Grampa is confused. Though little is known of the life of Jesse Huntsman, it seems that there may have been two of them whom the various internet sources and family forums have mixed and merged.
The Pedigree Resource File gives his date of birth as between 1772 and 1780. It gives his first wife as Maria Cathrina Weyrich
whom he is said to have married about 1792/93. Then it lists six other
marriages before his death in 1836 which occurred before the doctrines
of plural marriage were revealed. Thus the accuracy of the entire entry
is called into question. The gentlereader is warned that this entire entry is questionable.
He is said to have been baptized about 1833, thus
he would have been a mature man in his fifties when he accepted the Gospel.
The next year in 1834 he volunteered to go with Joseph
Smith on the Zions Camp expedition to relieve the Saints in Missouri. Or did he? No one named Jesse Huntsman is listed in the History of the Church as being a member of the Camp. There is, however, a Joseph Huntsman who is so listed. And Jesse is listed as a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy, all of whom were selected from among the Zion's Camp veterans. Grampa believes that Joseph and Jesse are the same and that Jesse is the correct name.
He would have been one of the oldest participants.
As a result of his faithfulness,
he was selected to be ordained a Seventy and was called to the First Quorum
of the Seventy. This would have been in 1835 but the History of the Church
specifically notes: "The following belong to the Seventies, but the date
of their ordinations is not definitely known: Milo Andrus, Joseph Winchester,
Zerubbabel Snow, Heman T. Hyde, Henry Brown. Nelson Higgins, (Hezekiah
Fisk was blessed, but was not one of the Seventies,) Henry Beaman, Jesse
Huntsman, Royal Barney, Zebedee Coltrin, Henry Herriman, and Lorenzo
D. Barnes."
In June of 1836, the Messenger and Advocate lists Elder Huntsman as among those whose licences as Ministers of the Gospel had been recorded in the previous quarter.
Then in November of 1836, another article in the Messenger and Advocate (Oliver Cowdery, editor) notes "In Perry, Richland Co. Ohio. on the
26th day of Sept. last, Elder Jesse Huntsman [died] after an illness of
eighteen days. He had been a member of the church about three years;
went to Zion with the saints in 1834, and was ordained at Kirtland one
of the first seventy, in the spring of 1835. Although he has not
been abroad much preaching, yet, his example as a member of the church
has been such that his loss is deplored by all who were acquainted with
him, and more especially by the church over which he presided.
It seems that Elder Huntsman left descendants in the Church, as there are several family web sites that cite him as an ancestor. Unfortunately, they disagree in particulars, so the details of the life of this great man remain obscure.
Grampa certainly invites comments from any who can clear the fog a bit.
