ANN  LAEMMLEN  LEWIS'S  ARTICLES  ON  HER  ANCESTORS
Frances Amelia Kimberley and Theodore Turley (This article)
Charlotte Turley and Jacob Bushman
Grace Honor Bushman and Emanuel Richard Lundquist


Table of Contents for Biographical Sketches Gathered by Ann Lewis

Stories of My Ancestors

By Ann Laemmlen Lewis

This article has been written by Ann Laemmlen Lewis, third great granddaughter of Theodore Turley and Frances Amelia Kimberly. Her line of connection to Theodore Turley is as follows. She is the daughter of Arthur Rudolf Laemmlen and Grace Helen Smuin Laemmlen, granddaughter of Franklin Smuin and Ruby Grace Lundquist Smuin, great granddaughter of Emanuel Richard Lundquist and Grace Honor Bushman Lundquist  and second great granddaughter of Jacob Bushman and Charlotte Turley Bushman. Charlotte is the daughter of Theodore and Frances. See links above for her other work.

Frances Amelia Kimberley and Theodore Turley
My Third Great Grandparents

by Ann Laemmlen Lewis

 And should we die before our journey’s through,
Happy day!  all is well!
We then are free from toil and sorrow too;
With the just we shall dwell. [1]

         William Clayton penned these words to “Come, Come Ye Saints,” while crossing Iowa in the spring of 1846.  The anthem became a favorite to the weary saints who had been expelled from their homes in Nauvoo–an anthem of triumph but also one that foreshadowed disaster. 

 By August of 1846 the Saints had endured a hasty departure from Nauvoo, insufficient provisions and scanty diet, inadequate and improvised shelter and endless spring storms.  They were tired.  They were weary.  They were hungry.  “July and August,” Lorenzo Snow recorded in his journal, “witnessed a general and almost universal scene of sickness,” the sick greatly outnumbering the healthy.  “It was indeed a distressing scene.  A great number of deaths occurred." [2] 

  Winter Quarters

 Theodore and Frances Turley and nine of their ten children were among the Saints settled at Winter Quarters during these trying times.  On May 12, 1846, four-year-old Jonathan Turley was laid to rest. [3]  In March 1846 Theodore buried a plural wife, Sarah Ellen Clift. [4]  And then on August 30, 1847, Frances Amelia took her last weary breath.  Those who transcribed her death records listed her cause of death as “disease scurvy.”  She was 47 years old. [5]  On the first of December 1847, Theodore and Frances’s daughter, Frances Amelia Daniels, age 23, gave birth to a daughter, also named Frances.  The two did not survive.  Mother, daughter, and granddaughter, each named Frances, were laid to rest in the same cold grave. [6]  Their lives were spent, their souls set free.  Theodore lost six members of his family in this place. [7]  Daughter Charlotte was seven years old when her dear mother died. 

 Frances

 Frances Amelia Kimberley was born in St. Martins, Birmingham, Warwickshire, England, on June 22, 1800.  Her parents were Thomas Kimberley and Sarah Hitchens. [8]  On November 26, 1821, in the church in Harborne, Birmingham, Warwickshire, England, she married Theodore Turley. [9] Theodore was born 10 April 1801, in Birmingham, Warwickshire, England. [10]

 As the story goes, Frances was a very brave girl who had decided she would never marry a coward. One of her suitors was on guard duty. In order to test him she got a gun, concealed herself in one of the nearby trees and fired seven shots. She did not marry that man. [11]

 Later when she was ready to get married she called all of her suitors in and lined them up behind a curtain with their hands out. She chose Theodore's hands because they were not soft and because they showed character. [12]

 Theodore

 Theodore was a master mechanic.  For some time previous to the year 1825, he was employed by the King of England.  He and his partner had a contract to make dies to stamp English money.  At the completion of the project, Theodore’s partner collected the money and left town, leaving Theodore with unpaid debts.  His creditors were about to have him thrown in jail, when his situation was brought to the attention of the King.  Theodore found favor with the King, who, realizing the situation, offered to give him a tract of land in Canada and set him up with a blooded herd of cattle.  Theodore and Frances accepted this offer, and in 1825, with their two children, Theodore and Frances, emigrated to Canada. [13]

Theodore and Frances settled at Lake Ontario, where Theodore continued as a preacher in the Methodist Church.  As a youth, he was religiously minded. In 1818 he became a lay Methodist minister, a role he would continue in for nearly two decades. [14] He also worked as a gunsmith. [15] During the next ten years, Frances gave birth to six more children: Mary Ann, b. 1827; Priscilla Rebecca, b. 1829; Frederick, b. 1832; Obia, b. 1832 (d. 1832); Sarah Elisabeth, b. 1835, and Isaac, b. 1837. [16]

