The “Tabernacle Post Office” Petition for the Saints of Kanesville, Iowa

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Maurine Ward and Fred Woods: Petition for Kanesville Post Office 149
The “Tabernacle Post Office” Petition
for the Saints of Kanesville, Iowa
Maurine Carr Ward and Fred E. Woods
“As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.”
Thus spoke wise King Solomon a millennium before the birth of Christ.1As
America labored to give birth to a new nation, the United States Post Office
Department was born when the Second Continental Congress met in 1775
at Philadelphia and agreed to appoint Benjamin Franklin as the country’s
first postmaster general.2
During the nineteenth century, America continued to grow in popula-
tion as children were born and as immigrants crossed the Atlantic to the
land of promise. This growth not only caused America to lengthen her bor-
ders but also created the need for an expansion of mail service. By 1840,
both Britain and the United States were in need of a good source of com-
munication because of the migrant activities of both countries. In the spring,
Britain published the world’s first adhesive postal stamp to be used commer-
cially. This invention greatly benefited immigrants who were separated from
their family, friends, and homeland by the vast ocean. At this time, the pop-
ulation of the United States swelled to over seventeen million, which
included some 76,000 English and 207,000 Irish immigrants.3
In this same year, Latter-day Saint British converts began to gather to
MAURINECARRWARDis the editor of Mormon Historical Studies. She is also the editor of
Winter Quarters: The 1846–1848 Life Writings of Mary Haskin Parker Richards, published
in 1996 by Utah State University Press.
FRED E. WOODS is a professor of Church History and Doctrine at Brigham Young
University, and he is also the executive director for the Mormon Historic Sites
Foundation. They would like to thank Ronald G. Watt and Ronald O. Barney of the LDS
Church Archives for their help and encouragement in preparing the information in this
article.
150 Mormon Historical Studies
America to augment the building of Nauvoo. However, during the winter of
1846, they were forced to leave their beloved city. They crossed the prairie
by the thousands, and Brigham Young established a temporary Church head-
quarters at Winter Quarters—on the west bank of the Missouri River near
modern-day Omaha, Nebraska. In the spring and summer of 1847, Young led
a vanguard company of Saints into the Great Basin. There they established
a new home in the Salt Lake Valley where they prepared the desert to blos-
som as a rose. Like any inhabitants of a pioneer oasis, these Saints who set-
tled in the desert West were eager to receive communications from their
loved ones. Therefore, it was timely that 1847 also marked the establishment
of postal service extending from the Atlantic Coast to the Pacific Coast and
the adoption of the U.S. postal stamp by the United States government.4
Before the year closed, Brigham Young returned to the Missouri River;
and at a Church conference held on 27 December 1847, the Church sus-
tained him as President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
This important event occurred on the eastern side of the river opposite
Winter Quarters. Here in Iowa Territory, Pottawattamie County had just
been established on 24 February of this same year.5 According to Wilford
Woodruff, the Saints had just spent three weeks building a “Log Tabernacle
for this & other Conferences.”6Woodruff later noted that at the time Young
and his counselors were sustained in the First Presidency, “about 1,000 souls
got in the House [Tabernacle].”7
Before Brigham Young returned to the Salt Lake Valley, he appointed
his thirty-three-year-old nephew, Evan M. Greene, to serve as the postmas-
ter for this region, which was known as “Council Bluffs.”8 Here Greene
served for nearly five years before immigrating to Utah in 1852. During his
tenure as postmaster, he sent mail with each pioneer company as it depart-
ed Kanesville (Council Bluffs) for the Salt Lake Valley.9
The settlement and development of the West created the need for more
post offices. One author noted, “There is perhaps no better register of the
growth of the country than the record of the expansion of the postal service.
The opening of a post office in some remote section of the West is a proof
sufficient of the presence of the pioneer.”10 Not only did a Kanesville post
office create a vehicle for better communication with the outside world for
the Saints temporarily settled in Pottawattamie County but also, perhaps
more importantly, the post office served as an important signal that this
Latter-day Saint community was officially recognized by the federal admin-
istration in Washington, D.C. Therefore, with a successful petition for a
local post office, a local government could be created, inherent with the
legal rights that brought stability and security to a newly formed county.
