One of my 2nd Great Grandfathers was
Philo Dibble Sr. and his son Philo
Dibble Jr. was my Great Grandfather. My father's mother (my Grandmother) was
Laura Antoinette Dibble, a daughter of Philo Jr. and Antoinette Cleveland.
One of my 2nd Great Grandfathers was
Philo Dibble Sr. and his son Philo
Dibble Jr. was my Great Grandfather. My father's mother (my Grandmother) was
Laura Antoinette Dibble, a daughter of Philo Jr. and Antoinette Cleveland.Philo Dibble Sr. was as much a part of early LDS Chuch history as was any of the early saints who joined the early mormon church back east and came out west with the mormon pioneers to Utah. But let's let Philo tell much of his own story by clicking on this link to his narative on the internet or the local copy inhanced.
Another history of Philo Dibble Sr. is fonnd under the title of LIFE HISTORY OF PHILO DIBBLE IN A CONDENSED FORM. While this history has some conflicting dates with others, the stories are the same and the diffences understandable due to the passage of time and human error. Today many items of interest may be found upon the internet concerning Philo Dibble Sr., some critical of Mormon which must be taken with a grain or even a bucket of salt. Just do a search upon his name. Use the safe search provided below to do so if you like. (See also Philo Dibble Information.)
'Quick study' historians and Mormon critics are the makers of untrue rumors and lies. After the death of his first wife, Celia Kent, Philo Dibble Sr. still had a family of young children. On February 11, 1841, Philo Dibble Sr. married a second wife, a widow named Hannah Ann (Dubois) Smith from Philadelphia. Her husband there was a John F. Smith who was no relation to the family of the Prophet Joseph Smith. This widow Smith already had had a daughter, Mary Jane Smith born 27 July 1833 at Jacksonville (she doesn't seem to have made it to Nauvoo as only Peter is recorded there) and a son named Peter Akers Smith born 4 May 1835 by her former husband John F. Smith. She had become a member of the Mormon Church and had moved to Nauvoo where she became aquainted with the family of of the Prophet Joseph Smith as the Prophet's family ran a house or inn which helped to house such new members and visitors to the city.
As Philo Dibble Sr. had become recently widowed (Celia Kent Dibble died 16 October 1840 of Ague) and Philo was left with five young children. This new Sister Smith was also widowed with children of her own and it seemed like a possible match which was perhaps facilitated by the Prophet Smith. And it was the Prophet Joseph Smith who performed the marriage of Philo and Hannah in his home as Philo Dibble Sr. was a friend of the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Now as to Hannah Ann Dubois (Smith) Dibble's 'second child', which quick and dirty historians and Mormon critics like to portary as a child of Joseph Smith's secret plural marriage to this 'Miss' Smith, that child was born on January 7, 1842, eleven months following her marriage to Philo Dibble and some two years after Joseph Smith had visited the branch in Philadelphia (November 1839 - February 1840) where lived Benjamin Winchester, the primary instigator of the rumor of Joseph's polygamist act which gave birth to this supposed second child of Hannah Dubois was to have been, and that it happened during that visit by Joseph to Philadelphia in 1839-1840. That would be some 'extra long term pregnancy', some two years in length November 1839/February 1840 to January 1842.
The truth is that Hannah's rumored 'second child', Hannah Ann Dibble who was born on January 7, 1842, was the legitimate daughter of Hannah Ann Dubois (Smith) Dibble and Philo Dibble Sr. who had been married some 10-11 months prior on February 11, 1841. And thus Winchester's whole fabrication which accused the Prophet Joseph Smith of impregnating Hannah Ann Dubois Smith during his visit to Philadelphia in November 1839-February 1840 and then returning to Nauvoo to have her 'immediately' marry Philo Dibble to cover up the alleged 'illegitimate polygamist birth' completely falls apart as to being the lie that it is. Hannah married Philo on February 11, 1841, a year after Joseph had been in Philadelphia. No immediacy of 'cover up' there. And as to the actual birth of the 'alledged child', that occured on January 7, 1842, eleven months after Philo's marriage to Hannah, that child was the daughter of Philo Dibble Sr. and that conception could have only have happened after the marriage of Philo Dibble Sr. and Hannah Ann Dubois Smith, the birth occuring at about 11th months after the marriage date. Just when was the birth of the 'cover-up' child to have occured on that time table? NOT!
More likely is the logical fit that Winchester, who refers to Hannah as 'Miss Smith' in 1839, may have had some designs on her himself and when he became disaffected with the Church after a run in with Apostle John E. Page in September 1841. Prior to that he had attended the December 23, 1839 conference wherein the Philadelphia Branch was organized by the visiting Prophet Joseph Smith. And some three months after that Benjamin was installed as the Presiding Elder of that branch. Not the initial actions of one who would have to be aware of any such behavior by Joseph Smith as he falsely reported he was. And though the 'whole lie' falls apart based upon the facts of reality, still the 'quick and dirty' historian and Mormon critic will pick up on it. (See Alleged Sexual Impropriety Between Joseph Smith and 'Miss Smith')
In respect to this allegation of Benjamin Winchester concerning Hannah Ann Dubois Smith, the then wife of Philo Dibble Sr., Joseph Smith himself stated that Winchester in his statements of such to Pheladelphia's Mormons had 'told one of the most damnable lies about him.' And since much of John Hyde's like assertion was in his 1857 anti-Mormon book which 'paired Joseph Smith with Hannah Dubois Smith Dibble was based upon Winchesters contrived fallacious hearsay evident tell, such would have been Joseph's like response concerning John Hyde as well. And since Hannah Ann Dubois Smith Dibble is my second great grandfather's second wife, my second great step-grandmother, that would have to be my opinion of Hyde and Winchester as well. Their lies will damn them to the infernal regions, which will subject them to Lucifer.