Willard Trowbridge Snow & Melvina Harvey

Willard Trowbridge Snow

Willard's early life was spent on a farm where no doubt  Willard worked to clear rocks and trees from the farming land as he grew old enough to help in the fields. The Snow children were taught to work, each child had his daily jobs from the time they could carry a pail of water.

Willard's father and mother saw to it that their children obtained an education.  Both Levi and Lucina loved books and learning, they were avid readers and natural teachers which affected their children in future years as several of the Snow children taught school as they became older.

There was a strong religious atmosphere in the home were Willard was raised.This strong religious atmosphere has been said to have come from the Streeter side of the family and not the Snows. This same atmosphere seemed to prevail in the community. As soon as the homes were built, a church was erected for the community. The people in the community didn't seem to belong to any certain church, but the all lived by the Ten Commandments and were called "Seeker after God's Truths."

When Willard was a young man his family home caught fire and burn down. Neighbors came to assist the family in saving all that they could. His mother made sure all the books they had were saved. The family lived in the large new barn that they had just finished that summer and after the fall harvest was over the family built a new home. This barn is where the missionaries came and taught the gospel to the many individuals that joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

After hearing the gospel message that Orson Pratt was teaching in his father's barn, which was the largest building in St. Johnsbury at the time, Willard was baptized. He was baptized June 18, 1833 by Orson Pratt. After Willard and most of his family were baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, he spent the better part of the next four years with his brothers, Zerubbabel, William and Erastus laboring as part time missionaries in Vermont and New Hampshire.

In the spring of 1834, at the age of 23, Willard left St. Johnsbury for Kirtland, Ohio with his brother Zerubbabel. That same year Willard and Zerubbabel joined Zion's Camp in Missouri. There he had a narrow escape from death, being among the number which, while the camp rested in Clay County, Missouri, was attacked by cholera. Early in 1835, Willard returned to Kirtland and then went to serve several other missions in the United States preaching in various parts of the country. Willard was ordained to the First Quorum of Seventies on February 28, 1835 by the Prophet Joseph Smith Jr.

Melvina Harvey

In 1836, Willard went through the Kirtland Temple, and shortly after moved to Missouri with his father's family who had come from St. Johnsbury to join the main body of the saints and be with their four sons. In Missouri, Willard's parents settled in Far West about one and a half miles north of the town. Here they endured the sufferings and persecutions of the saints, including the chills and fever which remained with them for many years. While living in Far West, Willard married Melvina Harvey, who he had known in Vermont. They were married May 14, 1837. Melvina was born December 16, 1811 at Barnett, Vermont. Willard had known Melvina and probably her family before coming to Missouri.

Willard and Melvina's first child, Amanda Melvina, was born March 18, 1838 at Far West, Caldwell County, Missouri. June 13, 1845. After moving with the family to Garden Grove, Willard and the Snow families were among the first group of saints to leave their beloved Nauvoo and head westward. It was not safe for any leaders of the church or their families to stay in Nauvoo unless absolutely necessary. Before leaving, Willard and Melvina took out their Endowments in the Nauvoo Temple on December 12, 1845 and were sealed together one month later on January 12, 1846. While living in Nauvoo, Willard was one of the agents to help build the Temple.

On May 14, 1846, Willard married a second wife, Susan Harvey, Melvina's sister. Not much is known about Susan except that she had some kind of deformity. This information was found in Patty Sessions records as a midwife.

September 1847, Willard with his families, came to Utah in Jedidah Grant's company of 100 wagons. He was captain of the second 50 wagons in this company.  Willard arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on October 4, 1847. When he arrived in Salt Lake, he settled with his families on the north side of the Old Fort.

Many things happened in the life of Willard between October 1847 when he arrived in the Salt Lake Valley and September 1851. In these four years he was a judge at the first election held to form a territorial government. He was also a member of the territorial legislature and speaker of the House in 1849. He served on the judiciary committee in the new Territorial Legislature and he was the first Justice of the Peace appointed in Utah. While serving in the legislature he served on the judiciary, counties and on military and civil laws committees.He was a councilor to Daniel Spencer in the first organization of the town of Salt Lake. Willard was also a member of the Perpetual Emigration Fund Committee that had been organized by Brigham Young to help finance the western migration of the saints.

Willard's family life was very eventful at the same time. On February 8, 1848, about four months after his family arrived in the valley, Melvina gave birth to a pair of twins, the first pair of white twins born in the state of Utah. Susan, Willard's second wife gave birth to a daughter named, Susan, and the mother, Susan died soon after.
Two years after reaching Salt Lake, Willard married a third wife, Mary Bingham, a girl from St. Johnsbury, Vermont (1849).

At General Conference in Salt Lake City, September 7, 1851, Willard was called on a mission to Europe. Soon after, he left his wives and four children and arrived in England, December 29, 1851. Willard was appointed president of the Scandinavia Mission to succeed his brother Erastus. On April 21st, Willard took the steamer at Hull, England and arrived at Copenhagen, Denmark on the 26th. He set to work with a will to learn the Danish language in which he was very successful. He mastered the Danish language so well that he translated many books into Danish, one being the L.D.S. Hymn Book.

In 1852, while Willard was in Denmark, serving as the Mission President, he was mobbed and treated with contempt and was driven into the swamp where he contracted malaria or swamp fever. This fever was eventually what would take his life.

While addressing a council of Elders on the evening of August 15, 1853 in Copenhagen, he was so violently attacked with an illness that he was unable to proceed. Later he seemed a little better, and decided to go to England for treatment of his illness. On the 18th of 1853, he took passage on board the ship "Transit," but while on board he was again prostrated. He soon became unconscious, and continued to sink, gradually until the evening of the 21st, when he expired. Elder P.O. Hansen and H.P. Jenson were with him, but not withstanding their earnest pleading, the captain insisted that the body be sunk in the sea. So he was wrapped in canvass and sunk about 80 miles north of Hull, England in the North Sea. He was just 41 years of age.

Willard Trowbridge Snow was the first American Elder to die abroad while on his mission.
Willard Trowbridge Snow was known as a friend of the Prophet Joseph and faithful in all of the calling that he was asked to do.