Church History in the Family - Mormon Battalion - Alpheus Peter Haws

Sgt. Alpheus Peter Haws (1825-1906).
His wives 1. Adeline DUNN (1830-1852) and 2. Betsy DUNN (1838-1937) are 3rd great grand aunts. They are the oldest and the youngest full sisters of Mary DUNN ENSIGN.

Birth:	Oct. 15, 1825 Essex Ontario, Canada
Death:	Nov. 5, 1906 Santa Rosa Sonoma County California, USA
Son of Peter Haws & Charlotte Harrington Married Adaline Dunn [1845 sealed Nauvoo at age 15.] Married Betsy Dunn (Adaline's sister), [married 1854, .at age 15. Divorced.] 81 years old. Sgt. Co. D Mormon Batt. IA Vols. Mexican War. Information from L Haws, Berkeley, CA. ALPHEUS P. HAWES, Sergeant. (Tyler's list, ALPHEUS P. HAWS, Fourth Sergeant) Mustered out with Company July 16, 1847, at Los Angeles, Cal. 1870 US Census 45 year old Alpheus P Haws living in Grass Valley, Lander, Nevada with wife 34 year old Betsy, 16 year old Laura A. Haws, 13 year old Adaline G. Haws, 17 years old D C Haws, 4 year old W Haws and 2 year old Lola A. Haws. 1900 US Census 74 year old Alpheus Haws living in Oakland City, Alameda, California. Appears to be a veterans Hospital. States birthdate as Oct 1825, born In Canada, parents born in New York, immigrated in 1838, married in 1880. * Mormon Battalion members
Burial: Santa Rosa Rural Cemetery Santa Rosa Sonoma County California, USA =============================== Adeline DUNN and Alpheus HAWS BIOGRAPHY: 279.3/Ea85m Membership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints 1830-1848 By Susan Easton Black. p. 679 Gives birthdate as June 19, 1829. Reference: Nauvoo Temple Endowment Register 1845-46; Family Group sheet father and spouse; TIB BIOGRAPHY: "500 Wagons Stood Still: Mormon Battalion Wives" by Shirley N. Maynes 1999. pp 256-259 Adeline Dunn Haws--Husband: Alpheus Peter Haws--4th Sergeant-- Company D Adeline Dunn was born June 19, 1830 in Belleville, VanBuren County, Michigan to Simeon Adam Dunn and Adeline Rawson. The family was early converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints and moved to Nauvoo, Illinois to be near the Church Headquarters. It was in Nauvoo where Alpheus and Adeline become acuqainted and were married. They both received their temple endowments on December 24, 1845 and were sealed to each other on January 30, 1846. They were members of the Nauvoo 4th Ward. The family of Alpheus Haws had come from Canada and his father, Peter, was 1st Counselor to the Second Bishop of the Church George Miller. He and several other men were commanded by the Lord to build the Nauvoo House. D&C-124:66-72. After Alpheus and Adeline were married, they left Nauvoo with the Saints in their western migration. "On March 27, 1846--When their company reached Shoal Creek in the Cariton River region, where for three weeks they were delayed by the freshets, the camp was more thoroughly organized. Companies of hundreds, fifties, and tens were formed, and captains appointed over them. Each company had its own commissary, and Henry G. Sherwood, was the Commissary General. Peter Haws was one of the contracting commissaries. The Apostles, who had hitherto been acting as captains of companies, were relieved of those commands and made presidents of divisions. The camp consisted of two grand divisions, presided over by Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball; the former as President and General-inchief, directing the whole." (Our Pioneer Heritage, DUP publication Vol 5-pp69-70) By June the Haws and Dunn Families had reached Council Bluffs, Iowa. At the time of their arrival, President Brigham Young and other church leaders were recruiting men to enlist in the Mormon Battalion. Alpheus volunteered his services and became 4th Sergeant in Company "D" under the command of Captain Nelson Nelson [should read Captain Nelson Higgins]. He, and his future brotherin- law, Luther Tuttle, were both members of Company D. The evening before the Battalion left, July 19, 1846, Alpheus, Luther and John Buckman returned to Council Bluffs, where Luther Tuttle married Abigail Haws, sister of Alpheus. Adeline remained in Council Bluffs with her father and mother. In 1848 Simeon and Adeline Dunn, including their daughter, Adeline Dunn Haws, left Iowa, in the Brigham Young Company for the Salt Lake Valley. This division of 1229 Saints commenced their journey at the Elkhorn River, June 1, 1848, and arrived in Salt Lake September 20 to 24, 1848. [There are several errors here. Adeline Rawson Dunn died in Nauvoo, as did Simeon's 2nd wife, Margaret Snider. Simeon married Harriet Atwood Silver in Council Bluffs and she and 3 of Simeon's daughters crossed the plains in 1848. Adeline remained in Council Bluffs. She appears with Alpheus and his parents in the 1850 Census for Pottawattamie County, Iowa.] [Alpheus was discharged from the Mormon Battalion in July 1847.] After reaching Salt Lake Alpheus and Adeline were together again after a two and half year separation. Sadly, Adeline died January 11, 1852. Her burial place is unknown. Adeline did not leave any children. [Adeline's two infant children had died - Alpheus Peter Jr. (1849-1853), Thomas (1851-1852).] Alpheus married Adeline's sister, Betsey, and settled in brigham City, Box Elder County, Utah and reared a family of ten children. Alpheus and Betsey were baptized and confirmed members of RLDS Church on July 31, 1867 at Lander County, Nevada, by C.E. Brand. Alpheus had taken a plural wife, charlotte, and she was baptized and confirmed a member of the RLDS Church on the same day. The Alpheus Peter Haws family moved to California. Alpheus Peter Haws was born October 15, 1825, in Gosfield, Essex, Ontario, Canada to Peter Haws and Charlotte Harrington. Alpheus died November 3, 1906 and is buried in the Franklin Rural Cemetery (South of Santa Rosa, California Memorial Park on Franklin Street). Members of the Finley Park ward were assigned a service project to clean up and restore this cemetery, and while working on their project, they found a large tombstone with Sergeant Haw's name written on it. The present day Mormon Battalion organization is working with the Santa Rosa Rural Cemetery Restoration Advisory Committee to place a Mormon Battalion plague near his tombstone. Information obtained from a brief history written by David R. Freebairn and members of the Finley Park Ward Committee, Santa Rosa, California-Compilers file. L.D.S. Church records History Luther Tuttle-Utah State Historical Society Utah-Index sextion-compilers files Concise History of the Mormon Battalion in the Mexican War 1846-48 by Sgt Daniel Tyler- Roster of Company D pp122-123 and Journey from California to Salt Lake pp305-325 Heart Throbs of the West--Daughters of Utah Pioneer Publication- Dunn Family Crossing the Plains in Brigham Young Company 1848 Vol 9 pp482-483 Family Group Sheet Family Group Record obtained from the Peter Haws family-compilers file

