Permelia Darrow

Permelia Darrow and Cornelius P. Lott

Permelia Darrow was born 15 Dec 1805 in Bridgewater, Susquehanna, PA. She  was a schoolteacher prior to her marriage. She rode 20 miles on horseback to get to her school. 

Permelia married Cornelius Peter Lott, 27 April 1823 in Bridgewater. Her husband, Cornelius Lott, was born 27 Sep 1798 in New York, the son of Pieter Lott  b. 1 May 1774, NJ and Jane Smiley b. abt. 1777, NY. Cornelius and Permelia lived in Bridgewater, Pennsylvania, where the first seven of their children were born. Later, they moved to Kirtland, OH, where their son, Joseph, was born in 1839. 

It was probably while they lived in Ohio that they became joined to the Latter Day Saints Church (commonly known as the Mormon Church whose founder was Joseph Smith.)    It appears that Permelia Darrow and Cornelius Lott were the only members of their respective families that joined the LDS church. 

From Ohio, they moved to Illinois, where Permelia gave birth their third son, Peter Lyman, in Pike County in 1842. In 1845, at Nauvoo, IL, Permelia and Cornelius buried their four-month old son, Cornelius. Their youngest son, and the last of eleven children, Benjamin, was born in Salt Lake City, UT, in 1848. 

All of the children that lived to adult age, along with their parents became prominent members of the Mormon Church. Malissa Lott, the oldest daughter became one of the wives of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon Church. (See below.)

Records show that Cornelius practiced polygamy and probably had 6 wives. Other researchers list these as: Permelia Darrow (11 children), Narcissus Rebecca Faucett/Fauset (1 child), Charity Dickinson, Jane Rogers, Elizabeth Smith, and Elizabeth Davis.

Cornelius and his eldest son, John, were among those chosen to accompany Brigham Young on his journey to Salt Lake City, completing their trip in Jul 1847. Permelia and her nine children remained in Iowa. Two of her children, Harriet Amanda and Joseph Darrow died in Oct 1847, just ten days apart, and her grandson, Lyman Cornelius (son of John Smylie) died the following month. Permelia joined a company in 1848, led by Heber C. Kimball, and traveled to Salt Lake City. After being reunited with his family for less than a year, Cornelius Lott died 6 Jul l849.

 Permelia later moved to Utah Valley, near her second daughter, Mary Elizabeth, and lived in a  covered wagon. In the spring of 1851, Permelia joined the Lehi Colony, where she and her family lived in a log cabin with a dirt floor. Her children later recalled long nights when coyotes howled in the yard. Indian trouble forced them to move to the safety of the fort, and when they could leave, they built a four-room, two-story house.

Permelia loved her fruit trees and flowers, and had a beautiful flower garden. She was also known for her willingness to help the sick and needy. Permelia died at the age of 70, and was buried next to husband in Salt Lake City Cemetery.

Children of Permelia Darrow and Cornelius Lott.

