We made the Church News!

(Or at least History of the Church. I shared this story with my seminary class yesterday.)

Brinkerhoff line. In July 1838, Nathan and Jane Staker left Kirtland with over 500 other saints—called the Kirtland Camp—headed for Missouri. Nathan and Jane had four young kids at the time including Grandma Brinkerhoff’s grandfather, two year old Alma. By August, the camp had traveled to western Ohio where the following incidents occurred.

From ‘History of the Church’, Volume 3, page 128: Nathan Staker was requested to leave the camp in consequence of the determination of his wife, to all appearances, not to observe the rules and regulations of the camp. There had been contentions in the tent between her and Andrew Lamereaux, overseer of the tent, and also contentions with his family on the road, and after the camp stopped in this place. The Council had become weary of trying to settle these contentions between them. Andrew Lamereaux having gone to Dayton to labor, taking his family with him, was not present at the Council, neither was there any new complaint made, but the impossibility of Brother Staker to keep his family in order was apparent to all, and it was thought to be the best thing for him to take his family and leave the camp.

Here’s the rest of the story from Nathan Staker’s history: Jane Richmond Staker never got along with the Lamereaux family and a lot of ill feelings always existed, which was frowned upon by Nathan. The Staker family tradition has it that on one occasion when a slough about fifteen feet wide was being forded, all the teamsters would start their teams into the slough then grab the back end of the wagon and wade through. When Nathan’s turn came, he got the team and wagon in the slough, then taking a little run jumped over dry shod. Mr. Lamereaux was not a little vexed and ordered him to take water, threatening him with his riding whip, and when Nathan made it dry shod spurred his horse across the slough striking Nathan with the whip ordered him to wade back into the slough. At this wife Jane takes over, wrenches the whip out of the wagon boss’s hand and hit him in the face with it.

After the camp departed, the Stakers moved on to Springfield, IL where they remained until they joined the saints leaving for the west in 1846.