Henry Alanson Cleveland was born January 4, 1809, in Sharvie, Green County, New York, the son of Searing Cleveland. Little is known of his early life, but in time he moved to Nauvoo, Illinois, having been the first in Searing's family to join the Church in May of 1830, also being one of the first one hundred Saints to join.

In Nauvoo he lived as a neighbor to the Prophet Joseph Smith. His son, Henry Roger, carried milk and butter to the Prophet's home.

Henry Alanson, acting as the Prophet's bodyguard, received a bullet in his shoulder and this mark of his devotion to his revered leader he carried to his grave.

He left Nauvoo in 1846 with his family, crossing the river to Council Bluffs, there went on another thirty miles where he purchased a farm. Within six years from this time he began preparations for the journey west with the remainder of the Saints who were being driven from their homes. In exchange for his farm he received the running gear of a wagon, which, together with another wagon, he equipped for the long trek across the plains, one to be drawn by oxen, the other by cows. Lot Smith, later famous in western history, was in charge of this company which reached Salt Lake City October 3, 1852.

Here the family remained for a couple of weeks to attend the General Conference of the Church. Then they journeyed north twelve miles to the small village of Centerville, Davis County. Here he purchased ten acres of land from Lyman Porter for the sum of two hundred dollars.

Before leaving New York state Henry Alanson married Ann Slade (Rogers) a widow and mother of two small girls. Ann was born in Marlboro, Vermont, daughter of Aaron and Mary Knight Slade.

They settled for life in Centerville, encountering the usual and expected number of pioneering experiences He dragged logs from the nearby canyons and hewed them by hand so that by April 1855 their tiny log cabin was completed.

He and his two sons helped make, by hand, adobes from the bottom land clay and laid them as their contribution to the constuction of the defensive "Old Fort Wall," a measure of safety against marauding Indians.

Henry Alanson was chosen second counselor to Bishop William Reed Smith in 1856 but was released a short time later in order to fulfill an honorable mission to the Salmon River country in Idaho.

Three children were born of this marriage as follows: Henry Rogers and George William, both living their entire married lives in Centerville, and their sister Antoinette who married Philo Dibble and moved to Layton, Utah.

Henry Alanson passed away in 1867, his wife Ann in 1872. Both were buried in the Centerville Cemetery.

CARL SM1TH