The Ship Brooklyn Story - Volume 2 by Richard H. Bullock The Hyatt Family The Hyatt family consists of the father Elisha Hyatt, his wife Matilda Smith Hyatt and their son John Defreeze Smith Hyatt. Elisha on the voyage had been thirty years old, his wife Matilda thirty-five and their son John had reached the age of fourteen, even though he is shown as being sixteen on the passenger manifest in Hawaii. They were both listed as Coopers or barrel makers. Elisha Hyatt had been born Christmas Day 25 December 1815 in Yorktown, Westchester, New York to unknown parents. He received a brief education and then took up a trade as carpenter, cabinet maker, and cooper - skills that were in high demand at the time. He met Matilda Smith and courted her while working in Hempstead, Nassau, New York in about 1830. She had been born 16 February 1811 in Hempstead to parents John and Betsy Smith. Little is known of her background or her parents either. It is also unknown when they joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints but they were determined to join in the exodus to the West, in fact Elisha had been one of the first persons to make a commitment to Samuel Brannan. He also had the distinction of being one of the last to pay his passage fares. Elisha and Matilda had two children, a daughter and a son, that died early and then their son John Defreeze Smith Hyatt had been born 12 August 1832. They gave birth to two more daughters that remained behind when the Brooklyn sailed, possibly they had married early or were left with relatives in New York State. There is also evidence that they had another child born to them in California as Parley P. Pratt lists the Hyatt parents and child, plus John Hyatt accompanying him on a journey to San Bernardino in 1854. On the census of 3 July 1860 in San Francisco District 11, this child is named as a daughter of fourteen years named Helen. This means the girls had been born in California shortly after their arrival on the Brooklyn in 1846. So Matilda is another passenger that traveled while she had been pregnant. The daughter is not listed with the parents on the 1870 census so she must have married sometime in the decade but I have no knowledge of her marriage. Shortly after the Brooklyn landed in San Francisco there were charges drawn up against Samuel Brannan by Henry Harris, who had joined the voyage in Hawaii. Apparently there were also some rumblings from others at about the same time as Brannan excommunicated three others. After the company s arrival in San Francisco three more souls had strayed: Elisha Hyatt, James Scott, and Isaac Addison now numbered among the excommunicated. Beyond this, twenty more men had, in Brannan s words, gone astray after strange gods, serving their bellies and their own lusts, and refuse to assist in providing for the reception of their brethren by land. This more likely meant that the twenty refused to knuckle under to Brannan s orders. On arrival, some of the company had already registered complaints against him, specifying bad treatment during the journey, but a legal investigation by Captain Montgomery cleared his name. As Brannan himself 1
put it, the truth was mighty and prevailed. 1 With Brannan s excommunication came a difficult time to make a living among the Saints, as they shunned he and his family. Lucy Eagar had the same problem so when she suggested that they travel to Monterey to try and make a new start, Elisha and his family eagerly joined Lucy and her family. They made a place in Monterey and Elisha placed advertisements in The Californian to ply his trade as carpenter and cooper. Elisha Hyatt informs the public that he manufactures pails, tubs, kegs, barrels and churns. His shop is in the rear of the American Consuls. 2 He struggled to earn a living at his trade as this became the only advertisement that The Californian carried for Elisha. It is likely that when Lucy went back to San Francisco to start her millinery shop that Elisha also went back with her. When the gold rush came in 1848 their son John Defreeze Smith Hyatt hurried to the mines and spent some time at Mormon Island. When the Mormon Battalion left for Great Salt Lake Valley John Hyatt went with them in the Ebenezer Brown Company, arriving in Great Salt Lake City on 10 October 1848. He didn t see his parents again for several years. Kenneth Davies in his book on the Mormon Argonauts lists Elisha Hyatt as one of the gold contributors. There were several parties that came through the mines asking for help and contributions such as Amasa Lyman and C. C. Rich from San Bernardino, the Mormon missionaries leaving for the far East, and Parley P. Pratt needing help to return to Salt Lake City. There is no breakdown of who gave how much for what cause; suffice that Elisha should be given credit for his efforts to help others. It is here in San Francisco where Elisha and Matilda met Parley P. Pratt in 1852 and began to listen to his words and recommendations. When Parley asked for the Saints to gather with him in the mountains Elisha and Matilda agreed, hoping to see their son John again. After resting and recuperating for a few days, my time was again devoted to