George Washington Brimhall

George Washington Brimhall is my 3rd great grandpa. He was born in New York in 1814 to Sylvanus and Lydia de Guitteau Brimhall. He was child number four of a total of eleven children. 

In 1825, Sylvanus built a raft (they nicknamed, “Noah’s Ark”) for his family and him to sail from New York south on the Allegheny River and then other connecting waterways.

When they set sail in the Spring of 1826, after the ice melted, the family consisted of Sylvanus, his wife Lydia, and their ten children (which included George who was ten years old at the time). An eleventh child was born after the voyage. 

The perils associated with this dangerous trip were made manifest nearly from the very beginning; the family had to traverse the great falls of the Allegheny River. After successfully descending the falls without injury or damage to the raft, Sylvanus and family continued their voyage with optimism.  

Initially, the plan was to sail down to St. Louis. But, after months and months of river life with ten children, Sylvanus and Lydia decided to cut their trip short and so they stopped in Indiana where they remained for 13 years before moving to Illinois.

George and his family, while residing in Illinois, first heard LDS missionaries preach in the early 1840s. George was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1842. He then went and served a proselytizing mission himself for the next two years in the eastern states. 

He married his first wife, Lucretia Metcalf, in 1845. They had a daughter and two sons. When the Church fled from Nauvoo, Illinois to the Salt Lake Valley in 1847 after Joseph Smith’s martyrdom in 1844, George wanted to go with them. Lucretia had been a member of the Church but had apostatized after Joseph Smith’s death. 

George repeatedly begged Lucretia to go with him to the Salt Lake Valley, but she steadfastly refused. Finally, George, due to mob violence, left Illinois for Utah in 1850 in hopes that he could convince his wife to follow. To the contrary, her response was to divorce him.

Once in Utah, George married his second wife, Rachel Ann Mayer, through whom I am descendent. He had ten children, six girls and four boys, with Rachel. George served in many civic responsibilities in Utah. He was a representative to the first and the third Legislative Assemblies of Utah. He also served as the county prosecutor for a time as well as a city counselor on the city council. George Washington Brimhall died at the age of 80 on September 30, 1895, in Spanish Fork, Utah.

George, upon his conversion, showed that he was willing to give up everything to do what he thought God wanted him to do - he gave up two years of his life to be a missionary; and when his first wife refused to go with him to the Salt Lake Valley, he ultimately chose to follow what he believed the Lord required of him. In the Utah territory, George diligently gave of his own time to be a public servant.

 Sources Used

 

George Washington Brimhall. FamilySearch. Accessed on May 4, 2023. https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/family/KW66-K6R.