LIFE STORY OF GILBERT BELNAP

Gilbert Belnap was born on 22 December 1821 in Port Hope, New Castle, Upper Canada (now Port Hope, Durham, Ontario, Canada). He was the fifth of eight children born to his parents, Rosel Belnap and Jane Richmond, both of whom had been born in New York. Gilbert’s paternal grandfather, Jesse Belnap, fought in the American Revolution. His maternal grandparents, members of the Society of Friends, had left the United States for Canada shortly after the Revolution.

Gilbert’s father was a sporting man who raised purebred race horses. It is said that Gilbert, who grew up around horses, inherited his great love for horses from his father. On 2 December 1832, shortly before Gilbert’s eleventh birthday, Gilbert’s father was killed in a horse racing accident in Whitby, New Castle, Upper Canada. Three months later, on 3 March 1833, Gilbert lost his mother. Gilbert may have next lived briefly with a relative, Ichabod Richmond, about this time.

Orphaned and with little education, Gilbert had been previously bound, pursuant to an apprenticeship indenture entered into on 13 January 1832, as an apprentice to William C. Moore for 9 years 240 days, to learn the trade of wheelwright and wagon maker. In 1834, Mr. Moore, who was deeply in debt, left Canada, taking Gilbert with him, first to Wilson, Niagara, New York. After a brief period of prosperity, Mr. Moore, on account of alcohol, had soon reduced his family again to poverty. During this time, Gilbert was subjected to frequent abuse.

Learning from a justice of the peace, who asked Gilbert why he remained with such a drunken tyrant, that he was no longer bound to Mr. Moore outside of Canada, Gilbert determined to return home. He left New York for Canada in search of his brothers and living sister.

Upon his return home, Gilbert learned that his oldest brother, Jesse, pursuant to the hereditary laws in effect in Canada at that time, had meanwhile taken possession of the family’s home and squandered away the family’s wealth. As a result, the younger children had been forced to seek residence with strangers. Incensed at this injustice committed by his brother, Gilbert, still a young teenager, determined to make his own way in the world.

With his youngest brother Thomas (who was at that time about five years old) by his side, Gilbert struck out. After walking for three days and only thirty miles from home, they took up residence with a Christian preacher by the name of Stone, from whom Gilbert earned $5.00 per month, part of which went towards the board and education of Thomas. Thomas was later placed with a Quaker family by the name of Sing, while Gilbert remained with Mr. Stone until 1837.

During the boundary dispute of 1837 to 1839 between Great Britain and the United States, Gilbert attached himself to an American company of light horse rangers and was soon promoted to the active rank of first sergeant. Taken prisoner and held in Toronto for nearly ten months, Gilbert suffered greatly from malnourishment and the effects from being shackled with sixty pounds of irons.

On 19 June 1839, Gilbert and four other American prisoners of war were escorted to Lewiston, on the Canada-New York border, where they were released by their British captors to a cheering crowd of thousands of Americans. They traveled to Niagara Falls, then went on to Buffalo, where they stayed eight days in a hotel free of charge. In Buffalo they also celebrated the Fourth of July.

Gilbert found work in Buffalo at a carriage shop. He remained there until the fall of 1839, when he decided to spend the winter in New Orleans. In October 1839, he sailed to Cleveland, then traveled to Portsmouth on the Ohio River. On his way down the Ohio River to Cincinnati, Gilbert met with a life-threatening experience, which caused him to turn back. He took a stage for Chillicothe, Ohio, then traveled by boat back to Cleveland, where he remained until January 1840, obtaining employment from a carriage maker named Hurlbert.

Gilbert then moved to nearby Newbedford, Ohio, where he obtained employment with a country mechanic named Abner Cleveland. While residing in Newbedford, Gilbert overheard a conversation between Mr. Cleveland and a Mr. Salisbury about nearby Kirtland and the Mormon Temple. Intrigued, Gilbert struck out three days later for Kirtland. Impressed by the Temple, he ended up staying in Kirtland, first taking up a small job of chopping and then working for a Presbyterian named Crary for eight months on his farm.

In the winter of 1840-1841, Gilbert attended school in Kirtland and formed a close acquaintance with several Mormon families. He soon satisfied himself that they lived their religion better than any other people he had known. Prior to this time, Gilbert had sought to obtain religion among the Methodists and the “Mourner’s Bench.” In Kirtland Gilbert became converted to the truthfulness of the Latter-day Saint religion and determined to join the Church, although at some future date, feeling that there was plenty of time yet to do so.

