Rosannah Virgin, and Perrigrine Sessions? Check out New Family Search. It is amazing!

I haven’t found documentation of Rosannah and Perrigrine Sessions’ marriage, [other than the LofWH and NFS]. Rosannah is not listed with Perrigrine Sessions’ other wives, in various histories. However, their marriage seems plausible to me, because:

1) From Perrigrine Sessions’ history here, “… Father and I rented some land about twelve miles from the town [Nauvoo, then called the city of Joseph] on the Mississippi River…. On June 27, 1839, I left on my first mission to preach the gospel to the Gentiles in my native state of Maine. My company and I started without purse or script and traveled on foot most of the way. We arrived October 10, 1839. Here I labored with good results among my friends and relatives. I baptised many and planted the seed of the everlasting gospel in many hearts that I know will spring forth and bring fruit later on…. On April 23, 1840, I took leave of the saints of my native land and started for my home in the west.…”

2) Perrigrine Sessions is the Elder that Rosannah’s sister, Elizabeth Walton, received a blessing from, while confined to her bed for so many years. Posted here on this blog.

3) Family history in LofWH has Perrigrine Session working as a carpenter on the temple in Nauvoo.

4) When the Stephen Vestal and Elizabeth Walton Frazier family ultimately immigrated to Utah, between 1872-74, they first stayed at the Sessions Settlement, where in 1874, their 9th child, Lizzie Dell, was born.

About 1850 Rosannah married Alonzo Card [born 1818 – died 1854). They had a son, Charles Alonzo Card, who was born in Iowa about that time. In the 1856 Pleasant Ridge, Iowa census, Charles was six years old, living with his mother [widowed], and his grandmother Walton Houghton [widowed] and family.

Charles’ Uncle Harry [Arthur and Martha Walton’s son, William Harrison] freighted iron, needed to manufacture his threshing machines, between Chicago, Omaha, and Salt Lake City. Harry made five trips across the plains—one with oxen, and the others with mules. A son relates, “Father had eight to ten span of mules hitched to each outfit, which consisted of three, and sometimes four, heavy wagons chained together.”

Harry, his eldest son Charles Eugene, and his cousin Charles Card [Rosannah’s son], made the long and hazardous trips together. One of the worst experiences occurred when the two boys made the trip alone. On their way home Charles became ill somewhere east of Evanston, Wyoming and died on the plains. He was buried at Evanston. Charles had lived with his Grandmother Card.

These Waltons are incredible people. In the midst of her many losses, and a move across the nation, Rosannah helped her brother raise his three motherless boys, about 8, 10, and 14 years of age, when they got to Woodruff, Utah.

Someone needs to step forward and help fill in, and finish this tale. Why was Bramhall added to her name? Rosannah Virgin [daughter of Susan Walton] Sessions Card Bramhall. Best known as Aunt Rose.

Rose Bramhall
1817-1885

(To be continued.)
LofWH--Links of Walton History by Hattie Walton Heninger, 1981, pgs. 131-132, (Ref. letter of S. A. [presumably Samuel Augustine] Walton, Auburn, Wyoming, quoting his mother, who knew Charles.) The First 100 Years in Woodruff, Printed by Art City Publishing Co., Springville, Utah, 1972, pgs 461-462. NFS--New Family Search. Rosannah's gravestone in the Woodruff City Cemetery, from my cousin's website, where I borrowed it without permission, which I hope to eventually obtain.

The Waltons, Arthur and Martha from Mexico, Maine, arrive in the Salt Lake Valley in 1851. Part 4.

Susan’s sister and brother-in-law, Martha Walton and Arthur Walton, arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, with their family, in 1851. Martha died at her home in Bountiful in the Spring of 1853. She was 55 years old.

In 1854, Arthur married Rebecca Huff Mitchell, an 1852 Sulado steamboat disaster survivor.
She'd lost her husband and three of her four children. Arthur met Rebecca while she was working in Woods Cross, Utah, and he had a threshing job there.

(To be continued.)

Picture from LofWH, pg 53.

#18 Samuel Walton & #19 Susan Walton. The Walton Caravan Divides. Part 3.

View Stephen Vestal & Elizabeth Walton Frazier & Susan Walton in a larger map

Continued from here.

The Walton caravan entered Illinois through Chicago, which, at that time, was “a nest of squat houses in the mud.” They passed through and stayed the night in Joliet, October 2, 1845. By the time they arrived at Rock Island, Illinois, their money was running low. The harvest was in full swing, winter was approaching And though wearied from their journey [102 days from Mexico, Maine], they stayed to work.

