After they had arrived at Palmyra N.Y., Emma wrote to me enquiring whether she could take her property, consisting of clothing, furniture, cows, &c. I replied that her property was safe, and at her disposal. 296. He was hunting deer and when near this place saw a young Panther about half grown standing on a fallen tree. 257. [citation needed] As she had in Kirtland, Emma Smith lead "the work of boarding and clothing the men engaged in building [the Nauvoo temple]". Blackman,History of Susquehanna County, 469. When Pickering announced to his friends his plans to move in the neighborhood of the Isaac Hale family, his associates tried to dissuade him from settling along such a remote area of the Susquehanna. When the twins were nine days old, their father, John, gave the infants to the Smiths to raise as their own. He was likely a local Freemason. In May 1829, Emma and Joseph left Harmony and went to live with David Whitmer in Fayette, New York. When the Harmony Turnpike crossed the Pennsylvania state line, the Allegheny Mountain foothills began their gentle rise. See Day,Historical Collections of the State of Pennsylvania, 61924). He and others had already searched the spot with hired hands, but he was returning for another effort with a new workforce to help him find it, including Joseph Smith Sr. and nineteen-year-old Joseph Smith Jr. I have selected the standard spelling for use here, see Sarah M. Kimball, letter to Marinda Hyde, January 2, 1848, Marinda Hyde Papers 18381849, CHL; Nauvoo Stake High Council Minutes, October 27, 1839, (rough book), CHL; and Oliver Cowdery, Diary and Nauvoo High Council Minutes (fair copy), 2728, CHL. Doing so, he apparently jumped to conclusions about a temple site because of the Joseph Smith names. Harris informed me afterwards, that he followed Smith's directions, and could not find the Plates, and was still dissatisfied. Even the elite where Isaac lived as a boy put resources into discovering precious metal. Dubois and Pike,Centennial of Susquehanna County,73. Quaker John Hilborn was the best educated man in the valley. Several of Pickerings friends had purchased large tracts of land in the Susquehanna Valley from him; and those friends combined the properties together and gave them as a gift to Hamiltons widow for her familys support.155 Through this means Elizabeth Hamilton briefly became owner of a significant portion of the Hale neighborhood. Blackman,History of Susquehanna County,92. Frisbie,History of Middletown,5556. David Hale became a legal adult and was listed in the tax records for the first time as a single man on January 1, 1816. The only child of theirs to be baptized after the controversy began was Isaac and Elizabeths daughter Emma, who was baptized by Buck not long after her birth in 1804, just before Methodism arrived in the valley.173, The slave Sylvia Dubois attended the same congregation where Emma was baptized and described it as the Calvinistic faith . In addition to being church president, Joseph had been trustee-in-trust for the church. Blackman,History of Susquehanna County,9091. 28. Ausburn Towner,Our County and Its People: A History of the Valley and County of Chemung, From the Closing Years of the Eighteenth Century(Syracuse, NY: D. Mason & Co., Publishers, 1892), 466; and Hamilton Child,Gazetteer and Business Directory of Chemung and Schuyler Counties, N.Y. for 18681869(Syracuse: Journal Office, 1868), 107. Others worked up or down river.One of these mill operators left an account of the rafting that played a role in his mill operation, noting, I stayed in that country about eight years and labored very hard rafting on the Susquehanna River, and many times my life was much exposed. Zera Pulsipher, History of Zera Pulsipher, typescript, Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University. Benson Bobrick,Angel in the Whirlwind: The Triumph of the American Revolution(New York: Penguin Books, 1997),50-51, 148. David Hale expressed some uncertainty as to exactly when his father arrived in the Susquehanna Valley, dating the event to 1787 or thereabout.45 Buck and Hale were still up river at the Onondaga village in July of that year, but resources were quickly used up, leading them to follow the Warrior Path down river in the last months of that year or first months of the next.46 Hale wintered over in the valley, hunting to support himself and probably Daniel Bucks family. Emma wanted William Marks, president of the church's central stake, to assume the church presidency, but Marks favored Sidney Rigdon for the role. [13] The bank's demise led to serious problems for the church and the Smith family. . Emma (Hale) Bidamon (1804-1879) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree See BrianC. Hales, Joseph Smiths Polygamy, 3vols. John RATHBORN died 12 May 1836 aged 87 years. In 1865 the tax assessment noted a significant drop in value from $575 to $475, and Jehiel Dayton sold the land to James M. Tillman in 1868. Elder