Item Detail
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Leithead, Deborah Lamoreaux
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1808-1888
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MSS SC 1103
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historical materials related to the James Leithead family
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Deborah Lamoreaux Leithead was born on 4 February 1808 to Joshua and Ann Cross Lamoreaux in New Brunswick, Ontario, Canada. She was a schoolteacher until her marriage to James Leithead in 1835. In 1836 Deborah gave birth to twins who died in infancy. One year later, Deborah and James met missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and were baptized. This conversion took them many different places. In the spring of 1838, Joseph Smith advised all members of the church to emigrate to Missouri. Deborah left relatives, friends, and possessions and answered the call to move to Adam-Ondi-Ahman. Soon after settling in Adam-Ondi-Ahman, she was driven out of her home by a mob. They resettled in Pitsfield, and then in Nauvoo. When Joseph Smith was martyred, they moved to Bentonsport, Iowa. In the Spring of 1850, they crossed the plains to Salt Lake City. Her husband helped construct sawmills at Big Cottonwood Canyon, Liberty Park, and the Weber River, moving Deborah to small shelters while he worked. Finally, they settled in a small adobe home on Millers Creek, later named Farmington, where they worked as postmasters. On 7 May 1856, Deborah's husband married a second wife named Lucinda Gardner, with whom he had nine children. In 1866, the Leitheads moved to the Muddy River in response to a call to assist in strengthening the settlement. In 1871 Brigham Young advised the members of the church to resettle in Long Valley, Utah, when Muddy River became part of Nevada. In her older years, Deborah lived with her daughter, Ann Smith, because Deborah's husband spent most of his time with his second wife. Her grandchildren loved her and she was a great help to them. She lived with the Smiths until her death on 29 February 1888.
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This collection consists of biographies and photographs relating to James Leithead and his family, contributed by Mrs. W. H. Stafford of Orem, Utah. Two brief biographies, three pages in length, are written about Deborah Leithead. Salome Smith Hunter wrote one of the biographies and the other biographer is unknown. A biography of James Leithead also contains some information about Deborah. Very little information is given about Deborah's youth except that she was a schoolteacher. The number of children to which Deborah gave birth is also unclear. The biography mentions that Deborah had twins who died in infancy and that in 1848 she gave birth to a daughter named Ann Cross. Ann was only two years old when Deborah and James crossed the plains, and she later wrote of the experience, my mother must have loved me a lot because she held me all the way across the plains. While in Long Valley, Deborah took in an Indian girl who had been abandoned by her father. They raised her as their own, baptized her, and had her sealed to them in the temple. Pioneer, Polygamy
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1844-1920