Haden Wells Church was born on August 29, 1817 in Franklin, Williamson County Tennessee. Haden's parents had moved from the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina and had gone 300 miles to Tennessee. It was in their newly established home that their first child, Haden Wells, was born. They had 7 more children while living there. Haden was in his teen years when the family moved a few miles westward to Shady Grove, Hickman County, where the 9th and last child of the family was born.
Mormon missionaries traveling through Tennessee met the Church family probably in the year 1840 or 1841. Haden embraced the Gospel in the early days. When the missionaries sang the first song, Haden knew they were speaking the truth and wanted to know more about what they had to say. Haden was 23 years old and not yet married. He traveled 400 miles to Nauvoo, Illinois to learn more. While he was there, he met the Prophet Joseph Smith and was baptized by him on April 5, 1841.
While serving his first mission to Alabama, he met and taught the Gospel to Sarah Ann Arterbury. She was baptized on October 25, 1843. She was the oldest daughter of Elias and Matilda Wallace Arterbury and was born on May 4, 1824, in Dallas County, Alabama.
Elder Church and his companion, Elder Brown held the first Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints ever held in Alabama on February 10, 1844. At this time it was recorded that Elder Church baptized 45 new members.
On June 27, 1844, the missionaries were called back to Nauvoo after Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum had been martyred. Haden went back to Alabama about 6 months later where he married Sarah Ann Arterbury on December 17, 1844, in Perry, Alabama.
Elder Church and his new wife were endowed in the Nauvoo Temple on January 9, 1846, and were sealed there on January 21, 1846 by President Brigham Young with W. Richards and A.M. Lyman as witnesses. Their first child, Hyrum Smith Church, was born on March 9, 1846 in or near Nauvoo. At this time, the Saints were being expelled and driven from their homes by mobs.
While on the plains, Haden enlisted as a member of the Mormon Battalion. He left his wife and 5 month old son and marched westward. He was paid $7 a month and received a clothing allowance of $42. He was also given a rifle which he was allowed to keep once he was discharged.
After they were discharged they traveled to the Great Salt Lake Valley through harsh conditions. They suffered from hunger and many illnesses. They arrived in the Salt Lake Valley just a few days after Brigham Young's original pioneer company. After arriving in the valley, one of the projects the battalion members were involved in was the construction of the Bowery. This was the first public building built in the Salt Lake Valley.
Sarah Ann and her baby traveled across the plains with the A.O. Smoot Wagon Train Company. They arrived in Salt Lake on September 25, 1847, and it is assumed that Haden, Sarah Ann, and Hyrum spent the winter there together. It was a severe winter and the people suffered many hardships. Their second child, Haden Wells, Jr. was born the following fall on September 8, 1848.
A year later Haden Wells was called on another mission. Elder Church and others were to go with Elder Franklin D Richards, one of the Twelve Apostles of the Church and assist Elder Orson Pratt in the British Mission. The missionaries arrived in Liverpool on April 19, 1850. Elder Church served until February 1852, and was released to go home.
Membership records of the Salt Lake Fourteenth Ward show that the Church family resided there from 1852 to 1860. It was during this time that Haden was sealed to three of Sara Ann's deceased sisters with Sarah Ann acting as proxy for Martha Jane Arterbury, Rebecca Caroline Arterbury, and Mary Louisa Arterbury. These sealings were in the Salt Lake Endowment House. Haden and Sarah Ann's third child, Abraham Arterbury Church was born on February 26, 1854. Just a few months after that Haden was called to serve on his third mission in the United States. He returned about 1856.
The 1860 Census listed Haden Wells Church as living in Salt Lake City with a household of 8 with a real wealth of $600 and a personal wealth of $400. The eight living in the household would include Haden and Sarah Ann with their three children who were born before his third mission. Two more children had been added to the family following the third mission. Their only daughter Paralee Amanda was born July 8, 1857, and the fourth son and final child, Robert Robbins, was born October 29, 1859.
He married Catherine Gardner Church as a plural wife on March 15, 1857. No children were born from this marriage. Catherine died on June 20, 1881, and is buried in St. George, Utah. Haden also married Matilda Rutledge on October 15, 1870 in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City.
