Alvah Alexander (1799 - 1890)

Born 12 Mar 1799 in Acworth, Sullivan, New Hampshire, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Phoebe (Houston) Alexander — married 9 May 1822 in Acworth, Sullivan, New Hampshire, USA

Husband of Catherine (Nielson) Alexander — married 24 Nov 1866 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, USA

Descendants

Died 26 Mar 1890 at age 91 in East Millcreek, Salt Lake, Utah, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Judy Cardwell [send private message]

Alvah Alexander was a Latter Day Saint pioneer.

Biography

Alvah was born in New Hampshire in 1799. He was the son of Jabez Alexander and Lois Pool. In 1822 he married Phoebe Houston and together they became the parents of five children. In 1841 missionaries told them of a new religion and they were baptized into the Church of Latter Day Saints. They moved their family to Nauvoo, Illinois to join their church community where he became a prominant member. When violence broke out against their religion, they moved to Iowa where Alvah stayed several years to grow crops and help provision other members headed west to the Utah Territory. Some of his family were on the earliest wagon trains in 1848, Alvah crossed in 1852. When they were all together again, many of them settled in Mill Creek, Utah where they farmed and Alvah opened a sawmill to help provide needed lumber. Alvah married Caroline Tuttle in 1857 but they did not have any children together. Caroline nursed Alvah’s first wife Phoebe until her death in 1861. In 1862 he married Sarah Brentlinger but they did not have any children together. Alvah hired a cook for the the sawmill who had recently immigrated from Sweden and in 1866 he married her, Catherine Nielson, and they together were the parents of four children. Catherine’s daughter Maria Larsson who had been born to her in Sweden also came to America and joined their family. Alvah and his extended families lived and worked together farming in the area of Mill Creek where he died in 1890 at age 91.

Notes

• Alvah had a total of nine children born to two wives. The first was born in 1823, the last in 1876. The overlapping of so many generations of children as well as the apparent closeness of the extended families and so many given the name “Alvah” has caused much confusion. Findagrave incorrectly listed the father of Alvah’s last son Charles Oscar as Alvah Jedathan. Alvah Jedathan was Alvah’s son by Phoebe Houston so Charles Oscar and Alvah Jedathan were actually half brothers born 45 years apart.
• Ancestry DNA Circles suggests that this profile manager/ I am a descendant of Alvah Alexander, of Catherine Nielson and of Catharine’s daughter Maria Larsson. Catharine was married to Johannes Larsson in Sweden when daughter Maria Larsson was born and Johannes is listed in records as Maria’s father. When Catherine was converted to the LDS church by Morman missionaries to Sweden, Catherine was divorced by husband Johannes Larsson. Catharine and her daughter Maria then immigrated to America where Catherine married Alvah Alexander in Utah and had four children with Alvah. Maria was raised in their family and then married and lived some time with her husband in Alvah’s household. I am looking for evidence that Alvah might have been one of the missionaries to Sweden about 1853 to be Maria’s biological father, or that Alvah may have been the biological father to Maria’s son Joseph Andrew Johanson from whom I am descended.

Sources

• Ancestry.com. New Hampshire, Births and Christenings Index, 1714-1904 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

• U.S. Census Bureau, 1840 U.S. Census, population schedule. Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration. Northfield, Washington, Vermont, p. 223 A, line: 4

• "United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MZ4J-G7F : 12 April 2016), Alvia Alexander, Pottawattamie county, Pottawattamie, Iowa, United States; citing family 967, NARA microfilm publication M432 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

• "United States Census, 1860", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MH2W-LLV : 12 December 2017), Alvah Alexander, 1860.

• "United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MNSK-2J4 : 15 July 2017), Alvah Alexander, East Mill Creek, Salt Lake, Utah, United States; citing enumeration district ED 54, sheet 222C, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 1337; FHL microfilm 1,255,337.

• "New Hampshire Marriages, 1720-1920," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FDV3-DJ2 : 10 February 2018), Alvah Alexander and Phebe Houston, 07 May 1822; citing reference p. 64 #9; FHL microfilm 1,004,702.

• Ancestry.com. Membership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-1848 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.

• "Illinois, Hancock County, Nauvoo Community Project, 1839-1846 (BYU Center for Family History and Genealogy)," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QL3Z-2NDS : 23 February 2018), Alvah Alexander, from 1839 to 1846; citing Residence, Nauvoo, ...

• Ancestry.com. Seventy Quorum Membership, 1835-1846 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.

• Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel

• "Utah Deaths and Burials, 1888-1946," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F858-JXZ : 10 February 2018), Alva Alexander, 26 Mar 1890; citing East Mill Ck, Utah, reference pg 398 cn 15890; FHL microfilm 26,553.

• findagrave.com

• FamilySearch.org;Alvah Alexander,KWNL-VZN;Memories,Documents,Stories.