He found himself a co-leader of the last 600 poor people that needed to go 1,000 miles to Missouri. When they prayed for help, "I saw a messenger apparently like an old man with white hair down to his shoulders. He was a very large man near seven feet high, dressed in a white robe down to his ankles. He ... said, `Be one and you shall have enough.' This gave us great joy." Zerah said the mob was determined not to let them leave but that the mob leader had a vision that caused him to tell the mob not to harm `a hair of our heads.' They left 5 July 1838 and arrived in Adam-ondi-ahman, Missouri, on 3 October 1838, thinking at last they could settle down.
They stayed about a month, but the mobs again formed to drive them out. "In the time I was there I assisted to build sixteen houses and the longest that I lived in one of them was four days." Then they heard that a mob of 3,000 was on its way and that the Prophet Joseph Smith had advised them to lay away their arms and submit to the mob. Zerah went to a grove and prayed for help and got the answer, "Be still and know that I am God." He told the company, `Have no fear for God will provide a way for our escape.' They submitted themselves to be prisoners of the mob who took their weapons and gave them ten days to get out. They moved to Far West and spent the winter, where his mother died. She saw a light over her bed which she said was `to light me through the valley of death' and then died without a struggle or groan.
Then they moved to Bear Creek Woods, in Illinois to escape the persecution.
Zerah recorded a portion of his experience at Adam-ondi-Ahman in Daviess County, Missouri, in the fall of 1838:
"In July 1838 I started from the state of Oh[i]o to move to the west part of Missouri. I arrived in Davies Co. Mo. The fore part of Octbr. Following with my family Expecting to make it my place of Residence during Life I assisted to pay for a preemption [sic] right and Built a house. Soon after Mobs were heard of in various parts Destroying Property Belonging to Mormons About the first of Novbr. I was gathering Corn with 15 or 20 Persons and were taken prisoners [sic] by abody of trops [sic] sd. To be sent by the Govornor [sic] as soon as the Town was surrounded we were ordered to go to our houses and get our guns if we had nay and Come to their Camp and deliver them up we accordingly started for that purpose [sic] After going but afew hundred yards from them we were fireed [sic] upon by a boddy [sic] of men sd. to be Headed by Neal Gillum from Platt[e] Country. But we got our guns and gave them up and then a s[t]rong g[u]ard placed over us. In the mean time [we] were in sulted and abused, at the same time aman by the name of Han[l]ey strove hard to kill one of the prisoners [sic] an aged man, but was rescued by one of the officers. While I was there under gard my house was robed [sic] of the property I brought from Ohio The next morning we were brought before general Wilsons Camp and addresst [sic] in the following Manner Gentlemen I have an order from the governor to Exterminate you forth with but I take the responsibility upon my self to give you ten days to Leave this place or we [Mormons] might Expect destruction This is as near as I can recollect. [signed] Zerah Pulsipher"
Sworn to before J. Orr, J. P., Adams Co., Illinois, 8 January 1840
Mary Brown married Zerah. She recalled, "I lived in Pennsylvania until I was married in 1815 to Zerah Pulsipher. Our oldest child was born May 30, 1816…. We started in July (the 15th) with a large camp for Missouri. We all got there in the fall and went to Davies County. My husband was one of the Council that led the Camp. We stayed in that place one month; then we were driven from there by the mob. Then we went to the far west and stayed there through the winter... The winter we were in the Far Western part of Missouri, we had to part with our good old Mother Pulsipher. She was sick one week, and then died. The day before she died, she lay looking up. I said, 'Mother, what do you see?" She said, "Oh, don't you see that light?" I looked, but could not see any. The next day she saw it again over her bed. She said, "That is a light to light me through the dark valley of death." Then she fell asleep without a struggle or groan. I think she was 85 years old…. Then we had to go again. We started in March for Illinois. We stopped 25 miles from Nauvoo, in Bear Creek Woods.
http://users.sisna.com/wsimister/brown.htm
Mary (Brown) Pulsipher
John Pulsipher
Zerah and Mary's son, John Pulsipher, writes, "The church in Kirtland was now broken up and the poorest of the poor were left, because they could not get away. Only about ten teams were all that was in the possession of the whole of them between five and six hundred persons, but they all [Kirtland Camp] covenanted that they would go together or stay together.
