Russell F. Stoddard, son of Robert Stoddard and Sarah Lee, was born on February 1, 1789 in Groton, New London County, Connecticut. Although he claimed to have fought in the War of 1812, his name is not found on registration listings.[1] According to him, after the war he returned to New London County and married his sweetheart Levenia (Lorena) Barker in 1817. Unfortunately, a year after their marriage Levenia died at age twenty-five. No children were born to their union. On April 10, 1819, Russell married Clarissa Elliot. To their union were born six children, five living to adulthood.
The US Federal Census of 1820 lists Russell as a resident of Farmington, New York. In 1821, he was residing on a 98-acre farm in Manchester about two miles from the Joseph Smith Sr. farm. (He lived on the east side of Stafford Road, three farms south of the Smiths.) He had on his farm a frame home, a barn, outbuildings, an orchard, and a cedar grove. His farm was considered “number one quality” and valued at $16 per acre.[2]
Russell owned other farms, speculated in land, and built houses. He built a dam across the Hathaway Brook near Stafford Road in hopes of operating a saw mill. He completed the mill, but there was not enough water power to run the mill. The mill was never operational. Residents of Manchester remembered baptisms being performed by Joseph Smith and others near Stoddard’s Mill.[3]
Relationship of Russell, Silas, Calvin and George Stoddard
Russell was surrounded by extended family who lived in Manchester, Farmington, Arcadia, and Macedon in Western New York. For the most part, they were cousins—some more distant than others. Squire Stoddard resided on 150 acres south of the Smith farm.[4] Joseph Smith lodged for a night at the home of Silas Stoddard in Macedon. (Silas Stoddard was the father of Calvin and George Stoddard). Lucy Mack Smith reported that while at the Stoddard home, Joseph had “a vision of some proportion.” Things manifested to him were so “painful to contemplate,” he asked the Lord to remove the scene from his eyes. Momentarily, the vision was gone but “returned immediately and remained before his eyes until near the middle of the forenoon.”[5]
Russell Stoddard and the Smith Frame Home
Russell is most remembered in Latter-day Saint history circles as the man who supervised construction of the Smith frame house. The circumstance that led to his supervisorial position was the unexpected death of Alvin Smith in November 1823. Russell was hired by Joseph Smith Sr. to put in mantles, doors, and window jams and to do other finishing touches on the Smith frame house.[6]
While working on the house, Russell offered to pay the Smiths $1,500 for their home and farm. The offer was refused. Russell and others tried to wrestle the home and farm away from the Smiths by misrepresenting facts to a land agent in Canandaigua, New York. This led Mother Smith to accuse Russell Stoddard of cheating her family out of their Palmyra property.[7]
On February 18, 1825, Russell sued the Smiths for monies earned while working on their home.[8] He appeared before Peter Mitchell, Esq., justice of the peace in Manchester, with a complaint of nonpayment of $66.59. Justice Mitchell heard the case on February 18, 1825. Joseph Smith Sr.’s statement in the case has been preserved: “I, Joseph Smith the defendant in the above case do hereby confess that I am honestly and justly indebted to Russell Stoddard.” The transcript of the judgment against Joseph Smith Sr. was sent to the Court of Common Pleas in Canandaigua. The financial arrangement for payment by Joseph Smith Sr. is unknown. The matter was settled in April 1826.[9]
In the journal entry of George Albert Smith on June 7, 1907 is the following notation:
Palmyra N. Y. Friday June 7 clear Spent the day with Mr. Sexton accompanied by [wife] Lucy. We drove all over the country, and visited with several men. Russell T. [F.] Stoddard (son of Russell Stoddard) about 60 years of age said he heard his Father say he built the Smith house for Jos Smith Senior assisted by others.[10]
Mob Actions against the Smiths
Russell Stoddard collaborated with ministers and others in Palmyra to have Joseph Smith renounce “his story of the vision.” According to Mother Smith, Russell was linked to mob-like actions against the Smiths.
