Cornelius P. Lott
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| Cornelius Lott | |
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| Born | September 22, 1798 New York, New York |
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| Died | July 6, 1850 Salt Lake City, Utah |
Cornelius Peter Lott (1798 - 1850) was an early member of the Latter Day Saint movement, father of one of Joseph Smith's plural wives,[1] a member of the Council of Fifty and a Danite leader.[2]
Lott was born in New York City on September 22, 1798, and married Permelia Darrow[3] on April 27, 1823. Sometime before 1834, both joined the Church of Christ (Latter Day Saints), and they moved to Kirtland, Ohio, in 1836.[4]
In 1838, the Lotts moved to Missouri and settled near Haun's Mill. During the 1838 July 4th celebrations in Far West, Missouri, the military band passed in review of three men acting as Generals: Jared Carter, Sampson Avard, and Cornelius Lott.[5]
During the Mormon War, Lott led a Danite raid against a farm near Adam-ondi-Ahman harboring weapons and ammunition for a Missouri mob.[6]
In the winter of 1838 - 1839, the Lotts were driven from Missouri with the rest of the Latter Day Saints. They settled in Pike County, Illinois, forty miles south of the main body of Saints in Nauvoo, in 1839, before moving to Joseph Smith's farm just southeast of Nauvoo.
Once in Nauvoo, Lott took over management of Smith's farm and built an eight-room farmhouse on land he purchased adjacent to the farm.[7][4]
While in Nauvoo, Lott served as a Captain of Joseph Smith's bodyguard[4] and received his endowment with W.W. Phelps and Joseph Fielding.[8] Joseph Smith III, who was a boy at the time, recalled that the "rather old" Lott (who was in his mid-forties at the time) "was still strong and muscular and was usually willing to demonstrate his strength." Not long after arriving in Nauvoo, Lott came to Joseph Smith's red-brick store to purchase supplies. Smith had spent most of the afternoon wrestling with customers, and according to Joseph Smith III, his father had thrown all of them. When Lott walked into the store, carrying "a threatening-looking blacksnake whip that seemed to challenge all comers,"[9] Smith challenged him to a match. The older man threw aside the whip and accepted the challenge; however, Smith was unable to throw him.[10][9]
Lott practiced plural marriage and January 22, 1846, married Elizabeth Davis,[11] Rebecca Fossett, and Charity Dickenson. Rebecca left before the birth of their child, whom he never met. Elizabeth left while the family was in Winter Quarters.[12] In 1848 he married Eleanor Wayman and Phebe Crosby Peck Knight, Hosea Stout's mother-in-law and widow of Joseph Knight.[7]
In late Spring 1848, he served as a captain in Heber C. Kimball's company, an early group crossing the plains. Mary Fielding Smith was in his company, and he told her that she should stay back until she could gather others to help her make the journey.[13] She chose to remain with the company, and later church president Joseph F. Smith despised Lott for actions Smith characterized as being humiliating to his mother throughout the trek.[14]
Once in the Salt Lake Valley, Lott and his families lived in a two-room house at the southwest corner of Third South and State Street in Salt Lake City; he managed a church farm in the Forest Dale area.[15] His daughter married William S. S. Willes.
On July 6, 1850, Lott died of either dysentary or fatigue.
[edit] References
- ^ Smith, Joseph F. Jr. and Evans, Richard C. Blood Atonement And The Origin Of Plural Marriage: Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints. Salt Lake City, 1905, p. 72.
- ^ Quinn, D. Michael. Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power Salt Lake City: Signature Books in association with Smith Research Associates, 1994, p. 482.
- ^ Some records indicate she was the granddaughter of Artemas Ward, but she was only the Revolutionary War general's first cousin, three times removed. She was the granddaughter of George Darrow, a captain in the Revolution. See "The Bloodied Mowhawk. http://www.fort-plank.com/Additional_Partisans_A_G.html. Accessed 12 May 2007.
- ^ a b c Compton, Todd. Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1998, pp. 596-598
- ^ "Order of the Day: Celebration of the 4th of July". Elders' Journal 1, no. 4 (Aug. 1838): 60–61
- ^ My Life's Review: Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin Johnson, edited by the Johnson Family Organization (Provo: Grandin Book Company, 1997). Written 1884–1896 (p. 280, 356).
- ^ a b On the Mormon Frontier: The Diary of Hosea Stout, 1844–1861, edited by Juanita Brooks. 2 vols (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1964; reprint 1982), 1:66n
- ^ Wilford Woodruff's Journal, 9 vols., edited by Scott G. Kenney (Midvale: Signature Books, 1981–1984), 2:331.
- ^ a b Launius, Roger and McKiernan, F. Joseph Smith, JR.'s Red Brick Store. Herald Publishing House, p. 21. ISBN 0830912088.
- ^ Dialogue. Dialogue Foundation. Salt Lake City, Utah, 1966, p. 95.
- ^ Brodie, Fawn McKay. No man knows my history: The Life of Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet. A.A. Knopf, 1946, p. 462.
- ^ Compton, Todd. Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1998, p. 264
- ^ Gibbons, Daniel Bay. A Gathering of Eagles: Conversions from the Four Quarters of the Earth. iUniverse, 2002, p. 283.
- ^ "Cornelius P. Lott". www.saintswithouthalos.com. http://www.saintswithouthalos.com/b/lott_cp.phtml. Accessed 9 May 2007.
- ^ Lehi Centennial History, 1850–1950, Lehi Centennial Committee (Salt Lake City: Free Press Publishing Co., 1950), p. 276
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