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. There was also great many members of the Richey/Adair/Mangum clan at the Itawamba 1845 LDS Branch located in Itawamba County, Mississippi.

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.

Branch History

The Richey / Adair / Mangum / Brown Families were part of the contingent of Dixie Saints that joined the church in branches in Mississippi and Alabama. The Noxubee group traveled directly to Pueblo Co in 1846 and almost could have beaten Brigham Young to Salt Lake Valley.

• • Buttahatchie 1845 LDS Branch located in Noxubee County, Mississippi
  • Moscow 1845 LDS Branch located in Pickens County, Alabama
  • Itawamba 1845 LDS Branch located in Itawamba County, Mississippi
  • Chickasaw 1845 LDS Branch located in Chickasaw County, Mississippi

Major autobiography with lots of references to Mangums, Richeys, and Adairs and their history by James Richey [see notes of James Richey for a couple of varying versions of his story] mentions his grandmother: [Appears she was probably baptized in 1844.]. The typographical errors are per the original:

After staying with my friends a few days Itawamba County I went to Chickasaw Co. to where my Uncle Thomas Adair lived and preached to them the Gospel in that vicinity. I then returned home to my father's house in Noseuher County. After resting a while I started out in company with elder Daniel Thomas on preacjing tour. We went into the northwestern part of the state of Alabama on the Butteharhe River. From there we went to Itawamba in the state of Mississippi and preached to the people in the neighborhood of Where my relatives lived. A number of them belived and was afterwards baptized into the church. We then went to Chickasaw County in the state of Mississippe and preached into the church. The names of those that were baptized are as follows Thomas Adair and wife, John Mangum and wife, my grandmother, Seli Rebecca Adair and John Wesley Adair. After this I returned home and gave my attention to work of preparing to remove with my fathers friends to the city of Nauvoo in the State of Illiois to wich place we removed in the year of 1845. After we arrived in the City we had much sickness in the family. While I was gone up the river to help to bring down a raft for firewood. My oldest sister Rebecca was taken sick and died in my absence, which was a heavy blow to me as well as the rest of the family. In the course of the year my brother Robert and sister Martha Ann also died with malaria. In the course of the summer I returned to the State of alabama for my grandmother Rebecca Richey but her son kept her money from her so I failed in that part of my mission."

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

William Richey Family

This family lived in Pickens County until about 1840 when they moved to Noxubee Co and a great many of their relatives moved to Itawamba Co. (Approximate Age in 1845).

• William Richey (1796-1879) (49) -Traveled to Utah. After death of his wife, spent many years as a Mormon Missionary in Indian Territory
• Margaret Ann Adair (1804-1852) (41)
• James Richey (1821-1890) (24) - 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. He was very instrumental in convincing many of his Mississippi and Alabama relatives to join the Mormon Church. 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) (22) - Served in The Mormon Battalion but died before rejoining his family
• Rebecca Sarah Richey (1828-1845) (17) - Died in 1845 Nauvoo, Illinois
• Emily Melissa Richey (1830-1857) (15) - later married Mormon Battalion leader Levi Ward Hancock (1803-1882)
• John Belton Richey (1833-1851) (12) -
• Martha Richey (1837-1845) (8) (Twin) - died in 1845 Nauvoo, Illinois
• Eliza Jane Richey (1837-1908) (8) (Twin) - m. John Milton Adair (1833-1899) and later settled Barclays, NV.
• William Belton Richey (1840-1911) (5)-
• Robert Richey (1842-1845) (3) - died young

References

• BYU Mormon Places Cartography Project
• Abraham O Smoot Journal - Vol 1, 1836-1846
• Times and Seasons 5:5, 462.