The Datin Family Genealogy
At some time prior to 1840, and as early as 1834, the family, now including four children, namely William, Mary Elizabeth, Joseph Noel, and Rosalie moved west - first to Monroe County, Missouri - not far from present-day Hannibal, the storied Mississippi River town. It was here, too, that Noel acquired 240 acres of land about four miles south of Florida in August, 1834, only to sell it in 1847 for $500.
The Datins found a home in Florida (most of which were simple log houses), a small community of about 100 people in Monroe County, where they undoubtedly became neighbors of the Clemens Family, and their young son Samuel who later made his mark in the literary field as Mark Twain. And as John M. Clemens had done many times in the past, the part-time lawyer and proprietor packed up his family once again, this time to nearby Hannibal and everlasting fame for Sam Clemens.
From Florida, Noel moved about ten miles south to the small village of Santa Fe where he purchased two business lots in 1837, directly opposite the parcel acquired by John Clemens for his store. This did not prove fruitful as Noel expected, so he and his family crossed the Mississippi River and settled briefly at Quincy, Illinois, before moving further upriver to Nauvoo about 1848. By this time Nauvoo, once a bustling city of some 20,000 inhabitants, was virtually vacant as the majority of its original Mormon residents had bundled their belongings aboard wagon trains and sought the more peaceful environs of Utah.
Thomas L. Kane, writing for the bi-monthly newspaper of the Latter-Day Saints' Millennial Star of April 1851, was attracted by the city when he viewed it a few years earlier from the west bank of the Mississippi. Kane vividly described Nauvoo as it "lay glittering in the fresh morning sun ... crowned by a noble marble edifice, whose high tapering spire was radiant with white and gold." He crossed the wide river only to find nary a soul as he ventured through Nauvoo's solitary streets. "I went into empty workshops, ropewalks, and smithies. The spinner's wheel was idle; the carpenter had gone from his workbench and shavings, his unfinished sash and casing." He saw no one! One wonders what Noel saw when he first set foot here.
Noel and Nancy acquired the 60-acre farm of John E. Heath for $600 in 1852, but the sale was not recorded until 1853. The parcel stretches for a half a mile along the north side of county road 2200N, to the intersection of Road 1000E. Across that intersection, on the northeast corner, lies the property of Joseph Noel Datin purchased some years later. It was here on his 60-acres that Noel took up farming as he had done earlier in Kentucky, though Martha Ellen Datin, who first compiled the genealogical Datin Family Tree in the 1930s, wrote that Noel "learned the trade of a tanner" despite the fact he was "of noble birth and educated for the priesthood."
The Datin Family Genealogy (as prepared by Richard C. Datin, Jr., Reno NV)
Contact info: M. Datin, [email protected]
Contact info: M. Datin, [email protected]