February 15, 1812 to September 18, 1881
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF HORACE MARTIN ALEXANDER
Containing also a short sketch of Nancy, his wife.
Written and compiled in 1927 by his
granddaughter, Lucille Walker.
My Grandfather, Horace Martin Alexander was born near Cavesville, on a tobacco plantation, in Orange County, Virginia, February 15, 1812. His parents, James and Frances Ehart Alexander, had eight children, of whom Horace was the youngest. His brothers and sisters were: Willis, Adam, Willis 2nd, Fannie, Maria, James and Thorton. When Horace was still quite young, the family moved to another Plantation over in Kentucky, about two and one-half miles from Hillsboro, in Fleming county. In this home of luxury and ease the lad grew to young manhood. He had not been taught to work. A southern gentleman does not do that, only slaves and “white trash” need to work. It to interesting to note here that he was not fitted, either by nature or by training, for the life of a pioneer.
When he was about nineteen years old, he left his home and went out to seek his fortune elsewhere, to the chagrin of his parents. It is thought that an unfortunate love affair was the cause of his leaving.
We next hear of him in Ohio, going with some other boys to torment the Mormons, who were holding a meeting there. Grandfather listened to the words of the Elders. After that he attended more of their services. Here he became acquainted with a devout Mormon girl, Nancy Reader Walker. Through her influence he was converted. On September 14th, 1834 he and Nancy were married. They were with the saints in their migration from Ohio to Missouri.
On September 1st, 1836 when their first child, Frances Evelyn was born, they were living on a farm near Liberty in Clay County, Missouri. When, after a series of persecutions in Clay and Jackson County, the saints realized that they could expect no protection from the State, they petitioned the legislature to assign them a place where they might live. It was on this territory assigned them that the city of Far West was built. Here in 1837 and 1838 grandfather kept a store according to a day book he kept at this time. Some of the charge accounts of this little book are interesting: Saleratus 2 lbs. 30¢, Candles 25¢, Calico 50¢, flour 24 lbs. $1.25, Molasses 50¢. These items were paid for by pork.
Grandfather used to tell how friendly he and Joseph Smith were at this time. The Prophet, an imposing figure on his big white horse, would ride right into Grandfather's store, and the horse would paw for what it wanted.
The Saints soon became so numerous and so prosperous that the people of Missouri and even Governor Boggs feared that they would soon own Missouri (the Mormons were so united and thrifty, there was cause for alarm). The state militia supposedly called to quell the mobs, actually joined the mobs in driving the Mormons from Missouri, The Saints had to pledge their property to defray the cost of the war. They had to leave the state before spring, 1839.
The expulsion began in February and by the middle of April no Mormons were left In Missouri. Whither should they go? Homeless, almost destitute, they camped in tents and wagons on the banks of the frozen Missouri River. Some had been forced to flee without sufficient clothing and bedding to keep them warm. Grandfather, who had achieved property in Far West, had to leave everything behind, even his big trunk. His wife was in a delicate condition. He must find a home for her and their two and one-half year old daughter. How he ever succeeded in traveling way down the river to Alton in lower Illinois (Madison County) is not known. But here at Alton, in March, 1839, his day book records, a baby girl, Nancy, was born to them. What an experience for these two young parents. The family lived here about two years. On March 5, 1841, another daughter was born (our Grandmother) Sarah Malinda.
Most of the Saints on leaving Far West had gone up the Mississippi River to Quincy, Illinois, where they were treated with sympathy. They purchased a city of about twenty houses, called Commerce. Here they built the City of Nauvoo in a little over a year, a city of 15,000 people, 800 houses of stone, frame and logs. What an achievement for a years work! What other people could have done such a thing? Here in 1841 they began to build their temple. Joseph Smith, in a revelation, called all the Saints to bring their gold, etc, and come to Zion to help build the Temple. In answer to this call grandfather left Alton and joined the Saints at Nauvoo. In April 1841, we find he and his wife and their three children living at the home of a brother Ables. In Alton or earlier he seems to have learned carpentry for his day book records that he worked on the Temple beginning in March, 1842.
Once more he prospered. The little family was very happy. On October 15, 1843, their fourth child Dionitia was born.
Soon after this, began the persecution which ended in the killing of the Prophet and in the expulsion of the Mormons from Illinois in the spring of 1846. Banoroft’s history gives the idea that Pres. Smith’s aspiring to be President of the United States and his beginning the Practice of Polygamy were probably the chief reasons for the expulsion,
The Mormons were driven almost at the point of the bayonet. They were not given sufficient time to dispose of their home and lands, but had to trade them off for whatever they could get. Early in February they set forth, destination unknown, to find a place where they might be safe. Their first camp was on Sugar Creek in Iowa. Here there was much suffering. The autumn found practically all of the Saints camped at Winter Quarters and Council Bluffs.
