Jacob Myers Sr. papers

Collection

Identifier: ACCN 2505

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Jacob Myers Sr. papers (1801-2009) consist of correspondence, documents, meeting minutes, autobiographical and biographical materials, articles, and photos. A considerable portion of the Myers papers focuses upon the Haun's mill massacre of 1838. Included in the collection is a handwritten record of the Freedom branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The person who played a seminal role in the development of this collection was Dwight Wesley Garber, a resident of Richland county, Ohio and a distant relative of the Myers family. After acquiring the Myers papers in 1949, Garber commenced a multi-decade investigation of the life of Jacob Myers Sr., aspiring to write a biography of this nineteenth century millwright and Mormon migrant. Within a few months following the purchase of the collection, D.W. (as he identified himself in his correspondence) contacted Dr. Bertha Ellis Booth, who had received a doctorate in classical literature from the University of Chicago in 1915. Booth lived in Caldwell county, Missouri, the site of the infamous Haun's mill massacre of 1838, and had been engaged in the research and the writing of a manuscript entitled "Driven Out of Zion," an account of the expulsion of the Mormons from that part of Missouri. She shared her considerable knowledge of the Haun's mill episode with Garber whose interest in the history of mills and the exploits of Richland county Mormons led him to collect materials pertaining to the Haun's mill murders and the Mormon Battalion. By 1969 Garber had written a ninety thousand word manuscript entitled "Jacob Myers, the Mormon Miller and the Massacre of the Mormons in Missouri." The existence of this manuscript is unknown. According to Garber, ninety per cent of Dr. Booth's books and papers were removed from her home before she died in 1964. Garber believed that a portion of these materials was donated to Drury College which is located in Springfield, Missouri. The Bertha Booth papers can be found in the Western Historical Manuscript Collection which is housed in the University of Missouri's Elmer Ellis Library. See Garber's letters to Richard Price and the correspondence between Garber and Booth, all of which can be found in Box 1. Several primary source materials related to the infamous Haun's Mill Massacre are located in boxes 2 and 3. Some of these documents have been published in Beth Shumway Moore's book, "Bones in the Well," which appeared in 2006. Several photos pertaining to the Myers family and historical sites are filed in box 5.

Dates

1801-2009

Creator

Myers, Jacob, Sr., 1782-1867 (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Twenty-four hour advanced notice encouraged. Materials must be used on-site. Access to parts of this collection may be restricted under provisions of state or federal law.

Conditions Governing Use

The library does not claim to control copyright for all materials in the collection. An individual depicted in a reproduction has privacy rights as outlined in Title 45 CFR, part 46 (Protection of Human Subjects). For further information, please review the J. Willard Marriott Library’s Use Agreement and Reproduction Request forms.

Due to the physical condition of the materials, reproductions are not allowed. Please access the digitized materials on the Digital Library.

Biographical Note

Jacob Myers Sr. was born on 11 August 1782 in Northumberland county, Pennsylvania. At the commencement of the nineteenth century, Myers moved to Belmont county, Ohio where he married Sarah Coleman and began to raise a large family of fifteen children. By 1819 the Myers family had settled in the town of Newville which was located in the southern part of Richland county, Ohio. Jacob and his family remained in this north central Ohio community until they migrated westward to Caldwell county, Missouri in 1836. Professionally Jacob was a millwright who was involved in the construction of several mills in Ohio, Missouri, Illinois, and Iowa. One of the grist mills which Jacob built was the Haun's mill which was situated in Caldwell county. Subsequent to the visits of Sidney Rigdon and Joseph Smith Jr. to Newville, Ohio in the early 1830s, Myers converted to the Mormon faith in 1834 and eventually was elected president of the Freedom, Illinois branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 1842. Jacob's service to the L.D.S. church included acting as a bishop and participating as a member of the quorum of High Priests in Nauvoo. Myers died in Richland county, Ohio on 17 October 1867.