Theodore and Frances Accept the Gospel

 In the year 1836, Elder Parley P. Pratt was sent on a mission to Canada.  It was during this time that Elder Pratt taught and converted John Taylor and Isaac Russell, who continued to preach Mormonism after Elder Pratt returned home.  These Elders found it difficult to find places to preach this new Mormon religion.  They called upon Theodore to seek permission to use his chapel. He not only loaned his chapel but also asked the members of his congregation to stay to hear what the Elders had to say.  After hearing their message, Theodore said to himself, “That is the truth and I shall be condemned if I do not accept it." [17] Theodore later would write, “I received the truth the first time I heard it & my Wife also was baptized the 1 of March 1837." [18]

 Within weeks, a conference was held in Churchville, the village where the Turley family lived.  Elder Parley P. Pratt and Elder John Taylor were present, along with John Snyder, Joseph Fielding and William Law, one of Theodore’s friends.  In this meeting, Theodore was ordained a Priest by Parley P. Pratt. [19]

 Theodore was called to be a missionary March 2, 1837.  He taught and baptized many, strengthening the Church in Churchville.  On November 22, 1837, an eighth son, Isaac, was born to Frances and Theodore, named after Isaac Russell, the man who was instrumental in their conversion.  The following year, Frances and Theodore sold their farm for $1400, left mounting persecution in Canada,  and traveled in two wagons with four horses to Far West, arriving on July 28, 1838. [20]

 Church Driven to Ohio

 During this time, the main body of the Church had been driven from Jackson County, Missouri, into Ohio.  In the face of persecution and poverty Church members there were striving to complete the Kirtland Temple.  It was a dark time for the Church.  In the latter part of 1837, over half of the members of the Church in Kirtland were either excommunicated or left the Church.  Because of persecution both within and without the Church, the leaders were forced to flee for their lives.  They were followed by the loyal members of the Church in the latter part of 1837 and the early months of 1838, their destination being Far West.  A large group of Canadian emigrants, including the Turley Family, joined them there.

Theodore became involved in the  public affairs in this new community of Saints, committees often meeting in the Turley home. [21]  He was very involved in assisting the poor, and defending the truth as mobs moved in and started harassing the Saints in Far West.

 An account is told of young Frances during this period:  Once when the mob were stealing stock in Far West, Frances told her father to give her Old John and she climbed on him with a loaded blackwhip (handle loaded with buckshot.) She rode into the herd and got the stock and hit one of the mobbers with the blackwhip. She brought back the cows and the bull. [22]

 “On April 20, 1839, the last of the Saints left Far West.  Thus a whole community variously estimated from twelve to fifteen thousand souls, had left, or were about to leave the State of Missouri, where they had experienced so much sorrow, and found a temporary shelter in the State of Illinois, chiefly in Quincy and vicinity and a few in the territory of Iowa on the north." [23]

 The Turley family stayed in Far West until all the Saints had gone and Joseph Smith was out of prison.  Theodore recorded in his journal:

 “I left in Caldwell a dwelling house and stable, garden well of water with conveniences, a work shop well fitted up, ten acres of timber land, two town lots.  Unrighteously driven from the same, with about 10,000 souls in company, trusting till God shall redeem us from the injustice of man. . . . Laboring variously for the relief of my brethren and sisters for the space of nearly six months; after the fatigues of war.  The particulars of which is impossible to describe.  Then journeying with my wife and children 200 miles in a wet time; living in a tent for the space of 13 weeks and never having the privilege of sleeping under a roof for this time." [24]

On July 8, 1838, the Prophet Joseph Smith received a revelation with a commandment that members of the Quorum of the Twelve were to serve foreign missions.  They were to leave from Far West on April 26, 1839.  By that date, nearly all of the members of the Church had been driven from Far West, and the scattered Church leaders were unsure if the Lord still required them to go. Brigham Young asked each individually what their feelings were.  He told them the Lord had spoken and it was their duty to obey, and they would be protected. [25] As they traveled towards Far West, Elder Turley accompanied them, having faith that the Lord would protect them from the mobs. 

 The Twelve, with Theodore, Meet at Far West Temple Site

 Early on the morning of April 26, seven members of the Twelve Apostles met at the temple site in Far West.  There they laid a foundation stone, sang “Adam-ondi-Ahman” and then took their leave of eighteen Saints who were there with them. 

