testimony of other faithful family members

Testimony of Other Faithful Family members

Autobiographies of Other Faithful Family Members

Margaret McCleve Hancock pg. 2 (1838-1908) wife of Mosiah Lyman Hancock

Children: Moroni, Margaret Clarissa, Mosiah Lyman, Levi McCelve, Eliza Jane, John Taylor, Joseph Smith, Sarah, Catherine, Mary, Amy Elizabeth, Thomas, Rebecca Reed, Annie Minerva.

The Nauvoo ‘Whistling and Whittling Brigade’ pg. 9

To which Mosiah Lyman Hancock belonged

Samuel Alger Sr. (1786-1874) pg. 13

and

Clarissa Hancock Alger (1790-1870) pg. 16 Children: Eli Ward, Samuel (died young), Alva, Saphony (died young), Samuel, Fanny, Thomas,

Amy Saphony, and Clarissa Alger

John Alger (1830-1897) pg. 24

Son of Clarissa Hancock and Samuel Alger, Sr.

Jacob Hamblin (1819-1886) pg. 31

Apostle to the Lamanites


Margaret McCleve Hancock Born: 17 Sept 1838, Crawford, Down, Ireland Died: 4 May 1908, Taylor, Navajo, Arizona, USA Married: Mosiah Lyman Hancock, 10 Nov 1881, St. George, Utah Children: Moroni, Margaret Clarissa, Mosiah Lyman, Levi McCelve, Eliza Jane, John Taylor, Joseph Smith, Sarah, Catherine, Mary, Amy Elizabeth, Thomas, Rebecca Reed, Annie

Minerva.

Compiled by Rhoda P.J.Wakefleld & Margaret Butler Shelley (Granddaughters)

Margaret McCleve, daughter of John McCleve and Nancy Jane McFerren, was born to Belfast, Ireland

September 17, 1838. She was the third child of a family of ten children. Her father was in the employ of a

rich Lord, Alexander Gilmore. The baby of the family was given his name, for which the child was

presented, by his highness, a little velvet suit in which he was christened.

The children were at liberty to roam over the beautiful grounds, through the arched driveways that led

down to the ocean, chasing the tide as it came and went or enjoying a bath or playing on the soft warm

sand. Here Margaret spent a very happy childhood. Her parents heard the Gospel from Elders D.T.

McAllister and James Ferguson. They were convinced of it's truthfulness and accepted it as the true plan

of salvation, and were baptized. On account of the persecutions, they saw no more Elders until Margaret

was 12 years old. Then she and her sister, Catherine were baptized. Before long they desired and were

advised to gather with the Saints to Zion, Although her father had a good position, his family was large

and It was a long and expensive journey and his circumstances would not allow them to all migrate at

once. For this reason they were advised by the Elders to send the two oldest girls on ahead, which was a

severe trial to the parents. Three years later the rest of the family followed, sailing from Belfast to


Liverpool on the Samuel Curling vessel. Here they again set sail for the land of the free. This journey

took them five weeks. The sea was very rough. A storm arose which threatened to destroy them, but they

landed in Boston without Incident, going from there by rail to Winter Quarters. Here they had to lay over

for about two weeks waiting for the handcarts to be finished.

One day Margaret, with other young women from the camp, walked over to Iowa City, While there in the

house of a friend, an Indian walked in and shaking hands with some of those present, but not with the

girls. They were greatly frightened and ran to camp. It was the first time she bad ever seen an Indian. The

family left Iowa City in the company of Daniel D. McArthur June 11, l856.

They were all looking forward with great anticipation of seeing their two daughters and sisters, Sarah and

Catherine, who bad been in Zion with the Saints for about three years, during which time they had

married. Sarah had married John Young (a brother to President Brigham Young) and Catherine had

married Phineas Cook. Of course the girls were anxiously waiting to see their loved ones they had left in

Ireland, tbree years previous. Margaret was seventeen years of age and she pushed a handcart the entire

distance across the plains. In the company was a German family of Saints that had accepted the Gospel by

the name of Elliker. Margaret fell in love with this young man who was about her age. He used to walk

beside her, helping her with her handcart and conversing with her as they walked along. Everyone felt

sure that when they got established in the valley they would be married.

One day something happened that she could never forget. This young man sick and weak from lack of

food and privations, which these suffering Saints endured. He gave up and sat down by the side of the

road to rest. He told the company that be would rest for a few days by the side of a clear stream of water

and would come along with the next company of Saints. He was never heard from after that. Whether he

perished for lack of food or killed or carried off by the Indians will never be known. This was a great

sorrow to the Saints. On a few rare occasions a small quantity of venison or other wild meat or berries

was handed around in the camp. Margaret would give her small portion to her sick baby brother whom

she cared for and tended most of the way. Children were her special care ever since.

Her own dear father succumbed to the hardships and all that was left of this worthy man was in a grave

two days travel from their destination. This left the mother with her six children to continue the journey

alone, This was a great trial to the mother and family, the great effort he put forth in trying to gather with

the Saints and his daughters and families was continued by this noble woman.


Supplies were sent to them by President Young, be himself coming out to meet than. They arrived in Salt

Lake City the latter part of September 1856.

Margaret's mother married David Ellsworth March 28, 1857 and went to Payson, Utah to live where

Margaret married Mosiah Lyman Hancock when she was nineteen years old on January 9, 1857. Her first

baby was born the following October 14, 1857 but died at birth. This was a great disappointment to the

young mother who had spent many hours dreaming of her first born while she had stitched by hand little

garments fashioned from her own daintily embroidered shirts of pure Irish linen. Fourteen months later,

while they were still living in Payson, Utah, a baby girl was born whom they called Margaret Clarissa

born December 7, 1858.

From here they moved to Salt Lake City, where the next son, Mosiah Lyman, was born and given his

father's name. He was born September 12, l860. That winter her husband was playing with the Theatrical

Association of Payson in the different settlements around Salt Lake. He was also called by President

Young to attend a school of Orson Pratt's, a wonderful privilege for anyone then or now. However, they

were soon called to Southern Utah to help settle and they made their home in Harrisburg where their next

five children were born, Levi McCleve, born 31 Aug l862, Eliza Jane born 28 Mar 1864; John Taylor,

born 21 Mar 1866; Joseph Smith, born 28 Dec 1867; then they moved to Leeds, where the next four

children were born;- Mary, born 9 Jan 1872; Amy Elizabeth,born 29 Dec 1973, Thomas, born 18 Nov

1875; Rebecca Reed, born 14 Dec 1877. Here they began to gather around than a few luxuries and

accumlate some property. At Leeds they had quite a little store and a comfortable home. Her husband had

made a trip or two across the Colorado River to the Indian Villages in Arizona with Jacob Hamblin, On

one of these expeditions they were without water for 56 hours. At another time, Newton Adair,

grandfather of the Baldwins at Taylor, said, "Mosiah Hancock and I divided a crow's gizzard between us

on one of our trips to Arizona with Jacob Hamblin,"

In 1859 the family was again called to move on south, this time help settle Arlzona. They sold their store

and home and started out that fall. As they advanced along the way the load became heavy for the teams,

that were becoining thin on account of the scarcity of food. and one by one the pieces of furiniture was

unloaded and left by the way. Winter was advancing and the children suffered from the cold. One of the

boys, John, and his sister, Jane, walked, most of the way in order to save the teams. Their feet were never

dry all the way. Margaret had been obliged to make part of their journey without her husband, who had

gone on with others of the family to prepare a home for those coming. He met them at Lee's Ferry

however, and came on the most of the way with them. They traveled in company with his brother, Joseph,

and his wife, Emily, and their one baby, Clarence.


They arrived in Taylor New Years Day in the dead of winter, The horses were so weak and tired they

made several attempts to climb the banks on the east side of the little Silver Creek. One of the girls said

that she remembers her father taking each of the children in his arms and carrying them up the bank. He

had already drawn the family lots which were directly across the river. There they settled where Margaret

lived the rest of her life. Her daughter, Annie Minerva, was born in Taylor August 30, 1880,

Margaret was the mother of thirteen children. She raised twelve to maturity. One of her severe trials came

with the loss of her son, Joseph Smith Hancock, who was killed by being thrown from a young frisky

mare. He was buried at almost the same time that he was to have been married. This was a great trial to

Margaret and all her family. He was a model young man who was loved by all who knew him. Besides,

"Aunt Margaret" as she came to be known, was the mother of the entire community, acting as nurse

almost without exception, for 25 years. She was called and set apart for this mission by President Jesse N.

Smith, which calling she most faithfully performed, going day and night, no matter what the hour to

administer to the needs of the sick, suffering or those in sorrow or distress, as those who knew her can

testify. She was very successful in her work as obstetric nurse to the hundreds of mothers she waited on.

On one occasion she was caring for the sick and had spent the most of the night relieving the suffering.

When she felt that all was well with the patient, she started for her home. It was a bitter cold night. Snow

had fallen to a great depth. She started out making her way thru the snow. It was quite a distance between

houses. The wind had started to blow. She wended her way thru the snow, keeping her face covered as

much as she could, to protect her from the bitter cold wind.Finally, when she looked around to see which

way to go, she was turned around. She had no idea where she was. Snow was so heavy she couldn't detect

any houses. It was a serious situation to be out this bitter cold night, not knowing where shs was or which

way to go. She felt that she could go no farther, when a short distance from where she stood, she saw a

match strike thru the window and a man lit a kerosene lamp as some of his children had to have attention.

She made her way to the house, not even knowing whose house it was, and knocked. The man came to

the door and welcomed her in his home.

He built a fire and she warmed herself. It was coming daylight when she went on to her home. She gladly

gave her time and strength which finally cost her life. No sacrifice was too great for her if she could help

her family or friends,

She and daughter, Amy, owned a little store in Taylor for years that helped in the support of her family.

Though her trials were many she was always firm in her faith and found comfort in bringing comfort to

others. She had a very kind and sympathetic nature, charitable to those in need or in trouble. She was


loved and trusted by all who knew her. It can truly be said of her, that the world is better by her having

lived in it. During her last illness she received word of her husband's death on Janualy 14, 1907, He had

been living on the Gila Valley with his son, John, He is buried in the Hubbard Cemetery. During the last

years of Margaret's life she wasn't very well. She was now 70 years old. She gave up her nursing. She had

spent years in caring for the sick and bringing babies into the world. She believed as all Latter-day Saints

do, that we all existed as spirits in the spirit world before we came to this earth. She had helped hundreds

to come to earth, to gain a body, to gain earthly experience, and to prove themselves. When she was so

sick and suffering so much she could see many little spirits clamoring to come to the earth to parents who

were desirous of them. This concerned Margaret and she told her children, that tenderly cared for her, that

she dldn't want to die until she could place these little spirits with parents here on this earth. John and

Thomas and wives had never had any children of their own. Jane and Sarah had had a large family and

were rather old. She called her children to her and told of this and asked each of them that were with her,

if they would be willing to take one of these little spirits and care for it, They all said that they would be

more than happy to if it were possible. Then she said, "I know John and Mary and Levi will be glad to

(John and Mary and Levi were living down on the Gila Valley at this time). After getting this promise

from her children she passed away May 4, 1908.

