JACOB MICA TRUMAN - PIONEER AND SERVANT OP GOD
Jacob Mica Truman, the youngest of five children, and the second son of John Franklin (Prank) Truman and Martha (Patty) Spencer, was born the 30th of August, 1825 in the twon of Niagara, Niagara County New York. At the time of his birth his family already consisted of his three sisters: Anna Maria age 13, Adeliza lauretta age 18, and Rhoda Sarah age 5, and his only brother Almus Spencer age 2. Jacob was named for his two grandfathers: Jacob Luther Truman and Mica Spencer, who lived close by. Though Jacob was born in Niagara, New York, his family was not from there. Jacob’s mother, Martha Spencer, was born on the 22nd of July, 1793 in the town of Unadilla, Otsego County, New York, where her father, Mica Spencer had spent his youth. Martha and her family lived there until she was about thirteen years old, at which time her father, along with some of his brothers moved to Tioga County, Pennsylvania. Tioga County around 1806 was a newly settled area with great tracts of land that was still unoccupied. Martha’s father and uncles found an area near what was later Canoe Camp in Richmond Township which had not yet been settled and after scouting out it’s possibilities soon settled there.
Soon after the family had moved to Tioga County, Martha’s uncle, Amos Spencer built a grist mill to grind flour while the others started farming. Later, Amos also built a Sawmill to provide lumber for many of the new settlers then moving into the area. This lumber was needed to build permanent houses and barns. Amos’ sawmill kept many of the family employed, both logging and sawing lumber while they struggled to get their farms going. As other settlers moved into the area the towns of Mansfield, Canoe Camp, Lamb’s Creek, and Kellytown were founded. Mica Spencer, taking advantage of the increased population opened a bookstore which provided extra income for his family. It was while living in Tioga County that Martha Spencer met John P. Truman. John Franklin Truman was born the 28th of January, 1789 in either Connecticut or Vermont. He spent his early youth in Burlington, Vermont on the shores of lake Champlain. Shortly before 3800 his parents moved across the lake to Plattsburgh, New York. Here John’s parents apparently suffered some marital difficulties and John was apprenticed out to another family to learn a trade. In apprenticeships the employer usually furnished food clothes. lodging and some schooling, while the apprentice was required to work assisting his employer in what ever work was needed. Eventually the apprentice was to learn a useful trace. After a time this family moved away and John lost track of his family. John stayed with this family until he was twenty one, when his apprenticeship ended… and probably moved with them to the area of Tioga County, Pennsylvania. Soon after his release he met Martha Spencer, later in 1816 they were married
For a time John and Martha stayed in Tioga County where John built Martha a nice frame house, which stood on a knoll just south of Kelleytown. This house was later used as one of the first school houses in the area John and Martha did not stay long in Tioga County. Shortly before Anna Maria was born, in 3833, they moved to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. They stayed an Pittsburg until after their second daughter, Adeliza lauretta, was born in 1815. They then moved back to Tioga County for a while before moving on to New York. According to tradition, while in New York at this time John and Martha lived not far from the St. Lawrence River in Northern New York where John ran a tavern and the family “owned land with many maple sugar trees growing, where they made enough for their own use and to spare.’ This tradition has no been verified though. While living in New York John and Martha’s third daughter, Rhoda Sarah was born in 3820. But again they didn’t stay long and soon moved to Canada where Almus Spencer, their first son, was born in 1822. By 1825, when Jacob Mica was born, they had again moved. This time back to New York, in Niagara County where Martha’s father had moved for his family’s health.
John’s father was also living in Niagara, and no doubt. John took the opportunity to get re-aquainted with his father, and to meet his new step-mother Abigail Horton, and his three young half-brothers. Also about this time John derided to visit his mother who still lived an Burlington. Vermont. So he took his brother-in-law George C Spencer and started off for Burlington. When they arrived, they found has mother at home one night. “George was to do the talking He did so and they got permission to stay. John kept his hat on He had curly hair and though his mother might recognize him. She looked at him. walked over and raised his hat, and said: ‘John, my son.’ What a happy meeting that must have been. They sat up and talked all night.”
