Rufus J Pack

age 63years, 2months, 21days

I was born in 1803 in New Brunswick, Canada. My Father George Pack originally came from New Jersey, but was orphaned at age eight. He was contracted as an indentured servant to a loyalist family in New Brunswick, Canada. My Mother Phylotte Greene was the daughter of Rufus Greene, Jr.. Commander of the Ship Fortune owned by Nathanael Greene his uncle. Rufus Pack, Jr. was involved in the burning of the hated English Revenue collecting ship known as the Gaspee in 1772. In the late 1820's our family moved to New York . I married Betsey Greene from Onandaga, New York. We were living in Watertown, near Palmyra, when we were introduced to Mormonism. My parents were the first in the family to be converted. They were in their sixties when they moved from NewYork to Kirtland, Ohio in 1835. Most of my married siblings were converted and joined my parents in Kirtland. My wife, Betsey and I were baptized in 1836 and joined many of our family in Kirtland that year. I was ordained an Elder in Kirtland and on 24 July, 1844 ordained a Seventy in the 12th quorum in Nauvoo. As opposition to the Church grew in Kirtland my family including my wife, our 3 daughters, my parents and several of my siblings followed the leadership of the church to Missouri. We settled in Adam-ondi-ahman. My brother John purchased a farm on the Grand River and planted corn.

We soon learned that the mobs in Missouri were worse than in Kirtland. We gathered to Far West for safety. There were few guns available so Axes, pitchforks and scythes were often our only means for self defense. I became ill with chills and fever at this time and apparently arose in a delirium thinking the mob was at hand and I started to slay them. It turned out that I destroyed most of the chairs and furnishings in the room with a scythe. My father George then became ill and died in October. We laid him to rest in Far West.

We lived in a one-room hurriedly built cabin in Far West that winter with my brother John and his family, my sister Phoebe and her children, my mother and our 3 daughters. In this circumstance my wife Betsey gave birth to our 4th child in a stable owned by Parley P. Pratt. Elder Pratt's wife was also confined there with illness as their home had been torn down.

The saints in Missouri agreed to leave peaceably in January 1839. We made our way across Missouri and the Mississippi to Pike County Illinois. Betsey gave birth to our 5th daughter Mary in 1841and died soon after. I purchased a lot in Nauvoo in 1840 but we continued to live away from the fray in Nauvoo and maintain our farm in Pike county, Illinois. My Brother John and his wife and my Mother Phylotte were endowed and sealed to their spouses in the Nauvoo Temple.

I married Hannah Draper after Betsey died and she delivered our daughter, Olive in 1843. In 1845, persecution raged again in Nauvoo and in February 1846 many of the saints left Illinois for parts west. We went west with a company and helped build a fort on the Niobara River on the Ponca Reservation in Nebraska. We wintered there with about 500 of the saints. Twenty-three died that winter including my wife Hannah.

At Winter Quarters I met and married Jane Robison, (Peter Robison's niece). We moved to Bartlett, Iowa about 30 miles down river from Winter Quarters. Jane bore 2 sons and 5 daughters in Iowa and we were well settled and content. My Brother John urged us to go to Utah with him and his family in 1848, but we chose to stay in Iowa. In later years we became affiliated with the Reorganized Church and I was an Elder in that Church when the Nephi Branch in Mills, Iowa was organized in 1860.

I died in a farm accident in 1868 and my brother John came to Iowa and took Jane and our four youngest children with him to Utah where she became his plural wife in 1870. Jane and our son Rufus, Jr. settled on the Sevier River in a town called Deseret (later Hinckley) they built the first log cabin there and harvested 800 bushels of grain. Another of the early settlers of Hinckley was Hyrum Peter Robison (Jane's first cousin). He married our daughter Candace Ann and they had a daughter named Chloe Robison.

(bio by: [fg.cgi?page=mr&MRid=47054338" target="_blank Gus Pendleton)]

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Oct 16 2017, 23:12:33 UTC