Life Sketch of
Joseph Stallings

Joseph Stallings, youngest child of James and Eleanor (Trott) Stallings, was born August 26, 1813, near Annapolis, Anne Arundel County, Maryland. After the death of his mother, his father married Margaret King in December 1819, and two children, Rebecca and John Lewis Stallings were born to them.

Very little is known of Joseph Stallings’ early life. At the age of twenty-one, Joseph left Maryland and eventually ended up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania where he worked making planes. While in Lancaster, he met and married Margaret Shefflin a daughter of Hugh and Margaret (Brown) Shefflin on May 5, 1840. It was during this time that he was introduced to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and was baptized. Their first two children, William Nelson and Louisa Adelaide Stallings, were born in Lancaster.

In October of 1843, Joseph, Margaret, William Nelson and Louisa Adelaide Stallings, along with Margaret’s mother, Margaret Brown Shefflin, and her sister, Mary Ann Shefflin, left Lancaster and arrived in Nauvoo in December. Little is known about his activities in Nauvoo, except for the following: April 15, 1845 – Joseph Stallings was given a Patriarchal blessing by Patriarch John Smith, Sept. 22, 1845 – Joseph’s son, Joseph Heber Stallings, was born in Nauvoo, and on January 3, 1846 – Joseph Stallings received his endowments in the Nauvoo Temple.

Joseph and family left Nauvoo along with the other saints and traveled to Iowa, where they stayed for a time, trying to earn sufficient money to begin the journey to the Rocky Mountains. At Krosaqua (Keokuk/Keosagua), Iowa county, Iowa, their little daughter, Margaret Amelia was born in November 1847. From there they journeyed to winter Quarters, where in the winter of 1849, Joseph’s wife, Margaret, passed away, leaving four small children. That same winter Joseph married the widow Caroline (Hartford) Hussey, and two daughters, Florence Ione and Gertrude, were born to them.

On 27 June 1850, Joseph and his family began the journey westward from Kanesville, Iowa with an independent company under the direction of captain Stephen Markham, arriving in Salt Lake City, October 3, 1850. The Stallings settled at the mouth of Mill Creek Canyon, and it was here that Joseph Stallings built one of the early shingle mills in Utah.

Joseph was a rather small man being about five feet six or seven inches tall, of medium complexion and blue-gray eyes. Joseph worked as being a gunsmith and also a carpenter. About 1856 Joseph Stallings married Charlotte Jane Hussey, and ten children – seven boys and three girls – were born to them. On November 18, 1865, Joseph Stallings married Elizabeth Alice Barnes. Five children – four boys and one girl – were the issue of this marriage.

The Stallings family lived in Coalville, Summitt County, for a number of years. While living there Joseph assisted in building the Union Pacific railroad through Echo canyon. He also homesteaded land in Eden, Weber County. Joseph Stallings probably moved to Eden in about 1868, where he lived until his death in 1893.