isaac hale father of emma smith isaac hale father of emma smith

Two of the ominous headstones at the edge of the turnpike were for Joseph Smith, who died on March 10, 1792, and Josiah Stow, a local farmer and grave robber, who died on April 2, 1820, the latter not to be confused with Josiah Stowell. 247. In 1807 Francis Asbury, the first Bishop of the American Methodists, planned a trip through the Susquehanna Valley to follow up on recent conversions by ordaining local preachers, organizing congregations, and leading a large revival. Stone hoe used by Onandaga women to grow corn, found on Hale Farm. Isaac straightened the original foundation for the log home by adding a wall in front of a previous curved foundation wall on the west side of the cellar.240 He dug out a larger area to expand the cellar with a kitchen in the new basement and added a new foundation on the east side of the cellar which included a stairway so the family could access the basement from bulkhead doors at ground level.241, When the Hales added a rearaddition to their home between 1820 and 1822 to accommodate a ground level kitchen, they did not add a cellar under the new addition.242 The larger space attached to the rear of the home provided enough room for a pantry and kitchen sleeping chamber (the borning room of later generations) in addition to including a kitchen big enough to take care of most of the familys needs with the basement kitchen useful for cooking in the summer months.243. Grow, Thou Art an Elect Lady: D&C 24, 25, 26,27, Matthew McBride and James Goldberg,eds., Revelations in Context: The Stories behind the Sections of the Doctrine and Covenants (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2016), 3339. 142. Mary S. and John W. Park, present owners. After this, I became dissatisfied, and informed him that if there was any thing in my house of that description, which I could not be allowed to see, he must take it away; if he did not, I was determined to see it. Vogel, Michael Morse Interview with William W. Blair,8 May 1879,Early Mormon Documents,4:34344. Samuel Whaley,History of the Township of Mount Pleasant, Wayne County, Pennsylvania(New York: M.W. He was talented, laborious, and had much to do with the planting of Methodism in these parts. Chaffee,History of the Wyoming Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church,48, who wrote after Nathaniel Lewiss death, still referred to him as a local deacon.. Smith Sr., 9 December 1834, Deed from Isaac and Elizabeth Hale, 25 The Beers map has continued to influence some historians of Mormonism. 269. 208. Isaac was continuously taxed for a second home with the few exceptions discussed and explained in the text, until 1825 when it appears his son David Hale took over responsibility for the home. This suggests the Hale log home was among the more valuable log homes in the valley. 1810s & 1820s Member of Methodist church at Harmony. Although earning a living remained difficult, settlers continued to come. If she attended a Girls school, the only one in her vicinity was the Female Seminary that operated a few miles west of her parents home in Great Bend Township. Zenanah Gilbert, who attended a Methodist camp meeting in the area in 1810, described her experience: Sunday early in the morning Brother Ths [Thomas] Sister F [Fanny] and myself set off for to go to a Methodice field Meeting we call at the Post and [pick up numerous others with the wagon at several locations] . His large farm was on the best land in the valley and others grew significantly less produce. When James Newman died and was buried in the cemetery west of the Hale home that now bears his name, John Comfort wrote he was taken a corps into the Chapel the first time he ever entered it. John Comfort, letter to Silas Comfort, February 29, 1848. Even though he was farming rented land nearby, David was still tied to his father, and his father paid taxes on both homes as residences on his property.252 Twenty-nine-year-old David married his neighbor Rhoda Jane Skinner in 1822. Since the Lewis family, as were many Methodists, had been early promoters of temperance, but did not condemn tobacco use, the artifact pattern more likely reflects their use of the site as a Methodist meeting house than a public house. Bartlett, Crawford and Stearns Architects. Emma was born July 10, 1804, in Harmony Township, Pennsylvania, the seventh child of Elizabeth Lewis and Isaac Hale. It was on this largely unimproved farm that Joseph Smith Jr. first met Isaac and Elizabeth Hale. A local historian argued wheat could grow well on high, south facing ground that was above the shade of southern mountains, Rhamanthus M. Stocker,Centennial History of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania,(Philadelphia: R. T. Peck & Co., 1887), 179, but this ground was usually too steep and rocky to farm adequately. Emma Hale Smith (1804-1879), wife of the Prophet Joseph Smith, was born July 10, 1804, in the Susquehanna Valley in harmony township (now Oakland), Pennsylvania, to Isaac and Elizabeth Lewis Hale, the first permanent settlers in the valley. 