Maurine Ward and Fred Woods: Petition for Kanesville Post Office 151
In his journal dated 18
January 1848, Wilford
Woodruff wrote, “Two petitions
were presented to the meetings
for signatures, one for A coun-
ty in the Potawattame tract of
land in Iowa And the other for
A Post Office. And the People
were signing them daily.”11 Just
two days later, a petition to the
Iowa legislature for the organi-
zation of a county on the
Pottawattamie lands was read
and signed by many. In addi-
tion, a letter to the postmaster
general for the establishment of
a post office, near the Log
Tabernacle, was read and
signed. It included the request
for semiweekly mail service
from this point to Austin, the
northwestern Missouri vil-
Evan M. Greene, postmaster for the
lage.12Brigham Young sent the "Council Bluffs" region.
letter of request to the Photograph courtesy of LDS Church Archives.
“Honorable Postmaster
General of the United States,” which stated the following:
There are many thousands Inhabitants in the vicinity of the Log Tabernacle,
which is situated on the Government Purchase of the Pottawattamies and in the
State of Iowa, whose interest is materially injured, and whose journey, business and
improvements, are retarded or distroyed by non intercourse; there being no Post
Office within forty or fifty miles of said Tabernacle, and the public good requires a
convenient office: Therefore, We your Petitioners, Citizens of the United Sates and
residents of said vicinage, pray your Honor, to cause, such an office to be located at
or near said Tabernacle without delay, to be called the Tabernacle Post office; to
appoint Evan M. Green Postmaster; and to cause the Semi Weekly mail of Austin
or Linden, to be continued to said office and your Petitioners, etc.13
This petition was followed by eighteen hundred signatures, all males.14
That Brother Brigham and the Saints were eager for this petition to be
granted can be ascertained by the fact that a number of the signatures are
those of boys. This document is useful not only in demonstrating who was
152 Mormon Historical Studies
living in the Kanesville, Iowa, region in 1848 but also in demonstrating the
strong desire for the Church to be granted official recognition by the feder-
al government so the Saints could establish their legal rights as United
States citizens.
What follows is a list of names on the petition as found in the Journal
History of the Church, dated 20 January 1848. These names were extracted
at some time from the original petition pages found in the Brigham Young
Office Files, Church Archives, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
However, during this extraction, many of the names were misread. The list
below was, therefore, checked against the original petition. These names
were then checked against five other sources, as shown below, in an effort to
correctly identify the individuals and to show where the individuals lived
and how many of those named were children:
1. Susan Easton Black,Membership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-
day Saints: 1830–1848.15
2. Susan Easton Black, Early Members of the Reorganized Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter Day Saints.16
3. Ronald G. Watt, Iowa Branch Index: 1839–1859. During the tempo-
rary stay in Iowa, between 1846 and 1849, nearly one hundred branches of
the Church functioned in Pottawattamie County, Iowa. Records from twen-
ty-three of these branches have been acquired by the LDS Historical
Department, but these account for more records than any other period of the
early Church. The intent of the records varies from names and branches to
baptism dates, marriage information, priesthood ordinations, and more.
Because the branch clerk likely entered the names as he heard them, some
misspellings were inevitable. Names found in the Pottawattamie High
Council Record are included in this index. The Iowa Branch Index, located
in the reference section of the LDS Church Archives Reading Room,
includes more than five thousand names, only about 20 percent of the
Mormons in Iowa from the late 1840s to the early 1850s.17
4. Winter Quarters Wards Index to Membership Lists: 1846–1848. This
index is located in the LDS Church Archives. It was compiled from a vari-
ety of sources, not comprehensive, including bishops’ reports, high council
meeting minutes, tithing records, “census” reports of widows, soldiers’ wives,
and other unassigned members of wards. The original ward records are in the
LDS Church Archives, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There
Maurine Ward and Fred Woods: Petition for Kanesville Post Office 153
are a few problems with the index. Handwriting in the original record is dif-
ficult to read, making exact transcriptions difficult to produce. Many of the
wards list only the widows, soldiers’ wives, and others, so the membership is
incomplete. As was the case in the Iowa branches, people often did not
remain in one ward or branch but moved to be with family or friends or
moved to better housing; therefore, in same cases, there are multiple listings
for an individual.18
5. Beverly Boileau, 1850 Census: Pottawattamie County, Iowa. The cen-
sus shows ages, places of birth, family relationships, and occupations where
known. This information greatly supplemented the information found in
Susan Black’s membership lists.19 There are some serious misspellings of
names, shown that way in the original census record. Some examples of the
more serious errors are Edson Baryinstead of Edson Barney, Ephraim Winkcum
instead of Ephraim Mecham, and John L. Balteninstead of John L. Butler.
