JAMES CLINGER AND HARRIET CHAPIN
Great Examples of Enduring to the End

James and Harriet Clinger survived many hardships and made many contributions to the early church in their early lives, but had a severe trial of faith in their later years.

James was born in 1813 and later baptized in Nauvoo, Illinois by Joseph Smith's brother William in 1844, which unfortunately was the same year that Joseph and Hyrum were killed. He married Harriet Chapin the next year in 1845. Harriet was born in 1828 in New York and her mother and father joined the church and moved to in Nauvoo. Unfortunately, for this young couple their honeymoon period consisted of being forced out of Nauvoo by mobs and crossing the Mississippi into Iowa. They spent the next several years in Iowa helping build wagons and building up the area as a way station for those heading west. Those were lean years full of sacrifice. It was difficult for many of these saints to leave Iowa after putting so much work into their farms, but James and Harriet did so and went to Utah with the last groups in 1852.

When they arrived in Utah they settled in Ogden, but after losing crops to grasshoppers and living on sego bulbs and greens, they didn't stay. Next they moved to Provo near Utah Lake, where they faced hostile natives. One story describes their destitution as they tried to make another go at farming there. They had carefully saved seeds to plant a new garden and as they prepared the ground, James asked his daughter Martha to retrieve the seeds from the house. Martha came back crying because a hen had eaten all but 2 of the precious cucumber seeds. James killed the bird and retrieved the seeds from the animal and successfully planted the cucumbers.

After so many hardships, their son James Henry said of his parents that they became “discouraged” and listened to an RLDS missionary circulating in Provo. Utah county had a large group of RLDS people that decided to follow Joseph Smith III instead of Brigham Young. James and Harriet left Provo to follow their RLDS beliefs. The 2 oldest children Martha and our ancestor James Henry did not go with them. Both James and Harriet's parents had left the main body of saints and joined the RLDS movement, and this must have influenced this couple greatly. These family members were living in Nebraska and that is where James and Harriet went for a time. Whatever their experience there with the RLDS people and their beliefs, something changed and after 16 years they came back to Utah and were rebaptized. Their son James Henry was very satisfied to report that his parents died as faithful Latter-day Saints.

What was it that brought them back to their original faith? In the end the tipping point may have been a singular experience they shared August 8, 1844 in Nauvoo.

James and Harriet were in attendance at a meeting in Nauvoo soon after Joseph's death where Sidney Rigdon and Brigham Young were speaking about who would guide the church now that Joseph was gone. About the meeting Zina Huntington, recorded, President Young was speaking. "It was the voice of Joseph Smith”not that of Brigham Young. His very person was changed. . . . I closed my eyes. I could have exclaimed, I know that is Joseph Smith's voice! Yet I knew he had gone. But the same spirit was with the people. Wilford Woodruff testified, I had not seen him with my own eyes, there is no one that could have convinced me that it was not Joseph Smith speaking.

James and Harriet expressed joy at being present at this famous meeting and must have remembered the strong impression they received that Brigham Young and the quorum of the twelve should lead the church. These leaders were imperfect men at times, but God had called them to continue his work and in the end James and Harriet Clinger agreed and came back to the main body of the church.