Dennison Lott Harris (born 1825)
Dennison Lott Harris, son of Emer and Deborah Lott Harris, was born January 17, 1825 in Windon, Luzern Co., Penn. On the banks of the Susquehanna River. Little is known of his childhood or boyhood, or his early youth, he joined the Mormon Church, and gathered with his father’s family to Kirtland and suffered in all of the mobbings, persecutions and drivings of the Church in that day. While in Nauvoo as a boy, he hauled water for endowments in the Temple. Even when young he was an intimate friend of the prophet and took an active part as scout and express rider during the mobbings at Nauvoo.
When he was nineteen years old, he and Robert Scott passed through a very trying ordeal at the Conspiracy of Nauvoo, a full account of which is found in the April No. of Vol. V of the Contributor of 1884. The conspirators swore them to secrecy on pain of death. The boys told the prophet of the conspiracy and of their experience. The prophet charged them to keep silent and put a seal on their lips for twenty years, or until the conspirators were all dead, or if they felt that death was near to them, to reveal all to the proper authorities in the Church. The year before President Young died, Brother Harris invited him to stop at his home in Monroe while enroute to St. George. Brother Harris related the circumstances to him. President Young said it cleared up many strange spots in his memory.
In three days before the final battle at Nauvoo, he left the city and journeyed several hundred miles westward preparing the way for the final exodus of the saints, then returned to Nauvoo to assist his father to move with the saints. He remained in the East, until 1852 when he came to Utah and settled in Springville where he built a saw mill.
In Council Bluff about 1847, he married Sarah Wilson Cheeney, a young widow with one child, a daughter named Ellen. While living in Council Bluff’s in 1848, Deborah, a daughter, was born to them and in 1850 Sarah Ann was born to them.
Some of the tools used by his father in the constructions of the Nauvoo Temple were brought to Utah by him and used throughout his life. His son Dennison E’s family has the square that Emer Harris used in working on the Nauvoo Temple.
About 1854, President Young sixteen men to go on a mission to the Navajo Indians. There were also two interpreters and one Indian Guide. In the party were Wm. Huntington, Dennison Lott Harris, Dimick Huntington, Jack Stewart and others. President Young accompanied them as far as Manti, where he blessed them, promising them that if they kept the commandments of the Lord, not a hair of one of their heads should be harmed and that they would return to their families in safety. In Salina Canyon they were held up by a band of Indians who refused to let them pass the stream of water on penalty of death. Three days later, the Indians relented and let them go. A city on their route named Huntington, a house of the missionaries, has since been founded.
Near Green River, the Indians again tried to stop them. The missionaries turned into a cottonwood grove where they were completely hidden. The cached their wagons and continued their journey by horse. The whole of the mission was one of great peril in which the power of the Lord was constantly made manifest.
Near a place called Bluff, they were taken prisoners by the Navajos. Two of the party were to be shot. Sixteen Indians stood with bows and arrows poised. At the signal for shooting all the sixteen Indians were paralyzed. The missionaries were then allowed to preach the gospel to the tribe, but they were still looked upon with suspicion, by all except the chief who never left them for a moment. The Indian Council finally decided the strangers were to die on a certain day, chief or no chief. The day was drawing near when a terrible warhoop was heard, and the air was filled with dust. The Navajos were completely surrounded by the Elk Mountain Utees(sic). Their chief pointed a gun at the Navajo Chief. Both tribes were too much excited to talk but just chattered and mumbled. Finally the interpreters quieted them and the Utee Chief explained that the Great Spirit had appeared to him and told him the Navajos had white men in captivity. He was commanded to release them and their property, accompany them a given number of days on a certain route, and then fit them out with good horses and provisions. If he failed, destruction would come upon him and his tribe. He fulfilled the commission to the letter. The return was along a different route. They missed their cached wagons and provisions grew low. One man lost his horse and Brother Harris remained with him. This placed them one day behind the main company. They feared starvation. When they did not overtake the main party, they were given up for dead, but they reached Springville safely.
The first ten years after their arrival in Utah, they lived in five different towns. Springville, Alpine, Pleasant Grove, Smithfield, and Willard, and during that time three of their sons were born-Dennison Emer in Springville, Martin in Alpine, and Hyrum in Smithfield.
During the time they lived in Smithfield, a battle was fought with the Indians and there was considerable shooting done by both parties. In 1862 they were called by President Young to go to Dixie and help build up and develop that country. During the time they were there, they lived in Washington and Balvue and finally built a home in Virgin City. Here their son, Joseph Alma, was born. In 1868 after having spent five years in Dixie, Brother Harris was released from this mission, owing to ill health caused by chills and fever.
They moved to Paragonah where their eldest daughter, Deborah Harris Robinson lived. In 1872 they moved to Monroe, Sevier Co. He loved to see things grow, and he planted the first nursery in that section. He gave hundreds of trees and shrubs away.
July 17, 1877 he was set apart as Bishop of Monroe by Arastus Snow, which position he honorably and faithfully filled until his death, which occurred June 6, 1885. His wife died twelve years before.
November 1, 1883, in the St. George Temple he married Anna Maria Messerlie, a young German convert, and on the same day, Margaret Smith, a widow, was sealed to him for eternity only. A week after his death, Harriet Lott, a daughter was born to his young wife.
Dennison Lott Harris was by nature a pioneer, he having lived in various settlements from Northern Utah to Dixie. In disposition he was very kind, tender, and sympathetic, and a true friend to those in sorrow or distress, and a tender in his feelings as a woman. He was a wise counselor, and he was a father in every deed to the people over whom he presided as Bishop.
He was very cheerful and sunny in temperment (sic), was fluent in his speech, and a wonderful story teller. He was charitable, merciful, and forgiving. His hospitability was unbounded, and his latch string was always on the outside to all. After his wife died, he lived a widower for twelve years, filling the place of both father and mother to a remarkable degree, bestowing the tenderness of a mother upon them. I do not think a father was ever loved more or held in greater reverence by his children than was this wise and good man.