Alma Helaman Hale b. 24 Apr 1836 Bradford, Essex, Massachusetts d. 30 Mar 1908 Logan, Cache, Utah: Lineagekeeper's Genealogy

Hale, Alma Helaman, a member of the High Council of the Benson Stake of Zion, is the son of Jonathan H. Hale and Olive Boynton, and was born April 24, 1836, in Groveland, Essex county, Mass. When six weeks old hestarted for Kirtland, Ohio, with his parents, and came to Utah in 1848,where he lived six years. At the age of eighteen years he moved to Grantsville, Tooele county, and was married in 1857. He participated in the Echo canyon expedition in 1857, and did considerable service as a guard during "the move" of 1858. In 1862 he made a trip to the Missouri river after the poor, serving as captain of the night guard in Capt. Joseph Horne's company. On the return trip he also acted as wagon master and commissary.

During the reformation he officiated in nearly all the baptismal ordinances, and continued to do so until 1888. In 1871, he filled a mission to the Eastern States, chiefly in search of genealogy.He assisted in organizing the first Sunday school in Grantsville and acted as teacher in the same; later he acted as Stake superintendent of Sunday schools, which office he held until he removed to Cache valley. In a secular capacity he was superintendent of the Tooele County Co-op Grist Mill, and served as constable and city marshal. In an early day he was commissioned by Gov. Durkee as a captain's adjutant in the Territorial militia.

He was ordained a Seventy, and acted for several years as a president of the 31st quorum of Seventy. Afterwards he was chosen as a president of the 17th quorum, which office he held till Aug. 4, 1901,when he was ordained a High Priest and set apart as a High Councilor. In 1888 he removed to Smithfield, Cache county, in order to be near the Temple, where he was engaged in working for the dead. (Andrew Jenson, Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia: A Compilation of Biographical Sketches of Prominent Men and Women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 4 vols. [Salt Lake City pg. 402.)

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Pioneers and Prominent Men of Utah, p.907

HALE, ALMA HELAMAN (son of Jonathan Harriman Hale and Olive Boyington, both of whom died at Council Bluffs, Iowa). Came to Utah 1848.

Married Elizabeth Walker. Their eldest child, Alma Helaman, m. Elizabeth Percinda Hendricks.

Married Sarah Ann Clark. Their eldest child, Ernest Frederick, m. Drucilla Harris.

Married Ellen V. Clark Aug. 19, 1865, Salt Lake City (daughter of Daniel Clark and Elizabeth Gower—the latter came to Utah Oct. 26, 1864, with William Hyde company, the former died crossing the plains to Utah). She was born Jan. 6, 1848, Colchester, Essex, Eng. Their children: Edgar Daniel b. Jan. 3, 1868, m. Emma Louisa Seamons Oct. 1, 1890; Aroet Clinton b. Aug. 17, 1869, m. Elizabeth A. Seamons Nov. 15, 1893; Arthur Willard b. July 3, 1871, m. Alice Jacobson Dec. 24, 1903; Franklin George b. July 10, 1874, m. Cora Hammond Nov. 17, 1897; Rosa Ellen b. Dec. 28, 1876, d. Aug. 13, 1897; Alvin Wilford b. Feb. 19, 1879, m. Julia Dean Oct. 9, 1907; Eugene Clark b. March 26, 1886, m. Sylvia L. Jensen June 2, 1909; Zina Emeline b. June 11, 1888, m. Melvin Barrus Dec. 22, 1909.

President of 31st quorum seventies, and later of 17th quorum; high priest; high Councilor in Benson stake; missionary to eastern states; assisted in organizing first Sunday school in Grantsville, of which he served as teacher; stake superintendent of Sunday schools.

Settled at Grantsville 1854. Participated in Echo Canyon war 1857, and also did considerable service as guard during the "Move" in 1858. In 1862 went to the Missouri river in Capt. Horne's company to assist the poor immigrants; on the return trip acted as wagonmaster and commissary. Moved to Cache Valley where he served as superintendent of Tooele County Co-op. Grist Mill. Constable and city marshal. Commissioned by Governor Durkee as captain's adjutant in territorial militia. Moved to Smithfield in 1888. Died March 30, 1908, Logan, Utah.

