Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia
GROVER, Thomas, one of the original pioneers of Utah, was born in Whitehall, Washington Co., New York, July 22, 1807, the son of Thomas Grover and Polly Spalding. As the father, Thomas, had died during the previous February, the rearing and teaching of the infant, as well as that of his brothers and sisters was left to his widowed mother.
When the boy was twelve years old he entered a boat on the Erie Canal as a cabin boy and twelve years later he became captain of the boat "Shamrock."
In 1828 he married Caroline Whiting, the daughter of Nathaniel Whiting and Mercey Young, and while they were still living at Whitehall, their oldest daughter Jane was born. A little later he moved to Freedom, New York, where three other daughters were born. It was at this point that he first heard the Gospel and became a member of the L. D. S. Church in 1834.
From a letter written March 2, 1886 by Caroline Nickerson Hubbard to her daughter Persia Grover Bunnell, the following is taken: "It was in Freedom, Cattaraugus County, New York, where he and his wife first heard and embraced the Gospel. In 1834 the Prophet Joseph and Sidney Rigdon were the ones that bore the message to them and baptized Brother Grover and some others. He removed to Kirtland and helped to build the Temple there.
Shortly aiter his arrival in Kirtland, Brother Grover called on the Prophet. As he knocked at the door the Prophet opened it and said, putting out his hand: 'How do you do, Brother Grover. If God ever sent a man he sent you. I want to borrow every dollar you can spare for immediate use. Brother Grover entered the house and conversed with the Prophet about the situation, offering to let Joseph have what money he needed. Brother Joseph accepted the offer and told Brother. Grover to look around and find a location that suited him for a home and then return, when the money he had advanced would be returned to him. In a short time the place was selected, but Brother Grover refused to receive back his money, saying, 'I have sufficient for my needs without it.' From that day the devotion of Thomas Grover to Joseph Smith never wavered."
On Feb. 4, 1841, when the N auvoo Legion was organized with Joseph Smith as lieutenant-general, Thomas Grover was chosen as an aide-de-camp on the general's staff and on Jan. 28, 1842, he was appointed one of his body guards.
When Joseph was kidnapped by Wilson and Reynolds, Brother Grover was one of the number who rescued him, also when Joseph was imprisoned at Rock Island his release was effected by Thomas Grover and Stephen Markham. During his lifetime the Prophet gave him a sword which has been a precious heirloom in the family and which is now in the hall of relics at the State Capital of Utah.
During the years from 1840 to June, 1844, Brother Grover was sent on three missions through the states of Michigan . . . .
In June, 1844, while doing missionary service near Kalamazoo, Michigan, he was wamed in a dream to return to Nauvoo. He hesitated about the matter until the warning was repeated the third time. Then he awoke his companion, a Brother Wilson, and they got up, made it a matter of prayer and were told to go at once to Nauvoo. They did so, taking the shortest route possible, and arrived at Carthage just after the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph and his brother Hyrum. Hurrying forward, they overtook the company with the bodies and accompanied them to Nauvoo, where Brother Thomas was requested to assist in the preparation of the bodies for burial. During that service, at the request of Emma Smith, he cut a lock from the Prophet's hair which she divided with him.
In October, 1840, Brother Grover's wife, Caroline Whiting, died, leaving six little girls, Jane, Emmeline, Mary, Adeline, Caroline and Eliza Ann; the baby, Emma, died.
On Feb. 20, 1841, he married Caroline Eliza Nickerson Hubbard, widow of Marshall Hubbard. She was the mother of Persia Grover, born Dec. 27, 1841, and Marshall Grover, born ,Sept. 27, 1846. This wife Caroline wrote in her journal "that the principle of plural marriage was taught by the Prophet Joseph Smith, that her husband, Thomas Grover, believed and accepted that law, and that on Dec. 17, 1844, he married Hannah Tupper, daughter of Silas Tupper, and Hannah Ladd, as a plural wife. The first child of that union, Thomas, Jr., was born Nov. 17, 1845, in Nauvoo, Ill."
In December, 1845, they had their endowments in the Nauvoo Temple and their sealings on Jan. 20, 1846. Just before they were driven out of Nauvoo, Brother Grover also married Laduska Tupper, a sister of Hannah.
