Anson Call is my wife's great, great, grandfather. He moved to George County Ohio when he was seven years old. In his small autobiography he states, "I was sent to school in early life but after removing to Ohio there were but little opportunities for schools owing to the newness of country." (Call, Anson, "Autobiography of Anson Call", p. 1)
Anson's father raised a large family of fourteen children. Anson's brothers and sisters were Harvey, Anson, Salomon, Samantha, Fanny, Lucina, Josiah, Mary, Lavora, Rosaline, Sarah, Mallissa, Omer, and Homer. Anson married, on October 3, 1833, in Madison, Ohio to Marry Flint. Marry had been born on March 27th, 1812. She was the youngest in her family. "In consequence of our joining the Latter Day Saints previous to his, Arson's father-in-law's, death he altered his will, (a farm) and Hannah, Arson's sister-in-law, and Marry (Arson's wife) and Anson were all disinherited." (Call, p. 2) Anson's first son was Anson Vasco Call, born July 9, 1834. Mary Vashti was born March 27, 1836. The autobiography contains Anson's conversion story from his personal journal:
After receiving this information, rather then preparing to move, "we decided we could take a spree at bee hunting..." (Call, p. 7)
We were not permitted to leave for Far West only to get our firewood. We had not the privilege of hunting our cattle and horses, yet we were told that we had immediately to leave the state. We were deprived of holding meetings of any kind. Joseph Smith Senior and Brigham Young were our principle counselors. We received two or three epistles from Joseph, who was at the time in Liberty Jail, Clay County. Some few times in the course of the winter we slyly congregated our selves in a schoolhouse about two miles from Far West to receive instructions from Joseph and others. (Call, p. 10)
The next day I was taken by ten men and an old negro. They took me into the back part of a store, ordered me to disarm myself. I told them I had no arms about my person. They said I --as was a damn liar for the Mormons always carried arms. They ordered me to take the things out of my pockets and lay them in a chair. I refused. They threatened me and flourished their knives about me and said if I did not do it they would take my life. I accordingly removed everything out of my pockets. Turn your pockets wrong side out. I did so they then ordered me to put my things back into my pockets. I accordingly did so. They then told me to draw my coat. I did it. They then said, He carries his arms at his back, and they examined me until they became satisfied I had no arms about me. They then commenced tantalizing and saying I was a damned Mormon and was in the Bogard Battle. Each of them had a rifle which they set against the house. They sat themselves down and went to whittling with butcher knives. One of them by the name of James Ogle said, that he had suffered by the Mormons and that I had to atone for it. He said they had felt my back and they would see it bare before morning and I would feel kickory [(sp?) hickory] upon it. He then commenced beating me with a flat hand in the face. He then said he would not abuse a man that was not armed. He threw his butcher knife at my feet and told me to pick it up and fight. I told him I did not wish to fight. He said I had got to fight or die. He then picked up the knife and put it into my hand and told me to take it. I discovered all the rest of them had their hands. I refused to take it and leaned up against the side of the house. I then said in my heart, "Oh Lord, preserve me or they will take my life." I immediately became satisfied that I would be delivered from their hands. [missing sentance (sp)?)] He thrust a knife within an inch of my breast and said he would rip my guts out. He then struck me repeatedly between my eyes with the back of his knife. He tantalized me in this manner for over two hours, and struck me in the face with the back of the knife and his falt [(sp?) flat] hand about fifty times. He said that it is getting near night and we must make a finish of the business.
