Life Sketch of Seymour Brunson,
Given on August 15, 2008
Dedication of Monument
Nauvoo, Illinois
Seymour Brunson is probably known more for his funeral than for all the other events in his life. I would like to share some of those other events because I think they formed the person he was and reflect the legacy he passed on to his descendants.
I had imagined Seymour to be short in stature and dark complected. In 1999 at a reenactment of the Missouri Saints crossing the Mississippi River into Quincy, Illinois, I met a Brother Rollo Brunson from St. George, Utah. I mentioned to him my surprise that he was tall and blue eyed. He said that he had been told by his grandfather and great uncles that he looked just like Seymour Brunson. Seymour’s military enlistment record bears that out. He was six feet tall, blond and blue eyed. His brother Lemuel was 5’2” and had dark hair.
It is not my intent to make date corrections or provide startling new history. I am going to give you Seymour Brunson’s Life Sketch the way I, a great-great-great granddaughter believe events happened and perhaps the way his widow Harriet Matilda Gould Brunson would want Seymour to be remembered.
Seymour Brunson, Sr. was born 1 December 1798 in Plattsburgh, New York to Reuben and Sally Clark Brunson He was the second son and the sixth of eleven children. There is not much to tell of his boyhood; he went to school and learned to read and write. On 23 March 1813 he enlisted in the War of 1812 with his father and older brother Lemuel. They were assigned to Thornton’s Light Artillery. Rueben, his father, was wounded and died three months later of his wounds. Lemuel was also wounded.
Seymour remained in the Army until the end of that conflict. The military training he received in a two year period would serve him well later in his life.
In about 1822 Seymour Brunson and Harriet Matilda Gould were married. Harriet was born in August 1803, in Hector, Schuyler County in the Finger Lakes area of New York. They immigrated to Mantua, Portage County in Northern Ohio where their first child, a son Rueben, was born 20 March 1825.
Early in the year 1831 Joseph Smith sent missionaries, John Corrill and Solomon Hancock to Northern Ohio. Seymour was baptized on 17 January 1831 in Strongsville, Cuyahoga, Ohio by Solomon Hancock. He was ordained an Elder about one week later by John Whitmer. Harriet was not baptized at the same time, in the dead of winter, because she was expecting their second son, Lewis, who was born on 27 January 1831 just 10 days later. Seymour and Harriet both embraced the gospel with heart and soul and never waivered in their new found religion.
Less than one year later Seymour was ordained a High Priest by Oliver Cowdery and was called to serve a mission with Luke S. Johnson in Ohio, Virginia (now West Virginia) and Northern Kentucky.
During the five year period Seymour served a mission he organized several branches of the church, baptized many saints, and was called to be the Presiding Elder in Southern Ohio. In 1834 he and Harriet had another son, named Joseph.
Seymour obtained a License to be a Justice of the Peace and performed marriages and various other duties to maintain his family.
An excerpt from one of his missionary journals reads: “The Heavenly Father has wrought several special miracles by my hands, and the cause of Christ is more and more extending in this place; and opposition is falling under truth.”
By 1835 Seymour and Harriet moved back to Northern Ohio to be near the main body of the saints. He received his Patriarchal Blessing on 4 May 1835, given by Joseph Smith, Sr.
In the blessing Seymour was counseled to show more mercy to the Saints. Harriet was also counseled in the blessing to be more humble. Seymour expected all saints to sacrifice as he was asked and was willing to do. It was difficult for him to see men criticize the prophet, men who once loved Joseph as he did.
Some incidents reflect positively about this man. Rueben, the eldest child at 12 years of age suffered an injury while playing with gun powder and watching it explode a tin can and shoot the can into the air. On this occasion the powder failed to ignite. As soon as he picked up the can the coal finally did ignite and both hands were terribly injured, though his right hand received most of the impact. Rueben was taken to surgeons who said that both hands would have to be amputated to save his life. Seymour, recognizing that a farmer could not farm without hands, dismissed the surgeons and took Rueben home. He cleaned up the injuries, trimming skin and tissue with a razor, saving one finger on his right hand and most of his left, bound the wound and blessed him. This is one of the several special miracles wrought by Seymour’s hands.
