Arvin Mitchell Stoddard
Arvin was born September 1, 1852, in Bastard, Ludy County, Upper Canada (the southern and central portions of modern-day Ontario, Canada). He was the 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 received his endowment in the temple on January 23, 1846. He was among the first to cross the Mississippi River with Brigham Young on February 4, 1846. Covered wagons laden with scant supplies were drawn onto flatboats and ferried across the dangerous river. They traveled seven miles over frozen ground to Sugar Creek, where Arvin and the rest of the party pitched their tents amid fresh falling snow. They 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; he passed through hardships and trials traveling across the plains, entering the Salt Lake Valley as part of the third ten wagons, of which Edward Stevenson was captain.
Arvin’s brother, Albert Q. Stoddard, traveled in the same outfit as Arvin. Albert was born in Upper Canada in 1831. Another brother, Rufus Stoddard, born July 15, 1827, was 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.
One of the first white men to consider Provo as a stopping place was Elias Blackburn. With his mother and a brother, he pitched a tent and began to improve a spot of ground in 1849. By 1850, there were four wards organized with a Bishop over each ward. Bishop Elias H. Blackburn was in charge of all tithing from the four wards over which Apostle George Albert Smith presided. Arvin helped build up the Provo area.
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. The first large building was erected in Fort Utah 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 unheeded.
When Chief Walker shot up the settlement in the winter of 1850, the people requested help from Daniel H. Wells in Salt Lake City. The Utah Minute Men responded in February. This was a terribly cold period during which they suffered greatly. After riding all night, they arrived in Provo, finding the Indians well-fortified and using guns provided to them by the white gold seekers in 1849.
Caroline Sargent Stoddard
Caroline was born in October 1834 at West Liberty, Jackson County, Missouri. She was the 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 grandparents’ home in Indiana while the rest of the motherless children were being cared for by different friends of Abel’s in the camps stretching from Nauvoo, Illinois to Winter Quarters, Nebraska.
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, New Mexico, to Pueblo, Colorado. Weakened as he was, Abel eagerly left with the Brigham Young caravan on 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. The eastbound caravan in which Abel traveled met the company of emigrants captained by Apostle Rich 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 dreaded cholera. He died somewhere near the Black Hills of South Dakota. 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 listed on the 1850 census as fifteen years of age. Here in the new settlement of Provo, Caroline met her future husband, Arvin Mitchell Stoddard. We do not have the marriage date of Arvin and Caroline. Arvin was endowed in the Nauvoo Temple on January 23, 1846. Caroline was endowed in Salt Lake City in February 1852. She was sealed to her husband on August 23, 1852. They had endured untold hardships, but each had hopes for a better life together. 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, on 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 (1852-1853), 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.
In 1851, Charles Colson Rich and Amasa M. Lyman led a large migration from Utah to San Bernardino, California. 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, and called “Nat.” Three years later, their daughter, Harriet Celestia, was born. 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 to help 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 joined the great caravan headed north this time, instead of west.
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 the Salt Lake City storehouse had been transferred to Provo, at great expense. The confusion did not last as long as expected. The national government and Church leaders came to an agreement, and everyone was able to move back home. This time Arvin and Caroline located in Farmington, Davis County, Utah. They apparently lived there for at least twelve years, as the Farmington Ward records list 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.
