NOTE: This is a composite history, 5,700
words long, of Nelson Arave (1832-1906), chronologically combining all known
aspects of his life. It is based on accounts from one of his daughters, Elnora
Arave Cox. Also, from accounts on Family Search, information from Alvin Arave, Bess
Rounds Phillips/Whitney, Della Dale Smith, Hannah Archibald and old newspaper
references. Compiled and edited by Lynn R. Arave, great-grandson of Nelson.
Nelson,
possibly “Narcisse Nelson,” was originally believed to have been born on
December 20, 1834, likely in upper New York or lower Canada. However, after
many years of research by family members, Nelson Arave was found to have actually
been born with the name Narcisse Arrivee on October 14, 1832, in St. Polycarpe,
Soulanges, Quebec, Canada, to Philip Arrivee and Marie Genevieve LeRoux. (Nelson
is the English version of the French name Narcisse.) Since Nelson never knew his
exact birthday, he decided to use the month and day that he received his
Patriarchal Blessing from John Smith in Nauvoo, Illinois - December 20. He also
thought that 1834 may have been the year he was born, though it was two years
earlier.
Both his
father and paternal grandfather died on the same day in accidents, while
rafting logs on the St. Lawrence River, in Canada, to a sawmill -- meaning they
most likely drowned in that large river. Nelson's mother felt she could not
care adequately for all three of her children and so in about 1835, she
"loaned" Nelson to Jesse and Ruth Lampson, who were soon going to
resettle in New York, where she was headed. Nelson was only about age 3 at this
time.
However, the Lampsons, who were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, since 1832, didn't end up traveling the N.Y. way. (Note that
the Lampsons’ name has a wide variation in spelling, such as “Lamson,”
“Lambson” and more.)
They moved with the church to Michigan, where Nelson was baptized at age 8. Two
years later, in 1842, the Lampsons (who had two daughters) had moved to Nauvoo
with the church.
Given the poor communication at the
time, perhaps Nelson's mother likely did not have the time or resources to
search for him.
Nelson’s daughter, Elnora, said her father recalled being held on the lap of the Prophet Joseph Smith many times and was told that he would have a large posterity (which he did with 23 children). His "adopted" parents, Jesse and Ruth Lampson, lived on the Joseph Smith homestead, block No. 155, in Nauvoo, very close to where the Prophet resided. Jesse was a high priest in the LDS Church and about age 60, was blind or going blind.
Nelson received his patriarchal blessing at age 14 by on January 16, 1846, by Patriarch John Smith (uncle to Joseph Smith).
The Lampson's did not seal Nelson to them, according to temple records, when
they went to the temple in 1846. By 1848, church records show that Jesse
Lampson had died.
Nelson said he also recalled the speech by Brigham Young after Joseph was
killed, where Brigham spoke with the voice of Joseph.
By 1846, the Lampsons and Nelson had moved to Council Bluffs, to escape
persecution.
In 1850, Nelson left Sister Lampson (who also lived with a daughter) and headed
west to Utah territory.
Nelson was as
part of the John G. Smith Company, that left Council Bluffs on May 10, 1851 and
arrived in Salt Lake City on September 15 or September 23, 1851. He drove an ox
team for a widow, Mrs. “Carey,” who is listed as an unknown member of the John
G. Smith Pioneer Trek.
Nelson is reported in some accounts as having arrived in Great Salt Lake City on
September 15. (By then, Nelson was age 19).
On today's roads, it is 938 miles from Salt Lake City to Council Bluffs. In
those days, it was surely 1,000-plus miles.
The company required more some 168 days to reach Salt Lake, likely averaging
only about 6 miles a day.
(In contrast, a drive from Salt Lake to Council Bluffs today only requires 13
hours -- one long day, or an airplane ride of just several hours.)
The John G. Smith group had about 50 members.
-Here's a list of the participants of the John G.
Smith Pioneer Trek (1851) and the known participants' ages.
