Benjamin Knell (1834-1915)

Yes, we DO have a stowaway in the family! Benjamin was the 7th child of John Corke Knell and Rhoda Fry, born 21 December, 1834.   As a 13 year old boy, Benjamin Knell and his 19 year old brother, Robert, wanted to sail to America but were lacking funds. They made their way from Southampton, Hampshire, England to Liverpool where they sneaked on board  the ship called the James Pennel.  Then off to America they sailed.  

You see, 9 months earlier, his parents had heard and accepted the gospel.  Soon after the family was baptized, they desired to join the saints in America. There was not sufficient money to pay for the entire family to travel together so it was decided that the 2 brothers would go first. 

"The ship sailed the next morning, arriving in New Orleans Oct. 21^st 1849.  Two days later, they boarded the river boat, Uncle Tom for St. Louis.  There they worked at a pork house for 5 months where they met Lorenzo D. Young who helped them make plans to cross the plains. They herded sheep for him until the middle of May, then headed West, driving a herd of 400 sheep across the plains on foot.  Sept. 2, 1850, they arrived in Salt Lake City footsore and weary but happy."



Benjamin had a most unexpected surprise as he sat in the great tabernacle in Salt Lake City for General Conference of 1854. He heard Brigham Young make an announcement from the podium calling "Benjamin Knell to serve as a missionary to the Hopi and Navajo Indians in Southern Utah for 2 years". He left his farm in Kaysville, Davis County  to head south.   His service was based in the town of Harmony.  In the fall of 1856 he was visited  again by Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball who assigned him to a group of 6 men who were to establish a settlement in the Pinto Valley.

It seems as though Benjamin was destined to befriend the Indians the remainder of his life, as once again he received a call to serve.  This time, "in the fall of 1858 he and 9 other men were called to accompany Jacob Hamblin on a mission to the Moquis Indians on the east side of the Colorado River.  Eventually only 4 white men remained, Benjamin being one of them."

"After several weeks the Indians held council and decided that if the men were really their friends as they claimed to be, they would each marry one of the Indian maidens and become a member of the tribe.  The white men said they could not do this." The chief did not take it kindly and told them they were to leave immediately.  "It was mid-winter but an Indian friend helped them plan their escape.  He stationed his horse far away from the camp for the white men to use.  The 4 men left during the night time.  Their clothes became soaked as they forded the Colorado River.  Before they could gather enough firewood for a fire big enough to dry themselves, their clothes had frozen to them.  In the Kanab Forest the snow was waist deep.  The few pieces of dried meat they had been able to get from the Indian camp was soon gone. They chewed their moccasin strings as they moved on; this they thought eased the hunger pains.

"They took turns riding the bony gaunt horse.  Once they were successful in killing a crow, which they shared. But at one point they were so desperate for food that they had to kill the horse and use its flesh for food.  At last they reached St. George, haggard, fatigued, and emaciated but gave thanks for their safe arrival.  The 4 men went back to Pinto where Benjamin continued his work, fencing, plowing, planting, and harvesting while continuing to work among the Paiute Indians.  By this time Pinto was a thriving settlement."

That spring he  went to Kaysville to visit his brother, Robert.  He had hoped to convince Robert to relocate to Pinto. While in Kaysville he met Ann Green (Thompson) a young widow.   It wasn't long before the 2 were married (11 October, 1861) and Benjamin took his new bride and her 2 young boys back to Pinto. 

"Benjamin and Ann Knell together made a happy home.  He continued to prosper in the area throughout his whole life.  He was industrious, thrifty, and frugal.  He couldn’t tolerate wastefulness.  He would often say, 'Waste not, want not.' "

He was asked one time why he continued living in Pinto instead of going on to California where he might enjoy more comforts and have an easier life.   His response was simple, yet profound: 

“Brigham Young called me down here to do missionary work  and I never did receive a release, so I have stuck!" 

Excerpts taken from “I Remember Grandpa Knell” by Virginia Knell Tooke; Life Sketch of Benjamin Knell p. 289, by Rulon Knell.

the "Relative Connection":  Benjamin is Grandma Nevada Adams' grandfather

Frank Knell (1877 - 1938) and Amy Sophia Page (1879 - 1960)

“ I remember him as a quiet gentle man, sitting on the piano bench, smiling, with his red hair, blue eyes, and dimples.  He loved to play for us (his grandchildren) when we visited. He corded  on the organ, too, even though he had one stiff  finger  that poked out from the others.  He also played the guitar.  He had a beautiful bass singing voice and loved to dance!"  This memory of Amy Lou describes the fun-loving musical nature of Frank Knell, Grandma Nevada's Papa.

