Buttahatchie 1845 LDS Branch

Circa 1845 a group of families living Noxubee County, Mississippi converted to the new Mormon Religion and created their own branch of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is believed this group held regular worship services at Buttahatchie, Mississippi.

This is an informal census based on currently available genealogical information to help their descendants to better understand and appreciate their ancestral roots.

Introduction
Many of the members of this group had close connections to a similar group meeting just across the stateline at the Moscow 1845 LDS Branch in Pickens County, Alabama.

After 1845 many of these Mormons left to join the great exodus heading west to settle Utah. Most of them participated in the Mississippi Wagon Company which spent the winter of 1846/47 in Pueblo Co with the Mormon Battalion Sick Detachments. This but them further west than any of the Mormon pioneers that season. They quickly followed Brigham Young's advance party into the Salt Lake Valley that summer.

Because of their experience with farming cotton in the Deep South, many of this groups were called to participate in the Mormon Cotton mission to settle Washington County, Utah and raise cotton there from 1850-1868. Afterwards many moved further south to help establish Mormon settlements in Arizona and pursue their warm-weather farming talents there.

Vital Records
Records show this branch existed at least by 02-Dec-1843 to after 08-Apr-1846 Source Document: Times and Seasons 5:5, 462.

1845 Census
Traveled to Utah. After death of his wife, spent many years as a Mormon Missionary in Indian Territory
 * William Richey Family
 * William Richey (1796-1879) -
 * Margaret Ann Adair (1804-1852)
 * James Richey (1821-1890) - m. 28 Mar 1846 to Lucinda Mangum (1826-1903) in Nauvoo IL and together they traveled in the Mississippi Wagon Company to Utah that year. Later a prominent LDS leader in the Dixie Mission and in Sanpete County, Utah.   He wrote autobiography about his experiences in the Buttahatchie Branch.
 * Benjamin Richey (1823-1849) - Served in The Mormon Battalion but died before rejoining his family
 * Rebecca Sarah Richey (1828-1845) - Died in 1845 Nauvoo, Illinois
 * Emily Melissa Richey (1830-1857) - later married Mormon Battalion leader Levi Ward Hancock (1803-1882)
 * John Belton Richey (1833-1851) -
 * Martha Richey (1837-1845) - died in 1845 Nauvoo, Illinois
 * Eliza Jane Richey (1837-1908) - m. John Milton Adair (1833-1899) and later settled Barclays, NV.
 * William Belton Richey (1840-1911)-
 * Robert Richey (1842-1845) - died young