Arave, Nelson Narcisse (18)
Barney, Alcea Celinda (10)
Barney, Alice Malena (16)
Barney, Danielson Buren (19)
Barney, Edson (44)
Barney, Edson Alroy (8)
Barney, Eliza Arabell (14)
Barney, Joseph Seth (5)
Barney, Lillis Ballou Comstock (46)
Barney, Louisa Walker Butterfield (28)
Barney, Partha Ann (1)
Birch, Fanny L. Wright (51)
Birch, George Wallace (34)
Birch, George Washington (infant)
Birch, Jane Elizabeth (10)
Birch, Susan Catherine Paine Thornton (40)
Birch, William Augustus (14)
Boothe, Amanda Susannah (10)
Boothe, Darius Daniel (12)
Boothe, Emily Charlotte (14)
Boothe, Henry (49)
Boothe, John Allen (19)
Boothe, Lewis Nathaniel (18)
Boothe, Martha Ann (8)
Boothe, Susannah Lyster (45)
Boothe, Willis Henry (17)
Brunson, Lewis (20)
Brunson, Seymour (14)
Butterfield, Mary E. (8)
Carey [or Corey], (Unknown)
Caulder, Isabella (29)
Cooley, [Mr.] (Unknown)
Crawford, James III (24)
Day, Abraham (33)
Day, Alice (1)
Day, Elmira Bulkeley (30)
Day, Elmira Jeanette (6)
Day, Ezra Joanas (4)
Day, Joseph Smith (11)
Day, Juliette (2)
Elmer, Harriet Gould (48)
Elmer, Jerusha Kibbee (9)
Elmer, John (72)
Felshaw, Caroline (6)
Felshaw, Hannah Olive (2)
Felshaw, John (14)
Felshaw, Lucy Rachall (9)
Felshaw, Mary Harriett Gilbert (43)
Felshaw, Sarah (infant)
Felshaw, Susannah (infant)
Felshaw, William (51)
Harding, Alma (16)
Harding, Charles (13)
Harding, Dwight (44)
Harding, Elizabeth Jane (11)
Harding, George (17)
Harding, Phoebe Eliza (5)
Harding, Phoebe Holbrook (41)
Hill, Alexander (71)
Hill, Elizabeth Currie (75)
Hill, Samuel Hood (10)
Lawrence, Emma Smith (14)
Lawrence, Maria (16)
Lawrence, Mary Ellen (11)
Lott, Isaiah Barkdull (4)
Loveless, Hyrum Smith (6)
Loveless, John (44)
Loveless, John Oscar (3)
Loveless, Mary Elizabeth (13)
Loveless, Parley Pratt (11)
Loveless, Rachel Mahala Anderson (45)
Loveless, Rachel Priscilla (10)
Loveless, Rhoda Sanford Lawrence (39)
Loveless, Sharlotte Lucretia (infant)
Loveless, William Duncan (8)
Mace, Elizabeth Armitta (4)
Mace, Elizabeth Armstrong (32)
Mace, Hiram (40)
Mace, Hiram M. (infant)
Mace, Lamire (11)
Mace, Marritta (2)
Maxfield, Elijah Hiett (18)
Maxfield, Henry Adheimer (infant)
Maxfield, James Appleton (14)
Maxfield, John Ellis (9)
Maxfield, John Ellison (50)
Maxfield, Joseph Smith (4)
Maxfield, Richard Dunwell (20)
Maxfield, Sarah Elizabeth (7)
Maxfield, Sarah Elizabeth Baker (40)
Maxfield, William Welener (11)
Melland, Charlotte Katherine (16)
Norton, Alanson (37)
Norton, Althea Marie (1)
Norton, Charles Waterberry (15)
Norton, Harriet Emmeline (14)
Norton, Lucy Ellen (11)
Norton, Lucy Wilkinson (62)
Norton, Martha Elmina (4)
Norton, Sallie Maria Freeman (34)
Park, Amanda Louisa (17)
Park, Cynthia Jane (15)
Park, Esther Catherine (13)
Park, James Addison (8)
Park, Matilda Stewart (42)
Park, Samuel Wallace (20)
Patten, [Sister] R. R. (Unknown)
Poppelton, George Joseph Stennett (7)
Shirtliff, L. A. (Unknown)
Skidmore, Henry Brett (20)
Smith, John Glover (43)
Stevens, Roswell (43)
Thornton, Jasper (17)
Wadsworth, Abiah (41)
Wadsworth, Abiah (2)
Wadsworth, Eliza Ann (9)
Wadsworth, Eliza Ann Hardy (45)
Wadsworth, Joseph Warren (19)
Wadsworth, Lucinda Mathena (infant)
Wadsworth, Nancy Ellen (11)
Wadsworth, Susanna Aroline (14)
Willey, David Orson (1)
Willey, Jeremiah (46)
Willey, Jeremiah Russell (4)
Willey, Samantha Call (36)
Willey, William Wallace (9)
.jpg)
The original This is the Place Monument, closer to where the pioneers first saw the Salt Lake Valley.
