Solomon Chamberlain

"...Chamberlain, Solomon – (11th Ten) Born July 30, 1788, in Old Canaan, Conn., to Joel and Sarah Dean Chamberlain. He married Hopee Haskins, and learned the cooper's trade. He was baptized a few days after the Church was organized in 1830, and moved to Kirtland, Ohio, that spring and to Jackson County, Mo., in 1831. After being driven from Missouri, his family settle din Nauvoo, "where we remained in peace for several years; but about the year 1846, we were broken up and had to flee to the Rocky Mountains." At age 59, he was the oldest of the first company of pioneers. He had mountain fever, and suffered from cholera and as near death on his original journey west. Chamberlain returned to Winter Quarters with his rations being just two quarts of parched corn and three quarts of coarse corn meal. His wife died in 1848 just as he was about to embark on the return trip to the valley. In 1850, he left for the gold field of California, but felt impressed to return the same year. He crossed the California mountains with no weapon but a pocket knife. He died in Washington, Washington Co., Utah, on March 20, 1862, at age 74..."

SOURCE: http://www.ldschurchnews.com/articles/58061/Biographies-of-the-orig...

http://library.usu.edu/specol/manuscript/caine19.html .

Mormon Affidavits & Petitions relating to the Missouri Persecutions CAINE MSS COLL 19.

Collection 19 contains those petitions and affidavits relating to Mormon difficulties in Missouri from 1831 to 1839 that were submitted to the House Judiciary Committee seeking redress for damages done in Missouri..

The Collection was obtained from the National Archives in the Spring of 1990. In filing the papers, original filing order has been preserved. Each affidavit or petition was handled separately, ad the following series of container lists and indices provide access to various names, geographical locations, and post-Missouri residences of the Mormon population..
Though the affidavits and petitions were initially collected because of the Mormon expulsion from Caldwell and Daviess counties, a significant number also detail Mormon difficulties in other northern Missouri counties during the so-called Mormon War of 1838-1839..
One of the surprising things about the affidavits, ostensibly sworn to elicit action from Congress for losses during the Mormon War is the number (and the detailed accounts within that number) of affidavits dealing with the Mormon expulsion from Jackson County in 1833 and again in 1834 after some Mormons returned to the County (see affidavits of Charles Hulet and James B.F. Page)..
A description of the collection and an analysis of the contents of it is to be found in Paul C. Richards, "Missouri Persecutions: Petitions for Redress," Brigham Young University Studies, XIII (Summer 1973), pp. 520-543..
Box III: Document 11- "Miscellaneous Subjects, Affidavits, & C." Fd 33: Lorenzo D. Chamberlain Affidavit re: expulsion from Jackson county and from Adam-ondi-Ahman. Warsaw, Hancock, Illinois, January 6, 1840. Fd 34: Jabis Durfee, 1791-1867. Land loss in Daviess County. Commerce, Hancock, Illinois, January 6, 1840. Fd 35: Solomon chamberlin, 1788-1862. Bill of damages, Jackson, Clay Daviess, Caldwell Hancock, Illinois, January 6, 1840 .

http://rsc.byu.edu/archived/mormon-redress-petitions-documents-1833... ict/part-iii-individual-affidavi .

CHAMBERLIN, Lorenzo D. .

Warsaw Hanck County Ill January 5th 1840 .

This is a list of sufferings that I sufferd in the State of Misouri By the hand of the mob I first was Driven from Jackson Co Mo from my living and all the Joys that this world affords tore Down my fences turnd in their Cattle and hogs and Destroyd my Crops took my house and Caried it of of My land on to theirs and put it up again I lived like the heathen in tents which I Robd my Beds to make the same I then had my family to take care of and Cold winter Comming on I went into Clay Co Mo and there I found some friend I was Robed of my arms 1 gun worth $15 I then Moved into Clinton Co which I had to leave in atoo months through mutch loss of propperty I then went to the village of Diahman thare I was taken prisoner and Robd of my arms one Rifle worth $12 and other arms to the amount of 4 or 5 $4.50 cents and then Compeld to leave the State of misouri in the space of four months I then took what little I had left and started for illinois whare I now am living till further orders .

from the time the people of misouri first Began to use their authority[.] they have Ben not less than fifteen hundred dollars danage to me .

Lorenzo D. Chamberlin .

[Sworn to before A. Monroe, J.P., Hancock Co., IL, 6 Jan 1840.] .

CHAMBERLIN, Solomon .

A Bill of damage .

while Suffering as a mormon so cawled in the State of Missouri from the year of december 1831 till the Spring of 1839 .

I Solomon Chamberlin was driven by a mob from Jackson County and from Clay County from davis County and from Caldwell County and so out of the State and my famuly with me expence in I moved from the State of Newyork with a ton and a half of house furniture which I had nearly all destroyd and wasted by mobs in the above Countys I had I suffered the loss of Seven houses [-] by mobs Some of them they burnt and two or three plantations with the crops on the ground they deprived me of and Said crops and destroyd my fences or removed them on to their own land they Stole two mares from my dore one worth $100-the other worth $75 and one mule worth $75 loss of Cattle hogs: all my farming eutentials and mutch other property by mobs I owned lands but I bought them Secont handed wich is lost nearly all I Claim 15,000$ .