Frank Knell was born to Benjamin Knell and Ann Green Knell in Little Pinto, Washington County, Utah on 24 October 1877. 

At the age of 23 he left his familiar Pinto community for the far away land of the Maori people in New Zealand to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1900 to 1903.

Soon after his return from New Zealand, Frank married his sweetheart, Amy Sophia Page. They were married in the St. George Temple  on 26 September 1906 and were the parents of 7 children - Nevada being their 3rd child. 

They built their own home in Newcastle  and moved in before Nevada was 2 years old.  Their "estate" was complete with blacksmith shop, a wash house, and  a 3-seater outhouse  - a true luxury for the time! And just in case you wanted to know of a creative use for the old Sears Roebuck catalog...well it was more than just good reading material while resting in the outhouse.  Just rip out a page and it became toilet paper!  

They were among the first in the neighborhood to own a wringer washer - a huge step up from the corrugated scrub board. This sat on the front porch alongside the old Victrola record player.

Frank was a hard worker, a good farmer and loved working with animals. He also felt it was important for the family to kneel beside their chairs at mealtime for prayer.  At the end of the day he would enjoy a game of checkers with his children.   

   Amy Sophia Page Knell was born to Daniel Richey Page and  Sophia Ann Geary in Little Pinto on 27 January 1879.

     She was a stern, busy little person; always cooking or sewing on her treadle sewing machine as she made all of the clothes for the family.  She would recycle the worn out adult’s clothing and make clothes for the children.  She made her own patterns and taught her daughters to sew and mend.  She occasionally would enjoy a game of checkers with her husband but was mostly busy with mending and taking care of family needs while the family played games.

She did the washing in the wash house that her husband built outside near the wood pile.  She used the scrub board and of course, homemade lye soap. 

She always kept a very neat and organized kitchen, always neat and tidy.  The kitchen stove had a warming place at the back, and a reservoir on one end to heat water.  The kids did their homework by lamplight at night around the dining room table, each having an assigned spot.

As there was no electricity in Newcastle, there was no refrigerator, so the milk would sit on the steps going down to the cellar.  The milk separator was in the middle of the floor.  You would pour the milk, fresh from the cow, in the top, and somehow the  cream came out  of a small spout, and the milk came out of  the larger one.  Butter was made from the cream.  If the milk soured before it was used, they made cottage cheese from it.  NOTHING was ever thrown out!!!

Amy Lou remembers, “When we used to visit, we kids would always sleep in Grandma’s big brass bed.  We never wondered where Grandma and Grandpa slept.”

Due to complications with  bronchial pneumonia, Frank lived a mere 61 years then passed away 8 February 1938.  After living 22 years as a widow,

Amy Sophia died at age 81 in the Iron County Rest Home in Parowan on 31 January 1960.  They were both buried in the Pinto cemetery.

Note:   The "Relative Connection":  Frank and Amy Sophia are Grandma Nevada Adams' parents.

Note: see  Ray and Nevada Adams: Their Lives and Legacy for more information on Frank and Amy Sophia.

John Lowe Butler (1808 - 1860) and Caroline Farozine Skeen (1812 - 1875)

The Election Battle

It was the wielding of a 3-4 foot long, 3-sided, 7-pound  heart of oak that John Lowe Butler hefted from a woodpile behind a small store in Daviess County, Missouri that initiated the infamous "Mormon War" in Missouri  1838.  

Because of the influx of Mormon pioneer population into Daviess County, MO the locals (threatened by Mormons nearing 1/2 of the county's population)  became uneasy at the possibility of the Mormons swaying the outcome of the election.  Several Missourians vowed to prevent the Mormons from voting.  Tension was high that election day of August 6, 1838, when several of the saints rode up to the small polling place in Gallatin to cast their votes.  Voting was done by voice instead of secret ballot.  Whiskey ran free among the Missourian antagonists who verbally, then physically attacked the few saints wishing to cast their votes.  From his lengthy autobiography we read:  

"Many thoughts ran through my mind.  First I remembered that I never in my life struck a man in anger, had always lived in peace with all men and the stick I had to fight with was so large and heavy that I could sink it into every man's head, that I might  have a chance to strike.  I did not want to kill anyone, but merely to stop the affray, and went in with the determination to rescue my brethren from such miserable curs at all hazards, thinking when hefting my stick that I must temper my licks just so as not to kill. "  (My Best For the Kingdom. p 54)

He swung his club at the drunken attackers, severely injuring several.  Sidney Rigdon said that John "with his own hands whipped some 20 men." (My Best. p 57).