A Continual Resident of Manchester
In 1830, Russell was assessed property taxes on Lots 3 and 5 in Manchester, Lots 120 and 121 in Farmington, and Lot 8 in Shortsville, New York. The total acreage of assessed lots was 134 acres. The total value of the acreage was $2,108. In 1835, the same property was valued at $2,728. That year, Russell purchased additional property in Manchester (78 acres), Shortsville (2 acres), and Farmington (54 acres). His total real wealth in 1835 was estimated at $5,016.[11] His buying and selling of properties continued. In 1841, he granted a deed to Elmer Cooper, and in 1842, a deed to James Cooper.[12]
On January 11, 1846, his wife Clarissa Elliot died. Russell did not marry again for over twenty years. During the interim, he was a charter member of the Union Agricultural Society in Palmyra. The society enclosed 19 acres in Palmyra for the purpose of holding a fair.[13] Today the fair is known as Canal Days.
Russell’s wealth increased until he had accumulated a real wealth of $9,000 and personal wealth of $2,000.[14] In 1867, he became a “retired farmer.”[15] It was in retirement that Russell married Alinda (Elinda) Howell on December 2, 1868.
Having the means to have others work for him, within the next ten years the value of his farms skyrocketed. When Russell was eighty-one, he had a real wealth of $24,800 and a personal wealth of $2,500. With so much property and the value increasing yearly, it was not surprising to find that on February 25, 1870 there was a court case surrounding the ownership and taxes paid on a portion of his property. In the jury trial of Russell Stoddard versus Sheriff W. W. Clark, the issue was ownership of property. The jury found in June 1870, the plaintiff Russell Stoddard to be the owner of the property valued at $1,816. The balance of property (the amount of $2,338) was held in levy.[16] Russell appealed the decision. The appellate court decision was not printed in a local newspaper.[17]
Death of Russell Stoddard
On May 10, 1873, Russell died in Palmyra at age eighty-four.[18] He was buried in the Palmyra City Cemetery. In his Last Will and Testament, Russell left his extensive farms to his only son Franklin Stoddard.[19] His widow Alinda Howell Stoddard on April 15, 1891 was elected president of the Woman’s Presbyterian Society of Palmyra.
Children of Russell and Clarissa Stoddard
1. Sally Ann Stoddard (December 22, 1819–October 12, 1820).
2. Sarah Lee Stoddard (June 17, 1821–May 12, 1861). She married Edward Parker Kellogg (1819–1898) on December 31, 1840.
3. Julia A. Stoddard (January 19, 1824). She married Hiram Jennings (1822–1889) on November 16, 1843.
4. Lorena B. Stoddard (December 3, 1826–December 18, 1848). She married Julius L. Dewey (1826–1886) on December 18, 1848.
5. Philena Clara Stoddard (May 1, 1829–July 15, 1896). She was born in Manchester, New York. She married Henry Kellogg (1825–1898) on November 1, 1856 in Manchester.
6. Russell Franklin Stoddard (March 12, 1843–October 22, 1913). He married Julia E. Powers (born 1844) on September 25, 1867 in Pultneyville, New York. He died in Syracuse, New York.
[1] Palmyra Cemetery Records.
[2] Tax Assessment Roll 21, Manchester, NY.
[3] Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, 3:246.
[4] Deed Book 44:219–221. Manchester, NY.
[5] Anderson, Lucy’s Book (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2001), p. 594.
[6] Bean, A. B. C. History of Palmyra and the Beginning of “Mormonism,” p. 33.
[7] Smith, History of Joseph Smith by his Mother, pp. 88, 92; Bushman, Rough Stone Rolling, p. 47.
[8] Nathaniel Hinckley Wadsworth, “Copyright Laws and the 1830 Book of Mormon,” BYU Studies 45, no. 3 (2007), p. 86.
[9] Marquardt, “Historical Setting of Mormonism in Manchester,” p. 67.
[10] George Albert Smith Journal, June 7, 1907.
[11] 19th Century Jury List Ontario County to 1855.
[12] Ontario County, NY Grantee Deed Index, 1789–1845.
[13] Transactions of the New York Agricultural Society, p. 579.
[14] US Federal Census, 1860.
[15] Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, 3:246.
[16] “Circuit Court,” Geneva Daily Gazette, February 25, 1870.
[17] “Courts of Law,” Buffalo Morning Express and Illustrated Buffalo Express [Buffalo, NY], June 8, 1870.
[18] “Died,” Newark Union, May 17, 1873.
[19] Bonnie Hays Interview, January 18, 2019.