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| Harriet Decker Hanks: Lower Right |
George Edwin was one of the last Pony Express riders in the Utah Territory. He was brought across the plains as a young boy by his mother, Harriet. Edwin, Harriet's first husband, died due to complications of pneumonia as a result of rescuing some Saints who were crossing the Mississippi River who fell through the ice during the Nauvoo exodus.
Read some of the exciting stories of Harriet which were recorded in her journal and other early Church writings and journals such as this from our Grand Father, Lorenzo Dow Young, brother of the prophet, Brigham Young.
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In the Utah Historical
Quarterly, Volume 14, we find the diary and Biography of Lorenzo Dow Young,
written by James A. Little. Lorenzo tells of leaving Nauvoo and crossing the
Mississippi River the 8 day of Februarys 1846. "We drove out six miles to
camp on Sugar Greek. Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimbal came across on the 15th
of February but returned to Nauvoo in the evening and came back the next day.
Bishop Whitney and group did not come across the river until the 22 February.
The weather had turned severly cold and they crossed on the ice. We are not
sure of the day when Harriet and Edwin with their son George crossed the river
with the saints, but it is told in Harriet's history that Edwin was helping his
Uncle Brigham Young across with the wagons when the ice broke thru throwing him
into the icy water. He gained shore in safety but was chilled and wet;
Pneumonia resulted and caused his death.
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| Grandpa Lorenzo Dow Young |
On page 74 of the book
mentioned above, Lorenzo writes: "In our camp there were hundreds of women
and children with no other shelter than a wagon cover or cloth tent, and the
weather was extremely cold. On the 2nd of March we broke camp. I started with
my little company of ten wagons, with the camp numbering over 400 wagons. About
the same time the weather moderated and it rained until the mud made it almost
impossible to travel. Sometimes it required five or six yoke of oxen to move
one wagon. With much difficulty it would be taken perhaps a mile, then the team
would return and bring up another, and another, performing a severe days labor
and possibly travel four or five miles from the encampment of the previous
night, with the women and children sitting cramped up in the wagons, for it was
so very wet and muddy they could not walk. After a week of this kind of labor
the camp arrived at Richardson's Point, fifty five miles from Nauvoo. It
remained there a few days and several of the brethern found work, for which
they received corn to sustain their teams. "
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| George Edwin Little |
Here Lorenzo's nephew,
Edwin Little was taken very sick with 'lung fever'. He was removed to a house
about two miles from camp, but he continued to grow worse and died on the 18
March, 1846. He was buried in a cold damp grave in a grove of trees a few rods
from the road. It was a melancholy day for his relatives and friends, and
especially for his stricken wife, Harriet. He is buried at what is now
Keosauqua, Iowa.
The saints stayed in
Winter Quarters the winter of 1846.
When the time came for
Brigham Young and the first Company to go to Salt Lake Valley the following
women and children were permitted to go: Harriet's mother, wife of Lorenzo Dow
Young, her seven year old son, Issac Perry Decker, Lorenzo's son Lorenzo
Sobieski, 6 years old (he was by the first wife, Persis Goodall), Harriet's
sister Clara, wife of Brigham Young, and Ellen Sanders, wife of Heber C.
Kimball,
Harriet and her son
Edwin came in the second company with Jedidah M. Grant as captain. Hunger,
fear of the Indians, hardships of traveling on newly made roads and worry about
her mother and others who had now arrived in Salt Lake City were few of the
heart aches that Harriet endured.
It was hard for her,
knowing when she arrived in the valley that she would have no husband to help
her make a home.
They arrived in Salt
Lake Valley the 2nd of October, 1847. Her little 3 year old son, George was
equally as happy to see his grandmother Harriet Young and other relatives as
was Harriet, She was happy to see her mother's new baby boy that had arrived 26
September, 1847. (He died 22 March, 1848. They named him Lorenzo Dow Jr.)
Their first home in the
valley consisted of the wagon in which they had crossed the plains. Not only
was food scarce and difficult to obtain, but so were cooking utensils and other
necessities of life,
Harriet helped other
women with their cooking and did sewing to help make a living.
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| George Edwin Little |
We know the story of
that first winter in the Fort and the hardships they endured. Also the dances
and programs that gave them entertainment.
Harriet and Ephraim K.
Hanks were married the 22 of September; 1848, by Brigham Young. The ceremony
was performed at the home of Harriet's mother, Harriet Page Wheeler Decker and
her husband Lorenzo Dow Young. This home was a small log house located where
the historic Bee Hive house now stands.
Ephraim was a son of
Benjamin and Martha Knowlton Hanks. Born 21 March, 1826 at Madison, Lake
County, Ohio. He and his brother Sidney Alvarus joined the church in Nauvoo.
Alvarus came with Brigham Young's company and Ephraim joined the Mormon
Battalion and came to Salt Lake in 1847.
Ephraim took two other
wives, Jane Maria Capener and Hannah Hardy in plural marriage. This was the 26
of March, 1856, a month after Harriet's fourth child was born. Hannah Hardy did
not live with Ephraim but got a temple divorce, 20 May, 1856.