  As the Saints were passing away from the meeting, Theodore Turley said to Elders Page and Woodruff, “Stop a bit, while I bid Isaac Russell good-bye,” and knocking at his door called Brother Russell, whose wife answered, “Come in; it is Brother Turley.”

 Russell replied, “It is not; he left here two weeks ago.”  He appeared quite alarmed but on finding it was Turley, asked him to sit down, but he replied, “I cannot; I shall lose my company.”

 “Who is your company?” inquired Russell.

 “The Twelve.”

 “The Twelve?”

 “Yes, don’t you know that this is the 26^th, and the day the Twelve were to take leave of their friends on the foundation of the Lord’s house, go to the islands of the sea?  The revelation is now fulfilled, and I am going with them.”

 Russell was speechless and Turley bid him farewell. [26]

 Gathering to Commerce

During the spring and summer of 1839, the Saints gathered to Commerce, later called Nauvoo, and settled on land purchased by the Church authorities. 

 Theodore recorded:

“We arrived in Commerce, Illinois, in the Spring of 1839.  It being a new place on the banks of the Mississippi, hence without a house or convenience of a house to shelter in, but the spring being far advanced feel it necessary to set on to plant some corn, potatoes, etc., before I start to build my house. 

 “After accomplishing the same began to get logs, stone, etc.  My family having the expanse of the firmament for a covering besides a tent made of factory cotton.  Frequently when I come home I find my family wet through to the skin, and the fire all washed away and my dear little children cuddled under their mother’s cloak.  Myself as wet as possible, and no fire to dry our clothes.  Sometimes the bed wet when we would rise in the morning, this would try the faith and patience of all." [27]

With industry and sweat, the Saints built up a beautiful city where a swamp had been.  Many contracted malaria and other diseases and the gift of healing was manifest among the Saints as Joseph Smith and others went up and down the banks of the River healing and blessing the sick.

A conference of the Church was held May 4, 5, and 6, 1839.  Theodore Turley was appointed as one of the Seventies to accompany the Apostles to Europe.  After the conference, he was busily engaged in preparing their home and making arrangements so that his family would be provided for in his absence.  In early June, “Elder Theodore Turley raised the first house built by the Saints in Commerce, on Lot 4, Block 147, of the White Purchase." [28]  In his journal, he recorded:

 Theodore Builds First House in Nauvoo by a Mormon

 “I came to Nauvoo with Joseph Smith the Prophet and built the first house that was built by a Mormon in Nauvoo; was one of the committee to fix the size of the lots and run off the streets & co." [29]

←Site of Turley Home in Nauvoo

The sign reads as follows:

 

         Although Frances left no written account of her life, Theodore often made mention of his family in his journal.  Mention is also made of Frances by Amasa Lyman in his journal in 1839:

 “I boarded with Brother Theodore Turley's family. Sister Turley was most kind and unremitting in her attention to my comfort. Under her treatment I regained my health and remained until March 1839 when I went to Quincy, Illinois."

           When the time came to depart on his mission, Theodore recorded:

 Theodore Departs for England

           “September 1839, was set apart by the Prophet Joseph and Hyrum Smith, when John Taylor and Wilford Woodruff was to go to England. . . .  Took leave of my family this day under peculiar circumstances considering the late troubles we have had in the State of Missouri, it only being 34 months since I with my family left Toronto, Canada, for Caldwell Co., Far West.  I was with the Twelve at the fulfilling of the revelation concerning the re-laying the foundation stone of the Temple in Far West and then taking leave to go upon a mission to Great Britain.”

           These were difficult times for the Saints.  Many accounts exist of sickness and disease suffered by the families of these Apostles and leaders.  Most left their families in destitute conditions.  Frances had seven children and was expecting another in the spring.  It must have been difficult to send off her husband and their father.  At their departure, Elder John Taylor recorded:

           “I would here remark that very few of my brethren that came along were any better situated than I was in regard to disease.  Elder Turley was taken out of his bed and put into a wagon when he started.  Elder George A. Smith and Elder Turley, were started together, were both so blind with disease that when driving the horse a little distance themselves, they could not see a stump on the road side, and running over it, were upset out of the carriage. [30]