This was in the spring of 1838. The presidents of the Seventy took the lead of business. They advised every man that could work to go into the country and work a few months, for horses, cattle, wagons, harnesses, money, store pay, etc., which they did. They worked and prayed and the Lord worked with them. Signs and wonders were seen and heard which caused the Saints to rejoice. One pleasant day in March, while I was at work in the woods, about one mile from the Temple, with father, Elias Pulsipher and Jesse Baker, there was a steamboat past over Kirtland in the air! It was a clear, sunshine day. When we first heard the distant noise, we all stopped work. We listened and wondered what it could be. As it drew nearer, we heard the puffing of a steamboat, intermingled with the sound of many wagons rattling over a rough stony road. We all listened with wonder but could not see what it was. It seemed to pass right over our heads; we all heard the sound of a steamboat as plain as we ever did in our lives. It passed right along and soon went out of our hearing. When it got down to the city it was seen by a number of persons. It was a large fine and beautiful boat, painted in the finest style. It was filled with people. All seemed full of joy. Old Elder Beamon, who had died a few months before was seen standing in the bow of the boat swinging his hat and singing a well known hymn. The boat went steady along over the city, passed right over the Temple and went out of sight to the west! This wonderful sight encouraged the Saints because they knew the Lord had not forgotten them. The people of Kirtland who saw the steamboat in the air said as it arrived over the Temple a part of it broke off and turned black and went north and was soon out of sight, while the boat, all in perfect shape, went to the west more beautiful and pure than before.
The power of the Lord was manifested in various ways. Angels were seen in meetings who spoke comforting words, that inasmuch as we would be faithful the Lord would help us and we should be delivered from our enemies.
In June the company met, brought in their property which had been earned and behold they had means sufficient to move all the Saints from Kirtland. The company was organized with James Foster, Zerah Pulsipher, Joseph Young, Henry Harriman, Josiah Butterfield, Benjamin Willer and Elias Smith at the head as counselors, to lead the camp.
On the 6th of July at noon the camp started all in order. The company consisted of 515 souls--249 males, 266 females, 27 tents, 59 wagons, 97 horses, 22 oxen, 69 cows and one bull. Jonathan Dunham was the Engineer and Jonathan H. Hale was the commissary. The business of the engineer was to go thru the rich settlements and towns where he could buy provisions cheap and bring a wagon load to the camp each night. The rations were given out once a day to the several families according to their number; he that gave in money and he that had none to give, all fared alike. There was a regular order in starting; the bugle was sounded for all to rise in the morning at the same time; also to tend prayers and eat breakfast at a certain time and all started together and every wagon kept in its place.
Our enemies had threatened never to let us go out of Kirtland two wagons together, but when we got ready to start, the largest company of Saints that had ever traveled together in this generation started out in good order without an enemy to oppose us. We traveled along in fine order and after a few hundred miles we got out of money and stopped and worked about a month at Dayton, Ohio, and got means to pay our way thru to Missouri. While at Dayton the devil entered our camp and got possession of one of the sisters. She was in awful pain and talked all the time and some of the time in rhyme. The Elders administered to her. The evil spirits left her and entered another person and on being rebuked again would enter another and so continued a good part of the night. But when the devil was commanded in the name of Jesus Christ to leave the camp, he went and was very mad. He went thru the whole camp, made a roaring noise, knocked over chairs, broke table legs and made awful work.
We again pursued our journey, sometimes the weather was good and sometimes bad. Sometimes our tents would blow over in the rain storms in the night when all within -- beds, people and all -- would get as wet as drowned mice, but we could sleep in wet beds and not get sick by it. The people in the towns, cities and country thru which we passed looked and gazed at us as we passed along. Sometimes they tried to stop us. Once they threw eggs at us just because we were Mormons. At one certain city in Missouri the people tried to stop us. They really had the artillery placed in the street. As we came up they were determined to fire the cannon right at our company, but father talked to them till finally they gave up the notion and let us pass unmolested, except a few of our head men whom they took and cast in prison but the Lord delivered them and they came on and overtook the company the next night.
We traveled in fine order, for we would have order. If people would not obey the rules and keep good order they were labored with and if they would not repent and reform they were turned out of the company.
