Grimsby Park In Canada

The camp-meeting seems to have been a prominent feature of the early religious life of Canada.  Long before there were town or villages, the scattered settlers were wont to gather occasionally in those primitive meetings.

Grimsby Park (on the banks of Lake Ontario) is one of the few survivals [in 1900], if not the only one, of the old-fashioned camp-meetings remaining in Canada (the Grimsby Camp-Meeting came into existence in 1859).

Source

As early as 1846 a mammoth temperance meeting was held here.  Egerton Ryerson* and William Ryerson graced the platform.

Noah Phelps, who was born in New York, was featured in the biographies. Information about Rev. Dr. John Wakefield and John Beamer Bowslaugh (the original owner of the land) was also in the book.

Grimsby Park, Historical and Biographical Sketches interested me because of an interest in ancestors who lived in Grimsby, Ontario, Canada.  [See more here at the Grimsby Museum]

Rev. Isaac Brock Howard (son of William and Mary Howard, who were also my ancestors), was born in Grimsby and was Egerton Ryerson's assistant* in the early 1840's, -- was he present at the 1846 temperance meeting?   He wasn't mentioned in the book, so I'll never know.

After Joseph Smith

The Mormon Church had a question of leadership in the aftermath of the deaths of Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum Smith on June 27, 1844.  From Annals of the West: embracing a concise account...:

"The funeral pageant next absorbed all their attention. The mourning was sore, sad and deep, over the beloved patriarch Hyrum, and the adored prophet Joseph [Smith]."

A statue depicting the last ride of Joseph Smith & Hyrum Smith

"The struggle for the leadership, the Seer succession, which followed, however, soon dissipated the sorrow for the past.  Rigdon, as second in rank, claimed promotion.. .  James J. Strang contended for the place of Seer... . But the College of the Twelve had other views, and a vote on the subject."

"It revoked all former designations, and devolved the choice upon them. Under the management of their sagacious chief, they elected the Peter of the Apostles, Brigham Young, to the responsible station."

In The Building Where Joseph And Hyrum Smith Died

Jail cell at Carthage, Illinois, where Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum, were killed on June 27, 1844.

... a number of excited and bloodthirsty individuals took matters into their own hands, decided to administer justice after their own fashion, and attacked the jail very early in the morning, breaking down the door of the room where the prisoners were confined.  The Smiths were very brave, and defended themselves as long as their ammunition held out, firing their revolvers in rapid succession.  Hyrum was shot first, and then Joseph threw open the window, and in the act of leaping out was killed by the bullets fired by the mob, saying, as he fell, "O Lord, my God!" [Source: New Light On Mormonism...]

The Mormons Move To Nauvoo

The Temple In Nauvoo

In April ,1840, large numbers of a religious body known as Latter Day Saints or Mormons, removed from Missouri to Illinois. They had purchased a considerable tract of land located on the east bank of the Mississippi in Hancock County.  ...This land, having been sold to Mormon agents, preparations were immediately made to build here a great city of their faith which was named Nauvoo, signifying either peaceful or pleasant.  [ Historic Illinois]

Satirizing Rev. I. B. Howard

When searching for relatives, even a condemnation is a welcome sight!  I. B. [Isaac Brock] Howard was the son of my ancestors, William and Mary Howard, and the brother of Ann (Howard) Kennedy.

There was an anonymous satire condemning I.B. Howard, a minister of the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Canada serving in Brantford, Ont. Minister identified through the letter the satirist states that the clergyman wrote to the " ...[i.e. Christian] guardian," v. 29, no. 33 (19 May 1858)--p. 31

The basis of this tale was an apparent misappropriation of an orphan's inheritance.  Aliases are used in this tale, but the "great Mufti" character wrote to the guardian, so that's who Rev.  I. B. Howard was supposed to be.

James J. Strang, "King of Beaver Island," In Fiction

The story of James J. Strang, the "King of Beaver Island," was set in fiction by James Oliver Curwood, and entitled "The Courage of Captain Plum."

On page 48 of the Curwood book there is a reference to two men being whipped because of "knee skirts" (bloomers). My blog, Detour Through History, has more about this incident, which eventually led to the murder of Strang. The whipping of the men who defied Strang started on Page 106.

Page 80 told of how James J. Strang "...enthralled a state legislature and had hypnotized a Federal grand jury into giving him back his freedom when evidence smothered him in crime." Strang's trial was held about 20 June 1851 in Detroit and presided over by the Hon. Ross Wilkins. President Millard Fillmore, tipped off about the situation on Beaver Island by his brother Charles, got involved in the situation that eventually brought Strang to trial.

James J. Strang also served two terms in the Michigan legislature!

The arrival of the ship, Michigan, occurred on Page 304 of the Curwood book.

This blog summarized many aspects of James Strang's life.

A Book About John Cleaveland's World - Take Two (Second Post)

"The World of John Cleaveland" by Christopher M. Jedrey, profiled the life of John, a descendant of Moses Cleveland (I am also a descendant of Moses Cleveland who married Ann Winn).

John Cleaveland represented a descendant of an early colonial New England family of Woburn (Woburn, Middlesex County, Massachusetts), and also the dilemma of a younger son, whose fate is not as typically as assured as is the fate of the oldest son in the family. Mr. Jefrey's book stated that "Culture, like property, must be passed on from generation to generation. And the means of cultural transmission in rural New England, education both formal and informal, were conservative."

As a pastor, the impact on John Cleaveland's life as the dynamics of religion, including the "First Great Awakening," in early New England changed and his role in the change was a theme in the book. In John Cleaveland's later life, as the political winds of change were in the air during the days leading up to the Revolutionary War; the book illustrated how Cleaveland participated in and reacted to those changes.

John Cleaveland was profiled here in the History of Essex County, Massachusetts. The history referenced a letter from John to his wife in Chebacco.

John Cleaveland, writing as "Johannes in Eremo" (the title of a book by Cotton Mather), commented on the pre-Revolutionary political atmosphere; excerpts of his writings can be seen here. An earlier writing entitled "An Epicedium or A Poetical Attempt Upon the Life & Death of Josiah Cleaveland" composed by Reverend John Cleaveland in 1752 can be found here. A bibliography of some of Reverend John Cleaveland's work can be found here. The Reverend Cleaveland is referred to as a man of "unusual polemic abilities" in this book, Genealogy of the Child...families, here.

A "Cleveland" time line (several various Cleveland references) can be seen on "Google" here. Edmund Janes Cleveland wrote the definitive Cleveland Family book (3 volumes!) covering the whole family (as of 1899) as opposed to the specific book about John Cleaveland profiled here. A post in my "Detour Through History" blog is planned to elaborate on other descendants of Moses & Ann (Winn) Cleveland.