After writing several letters to reestablish contact with his siblings, Gilbert by prior appointment rendezvoused with his older brother John on 10 September 1841 in North East, Erie, Pennsylvania at the home of their grandfather, Jesse Belnap, whom Gilbert had never met before. Gilbert stayed in North East for about two weeks, becoming acquainted with some of his father’s relatives. Although not yet baptized, Gilbert discussed with them principles of Mormonism.

Gilbert’s grandfather Jesse Belnap had promised to give $1,000 to the first one of his grandchildren to come see him. Because Gilbert reached his grandfather’s home first, Jesse gave Gilbert the money, which was deposited in the bank to Gilbert’s credit.

Returning to Kirtland, Gilbert continued laboring for Mr. Crary. In the winter of 1841, Gilbert met with a serious accident that fractured his skull in three places and dislocated his right shoulder and left ankle. He was confined to his bed from 23 December 1841 until 13 April 1842, during which time he was treated by an LDS family by the name of Dixon.

On 12 April 1842, Gilbert covenanted before God and a witness named Jeremiah Knight that if God would raise him up from his bed he would follow the restored Gospel. Within the space of eight hours Gilbert was miraculously healed. He continued working on the Crary farm but also continued to put off baptism for a season.

On 4 July 1842, Gilbert encountered the son of an old enemy from his youth while attending a party in nearby Painesville. As a result of injuries sustained from a serious fight, Gilbert waited until there were no marks of violence on his body before being baptized.

Gilbert was baptized into the LDS Church in Kirtland on 11 September 1842 by Alfred Dixon, and was confirmed by Lester Brooks and John Norton. Less than one month after his baptism, at a conference held in Kirtland on 6 October 1842, Gilbert was called to serve a mission for the LDS Church to New York State. On 18 October 1842, Gilbert was ordained an Elder by Lyman Wight.

Before leaving on his first mission, Gilbert again visited his grandparents’ home in North East, Erie, Pennsylvania. An uncle who was a minister followed Gilbert back to Kirtland and attempted, for two days, to persuade Gilbert to leave the LDS Church, to no avail.

On 17 December 1842, Gilbert left for New York on his first mission, visiting again with his relatives in Pennsylvania on the way to his field of labor. Gilbert assisted in raising up branches of the Church in the western and central parts of upstate New York, baptizing with his companions over 70 people. His labors were primarily centered in Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Erie, Genesee, Livingston, Steuben, Ontario, and Yates Counties. As a missionary, he worked for a season with John P. Greene in Batavia. Gilbert suffered many deprivations associated with missionary service without purse or scrip. At the end of his mission, Gilbert walked the entire distance from Penn Yan, Yates, New York to Kirtland in mid-summer 1843, returning home due to poor health.

Four weeks after returning to Kirtland, Gilbert commenced studies at a Kirtland seminary. When the seminary was forced to close, Gilbert resumed preaching the Gospel for about two months in and about Wooster, Wayne, Ohio, where his uncle Ira Belnap resided. Back in Kirtland, Gilbert attended school, where he boarded with the family of Reuben McBride, an uncle of both of Gilbert’s future wives.

On 15 May 1844, Gilbert set out for Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois in company with three companions. At Wellsville on the Ohio River, one of their number turned back; the rest boarded the steamboat “Lehi” for St. Louis. Gilbert, upon learning of other Latter-day Saints on board the steamboat who, due to lack of funds, had passage only as far as Cincinnati, agreed to pay for their passage to Nauvoo if they would pay him back as soon as their circumstances would permit. On the steamboat Gilbert also had charge of three tons of groceries donated for the building of the Nauvoo House, which he freighted through to Nauvoo under the direction of Lyman Wight.

Gilbert arrived in Nauvoo late in the evening of 1 June 1844 without a single coin in his pocket; that first night he slept in the open air on a naked slab. The next day he viewed the rising foundations of the Temple and other places within Nauvoo. Gilbert met the Prophet Joseph Smith for the first time on 3 June 1844. Gilbert’s account of his initial impression of Joseph Smith has often been quoted as one of the most eloquent first impression descriptions of the Prophet.

One family story relates that upon their first meeting, the Prophet tripped Gilbert. When Gilbert got to his feet he said to Joseph Smith, “If you can throw me down you cannot outrun me.” Joseph replied, taking Gilbert by the hand, “Young man, we have work for you.”

Within less than a week after arriving in Nauvoo, on 6 June 1844, Gilbert was baptized in the Nauvoo Temple as proxy for his deceased parents and older sister Louisa.

Soon after arriving in Nauvoo, Gilbert boarded at the house of John P. Greene, with whom he had labored as a missionary in 1842 in New York, and became a workman in the shop of Thomas Moore. Gilbert was also immediately employed by Joseph Smith to perform various special duties. He was also hired by Brigham Young to take care of his horses. That Gilbert was taken into the confidence of the leaders of the Church so swiftly after his arrival in Nauvoo reveals much about his loyalty and trustworthiness as a new member in the Church.