Solomon Chamberlin I have Seen mutch of the conduct of the mob while in the State of Missourie I have seen them the mormons drove by the mob into corn fields and hunted as though they had been wolvees and this after they had Surrenderd and given up their arms and at the same time the heads of the mob told me that they did not drive the mormons for any thing they had done but they was afraid they would become more numerous than they and they would put in mormon officers and the sooner they drove them the less they would have to drive I have seen mutch property destroyed and many horses stole and many houses burned by the mob and the malitia quarter upon us and order us out of davis County in 10 days which we had to leave in the time of the great snow storm and many suffered unto death I saw some of the mob by the name of yokeham and kentrail pull down one of the mormon houses and hawl it on to their own premises contrary to the owners mind and with out their leave .

I have often had my life threatend and loaded firearms presented and been knocked down by those merceless mob and all without any provocation .

Solomon Chamberlin .

[Sworn to before T. Crawford, J.P., Hancock Co., IL, 6 Jan 1840.] .

The Prairie Branch, Jackson County, Missouri: Emergence, Flourishing, and Demise, 1831-1834 Before that first season ended, the form of the Prairie Branch began to coalesce as the Solomon Chamberlin family and others joined their neighborhood. Chamberlin, living near Lyons, New York, had made contact with the Joseph Smith family in Palmyra Township as early as the fall of 1829. He was instrumental in spreading news of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon even before the Church was formally organized on April 6, 1830. Solomon had been baptized in Seneca Lake by the Prophet himself “a few days after” the Church was founded. He moved to Kirtland in the spring of 1831 and the family emigrated to Jackson County that same fall. At that time Solomon’s family consisted of his wife Hope (Hopestill) Haskins, a son Lorenzo (Alonzo), and daughters Polly and Electa. Polly would later marry Joseph Wilson (1832), and Lorenzo married a “Mrs. Susan Welcher” (1833), both while living in Jackson County..

The Chamberlins traveled to Missouri by water. Their company was under the direction of William W. Phelps and Algernon Sidney Gilbert. Phelps was accompanied by his wife, Sally, and their six children. Sidney Gilbert had with him his wife, Elizabeth, her sister, Keziah Keturah Van Benthuysen Rollins, and Keziah’s three orphaned children, James Henry Rollins, Mary Elizabeth and Carolyn Amelia Rollins. Mary Elizabeth remembered that Cyrus Daniels and his family likewise accompanied them. 30 Also numbered in the group were the wives and children of Edward Partridge, John Corrill, and Isaac Morley (the husbands already being in Missouri). Still other Saints were likewise members of that body. 31 James Henry Rollins affirmed that “it was at the first of October we prepared to start.” .

As the group made their way up the Missouri River we learn of the presence of the Solomon Chamberlin family because of an incidental reminiscence of Emily Partridge who recalled, “Once when the boat landed, one of our company, a young woman, Electa Camberlin [Chamberlin] slipped from the plank into the water, but was soon rescued again.” 33 Thick ice coming down the river forced the company to land at Arrow Rock, Saline County, a hundred miles from Independence. Lydia Partridge said that she and her family “were obliged to stay there about two weeks, when a man came hired to take us to Independence.” 34 William W. Phelps stated that he was detained at Arrow Rock until “the 1st of February 1832” and finally arrived in Independence on 22 February. 35.

The Chamberlins were located in the Prairie Branch upon their arrival in Jackson County, and they were among the earliest settlers to join the Lyman Wight family in the important labor associated with carving a new settlement out of the wilderness. Solomon, a cooper by trade, provided a very important commodity as far as life goes on the rough frontier. 36 (“Cowp” is the Old English word for a “container” in which to keep or hold things.) No doubt Solomon, perhaps with the help of his son Lorenzo, produced a steady stream of new barrels for his neighbors around the Prairie settlement. Having a profession, Solomon was apparently well-situated financially and brought many family possessions on the family’s trip to Missouri. Solomon recorded, “I moved from the State of Newyork with a ton and a half of house furniture.” 37 As a visionary man and strong advocate of the tenets of the Book of Mormon, Solomon would have shared Lyman’s dream of carrying the gospel message to the “Lamanites.”.

29. Solomon Chamberlin to Albert Carrington, July 11, 1858. This letter is the cover to, Solomon Chamberlin, A Short Sketch of the Life of Solomon Chamberlin by Himself, LDS Church Archives (hereafter cited as Autobiography). See also Chamberlin Family Group Sheet, LDS Family History Library; and Marriage Records of Jackson County, Missouri, Jackson County Courthouse, Independence, Missouri, 1:36, 49. .

Background on Solomon Chamberlain (Chamberlin)

"Solomon was a cooper by trade. He was baptized by Joseph Smith in Seneca Lake in April, 1830 and emigrated that spring to Kirtland, Ohio. In the fall of 1831 he emigrated to Jackson County, Missouri, was driven out with the Saints and went with them to Nauvoo. He was ordained a High Priest at Nauvoo on 8 October 1844, so he could have known the Bridges and Morse families there. Solomon was a member of Brigham Young's pioneer company to the Great Salt Lake Valley in 1847. He was a member of the eleventh 10, John S. Higbee, Captain. .

At age 59 he was the oldest man in the company. Norton wrote in his journal that Solomon was all the time grumbling. He was voted by the company as the most even tempered man in camp - "invariably cross". The other pioneers took his disposition lightly, a kind of standing joke. He was rebaptized 8 August 1847 in Salt Lake Valley and returned with Brigham Young to Winter Quarters that fall.....

Solomon and Terressa crossed the plains in 1848, he for the second time. Solomon is included in the Daughters of Utah Pioneers list for that year. Terressa is not. We don't have the date of their marriage close enough to know whether they were married before or after they crossed the plains; before is much more likely, given the hardships of the crossing on a single woman. " .

From book by La Von Pope, "The Lives of William Erskine Bridges 1814..."