Massachusetts Roots

Our Richards and Lewis (Hall–>McAllister->Young->Lewis) lines both come out of Massachusetts, in fact within a fairly small area around Boston. Cambridge, Framingham, Hopkinton, Salem, and slightly further afield in Richmond, Barnstable, and Gorham, over the border into Maine. Chris may be familiar with some of these towns. Both families were primarily farmers, the men served in the Revolutionary War as soldiers, and both before and after the war, were community leaders.

Between 1836 and 1844, only about 170 years ago, the restored gospel found both the Richards and the Lewis families. It seems hard to imagine that both families had been in Massachusetts already for about 200 years at that time. The first ancestors, Edward Richards and George Lewis, arrived in America early in the 1600s, the Richards coming from Portsmouth in Devonshire and the Lewises from Kent, England. Undoubtedly, given their Massachusetts destination, these first immigrants left England in part because of their religious beliefs. We know that the Richards family were firm members of the Congregational Church, which some consider a direct theological descendant of John Wycliffe and the Lollard movement that began in the 1300s. That being the case, it is likely the family had fallen out with the Roman Church several hundred years prior to leaving their homeland and later also shunned Henry the VIII’s self-interested coupe of the church in England. So with this background they were in the right place, right time and right frame of mind to accept the message of the restored gospel.

The history of the church and Doctrine and Covenants 111 indicate significant missionary activity in Salem, Massachusetts and around Boston in 1836. Two of these missionaries were Brigham Young and his brother Joseph. They were first cousins to Phineas Richards, whose mother was an older sister to their mother, and they introduced the family to the Book of Mormon and the restoration. At that time Phineas was 48 years old. Two of Phineas’ older sisters, Rhoda and Susanna, and his two younger brothers, Levi and Willard, joined the church. All of Phineas children also joined. The three Richards brothers spent some time in Kirtland in 1836 and 1837. Phineas’ two sons, Franklin D. and George Spencer went to Missouri after they were baptized. George Spencer Richards was killed at Haun’s Mill.

Phineas’ father, Joseph Richards, his mother, Rhoda Howe, and the older brothers did not join the church, but did give lodging and assistance to missionaries as they passed through the area.

Phineas and his wife, Wealthy Dewey, moved the family to Nauvoo while the Saints were building the temple and were sealed there. They left for Winter Quarters in May of 1846 and after more than a year there, they traveled on to Utah in 1848 in a company led by his younger brother Willard. Phineas and Wealthy lost another son during this period, Joseph William, a member of the Mormon Battalion.

Chris Hall – Peter Hall – Raona Richards Hall – Ralph Ashton Richards – Albert Damon Richards – Franklin D. Richards – Phineas Richards (and Wealthy Dewey)

Although James Lewis was born in Gorham, now in Maine, in 1814 that territory belonged to Massachusetts. His father and grandfather were some of the original inhabitants of Gorham and his father was a Methodist preacher of some prominence in the area.

After leaving home at 20 and going to sea, James tired of that life and by 1840 found himself in St. Louis where he became, in his words, “… acquainted with the persecutions of the Latter-day Saints in Missouri…”

“… sympathizing with them and … hearing the doctrine taught by them, being the same as taught by Jesus Christ and his apostles …” he “… sought diligently to know the truth …” and “... was baptized at Keokuk, Iowa by Elder Hollister and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and ordained an elder at the same time by Brother Abraham O.Smoot.”

James Lewis then traveled to Nauvoo where he “ … became acquainted with the Prophet Joseph Smith and the leading men of the church.” He was called from there to preach the gospel in the Eastern states in 1843 and he was there when the news of the martyrdom reached him. Although we don’t know for sure, he may have met Emily Jennison Holman of Cambridge, Massachusetts, during this time. We do know she was baptized in 1844, but not by him.

After returning to St. Louis, he was ordained a Seventy and served with a not-fully-identified Brother McAllister in the presidency of the 29th Quorum of Seventy. Lewis and McAllister descendants would cross paths again in Kanab, Utah and end up married to each other.

James Lewis was married to Emily Holman, fifteen years his junior, by Jedediah M. Grant in May of 1847 and they traveled to Utah in 1849 in the company of a “Brother Richards”.

Chris Hall – Peter Hall – Howard Hall – Luetta and Eleanor McAllister Hall – Ida Young McAllister – Ida Francel Lewis Young – James Lewis (and Emily Jennison Holman)