"Martha's first husband, [Edward Weaver,] died [on September 2, 1842], so later [January 28, 1846] she married a friend of the family, William Draper Jr., a widower.

When the mob threatened to burn her home unless she denied the religion she told them to go ahead. She loaded one wagon with her essential belongings and began the journey West. When the Mormon Battalion was formed her sons, Miles Weaver 20, Franklin Weaver 18, and daughter Martha Elizabeth Weaver 9, volunteered to go. It was very hard on Martha because she was a widow.

Martha's husband had been a farmer so she had to struggle to help reap a living from the earth.

In her life she lived in four states, from New York to Iowa. The mother of eight children from her first husband, and one child from her second husband, she lost her life shortly after the last child was born. [Her last child, Almon Draper was born on October 28, 1846. Martha died in 1847 in some accounts. --Pioneer Women of Faith and Fortitude, Page 842, or on October 28, 1848 by other accounts.]

"When Martha Raymer Weaver entered into the life of William Draper, Jr., his whole outlook was changed. She was his first plural wife and the circumstances under which he married her and a total of seven [by some counts, eight] wives arouses the interest of his descendants as well as that of outsiders. It is likely that William himself marveled, in retrospect, how fate made him the ancestor of one of the largest families in America.

The circumstances surrounding his entry into polygamy seem to indicate that a chain of chance circumstances, rather than a studied course, led him into taking more than one wife. In the story of his life, written near the end of his career, he did not mention the name of any wife, nor did he speak of the doctrine of plural marriage. There were, however, circumstances and events preceding each of his marriages from which it might be thought that he was motivated in part at least by social necessity.

There is evidence which tends to show that William knew nothing of the doctrine of plural marriage until 1845. Indeed, not many people knew much about it until after that time. President Joseph T. Smith published the following statement concernin the doctrine in 1888:
' The great and glorious principle of plural marriage was first revealed to Joseph Smith in 1831, but he was forbidden to make it public or to teach it as a doctrine of the Gospel, at that time; he confided the facts to only a very few of his associates.' --Desert News, May 20, 1886, and copied in Church Encyclopedia, Book 1, Page 219, et. seq.

The revelation was not reduced to writing until July 12, 1843. Lorenzo Snow, later president of the Church, knew nothing of it until that time, and it was not published until July 1852. --Church Encyclopedia, Book 1, page 222, and Jensen's Church Chronology, pages 23 and 46.

...William returned again to Nauvoo as per instructions where he received his endowments on the 28th day of January 1846, after which he again returned to Pike County and made final preparations to head for the Rocky Mountains with his family. He was all ready in the spring. He recorded the commencement of the trip as follows:
'I left Pike County about the 20th of April, 1846, and went to Nauvoo where I added to the family and to the outfit, and on the first day of May crossed the Mississippi and took the trail to follow those who had started before us through a wilderness where no white inhabitants lived.' --quoted from his own autobiogrpahy.

William recorded nothing at all about taking an an extra wife at Nauvoo, but other family records disclose that a lady named Martha Weaver bore him a son at Kanesville, Iowa, October 28, 1846. This event gives meaning to the simple but omewhat ambiguous statement that he "added to the family and to the outfit" upon arriving at Nauvoo. It could only mean that he married Martha Weaver either in October 1845, when he went up to Nauvoo to get instrucions from the Church leaders as to his future movements, or in January, 1846, when he returned there for his endowments.

It is now clear that he picked Martha up at Nauvoo in April, 1846, and as she was a widow and had four daughters, Martha Elizabeth Weaver, Marinda Bridget Weaver, Julia Cecelia Weaver, and Carrie Weaver, and sons, Horace Racio Weaver, Miles Weaver, Franklin Weaver, and Gilbert Weaver, and it was necessary for William to procure another outfit to transport them on the long journey. The fact that he chose to marry an encumbered widow has significance. He could have had two good reasons for doing so. First, because she was an encumbered widow and needed his help; and second because he may have owed her a debt of gratitude. She was the widow of Edward Weaver in whose home he had received unusual kindness as he was making his way from Kirtland to Far West, Missouri, in 1838. ...It was no doubt easier for William's first wife, Elizabeth Staker Weave, to accept Martha into the family, for she, too, was helped greatly when the Weavers took all the burden of nursing her husband back to health....

Even before William reached the Missouri RIver he learned that 500 able-bodied Latter-day Saint men wete being recruited to join the U.S. Army in the war against Mexico. He reached the point of recruitment in time to see the battalion, including his sister, Phebe Draper Palmer Brown, march away, leaving a depressing void in the families left behind. William was called upon to fill that void as best he could until the departing heads of families should be released from their military duties.:
' Something had to be done for the women and children who were left unprovided for and without protection in an Indian country...The country was divided into districts or wards and a bishop appointed for each ward. It fell to my lot to be one of them, and when I looked up those that were in my district, I found there were thirty-three families.'

This was at Council Point in Iowa where William served for three years until the members of the battalion returned to their families. Not only did these families have to be clothed and fed, but they had to have houses built for them. All of this was supervised by William Draper Jr., and in addition, he acquired a good farm for himself and he was soon comfortably situated.

