Our Brass Plates Chapter 5

Emily Amelia Stone Tuttle

  Emily Amelia Stone Tuttle, the paternal grandmother of Florence Foy, was born in 1839. This is the story of her family.

The Stones

In the early spring of 1844, Joseph Smith sent most of the Quorum of the Twelve to various parts of the U. S. on missions.  The first purpose was to preach and to testify of the restoration of the gospel.  Another reason was to campaign for Joseph Smith=s run for the office of President of the United States.  Another reason was to be sure that the Twelve were not in Nauvoo at the time of his murder so that they would not be murdered also.  Orson Pratt was therefore in Connecticut as part of that great missionary effort.  It was here that Pratt came in contact with the Stone family.  

        

Amos Pease Stone

The Lord in his wisdom brought people of various skills and educational backgrounds in contact with missionaries of the Church so that they could hear the gospel and add to the skills needed to sustain and help the new struggling Church and its members.  One such person was Amos Pease Stone.  Amos came from a long line of well educated and talented people.  His family were among some of the first to settle Connecticut.  His parents moved to upper New York about 100 miles from where the Church was restored.  Amos became trained as a machine forger for three years in near-by Massachusetts.  After his training, he worked as a blacksmith for about eighteen months in Connecticut and later worked as a gunsmith in a different city in Connecticut.  Still later he opened his own blacksmith shop in Connecticut where he met and married Amelia Bishop in 1838.  The Bishops were from a long line of educated and distinguished people as well, and were also some of the earliest settlers of Connecticut.  While living in New Haven, Connecticut, Amos helped in the construction of a steam engine and machinery for making ship engine blocks.  

On March 3, 1844 while living in Hamden, Connecticut, Amos attended his first meeting with those of the Mormon faith at the home of Merlin Jones.  That same day, Minerva Jones was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  Minerva was a close friend and former roommate of Amelia.  This was just a short time before the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph and his brother Hyrum on June 27^th of that same year.  The missionaries laboring in Hamden at that time were Orson Pratt and Ashel Lane.  The missionaries stopped at the home of Amos and Amelia while they were laboring in New Haven, Connecticut.  Their home became the stopping place whenever they were traveling in the area.  Later that year on December 3, 1844 after chopping a hole in the ice, Ashel Lane baptized both Amos and Amelia into the Church.  Their daughter Emily records that she does not know if her mother was ill before the baptism, but afterwards, she became very ill. 

Amelia told her husband that she was not long for this life and that when she died that she wanted Amos to marry her friend Minerva Jones and have her take care of their children.  At first Amelia hung onto life so that she could learn all there was about the restored gospel.  But when it was explained to her that learning continues after this life and that some of the greatest teachers like the Prophet Joseph and Hyrum, could be some of her teachers, she was content to let go of this life.  She was promised that her work would be done for her by proxy in the temple.  Amelia died on December 29, 1845.  Amos married Minerva in February of 1846.  Amos and Minerva chose to join with the saints in the west and to travel by land rather than to try to go by water.  They left on March 20, 1846 with only one of Amos and Amelia=s children.  Two sons had died in infancy.  A baby girl, Merab, was left behind with her Aunt Merab Bishop until she was a little older and then Amos would return and get her.  They traveled west with family and friends by way of Nauvoo, Illinois.  Emily, our direct line ancestor, remembered playing as a little girl along the banks of the Mississippi River and near the Nauvoo temple.  They got to Nauvoo after the temple ordinances were no longer being given.  They had to wait until the Endowment house was completed in Salt Lake to get these special blessings.   

Nauvoo, Illinois, as seen from Iowa -- late 1840s depiction

It is of interest that the Stones would travel west in the same wagon train as the Foys. 

The Stones continued their trek arriving at Council Bluffs just before the Mormon Battalion marched off to be in the Mexican war.  Like most of the saints in these winter quarters, they too became ill.  They survived a grass fire as it swept toward their camp.  The wind changed and they were saved.

Amos built a home in Kanesville, Iowa, for his family.  He took some household items that could be spared and went to Missouri where he could trade them for flour and other food items.  They moved again about two miles away where a larger cabin was built and they had land to farm.  Minerva gave birth to her first child in 1847 in this cabin.  Amos returned to Connecticut the following year in May to get his little girl.  Minerva and Emily planted and tended a garden while Amos was away.  Then in November of 1848, Amos arrived with his daughter Merab and his first wife=s family, the Bishops, and some of the Jones family of his second wife.  By 1850, they were well enough equipped that they could make their trek to Utah.

Note: This post was originally published by Leslie Tuttle Foy as Chapter 5: The Stones in "Our Brass Plates." Thanks, Uncle Les! The picture of Nauvoo was found on the website Uncle Dale's Old Mormon Articles.