It is interesting to note that all of Margaret's children that were married brought some of these spirits into

their homes within a year after they had made this promise to their mother.

Margaret's husband, Mosiah Lyman Hancock, had a kind charitable heart and like his brother, Joseph,

liked to relieve poverty and distress. He spent a great deal of his time in later years, doing Temple work.

So, while his wife labored to bring souls into life, he in turn, labored to save souls in everlasting life. May

we ever bless the memory of these worthy pioneers .

Margaret passed away May 4, 1908 and was buried in the Taylor cemetery May 6, 1908.

* * * * * * * *

Obituary of Margaret McCleve (Hancock), Taylor Arizona, Pioneer Summoned, Grandma

Hancock Closes Honored Career at Seventy

Taylor, Arizona, Mary 22, Grandma Margaret McCleve Hancock, one of the most prominent and high

respected pioneer women, and wife of Mosiah L. Hancock, passed away May 4, 1908, after a long illness.

Mrs. Hancock was a daughter of John and Mary Jane McCleve; born Sept. 1836 in Belfast, Ireland. She


was baptized at 12 years of age and emigrated to America. She crossed the plains in Captain McArthur's

famous handcart company in 1856, pulling her handcart the entire distance. She had the very sad

misfortune of losing her father, who died from the hardships of the journey, and was buried on Bear

River. She married Mosiah L. Hancock in Payson, Utah, January 9, 1857, and was the mother of 13

children, 11 of whom survive her, 10 in Arizona and one in Idaho. Mrs. Hancock with her husband went

to southern Utah, first settling at Harrisburg, Washington County, 1861, where they remained a few

years, when they moved to Leads. In the fall of 1879, she and her family were called to settle in Arizona,

locating in Taylor, January 1, 1880, where she has spent her life as an efficient and skillful nurse. She was

a faithful Latter-day-Saint, loved by all who knew her.

All the time after coming to Utah her life has been spent on the frontiers, she knew fully well the trials

and privations of helping build up a new country; was an active member of the Relief Society from its

organization in 1880 until her last sickness, being head teacher in the organization for about 20 years.

She leaves as her descendants now living 11 children, 63 grandchildren, and 16 great-grandchildren.

Taken from newspaper clipping of death. Submitted by great-granddaughter, Lula Pruett Ross.

----------------------

Margaret McCleve Log Cabin

An 1884 log cabin has been relocated to its new location on Main Street (State Route 77) in Taylor on a lot purchased recently by the Taylor/Shumway Heritage Foundation. The Heritage Foundation is in the process of restoring the cabin for tours.


Originally, the cabin was the home of Margaret McCleve Hancock, who was born in 1838 in Belfast, Ireland. Her family was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1841 and came by ship to New York. They then traveled by train to Winter Quarters, Nebraska, and pulled a handcart to Salt Lake City, Utah in the second handcart company. Margaret married Mosiah Lyman Hancock in 1859. They spent most of their time together in Utah, until Mosiah was called to serve in Arizona in 1879. Margaret and her children came with her brother-in-law Joseph Smith Hancock to Taylor, where she became a midwife, ultimately delivering over 1,500 children. Mosiah spent very little time in Taylor, but Margaret and her family made their home here. Margaret died in 1908 and is buried in the Taylor Cemetery.

The cabin was originally built on the east side of Silver Creek near Tumbleweed. After exchanging hands through several different owners, the latest owner, Ron Solomon, donated the cabin to the Taylor/Shumway Heritage Foundation.

------------------------------------------------------------


Nauvoo Whistling and Whittling Brigade Joy N. Hulme, “Nauvoo Whistling and Whittling Brigade,” Friend,

Apr 1983, 31

Whether or not a boy can whistle hardly seems like a matter of life

and death, but to Oliver it was. He wanted to whistle in the worst

way, but he couldn’t! No matter how much he puckered and puffed,

drew and blew, or wheezed and squeezed his breath through his lips,

he couldn’t whistle. It seemed as though he’d sent enough air in and out of his mouth to turn a

windmill, but he still couldn’t make one note of the simplest tune.

Even so, when he heard that the Church leaders in Nauvoo were recruiting young boys for a

whistling and whittling brigade, he hurried downtown to join. If there was one thing he could do,

it was use a pocketknife. Oliver knew how to carve almost anything he set his mind to. He only

had to look at a piece of wood to see what shape was hidden inside. Then he would carefully cut

the wood away until he’d freed the polar bear or squirrel or flying eagle trapped inside. It was

exciting to watch it happen. No one else understood how he did it. He might be just the boy the

brigade needed to do some carving for them.

The youngsters in Oliver’s neighborhood met behind the blacksmith’s shop to find out what this

whistling and whittling group was all about.

“Boys,” Brother Johnson began, “we need your help. Ever since the mobbers in Carthage killed

the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum, they’ve been trying to force the Saints to move

out of Nauvoo. Now they’ve repealed the city charter, and we don’t even have any police to

protect us from these ruffians. We need a little more time to get ready before we can leave, and

you boys can help give us that time.”

“We’ll be glad to help,” Oliver said. “What can we do?” “Just walk around town whistling and

whittling,” Brother Johnson answered. “We already do that,” Will Baines said.


“Exactly!” Brother Johnson replied. “It doesn’t seem like anything out of the ordinary. Whistling

is a happy sound, and whittling is a harmless pastime. Who could object to that?” “But what

good will it do?” Ezra wanted to know.

“Plenty,” Brother Johnson explained, “because while you are doing it, you will be watching and

following any strangers who come into town. With so many eyes watching them, they probably

won’t do too much damage.”

“What if they don’t like it?” “What can they do? You’re too little to

pick on and too many to lick.” “So all we do is whittle and whistle and

watch?” “That’s all. Don’t answer any questions and don’t ask any.

Just keep up the noise. It will warn everyone who hears it to be alert.”

It sounded like an easy job—even fun. The boys began buzzing with

eager anticipation.

“Just one more thing,” Brother Johnson began, waiting until all the

boys were quiet. “We need to decide on a signal to call you all

together when someone spots a suspicious-looking character.” One of the boys let out a long

shrill whistle, followed by two short ones.

“Perfect!” Brother Johnson said. “Now let’s see if all of you can do that. The boys tried out the

warning one at a time. That’s when everyone found out that Oliver couldn’t whistle—and when

Oliver found out that whistling was more important than whittling in this brigade. Anyone could

hack away at a stick with a knife and pretend to be making something. For that matter, he could

pucker up his lips and pretend to be whistling too. But if he got in a tight place with a stranger

and couldn’t send a signal, it might very well be a matter of life and death!

Oliver hurried to his thinking place in the grove by the river and cut off a length of green willow

to whittle on. Looking it over, he thought, Oh, good—the sap is running! A pleased smile

crossed his face at the thought of what this stick would become. He sat down and began to carve.


Carefully choosing the right spot on the wood, he sliced the narrow end straight across. A little

way down he notched out a crosswise hole that removed a leaf node. Three or four inches below

this, he sunk his blade just the depth of the bark and made a ring around the branch as he turned

it. Next he tapped the bark gently with the handle of his knife to loosen it so the bark would slip

off easily.

Suddenly Oliver heard the slap of oars in the water below him and the muffled sound of rough

voices. Quickly he looked for a place to hide, but there was none. He froze his movements and

wished he could become invisible. Even more, he wished he could send the whistle signal to the

other boys.

The rowboat pulled in to shore, and a coarse-looking man jumped out. “You’ll have to hustle,”

the man in the boat warned, “to get it done before anyone sees you. They won’t be expecting

anybody to come from this direction. I’ll wait for you around the bend.” The boat glided away,

and Oliver held his breath as the man climbed the slope toward him. He came closer and closer.

A flicker of fright in the man’s eyes betrayed his surprise at seeing the lad.

Then his face turned hard. “What are you doing, boy?” he demanded. “Just carving this stick,”

Oliver told him. “Into what?” the man wanted to know. “I’ll show you.” “Haven’t got time to

watch,” the man said gruffly, eyeing the knife. “It’ll take less than a minute,” Oliver assured

him, watching carefully to see if his delaying tactic was working. The boy gave the bark a gentle

twist, and a tiny craaack told him it was loose from the inner wood. He slid the bark tube off

quickly, then began to deepen and lengthen the notch in the wood, forming a plan of action in his

mind as he did so. He must not make an error.

“I happen to need that jackknife you’re using,” the man said in a threatening tone. “It just might

come in handy.” Handy for what? Oliver asked himself. Hurting someone? “I’m nearly through

with it,” he said as calmly as he could, folding the blade back into the handle and sliding the

knife into his pocket. He slipped the bark tube back onto the whistle he had whittled.


“All finished,” he said. “See?” He held it out to show the

stranger. “What is that thing anyway?” he asked. “Looks like a

whistle.”

Oliver gulped at the lump in his throat. What he was going to

do next might very well be his last act on earth. Whether it was

or not, he had to do it! “Let’s see if it works,” he said to the man. He took a deep, desperate

breath and put the whistle to his lips. Then, with all his might, he blew a long, shrill blast

followed by two short ones. “Yep, it does,” he said in a pleased voice.

But the man was not pleased. He grabbed the whistle with one hand and the back of Oliver’s

collar with the other. He shook the lad like a cat shakes a mouse. “You be quiet, boy,” he

growled. “And give me that knife!” Quicker than Oliver believed possible, the man had the knife

open at his back and was shoving him up the slope. “You and I have some work to do in this

town.” His crazy laugh terrified Oliver. “And when we get done,” the man continued, “I’ll make

sure you get all the credit.”

As Oliver stumbled up the bank, he hoped with all his heart that the boys had heard his signal.

His ears were keenly tuned for the sound of their answering whistles. Just as he reached the top

of the hill, he heard them. He blinked away a tear of relief and said a silent prayer of thanks that

the Nauvoo Whistling and Whittling Brigade was on duty to escort this stranger through the city.

No one ever found out what mischief the stranger had in mind because he was soon surrounded

by noisy, curious boys and quickly decided it was time to leave town.

He had been right about one thing, though. Oliver did get all the credit.


HISTORY OF SAMUEL ALGER, SR.

HISTORY OF SAMUEL AND CLARISSA HANCOCK ALGER: PIONEERS TO THE SALT LAKE VALLEY - 22 SEPT 1848 AND AMONG THE FOUNDERS OF PAROWAN UTAH - 13 JANUARY 1851. (original text was passed down to Florence McMullin Jensen & contributed to this web page by Carol Easterbrook Wolf))

Born: 14 Feb 1786 in Uxbridge, Worcester, MA. Died: 24 Sept 1874 Baptised: 16 Nov 1830 Married: Clarissa Hancock Children: John Alger, Clarissa Alger (Whitney)

Samuel Alger was born 14 February 1786 in Uxbridge, Worcester, Massachusetts. He was the son of

John Alger and Elizabeth Hume Alger. Clarissa Hancock Alger was born 03 September 1790 in Old

Springfield, Hampden, Massachusetts, the daughter of Thomas Hancock, Jr. and Amy Ward Hancock.

