Dionitia Lyman

Dionitia Walker was the second wife of Amasa Mason Lyman. They married in July of 1843, in Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois, after she divorced her first husband, Jeremiah Plumb. It appears that Diontha and Amasa Mason Lyman had no children. However, Lyman was married to seven other women, by whom he had a total of 38 children.

Dionitia Walker was born 10 March 1816 in Dayton, Montgomery County, Ohio, to Oliver Walker and Nancy Cressy. She was married to Jeremiah Plumb by Brigham Young at her father’s place on Shoal Creek, Caldwell County, Missouri, the same day as her sister Eveline married James Henry Rollins. Dionitia and Jeremiah had a child, Hyrum R. Plumb, who died age 5 years, 7 months, 23 days in Nauvoo, Illinois, of measles and was buried in the Old Nauvoo Burying Grounds.

Redress petition 1838 and 13 January 1840 pp 519, 520- “To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives in Congress Assembled at the City of Washington in the district of Columbia—I, the undersigned do By these present represent To Your Honorable Body My Losses Troubles and sufferings which I sustained and underwent By the Hands of a Ruthless Mob in the State of Missouri in the Year of our Lord 1838. By forcibly being driven from my Land and Home in that State. And this is To Petition Your Honorable Body That I may Have Redress of these my Grievances which I Have Sustained By the hand of Law Breakers in Taking from me my Rights which the Constitution of this Republic Guarantees unto all free Born Citizens--Further with Respect to the Conduct of this mob. I have had my Life Threatened And received many Abuses Too numerous To mention And the Loss of Property &c. To be no Less Than 1,000 dollars which I sustained, also my Life was Threatened By William Tailor and a pistol held at my Breast By him. And was obliged to make heavy Exertions To Extricate myself from him This in short is a history of my Grievances and Humbly ask You To Take into Consideration These suffering And by so doing Your Servant will Ever Pray.” --Jeremiah Plumb

“P.S. I the Undersigned Certify in addition That we the people Called Mormons, (after a Conference was held by the principal Men of the Mo. Militia) was forced by the point of the sword To Sign a deed of Trust Signing Away Our Lands; The principal Men Engaged in this Business was Thomas Birch Acting States Attorney for that District also Genl. Clark Commander in General of the Militia also General Samuel D. Lucas of Independence Jackson County, Missouri.”

1840 Census Nauvoo, Hancock county, Illinois Jeremiah Plumb 0000101-000010001. Madison County, Illinois 1842 Tax record with Jeremiah in Hancock County, Illinois $10 cattle, $10 clocks, $40 other property.

1842 Nauvoo Census Jeremiah Plum, Dionitia Plum, Hirum R Plum 3rd Ward.

Dionitia divorced Jeremiah who was found in the penitentiary in Upper Alton in the 1850 Census for horse thievery (may or not be true). Dionitia Plumb was shown in Upper Alton record of members 1841-1845 with Horace Martin Alexander and Nancy Reeder Walker Alexander, her sister.

Dionitia in July 1843 married Amasa Lyman in Nauvoo, Illinois. Endowments with him and her mother in Nauvoo Temple 30 December 1845.

She was driven out of Nauvoo by the mob without resources, but with her sick sister, Mrs. Horace Martin Alexander (Nancy Reeder Walker Alexander) upon her hands. She could only gather in her apron a few articles of food as she fled. Mr. Alexander became one of the Mormon Battalion. On their way, Mrs. Lyman and her sister “took refuge in a vacant house, where they prepared a cup of coffee and food for themselves, and Isaac Morley and a companion who had escaped from the mob and had been hiding in a corn field for days were sick from living on green corn alone."

Mrs. Lyman discovered six or eight of the mob approaching and warned the brethren to flee and hide, but they declined to go saying they can only kill us. They had not strength to go any further. While watching at the door the mobbers ordered her away or would shoot. She upbraided them for pursuing sick women and tagging them after driving them from their homes. She challenged them to shoot as she had but once to die. The mobber shot overhead to frighten her out of the door, but she kept her post and the mob were ashamed and withdrew.