the ministry in the Church at San Francisco and San Jose, and in visiting, studying language, writing to the other missionaries, and in the preparations for our homeward journey, until near the end of July [1854]; and I would here add, that, through the kindness of my brethren and friends, near twelve hundred dollars in money, mules and a wagon was contributed to assist me in my mission and for my journey home, being given at various times after my arrival from Chili. I found the Saints in the above named places possessed of some faith and kindness, benevolence and charity. They were also endeavoring to serve the Lord, and to set good examples of life, and they met often to worship and edify each other and as many as came to their meetings. Many attended their meetings and listened with interest, and some were baptized and added to the Church. I urged the principles of the gathering with all the energy of the gift of God within me, but seemingly almost in vain. The world and the gain thereof seemed to have a strong hold and influence over them. After a trial for months, I only obtained three men to go with me, for Deseret, besides Brother Allen. These were Wm. Follett, Thomas Dual and Elisha Hyatt; with these I started on the steamer Sea Bird about the last of July. 3 page 49. 1 2 Muscatine, Doris, Old San Francisco - The Biography of a City, G. P. Putnam and Sons, New York, The Californian, 17 October 1846. 3 Proctor, Scott Facer; Proctor, Maurine Jensen, Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, revised edition, Deseret Book, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2000, pp 508. 2
After traveling to San Bernardino plans were made to continue the overland journey to Utah. Elisha and his family continued with Parley P. Pratt when they left San Bernardino on the th 14 of September 1854. As they climbed out of the Los Angeles basin, they were joined by five Spaniards who were driving several hundred head of unshod horses. The party helped to guard all the livestock for several hundred miles until they reached the Virgin River and the Pratt party left them there. On the Muddy our camp was thronged with near sixty Indians, in a state of nudity, bringing with them green corn, melons, and dressed skins for sale, or exchange for clothing. They were all good natured and glad to see us; some of them accompanied us twenty-five miles, held our horses, guns, etc., and assisted us up the hills. After twenty days we all arrived in safety at Santa Clara, about one hundred miles from the settlement in Iron County. 4 The party traveled on until 7 October 1854 when they reached Parowan, Iron county, th Utah. Parley stayed there a few more days, preaching to the local Saints and then on the 10 he continued his journey to Salt Lake City. The Hyatt family so enjoyed the local surroundings that they decided to make this their home for the time being, especially as they had the joy of meeting their son there in Parowan. The family movements are unclear until 1860 when they again appear in San Francisco on the 1860 census. Elisha may have decided to leave Utah Territory because his son started practicing polygamy in 1856 or perhaps because of the Mountain Meadows Massacre incident of 11 September 1857 drew shame on the local area. Elisha, his wife and daughter Helen made their home in San Francisco until the Transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869, with Elisha earning his living as a drayman, hauling freight on short trips around San Francisco. Then Elisha and Matilda apparently decided to return to their native New York, possibly to see the children and families they had left behind in 1846. They both appear on the 1870 census at Hempstead, Queens, New York. He is listed as age 53, a farmer with property worth $5000 and personal wealth of $1500. His wife Matilda is listed as age 60. In the 1880 census they are listed as part of Brooklyn, Kings, New York. They later moved to Merrick, Long Island, New York, possibly to be near family and there they remained until their deaths in 1889, where they are both buried. Merrick had been a sleepy little town until the construction of the Long Island Rail Road in the late 1880's brought modernization to the town. The town had originally been owned by the Meroke Indians, but real estate developers cheated them out of 14,500 acres of prime real estate. During the mid-1800's the Church cemeteries in New York City were systematically emptied of their populations and tens of thousands of remains were moved to the Queens, Long Island area where today there are more people buried there than live there. Merrick surely saw part of this overflow of bodies being moved to their area also. John Smith Defreeze Hyatt John had been the third child of his parents and had been born 12 August 1832 at Hudson, Columbia County, New York just east across the river from Athens, New York. The only son in a family of six, John undoubtedly became a leader in the group of children and the girls looked to him for help and advice. When he joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints with his parents he felt determined to do as his leaders instructed him and chose to 4 Ibid, page 510 3
