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 in a 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 commissarians, 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. (Addendum
2004: the grave has been located and
pictures taken.)
Clarissa was mother to ten children.
Eli Ward
John
Samuel - died young
Alva
Saphony – died young
Samuel
Fanny
Thomas
Amy Saphony
Clarissa