Feb. 8, 1846, this family along with . . . . Iowa on the way toward the Rocky Mountains.
When they were crossing the Mississippi River on a flatboat, the boat commenced to sink because of a plank being stamped off by oxen that were being led behind the wagons. In trying to loosen the oxen, Brother Grover had got off the boat and was down the stream some little distance when he saw that only the covers of the wagons were above the water. Being an expert swimmer he soon reached the boat and tearing the covers loose he told the folks "not to move an inch and that not a hair of their heads should be harmed." Hannah held her ten-weeks-old baby on her shoulder to keep his head above water and the little three-year-old Persia cried, "Lord, save my little heart." For four months they traveled before they reached Council Bluffs, July 23, 1846. Brother Grover at once began to prepare for winter. He went down into Missouri and bought a load of fresh pork which he sold for enough cornmeal to last the family all winter. Later he was appointed butcher for the entire camp and "in that capacity he killed and cut up, without any help except that of his own family, one or two beeves every day besides many hogs."
When the plan came up to organize the first company of Pioneers, Thomas Grover was one of the first to join with Pres. Brigham Young and help to effect that organization. Leaving his family at Winter Quarters to follow with the season's emigration, he himself set out with the Pioneer company.
When the company reached the north fork of the Platte River, it was necessary to build a ferry to carry the wagons across. Brother Grover was appointed to supervise the construction of such a ferry and to take charge of operating the same. He selected . . . . hewed them out canoe fashion and lashed them together to make the raft. After ferrying the pioneer company across, they also took over a large company of Oregon emigrants, for which they were paid in provisions and foodstuff, which was a great blessing to the weary travelers. Sufflcient food was received to last the entire company twenty days.
After this crossing had been successfully made, Pres. Young and his counselors appointed Thomas Grover and eight other ferrymen and one blacksmith to remain at the ferry and attend to the cl'ossing of the oncoming emigrants as well as the later companies of the Mormon Pioneers. They remained at the Platte until the water went down and then started back along the trail to meet their families, They ran out of provisions at one time and for three days had only one skunk for food, then coming to an Indian camp, they were given an abundance of buffalo meat. They met the company with whom their families were traveling and, joining with them, they arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, Oct. 2, 1847, with Charles C. Rich's company.
The first winter was spent in Salt Lake City, but the following spring they moved to Duel creek, or what is now known as Centerville. One year later they moved to Farmington. That season Brother Grover raised three hundred bushels of wheat, in spite of the ravages of the crickets, which the family fought desperately to keep them from eating all of the crop. This they did by digging a ditch around the field and filling it with water and then walking along the banks and killing the crickets with switches as they attempted to jump across.
In the fall of 1848, as he and about thirty other men were starting for California, he was asked to use his influence with this company (himself . . . . gained for and brought to Utah to help keep the Mormons from starvation. This they did, by paying four dollars a head for them after the men had earned it in California. At this time Pres. Young also appointed Brother Grover to settle up the accounts and business connected with the Saints who had come around Cape Horn with the ship "Brooklyn." This responsibility he also accomplished ,successfully.
He worked in the gold mines for a year and during that time he collected about $20,000 in gold dust from the California members of the Church and turned it into the tithing fund of the Church. In addition to this, on the retum home, he was chosen captain of a rich company of Mormons returning to Utah, when by his influence and example the company put into, the hands of the Church leaders in tithing and loans such a generous contri,ution of gold dust that Pres. Young putting his hands on Brother Grover's shoulders said, "Brother Grover, if every Latter-day Saint would do as you have done there would be no need of a tithing among this people." (From the Journal of his wife, Hannah.)
In the spring of 1850 Brother Grover took his family and went back across the plains to Iowa to buy cattle. In the way be met Aunt Lydia Knight. She was very destitute and had no team to take her to Utah. Brother Grover gave her a yoke of cattle, clothing and food to last her until a crop ould be raised. When the Grover famIy arrived in Iowa they settled on Mosquito Creek, and Brother Grover went into Missouri and bought 150 cows, ten yoke of oxen and some young cattle. They decided to stay there for the winter so that made it possible for his wife Hannah to go back to New Hampshire to get her mother. During the winter Pres. Jedediah M. Grant came to seem them and becasue . . . . ready to return to the Valley, Brother Grover gave him a team of horses and a light spring wagon that he had bought for the purpose of bringing Grandmother Tupper in to join the body of the saints. In the spring of 1853 Brother Grover and his family returned to the Salt Lake Valley bringing 150 cows with him. This entire journey to and from Iowa was made by the family traveling alone and without accident. Brother Grover was a splendid marksman and so was able to provide his family with buffalo meat and wild game.