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Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel, 1847–1868

Hale, Alma Helaman

Birth Date: Unknown
Death Date: Unknown
Gender: Male
Age: 12
Company: Brigham Young Company (1848)

Sources:
Journal History, Supp. after 31 Dec. 1848, p. 5

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Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel, 1847–1868

Hale, Alma Helaman

Birth Date: Unknown
Death Date: Unknown
Gender: Male
Age: 12
Company: Heber C. Kimball Company (1848)

Pioneer Information:
orphan

Sources:
Journal History, Supp. after 31 Dec. 1848, p. 14

Source Locations

N.H. Gardner, Alma Helaman Hale: History and Genealogy, vol. 1, p. 60

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Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel, 1847–1868

Hale, Alma Helaman

Birth Date: Unknown
Death Date: Unknown
Gender: Male
Age: 26
Company: Joseph Horne Company (1862)

Pioneer Information:
Commissary of company/Captain of Guard; out-and-back teamster

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lma Helaman Hale

Born: 24 April 1836, Bradford Massachusetts
Married: 24 December 1861, Grantsville, Utah
Died: 30 March 1908, Logan, Utah
Parents: Jonathan Harriman Hale & Olive Boynton
Wife: Sarah Annie Clark

Items extracted from "Bishop Jonathan H. Hale of Nauvoo - His Life and Ministry

Acquisition of Hale Genealogical Record

It was imputed by Alma and his brothers as providential the way by which the Hale Genealogical Record came into their possession.

It appears that United States Senator Robert S. Hale of Vermont approached Congressman George Q. Cannon of Utah in 1874, In Washington, D. C., and made inquiry about the family of Jonathan H. Hale, who migrated with the Mormons to the Rocky Mountains, information concerning whom the Senator needed to complete a Hale Family Genealogical Record, which he was compiling.

Congressman Cannon knew all the Hale boys very well and he so informed Senator Hale, adding that he had married Elizabeth Hoagland, whose brother, Lucas, had married Rachel Hale, the only surviving daughter of Jonathan H. Hale. Through information given the Senator by Brother Cannon, the Hale boys in Utah were communicated with and the desired data secured for the completion of the Record. However, the book was actually published by Senator Eugene Hale, and George Hale of Maine, as the author died before this accomplishment had been realized.

As strange as it would appear to an outsider, but readily perceived by members of the Church, Senator Eugene and George Hale had no appreciable interest in the record after it had been finally completed and published. Even though it had required many years of toilsome research and an expenditure of thousands of dollars. Senator Eugene Hale at once sent to the Hale brothers in Utah a copy of the Record, which to them was a providential blessing, as it made immediately available an authentic record of their ancestry back for hundreds of years, for whom they could perform, vicariously, the saving ordinances of' the Gospel of Christ in the Temples of God.

A Faith Promoting Experience

In regard to the recording of Hale family records, Jonathan H. Hale, son of Alma H. Hale and Sarah A. Clark, recorded the following experience in his journal:

When the Hale family worked in the Logan Temple in the winter of 1888-89, they arranged with Brother Samuel Roskelley to prepare the sheets for temple work. A great deal of temple work was done during the following years .... [Some time later] Brother Roskelley's health began to fail, and he decided to give up all his record work. He brought the Hale records to sacrament meeting one Sunday and gave them to Father [Alma H. Hale] and told him it would be necessary to get someone else to take over the books.

During the following week, Father was very depressed and worried all the time, and was hardly able to work or eat. He could not decide what to do, for neither he nor any of the Hale family knew how to proceed with the work. A great deal of information had been gathered, and the family made it a matter of prayer, morning and evening, for a whole week.

The next Sunday at meeting, Brother Roskelley came to Father and said,
Bring the records back to me. I have to finish them.' Then he told Father and me this story:

"Friday evening as I was returning from the Temple, near Hyde Park, a messenger on a white horse appeared by the side of my buggy and said he wanted me to finish the Hale record. He assured me that the work was done right and that it was all being accepted. He said thousands of members of the Hale family were anxious that the work go on. I explained that I was too busy to do any more record work, and that my health would not permit it. Then the messenger made me this promise: that if I would continue, the Lord would bless me with health and strength, and the way would be opened so I would have the necessary time to do the work. He stayed by my side until I finally promised to do it, and then he blessed me and disappeared."

