Family History Sunday- Charles Augustus Stoddard 1820-1891

Charles Augustus Stoddard and Lucetta Jane Murdock

Personal histories of Lucetta and Charles indicate that they died as they lived- faithful followers of Jesus Christ.  Charles' parents, Curtis Stoddard and Pamela West were born in Massachusetts and Connecticut.  They married in 1803 and moved to Ohio sometime between 1812 and 1815.  

Lucetta and Charles' conversion to Mormonism is a story of faith.  Charles was baptized at 22 years of age on July 4, 1842 in Illinois.  Lucetta, born in Madison New York, was baptized on July 29, 1839 (she was the only member of her father's family to join the church) and moved to Illinois in 1841 where she taught school.  They married on May 27, 1843.

Their faith was to be tried as they passed through the  hardships and trials in the early days of the Mormon Church.  Records indicate that they sought refuge with Hyrum Smith's widow when the mobs burned homes and property in Nauvoo. Lucetta was associated in the first Relief Society in Nauvos and as a tailor by trade made  coats for both Brigham Young and George A. Smith to wear on their missions to England.  Each Coat  had 16 pockets for carrying books.

The expulsion of Nauvoo drove Charles and Lucetta with the Saints to Council Bluffs.  It was here their son and my Great Great Grandfather Hyrum Franklin (father to Edwin Stoddard) was born.  In 1852, they joined the Uriah Curtis Company and settled with the Saints in Utah making their home in Uintah.

 I took these pictures of their graves on a brilliant fall afternoon.  Their stories strengthen my faith.  It is almost midnight as I blog tonight.  The house is quiet and I fill a reverence for Charles and Lucetta- the first of the Stoddard family to join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  They knew adversity, but they chose to overcome.  

I will never be asked to sew  coats with 16 pockets for future prophets, nor will I have my  home and property burned because I am a Mormon, but I have been asked to keep the link of faith strong which Lucetta and Charles began- I have been asked to fill my 16 pockets full of faith-