Mormon Pioneer aunt Betsy DUNN

To add to the Pioneer History of Simeon Adams DUNN and Mary DUNN ENSIGN read the accounts of pioneering events recorded by Simeon's daughter Betsy. Betsy daughter of Adaline RAWSON and Simeon Adams DUNN, b. 22 Mar 1838 Wayne, Michigan / d. 17 Apr 1937 Oakland, California.

BIOGRAPHY OF BETSY DUNN HAWS BROWN

Betsy Dunn was born March 1939, in Michigan. She was the daughter of Simeon A. Dunn and Adeline Rawson.

Betsy walked most of the way across the plains and will tell, in her own words, some of her experiences:

“I remember so well the buffalo. There were great herds of them. I think I have seen more of them than I have of cattle, and I have seen a great many of them. It seems like the land was just covered for miles with buffalo. We would have to stop until they got past, as they were very vicious if molested. The noise was so loud it made us afraid. I was only ten years old at this time. Some of the men would follow the buffalo to get them for meat as that was about all we had. They were terrible when wounded and often would gore one to death if they got in their way.

“When we arrived at the place called Ft. Bridger we camped a short distance from the camp. That night we saw some Indians coming. We wondered what they were coming for when one young Indian left the rest and handed my sister Mary [DUNN ENSIGN] a lovely shawl and told her to go with him and be his wife. My sister Mary was a very pretty girl. We were all so afraid, and when father told him she would have to refuse we were afraid they would get ugly. They tried to get him to take the shawl back, but he just turned and rode away and never bothered us again. Mary wore the shawl out after coming to Utah. Father certainly kept her close to him the rest of the trip. Our mother died when we were in Nauvoo, Illinois.