When Brother Roskelley described his messenger to Father, he answered, "Why, that was my own father, Jonathan Harriman Hale, the first of the Hales to join the Church in 1834. He died in 1847 at Winter Quarters."

When Brother Roskelley finally finished the record, he said that the greatest load he had ever carried was lifted off his shoulders. He had made a promise to a heavenly being and couldn't rest until the work was completed. He enjoyed much better health and found more time for the work than he had ever hoped for.

A strange Phenomenon

It was Authoritatively recognized that up to the time Aroet, Alma and Solomon had completed their personal ministrations in the Logan Temple, their labors in behalf of their progenitors had far exceeded that performed by any other family in the Church, at least in that Temple. It was at this juncture, upon the completion of their record of sealings of husbands to wives and children to parents, following a Hale program in the Logan Temple one evening in February, 1896, that a strange phenomenon was reported; the sacred structure, it is said, became suddenly illuminated - flooded from dome to foundation with a blaze of light. Apostle Marriner W, Merrill, who was then president of the Temple, observed the phenomenon as he was traveling on the highway that night from Logan to Richmond. It was likewise observed by many residents of Logan.

"President Merrill viewed the occurrence with some concern" the account in the Deseret News read, "and he made anxious inquiry the following morning to determine the cause. There were no electric lights in Logan at that time and no means were provided for illuminating the Temple in any such manner. Furthermore, he had closed the Temple for the night and was on his way home. He could find no physical means by which to answer his interrogations. The following night, however, the Temple was again flooded with illumination, the same as the previous night." President Merrill finally concluded and announced to the general assembly in the Temple that this beautiful and glorious manifestation was a spiritual phenomenon. "The matter was subsequently called to the attention of President Wilford Woodruff," the account continued, "who declared it to be an assembly of the great Hale family from the spirit world, who had gathered within those sacred walls in exultation over their liberation through the beneficent ministrations in their behalf."

Message from Alma

[From the handwritten journal of Alma Helaman Hale, son of Jonathan and Olive]-

My brother Aroet and I had talked and counseled together a number of times concerning the work for our dead which needed to be done. First we talked of going to the St. George Temple to do the work but found it would be too far and as a result so expensive that we were compelled to abandon the idea. So we decided that we would remove to a place near the Logan Temple and do our work there when that structure was completed.

Accordingly, in the spring of 1887,1 moved my wife Ellen and her family to Gentile Valley, Idaho, and in April 1888 my wife Sarah and her family moved to Smithfield, Cache County, Utah, thus placing us in close communion with the Logan Temple ....

Regarding my work for the dead, I will say for the benefit of the readers of this biography that from the time I came to Smithfield until the present, I have spent 5 weeks each year for a period of 13 years working for the dead, making in all 65 weeks work, performing baptisms for 700, obtaining the endowments for nearly 200, and performing the sealing and adopting ordinances for over 300 souls of our kindred.

I am now 65 years of age on the declining side of life. As I approach my goal and crown which is waiting for me, I do it with these words on my lips to all my sons and daughters and their posterity

"Keep the faith, for it is worth the fight of life and every sacrifice that can be made for it. It will unite us in eternity and cause a mighty rejoicing at the glad reunion. Let not one of my children be missing from it, is my constant prayer."

From January 1889 to 28 February 1896, there were ordinances performed as follows: 1,075 endowments, 1,202 sealings of couples, 2,055 baptisms, and 319 children sealed to 55 sets of parents. These children sealings were the first done by the Hale family and were all done in the preceding two weeks prior to the early evening closing on 28 February 1896. The Logan Temple records clearly indicate that all eligible names were done for seven generations of Hale ancestors by this date. No other date in the whole one hundred years of Hale temple activity was as important as this one.

During the Hale family meeting held 16 February 1898 in Logan, Utah, Solomon Hale bore testimony to the truth of the work and that the Lord had provided for the genealogies which were handed to us that we might continue. He spoke of what President Woodruff said in regard to the illumination of the temple ....

No matter what else may have interceded, the joy and happiness which pervaded the whole Hale family upon the completion of this part of their holy work in behalf of their deceased loved ones was glorious to behold. The lighting of the temple on that particular day became a beacon to the Hale family forever afterward. The work for their mother's Boynton ancestors now became paramount till its completion some years later.