ABOUT THIS BLOG

Zemira Palmer is my third-great grandfather. In 2010 I was given tons of information about him by two angel cousins. With their permission I share it all!! - Deniane Kartchner

Contact: denianek@gmail.com

Sally Knight Palmer

Sally Knight Palmer

Zemira's Wives

The photos of Zemira's two wives were contributed by Lucile Brubaker

and her mother, Lenna Cox Wilcock. Thanks!

Caroline Jacques Palmer

Caroline Jacques Palmer

BLOG SOURCES


Unless otherwise noted, the main source for this blog (including the introduction) is a history titled “ZEMIRA PALMER, 1831 – 1880, His Life and Family in Early L.D.S. Church History.” This history was prepared by Lenna Cox Wilcock and sent to Deniane Kartchner via email by Lenna's daughter, Lucile Brubaker, with Lenna and Lucile's permission to post on this blog with the stipulation it be used for family history purposes only and not for financial gain. Lenna and Lucile are descendants of Zemira Palmer through his wife Caroline Jacques.


I have posted the history in segments exactly as Lenna wrote them (with the exception of adding details needed to help the sections stand alone).


Introduction

Zemira Palmer was born the year after The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day-Saints was organized in Fayette, New York. Living amongst the earliest “Mormon” converts, his entire life and that of his family was inextricably inter-woven with that of the early Saints.


The faith of the Palmer and Draper families, as with all the Saints, was severely tried and tested as they were swept along in the turbulent stream of Mormonism in its desperate struggle for survival while defending their freedom to worship their God as they chose. As Utah Pioneers they contributed greatly in making the desert blossom as a rose in the rugged western American frontier.


One month before his death, in a letter to his sister Zemira made the following statement, and by living according to what it expresses, he was worthy to gain the great reward of which it speaks:


“. . . There is one thing which seems to be true, the Lord is fulfilling His promises. He has said by the mouths of His prophets that He would send judgments on the wicked & trials on the faithful, so that everyone that can be shaken, will be, and those who cannot be shaken, shall gain the great reward of eternal life & supreme happiness.”1


1- Excerpt from letter written by Zemira Palmer to his sister Lovina Palmer Munroe Sept. 18, 1880.


* * * * *

Zemira Palmer History on this blog

2.04.2010

(10) Phebe takes family to Kirtland, Ohio

So it was that Zemira’s widowed mother Phebe, with four or five of her children, (Eliza had died, and Asahel, age 15, may not have come until later) and also her parents William Sr. and Lydia Lathrop Draper, and some of her brothers and sisters left their homes in Canada and made the journey to Kirtland, Ohio in the United States. (See Map 3) At that time Phebe’s son William George was age 13; Lydia Elizabeth 6; Zemira 2 ½ years, and then there was baby Rhoda Ann who was born 2 ½  months after her father died.  What a blessing it must have been to the widowed Phebe, to have the  help of her loved ones bringing her young children on that long trip.

Phebe’s oldest daughter Lovina stayed in Canada. She had married Henry Munro in that same year. She and her husband and their son, and her great-uncle Thomas Draper Jr. came to Kirtland in 1838.

In September of 1834, the Draper group arrived in Kirtland which was the headquarters of the Church at that time.  It was the responsibility of the presiding Bishopric to help find places for newcomers to live, and also to see that their temporal needs were met.  They counseled all the members to share their means and their work with each other, thus the poor were provided for.

The Saints knew that Kirtland wasn’t the place where their land of Zion would be, for the Prophet had received a revelation two years previously that Missouri was to be their Zion.  A group of Saints had gone there at that time, had dedicated that area, and had established a branch of the Church in Independence in preparation for future growth.

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Contributors


Lucile Brubaker (and her mother Lenna Cox Wilcock) are also contributing to this blog.

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