This couple was among the earliest converts to the Church, being baptized 16 Nov 1830, and came to the

Valley of the Great Salt Lake in Brigham Young’s Company on 22 September 1848. Clarissa Hancock’s

parents and eight brothers and sisters joined the church on the same day, as did her husband, Samuel

Alger. He was baptized by John Murdock (later of Beaver Co., Utah).

We have few facts relating to the life of Clarissa Hancock Alger, but her blessing given by Patriarch John

Smith is found in the Church Historian’s Office in Book II, page 286. Her family was ardent members of

the Church and passed through all the trials and hardships of the early days in Ohio, Nauvoo, Winter

Quarters and crossing the plains to the Salt Lake Valley. Her mother, Amy Ward Hancock, born 28

February 1769 was buried in Council Bluffs (now the old Mormon Cemetery in Florence,

Nebraska). One of her brothers was a boyhood friend of Joseph Smith and two of her brothers were

given special revelations by Joseph Smith in the Doctrine and Covenants Sections 52 and 124. (For

further information about them see history of her daughter Clarissa Alger Whitney, wife of Francis Tuft

Whitney.)


Samuel Alger was a convert to the Church on 16 November 1830. He, too, experienced all the history-

making events of the expulsion of the Saints from Ohio, Nauvoo, and the trek across the stretches of

Western America. And because he was one of the older members of the Church, he was given many

offices of responsibility. He was an expert cabinetmaker and joiner by trade, and followed this

profession all his life. He built a house for the father of Heber C. Kimball in New York when Heber was

nine years old.

We read in the diary of his brother-in-law, Levi Ward Hancock, that Samuel Alger was a Lieutenant in

the Ohio Militia in Chagrin, Ohio and in Bloomfield, New York. In feats of strength he was a log-

roller. He could lay out his strength on an elm log without apparent effort and could throw a strong man

as easily as a child.

He was a member of the 34th Quorum of Seventies (Book B.P. 259) and was ordained a High Priest 10

April 1853 by G.Y. Wallace and S.S. Sprague (H.P. Book A Page 1). He left Ohio in 1836 with his wife

and family and resided in Randolph Co., Missouri for one year until the Mormons were driven out of the

state. They then lived in Quincy, Illinois for eight months then settled in Deer Creek then in Nauvoo on

the way west to Winter Quarters, Nebraska Territory.

In Nauvoo, at noon 12 September 1845, Samuel Alger was one of a committee of four writing to Brigham

Young for aid for the Morley and Hancock settlements against the anti-Mormon mob. His wife was of

this Hancock family. They wished to sell all deeded lands and receive wagons, horses, cattle, harnesses,

stores, etc., to travel west. On 20 January 1848 a few months before starting to the Great Salt Lake

Valley, Samuel Alger was one of the petitioners for a U.S. Post Office in the Pottawattamie Lands in the

State of Iowa.

The Alger and Hancock families with many others left Council Bluffs under the leadership of Brigham

Young for the Salt Lake Valley and arrived there 22 September 1848. This was Brigham Young’s

second and last crossing of the pioneer trail. He remained to his death in the Zion he loved.

Samuel and Clarissa together with their children, John and Claris, lived in Salt Lake City from 22

September 1848 to 07 December 1850 when they left on a mission to explore and settle what in now

Southern Utah. By now their daughter Clarissa had been married for some time to Francis Tuft Whitney,

he having arrived in the Great Salt Lake Valley with members of the Mormon Battalion on 29 July

1847. The call to settle Parowan came 27 October 1850. The Algers and Whitneys, with 28 other

families went to Center Creek or what is now called Parowan, Iron, Utah. They arrived at Center Creek


on 13 January 1851 under the leadership of George A. Smith. It was only a few weeks after their arrival

that New Samuel Whitney, the first white child born in Iron County, was born to Francis T. and Clarissa

Alger Whitney.

After being released from this mission, Samuel and Clarissa Alger returned to Salt Lake City to reside for

the next seventeen years. On 08 October 1853 Samuel Alger was sustained as a Patriarch in the October

General Conference of that year and for the last twelve years of his life in Salt Lake, Samuel acted in that

capacity. He was called “Father Alger” by all who knew him. He had a burning testimony of the

Gospel. We have a newspaper account dated 24 May 1868 of a speech he made in a meeting in

Parowan. He stated that at the age of 81 years he quit chewing tobacco, after using it for 59 years and

testified that he felt better for this abstinence. He lived to be 88 years old and was hearty to the end.

About 1865 he and his wife moved from Salt Lake to Parowan to be near their daughter Clarissa and

family, and son John. They lived in Parowan for eight years. On 22 July 1870 Clarissa died. They had

been married for 62 years. Samuel remained in Parowan until the summer of 1873 then went to St.

George to live with his son John. Samuel died there after a stay of one year and three months. He died

at the age of 88 years on 24 September 1874. Samuel was an expert cabinetmaker and joiner and also

made hundreds of coffins for his deceased friends. He made his own coffin and kept it under his bed for

years. He had several of these, but always gave them away in an emergency. He finally died and was

buried in a coffin not of his own making. Heber C. Kimball said of Father Samuel Alger, “Father Alger

through his life was a useful man and for the last 44 years of his life a faithful Latter Day Saint.” Upon

his death it was said, “There passed away one of the stalwart sons of God.”


CLARISSA HANCOCK ALGER,

wife of Samuel Alger and mother of John Alger,

by Carol Easterbrook Wolf - 4th great-granddaughter, 2000

Clarissa Hancock was born on 03 September 1790 in Springfield, Hampden, Massachusetts to Thomas Jr.

and Amy Ward Hancock. She was the first daughter and third child of nine children. Based on her

positioning in the family, the time frame and her gender, and the fact that there are histories of at least

three of her brothers, Solomon, Levi and Joseph, I am concluding that Clarissa probably lacked a formal

education and was unable to read and write.

I will rely heavily on the journals of Clarissa’s brothers that are included in a book written by Ivan

Haskell of Payson. It’s entitled “Experiences of Payson Pioneers.” Quotes from his book and the

histories will be indented. “Thomas was not old enough to join the army at the commencement of the War

and having two brothers in the service of the Revolution, one had died from its service (Elijah), and the

other ill (Jonathan), he went to join about the close of the war. General Washington being posted in the

matter, said, “no, you go back with your parents. This is the last battle; it’s now death or

victory. You’ve lost two brothers and one will not make much difference now.

Thomas’ height was 5 feet 9 inches, with black eyes and hair and was noted for his courage and his great

strength, also his activity and durability. He was a Bible reader and a follower of the same, choosing the

patriotic society, cultivating the spirit of liberty, free trade, and sailor’s rights. Thomas Hancock, 6th

child of Thomas Sr. and Jemima Wright Hancock, married Amy Ward, the daughter of General Jacob

Ward of Lexington, Mass. Thomas took his mother, Jemima and the rest of the family and moved to the

State of New York, after his father’s death, 4 March 1804. They settled in Bloomfield, York State.”

The family consisted of seven children. Two more daughters were born in New York. The youngest,

Amy, lived to be two years old and is buried in Wolcutt, Wayne, New York next to her grandmother,

Jemima Wright who died one month earlier in Aug 1809.

“Thomas Sr., had been reduced to a pauper during the Revolutionary War in the town of Longmeadow,

Mass. This loss was caused by the lack of commerce with the mother country at the commencement of

the Revolutionary War. He had invested heavily in the trade of gingshang root, a perennial sweet, and

famous for its medicinal properties. It grows spontaneously in the Eastern states, where it was dug,

dried, and shipped to England, making a profitable business in the times of peace.”Solomon’s history

gives some insight into their life as he states:


“...being our parents were reduced in property and monetary worth, we became suitable subjects

for the western frontiers, preparing the way for the coming civilization and the generations of

man. We sought game of the woods, such as deer, elk, moose, black bear, and the smaller game,

together with fish and fowl, all of which were plentiful and a little bread and beans, with prudent

care, made a living.

We were in York State and also Vermont, thus deprived of proper schooling, so our education was

limited. Our first schooling was such that I first done the house work and then walked to school six

miles and back every day. We were well pleased with Vermont. My parents read the Bible to their

children and explained it to them, taught them to pray also. To keep the Sabbath was a must, to keep it

Holy to the Lord and to be attentive to the minister at meetings.” This then describes the atmosphere of

Clarissa’s home life.

Around 1815 Thomas Jr. and Amy Hancock moved from Bristol, Ontario, New York to around Buffalo,

New York and on to Erie, Pennsylvania to Chagrin, Ohio. Clarissa’s brother Levi notes in his history:

“We moved from York State with 7 children to Bristol for two years, then to Pitts Town of Ontario

County. We later moved to Bloomfield to Samuel Alger’s, my brother-in-law that my sister Clarissa

Hancock had married near 1808.” The seven children mentioned would be without Clarissa. As there

were a total of eight children born to Thomas Jr. and Amy. The oldest child and son, Elijah, died in 1818

in New York.

Clarissa’s younger sister, Sarah, gave the following memory. “My mother was a daughter of General

Jacob Ward, spoken of in Lexington, Mass. in the History of the Revolutionary War of 1776. Many an

hour I’ve listened to the tales of war, or of the wild woods, and since reading the history of the United

States, I find that what Joseph Smith Jr. said is true, without fault or boast.”

Clarissa married Samuel Alger 25 February 1808; it is not clear where they were living. I’m assuming

that Clarissa with her husband Samuel Alger remained in Massachusetts while the Hancock family moved

to New York because their first child was born in March 1809 in Rehoboth, Bristol, Massachusetts. In

fact, their first five children were born there. John Alger, their sixth child was born 05 Nov 1820 in

Ohio. His four younger siblings were also born in Ohio. So it’s evident that sometime between

September 1818 and November 1820, they moved from Massachusetts to Ohio. Clarissa’s parents had

moved to Chagrin, Ohio in 1819. The fact that Samuel Alger was in the Ohio Militia may account for the

various locations.


Levi Ward Hancock’s history gives some clarity as to their whereabouts in 1820, “April 11, 1820, father

gave me a paper he had signed, to give me permission to be on my own, at my request I might add. I

boiled some sour sap into molasses and then went to work in a cabinet shop at Chagrin, Cuyahoga, Ohio,

for James Spalding. I inadvertently bumped his nose with my head and caused it to bleed

extensively. He cussed me badly and I left the 1st of May. I went to my brothers and then to my

fathers. At the end of a week, I left without purse or script, not knowing where I was going or what I

would do. I left through Chagrin, Painesville, Austinburg and there inquired where Lebonon was. I had

a sister (Clarissa) there whose name is Alger. The man I asked knew them and gave me directions. It

was 50 miles away. I traveled 44 miles before I stopped for the night.

I lived with them and helped him (Samuel Alger) build some fine buildings and also a sawmill. I was

taught many things that I didn’t understand. I have written since I was 14 and he let me write here, even

giving me paper and ink. I played the fife, flute, and even the violin, they even gave me clothes to

wear. Samuel Alger was a Lieutenant in the Ohio Militia and I ate with the officers. I also went to

dances that winter. I made up tunes and helped the eldest boy do the chores.