Alvin Arave wrote this about Nelson’s pioneer trek:
“When Nelson was about fifteen years of age, he went
to work for Abiah Wadsworth sometime during the period of time he was in the
transition of relocating from Nauvoo to the Council Bluff area. Abiah Wadsworth
had lived in Nauvoo and had been converted by Elder Orson Hyde on the East
Coast. He came from a family of many
generations of ship builders and great carpenters. He
taught Nelson the carpenter trade which Nelson followed all of his life.
At the age of
17 (actually age 19) Nelson had decided to follow the admonition of Brigham
Young and go to Zion in the Salt Lake Valley. Nelson probably got encouragement
from Abiah who had already committed to Brigham Young to move his family west.
Abiah's trip to Council Bluffs had consisted of moving to Montrose; then to a
town called Salem Iowa. Remained there over the winter and worked at wagon work
until the 18 May and then started for Council Bluffs, three hundred miles away.
He lived there until called by Brigham Young to go to the Salt Lake Valley.
In the spring
of 1851, Nelson said goodbye to his foster mother Ruth and started cross the
plains to the Salt Lake Valley with the Wadsworth family. He drove an ox team
for the widow Mrs. Corry during the trip. They left Winter Quarters May 10 with
the Abraham Day Company which consisted of fifty people. Nelson enjoyed the
company of his friend, Abiah Wadsworth.
Abiah had a
very good outfit of five yokes of oxen, one team of ponies, and four cows with
three wagons in which to carry household goods, grain and supplies. Abiah drove
two yoke of oxen and one of cows and one wagon, and his oldest son, Joseph,
drove one yoke of oxen and one yoke of cows on one wagon, and Eliza, Abiah's
wife, drove the ponies on another and kept her youngest children with her.
Abiah's family then consisted of six children – Joseph Warren, Susannah
Aroline, Nancy Ellen, Eliza Ann, Abiah Jr. and Lucinda Martina.
Abiah had his
carpenter tools with him (When arranging the companies, the leaders always
tried to send someone who could doctor cattle, as well as sick people, and some
who could do carpenter work). Nelson enjoyed helping Abiah repair wagons in the
evening. Abiah also took his violin and his two drums that he had used in the
band at Nauvoo. In the evening after a hard day of traveling, Abiah would play
a few tunes on his violin and in a short time the whole camp would gather
around the campfire and sing and dance and forget their worries of the day. It
was a very jolly company and they had very little trouble of any kind. Often after
a long dry day with no water for the animals, when they reached a stream, the
cattle would gorge themselves until they groaned with pain. Their remedy for
this was salt and soda. For insect bites, they used tobacco or mud poultices;
for sprains or strains, they used hot packs of wild sage and salt; for swelling
and burns, they used axle grease. The trek was as pleasant and uneventful as
can be expected traveling at the speed of a slow-moving ox team pulling a
covered wagon. All the members of the Abraham Day Company were in high spirits
when they arrived in the Salt Lake Valley September 17, 1851 after four months
on the trail.
