Noah Gifford

Notes:

He may have been born in Sandwich or Dartmouth. We know that his father Peleg removed from Sandwich to Dartmouth by 1742 and returned to Sandwich sometime before 1767. No birth record exists for Noah that would resolve this. Daniels and McLean (citation details below) say "We do not know where this man was born or lived as a child, but he had returned to Sandwich before the date of his marriage as the publishment calls him 'of Sandwich.'"

According to this note, Noah Gifford apparently used the name Samuel Gifford when publishing his marriage intentions regarding Mary Bowerman. This is not quite accurate. The handwritten register of Falmouth marriage intentions viewable here on ancestry.com (requires login) quite unambiguously says "Noah Gifford of Sandwich & Mary Bowerman of Falmouth Published for marriage 5th June". A later hand appends "1784?" The year seems likely given that the entry is between entries both of which say "1784" in the original hand. However, a different handwritten list of actual Falmouth marriages shows Mary Bowerman of Falmouth marrying "Samuel Gifford of Sandwich" on 26 Jun 1784, by "Nathaniel [Shiverick? - not entirely legible], Justice." It is notable that this latter document appears to be a compilation from earlier records, rather than an ongoing ledger.

His death date is unknown to us. Many sites show him dying in Conway, Massachusetts in 1802, with no proof. The 1790 census of Conway shows him alive there at that time. The town records of Westport, Massachusetts show a Noah Gifford dying there in 1835 at the age of 77, which would be about right for this Noah, but according to Mayflower Births and Deaths this was a different Noah Gifford, the one that married Martha Hathaway.

Noah married Mary Bowerman after 5 Jun 1784 in Falmouth, Barnstable, Massachusetts. Mary (daughter of Judah Bowerman and Mary Dillingham) was born on 10 Oct 1758 in Falmouth, Barnstable, Massachusetts; died between 1834 and 1835. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Baptized into the Mormon church in 1831. He baptized Eleazar Miller, who in turn baptized Brigham Young. His brother Alpheus Gifford baptized Heber C. Kimball.

He was a participant in Zion's Camp, 1834.

In 1835, he was ordained a Seventy and called to serve in the First Quorum of the Seventy, thus becoming one of the earliest General Authorities of the church.

More about him here.

Levi married Deborah Wing in 1816 in Tioga, Pennsylvania. Deborah (daughter of Prince Wing and Deborah Chase) was born on 5 Apr 1796; died on 15 Mar 1877 in Weston, Franklin, Idaho; was buried in Weston City Cemetery, Weston, Franklin, Idaho. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Covington, Tioga, Pennsylvania is now called Sullivan.

Priscilla married Warner Hoopes on 29 Jul 1840 in Brown, Illinois. Warner (son of Jonathan Hoopes and Rebecca Watts) was born on 29 Oct 1817 in Lewisburg, York, Pennsylvania; died on 13 Feb 1891 in Weston, Franklin, Idaho. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

An unsigned sketch of the life of Elizabeth Adelaide Hoopes Allen, found on familysearch.org:

Adelaide, as she was lovingly called, was one of the first babies born in a covered wagon during the time her LDS parents were being expelled from Nauvoo. On the 9th of September, 1847, she came to Warner Hoopes and Priscilla when they were traveling through the state of Iowa, at Council Point, Pottawattamie County, sometime before they arrived in Council Bluffs. Her early life was filled with trials and tribulations, as experienced by many other faithful Saints at that time.

Her father was a shoemaker by trade and her mother possessed great faith and energy. When Adelaide was around three, her parents moved to St. Joseph, Missouri to find work as they did not have the means to travel any farther at that time. Brigham Young had told the Saints who could not finance themselves to go all the way to the Great Salt Lake Valley to wait until they could. Her father secured a job of burning charcoal and things looked good for a time. Her mother was in poor health and they hoped this climate would make her better. The following is based on an event recorded in Adelaide's journal that occurred while the family was living in St. Joseph:

One night we were entertaining an Elder McGraw who had stopped at our place as he was returning from his mission in England. He told my father that he felt impressed to tell him to remove his family immediately to Florence, Nebraska and there to prepare to immigrate to Utah. He repeated that same advice later that night and again the next morning. After he started away he returned and advised him to go right away and leave his family to dispose of the property. But my father was loathe to leave his prosperous situation and heeded not the counsel. About a week later a non-Mormon family's home was burned and the Mormons were accused of committing the deed. Four of the brethren were arrested but they were proven innocent and released. However, the decision of the court did not please the hellish mob which then planned to kill the men. The brethren were warned by a friend but my father didn't believe he was in any danger. The sheriff of Buchanan County came to father and offered protection and he refused as "he had no enemies". After a few days he had an uneasy feeling that he should not remain at home that night. He counseled his wife and told her if a friend came to the house to call him as he would stay out in the woods, but if it was an enemy, she should blow the dinner horn, made from a cow's horn, signifying that the more she blew the horn the deeper into the woods he should go. Sometime during the night my mother was awakened by voices outside. She listened and recognized voices of some of the mob and they were making plans to take father away. After they had stationed the guards at the windows and doors with instructions to "shoot him down" should he try to escape, mother grabbed the horn and blew three loud blasts. The leader of the mob, thinking it was a signal for him to come to her rescue, grabbed the horn and blew it repeatedly. Finally mother told him the louder and longer he blew, the further and faster father would run. The mob grew more angry but she told them that had they come like gentlemen, she would have called him and he would have returned. Furiously they took to the woods where they hunted the rest of the night but could not locate him. The next day they returned and tried to get mother to give up this terrible religion, saying that if she would she and her children would be cared for. My mother's answer was an inspiration to me; she said, "My husband and religion mean more to me than money or anything that money can buy." They cursed her and used vile language as they took their departure. We children scattered hot coals in the yard hoping that if they returned they would get burned.

In spite of protests, her father and a Brother Lincoln were put in jail and had to remain there for nine months before they were proven innocent. Adelaide remembered the night the mob took her father to jail. They broke the door to get into the house and though her mother pleaded with them not to take him, they were rude to her. It made it very hard on the family as Adelaide's mother was not too well and she had to provide for them. She disposed of most of their belongings and then resorted to making willow baskets which the children sold. Adelaide remembered visiting her father in jail. He was - pale and thin, with black eyes, and with hair and whiskers all over his face. It was frightening to look at him. After he was released from jail, they decided to cross the plains and go where the Saints were, though they had no money. The parents sold their only cow and her father took the money and left immediately for Florence, Nebraska where his brother Hyrum Hoopes was preparing to leave with a group of Saints for the Salt Lake Valley. This was in the year of 1857 when the last body of Saints left Winter Quarters. Adelaide's father borrowed enough money from his brother and sent for his family who arrived in time to leave with the company. Adelaide was then a girl of 10 and her job was to look her baby brother, Daniel. She remembered that she walked much of the way and carried her brother on her back when he got too tired to walk.

The company had cattle which they were driving through. One of the cows had a sucking calf and one of the men told Adelaide that if she would catch the calf and tie it up at night, she could have the milk from the cow in the morning. That sounded very good so unbeknown to her parents, she slipped up to the cow when the calf was getting his milk and got the rope around the calfs neck. The calf became frightened and began to run. Adelaide hung on to the rope for quite a while but when he pulled her through the bushes and a muddy place, she had to let go. She said she could have held it if her sister Melissa had helped. She never did get the milk.

Her sister Melissa, age 12, rode a horse all the way and drove the cattle to help pay back the money their father had borrowed. The group arrived in Salt Lake in 1857 . They moved to Bountiful for a short time, then moved to Richmond, Cache County, Utah. Adelaide was the one chosen to help her father with the sheep. She helped with the shearing as well as the herding. With the wool, she learned to spin, weave and sew, besides learning to cook and keep a tidy house. Adelaide had a girl friend by the name of Belinda Bear. One day she was over visiting with Adelaide when Belinda's boy friend, Charles Allen, called for her. Just for a joke, Adelaide hid Belinda's bonnet and when Belinda found out that she had hid it, she began to chase Adelaide around the house. Around they went, in and out. Apparently Charles thought they would never stop so he caught Adelaide, then about seventeen years old, and held her until she told where the bonnet was. That was the last time that Charles took Belinda out, as he began to court Adelaide. Although he was seventeen years her senior, she seemed to share his feelings and consented to be his wife. They were married in Richmond on 15 June 1864, and later went to Salt Lake and were sealed in the Endowment House. Their first five children, all boys, were born while they lived in Richmond. Five other children, four girls and a boy, were born in Cove, Utah where the family homesteaded 160 acres in a canyon.