In the meantime war had been declared between the United States and Mexico. Brigham Young appealed to the government for work for his men, offering to help fight the U.S. battles. Accordingly, the Government called for 500 volunteers to be raised among the Saints. The Mormon men hated to leave their families to go off to war, but it meant that their monthly pay would help to buy the necessary outfits for conveying the Saints across the plains. Grandfather, along with nearly all the able bodied, husky men of the camps, enlisted in Company B. His wife and children were left in the care of the church.
The Mormon Battalion began the greatest march of infantry ever known, July 19, 1846, from Council Bluffs. The Mormon soldiers didn’t buy an outfit of shoes and clothing with the $40.00 allotted them by the government for that purpose. Instead they sent it back to their suffering families. As a consequence many of them were almost naked before the 2,000 mile march was half over. Their path lay over an uncharted desert. In some places food was so scarce they had to kill worn out horses and mules to eat. At one time they marched a hundred miles without water. On the San Pedro River there was an encounter with a herd of buffalo. Grandfather barely escaped with his life. They reached San Diego January 29th 1847, and found the Stars and Stripes floating there.
Back at Winter Quarters on January 1st, 1847, Nancy in the crudest of log huts, gave birth to a son Horace Martin Alexander, Jr. The weather was bitter cold. There was not sufficient bedding to keep the mother and babe warm and dry. The little lady was lonely. She called for her husband’s riding boots, which was all she had of him, and would hug them to her and weep. On the 28th of January she died. Three days later the month old infant died too.
With Nancy during her illness was my grandmother, Catherine Houston, then an orphan girl of fifteen years. After the children went to live with Nancy's sister, Mrs. Henry Rollins. Catherine was taken along too to take care of the children who loved her. Together they crossed the plains.
Grandfather, now a Corporal in the Battalion, received word of his wife’s death months later at San Diego. He could not go to his children until his term of enlistment expired in July, the 16th.
When he was mustered out of service he did not wait for his company to march, but with a companion or two, set forth at once on horseback for the Great Salt Lake. They arrived in Salt Lake about October 16th, 1847. Grandfather, who had bartered the shirt off his back to get a pint of beans to keep himself and his companions from starving, had to half bury himself in the straw of Brother Hamilton's stable, while his companion went to the house of Hamilton’s to explain his plight. That night Sister Hamilton made grandfather a shirt out of an old skirt.
Grandfather here received word that his children, with one of the Parley Pratt Companies was well on its way to the Valley. So with a few other brothers he hurried forth again on horseback to meet them. It is thought that he sighted the emigrant train somewhere in Wyoming.
It was touching, this meeting of the father and his motherless girls. It is small wonder that Grandfather learned to love this young Catherine when he first met her thus, mothering his children. The party reached Utah early in November. On November 6th Grandfather began to work for Madison Hamilton. Grandmother still continued to live with the Henry Rollins family and to take care of the little Alexanders.
On February 15, 1849, Horace and Catherine were married. At the same time, in obedience to the advise of his friend and leader Brigham Young, he married Martha Burwell, whom he had met in Salt Lake.
In 1853 Grandfather was called to help settle Parowan, Iron County. Carpenters were sorely needed. It was hard to have to leave their good comfortable home to go again into a new country. But they did without a murmur. They lived here eight years. Here my mother, Helen Alexander, was born. They came back to settle in Springville in November 1861.
Here Grandfather was made Captain of the “Silver Greys” a company of Militia organized to guard the town during the Civil War.
For a few years both wives lived together in one house. Then Grandfather secured a home for each as the families were getting so large. In 1869 when Grandfather moved with Catherine and family to Provo to help build the woolen mills, Martha remained in Springville till her death, many years later.
In November 1875, Grandfather sold his land to get money to go on a mission to the Southern States. He wished to convert his own people and also wished to see if he might get a share of his father's estate. He found his parents dead, says his diary, and his brothers and sisters either dead or most of them moved to Indiana, Chicago and other places. The estate, like many others, had been ravaged by the Civil War and had been sold. He found such misery and poverty there, in Virginia and Kentucky among those who had once been wealthy. He was very kindly received by his relatives, both of Kentucky and Virginia. In his birthplace, he found 1203 first cousins.
A nephew in Kentucky took him, in his fine barouche with his spanking bays, for a ride through Fleming County, Kentucky. The carriage was closed, and the horses trotted so fast they had gone a mile beyond his old home before he recognized the estate. Then he said he would not have known it but for the creek where he used to go fishing as a boy.
He returned from his mission in 1876. In September 1881 he died at his home in Provo.