After the company rested a few days, President Brigham
Young called them together in a meeting. Brigham Young expressed his delight
that they had such a pleasant journey. He also told them he wished them to join
a company going to colonize a town at the mouth of Weber Canyon, then called
East Weber. He advised them not to unpack their wagons, but rest a day or so,
then start on the last stretch of their journey. Leaving Salt Lake the 18
September, they reached East Weber September 20, 1851. They immediately started
preparations for the coming of winter by hauling logs from nearby canyons by ox
team and cutting the logs into shape for building log cabins. The cabins had
huge fireplaces for cooking and heating. The radiant heat from the burning logs
felt good, but most of the heat went up the chimney.
They did well
at farming for a few years. In the early spring of 1855, Brigham Young called
all the settlers into the forts for protection against raging Indians who
threatened attacks upon the scattered saints. It was in May of 1855 that peace
was restored and the saints could return to their homes. This made it very late
to put in their crops. The crops were planted in such dry soil that very little
was raised.
Abiah Wadsworth.
In the settlement, Nelson lived with Abiah Wadsworth's Family. Three years after arriving in the Valley he married Susanna Aroline Wadsworth, Abiah Wadsworth and Eliza Hardy's daughter, on 18 February 1855 at Uintah. Aroline was eighteen years of age. That same year they were endowed and sealed in the Endowment house in Salt Lake City on 16 October 1855. Abiah and his wife Eliza Hardy took out their endowments and were sealed to each other on the same day.” (End of Alvin Arave’s report.)
It was during
these East Weber years that Nelson experienced a dramatic story that involved
conflict with local Native Americans. (The story comes from Elnora, Nelson’s
daughter.)
“When the
pioneers first came to the Weber Canyon area, the Indians were very treacherous
but Nelson always tried to make friends with them and learned to speak their
language quite well. Brigham Young always told his people to feed the Indians
instead of fighting them. But someone told the Indians that Brigham Young was
going to have all the Indians killed so a group of them came to the home of
Nelson and Aroline and fired guns, swore and used terrible language. They went
into Aroline’s cupboard and helped themselves and then tied Nelson to a tree
and whipped him until the blood ran down his body. He kept telling the Indians
that he knew Brigham had not said any such thing and they finally listened when
he told them that he would go to Salt Lake with their head man and prove to
them that it was not true. So, the Indians finally quieted down and he walked
forty miles to Salt Lake and back while the Indian rode his horse with
provisions. They were great friends after that. After the family moved to
Hooper, quite a distance from where the Indian lived at that time, that Indian
made regular trips to see Nelson and his family. He would always bring a nice
piece of buckskin or something that he himself had made.” (Note that it was
about 30 miles, one-way, to Salt Lake City from where Nelson lived.)
In the spring of 1853, a sawmill was constructed in Uintah by Abiah Wadsworth, Henry Beckstead and Nelson Arave. (-From “Images of America” Uintah,” by Sue Bybee, 2010, by Arcadia Publishing, page 10.) That was likely the first sawmill in the area.
Nelson lived
in East Weber until 1858. Then, Nelson and family moved to Mountain Green, from
1858-1860.
Nelson Arave saved a fellow Mountain Green, Utah
resident from drowning, likely in the spring or summer of 1860. Nelson and
George Higley built a flat bottom boat that would cross the Weber River at the
Strawberry junction. The boat capsized on its maiden voyage and both men, plus
David Coolbear, another area resident, were thrown into the Weber River. Coolbear
could not swim and Nelson Arave is credited with saving his life.
(This effort is extra significant when
considering that Nelson’s own father and grandfather had drowned decades
earlier in the St. Lawrence River in Canada.)
Nelson Arave was among the first four pioneer families
to settle Mountain Green.