Sometime earlier [prior to August 24, 1845], Samuel Walton left his wife Susan, and their children, with his brother-in-law, Arthur, while he went ahead to see if he could find work. Unknown to his family then, he found carpenter work in Nauvoo on the Temple. About a year later Susan went to that place to find him, the exodus from Nauvoo was at its peak, and Samuel could not be found. As his children said, “We never saw Father again.”

While reading Utah Historical and Genealogical Magazine, vl. 29, p. 95, Hattie Walton Heninger, author of Links of Walton History (hereafter LofWH), discovered that Samuel had been baptized in Nauvoo “Week ending 31 August 1840, and his death from typhus fever was recorded 24 Aug 1845, age 43 years.” The sexton’s report signed by W. D. Huntington, was printed in the Nauvoo Neighbor. (LofWH, pgs. 46, 49).

It’s unclear to me how Samuel could have been baptized in Nauvoo in 1840. Samuel’s son, Samuel Augustine Walton, living in Pocatello, Idaho, on 12 Apr 1923, wrote: “Father and Mother and two of her sisters, Martha and Ruth, accepted Mormonism in Maine in 1840.

Susan and her children’s whereabouts are not mentioned further in the “story” of the Walton Caravan West.

Hannah Walton.
From Early Latter-day Saints, A Mormon Pioneer Trail Database, I discovered that daughter, Hannah, was also in Nauvoo. She was endowed on December 20, 1845, and sealed to Daniel M. Repsher on 24 January, 1846.

From New FamilySearch:
Hannah Ann Walton (1825-1848)
Children.
Arthur W. Repsher (1846-1851
Susannah Repsher (1847-1848)

The dates are very telling.

When Susan Walton and her other children appear in the1856 Pleasant Ridge, Iowa, Census, Susan Houghton is widowed, from her 1850 marriage to Lyman Houghton. In 1856, she, and her children, reported they had been living in Iowa for eleven years.

Arthur and Martha Walton, and their children, lived at Montrose, Iowa [about nine miles from Nauvoo] for five years, before resuming their trek west in 1851. They are among the thirty-two Waltons found on the above site; Arthur, Martha, Andrew, and Dana Walton. Also, Samuel, (Mrs.) Susan, and Hannah Walton.

(To be continued.)

From LofWH, pages 49, 51-52, and 131.

#18 Samuel Walton (Frazier line) & #19 Susan Peabody Walton Virgin Walton. Part 2.

Continued from here.

The book, Links of Walton History, was compiled and written by Hattie Walton Heninger. Neither a publisher, nor a publishing date, is given. Born in 1879, Hattie began working on the Walton history book following her husband’s death in 1954. My parents, Glenn & Helen R. Frazier, wrote the date they received their book, January 1981, in it. I inherited this 429 page volume when my brother and sister and I went through our parents’ belongings. No one wanted it.

The author explained that she wove the story of the Walton’s trip west, written by Sylvester J. Smith, with those written by three Walton women: Susan, Rebecca Card Walton, Dana’s wife and Frances Taylor Walton, wife of the captain. Susan is my great great grandmother. The caption under her picture in part 1 explains, Susan Walton, whose keen mind helped in early records of our Walton line.

Sylvester J. Smith was Susan’s nephew, the son of her sister Rachel, and husband, John Smith. Sylvester J. Smith kept a journal of the Waltons’ travels and wrote Recollections of a Busy Life, from which Hattie quotes.

Samuel Walton
born. about 1802, Paris, Maine
parents. Benjamin and Mary Wescott Walton
m. 5 Mar 1823, Susan Walton, his cousin.
d. 24 Aug 1845 of typhus fever, Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois

Samuel's son, Benjamin, said his father was a shoemaker, “Father lived in Mexico, Maine, where he had a shoe shop. As a boy I helped him make and peddle shoes.”

Samuel took part in the civic affairs of the town. The old vital records book of Mexico, Maine, recorded his marriage, and in the original minutes book, page 54, he was “voted hogreve [sic], or field rider and empounder [sic].”

[Editor's note: I need a Victorian glossary of a sort for this, and will welcome your input. My best guess is that a hogreve [sic] gathers in, impounds, and tends to stray livestock in the community. Perhaps a fee is collected before the owner can take his pig or cow home.]

Samuel Walton served in the Mexico Village militia under the command of Capt. John G. Brainard. The regiment was formed from a group of Rumford infantry, for the protection of the northeastern frontier, and was mustered into service on 6 Mar 1839 and discharged 29 Nov the same year. Enlisted in the same company was Samuel’s brother-in-law Arthur Walton.

Sylvester J. Smith later wrote about their July, 1845 travels westward from Mexico, Maine,

“We arranged the wagons in a great circle, picketed the horses and pitched our tents within the enclosure. This encampment was on a beautiful grassy plot lightly covered with native oak. The children were soon climbing trees and romping in gleeful abandon that only they can express. Some of the men and boys gathered dead timber for campfires while others set off for nearby farms to buy supplies for the evening meal. Supper over, they all gathered around the campfires and told stories and sang songs until the embers dimmed and all was dark except for the stars which kept their heavenly vigil while the wearly [sic] travelers slept.