Lewis [prayed], Send the mind of the people up the river down to me, and the people down the river (the Presbyterians) may go to hell, and I care not. Mrs. Stid, at the same meeting, [prayed]: O Lord, take Capt. The law required that counties levy a tax on houses, mills, and various listed industrial sites. Isaac Hale | A Court of Thorns and Roses Wiki | Fandom Church History Search . Isaac Hales assessment was not crossed out and lowered with the others, perhaps because his was considered a larger commercial like operation. Stiles also questioned traveling Native American bands about Spanish gold mines he heard existed along the Missouri River although nothing developed from it.59 Because Stiles never found the Spanish mines or Winthrops hidden source of gold, historians assumed his journal recorded a string of idle gossip and simply reflected the folk beliefs of the area. Introduction, Blessing from Joseph GitHub export from English Wikipedia. The drought and frost forced some local residents to walk for days trying to find enough food to feed their families.120 During the following summer of 1801, freezing temperatures and biting frosts again killed crops on July 26, August 5, August 25, and September 1213. In 1788 more white settlers came to the valley where Hale and Buck first met, and Daniel Buck became their first minister.51 He also established a congregation in the Susquehanna Valley where the Hale family and their Lewis in-laws attended his services.52 Jonathan Bennett served as the deacon of the congregation.53. Major Buck still lived in the village July 13, 1787, when William Macclure wrote General James Clinton about a survey of the area and the desire of local men to purchase land nearby, Hinman and Hitt,The Letters and Diaries of William Macclure, 1112. 143. But her father would not suffer us to be married at his house, Joseph noted. The value listed for the Hales under house jumped from $20 to $98 when the additional structure was included in 1819 but the value only dropped to $40 in 1822. Alva Hale, who had rented property his whole married life, finally became a landowner and moved back onto the farm where he grew up to better care for his mother. Stiles looked for Winthrops mine, but he only found and recorded what he believed was Hebrew writing chiseled into the rock above a suspected site by a couple of Jewish prospectors. Tench Francis dictated his will on April 4, 1800, leaving his large tract of Susquehanna Valley property to his wife. With increase of families the means of communication increased. Latter Day Saints' Selection of Hymns was published in 1861. While helping Josiah Stowell look for the rumored Spanish silver, Joseph Smith Jr. took lodging on the rocky farmstead of the Hale familyan unproductive lot running from the riverbank north to Oquago Road above the floodplain. 231. 110. Many faithful saints soon followed. 59. When most of the Saints left for the Great Basin in 1846, Emma remained in Nauvoo, claiming the Mansion House and whatever she could for the support of her children. The Pickering family continued to hold onto most of their land, however, and Hale worked for them alongside Colonel Pickerings young son, Tim. It appears the Lewis men sided with the majority of Methodists that disapproved of divining rod use.89 Nathaniel moved to the Susquehanna in autumn 1790, and whatever existed of the Methodists in Middletown where he had lived quickly dissolved so that when Methodist preacher Laban Clark arrived in the town in 1799, the family of a Mr. . 207. 234. He covered the meat with locally gathered salt to keep it from spoiling, holding it into place by heavy stones until snow covered the ground, and he could drag the meat filled troughs through the woods over the snow. . 1810s & 1820s Member of Methodist church at Harmony. 93. But since Moses Comstock was the acknowledged first settler of the valley, the dating of William Smiths arrival is not firmly established. Isaac did not pay the tax for the log home and it may have been used by others who paid the tax for that home. Karen Lynn Davidson, David J. Whittaker, Mark Ashurst-McGee, and Richard L. Jensen, eds.,The Joseph Smith Paper, Histories, Volume 1: 18321844(Salt Lake City: Church Historians Press, 2012), 236 (hereafterJSP,H1). 