Alfred Bosworth Child

Alfred's Father
Mark Anthony Child

Alfred Bosworth Child

            Alfred's grandfather, Increase Child, was a captain in the American Revolution and was impressed by the country of upper New York State when he passed through it with General Gates army. Afterward, he settled in Saratoga County. Alfred was born in Greenfield to Mark Anthony and Hannah Benedict Child. His mother was born in Woodstock, Connecticut, where the Child's had resided before the war. Saratoga County is on the western side of the Hudson River. Alfred grew up as the oldest of eleven children. There were twins, a boy and a girl, born before him, but they died at birth

Alfred B. Child was raised in a very religious home. His father was instrumental in establishing the first Universal Church of Greenfield, Saratoga County, New York. This church believed in the Bible as printed with explanations from his grandfather, Captain Increase Child and his Uncle William Child's printing press.

Alfred was born 19 November 1796 in the town of Greenfield, Saratoga County, New York. He was raised a farmer and well accustomed to the rude mode of clearing up the heavy timberlands in that part of the country in that early day.

Polly Barber Child

Alfred met Polly Barber, daughter of Ichabod Barber and Annie Drake, born 29 March 1799 in Greenfield, Saratoga County, New York. The couple fell in love and they were married 19 March 1817. Soon after they were married, Alfred and Polly moved to Morristown on the St. Lawrence River, St. Lawrence County, New York.

He took up a farm and with the aid of a hired man cleared 30 acres for cultivation. In 1820, he sold his farm of 100 acres to Mr. Taylor, a native of Scotland. He bought another farm, 160 acres, in the same town for $10.00 an acre. This farm was on the banks of the St. Lawrence River and was covered with trees.

From Polly Child Richardson's history, we learn that 3 generations of Child's were born in this area. The Kyadeross Mountains surround this area, and it must have been very pleasant, especially in the summer time when the cooling saline breezes of the Atlantic often traversed up the Hudson River; giving a climate much like the sea coast. The deep ravines and valleys cut irregularly into the mountainsides, the marshes and swamplands at the headwaters of the Hudson River. Numerous stands of beech, maple, wire and hemlock must have contributed immensely to the pleasure and enjoyment of growing and raising a family in this area.

About 1826 he moved his family up river to Hammond, St. Lawrence County, New York.  They seem to have lived in almost every corner of St. Lawrence County except Stockholm Township where the Prophet Joseph Smith Jr.’s grandfather lived until his death in 1831.

            Here they opened up new farms and were in process of improving them when there came into the town or neighborhood one George E. Blakely, a Mormon elder, who after a time succeeded in getting a few to come out to hear the strange doctrine of the new prophet known as Joe Smith. He met with but little success in the neighborhood. My father, after hearing him several times, was somewhat impressed with his doctrine so much so that he continued to investigate them, and on the 5th of June 1838 the following members of the family with himself were baptized: His wife Polly Ann, of his children, Mark A., Polly Ann, Myron B., and Hannah P., the rest being under age for baptism.

Alfred Bosworth Child

On August the 11th of the same year he started with his family, then ten in number, for Kirtland, Ohio, embarking on a mail steamer up the St. Lawrence River crossing Lake Ontario and landing at Lewiston a short distance below the great Niagara Falls having shipped his team and wagon and such of his effects as could be loaded with the family in one wagon drawn by two horses. Thus he started by land via way of the city of Buffalo, New York, and then forests of eastern Ohio.

The following is from the journal of Warren G. Child, "It was while traveling through quite a dense forest in Ohio that a very singular incident occurred. The road was quite narrow and seemingly but little traveled though the forest was quite clear of underbrush. At this particular point there were by accident two other teams that were traveling in the same direction that we were. As they had fallen in with us but a few days previously, our family was only casually acquainted with them. They were not of our faith but made very pleasant company for us in traveling in comparatively a wild and strange country.

At the time all was still around except the slight jostling of our wagon wheels or an occasional chirping of the birds. The family was all riding in the wagon with the sides of our painted cover rolled up a few feet at the sides and fastened with strings to buttons on the bows to admit the fresh air and permit the family to view the varied changes, brooks, etc., by the road side when a voice was heard to say "Whoa". Our team was in the lead and the other two followed close in the rear. Father was sitting in the front driving when the voice was heard and had not to that time, seen any person in that vicinity. At the word "whoa" from a strange voice, the team stopped so suddenly that the teams traveling behind came in contact with our wagon.

When Father recovered a little from the sudden and so abrupt a stop, a personage walked unconcernedly up to the wagon. He had the appearance of being very aged, well dressed with an unusual long white beard, tidy in his appearance from head to foot, apparently about six feet tall of rather spare build, carrying a very pleasant and happy look on his face. He asked no questions as to who we were or where we were going, but proceeded to shake hands with the family commencing with Father first, then Mother, and each of the children according to age, blessing them in the name of Jesus Christ, I was next to youngest in the family at that time. After getting through in this manner he turned to me the second time and pronounced a further and special blessing placing his hand on my bare head.

