Libbeus Thaddeus Coon, sometimes spelled Coons, was born in Hopkinton, Washington, Rhode Island, on May 13, 1911. His parents were Thomas Coon and Elizabeth Crandall. His parents were first cousins. His father was the son of Thomas (1737) and Anne Crandall. His mother was the daughter of Joseph Crandall and Mary Ladd. His Grandfather Crandall and Grandmother Coon were brother and sister. The Crandall line can be traced back to King Edward I of England. The Coon name is a derivative of Meekoone. The father of Thomas Coon (1737) is listed as Joseph Meekoone.
By 1831 Libbeus had married Mary Ann Williamson, daughter of John Williamson and Nancy Sickles or Sickels, of Rensselaer County, New York. Mary Ann was born August 11, 1812, at Springfield, Otsego, New York.
They were living in Plymouth, Chenango, New York, when they first heard of the ‘Golden Bible’ and the Mormon Prophet, Joseph Smith, who lived nearby in Fayette.
The new religion spread quickly through central New York state. Most of the people in this area were Universalists and believed in life after death. The new religion was readily accepted by the people in the area around Colesville, New York and they became known as the ‘Colesville Saints’. In April 1830, Oliver Cowdery preached the first public discourse on the new belief and converts were drawn into the group. Relatives expressed convictions to friends and relatives, and by the first of June 1830, the membership had grown to 60 people. Joseph Smith in company with John Whitmer, David Whitemer, and Hyrum Smith visited the Colesville Branch and assembled them together and confirmed them members of the new church.
L.T. and Mary Ann Coon were baptized into the new religion on November 10, 1832.
They moved soon afterward to Kirtland, Lake County, Ohio, where the saints had gathered together for strength and sustaining support for each other, due to the persecution prevalent in the New York area.
Their first child, Adeline, was born there, on November 21, 1833.
L.T. made the courageous trek with the ‘Zion’s Camp’ members. They journeyed from Kirtland to Missouri, with the Prophet to “save the land for the saints. This trek lasted from May 1 to June 21, 1834. The Camp was discharged on the 23rd of June, on the banks of the Rush creek, near Liberty, Missouri. Not one battle was fought. Cholera was a greater foe than the mob and L. T. came through the experience unharmed and returned to his family back in Kirtland.
Many great leaders of the Latter-day Saints Church came out of this group of brave dedicated men, who marched on for many miles to ‘save Zion.’
L.T. had a healing power and is thought to have been a doctor.
In a biographical sketch of him it is said, ‘Libeus T. Coons, a member of Zions Camp, became a convert to “Mormonism” in the early days of the Church, shortly after which, he was blessed and set apart by the Prophet Joseph Smith to nurse the sick, to whom he often brought great blessings and comfort.
In the 1870 Census of Utah County, Payson District, Libeus Coons, is listed as a ‘doctor’.
At this time, 1834, many of the members of the Zion’s Camp, were ordained to the ministry and sent on missions. L.T. was ordained a member of the First Quorum of Seventies, May 2, 1835, and sent on a mission.
A daughter, Susan , was born February 1, 1835, at Harrison, Adair, Iowa. At that time, this was frontier and very much Indian Territory, which suggests that this was the mission area L.T. was sent.
The Coon family joined the main body of the church in Illinois, sometime before 1839,when a son, Sidney was born at Smithfield, Hancock County, Illinois, on August 1, 1839. Smithfield was a few miles southeast of Nauvoo.
In 1842, a daughter, Mary Alvira, was born, in Mercer, Hancock, Illinois, March 13.
The prophet Joseph Smith was often a visitor to the Coon home during this time.
In a general conference of the church in April of 1844, the brethren were asked to go on another mission ‘to preach, and expound the virtues of Joseph Smith as president of the United States.’ L.T. was one of those who volunteered.
He had been called to be a High Priest, November 12, 1843, but did not receive his ‘license’ until May 18, 1844, just before he left for the Tennessee mission.
He returned to the Nauvoo area after the martyrdom of Joseph Smith on July 27, 1844, when the brethren rallied together at a conference, presided over by Brigham Young. This conference, held on October 6, 1844, was one of the great missionary planning movements that marked the growth of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Men from the High Priests Quorum were selected to ‘go abroad in all Congressional districts in the United States to preside over the branches of the Church’. L.T. was one of those chosen. The brethren were advised to take their families with them and to strengthen the members of the church with their own faith.