One of Gilbert’s special assignments was to attend a meeting of anti-Mormons held on 17 June 1844 in Carthage, the county seat of Hancock County, Illinois. Before going, Gilbert was promised by Joseph Smith that not one hair of his head would fall to the ground. In Carthage, Gilbert, upon hearing a Missourian boast about murdering Mormons, chastised the man, whereupon the Missourian thrust a hunting knife at Gilbert’s bowels. The knife penetrated all of Gilbert’s layers of clothing but did not injure him. The Missourian miraculously fell unconscious. Others called for Gilbert’s life, but eventually Gilbert was invited to sit in council with delegates from other parts of the country where he learned of plans from the gathering mob in Carthage to attack Nauvoo and kill Joseph Smith. After the meeting, Gilbert hurried back to Nauvoo, but not without close pursuit. Gilbert pushed his horse so hard that it collapsed broad-side in the mud just as he arrived in Nauvoo. Muddied, Gilbert rushed to the Prophet and reported on what he had learned.

The following day, Gilbert and Cyrus Canfield signed an affidavit regarding the threats they had heard made against Joseph Smith in Carthage. (See History of the Church, 6:502-3.) On 21 June 1844, affidavits made by Gilbert and several others were presented before the Nauvoo City Council. A man deputized to take the sworn statements to Governor Thomas Ford of Illinois was waylaid by the Carthaginians. As a result, Gilbert’s real name was made known to the Prophet’s bitterest enemies.

Less than two weeks later, Gilbert was in the entourage that escorted Joseph Smith and others to Carthage. In Carthage, Gilbert witnessed at least a portion of the legal proceedings against Joseph Smith. On 26 June 1844, approximately ten men, including Gilbert, stayed in the downstairs room of the Carthage Jail all night (Gilbert reportedly slept on the floor), where they remained until two o’clock the next day, while Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith, John Taylor, and Willard Richards were upstairs.

At 2:00 in the afternoon of 27 June 1844, Joseph Smith came to the upstairs window of the Carthage Jail and admonished Gilbert and the other guards to return home for the sake of their own lives. He said, “Go home, brethren, you can do me no good.” Gilbert and the few remaining brethren in Carthage were expelled at bayonet point after Governor Ford had left for Nauvoo.

Governor Ford arrived in Nauvoo but without Joseph Smith, as promised. He stayed briefly in Nauvoo, then headed back to Carthage, on the way meeting George D. Grant bearing the news of the martyrdom. Grant was returned to Carthage by Governor Ford to give the Governor more distance between him and the people of Nauvoo.

Some time after Governor Ford left Nauvoo, Gilbert and Orrin Porter Rockwell headed back to Carthage on horseback as scouts, concerned about the safety of Joseph Smith. On the road to Carthage they met Brother Grant as he was coming to relay to Nauvoo, now for the second time, the news of the martyrdom. Chasing Grant was a mob, firing to stop him. Gilbert and Porter Rockwell dismounted and took cover and waited for Brother Grant to pass before shooting back. The first man chasing Grant fell and the mob retreated. Gilbert and Porter Rockwell were apparently the first Latter-day Saints who had not been in Carthage at the time of the martyrdom to hear the tragic news. Gilbert witnessed the procession on 28 June 1844 bearing the bodies of Joseph and Hyrum Smith back to Nauvoo.

Gilbert deeply loved the Prophet Joseph Smith. It was said that, for the rest of his life on each 27 June at the time of Joseph Smith’s martyrdom, Gilbert would mark the fateful hour in silent remembrance of Joseph Smith. (Gilbert’s mother-in-law, Martha McBride Knight Smith Kimball, requested a lock of Joseph Smith’s hair from the center of the back of the Prophet’s head. This lock of hair, which was placed in a gold locket, remains today in the possession of one of Gilbert’s descendants.)

During the October 1845 General Conference, Gilbert was ordained a Seventy by Israel Barlow, joining the Sixth Quorum of Seventies. On 21 December 1845, Gilbert married Adaline Knight. Adaline was the third child born to Vinson Knight (a former Bishop in Nauvoo who was deceased at the time of the marriage) and Martha McBride (who earlier, in the summer of 1842, had been sealed to Joseph Smith). On their wedding day, Gilbert was one day short of this twenty-fourth birthday and Adaline was just 14 years old. They were married by Heber C. Kimball in Adaline’s father’s sturdy red-brick two-story home on Main Street, said to be the first brick house in Nauvoo (this home is still standing). Gilbert first met Adaline in that home when he accompanied Adaline's uncle, Reuben McBride, to the home of Reuben's sister Martha.