On January 28, 1846 William Draper acted as proxy for Marth's sealing to her deceased husband, Edward Weaver.

On October 28, 1846, his new wife bore him a son whom they christened Almon Draper. But unfortunately the mother died in 1848, leaving her daughter, Carrie Weaver, by her former husband, Edward Weaver, and her young son Almon. Family records, still preserved by her descendants, show that her maiden name was Raymer and that she was born at Pittstown, Rensselaer County, New York on July 8, 1808. She was only forty years old when she died and her death was a serious loss to her nine year old daughter and her two year old son. They were raised by another of William's wives, Mary Ann Manhardt and successfully reared both to full maturity." --The Mormon Drapers by Delbert M. Draper, 1958, pages129-132, 135.

Son of William Draper Jr. and Martha Raymer Weaver Draper

Almon W. Draper Born: 28 October 1846 at Kaneville, Pottawattamie, Iowa Married: (1) Amy Hansen on Dec 11, 1866; (2) Phoebe Jane Barton on June 14, 1889; (3) Maria Louisa Durfee on Nov 13, 1889 Died: 31 Dec 1919 at Hinckley, Millard, Utah

Right Click mouse on image to view enlarged photo

FRANKLIN WEAVER

A TIMELINE,1828-1884

by Ellen Claire Weaver Shaeffer

Franklin Weaver, son of Edward and Martha Raymer Weaver, was born in New York state in 1828. As a young man he and his brother, Miles, joined the Mormon Batallion of the Mexican War of 1847 and traveled by foot from Council Bluffs, Iowa to the shores of the Pacific Ocean as part of the longest infantry march in the history of the United States. After marrying Christiana Rachel Reed in San Francisco, Franklin, Miles and their families became the original settlers of Provo, Utah, then Millville, Utah and finally Bennington, Idaho. The photo above is the Franklin Weaver home and the community's first school in Milville, Cache County, Utah.

An award-winning book entitled "Franklin Weaver--a Timeline 1828-1884" by Ellen Claire Weaver Shaeffer, was published in 1996, with a supplement in 1998, 222 pages in length with photos, footnotes and index. Copies are available, please send $25.00 to:

Ellen C. Shaeffer
1500 St. Andrews Drive
Clovis, New Mexico 88101
http://www.emsol.com/weaver/

Christianna Rachel Reed Weaver

Born December 1, 183o at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Died December 25, 1893 at Bennington, Bear Lake, Idaho

Christianna Rachel was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She sailed on the ship "Brooklyn" with a company of Saints, around South America to San Franciso, planning to join the Saints in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake.

Two years after their arrival she met Franklin Weaver of the Mormon Battalion. They were married by Elder Addison Pratt and her bridesmaid was her friend from the ship "Brooklyn", Zelnor Glover.

Christianna and Franklin started for the Valley with a horse and pack mule. They made their home in Salt Lake, Provo, Millville, and Bear Lake County, Idaho. Like her mother she was a skilled seamstress. She made a white Buckskin suit for her son Horace's wedding.

As a child in Philadelphia she learned to do cross-stitch embroidery on cardboard. She made a Family Record of her children. The last date is 1883 "For Get Me Not." She taught school in Millville in their home to her eleven children. She has served many years in the Relief Society.

Christianna was able to accept the principal of Plural Marriage as Franklin married his deceased brother Miles' two wives and made a home for them in Millville, Utah.

Because of the persecution against plural marriage Franklin and Christianna Rachel moved to Bear Lake Valley, Idaho. Sarah Clark Weaver had four children with Miles and another four children with Franklin, they went to Gentile Valley; and Sarah Holmes Weaver stayed in Millville with her eight children she had with Franklin ( she did not have any children with Miles Weaver).

Sources:

PAF - Archer files = Orson Pratt Brown + (5) Angela Gabaldon > Bertha Brown + Everardo Navas > Lucy Navas + Michael Leo Murphy < Glenn Eugene Murphy + Ila May Draper < Erastus Almon Draper + Linnie Sequine < Almon W. Draper + Amy Hansen.

PAF - Captain James Brown + (1) Martha Stephens > James Morehead Brown + Adelaid Exervia > Francis Adora Brown + Emily Ann Weaver < William Weaver + Ann Watkins > Elizabeth "Lizzie" Weaver + Moroni Franklin Brown (Moroni Franklin Brown is a grandson of Captain James Brown + (1) Martha Stephens and son of James Morehead Brown).

There are other PAF connections between these families. See Sarah Elizabeth Conover + Gilbert Weaver.

The Mormon Drapers by Delbert M. Draper, 1958, Pages 129-135

Pioneer Women of Faith and Fortitude, Page 842. This source includes the middle initial for Almon "W" Draper.

Pioneer Women of Faith and Fortitude, Page 3288 and 3290.

http://www.jenforum.com/weaver/all.html

Additions, photos, bold, [bracketed information], etc. added by Lucy Brown Archer.

Copyright 2001 www.OrsonPrattBrown.org