Pioneers of the Month ------ March 2009 ------ John and Jane Smith Tidwell

JohnTidwell, son of William Tidwell and Sarah Goben, born 14 Jan. 1807 in Shelby Co., Kentucky.

(The following is from his own biography)
From there my father moved to Henry Co., in the same state. And there near the fork of the Kentucky River was called on to go fight for the independence of his country in the War of 1812-13. On his return home he was taken sick from much exposure and died at a place then called Fort Ball. The war was between the United States and England. Soon after the war the news came to mother of the death of my father. After the shock she moved to her father's, who lived in the county of Clay, in the State of Indiana. Her father's name was William Goben. Some little time after my mother moved to Indiana, she married a man by the name of John Conner. He was a half brother to my wife, Jane Smith. I will say here that my mother had five children by her first husband, William Tidwell, my father. Their names were John, Littleton, Nancy, Moriah, and William; all born in the state of Kentucky. After she married John Conner, her second husband, she had eight children, (namely) James, Lewis, Mary, Isaac, Wesley, Alexander, Robert and John.


On Dec. 18, 1838 I was married to Jane Smith at Marysville, Clark Co., Indiana. Sept. 25, 1835, I was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, by Levi Bracken in connection with Uriah Curtis. Those two were on a mission together at that time. I was living at this time in Clark Co., Indiana. On 20 Nov. 1835, I was ordained an elder in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Siants, and left in charge of a small branch of Saints, about twelve in number, which had been baptized previous to this time. This number increased by about twenty two or twenty three.

On 11 Sept. 1839, I left Clark Co., Indiana to gather with the Church at Nauvoo, Hancock Co., Illinois. I reached there 6 Nov. 1839, where I remained until after the Martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph and his Brother, Hyrum Smith. This took place 27 June 1844. I was ordained a Seventy and organized the ninth quorum of Seventies. I must say in connection with our stay in Nauvoo, which was less than six years, we had a great deal of sickness, also trouble caused by the mobs of outlaws of the State of Illinois, who continually sought to disturb the Saints. On 10 June 1844, The Nauvoo Expositor, a libelous paper edited by the Laws and Fosters was was considered a nuisance by the city council of Nauvoo and was destroyed by the city marshall, John F. Green. Great excitement arose about this time in the County of Hancock, by the mobbers of the State of Illinois, so that the Governor of the state, Thomas Ford, with pretense of protection, came to Carthage, the county seat of Hancock County.

On 27 June 1844, while Ford was in Nauvoo with pretense of friendship, a man broke into the jail, where Joseph, the Prophet, Hyrum Smith the Patriarch, and Willard Richards and John Taylor were confined, and under pretense of the law, martyred the Saints of Hancock Co., Illinois.

On the second day of Feb., 1848 in the City of Joseph, John Tidwell and Jane Tidwell received their Patriarchal blessing by John Smith, brother of the Prophet, who was the Patriarch.

On June 5, 1852, I left Counsel Point, southwest of Kanesville, Iow for Salt Lake Valley, crossed the Missouri River 8 June 1852. The fifth company was organized for crossint the plains the presentseason by Ezra T. Benson. I was appointed Captain of the Fifth Company for crossing the plains. The Journal of the Company will be found in another book kept by the Clerk of the Company. The record of the Fifth company of 1852 shows the rest of that journey. Sept 15, we arrived in Salt Lake City.

After a few days, I moved from there to Utah County to a place called Pleasant Grove.On July 14, 1855, I was ordained a President of Seventies at Provo by Joseph Young, Andrew Moore, Uriah Curtis and David Hunt. Joseph Young took the lead, and afterward I was assigned to the thirty fourth quorum of Seventies and appointed to preside over the (??) quorum, Pleasant Grove, Utah County.

I lived at Pleasant Grove from Sept 20, 1852 until Jun. 3, 1853, when I concluded to go to some place where I could get land enough for farming, so as to provide for my family and also on account of things being in much immoral state that I feared my family would get into bad habits such as I did not wish them to do. I thought I would move to some other place so I moved to Sanpete County, a distance of about eighty miles to Mt. Pleasant, where I arrived June 13, 1859.

On the 19th of June 1859, I was appointed to take charge of the building of the East Wall of the Fort. It was 20 rds. long, 12 feet high, four feet thich at the bottom, and two feet thick at the top. This was completed before the 24th day of July of the same year. This was built to protect the people from the Indians.

John Tidwell died at Mt. Pleasant Jan. 24th 1887. He had the following children: James Harvey, William Nelson, Mary Jane, Jefferson, Lyman, Martha, Margaret, Sarah, John, Emma Jane, and Marion.




Sugar Bowl which belonged to John and Jane Tidwell


(The following is written by Lettie P. Peterson from the things she can remember being told by her mother. )
John Tidwell and his family lived in the Fort until after Chief Black Hawk was killed and the Indian troubles were partly over. Then the people began moving out of the Fort. Each family was allotted a quarter of a city block to have as their home. John Tidwell's place was on Second South and State Street, where John K. Madsen lived for many years and where Grant Johansen now lives. (1960s) The Tidwells lived at that location the rest of their lives.


John Tidwell built a two room adobe house on his place and later added two more rooms built of lumber with a large fireplace in the living room. This was the only way they had of heating their home except with a small cook stove in the kitchen. Grandmother did most of her cooking in the fireplace--baking bread on the red-hot coals in a large iron Dutch oven, boiling water and making soup in a large iron pot hung on heavy iron brackets over the fire.


I was just a small child but I can remember the blue checkered tablecloth on the table, and how good the hot bread would smell and how good it would taste spread with butter and honey! Grandmother would churn butter and sell it for 10 cents a pound and also sell eggs for 10 cents a dozen.



Grandfather engaged in farming and cattle raising--owning land west and south of Mt. Pleasant. He had several beautiful horses which were sometimes used in the parade on the fourth of July by his son, John (or Jack as he was called).



Grandfather and Grandmother had twelve children. They were born at various places from Indiana to Utah. They are: James Harvey, William Nelson, Mary Jane, Jefferson, Lyman, Nancy Ann, Martha, Margaret, Sarah, John, Emma Jane, and Emiline Mariah. (The last named is my mother.) Three of their children died in infancy.



The following is recorded in the book "Mt. Pleasant", "An elderly Englishman by the name of Lee (father of Brig Lee) was working at a shingle mill. In some way he got his arm in the machinery and it was crushed. He was taken to his home and John Tidwell was called. There were no doctors in Mt. Pleasant at that time. Mr. Lee was placed on a table and four men held him while John Tidwell performed the operation of amputating the arm, which took 40 minutes. The only operating tools available were a knife and a meat saw. Brother Lee recovered and lived many years after that incident occurred.


"John Tidwell was good at making tubs and churns and pails out of wood, bound with wooden hoops which were used by the Pioneers.
"Jane Smith Tidwell was in the first dramatic company organized in Mt. Pleasant. They played for some years both in the Fort and after the new meeting house was built outside of the Fort--wheat was accepted as cash for tickets."



Grandfather died January 24, 1887, at the age of 80, and was buried in the Mt. Pleasant City cemetery.