The next mission that Haden Wells Church and his family were called on to serve was to southern Utah. Because of the Civil War, President Brigham Young was worried that the sources for cotton supplies would be cut-off, so he was determined to establish a "cotton mission" in St. George to make the Utah pioneers more self-sufficient. The prophet called 300 families to the Dixie Mission in St. George to promote the cotton industry. The Saints found out about this "call" as their names were read from the pulpit during the October General Conference in 1861.
The first or main company arrived in the St. George valley in December 1, 1861. On December 5th, Haden was chosen to be a member of a committee of four to ascertain the best point to take out the waters of the Rio Virgin into a canal for irrigation purposes.
The pioneers lived in their wagons all winter until the town could be laid out by the committees. They planned a wonderful celebration for their first Christmas in the valley. It began to rain on Christmas and didn't stop for 40 days. The campground was a "sticky bottomless quagmire, and streams became raging torrents." Wagon covers and tents were very inadequate for shelter against the elements. The clothing, bedding, food, and fuel were soaked.
Haden Church was chosen as the first school teacher in the valley, on December 27, 1861. The first school house was probably built from willows or possibly a wagon with the tarps thrown back. There was a shortage of books and supplies, but some books such as the blue-backed speller, an arithmetic book, McGuffey's Readers,and the Book of Mormon found their way to St. George. Haden is also listed second as a member of the choir.
The rains finally stopped in February 1862 and the pioneers were able to move onto their selected lots to build permanent homes. In order to be fair, numbers of lots were placed in a hat. The names of the men were placed in another hat, and were drawn from each hat and handed to the man whose name was drawn. Most were satisfied with their lots, and some traded among themselves for ones they liked better. The original Church family home was on Block 11 Plat A. The present address is 35 West 100 South. This is about one block south and about one-half block west of the St. George Tabernacle in downtown St. George.
On March 17, 1868, Haden and many others were called to serve another mission in the southern United States. The missionaries left Salt Lake City on June 17. Five died in a tragic drowning accident on the way. Elder Church labored in Tennessee in September as was noted to be quite sick but had recovered. There was not much success in Tennessee so they next went to North Carolina and Virginia. Elder Church was left in charge of the branches in North Carolina and had much progress. He was officially released from his mission on May 24, 1870 and was back in Salt Lake City on October 10, 1870, bringing in a company of 70 people.
He was again called on another mission, his fifth, in April 1875 during General conference. Six months later while faithfully fulfilling his missionary responsibilities, he died of typhoid fever at his former home in Shady Grove, Tennessee.
His obituary reads:
Haden Wells Church was born at Franklin, in Williamson County, Tennessee, August 29, 1817; was baptized into the Church at Nauvoo by the Prophet Joseph Smith, April 5th, 1841. On October 8th he was ordained into the 8th Quorum of the Seventies by Prest. Jos. Young, and was ordained a president in the year 1851 in the same quorum, which position he held during his life time.
In 1843 and 1844 he filled a mission to the Southern States, and after the death of the Prophet was called back to Nauvoo. He, with the rest of the Saints, was driven from his home, and while at Council Bluffs he was enrolled as a member of the Mormon Battalion. He endured the privations of this journey across the deserts and was discharged there from in the Fall of 1847 at Salt Lake.
At the October Conference, 1849 he was called to take a mission to England. In the spring of 1854 he was called to the United States. At the October Conference, 1861, he was called to go south, when he settled at St. George. In 1868, he was again called on a mission to the Southern States. Again in 1875, at the April Conference, he was called to the Southern States, and while filling his mission, he died September 27, 1875 of typhoid fever, at his home, amongst his relatives, in Hickman County, Tennessee. All of the above missions he honorably and faithfully and died in his field of labor without a fear, being satisfied that he would come forth in the first resurrection.
Sarah A. Church (written by)
Elder Church was buried in the Church Family Cemetery near Shady Grove. The epitaph on Haden's headstone reads "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord."
(Biography taken from Haden Wells Church history compiled in 1991 by Hyrum B. Ipson)
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