What's in a Name

Samuel Baer - not quite the standard baby name, right?  I always love hearing the reasons behind the names of children (traditional or otherwise) so here's to why we chose the names.

 

Samuel comes from a couple different places.  First off, in Christianity, Judaism and Islam, Samuel was a prophet and devoted to God, called at a young age into God's service.  Mormon's have their own Samuel too, who was a prophet that risked life and limb to preach repentance to the people and told of the signs of the birth of Christ.  He stood on a high wall (because the city wouldn't let him in) to preach this and people shot arrows and thew stones at him, but none could hit him.  So in Samuel's name, we hope that he can be inspired to be strong and fearless in standing for what God asks him to do in life.

 

While we didn't intentionally set out to give our boys Biblical names, we thought that Samuel would go well with Joshua and Benjamin, as well as having a nice shortened name in Sam.

 

Now Baer is probably the name you're wondering about.  A bit unusual, right?  It's pronounced like the animal bear and it's a family surname on my mother's Mormon pioneer side.  The name has gone through about a dozen spelling changes since coming from Switzerland (originally Bar with the two little dots over the a) and the man whom Sam gets his name from, John Bair was actually born as Baer.  We decided to go with this spelling to honor our combined German/Swiss heritage, as well as David's mission in Germany.

 

John Bair is one of the most interesting characters in my family's history on that side.  He's described as a big, tall, handsome man with dark brown curly hair and blue eyes.  Born in 1810, he joined the Mormon church in Ohio in 1834 after meeting Joseph Smith Jr, founder of our religion.  John acted as his body guard for a while and intimately knew the Smith family.  Along with others, John and his family were driven by mobs from their homes in Ohio and Missouri and finally settled in Nauvoo, Ill.  He was ordained an Elder by Joseph and given his patriarchal blessing by Hyrum Smith.  (Note to my non-LDS readers, I know most of this probably means little to you, but this many-greats grandfather of mine was witness to some of the biggest historical events of our early church and personally knew many of the most prominent players.  I'll be happy to tell you more about it if you like.)  In that blessing, John was told that his name would be perpetuated in his lineage, which I read about after we had decided to give Sam his name.  Kind of a shivers-inducing moment.

 

John wasn't a man without fault.  He was actually disfellowshipped twice from the church, first for teaching contrary doctrine after the martyrdom of Joseph Smith.  John defended himself humbly and asked forgiveness of his leaders, acknowledging his error.  (Note, this sort of thing was pretty common as the early church sought to establish itself.  He was never excommunicated, more reprimanded for taking his own ideas and preaching them.)  I can't find why he was disfellowshiped a second time later in Utah, but he was reinstated after what appears to be a short time.

 

With more mob persecution in Illinois, John was asked to move his family out west to the Utah Territory.  From his journal it says "When the long awaited time for us to leave for the Utah Territory, it was with a sense of great loss for our loved ones who would not be coming with us. Some of our beloved children and my wife, Belinda, dead and in their graves. Along with our martyred Prophet Joseph and his brother Hyrum and many more friends and dedicated members of the church who were murdered because of their faith in the church. But we also had hope in our future and wondered what lay ahead of us."

 

In Utah, John used his love of wrestling (and prodigious strength) to gain popularity among the Native Peoples.  (Of course, this is from his own account, which must be taken with a grain of salt with the prevailing and patronizing attitudes of the time of white man superiority.)  "I, being a large man and very strong, did a lot of wrestling in the west as I did in Kirtland and Nauvoo. Many times the matches were between me and Indian men. In this way I gained the good will of the Indians. I traveled among them at times and was known as their white brother. I took it upon myself to learn their languages and in doing I became an interpreter. I nearly always enjoyed their company and respected their ways. They had respect for me also and called me "Bear John." "Bear" is an Indian name for a brave man."

 

One of my favorite stories about John is the following:  "Another time, the fort at Kaysville was surrounded by Indians. All of the families, including, mine were in the fort. Finally, the Indians withdrew and the men, in an effort to see what was happening, called for someone to volunteer to go out and scout around for Indians. I felt like I knew them best so I volunteered and taking two pistols I went out and circled around the fort, but I didn't see any Indians. The next day an Indian friend came to see me and said, "Bear John, don't ever come out of the fort again with just two little guns. I had a hard time keeping my Indian brothers from shooting you as we were hidden watching you. I told them you were my friend and that your name is "Bear John" and "Bear" is a sacred name for the Indian."

 

John was a polygamist.  I'm descended from his 5th wife.  My feelings about this aspect of our church history are difficult to describe.  All I can say is that John had full faith that Joseph Smith was a prophet and when asked to live the law of plural marriage, John did so without hesitation.  Not all the marriages were happy, with one wife actually taking their children and leaving once settled in Utah.  John describes the rest of the relations between him and between his wives to be happy.  I wish the thoughts and actions of his wives had been recorded and passed down to get their perspective.

 

I like that he was a big, strong man who could take criticism, even when he felt he had been wrongly accused, and humbly ask for forgiveness.  He faced physical danger in protecting those he loved.  He respected the Native American culture and made an effort to be friends with them.  So there's a bit of history on the man who we named Sam after.