Arvin Mitchell Stoddard
Arvin was born September 1, 1852, in Bastard, Ludy County, Upper Canada, a son of Nathaniel and Jane Stoddard. He was converted to the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ in Johnston’s District of Upper Canada and later lived in Nauvoo, Illinois where he had his endowments in the temple on January 23, 1846. He was among the first to cross the Mississippi River with Brigham Young, February 4, 1846. Covered wagons laden with scant supplies were drawn onto flatboats and ferried across the dangerous river. Over the frozen country they traveled seven miles to Sugar Creek. Here Arvin and the others pitched their tents amid fresh falling snow. He, with the rest, bade farewell to their beloved city and the beautiful Temple, never to see it again. He saw the men of the Mormon Battalion march away from their loved ones, passed through the hardships and trials along the way, entering “The Valley” in the third ten wagons of which Edward Stevenson was captain
With Arvin in the same outfit traveled his brother, Albert Q. Stoddard, also born in Upper Canada in 1831. Two other brothers migrated from Upper Canada to the Salt Lake Valley. Rufus Stoddard, born July 15, 1827, and baptized into the LDS Church on June 10, 1836, in Upper Canada, by Quincy Blake. Nathaniel Stoddard is on record as having been baptized in Provo, Utah, on September 29, 1852. It is in Provo we next find Arvin Stoddard.
One of the first white men to consider Provo as a stopping place was Elias Blackburn. With his mother and a brother, they pitched a tent and began to improve a spot of ground. The year was 1849. By 1850 there were four wards organized with a Bishop over each. Bishop Elias H. Blackburn was in charge of all tithing from the four wards over which Apostle George Albert Smith presided.
Utah County was a wild, untried area. Crickets devoured their first crop in 1851, and the Indians, friendly at first, were demanding visitors, too often and too many.
Their first large building was erected in the fort in six weeks. In the center was a bastion on which was mounted a cannon. They shot it off to impress the Indians. Land was laid out giving forty acres to each family. They were told by the church leaders to live in the fort and to farm outside. Bishop Blackburn did as directed, but some of the other families ignored the order until Chief Walker went on the war path. Then three hundred families moved back into the fort. The advice spoken by the servants of God had gone by unheeded.
When Chief Walker shot up the settlement in the winter of 1850, the people sent to Daniel H. Wells in Salt Lake City for help from the Utah Minute Men, who responded in February. This was a terrible cold period in which they suffered greatly. After riding all night they arrived in Provo finding the Indians well-fortified and using guns provided them by the white gold seekers in 1849.
Caroline Sargent Stoddard
Caroline was born in October 1834, at West Liberty, Jackson County, Missouri, a daughter of Abel Morgan Sargent and Sarah Edwards. Caroline’s mother, Sarah Edwards, died at the home of her parents in Indiana at the birth of her last baby, a stillborn son. A sister, Druscilla, and a little brother, Thomas, were left at their grandparent’s home in Indiana, while the rest of the motherless children were being cared for by different friends of Abel’s in the camps from Nauvoo to Winter Quarters.
When the call came for men for the Mormon Battalion, Abel Morgan Sargent enlisted, taking with him two of his daughters, Caroline and her older sister, Martha Jane (for whom Janie was named five years later.) Abel M. Sargent was among the sick detachment sent back from Santa Fe to Pueblo, Colorado. Weakened as he was, Abel eagerly left with the Brigham Young caravan, August 26, 1847 in the 34th wagon. He was anxious to locate his children that he had left at Winter Quarters and in Indiana. To his joy he learned that Harriet had married Apostle Rich and the eastbound caravan in which Abel traveled, meet the company of emigrants of whom Apostle Rich was captain, on the plains. Harriet Sargent Rich was in the company.
