Teri's Blog: PB Ephraim and Phebe Melissa Knight Twitchell

I received the PB's of my 4th Great Grandparents Ephraim and Phebe Melissa Knight Twitchell. Their sixth child, Edwin Twitchell, is my 3rd Great Grandfather. Ephraim and Phebe were married on 1 March 1824 in Meigs, Ohio and were sealed in the Endowment House on 25 October 1862. According to FamilySearch Ephraim and Phebe had 11 children, 2 were stillborn, and their eldest daughter, Celestia Ursula, died just as the Church was leaving Nauvoo in 1846 when she was 19 years old.

I found Ephraim and Phebe and 17 other Twitchells crossed the plains with the Heber C Kimball Company in 1848. I think I found Ephraim in the 1840 Census, even though they spelled his name Ephraigm, in McDonough, Illinois. I found Ephraim and Phebe in Tuolumne, California in the 1850 Census. Tuolumne is known for it's logging, so it would make sense to live there to support the Gold Rush. The family history then says they moved to San Bernardino, CA, approximately 415 miles from Tuolumne.

I found a short history of Phebe on another genealogy website that was interesting. Here is a link to another history of Ephraim and Phebe written by Mary Olson.

Phoebe Melissa Knight was the fourth child of Silas Knight and Eunice Higley. She was born June 14, 1804 at Tolland, Hampden County, Massachusetts. In 1810, at the age of six, Phoebe moved with her family to what is now Meigs County, Ohio. Three years later, the ten-year-old Ephraim Twitchell moved into the same area with his family, and the two were married in 1824. Phoebe's older sister Eunice Ursula had married Ephraim's older brother, Joshua, and the two families kept close ties throughout their lives.
Phoebe and her husband were baptized in 1842, and moved to Nauvoo to be with the Saints. In February of 1846, her oldest daughter, 19-year-old Celestia, died. This was the same month that the Saints were expelled from Nauvoo. They went with the Saints to Council Bluffs, where their son Ancil joined the Mormon Battalion. Phoebe and her family arrived in Utah in September of 1848, and spent the winter in what is now Ogden. It was a terribly cold winter. Here Phoebe delivered a baby daughter the following month. They named her Sarah Celestia--the first white child born in Ogden.
The Twitchell family moved to California to be with their son Ancil. They spent about a year in Sacramento and then decided to settle in San Juan Batista, Monterey County. The land there was a black, rich soil, and they farmed and raised cattle. Several years later, they moved to San Bernardino. They returned to Utah and settled in Beaver in the fall of 1857, and Phoebe died the following spring. Her grave was said to have been the first one in the Beaver Cemetery.

It looks like Ephraim remarried after Phebe died in 1858 to Sarah Jane Hadden on 7 January 1860 in Salt Lake. Ephraim and Sarah had 10 children, with the last one born four months before he died in 1872. I found Ephraim and Sarah in the 1860 and 1870 Census.

According to the genealogy site and FamilySearch Ephraim and Phebe were baptized in July 1842. There was a note on Phebe's PB from Mary Melissa Olson Almond, who was Ephraim and Phebe's Great Granddaughter through their son James Ephraim and his daughter Celinda Jane Twitchell, where she thought that Phebe was at the first Relief Society Meeting, but that was held 17 March 1842 before they were baptized. I searched the Relief Society book and could not find Phebe's name in it anywhere, this doesn't mean she didn't help out with some of the RS projects, but her name is not on the record. On the PB it says Ephraim and Phebe both had their PB's done in 1844 by John Smith, Joseph Smith Sr's brother. Ephraim's is numbered 37 and Phebe's is numbered 38. It doesn't say which month or day, but Joseph Smith Jr was killed on 27 June 1844 in Carthage, Ill. His brother Hyrum was the church Patriarch, but he was killed with his brother, so Ephraim and Phebe probably had their PB's after June. I can only imagine what their life was like during that time period. I never thought I had ancestors in Nauvoo during this time, I always thought they were still in Europe saving money to make their journey to America. This made me think that Ephraim and Phebe were probably a witness to the 8 August 1844 meeting where Brigham Young spoke and some people reported that he looked and sounded similar to Joseph Smith. That is so cool to think they might have been there and chose right then to follow Brigham Young and the Twelve Apostles.

Phebe's typed up PB version