While the family was still in Cove, Adelaide and her sister-in-law Mary decided to kill the pig. Mary was to hit it in the head to knock it down, then Adelaide was to cut its throat to make it bleed. When the water was hot enough so the pig could later be scalded, Mary climbed into the pen with the axe and hit it but not hard enough to make it fall. The pig began running and squealing around the pen so Mary called for Adelaide. They both took after it. Around and around the pen they went. When Adelaide finally caught one of the hind legs, they both pulled hard and stopped it. Mary hung on to its leg while Adelaide cut its throat. They found it a hard job to kill a pig and often laughed about their experience.

Adelaide's husband was Branch President in Cove, but the cold winters were too much for him and he contracted rheumatism and was badly crippled. They thought they had better try a warmer climate for his health, so relocated to Mesa, Maricopa County, Arizona. Adelaide and the girls rode in a white top buggy on the trip. She knitted socks for the family on the way, which they did not need so badly in a warm climate.

They moved into an adobe house with a dirt floor but it was not long a dirt floor, as Adelaide with her energy and pride soon had a nice wood one. Within the next seven years, four more children were born. Their home was always a gathering place for the young folks. They were always made to feel welcome even though they had to be bedded on the floor.

Adelaide drove a little span of mules, Jack and Molly, sitting in the white top buggy whenever she traveled without the men folk. Those little mules were deathly afraid of Indians. Whenever they saw one they would break into a dead run. There were Indians all over the valley when they first came to Mesa. One might pop up at any time so Adelaide had to be on the watch. The mules could smell them first. They would first stick up their ears, then their nose up in the air with their eyes on the lookout. That surely meant a "runaway" and Adelaide was always prepared. She grasped her lines just so, braced her feet to give her strength and pushed on the brake. Many times she had small children with her. She never had an accident.

Their house was built right on the trail where the Indians used to hunt rabbits. They objected to this and would often stop, get off their horses and peek into the windows, as well as ask for something to eat. Her children remembered how scared they were when the Indians came galloping up on their horses with their dark, bare bodies and nothing on but a "breech clout" around their loins and their long, black hair flopping up and down. One day an Indian came walking to the door and demanded something to eat. Adelaide, remembering the counsel of President Young to feed instead of fight them, turned to go get him something when she looked around just in time to see him entering the door with his eye on the gun that was hanging on the wall. Adelaide, "quick as a wink", gave him a big shove and he landed on his back out the door on a board with nails in it. The Indian was shocked. He did not move very soon. He looked around, got up slowly and started off on a trot. He left a piece of his "breech clout" on the nails. He never came back.

Adelaide loved music. She and the children sang together many of the ballads of the day, such as "Polly Van", "Joe Bowers", "Captain Jinks" and "Vacant Chair". The family often held what they called "Primary" where they met together in the evening and sang songs and told stories. It was always opened with prayer.

Adelaide died giving birth to her fourteenth child, on 13 November 1889, at age 42. It was a great sorrow to the father and family. After her death, everybody in town tried to help. The funeral was held out at the front of the home. Brother Henry Rogers was one of the speakers and he remarked that, "The old, poor and needy will miss Sister Allen most of all". She was always there to help them in their time of need. She was laid to rest in the Mesa Cemetery.

Her last request to the family was to keep them together. The request was granted for a council meeting with the father and older children, it was decided that the oldest daughter, Adelaide, would care for the home and the children. She was fifteen years old at the time and Seymour, age nineteen, took over the job of providing as best he could. The father lived a short distance away after taking a second wife.

Elizabeth married Charles Hopkins Allen on 15 Jun 1864 in Richmond, Cache, Utah. Charles (son of Andrew Lee Allen and Clarinda Knapp) was born on 15 Oct 1830 in Burton, Cattaraugus, New York; died on 18 Feb 1922 in Mesa, Maricopa, Arizona; was buried on 19 Feb 1922 in City of Mesa Cemetery, Mesa, Maricopa, Arizona. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]