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

(34) Zemira arrives in Salt Lake City, 1848

Upon leaving California, Zemira went to Utah with a detachment of the Mormon Battalion, who, late in the year of 1848, reached Salt Lake City, which was pretty well established by then.  Other settlements also were springing up, spreading outward from the center of the Church.

        Clearly one of President Young’s prime goals was to colonize the Territory of Utah.  Places of residence were needed for the increasingly great number of immigrating Saints to make their homes.  He said he “wanted Latter Day Saints to be living on every habitable place, because if they are living on it they control the mountains, and the country. . . We could not find a better place for the Latter-day-Saints than in those valleys of the mountains, or in those rugged parts further south.”     —Erastus Snow—A. Karl Larson, p. 314.

If Zemira had been permitted to see into his future, he’d have seen himself being involved in the growth of new settlements, for he participated in the earliest settlement of two communities in Northern Utah, Draperville and Heber, and of several locations in Lincoln County, Nevada, namely: Panaca, Spring Valley, Dry Valley, and EagleVille or Eagle Valley.  Also in southern Utah he significantly assisted in the growth of Springdale, Leeds, Washington, and Orderville.

Zemira’s activities after reaching Utah are interesting.  He lived first at Salt Lake City.  There he went to school and worked at the carpenter trade. With further research we may be able to find information concerning some of the following activities he is reported to have participated in.

In the Church Journal History June 14, 1849, it mentions Zemira as
               1- “being in company with nine men to ferry the California and Oregon Emigration over the Green River.  The Company took wagon-makers and blacksmith tools with them.
2- was in the snow with the handcart companies;
3- and was one of the guards in Echo Canyon during the Buchanan War.”
4- In 1863, with his own team he crossed the plains to help gather the poor. 

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

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