When Abel reached Indiana he found his daughter, Druscilla, had married and did not wish to accompany her father to the Salt Lake Valley. Thomas gladly joined his father, and as soon as arrangements could be made Abel and his beloved son started on the long journey across the plains. Abel’s health had continued to fail, making him an early prey to the dread cholera. He died somewhere near the Black Hills. On learning of his father’s death, Thomas prayed to be taken with him. In a few hours Thomas died and was buried in the same shallow grave with his father. Caroline Sargent, now an orphan living in Provo, Utah, is found on the 1850 census, age fifteen. It is in this new settlement that Caroline meets her future husband, Arvin Mitchell Stoddard. We do not have the marriage date of Arvin and Caroline. Arvin was endowed in the Nauvoo Temple, January 23, 1846. Caroline was endowed in Salt Lake City, February, 1852. She was sealed to her husband August 23, 1852. They had endured untold hardships, but each had hopes now for a better life. Caroline was barely sixteen years old, and Arvin ten years her senior.
Soon their home was added to the fast growing settlement of Provo. Bishop Blackburn had built a large tithing office and storehouse where the Saints brought eggs, butter, cheese, grain, fruits, vegetables, poultry, and other produce, most of which had to be taken to Salt Lake in the cool of the night. It must have been a great comfort and joy for Caroline to have a home and a husband to protect her. Their first baby, the subject of this sketch, was born in Provo, Utah County, Utah, April 29th, 1852. They named her Martha Jane for Caroline’s sister, but all her life she was called Janie.
About the time Janie was born during 1852 and 1853, the Mexicans were dealing in slave trading with the Indians. The latter would kidnap Indian children from neighboring tribes and would sell them to the Mexicans. When the Mormons tried to put a stop to this slave traffic, Chief Walker retaliated fiercely. “What right,” he demanded, “Did the Mormons have in interfering with their money making deals?” So it was again for the white man to carry his gun handy. By 1853 the Indians had stolen many animals, and trouble lurked from every bush.
It was in 1851 that Charles Colson Rich and Amasa M. Lyman headed a large migration from Utah to San Bernardino. It is possible that Arvin and Caroline, along with baby Janie, left their Utah County holdings and went to San Bernardino at this time. Amasa M. Lyman returned to Utah in 1853. He wanted to interest more new settlers in the California project. We find in the book, “Mormons of San Bernardino,” and also in “Our Pioneer Heritage,” vol. 4, page 408, extracts from the reports of Arvin M. Stoddard, surveyor of San Bernardino County. Arvin and Caroline were living in San Bernardino when their second child, a son, was born in 1854. He was named Arvin Nathaniel, called “Nat.” Three years later we find the birth of a daughter, Harriet Celestia. Janie named her seventh child for this sister, and called her “Hattie.”
San Bernardino was home to them for a brief period, from 1854 to 1857, when the U.S. government sent Johnston’s army to Utah to put down a rebellion that never existed. The Saints from all over the land were requested to move back to Utah, in order to meet this threat head-on. If war was needed it was going to be nothing less, for the Saints had been plundered, murdered and robbed for the last time peaceably.
Not all the Mormons obeyed, but Arvin and Caroline with the three children became a part of this great caravan headed north, not west this time.
What a sight met their eyes in Provo. People living in wagon-boxes, tents, dugouts, shacks all over the area, and even in the outlying districts, people and livestock covered the land. Even the great accumulated tithing from Salt Lake City storehouse had been, at great expense, transferred to Provo. The confusion did not last as long as expected. The national government and Church leaders came to agreement so that everyone moved back home. This time Arvin and Caroline located in Farmington, Davis County, Utah. They apparently lived there for twelve years at least, for on the Farmington Ward records is recorded the birth of Sarah Emily Stoddard, March 17, 1859, Druscilla and Caroline, twins, January 14, 1861, Henry M. Stoddard, July 27, 1864, Effie Stoddard, June 27, 1866, and Abel Morgan Stoddard, February 12, 1868.
By 1874, Arvin and Caroline were living in Milford, Beaver County, Utah. They remained there for the rest of their lives. Caroline died in 1905, and Arvin in 1914. Both are buried in Milford.