After his return he again settled in Farmington. The year of the grasshopper depredation he had plowed his land in the fall and during a warm spell in February he planted his wheat. It came on early and was ready for harvesting before the grasshoppers got so bad, while the late grain was nearly all eaten by them.
That season he harvested seven hundred bushels of wheat which would have brought five dollars a bushel on the public market, but Brother Grover loaned and sold every bushel of it, except enough for his own family, for the tithing office price of two dollars a bushel.
At this time Sister Brown, a widow, sent her boy to ask Brother Grover to sell her a little flour, just a few pounds. Brother Grover sent his son to fill a grain sack full of flour and put it on the boy's wagon. The flustered youth asked how much a whole sack of flour would cost, adding that he had only a little money. To which Brother Grover replied, "I do not sell flour to widows and fatherless children." As the sack was placed upon the wagon the happy boy drove away in tears. In 1866 two girls from England, Emma and Elizabeth Walker, arrived in the Valley with one of the handcart companies. Later these girls became wifes of Thomas Grover . . . . was called was built in 1866 and is still' standing in a good state of repair, on the main street in Farmington.
Brother Grover served three terms in the Utah Legislature, part of the time being during its session in Fillmore. He was also Probate Judge of Davis County.
During the construction of the Cottonwood Canyon canal he contributed twenty-five young cows for the purpose of transporting the granite blocks for the erection of the Salt Lake Temple.
In 1861 he sent a driver, wagon and a yoke of oxen to the Missouri River to help bring in the poor emigrating saints. He continued this practice each year as long as teams were being sent back. In 1863 his son Thomas was driver of the team.
When the Indians fell upon the Mormon colony near Salmon River, Idaho, he fitted out and sent a man with riding horse, pack animal and provisions to t.hose left helpless and in distress. He contributed half the ground for the Farmington meeting house and boardcd the men free of charge during its construction.
Brother Grover was ordained a High Councilman in Kirtland, Jan. 13, 1836, under the hands of Joseph and Hyrum Smith and Sidney Rigdon, Brother Rigdon being the spokesman. Shortly aftcrward he moved to Far West, Missouri, and served in the same capacity there and also on the banks of the Missouri river among the scattered saints. He was called by revelation to be a member of the High Council in Nauvoo. (Doctrine and Covenants Section 24, page 445). This calling did not cease at Nauvoo, but continued on into Utah at the request of Pres. Young. He served as a missionary in the Eastern States during 1874-1876, and visited his old home and kindred . . . . him was, "A debt can never be outlawed; a dollar is due until it is paid. If I were going to be hanged I should go on time."
During the crusade of the early 80s, as he was returning home from Nephi, U. S. Marshal Dyer boarded the train. With a sporting twinkle in his eye, his son Joel came up to him and said: "Father, Marshal Dyer is on the train, shall I introduce you to him? You might arrange a compromise with him." "What," said the father, "compromise with the devil? Never!"
Another time a deputy marshal came to his home to serve a writ on him for polygamy. When the man appeared at the door and announced that he had a writ to serve, Brother Grover shouted in his sonorous voice, "Read it. Read it." The officer fumbled in his pocket for the paper, hut in his excitement could not find it. At the repeated command, "Read it," he turned and fled from the house in terror, That warrant was never served.
At the time of his death there were less than $200 in oblirations standing against him, and not a dollar's worth of his property had ever been mortgaged.
At a reunion of the family held in Parker, Idaho, July 22, 1902, his daughter Emmeline Grover Rich said, "My father was loved by all who knew him. He never spoke evil of anyone; he did not boast, and he did not take honor unto himself. Many times he has divided his last meal with a sufferer. His word was as good as his bond. He could neither be bought nor sold. He was incapable of a little mean or treacherous trick. Not one of his children has apostatized."