The next day Mrs. Lyman found it necessary to move to another vacant house for the comfort of her sick sister, where she could be more quiet. An intruder came and abruptly peered into the window, pushing the shawl aside that covered the opening. The second time he did that Mrs. Lyman dashed a cup of boiling hot water full in his face and he went jumping and howling away. His companions told him it served him just right.” Daughters of the Utah Pioneers and Their Mothers, p 103 Jas. T. Jakeman.

Her sister Nancy Reader Walker Alexander, and new baby, died at Winter Quarters in 1847. Dionitia came to Utah in 1848 with husband Amasa Lyman, mother Nancy Cressy Walker, sister Evaline Rollins, her husband James Henry Rollins and their family, and her deceased sister Nancy's other three children.

SOURCE: Some of the above information is from Family Search.org.

1850 Census Utah, Utah Territory Dionitia with Amasa Lyman family.

1860 Census Parowan, Iron, Utah Territory Dionitia Lyman, 45 Seamstress, with her mother, Nancy Cressy Walker, who was 80 years old.

1870 Census Minersville, Beaver, Utah Territory Dionitia Lyman, 54 Midwife, Nancy Cressy Walker, 90 years old.

On the 1880 census for Panaca, Lincoln county, Nevada, she was listed as Dionitia Walker, a 64-year old widow, (her husband Amasa Lyman having died in Fillmore in 1877). She was living with her niece and sister Eveline’s daughter, Melissa K. Rollins Lee 28, and her husband John Nelson Lee 38, and their children, Jane E 10, Ada M 8, Mary E 6, John R 5, James H 2, Ida Dionitia, 9 months old.

She had herself and son Hyrum sealed to prophet Joseph Smith with Brigham Young acting as proxyOctober 27, 1886. Dionitia died July 11, 1894, and was buried in Minersville, Utah.

THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION IS FROM FIND A GRAVE.COM:

History - Diontha was a thorough, consistent Latter-day Saint to the day of her death. She was a renowned nurse in every community where she lived. She had the care and guardianship of her devoted mother all the later and dependent years of her life. Her home was with the Lyman family in Nauvoo, Illinois, Florence, Nebraska, Salt Lake City, San Bernardino, California, and Minersville, Utah.

She was a pioneer into, Utah 1848, and in California in 1851. She was driven out of Nauvoo by the mob without resources, but with her sick sister, Mrs. Horace S. (Nancy Reeder Walker) Alexander upon her hands. She could only gather in her apron a few articles of food as she fled.

Horace Alexander became one of the Mormon Battalion. On their way Mrs. Lyman and her sister took refuge in a vacant house, where they prepared a cup of coffee and food for themselves and Isaac Morley and a companion who had escaped from the mob and been hiding in a corn field for days and were sick from living on green corn alone. Mrs. Lyman discovered six or eight of the mob approaching and warned the brethren to flee and hide, but they declined to go saying they can only kill us. They had not strength to go any further. While watching at the door the mobbers ordered her away or they would shoot. She upbraided them for pursuing sick women and tagging them after driving them from their homes. She challenged them to shoot as she had but once to die. The mobber shot overhead to frighten her out of the door, but she kept her post and the mob were ashamed and withdrew.

The next day Mrs. Lyman found it necessary to move to another vacant house for the comfort of her sick sister, where she could be more quiet. An intruder came and abruptly peered into the window, pushing the shawl aside that covered the opening. The second time he did that Mrs. Lyman dashed a cup of boiling hot water full in his face and he went jumping and howling away. His companions told him it served him just right.

Mrs. Alexander died at Winter Quarters, with her two weeks old son laid in her arms, on that hillside where so many of the Saints were laid away to rest. Mrs. Lyman was intimately acquainted with the Prophet and Patriarch Joseph and Hyrum Smith. Her faith was unquestioned.

Seventeen days before her death she received her final blessing at the hand of Elder Francis M. Lyman, assisted by two patriarchs.

Journal Entry - Friday 12th Dionitia has moved her bed to her brother in law's house where she will stay for the present to take care of his children, as they have been deprived of their mother by death. - Journal of Eliza Maria Partridge Lyman. Her sister, the children's mother, Nancy Reeder Walker Alexander, died January 28, 1847, after the birth of her 5th child, a son who also died. Mother and child were buried in the same grave.