Such is perhaps the most well-known, most written about "claim to fame" of our ancestor, John Lowe Butler.

If ever a picture was taken of him, it has not survived through the years, but we learn tidbits here and there from his autobiography and from his daughters' journals some clues as what he looked like.  He was 6'2" and says that he was "stout".  He apparently had blonde hair and blue eyes, and that is all we have.  But we do have a surviving photo of Caroline.

John was born April 8, 1808 in what was once called Warren County, Kentucky (now Simpson County) to James Butler and Charity Lowe, he being the 4th of 14 children - 4 of whom were stillborn.

John's bride, Caroline  Farozine Skeen, daughter of prominent Jesse Skeen and Keziah Taylor, was born April 15, 1812 in Sumner County, Tennessee.   Being plantation owners, her parents gave the newlyweds 2 slaves as a wedding gift.  John set them free soon after the wedding.  That fact, coupled with John and Caroline's conversion to Mormonism totally alienated her from her father.  In fact, in her father's will, he gave property to his other children but none to Caroline. 

Typical of Mormon pioneers, John and Caroline joined with the Saints in Missouri, then Nauvoo, Council Bluffs,  and eventually made their way West to Salt Lake City, suffering hardship and persecution all the way.  They settled Spanish Fork, Utah where he became the 1st Bishop there.  In addition to being a known frontiersman (the caliber of Porter Rockwell and John D. Lee), he was a farmer, blacksmith, and ran the sawmill.

Cloak Blessed By a Prophet

 "Sickness  sometimes was rampant in Nauvoo, and Joseph Smith went among the people and administered to them.  On occasion he blessed cloth articles that could be used by others in healing and blessing the sick and afflicted.  For the benefit of the Butler family, he blessed John's large broadcloth cape or cloak.  During the rest of their lives, John and Caroline wrapped this cloak around family members when they became ill.  In time the coat passed to the next generation.  In 1945 Bertha M. Butler wrote that the family of John Lowe Butler, Jr., inherited the cloak:  The cape became old and somewhat shabby and was finally cut into ten pieces, one piece each for the ten  (nine surviving) children of John L.  Butler II."

(My Best. p 114)

Temple / Buffalo Story

Soon after the Relief Society was organized in Nauvoo in 1843, the sisters were expected to assist in building the temple anyway they could.  Caroline was trouble because she had nothing to give.  One day ..." as she and her children were in a wagon near the outskirts of Nauvoo when she spotted two dead buffalo.  She thought of a way to make a temple contribution, and she and the children pulled the long hair from the manes of the buffalo.  At home they washed, carded, and spun the hair into coarse yarn from which Caroline knitted eight pairs of heavy mittens, which she donated to the rock cutters working in the dead of winter at the temple site."  (My Best. p113)

Caroline's Sewing Skills

Caroline learned the art of carding, dyeing, spinning, weaving wool.  "One day when a man nearly severed his thumb with wool shears...she successfully sewed it back on."  (My Best. p 350)

Martyrdom of a Joseph Smith

From his autobiography we read:  "...the mob issued a writ for Brother Joseph and Hyrum and they were taken to Carthage Jail.  I and some more of his life guards went with him.  We were all willing to live or die with them.  He, Brother Joseph, spoke to us all and told us that he was like a lamb led to the slaughter.  He also spoke to Hyrum and wished him to return home with us.   We begged of him to let us stay with him and die with him, if necessary, but he said no, we were to return to our home.  And Brother Hryum said that he would stay with Brother Joseph...For my part I felt that something great was going to transpire.  He blessed us and told us to go.  We bade farewell, and started.  We had 20 miles to ride, and we went the whole distance without uttering one word.  All were dumb and still and all felt spirit as I did myself.  I cannot express my feelings at that time for they overpowered me." (My Best. p 130)

Health Concerns 

John was plagued with health issues since the young age of 7 when he contracted rheumatic fever.  Leg, then eye infections, severe arthritis, being thrown from horses several times, frequent rheumatic attacks, and even polio had an effect on him his entire life.  All of this likely led to his early death at the age of 52.  John died  April 10, 1860, 2 days after his birthday, after serving as Bishop for only 3 years.

Caroline was 48 at the time of his passing and she lived another 27 years before her death in Spanish Fork, Utah,  August 4. 1875.  

Sources: family records and My Best For the Kingdom: History and Autobiography of John Lowe Butler A Mormon Frontiersman by William G. Hartley. Specific pages noted in text.  Note: This is a near 500 page book on John Lowe Butler - pretty awesome reading!