He and a Mr. McLean built a sawmill on the Weber River, located at the
Strawberry bridge junction. (That is located at the far east end of Weber
Canyon, where the canyon ends and the Morgan Valley opens up. (-From the
Morgan County News, March 21, 1947, by Mrs. William Chadwick in her “History of
Morgan County” series.)
Nelson next
lived in Morgan from 1860-1862; and then went back to Mountain Green, from
1862-1869 or 1870.
However,
Nelson is listed as being in Weber County in the U.S. Census of 1860. He is
listed as age 25, with his wife, Aroline as age 23. Two children were also
listed – Joseph W., 3, and William A., 6 months old.
Nelson and
Aroline had twelve children born in Uintah, Morgan, Mountain Green and Hooper
Utah.
Mary Ann Williams, Nelson's second wife.
In 1865 he took another wife, Mary Ann Williams in polygamy and they had ten children, born in Morgan, Hooper and Ogden.
For many years, Nelson built hay bailers and made many of them using his own ideas. He also constructed washing machines, the first in the community, and then made a lathe and turned all the large pillars used in the store the Wright Brothers built in Ogden. For many years he supplied the housewives with wooden bowls of all sizes made from knots of hard wood. He owned 23 acres of good land which his eldest son farmed. Nelson walked all over the country, sometimes twenty or thirty miles, with his carpenter tools on his back to work for others, often times he was never paid. He never rode a horse or drove a team. He had a very large orchard with every kind of fruit and also raised wheat, corn, hay and cane for molasses of which he made forty gallons every year. He killed his own beef and pork, had a good garden and dried all kinds of fruit. He had a workshop wherever we lived and a forge and blacksmith shop, doing work for all the neighbors.
Nelson lived in
Hooper from 1869 or 1870 until sometime between 1893 and 1896. Nelson built one
of the first mills in Weber County, in Hooper, in the 1860s,” according to “A
History of Weber County,” by Richard Sadler. According to another source, this
was a water-powered grist mill on the Hooper Slough.
Nelson was also one of 14 Hooper residents who sponsored the “West School,” built at 6700 West and 5500 South in Hooper. (-From “History of Hooper: Land of Beautiful Sunsets,” by John M. Belnap, 1976, page 81.)
Certainly not
afraid of water, Nelson also sailed the Great Salt Lake at times, during his
life in Hooper.
According to
Elnora Arave Cox, one of Nelson’s daughters:
“My father
built a boat and would cross over the Salt Lake to an island called Promontory
where he would cut cedar posts for farmers to fence their fields to save their
crops from loose animals, he was always doing work for others and did a great
many days’ work without receiving a cent for it, which he should receive a
great reward for.
He was a great
swimmer, he would tie his clothes on the back of his head, swim the river and
have dry clothes to put on when he got on the other side. Some of the men folks
got to betting who could swim with the heaviest weigh (on) to him.”
A large
pioneer map of the Hooper area, on the wall at the Hooper, Utah City Offices
(drawn and produced by John M. Belnap), lists Nelson Arave as having wrecked a
boat on Fremont Island in the Great Salt Lake in 1874.
Three years
later, in 1877, there’s a reference in The Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star
(Volume 39, p. 223) that states Nelson Arave had built two large boats to
transport cedar posts and wood from Promontory (Point) to Hooper. Presumably,
it was one of those two boats that wrecked on Fremont Island.
And, once again, Nelson showed no fear of bodies of water. It is uncertain how Nelson got off Fremont Island, after his wreck. It was 12 years earlier, in 1862, when the legendary grave robber, John Baptiste was exiled to Fremont Island, by Brigham Young. Without modern weather forecasts, it appears very likely that a sudden storm could have easily shipwrecked Nelson’s boat. The GSL level was unusually high in 1874 too, around 4,210 above sea level, or 10 feet above the long-term average elevation. That depth means the island was surrounded by water at least 15 feet deep and so there was no way to use the natural sandbar to walk off it. Perhaps Nelson lit a large fire and hoped others would spot it. (Fremont Island is directly west of Hooper.)