They took me into the street and said they would serve me as they served a Mormon the other day, strip me and tie me to a hickory and leave me till morning. While they were making arrangements to accomplish the deed a grocery keeper stood looking out of the window at us. I told him I wanted a bottle of liquor, for I wished to treat the company, on which he handed me a bottle and tumbler through the window. We were arranged in double file. I stood in front between the two forward men. I stepped a step or two out of rank and took the bottle. I drank then [(sp?) them] a toast and told them they were men after my own heart, the bravest set of men I had ever met with and before we went any further with the business I was going to drink with them and wished them to be merry, for tomorrow is Christmas and we must prepare ourselves for it. I handed the bottle to my right-hand man who fired off his gun and set it up against the grocery store and took the bottle. Every man set his gun up against the grocery also. He then poured the liquor into the tumbler and I discovered every mans eyes were fixed on it. I then sprang into the hazel brush which was within three or four rods of where we stood. (This was a little town situated in Roy County called Fendericksburg, a new place just commenced in the woods; it was surrounded with the hazel and hickory brush). They then pursued me and hollered, "Catch him, damn him, catch him." I squatted in the brush and they passed by me. They went one way and I went another. My legs served me well for five miles and probably saved my back from being severely lacerated. (Call, pp. 10-12)
What to do I knew not. I had to leave the state soon and my animals were all gone but one . . . I then counseled with Joseph Smith and Brigham Young concerning my going to the three forks of the Grand River to try to obtain some property there so I could leave the state. They gave it as their opinion that I had better not go for I would probably fare worse than I did in Ray County. (Call, pp. 13-14)
I arrived home about 11 o'clock at night and went to bed without making a light in the house. I thought I would not let my wife know what had happened to me. In the morning I sprung out of bed and I instantly found myself lying on the floor on the other side of the house. My wife screamed and wanted to know what was the matter. I then returned to bed and found myself under the necessity of telling her what had happened, but sought to keep it from my family. Father Smith soon found it out and came to see me, telling me it would do me good but he was glad they didn't kill me. In a few days I was around and attending to my business. (Call, pp. 14-15)
propose another way. If you will go to the court with me at Richmond tomorrow and state that you did this because Joe told you so, that will then settle the matter and let the blame rest where it ought to. He then asked me if I had made up my mind which to do. I told him that I had. I then arose and told him that I was prepared to prove what I had sworn to by Vincin Knight, who help me select the goods from a store in the Ohio, and I should have done it at the sitting of the Court at Liberty if a Mormon had been permitted to have been there., and I wished him to understand that when I took an oath that I only was responsible and he might take the course that he thought proper. I then left the room and have not heard from him since. (Autobiography of Anson Call pp. 16, 17.)
Almost the last journal entry that Anson makes shows his love and his respect for Joseph Smith by as indicated by the following:
He came to my house about the appointed time, had his dinner and spent the principle part of the afternoon in conversation. Hyrum, Sidney Rigdon, and Vincent Knight were with him. He related to some of the circumstances of his escape from Missouri. He also stated that he had purchased a tract of land in Commerce. A place for the saints to gather to, now called Nauvoo. In the course of the summer my wife had a very severe sickness, chills and fever from which she would probably have died had it not been for her being healed by the laying on of hands. Worked for the Carthaginians and supported our families. I preached to them a few times in the court house but they were not very religious and did not wish to inquire much about Mormonism. (Call, pp. 18 & 19.)
One of the most lasting contributions that Anson made, other than his prodigious posterity, are a few tibbits of historical information that he recorded. One of which is the prophecy that Joseph Smith made of the saints moving west.
The "Life Sketch" has the same text as the "Autobiography", but it is written in 2nd person, with the exception of this quote.)
"It is impossible to represent in words this scene which is still vivid
in my mind, of the grandeur of Joseph's appearance, his beautiful descriptions
of this land and his wonderful prophetic utterances as they emanated from
the glorious inspirations that over shadowed him. There was a force and
power in his exclamations of which the following is but a faint echo. 'Oh
the beauty of those snow capped mountains. The cool refreshing streams
that are running down through theose (sic ?) mountains gorges' Then gazing
in another direction, as if there was a change and locality; 'oh the scenes
that this people will pass through' The dead that will lay between here
and there.' Then turning in another direction as if the scene had again
changed: 'Oh the apostasy that will take place before my brethren reach
that land'. But he continued, 'the Priesthood shall prevail over all it's
enemies, triumph over the devil and be established upon the earth never
more to be thrown down.' He then charged us with great force and power,
to be faithful in these things that had been and ...???
[Written at bottom of page "THIS CONCLUDES ALL WE HAVE OF THIS COPY",
Alice Maud Call Burton Afton, Wyo.] (Life Sketch of Anson Call 1810-1890,
Pioneer in the building of the west.)
A rare recollection concerning Joseph Smith's views of the creation of man was years later recorded by Anson Call. This is the text as recorded by document preserver John M. Whitaker
HOW WAS THE WORLD INHABITED?
The following is a statement of the late Anson Call of Bountiful:
On one occasion when Brother Joseph (Smith) was cutting wood, there came to him some brethren and I was among them. We said, 'Brother Joseph, we have some questions to ask, and we will cut your wood while you answer them' 'all right', said Joseph, and we went into the house. Joseph placed his arms across his knees, bent over as if in meditation, and then said, 'now for your questions.'
