This is a great tribute to my
third-great grandmother, Tamma Durfee Miner Curtis. My father, Jim Hartley,
prepared this summary of her life, and all the events described here really
happened. This follows a recent post about another pioneer ancestor
of mine, Edward
Bunker Sr.
What catches my attention the
most here is Tamma's great example of one who persevered and pressed forward amid
severe tribulation and opposition because of a firm dedication to what she believed.
Tamma truly was a tough, resilient pioneer and is an inspiring person to learn
from. Below are my father's words:
Tamma Durfee Miner Curtis: A Tough, Resilient Pioneer
 |
| Tamma Durfee Miner Curtis 1813 - 1885 |
It had been a long time since Tamma Durfee
Miner Curtis planted a garden with any realistic hope that she would enjoy the
harvest. What a joy to finally have a place to call home. What a relief to
plant a garden without fear of hateful, violent, anti-Mormon mobs. What a
blessing to be in the new frontier settlement of Springville, Utah, where she
and her large family could enjoy relative peace and security.
It was early spring. The garden soil was
prepared. Tamma straddled shallow furrows in her long work dress and systematically
pressed sweet pea seeds about 1-inch deep into the cool earth. These, combined
with other precious seeds she had carried across prairies and mountains, were
more valuable to her family’s livelihood than gold. Tamma had most of the first
row planted when she heard a clucking noise directly behind her. She discovered
a rooster following her eagerly gobbling up the seeds she had just planted. No
wretched rooster was going to threaten her family’s survival! She caught the
thieving bird, chopped off its head, slit open its gizzard, removed the pea
seeds, and replanted them. That evening at dinner, Tamma offered a fervent
prayer of thanks to God for her family. She asked a blessing on her freshly-planted
garden and on the meal, and then served a delicious dinner of rooster and
dumplings.
Tamma Durfee was a pioneer and a
child of America’s western frontiers. She was born 6 March 1813 in Lenox, a small,
newly-created town in central upstate New York. She was the second of 13
children of Edmund Durfee, Sr. and Magdalena Pickle. Tamma understood at an
early age how essential gardens are for a family’s survival. She also knew from
the very beginning that frontier life is hard. But, Tamma’s life would be
especially hard—one full of seemingly endless hardships and losses.
In 1831, when she was 18 years old, Tamma
married Albert Miner. They began their lives together in Ohio, part of the
Western Reserve. They were among the earliest converts to a new Christian
denomination, the Church of Christ (in 1834 the name was changed to The Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). The public nicknamed its members,
“Mormons.” Church membership grew quickly in northern Ohio, and soon the
followers numbered in the thousands. Local intolerance of the faith sparked
hatred and intense persecution. At age 26, Tamma, Albert, and their 5 children joined
their fellow church members in an exodus to Missouri. Tamma and her family made
their home near Far West. One month after settling in, their 2-year-old
daughter, Sylva died. Then, 6 months after Sylva’s death, while pregnant with
her sixth child, she and her family were expelled from their Missouri home by Mormon-hating
mobs. They were forced—along with thousands of other Latter-day Saints—to
travel destitute and ill more than 200 miles to find refuge in Illinois.
Hatred of
Mormons continued in Illinois. At age 32, her parents’ nearby home and barns
were ransacked and burned by mobs, and her father was later murdered. When she
was 33, Tamma’s husband and brother risked their lives in a futile effort to
repulse an overwhelming force of merciless anti-Mormon militias that drove the Church
members out of the state. Tamma, Albert, and their 8 children escaped only to
find themselves stranded with many others on the Iowa side of the Mississippi
River. While waiting for rescuers, many became sick, including Tamma’s 7-month
old daughter, Melissa. After sleeping for two weeks on the cold ground, Tamma
and her family set off for Iowaville, some 65 miles away. Three days into their
trek, their baby died and they had to bury her along the way. Then, Tamma
herself became dangerously ill and was bedridden for 9 months. The family made
it to Iowaville and remained there for a little more than a year. While there,
exhaustion and exposure claimed the life of Tamma’s husband, Albert. At age 35,
after 17 years of marriage, Tamma found herself a widow with 7 children.
She moved her family to Council
Bluffs on Iowa’s western border where her mother and brother were. Two years
later, in June 1850, Tamma acquired 2 wagons, teams, and provisions, and joined
a wagon train headed for the Salt Lake Valley in Utah Territory. Shortly after
their arrival, Tamma met and married, Enos Curtis, a family friend from Nauvoo.
Enos was a widower, whose spouse had also died in Iowa during their journey
west. Tamma was 37. During their first winter in the Salt Lake Valley, Tamma’s
oldest son Orson became ill with a throat infection and died at age 17.
Enos and Tamma decided to help
settle a new Utah community called Springville—a beautiful, fertile place where,
despite early Indian problems, they established a farm and finally enjoyed a
measure of peace and security. Tamma bore 4 more children, including a set of
twin daughters, one of whom died when she was just 7 months old. Sadly, 4
months after their baby daughter died, Enos also passed away. Tamma was a widow
for the second time and her 7 dependent children were fatherless. She and Enos
had been married for less than 6 years. She was 43.
Not quite a year later, Tamma
married again, this time to John White Curtis, Enos’s son. They also lived in
Springville, where Tamma lived out her days. Together they had one child. Tamma
and John were married for 28 years when she died in 1885 at age 75.
During her
remarkable lifetime, Tamma lived in 15 different locations in 5 states and one
U.S. territory, traversing more than 2,900 miles. Six of those moves were
forced because of religious persecution and life-threatening mob violence. Tamma
gave birth to 14 children, 5 of whom died—3 as infants and 2 before they were age
21. She married 3 times and was widowed twice. In addition to her own, Tamma
helped nurture and raise 15 step-children.
Despite an extremely hard life of danger,
deprivation, and sacrifice, Tamma Durfee Miner Curtis was unshakable in her
devotion to God and her church, and she was unfailing in her love for her large
family. Throughout it all, she was a tough, resilient pioneer…something her
roosters knew quite well.
-----------------------
This sketch of Tamma Durfee Miner
Curtis’s life was prepared by her great-great grandson, James E. Hartley, based
on an oral history of Norma Miner Hartley by William G. Hartley, October 11,
1973 (tape 1, transcript page 15); from documents and stories posted on
FamilySearch for Tamma Durfee (KWJX-NPN), Edmund Durfee, Sr. (LVDG-SXB), Edmund
Durfee, Jr. (KWVQ-7FT), Jabez Durfee (KWJZ-WGJ), Albert Miner (KWJR-FZ2), Enos
Curtis (KWJR-PQC), and John White Curtis (KWJZ-48B); and from a description of
the “Battle of Nauvoo,” from https://sites.lib.byu.edu/muw/2014/09/14/battle-of-nauvoo/.
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