Gilbert Belnap
Gilbert Belnap | |
---|---|
Personal details | |
Born | Port Hope, Ontario (Upper Canada) | December 22, 1821
Died | February 26, 1899 Hooper, Utah | (aged 77)
Occupation | Early leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; Weber County Sheriff. |
Gilbert Belnap (December 22, 1821 - February 26, 1899) was a
Biography
Born in Port Hope, Ontario, Upper Canada, Belnap, the grandson of American Revolutionary War veteran Jesse Belnap, was orphaned at age 10–12. Attaching himself to an American company of light horse rangers as first sergeant, he was taken as prison-of-war in the Upper Canada Rebellion. Following his release, he eventually made his way to Kirtland, Ohio, where he was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints[4][5] in 1842. Shortly after his baptism, he served a mission with John P. Greene to Upstate New York.
Soon after arriving in
Belnap married Adaline Knight, daughter of early LDS Church leader Vinson Knight and Martha McBride, founding member of the LDS Relief Society less than two months before the Mormons' expulsion from Nauvoo. Following a stay in Winter Quarters and later Fremont County, Iowa, the family departed for Utah in 1850. Belnap was appointed captain of 10 in the Warren Foote Company, 2nd hundred.[8] Soon after departing, Belnap lost his second son and child, 13-month-old John McBride Belnap,[9] who died of cholera in 1850 and was buried in his father's tool chest near the Saline Ford at the confluence of Salt Creek and the Platte River along the Oxbow Trail. (This event that was commemorated in 1997 during the sesquicentennial celebration of the Mormon Trail.[10][11][unreliable source?])
Upon arrival in the Salt Lake Valley, Belnap was sent to settle in Fort Buenaventura built by Miles Goodyear in Weber County, Utah. In 1852 he was sealed to his first wife's first cousin, Henrietta McBride, in plural marriage. He eventually had 17 children, 15 of whom survived to adulthood, and 160 grandchildren.
Church and community service
In 1855 he was one of the first
In early 1868, Belnap moved part of his family to western Weber County to the newly forming community of Hooper, where he was appointed the first "presiding elder" and later as
He was selected as the first
Legacy
Descendants of Gilbert Belnap now number over 12,200 and are found in most states and several countries outside the U.S. The
Gilbert Belnap's descendants have distinguished themselves in a wide variety of fields, including medicine, law, finance, business, religion, sports, politics, music, and education. Some notable descendants include Weber County sheriff Gilbert R. Belnap, Utah politician
See also
References
- ^ Jenson, Andrew. "Gilbert Belnap." LDS Biographical Encyclopedia, vol. II (1914), pp. 747-48
- ^ Belnap, Arias G., comp. Centennial History in Honor of Utah Pioneer Gilbert Belnap, 1850-1950 (1950, with 1952 and 1956 supplements)
- ^ Belnap, W. Dean. Heritage With Honor: Genealogy and History of the Ancestry and Descendants of Gilbert Belnap (1821-1899) (1974)
- ^ Manuscript History of the Church, LDS Church Archives, book A-1, p. 37; reproduced in Dean C. Jessee (comp.) (1989). The Papers of Joseph Smith: Autobiographical and Historical Writings (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book) 1:302–303.
- ^ H. Michael Marquardt and Wesley P. Walters (1994). Inventing Mormonism: Tradition and the Historical Record (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books) p. 160.
- ^ History of the Church, 6:502-3
- ^ Belnap, Brent J. "Life Story of Gilbert Belnap" (1996)
- ^ "Warren Foote Company (1850)", history.churchofjesuschrist.org, Church History Library, LDS Church
- ^ "John McBride Belnap (1849-1850)". Archived from the original on 2011-07-24. Retrieved 2011-04-04.
- ^ John McBride Belnap Memorial Program, April 1997
- YouTube
External links
- Belnap Family Organization: Gilbert Belnap (1821-1899) Archived 2011-07-24 at the Wayback Machine