Stephen Thomas Luce (1801 - 1872)

Born 10 Jul 1801 in Vinalhaven, Knox County, Maine, USA

Ancestors

Husband of Mary Stover (Wheeler) Wickens — married 6 Mar 1824 in Vinalhaven, Knox, Maine

Husband of Mary (Walters) Luce — married 6 Feb 1853 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah Territory, United States

Husband of Caroline Louisa (Ketchum) Luce — married 12 Dec 1859 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah Territory

Descendants

Died 28 Apr 1872 at age 70 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah, USA

This profile is part of the Luce Name Study.

Stephen Luce was a Latter Day Saint pioneer.

Stephen became a member of the LDS Church between 1830 - 1848.

Biography

Stephen Thomas Luce (1801-1872). Some sources call him Stephen A. Luce or Stephen Grant Luce. He was a shoemaker.

Stephen and his wife were converted to Mormonism by Wilford Woodruff, later President of the Church. According to the Early Church History card file Stephen was baptized February 1837 by Joseph Ball, who was famously the son of a Jamaican slave. Other sources say Ball, the Presiding Elder of the Boston Mission, had been in Vinalhaven about a week when Wilford Woodruff arrived on 13 January 1838 and had already baptized six converts on the North Island: Malatire (sic) and Ruth Luce, their son and daughter-in-law Stephen and Nancy Luce, and their daughter and son-in-law Susan and Nathaniel Thomas. Nathaniel and Susan Thomas and Ruth Luce, were “[e]xcluded” from the Baptist church for having “joined the mormons.”^[1]

In his journal, Wilford Woodruff first notes that Stephen and Mary Luce were among those baptized by his companion, Elder Ball. But later, when noting the drowning of their two young sons--Samuel W. and James F.C.--he notes that he had baptized the couple himself. Regardless, it's clear that they came into the Church as a result of the missionary efforts of Wilford Woodruff, which doubtless explains why one of their children was named after him.

Stephen and Nancy moved to Nauvoo, Illinois in 1838/39, probably as part of the party of 53 new converts led by Wilford Woodruff in 10 wagons from the Maine coast to Nauvoo. (Note, however, Stephen's son Wilford was born in November 1838 and afterward stated he was born on Fox Island.) The company originally intended to travel to Missouri but anti-Mormon violence there diverted them. Instead they traveled to Nauvoo, arriving in the spring of 1839. A poem written between 1838 and 1841 records the departure of the Mormons from Fox Island:

"good bye to Mr. Hale, Good by to Mr. Ball,

good bye to Mr. Woodruff, the greatest one of all.

good bye to all the Deacons good bye to all their Church

they Can not get their money, they’ve left them in the lurch

good bye their Book of mormon, good bye their Revelation,

good [bye] to all their fools, and all their Botheration—

good bye to Elder Luce, good bye to Deacon Thomas,

Look not to right or left, till you see the land of promise

good bye to all the Ladies that like this thievish Band

goe taste their milk and honey in the promise land

weil Eat our fish and taters, and tell the same old story

While you travel on, to the great Missouria

Remember old lots wife, was turned into Salt

for looking found Behind her, Commanded not to halt

To now you are pondering right between two Schools

good Bye to all your nonsense, for listening unto fools

Iv’e Bid you all good Bye, for forming Such a lie

the time is soon a Coming we surely all must Die

suppose I should die here and you die in Missouria

which do you Suppose, would be the nearest [to] Glory"

Stephen was listed on the 1840 census in Nauvoo. His name appears on the membership records of the Mormon Church between 1840 and 1848. ^[2] and in Temple records beginning in 1841. He lived in Nauvoo's 4th Ward. He served a Mission in England and was ordained a Seventy there on 9 April 1840 by Wilford Woodruff.^[3] At least part of this mission might have been in Preston, as Stephen presided at the wedding of Sarah Bleazard, "late of Preston, England" on 9 August 1841.^[4] On his return to Nauvoo he was a Seventy in the 4th Quorum. He appears on the 1842 tax list of Nauvoo, p. 231, living in Township 6 North, Range 8 West.