The Three Nephites

Without further word he slowly passed on. The visit was so sudden and unlooked for that not a word has been spoken by the family. Father expected he would do likewise with the families occupying the two wagons behind us, but he simply made a slight bow as he passed them. Some of the families got out to hail him and get a further explanation of so strange and unlooked for occurrence. They went quickly to the rear and to their surprise; he was nowhere to be seen. They made a hasty search in every direction but he was nowhere to be found. Search in each direction was made in the road for his tracks but none were anywhere to be found.

The families traveling with us remarked that we had received a very strange blessing from a stranger. On arriving in Kirtland, Father related the occurrence to the Prophet Joseph Smith and he told him that the personage was none other than one of the Nephites who were permitted not to taste death."

Alfred's destination was Kirtland, Ohio, about one-third of the distance to Jackson County. Here they hoped to join up with a body of moving Saints, who were moving from Kirtland to Missouri. However, events moved faster than they did, for many of the Mormons had vacated the city by the time they arrived. "The Saints had left a few days before we arrived." The city of Kirtland offered the Child family only a brief respite from the rigors of the trek.

            The family stopped but a few weeks in Kirtland when under the direction of the Prophet's council, continued their journey in like manner westward to Missouri. Arriving there sometime in October of the same year.  While in Kirtland, the family was shown through the temple by the Prophet Joseph. “He took me, then three and half years old, in his arms and carried me up the different flight of stairs (Warren G. Child)”.

Kirtland Temple

            They had been traveling almost a month by the time they reached Kirtland, and would be another month and a half to two months before they reached their destination in Missouri.

It was late fall when the Child family finally reached Missouri. Here after months of back-breaking travel, they found a temporary resting place at Adam-ondi-Ahman, in Davies County. Polly describes the place as a city of tents and wagons.

Adam-Ondi-Ahman

However, one may well imagine the hardships the family must have had to experience that first winter in Adam-ondi-Ahman. They arrived too late in the fall to plant crops or prepare adequate shelter against the rapidly approaching winter. They would have to live as they traveled, in the meager shelter of the wagon, or in a tent pitched on the frozen ground. It would be spring before a house could be built, land cleared and crops planted. In the meantime they must share and share in whatever sustenance was available for the entire community.

Warren G. Child

Warren G. Child states from his journal, “Some time during that year (1838), possibly in the spring, my father let his wagon go towards a piece of land." This land was located on Shole Creek, Caldwell County, Missouri.

On the farm were several cribs of corn on the ear, which served us and the team for food during the winter of 1838-9. However, before spring came we were relieved of our best horse, which was confiscated by the mob which invaded the county as they also did Jackson and other adjacent counties where the Saints were settled. The Saints were in constant fear of more cruel raids being made on them at any moment.

Myron Barber Child

Father and Mark, my oldest brother, were taken prisoners with many of the other brethren, including the Prophet. During this time, mother had to devise every way to procure food for the family. Most of our little store being exhausted or confiscated by the mob. My brother Myron, the oldest left home, being then quite young, helped mother get the loan of the neighbor’s horse to work with the one we had left. Start for Jackson County to get such supplies as was necessary to feed and cloth the family. Myron was a great help with the team of horses.”

In February 1839 they, with the remainder of the Mormons in Missouri, were driven into Illinois at gunpoint.

Polly Barber Child gives us a look at what took place. "Fear, jealousy, and political ambition led an onslaught of persecution which rolled over the Mormon people like a great wave, tumbling and rolling them before it like so much flotsam and jetsam."

The Child family was forced to flee the State of Missouri in dead of winter, leaving behind a large farm - confiscated by the ruthless invaders - as well as their best horse without compensation.  He traded another for a yoke of cattle with which he moved the family to Quincy, Illinois, where he rented a farm from Mr. Bartlet and cultivated it for one season.

Polly Ann Child

The oldest living daughter, Polly, presents a very pathetic picture of her family and Mormons in general as a result of the forced exodus. "A few of us had teams and some had to go on foot, across the frozen prairie, destitute of food and clothing... there was a great deal of suffering by women and children before we got to the Mississippi River - the line between Missouri and Illinois. When we got to the river the ice was running so that we could not cross. Consequently we had to camp there for the next three weeks before we could cross into Illinois.”

 Warren G. Child continues in his journal, “Soon the river was down so we could cross. The wagon and team going first. The family followed in the second boat. We landed in Quincy.

The roads were too muddy to try to go on. Father rented a farm four miles from Quincy. After we harvested some corn, wheat, and a few varieties of vegetables, my father and brother Mark started on foot to locate a suitable place in Nauvoo.

The locality selected as situated between Big and Little Sugar Creek about six miles from Nauvoo, near the east banks of the Mississippi. 160 acres of land was staked off, and the family was sent for.  The family brought as many supplies as possible in such a small wagon. It had to last us till new crops could be planted.

             During the winter we had to build fences and get the ground ready for crops in the spring. Everyone that was old enough had to help. The smaller ones would gather wood to burn during the winter.  Mark went out hunting for wild game to replenish our food. He would bring home deer, wild turkey or bacon.”

