FROM HISTORY OF THE BEAR LAKE PIONEERS RE: HARRIET SARGENT RICH - PUBLISHED BY DAUGHERS OF THE UTAH PIONEERS - 1968
Written by Harriet Rich Vance

Harriet Sargent Rich was born October 23, 1832 in Fountain County, Indiana; she was the daughter of Abel Morgan Sargent and Sarah Tunis Edwards. When she was 18 months old, her father moved to Ohio where the (LDS) church was first located, and they then followed the church from one county and state to another, finally being driven out of Missouri by the mob. It was at this time that Sarah was expecting confinement and due to the unsettled conditions, persecutions, and mob threats, her husband took her home to her people in Indiana to be near them during her confinement. As a result of this confinement, Sarah died shortly after Christmas in 1838. She was between thirty-five and forty years old.


They stayed in Indiana until the next summer when her father Abel decided he would take his family to Nauvoo where the Saints were now settled. Her grandfather Edwards was a very wealthy man, and was also an officer of the law. He was very bitter about the Mormons and was determined to keep his grandchildren away from the church, holding great bitterness in his heart and blaming them for the tragedy of his daughter's death, which he felt was caused by her being dragged around and persecuted with the Mormons.

Able gathered his family around him, secluding them at the home of a friend. However, Grandfather Edwards found them and came with officers, threatening that if he took the children he would follow and bring them back. As Able could not go by steamboat, he built a skiff with bows and a cover; that night when their grandfather was asleep, with the aid of his brother, Benare Sargent, they made their way through the willows down to the river into the skiff and started for Nauvoo. He felt it necessay to leave Drusilla and Thomas there, as Dru had a bad swelling on her leg and Thomas was too young to travel.

They traveled almost two hundred miles down the river in this manner, many times passing large steamers that had capsized. Finally, feeling fairly safe, they gave up the skiff and transferred to a steamboat and reached Randolph County, Illinois, a distance of another two hundred miles.

When they reached there, all of the Sargent children were stricken with chills and fever. They were sick nearly all summer, and remained in Randolph County for almost four years during which time Abel, being an educated man, taught school. They moved from here to Nauvoo and Abel rented a small two-room house made of frame, on the river bank near the edge of town.

He went to see the Prophet Joseph Smith and seek his counsel as to where would be the best place for him to settle with his motherless family. the Prophet told him of a wealthy dairyman who resided across the river, awho would possibly employ his daughters. However, Abel did not want to scatter his daughters among non-Mormons and upon reporting his feelings to the Prophet, he complimented him on his loyalty to the church after having been away for so long. He counseled them to locate some twelve miles north of Nauvoo, along the road to Carthage. This they did and lived there until the Saints were driven into the city of Nauvoo. The daughter Drusilla, who had remained in Indiana, married at an early age and consequently came to Nauvoo and was reunited with her family.

Early on the morning of June 28, 1844, a wagon from Carthage brought the bodies of the Prophet and his brother into Nauvoo. A crowd of some ten thousand had assembled to meet them. Weeping men, women and children lined the streets four deep, their sobs mingled with cries for revenge. Harriet and her brother worked their way through the crowd to the wagon. Climbing on the hub of the wheel and hanging onto the wagon box, they peered down on the lifeless bodies of the Prophet and his brother. It was a sad and horrible incident in her life the she never forgot.

In Nauvoo, before the Saints were driven out, her father found a place for all his children. Harriet was given a home in the family of Charles C. Rich's first wife, Sarah Pea. She went back to Camp Creek and stayed for one year, then returned to live with Sarah again, caring for her children, so that Sarah might work in the Temple.

Word was received that Brigham Young, who was at the time in Mt. Pisgah, that Captain James Allen of the U.S. Army had been requested to obtain 500 Mormon volunteers to fight in the present war with Mexico. This was the beginning of the Mormon Battalion. Abel Sargent immediately volunteered and on July 5, 1846, they were mustered into the service, drew their check for clothing, and $42 each - their pay in advance for one year. The money was turned over to Brigham Young to care for their families.

When Abel Sargent returned from the Mormon Battalion, he returned to Indiana for his son, Thomas. He was successful in stealing Thomas away from the home of his grandfather and started with him for Utah. They joined a company enroute to Utah and somewhere along the way the company they were traveling with was stricken with cholera. Able contracted the disease and died one night while Thomas was herding the cattle. Within twelve hours, Thomas had contracted cholera and also passed away. They were buried in a common grave along the way.