After Jacob Mica’s birth his family stayed on Niagara for almost five years. During this time many of his family took sick, probably with the ague, and his grandmother, Rhoda Midge, finally became so ill that she died on October 1st, 1818. This finally became too much for Mica Spencer who had apparently also suffered some financial setbacks when his son Roswell lost the land they were trying to buy. In a letter to a purchasing agent in Canada, Mica expressed his sentiments and his desire to move to Canada, where he thought life would be better. He wrote: Niagara, N.Y. Sept 23d 1829 ‘Owing to sickness and other misfortunes we were unable to pay for the soil of the lot Roswell Articled for in this place. We have sold our improvements and as Dorastus and Amos have purchased a lot at Long Point. We should like to go there too. Mrs. Spencer is dead she died the first day of last October. The rest of the family are all living but some are in a very indifferent state of health vir. myself Roswell George and Sophia. We came here to git into a healthy country. Than which a more unhealthy place cannot be found on the face of God’s earth. the inhabitants have more the appearance of wondering Ghosts that living mortals if we can once more get well seated in Canada the inhabitants of the States may enjoy all. their boasted liberty” (which God knows is more wind that reality) and welcome restore the end or the year Jacob’s whole family including his grandfather, Mica Spencer and his family, had moved to Charlottesville, Canada. On the way Almus, Jacob’s only brother, must have taken sick for on the 4th of January 1830 he died; leaving Jacob as the only son in a family of three sisters.
Jacob and his family lived in Canada for eight years. While there, they worked together to build new homes. Not long after they had arrived in Charlottesville, Lauretta started seeing a young man named Henry Barnum. A local boy who had grown up in the vicinity. Henry worked as a boatman or mariner on lake Erie. On the 22nd of March, 1831, hardly a year after they had arrived in Charlottesville. Lauretta, then only 16, and Henry Barnum were married by the local Presbyterian minister. Listed as witnesses at the marriage were John P. Truman, Mica Spencer, and Jacob’s nine year old sister Rhoda.
As a consequence of Lauretta knowing Henry Barnum, Anna Maria met Henry’s brother, James Barnum. They quickly fell in love and they were married a year afterward on the 20th of June 1832, at the local Baptist Church. In 1837 Upper Canada, as Ontario was then known, was in the midst of political turmoil. Cue to some of the arbitrary decisions made by many of the British appointed officials, who seemed to favor the rich and landed interests over the less wealthy settlers, many of whom were originally from the United States, a revolt broke cut, led by William Lyon Mackenzie, in an effort to get Canada to join the United States. One of the hotbeds of the revolt was the area of Long Point and Charlottesville. This revolt, or Patriot’s Rebellion as it was known, was quickly put down in December of 1837, and many of it’s leaders were captured. It is not known if John Truman’s or Mica Spencer’s families took part in this revolt, but by 1838 John Truman, Mica Spencer, Henry and James Barnum and their families were all living in the area of Ypsilanti, Washtenaw County, Michigan. A short distance from Detroit.
It was while Jacob’s family lived in Michigan that tragedy struck his family. On December 26th, 1835, the day after Christmas, just a year after they had moved to Michigan, John P. Truman, according to tradition, went “fishing’ and never returned - dying while away from his family Jacob was only 14 when this happened and he was left to help care for his mother, something he faithfully did until she died. For a time Martha, Rhoda, and Jacob lived with his sister Lauretta and her family where they appeared in the 1840 census of Ypsilanti, Michigan.
It was while they were living in Ypsilanti that Jacob’s family first heard about the Book of Mormon and the restoration of the Gospel by Joseph Smith, from missionaries sent out from Nauvoo Lauretta was the first to recieve the Gospel and was baptized November 17th, 1842. The rest of the family didn’t accept the Church quite as fast. Apparently they wanted time to think about this new religion before joining. About this time a lot of things started happening at once to Jacob’s family. First Lauretta’s husband left her; leaving her with two small children to care for alone. Anna Maria’s husband died in 1842 leaving her with three small children. Rhoda married Stephen Hicks in 1844 and moved away. And Mica Spencer decided to move to Knox County, Illinois in 1845 where a small Mormon settlement had been established.
Jacob at this time was seriously considering joining the Church, but wanted to go to Nauvoo before doing so. In the summer of 1845, while Brigham Young was trying to gather the scattered Saints to Nauvoo and making plans to travel West the next spring, Jacob moved to Nauvoo and was baptized June 10th 1845 by Lyman Stoddard. Two months later or. the 22nd of August Jacob recieved his Patriarchial blessing Eight days later on his twentieth birthday he was ordained a Seventy in the 30th Quorum of Seventies.