The list that follows shows what has been determined to be the most
correct rendering of each name,20 the Pottawattamie County branch that
individual resided in (where known) or the initials PHCif the name is found
in the Pottawattamie High Council minutes, the Winter Quarters Ward the
individual resided in (where known), an X if a person is found in the 1850
Pottawattamie Census, and a comment section, specifically showing the
fathers and ages of their sons eighteen years old and younger. Some names
are obvious duplicates. Other common names, such as John Smith, are impos-
sible to correctly identify in any of the sources.
Notes
1. Proverbs 25:25.
2. Rita L. Moroney, History of the U.S. Postal-Service 1775–1982(Washington D.C.:
Office of the Post Master General, 1983), 1.
3. James Trager, The Peoples’ Chronology(New York: Holt, Rhinehart and Winston,
1976), 220–22, quoted in Fred E. Woods, Gathering to Nauvoo (American Fork, Utah:
Covenant Communications, 2002), 34, note 16.
4. LeRoy R. Hafen, The Overland Mail 1849–1869: Promoter of Settlement Precursor
of Railroads(New York: AMS Press, 1969), 30.
5. “Pottawattamie County,” www.pottcounty.com/html/documentation2.shtml.
6. Wilford Woodruff Journals, ed. Scott G. Kenney, 13 vols. (Midvale, Utah:
Signature Books, 1983), 24 December 1847, 3:299.
7. Wilford Woodruff Journals, 27 December 1847, 3:300–1.
8. Local Nebraska historian Gail G. Holmes notes that the name Council Bluffswas
given to this Omaha, Nebraska, region, encompassing both sides of the Missouri River,
154 Mormon Historical Studies
because of a meeting held in 1803 between Lewis and Clark and the Oto Missouri
Indians. He further adds that Church leaders governed about ninety temporary settle-
ments in this area. During the years 1849–52, the postal service received additional sup-
port for communication via the LDS newspaper, the Frontier Guardian, which was edited
by Elder Orson Hyde of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. (See “Council Bluffs, Iowa,”
Encyclopedia of Latter-day Saint History, ed. Arnold R. Garr, Donald Q. Cannon, and
Richard O. Cowan (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2000), 254–56).
9. History of Bear Lake Pioneers, comp. Edith Parker Haddock and Dorothy Hardy
Matthews, ed. F. Ross Peterson, Edith Parker Haddock, and Dorthy Hardy Matthews
(Bear Lake County, Idaho: Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, 1968), 218–19. In an article
appearing in the Woman’s Exponent titled “Called Home, Death of Elder Evan M.
Greene,” 11, no. 1 (June 1, 1882): 5, we learn the following information that was appar-
ently prepared by editor Emmeline B. Wells: Evan M. Greene was the son of John P. and
Rhoda Y. Greene and was born 22 December 1814 in Cayuga County, New York. He
joined the Church in 1831 and was an intimate friend of Joseph Smith. He served as a
high priest and was later ordained a patriarch in 1873. Evan died 22 May 1882 while trav-
eling from Salt Lake City to Escalante, Utah. He died the father of eighteen children as
well as many grandchildren and great-grandchildren to whom he left a legacy of faith.
Evan served as a missionary to the eastern states and later served as the postmaster of
Provo, Utah, as well as the mayor for two years. In addition, he served on the legislature
for four years and worked as a farmer, stock raiser, merchant, and school teacher. (See
Frank Esshom, Pioneers and Prominent Men of Utah(Salt Lake City: Utah Pioneers Book
Publishing Company, 1913.)
For information concerning the western migration via Kanesville, see Walker D.
Wyman, “Council Bluffs and the Westward Movement,” Iowa Journal of History47 (April
1949): 99–118. See also Fred E. Woods, “More Precious than Gold: The Journey to and
through Zion in 1849–1850,” Nauvoo Journal11, no. 1 (spring 1999): 109–24.