I was small for my age, weighing 95 lbs. but very active and stout. I and Samuel went to a house-log

rolling and some stout men were lifting an elm log. Samuel went to the butt end of the log and lifted it so

easy, the whole crowd was in awe. Steven Bishop challenged him to a wrestle, and Samuel could throw

him easily.

Samuel bought a place in Chagrin and did cabinetwork. He moved his wife and family there. I went to

work where Samuel worked this summer and in the fall, I went to Rome and worked on spinning wheels,

bed-steads and reels.”

It would appear that while the entire family joined the Mormon Church at nearly the same time, 16

November 1830, they didn’t all immigrate to Utah in the same company. Clarissa’s brother Joseph was

one of the 3000 men and families to go west during the winter of 1845. The exodus began 4

February. In July 1846 their journey was interrupted by an army courier. He was instructed to go to

Council Point on the Missouri River where Brigham Young was. Here he assisted in making a ferry

across the river and establishing the place that would become Winter Quarters. He and his wife and

family didn’t arrive in Salt Lake until 1851, having lived in Big Grove, Iowa since 1848.

Clarissa’s nephew, Mosiah Lyman Hancock, son of Levi, gives some insight from his journal regarding

the trek west. He states: “...We went over to Elk Horn and was organized in Zera Pulsipher’s company of


50. He was captain. There was John B. Butcher, John Bills, Wm. Burgess, John Alger, Samuel Alger,

Lewis the tinner, Brother Bunday, Brother Neff, and Charles Pulsipher.”

They traveled in the Brigham Young Company (his second). A description of the organized companies is

taken from the book “The Story of the Latter-Day Saints” by James B Allen and Glen M. Leonard. It

states: “The military-style organization he (Brigham Young) established was not uncommon in westward

travel and soon became the pattern for Mormon exiles. About fifty families comprised the basic unit of

travel. Each fifty, sometimes subdivided into groups of ten, was led by a captain who supervised the

march, maintained discipline, and oversaw the work of commissaries, guards, herdsmen, and other

officers.”

This then was the mode of travel to the Salt Lake Valley with the Hancocks in the group captained by

Zera Pulsipher, John’s father-in-law. This group arrived in the Salt Lake Valley the 22nd day of

September 1848, after wintering in Winter Quarters, Nebraska where Clarissa’s granddaughter, Olivia

Alger, my great-great grandmother, was born 23 Jun 1847. In the 1860s John served a mission to the east

and his brother, Alva, returned to Utah with him. As well as a sister-in-law, Sarah Ann, who John

married, and her young children. It’s reported her husband died in the Civil War. This would be

Thomas. There is no evidence that the other children of Clarissa and Samuel came West. The only

information on them is death places in Missouri for three of them. Fanny can be tracked to Indiana.

Whether Clarissa ever saw these six children again is unknown.

Phebe Adams Hancock wife of Solomon records, “. . . I left the state of Missouri in the Spring. I had

eight in my family to care for; Mother and Father Hancock lived with me. Father Hancock was seventy

five years old. We had only one small wagon and I walked every mile to the State of Illinois. We lived

in Hancock County till we left for the Rocky Mountains. We left Nauvoo in 1846 and reached a place we

later named Winter Quarters and my husband (Solomon) died 2nd December 1847 there.”

There is no mention made of the death of Father (Thomas, Jr.) Hancock, although it appears that he did

not complete the trek west. Genealogy records indicate that he died 01 October 1844 in Hancock County,

Illinois. Again, quoting from the book “The Story of the Latter-Day Saints”, the conditions under which

these ancestors lived is noted:

Diets in the camps were necessarily limited. One much-needed product obtained from Missouri was

potatoes, but many Saints subsisted on little more than corn bread, salt bacon, a little milk, and a little

fresh meat. The lack of fresh vegetables during the first summer caused many to contract scurvy, known


among the Mormons as blackleg. The potatoes, horseradish discovered at old Fort Atkinson, and cold

weather finally brought relief, but not before disease had claimed its toll. The numbers who died of

scurvy, consumption, and chills and fever during that first summer were not recorded, but from mid-

September 1846 to May 1848 these ailments caused 359 deaths at Cutler’s Park and Winter Quarters.

As mentioned above, Clarissa’s brother, Solomon was one of those who died in Winter Quarters 02

December 1847. Alvah, a brother died 17 July 1847 and another brother, Thomas is said to have died

while crossing the plains 04 January 1848. So Joseph, Levi, Clarissa and Sarah were the four remaining

Hancock children. Histories document that Joseph, Levi and Clarissa arrived in Utah. It is assumed that

Sarah did also. Mother Hancock (Amy) died in Kanesville, Iowa on 14 January 1847. Therefore,

Clarissa endured the death of her mother and three brothers in a year’s time, not to mention nieces and

nephews, plus the hardships of travel, and parting with six of her children.

Clarissa’s brother Levi served with the Mormon Battalion, and it isn’t clear exactly when he arrived in

Utah. He was married the 24th of February 1849 in Salt Lake. In 1862 (or 1864) the Algers were called

to help settle the Dixie Mission. Clarissa and husband Samuel and their daughter Clarissa and husband

Francis Whitney settled in Parowan. Clarissa’s son, John and family went on to St. George.

Mosiah Lyman Hancock’s journal states the following and is credited to his daughter Amy Baird:

“Although father was not with us much I noticed that he had many good ways about him. He had such a

light step and would be close by you before you knew he was anywhere around. He was a good public

speaker and a splendid dancer, in fact he was called “Fancy Dancing Hancock” as was John Hancock,

who signed the Declaration of Independence, and who was a brother of father’s great grandfather.”

The above statement is factual insofar as a relationship to John Hancock (signer) is concerned. It’s a

little farther removed that Mosiah’s history would indicate as it is a 3rd great-grandfather of his father

Levi, Clarissa’s brother. That is assuming that the line ties in with Nathaniel. There is still research in

that area. In Dec 1850 Clarissa and Samuel left on a mission to explore and settle southern Utah. By this

time, their daughter Clarissa had married Francis Tuft Whitney. Samuel and Clarissa and the Whitneys

with 280 other families went to Center Creek, or what is now Parowan, Iron, Utah on 13 January 1851,

under the leadership of George Albert Smith. Following their release in 1853, Clarissa and Samuel

returned to Salt Lake City until 1865 when they again returned to Parowan where they made their

home. Clarissa died in Parowan on 22 July 1870, six weeks short of her 80th birthday. Family records

state that she is buried in Parowan. At the time of this writing her grave has not been located.


Clarissa was mother to ten children: Eli Ward, John, Samuel (died young), Alva, Saphony (died

young), Samuel, Fanny, Thomas, Amy Saphony, and Clarissa.

PAROWAN

Southern Utah's first settlement and county seat of Iron County, Parowan City blends a rich historical past

with present-day, small-town hospitality. Set in a beautiful natural location, it serves as a year-round

gateway to Brian Head Resort and Cedar Breaks National Monument. Its elevation is 5,970 feet; its

population in 1990 was 1,873.

Fremont and Anasazi Indians were the first known inhabitants of Parowan. Petroglyphs, pithouses,

arrowheads, pottery, and manos dating from A.D. 750 to 1250 found in the area are evidence that it was

on a major thoroughfare of early Native Americans. At Parowan Gap, a natural mountain pass twelve

miles northwest of Parowan, ancient Indians inscribed petroglyphs on smooth-surfaced boulders that

feature snakes, lizards, mouse-men, bear claws, and mountain sheep. In addition, the Old Spanish Trail

also passed through the area.

An annual birthday celebration commemorates Parowan's founding on 13 January 1851, just twelve

months after Parley P. Pratt and members of his exploring party discovered the Little Salt Lake Valley

and nearby deposits of iron ore. On 8 January 1850 Pratt had raised a liberty pole at Heap's Spring and

dedicated the site as "The City of Little Salt Lake. "Based on Pratt's exploration report, Brigham Young

called for the establishment of settlements in the area to produce much-needed iron implements for the

pioneer state.

Mormon apostle George A. Smith was appointed to head the establishment of this "Iron Mission" in 1850.

The first company of 120 men, 31 women, and 18 children braved winter weather traveling south from

Provo during December. They sometimes built roads and bridges as they traveled, and they finally

reached Center Creek on 13 January 1851. After enduring two bitterly cold nights, they moved across the

creek and circled their wagons by Heap's Spring and Pratt's liberty pole, seeking the protection of the

hills. Within days, the settlement organization was completed: companies of men were dispatched to build

a road up the canyon, a town site was surveyed and laid into lots, and a fort and a log council house were

begun. The council house was used as church, schoolhouse, theater, and community recreation center for

many years.

In 1861 construction was begun on a large church building to stand in the center of the public square. The

pioneers envisioned a building of three stories, built from the abundant yellow sandstone and massive


timbers in nearby canyons. Known as the "Old Rock Church," the building was completed in 1867 and

served as a-place of worship, town council hall, school buildings, social hall, and tourist camp, In 1939 it

was restored through the efforts of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers and a Parowan sponsored WPA

project. It is now a museum of Parowan's early history.

Parowan has been called the "Mother Town of the Southwest" because of the many pioneers who left

from there to start other communities in southern Utah, Nevada, Arizona., Colorado, and even Oregon

and Wyoming. In its first year, colonists were asked to settle Johnson Fort, now Enoch, where a stockade

was built, and were also sent to settle along Coal Creek, site of the settlement to manufacture iron which

became Cedar City.

Parowan's first settlers were instructed to plant crops so that following immigrants could open up the coal

and iron ore deposits, but local industries were also developed, Self-sufficiency was envisioned, and local

industries included a tannery, sawmill, cotton mill, factories for making saddles and harnesses, furniture

and cabinets, shoes, and guns, there also were both carpentry and blacksmith shops. In the early 1900s

both sheep and dairy industries were well established. Local farms were noted for their quality

Rambouillet sheep, and the Southern Utah Dairy Company, a cooperative venture begun in 1900,

produced dairy products and was known for its "Pardale Cheese."

The first attempts at iron manufacturing were unsuccessful, but mining in the twentieth century brought

prosperity to Iron County. When the closure of the mines and the completion of Interstate 15 threatened

economic depression in the early 1980s, determined Parowan citizens -pulled together to develop an

economic plan of action to keep the community viable. Businesses now support Brian Head, a year-round

resort featuring great powder snow for downhill and cross-country skiing in the winter and numerous

summer mountain activities.

Parowan's Economic Development Office actively recruits small manufacturing companies to relocate to

a rural community. In addition, the farmers and ranchers of Iron County are working together to increase

the number of agribusinesses and dairies. Significant growth has occurred in the 1990s in Parowan; it has

been attributed to affordable utility fees and a positive economic climate. City officials have maintained

financial stability while encouraging community-projects that preserve the pioneer heritage and increase

tourism during all seasons. Parowan is the site of the annual Iron County Fair on Labor Day weekend; it

also is a host community for the Utah Summer Games and sponsor of the annual "Christmas in the

Country" celebration each November.


