Moses Martin Sanders

I was having a hard time coming up with someone or something to blog about this week. Usually I have been gathering data or visiting cemeteries, but this week I have to guiltily admit that I have not had my ancestors on my mind. So when my phone beeped at me like it does every Sunday to remind me that it's time to blog I did not know where to begin. 

Luckily the idea came to me to look through past research projects from Universal Genealogy Center and in one of the documents I came across an advertisement for lodging in an old Nauvoo cabin built by Moses Martin Sanders and his son, John Franklin Sanders. Now I not only have a blog idea, but a trip to plan as well. I have copied and pasted the history here along with the website. 

Moses Martin Sanders

My paternal 3rd Great-Grandfather

Nauvoo Log Cabins @ http://nauvoologcabins.com/cabin_sanders.php
Moses Martin Sanders Cabin 
Built by Moses and John Franklin Sanders

Acquiring an old homestead log cabin inevitably means, digging up the past in search of history. In this case the time spent was well worth the effort. 

The Sanders story is one of adventure, tremendous faith, hardship and perseverance. It is not an isolated case, but rather a similar representation of thousands of pioneers and the trials they faced. Thanks to those who kept journals and records, we have the opportunity to view their lives from a distance. 

Moses Martin Sanders was born August 17, 1803, the son of David Sanders and Mary Allred. Moses was the Grandson of Moses Sanders, founder and first pastor of the Line Grove level and Nail Creek Baptist churches of Franklin County, Georgia. 

At the age of 23 Moses Married Amanda Armstrong Faucett, born May 6, 1810 in Maury, Tennessee. They were married on January 12, 1826 in the same county. They both came from homes that owned slaves. Her first child William Carl was born December 4, 1826, but lived only about 8 months. Amanda's second son, Richard Twiggs, was born May 31, 1828. In 1829 the family moved to Montgomery County, Illinois where her third child, John Franklin, was born on March 20, 1830. Here she had two baby girls named Rebecca Ann born, March 5, 1832 and Martha Brown born May 23, 1833, and another boy named David Walker, born on September 1, 1834. 

Moses and Amanda joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on January 28, 1835 and were baptized by immersion by Elder William Joy. In the summer of 1836 they moved to Missouri where their Seventh child was born and they named him Joseph Moroni Sanders. He was born December 25, 1836, which was during the time Caldwell County was organized. The Sanders purchased property at Far West, Clay County, before the northern part was formed into Caldwell County, Missouri. They went to be with the main body of the Saints. They suffered inhuman treatment at the hands of the mobs and were driven from their land and home. Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon were in Liberty Jail facing false charges. During this time Amanda delivered her Eighth child and he was named Sidney Rigdon Sanders, born April 10, 1839. 

The Sanders traveled up river and took shelter with the concerned people of Quincy, Adams County, Illinois. It was in Quincy that Moses was ordained an Elder and a Seventy. In May of 1839 the prophet Joseph Smith and a group of Saints settled at Commerce, which was fifty miles up the river from Quincy. Joseph renamed the area Nauvoo the Beautiful. There the Sanders built a small log home on the corner of Water Street and Partridge. they lived next door to Joseph's Uncle John Smith, and very near the Prophet, and they cherished the associations, both in Church activities and in sporting events. Moses owned a beautiful but unruly horse. One day the prophet said to his nearby neighbor, Moses, "Brother Sanders, give the horse to me and I promise that you'll never lose by it" Moses Martin replied, "I would but I'm afraid that he may hurt you." Then the Prophet said, "No, he would never hurt me." Moses tossed him the rope and said, "He is Yours." 

While in Nauvoo, Amanda had three more children. Emma was born on January 23, 1840 and she is said to have been named by the Prophet himself, in honor of his wife, Emma. On June 4, 1843 Eliza Jane was born followed by Hyrum Smith Sanders born on October 10, 1845. Life was difficult for survival on account of malaria, lack of proper food, shelter and persecution of the mobs. It was here in Nauvoo, they had the sorrow of parting with their son Sidney Rigdon, who was six years of age. The Sanders also witnessed the return of the bodies of Joseph and Hyrum. 

That same year, Joseph Moroni Sanders was baptized on the day he turned eight. His Birthday was on December 25th, Christmas Day, 1844. A hole had to be cut in the ice and he was baptized by immersion in the Mississippi River. Joseph Moroni had a vivid recollection of the Prophet, when he gave his farewell message to his people before, Joseph and his Brother Hyrum met their tragic death. It is interesting to note that at this event Joseph Moroni was less than eight years old at the time. The Sander's enjoyed many of the Prophet's Sermons. He also remembered Brigham Young when he was chosen to be the president of the church, when he spoke in the voice and image of the slain Prophet, Joseph Smith.

Joseph Moroni Sanders
My paternal 2ggf

John Franklin Sanders as a teenager helped the builders of the Nauvoo Temple as a water boy. Year after year John saw firsthand the huge, cut, chiseled, and polished stones arrive from the Quarry by wagon. The Sunstones, Moons and Star stones along with the Twelve Oxen we're carved out of stone. Nothing but the finest quality and workmanship was accepted for the House of God. Large amounts of timber from the pineries of Wisconsin were floated down the Mississippi to provide the lumber necessary for such a large edifice. The work was hard and tedious, under adverse conditions, poverty, sickness, weather and opposition, but the work continued. John's father and older brother Richard also worked regularly on the Nauvoo Temple. The Sanders witnessed the completion of the Lord's Temple in Nauvoo and on January 3rd, 1846, Moses and Amanda received their endowments and were sealed for time and all eternity by Heber C. Kimball. Often John was the only one home to help his mother and younger brothers and sisters, as his Father and Richard were gone so much on church duties. Moses served as city policeman, and in the Temple as the voice for Temple Prayers.

Due to mobs and persecutions the Mormons were driven from Nauvoo in the dead of winter in 1846 and crossed the frozen Mississippi. Wagons with belongings and supplies lined up Parley Street as the mass exodus began. The Sanders arrived at Winter Quarters, now Florence, Nebraska, in the summer of 1846, they camped and settled at Pigeon Grove near Kanesville, Iowa. It was here that Amanda lost two more children. Eleven month old Hyrum Smith, was buried at Winter Quarters on September 27, 1846. Not much later on April 4, 1847, Eliza Jane, age three, died and was buried in grave #123. 

Moses worked in a sawpit making lumber by hand, and John worked on the ferry along with Henry Weeks Sanderson. When a call from the United States Government for 500 Mormons to enlist in the war against Mexico. The Oldest living son, Richard Twiggs Sanders, age Eighteen, volunteered. 536 men signed up by July 16, 1846, and they marched from Council Bluffs to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and to San Diego, California. This was the longest march in the history of the United States Infantry--over Two thousand miles.