71. Mark H. Forscutt, Commemorative Discourse on the Death of Mrs. Emma Bidamon,The Saints Herald(July 15, 1879): 20917; see also, Paul V. Ludy, ed.,A Tribute To Emma(Bates City, Missouri: Paul V. Ludy and Associates, 2002), 5. Winter approached, and one long-time resident, fifty-five-year-oldJosiah Stowell had a wagon full of men from the vicinity of Palmyra, New York, he was bringing to work in Harmony Township before they could no longer dig the frozen ground. Smith, and his father, with several other "money-diggers" boarded at my house while they were employed in digging for a mine that they supposed had been opened and worked by the Spaniards, many years since. Upham,Life of Timothy Pickering,118. Photograph by Mark L. Staker. Most of Isaacs sons were boatmen on the river during their younger days, and these men typically traveled in groups of three to six through the German settlements of southern Pennsylvania.123, While the valley soon produced carpenters, weavers, blacksmiths, and other craftsmen, Isaac Hale spent the majority of his time pursuing the other major profession available to the settlershunting and fishing. The hunters came to trade, to sell deer meat, bear meat, wild turkeys, and the like, and to exchange the skins of wild animals for such commodities, as they wished. She remembered they often had a good time. 2 Farmer, hunter, innkeeper. 19. 26. Son of Reuben Hale and Diantha Ward. July 4, 2022 . Comfort wrote, Nathaniel Lewis Jr. [Nathaniel C. Lewis] had his leg broke last spring by the kick of an ox & has had it amputated above the knee. When Joseph asked for Emmas hand in marriage, Isaac and Elizabeth Hale refused to allow the marriage because they disapproved of Joseph's employment in treasure digging. Blackman,History of Susquehanna County,103. [7] Her funeral was held May 2, 1879, in Nauvoo with RLDS Church minister Mark Hill Forscutt preaching the sermon. David rented the entire James Westfall property in 1825 and thus controlled the potential silver mine on the Westfall farm.258 The Westfall family continued to pay the tax for the James Westfall home indicating someone, likely the Widow Westfall, continued to live there. to designate an old town of the Tuscaroras.267 She was likely incorrect about the tribal affiliation of the ruins, since others have argued the Onondaga lived on the west side of the Susquehanna River and the Tuscarora lived on the east side. 73. I inquired of Joseph Smith Jr., who was to be the first who would be allowed to see the Book of Plates? He in turn hired Isaac Hale the following summer of 1793 to make sure the road on this last segment was properly constructed from Colesville south through the eastern edge of Willingborough Township.109 The segment of road Hale supervised construction on became the Harmony Turnpike as it passed along the eastern edge of Oquago Mountain.110 But the side roads remained barely passable for years afterward. Rachel Cope, A Sacred Space for Women: Hymnody in Emma Hale Smiths Theology, Journal of Religious History (2017). : mormon Isaac Hale (1763 - 1839): Father of Joseph Smith's lawful wife, Emma Smith. Surviving writing examples suggest Emma was a skilled writer, something her parents and older siblings could not have provided her. Despite Isaacs deathbed charge to his family, after his death a rift between him and his daughter Emma and her husband seemed to no longer matter to his immediate family. 265. rose gold diamond bracelet mens; : Sharp D. Lewis, 1830), 173. [18] The revelation also says that Emma would "be ordained under [Joseph's] hand to expound scriptures, and to exhort the church", and authorizes Emma to "make a selection of sacred Hymns" for the church. Blackman,History of Susquehanna County,131. They all still lived in the area along with stepsisters.27 Despite a possible visit with his Hale family, however, they never connected or maintained long-term ties. Tavern owners needed a license from the county to operate their business. Joseph and Emma in a home nearby while he translated most of the Book of Mormon with Oliver Cowdery serving as scribe. This is the same Oliver Cowdery, whose name may be found in the Book of Mormon. It is said the first religious meetings in Harmony were those of the Friends, at the house of John Hilborn.176 Isaac Hale and his family may have attended these early meetings for a time since in 1825, when subpoenaed to testify at the murder trial of Jason Treadwell, Hale refused to swear an oath when placed in the witness chair, but his willingness to tell the truthan understanding of Christian duty held by Quakers.177. Blackman (History of Susquehanna County,88) believed John Hilborn did not arrive in the valley until 1791 to serve as an agent for Henry Drinker, who arrived shortly afterward. But Lucy, who was not there at the time, may have misunderstood Josephs recounting the events, since Isaac Hale suggested that it was Afterthese occurrences, [when the treasure diggers abandoned the project and left, that] young Smith made several visits at my house to court his daughter. Isaac was continuously taxed for a second home with the few exceptions discussed and explained in the text, until 1825 when it appears his son David Hale took over responsibility for the home. 179. Bushman,Refinement of America,115. Blackman,History of Susquehanna County,102. Upham,Life of Timothy Pickering, 4:119. 