In 1993 the city began development of Heap's Spring Memorial Park. Plans for this site include a park

and amphitheater, a grotto and pond, and a museum of southwestern Utah history. Other local historic

sites include the original town square with the Old Rock Church, the War Memorial and Rose Garden, the

Third/Fourth Ward LDS chapel built in 1915, and the Jesse N. Smith Home Museum. Parowan City

supports the Parowan Community Theatre, which produces outstanding theatrical productions throughout

the year.

See: Richard M. Benson, History of Parowan Third Ward, 1851-1981 (198 1); Luella Adams Dalton,

History of Iron County Mission and Parowan, the Mother Town (1 973), Parowan City, Parowan:

Southern Utah's First Settlement (n.d.).

Janet Burton Seegmiller

John and Sarah Alger’s home in St. George, Utah, located at 185 Diagonal Street.


John Alger, 1830 -1897

Son of Clarissa Hancock and Samuel Alger

(original text was passed down to Florence McMullin Jensen)

Born: Nov 5, 1830

Died: Feb. 4, 1897 at St. George, Utah

Married: Sarah Pulsipher, on Jan 6, 1842

John Alger was born in Astabula County, in the northeast corner

of Ohio, 5 November 1820. He was the son of Samuel and Clarissa Hancock Alger. He was

baptized with his parents in 1830.

Very early in John's life he met and became associated with Zera Pulsipher, who was to have a

great influence on his life's work.

Zera Pulsipher was a farmer in New York where he received and read a copy of the Book of

Mormon. He became converted and joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. After

joining the church he filled a mission to Canada where among his converts was Wilford

Woodruff whom he baptized a member of the Church. After Zera returned home he moved with

his family to Kirtland, Ohio in 1837. It was here the families met and cast their lots with the

Church and its growth and progress. They were never separated again.

After the Saints were compelled to leave Ohio and Missouri, having built the temple in

Kirtland and failing to establish a refuge or gathering place for the Saints, they went to Nauvoo,

Illinois to start anew.

On 6 January 1842 John Alger married Sarah Pulsipher, daughter of Zera Pulsipher and Mary

Brown. They were married by the Prophet Joseph Smith. And through this marriage John

became a member of the Pulsipher family which would take a very active part in the building of

the Church in Illinois and in the migration west to establish themselves in the valley of the

mountains.


At the time of his marriage, John was 22 years of age and a skilled workman as a carpenter

and wheelwright At the time of this marriage, work was beginning on the second temple built in

this dispensation at Nauvoo. To what extent John assisted in the building work of the temple is

not recorded. Before the Saints were to abandon the building and their loved city, John and

Sarah received their endowments in the temple 7 January 1846.

When it became know that the Saints would be forced to move west, John spent much time

making wagons and preparing other articles that would be needed in making such a long trip of

hardships and privations. (The famous all wood wagon that brought Father Bundy completely

across the plains was made by John Alger.)

In February 1846 when the move was started, he and his wife Sarah and daughter Sarah Ann,

born 13 April 1845 joined the party. They had buried a little son, Nelson, in Nauvoo. After

they arrived at Winter Quarters, Nebraska in 1846, it was too late in the season to attempt a

thousand mile journey over the desert and through the mountains so they remained there through

the winter. While at Winter Quarters, another daughter, Olivia, was born 23 June 1847.

In April 1847 Brigham Young left with a selected few to find the way and to locate a place for

his people. He counseled those who remained to prepare ways and means for their trip

ahead. Here John Alger could use his skill to make wagons and equipment that could make the

long trip.

By the spring of 1848 Father Zera Pulsipher was preparing to head a company of the Saints as

Captain. This group consisted of 100 wagons. Included in this group were John Alger, his wife

Sarah and their small daughters; also Zera Pulsipher’s family, Samuel Alger and wife, Clarissa

Hancock Alger. This group arrived in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake between September 20-

24 1848.

John Alger settled at Far West, which was located north of Salt Lake, and his wife Sarah went to

Salt Lake to be confined with her third daughter, Adeliza, born 09 August 1849. At the time of

Johnston’s Army he was directed by Brigham Young to burn the sawmill and bury all the iron

and come to Salt Lake to prepare once more to defend their home and religion.


After the trouble was over John continued in his profession at his new location in Salt Lake that

was given him as his inheritance or place to establish his home. It is shown on the Orson Pratt

map, Block 62 Great Salt Lake survey.

It was during the winter of 1857-58 that John was called out into the mountains to help prevent

the Army sent by the Federal Government, under Gen. Johnston, from coming into the

Valley. Sarah and family with others were moved south as far as Payson because of their fear.

While the John Alger family made their home in Salt Lake City three other children were

born: John Zera, Martha Ellen and Ann Eliza. The seventh child, Samuel Nelson was born at

the home of Sarah’s half sister, Susan Pulsipher Crandal in Payson.

When Johnston’s Army was permitted to enter Salt Lake City and go on 35 miles to Cedar

Valley because of their surrender in the summer of 1858, the Saints moved back to their

homes. John Alger never returned to Far West or to his mill. While living in Salt Lake City two

other children were born, Alva Don and Willard Edgar.

On 26 October 1861 John Alger took his second wife, Jane Ann Burnett. (The histories and

Family Group Sheet disagree on the order in which plural wives were taken.) They were married

in the old Endowment House at Salt Lake City. The families moved to Beaver where John

Alger went into partnership with Lafayette Shepart who had a gristmill. John furnished the saw

mill and planing layout. In 1863 William E. Cowley joined the partnership being a blacksmith.

John Alger joined his eldest daughter, Sarah Ann, to William E. Cowley in marriage.

In the next year, 1864, John Alger, Sarah (1) and Jane (2), William and Sarah Ann Alger

Cowley, Samuel and Clarissa Hancock Alger (parents of John Alger) were c

(note: I am indebted to Carol Wolf for this history and the letter below - thank you)alled by

President Brigham Young to go to the Dixie Mission. Such families as the Pulsiphers and

Algers, because of their qualifications, were needed in the plan of President Young to extend the

territory where all Saints could prosper. A call was made for Zera Pulsipher, his sons, John,

William and Charles, and his sons-in-law Thomas S. Terry and John Alger to go to St.

George. It was hard to give up their homes, which they had spent thirteen years making. This


new call to service was to be the hardest ever assigned to the Alger family. Samuel and Clarissa

Hancock Alger and family located at Parowan. John Alger and families went on to St. George

and built their homes there. He located on fraction Block 4 Plat A on Diagonal St. Here he built

a stucco frame house. He also helped his brother-in-law, Charles Pulsipher, build him a stucco

frame house on Lot 6, Block 39 at the head of First West Street on Diagonal. These buildings

still stand as evidence of the skill and workmanship of these builders.

These men were also needed in other lines as the live stock must be cared for and pastures found

for the cattle of settlers.

Erastus Snow, President of Washington Stake, called John Alger and John and William Pulsipher

to take care of the surplus stock which was being grazed in Diamond Valley. John located at a

spring in the north central party of the valley, afterwards called Alger Canyon. William E.

Cowley spent a great deal of time with him after returning from his trip with James Andrus in the

Black Hawk War.

Later when Joseph Price married Ann Alger they located and lived at a spring in the northeast

part of the valley as more room and pasture was needed for the ever-growing herds of

cattle. Locations were found farther to the west and north. John also had a ranch located in a

place called Little Pine Valley. The valley was at the head of Shoal Creek. It was down this

creek where the stream turns east to flow out into the Escalante Desert that the town of Hebron

was located, and settled by Zera Pulsipher, his sons and sons-in-law. It was while living at

Hebron that the eleventh child was born to John and Sarah Alger. It was their last and was

named Mary Edna, born 09 December 1865.

John Alger took part in locating setters at Hamblin in the north end of the Mountain Meadows in

Clover Valley. After this pioneering he returned to St. George where Sarah and her family had

continue to live. Jane Ann was with him in all of his movings.

John Alger filled a mission to the Eastern States, Ohio being his headquarters. On returning he

brought his brother Alva and sister-in-law (whose husband had been killed in the Civil War) and

small boy back to St. George.


While at St. George, John’s first wife Sarah Pulsipher Alger was set apart at the dedication of the

St. George Temple as a worker. She worked there thirty-one years, eighteen years at

Matron. At the time of her death in 1909 she was the last of the group that was set apart at the

dedication.

While at St. George John devoted his time to making saddletrees and axe and hammer handles,

an industry much needed. At that time most every family must have had one or more

saddles. In this work he shaped the stock, made of native wood, to fit the back of a horse then

covered the saddle tree with dressed rawhide which when the rawhide dried made the saddle tree

strong as though it was made of molded iron. The finished shape was now ready for the

finishing work of covering with leather to make a beautiful job of a skilled builder. He could

also make nice furniture, chairs with woven fine rawhide bottoms, wooden dolls and he also

made an entire harness for his two little mules.

John was a man who loved dancing and entertainment. He liked to sing and did his part at

parties and social gatherings.

Like other pioneers who had moved from their first location along the Atlantic seaboard onto the

west, there to remain for but a short time, then to move on to some new location and start all over

again, John from 1848 when he entered the Salt Lake Valley until 1879 had been out on the

frontier locating and preparing new places for settlements. He acquired farmland in the St.

George-Santa Clara field.

Part of the land had been cleared and was farmed but he felt he must have more land for his wife,

Jane Ann, and her four boys and two girls. He traded the farmland to Alex Fullerton for a

wagon and horses. He then moved Jane's family to a location on the Beaver Dam Wash on a

piece of land below where Henry W. Miller and others had started a settlement but had moved

away because the floods had washed away most of their land and homes. Here he and his

family of small boys struggled alone for years until the boys were mostly grown.

Sarah’s sons, John, Samuel and Willard moved to what was then called Castle Valley, Emery

County. The brother-in- law, William E. Cowley, wife Sarah Ann, eight sons and two daughters

also came in 1886. In this move Jane and her boys joined them in 1890. They later settled on a


farm and ranch in Nine Mile, Carbon County. They farmed, raised cattle and worked for a man

named Preston Nutter. John Alger visited them once in this home. They finished their lifetime

in this place. Sarah Ann’s family located at Cleveland, Emery County. The Huntington River

was diverted and a new start of pioneering was begun.

After his family of Jane’s boys made their last move, John Alger, who was nearing 70 years old,

was too old to continue building new places as he had done in times past. For over forty years

he had been a pioneer in the Valleys of the Mountains. He felt lost and alone not having to carry

on in the work of finding and building places for new homes for the gathering of the Latter Day

Saints.

The remaining years of his life he spent with members of his family. Sometimes he visited with

his daughter, Ann and husband Joe Price at Diamond Valley, or with his daughter, Adeliza who

had been left a widow by the death of her husband, Andrew B. McArthur, or his daughter Olivia

Bryson.

He died 04 February 1897 at St. George and was buried in the St. George Cemetery. Thus closes

a life of seventy-seven years, forty-eight of which had been spent as a builder and frontiersman.