When the Saints were driven from Nauvoo in the winter and early spring of 1846, Jacob returned to Knox County, gathered his mother and sisters and with their wagon and oxen gathered with the Saints on the West side of the Mississippi River During the spring and early summer they struggled across Iowa to Council Bluffs where semi-permanent camps were being made to gather the Saints while at Council Bluffs the call for the Mormon Battalion came and Jacob Mica Truman enlisted on the 16th of July 1846 in Company ‘C’ commanded by Capt. James Brown.
The Mormon Battalion left Council Bluffs around the 21st of July and traveled to Fort Leavenworth, an Kansas, to be outfitted and equiped for their journey. Since no one was familiar with such a lengthy march for infantry, estimates of what supplies were needed were greatly underestimated. This was to trouble the Battalion throughout their whole march. All of the men liked their first commander, Colonel James Allen, the man who had raised the Battalion. But shortly after they left Ft. Leavenworth he took sick and died. His Replacement It. Col. A.J. Smith of the regular Army was extremly unliked and many of the men wanted to make Capt. Jefferson Hunt of Company “A” their commander, he bein9 the senior officer of the Battalion itself. This request was turned down, and it wasn’t until October 19th, 10 days before arriving at Santa Fe that Lt. Col. Philip St. George Cooke arrived to take permanent command of the Battalion. He was regarded by all as a just and honorable soldier.
One of the officers that the Battalion disliked most was Dr. Sanderson, the Battalion doctor. Most of the men regarded Dr. Sanderson with a mixture of fear and loathing. Most men were willing to endure their illnesses and the rigors of marching with the Battalion rather than to submet to Dr. Sanderson’s “cures” before being alowed to ride in the sick wagons. Since Jacob was one of the. younger Battalion members, one of his duties was to help care for the stock and help “break in” any new animals they got for their work. One of these animals, either a mule or a horse, was especially wild, and when Jacob tried to mount it, it ran off running and bucking wildly into the desert with Jacob on top. Three different versions of this story relate what happened next:
“The horse ran under a tree whose branches knocked Jacob to the ground and he was badly hurt. The doctor of the company said he would not live long - that they would have to go on and leave him there to die. Four of his comrads begged the doctor to dress his wounds and let them stay behind with him for a little while. The request was granted. As soon as the company moved on, the four boys formed a circle and offered up a fervent prayer for the recovery of their comrade. After a short time Jacob was sufficiently recovered to be put on a horse and all rejoined the camp that evening. The doctor, not being of their faith said: ‘You cant kill those d___ Mormons.
“One day, while attempting to “break” a mule for riding, the mule ran bolting and bucking across the desert. Re ran under a tree, bucking as he went. A low branch knocked Jacob from the saddle and he lay bleeding on the ground. A few hours later he was found by his companions, who had traced the mules tracks when the mule had returned to camp riderless. At first Jacob was thought to be dead, but he was not, although the blow had laid open his head to the bone, in a gash from ear to ear. The Army doctor examined him and said he could do nothing. Since the Army was breaking camp, they decided to leave him to die as they had no facilities to care for him while traveling. After much persuasion, three members of the Battalion obtained permission to stay and bury Jacob, promising to catch up with the remainder of the Army at their next camp.
“As soon as the Army left, the Elders laid hands on Jacob and administered to him.” “Meanwhile, the remainder of the Battalion kept watch for their comrads who had stayed behind. As they looked back on their trail, a moving dot became larger and larger until finally it was evident to all that walking toward them were four, not three men as expected! Jacob had hot only been healed through the power of the Priesthood, but had walked a day’s journey across the desert, with only a scar to show that an accident had occured (the scar he carried to his grave).” “When the doctor saw him, he exclaimed, ‘You can’t even kill those d___ Mormons !’”.
“Jacob M. Truman had a scar on his head five inches accross and 1/2 inch deep. A horse fell with him as he ran under a tree. The tree cut his head. He laid there all night and then made his was back to camp. The doctor said they couldn’t hold the whole camp for him, ‘He won’t live more than an hour anyway.’ They asked the doctor to bind up his wound. The doctor didn’t want to, but did anyway. Brother Morris [sic Moore) and three other men stayed with him and told the camp that they would catch up with them by Noon. As soon as they were out of sight, the four brethren knelt down and blessed him, he got up and walked back to camp. The doctor never had to bind the wound up again. The doctor said: ‘The God damned Mormons - Knock all their brains out and they get up and walk.’”