Ironically, about two years prior, in 1872, Christopher Layton, the namesake of Layton City, wrecked his large boat in a storm on nearby Antelope Island. There was a sailboat on the island and Layton and the other eight or more people stranded with him used that to escape the isle. (-From the Salt Lake Tribune, May 2, 1872).
Fremont Island as viewed from Antelope Island.
Four years
after Nelson’s wreck on Fremont Island, one of his friends, Charles Smaltz,
wrecked his large boat on Fremont Island. It seems such shipwrecks were common
on the briny lake. Even the first white explorers of the GSL, in 1843, John C.
Fremont, Kit Carson and Company, encountered a sudden storm when they left
Fremont Island and noted they were lucky to have safely made it back to the
mainland.
Nelson was also listed as a trustee for the Hooper Precinct Irrigation Company in 1874 (Ogden Semi-Weekly Junction newspaper on July 22, 1874.)
In 1880, it was reported that Nelson Arave had built a wood and mechanical shop and was looking to employ 8-10 men for the winter to build hay-balers he designed and had patented. Hay-balers of the time were stationary and had to have the hay brought to them. The hay had to be loaded by hand and the bale had to be manually tied. (-From the Ogden Junction, November 13, 1880.)
The Deseret
Evening News called Nelson an “inventive genius,” in its August 20, 1881
edition: “Hooperville has an inventive genius in the person of Nels Arave. His
latest achievements are a hay press and a peach cutter and stoner.” (Hooper was
sometimes referred to as “Hooperville,” in its early decades.)
The U.S.
Patent Office has a patent for a “bailing press,” by Nelson Arave, filed on
June 7, 1881.
By 1882, Nelson
Arave was reported as working on a revolutionary new railroad scraper, which
could carry a cubic yard at each loading. (-From the Ogden Herald, March 3,
1882.)
,_1832-1909.png)
A railroad bridge over the Weber River in the late 1860s. Photograph by Charles Savage.
In 1884, Nelson Arave of Hooper, was awarded a contract from Morgan County to build a bridge over the Weber River in Morgan City, for $1,480 to $1780, depending on the style of bridge desired. His was the lowest of two bids received.
Nelson's was the first substantial bridge in Morgan County. (-From the Ogden Herald newspaper, August 2, 1884.) Presumably, he actually built that bridge when he was about age 50, with help from what the newspaper stated was the “Morgan Company,” possibly a select group of Morgan residents.
Where did the
first Arave, Nelson Arave, live in Hooper?
His home was at about 6700 West 5500
South, about 1.1 miles southwest of the later four-way stop, in the center of
town. Nelson ("Nels") Arave is stated in the Hooper history book too
as being one of that Hooper West School's 14 original financers. His youngest
son, Eugene Arave, Lynn Arave’s grandfather, apparently lived on 5900 West
Street, about straight west of the old Hooper Second Ward Chapel.
Then, by the early 1940s, Eugene Arave built the house next door to where Gene
Arave’s house would eventually be built, at 5413 South 5900 West.
In 1892, Nelson was arrested for being
a polygamist. Here is an actual news account of Nelson’s arrest for polygamy.
(Of course, the Arave family today wouldn’t be near as large as it is, had he
not had two wives .)
"Held for adultery. Deputy Marshall Gill
yesterday arrested Nelson Arave, an old resident of West Weber, on a charge of
adultery. He was taken before Commissioner Hulaniski and waiving a preliminary
examination was held in bonds of $500 to await the action of the grand jury.
The alleged plural wife, Mary Ann Williams, was not arrested, but Arave gave
bonds in the sum of $250 for her appearance when wanted." (-From the Ogden
Standard-Examiner, December 31, 1892.)
Nelson
Arave was in the Utah Prison from March 5, 1893 to May 5, 1893, about two-months
worth. (According to: Prisoner for Polygamy: The Memoirs and Letters of
Rudger Clawson at the Utah,” edited by Rudger Clawson, Stan Larson.)
