Joseph Hyrum Hancock was born 27 April 1849 in Bradford, Yorkshire, England. He was the eldest son of James and Ann Melsome Hughes Hancock. In the year 1852, when Joseph was three years of age, his parents and grandparents left their home and went to Liverpool, England. Here they bought tickets for America, leaving on a sailing vessel that took eleven weeks to cross the ocean. They landed in St. Louis in 1853, where James, his father, got a job in a brick yard. Joseph Hyrum was not six years of age.
In 1855, James bought a team of oxen, a wagon and came across the plains to Utah with the Abraham Owen Smoot Company. They were three and one half months crossing the plains, arriving in Salt Lake City in the fall of the year.
They lived in Salt Lake City until the spring of 1860. Then in company with the other Saints, the family went to Cache Valley, in the Northern part of Utah and settled in the little town of Mendon on the west side of the valley about eight miles due west of Logan (the largest city in Cache County).
Their first home was a dugout on the southwest corner of the public square. The next year they were allotted the northeast corner lot outside of the fort where the old Hancock home still stands that Grandpa James built.
Joseph Hyrum was eleven years of age when the family moved to Mendon. The Hancocks were among the first families that located there. The Sorensen family was a large family that came about the same time. Jacob Fredric was a lifelong friend of Joseph’s from boyhood on. At the age of sixteen they each drove ox teams across the plains to the Missouri River to bring emigrants, who had joined the Church in foreign lands, back to the great Salt Lake Valley. From Joseph’s journal we read: “A few notes or sketches of my life in the year of 1865. I was called with some more of the young men to go to Salt Lake City and go through the House of the Lord and receive my Endowment. This I did and was thankful for the privilege. In the spring of 1866, I was called by the Priesthood to go on a mission for the L.D.S. Church by way of driving four yokes of oxen to the Missouri River and back with the Saints that were on their way to Utah. I went, and endured many trials. I came very near to losing my life by sickness, but the Lord blessed me and I am thankful that I went. It was the last time teams ever went to the river on account of the railroad coming through Utah in 1869. I was 16 years of age at this time and I have been helping to build up the Kingdom of God ever since, in my weak way. As mortals we are weak, but can do much good to man on earth if they will do the will of the Lord and keep the Commandments of God.”
Joseph related many experiences of his trip across the plains, how the Indians would walk over their bodies, as they lay on the ground sleeping at night and trailing their dirty heavy blankets and buffalo robes behind them. They dared not move; they were so terrified. He also told many stories about the nights they stood guard around Mendon to protect the little settlement from the Indians. One of the stories was told about an Indian being shot while some of the boys were on guard when a dance was being held in the Old Meeting House. This was a very unfortunate happening and a great deal of trouble with the Indians resulted from it. In fact, President Brigham Young was finally called to Mendon to settle the matter. He predicted that whoever the person was that shot this Indian in cold blood – his hand would wither away. Many in this little town testified that this really did come true.
Joseph worked on the Salt Lake and Logan temples. He also worked at Promontory Point, Utah, where the railroad lines east and west joined in 1869.
At the age of twenty-four, he was married to Mary Annah Glover, daughter of William Glover and Jane Cowan. The Glovers had come from the east coast (New York) of the United States. They sailed from there on the sailing ship Brooklyn, with a group of 258 Latter-day Saints under the leadership of Elder Samuel Brannan. They sailed south around Cape Horn and up the west coast to the Bay of San Francisco. They arrived in July 1846, one year before the Mormons, under the leadership of Brigham Young, arrived in the Salt Lake Valley. The trip took six months. Samuel Brannan had been promised that he could raise the American flag at that point, but when the ship arrived with the group of men, women, and children, they found American soldiers were already there. The war was over and the flag was flying.
The Mormons were the first to start the City of San Francisco. The soldiers and Mexicans were the only ones there at the time. The Glover family remained in California until 1849, when they left to join the main body of Saints in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake according to President Brigham Young’s instructions. He and the first group of pioneers had ended the trek across the plains on 24 July 1847. Gold had been discovered in California and he had advised the Saints there to outfit themselves properly before making the long trip to Utah. This they did and they were able to take a large amount of gold with them which was very helpful to Brigham Young and his people.
The Glovers were the parents of four children, one boy having been born in California. Mary Annah was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, on 9 June 1851. Joseph Hyrum Hancock met her there. This is what he records in his journal about their wedding reception. “The wedding party of Joseph Hyrum Hancock and Mary Annah Glover was held at Farmington, Davis County, Utah Territory, 24 November 1873. We had a joyous time, long to be remembered by those present. There were present on the occasion, near relative fifty-four, besides some few invited friends. The entertainment consisted of song, dances, recitations, music and plenty to eat and drink and concluded by a rousing speech by Brother William Glover, father of the Bride. Many congratulations were extended and all together we had a good time. We also had a good time when we came up to our future home in Mendon, where we held a similar entertainment and we had a good time.”
Joseph was a good violinist and played for the dances for many years. He loved music and was able to play any tune by ear once he had heard it. In this way, he kept more up to date with his playing than most of the old time fiddlers. He was a member of the Mendon band called Sweeten’s Band, organized and led by Robert L. Sweeten. Joseph William Hancock, the eldest son of Joseph and Mary was also a member of that band.
They were the parents of seven children – four boys and three girls: Joseph Jr., Jane Nelson (Nell), Mary Louella, Autie, Orson, Oscar (died of diptheria a few hours after he was stricken at the young age of four), another girl was born to them named Chloe May. They all grew to maturity and raised families of their own.
Joseph was quite a ladies’ man. He and his lifetime friend and pal, Jake (Jacob Sorensen), were almost inseparable throughout their lives. Jacob was married to Joseph’s only sister, Susan. They lived in the south end of the town of Mendon while Joseph and Mary lived in the north end. Their homes were old rock structures so typical of homes in Utah. The walls were two or three feet thick. Joseph’s was three large rooms at first, with additions later on. Mendon was a farming community. The houses were grouped together for better protection from the Indians with the farms on the outskirts of the town as President Brigham Young had instructed.
Both Joseph and Mary were devoted workers in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Joseph was ordained a High Priest on 25 May 1884 by Bishop William Maughan at Wellsville, Cache County, Utah. Many important positions were held by each of them.
Later on, they moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, where they spent the remainder of their lives.
Joseph passed away 24 May 1924 and Mary Annah passed away on 11 September 1935. They are both buried in the cemetery at the little town of Mendon, Cache County, Utah. They had spent so many happy years of their young married life, raising their family, among the people who were closely knit together like a big family.
(Source material procured from relatives, journal and personal recollections).