After Jacob and the men left Santa Fe their supply situation became worse. Not only were they footsore, hut their food supply was running cut rapidly. Eventually the Battalion was forced to start eating some of their own oxen before arriving at the San Diego Mission on January 29th, 1847. After the Battalion arrived at San Diego, and until the battalion was discharged, the Battalion preformed garrison duty at San Diego, San Luis Rey, and Los Angeles. After their release, those who did not want to re-enlist, which was the majority traveled as a group north to the Sacremento River with the intent to lay over, there, a few days before crossing the mountains to the East and finding the the body of the Saints. Jacob was with this group.
In August they leached Sutter’s Port where they rested and relaxed while they prepared for the rest of their journey. At Sutter’s Port they met Sam Brannan with the news that the pioneers had reached the Salt Lake Valley. He seemed discouraged that he had not been able to convince Brigham Young to settle the Saints in California instead of Salt Lake. He also brought with him an epistle from the Apostles instructing those Battalion members who did not have the means to finish the trip to Salt lake to remain in California over the winter and work; and then to bring their earnings with them to Salt Lake an the spring. About half of the men decided to stay the winter, while the others forged ahead to the Salt Lake Valley. Jacob decided to stay and was able to find employment nearby. In January of 1848 Gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill where come of the Battalion members were working. Soon “gold fever” spread like wild fire and just about everyone dropped what they were doing and started hunting for gold, which they found was quite easy to find.
Jacob joined in this hysteria and reportedly brought back a small sack of gold with him to Salt Lake. That spring an expedition of former Battalion members, including Jacob, formed to travel to Salt Lake. They planned to go in early May but were forced to wait until July 2nd before they found the passes through the Sierra Nevadas clear enough to go. On October 1st 1848 they arrived in Salt Lake where they were heartily welcomed.
Soon after arriving, on April 19th, 1849 Jacob married Elizabeth Boyce, the daughter of George Boyce. The Boyces had lived in Redford and Livonia, Michigan, where they had become members of the Church, before coming West with the Saints in 1847. Redford and Livonia are close to Ypsilanti and were the centers of the Church in Southern Michigan. No doubt Jacob and Elizabeth had already become acquinted with each ether there while Jacob was investigating the Church and before he moved to Nauvoo. On seeing her already in Salt Lake he quickly fell in love and married her.’
After their marriage Jacob recieved an alotment of 12 acres of land in South Cottonwood on the North West corner of what is now 55th South and Highland Drive in Salt Lake. Jacob and Elizabeth worked hard to build a home and plant crops to sustain them. Twice in those early years they had to endure cricket infestations which desroyed many of their crops. But, through their hard work and industriousness they were able to overcome these difficulties and add another 22 acrea on the East side of Highland Drive to their holdings. Gradually they were also able to acquire another 46 additional acrea on which Jacob planned to settle his mother and sisters, who had not yet arrived in Utah.
Jacob supplemented his income by serving as an officer in the Nauvoo Legion, as Utah’s state militia was called. In Febuary of 1850 he was called on with the rest of his company on an expedition against some indians who had killed some cattle and stolen some horses. Expeditionas like these paid well for early Utah, with Jacob as a private making as much as a dollar-fifty to two dollars a day while gone. Jacob gradually came up through the ranks to become first a Leiutenant, then Captain, and finally commanding his own company in 1857.
Jacob’s first three children - .Martha Ann, John Franklin, and Emma Boyce were born before Jacob went back East to bring his mother and family to Utah. Martha Ann in 1850, John Franklin in1851, and Emma Maria in 1852
In 1853 Jacob decided it was time to go back East and bring his mother and sisters back to Utah. In 1849 Jacob’s grandfather, Mica Spencer had died leaving only his uncle, George C. Spencer to care for them Martha, Lauretta, and Anna Maria had originally gone to Council Bluffs during the exodus from Nauvoo, and had intended to emigrate with the main body of the Saints, but were financially unable to. They had since moved back to their farm in Knox County where they were waiting for Jacob to come back for them. Jacob brought them to Utah the next year in 1854, though in what company it is unknown, where he settled them on some of the land he had previously prepared for them in South Cottonwood.