(note: I am indebted to Carol Wolf for this history and the letter below - thank you)

A letter by John Alger,

May 9th, 1868, Salt Lake City

(spelling, grammar and punctuation are John's )

Dear Brothers, Sisters and friends

Thinking a line from me mite not come amifs with you, I atempt to write a few lines to you all

who are interested in our wellfair. All our folks are well as a general thing. Sarah has a fine boy,

born fryday morning. Mother Pulsipher is hear now taking care of Sarah.

Old man baly came to father Pulsipher some time ago and told him that President Young told

him to go to him (father Pulsipher) and that he should marry a cert a in girl to him, which father


Pulsipher done which has caused him to loose his standing in the presidency. We are all very

sorry that he commited such an over sight, but it is as it is and can't be helped. It is a very hard

rap in his old age.

I was at the Council and so was Thomas. We were well satisfide with the Council on that ocasion

as they shoed very respect toards him as posible under the circumstances. A few words to

Brother John Pulsipher. Brother Railey has managed to get your Land from you. I done All I

could to prevent it but I had not the evidence to rebut the arguments that he prodused. A nother

____ below or not until the Book were josted they granted me 20 acres from Brother Hufakers, it

was layed before Brother George and Elder Woodruf they have curtailed Brother Hafakers to

theyer land.

I hope to see you before long, yours as ever,

John Alger - May 9, 1868


JACOB HAMBLIN

1819-1886 Mormon Apostle to the Lamanites

A Short Autobiography by Utah History Encyclopedia

Born: 6 April 1819 in Ashtabula Co, Ohio

Died: 31 Aug 1886, Chihuahua, Mexico

Married: (1) Lucinda Taylor in 1839; separated in

1849; (2) Rachel Judd in 1849; (3) Sarah Priscilla

Leavitt in 1857; (4) Louisa Boneli in 1865. Fathered: 24 children; and

adopted several more. Lasting Legacy: Missionary and Friend to the Native

American People.

Jacob Hamblin was born 6 April 1819 in Ashtabula County, Ohio. His parents were farmers, and

he learned farming a youth. In 1836 his family moved to Wisconsin Territory and homesteaded

at a place called Spring Prairie. Hamblin's father told Jacob when he was nineteen that he had

been a faithful boy and that it was time for him to go into the world and do something for

himself. Hamblin then traveled more than a hundred miles west and went to work in the Galena

mines. After working for a few months, he barely escaped a rockfall that killed his co-worker.

The incident gave him an aversion to mining, and he never returned to the mines. Collecting his

wages, he returned to Wisconsin and paid for the land he had helped homestead.

In the autumn of 1839 he married Lucinda Taylor and settled down to start a family. However, in

February 1842 he heard that Mormon elders were preaching nearby. After listening to the

Mormon preaching, he joined the Mormon Church on 3 March 1842. Hamblin started missionary

work almost immediately and became known as a faith healer, showing the signs of "those that

believe," in his words. The next year he moved to Nauvoo, Illinois, where the Mormon Church

headquarters were located.


Anti-Mormon sentiment was building and Hamblin and his family received their share. At that

time he met and married Rachel Judd as his second (that is, plural) wife. His families moved

west with the Mormons. He settled in Tooele Valley and became acquainted with local Indians

who knew him as a friend. In 1854 Hamblin was called as a missionary to the Indians in southern

Utah.

Again, he became known for his influence with Native Americans because of his integrity and

his willingness to be friends with them. He had many spiritual experiences that caused the

Indians to consider him invested with godly powers. After serving in his Indian mission for more

than a year, Hamblin moved his family from Tooele to what is now Santa Clara. He then became

president of the southern Utah Indian mission.

In the fall of 1857 Hamblin went north to

confer with Brigham Young in Salt Lake City.

On the way he encountered the Fancher Party

of emigrants, California bound from Arkansas

and Missouri. They asked him about the road

and places to camp.

He directed them to Mountain Meadows on the old Spanish Trail, about three miles from his

home. He later expressed horror and repugnance at news of the massacre of the Fancher Party at

Mountain Meadows. His wife Rachel helped care for the massacre survivors at the ranch.

Hamblin continued to serve as a missionary to the Native American tribes in the Southern Utah

area. Following enactment of Edmunds Act of 1882, an arrest order was issued naming Hamblin

and others known to practice polygamy. Hamblin moved his families from Utah into Arizona

and New Mexico and some even moved into Chihuahua, Mexico. Until his death on 31 August

1886, Hamblin was usually moving from one family to another to evade federal officers and see

to the needs of his widespread family.


He had four wives: Lucinda Taylor (married April 1839, separated February 1849); Rachel Judd

(married 30 September 1849); Sarah Priscilla Leavitt (married September 1857); Louisa Boneli

(married 16 November 1865). He fathered twenty-four children and had several adopted

children. His lasting legacy was as a missionary and friend to the Native Americans, helping

smooth relations between them and the more recent

arrivals to the land.

See: Paul Dayton Bailey, Jacob Hamblin, Buckskin

Apostle (1961); Juanita Brooks, Jacob Hamblin:

Mormon Apostle to the Indians (1980); and Pearson

Harris Corbett, Jacob Hamblin: The Peacemaker

(1952).

Jay M. Haymond


JACOB HAMBLIN: HIS OWN STORY Mormon Apostle to the Lamanites

Published By Hartt Wixom 7 November, 1998

Dixie College, St. George, Utah

Juanita Brooks Lecture Series, St. George, UT

with Support from the Obert C. TannerFoundation

When I began researching some 15 years ago to write a biography of

Jacob Hamblin, I sought to separate the man from many myths and

legends. I sought primary sources, written in his own hand, but initially

found mostly secondary references. From the latter I knew Hamblin had

been labeled by some high officials in the hierarchy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as

the "Mormon Apostle to the Lamanites" (Book of Mormon name for the American Indian). I also found

an insightful autobiography edited by James A. Little, first published in 1887, but unfortunately

concluding some ten years before Hamblin died.

Thus, I began seeking primary sources, words written with Jacob Hamblin's own pen. I was informed

by Mark Hamblin, Kanab, a great-great-grandson of Jacob, that a relative had a copy of an original diary.

Family tradition had it that this diary was found in a welltraveled saddle bag, years after Jacob died These

records, among others, provide precious understanding today into the life of a man who dared to humbly

believe in a cause greater than himself-- and did more than pay lip service to it.

His belief was that the Book of Mormon, published by the LDS Church in 1830, made promises to the

Lamanites by which they might live up to the teachings of Jesus Christ, as had their forefathers, and

receive the same spiritual blessings. Jacob firmly believed he might in so doing, also broker a peace

between white and red man which could spare military warfare and bloodshed on the frontier of southern

Utah and northern Arizona in the middle and late 1800s.

In fact, Jacob's diaries and journals are full of entreaties to his pioneer brethren to settle their differences

with scripture and friendship rather than musket and knife. There is no way to objectively analyze how


many lives he saved in the process right here in Dixie, but it would be considerable by even conservative

standards.

Jacob considered it his duty to take the "Good News of the latter days" to every native American

within his reach, and there were thousands during the 1800s. Jacob saw the local Piedes, Santa Claras,

Navajos, Hopis, all native Americans, as Israelites, not to be treated as savages but as children of God.

Duty sometimes led Jacob Hamblin to leave his family for long periods and if there is one valid criticism

of Jacob in hindsight, it might be that he wasn't home much to help his wives, within the LDS principle of

polygamy in raising their children, which exceeded a dozen by the 1860s.

A harsh question as well: Did he interpret the scriptures, primarily the Book of Mormon, too literally, too

optimistically, about how devoted missionary effort might make the Lamanites (or Indians) "blossom as

the rose"? After all, by his own admission, he made little progress in gaining converts to the Hopi Indians

despite repeated visits. History of this period doesn't record baptizing a single Navajo, that tribe which

killed young George A. Smith while a member of Hamblin's missionary party. Give Hamblin credit,

however, with achieving a peace with the Navajos in 1874 after they threatened to roast him at the stake.

The Indians blamed him for the death of three Navajo braves venturing into Utah to trade for horses and

told him that he could go only by promising to deliver to the Navajo Nation 350 Mormon cattle. This

Jacob refused to do. Several Navajos asked at that point why this white man who was their prisoner

showed no fear. Jacob answered simply, "Why should I be afraid among my friends?" Gie old Navajo

summed it up rather succinctly: "Why, you have not a single friend among the entire Navajo Nation." But

perhaps we have extolled too many virtues of this man. Let us look at a few of his negatives. Jacob had a

bad habit; according to his own admission, he hated yard work. He tells us that one day he tried to stay

home and weed the garden but his knee hurt so badly he didn't feel he could be effective.

So he jumped on his horse to help settle a dispute with Indians nearly a hundred miles away in Grass

Valley, near Antimony, and never mentions feeling ill again. Jacob was also a pacifist, a conscientious

objector of his time. He went into many Lamanite "lion's dens" to settle conflicts but refused to take part

in any organized military expedition. He was enlisted in one campaign to find the killers of two white

settlers at Pipe Spring but he soon became ill and returned home. As Juanita Brooks and other historians

record, Jacob was not present at the Mountain Meadows Massacre and being the non-military person he

was, it does not seem in his character to have taken part in any of the battles if he had been there during


those tragic September days of 1857. My research and conclusions about that tragedy are included in the

book Hamblin and are too lengthy to address here.

Secondary sources tell us Jacob was born in 1819 and died in 1886, with a memorial marker in Alpine,

Arizona which includes the phrase "Peacemaker in the camps of the Lamanites." But let us probe together

into the pages of Jacob's original writings to learn all we can about what happened in between. We learn

that Jacob Vernon Hamblin may well be the most traveled human being in the history of Christian

missionary endeavor, including the Apostle Paul. Paul traveled thousands of miles but consider that Jacob

made some 10 known treks of approximately 600 or more miles each, round trip, to the Hopi Indians of

Craibi, Arizona, alone. This does not count many expeditions to Nevada's Muddy and lyet Indians, north

to Great Salt Lake City countless times to confer with church leaders about mission matters and to

Mexico where he proselyted natives along the way.

Some might envision Jacob as seen in the exquisite portrait of him hanging in the Jacob Lake Lodge

enroute to the north rim of the Grand Canyon. Cr enjoy the bronze sculpture of him by Mont Crosland

handing the Navajo chief Hastele a Book of Mormon. Or the grand portrait by Del Parson of Jacob

negotiating with the Navajos, hanging in the Dixie College Library. Cr read of his seemingly Herculean

accomplishments in books and magazines of the early 1900s.

Yet he was also ignored in many respects, not even mentioned in the World Book Encyclopedia, although

it has much to say about other Indian negotiators such as Daniel Boone and Kit Carson. One must wonder

out loud why northern Arizona never named anything after the man responsible for colonization of

approximately a third of that state. Or why there is no annual trail ride from St. George to Pipe Spring,

which route Jacob's party traveled so heavily, or why not an annual trail ride from Kanab to House Rock

Valley across the Kaibab forest? For that matter, Jacob's trail taken dozens of times is not even marked on

maps of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management or the U.S. Forest Service, although a party of travelers

who made a one-time-only expedition across the land in 1776 is well marked.