On 5 January 1846, shortly after their marriage, Gilbert and Adaline received their endowments in the Nauvoo Temple. (There is no record of Gilbert and Adaline having been sealed to each other in the Nauvoo Temple at this time.) Adaline’s sister Rizpah and her husband Andrew Smith Gibbons were also endowed on this day. Three weeks after receiving their endowments, Adaline’s mother married Heber C. Kimball on 26 January 1846 in the Nauvoo Temple “for time.”

Following Joseph Smith’s death, Gilbert continued to be heavily involved in promoting the safety of the Latter-day Saints in Nauvoo as persecutions against the Mormons continued. In the fall of 1845, Gilbert and another man, both on horseback, scouted out an anti-Mormon encampment of two thousand men. They waited until dark to return to Nauvoo and reported their findings to Brigham Young. On another occasion in the fall of 1845, Gilbert rode with 250 men led by Hancock County Sheriff J. B. Backenstos in an all-night defensive foray against an anti-Mormon mob, arriving at the farm of Edmund Durfee as it was burning. At daybreak, Gilbert and the others pursued the fleeing anti-Mormon mob.

On 23 December 1845, two days after his marriage to Adaline, Gilbert followed behind the retinue carrying off William Miller to Carthage. Miller, who was wearing articles of clothing belonging to Church leader Brigham Young when he exited the Nauvoo Temple, had been “arrested” in the mistaken belief that Miller was Brigham. Following the discovery of the mistaken identity, it was Gilbert who brought the “Bogus” Brigham back to Nauvoo, riding Brigham Young’s horse “Old Tom.”

In early February 1846, Gilbert and Adaline were forced to flee from Nauvoo. Gilbert, a trained wagon maker, had made their wagon with his own hands before leaving. He and Adaline also owned their own team of horses. Adaline’s mother Martha also owned a team of horses and a wagon, although not a new one. Gilbert took his mother-in-law Martha across the Mississippi on the prized black horse “Joe Duncan” that once belonged to Joseph Smith.

In Iowa, Gilbert, Adaline, Adaline’s mother Martha, and her brother James Vinson Knight briefly stayed with their McBride relatives, who already lived on the Iowa side of the Mississippi. (The McBrides were also the relatives of Gilbert’s future second wife.) While encamped in Iowa, Gilbert and Adaline made several trips with their wagon back to Nauvoo after provisions, crossing on the ice of the frozen Mississippi before it melted. The last trip they took to Nauvoo was on the back of “Old Tom.” By then the river ice was breaking up. When they came near the edge of a block of ice, it would tip and the horse would jump to the next block. Thus, jumping from once block of ice to another, they crossed the Mississippi for the last time.

Gilbert and his family continued their trek across Iowa to the Missouri River during the spring and summer of 1846. When the Mormon Battalion was mustered into service in July 1846, Gilbert’s services as a wheelwright and carpenter were much in demand. After the Mormon Battalion departed for California, Adaline drove their wagon team the rest of the way across Iowa to the Missouri River, stopping at Cold Springs, a temporary resting place on the west side of the Missouri River. With the departure of 500 able-bodied men, Gilbert was probably required to leave Adaline to help move the other Saints across Iowa.

Gilbert rejoined Adaline later in the summer of 1846 at Cold Springs. Joining them there were Adaline’s sister Rizpah and her husband Andrew S. Gibbons. From Cold Springs they moved to Cutler’s Park, a temporary camp of two large squares made up of two camp divisions, with Brigham Young’s camp on the south and Heber C. Kimball’s on the north. Since Gilbert’s mother-in-law Martha was now married to Heber C. Kimball, Gilbert’s family probably resided in the north square.

On 19 September 1846, word was received in Cutler’s Park that men with U.S. Army horses had been spotted along the Missouri River; it was presumed that they were waiting to kidnap members of the Church’s Quorum of Twelve Apostles. That night, Gilbert and George Washington Langley were sent by Hosea Stout on a reconnaissance mission to scout out the east side of the Missouri River in order to verify the presence of the possible raiding party, search for troop hiding places, and generally explore the surrounding land.

A few days thereafter, the Mormons moved to a new location they named Winter Quarters, where Gilbert built two little log huts or cabins--one for his family and one for his mother-in-law Martha. In late September 1846, Gilbert received a letter through William Cutler from his cousin Mary Belnap Paine in Nauvoo, describing the mid-September “Battle of Nauvoo.” (Mary, the closest relative in Gilbert’s own family to also join the Church, was baptized in 1841.) Mary and her husband Samuel Langdon Paine, Jr., a clerk working with the Trustees appointed to remain behind in Nauvoo and administer the affairs of the Church following the exodus, never rejoined the main body of the Church.