144. While Lewis maintained the operation of the local congregation, circuit riders continued to come through the valley. One of the key elements of this style of preaching was a belief in direct answer to prayer. http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/tarbell_john_3E.html. . Blackman,History of Susquehanna County,103. Wells Town Clerk, Land Records, F:9. [citation needed] Forty-eight were written by Latter Day Saints, and the remaining forty-two were not. Emily Blackman cites Isaacs affidavit verbatim in her preliminary draft of herHistory of Susquehanna County,but makes some minor changes and introduces errors in dating in her published version, Blackman,History of Susquehanna County,581. In June1844, immediately preceding her husbands death, Emma wrote, I desire with all my heart to honor and respect my husband as my head, ever to live in his confidence and by acting in unison with him retain the place which God has given me by his side.7. Lurena also became a popular name with future generations of the family. Wilkinson,Annals of Binghamton,102. In July 1830 the Lord outlined her mission, in a revelation: Thou art an elect lady, whom I have called. Isaac Hale, Affidavit,The Susquehanna Register, and Northern Pennsylvanian,May 1, 1834, 1; see also Mormonism,The Republican,3, no.10 (July 23, 1835): 1, where the affidavits are reprinted. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. Do you know of any Joseph Smith documents that we might not have heard about? Related Topics: Joseph and Emma Hale Smith Family, Hymns, Female Relief Society of Nauvoo. Lewis was later particularly critical of Joseph Smiths spectacles used to translate rather than his theology or claims of angelic visitations, which may have been an outgrowth of Lewiss Vermont experiences (or may have been a reflection of the similarity between Shouting Methodist expectations and Joseph Smiths results). 151. By then, her father had reconciled with her new husband, and Isaac Hale had offered the Smiths a place in the valley. 225. Residents changed their efforts toward improving their homes and surroundings dramatically after they gained legal title to their farms. He continued to express similar discouragement in his letters for the next decade, such as when he noted, poor Backsliden Lanesboro is left to mourn her bareness and Distance from her Duty and privilege. John Comfort, letter to Dear Children, April 8, 1837, and it is poor wicked Lanesboro still. John Comfort, letter to Silas Comfort, March 28, 1838. Since Rose came to evaluate the valley as an investment, he would have contacted some of the settlers on the land he planned to buy. Emily Blackman also suggested that Daniel Buck arrived in the valley in 1787, Blackman,History of Susquehanna County,53. 5 Member of Methodist church. A missionary spirit was hers from her birth.208While her family was not involved in Methodism until at least a year after her birth, Emma was likely raised within a shouting context. The only library in the region for many years was his personal collection he allowed others to use. These may be the bodies of other family members or neighbors moved at the same time or earlier forgotten burials. Ritchie,Captain Kidd and the War against the Pirates, 175. Susquehanna County Deeds, History, 18381856, volume F-1 [1 May 18448 August 1844], History, circa June 1839circa The tree that marked the spot had been cut down when he shared his story with Catlin and the old man could not tell him where it was buried. July 3, 2022 . Trial Notes Scribe A.. He concluded on February 29, 1836, Religion at a very Low ebb with us little or no spirit in the members and of course a great indifference among the congregation. John Comfort, letter to Dear Children, Harmony, February 29, 1836. 76. /r/Mormon is a subreddit for articles and topics of interest to people interested in Mormon themes. Plumbing brought water from a nearby well to the house in later years, and since the well was built early and the Hale family did not have a cistern under or near the house, a hand pump likely brought water directly from the well into the kitchen during Hale occupation to make the tasks of the women easier. The best candidate for a residence for the treasure diggers is the Isaac and Elizabeth Hale log home. Mark Ashurst-McGee argues that as a result of the success Methodism found in America, religious leaders sought to distance it from folk religious practices such as dowsing in order to make themselves socially established. Mark Ashurst-McGee, Zion Rising: Joseph Smiths Early Social and Political Thought (PhD diss., Arizona State University, 2008, 70; see also Marvin Hill, Money-Digging Folklore and the Beginnings of Mormonism: An Interpretive Suggestion,BYU Studies24 (Fall 1984): 48486; and D. Michael Quinn,Early Mormonism and the Magic World View(Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1998), 31. Among them was a man named Josiah Stow, a deacon in Daniel Bucks congregation, where Josiah Stowell would later also serve as a deacon. http://clegg-webb.com/Histories/Nelson%20Wheeler%20Whipple%20History.html. Everyone in the valley assisted each other in their daily tasks during social events where this combination