He was a man who loved honor and truth. He was fair, just and had a sense of humor. All who knew him loved and respected him.
Of his thirty-five children, eleven are still living now in 1927. Several died at birth or a little later.
The living are: Mrs. Max Kless of Springville, Mrs. Flora Bryan, Mrs. Celestine Humphrey, Mrs. Mildred Peterson, Mrs. Charlotta Gambell (Martha’s children). Mrs. Helen Harvey, W. D. Alexander and F. D. Alexander (Catherine’s children). Amasa Alexander and Albert Alexander (children of Julia Owens, divorced wife).
Those of Grandmother’s family who have passed away are: Mrs. Lucy Collett, Mrs. Leona Clar, Mrs. Maud West, Mrs. Susie Roberts, Miss Blanch Alexander, and Mrs. Fedonia Richards.
Photos, etc. of Horace Martin Alexander
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Martha Burwell with her daughters (Front L-R: Mildred Alexander Peterson, Flora Alexander Bryan, Celestine Alexander Humphrey. Back L-R: Charlotte Alexander Crandall Gamell, Alice Alexander Blackett, Martha Burwell Alexander, & Celestia Alexander Kless) |
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On July 15, 2000, the Mormon Battalion placed a historic marker on the gravesite of Horace Martin Alexander at the Old Historic Springville Cemetary. Earl Carter of Provo, and one of his sons, coordinated the event. Photos provided here were taken by Paul Bandley.
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Horace Martin Alexander's journal and other text files
HMA Missionary
Journal
I
have typed up a copy of the missionary journal (original copy made by Glenn R.
Foster of Salinas, California in 1960). If you would like a copy sent to
you in Word format please contact me at jsg16 at
utah.edu.
From "The Territorial Enquirer" thanks to Kitty Bryan Matter. It's a little hard to read so a translation has been included.Family Histories for the Alexanders and Walkers
Thanks to Len Evans who contributed the following files:
Alexander Family Chronology
Walker Family Chronology
Some information regarding Thornton Alexander, HMA’s brother
"A Mormon Battalion
Romance"
A
short history written by Lucille H. Walker of how Catherine Houston came to care
for Nancy and her children, and their meeting with Horace on the plains. This
was provided to me by Shirley Maynes, author of "500 Wagons Stood
Still," a history of the wives and women of the Mormon Battalion (available
through LDS bookstores). Click here for the text
of the letter.
The Martyrdom of
Joseph Smith
Horace Martin Alexander served
as a bodyguard for the Prophet Joseph Smith and supposedly was present at the time of his
murder. Click here for the
story as it was written in his record book. PLEASE NOTE! The authenticity of this record is questionable! Portions of the text
are identical to a history written by Lucy Mack Smith. After having reviewed it myself I'm inclined to agree that at least portions of the version I have included here were originally from the Smith letter.
BYU Research Letter
on the Alexander line (1986)
Letter from the BYU Family History
and Genealogy Services to Ann Cox regarding research conducted on Alexander
Family of Orange Co., VA. Click here for the text
of the letter.
Short letter written
about Nancy Reeder Walker's parents, Oliver Walker and Nancy Cressy
This short
paragraph was written by Geraldine H. Bangerter in 1983 and gives some
information about the parents of HMA's first wife. Click here for a text
file.
More
information on the Walkers
The following
files were contributed by Sandra Gwilliam,
who is researching the Rollins line:
Photo of Nancy
Cressy Walker
Photo of Evaline
Walker, younger sister of Nancy (Horace’s first wife)
Sandra’s notes on
Oliver Walker
An amusing story
about Nancy Cressy Walker, as told by her granddaughter Malissa Rollins
Testimony of Eveline
Walker Rollins, as told by her grandson Lester Lee
J H Rollins autobiography (brother-in-law of Nancy Reeder Walker) – which briefly
mentions Nancy. There are two slightly
different versions: one from the BOAP site by BYU, and
another provided by Lida
B. Larkin.
"Cavesville" not "Canesville"
Karla Beecher informed us that HMA was born in "Cavesville, VA" not "Canesville, VA"
as is listed in most records. Using a program called "AniMap" she found that there never was a "Canesville, VA" and was able to pinpoint Cavesville, VA. Thank you Karla! Also, please see this website if interested in a comprehensive history of Orange County, VA.
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Ancestors of: |
Descendents of HMA and: |
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Horace Martin
Alexander |
Nancy Reeder
Walker |
This website is a combined effort of the descendants of Horace Martin Alexander and others. If you have anything such as old family photos, stories, or corrections to the information contained here (and you don't mind sharing them here) please contact me. Also, I would be happy to add your name as a contact on the appropriate ancestors/descendants pages.
Last updated: June 26, 2005.