Summer 1995 John Neff

John Neff Mill in East Millcreek Salt Lake City, Utah

John Neff II was born September 19, 1794 in Strasburg, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, a son of John and Barbara Herr Neff. Little is said about his youth. We are told that his parents were wealthy and gave their son a good education, both in English and in German. Various accounts talk about his fine penmanship, though we̓re not aware of an autobiography or any extensive personal writings that would expose his personal thoughts and feelings. Nonetheless, we can acquire a taste and flavor of what type of person John Neff II was by what has been written about him and his life by his contemporaries and others years later.

John grew up in Strasburg and there became a farmer, stock raiser and shrewd business man. His father and Frank Kendig were the owners of a woolen factory near his home but this business failed when John was quite young. John was able to buy them out at an auction sale at a very low figure because the neighbors, out of respect for the Neff family would not bid against him in purchasing his father̓s property. To the woolen factory,farming, and stock raising, he added a distillery where liquor was manufactured. His wealth, honor, and respect in the community were extensive. How extensive? It has been stated that at one time, his holdings amounted to half a million dollars. He was closely acquainted with President Buchannan, Thaddeus Stevens and other leading politicians of the time. He even met General Lafayette on his last visit to America and delighted in describing his distinguished personal appearance.

John Neff II married Mary Barr on January 12,1822. He was five feet six inches tall and weighed about 140 pounds, was 27 years old and was rather homely. She was about the same height, weighed about 160 pounds, was 21 years old and was very beautiful. Both were strict in their discipline of children and would use a stick in correcting them when they felt it was necessary. John was quite quick tempered and would whip the children severely when he thought they were not doing the right thing. However, he was an affectionate father and a true and faithful husband.

Amid this prosperity and wealth, in 1841 the Mormon Elders visited Strasburg. At a meeting in a nearby schoolhouse, John was converted to the L.D.S. faith on the words of a sermon given by Elder Henry Deem. Though it would mean giving up the Mennonite faith and the many friends who went with it John, Mary, and those in the family who were old enough were baptized on February 7, 1842. From that hour until his death his religion was to him the most precious thing in existence. Thus began a 27 year period until John̓s death in which his generosity, faith, obedience and kindness would know no limits. No sacrifice was too great to make for his faith.

Scattered throughout the various writings and histories about John Neff are examples of his untiring willingness to give of his wealth to help others. With all that is written, it can also be surmised that many of his kind deeds went to the grave with him as he avoided publicity, being reserved and modest.

In May of 1844, John went with his wife Mary and daughter Barbara to visit the Prophet Joseph Smith In Nauvoo, Illinois for the purpose of seeing and visiting the Prophet and to purchase property there. They stayed at the Mansion House with the Prophet̓s family. They had many conversations with him in private and heard his prophetic voice many times from the pulpit. While there, he gave several thousand dollars to the prophet to help (with the building of the Nauvoo Temple as well as to assist the Saints during the reign of mobocracy in Nauvoo.

After this visit, they returned home in Pennsylvania very much impressed and with an even firmer conviction that God was speaking through this young prophet. They continued in their arrangements to sell their property and holdings in Pennsylvania at great sacrifice in order to join the Saints in Nauvoo. As stated earlier, their holdings were worth one half million dollars and yet by the time they had sold them, their fortunes had shrunk to $100,000, still a vast amount of money in those days but only one-fifth of what it was all originally worth.

In 1846, after adopting the Nauvoo Covenant” in which members pledged themselves to the church policy of assisting mutually in the removal of the poor to the Far West, John donated $1,000 to release the ship Brooklyn from wharfage in New York harbor with Elder Samuel Brannan in charge of two hundred and thirty-five church members from New England and the Atlantic States.