99. Saved to reddit here. Chaffee,History of the Wyoming Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church,36. The following publications provide further information about this topic. 158. Connecticut investors promoted Wells land; and Connecticut settlers filled its mountain valleys. 24. One Sabbath morning, in the year 1812 when provisions were scarce, he sat reading his Bible preparatory to preaching, when he discovered a deer near his house. The courtship and marriage of Joseph Smith and Emma Hale Emily Blackman notes William Smith sold the property in 1800 to James Westfall, and there is nothing in the sources that contradicts her conclusion as to the chain of title. 140. Of these times, she later wrote: No one but God knows the reflections of my mind and the feelings of my heart when I left our house and home, and almost all of everything that we possessed excepting our little children, and took my journey out of the State of Missouri, leaving [Joseph] shut up in that lonesome prison. JOSEPH SMITH - EARLY LDS HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS - MORMONISM - XMission Joseph began his first efforts translating the Book of Mormon in the Hale home and found protection as he began his work. Searle, Diary, June 1832Nov. 257. He had no other wife but me; nor did he to my knowledge ever have. But by July, her attitude toward the practice had shifted again, and she burned a manuscript copy of the revelation on plural marriage now found in Doctrine and Covenants132. The author wrote, Meantime Deacon Stowell purchased a farm at Susquehanna and moved his family there from Afton. Whaley,History of the Township of Mount Pleasant,1012, and Appendix VI, argued Samuel Stanton built Henry drinker and John Hilborns frame homes a few miles east of the Hale family in 1789. 136. The Lord will have respect to thy cries, and by his judgments he will cause some of them to see their folly and repent of their sins; but it will be by affliction that they will be saved. Isaac Hale Died: 11 Jan 1839 BillionGraves Record Andrew Tracys 17991801 diary as cited in Blackman,History of Susquehanna County,11516. Others also consistently agreed the workmen boarded with Isaac Hale. There would not be a gristmill within twenty miles for another two decades and the family likely ate little grain themselves. During the earliest settlement period or before, the oldest and most commonly used name for the villagewhere Daniel Buck and Isaac Hale first met, Oquago, was attached to the mountain where Hale settled. . Among them was a man named Josiah Stow, a deacon in Daniel Bucks congregation, where Josiah Stowell would later also serve as a deacon. Charles Hatchs 18281829 tavern was evidently a log structure and likely related to the log tavern Sylvanus Hatch in neighboring Great Bend Township. 271. isaac hale father of emma smith - mathieu-pfennings.be She was also charged to act as a scribe to Joseph, to expound the scriptures, to exhort the Church, and to coordinate the publication of sacred music in a hymnbook. Alva Hale, Letter to His Brothers and Sisters, February 20, 1842, Wilford C. Wood Museum Collection, Bountiful, Utah. Blackman,History of Susquehanna County,103. Benson Bobrick,Angel in the Whirlwind: The Triumph of the American Revolution(New York: Penguin Books, 1997),50-51, 148. libra lucky number 2021; stubben tristan dressage saddle review; isaac hale father of emma smith. There is some evidence that Crawford may have been correct. Some historians have speculated the Stowell work party stayed in Elizabeth Hales tavern when they arrived.270 While contemporary sources indicate the group of workmen stayed on the Hale property for an extended period, the Hale Family did not own a tavern, and archaeology suggests there was no room in their frame home for a number of guests for an extended period. Emma Hale (1804-1879) | Familypedia | Fandom Chaffee,History of the Wyoming Conference, 37. Farmers, ministers, and school masters were exempt from a tax on their trade. Lewis had some exposure to the use of divining rods in the search for treasure while living in Wells, Vermont, and the scant evidence suggests he had rejected these efforts early. Margaret McColum placed an advertisement in the paper in 1824 in response to her husbands previous advertisement claiming she had left his bed and board. Margaret quipped, ELIAS never had a bed; and as to eatables, he never furnished any except Beans & Jonny Cake without Salt; which cannot, with any propriety, be denominated board. Error Corrected,Susquehanna County Republican, June 29, 1824, 3, italics in original. He concluded on February 29, 1836, Religion at a very Low ebb with us little or no spirit in the members and of course a great indifference among the congregation. John Comfort, letter to Dear Children, Harmony, February 29, 1836. David Hale letter as cited in Blackman,History of Susquehanna County,104. 