When we got within five miles from Far West, we were met by Joseph, Hyrum and Sidney. A happy meeting it was. They were very glad to see us because they needed help. For the enemies of the Saints had never been at rest since they drove the church from their homes at Independence in 1833. It seemed that the devil was in almost every man in Missouri. They would all declare--from the governor in his chair down to the meanest man there who would stand up and swear with a bottle of whiskey in one hand and a knife in the other, that Mormons should not stay there. Joseph directed us to camp at night around the Temple cellar in Far West and then go thirty miles north to strengthen a small settlement at Adam-ondi-Ahmon. We found the handsomest country I ever saw. We bought land and went to work building houses and mills. The mobs raged all over the country, stealing cattle and horses, burning houses and driving people from their own homes, sometimes killing men and abusing women to an extent unknown even among savages.
One man was not safe out alone for if a dozen of the mob could kill one Mormon they thought it would immortalize their names. So we had to work in companies and keep our guns with us. Every man and boy that could carry a gun went into the ranks to defend the women and children. We not only took our guns to our work but slept with them at night so as to be ready to jump at any minute, when the enemy should come. We had spent about five weeks in this way when an express came from Far West stating that a great company of mob had arrived there with the exterminating orders of Governor Boggs. Joseph and Hyrum and the twelve were prisoners and Far West was in the hands of the mob. Joseph's order to us was to give up without making resistance and all will be right.
The company who called themselves militia soon came, took us prisoners, took all our arms which was our own individual property. Soon another company came and commenced firing at the unarmed prisoners. The balls whistled all around but thank God not one of us was hurt. Our orders were: we must "leave Davis County within ten days, and leave the state before seedtime in the spring" and if one of us were found there after that time the life of a Mormon would be considered no more than that of a wolf. The mob company stayed to see that the orders were executed and while they stayed they lived on our grain, pork, beef. They would shoot down poor widows' cows right by the door, burn up fences and do all the damage they could. They would even shoot a cow and cut a rope out of the hide before she was dead, to tie a horse with. We thought this a curious land of liberty and equal rights. But there was no time to be lost, for most of the Saints had no teams; they had sold them for land and now must go and leave it. Maybe you can imagine how the few teams that were there were kept going night and day till the saints were moved from Diahmon over into Caldwell County. Now we had to leave the Valley of Adam-ondi-Ahmon and the altar upon which old Father Adam stood and gave his last blessings to his children as they were assembled in the Valley to see a father bowed down with age and hear his voice as he blessed his posterity and told what would take place down to the latest generations. It was with curious feelings that I viewed this ground and the remains of this old altar as I was driving the cows by it for the last time. We had one span of small horses to draw the goods of four families. Women and children had to walk because they could not ride for want of teams. This was a terrible sight--men, women, and children driven from their homes, to travel over the cold prairies covered with snow. After traveling all day in the cold rain and snow till our clothes were wet thru we camped at night on the bleak prairie but still we were not discouraged.
Let our foes do what they will, The Mormons will be cheerful still.
We soon got out of Davis County. We went and stayed the remainder of the winter with my oldest sister and her kind husband -- Horace Burgess, four miles southwest of the city of Far West. My grandmother, Elizabeth Pulsipher -- who lived with us, died on the 2nd of December, being persecuted to death in a "land of liberty."
Father went up in the Platt Country some sixty miles off and worked for money to help us out of the state of Missouri. Charles and I stayed at home and got fire wood and took care of the folks the best that we could. I can't give an account here of the sufferings of our brethren who were in prison and of the many murders that were committed, the houses that were burned, the property which was destroyed and the thousands of people that were robbed of all they possessed. This is written in the church history--some of it at least. The Saints were moving all winter to the State of Illinois. The teams kept going till all the Saints were out of Missouri. Father got means to help his own family to move which consisted of nine persons. In the month of March, 1839, we started towards Illinois in company with Horace Burgess and some of our neighbors. After traveling 200 miles, we crossed the great Mississippi River and got out of Missouri and found ourselves among a people that have some humanity. We stopped to look for a home but all the houses were full.
We heard of a large tract of vacant land in the north part of Adams County and we went to it, in a company, with Horace and his father, William Burgess, senior; we made a road into the woods, called the Bear Creek timber, and stopped three miles east of Lima and twenty miles north of Quincy.