When John Neff̓s family reached Nauvoo, the beautiful thriving industrial center had become desolate. Their next destination became Winter Quarters along with all of the other expelled Saints. From the Discourses of Brigham Young we find the following:

Discourses of Brigham Young, Pg. 311
“The great majority of men and ‘women do not know how to take care of themselves. Let me refer the whole of you to a circumstance in Winter Quarters. We left Nauvoo in February, 1846, made our own roads through Iowa, except some 40 or 50 miles, built bridges, cut down timber, turned out 500 men to go to Mexico, came this side of the Missouri river, and there wintered. How did you live there? Do you know how you got anything to eat? Brethren came to me, saying, ‘We must go to Missouri. Can we not take our families and go to Missouri, and get work?” Do you know, to this day, how you lived? I will tell you, and then you will remember it. I had not five dollars in money to start with; but I went to work and built a mill, which I knew we should want only for a few months, that cost 3,600 dollars. I gave notice that I would employ every man and pay him for his labor. If I had a sixpence, I turned it into 25 cents; and a half-bushel of potatoes I turned into a half-a-bushel of wheat. How did I do that? By faith. I went to Brother Neff, who had Just come in the place, and asked him for and received 2,600 dollars, though he did not know where the money was going. He kept the mill another year, and it died on his hands. I say, God bless him forever! for it was the money he brought from Pennsylvania that preserved thousands of men, women, and children from starving. I handled and dictated it, and everything went off smoothly and prosperously.” 6:173.

In 1847, John met with Brigham Young and offered to donate $1,000 to help the Saints at Winter Quarters get outfitted for crossing the plains.

In the early years of the Salt Lake Valley, many of John̓s friends and neighbors were without work. He hired many of them to help with building the flour mill, lumber mill, shingle mill, digging ditches for irrigation, sawing logs, etc. John Neff man-aged it all. He had an interesting way of determining whether a man was a good worker or not. When a man applied for work, John would tell him that he had a sickle or an axe to grind. The man would be asked to turn the grindstone while John would hold the axe. When he would raise the axe from the stone to feel its edge, the man would stop turning, John would take to the house, give him a good meal, and tell him he had no work for him. If the man continued to turn the grindstone while he tested the sharpness on the tool, the man was considered a good workman and was employed.

John had a working arrangement with Orrin Porter Rockwell where for many years, Porter acted as John̓s agent to help those in need. Over the years he did much to gather the poor from foreign lands as well as helping them after reaching their destinations.

He often went to Salt Lake and before returning home would always visit President Brigham Young and give him several hundred and many times a thousand dollars or more. One of those times he gave one thousand dollars to assist in the construction of the first penitentiary.

In the late 1850̓s when there was talk of establishing the United Order, John Neff turned over all of his real and personal property, the real estate by deed, to President Brigham Young. Sometime later, President Young returned it all because the Saints weren̓t ready to live it yet.

We could be left to wonder whether the Neff family ever yearned to return to the beautiful green lands of their former home in Pennsylvania. This is answered by a letter from Major Charles E. Wentz to a friend back in Lancaster County after visiting the Neff home in East Mill Creek. It stated in part that Mr. John Neff, formerly of Lancaster County, is one of the best farmers in this Territory. He has nearly two thousand acres of land embracing some of the best soil in the world; the greater part, however, is a desert. He has a large grist mill and a saw mill and is building a large mill for sawing shingles, lath, etc. He has cattle and sheep by the thousands to be seen grazing upon the mountain benches. He is considered one of the wealthiest men here. He has no desire to return to Lancaster, and is exceedingly happy in his religion. His wife is a perfect lady, one of the sweetest women of her age I ever saw. Mr. Neff told me with perfect sincerity that he had everything that his heart could desire. We passed a delightful day with them. They gave us a magnificent Lancaster County dinner... Among the preserves was watermelon butter. The edible part of the melon boiled down without sweetening of any kind. It was delicious.”

At his death, the Deseret News said of John Neff editorially:
“He was liberal with his means. When assistance was called for it was forthcoming . . . He lived and died a saint.”
(Editors Note: The preceding was taken from 15 writings from many sources. Thanks is given to all who contributed and wrote.)