           “Elders Smith and Turley were unable to get up, not because of any injuries they had received, but because of their illness.  Elder Hedlock helped them into their wagon and they resumed their journey.  They had not proceeded far when they met some gentleman who stopped their team and said to the driver: ‘Mr., what graveyard have you been robbing?’  The remark being elicited by the ghostly appearance of the Elders en route for England. [31]

         Thus, in sickness and poverty, without purse and without scrip, leaving their families destitute of the comforts of life, with nothing but the assurances of the people, who were as poor as themselves, that they should be provided for. . . [they] . . . turned their faces toward Europe to preach the Gospel to the highly civilized peoples of the world. . . ." [32]

         Elders Wilford Woodruff, John Taylor, and Theodore Turley arrived in Liverpool, England, January 11, 1840.  Theodore kept a faithful journal while on his mission, where he recorded his efforts to preach to the people of his home land, including his and Frances’s parents and members of their families, many of whom were reluctant to listen because of their allegiance to their own beliefs and religious traditions.  Many, however, including some family members, were converted to the truth of his message.

 Sometime between March 16 and April 11 Theodore was arrested and thrown into prison until the 8th of May, 1840.  The details of his arrest were not recorded, but on April 11 Wilford Woodruff wrote: “I went into the jail and had an interview with Elder Theodore Turley who had been falsely imprisoned upon a warrant for debt which had been contracted fifteen years before he left England, and which he supposed was settled. [33] Joseph Smith says, “The real object was to stop his preaching." [34]

 Theodore Leads Company to New York

 After a year of missionary service in England, Elders Turley, Young and Richards traveled from Manchester to Liverpool where they helped to organize a company of Saints bound for New York.  Elder Theodore Turley was chosen to preside over this company. [35] This first company of 209 Saints from England bound for Nauvoo departed in September 1840.  William Clayton was one of the emigrants in this company.  After arriving in Nauvoo, he wrote a detailed letter to friends back in England telling of the journey which lasted 11 weeks. [36]

 In November 1840, when Elder Turley returned to his family in Nauvoo, it must have been a joyous reunion.  For the first time, he held in his arms his little daughter, Charlotte, who was born on April 15, during the time he was imprisoned in England. 

 The last entry in Theodore Turley’s journal was made on July 22, 1840.  If other journals were kept, their existence is unknown today.

Nauvoo Blossoms

 The next few years were happy ones in Nauvoo.  The beautiful city prospered.  1840 was a presidential election year and the Illinois politicians wanted the Mormon vote.  Many concessions were made to pacify the Saints and Nauvoo blossomed. 

 During these years, the family also grew and prospered.  The Prophet Joseph had received a revelation on plural marriage that changed many families.  Between January 1842, when Theodore Turley became the second polygamist in Nauvoo, and June 1844, more than two dozen of Joseph’s confidants received sealing blessings with their first wives and then married additional wives. [37]

 On January 2, 1842, Theodore took a second wife, Mary Clift. [38]She would bear four children.  Frances delivered her last child, a baby boy named Jonathan, September 30, 1842.  He would not survive the Winter Quarters experience. [39]  Theodore was married to Mary’s sister, Eliza Clift March 6, 1844. [40]  She had two daughters.  A third sister became a wife on April 26, 1844, when Theodore married Sarah Ellen Clift. [41]  She had two sons from a previous marriage and bore three more, each died in infancy.  Sarah Ellen died in Winter Quarters the same year Frances died. [42]

During the years between 1841 and 1844, Theodore often accompanied Joseph Smith to trial and testified on his behalf.  On January 11, 1843, Joseph and Emma Smith invited many friends to their home to celebrate their fifteenth wedding anniversary.  Theodore and Frances were among those invited. [43]

 Persecution Rises

 Times of peace and prosperity in Nauvoo were short-lived.  By 1844 the tide of persecution rose, with mobs from Missouri vowing to kill the Mormon Prophet.  Apostates, including William Law, a former friend of Theodore’s, created havoc as they established The Nauvoo Expositor, a libelous and slanderous publication that stirred up hatred and resentment among apostates and mobocrats.

 On June 20, 1844, Joseph Smith gave directions to Theodore to “commence in the manufacture of artillery.”  On the same day he wrote to members of the Quorum of the Twelve who were absent on missions and told them to come home immediately. [44]

 Joseph concluded, at this time, that the mob was only interested in him and his brother, Hyrum.  They decided to go west, knowing that if they returned, their lives would be taken.  But several of Joseph’s friends sent messages asking him to come back and give himself up.  When Joseph learned that he would be taken to Carthage, he wrote to Governor Ford requesting the safety of a posse to escort him to Carthage.  Theodore Turley was among those who were dispatched to convey Joseph’s letter to the governor in Carthage.  After reading the letter, the governor chose to listen to the lies of  apostates who spoke against Joseph, and he withdrew his promise of an escort.  He ordered Joseph to be at Carthage by 10 o’clock the next morning, threatening that if Joseph did not give himself up at that time, Nauvoo would be destroyed, and all the men, women and children that were in it.

