Over the years the only cause of death I’ve ever seen for Stephen Luce is “apoplexy”. That is, he died of what we would now call a stroke. I’ve been to his grave in City Cemetery (Plot F12), seen his red sandstone headstone (now mostly sunken), and looked at the sexton’s index cards for the burial.
“Old guy dies of stroke.” I can’t think of anything less newsworthy.
Imagine my surprise this morning when I was googling around for background on Malatiah Luce, and came across this.
“Found Dead.—About five o’clock yesterday morning, Stephen Luce, over sixty years of age, and who resided in the Tenth Ward, was found dead in the water sect near the residence of Mr. David Candland, in the Ninth Ward. When discovered, Luce was lying on his back, his face, however, was not covered by water, showing that death had not ensued from drowning. A basket containing provisions, &c., was found a few feet from where he lay. It is supposed that he was either seized with some kind of a fit, from which he did not recover, or that he died from physical exhaustion, superinduced by heavy drinking. The remains were removed to the house of one of his relatives in the Eighth Ward, and were, we understand to be interred today.” (Deseret News, Salt Lake City, Utah, Wed., May 1, 1872, page 9.)
The early Luces were a rough crowd. We already know that.
Malatiah Luce was an early Mormon convert. He died 6 February 1849, but where? Did he die in Nauvoo? Or in Salt Lake City? According to a family tradition recorded by several of Malatiah’s descendants, he died in Nauvoo.
Based on that information, Malatiah’s name appears on a memorial plaque in Nauvoo. And because he died in Nauvoo, it has been widely believed the Luces came to Utah in 1850. That is, they came after Malatiah died. This was the date given by Kate Carter in Heart Throbs of the West, an old Daughters of Utah Pioneers publication. It appears to be confirmed by the fact Ruth Luce appears on the 1850 (1851) Census in Great Salt Lake without Malatiah. Carter probably also used the Early Church History card file, which shows Malatiah’s wife Ruth Grant Luce and son Stephen Luce were re-baptized in Salt Lake in 1850. Because Malatiah is known to have died in 1849 it was assumed he died in Nauvoo.
But there are problems with this dating. Other sources say the Luces came in 1848. For example, William Hickman’s 2nd wife was Sarah Luce. In his book Brigham’s Destroying Angel (1872, 1904), Hickman wrote that his new wife’s father was going to Utah in 1848 and she went with him. Also, the obituary of Malatiah’s grandson Wilford Luce (1906) says he came to Utah in 1848.
Both Sarah and Wilford were children of Malatiah’s son Stephen. So, we’ve all been thinking maybe Stephen came in 1848, but Malatiah’s widow Ruth came in 1850. Other children came at other times, so they don’t factor in. John Luce was part of the Brigham Young Company in 1847. Ephraim Luce is known to have come in 1851.
Ruth Luce’s memorial plaque in Ogden, Utah.
A few years ago, Elder David Wood at the BYU Family History Center pointed out to me that Malatiah must have died in Salt Lake, not Nauvoo:
“Malatiah Luce made application with the Salt Lake City Recorder’s Office in 1848 for a lot of land right next to that of Stephen Luce (plat B, block 13, lots 7 & 8–lot 7 for Stephen, lot 8 for Malatiah.) Malatiah had to be in Salt Lake in order to make this filing and, given his age (76), it seems highly unlikely that he would return to Nauvoo to die the next year, especially since the Saints had been driven from Nauvoo in 1846.“
Now we know Malatiah died in Salt Lake in 1849. That means he was probably buried at the Old Fort, near what is now Pioneer Park. Unless he was buried on his own lot, and his remains haven’t yet been discovered.
He would not have been buried at City Cemetery. The first steps to organizing City Cemetery were only taken two weeks after Malatiah died: “Feb. 17, 1849…. The Council met in Phelp’s schoolroom at 10:30 a.m…. Daniel H. Wells, Joseph Heywood and George B. Wallace were appointed a committee to select a suitable place for a burying ground” (Journal History of the Church, 1849).
The Old Fort graveyard was re-discovered in 1986. The remains that could be recovered were moved to the Pioneer Cemetery at This Is The Place Heritage Park, 32 bodies in all. Malatiah is probably among among them, although we have no direct evidence. There are rumors the contractor who uncovered the graveyard destroyed some of the graves in an attempt to avoid being required to stop work.
I plan to do more work on this topic in the future. The family traditions that say Malatiah died in Nauvoo are, I believe, available at FamilySearch.org. Then too, I see an interesting question waiting to be explored — if Malatiah Luce was really in Salt Lake in 1848, why was his wife Ruth also granted a lot? [The answer turned out to be No. See the answer here.]
Malatiah Luce, at Pioneer Overland Travel, visited Oct. 1, 2019.
Ruth Luce, United States Census, 1850, at FamilySearch.org, visited Oct. 1, 2019.
