Joel Campbell joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints about 1836, when he was about 32 years old. He and his wife, Mercy Maranda Hill were living not too far from others of the extended Campbell family in New York. The family apparently was at Kirtland, Ohio for a while because his daughter, Lovina, remembers hearing Joseph Smith preach in the Kirtland Temple. The family made their home about 135 miles south of Kirtland, to Harrisville, Harrison, Ohio, with other Latter-day Saints, because that is where the remainder of their children were born. Some family records show Mercy Maranda being baptized in November of 1844 (about when her twins were born). She would have been about 37 years old then.

In 1845 the family left Ohio and moved to Nauvoo. The next spring (1846), the extended Campbell family left Nauvoo with other Latter-day Saints and began their westward exodus. They stopped along the Mormon Trail at Mount Pisgah, Iowa, where Joel died. After arriving at Council Bluffs, his widow (Mercy Maranda) kept her family in Macedonia just east of Kanesville. It wasn't until 1850 that they resumed their trek west with others of the Campbell family. Joel's brother and his sister-in-law (Benoni and wife Mary) were stricken with cholera, died and were buried along side the Mormon Trail. Mercy Maranda and the rest of the Campbell family continued on to Utah.

Mercy Maranda died in Idaho when she was 70 years old. Her obituary said, "Sister Campbell was of a retiring, quiet disposition, seldom seen beyond the confines of her home, but her faith and devotion to the Gospel were firm and unquestioned."

_______________________________

PAF documentation notes and sources:

Joel baptized about 1836. Mercy Maranda baptized Nov 1844.

The Deseret News, May 30, 1881, Vol. 33, page 272, Film #026599.

"In Bloomington, Sunday, May 8th, of heart disease, MERCY MIRANDA CAMPBELL, aged 70 years, 11 months and 10 days.

Sister Campbell rose early on the morning of her death apparently in her usual health and commenced the routine of her household labors, when she suddenly fell to the floor. Her son hastened to her assistance, but she never spoke, and expired in less than two minutes.

Sister Campbell was of a retiring, quiet disposition, seldom seen beyond the confines of her home, but her faith and devotion to the Gospel were firm and unquestioned.

[Back]  [Genealogy]  [Home]