Lewis Dunbar Wilson is named at D & C 124:132

Lewis Wilson was a resident of Richland County, Ohio in 1830. He was baptized on 23 May 1836 in Green Township, Richland County. A notice of his priesthood ordination appeared in the November 1836 Messenger and Advocate. (See M&A 3, Nov 1836, Page 415). He served a short mission with his brother, George Wilson, in May 1837. His missionary license was recorded in the "License Records, in Kirkland, Ohio, by Thomas Burdick, Recording Clerk. (Ibid. 3, June 1837, Page 528).

Lewis moved from Ohio to Far West, Missouri, in the fall of 1837. The extermination order in Missouri forced his removal from the state. He itemized his losses in Missouri in a redress petition:

"I hereby certify that I purchased from Congress Two hundred and forty acres of land lying in Caldwell County and State of Missouri and Was expelled to leave the same on account of the order of the executive of the State [Governor Lilburn Boggs].

When the Malitia came to Far West they took from me a valuable Horse which broke up my team I made exertion to obtain it again but without success. I was obliged to part with my land (in order to make up my team and for means to get me conveyed out of the State) for one sixth of the value." (As cited in Clark V. Johnson, ed., Mormon Redress Petitions: Documents of the 1833-1838 Missouri Conflict (Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1992), p. 554)

In Illinois, Lewis served on the Nauvoo high council from 1839 to 1846 (see D&C 124:132).

In July 1843 he and others volunteered to rescue the Prophet Joseph Smith from the Missourians, and he was blessed for his courage by Hyrum Smith. Hyrum told the group that "if any persons were running Brother Joseph down the river, under any pretext whatever...[they] were to rescue Joseph, at all hazards and bring him to Nauvoo." (History of Church 5:482} When Joseph was rescued, Lewis continued his watchcare of the Prophet as one of his bodyguards.

Lewis left Nauvoo in 1846 in the great Mormon exodus. He located in Garden Grove, and later in Kanesville, Iowa Territory, before imigrating to the Salt Lake Valley in 1853. He settled with his family in Ogden, Weber, Utah, where he again served on a high council. Lewis died in March 1856 in Ogden at the age of fifty.

Lewis Dunbar Wilson married:

(1) Nancy Ann Waggoner on 11 Jun 1830 at Willsborough, New York. Eleven children. She died July 2, 1851 at Kanesville, Council Bluffs, Iowa.

(2) Martha Patsey Minerva Reynolds on February 3, 1846. "Martha Reynolds was sealed to Lewis Dunbar Wilson in Nauvoo by President Young and she is now released by President Young because Wilson is not providing for her and has not seen her since August 1846." Martha was born 3 Feb 1828 in Boonsville, Cole, Missouri, daughter of John Wesley Reynolds and Phebe Ramsey Reynolds. Martha died 23 Feb 1901 in Panguitch, Garfield, Utah and was buried there 26 Feb 1901. She bore seven children [to second husband, John Wesley Norton]: Albert Wesley Norton born 14 Jul 1852, Riley Reynolds Norton born 22 Jun 1855, Ephraim F.Norton born 10 Oct 1858, Martha Jane Norton born 6 Feb 1962, William Norton born 22 Sep 1864, Squire Taylor Norton born 2 Nov 1867, and Sarah May Norton born 18 Oct 1874." http://heritage.uen.org/pioneers/Wceb55975a1807.htm

(3) Sarah Elizabeth Waldo on September 28, 1851. One son: James Perry Wilson July 21, 1852 at Carterville, Pottawattamie, Iowa; he died September 24, 1852. Lewis and Sarah divorced after she refused to move west. She died in November 1857.

(4) Nancy Ann Cossett on February 12, 1854 [widow of George Coulson 1802-1851 with nine Coulson children] . No known children for Lewis and Nancy. Nancy died two years after her marriage, March 11, 1856 at Brownsville, Weber, Utah.

From Conquerors of the West: Stalwart Mormon Pioneers, Volume IV, Page 2739-2740:

Lewis and his parents and siblings moved to Richland, Ohio, in about 1819. His father bought some land and, as the boys grew, they worked along side of their father. They all found wives among the girls they had grown up with. They each bought a farm close to the original homestead. They all remained there for about 17 years before the missionaries found them. The missionaries weren't well received except for the Wilson family who let them meet in their house.

The family joined the Church and were baptized in 1836. They moved to Missouri and endured the problems there. They then moved to Quincy (Nauvoo) where they built a log cabin. Lewis was a member of the high council while living there. When they were driven from Nauvoo, none of them were well.  They made it as far as Kanesville where Lewis purchased some land to build a house. He went 12 miles to get some lumber and when he returned he found his wife had given birth to their eleventh child and was very ill. Nancy died the next day.

Lewis married Sarah two months later. Their son was born the next July and died. The following summer Lewis wanted to continue the journey to the west, but Sarah refused and went back to her family in the East. Lewis took his children and headed west in the Daniel Arnold Miller Company.

Upon their arrival, they went north to Ogden where his brothers were living. In February he married again and obtained some property and built a large two-story house. He was a member of the high council and remained active all his life. He was only 50 when he died.

Nancy Waggoner Wilson

"Record of Lewis Dunbar Sr. and Nancy Ann Wilson" Typescript, Church Archives; Account written shortly after 20 July 1851. [While writing a eulogy in honor of his wife who died following the birth of a son, Lewis Dunbar Wilson speaks of his Nancy's faith in the Gospel and her obedience to its ordinances, particularly by referring to events that occurred on or shortly after 20 January 1846:]

So, she. Nancy Wilson, departed this life at the age of 41 years having been the mother of eleven living children, nine of them on my hands. . .[she] died having been in the church 15 years. having become a member at the age of 26 years during which time she has attended every ordinance of the Gospel that has been offered in her day. and in fact all that I know anything about. She was baptized for the remission of her sins and had hands laid upon her for the reception of the Holy Ghost. and confirmed in the Church and has received blessings from time to time.

At the temple at Nauvoo she received her washings and anointings even to become a queen and a priestess, after which time she attended to one other ordinance which was to wash the feet of her husband and anoint him to be her king and priest and Savior, that she might have claim on him at the resurrection... Nancy Wilson, who knew and died in triumph of faith in the gospel of the Son of God, after having lived and obeyed all the laws and ordinances of the Church. . . died full in the faith of a glorious resurrection with the just and was buried on the Missouri Bluff just above Kanesville [20 July 1851].

1840-1922

Lewis Dunbar Wilson Jr., his wives: Catherine Wiggins, and Eliza Eleanor Hunt; and Family

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