Wilford Luce (death notice), Improvement Era, Volume IX(Sept. 1906), No. 11, 909. “In Salt Lake City, 30th, Wilford W. Luce, born Fox Island, November 7, 1837, came to Utah in 1848”
I don’t remember what year it was, but some time when I lived in Salt Lake City (1977-1987), the city was doing some work at Pioneer Park. I’ve done some searches. From what I find, it seems it must have been 1986. Construction crews were digging a foundation for a new apartment building near Pioneer Park, when they found a human skeleton. And that discovery led to finding Salt Lake’s first cemetery, near the old fort.
I’d swear it was way before 1986, but I can’t find any online info to support me. The way I remember it, the city was doing some work at Pioneer Park itself. They found the graves or maybe they didn’t find the graves but everyone thought they might have, then for weeks afterward there was a general muttering around the city that they could be releasing old pathogens, and there were scattered claims that this person or that had contracted some unusual fever that must certainly have come from opening old graves.
Messing with the old cemetery was going to kill us all.
Anyway. However it happened, the city found 32 graves near Pioneer Park, which means near the old fort. The bodies were re-buried at This is the Place Monument in 1987.
At the start of the work at Pioneer Park I thought my ancestor Mary Adeline (Beman) Noble would be among the bodies interred there. She was the adopted mother of Ann (Quarmby) Luce. But no. Mary died in 1851, and was buried at City Cemetery.
But I didn’t know then — and wish I had — is my ancestor Malatiah Luce who died in 1849 was probably among the bodies. If there was anything left of him to move, he is probably among the bodies at the This is the Place Monument.
Edited Oct. 1, 2019 to add an additional source.
More Information
David F. Boone, “’And Should We Die’: Pioneer Burial Grounds in Salt Lake City,” in Salt Lake City: The Place Which God Prepared, ed. Scott C. Esplin and Kenneth L. Alford (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, Salt Lake City, 2011), 155–178.
Here’s something to fire the imagination of genealogists in Britain and its diaspora. A map of some 3000 witches in 16th and 17th centuries Scotland. Who doesn’t have (or wish for) a Scottish witch in the family tree?
“It builds on the university’s breakthrough work on the Scottish Witchcraft Survey which brought to life the persecution of women during the period, with many burned at the stake or drowned.“
“There is a very strong feeling out there that not enough has been done to inform people about the women who were accused of being witches in Scotland There is still this Halloween concept surrounding them.“
I just finished this wonderful book, Independence Lost. Like the rest of America, I’m used to reading and hearing about the American Revolution in terms of people in New England and Virginia. Events elsewhere are just part of an unimportant periphery. I read somewhere that we forget only 13 of the 22 British colonies in America rebelled. Cool fact, but it doesn’t add much.
The summary of this book at Goodreads says, “In the Gulf of Mexico, Spanish forces clashed with Britain’s strained army to carve up the Gulf Coast, as both sides competed for allegiances with the powerful Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Creek nations who inhabited the region. Meanwhile, African American slaves had little control over their own lives, but some individuals found opportunities to expand their freedoms during the war.“
Cool stuff.
One of the recurring characters in the drama was Alexander McGillivray (1750-1793), a Creek leader. One of McGillivray’s wives was Elise Moniac, daughter of the Jacob Moniac. Here, I perked up. Moniac, that’s a familiar name.
Years ago, when I was looking for the ancestry of Elizabeth Lomax (1813/14-1895), I surveyed Lomax families throughout the South looking for her parents.
In those days before I had good dates for Elizabeth, one likely possibility seemed to be Sydney Lomax (1813-1877) and his wife Matilda Moniac (1830-1915). Matilda was a Creek, and said to be a descendant of that same Moniac family. It seemed like a good lead. Elizabeth married Rufus Roberson in 1841 in Platte County, Missouri. Probably I would find her parents in northwestern Missouri. One of my correspondents said Sydney Lomax was a stage driver who lived briefly in Clay County, Missouri, apparently some time between 1836 and 1851. I never did find out her source for that information.
It didn’t work out. Eventually I settled on Sydney Lomax’s cousin Asahel Lomax as the probable father of Elizabeth, and that meant there would be no Moniac connection.
One thing I learned in my brief foray into the Moniacs is how horribly tortured the various Moniac genealogies are. The Jacob who was father of Elise was not the same person as William, although they are almost universally conflated. Then too, dates for the early generations are all over the board.
I thought I might contribute some notes on Geni.com that would help other researchers. I opened my old contributions. Jacob is now disconnected, his wife is married to William, and the whole area is mangled beyond recognition. I don’t have the patience for this. I did some light merging and some gentle pruning, then quietly closed the window and walked away. I’ll wait for someone who wants to do serious work.
Some Leads
Nothing special here. These are just some pages I had open when I decided to stop.
