Archives West Finding Aid

Frederick Kesler (1816-1899) was born 20 January 1816, to Frederick and Mary Sarah Linsey Kesler, in Crawford County, Pennsylvania. He was of German and English descent. Mr. Kesler, Sr., was a trapper of fur bearing animals, and the family lived in small cabins located on streams and lakes and surrounded by dense forests. There were three boys and three girls in the family--Peter, Jacob, Frederick, Mary (?), Sally, and Polly. Mrs. Kesler died when her sixth child was born.

After the death of his wife, Mr. Kesler put his children in homes nearby and "went West" and was not heard from again. Frederick Kesler says "thus we were left orphans at tender years of age. We very seldom seen each other. One of my sisters I have not seen but once since we were thus seperated. We grew up amongst strangers and to a very great extent became strangers to each other and as we grew up scattering over the country and thus becoming lost to each other."

Frederick Kesler lived with the Edward Campbell family until he was nearly fifteen years of age, at which time he apprenticed himself to a millwright. At age nineteen he first contracted to build mills. In 1835 he built sawmills and a grist mill--the first flour mill in Iowa.

Frederick Kesler Married Emeline Parker in 1836. Shortly after their marriage both became very ill of an unknown fever. When they were somewhat recovered he took Emeline to stay with her mother in eastern Ohio, and he went south by boat, leaving on 4 December 1837, and returning 5 May 1838. During this trip he built a large double sawmill and put into operation a corn mill, cotton gin, and cotton press in the vicinity of Vicksburg, Mississippi.

In 1839 Frederick Kesler first heard of the Mormons. He visited Nauvoo and met Joseph Smith. Frederick and Emeline Kesler were Baptized in June of 1840 and they lived in the Augusta Branch in Iowa. On October 2, 1841, Frederick saw Joseph Smith put the Book of Mormon manuscript in the southeast cornerstone of the Nauvoo House.

Frederick Kesler left Augusta on 2 September 1842, to "go East" to do missionary work. When he returned he brought Emeline's mother, step-father, and three small children with him. In 1845 Frederick moved to Nauvoo to work on the temple.

After the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, the Kesler family left Nauvoo on 16 April 1846. They arrived at Council Bluffs on 11 June 1846, where Frederick Kesler built a ferryboat which ran day and night. Kesler worked six hours on and six hours off day and night while "hundreds of waggons and thousands of people crossed the river." In 1847 he built a mill to grind corn in Kansas City, Jackson County, Missouri.

Because he needed money for the trip west, in 1848 Frederick Kesler went to Texas to raise funds for this purpose. In 1849 he built a mill for the Pottawattomi Indians one hundred miles west of Kansas City.

In the spring of 1851, the Kesler family started toward Salt Lake City in the Orson Pratt Company. They arrived in Salt Lake on 1 October 1851.

Frederick Kesler planned to build a mill at Box Elder for himself, but President Brigham Young wanted him to build mills for the church, and he began immediately. He continued in this work until 1865 when an accident left him with a broken leg and hip which never healed. he continuted in an advisory capacity.

In 1854 and again in 1858 Frederick Kesler made extensive trips east to purchase machinery and other manufacturing supplies for the church. During these trips he visited mills, factories, shops, and supply places in St. Louis, Pittsburg, Philadelphia, and New York. He observed and studied many operations and purchased large consignments of materials.

Frederick Kesler was active in church organizations--he served as bishop of the Sixteenth Ward from April 7, 1856, until his death on 12 June 1899. He was director of the penitentiary sixteen years and also served for a time as warden. He was a justice of the peace for eight years and district school trustee for many years.

Frederick Kesler had three wives--Emeline Parker, whom he married in 1836, Jane Elizabeth Pratt in 1853, and Abigail Snow in 1858. He fathered thirty children--fifteen sons and fifteen daughters. Seven girls died when less than two years of age; three children, two boys and one girl died as teenagers. Emeline and Abigail divorced Frederick in 1872. Jane Elizabeth survived him. He died in Salt Lake City on 12 June 1899, at age eighty-three.

(Biographical information was obtained from Frederick Kesler's Autobiography and Andrew Jenson, "Latter-Day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia" 4 vols., Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1901-1936)