The time for Nelson’s imprisonment is extra significant,
because that meant he would have been unable to attend the dedication of the
Salt Lake Temple, which took place on April 6, 1893. Prison in those days was
the Utah State Prison, where Sugarhouse Park is now.
When released, Nelson was told to only
live with one of his two wives. He picked the younger wife, Mary Ann Williams
Arave, who was age 45 at the time, vs. Aroline Wadsworth Arave, who was age 56
at the time.
All that is known is that sometime
between 1893-1896, Nelson and his second wife and their children together moved
to the Basalt, Idaho area, some 175 miles due north of Hooper.
The move was designed to show that Nelson was not living with two wives any
longer. (Often, the second or younger wife was chosen in such cases, since they
had younger children, requiring more care.)
One of the unverified
"legends" about Nelson's arrest is that it was his youngest child
from his first wife, Eugene Arave, who supposedly told the sheriff where his
father was hiding, to be arrested. Eugene would have been age 10 at the time.
(Furthermore, it is also ironic that
almost a century later, one of Nelson’s descendants, A.J. Arave, served as the
warden of the Idaho State Prison for more than 10 years.)
In April, 1905, Nelson wrote the
following letter to his son, Joseph, who was serving a mission for the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Michigan:
“Dear Son, I
received your letter of the 12. I was very glad to hear from you. I am well at
present and hope this will find you the same. You spoke of a man named Aravee;
that is the way it is pronounced in France. My father and grandfather were
drowned in St. Laurence River while rafting logs about the year 1836. In 1837
my mother went to Potsdam St. Laurence County, New York. There she married a
man named Myers. Her name was Jeanette. I had a brother named Louis. He was
born in 1836. I was born in 1834. I do not know my father’s given name or
whether he had any brothers or not. This is all that I can remember about it.
Please write soon and let me know how you are getting along and how you enjoy
your mission. Yours affectionately, Nelson Arave. Basalt, Idaho April 16 1905.”
For a number of
years Nelson ran a sawmill in Idaho on Sand Creek, then he moved to Basalt in
1900 and lived there the remainder of his life, building homes and bridges
until the day before he died. He worked all day on Saturday and passed away
very suddenly on Sunday. He just walked across the room to lie down, fell across
the bed and was gone. This was July 8th, 1906.
Here is Nelson
Arave’s obituary from the Deseret News: November 21, 1906:
“NELSON ARAVE. Nelson Arave, whose death occurred July
8, 1906, was born Dec. 20, 1834. In the state of New York. When he was three
years old his father and grandfather were drowned while rafting on the St.
Lawrence River, after which his mother gave him to a "Mormon" family
by the name of Lampson. They were among the early members of the Church, and
were very intimate with the Prophet Joseph Smith. On account of Brother Lampson
being aged and an invalid, Brother Arave, while young, accompanied him to the various
meetings of the Priesthood, and also to many fireside meetings with the
Prophet. He remembered well many sayings and teachings of the Prophet and often
testified in private and in public to the divine mission of the Prophet Joseph
Smith.
He distinctly
remembered the martyrdom of the Prophet and his brother and the subsequent
trials of the Saints. He drove an 0x team across the plains in 1851. Married
Aroline Wadsworth, daughter of Bishop Abiah Wadsworth and Eliza Hardy, and
later married Mary Ann Willams. daughter of Daniel Williams of Morgan City,
Utah. He has pioneered in many of the towns of Utah and Idaho, and has always
been a worker at home ready at all times to aid the sick and poor thereby
gaining many friends where ever he lived.”
Susannah Aroline Wadsworth Arave (her full name), Nelson's first wife, is buried in the Hooper, Utah cemetery. She was born in Camden, Maine on Sept. 16, 1836. She died on May 15, 1917 in Hooper. Aroline was apparently blind in her later years and the family had to take care of her. She lived five years longer than Nelson's second wife, who died at age 64. Aroline was age 81 when she passed away.