 Theodore and Jedediah Grant traveled through the night to report back to Joseph, arriving at 4 o’clock in the morning with weary horses.  They told Joseph of the excitement at Carthage, but by this time Joseph had decided to go there and give himself up to authorities. [45]

 Within days, Joseph and Hyrum Smith were dead, murdered by an angry mob. 

Turley Family Goes to Winter Quarters

 After the death of the Prophet, it became apparent that the Saints would not be able to remain in their beloved city of Nauvoo, now called the City of Joseph, in his honor.  Church leaders began making plans to head west in the Spring.  In September 1845, demands were made for the Saints to remove themselves from their homes and properties.  In February 1846, Theodore Turley and his family were on their way to Winter Quarters, where he was voted a member of the High Council there.  There was much sickness, and heartache in this place for the Turley family.  Brigham Young said of those who died there, “They who prematurely came to death here at Winter Quarters were as truly martyrs as those who were killed outright or who perished in the hardships of the flight from Missouri." [46]

With a heavy heart, Theodore and his remaining children and wives crossed the plains in the Silas Richards Company in 1849. [47]

 Theodore married once again after  arriving in Salt Lake.  He was sealed to Ruth Jane Giles on June 18, 1850.  Theodore and Ruth had 3 sons, one they adopted.  Sometime in that next year, Theodore and part of his family, along with about 500 other Saints were sent to settle the San Bernardino area of California.  He became active there in church and civic duties, speaking often in public meetings.  In March of 1857,  Theodore’s daughter, Charlotte met and married Jacob Bushman, who came to that area from Lehi, Utah. 

 At the end of 1857 word came from Brigham Young in Salt Lake that the safety of the Church again was being threatened.  Church leaders received word that an army from the east was on its way to invade Utah Territory.  All members in outlying territories and settlements were called home.  Within six weeks, a thousand men, women and children walked away from their homes in the valleys of southern California, many making their homes in the southern settlements of the territory. [48]

Theodore Praised by Heber C. Kimball and the Prophet

 From this point on, there are few reports of Theodore’s life.  Charlotte and Jacob Bushman stayed for a couple of years in southern Utah in the Muddy Mission area.  In 1858, Theodore spoke at a meeting in Cedar City, Utah.  In a general conference in 1859, Theodore bore his testimony of the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, referring to the stone cut out of the mountain without hands spoken of by Daniel.  President Heber C. Kimball spoke highly of Brother Turley:

  “I have been much gratified to hear the remarks of brother Turley.  And I was exceedingly pleased to see him this morning.  I naturally love him, for he is a true man." [49]

The Prophet Joseph Smith counted Theodore as his friend. In exhorting the Saints to express true kindness and love unto all mankind, he explained, "Friendship is like Brother [Theodore] Turley in his blacksmith [gunsmith] shop welding iron to iron; it unites the human family with its happy influence."  [50]

 Theodore settled in Beaver, Utah after 1859.  He spoke in the Salt Lake Tabernacle in 1862 and was listed as a delegate from Beaver.  From 1866 to 1872, when he passed away, there are no records of his activities.  He died and was buried in Beaver after suffering from very painful cancer of the mouth. 

 In the family the story is told of returning to Beaver years later to find his burial plot.  The cemetery was searched long and hard to no avail.  The library containing the burial information had burned down.  When the family was about to give up, they met a ninety-year-old woman who told them that the cemetery used to be larger.  She showed them where it originally went past the road to the canal.  As the family continued their search, they spotted a piece of cement sticking up out of the weeds next to the road.  One of Theodore’s granddaughters stood near by and said, “Grandpa, where are you?”  At that moment, she heard a voice that stated, “I’m right here.” [51]  They uncovered the cement and found his grave marker.  They later held a family reunion in Beaver and put a new headstone in that location.

Headstone at the graves of Theodore Turley and Ruth Jane Giles
at Beaver, Utah, cemetery. Over 200 of Theodore Turley's
descendents were present at the dedication of the headstone in August 1997.
(Photo from Theodore Turley Newsletter)

 Can I Do Less?