We arrived here about the middle of April. All the team the three families had was one horse, but all used the horse and all worked together and when one killed a deer it was divided among the whole. And in fact we all seemed like one family. In about one month we had three good log houses built, 12 acres of land fenced and most of it planted to corn. We caught fish, killed game, picked greens, etc. We worked and bought some corn of the old farmers who lived at a distance around us. We made roads through the woods. One way it was seven miles to a neighbor and four to another. East and west we had neighbors within three miles. Our brethren came on and settled west of us. We had neighbors within one mile. Two miles was a larger settlement made where Isaac Morley presided. There we had good meetings and much of the spirit of the Lord. We all enjoyed ourselves first rate. This place seemed more like home than any place I ever before saw. There were no mobs to disturb. We could lie down and sleep in peace. The Lord blessed the land for us and blessed us in all our labors. We came here with one animal and in two years we had twelve head of cattle, raised plenty of grain and were well clothed--all earned by our own labor. Farming and shingle making was our principal employment.
The Saints got out of Missouri and scattered about thru Illinois and the adjoining states. The Lord delivered the prophets and elders from the prisons in Missouri, for they were innocent of any crime and the Lord would not let them be killed at that time.
When Joseph Smith got out of prison, he looked for a gathering place for the Saints. He found a place, a site for a city on the east bank of the Mississippi River. He bought the land, laid out a city which he called Nauvoo. Nauvoo was appointed by revelation a gathering place and headquarters for the Saints. The people gathered in very fast, great numbers died on account of their exposure thru the persecution of Missouri. http://www.auntroma.com/john_pulsipher.htm http://www.softcom.net/users/paulandsteph/zp/john.html">
Mariah Pulsipher
Mariah Pulsipher recalled, "Mariah Pulsipher Burgess, was born March 17, 1822 in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania. I moved with my parents, Zerah and Mary Brown Pulsipher to Onondaga County, New York, when I was a small girl.
Jared Carter came to New York preaching the gospel. Father, mother and sisters, Almira and Sarah and I were baptized in January of 1832. My father disposed of his property and we made our way westward. In 1835, there was a stake organized in Kirtland. We moved there and helped build the Temple. Soon after it was dedicated the mob started persecuting the Saints. My father, being one of the first seven Presidents over the Seventies, had to leave. They bound themselves under a covenant to put their means together and not leave one Saint behind. They left Kirtland with 500 Saints.
We [Kirtland Camp] traveled to Dayton, Ohio. There we had to stop and each work to get means to go on. The camp was divided into nine divisions. We lived all alike, and had a commissary to give out provisions. We held evening and Sunday meetings. We enjoyed a stay of nine weeks and obtained the necessities and moved on. We had not gone far before we were met by mobocrats, telling us we had better stop because we would be driven out. Joseph and Hyrum Smith met us at Far West, Missouri. They greatly rejoiced to see us. They preached to us that night and told us to settle in Diahman [Adam-ondi-Ahman], Daviess County.
The next day we started on our journey of about thirty miles. As we arrived a mob was riding around threatening to kill us. Father was taken prisoner with about thirty others, but later released. I have been on the spot, a large pile of rocks, where Joseph Smith says it was Adam's Alter in Diahman [Adam-ondi-Ahman], about one-half mile from our place.
We lived there about six weeks before being compelled to leave. My grandmother, now eighty-six years old, said she had come to Zion to lay her bones down and now had to be driven on. She went to Far West with us and spent the winter. About a month before we had to leave, she died.
In the spring we moved again, crossed the Mississippi River and went up the river to a little town called Lima. We went three miles from any settlement in the woods, east of Lima. There we camped and got some ground cleared off to build a log house and plant a garden. About a mile away the saints made the Morley Settlement. We much rejoiced to find a place where we could live without being molested. There I formed an acquaintance with William Burgess and about a year later, September, 1840, I married him. Soon after my marriage, we settled in Nauvoo, Illinois, and helped build a city in spite of much sickness." Mariah Pulsipher, 1822-1893 Autobiography (c. 1822-1850), Selection from the autobiography of Mariah Pulsipher in Kenneth Glyn Hales, comp. and ed., Windows: A Mormon Family, (Tucson, Arizona: Skyline Printing, 1985). http://www.boap.org/LDS/Early-Saints/MPulsipher.html
William Burgess
William Burgess
[At Kirtland, Ohio], I lived in the Smith family for two years, and learned much of the gospel hearing the prophet talk. I helped build the Kirtland Temple and was at the dedication. We passed through the persecution with the saints and were driven out. We then moved to Caldwell County, Missouri in August of 1838. The prophet counseled us to go to Daviess County. We arrived at Adam-ondi-Ahman about the 20th of August, 1838. The mob spirit was raging and all the old settlers but two moved away in order to have their families safe while they were fighting. For about three months I didn't undress only to wash and change clothes, and no one except those that passed through it knows the tribulation and privations that we had to endure. As it was for the gospel's sake, we endured cheerfully. I was taken prisoner by the mob and abused terribly. But we depended on the Lord and He delivered us from them. We went to Caldwell County in December and in the spring we were put in prison and the church was driven from the state.