189. 149. rose gold diamond bracelet mens; Almon Munsons tavern in Taylortown, two and one-quarter miles west of the Hale home, was the only one near the Hale home in 18241825.271 It was in the Munson tavern where the Hale familys neighbors regularly gathered for activities, and it was in the Munson Tavern where Isaac Hale sat on the Grand Jury investigating Jason Treadwell for the murder of Oliver Harper in 1824.272 That tavern building still stands today.273 Charles Hatch operated a tavern in Lanesville, three miles east of the Hale farm, but not until 18281829.274. His lack of education and resources contrasted with Emmas respectable situation, but she was immediately impressed with his character and morals. 209. Richard BEST died 2 May 1867 aged 48 years. Joe Smith Operates at Susquehanna,Binghamton Daily Republican,29 July 1880,Early Mormon Documents4:34566. Isaac's attitude towards Joseph Smith was one of disapproval and did not like him as a person. Hanna, anna,andhonnawere all English spellings for a word the Onondaga applied to local rivers, brooks, or creeks meaning stream of water; andsusquewas the English spelling of a word whose meaning is still debated but may have meant muddy, roiling, or serpent like.43 Since the river is rarely muddy except during flooding and is only serpentine when seen from the sky, it may be the Onondaga intended to suggest by Susquehanna the rough, roiling rapids frequently found in the shallow water. Winter approached, and one long-time resident, fifty-five-year-oldJosiah Stowell had a wagon full of men from the vicinity of Palmyra, New York, he was bringing to work in Harmony Township before they could no longer dig the frozen ground. Wed hardly get over one frolic when wed begin to fix for another.154 Settlers held a big frolic on Wednesday, July 4, where they enjoyed dancing and eating as they worked together while honoring Isaac Hale and the other men in the valley who had served in the Revolutionary War. John Comfort, letter to Silas Comfort, April 8, 1837. These men assessed real property in Harmony Township as directed in Section Eight of the General Assembly Act of April 11, 1799, implementing the tax laws that remained in place for many years (with some small revisions made in 1834 and 1844). Isaac Hale, son of Reuben Hale & Diantha Ward, was born Mar. After Joseph and Emma Hale Smiths marriage, they returned to the neighborhood that became for them a significant place in their familys timeline. John Comfort, letter to Silas Comfort, Letter, February 23, 1838. That fall, Joseph obtained the gold plates and continued his mission of being an instrument in the hands of God in restoring the gospel. Upon Joseph's death, Emma was left a pregnant widow. Several of Pickerings friends had purchased large tracts of land in the Susquehanna Valley from him; and those friends combined the properties together and gave them as a gift to Hamiltons widow for her familys support.155 Through this means Elizabeth Hamilton briefly became owner of a significant portion of the Hale neighborhood. The Hale property is carefully drawn in the Rose survey maps and labeled with Isaac Hales name.232 While preparations to divide the Rose tract were underway, Isaac and his sons helped finish the Lewis familys new home in 1809 on poor farmland south of the Susquehanna River and just east of a small creek (now Bedbug Creek). . The announcement of Joseph having the plates created a great deal of excitement in the area. Although Nathaniel Lewis enlisted for two separate terms during the French and Indian war, he enlisted again in 1775 as talk of revolution moved through Connecticuts churches and taverns, and he served in the Continental Navy under Lieutenant David Welch when it was first formed until his enlistment expired on November 10, 1775.72 Since the navy was initially made of up merchantmen, Lewis may have been working in the shipping trade when he enlisted, or he may have presented his earlier navy experience at enlistment. Clarke suggest William Smith married Moses Comstocks daughter and settled in the valley in 1791, the year after he notes Hale and Lewis settled the valley. Vogel, Frederick G. Mather,The Early Mormons. 