10. Hafen, The Overland Mail 1849–1869, 26.
11. Wilford Woodruff Journals, 18 January 1848, 3:310. The Journal History, 20
January 1848, notes that the meetings Woodruff refers to lasted several days. President
Brigham Young and others attended these meetings held in the Kanesville Log
Tabernacle, 16–20 January 1848, on the occasion of the Seventies Jubilee. On the last
day of the jubilee (20 January 1848), Brigham Young told the assembled Seventies that
the event “could not be considered a Jubilee spoken of in the revelation for all bands were
not broken and Pres. Young called it a jubilo.”
12. Journal History, 20 January 1848. The Austin Post Office was near Hunsaker’s
Ferry in Atchison County Missouri (present-day Hamburg, Iowa). Mr. Thomas Tuttle
worked as both the postmaster and a merchant at the Austin Post Office at the time of
this 1848 petition. Before the Post Office was established in Kanesville, the Saints from
Winter Quarters and Council Bluffs had to travel down a military trail to the Austin Post
Office for their mail. (See History of Fremont County, Iowa [Des Moines: Iowa Historical,
1881], 177–78.)
13. Brigham Young to the Post Master General, 20 January 1848, Brigham Young,
Office Files, Correspondence, LDS Church Archives. Note that an earlier draft of this
letter (located just before the letter noted above) indicates that the name “Council Bluff
Post Office” was considered before the name of the “Tabernacle Post Office” was select-
ed.
14. The fact that no women’s names were on the petition is probably because votes
Maurine Ward and Fred Woods: Petition for Kanesville Post Office 155
cast by women did not officially count at this time in America. Women’s right to vote
was not won until the Nineteenth Amendment was passed in 1920. A women’s suffrage
amendment was first introduced in Congress in 1878, but it failed to pass. The amend-
ment refused to die, however, and was doggedly reintroduced at every session until it
finally passed in 1920.
15. Susan Easton Black, Membership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:
1830–1848, 50 vols. (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Religious Studies Center,
1989).
16. Susan Easton Black, Early Members of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter Day Saints, 6 vols. (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Religious Studies
Center, 1993).
17. Ronald G. Watt, Iowa Branch Index: 1839–1859 (Salt Lake City: Historical
Department, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1991).
18. Winter Quarters Wards Index to Membership Lists: 1846–1848 (Salt Lake City:
Historical Department, Museum Division, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,
1998).
19. Beverly Boileau, ed., 1850 Census: Pottawattamie County, Iowa (Henderson,
Iowa: n.p., 1987).
20. Where the petition shows a first given name, middle initial, and surname, the
authors have retained that format without trying to identify the middle name.
156 Mormon Historical Studies
Iowa WQ 1850
Name Branch Ward Census Comments
, Jacob
Abbott, Abiel Garden Grove
Abbott, Jacob F. McOlney X
Abbott, Myron Garden Grove
Abbott, William A.
Adams, Arza PHC
Adams, Barnabas L.
Adams, James Council Point X
Adams, John Council Point
Aiken, Benjamin Council Point
Aiken, Samuel R. Council Point
Ainscough, Nephi
Ainscough, William X
Ainscough, William duplicate?
Aldridge, William PHC bishop of Cooley’s Branch
Alleman, Benjamin J. Lake X son of John, age 13
Alleman, John Lake X
Alleman, John H. Lake X son of John, age 8
Alleman, Joseph D. X son of John, age 4
Alexander, Henry S.
Alexander, Charles S. son of Henry S., age 1
Alger, John 14
Alger, Samuel
Alger, Thomas
Allen, Alanson
Allen, Andrew A. Coonville, Harris Grove X
or
Allen, Andrew L. Coonville, Harris Grove counselor in Coonville Branch
Allen, Franklin Blockhouse X
Allen, George Blockhouse
Allen, Gideon Blockhouse
Allen, Ira Harris Grove X
Allen, Joseph Blockhouse, No. Pigeon, PHC X
Allen, Joseph Smith son of Ira, age 2
or
Allen, Joseph Steward Harris Grove son of James D., age 8
Allen, Joseph L. Harris Grove son of Joseph Steward, age 1
Allen, Jude North Pigeon X
Allen, Marshall son of Albern, age 14
Allen, Philo Blockhouse
Allen, Rufus PHC
Alley, Charles H. son of George, age 9
Alley, George
Alley, George H.