After returning to Salt lake Jacob was called by Brigham Young to enter into Polygamy by taking a second wife, Catherine Maxwell. Catherine had recieved the gospel in her native Scotland along with her family A man named Gaddis had helped pay her way to Utah with the intention of marrying her when she arrived But Brigham Young advised him to marry someone else first and to marry Catherine as a 2nd wife. After she arrived in Salt Lake and found out the situation. Catherine refused to marry him, and made her father tell him that she She later met Jacob, and since he was more to her liking, married him on December 21st, 1856. Brigham Young officiated. Catherine and Elizabeth were able to get along. Catherine had to learn to cook and clean house, something that she hadn’t learned to do in Scotland because she had worked in factories all of her life. Jacob helped in the training and she did learn to cook somewhat. But she never did learn the fine art of proper housekeeping, Jacob never did complain so they got along just fine.
Jacob’s third marriage did not work out near as well. On June 7th 1857 Jacob married Julia Ardena Hales, a young girl of 16. When Jacob brought her home to Elizabeth and Catherine, and they found out how young she was, things started going wrong from the start. It wasn’t long before she and Elizabeth had a major dissagreement end she refused to stay any longer. Jacob tried to talk her out of leaving but she left anyway and never came back. She and Jacob soon divorced. Later she married a man by the name of Berry. While living in South Cottonwood most of Jacob’s children were born. Jacob Boyce was the first to be born after his return from, the I East, being born on July 24th 1855. George Almus followed in 1857, then Catherine’s first child, Ralph Maxwell was born, also in 1857. William Thomas, Elizabeth’s sixth child was born in 1858 Rhoda Maria Catherine’s second was born in 1859. The last of Jacob’s children to be born in South Cottonwood was Elizabeth’s little Laceus, born in 1860. who lived for only a few months.
As Jacob’s family grew so did his relative wealth- In 1853 Jacob owned land and improvements worth 3390. By 1857 this had grown to $600 In 1856 Jacob purchased 26 more seres adjoing the land that he already owned. In all, by 1860 Jacob owned around 103 acres in South Cottonwood on which he supported himself, his two wives, his mother, his uncle George C. Spencer, and his two sisters and their families. His place was considered “one of the outstanding homes and small farms in that district.
In 1857, during what is known as the “Utah War” Jacob moved his family, along with the other families in South Cottonwood to the South side of Utah lake near Pond Town (now Salem) to wait out the expected fighting that everyone thought was sure to come when Johnston’s Army reached Utah. As a Captain in the Nauvoo legion, and the commander of one of the companies of soldiers, Jacob was probably placed in charge of seeing that the Citizens were safely evacuated from South Cottonwood, and to burn their homes if called on to do so.
After it was safe to return to their homes, Jacob went back to Pond Town and retrieved his family. All were glad that bloodshed hid been avoided and that their homes had not been destroyed. In 1860 Jacob was called by Brigham Young to help settle Peoa in Summit County, Utah. Jacob didn’t immediatly go there with both of his wives, but decided instead to take Catherine and leave Elizabeth in South Cottonwood to help run the farm there. Jacob was able to go to Peoa in two days by wagon and faster by horse, so he felt that he was close enough that he could both manage his farm in South Cottonwood and help build up the new settlement at Peoa. Apparently Jacob split his time evenly between his two homes.
Others that helped settle Peoa were Henry and William Boyce - Elizabeth’s brothers, Jacob’s sister Anna Maria Barnum, his uncle George C. Spencer, and Catherine’s brother John Maxwell and his family.
In 1861 Jacob was appointed as one of the Selectmen for the new County of Summit. Part of his duties as a selectman were to oversee the construction and upkeep of the roads, the gathering of taxes, and to otherwise run the County. Much like being a County Commisioner now. 1862 was a pivitol year for Jacob Mica Truman. This was the year that he was called to Utah’s Dixie to help build up the settlement of St. George. The actual call came during the October Conference of 1861. Going to St. George ment that Jacob had to either give up his home in South Cottonwood, or abandon his attempt to settle in Peoa. Jacob decided to sell his farm in South Cottonwood and take Elizabeth with him. and at least for the time being, and. leave Catherine in Peoa where her brother could help to look after her and her small children.