Seymour moved his family from Ohio to Illinois where Seymour Jr. was born in November 1836 and then to Far West, Missouri, in the Spring of 1837.
In the Fall of 1838 Seymour was appointed by Joseph Smith, Jr. to be a Captain in the Missouri Militia along with David Patten and Alexander McCray. While there were some good times during this period in their lives things soon turned bad for the saints again.
This is about the time in Seymour’s life when another often told incident occurred. He was captured by Captain Samuel Bogard, a leader of the mob forces in Missouri, and was held captive in the enemy camp. One night when a light snow fell Seymour put his shoes on backwards and when no one was looking walked out of camp. When it was realized that he was missing no one paid attention to the footprints leading into camp.
There are numerous stories about Seymour being lost and without food, but when he prayed the Lord provided . . . just as was promised in his patriarchal blessing from Joseph Smith, Sr.
Lewis often said of his father that he wanted the incidents at Far West to “serve as a mirror to reflect the generosity of his soul which trait of character, he prayed may be enstamped upon all who bear his name.”
As a temporary member of the High Council at Far West it was a great heartache to him when Seymour was called upon to proffer charges against Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer which brought about their excommunication from the church.
Stories about the surrender at Far West abound. Seymour executed a plucky maneuver when surrendering his sword and told his companions when asked to give up their arms to give them their guns but not their bullets. In his own words: “I remained in Far West doing whatever was necessary for the protection of the saints, I was on guard much of the time.” Seymour carried information to and from the imprisoned brethren at the risk of his own life.
Seymour helped many cross the Mississippi River into Illinois in the dreadful winter of 1839. He also returned to Far West many times with a wagon to help saints when they were driven out. Lucy Mack Smith tells of Seymour and Samuel, her son, helping them cross the river. She and her other family members had been sleeping under frozen bedding awaiting their turn to cross the river until they were rescued by her son Samuel and their friend, Seymour Brunson.
Seymour was able to remove his family from Far West into a cabin on a homestead just north of Quincy. With four little boys, the oldest 14, his wife and children prayed and waited for Seymour and their youngest son, William Morgan, to be born on 3 March 1839. Seymour later settled his family in Commerce, later named Nauvoo.
Seymour and Harriet had five sons, only three of whom reached adulthood. William Morgan died two months after his father and Joseph in 1842 at eight years of age. Rueben, the oldest, remained in Illinois on the homestead granted the family when his grandfather died and his uncle was wounded in the War of 1812. Only Lewis and Seymour, Jr. remained in the church and traveled West with Harriet.
Seymour Brunson died August 10, 1840 at the age of 41 years, 8 months and 9 days. He was a member of the Church for only nine years but did more for the church and its members than most can do in a lifetime. It was at his funeral that the Prophet Joseph Smith first introduced publicly the doctrine of Baptism for the Dead.
Seymour was buried with military honors, having received a commission as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Illinois Militia. He was a bodyguard of the Prophet Joseph Smith and died in his beloved Prophet’s home.
Heber C. Kimball wrote in a letter to John Taylor: “Seymour Brunson is gone. David Patten came after him. The room was full of angels that came after him to waft him home. He was buried under arms. The procession that went to the grave was judged to be one mile long and a more joyful season Vilate Kimball says she never saw before on account of the glory that Joseph set forth.”
It seems appropriate that Seymour Brunson remains buried in Nauvoo with his good friend, the Prophet, Joseph Smith, Jr.
Harriet died in 1879 in Spanish Fork, Utah
P.S.
In 1999 Susan Easton Black told me that something should be done for Seymour’s memory. I tried, but didn’t know or approach the right people.
I’m glad she did. Thank you.
Lois J. Sager
Great-great-great granddaughter of Seymour and Harriet Brunson
My descendancy is through their fourth son: Seymour Brunson, Jr.
Then:
Seymour Edwin Brunson
Edna Brunson Whatcott
Wanda Whatcott Johnson
Lois Johnson Sager
I am a sixth generation member of the Church. I am currently serving in the Nashville Tennessee Temple with my husband where he presides as President and I am the Matron.