“After we left Ft. Bridger we came across great droves of ground squirrel. We did not know what they were. They would stand up and all bark and the noise they would make. They kept barking until we all got past them.

“We passed great herds of deer and lots of antelope. They did not seem very much afraid, but would stand off and watch us.

“We had two wagons; Father drove one and Mary the other. When we came to a river that they could ford, Father would drive in and Mary would follow him. Sometimes he would have to unload one wagon and put them all upon boards where the things would not get wet. Some of the rivers were very deep and it would take a long time to get across, but our father managed it some way.

“One day I remember so well Father stopped the wagons right by a bed of prickly pears. Not noticing, Mary jumped out of the wagon right in them. We were bare footed, and oh what a time we had getting them out of her feet. Our dear father would be so careful but it did hurt her so and we all felt so bad. Her feet were sore for a long time.

“We had two cows and milked them and hitched them to the wagon in the day with one pair of oxen.

“At Winter Quarters, father met a young lady that left her home in Vermont to cast her lot with the Mormons, and they were married. She certainly helped us in the hardships we had to bear.

“We used to put the milk in a can and hang it on the back of the wagon and at night we would have butter for supper.

“One night when we camped, one of the cows found some poison parsnip. Next morning we found her cold and dead. Oh, how bad we felt, dear old Beauty, how we loved her. She was such a pretty cow. I remember her yet and I will be eighty-seven years old in March, if I live that long. (This was written in 1925; Aunt Betsy was 87 in March 1926.) We cried so hard and we missed her so much with our load, but she was dead and we had to make the best of it. But we thought of nothing else for many days.

“Mother would take pieces of buffalo robe, after she came in our family, and put the wooly side in and sew them and make us shoes. She was very handy with a needle. We girls would stand on the bank where the buffalo would come for water. Lots of the wool would catch on the willows, and we would get it and dry it. Mother had a pair of cards and we got enough wool for mother to make us stockings to wear.

“After we arrived here we found a place where there was a little volunteer wheat. We were so glad for that much. We had a little corn meal and mother used to bake a corn cake every morning, and that would do for the day. We called it johnnycake. On Sunday, mother would make some flour biscuits.

“We had to live on short rations all winter. Every morning mother would cut the cake in five pieces, one piece for each of us. Many times Mary and I would keep the most of ours and try to get Father to eat it. Dear old father, he used to be out of doors so much and work so hard to keep us from being hungry. We used to think so much of our father; he had been our mother for so long.

“Time has changed a lot since I was a girl. We had to go a mile and a half to school. We did not have any floors in the schoolhouse, and we used to get so cold the first winter.

“Oh how good it was to have white bread. How glad we were after our first crop of wheat and we had all the white bread we wanted to eat. Oh how good it was after just rations of corn bread.

“When the trains of wagons would come in and unload, we children would go and pick up any rice or coffee that would spill as some of the bags would break. We used to get fruit a lot that way. Mother made cheese and sometimes sold some, so we started to prosper.

“Then our dear Father was called to the South Sea Islands on a mission. This made it very hard for Mother and all of us. I had to herd cows where Fort Douglas is now and away across the Jordan River. Ours always was the first herd out and the last one in at night.

“I herded cows for two years and they gave me a calico dress for my work for the two years. My, I was proud of that dress. I remember so well just how it looked. I thought it was the prettiest dress I had ever seen. It was a white ground with a little leaf in it. When I had it on the girls said I was pretty. I had to take good care of it. It was a long time before I had another one.

“Well my dear niece, when you get this letter analyzed, you will think you have a funny old aunt. You had better keep this letter as it may be the last I am able to write.

Your old aunt, Betsy D. H. Brown”

Betsy Dunn Haws Brown, at fifteen years of age, married Alf Haws and went to Battle Mountains, Nevada.

She was a pioneer of that state and surely had a hard time. One of her children was born out on the prairie. She had nine children. All of Betsy’s children died early in life and she was left alone in her old age and did her own work. After that, she went to a home for old ladies in Oakland, where she died April 17, 1927.

After the death of her husband she went into the home of one of her sons-in-law to care for him and the motherless children of one of her daughters. Later she married James Brown, but he too preceded her in death.