William Van Orden Carbine

Contributed By · 2013-10-08

From LATTER-DAY SAINT BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA CARBINE, William Van Orden, a Patriarch in the Union Stake of Zion and a resident of La Grande, Oregon, was born Feb. 17, 1835, at Cairo, Greene county N. Y., the son of Edmond Z. Carbine and Adelia Rider. His parents became converts to "Mormonism" in 1841 in Greene county, N. Y., and migrating to Illinois in 1842, they located about six miles from Nauvoo, on the road to Carthage, and the father taught school at Camp Creek. When the persecutions against the Saints subsequently broke out, the family were exposed to great danger and passed through many hardships. Together with the exiled Saints the Carbine family left Nauvoo for the wilderness in the spring of 1846. The father was stricken with the fever after they arrived on the Missouri river and died August 27, 1846. The widow with her children subsequently located at Winter Quarters, where William was baptized by Benjamin L. Clapp in 1847. He migrated to Great Salt Lake Valley with Bishop Newel K. Whitney in 1848, crossing the plains in Heber C. Kimball's company, together with his uncle, the late Hector C. Haight. He located at Farmington In 1843. Attaching himself to Capt. Hancock's military company he served In the Walker war and later accompanied Col. Chauncey W. West's company on an expedition Into Marsh valley. He participated in the Echo canyon expedition during the winter of 1857¬8, and was one of the Relief company sent under Capt. Horton D. Haight to the relief of the Salmon river mission In 1858. In 1861 (Feb..25th) he married Susan Hulda Miller, daughter of Daniel A. Miller. During the Black Hawk war in 1866 he served under Capt. Robt. T. Burton in Sanpete county. His wife Susan died May 26, 1867, and three years later (May 30, 1870) he married Sarah J. Miller, daughter of Henry W. Miller. His children by his first wife (Susan Carbine) were William Arnold (born Dec. 25, 1S61) and Edmond Z. (born Sept. 25, 1864). His second wife's children are William H., Alma M., Sarah L., Horton David, Adella E., Daniel A., Susan M., Lucy E., Everett V. 0., Julia A., Francis H. and Clarissa J. Elder Carbine was ordained a Seventy by Truman Leonard in 1858, and in 1870 he moved to Clarkston, Cache County. Utah. He was ordained a High Priest May 20, 1877, and set apart to act as counselor to Bishop Jardine of Clarkston. Here he also served as postmaster for ten years, constable two years and justice of the peace six years. In 1886 he moved to Parker, Fremont county, Idaho, where he served as first counselor in the Bishopric for ten years, after which he served as an alternate member of the High Council of the Fremont Stake of Zion. He was ordained a Patriarch by John Henry Smith Jan. 20, 1902, and in the fall of the same year he moved to La Grande, Oregon, which is his present home. Bro. Carbine came with his parents to Nauvoo in 1842 and was present at the meeting held August 8, 1844, when the mantle of Joseph fell on Brigham Young. Writing of this Incident Bro. Carbine says: "Though I was only a boy, I remember it quite distinctly, and I told my mother that the Prophet was not dead, for I had seen him on the stand."