travel to California with his parents on the Brooklyn. His years only being fourteen, yet he felt a man and wanted to do his part in the new kingdom in California. He attended his mother during the voyage on the Brooklyn, as Matilda was pregnant and confined to her bunk many times. He started a small business in San Francisco hauling freight from the sea shore to the Hotels and other businesses and left town soon after Brannan announced the discovery of gold on the American River. He and his father worked at Mormon Island for a time and then John made the decision to travel to Utah with members of the Mormon Battalion, leaving his parents and infant sister in California. He left Sacramento with the Ebenezer Brown Company on 10 August 1848 and arrived in Great Salt Lake City on 10 October 1848. After spending a short time in Salt Lake City he was called to help settle Sanpete County. He then traveled to Panaca, Nevada where he spent four years leasing land from his old friend of the ship Brooklyn, Quartus Sparks, Jr. He found the living here too difficult and traveled to Parowan, Iron, Utah. Almost immediately he felt attracted to a young lady by the name of Martha Patty Newberry, daughter of James Newberry and Mary Smith. She had been born 20 August 1832 at Brownhelm, Loraine, Ohio and therefore almost the exact same age. They were married in Parowan at the home of the bride s parents on 2 January 1854. They made their life in Parowan and had eleven children born between 1854 and 1872. The children were John Joseph Hyatt, born 3 November 1854; Matilda Hyatt, born 11 December 1855; Inez Adelia Hyatt, born 20 August 1858; Herbert Smith Hyatt, born 23 August 1859; Melissa Myra Hyatt, born 6 March 1862; James Ambrose Hyatt, born 23 October 1863; Sally Ann Hyatt, born 23 November 1865; Helen Aurelia Hyatt, born 1 December 1867; Clarissa Elizabeth Hyatt, born 26 February 1870 and Minnie Eugenia Hyatt, born 25 August 1872. Only two years after he settled in Parowan and married, the local Church authorities convinced John to enter into polygamy, which he did on 28 January 1856 by marrying Martha Jane Turner Howd, who had been born at Alton, Madison, Illinois on 14 January 1838. Her parents, Simon Fuller Howd and Lucinda Morgan had migrated to Utah and settled in Parowan by 1850. This plural marriage may have contributed to John s parents returning to California. John and Martha started having children right away and they had a total of six born between 1857 and 1866. The children were Walter Elisha Hyatt, born 9 May 1857; Homer Defreeze Hyatt, born 28 September 1859; Elvira Lucinda Hyatt, born 8 April 1860; Simeon F. Hyatt, born 22 February 1862; Sarah Ann Hyatt, born 14 April 1864 and Henrietta Elmira Hyatt, born 14 December 1866. This made a total of sixteen children for John Hyatt. With passage and enforcement of the Edmunds-Tucker act against polygamy John became forced to split his families and Martha went on under her maiden name of Howd in Beaver City, Beaver, Utah where she lived with or very near her mother Lucinda. John fought in the Black Hawk Indian War in Southern Utah and tried to protect his families as best he could. He was a farmer/rancher in Parowan the rest of his life, dying on Christmas Day, 25 December 1911 at his beloved Parowan. His second wife had died 20 September 1901 and had been buried at Joseph, Sevier, Utah and his first wife Patty lived until 23 September 1917 when she died in Parowan and is buried next to her husband. The obituary for John reads: 4
One More Pioneer of 1847 Has Gone Parowan, December 29, 1911. On Christmas morning at 8 o clock John S. Hyatt, one of the Pioneers of 1847 died at his home here surrounded by his family. Mr. Hyatt was born at Hudson, New York in 1832, when 14 years old he sailed with his father and mother on the ship Brooklyn and went around Cape Horn landing at Monterey and later at San Francisco. At the age of 15 years he came to Utah with members of the Mormon Battalion, arriving in Salt Lake City in September, 1848, where he resided for a short time when he went to Sanpete county and later came to Parowan in 1854 where he married Martha Newberry who still survives him. Later he married Martha Howd. He has resided in Parowan since his arrival here with the exception of four years that he resided at Panaca, Nevada. Mr. Hyatt leaves a large number of descendants, 17 children, 116 grandchildren and 49 great-grandchildren; he shared the toils and hardships incident to the settlement of this country, and for some years past drew a pension from the government for service rendered in the Indian wars of the early days. The funeral services were held on Dec.28. The music was appropriate and impressive. Prof. George H. Durham and Ada McGregor sang, I Know that my Redeemer Lives. The speakers were Bishop Morgan Richards, Walter C. Mitchell and Counselor John Stevens all of whom spoke in praise of the integrity of the deceased. 5 John Defreeze Smith Hyatt left a large posterity to honor him over the years and many are still living in the Parowan, Iron County area. Panguitch City Cemetery 5 Deseret News, Tuesday, January 2, 1912, page 10 5