Alley, Stephen W. son of George, age 16
Allred, Andrew J. Council Point son of James, age 17
Allred, James Council Point, PHC X bishop, 17 Jul 1846
Allred, John F. Council Point X
Allred, R. [Reddick] N.
Allred, Reuben W. Council Point
Allston, Joseph
Maurine Ward and Fred Woods: Petition for Kanesville Post Office 157
John Alleman
Pioneers and Prominant
Ira Allen Richard Ballantyne
Men of Utah
Logan DUP Museum International DUP
Alvord, Joseph 10 X son of Thaddeus, age 18
Ames, Ira Lake
Amy, Dustin PHC 15 X
Amy, Royal D. X son of Dustin, age 15
Anderson, Amos B.
Anderson, James P. McOlney X
Anderson, Martin H. McOlney X son of Miles, age 11
Anderson, Miles McOlney X
Anderson, Wm. R. or K. McOlney son of Miles, age 6
Andrews, Amos B.
Andrus, Milo Mt Pisgah X
Andrus, James son of Milo, age 13
Andrus, John son of Milo, age 7
Angell, Albert son of Solomon, age 1
Angell, Alma son of Solomon, age 5
Angell, John O. son of Solomon, age 3
Angell, Solomon
Angell, Thomas possibly Truman Angell
Arnold, Joseph S. son of Josiah, age 8
Arnold, Josiah
Arnold, Orson son of Josiah, age 10
Ashby, Benjamin 16
Ashby, John son of Nathaniel, age 3
Ashby, Nathaniel son of Nathaniel, age 13
Ashby, Richard son of Nathaniel, age 12
Ashby, William son of Nathaniel, age 9
Ashton, Isaac
Ashton, Joseph Lake X son of Thomas, age 10
Ashton, Thomas Lake 21 X
Atwood, Danford
Atwood, Dwight X son of Reuben, age 11
Atwood, Malon
Atwood, Reuben
Atwood, Selahl shown as Cealer in 1850 census
Averett, William son of Elisha, age 8
Backwell, James
158 Mormon Historical Studies
Backwell, James L.
Baldwin, Caleb X
Baldwin, James K. 21
Baldwin, K. P.
Baldwin, Lyman R.
Baldwin, Wheeler
Ballantyne, Peter
Ballantyne, Richard
Ballard, John H. X
Bank, Joseph
Bank, Michael
Barlow, Alimthy
Barlow, Ianthus son of Israel, age 2
Barlow, Israel
Barlow, Israel jr son of Israel, age 6
Barlow, Israel sr duplicate, see Israel
Barnard, J. [John] P. PHC bishop, 17 Jul 1846
Barnett, Samuel 3
Barnett, William PHC age 17, no parents known
Barney, Buren X son of Edson, age 18
Barney, Edson X
Barney, Elroy X son of Edson, age 5
Barney, Joseph Seth X son of Edson, age 3
or
Barney, Joseph Smith X son of Lewis, age 4
Barney, Lewis X
Barney, Royal
Barrington, Hyrum M.
Barrows, James son of Joseph sr, age 14
Barrows, John
Barrows, Joseph
Barrows, Robert son of Joseph sr, age 18
Barrus, Benjamin X son of Emery, age 10
Barrus, Emery X
Barrus, Emery duplicate?
Barrus, Orrin X son of Emery, age 3
Bartholomew, George son of Noah W., age 16
Bartholomew, Joseph X
Bartholomew, Lewis L. son of Noah W., age 18
Bartholomew, Nelson son of Noah W., age 13
Bartholomew, N. [Noah] W. 15
Bartholomew, Willis son of Noah W., age 8
Barton, John 11
Bassett, Elias North Pigeon X
Beal, Henry son of John, age 13
Beal, John
Beal, John duplicate?
Beal, John jr son of John, age 12
Beal, William son of John, age 15
Bean, James Blockhouse bishop, 17 Jul 1846
Beathers, Zadock L. age 1
Beebe, Henry Plum Hollow
Beebe, Joseph L. Plum Hollow