After providing his family with wood and other comforts, Gilbert and one other traveled to Savannah, Missouri for wheat that had been purchased by the Church. After a cold and disagreeable trip of six weeks, they returned in safety to Winter Quarters. During Gilbert’s absence, on 8 January 1847, Adaline gave birth in Winter Quarters to her and Gilbert’s first child, Gilbert Rosel Belnap. (Gilbert Rosel was born two weeks after two more births in the family--one to Adaline’s mother Martha, who gave birth to a son by Heber C. Kimball (this child died as an infant), and the other to her sister Rizpah, who gave birth to her first child, Martha Sarah Gibbons).

In early 1847, Gilbert and his brother-in-law Andrew S. Gibbons went to Brigham Young and volunteered to be in the first pioneer company to the West. President Young told these two newly married men that only one could come with him, and that the other must stay and care for the three Knight women and their young children. At Brigham Young’s suggestion, Gilbert and Andrew cast lots; Andrew won the draw. Later that spring, in June 1847, Abigail Mead McBride, the grandmother of Gilbert’s wife Adaline and his future wife Henrietta McBride, departed for Utah in the Edward Hunter Company.

In the latter part of the winter, Gilbert was called on a mission to assist the Saints who were stranded on the eastern borders of Iowa. Two weeks before he was to depart, however, Gilbert’s eyes became sore and soon he was entirely blind. The blindness, which was fortunately temporary, prevented him from service.

In the spring of 1847, Gilbert made another three-week trip to Missouri. He returned long enough to plant thirteen acres of corn and vegetables for his family, then returned again to Missouri to labor. He returned to Winter Quarters before the harvest of 1847, where he remained with his family until December 1847.

Accompanied by his brother-in-law Andrew S. Gibbons, who by that time had returned from the Salt Lake Valley, Gilbert went back to Missouri in December 1847 where he worked covering wagons until April 1848. While working in Missouri, he built a log cabin for his family in Fremont County, Iowa, which they moved into in the spring of 1848. Gilbert also established a shop for himself and obtained all the work he was able to perform. On 11 May 1849, Adaline gave birth in Fremont County, Iowa to her and Gilbert’s second child, John McBride Belnap.

By 1850, Gilbert’s family was ready to emigrate to Utah. They had secured two oxen for the trip, which they named “Duke” and “Dime,” and one cow, named “Beaut.” Gilbert had also built another wagon for their journey.

Gilbert departed for Utah with his young family, consisting, in addition to himself, of his wife Adaline and their two small sons, on 15 June 1850 in the Warren Foote Company, 2nd hundred. Gilbert served as the captain of the fifth ten. Also in the emigrant company were his mother-in-law Martha and James V. Knight. In the official record of the Warren Foote Company, Gilbert is listed as taking one wagon, four persons, four cattle, and no horses or sheep.

Shortly after starting their journey, a daughter of John Titcomb, about 10 years old, was run over by a wagon, breaking her leg between her knee and the trunk of her body. Gilbert performed his first surgical operation ever and the girl’s leg healed fine.

One week after departing for the West, Gilbert and Adaline’s second son, John McBride Belnap, took ill in the evening of 21 June 1850 with a cholera plague that was sweeping the camp. At the same time, Adaline and her mother Martha also became ill. The thirteen-month-old child died in the latter part of the night on 22 June 1850 and was buried in the morning near the confluence of Salt Creek and the Platte River, on the east side of the Saline Ford (near present-day Ashland, Saunders, Nebraska). Gilbert emptied his tool chest, which was made of oak boards and which dovetailed together with a tight-fitting lid, and placed the boy’s body, wrapped in a blanket, inside. John McBride Belnap was just learning to talk when he died. When Adaline would hold to his dress to keep him from falling out of the wagon, he would say in his baby way, “Take care.”

Gilbert and his family experienced many hardships while crossing the plains, primarily as a result of severe outbreaks of cholera, which were confined mostly to Gilbert’s ten. Along the way they witnessed the disturbed graves of many emigrants. As Gilbert’s family neared the mountains, one of their oxen became so weak that he could not get on his feet in the morning. They were compelled to hitch their milk cow Beaut in its place and drive on. The wagon was too heavy for the strength of the cow, so some of the load was put into Martha’s wagon. (One variation states that eventually the cow died; Gilbert’s wagon was sold for a trifle and his and Adaline’s things were moved into Martha’s wagon.)

