It appears that Joel Ricks is mentioned in the July 15,
1841
issue of the Times
and Seasons as subscribing. They lived in Alton,
Illinois at
the time and he had been baptized just the month before so this is
almost
certainly referring to him, even though the city is different.
"A list of receipts by letter for the second volume of the Times and
Seasons, during the third quarter....Joel Ricks, Edwardsville,
Ill.,
3 00"
Mentioned
in the Lyman
Littlefield
Reminiscences (1888).
Mentioned in the Sarah Rich Autobiography,
typescript,
BYU-S, p.43
[1]:
So I set to work to prepare myself and family to be as comfortable
as we could with what little means we had, for we wanted to start out
with
the first company and President Young wanted us to start in the first
company,
the same as he and his family were going in the first company. As there
were only a few hundred families going to start out in this company;
others
were to follow on from time to time as it should be thought wisdom for
them to do so.
I will now mention one good brother that came forward and
offered to
assist us with a wagon and team, and his young son to drive our team
until
we came to a stopping place, where the team and boy could be sent back.
It was Brother Joel Ricks, and the boy he sent at
that time was
his son Thomas, only 16 or 17 years old. Other brethren also turned out
teams to help carry provisions, tents and other things necessary for
such
a journey!
Joel was a member of the High Priest's Quorum presidency
for
Cache Valley. From The
History of a Valley, by his grandson [?] Joel E. Ricks,
page 276:
[November, 1859] The
following members
of the High Priest's Quorum met at Brother David B. Dille's to organize
a quorum -- David B. Dille, Joel Ricks, John P. Wright, John Nelson,
John E. Jones, Ebenezer Sanders, Lemuel Mallory, Thomas E. Ricks,
William B. Preston, moved, seconded and carried that David B. Dille be
President over all the High Priests on the East side of Cache Valley;
that Joel Ricks be first counselor and that John Pannell Wright be
second counselor, also that John Pannell Wright be Clerk of said quorum.
....
At the next meeting of the high priests, held at the home of Joel
Ricks, November 29, 1859, high priests from other settlements joined
the Logan high priests.
Joel was one of the first 6 Patriarchs in Cache
Valley. The
History of a Valley,
page 276:
In 1873 only thiry-nine
years after
Joseph Smith, Sr. was ordained presiding patriarch of the Mormon
Church, President Brigham Young, speaking in Logan, announced that
patriarchs would be ordained in every large settlement; and six were
ordained in Logan, namely: William Earl, William Ballard,
Joel
Ricks,
Lemuel Mallory, Hans Anderson, and Solomon Lundberg. These
are
the
first patriarchs listed in Cache Valley.
Joel's
grave
marker in the Logan Cemetery
Sarah Beriah Fiske, Joel's second wife
(a plural
marriage):
(Photo from Daughters of the Utah Pioneers and Their Mothers, p. 137
[1])
[1] Taken from the Infobases LDS Family History Suite, 1996
edition.
[2] Special Collections and Archives, Merrill Library, Utah
State
University. P0315 Nibly Family Photographs, 1:09:09
[1]