Ezra T. Benson

Erastus Snos

George A. Smith

Original Nauvoo Temple

Wilford Woodrfuff

            The Child family were members of the Iowa Territory Branch of the church. It was located in the town of Zarahemla. Erastus Snow, George A. Smith, Wilford Woodruff, and Ezra T. Benson and their families were also members of the branch. He was Endowed at the Nauvoo Temple 7 February 1846 in the last session conducted there and sealed to his wife the same day.  They lived here for about seven years.

Warren wrote, “We never let the fire go out. If it did by accident, we would light it with flint. The last one to go to bed had to build the fire up. And once in the night, we took turns building it up again.

Mother was a very good nurse, she was considered one of the best. No matter if it was bad weather, or night. She always went to help. She rode a horse very well.

After awhile there was a post office, Father was the Post Master. It was called the String Prairie Post Office. The following winter he was employed to teach the only school and first one in the locality which as his custom to do each winter as long as he remained in the state, as he had acquired in his youth over an average education of his day.

Alfred Bosworth Child's
Postmaster Appointment

Father’s brother, John Child, came to visit us. He brought with him $200.00 that belonged to father. He put it in a tin box where he kept the money. One night a stranger came and asked if he could stay the night. We let him. When he left, we discovered that the money was gone. This was a great loss to father and mother.”

He continues, “I well remember the day the news reached us of the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph and his brother Hyrum. Mother was engaged in making soft soap in the yard as was her custom to do, often making up a barrel at one time for a neighbor. Lye leached from the ashes of the fireplace was used instead of the concentrated lye of today.

            The party bringing the sad news rode up on horseback and asked if we had heard the news. Mother said after that a thrilling shock went through her whole frame before replying. She had not heard of anything new but, from the expression of the stranger, she could see that there was something more than the usual to induce a stranger to ask such a question.

His words were that old Joe Smith had been killed at last and that they or we would have no further trouble with him. He used an oath and passed on seemingly anxious to herald the news further. Father went immediately to Nauvoo, as further trouble might need his presence. He was ever on his post when necessary to defend the Prophet and the cause of truth.

He was there during the funeral. Their death cast a gloom of sorrow over the city and surrounding country as the news spread rapidly in every direction without the aid of wires as we have now. And for a time it would only have taken a word from the proper head to have left only a grease spot of the mob that committed the cowardly act. But a wiser power ruled and all submitted to their fate resulting in a final exodus from the state, which took place in February 1846.

Nauvoo Exodus 1846

The main body crossed the river on the ice, making their first encampment on Big Sugar Creek near our place. The snow on the ground was a foot deep and the weather cold. Hundreds of beds were made on the snow without any protection from the storms other than the bows of trees that were fallen for the stock to browse on.

There was but little hay to be had and they were without means to buy it if there had been plenty. Father had about 60 bushels of corn in the cribs, which they were permitted to take without price, which served the camp for a short time. They remained here some three weeks before the weather had so modified that they could start out in safety.”

 In 1847, at the time of the exodus from Nauvoo, they moved to Pottawattamie County, Iowa. The High Priests Record gives his residence on the north branch of the Pigion River where they resided five years while preparing an outfit to carry them across the plains. This being the third home they had sacrificed for the sake of the gospel.

While the family was located here, Alfred and his fourteen-year-old son, Warren Gould, went to Missouri to work for provisions. While there Alfred became ill and had to return home.

“On July 1, of 1852 we started on the trail made by the pioneers in the Sixteenth Company of the season under Captain Uriah Curtis as captain. Our teams were two of cattle and one yoke of cows to each wagon and two wagons.

We arrived in Salt Lake Valley on the first day of October, 1852 and settled in Ogden where we commenced making preparations for winter quarters.

Alfred's 1st Headstone

            After arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, Alfred took his family to the more northern settlement of Ogden, Weber County. Alfred started a sawmill in Ogden, but had been weakened by the long journey to find safety for his family and the hardships of starting over so often. In November, Alfred Bosworth Child was confined to his bed from a severe cold which settled in his lungs and brought on a long fever which terminated in his death on the 22nd day of December, 1852, at the age of 56 years, 1 month and 7 days.”  He passed only two months after arriving in the valley.  His grave in the Ogden City Cemetery is one of the oldest and reads only Alfred B. Child.  He left his wife with eight children to care for.

In a letter written by Polly in 1853, one year following her husband Alfred’s death, his wife Polly wrote the following,  "I am tired, let us all go into the garden and get some currants and cherries. I have plenty of them this year and you may have as many as you like..."

This was now the fourth time that Polly would start a new life and build a new home from scratch, only this time at the age of 53 and without her husband.  One can sense the exhaustion and longing for peace in her above letter.  Without any complaint of her condition or hardships, she kept a hope while looking forward to simpler times. She summed it up in what seems like an extreme understatement, "I am tired."  For Polly, her mission had just begun.  To read more about her story click here.

Alfred & Polly's 2nd Headstone

Alfred & Polly's 3rd Headstone