As we probe, let us look for these answers: Why was he so effective in gaining converts among the Native

Americans while many around him failed? How was it he managed to bring peace to the frontier for so

many years before it was accomplished in other parts of the West outside his sphere of influence? For

example, in central and southern Arizona some Indians and whites killed each other on sight almost into

the 1900s.


How is it he managed to visit hostile Indian tribes for 30 years without so much as a scratch while settlers

around him like James Whitmore, Robert Mclntyre and three members of the Berry family along the

Utah-Arizona border failed to escape the wrath of marauding Navajos and Paiutes? Just how, in his own

words, did Jacob manage so many narrow escapes with hostile aborigines when his peers did not?

But perhaps we have extolled too many virtues of this man. Let us look at a few of his negatives. Jacob

had a bad habit; according to his own admission, he hated yard work. He tells us that one day he tried to

stay home and weed the garden but his knee hurt so badly he didn't feel he could be effective. So he

jumped on his horse to help settle a dispute with Indians nearly a hundred miles away in Grass Valley,

near Antimony, and never mentions feeling ill again.

Jacob was also a pacifist, a conscientious objector of his time. He went into many Lamanite "lion's dens"

to settle conflicts but refused to take part in any organized military expedition. He was enlisted in one

campaign to find the killers of two white settlers at Pipe Spring but he soon became ill and returned home.

As Juanita Brooks and other historians record, Jacob was not present at the Mountain Meadows Massacre

and being the non-military person he was, it does not seem in his character to have taken part in any of the

battles if he had been there during those tragic September days of 1857. My research and conclusions

about that tragedy are included in the book Hamblin and are too lengthy to address here.

Secondary sources tell us Jacob was born in 1819 and died in 1886, with a memorial marker in Alpine,

Arizona which includes the phrase "Peacemaker in the camps of the Lamanites." But let us probe together

into the pages of Jacob's original writings to learn all we can about what happened in between. We learn

that Jacob Vernon Hamblin may well be the most traveled human being in the history of Christian

missionary endeavor, including the Apostle Paul. Paul traveled thousands of miles but consider that Jacob

made some 10 known treks of approximately 600 or more miles each, round trip, to the Hopi Indians of

Oraibi, Arizona, alone. This does not count many expeditions to Nevada's Muddy and lyet Indians, north

to Great Salt Lake City countless times to confer with church leaders about mission matters and to

Mexico where he proselyted natives along the way.

Some might envision Jacob as seen in the exquisite portrait of him hanging in the Jacob Lake Lodge

enroute to the north rim of the Grand Canyon. Cr enjoy the bronze sculpture of him by Mont Crosland

handing the Navajo chief Hastele a Book of Mormon. Or the grand portrait by Del Parson of Jacob

negotiating with the Navajos, hanging in the Dixie College Library. Cr read of his seemingly Herculean

accomplishments in books and magazines of the early 1900s. Yet he was also ignored in many respects,

not even mentioned in the World Book Encyclopedia, although it has much to say about other Indian


negotiators such as Daniel Boone and Kit Carson. One must wonder out loud why northern Arizona never

named anything after the man responsible for colonization of approximately a third of that state. Cr why

there is no annual trail ride from St. George to Pipe Spring, which route Jacob's party traveled so heavily,

or why not an annual trail ride from Kanab to House Rock Valley across the Kaibab forest? For that

matter, Jacob's trail taken dozens of times is not even marked on maps of the U.S. Bureau of Land

Management or the U.S. Forest Service, although a party of travelers who made a one-time-only

expedition across the land in 1776 is well marked.

As we probe, let us look for these answers: Why was he so effective in gaining converts among the Native

Americans while many around him failed? How was it he managed to bring peace to the frontier for so

many years before it was accomplished in other parts of the West outside his sphere of influence? For

example, in central and southern Arizona some Indians and whites killed each other on sight almost into

the 1900s. How is it he managed to visit hostile Indian tribes for 30 years without so much as a scratch

while settlers around him like James Whitmore, Robert Mclntyre and three members of the Berry family

along the Utah-Arizona border failed to escape the wrath of marauding Navajos and Paiutes? Just how, in

his own words, did Jacob manage so many narrow escapes with hostile aborigines when his peers did

not?

A harsh question as well: Did he interpret the scriptures, primarily the Book of Mormon, too literally, too

optimistically, about how devoted missionary effort might make the Lamanites (or Indians) "blossom as

the rose"? After all, by his own admission, he made little progress in gaining converts to the Hopi Indians

despite repeated visits. History of this period doesn't record baptizing a single Navajo, that tribe which

killed young George A. Smith while a member of Hamblin's missionary party. Give Hamblin credit,

however, with achieving a peace with the Navajos in 1874 after they threatened to roast him at the stake.

The Indians blamed him for the death of three Navajo braves venturing into Utah to trade for horses and

told him that he could go only by promising to deliver to the Navajo Nation 350 Mormon cattle. This

Jacob refused to do. Several Navajos asked at that point why this white man who was their prisoner

showed no fear. Jacob answered simply, "Why should I be afraid among my friends?" Gie old Navajo

summed it up rather succinctly: "Why, you have not a single friend among the entire Navajo Nation."

But Jacob tells in his diary wherein he derived the remarkable courage to stand up to an angry Navajo

Nation. Hamblin says he was sent by Brigham Young to help colonize Tooele, west of Great Salt

Lake City and while there made his first encounter with the western natives. He and his peers were


sent by local ecclesiastical authority to kill thieving Goshute Indians, but found their guns would not work

properly. The Indians seemed to be having the same trouble shooting their arrows. Jacob tells in his own

handwriting how he escaped death at the hands of a Goshute: "I met one of them and he begged for

mercy. I thought it would be a neglect of duty if I let him pas but my gun mist fire as quick as thought he

threw an arrow at me but fortunately, it struck the guard of my gun." Two more arrows passed near by.

Since they couldn't effectively kill one another, the two sides made a truce. Jacob concluded, as he put it,

that "God must have a youse for the Lamanite." He decided that God was sending him a message: as long

as he did not shed the blood of a Lamanite, they could not shed his. It was to be the guiding light of his

life when he transferred as a missionary to the New Harmony/ Santa Clara region in 1854. If the Lord had

a "youse" for the Indian, who was he to harm one of God's children? If he, Jacob, does not shed their

blood, they cannot shed his. For Jacob, it was as simple as that.

That was the understanding he carried with him into the Navajo Nation in 1874. His friends, including

Bishop Levi Stewart of Kanab, warned him that he was riding to certain death. As Hamblin put it, his life

would be temporarily spared by the Navajos if he promised to return to them in 25 days for final

judgment at their hands. They would check But perhaps we have extolled too many virtues of this man.

Let us look at a few of his negatives. Jacob had a bad habit; according to his own admission, he hated

yard work. He tells us that one day he tried to stay home out his statement that it was not Mormons who

had killed the three braves. When Jacob returns home, his diaries and journals contain some of the richest

literature known to mankind as he explains to friends and family that yes, he is safe now but no, he must

keep his promise. He must return to the council and be acquitted by that body.

But let's start in Jacob's diaries with his early life, his conversion to the Mormon Church and marriage to

his first wife, Lucinda. What impact did they have on who he later became? To rely on primary sources to

find answers, however, one must learn to be something of a language sleuth. When first encountering

Jacob's dairies, I could scarcely decipher his writing. Some was smeared. Hamblin's penmanship appeared

so ornate on first glance that it seemed formidable. Hamblin's word selection reminded me of the "Middle

English" style of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, first encountered in my freshman English year at

the University of Utah. In time, I learned to envision Jacob writing beneath a pinion pine on Buckskin

Mountain...or maybe beside a sage bough on Hurricane Mesa, and began to find greater understanding. It

is a euphoric feeling to know you are reading the original writing, that you have lost nothing through

another's translation. But there are hurdles to overcome. Hamblin, like others of his era, included no

periods at the end of sentences and he had a maddening way of capitalizing almost every "s" as if it began


a new sentence. Usually it did not. But one learns, after initial struggle, where one sentence ends and an

other begins.

Jacob's wording was also what one might call oblique. Rather than saying he found food along the trail

and ate it, he says that the "Starving missionaries Stumbled across a vegetable garden grown by some

local Indians and we appropriated it to our use." Instead of saying he ate something growing on a bush

and got sick, he writes in his journal that "I Soon became Satisfied that I had been poisoned."

I found it helped to read Hamblin phonetically, filling in the missing vowels, paying no attention to

capitalization, affixing the periods as I went, sometimes shutting my eyes, placing my mind where Jacob

wandered during the middle and late 1800s. Only then could I fully appreciate the rich language and

depth of thought Jacob meant to communicate with us in the year 1998. Putting myself in his place, the

words now leapt out as if written the day before.

Hamblin wrote in a rhetorical way which would irritate a modern Associated Press writer trained to say

up front who, what, when, where, why and how. Thus, it requires a little Sherlock Holmes in us to

determine what the veteran missionary Jacob Hamblin was trying to communicate. I will shortly provide

some examples.

It should be said that after reading over the original words of Hamblin, I found a typescript "translation"

of Jacob's words in the Brigham Young University Special Collections room. There are others in the LDS

Church Archives in Salt Lake City. But there was just nothing like seeing it in Jacob's own handwriting. I

found myself reveling in his precise words. For example, there is the "Money Dream." In this, Jacob

wrote that he had a dream one snowy night on Buckskin Mountain that his wife "needed a Dollar very

mutch." In the dream he discovered a gold coin in his pocket. Upon his awakening, he says, "I know thiS

to be of the Lord It means good..I hav written this bcawS I know it has meaning. It comforted my hart."

(Periods supplied by this author.)

Now, what does this tell us about Jacob Hamblin? To me it means he was off doing the Lord's errand,

which he did rather frequently. He was worried about the material welfare of his family, which some of

the Hamblin neighbors often said they were also prone to wonder about, but Jacob knew the Lord would

take care of his family's needs while he was on the Lord's errands. The value of original sources, with no

translator in between, is that we can each decide what it means to us.


But back to Lucinda. Qie historian says that Jacob's first wife refused to go along with him in his

conversion to Mormonism and finally tells him when he insists on joining the Saints in the Great Salt

Lake Valley: "All right, take your Mormon brats and get out." The same historian, a secondary source,

says, "They had been extremely happy, except for having to move so often, thus upsetting their plans for a

permanent home." From Jacob's diaries and journals, however, we get a totally different point of view.

Deciphering Hamblin's writing, we fairly shout out "Eureka, I have found it!" for he tells us that he

regarded his marriage to Lucinda a major mistake almost before the ink was dry on the marriage

certificate and perhaps a message for all young couriers today that he "should have listened to the advice

of his parents."