of work and play were known as frolics. Frolics were occasions for dancing, eating, and socializing while settlers raised barns, husked corn, quilted fabric, or other tasks usually completed as a community. Isaac Hale (1763 - 1839): Father of Joseph Smith's lawful wife, Emma Smith. Annotated Record of Baptisms for the Dead, 18401845: Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois. McNeil decided to head for Havana rather than fight local hostiles because Havana was reputedly rich in booty.67 The men captured ships and scoured the Caribbean in search of treasure, but when Havana fell in July 1762, and the hoped for treasure never materialized, McNeils Yankees sailed home with their only gold the amber skin of a sick and dying crew as a precursor to a serious yellow fever epidemic.68 McNeil remained undeterred and his family established a shipping business in the West Indies where McNeils son later became a pirate, or, as his family remembered it, a privateer . Commonwealth vs. Erastus Fink, September 4, 1827, Quarter Sessions Docket, Susquehanna County, 3:107. Peck,Life and Times,68; George Peck, Memorandums of Circuit Travels, 18161818; Peck,Early Methodism,256. Isaac Hale, the father-in-law of Joe Smith, the Mormon prophet, killed four within less than 1 mile of there, 3 of them in one day. Blackman,History of Susquehanna County,103. The fol-lowing year, David Hale began renting property from James Westfall, but he apparently continued to live on his father's land. Alva borrowed the epitaph on Isaacs headstone from Benjamin Franklin: And stript of its lettering and gilding. While Hale and Lewis worked on the Pickering property, they associated with Colonel Pickerings son, Tim Pickering. . 102. 245. all Lands held by patent, warrant, location, or improvements; Houses and lots of ground, and groundrents; all gristmills, sawmills, hempmills, oilmills, snuffmills, papermills, and powdermills; all Furnaces, Forges, Bloomirzes [bloomeries], Distilleries, Sugarhouses, malthouses, Breweries, Tanningyards and farries [ferries]; all Negro and Maulatto slaves; all Horses mares geldings and Cattle above the age of four years, and all offices and posts of profit, trades and occupations, Ministers of the Gospel of Everry Denomination and Schoolmasters only excepted. Laban Capern and Johnah Brewster, letter to John Hilborn, January 24, 1814, 1813-1814 Tax Assessment Records, Harmony Township, Susquehanna County Courthouse, Montrose, Pennsylvania. Archaeologists, personal communications to author, July and August 2014. Robert H. Rose, letter to Isaac Hale, January 2, 1810, Deeds. Others speculated the silver may not have been buried on islands off Connecticut, but elsewhere in the country. Enoch Mudge,The American Camp-Meeting Hymn Book(Boston: Joseph Burdakin, 1818), vii; Adam Clarke, the theologian to which many Methodist clergymen, including Emmas uncle Nathaniel Lewis, looked for insight into the scriptures, interpreted the Elect Lady mentioned in the Second Epistle of John (2 John 15) as an eminent Christian matron . Upham (Life of Timothy Pickering, 11819) places the date of Timothy Pickering III (Tim Pickerings) death to May 14, 1808. 164. He quickly found himself alone in the darkness surrounded by the cries of howling, ravening wolves, and greedy bears, in these regions of barreness. In that isolated country, Colbert found the occasional smoky cabin tucked back from the river hidden in the woods. 24, May 15, 1829: 3; George W. Lane Marries C. Winters,Register and Northern Farmer, September 8, 1842. David Hale letter as cited in Blackman,History of Susquehanna County,104. John Comfort, letter to Silas Comfort, July 11, 1839, punctuation added for clarity. But her placement of the ruins on the Westfall property is supported by early sources.268The map Blackman described marking the town suggests it was a small settlement and it was likely affiliated with the larger community at Oquago to the norththe connection between the two places may explain the name of Oquago Mountain. Elizabeth Hale connected herself to the Methodists early and may have been the one Hiel Lewis had heard about, confusing the details, but Isaac remained distant.190, Frederic Stier and Timothy Lee first arrived in the Susquehanna Valley in 1805 and found most of their success there in 1806.191 When Stier and Lee brought Methodism it resulted in a general revival of religion which swept along that portion of the Susquehanna Valley as the popular movement replaced Bucks Congregationalism.192 Lee did not list any Hales among his converts, but missing names in the records was not unusual as most individuals caught up in local revivals were not numbered among the short list of convertsparticularly if they were already baptized.193. Scan this QR code to download the app now. So far, however, it has not been possible to identify a specific carver, Nancy Lynn Mess, Cemetery Historian, Ithaca, New York, Personal communication to