aka John Nicholas Egbert

Son of John Egbert and Hannah Little

Married Susannah Hahn, 11 Nov 1809, Breckinridge, Harrison, Kentucky

Children - Grant Egbert, Mary Polly Egbert, William Egbert, Samuel Egbert, John Egbert, Joseph Teasdale Egbert, Corilla Egbert, Robert Cowden Egbert, Elvira Egbert, Elizabeth Egbert, Andrew Jackson Egbert, Hannah Egbert

History - As a boy John had been apprenticed out to a devout Catholic Cobbler that he might learn the harness making and shoemaking trade, as was the custom of the times. He eventually found his way to Western New York and later landed in Buffalo where he secured employment with a harness maker. A number of years later he owned a shop of his own.

Somewhere along the Ohio in Kentucky John fell in love with Susannah Hahn. Her parents were of sturdy Pennsylvania Dutch stock. Their acquaintance ripened into an engagement and John decided to go back to Buffalo and get his tools and supplies, promising to return.

After gathering his belongings and transporting them to navigable water, he built a raft on which to float them down the river. After he had shoved out into deep water the raft started to sink with too much weight, and it went down with everything he had, and he barely escaped with his life. It was a heartbreaking loss and almost irreplaceable.

Sorrowfully he made his way back to Susannah and told her he released her from all obligations to marry him as he was penniless. Her reply was that she had fallen in love with him and not what he might have accumulated and assured him that with the cooperation of working together they need not change their plans.

They settled in Breckenridge, Harrison County, Kentucky, which lies about 60 miles south of Cincinnati, Ohio, and here four children were born to them. And here they had their first great sorrow, for in 1812 they lost their oldest child, Grant.

In 1816 they moved over the Ohio River to the north and west in the state of Indiana. While on their way, their son John was born. They settled in Carlisle, Sullivan County, which was about 175 miles west and north of Breckinridge, their first home, but like it, they were favored with water transportation, it being only five miles east of the Wabash River, which empties into the Ohio, and kept them in touch with the doing of the day. In the sixteen years they lived here, they had eight more children born to them.

In 1831 and 32 this whole frontier country was electrified by the news that a young man had found a golden book hidden in a hill in Western New York State, that the book had been given him by and angel, and that he had even seen God, himself, who had instructed him to form a new church. The Egberts had heard that there were missionaries in the Eastern part of Indiana and in Ohio, who had a book that had been translated from these golden plates.

While John Egbert, from the experiences of his boyhood, was disgusted with religion, he felt that this might be something different, so he walked several hundred miles over the eastern part of the state and secured a book of Mormon. He read it eagerly, and believed its message. One comment he made has come down was that it had made plain many passages in the Bible that he could not previously understand.

Soon after, an Elder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by the name of Allred came to their home and explained this new religion. The father and the mother with some of the older members of the family, were baptized. Their life was now to be associated intimately with the new faith. Little did they dream of the heartaches and trials they were to pass through in their next few years in following a leader who claimed to have communed with God and angels.

Like all who accepted the leadership of this new church, they got the spirit of wanting to be among the main body of saints, and as Jackson County, Missouri had been designated as the gathering place for the New Zion, they accordingly, in 1833, set out for a new home with the eleven of their twelve children. The going was hard and the trip was slow and especially trying with this large family. After several days travel through mud, they began to wonder if their move was ill-advised, and naturally, they thought of turning back. It became a serious matter with them, as the family was divided as to what to do.

Two of the older boys were determined to go on whether the family went or not, so the parents decided to make a camp along the creek nearby, and reach the final decision the next morning. During the night there was a hurricane with drenching rain, the tents were blown down, and wagon covers were torn off. By morning there was not a dry rag in camp, they were all drenched to the skin. The boys who wanted to go on the night before were determined as ever but Father Egbert made the final decision. He said the storm was a chastisement to them for ever thinking of turning back, and they would all go on together.

A few more weeks they settled just outside of Independence, Missouri, but they were not permitted to enjoy their new home long, as the mobocrats were soon busy. They had destroyed the printing press that had published the Evening and Morning Star, the first paper published by the Church.

Oliver Cowdery, W. W. Phelps, John Whitmer, Algernon Sidney Gilbert, Bishop Partridge, and his two councilors had been sent from Kirtland, Ohio to preside and take charge of the work there. Every move by the Saints to establish themselves had been resented by the old Settlers. Bishop Partridge and Charles Allen had been stripped, tarred, and feathered on the public square, and there was trouble in the air.

The home of the Egberts being on the outskirts of the settlement was one of the first to be raided. The family, on being appraised of the approach of the mob, hurriedly cut a bolt of homespun cloth, then being woven on the family loom, hid it in the loft of their dwelling. The home was ransacked, everything of value was taken. The barn was raided, and one of their most valuable horses was stolen. Later the leader of the mob was seen riding him.

During the raid, Father Egbert asked one of the mobs for some tobacco, the robber replied he would rather give him a hot piece of lead, whereupon Grandfather opened his shirt, barred his breast, and told him to shoot. This display of nerve evidently cowed the bravado of the mobber.

They were forced to leave their crops, nearly ready to harvest, and they left for Clay County, just across the Missouri River to the north, where they had been invited to come and live by the kindly people. And for about five years they were permitted to go about peaceably growing and helping to build up the church. Wards and stakes were organized, and here we have information that Elvira and Robert were baptized by Apostle David W. Patten.