201. Even in his old age, Nathaniel Lewis was referred to by John Comfort on occasion as old Brother Lewis. John Comfort to Silas Comfort, Harmony, January 17, 1840. Chaffee, who wrote after Nathaniel Lewiss death, still referred to him as a local deacon, but also wrote that John Hilborn advised Lewis to procure a license to preach in conforming with the rules of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Mr. Lewis being a firm believer in the doctrines of Methodism and fully competent to teach. John Comfort, letter to Silas Comfort, January 17, 1840. David followed on March 6, 1794. Black, Susan Easton, and Harvey Bischoff Black, eds. 75. Josiah Stows discovery of treasure in the Indian burials on his property became well known. In 1788 more white settlers came to the valley where Hale and Buck first met, and Daniel Buck became their first minister.51 He also established a congregation in the Susquehanna Valley where the Hale family and their Lewis in-laws attended his services.52 Jonathan Bennett served as the deacon of the congregation.53. Lurena also became a popular name with future generations of the family. In the morning after Asburys arrival, he attended a camp meeting already underway for two days and extolled, God is in the camp and with us.196 He added that more than a thousand people had gathered to the meetingquite an event for the little valley. He then returned to Palmyra, and soon after, Alva, agreeable to the arrangement, went up and returned with Smith and his family. Anne wife of Thomas SMITH died 24 March 1873 aged 51 years. But since Moses Comstock was the acknowledged first settler of the valley, the dating of William Smiths arrival is not firmly established. They seem to have thought of it. 143. 64. John Comfort, letter to Silas Comfort, July 11, 1839, punctuation added for clarity. The age of Nathaniel Lewis Jr.s interest in preaching seems very specific, which suggests that it may be accurate. This did not happen quickly. Remembering Emma Hale Smith, the first president of the Relief Society . He did much of his hunting on Turkey Hill, across the river southwest of his home, and in the surrounding mountains. The creek was named Lewis Creek and ran down from Turkey Hill through Jameson Hollow (now Bedbug Hollow) until it emptied into the Susquehanna River. 1829, Appendix 1: Agreement of Josiah Stowell and Others, 1 November But he was more interested in preparing formal, well-polished sermons than in getting out to serve the poor or minister to his community. She . 1828 Susquehanna County Tax Records. The site was very clean as if they had internalized Methodist founder John Wesleys aphorism cleanliness is next to godliness.299 Despite John Comforts later concerns that an interest in pursuing wealth was creeping into their Methodist community and overshadowing religious devotion, the Hale family appears to have reconciled the role of wealth into their religious practice. Jesse purchased the property from his father and married Mary July 23, 1815. Silas Gildersleve, letter to Family, September 18, 1823, John Comfort Correspondence, George Fisk Comfort Papers, Syracuse University Special Collections; see also, Charles Wentworth Upham,The Life of Timothy Pickering(Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1878), 4:116. Not included in this list but included in the original act were fulling mills, slitting mills, and rolling mills. 4:5 . 1841 [Draft 2], History, circa JuneOctober 1839 [Draft 1], Introduction to New York and Pennsylvania Financial A detailed exploration of this home, including images of the construction plans, and the Pickering family interaction with Isaac Hale and his family is in Mark Staker, Emma Hale Smith and Her Family in Harmony, Pennsylvania, Historic Sites Files, CHL, 2010. It was built during a time of spiritual renewal for the Hale family, and it had become an outward sign for them of what they were hoping to develop described as an inward grace.14 Joseph first met Isaac and Elizabeth Hales third daughter in their comfortable home. : Stanley and Betty Coryell, 2005), 11. : M. J. Cantwell, 1882), 34. This suggests David rented land over the next decade from Levi Westfall who farmed with his father James two farms east of Isaac and Elizabeth Hales farm.251, Jesse and Alva Hale were both listed in the1820 census as heads of household while twenty-six-year-old David was included in his fathers household as an unnamed individual listed in his age category. I am grateful to Nancy Mess for helping me find the location of the current Timothy Pickering headstone in the Lanesboro Cemetery. [1]:7 Hiding the plates in his coat, he descended down the hill after many hours, and instead of taking them home, Joseph hid the plates. isaac hale father of emma smith - sujin-shinmachi.com Such marriages were rare and a similar union of a white woman in Boston to a black man made national news,Painesville Telegraph, June 15, 1827, 3; June 4, 1823, 3; March 11, 1824, 3. [18] Emma died peacefully in the Nauvoo House[citation needed] on April 30, 1879, at the age of 74. 