According to Elizabeth to trip to St. George was one of the most trying, hard, and perilous trips the pioneers had encountered. When they came to the Black Ridge, south of Ceder City she could not see how they would ever get down it. The story is told how in places the gulches were so straight down and narrow that it was necessary to unload the wagons, take them apart, and then piece by piece take them to the other side.
While on the road George Almus, only five years old fell out of the wagon and broke his leg. The Company had to lay over a day to set the limb before they could continue on. After they first arrived, they lived in their wagon until the town was laid out and lots were assigned to each family. Jacob was given a lot on the corner of 2nd South and 1st West where he went to work building a small one room adobe house. Later he would enlarge it to accomidate both of his families. In 1863 or 1864 Jacob brought Catherine down to St. George to be closer to him. He found it impracticable to travel back and forth between St. George.
Neither Catherine or Elizabeth liked St. George very well. It was too hot, the water was terrible and brackish, and if you drank too much of it you would get sick, and sand blew in everywhere. During the first three or four summers the whole family would more up to Diamond Valley where they would make butter and cheese for everyone who had cows in the surrounding settlements. Later Jacob again enlarged his home in St. George so that it eventualy became known as a nice place.” On their alloted farm land Jacob grew cotton. Catherine knew how to spin cotton from working in the cotton factories in Scotland. So she would spin it while Elizabeth would pick the seeds out. They would make all of their own clothes out of the cotton they spun.
Life in St. George was a lot harder than in the Salt Lake Valley. During a particularly hard time, when food got scarce, Catherine sold her fine black silk dress, which had been woven in Scotland before she came to Utah, for flour to feed the family. This hurt Catherine more than anything else ever did.
Despite the hardness of their lives, Jacob’s family continued to crow. In 1861 Catherine Lauretta was born to Catherine while still in in Peoa. But in 1863 Elizabeth Ann was born, only to die a few months later. Lucy Elizabeth was born in 1864, Mica Spencer in 1865, Albert Henry in 1867, Ellen Sophia in 1868, and Arthur Monroe in 1870, while Catherine was visiting in Peoa.
From hard work, Jacob gradually increased his wealth. In 1865 he was worth only $500 while by 1868 his worth had grown to over $1000. The tax assesment records for these years show how his small herd of cattle and horses gradually increased from one hourse and nine head of cattle in 1865 to 18 head of cattle and four horses in 1870, the year they moved to Hamblin. After living in St. George for 8 years, Erastus Snow, the presiding church authority in St. George, called Jacob to go to Fort Hamblin (Mountain Meadows) to help build up the small settlement there. Several people, for now unknown reasons, threatend to kill him if he and his family attempted to settle in Hamblin. But President Snow promised him that no one would have the power to hall him.
Both Elizabeth and Catherine objected to having to move again, especially to a locality that was so isolated, but Jacob insisted and the family moved. Again everyone had to work hard to carve out a new home for themselves. Deed records show that Jacob purchased three lots in Hamblin. There was plenty of room for everyone since there were only nine families that lived there. The only occupations at Hamblin other than growing a few garden crops was ranching. The hills round about provided good grazing for cattle, and the grass at the Meadows was sufficent for the cattle to winter over there. Jacob’s heard of cattle grew quickly from 18 to 36 head. At times he had as many as 8 horses.
After his arrival in Hamblin Jacob became Presiding Elder there. Hamblin was part of the Pinto Ward, but because of it’s isolation they would send someone to church in Pinto who would in turn return and report on on the proceedings at a seperate meeting at Hamblin. This continued as long as Jacob lived there.
Hamblin was not free from it’s share of occational trouble. Though Jacob was 6 feet tall with curley hair and blue eyes, he was slender of build and wiry. He was also quirk tempered, stern, and outspoken. Some of his neighbors called him “Old Walking Jesus” because of the way in which he would walk around from place to place in Hamblin giving his opinions an how he thought things should be run, or on what he thought people should be doing. His daughter. Nell Brockbank said that no one ever disobeyed Jacob Truman.
