This is from The History of Mapleton, by Ralph K. Harmer and Wendell B. Johnson, on page 162-163.
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| Mary Boggs and Stephen Chadwick Perry |
Stephen Chadwick Perry’s descendants have called him a “Monument to the pioneer spirit.” His life story and abundant posterity assume a biblical aspect. Perhaps he could be likened to a nineteenth-century Abraham. Stephen Chadwick Perry was born at Middlebury, Genesse County, New York, on December 18, 1818. His parents, Asahel Perry and Polly Chadwick, were adherents to traditional New England Protestantism until 1832 when they accepted Mormonism. Stephen, who greatly respected his father’s fundamentalist teachings, also became a member. Completely devoted to their new religion, the Perrys embarked on an uncertain, ambulatory life adventure. Where the church moved, they followed. Subsequently, they moved from New York to Kirtland, Ohio, then to Missouri, and when compelled to flee from the state under threat of extermination by an unscrupulous Ochlocratic government, they settled in Commerce, or Nauvoo, Illinois.
At Nauvoo, Stephen was ordained an elder and took his first
wife, Susannah Colista Hidden. They were married June 6, 1840. Tragedy ended
Susannah’s life after three short years of marriage. She died in childbirth,
and two days later the baby, Stephen Hidden Perry, died. The months that
followed were dark, lonely and sorrowful. His grief was consoled only by
putting the past to rest and starting life anew. A year passed and Stephen
married Anna Marie Hulett, formerly of Portage County, Ohio. They made their
home in Nauvoo where their first child, Mahonri Moriancumer Perry was born. The
child died prior to 1846 when the Mormons left Illinois.
Stephen mentions during the Nauvoo era that he was a
bodyguard of the Prophet Joseph Smith, was an intimate friend, and spoke to him
the night before the Carthage Jail assassination. The memory of that infamous
murder plot was devastating, especially to one purporting to be a bodyguard.
Stephen and Anna Maria endured many hardships incident to mobocracy and severe
weather which plagued the hurried and ill-planned exodus from Nauvoo. Anna
recalled the “bitter cold” and how the wagons “creaked on the snow as they
moved along.”
Spring arrived and the trek across the mud-laden Midwest led
them to Mt. Pisgah, Iowa. There they found refuge, good pasturage, and time to
recuperate from the past ordeal. While at Mt. Pisgah two children were born: a
daughter, Tryphena Roseltha, and a son, Lewis Rosalvo. Stephen was not present
when his son was born. He was somewhere in New York State on a proselyting mission
for the church. After he returned to Iowa, Stephen, his parents, Anna Maria and
the children joined the Bennett company of wagons for the long grueling march
across the plains.
After four exhausting months they arrived in Salt Lake
valley only to discover that their journey was not over. They were ordered to
go south to the Hobble Creek area. They were among the first wagons to arrive
there in October, 1850. A fortress of cottonwood logs was built on the
northeast section of the townsite and the families were assigned a small, crude
cabin in which to live. The Perrys lived in the fortress until the following year
when Stephen built a cabin south of the settlement and established a farm. In
1854 Stephen entered the principle of plural marriage. He took an 18 year old
woman from Kentucky, Margaret Eleanor Stewart, recently divorced, as his second
wife. The second wife had three children during her marriage to Stephen. For
unspecified reasons the marriage ended in divorce nine years later.
In 1855 Stephen was called on a mission to southern Utah to
help colonize the area. He and other Elders penetrated the blistering deserts
as far south as Las Vegas in their efforts to locate habitable settlements.
Much to the dismay of the wives back home, he was away for two years. (Not many
wives today would allow their husbands to spend two years alone in Las Vegas.)
On his return to Springville, Stephen married a third wife—Mary
Boggs, 14 year-old daughter of Francis and Evaline Boggs. She was born April
12, 1843 at Nauvoo, Illinois. Despite the 15 year difference in their ages,
they were very compatible during their 31 years of marriage. Mary bore eleven
children between 1858 and 1883; Anna Marie Hulett had six children; and
Margaret Stewart had three, making 20 children in all.
In 1877, Stephen moved his wife, Mary Boggs and family to
Union Bench to settle on acreage exempted under the Homestead Act. The bench
was sparsely populated and water was scarce, and Indians were a constant worry.
The ground yielded grudgingly to farming efforts. Summed up, it was a lonely,
difficult struggle to live in such an isolated, barren place. The Union Bench
property was used mostly as a summer home. In the winter the family returned to
Springville. This continued until 1888 when Mary decided to move to the bench
permanently.
By trade Stephen Perry made chairs. The children remembered
playing on the high stacks of unfinished frames and helping their father cure
and weave the rawhide netting which made the seat. Many of his chairs are still
in existence today. Stephen would sit on his own favorite chair, gather the children
around, and tell them of his adventures. He told about his participation in the
Black Hawk War, and how he was one of the messengers chosen to negotiate a
peace treaty with Chief Walker, whose tribe was encamped in Payson Canyon. He
related how he barely escaped death at the hands of a vengeful Indian brave—a tale
of savagery that always caught the wide-eyed imagination of the children and
enamored their father as a brave, heroic figure.
Stephen filled his third and final mission to the Eastern
States. While there he preached among his own relatives but with little
success. He spent his last years at home. His soul was tired of the strenuous
traveling which he had carried out with such zeal in his youth. He was now
content to stay home, follow his trade, and enjoy the younger children. One
afternoon while loading supplies at Springville, he slipped and fell from the
wagon, injuring himself severely. He never recovered. He was taken to his home
in Springville where he died two days later, on November 16, 1888.