We said to him; 'what about the creation of the world; how was it inhabited?' Joseph answered and said; 'I will tell you how it was. You and I were in the spirit world at the grand council, and there we were spirits together. We saw and heard that council, and heard them talk of formation of the world and we were among those when the morning stars sang together and when the sons of God shouted for joy. We were among those who had more courage than others and therefore we came down here and took bodies. Some who did not have the courage said, 'Father, we have fought Satan face to face here in the spirit world and helped to cast him down there and now to go down and fight him again face to face, we are afraid we shall never return to thy presence and would prefer a less degree of glory and go some other of your creations where we are sure of -returning.' 'Yes, you and I had more courage and came down here of our own agency and choice.'
Now regarding Adam: He came here from another planet - an immortalized being and brought his wife, eve, with him, and by eating of the fruits of this earth became subject to death and decay and he became of the earth earthly, was made mortal and subject to death. 12th Ch. Rev. 7 and on.
Now, after we had proven our worthy before God that we were willing to go through temporal sufferings, privations and trials that we did spiritually, we were chosen or elected, and we merited our prize or reward according to the works we did in the spirit world; but we were not chosen or elected until we had shown by our works to our Heavenly Father that we were willing to go through what He might permit us to, and we were not deprived of our agency.
In the Grand Council in heaven there were some spirits that did not
take part in the great rebellion at all. They were called neutral spirits:
they were on the fence, and when Cain killed his brother Able, God placed
a skin of blackness upon him as the first of Adam's race and through the
posterity of Ham this seed was propagated through the flood. And the neutral
spirits in heaven possess these black bodies. And after the flood no doubt
Noah must have found him doing some little low trick for he said: 'cursed,
cainaan, a servant of servants shalt thou be to thy brethren.' And those
neutral spirits in heaven preferred to take the body of a negro rather
than have no body at all.'
('Reflections of John M. Whitaker B.Y.U. Lib. Call # Mar. M270.1 W58r)
1. Call, Anson, "Autobiography of Anson Call" pp. 1-19.
2. Burton, Alice Maud Call, "Life Sketch of Anson Call 1810-1890".
3. Whitaker, John M., "Reflections of John M. Whitaker, B.Y.U. Lib. Call # Mor. M270.1 W58r.
4. In March Perry L. Porter and Renee Call Porter went to Bountiful to visit Lyman Call, whose grandfather is Anson Call. We talked with him for several hours that evening and heard many interesting stories. We then proceeded to Anson Call's house and took several pictures of it. They are included with this paper. ( See Appendix I. ) A short genealogy of my wife's ancestors. Her father is Rodney F. Call, His father is Lyman Call, his father was David Call the youngest son of Anson Call, as told to me by Lyman Call who resided in Bountiful, Utah, blocks from Anson's house.
APPENDIX I
Bountiful Area Historic Site
Anson Call Home
This home was part of a large complex of older homes, barns, granaries, sheds, gardens and orchards, all belonging to Anson Call, early pioneer and colonizer. It was built about 1861 of sandstone and adobe faced with red brick and was one of the finest of its day. Originally the house was topped by a decorative beehive surrounded by a captain's walk. Later the beehive was replaced by a small room called the "Prayer Room" and was reached by a secret stairway behind a bedroom closet. The home was the gathering place for family and visitors. In 1863 during the dedication of the Bountiful Tabernacle, 150 guests and their horses were cared for in the Anson Call home and complex. The other buildings have long since been torn down, but this structure still stands as a monument to the man who built it.
BOUNTIFUL-AREA HISTORIC SITE
ANSON CALL HOME
This home was a part of a large complex of older
homes, barns, granaries, sheds, gardens and orchards, all belonging to
Anson Call, early pioneer and colonizer. It was built about 1861 of sandstone
and adobe faced with red brick and was one of the finest of its day. Originally
the house was topped by a decorative beehive surrounded by a captain's
walk. later the beehive was replaced by a small room called the "Prayer
Room" and was reached by a secret stairway behind a bedroom closet. The
home was the gathering place for family and visitors. In 1863 during the
dedication of the Bountiful Tabernacle, 150 guests and their horses were
cared for In the Anson Call home and complex. The other buildings have
long since been torn down, but this structure still stands as a monument
to the man who built it.
Front view. Note that the 1st photo of the house, comes from the plaque indicated by the arrows on this photo.
Rear view.