Stephen received his Patriarchal Blessing on the same day as his parents and wife, 14 February 1845 at Nauvoo.

When the Mormons were expelled from Nauvoo in February 1846, the Stephen Luce and Ephraim Luce families were among those who left the city. There has been unnecessary confusion about the date the Luces came to Utah. It was formerly believed Stephen's son Wilford came in 1848, Stephen's brother Ephraim Luce in 1851, and the other Luces, including Stephen, sometime between 1848 and 1850, probably in 1850.^[5]

However, three primary records establish an 1848 pioneer date for Stephen. First, Stephen Luce and his father Malatiah are recorded as receiving grants of land in Salt Lake City in 1848. Second, the biography of Stephen's son-in-law Bill Hickman states that Hickman's wife Sarah Luce came in 1848 with her father in Amasa Lyman's Division of the Willard Richards' Company (Hickman 1872, 48). Third, two obituaries of Stephen's son Wilford, say Wilford came to Utah in 1848.^[6] Wilford would have been 10 in 1848, and it is likely he traveled in the same company as his parents.

The Amasa Lyman section of Willard Richards' Company left Winter Quarters, Nebraska on 30 June 1848, and arrived in Salt Lake City on 10 October 1848.^[7]

Utah was organized as a territory on 9 September 1850. Stephen Luce and his mother Ruth Luce were re-baptized and confirmed 29 September 1850 by William Hicklenlooper in Salt Lake City.^[8] Stephen Luce, of the 6th Ward, recorded a brand on 9 December 1850. The brand was in the form of an S with a tail, to be placed on the left shoulder.

The Stephen Luce family was living in Salt Lake City in 1851 and 1852:^[9] Stephen Luce (49), Mary (4), Sarah (21), Jason (19), John (14), Wilford (12), Clara (10), Maria (8), Joseph Purbelow (5), and Wilford Purbelow (2). Stephen was listed as a shoemaker, but reported no value of property.

The relationship of the two children, Joseph Purbelow (age 5, born in Iowa), and Wilford Purbelow (age 2, born in Deseret) is unknown. There are no other Purbelows on this census, no Purbelows on the 1860 census, and no Purbelows in the LDS Ancestral File (1999). Joseph Purbelow appears on the 1870 census at Payson, Utah, and elsewhere under the name Joseph Pueblo. The Utah State Quarterly index includes a horse thief named Purbelow. Probably, these two children were orphans whose English parents died crossing the plains.

From at least 1851 the Luces were in the 11th Ward. "In the spring of 1849 a few other families, who had spent the winter in the old fort on Pioneer Square, settled in the same locality. When the fall immigration of 1849 arrived, nearly all the lots in the ward were taken.... The ward extended south from South Temple to Third South, and east from Sixth East to the edge of the city.... At the organizational meeting of ward members held at the home of John Lytel (October 30, 1851), it was resolved by unanimous vote to rent the house of Brother Atkins for one year for school purposes at the rate of two dollars and fifty cents a month. Manly Burrows, John Coulam, and Stephen Luce were elected trustees."^[10]

On 6 February 1853 Stephen and his wife were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple. He was apparently among those urged by the church to adopt polygamy following Brigham Young's public announcement of the doctrine a few months earlier (29 August 1852). Stephen married polygamously the widow Mary Walters on the same day he was sealed to his first wife. Mary Walters died in 1855. Stephen appears on the 1856 statehood census in both the 10th and 11th Wards of Salt Lake City.