1. Malissa Lott b. 9 Jan 1824 Tunkhannock, Luzerne, PA. On 20 Sep 1843 in Nauvoo, IL she became the 12th wife of Joseph Smith. The FamilySearch Pedigree Resource File of Ancestry.Com shows that Smith had a total of 21 wives. The following information is written in the book, "The Mormon Experience, A History of the Latter-day Saints" by Leonard J. Arrington and Davis Bitton; "The number of women so sealed to Joseph Smith is not known. One biographer listed forty-eight, but many of these were undoubtedly wives in name only, officially 'sealed' to him for the future life but not living with him conjugally in the present. As for the others, abundant discussion has failed to establish whether or not Smith actually cohabited with them, and the lack of evidence of children from these relationships has not clarified the question. Several women later did testify that they were wives in the full sense of the word. Emily D. P. Partridge said she 'roomed' with him, and Melissa Lott Willes testified that she was his wife 'in every deed'.The testimony of Melissa Lott Willes can be found in: "Affidavit of Melissa Willes, 4 August 1893, in Raymond T. Bailey, 'Emma Hale, Wife of the Prophet Joseph Smith' (Master's thesis, Brigham Young University, 1952), pp 98-100."After Joseph Smith assassination in Nauvoo in 1844, Malissa moved to Utah with her mother in 1848. On May 13, 1849, she married Ira Jones Willes. The following is written about Mr. Willes and is taken from the "Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia", Volume 4, Miscellaneous Biographies by Winn, Dennis Wilson.
   "Willes, Ira Jones, a member of the Mormon Battalion, Company B, was born Jan. 21, 1812, in the State of New York, a son of Eleazer Willis and Achsah Jones. Ira joined the Church in early days and was with the saints in many of their persecutions. Having arrived on the Missouri River as an exile, together with the rest of the saints from Illinois, he enlisted in the Mormon Battalion in July, 1846, and marched as a private in Company. B to California. In 1849 (May 13), after his discharge as a soldier and his arrival in Utah he married Malissa Lott Smith, a young widow of the Prophet Joseph Smith and moved to Lehi, where he purchased a farm and became actively engaged in farming. He was accidentally killed Dec. 5, 1863, while crossing Dry Creek, near Lehi, by a load of wood overturning and burying him in the ice, together with his nine year old son, Cornelius."Some researchers show that Malissa married a third time to John Milton Bernhisel. Bernhisel was a very prominent church member who served as a delegate to congress from the Utah territory and fought very hard to have Utah admitted as a state. I have not been able to find any substantial proof of Malissa's marriage to Bernhisel.
2. John Smylie Lott b. 23 Mar 1826 in Springville, Susquhanna, PA. John Smylie Lott was an active member of the church and apparently took advantage of the polygamy aspect of the church. Records show that he married Mary Ann Faucett, 5 Apr 1846; Clarissa Cemantha Rappleye, 22 Jan 1859; and Docia Emmerine Molen 20 Jun 1862. He had children with all three women. He died 4 Aug 1894 in Joseph, Sevier, UT.
3. Mary Elizabeth Lott b. 9 Mar 1827, Susquehanna County, PA. Mary Elizabeth married Abraham Losee, 12 Nov 1848. This marriage had an issue of 6 daughters and 2 sons. Mary died 18 May 1888.
4. Almira Henrietta Lott b. 15 Dec 1829 in Bridgewater, Susquehanna, PA. On 13 Nov 1849, she married John Riggs Murdock in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, UT.
   The following is found in Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia, Volume 1, Biographies, Parkinson, William Chandler"Murdock, John Riggs, president of the Beaver Stake of Zion from 1877 to 1891, is the son of John Murdock and Julia Clapp, and was born Sept. 13, 1826, in Orange township, Cuyahoga county, Ohio. His father and mother joined the Church in November, 1830, being among the first converts to "Mormonism" in Ohio; and they became closely associated with the Prophet Joseph. The mother died in 1831, leaving a family of five children, including a pair of twins, a boy and a girl (Joseph and Julia), born at their mother's death. The twins were adopted by the Prophet and his wife and tenderly fostered. When the boy was a year and a half old, he caught the measles, and through exposure took cold and died at the time the Prophet was mobbed at Hiram in 1832. Julia remained in the family until she had grown to womanhood. After his mother's death John R. was sent with [p.305] Caleb Baldwin, sen., to Jackson county, Mo., where he lived in the family of Morris Phelps. After the Saints were driven out of Jackson county, he was baptized by