AROLINE WADSWORTH NELSON ARAVE MARY ANN WILLIAMS Nelson Arave Early-Day Settler "In about 1836 my father and grandfather were drowned in the St. Lawrence River while rafting logs for our home in Southern Canada. In 1837 my mother went to Potsdam, St. Lawrence County, New York, where she married a man named Myers. My mother's name was Jeanette. I had a brother, Louis, who was born in 1836. I was born in 1834. I had a sister. That is all I can remember about it." Thus wrote Nelson Arave to a grandson who was serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Nelson was born in the State of New York on 20 December 1834. He was the youngest child of Louis Joseph and Jeanette McFerson Arrivee. When he was three his family had moved to Canada to prove up on some land. His mother, being English, spoke no French and decided to return to St. Law¬rence, New York, following the death of her husband. She joined a caravan but had to ride horseback. She could take only two of her children on the horse. Nelson was left with neighbors who promised to bring the boy to his mother the following Spring. Instead, they went west with the Saints and Nelson never saw his family again. This is about all the Arave family know about their grandfather, Nelson Arave. Nelson's mother had left him with the family of Jesse Lampson, early converts to the Church. The Lampsons traveled to Nauvoo, Illinois, taking young Nelson with them. He remembered as a youth escorting his elderly guardian to many Church meetings. He also remembered hearing President Brigham Young speak in Conference with the voice of the Prophet, Joseph Smith, after the martyrdom. 135