At the 10-year anniversary celebration of the Mormons in the Salt Lake Valley news came that an American army was being sent to Utah to subdue the rebellious Mormons. The Nauvoo Legion was re-activated. Bill Hickman and Porter Rockwell led guerilla ranger companies of 100 men to harass military columns and disrupt supply lines of the invading army. Sgt. Stephen Luce served in the 3rd Platoon, Company B, of the Silver-greys, and is shown on a 20 July 1857 muster roll as having on hand one-half pounds of powder and 2 pounds of lead for his rifle.

Stephen married again, polygamously, Caroline Neeley (née Ketchum) in 1859. They are listed on the 1860 census of Salt Lake. Stephen was recorded as a shoemaker with $350 in real estate and $200 in personal property. Two others living in their household: George (age 15, born in England) and Joseph (age 13, born in England). No last name is given for these two. They were born in England, and might have been brothers of Stephen's wife late wife Mary Walters. A George Walter, age 25, born in England appears on the 1860 census at Carson Valley, Utah. Also, a George Walters died 18 July 1860, and was buried in Salt Lake City Cemetery.

Stephen Luce was not named in the 1869 City Directory of Salt Lake and might have been living with one of his children. He appears on the 1870 census, living alone, employed as a laborer, with real estate valued at $500.

Stephen died of apoplexy in 1872 in Salt Lake City and was buried in the Stephen Luce Plot (F-12), City Cemetery. His estate was probated 14 August 1872.^[11]

After his death a piece of land which Stephen had owned was occupied by a Sister Bernhisel (possibly a relative of Senator John Bernhisel), and a dispute arose between this woman and Stephen's children. Franklin Richards mediated the dispute, and on 6 October 1886 wrote to Mormon President John Taylor: "The Luce heirs have agreed to accept our proposition of settlement and four of them have already signed a deed relinquishing all their right to the strip of land occupied by Sister Bernhisel, and the deed has been sent to Piute County for the signature of the remaining heir, Mrs. Bebee. Please execute the enclosed deed and return it to me as soon as convenient, that I might be prepared to exchange deeds with the parties when the other returns, and so settle the matter."

Stephen was a 6th cousin once removed of his contemporary, U.S. President Franklin Pierce. They were descendants of John Emery, of Romsey, Hampshire. He was a 2nd cousin of his contemporary, Nancy Luce. She was the local eccentric on Martha's Vineyard. She wrote poems to her hens, and when they died she gave them elaborate gravestones. The Dukes County Historical Society has published a book of her poems. It has two of the gravestones in its museum.

Stephen was mentioned on a memorial in Salt Lake City Cemetery, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah, United States with a death date of 28 April 1872.^[12]

Sources

1. ↑ Baptist Church Records, North Haven, Maine, January 17, 1838).
2. ↑ Linda King Newell, Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith (1984).
3. ↑ Early Church History Card File.
4. ↑ Nauvoo Times and Seasons.
5. ↑ Kate B. Carter, "Companies of 1850" in Heart Throbs of the West 5(1945):394-450).
6. ↑ Improvement Era; "Wilford W. Luce Dead," Salt Lake Herald, 1 Aug. 1906, 10.
7. ↑ Journal History Supp. after 31 Dec. 1848, p. 17-20.
8. ↑ Early Church History Card File.
9. ↑ 1851 Census, Registry
10. ↑ Daughters of Utah Pioneers, Tales of A Triumpant People (1947), 36.
11. ↑ Salt Lake Co. Probate No. 301.
12. ↑ Memorial: Find a Grave (has image)
    Find A Grave: Memorial #57515963 (accessed 20 October 2023)
    Memorial page for Stephen Thomas Luce (10 Jul 1801-28 Apr 1872), citing Salt Lake City Cemetery, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah, USA (plot: Plot: 5094 F-12-10 - 5E); Maintained by Utahgirl (contributor 47119033).

• Hickman, William Adams, Brigham's destroying angel, New York: George A. Crofutt, 1872, 48.
• McCourt, Martha F. and Thomas R. Luce. The American Descendants of Henry Luce of Martha’s Vineyard, 1640-1985. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1994.
• Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel: Stephen Luce.