One tame John Reed, a local ruffian and sometimes outlaw, was gotten drunk by some of Jacob’s enemys and sent over to Jacob’s house to cause trouble. Jacob was just getting over about of pneumonia and was still weak. When the family saw him coming Almus stationed himself with a gun out by the fence just in case of trouble. Jacob told Almus that he musn’t kill Reed because “I wouldn’t have that dirty rascal’s blood on my hands for anything.” While Jacob and Almus waited outside,’ Catherine made up a lye solution to throw in his face if he tried to come inside the house. When Reed saw that Jacob was ready for him, he didn’t try to force his way inside the gate, but stayed outside whooping and hollering for a while before riding off.
The next morning Jacob got up, put on an old gray shawl around his shoulders and went to see Reed to find out what the trouble was. All Reed would say was that some of the fellows had got him drunk and that he didn’t have any thing personal against Jacob Jacob told him that if he tried something like that again, he would kill him.
Another time, Elizabeth looked out of the window just in time to see Jacob running toward the house just as fast as he could run, with another man right behind trying to catch him. Jacob dashed into the house, shut the door behind him and slipped quickly upstairs. The man obviously upset, flung open the door and hollered at Elizabeth. “Where’s Jake” Elizabeth pointed towards the kitchen. The man thinking she ment that he had gone out the back door ran through the house and out the back, still hunting and hollering. “Where’s Jake?”
Later this same man came back sneaking around the house. When he saw that the table was set for dinner, he proceeded to take the plates, one by one, and broke them by dropping them on the floor. No one knows what Jacob did to upset him so much.
While living in Hamblin John D. Lee, the one the Government and the Church blamed for leading the Mountain Meadows Massacre, was brought to the sight of the massacre after his trial to be shot. Jacob took some of his boys to see the execution but wouldn’t let them get very close. They did hear John D. Lee say “Yes Joseph Smith is a ture Prophet of God but Brigham Young is leading the people astray.”
Later Jacob would say about John D. Lee. “He has done our church more harm than any other thousand men in the world.”
In 1877 Jacob located a spot two and a half miles below Gunlock and started a second Ranch. He settled Elizabeth and her family in this new house where Elizabeth lived the rest of her life. Gunlock and Hamblin were only about a days ride apart so Jacob found it easy to travel back and forth between the two ranches as he saw fit.
Jacob’s last three children were born while the family lived in Hamblin. Mary Lois was born in 1871, Lucina Almina in 1873, and Esther Pricilla in 1876. In November of 1881 Jacob contacted pneumonia for a second time and after suffering for a week he died, on November 23rd 1881 in his home near Gunlock. He was buried in the Hamblin Cemetary a few days later on the 26th. He was only 56 years old.
‘At the time of Jacob’s Death, Mica Spencer Truman (16 years old) and some of his neighbors were cutting timber in the mountains near their home when Mike stopped work and started looking around him as though he had lost something.
‘What are you doing. Mike?” asked one of his co-workers.
‘Looking for something.’
‘What?’
‘I don’t know, I just had this sudden feeling that I had lost something, so I am looking for it.” After a diligent search of the surrounding area, Mike went back to work, continuing to glance frequently about him and. on the ground, as the sense of loss persisted. The next day. a rider came into camp and told the timbering crew that Jacob Truman had died.
‘What time was that?’ asked Mike. When they told him the time, Mike realized what he had lost the night before, and just how fruitless his search had really been - - for he had lost his father”
Deseret News November 29, 1881
STILL ANOTHER VETERAN GONE - Bro. John Pulsipher wrote from Hamblin, Washington Co., on the 26th inst. - “This morning I report the sad news of the demise of our beloved brother Jacob Mica Truman, who died at this place at 8 o’clock last Wednesday evening the 23rd inst after one week’s suffering with lung fever.
Bro. Truman was born in the State of Mew York on the 30th of August 2325. Joining the church in Nauvoo in 1345 and from that time he has been a firm and faithful servant of the Lord, ever ready to speak and act in defense of the Latter-day work. He was one of the brave men known as the Mormon Battalion that performed so important a part in freeing this portion of cur country from the rule of foreign power
“Deseased was among the first settlers of St. George having arrived there twenty years ago this fall. He breathed his last after business was ended, like going to sleep, in the midst of his numerous family. May the Lord comfort them. The funeral was attended by almost the entire inhabitants of this town and a good number from other places. Bishop Robert Knell, of Pinto, presided, Elders Jos. Eldredge and Richard Harrison and others gave much good instruction to comfort and encourage all.”
Source:Brent Bunker