The Beginning
John Doyle Lee was born September 6th, 1812 in Kaskaskia, Illinois. He was named for his maternal grandfather, John Doyle, who was one of the original eight settlers of the area. Doyle fought under George Rogers Clark and was wounded in the Revolutionary War.. He later became either the first or second school teacher in the state of Illinois. His wife was a great granddaughter of the indian Chief Wahunsunacock (aka Chief Powhatan, the father of Pocahantas.)


John's father, Ralph Lee, was the second cousin of southern General Robert E. Lee. Ralph was a carpenter by trade and a cattle owner but when his wife Elizabeth became ill he began to drink heavily. After Elizabeth died (when John was three) he lived in his Grandfathers house and was taken care of by a black nurse who spoke only French. As a result of spending four years in her care, John spoke no English when he went to live with an aunt and uncle at the age of seven. His aunt was very cruel to him and the children called him "Gumbo" because of his French tongue. He rarely heard anything of his father.


At the age of fifteen John took a job as a mail carrier. He worked at this job for six months, then returned to manage his uncles farm. Although later he himself would teach other men to read and write, he spent only three months on formal education during this time.


Upon breakout of the Black Hawk War in 1832 he joined up with the Third Regiment, Second Brigade, of the Illinois Mounted Volunteers. After his short stint in the Army he set his sights on manhood and marriage. He went to St. Louis and took a job on a riverboat and later as a store clerk, warehouse attendant and bartender. The girl he had courted since he was sixteen turned down his marriage proposal but while visiting his sister Eliza in Vandalia he met Agatha Ann Woolsey who, on July 24th, 1833, became what would be the first of his nineteen wives.


By the age of twenty-six he had become quite successful but had also buried two of his first three children. Raised a Catholic, he was impressed by the honesty and sincerity of a Mormon Elder he had met and intrigued by the anger and resentment that the man and his message brought out in the other local clergymen. He thought that perhaps they would not be so bitter were they not afraid that this man spoke the truth. While sitting, grief-stricken, with the body of his young daughter, he read from the Book of Mormon. From that night on, he never swayed from the Mormon faith and was a believer even after being excommunicated and exiled and eventually sacrified by the church leaders.


He shared his new faith with his wife Agatha, who had also been impressed with what she had learned of Mormonism and together they decided to sell out, to leave their home and join the Mormons who were gathering in Far West, Missouri.