Leah Fickes was born 2 June, 1807 in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. She is the second child of John & Mary Elizabeth Rudysill Fickes, her siblings are, Ralph, Sarah, Jacob, Eliza, Catherine, John, David, Samuel, Charles, and George.
Leah was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on 11 January, 1838.
Amos Stoddard was born 13 September, 1808 in Sterling, New York. He is the second child born to Curtis & Permelia West Stoddard. Amos was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on 6 March, 1842.
Amos and Leah were married 17 March, 1836 in Mediana, Ohio. Eight children were born to them; Lydia Elizabeth Stoddard, 1836 – 1887; John Martin Stoddard, 1839 – 1910; Charles Francis Stoddard, born 1840 or 1847; Eliza Fickes Stoddard, born about 1841; Mary Jane Stoddard, 1842 – 1923; Elsie Permelia Stoddard, 1845 – 1907; and Jane Stoddard, born about 1847.
Records show that Amos had property in Missouri during the time the Saints tried to settle there. Amos & Leah also lived in several towns in Illinois, eventually moving to Nauvoo. Leah's parents and many of her siblings had moved from Pennsylvania to Illinois (westward migration), however there is no evidence that they ever joined the LDS Church.
Then about 1848, with Amos' two brothers, Benjamin and Charles and their families, and their seventy year old mother, Permelia West Stoddard, they left Nauvoo with the rest of the church in the Nauvoo Exodus. There would always remain vivid memories for Amos and Leah of leaving Nauvoo with their fields of grain and their house and barn in flames from the mobs.
Amos mother, Permelia died June 27, 1849, while they were camped at Council Bluffs, Iowa.
In 1850, Amos and Leah brought their family to Utah in the William Snow & Joseph Young Company. In the company records we find; Amos Stodard, 8 People, 1 Wagon, 7 Cattle.
The journey across the plains was hard physically and emotionally. Their son, Charles, who was only three years old, became ill and died, he is buried somewhere on the prairies. Their son, John Martin, who was nine years old, walked most of the way to the valley, even though he was cripple. When he was younger he and an ailment from swimming in very cold water, that crippled him in both of his knees.
The family arrived in Salt Lake City on the 15th of October 1850. They lived there for about two years. During that time, Amos became a High Priest in the LDS Church, ordained 8 April 1854 by D. Pettegrew, R. Cahoon, and G. B. Wallace. He received a patriarchal blessing by John Smith on 26 February 1852, in the North Canyon Ward, declaring that he was of the lineage of Ephraim.
In 1852, Amos and Leah went north to the Ogden area, living first in Uinta, at the mouth of Weber Canyon for about a year, the moving to Burch (Birch) Creek. (Birch Creek is just up the hill from Uinta, now present day South Ogden). They lived there for eleven years. In Burch Creek the family lived in the area of Old Post Road. A barn on the farm was still standing when the heavy snow of 1983/84 struck, causing the roof to collapse.
The years of hardship and sacrifice had taken their toll on Church members. The Stoddard family spent their every waking hour trying to provide the immediate needs of their family members and to try to provide some semblance of financial security for the future. Amos and Leah's daughter, Elsie Permelia, related what a struggle it was to maintain the necessities of life. As she got old enough little Elsie would go to the hills and dig what she called Sego Lilies for her breakfast. Sego Lilies grow wild and they are something like we would call hog potatoes. Her mother and father drank tea and she would work and earn enough to buy a pound of tea which sold for $5 per pound. She would work for a week for one yard of calico. Elsie worked for months to get one book for herself that was called a primer. In which she learned her alphabet, but she was only permitted to go to school six weeks of her life. Even so, she became an avid reader of the scriptures and all good books. All of the children in the family had to work long, hard days. But they were a loving, close knit family.
Many LDS Church record had been lost with the move from Nauvoo to Utah. New branches, districts, wards and stakes had been organized only as the heavily burdened leaders from Salt Lake City could get to them. Because of this problem and numerous others in the Ogden area, there was a strong movement of dissenters. There is absolutely no indication that Amos or any of his family joined any of the dissenter groups, there is evidence of just the opposite.
Amos was known as a friend of the Indians who lived throughout the area. He was also a good industrious farmer.
Amos died 16 February, 1878 in Birch Creek.
Leah died five years later, 22 November, 1883 in Uintah.
They are both buried in the Uintah, Utah Cemetery.
It is noted on the family group sheet that Amos married (2) Ruth, ___, on 18 August, 1856, and (3) Eliza Fickes, 13 December 1871. There is no evidence of any children being born to these two unions. Leah had a sister named Eliza but her death is recorded much earlier than the marriage date. I would suspect that Leah had her sister sealed (LDS Temple) to Amos, though there was probably never an actual marriage. Other research needs to be completed.