Continuing across northern Ohio, “terrible rains came and swamps engulfed wagons to the hubs. Mosquitoes came in such unbelievable swarms that one could scarcely tell the color of the horses they tormented … it is impossible, with pen, to describe the unrest, the cold and bitter winds, the miserable shelters, the shortage of food and clothing these homesick migrants endured in this strange country.”

Teenaged boys and girls who traveled west with the Waltons were: "Dana, Andrew Jackson, Benjamin C., Samuel A., plus Samanthy, Hester Ann, Elizabeth, and, perhaps, Rosannah, Grace, and Hannah.”

The first two children I'm attempting to follow in the above paragraph, are shown with their mother, Martha Madora, in the top picture. Martha Madora is Susan’s sister. Record’s indicate three-year-old Margaret, was drowned in the Swift River in Mexico, Maine.

(To be continued.)
Picture of Martha M. Walton and her children is from Links of Walton History, Hattie Walton Heninger, pg. 41.

#19 (Frazier line) Susan Peabody Walton Houghton. 1800-1892. Part 1.

Susan Peabody Walton
b. 28 Mar 1800, Newbury, New Hampshire
Parents. Reuben Walton, Ruth Peabody
d. 10 Feb 1892, Woodruff, Utah
b. Woodruff Cemetery
Married. Mr. Virgin [born 1791], daughter, Rosannah, born 1 Apr 1817, in Mexico, Maine.
Married. Samuel Walton [born abt 1802, Paris, Maine, died 31 Aug 1845, Nauvoo, Illinois], her cousin, 5 Mar 1823.
Married. Houghton. Susan Houghton is listed as a widow living (for 11 years) in Pleasant Ridge, Lee County, Iowa, 1856 census.

Recently I discovered a Walton Family history in The First 100 Years in Woodruff, that I'd never seen before. It is on page 461, filed between the Vernons and the Walkers, missing from the eleven Walton histories found in alphabetical order, beginning on page 467. Written in 1972, years after Susan's death in 1892, it holds some clues, and confusion.

Walton Family
Susan Walton, widow of Samuel Walton, came west with her family and arrived in Woodruff sometime between 1872 and 1875 bringing with her eight children: Roseanah, Virginia, Grace, Hannah, Benjamin Chaplain, Samatha Ann, Hester, Elizabeth and Samuel Agustine.

Note: I haven't found a daughter named Virginia. The first child above should probably be Roseanah Virgin. It is interesting to note that Susan Walton began her journey west, from Mexico, Maine, in 1845, and arrived in Woodruff, Utah by 1875, thirty years later.

Susan and two sisters, one being Martha, with her husband Arthur, heard and accepted the teachings of elders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They were baptized in the Swift River, in Maine, on the same day in August, 1842.

Susan and Samuel and their family were part of a caravan of 60 persons, migrating west, from Mexico, Maine, July 1845.

"… The project was more fully organized at Mexico where the three Walton families—those of Arthur, Samuel, and Harrison (Harry)—joined the caravan. Teenaged boys and girls included Dana, Andrew Jackson, Benjamin C., Samuel A., plus Samanthy, Hester Ann, Elizabeth, and perhaps Rosannah, Grace, and Hannah. When the wagons began to roll there were 14 families, totaling 60 persons in all."

I wondered after reading that paragraph repeatedly, if I could ever find out what happened to those "teenagers." Well, at least my great grandmother, Elizabeth.

1856 Census of Pleasant Ridge, Lee County, Iowa.

Susan, Houghton, 54, W [widow] 11 yrs, [born 1800] ME
Gratia [Grace] Walton, 33 [born 1824] ME
B C [Benjamin Chaplin] Walton, 26, [born 1830], ME, laborer
Samantha A [Samanthy Ann] Walton, 22, [born 1834], ME, Embroideress
Elisabeth Walton, 16, [born 1840], ME
S A [Samuel Augustus] Walton, (6), [born 1842], ME
F M Cram (5) [born] IA
Rosanna [Virgin] [Perrigrine Sessions, divorced] Cord [Card], 36, W [widow] [born 1817], ME
Charles A Card , 6, [born] IA

Hester Ann Walton, [born 1837] living with David and Mary H. Bames and child Martha J. Bames, the same census.

(To be continued.)

Links of Walton History, by Katie Walton Heninger, 1981, pgs. 44-45, 130-131. The First 100 Years in Woodruff, Art City Publishing Co., Springville, Utah 84663, pgs. 461, 467.