author, March 6, 2015. Buck served as the first permanent minister stationed in the Everlasting Hills.166 He found success in his attempt to spread religious conviction, and he developed a congregation downriver eight miles from the Hale home. Isaac Hale 1763 - 1839 . Born on July 10, 1804, in Willingsborough (later Harmony), Pennsylvania, Emma Hale was the seventh of nine children of Isaac and Elizabeth Lewis Hale. Wilkinson,Annals of Binghamton,106. There is no record Joseph entered into any additional marriages after the fall of 1843.5, Emma rarely spoke about the practice after Josephs death. Jill Mulvay Derr, Carol Cornwall Madsen, Kate Holbrook, and MatthewJ. Grow,eds., The First Fifty Years of Relief Society: Key Documents in Latter-day Saint Womens History (Salt Lake City: Church Historians Press,2016). During their early settlement, the family scattered their refuse about their yard, after they built their mansion the artifact scatter around their home was minimal. During the earliest settlement period or before, the oldest and most commonly used name for the villagewhere Daniel Buck and Isaac Hale first met, Oquago, was attached to the mountain where Hale settled. isaac hale father of emma smith isaac hale father of emma smith. John Comfort, letter to Silas Comfort, January 17, 1840. As part of the refinement of America that took place in Lucy Smiths childhood, the central stairway and the expansion of the upstairs as a social space in the home became important markers of the rituals of polite society. Although the Hale family was only part of the lesser gentry that put them into the highest social level only in their remote valley, their refined home reflected well on their family.245. He had exceptional spelling and wrote letters in a refined, practiced hand. 138. The standards of a genteel life required young people to follow a long list of specific behaviors toward their parents, and Joseph appears to have been unaware of these. His sons all had good educations and apparently attended one of the local advanced Seminaries in the county, perhaps the one that opened in nearby Great Bend in 1811.309 Silas Comfort went to New York to earn his doctorate in theology and later became a leading Methodist scholar producing an impressive list of books. Then the elder Pickering came back to the valley to take his son away for better medical treatment. 10. : Stanley and Betty Coryell, 2005), 11. 159. Upham,Life of Timothy Pickering, 117, emphasis in original. Emma and her family followed and made a new home on the frontier in the Latter Day Saint settlement of Far West, Missouri, where Emma gave birth on June 2, 1838, to Alexander Hale Smith. Windsor Bridge Company, Subject Files, Broome County Historical Society, Binghamton, New York; Trial Notes of Scribe A, Transcription of the Testimony Given at the Trial of Jason Treadwell, August, 1824, Historic Site Files, LDS Church History Library, hereafter CHL. Emma Hale was subpoenaed to testify, but Isaac gave details about the breakfast in his testimony, and Emma was not called. 261. The surveyor had scarcely taken his hand from the tree, when the sharp crack of a rifle rang through the forest, and the spot where the hand had been laid was chipped by a leaden bullet, a hint that sufficed to stay all proceedings for the rest of that day.231 Despite local opposition, the surveyors finished measuring the Rose land so it could be sold, including a 90 acre segment for Isaac Hale. Photograph by Mark L. Staker. John Lewis eventually moved to Harmony Township, New York, where he became a Methodist Elder, preacher, and a judge in the county, and his son later served as a member of congress. The Register of Pastors in the First Presbyterian Church of Hallstead, Susquehanna County Historical Society, lists him as continuing to serve until the installation of Oliver Hill as Pastor on August 13, 1814. A little over a month after Isaac Hale arranged to purchase his land, a change in county government gave the Hale family a larger political voice. Gehiel (Hiel) Lewis, a younger nephew of the Hales, wrote of Isaac, he was converted [to Methodism] under the ministry of Rev. Lewis was apparently later ordained an Elder.197 But circuit riders regularly visited the local congregations and preached in the Susquehanna Valley throughout Lewiss tenure as a preacher. (Isaac divided up a farm he had sold to his son Jesse and sold the northern rocky portion to Morse and the southern arable portion to his son-in-law Joseph Smith); but Morse may have planted Indian corn somewhere else more susceptible to mountain shade, such as Isaacs island in the middle of the river, which Morse plowed late in the season on July 11 and 13, 1828. 146. Last Will and Testament of Isaac Hale, Susquehanna County, Pa., Wills and Administrations, 18121921, December 23, 1838, 1:21213. Given the large gathering just down the road from Isaac and Elizabeth Hales farm, it is likely they were at the revival.