aka Drucilla Dickenson Hartley

Daughter of Benjamin Hartley and Mary Dickey

Married Joshua Parker, Nov 1844, Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois

Married David Tulley LeBaron, 2 Feb 1888

History - The Hartley ancestors were early Quakers in New Jersey. They arrived in the late 1600s from England. The Dickey family originally came to America from Northern Ireland in the early 1700s. Benjamin Hartley and Mary Dickey were married in Salem, New Jersey on the 22nd of May 1805. They had nine children in their family, all born in Mercer, PA.

Drusilla was the second child given the name Drusilla. They had an older daughter, also named Drusilla, born in 1813 but she died as an infant. Drusilla's mother died about 1834 in Mercer, PA. Then in 1836 her father Benjamin also died leaving three minor Hartley children as orphans, Drusilla was among them.

Her older brother John Dickey Hartley and his wife, Susanna Finley moved to New Philadelphia, Indiana, probably the spring of 1838. Drusilla, now 15 years old, joined her brother John's family in Indiana. Drusilla at the age of 18 gave birth to a baby boy, Martin Robert __?__, on the 30th of September 1842 in Brownstown, Indiana. John's wife, Susanna, was also pregnant and gave birth to a baby girl in April of 1843. In 1844 the extended family(including Drusilla and her son Martin) moved to New Philadelphia, Illinois!

John Hartley purchased land near property owned by Joshua Parker, a Mormon, outside the city of Carthage, Illinois. We can only guess on how and when Joshua and Drusilla met and what role her brother John Hartley may have been on that meeting. Possibly Joshua and Drusilla met in Macedonia after Joshua returned from his Mormon Mission to New York City, about the first of August 1844. They probably had a short engagement before they were married on November 30, 1844. Joshua Parker adopted Robert and raised him as his own son.

The Parker family moved from Macedonia to Nauvoo sometime earlier in 1845, this is where the young Parker family became the parents to their first child, Orson Hyde Parker on November 15, 1845 in Nauvoo. Joshua's family then traveled to St. Louis, about 190 miles south of Nauvoo. After arrival in St. Louis, Drusilla becomes a member of the LDS Church in December of 1846.

On the 21st of May 1847 a son, Joshua Parker, was born in St. Louis however he died as an infant before reaching his first birthday. In 1949 a second child (Benjamin) was born and he too died as an infant. The Joshua Parker family was listed in the U.S. Census of 1850 as living in Kanesville, IA. Another son, Francis William Parker, was born to Joshua and Drusilla on September 2 1950, he will survive to make the trek to Utah. Joshua and Drusilla's first daughter, Mary Melissa, is born May 21, 1852 in Kanesville. Joshua Parker's family joins the Robert Wimmer Company leaving Kanesville for Salt Lake City in early July 1852. Joshua reported that they arrived in Salt Lake on October 9, 1852.

Salt Lake City is where the family remains for the rest of Joshua and Drusilla's lives. They go on to have seven more children. Joshua died in 1880, eight years later Drusilla married David LeBaron. Originally, both had markers carved from wood, although the wooden markers were seen by family they didn't last. Several years ago descendants in Idaho made the headstone seen today.

There is an error in the spelling of Drusilla. On ALL documents Drusilla herself wrote (books, papers, letters, parochial blessing, etc) she was Drusilla, but on some census records and on some records written by a clerk or other 3rd party (including the new headstone) her name was misspelled as Drucilla.