John Egbert was now approaching sixty years of age, and the worry of making new homes, providing for a large family, the common chills and fever or malaria that troubled so many at that time was preying on his constitution and he fell sick. The boys he depended on to help with the Spring farm work had not returned from an extended hunt in the woods where they had gone hunting for gee trees and honey. Springtime meant that their crops should be planted. Elvira, now in her sixteenth year, hitched up the oxen and plowed and planted twelve acres of corn. Corn was a very important part of the diet of those times and this incident was common to the children of the saints, who felt they were responsible with their parents to plant and to weed and harvest the crops.

The harvest in converts by the church missionary system was being felt in Clay County. From all over the United States, Canada, and Europe they came and many settled there. Their once kind friends, the old settlers became alarmed as they could see they were fast being outnumbered. The conditions were aggravated by the old enemies in Jackson County, and by the preachers of the Christian churches there. The Latter-day Saints were friendly with the Indians and their enemies used this as an excuse to accuse them of a coalition with the Indians to drive out the old settlers and take over political control of the whole state.

The main part of the Clay county people didn't want to resort to violence, so they reminded the Mormons of their previous kindness to them and asked them to move to avoid possible hostilities. The Saints had built for permanency and it was a real sacrifice that they were forced to give up their homes again but it was the advice of their leaders that they do this, and most of them got out of Clay County the best they could.

The City of Far West had just been laid out to be a city of Zion, and Caldwell County was recently being surveyed and opened for settlement, and it looked like there was a chance to plant and make their homes in peace, there almost in a boyd. Hyrum Smith lead a large group on from Kirtland and it wasn't long before there were as many as 15,000 saints in the neighborhood. This infuriated the Missourians, and together with some apostates, the expulsion of the saints was openly advocated, and the old spirit returned with increasing violence. The saints had settled in several of the adjoining counties and were buying up the rights of the old settlers in the sparsely settled frontier. An election was to be held at Galletin, Davies, county Aug. 6, 1839, where hostilities broke out. The saints had been advised by a Judge Morin [sic] a candidate for the state senate, that there was going to be an attempt to prevent them from voting. On that day when a few of the brethren went to the polls, a Co. Wm. P. Penniston, who had previously led a mob against the Saints in Clay County, mounted a platform and told about 100 of the old-timers that if they allowed the Mormons to vote they would soon lose their suffrage. He accused the Mormons of the most ridiculous outrages, stealing cattle and horses, also scheming to get hold of the offices of county and state; and he made light of the saints' sacred right to worship God and their belief in prophets and in healing the sick. There were only 11 or 12 brethren there but they were determined to vote, and when prevented, fights followed and noses were broken. One of the Mormons by the name of John D. Buhler filled with patriotic American indignation seized a club and knocked down men right and left. The crowd disbursed and the brethren went home, hid their families in the brush, and stood guard over their homes that night. About that time two of the Egbert girls, Corilla and Elvira, were to meet two young men who were to influence the rest of their lives. They were William and John Carson; perhaps they had met before as the two families had landed in Jackson County about the same time. But now these young people were to be drawn together seriously in a most unusual way.

The road leading to the towns occupied by the saints were being guarded and the two boys were called on to do this duty. At night the young ladies made good company and at times they shouldered the muskets and did the duty themselves so the boys could get some rest. William was twenty-one and Corilla was 19 and soon they were married. John and Elvira were to remain sweethearts for a few months more.

The battle of Crooked River had been fought in which the beloved Apostle David W. Patten had been killed. Several of the Saints had been killed at Hahns Mill and governor Boggs had issued his infamous extermination order wherein all the Mormons must leave the state or die. They were not without friends, however. The story of the inhuman treatment had been heralded in the adjoining states, and there were kind-hearted people who extended sympathy in the State of Illinois, also in Iowa.

The Prophet Joseph Smith, his brother Hyrum, Sidney Rigdon, Parley P. Pratt and others were in chains in prison. The plans of the leaders had been frustrated, the Zion of the dreams of the Saints had vanished; several of the leaders had turned traitor. Where could they go for hope? Read the stories passed on to us for an answer.

The Prophet advised them to go East and settle some place between Far west and their old home in Kirtland. Who was to lead them? Thomas B. Marsh, the President of the Twelve had turned traitor. There remained a majority of the Twelve and Brigham Young was next in line. He had been busy doing the things that came to his notice that needed doing. We now hear him pleading with his brethren to help him get the poor out of the reaches of the mob among friends where they could get food and a chance to make a living. Friends were raised up in Illinois, collections were taken up to help them. John Egbert and family did their share of moving and helping others. They located in Adams County near Quincy, Illinois.

In the meantime, the Prophet Joseph Smith had been released from Liberty Jail and had purchased for the church a large tract of land at Commerce, Hancock County, Illinois about 40 miles to the north. He had been able to do this by giving his notes to new friends he had made. Some of the Egbert family moved to Hancock County. Here we have a record of Elvira being married to John Carson Jan 31, 1841. And of returning to Adams county and [word unreadable] two years. They later moved to LaHape twenty miles east of Nauvoo. While here, a day never to be forgotten is remembered. The Prophet Joseph Smith had been arrested and taken to Carthage, the county seat, for trial. While in Jail under the supposed protection of Gov. Ford, the jail was mobbed, and Joseph and his brother Hyrum were killed, and John Taylor their friend, and now one of the Twelve Apostles was painfully wounded.