FIELDING LANGFORD, born 24 Oct. 1804 (same year as James McClellan), was the first member of the Langford family to join the church. He and his wife, SARAH BETHURUM , were both born and raised in Kentucky. They were married in 1830 and some time in the next five years moved to Clay Co., Indiana, being among its first settlers. In July 1843 Fielding was baptized into the Church. He was one of two individuals in the entire county that joined this "peculiar sect". The missionaries had been teaching in the area, and of the 10 children of Walker Langford, only Fielding joined the church. After the martyrdom of the prophet, the other individual regretted his decision and returned to Clay Co., but Fielding remained true. It is not known whether Sarah ever joined the Mormon Church. If she did not, she certainly did not deter him from "gathering" with the Saints, and she was by his side during the difficult pioneering years in Utah.
Exactly when Fielding left Indiana to join the Saints is not known for sure. It is assumed that it was in 1846, after the Saints had left Nauvoo. There, he must have found a dismal scene- the temple desecrated, homes deserted or taken over by others, only the unfaithful or sick or aged remaining. Even many of these had been driven out of Nauvoo and had gathered in Council Bluffs and Pisgah Camps. He must have been saddened by the 300 new graves which appeared in the cemetery outside Winter Quarters. Many had died that winter mostly from scurvy, and malaria. For whatever reason, Fielding did not stay on at Winter Quarters, nor did he immigrate the next Spring. (While living in Indiana two of his 8 children had died and then he lost two more between the time he left Indiana and the time he crossed the plains in 1852. One was a teenage boy who had wanted badly to go to Zion and "see the Gatepost", but didn't make it. Perhaps it was because of the care given to these children that they waited, or for financial reasons).
Sarah had Kincaid relatives living in Platte Co., Missouri and so this is where they headed. Finally in 1852 the Langfords headed back up to Council Bluffs and joined a Mormon emigrant train to Utah. They traveled with the James Bay Co. leaving May 27 and arriving in Salt Lake Valley August 13. There were about 190 souls in this company including a contingent under the direction of John S. Higbee with a number of British converts. Also in this same company traveled the ISAAC TURNBAUGH family whose father's people, like the Langfords, had come from Kentucky, before moving to Illinois. James Harvey, Sr. was 21 years old on the trip and probably a great deal of strength to his parents. MARY CAROLINE TURNBAUGH , Isaac's daughter was then only 10, but may have attracted the eye of James, as he married her four years later when she was barely 15.
Although the Turnbaughs were part of this company crossing the plains, it is interesting to note that the Turnbaugh family were NOT members of the church. ISAAC and PARTHENA and their two children Mary Caroline and Thomas Jefferson Jones (a son through Parthena's former marriage) were on their way to the gold fields in California. After arriving in Utah they headed on their way- but only made it as far as Centerville where their team was stolen by Indians. The Mormons in the area befriended them and so they decided to stay on and were baptized in 1854. In 1866 they were called on a mission to Panaca, Nevada where Isaac is given credit for founding the town. Parthena died in 1869 in Bountiful and is buried in Willard. Isaac died in 1892.
There is no information on where the Langfords moved directly after they arrived in Salt Lake Valley. By the 1860 Utah census we find them in Willard, Box Elder Co. Utah and suppose that they were there as early as 1856. FIELDING and SARAH moved to Malta, Idaho sometime after that where Sarah died in 1863 from an insect bite while harvesting her garden. Two years after her death, Fielding married a Swedish immigrant named Caroline Christena Bocher, 40 years his junior. They had five children and then divorced sometime after 1875. During this time he lived in Panaca, Nevada, which was then Washington Co., Utah. The last two years of his life were spent at his daughter's home on Warm Creek Ranch near Oakley, Idaho. He was buried there in Aug. of 1882.
JAMES HARVEY LANGFORD SR. was under five years old when his father moved the family from Pulaski Co. Kentucky to Clay Co., Indiana. One wonders what a young boy of twelve must have thought when his father joined the Church in Indiana in 1843. It is not known if the rest of the family were baptized at the same time. (We know that James Harvey was baptized in Willard in 1856, but this could have been a re-baptism).
James Harvey was 21 when they reached the valley. He waited until he was 25 before marrying MARY CAROLINE (perhaps giving her time to grow up a little!) For 9 years after Mary Caroline and James Harvey were married they lived in Willard. Then around 1865, after the birth of their fifth child, they moved to Panaca, Nevada. During the next 15 years while in Panaca Mary Caroline was a Relief Society President and also a pioneer midwife delivering many babies including many of her grandchildren. Many of the men and boys in the town took on work at the mines that were discovered near Panaca. Some became inactive in the church during these years, but records show that James Harvey Jr., although he did work in the mines, continued to be active and hold leadership responsibilities in the church. During these years James Harvey Sr. and Mary Caroline had 6 more children but then, sadly, in 1880 she and James Harvey divorced. By 1887 Mary Caroline had married, as a polygamous wife, her second husband, Isaac Riddle, whom she later divorced. During these years she did a lot of temple work. At 72 she died in Provo and was buried in Manti.
After the divorce, James Harvey, Sr. went on a mission to his father's people in Indiana and then in 1900 at the age of 70 he moved to the colonies in Old Mexico to live near his son James Harvey, Jr. Here he farmed, raising watermelons, walnuts, almonds, pecans and apples. He died and was buried in 1908 in Oaxaca, Sonora, Mexico, at the age of 77. He was a Seventy at the time of his death and was in good standing in the Church.