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

(19) Palmers move from Pike County to Bear Creek and Morley, Illinois

Although the Draper/Palmer group had escaped the horrors of the extermination order in Missouri, they were caught up in the persecutions that dogged the Saints wherever they were, and eventually the Saints of Pike County were driven from their homes and thriving farms. Many of them went to Hancock County.

After being driven out, we find that Phebe and Ebenezer Brown, in 1844, were living at Bear Creek, a settlement some miles south of Carthage, which was not far distant from Morley nor from Nauvoo. Lovina and her husband Henry Munroe were living there also. (Refer to list at end of Maps)

It is recorded that Phebe traveled to Nauvoo and was baptized for her husband George Palmer Jr. in 1844.  That was before the revelation was given which explained that men should be baptized for men, and women be baptized for women.

Instead of settling with his mother and the others at Bear Creek, Zemira with his uncle Zemira Draper and his Draper grandparents fled to Morley, (or Yelrome, which is Morley spelled backwards) in Hancock County. That was one of the many communities in the area called “Spokes on the Wheel,” so named by the Prophet; Nauvoo being the hub or center of the spokes.36  At this place there was peace and prosperity for four or five years, some of which were before Zemira came there. Zemira would have spent his 11th, and perhaps his early-teen years at this place.  (See Map 5.)

36- Donald Q. Cannon, “Spokes on the Wheel; Early L.S. Settlements in Hancock County”

No comments:

Contributors


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

Followers