According to his great granddaughter, Irene Brown Maritneau, "He was not a tall man. He was of a very fair complexion. His disposition was kind, generous, and cheerful. He was neat and clean about his personal appearance." The vital records of Alstead, Cheshire County, New Hampshire show that he was born February 1, 1810 to John Brown and Betsy Webster. He was raised in a religious atmosphere with some degree of refinement and culture.
We do not have record of his baptism, but early in 1834 we find Samuel in Kirtland, Ohio, a widower and a member of the despised Mormon Church. In May of 1834, he answered the call of the Prophet for volunteers to join the expedition known as "Zion's Camp". On February 28, 1835, he was called to be a member of the first quorum of Seventy and was set apart by Joseph Smith.
The Kirtland Temple was dedicated on Sunday, March 27, 1836. Samuel was an usher in the temple, and that was where he met 21 year-old Lydia Maria Lathrop. A short time later, they were married.
Lydia Maria Lathrop
Described as being refined, capable, industrious, and devout, she assumed care of Samuel's four year-old son and raised him as her own. She was born to Grant Lathrop and Sybil Bliss whose lineage goes back to Reverend John Lathrop, who, after being expelled from England by the Church of England, with his flock settled at a place called Barnstable in Massachusetts.
The Reverend is also an ancestor of Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, Wilford Woodruff and Parley P. Pratt. According to Irene Martineau, "Further research also establishes her lineage to the Reverend John Robinson, who, while living in Leydon, Holland, sent part of his flock on the Mayflower to establish the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts.
"In the year of 1837 the Saints in Kirtland, because of violent threatenings and persecutions due to evil falsehoods, found it necessary to sacrifice their possessions and flee to join the Saints in Missouri. Samuel and Lydia established themselves in Jacksonville, Davies County, no far from Gallatin, the county seat. They were forced from there in the winter of 1839.
"We find them again in September of 1842 as a family of five settled in Nauvoo, Illinois in a very nice six-room home near the Mississippi River. They were again forced from their home in the summer of 1846 to exit Nauvoo, and, along with other Saints, start the long, tedious trek across the plains."