Side view. Photographs taken by Perry L. Porter 5-15-1979
From the LDS Vital records:
Call, Anson (Male)
Birth: Call, Anson (Male) Date: May 13, 1810 Place: Fletcher, Franklin, VT, USA
Parents: Call, Anson (Male) Father: Call, Cyril Mother: Tiffany, Sally
Death: Call, Anson (Male) Date: August 31, 1890 Place: Bountiful, Davis, UT, USA
Marriage Information: Call, Anson (Male) Spouse: Flint, Mary Date: October 3, 1833 Place: Madison, OH, USA
Children: Call, Anson (Male)
Name: Birthdate: Place:
1. Call, Anson Vasco July 9, 1834
2. Call, Mary Vashti March 27, 1836
3. Call, Moroni February 6, 1838
4. Call, Chester (twin) May 13, 1841
5. Call, Christopher (twin) May 13, 1841
6. Call, Hyrum December 3, 1845
Marriage Number 2 Call, Anson (Male) Date: April 16, 51 Alternate Date:
April 1918 Place: Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, UT, USA
Marriage 2 Children:
Name: Birthdate: Place:
1. Call, Vilate July 27, 1852
2. Call, Israel July 2, 1854
3. Call, Vententia February 14, 1856
4. Call, Viola June 16, 58 Alternate
Birth Date: June 1918
5. Call, Anson Bowen October 20, 1863
6. Call, Harriet Louisa April 8, 1866
Marriage Number 3 Call, Anson (Male) Date: February 7, 1857 Place: Salt
Lake City, Salt Lake, UT, USB
Marriage 3 Children:
Name: Birthdate: Place:
1. Call, Mary May 24, 1858
2. Call, Cylista April 9, 1860
3. Call, Samantha E. November 28, 1861
4. Call, Cyntha February 20, 1864
5. Call, Willard April 25, 1866
6. Call, Aaron July 3, 1868
Marriage Number 4 Call, Anson (Male) Date: February 24, 1857 Place:
Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, UT, USC
Marriage 4 Children:
Name: Birthdate: Place:
1. Call, Ann March 15, 1858
2. Call, Fanny August 11, 1860
3. Call, Lucina April 8, 1862
4. Call, David June 20, 1868
5. Call, Sarah December 8, 1870
Marriage Number 5 Call, Anson (Male) Date: March 9, 1861
Marriage Number 6 Call, Anson (Male)
Church Ordinance Data: Call, Anson (Male) Baptism Date: May 21, 1834
Baptism Date: December 21, 1836
Baptism Date: May 20, 1836
Temple Ordinance Data: Call, Anson (Male) Baptism Date: September 6,
1975 Temple: Mesa, Maricopa County, Arizona
Endowment Date: October 8, 1975 Temple: Mesa, Maricopa County,
Arizona
Endowment Date: December 22, 1845 Temple: Nauvoo, Hancock County,
Illinois
Sealed to Parents Date: November 5, 1975 Temple: Mesa, Maricopa
County, Arizona
Sealed to Parents Date: October 1, 1886
Sealed to Spouse Date: January 24, 1846 Temple: Nauvoo, Hancock
County, Illinois
Places of Residence: Call, Anson (Male) Caldwell, Clinton,Ray, MO, USA
1838; Far West, Caldwell, MO, USA
1840-1846; Nauvoo, Hancock, IL, USA
1848; UT, USA
1850-1890; Bountiful, Davis, UT, USA
Vocations: Call, Anson (Male) Merchant & Farmer- Probate Judge
1851; Millard, UT, USA
Comments: Call, Anson (Male) Anson served a mission to Ohio.
Anson was a member of the Kirtland Camp. Anson covenanted to
help the Saints leave Missouri. Anson was beaten by mobs.
A statement was made by Anson on Rocky Mountain Prophecy.
In fulfillment of a prophecy of the prophet Joseph Smith in Montrose, Iowa, July 14, 1843, that, "He would come to the Rocky mountains, and that he would assist in building cities from one end of the country to the other," Anson Call built a home in Bountiful, then North Canyon ward, at which place he served as bishop 1849-50 and again 1873-77. In 1852, Anson represented the Millard county section in the legislature. In 1854 he founded Call's Fort, Box Elder county. In connection with his wife Maria he pioneered Parowan, Fillmore, Pauvan valley and Carson valley, built warehouse at Callville 1864, the head of navigation on the Big Colorado river. With his sons Anson V. and Chester, took part in the Echo Canyon campaign. At the organization of the Davis stake, June, 1877, he was made counselor to President William R. Smith. Anson was also promoter of the Davis and Weber Co. Canal company.
Anson In 1850, Anson had a household of 6 people. He owned $3000 in real wealth. In 1860, Anson had a household of 26 people. He owned $10000 in real wealth and $3000 in personal wealth. In 1870, Anson had a household of 5 people. He owned $55000 in real wealth and $2000 in personal wealth.
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