Sarah Curtis was born 16 June, 1840, at Washington, Tippecanoe, Indiana, the seventh child of Benjamin Gardner Curtis and Maria Dunn. Benjamin Gardner Curtis was born 6 December 1802 in Stephentown, Rennselaer, New York and Maria Dunn was born 20 March, 1808 in Franklin, Brown County, Ohio.
Benjamin Gardner Curtis and Maria Dunn Curtis joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in April of 1833, and received their endowments in the Salt Lake Endowment House on December 6, 1862. In her later years Sarah related that her mother's family, the Dunn's were very much against the Curtis family joining the church and even more against them moving to Nauvoo to join the Saints. Sarah's father made arrangements with a brother-in-law to give him a milk cow if he would take the family by wagon part way to Nauvoo. The morning they were to leave they discovered the cow had been poisoned and was dead. The family was determined to go to Nauvoo, so each family member took a bundle of personal belongings on their back and they began to walk. The brother-in-law seeing their intent softened his heart and took them the distance he had previously agreed.
How long the family lived in Nauvoo is not known, but their eighth child was born in Nauvoo on 14 October 1843, and a ninth child was born in March of 1846, so they were in the city prior to the death of the Prophet Joseph Smith and we know they left with the other Saints when they were driven from their homes by the mobs.
I, Oather Roper, as a lad of about 9 or 10 years of age had a very special experience which I have always remembered and which was a strong testimony to me in my youth. Great Grandmother Sarah Wimmer related to several of us that she was present in Nauvoo when the members of the church gathered about two months after the death of the Prophet Joseph Smith. At that time there was dissention as to whom should assume the leadership of the Church. Sarah testified that she stood within a distance of about fifteen feet of the wagon where where Brigham Young stood before that large group of Saints. At that time the mantle of the Prophet fell upon Brigham and he had the very appearance of Joseph and his voice sounded like the Prophet.
The mobs became anxious to drive the Mormons out of Nauvoo. The Curtis family was among the early groups who crossed the Mississippi River to Montrose, Iowa taking as many of their belongings with them as they could. Gardner Curtis was a devout, loyal man and was willing to do anything the leaders of the church required of him. It was reported that he and several other men made several trips across the river taking guns and ammunition for future use if they should be needed.
Sarah related that the family moved across the mississippi river with the main body of families leaving their Nauvoo homes during the cold winter of 1846. It was uncomfortable living in their wagons and makeshift tents. She told of nine babies being born in their camp, during the cold sub-zero weather with very little protection.
As spring came the came was in need of meat to supplement to their meager diet. One morning a large flock of quail, estimated o be several thousand in number, flew into their camp. The birds seem to be exhausted as if they had flown for hours. They were so tired that they did not fly and the saints could pick them up from the ground or trees where they had landed. They were cautioned by their leaders to only kill as many birds as they could use, not to be wasteful and kill more than they would eat before the meat spoiled, because the quail had been sent to them by God.
In recent years someone posed a question to the Ensign Question and Answer section "Was the quail story a fableor did it actually happen?" Several people responded with accounts from Mormon diaries to attest the truth of the story.
After the stronger and better prepared Saints had crossed the river the church leaders realized that about 600 older people and unfortunate families who had no means of transportation were still in Nauvoo, and were being harrassed by the mobs. They had driven some of the older people to the river and thrown some into the cold water, almost killing them.
Brigham Young called and appointed several men to return to Nauvoo to attempt to sell property and personal belongings which had been left in Nauvoo in an effort to get money to buy wagons and oxen for those still left in the city. Gardner Curtis was one of the men selected to help with this effort, and responded immediately to the call even though his wife was resentful and felt he should have remained with his family so they could begin their trek west with the early groups.
Those who were left in Nauvoo were told by the mobs if they were caught outside of Nauvoo they would be severly punished. After some time the men who had been sent back to dispose of property had made considerable progress, but were still looking for ways to raise money. One day in the first part of August these men were approached by a man who had purchased some of the Mormons farms east of Nauvoo. He told them he would pay them well if they would help him harvest his grain fields. The Mormons explained to the man they feared for their lives if they left the city, but he told them he was a prominent citizen of the area...
submitted by Hugh Roper