Edson Barney (1806-1905)


 *  Zion's Camp Veteran
 * Original Member - LDS 1st Quorum of Seventy

Biography
Edson Barney, a member of Zion's Camp... the second of six children born to Royal Barney and his wife and third cousin Rachel Marsh Barney Barney. Edson is also the brother of Royal (Alonzo) Barney who shared with him several life achievements and who also became a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy. Edson migrated to Amherst, Ohio, with his parents when a young man and was baptized by Simeon Carter in May, 1831, at that place.

Zions Camp Participant
One of the most interesting episodes in the early history of LDS Church was the march of Zion's Camp (1834). The members of the Church in Missouri were being persecuted, and the Prophet Joseph made it a matter of prayer and received a revelation on February 24, 1834. The Lord instructed the Prophet to assemble at least one hundred young and middle-aged men and to go to the land of Zion, or Missouri. (See | D&C 130:19–34.)

Zion’s Camp, a group of approximately one hundred and fifty men, gathered at Kirtland, Ohio, in the spring of 1834 and marched to Jackson County, Missouri. By the time they reached Missouri, the camp had increased to approximately two hundred men.

He first saw the Prophet Joseph. Smith at a conference held in January, 1832 and went to Missouri as a member of Zion's Camp in 1834, In 1835 he was ordained a Seventy and called to the First Quorum of the Seventy.

Utah Pioneer
fter the expulsion of the saints from Nauvoo, he joined the trek west and came to the "Valley" in 1852, settling in Provo.

He filled a mission to Las Vegas in 1855, and another mission to the White Mountains in 1858.

He was one of the missionaries in 1861 to St. George, Utah, where he resided until his last sickness. He died... in Provo, Utah. (Adapted from LDS Biographical Encyclopedia, compiled and edited by Andrew Jenson, Vol. 4: 687. Additional family information was provided by Jeff Roberts.)

Marriage and Family
On January 1, 1831 he married Lillis Ballou who would bear him seven children.

According to family records after leaving Nauvoo, at age 41, Edson married 25 year old Louisa Walker as a plural wife. They were married somewhere between Nauvoo and Winter Quarters on May 10, 1847 and sealed by Brigham Young in the recorders office at Winter Quarters on January 14th, 1848. This was the second marriage for Louisa. She had three daughters from her previous marriage, two of whom had died.

Louisa and Edson's first child was born at Winter Quarters. The child died a few months after it was born. Edson and his two families moved to Ferrisville, Iowa where Louisa gave birth to her second child.(Later in Utah when the persecutions of the Mormons over the practice of polygamy became intense, Edson took Louisa to Annabella to live with some of her married children and he spent the rest of his life living with his first wife Lillis. He went occasionally to Annabella to visit Louisa).