9. . Joseph and Emma in a home nearby while he translated most of the Book of Mormon with Oliver Cowdery serving as scribe. She was baptized on 28 June 1830, shortly after the Church was organized. Jane C. Nylander,Our Own Snug Fireside: Images of the New England Home, 17601860(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994), 5465. Smith, by the aid of his magic stone, ascertained that many years before a band of robbers had buried a box of treasure in certain flat lands on the deacons farm. Joe Smiths Youthful Days. Stowell, Joseph and the other hired men boarded, Vogel, Michael Morse Interview with William W. Blair, 8 May 1879,Early Mormon Documents,4:342. Travelers complained in letters and reminiscences how during wet months of the year the hard clay became deep ruts, supporting treacherous puddles on the Harmony Turnpike.1Despite their complaints, the turnpike was the quickest route from western New York to the urban areas of southern Pennsylvania and the thoroughfare was always busy. isaac hale father of emma smith - vesinhcleanup.com Emily C. Blackman,History of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, from a Period Preceding its Settlement to Recent Times(Philadelphia: Claxton, Remsen, and Haffelfinger, 1873), 103. Father of Jesse Hale , David Hale , Alva Hale , Elizabeth Hale , Isaac Ward Hale and Emma (Hale) Bidamon. Ancestry and Posterity of Joseph Smith and Emma Hale: With Little Sketches of Their Immigrant Ancestors All of Whom Came to America between the Years 1620 and 1685, and Settled in the States of Massachusetts and Connecticut. 218. Lord help me to be prepared to go to rest when thou shalt remove me hence.285 The next day the oldest of Isaac and Elizabeth Hales daughters, Phebe, died. A Study of the Origins of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the States of New York and Pennsylvania, 18161831. We will do it, said Hail; we will fix the stones, so that Charles, when grown up, if he should come this way, may find the spot where his fathers body was laid. These words were uttered with so much affection and respect for the deceased as showed how greatly your brother was beloved.163 Colonel Pickering wrote to his son Henry, Mr. Events of the 1838 Mormon War soon escalated, resulting in Joseph's surrender and imprisonment by Missouri officials. Timothy Lee, before Mrs. [Emma] Smith was born.189 Emma was already born and baptized into the Congregationalists before Reverend Lee arrived in the valley. Upham,Life of Timothy Pickering,4:11923; Blackman,History of Susquehanna County,95. Did Isaac Hale like Joseph smith? When Emma decided to marry Joseph in 1827, her parents disowned her, but did allow their daughter and son-in-law back for a time while Emma was pregnant with their first child and as Joseph continued translating the . . Son of Reuben Hale and Diantha Ward. 4 (Fall 1984): 44950. : Warren F. Draper, 1883), 63, 344; F.A. This is the same version that was picked up by late nineteenth century religious publications and reprinted many times.295, Alva Hale sold the rest of his parents farm to the Dayton family in 1842, and the Daytons then rented it to Peter Blodgett. Anderson,Lucys Book,361; an unidentified interviewer who signed his notes as Abel, recorded aninterview with one of Emmas sons, David Hyrum Smith, and wrote down Davids description of his mother as, a little over medium highth . She has been tossed upon the ocean of uncertainty; She has breasted the storms of persecution, and buffeted the rage of men and devils, which have borne down almost any other woman.1. Many Latter Day Saints believed that her eldest son, Joseph Smith III, would one day be called to hold the same position that his father had held. Both she and Joseph III traveled to a conference at Amboy, Illinois. A word search using Googles n-gram feature elicited numerous examples of boarding used in both senses during the period in which Joseph stayed in the Susquehanna Valley. Wood was excluded from the Congregationalists some twelve years before, but the history does not indicate before what. "[14][15] In Harmony on June 15, 1828, Emma gave birth to her first childa son named Alvinwho lived only a few hours. During the short time of his employ, Joseph and other workers boarded at the homestead of Isaac and Elizabeth Hale of Harmony. Collection of the LDS Church History Department. [20], On November 6, 1832, Emma gave birth to Joseph Smith III in the upper room of Whitney's store in Kirtland. They went as far as the rift or rapids, where they left their canoes, and walked past the rapids, then took passage in a large canoe around by my fathers. Emma Hale Birth: 10 July 1804 Harmony Township, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, United States Death: 30 April 1879 Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois, United States Remains: 1879 Smith Family Cemetery, Hancock County, Illinois, United States Father: Isaac Hale (1763-1839) Mother: Elizabeth Lewis (1767-1842) Skills: 2. Pickerings surviving papers also provide detailed plans for construction of the second home and information about this larger structure. Providence knows bestHe sends to you whatever He wants you to have, and youve got to take it and make the best of it.174. Davids brother Jesse Hale moved across the river to a new home downstream by his sawmill, and in 1825 Jesse paid a tax for both of his homes as occupied structures. Nine months after Robert Rose purchased much of the valley, Isaac Hale paid him one dollar on November 29, 1809, for 90 acres of land and agreed to a mortgage of $340.92 for the remaining sum. Shell-edged creamware plate fragment, found on Hale Farm. Blackman,History of Susquehanna County, 469. 