Gilbert and his family arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on 17 September 1850. Two weeks later, they were sent by Brigham Young to settle in Ogden, Weber, Utah (which was then also known as Brownsville). Adaline and their son Gilbert Rosel walked most of the way. The family forded the Weber River near where the old Bamberger railroad bridge was later built (where 33rd Street and the Weber River formerly met).

Arriving in Ogden, Gilbert’s family first took up residence for several days within the old Goodyear Fort on the east side of the Weber River. This fort, called by its builder Miles Goodyear Fort Buenaventura, had been moved in early 1850 by Captain James Brown to higher ground a quarter mile southeast from its original location.

The first permanent home in Utah of Gilbert and his family was a dugout on the south side of Canfield Creek in Sullivan (or Bunker’s) Hollow (at about 30th Street and Madison Avenue) at the bottom of the hill. Gilbert made all the furniture for his family, including a table from the wagon box in which they had crossed the plains. In the 1850 United States Census, “Gilbert Belknap,” a cooper residing in Weber County, is listed as owning no real property.

Shortly after arriving in Ogden, Gilbert was coming home from the north part of the settlement with his mother-in-law Martha on his wagon, which was driven by oxen. As they were coming down the steep hill (along what is now Madison Avenue), the oxen could not hold the wagon and began to run (another version states the wagon hit a stump). Martha was thrown beneath the wagon, which ran over her. Martha’s lifeless body, found lying face down in the dust, was carried by Gilbert back to their dugout home and the neighbors gathered around to help revive her. After she recovered, Martha said that she saw her body as it lay in the dust and at the house, as if she was standing to one side with the rest of the people looking on.

After completing a small job of hewing logs for Captain Brown, Gilbert commenced planting a farm, sowing thirteen acres of wheat and a variety of other vegetables. Gilbert built a little log house of cottonwood logs (a little south of present-day 31st Street below Sullivan Road) near their first dugout home below the brow of the hill (on property later called Woodmansee’s farm), and in the spring of 1851 built over one mile of fence.

Soon after arriving in Utah, Gilbert began a life of almost continuous public service. In the fall of 1850, Gilbert was selected Marshal of Ogden by the Common Council. In February 1851, after Ogden was incorporated as a city, Gilbert was again appointed Marshal, remaining in this position until 1854. Gilbert’s first duty as Marshal was serving process on someone for traducing the character of Brigham Young and others. On another occasion, a company of men from Missouri arrived at Brown’s Fort after the ferry across the Weber River had been tied up for the night. They prevailed upon Captain Brown to take them across the river by offering extra money, but then after crossing refused to pay. A complaint was signed and Gilbert was sent to collect the money or bring the captain of the company into court. Gilbert took the captain, who was cursing the Mormons, by the coat collar and hauled him to the court house, where the captain paid all charges and was released.

Gilbert, appointed as the first sexton of Ogden, attended the burial of the first person in the Ogden City Cemetery, that of Charles F. Butler in 1851. Gilbert was released from this office on 15 April 1854.

On 14 June 1851, Adaline gave birth in Ogden to her and Gilbert’s third child, Reuben Belnap. In July 1851, difficulty arose between the white settlers and a small band of Snake Indians, which resulted in the taking of several horses on both sides and the killing of one Indian. Gilbert reportedly led a group of settlers against the Indians and the band was driven into the mountains for that season.

On 26 June 1852, Gilbert was sealed by Brigham Young in the President’s Office in Great Salt Lake City to Adaline, his wife of six and one-half years, and to Henrietta McBride. Henrietta McBride, who had emigrated to Utah in the fall of 1851 and had settled in Farmington, Davis, Utah, was a first cousin to Adaline. She was the daughter of James McBride (brother of Adaline’s mother Martha) and Betsy Mead. Her father James had died on 13 August 1839 in Pike County, Illinois.

As plural wives of Gilbert, Adaline and Henrietta were very close. Their children were also very close. The children of one wife would call the other wife “aunt” and consistently referred to their siblings, from whichever mother and in whatever context, as “brother” or “sister.”

Gilbert’s two families initially resided together in a log house located on the south side of 6th Street between Franklin and Young Streets (on present-day 26th Street between Grant and Lincoln Avenues, about 200 feet east of the present 2nd Ward) in Ogden. (A natural spring in the immediate vicinity, known as Belnap Spring, was located just east of the Second Ward Meetinghouse on the northeast corner of 26th Street and Grant Avenue. In later years this spring was used by the 2nd Ward to water the grass.)

On 2 August 1852, Gilbert was elected to the office of Poundkeeper for Weber County. Shortly after her marriage to Gilbert, Henrietta lost her daughter Annetta (of whom Gilbert was not the father), who died on 26 November 1852 and was buried in the Ogden City Cemetery in the Gilbert Belnap family plot.