In October of 1856 we know
the story, of the rescue of the Martin Hand Cart Co; Ephraim was one of the
first to reach them and help them to Salt Lake Valley. He and Feramorze Little
carried mail from Laramie Wyoming to Salt Lake, also to St. Joseph, Missouri
many times.
Harriet's son, George
Edwin rode the pony express for 16 months when he was only 15 and 16 years old.
Ephraim had taught him to be fearless as well as to have faith in God.
Harriet and Ephraim had
seven children, namely: Marcellus, Marcia Amelis, Otis Alvarus Harriet Page,
Clara Vilate, Charles Decker and Perry Issac. They were all born in Salt Lake
City.
Jane Capener and Ephraim
also had seven Children. Ephraim married Thisbe Quilley Read 5 April, 1862 and
they had 12 children. Harriet's last son, Perry Issac, by Ephraim, was born the
20 January 1863. We can pay honor to her for her courage and deep understanding
in dealing with her problems of those pioneer days.
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| Grandma Clara Ann Little (Brown) |
Ephraim took his wife
Thisbe and family to Burrville, Sevier County, Utah in 1879 and later to Floral
Ranch, near Fruita, Wayne County, Utah. He was a great man, with power to heal
the sick. He was made a Patriarch, and enjoyed the spirit thereof. He and
Thisbe are buried in Cainevllle, Wayne County, Utah. Their son Arthur married
Mattie Taylor Little, daughter of Arthur and Mattie Little Hanks,
When we left Wayne
County, Utah to live in Nampa, Idaho, we called to see my great grandmother
Harriet in Salt Lake City. This was in September of 1916. Early in my life at
Hadan, Fremont County, Idaho she made a little pink silk bag and a hankerchief
for me. I still have them among my keep sakes. To me she was a very choice
person.
My mother, Mattie Little
Hanks writes the following: "As a child I always looked forward to spring
for that brought my grandmother Harriet Little Hanks, to the Teton Valley in
Idaho from Salt Lake City. She had homesteaded an 80 acre track of land
adjoining our property. She had a cozy log cabin built on it and spent six
months out of the year there. It was our responsibility to stay with
grandmother every night. There were four of us children who took turns. We were
always glad when it was our turn as grandmother always had something extra nice
for us to eat and a nice soft bed to sleep in.
She was a very pretty
woman, so neat and precise in her dress, always busy sewing, making things for
us. I still have small bags and doll quilts she made over 70 years ago.
I cannot remember ever
hearing her complain no matter how hard her trials were and she had many of
them as she was left to support herself and children early in life. She was an
excellent seamstress and cook. Every one seemed to enjoy her company as she was
so interesting."
Grandmother Harriet was
living with her daughter, Clara and John Felt at the time of her death, 30 May
1917 --- 155 No. Main, Salt Lake City, Utah. Their grandson Paul now living in
Logan, Utah says he remembers seeing grandmother sitting in her little rocking
chair, shawl around her shoulders and her beautiful white hair done high on her
head. He remembers the morning he woke and found grandmother had died during
the night. It was a shock to all of them.
"A quotation from
her obituary sums up her story: "Grandmother Hanks was an ideal old lady,
whom it was the greatest of pleasure to visit. She was like an exquisite cameo
with her silver gray hair and keen black eyes which sparkled when she was
animated. She always dressed in perfect good taste. Her great love for flowers
and all of God's wonderful works, and her keen insight into human nature made
her loved by all. She sent you away from her presence with an impulse to do
better things, and with a feeling that life was beautiful and worthwhile. She
died in Salt Lake City 30 May, 1917 at the age of 91. Knowing that she had
fulfilled a worthy and noble mission here on earth we also know that her
welcome on the other shore will be everlasting and eternal."
She is buried in the
Salt Lake City Cemetery, Salt Lake County, Utah.
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Copy of Grandma Harriet Decker Hanks' Obituary
Harriet Decker Hanks ;
Utah; Deseret Semi-Weekly News; Thursday May 31, 1917 Mrs. Harriet Decker
Hanks, widow of Ephraim Hanks, died at the home of her daughters, Mrs. M. Hyde
and Mrs. Clara Felt. on north Main street, at 6:20 a.m., Thursday, May 31.
Mrs. Hanks was the
daughter of Isaac and Harriet Page Wheeler Decker. She was born March 13, 1826,
in Phelps, Ontario county, New York. Her ancestors on her father's side were
Holland-Dutch and her mother came from the old Puritan stock of New Elgland.
They were sturdy God-fearing people, true to the type of colonizers from the
old world.
Mrs. Hanks crossed the
plains in 1847, arriving in the valley of the Great Salt Lake in October of
that year. She was the widow at that time of Edwin S. Little and had one child.
She was married in September, 1848, to Ephraim K. Hanks, a member of the
"Mormon" Battalion, who had returned from California. He was a man of
great courage and faith. Eleven children were the result of their union, three
of whom survive the mother; they are Mrs. Marcia A. Hyde, Mrs. Clara V. Felt
and Charles D. Hanks, all residents of Utah. She was the grandmother of 40 and
had 120 great-grandchildren and 25 great-great-grandchildren.
Funeral services will be held at the home of her granddaughter,
Gertrude Felt Kimball, 238 A street, at 2 o'clock Saturday afternoon, June 2.
Interment will be in the city cemetery, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