80. The best circumstantial argument for the Hale family using their log home briefly as rental property comes immediately after the 1825 tax assessment when Isaac Hale no longer pays taxes for the log home but Jeriah Mumford & Co. comes into the valley and rents four homes. Jesse moved his fifteen-year-old bride immediately into her new frame home. 125. Just another site. Emma first met her future husband, Joseph Smith, in 1825. [11] It was titled A Collection of Sacred Hymns, for the Church of the Latter Day Saints[13] and contained 90 hymn texts but no music. See page 63 of the extended online version of the article by Mark Lyman Staker and Robin Scott Jensen, David Hales Store Ledger: New Details about Joseph and Emma Smith, the Hale Family, and the Book of Mormon,BYU Studies,accessed April 10, 2015,https://byustudies.byu.edu/PDFViewer.aspx?title=hidden&linkURL=53.3StakerJensen_Extended-5351ecc6-b7ef-451f-ad91-b4b78036d422.pdf. 264. In the course of her prayer she besought the Lord in behalf of her father, and the force and efficacy of that prayer entered into his heart with such power as to lead him to faith in Christ the Lord.217 Isaacs commitment changed as he listened to the wailing of her young heart in his behalf while Emma prayed aloud in the woods as the preachers encouraged.218, By the time George Peck became the circuit rider coming through the Susquehanna Valley in 1816, he held his meetings in the home of Brother Hale. Peck found in the region such weeping and shouting [as] I have seldom heard or witnessed.219 The village of Hopbottom (named after the prolific hops that grew in the area), twenty-four miles south of the Hale home, became known as Hoppingbottom, as illustrative of the manner in which the Methodists exhibited their joy, in times of the outpouring of the Spirit, in leaping up and down.220 When Peck preached a sermon in the parlor of the Hale home, he based it on Isaiah 12:6, Cry out and shout, thou inhabitants of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.221. In addition to all the testimonies above we also have the testimony of Mr. Isaac Hale, Emma Smith's father, and this man didn't pull any punches with his opinion about his son-in-law's lifestyle. Hale, Isaac Biography 21 Mar. Smith, Emma Hale - The Encyclopedia of Mormonism Paragraphs are shortened for easier reading. She became a physical witness of the plates, reporting that she felt them through a cloth, traced the pages through the cloth with her fingers, heard the metallic sound they made as she moved them, and felt their weight. She was also directed to compile a book of hymns for the Church, and she was warned to continue in a spirit of meekness, and beware of pride. (D&C 25:1113.). Tench Francis dictated his will on April 4, 1800, leaving his large tract of Susquehanna Valley property to his wife. As the foliage colors warmed and deepened, Hale joined his efforts with Buck at Ouaquaga where he hunted for meat while Buck gathered frost-bitten corn growing unattended in the fields. Stocker,Centennial History of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, 543. 223. Did emma smith join the rlds church? - sdnimik.bluejeanblues.net Daniel Bucks Congregational churches became the foundation of the religious community in the region. She found her long home before her parents, as they placed her in a coffin and buried her nearby in the Hale family cemetery plot. 81. Map by Brandon S. Plewe. There is no extant record of Emma ever seeing her parents again. The tree that marked the spot had been cut down when he shared his story with Catlin and the old man could not tell him where it was buried. 65. On October 2, 1812, the men in the valley gathered in Lanesville at the home of John Comfortthe home Isaac Hale had built for Pickeringand they elected Comfort as Harmony Townships Tax Assessor with Hale as his assistant.237 The two men quickly visited the farms and workshops in Harmony, Pennsylvania, relying on detailed standardized instructions to determine a value for each familys property.238 Isaac Hale taxed himself in this first assessment for two homes, the original log home and a new frame home.