(Ironically, Lynn Arave served an LDS Church Mission
in southwest England and South Wales and traveled right through Abercarn, South
Wales at least once, not knowing Nelson’s second wife was born there.)
How did the unusual
Arave name, come about? Its spelling is
odd and so is its pronunciation.
Lynn Arave’s mother, Norma Arave, has
the answer in one of her four oversized Nelson Arave research books/scrapbooks.
Her research states that when Jesse Lampson, Nelson's "adopted"
father (though not legally) realized he was going to die soon, he told Nelson
what his real surname was, though he didn't know how to spell it. Somehow,
Lampson came up with the weird ARAVE spelling and likely the even stranger
verbal way to say it -- "Arvey."
In addition, a letter that Nelson Arave sent to a son, Joseph Arave, on an LDS
Church mission and dated April 16, 1905, gives further support:
"Dear Son:
"I received yours of the 12(th).
Twas very glad to hear from you. I am well at present and hope this will find
you the same.
"You spoke of a man named Aravee (,) that is the way it is pronounced in
France. My father and grandfather were drowned in the St. Lawrence River while
rafting logs about the year 1836. In 1837 my mother went to St. Laurence County
New York. There she married a man named Meyers. Her name was Jenette. I had a
brother named Louis. He was born in 1836. I was born in 1834. I do not know my
father's given name or whether he had any brothers or now. This is all that I
can remember about it.
"Please write soon and let me know how you are getting along and how you
enjoy your mission.
Yours afectionately (sic) Nelson Arave."
Hannah
Archibald wrote this account on Family Search:
“We are
promised by the Prophets that as we do family history work, we will be given
special help from the Holy Ghost to locate the information we need to find our
ancestors. Our family believes we were given this help in solving a family
history mystery.
For many
years, the very early life of our ancestor, Nelson Arave was a mystery. The
family knew only that he was likely born in Canada, and that when he was about
3 years old, he was given to a family named Lampson. The Lampsons were church
members, and they took Nelson Arave to Nauvoo with them. Nelson later crossed
the plains and settled in Utah.
It was very
hard to find information about Nelson's parents. It was believed that his
father drowned in the St. Lawrence River and that shortly afterward, his mother
gave him to the Lampson family. We thought we knew their names, but we weren't
sure.
In 1905,
Nelson's son Joseph Arave was on a mission in Minnesota. One day he knocked on
the door of a man whose name was Abraham Arrivee. As they started talking, they
commented on how similar their last names were. Abraham told Joseph that he had
a relative that had been "lost" many years ago when he was given to a
Mormon family and had been taken west.
Joseph
recognized the similarities of the stories. He wrote to his father and told him
about this conversation. Joseph felt strongly that his father was that
"lost" child and that somehow his father was related to Abraham
Arrivee.
Some time
passed and new research was done. Additional documents were found as a result
of this meeting, and we think the mystery might be solved. We believe that
Nelson Arave's father was Rene Phillip Arrivee who did drown in the river when
Nelson was 3. His mother was Maria Gennevieve Leroux, and Abraham Arrivee and
Nelson Arave were first cousins. Abraham's father and Nelson's father were
brothers.
A lot of
temple work has now been done for many members of the Arave family. I know that
Heavenly Father sent Joseph to Minnesota to help solve his family history
mystery, and that He will continue to help us find our ancestors.” (end of
Hannah Archibald’s account.)
Nelson Arave
undoubtedly has thousands of descendants today. Family Search has more than
254,000 records on file with the name Arave.
According to
Family Search, the Arave name is an altered form of French Arrivé:
from Old French arivé, past participle of ariver ‘to
arrive (at a destination)’, originally ‘to reach the bank of a river’ (from Old
French rive ‘bank of a river’), hence probably a nickname
denoting a newcomer to a community.
Eight of Nelson Arave's children from his first wife.
