Exploring Family Search for Pioneer Ancestor: 52 Ancestors 2022 Prompt “Exploration”

Mormon Child Pioneer? Exploring Relationship to Possible Cousin Lorenzo Dow

Lorenzo Dow: 1845-1903 (Maternal Third Cousin 3x Removed)

 

I received a message from FamilySearch informing me that I had a “Pioneer Ancestor” who had “made the trek as a child”. I’d never gotten that type of message before. Since FamilySearch is affiliated with the LDS church, I realized that the “trek” referred to a Mormon wagon train, and the destination for this pioneer was Utah. Since I was unaware of having any Mormon ancestors, I decided to explore the site’s information on this young pioneer.

According to FamilySearch, my pioneer ancestor was a man named Lorenzo Dow, born in 1845 to parents Eli Lorenzo Dow and Lucy Perlina Ford. Young Lorenzo “departed on January 1, 1861” for Utah with “company unknown.” This information sounded a bit thin on facts and records. It likely meant that Lorenzo probably arrived in Utah at some point in 1861 when he was 15 years old, but that no further details were available. I doubted there were any primary sources to back up this assertion—that the information came from tales passed down by family members. I felt increasingly dubious about Lorenzo.

Also, the surname Dow was new to me. How exactly did FamilySearch believe we were related? The diagram below shows that according to FamilySearch’s wiki, our common ancestors are Samuel Daniels and Elizabeth Noble. My line comes down from their daughter Polly Daniels (my fourth great-grandmother), while Lorenzo supposedly descended from their daughter Abigail Daniels.

Abigail “Naby” Daniels, born in 1770, married Thomas Dow, born in 1769. They had several children; the oldest, David Dow, married Aphia Sambon or Sanborn, on March 11, 1813. While I was able to find their marriage record, I could not find any birth records for their two children, daughter Abigail and son Eli Lorenzo Dow. However, these children are named in at least two family histories that are available on the Ancestry site, so probably did exist.

According to one of these family histories, David Dow was a hard-drinking, abusive husband. He moved to Illinois where he worked as a smith, and finally persuaded Aphia, Eli and Abigail to join him. However, within two years, Aphia managed to acquire a divorce and returned with her children to an unspecified location in the East, possibly Vermont, New Hampshire or New York. That family history notes that the children disappear from genealogical records after that.

The FamilySearch tree records for Eli Lorenzo Dow were a bit mystifying. The only records attached to him were Mormon church records from the 1840s Mormon settlement in Nauvoo, Illinois. The first record, pictured below, was the Stake Ward Census taken in Nauvoo in 1842. Only Eli and wife Lucy appear; Lorenzo wasn’t born for another three years. Eli and Lucy had another child, a daughter born October 9, 1842 who died shortly after her first birthday on December 20, 1843, according to the Nauvoo Community Department Records.

Eli and Lucy on right, second entry from bottom

The remaining records attached to Eli are a mishmash. One is an 1850 census record for a Lorenzo Dow in Oneida, New York. He appears to be a single man lodging with another family, with no sign of wife Lucy or son Lorenzo. Why would he have left Nauvoo and returned to Oneida? Someone has also attached a census record from 1870 in St. Lawrence County New York, which from my Ancestry search obviously belonged to a totally different man named Lorenzo Dow who lived there his entire life.

Then there’s the death record from Santaquin, Utah, dated 1903. It is the same death date as his son, Lorenzo’s death. The same death record is attached erroneously to both men. I suspect they have no death record for Eli because he died back in Illinois shortly after Lorenzo’s birth. After all, Eli’s wife Lucy remarries. She appears on the 1850 census living in Pottawattamie County, Iowa as the wife of a John Miles or Mailes, another Mormon who was “endowed” at the Nauvoo Temple. How could she have remarried if her first husband was still alive, and still be a member in good standing of the Mormon Church? Divorce was discouraged.

So what records exist for my “pioneer”, Lorenzo Dow? He appears on the 1850 census under his stepfather’s name as Lorenzo Miles or Mailes. John Miles travelled to Utah with the “Fifth Ten of the First Fifty of the Fourth Hundred” handcart company around 1856, and apparently John died either enroute, or shortly after he arrived in Utah. By the time Lucy and her children arrive—including Lorenzo—in 1861, John Miles was already dead. I suspect Lorenzo accompanied his mother and half-siblings as a member of an unidentified handcart company.

Lorenzo appears to have married in 1875, choosing a much younger woman from Utah, Angeline Davis. Lorenzo would have been 30, and Angeline only 14! This is rather horrifying—in our era this was pedophilia.

By the 1880 census Lorenzo, then 34, and Angeline, supposedly 20, had three children and were farming in Provo. In an 1890 Provo City Directory he is listed as a farmer living in the 2^nd Ward on E Street between Sixth and Seventh Streets. See the Sanborn Fire Map from 1900 to see the approximate location, near a foundry and a public square.

Sanborn Fire Map of Provo Utah 1900, E St between 7th and 6th

By the 1900 census, Lorenzo and Angeline had nine children, with eight surviving. Their final child was born the following year. Sadly, Lorenzo died October 12, 1903 at the age of 58. His wife, Angeline, was about 40 and remarried the following year.

I am willing to concede that Lorenzo Dow, son of Eli Dow, was a Mormon pioneer, trekking to Utah with a hand cart group around 1861. However, I am not thoroughly persuaded that he is the grandson of David Dow, son of my fourth-great-grandaunt Abigail Daniels. The paper trail is just too thin. I have found no documents that prove the Eli Dow who lived in Nauvoo, Illinois as a member of the fledgling Mormon Church was the same Eli Dow who supposedly left Illinois with his divorced mother Aphia Dow in early childhood. Where did Aphia go? Where was Eli living between his birth and 1861? How did he become involved with the Mormons? There are so many unanswered questions to explore.

Lorenzo Dow

Lorenzo Dow was certainly a pioneer, exploring new lands and new ideas in Utah. However, his father’s past requires more genealogical exploration to verify that Lorenzo was truly related to me.  

 

Sources:

Nauvoo Stake, Nauvoo Stake Ward Census, 1842. LR 3102 27_f0004_00033

http://nauvoo.byu.edu/ViewPerson.aspx?ID=49336

Illinois, Hancock County, Nauvoo Community Project, 1839-1846 (BYU Center for Family History and Genealogy)," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QL3Z-PT1P : 23 February 2018), Eli Lorenzo Dow in entry for Abigail Dow, from 1839 to 1846; citing Residence, Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois, United States, from 1839 to 1846, Citing BYU Center for Family History and Genealogy, Provo, Utah.