his father in Clay county in the year 1834; he also passed through the mobbings and persecutions in Caldwell county. His father, after spending about five years on missions, married again, when John R. left Brother Baldwin and rejoined his father's family, with which he removed from Quincy to Nauvoo. Here he worked on the Prophet Joseph's farm about four years, and was still in the Prophet's employ at the time of the martyrdom; in the exodus from Nauvoo in 1846, John R. came west with Father Cornelius P. Lott. On his way he enlisted in the Mormon Battalion, and as a private in Company B he marched all the way to San Diego in California. After serving his time he made his way, in company with many other Battalion boys, to Great Salt Lake valley, and arrived on the present site of Salt Lake City, Oct. 12, 1847, after a tedious journey of twelve hundred miles with pack animals. He spent the winter in the "Old Fort" and married Almira H. Lott, daughter of Cornelius P. Lott. In the spring of 1851 he settled in Lehi, Utah county, being one of the early settlers of that place; and among the several positions filled by him here was that of mayor of the city. In 1856 he took a most active part in rescuing the hand-cart companies, who were perishing in the snow storms. When he brought in some of the suffering emigrants he found the snow on the Big Mountain fifteen feet deep. To many of those who crossed the plains before the Union Pacific Railroad was built, the name of John R. Murdock is very familiar. He was sent east five times as a captain of Church trains after the poor, namely in 1861, 1862, 1863, 1864 and 1868. He also carried the mails from the Valley to Independence, Mo., as an employee of the B. Y. X. Company, and in that capacity he made two round trips to the States in 1857, in unprecedented short time. In 1358 he went to Omaha as an escort to Col. Thos. L. Kane, making the round trip of 2,120 miles with the same animals in 42 traveling days. He also brought trains of merchandise for Livingston & Bell in the early days. Altogether "Captain Murdock," as he was familiarly called in early days, made eleven round trips across the plains, and has brought more "Mormon" emigrants to Utah than any other leader. He is credited with making a better record than any other man known in bringing ox and mule trains across the plains and over the mountains. In the spring of 1864 he was called and ordained to the office of a Bishop by President Brigham Young and sent to preside in Beaver, Beaver county. He occupied that position until 1877, when the Beaver Stake of Zion was organized, and he was chosen and set apart as its president. This responsible position he filled for fourteen years. He has served eight terms in the Territorial and one in the State legislature. He was also a member of the Constitutional convention, which framed the State constitution in 1895. He has also served as probate judge of Beaver county and as a colonel in the Iron County Military District. From the first Elder Murdock was one of the representative and leading men in the Church and community at large. He has occupied many positions of honor and trust in the Territory and State, and is now in his old age highly respected and beloved by the people."Almira Henrietta Lott died 16 Dec 1878 in Beaver City, Beaver, UT.
5. Permelia Jane Lott b. 2 Oct 1832 in Bridgewater, Susquehanna, PA.
   Permelia Jane married Abram Hatch, 2 Dec 1852 in Lehi, Utah, UT. The following is from Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia
   Volume 1, Biographies, Smart, William HenryHatch, Abram, president of the Wasatch Stake of Zion from 1877 to 1901, is the son of Hezekiah Hatch and Aldura Sumner, and was born Jan. 3, 1830, in Lincoln, Addison county, Vermont, in a pleasant farm house near the foot hill of the Green Mountains. He is the fourth son of a family of five sons and two daughters. His grandfather (Jeremiah Hatch) was a soldier of the Revolution and served under General Washington. Abram received a common school education in the rural district schools of Lincoln and Bristol, and had reached the age of ten years when Elder Peletiah Brown came to that section of country, preaching "Mormonism." The entire family, consisting of his grandfather and grandmother, father, mother and their children, joined the Church. His mother died in 1840, and in the fall of that year the family moved to Nauvoo, where his father bought property, opened up a farm on the prairie and built a brick house on Mulholland street, in the city, three blocks east of the Temple; he died in 1841. Abram became a member of the Nauvoo Legion and served with the posse under Col. Stephen Markham and Sheriff Jacob Backenstos in 1845. During