We next went to Adams County, Illinois. We were driven out of Missouri leaving our homes and all we had, but we were thankful for our lives that we were spared. On September 17, 1840, I married Mariah Pulsipher, daughter of Zerah Pulsipher and Mary Brown, near Lima, Adams County, Illinois. http://www.softcom.net/users/paulandsteph/zp/mariah.html#william
Iona Almira Pulsipher
Iona Almira Pulsipher
In the early summer of 1838 the saints were forced to leave Kirtland. The Burgess family, being faithful members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, went along with the rest to Missouri. They thought they would be safe there but met with the same opposition as in Ohio.
When Almira and Horace were living in Far West, Missouri, she wanted to have a little visit with her folks who lived about 30 miles away at Di-amond (Adam-ondi-Ahman). After her visit she returned to her home. She was heart sick and discouraged when she found the mobs had entered her house and plundered and stolen her few belongings.
It seemed the devil was really turned loose in the hearts of evil men. Even the Governor of the state of Missouri was one of the Mormon's worst enemies. He issued an order to the Saints which read as follows: "The Mormons must leave Davis County, Missouri within ten days and leave the state before seed time. If one of them is found there after that time his life will be considered no more than that of a wolf." The mobs stayed to see that the orders were executed and while they remained they lived off the Mormon's grain, pork and beef. They would burn up the fences and do all the damage they could. On one occasion they wanted a rope to tie a horse up so they shot a poor widow's cow right beside her door and cut a rope out of the hide before the cow was even dead.
This country was supposed to be a land of liberty there everyone could worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience and have equal rights. But with such an order hanging over them there was no time to waste. Almira and Horace moved to Caldwell County and established themselves for the winter.
They were forced to leave their land that they had bought. It was with curious feelings that they left this valley of Adam-on-Diamon (Adam-ondi-Ahman) where in the days of old, Father Adam had stood at the alter and given his last blessing to his children as they were assembled.
There weren't teams available to draw the goods and the people too, so the women and children were obliged to walk along with the men. It was a terrible thing to be driven from their homes to travel over the cold prairies covered with snows camping at night in wet clothing with very little food.
Almira was with her parents and brothers and sisters in this camp in Caldwell County. She was glad her mother was there when on April 3, l839, she gave birth to her second child, another boy, whom they named George Martin Burgess.
Soon after this, the Burgess and the Pulsipher families, along with their neighbors started across the state of Missouri to Illinois. After traveling about 200 miles, they reached the Mississippi River. Just prior to this, one of the horse in Horace's team fell dead in the road. This was a great handicap to their progress but members of his family came to his assistance and they traveled on.
The people residing in Illinois seemed to be more tolerant toward them, for the time beings at least. They looked around for homes but all the houses were full. They heard of a large tract of vacant land in the north part of Adams County so they went to it. Besides Horace and Almira, there were William Jr., and Mariah, father William Burgess, father Pulsipher and their wives and children. It was quite a little colony who made a road into the woods called the Bear Creek timber. They stopped three miles east of Lima and 20 miles north of Quincy, Illinois.
http://www.softcom.net/users/paulandsteph/zp/almira.html#iona
Charles Pulsipher
Charles Pulsipher, another son, recalled, "During the winter of 1837-38, the Saints were left in charge of the Seventies at Kirtland, Ohio. All that had means had gone to Missouri, about five hundred remaining. The presidency of the Seventies immediately called them together in the Temple and commenced fasting and praying for the Lord to open the way that they might gather up unto the land of Zion. The council came unto them and told them to scatter out into the country and labor for anything that assist them to move.
We had made a covenant that we would band together, and go up into Missouri together or die in the attempt. Our enemies heard of this and declared we should not roll out more than two wagons at a time. Eighteen of the brethren were called in and turned the means over to the council of the Seventies to deal out accordingly to their best judgment, for the removal of all.
Two days before we were to start, one of our worst enemies came to father, who was one of the councilmen and said, "I understand you are expecting to move in a few days." "Yes", father said, "we are." He said, "I want you to come and camp in my pasture the last night, as there is plenty of feed for all of your animals, and I will use all my influence to prevent you from being harmed." Consequently, we accepted his kind offer and on the 6th of July, l838, everything being ready, we rolled out. Sixty-five wagons in number, some 500 persons, 60 loose cows which all together made a fine appearance or train of white covered wagons, nearly nine miles long. We were not molested in the least by our enemies.
