Question: Did Jeduthun Averett join the Mormon Battalion in 1846?
Answer: Jeduthun (also spelled Jeduthan or Juduthan) Hardy Averett was born 12 June 1816 in North Carolina to Hardy Averett and Drucilla Meador. Jeduthun married Holly Jane Tingle 11 August 1836 in Marion, Perry, Alabama. She was born 15 April 1818, in Bibbsville, Bibb County, Alabama. They had six children, but two died as children.
Jeduthun and Holly Jane became converts to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1843, while they were living several miles north west of Marion, Perry, Alabama, in a place called Five Mile. Jeduthun presided over a Branch of the Church there for a year.
About 1845, they emigrated to Nauvoo, Illinois. When they had to leave Nauvoo in the spring of 1846 due to the persecution, they had two small children. While living at Council Bluffs, Iowa, in July 1846, Jeduthun volunteered for the Mormon Battalion, and was mustered into Company “D” under Captain Nelson Higgens. He had to leave his wife and two children with only one-half pan of flour for food and no means of support. The men were told their wives would be taken care of while they were gone. Holly had a baby daughter who was born and died in 1848 while Jeduthun was away.
Jeduthun traveled with the Battalion to Santa Fe and was then detached with the sick detachment to Pueblo, Colorado under the command of Captain James Brown. When the Battalion was discharged, he went to the Salt Lake Valley, but his wife and family were still in Iowa, so he returned to Council Bluffs. The family resided for three years in Kanesville, Iowa. In March 1850 they had a son born who they named William.
Jeduthun and his family started west early in the summer of 1851. They traveled west in the same company as Jane Singleton Farnsworth, a widow with two children, who Jeduthun would marry as a second wife after they arrived in the Salt Lake Valley. Jane was born 23 January 1825 in Dickbrake, Lancashire, England. Jeduthun and Jane were married 8 February 1852 in Salt Lake and had seven children together. Holly had one more daughter in 1854, and then she left Jeduthun and married again.
Jeduthun and his boys hauled rocks for foundations and logs out of the canyon. They usually got these up Spanish Fork Canyon. When they went to the canyon to get ties or logs out for the railroad or someone else, Jeduthun always did the cooking for them. One time when they had been up Spanish Fork Canyon at White River about a week, they were talking, while they were eating, about bear meat. They said they would never eat it. They would rather starve. When they got through their meal, their father said, “Well one of you boys had better go get some kind of meat to eat because what you have been eating is bear meat for the last two days.”
Jeduthun fought in the Black Hawk Indian War. Jeduthun and all his boys were very good carpenters and also great hunters and trappers. About 1857, Jeduthun moved his family to Springville, Utah, Utah. In his later years, Jeduthun walked many times to St. George to do Temple work. A great many endowments were done by him. He received a pension of $8.00 a month for his military service.
Jane died in March 1894 in Springville. Jeduthun died on 7 January 1902 in Springville at the age of 85. He was buried in the Evergreen Cemetery in Springville.
Source: Excerpts from “Jeduthun Averett,’ FamilySearch.org; FindAGrave.com
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