the exodus of 1846 he rendered efficient service as captain of the numerous flat-bottomed ferry boats employed to cross the Mississippi river carrying the fleeing multitude. He was also in the first company that moved west in the main "Camp of Israel" which made its rendezvous on Sugar creek, and he drove a wagon for Joseph C. Kingsbury. He assisted to build the temporary settlement of Garden Grove, visited Missouri, and later made a trip to Pennsylvania to see some of his relatives who had identified themselves with the Rigdonite movement. He again joined the exiled Saints at Council Bluffs, Iowa, and assisted his brother Lorenzo to harvest a crop on "Brigham's Farm," near Winter Quarters, after which he went to the settlements of Missouri and there helped his brothers to earn a traveling outfit with which they with their families crossed the plains in 1850. Having spent the winter in Salt Lake City, Abram moved to Lehi, Utah county, in 1851, and assisted to build a grist mill at the mouth of American Fork canyon. Dec. 2, 1852, he married Miss Permelia Jane Lott, after which he made his home in Lehi till 1867 and assisted materially in the development of the place. He engaged in farming and stock-raising, and also kept a hotel. In 1861, in company with Captain John R. Murdock, he made a trip to the States for the purpose of bringing immigrants across the plains and buying and freighting merchandise for his store. They also freighted goods for others, and found it a profitable business. In 1863, he again went back to the Missouri river for the same purpose as in 1861. On both trips he drove a mule team in the train. Altogether he has made eleven trips between the Missouri river and Utah. In 1864-67 he filled a mission to Great Britain, where he labored as a traveling Elder in the Birmingham conference, later as president of the Manchester pastorate, and still later as president of the Birmingham pastorate. He also visited Switzerland, Germany and Holland. Returning to America, he crossed the Atlantic ocean in the steamship "Great [p.360] Eastern." He arrived home in August, 1867, and a few weeks afterwards he was called by Pres. Brigham Young to go to Wasatch county to act as presiding Bishop. He was ordained and set apart to that office Dec. 2, 1867. Under his wise and practical management Wasatch county soon became a prosperous and desirable locality and Heber City especially grew to be a town of importance. When the settlements of the Saints in Provo valley, or Wasatch county, were organized into a Stake of Zion, in 1877, Abram Hatch was appointed its president, and in that capacity he served about a quarter of a century. His duties as president were necessarily various, active and continuous. "He took a leading part in all measures adopted for the development of the resources of the county, and utilized them for building up the Stake and promoting both the material, moral and spiritual welfare of the people, in improving Church property, superintending the erection of public edifices, building roads, bridges, irrigating canals, etc." He also established a ranch in Ashley valley, where settlements of the Saints, that have since grown into a Stake of Zion, were founded. Pres. Hatch has served several times in the Utah legislature, has acted as probate judge of Wasatch county and been elected to many other offices within the gifts of the people. (See also Tullidge's Histories, Vol. 2, Bio. p. 187.)
   Permelia Jane Lott died 28 Nov 1880 in Heber City, Wasatch, UT.
6. Lucinda Alzina Lott b. 4 Mar 1834 in Tuckhannock, Luzerne, PA. She married William Sydney Smith Willes, 23 Apr 1852 in Lehi, Utah, UT. Lucinda and William had ten children.
   William Sydney  was born 18 Mar 1819 in Jefferson, Cole, MO, the son of Eleazer Willes/Willi and Achasah Jones. He practiced polygamy being married to both Lucinda Alzina Lott and Docia Emmerine Molen. He married Docia 15 Feb 1857. William died 3 Feb 1871 in Lehi, UT.
   Lucinda Alzina Lott died 18 Aug 1910 in Lehi, Utah, UT.
7. Harriet Amanda Lott b. 30 Mar 1836 in Tunckhannock, Luzerne, PA. d. 5 Oct 1847 at age 11.
8. Joseph Darrow Lott b. 18 Feb 1839 in Kirtland, Lake, OH. d. 15 Oct 1847 at age 8.
9. Peter Lyman Lott b. 2 Nov 1842 in Pittsfield, Pike, IL. Peter married Sarah Hannah Snow, 23 Dec 1862. Other researchers show that they had an issue of 9 children.
   Peter Lyman Lott died 1 Mar 1906 in Lehi, Utah, UT.
10. Cornelius Carlos Lott b. 30 Sep 1844 in Nauvoo, Hancock, IL and died 6 Jan 1845.
11. Benjamin Smith Lott b. 16 Nov 1848 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, UT. Benjamin married Mary Abigail Evans 25 Oct 1869. They had 8 children.
    Benjamin Smith Lott died 26 Mar 1923 in Lehi, Utah, UT.