Leah Lewis

1787 - 1843  (56 years)

• Name	Leah Lewis
  Birth	7 May 1787	New Ashford, Berkshire, Massachusetts   [1, 2, 3]
  Gender	Female
  Death	3 Nov 1843	Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois   [1, 2, 3]
  Person ID	I6607	Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others
  Last Modified	16 May 2020

  
  

  Father	Gideon Lewis,   b. 15 Dec 1749, Rhode Island d. 5 May 1805 (Age 55 years)
  Mother	Sarah Card,   b. Abt 1754, New Ashford, Berkshire, Massachusetts
  Family ID	F4167	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 1	Samuel Simmons,   b. 2 Dec 1780   d. Feb 1809 (Age 28 years)
  Family ID	F341	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	25 Apr 2024

  
  

  Family 2	David John Thompson,   b. Abt 1771, Pelham, Hampshire, Massachusetts d. Aug 1823, Fredonia, Chautauqua, New York (Age ~ 52 years)
  Marriage	Abt 1812  [1, 2]
  Children	1. Sarah Thompson,   b. 20 Mar 1820, Pomfret, Chautauqua, New York d. 31 Jan 1896, Mesa, Maricopa, Arizona (Age 75 years)
  Family ID	F996	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	6 Oct 2015

  
  

  Family 3	Nathaniel Childs,   b. 16 Jun 1791
  Family ID	F440	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	25 Apr 2024

  
  

• Notes

  Allegedly she and her daughter Sarah Thompson were founding members of the Relief Society when it was organized on 17 Mar 1842, but neither of them is mentioned in Wikipedia's coverage of that first meeting. Obituary, from the Nauvoo Neighbor, 15 Nov 1843: Died on the 3rd inst. in this city, Mrs. Leah Chiles [Childs], of cancer and rheumatism, in the 57th year of her age. Sister Childs was a firm believer in the doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as they have been revealed in the last days to man through the medium of revelation. She shared all the persecutions heaped upon the saints -- was driven with them from the state of Missouri, and suffered much from exposure and fatigue. Never was the name of a more generous, benevolent and sympathetic woman enrolled upon the records of the Church. She was truly a "mother in Israel." She possessed great faith, which seemed, for a long time, to baffle the destroyer, death; but it was the will of her Heavenly Father to take her to himself, that her soul might be emancipated. She [was] released from the vicissitudes of this troublesome world. She had been afflicted for more that a year, and suffered the most excruciating pain, but she was perfectly resigned to the will of heaven and when the period of her desolution arrived she fell asleep, as calm as the sleep of infancy, with the unwavering hope of participating in the first resurrection, when she should awake to everlasting youth, immortality and eternal life.

  
  

• Sources

  [S714] Find a Grave page for Leah "Simmons-Thompson" Lewis Childs. [S564] History of Leah Lewis by Murland R. Packer. [S1113] Life History of Elisha Hurt Groves and Lucy Simmons by Murland R. Packer. 1997.