Oliver Walker - The Kirtland Camp and Haun's Mill

Oliver Walker owned more than a square mile of land with Shoal Creek running through it. The photo above shows a portion of the land in 2009.



September 1838, "...the camp [Kirtland Camp] passed through Chilicothe the county seat of Livingston County, they traveled up the side of the Grand River and crossed the river near the small village of Utica. After crossing Shoal Creek, they camped on the west bank, fifteen miles inside the border of Caldwell County, "on the farm of Oliver Walker, who gave each family a pumpkin and plenty of shelled beans. Today we felt like we had arrived in Zion."



With in a month, Oliver became involved in efforts to avert an attack on the mill, making his home available for representatives of both parties to meet.

According to the testimony of Isaac Leany, in a Mormon petition for redress, signed April the 20, 1839, Quincy, Illinois:

“I Shall now procede to give an account of the bloody but(c)hery that taken place at a blacksmyth Shop at Hawns mille on Shoal creek on the 30th day of Oct. 1838. the mob party increased from time to time & committed outrages after outrages until at lenth the mormons not willing to bare it no longer they Said to the general what must they do was they not to have no protection must they Stand and See there property Stolen there familys abused there houses burned there cattle drove off & nothing to be done for them. then jeneral Donathan Said to them go & defend your Selves & drive the mob from Daviess county drive them to hell, breathing out an oath against them. the mormons then went out Supposing that they was legaly ortherized, & finding that the mob had burned Six or Seven of there houses & was carying on at a great hand Stealing & driveing off there Stock So the mormons went to work determed to rout them or dy in the attempt, they Soon got the mob in the notion of leaving Daviess county So a great portion of them fled in to Livingston ajoining county & told that the mormons was burning there houses Steeling & plundering & it was Soon blown to the four winds that the mormons was doing everything that was bad now the citiz of livingston & the mob that had left Daviess began to Steel cattle from the mormons that lived in the neighbourhood of Hawns mille & also to go threw the neighbourhood & take there guns from them, they came twice & drove off cattle & an other time they came & took Several guns they also as we heard Said that they would burn our mill down, & we new that they was not too good to do it, & nowing that it was our only chance to get on going, for we dare not to go to there milles So about thirty of us went to guard them from burning it down & while we was guarding the mill we held a council to now what plan we Should fall upon to accomplish a treaty or to come on Some conditions of peace it was voted that a letter Should be written & Sent to them imediately desireing to k[n]ow what there determinations was, for they had imboddyed themselves Several days before we had & we heared thay was comeing on us, we had appointed to take them the letter & just before he Started they came a mesage from them desireing too or three of our leading men to go & meet the too or three of there leading men & see if they compermise the matter, this was the verry thing that we wanted. So in the presance of there mesinger we elected thre men to go compermise with them. we also in the presance of there mesinger unanimously agreed to abide the treaty that our men Should make with them our thre men then Started fourth with to the place that they desired them to come to & thare they met with twelve or fourtee armed men. So the too partys began to counci the matter & Soon found that the difficulty that was between them was easy removed, that it was in consequence of false reports that had occasioned them to guether themselves to guether, they had heared that the mormons intended to come &C burn dow there houses, they Settled the difficulty without mutch trouble, the Misouriens was not willing to countunance Such conduct as this Steeling party was gilty of nor be called of that party So they would not associaiat with them, but agreed to use there enfluence to get them to come & compermise with us also & we was useing every effort that lay in our power to get on peasible terms with them when we thought that we had got the difficultys Settled with the greater part of them & was likely to Suceede in geting if while I was liveing near Hawns mills on Shoal Creek Mo and about the 25th or 26th of October 1838 I was informed that a company of mob of twenty in number under Nehemiah Cumstock had been to the mill and leveled pieces at those present demanding all their guns one man gave up his rifle another who had his gun in hand refused and started off two of the mob followed and snaped their guns at him twice or three times each one of these men I was told was Hiram Cumstock the other name I never learned though the man whom they were trying to shoot made his way off and gave word to the neighbor who met the next day at the mill to hear the story from the different families who informed us that the mob had sworn the burning of the neighbourhood and mill with the other hard threats such as killing Hiram Abbot who would not give up his gun we also learned that thare was another company of men lying below us at house of Mr McCrosky & knowing that either of those companies was far superior to ours in numbers some of the neighbours wanted to leave their homes and run off but haveing only about seven waggons to twenty three or four families we had to stay and defend our selves ..."

More Eyewitness accounts of the Hauns Mill Massacre at nortonfamily.net

Blooming Where Planted - Saints in Winchester Indiana

Ensign, July 1993, pg. 68

After living in Winchester, Indiana, for ten years, Eunice Addington discovered quite by accident that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had lived there as early as 1831. Curious as to how residents of this small town in Indiana could have known about the Church so soon after its restoration, she began researching the deeds in the county courthouse. Soon she discovered that the missionaries and even the Prophet Joseph Smith had visited Winchester during these early years and that Winchester had been the site of the largest branch of the Church in Indiana in 1831. Through her persistent and tireless efforts, she has identified nearly half of the one hundred members of the Winchester Branch. (See Ensign, Oct. 1992, pp. 56–59.)

“These people are so real to me,” says Eunice, who has found the property deeds of early Latter-day Saints, visited their lands and the cemeteries, and tried to locate their descendants. “I’ve read everything I could get my hands on about the early history of Winchester and its place in Church history. I love these people.”

A popular local speaker to groups of all ages, Eunice loves to tell the stories of these early pioneers. She often dresses up in pioneer dress and brings along artifacts.

“Most of these early members left Winchester in the fall of 1831 and the spring of 1832 and joined the Saints in Missouri,” says Eunice. “Many people don’t even know their ancestors lived here. Some are mentioned in Church history—George Burkett, Samuel Lee, Oliver Walker, Jeremiah Lindsay, William Lindsay, John Jones, James Stapleton Lewis, and Henry Jackson. Most, however, have faded into obscurity. That’s why I hope to find some new sources such as journals.”

Born and raised in nearby Muncie, Indiana, Eunice joined the Church as a young woman. She didn’t know it at the time, but her grandmother was one of the first members of the Church in Muncie but had fallen into inactivity. Because of this, when the missionaries found Eunice and her mother, neither one knew much about the gospel. They gained a testimony of the gospel quickly. Eunice’s mother died suddenly before she could be baptized, but Eunice was baptized and has remained faithful her entire life. She is currently a member of the Greenville Branch in the Dayton Ohio Stake.

When Eunice is not doing research, she is busy making beautiful dolls in elaborate dresses. A registered doll maker, Eunice has created more than four hundred dolls based on the turn-of-the-century prototypes for people all over the United States. She and her husband, Murrie, also keep busy with their grandchildren.

Though Eunice lives in the rural countryside outside the small town of Winchester, Indiana, she has magnified her talents in historical research and doll making to the benefit of people throughout the United States.

[photo] Eunice Addington continues working to identify all members of the Church who were living in Winchester, Indiana, in 1831.

Ident for Photo: Eunice Addington 26 March 1925-15 June 2005.