On 26 January 1853, Adaline gave birth in Ogden to her and Gilbert’s fourth child, Joseph Belnap. On 5 February 1853, Gilbert was appointed Attorney for the First and Second Wards of Ogden. Gilbert was the only attorney in Ogden during the city’s first twenty years of its history. In the spring of 1853, Gilbert sold his farm to John Poole. On 31 August 1853, Henrietta gave birth in Ogden to her and Gilbert’s first child, William James Belnap. On 22 October 1853, Gilbert was elected and commissioned as First Lieutenant of Company B of Battalion of Cavalry of the Weber Military District of the Nauvoo Legion and of the Militia of the Territory of Utah. In the fall of 1853, Gilbert recorded that he built a small adobe house in Ogden. Presumably, this was an attachment to the west side of his log home on 6th (now 26th) Street. The east room of this house was a log cabin and the west room was made of adobe and faced north.

In the early days of settlement, Brigham City joined with Ogden in a Fourth of July celebration, which was held at the Hot Springs north of Ogden. Chester Loveland (who also came to Utah in 1850 in the Warren Foote Company) and Gilbert were picked for a wrestling match. Gilbert won the honors. At the high jump event, Gilbert cleared the bar at the six-foot level.

An early family story relates some of the humorous events that befell Gilbert as a new settler in Utah. Once, Gilbert made a harness out of rawhide. As a result, the straps would stretch and they would have to keep being tied up. On another occasion, Gilbert’s buckskin pants stretched after they got wet, so he cut them off. When they dried, they were, it is said, “a heap too short.”

During the summer of 1854, Gilbert raised no field wheat, but made one trip near Goose Creek Mountain (in the extreme northwest corner of present-day Box Elder County, Utah) with flour to sell to California-bound emigrants. He returned with little profit; the inconvenience, profanity, and drunkenness he experienced caused him to never attempt such an excursion again. On 7 August 1854, Gilbert was again elected to the office of Poundkeeper for Ogden City, resigning in April 1855 when he was called to the Salmon River Mission. On 24 September 1854, Gilbert received his first Patriarchal Blessing in Ogden at the hands of Patriarch Isaac Morley. Gilbert remained in Ogden during that fall and winter of 1854-1855.

On 24 March 1855, Gilbert was appointed Marshall and Prosecuting Attorney for Ogden. As early in the spring of 1855 as possible, Gilbert sowed ten acres of wheat. At General Conference on 6 April 1855, Gilbert was called to the Salmon River Mission. Gilbert was set apart as a missionary in Ogden on 26 April 1855 by Apostle Lorenzo Snow. On 15 May 1855, Gilbert dedicated himself and his family to the Lord, and on 16 May 1855, Gilbert, in company with 11 wagons and 27 men, left Adaline and Henrietta behind with three little boys and one little boy, respectively. At the time of Gilbert’s departure, Adaline and Henrietta were both pregnant. The summer of 1855, marked by disastrous grasshopper plagues, was followed by bitter cold and tremendous snows, resulting in Ogden’s “Hard Winter” of 1855-1856. It is evident from surviving correspondence that Gilbert’s wives suffered greatly during his absence. About this time, Brigham Young told Gilbert that as long as Gilbert shared his wheat with others, he would always have never less than six inches of wheat in the bottom of his wheat bin.

Gilbert worked hard at helping the Salmon River Mission succeed. He turned the first plow in that part of North America and raised the first picket of the fort’s walls. Gilbert built cabins, constructed fences, made a water ditch, constructed a windlass for digging a well, hauled and hewed logs, repaired wagons and wagon wheels, cut hay, grubbed willows, made various articles of furniture, made articles of clothing for his children, engaged in trade, made cooper ware, carved knife handles and combs, built corrals, made saddles, cooked, fished for salmon and hunted wild game for food, made a butter churn and churned butter, made snowshoes, and constructed a water wheel for a grist mill. On one hunting trip he climbed the Continental Divide. On another, on a mountain east of the fort, he killed one sheep weighing 72 pounds, which he carried back on his shoulder at least six miles.

Gilbert occasionally suffered physical hardships during his service at Fort Lemhi. In the spring of 1856, Gilbert contracted mountain fever. On other occasions at Fort Lemhi he suffered a cut hand and toothache.

As a missionary at Fort Lemhi, Gilbert learned the Shoshone language and assisted in the conversion of several Indians. At one Sunday meeting, Gilbert spoke to the natives in their own tongue and after the meeting fourteen were baptized. Gilbert also taught Indian children their ABC’s. Gilbert was rebaptized twice at Fort Lemhi: on 8 July 1855 and 9 November 1856.

