Early Mormons in Chester County

From my own research several years ago, I knew that there were some Peirce girls related to my main line that had become Mormons, but I never really gave it much thought since they weren't in my direct line. A visitor to this site recenlty sent me an email asking about this line, so I decided to take a closer look. The Peirce family in question was that of Robert, son of Thomas Peirce and Margaret Trimble. Robert was born in 1797 and married Hannah Harvey in 1821. Both the Peirces and the Trimbles were prominent Quaker families, so it was a bit of a surprise to see that not just Robert and his family but his sister Esther Ann (1801-1858) as well, converted to Mormonism and settled in Utah. Not only did some of the Peirces become Mormons, a listing of some of their descendants reads a bit like a "Who's Who" of early LDS prominent pioneers!

Two of Robert and Hannah's daughters became wives to Brigham Young on the same day, Jan 16, 1845, Mary, the elder sister, died in the Winter Quarters in Nebraska and her marriage to Young is often listed as only possible, but Brigham's diary provides the documentation for her death, naming her as his wife. Younger sister Margaret's marriage to Young is well-documented and produced a son, Brigham Morris Young, who would later marry a daughter of the very prominent Lorenzo Snow. Robert's son Eli Harvey Peirce also made the journey west as one of the original pioneers.

Robert's sister Esther Ann, also supplied a pair of daughters to the Mormon church. In 1823, she married WIlliam Atkins Gheen and their two oldest daughters, Ann Alice and Amanda, became wives of Heber Chase Kimball. Future Presdient of the church, Spencer Woolley KImball, was Alice's grandson.

Once I started to look, I found quite a few Quaker families that were part of the early Mormon trek west, including the family of Edward Hunter, who provided a meetinghouse for the early Mormon missionaries on his property in West Nantmeal in 1839. In 1832 Hunter had rebuilt an old meetinghouse that had stood on the location but had burned down, with the provision that it be available for all to use. Though many in the neighbor hood were not happy about letting the Mormons use the meetinghouse for their gatherings, Hunter insisted that they be given the right and was soon baptised into the new church, along with his wife Ann.

Some of the other well-known Quaker families that had family members become Mormons were the Brintons, Downing, Malins, Dilwoorths and Woolleys, and I'm sure there are lots more to be found as well. Not too surprisingly, a few of the family genealogies for these families appear to be quite hesitant to document the poloygamous marriages of some of the members and resort to simply saying that the husband "later married" rather than showing the actual dates that would show the concurrent marriages.