About the Collection

Levi James Taylor

by Jeffrey S. Hardy

See Diary

Levi James Taylor was born on 20 May 1851 in Kaysville, Davis County, Utah to Pleasant Green Taylor and Clara Lake. Levi was the second oldest of eleven children. His father, mother, and older brother, Harvey Green, arrived in the Salt Lake Valley the previous October in the James Lake Company. 1 Pleasant and his family were immediately sent to Hoyt’s Creek in Davis County to farm, and while there he recorded the birth of his son, Levi, their first child born in Utah.2

The next year Pleasant and Clara moved their small family four miles north of Ogden, where Levi and his brothers and sisters grew up and helped farm the land, in the town that became Harrisville, Weber County.3 Levi was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by his father on his eighth birthday, 20 May 1859. Levi began school in Ogden when he was seven years old; received his patriarchal blessing from his grandfather, James Lake, on 23 May 1869; married Nancy Jane Gates in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City on 13 November 1871.4 His father recorded this occasion as follows: “On the 13th of Nov 1871 my son Levi J. Taylor and wife came home from his Temple marriage. A well prepared dinner was awaiting their return.”5 His happiness was to be short-lived. His wife gave birth to their daughter, also named Nancy Jane, on 18 October 1872. Levi lost his wife on 26 October and his daughter on 31 October.6

On 31 March 1873 Levi departed for a colonizing mission to Arizona in Horton D. Haight’s Company, spending about four months there and returning on 28 July 1873. He married Gennet Flora Bingham on 3 February 1873 and her sister, Josephine Bingham on 30 November 1874. His two wives were to give birth to twenty-two children. Before Levi was called to serve a mission to the Southern States on 9 October 1882, ten more children were born to his wives, four of whom died in infancy.7 He returned safely to his family on 13 September 1884 and he describes his feelings: “I found my boys and several of my brothers at the station to meet me. It is impossible to describe my feelings on meeting my loved ones.” This reunion was something Levi had dreamt about on 25 August: “I had a very pleasant dream last night I thought I was at home and saw and corressed [sic] my children… .I thank God that my family is in Zion among the people of God.”8

Levi experienced success on his mission, preaching, teaching, and baptizing. Although he met some opposition from ministers, “Another Preacher said that if he could have his way all of the Mormon works would be burned and their preachers hanged,” he apparently was never mobbed as were other Elders in the Southern States Mission. He records on 27 June 1883 “I am informed that a mob in Georgia have beat one of our elders badly.”9

Upon returning from his mission, Levi continued his farming and taught school for ten years. He also held numerous callings in the Harrisville Ward, most notably as second counselor in the bishopric from 1884–1895, with his father serving as Bishop. And on 1 September 1896 Levi became the Bishop of the Harrisville Ward.10

He lost his wife, Josephine on 11 July 1920, and on 28 December 1935 at the age of eighty-four, Levi died of a stroke in Harrisville, Weber County, Utah.11

Endnotes

1 Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel, 1847–1868. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2003. Accessed on 26 November 2007. Available from http://www.lds.org/churchhistory/library/pioneercompanysearch.

2 Pleasant Green Taylor, “Family Record,” MSS 2200, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, 11.

3 Ibid.

4 Levi James Taylor, “L.D.S. Family Record,” MSS 2200, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, 21.

5 “Family Record,” MSS 2200, LTPSC, 28.

6 “Family Record,” MSS 2200, LTPSC.

7 Ibid.

8 Levi James Taylor, “Missionary Diary, 1882–1884,” MSS 2200, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, 13 September 1884 and 25 August 1884.

9 Ibid., 17 February 1883, and 27 June 1883.

10 Andrew Jenson, Latter-Day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia: A Compilation of Biographical Sketches of Prominent Men and Women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, reprint ed., vol. 2 (Salt Lake City: Western Epics, 1971), 270.

11 “Family Record ,” MSS 2200, LTPSC.

Bibliography

Jenson, Andrew. Latter-Day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia: A Compilation of Biographical Sketches of Prominent Men and Women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Reprint ed. Vol. 2. Salt Lake City: Western Epics, 1971.

Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel, 1847–1868. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2003. Accessed 26 November 2007, available from http://www.lds.org/churchhistory/library/pioneercompanysearch.

Register of the Levi James Taylor (1851–1935) Papers, 1868–1935. MSS 2200, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University. Available from http://ead.lib.byu.edu:8080/Ead/ead_viewdoc.jsp?eadid=MSS2200.xml.

Taylor, Levi James. “L.D.S. Family Record.” MSS 2200, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University.

Taylor, Levi James. “Missionary Diaries, 1882–1884.” MSS 2200, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University.

Taylor, Pleasant Green. “Family Record.” MSS 2200, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University.