Gilbert returned to Ogden at least twice on resupply trips for the Salmon River Mission. On 13 August 1855, he left for Ogden in company with six other missionaries to gather supplies for the mission, arriving in Ogden on 26 August. While in Ogden, Gilbert gathered supplies for his family, hauled wood for the winter, and gathered donations for the mission. On 17 September 1855, Adaline gave birth in Ogden to her and Gilbert’s fifth child, Martha Jane Belnap. Three days later, on 20 September 1855, Henrietta gave birth in Springville, Utah, Utah to her and Gilbert’s second child, Oliver Belnap. (Henrietta had gone to Springville at the time of Oliver’s birth to be at the home of her mother at the time of confinement.) On 18 October 1855, Gilbert left Ogden with 5,895 pounds of flour and 87 bushels of wheat, arriving back at Fort Lemhi on 17 November 1855 after many hardships.

On 30 June 1856, Gilbert departed Fort Lemhi for Utah again, this time in charge of a company of eight other missionaries driving seven wagons. They arrived in Ogden on 15 July 1856. During the summer and early fall of 1856, Gilbert was very busy in Ogden preparing conveniences for his family. Departing Ogden on 13 October 1856, Gilbert returned to Fort Lemhi on 4 November 1856.

During the cold winter days of December 1856 and January 1857, Gilbert wrote an autobiographical account of his life up to that point. (This autobiography, the original of which is on file with the LDS Church Historical Department, is the primary source of much of the information on Gilbert’s life from 1821 through 1856.) Gilbert also kept a separate day journal of his activities at Fort Lemhi. (This journal was microfilmed by the LDS Church Historical Department in February 1996.)

At the close of his Fort Lemhi autobiography, Gilbert made a candid assessment of the failings of the Salmon River Mission, going so far as to calculate the tremendous amount of money expended in sustaining the remote mission outpost. What caused him the most difficulty, however, was the manner in which the temporal affairs of the mission were managed. The inconsistent application of rules of trade with the Indians, together with certain idle and improvident missionaries sharing from a common store, while his wives were suffering from want at home, caused Gilbert great sorrow.

Gilbert’s last Fort Lemhi journal entry recorded the departure of Brigham Young from Fort Lemhi in May 1857. On 5 June 1857, Henrietta gave birth in Ogden to her and Gilbert’s third child, Francis Marion Belnap. Gilbert appears to have returned to Ogden in the summer of 1857 on a third resupply trip for the mission, for on 17 July 1857, Gilbert was resealed to his wives Adaline and Henrietta by Brigham Young in the Endowment House, the same day on which Henrietta received her endowments (Henrietta had previously been sealed to Gilbert in 1852 but at that time she had not been endowed).

Gilbert’s mission president, Thomas Sasson Smith, signed a recommend addressed to Brigham Young for Gilbert to take a third plural wife (which apparently had been secured for him earlier in the year by Adaline while Gilbert was still at Fort Lemhi). For reasons unknown, the recommend, dated 28 July 1857 in Farmington, was not used.

It is uncertain when Gilbert returned to Fort Lemhi for the last time as a missionary. He was released in the fall of 1857 and returned home to Ogden in September 1857 with Joseph Parry. According to Gilbert’s son Reuben, when his father came home from his mission, he was wearing a pretty yellow suit consisting of a buckskin shirt with fringe at the elbow and trimmed with beads on the front; the pants had a fringe down the sides. The suit also had “red flannel trimmings.” Gilbert was also wearing beaded moccasins.

On 29 September 1857, ninety men from Ogden, including Gilbert, were called to defend the Saints against Johnston’s Army. The troops were sent north, leaving Ogden on 19 October, but finding no enemy, they returned to Ogden on 2 November. Soon thereafter, the men were ordered to Echo Canyon. Gilbert joined with Lot Smith’s company. The horses of the Mormon militia members were said to be fast wild mustangs captured in the desert near Delta, Utah. The militiamen raided and harassed Johnston’s Army as they marched across Wyoming, destroying wagons and supplies, stampeding cattle, and building roadblocks, without killing a man. One night Gilbert, with a group of other men, quietly placed lassoes around the tents in which U.S. soldiers were sleeping, then whipping their horses, they charged off, tearing the army tents down and leaving the soldiers in the rain with no place to sleep. Successfully keeping Johnston’s Army out of the valleys of Utah, the militiamen also took supplies to the suffering soldiers in mid-winter to help them stay alive.

After serving in Lot Smith’s company, Gilbert, no longer a mi