About 1844-45, a daughter, Martha Ann Coon was born somewhere in Indiana. Family records have listed as ‘died in infancy in Indiana’. This suggests the area that the Coons family may have been sent on their mission.
1845 finds the Coon family back near Nauvoo again. The temple there had been completed and ordinances were being performed. L.T. Coon and Mary Ann were endowed on the 31st of December 1845, and were sealed together with celestial blessings on the 24th of January, 1846.
Elizabeth Maria Dixon is also on Nauvoo Temple records as being sealed to Libbeus Thaddeus Coons, the same day.
After the saints were driven from Nauvoo, across the river to the Iowa Territory, the Coon family were next recorded in the western part of what is now Mills County. Then it was Pottawattamie Indian Land. The area was named Council Bluffs and other settlements were made nearby. Council Bluffs later was named Kanesville.
A daughter, Minnie Patience Coon was born July 17, 1846, at Bethlehem, Mills, Iowa. Dates of the exact day are in conflict, being given as the 13, 17, and 27.
L.T. was called to be Branch President of his area. He named the place Coonsville, which later became Union. Andrew Allen and Juthsthan Averett were his counselors in the branch.
The saints exile lasted several winters on the Indian lands and Winter Quarters was a gathering place for many years. In 1850 there were 7,828 saints there and by 1852, the land was mostly deserted as most of the saints had migrated to Utah by then.
The brethren called to branch presidents had the responsibility of organizing the migrating saints into work groups, as well as being responsible for their spiritual well being. One migrating group would till the soil, the next would plant the seed, the next would cultivate the crops, or harvest them, depending on how long they tarried in one place.
This way the food supply was available for those who needed it during their migration.
In 1850, a son, Libbeus Thaddeus Coon, Jr., was born, March 1, at Keg Creek, Mills, Iowa. Keg Creek was a small creek running into the Missouri River.
The Coon family stayed in Iowa for many years after the saints migrated to Zion. The 1950 Census of Pottawattamie, Murfreesboro District , page 167, family, 305/305; lists Bybuis (Libbeus) Coon, LDS Clergy, age 38, Mary age 37, Adeline age 17, Susan age 122, Patience age 4, Lybuis age 6 ½ and Chancy Coon, age 22, born in New York. ( He could be a nephew)
The youngest child, John Williamson Coon, was born December 7, 1853, at Bethlehem, Mill, Iowa.
The L.T. Coons family did not migrate to Utah until around 1860.
Libbeus Thaddeus Coon missed being one of the founding pioneers in Salt Lake Valley. When the family arrived in Utah, the area was populated with over 200 settlements. Many new names were among the leaders of the church. His former friends were scattered throughout the vast area. He was not called to a prominent position in the church leadership. After his arrival in Zion, he resided in a number of places, Heber City, Salem, Payson, Provo area, and finally died in Richfield, Utah on July 7, 1872, leaving a large posterity. His sons, having plural wives; and his many daughters gave him many grandchildren. He is buried in Richfield.
Mary Ann Williamson Coon died November 27, 1867, at Heber City, Wasatch, Utah, age 56, 1 month, and 3 days.
Libbeus T. Coons family can be found on the 1870 Census of Utah County, Utah. Poundtown, Payson District, family 70/68.
Libuis Coons, 60 year old, occupation; doctor, real estate valued at $150/150, born in New York; wife, Esther, age 24, keeping house, born in England; son John, age 16, at home, attending school, born in Iowa; Eliza, age 2 at home, born in Utah, mother of foreign birth. Also listed in the household; Libeus Coon, age 20 years, at home, born in Iowa, and Delia E. Coon, age 17, keeping house, born in Iowa. Census taken July 19, 1870.
Church records show that Esther Marshall, born in Lockport, Cheshire, England, Oct 1, 1845, was sealed to Lebbuis Thaddeus Coons of Chenango County, New York on 13 July 1867, Lebbuis Thaddeus Coons listed as being born May 11, 1811.
It is this Esther that is on the 1870 Census with L.T. Coons.
Many of the Coon descendants settled in San Pete, Wasatch, Utah and Sevier Counties in Utah. And because of the Manifesto against polygamy many of them went to the Gila Valley in Arizona, settling in the southern part of that state.