| Cornelius P. Lott (1798–1850) |
| Born | September 22, 1798 in New York City | |||
| Died | July 6, 1850 in Salt Lake City | |||
| Father | Peter Lott | |||
| Mother | Mary Jane Smiley | |||
| Families | Permelia Darrow (1805–1882) md. April 27, 1823 in Bridgewater, Susquehanna, Pennsylvania | |||
| Melissa (1824–1898) | ||||
| John Smiley (Smylie) (1826–1894) | ||||
| Mary Elizabeth (1827–1888) | ||||
| Almira Henrietta (1829–1878) | ||||
| Permelia Jane (1832–1880) | ||||
| Lucinda Alzina (1834–1910) | ||||
| Harriet Amanda (1836–1847) | ||||
| Joseph Darrow (1838–1847) | Sacred Lonliness, 596; Ancestral File gives birth date of 1839. | |||
| Clarissa Cemantha (1842–1854) (b. March 23) | ||||
| Peter Lyman (1842–1906) (b. November 2) | ||||
| Cornelius Corloss (1844–1845) | ||||
| Elizabeth Davis (b. 1798) md. January 22, 1846 in Nauvoo | ||||
| Narcissa Rebecca Fossett (Faucett) (1830–1884) md. January 22, 1846 in Nauvoo | Sacred Lonliness, 264 | |||
| Isaiah Barkdull (1846–1923) | ||||
| Charity Dickenson (b. 1776) md. January 22, 1846 in Nauvoo | ||||
| Jane Rogers (b. ca. 1798) md. February 7, 1846 in Nauvoo | Sacred Lonliness, 264 | |||
| Eleanor Wayman md. in Winter Quarters | Sacred Lonliness, 265 | |||
| Phebe Knight md. in Winter Quarters | Sacred Lonliness, 265 | |||
| Baptism Kirtland |
Cornelius and Permelia were baptized before 1834 and moved to Kirtland between March and August 1836. Cornelius received an elder's license on August 6, 1837 and his Kirtland temple ordinances on March 31, 1837. | Sacred Lonliness, 596 | |
| Move to Missouri | They moved to Missouri and settled near Haun's Mill in 1838. | Descendants of Cornelius, 7 | |
| Danite general | On July 4, 1838 he was named general in the Danite forces with Jared Carter and Sampson Avard. | Sacred Lonliness, 596–597; Quinn refers to him as a major-general in Mormon Hierarchy Origins, 482 | |
| Burn, pillage non-Mormon farm | According to Benjamin F. Johnson, Cornelius Lott led the Danite raid on a family harboring weapons and amunition for the mob near Adam-ondi-Ahman. Johnson was one of about twenty men. | My Life's Review, 29–30 | |
| Manages Joseph's farm near Nauvoo | Following the expulsion of the Saints from Missouri, the Lotts settled in Pike County, forty miles south of what would become Nauvoo, but later moved to Joseph Smith's farm four miles southeast of Nauvoo on the Carthage road. He purchased land adjoining it, managed the Prophet's farm, and lived in a large eight-room farmhouse. |
Sacred
Lonliness, 597 |
|
| Bodyguard | The Prophet visited the farm frequently, and Cornelius was a captain of his bodyguard. | Sacred Lonliness, 597 | |
| Daughter marries Joseph Smith | When Cornelius' oldest daughter, Melissa, was eighteen, she worked for a time in the Smith home. On September 20, 1843, Hyrum Smith married Melissa and Joseph with her parents as witnesses. On the same day Cornelius and Permelia were married for eternity "by Presadent Hyrum Smith with seal of Presadent Joseph Smith." | Sacred
Lonliness, 597, 598 Mormon Frontier, 1:66n |
|
| Endowment | Cornelius received his endowment, with W. W. Phelps and Levi Richards, in the redbrick store on December 10, 1843. | Wilford
Woodruff's Journal, 2:331 |
|
| Wrestles the Prophet | In a good-natured wrestling match with the Prophet, Joseph could not throw the older Cornelius. | ||
| Second anointing | Cornelius and Permelia received their second anointings in the redbrick store on Sunday, February 4, 1844 and became members of the Anointed Quorum. | American
Prophet's Record, 445 Mormon Hierarchy Origins, 356n71 |
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| With Joseph | He was one of the men who accompanied Joseph to Carthage on May 27, 1844. (The case was postponed.) | American Prophet's Record, 484 | |
| Council of Fifty | At the time of the Prophet's death, Lott was ranked 18th in the Council of Fifty. | Mormon Hierarchy Origins, 524 | |
| Nauvoo
marriages Rebecca leaves |
Elizabeth Davis, one of Joseph's older plural wives was separated from her first husband, Jabez Durfey, a high priest, on January 21, 1846. The next day she was sealed to Joseph for eternity, with Cornelius P. Lott as proxy, then was sealed to Lott for time. A few minutes later, Cornelius was sealed to Permelia, Rebecca Fossett, and Charity Dickenson. Rebecca, fifteen, left Cornelius before the birth of their child. Charity was sixty-eight. | Sacred Lonliness, 264 | |
| Elizabeth leaves | Elizabeth left Cornelius at Winter Quarters and moved to Quincy, Illinois. According to her son (by a previous marriage), "we went with [Brigham Young] as far as the Missouri River and then we saw so much of their manner of doing business, that we went back to Quincy." | Sacred Lonliness, 265 | |