We moved quietly and peacefully until we came to the border of the Missouri, hearing many reports from our enemies telling us we had better not go any farther. We Mormons were all being driven out and if we went on we would share the same fate. Some of our brethren became faint hearted and wished to turn by the way side and stop. A council was called that night, in which the majority were in favor of going on together, but when a portion still wanted to stop, the council bore a powerful testimony urging them all to hang together, and fulfill the covenant that had been made in the Temple. He said, "I can promise you, in the name of the Lord, if you will hang together, and fulfill the covenant, you shall go through and not one hair of your heads shall be harmed, but if you fall by the wayside there is no such promise given unto me to make to you."
When we roiled out next morning there were a little over twenty wagons pulled off with their families and went to Haun's Mill. Most of the men were massacred but Brother Joseph Young, through the mercy of the Lord, escaped without a wound. Brother Knight, while running from the mob, was struck with seven bullets but still he lived to come to the mountains and died at a good old age in Spring Glen. The rest of the company went on through without any harm or molestation.
We were met and welcomed by the Prophet Joseph Smith and others five miles from Far West. He advised us to camp there that night then go on to help strengthen the settlement of Adam~on~diamond (Adam-ondi-Ahman). We remained there three weeks and was driven back to Far West where we spent the winter. We were sent on to Illinois in March of 1839. "
Charles Pulsipher, born April 20, 1830 http://users.sisna.com/wsimister/brown.htm http://www.softcom.net/users/paulandsteph/zp/charles.html
Sarah Ann Pulsipher
Sarah Ann Pulsipher, 1824 - 1909
Sarah Pulsipher was born November 2, 1824, in Stafford, Onoadage County, New York. She was the fifth child born to Zerah and Mary Brown Pulsipher. The older members of the family, Mary Ann, who died in infancy, Almira, Nelson and Mariah were all born in Pennsylvania where the family lived for quite a few years. It must have been in the latter part of 1825, or the earlier months of 1825 when Sarah's father moved his family to New York State where he bought a farm and built a mill. His diary states that he built a meeting house there for the Baptist Church which he was then associated with. It was here that little Nelson was killed by a falling tree.
Sarah was just seven years old when her parents heard and accepted the gospel of truths as taught by Jared Carter and other missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Then in 1835 her father moved his family to Kirtland, Ohio. At eleven she would be able to remember many experiences about this journey to Kirtland. When the persecutions became more severe they later moved to Nauvoo, Illinois. Her father's history gives realistic accounts of the hardships they were forced to endure. (This history was taken from the Family History Book of Zerah and Mary Brown Pulsipher, compiled in 1953, by Terry and Nora Lund.)
http://www.softcom.net/users/paulandsteph/jalger/sarah.html
John Alger
John Alger, 1820 -1897
(original text was passed down to Florence McMullin Jensen)
John Alger was born in Astabula County, in the northeast corner of Ohio, 5 November 1820. He was the son of Samuel and Clarissa Hancock Alger. He was baptized with his parents in 1830.
Very early in John's life he met and became associated with Zera Pulsipher, who was to have a great influence on his life's work.
Zera Pulsipher was a farmer in New York where he received and read a copy of the Book of Mormon. He became converted and joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. After joining the church he filled a mission to Canada where among his converts was Wilford Woodruff whom he baptized a member of the Church. After Zera returned home he moved with his family to Kirtland, Ohio in 1837. It was here the families met and cast their lots with the Church and its growth and progress. They were never separated again.
After the Saints were compelled to leave Ohio and Missouri, having built the temple in Kirtland and failing to establish a refuge or gathering place for the Saints, they went to Nauvoo, Illinois to start anew.
On 6 January 1842 John Alger married Sarah Pulsipher, daughter of Zera Pulsipher and Mary Brown. They were married by the Prophet Joseph Smith. And through this marriage John became a member of the Pulsipher family which would take a very active part in the building of the Church in Illinois and in the migration west to establish themselves in the valley of the mountains.
At the time of his marriage, John was 22 years of age and a skilled workman as a carpenter and wheelwright.
http://www.softcom.net/users/paulandsteph/jalger/homepage.html#john
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