His diary reads thusly: "The Third of oct 1839 I mared Mrs. Lucinda Taylor young and little experience

as was my Self this was contrary to the feelings of my parence when the marriage ceremony was over I

felt condemned for what I had don I wouldgive all I possessed if I could have been fred thus was I pead

for my disobedience in that I had no joy in the wife I had taken." This from page 4 of what the book

Hamblin describes as the "Journals and Letters of Jaocb Hamblin."

Jacob tells us how he would yield to God only, not mammon, and therefore, leaves Lucinda and their

comfortable home behind. He takes the four children, with his now converted parents, and hurries in the

year 1859 to join the Saints in their Zion in the Rocky Mountains. But he halts enroute in Iowa to marry

Rachel Henderson. He says he was told to do so by the Spirit. His journal reads: "I found this woman was

of a mild, jentle disposition...! have hadpeaSe at home or in my family ever Since I have lived with this

kind effction companion. I hav taSted the bitter. I know well how to appreciate the Sweet." Somehow,

these words would not have the same profound meaning for me if written secondhand.

Another insight: in his usual humble fashion, Jacob wrote, "I have nothing very eSential to write

ConSerning my past life...my education was very limited, altho I was taught to reSpect my parents and

reverence the god of heaven." These two sentences in his own handwriting tell us volumes about the man

Jacob Hamblin. Think how different our world would be today if everyone subscribed to these words of

this man.

Here are some other "Hamblinisms" from his diaries and journals. In crossing the plains, June 14, 1850:

"18 miles crosed Salt Creek campt in the Pawnee Territory...wood and water scarce Stood guard." After

describing how many died of the "colery": "This was truly a mournful Scene...women and children


mourning for their Husbands and Childrin... obliege to lev them on the plaines, burying them as desent as

we could."

June 26, 27,1850: "15 miles mud an drain...My wife violently attcted with the Colery about three oclock

in the morning. I praydfor hur and anointed hur in the name of the Lord..Coledon Brs. Pectal and Hill to

admin-ster She was relived immediately met the mail from Salt Lake Valley."

"We camped near the Santa Clara nere 5 or 6 lodges of the Piedes they mutch pleased..one young Squaw

Said hur Mother was very Sick and wanted we Should talk to the Lord for hur one of thare ministers was

there Singin so that he would pity the Sick woman and drive the evle Spirit away which was trying to kill

hur She was quite jealous of me and told me to go away the woman was worse so they sent for us we

went and laid our hands on her head and She was instantly heled they was all amased to see her get up

and ask for Some thing to eat. they said she had not eaten anything for three days

On the watch for marauding horse thieves: "All well no Navajos seen yet." "They [Piedes] were

harvesting wheet...which they thrust against the ground..[trying] to knock the dirt from it." Jacob lent

them a knife.

Watching the Tonaquints sell their children: "I Saw the teers fall from the eyes of the three girls about 10

or 12 years old. The Girls Father and Mother criyd to See them go but they had nothing to eat and it

would be beter for the childrin than to Stay and Starve. I felt hart sick to see them dr aged from their

homes to be Slaves..." Hamblin said he did all he could to "amelyerate the condicion of this miserable

people." We see by this phrase that Jacob did not merely symphathize with the Indians. He tried to lift

them up from a difficult way of life.

"I have many times had my feelings hurt to See the coldindiference with which the [Lamanite] elders hav

been treated by some of the Southern sellers." This included times when Jacob fought verbally with his

settler peers to give the Indians as much irrigation water as received by the whites for their own crops.

At one point a Piede tried to intimidate Hamblin. He implied the Piedes would kill the Mormons. Walker

[Ute chief] would help. He "would come and kill all the Mormons in Harmony." Says Hamblin: "I told

him he lied. If the Piedes had killed one of the Mormons, they would all be Shot. I told him I had no

bread to Spare [but] gave him Some matches...we Shook hands and parted with better feelingS than when

we met."


Upon the Piedes fighting for their wives. One maiden being bantied about asked for Jacob to pull her

away from harm and as he did so, found himself embroiled in Indian custom. He says, "One of the

waryers presented himself ...I was glad to get out it with a brusedface. They dragedher over the river...one

of them caught the other by the hair." Hamblin said some of the women being fought over had blood on

their faces, mud in their mouths and eyes.

At one point, Jacob kicked a brave he was fighting and quickly learned he had broken Paiute protocol.

Jacob was told sternly it was against Indian rules to kick. But he did manage to get the chiefs to promise

to stop this practice of fighting for their wives as "I would not Stay with his people if they didn't stop such

conduct. He [the chief] said that was the way they got their Women. Jacob says, "You want I should write

good to the Mormon chief [Brigham Young] about you? 'Ch yes,' he said." Jacob warned, "I write

truth...." Next morning the chief said that "he and his principal men counciled on it that night and he did

not want me to say anything about what had been don. They was a Shaimed of themselves...! began to

gain influence among them."

Jacob wouldn't score many points with today's chambers of commerce. When guiding Major John Wesley

Powell into potentially hostile Indian country, it was the major who named the Grand Canyon and Mt.

Trumbell and almost any other geographical feature on the horizon, perhaps with more funding from

Congress in mind for future explorations. Hamblin seemed willing to let Powell take all the glory, as if

he, Major Powell, discoverd everything first. As a matter of fact, Hamblin's diaries and journals never

claim to do anything first or best, or name anything, or even describe the wonders of nature, although

once he got out of character by using the word "Sublime" in his wanderings. Travelogues were for others

like Major Powell.

It required later historians, secondary sources, to document that Jacob was the first white man to travel

completely around the Grand Canyon, first to cross the Colorado River at Lee's Ferry, first to see the

spectacular, tropic-like waterfalls of Havasupai Canyon, promising never to say anything about them. I've

seen those wonders myself and I don't know how he could keep the secret...except that he promised to.

Today, ironically, the main reason these falls are known to the world is via brochures put out by the

natives who live there.

In Jacob's autobiography is outlined how Hamblin escaped death at the hands of hostile Navajo judges.

How hostile were they? We know from other histories such as Dee Brown's Bury My Heart at Wounded

Knee that a majority of Navajos at that time had signed a treaty allowing them to return home from the


hated Bosque Redondo in New Mexico. But many rebels had not signed the treaty and deeply resented it.

What better way to express that resentment than to kill another white man which had, they believed,

caused the death of three Navajo braves?

Jacob was too modest to give us the complete story. He might have been a better communicator if not so

reticent about his accomplishments. At least he does include a version written by the Smith brothers, with

local mining interests, who accompanied Hamblin to meet the Navajo Nation. The Smiths wrote in a

Pioche, Nevada newspaper that they had never seen such courage as displayed by Hamblin. IDS Church

historian James Bleak also provides further light on Hamblin's coolness under pressure.

Thus, I do not want to cast aspersions on the value of secondary sources. They often clarify important

issues the original writer does not tell us. In this case, doing so might make it appear he was bragging. If

he had done a little of the latter, he might be as well known today as Boone and Carson, those heroes of

the dime novels. But it would be as a negotiator, one who sat and ate around many Indian campfires

rather than fighting those who built them.

Actually, Jacob does brag occasionally, once in saying how he found Fish Lake in one day while a brother

taking a different route required two. He also writes of outdoing Indian medicine men in healing the sick.

Other than Lucinda and the early courtship with Rachel, if it can be called that (for Hamblin can scarcely

be called a romantic), he says nothing about his domestic life. He writes almost entirely of church mission

matters. If it was not church duty, it was not mentioned. This is a shame in many respects for clearly, he

could not have proceeded on so many "missions of duty" without the support of faithful wives Rachel,

Priscilla and Louisa. The documentation is there in both the BYU and LDS Church Archive libraries that

Jacob married Ellen, a Paiute maiden. But Jacob says nothing about Ellen in his diaries and only mentions

her once in his autobiography, when the Navajos would let him go free if he would turn his wife over to

the belligerents. Jacob says, paraphrasing, that whatever the odds, he would rather die like a man than live

like a dog.

Most of the domestic data about his family is gleaned from LDS records and from historian Pearson

Corbett's lengthy interviews with relatives in the 1940s and '50s. But where his innermost insights are

given, nothing does it like hearing directly from Jacob Hamblin.


Not all of Hamblin's journal entries are earth-shattering remnants of history. One gives a pioneer remedy

for blood poisoning and tapeworm: For blood poisoning, "Use hyposulfate of Soda..for killing tape worm

take 6 ous pumagranite bark."

As a linguistic aside, Hamblin is not consistent in the spelling of the word "pearents" or "parence." In

some of his writings he spells "Santa Clara" three different ways. But we don't want to be too critical.

Spelling appears to be somewhat adventurous and creative even in the time of William Shakepeare.

But Jacob's richest thoughts, in my opinion, are often presented in teaching the gospel of peace to the

Indians, including the Santa Clara and Piede tribes who lived almost where we now sit. Much work was

required to make the desert liveable and Jacob put the Indians to work in helping win it over. But he

sought always their spiritual welfare, a thing which he felt his mission president predecessor ignored.

And after a terrible flood, the settlers and Indians of this region had to start over again before the area

became as habitable as we find it today. Much can be learned by visiting Hamblin's second home in Santa

Clara, now an LDS visitors center on the west edge of town. I would invite all to pay a visit there. An

interesting item on display is Jacob's saddle, probably one of many, a major tool in disseminating his

message of the restored gospel to the Lamanite. For some 30 years he was in that saddle trying to carry

the Mormon concept of Christianity to the natives.

He was from the beginning aware that the ways of the Indians who inhabited these lands from Harmony

on the north to Grand Canyon on the south were not like those of the white settlers. The Indians held that

sky and land and water belonged to all in common. Now came these paleface pioneers, andlike pioneers

everywhere, produceda piece of paper saying they owned a given pasture or spring. Even Jacob Hamblin

"leased" Mountain Meadows for pasturage. The Indians could not comprehend it. The white man made no

attempt to claim he owned a piece of the sky. How could anyone own the land and water underneath it?

It required a man like Jacob Hamblin to explain the aborigines' point of view to incoming pioneers. Many

of these new settlers failed to see how they had impacted the lives of the local natives. Jacob's diary says

that the white men turned their cattle out onto the adjacent grasslands but failed to realize that the natives

depended on that grass, even though owning no horses or cattle. They needed it to sustain themselves via

a harvest of weed seeds and grasshoppers. When we palefaces took away their livelihood, the Indians

raided the settlers' villages to find food.


Jacob took the view the settlers had, indeed, imposed upon the region's native inhabitants, acceptable so

long as they did what God sent them to do, improve the lives physically, intellectually and, spiritually of

all with whom they came in contact. While the settlers often sought to retaliate by raising military forces

to dispense with the mischief-makers, Jacob insisted the two factions could get along peaceably if they

but understood one another. Hamblin eventually proved correct.

Jacob's success in bringing about this understanding undoubtedly saved many lives in Dixie, both Indian

and white. His insight and skill in understanding differences between the various races, cultures and

ethnic groups could be better acquired by us all. It would seem to serve this world well if there were more

Jacob Hamblins.

testimony of other faithful family members

Documents

margaret clarissa

day margaret

john young

german family of saints

clarissa alger john

samuel alger

clarissa hancock alger

company of saints