| Cutler's Park municipal high council | Cornelius was a member of the Cutler's Park municipal high council "consisting of 12 men appointed who were endowed with all the powers of a High council of the church & also the powers of common council of a municipality … under the jurisdiction of the Twelve of course." | Mormon Frontier, 1:185 | |
| Winter Quarters discipline | In Winter Quarters Cornelius attended a meeting of members of the Twelve and the high council to discuss what to do about men "whose bodies were tabernacles for devils that is rebelious wicked ungovernable men who are breeding a continual disturbance & exciting others to discontent &c." It was decided "to have the Law of God put in force on them &c." | ||
| Cares for sick | In September, when Heber C. Kimball reported Lucian Woodworth and family were all sick, Cornelius offered to take care of them. | "Journal History," September 9, 1846 | |
| Winter Quarter marriages | Cornelius married Eleanor Wayman (fifty-six) and Phebe Knight (forty-seven) before crossing the plains in 1848. Phebe Crosby Peck Knight was Hosea Stout's mother-in-law. She married Cornelius after her husband, Joseph Knight, died in Winter Quarters. | Sacred
Lonliness, 265 Mormon Frontier, 1:66n. |
|
| Negotiations with Big Elk | On April 19, 1847 Cornelius was assigned with Alpheus Cutler, Daniel Spencer, and W. W. Phelps, to visit Big Elk, chief of the Omahas who had been stealing cattle from the Saints. A few days later they reported the Omaha chiefs admitted they had encouraged their young men to steal the cattle and agreed to stop them if the Mormons would help them get the Indian agent to turn over the corn he had purchased for them in Missouri. | Mormon Frontier, 1:251 | |
| Later that month, some Omahas tried to return horses some of their braves had taken, but Parley P. Pratt, fed up with their inconsistencies, brought them into camp under guard. This, of course, only created more hostility, and Cornelius was again designated to talk—with Hosea Stout, the legendary chief of police—with the Indians. | |||
| Negotiations
with Young Elk Cornelius' temper |
Invited by Young Elk to speak first, Cornelius lost his temper, saying "very angrily that we had said heretofore all we had to say & they would not live up to their agreements & if they had nothing to say it was no use talking &c"—which Stout considered "unreasonable." | Mormon Frontier, 1:257–258 | |
| Young Elk offended but composed | But Young Elk kept his composure, explaining that "he had been sent in by his father to bring in our horses & enter into a better understanding of peace & had been stoped on the praire like wild beasts & not even admitted a hearing & how how it wounded his feeling to have to be guarded into town & leave his braves under guard to offer peace to us & deliver up stolen property & give their pledge that no more should be stolen … but said let all that pass & we would be at peace from this time & we might now know what he said would be done on their part." | ||
| He complained that if Brigham Young, who had left for Utah, had been there, they would not be treated this way. | |||
| Cornelius settles down | "Br Lott's wrath abated & he talked reasonable in a short time & we all verily believed they were sincere in their words." | ||
| Indians leave without gifts | The Indians expected presents to take to Big Elk, but the Mormons declined, saying they would have to take that up with their chief (Cutler) when he returned from Missouri. The Indians left "not any too well satisfied." | ||
| Captain
in Heber C. Kimball's company Despised by Joseph F. Smith |
Cornelius was a captain in Heber C. Kimball's company that left Winter Quarters in late May to early June of 1848, and arrived in late September. He was the leader despised by Joseph F. Smith for humiliating his mother throughout the trek. | See text of Joseph F. Smith's autobiographical manuscript and analysis in The Trials of Young Joseph F. Smith (2). | |
| Salt Lake home | In Salt Lake the Lott family lived in a two-room house on the southwest corner of Third South and State Street. | Lehi,
276 Sacred Lonliness, 600 |
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| Managed Forest Dale farm | Cornelius managed the church farm at Forest Dale (site of the present Forest Dale Golf Course). | Mormon Frontier, 1:66n. | |
| Death | He died July 6, 1850 of dysentary or fatigue, depending on the source consulted. | Sacred Lonliness, 600, 766nV | |
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