.

George Washington Hickerson and Sarah Woolsey Written by George Washington Hickerson My father in 1814 moved to Illinois where he remained until about the year 1822. When he moved to Kentucky where we remained until about 1825 when he moved: back to Illinois where I grew up, and in 1832 went as a volunteer in the Black Hawk War. I returned home the same fall. Enlisted in a volunteer company of rangers and was stationed at Fort Leavenworth on the Missouri, where I first saw the Latter Day Saints and was struck with great admiration in consequence of they're gathering together. Yet I was averse to them in consequence of popular rumour which was always unfavourable. Returned home 1833. This was the fall the stars fell or something resembling the falling of stars. In the winter of 1834 I went boating down the Ohio and Mississippi to New Orleans here I saw the first rail car. Came back again in the spring of 1834; stopped about home and in l836 was elected Major of the Militia in Fayette County. And on the 29th at July 1838 married Sarah Woolsey, daughter of Joseph, Woolsey and Abigail Schaeffer Woolsey, born In the o1ty or Lexington or Danville, Mercer County, State of Kentucky the 2nd of October AD 1820. First child, Elizabeth Abigail was born on the 22nd of July 1839 and in August of the same year I was elected Justice or the Peace in the district where I resided. The Saints being driven from Caldwell County and from all parts of Missouri to Illinois and being in a scattered and helpless condition yet many were sent on missions to various parts of the world. Bros. John D. Lee and Levi Stewart being also sent they came down through Illinois and left their families with their friends. John D. Lee's wife and mine, being sisters. He left his family with me. This was early in the spring of 1839. He left some books with his wife, among the rest, the "Voice of Warning," which I read occasionally and must confess notwithstanding my prejudice. I was a little concerned about the matter, and in the summer I had a singular dream. I dreamed, that one of my neighbours, Joseph Bowls and myself were sitting in my home. It was a log cabin and an angel came down made an opening through the top of the house hear the Southeast corner. The impression came with him to us so he did not have to tell us he was an angel for we knew it. He proclaimed this singular sentence, "The Heaven Church Bell is ringing." I being somewhat concerned was anxious to know more about it and asked, "Is it ringing for us?" At this moment my wife shook me and I awoke which ended the dream. The interpretation is like this. In the fall Brother Stewart returned from his mission and appointed a meeting at my house. He stood before a window which threw light just as it appeared when the angel came and when I thought of my dream I looked for my neighbour Mr. Bowls and there he sat at my right hand just as he was when the angel appeared. You may judge my feelings were more easily felt than described and from that time to this I have believed Mormonism. Yet notwithstanding my belief I stood out against it for over a year. The idea of losing my good name, my friends, and popularity was more than I could bear. Time passed away and 1840 rolled on and on the 28th of September Elizabeth A. died, being one year, two months and six days old. This caused me some more serious reflection and I had nearly made up my mind to be baptised but there was an opposite power at work. And the old Satan gentleman came very near persuading me that the world and its glory was superior to Jesus with all his promised blessings. But the Lord had prepared the way and his elders came along just at this time and when I was in this frame of mind, and through their testimony I was persuaded to yield myself a candidate for baptism. But, I cannot say as many do that I received it gladly. For those same old thoughts of the world and its glory caused me to count up the cost and to weigh the matter seriously. And finally I came to the conclusion to throw myself into the hands of the Almighty. With a determination to trust in him henceforth. And on the 12th of October 1840 both my wife and myself were baptised into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints by Cornelius P. Lott in company with Eliezer Miller. I had now fully made up my mind to try to be a Latter Day Saint. And knowing the prejudice that existed among the people of the world against the Saints, I soon found myself preparing to gather up with the people of God where I could worship unmolested and have a people to associate with who believed as I did. On the 28th of November 1840 Isaac Woolsey Hickerson was born and early in the spring of 1841 I migrated to Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois where the Saints were then gathering. It was a very sickly place and although my family was small we were seldom if ever all well at the same time. Thus the sickness and other duties which were to be performed made it a very hard place for the poorer class of the people. Yet we enjoyed ourselves and rejoiced before the Lord in whom we put our trust and had partial peace for the space of two years. But when the gentiles saw that the Lord preserved and prospered the Saints. Fine farms and houses opened and erected in all the country round, besides a fine city being built on the finest site the Mississippi affords. Their jealousy began to be excited and they began to envy the Saints and to breed disturbances wherever an opportunity was presented. On the 11th of December 1842 Susannah Hickerson was born at 3:30 A.M. The Gentiles grow more and more bitter and at length we were compelled to take up arms to defend ourselves against our enemies and thus our difficulties increased. Writ after writ was taken out for Brother Joseph Smith the Prophet and thus we were under arms and harassed by our enemies. On the 21st of March 1845 Joseph William Lorin Woolsey Hickerson was born at 11:15 PM. But over this time the Prophet Joseph and his brother Hyrum had gone the way of all the earth. For some time in June 1844 they gave themselves up for trial through the promised protection and pledged faith of the Governor of Illinois on writs that had previously been taken out against them. But notwithstanding the pledge honor of the executive they were shamefully abandoned to their fate. And on the 27th of June about 5:00 o'clock PM they were brutally murdered in the Carthage Jail by a black mob of from 150 to 200 men. This caused great mourning among the Saints for they were greatly beloved and were the two principal men. And now the people were in great trouble and many turned away, some after Rigdon, Strong and others, for they tried to set themselves up as leaders of the Church. But the mass of the people being led by the Holy Ghost knew where and in whom the Presidency existed. It existed in the Priesthood of Brigham Young the president of the Twelve Apostles, who took his place at the head of the Church by the voice of God and the people. And again the Church would have flourished, but for the violent persecutions of our enemies. But notwithstanding all our troubles the Nauvoo Temple that was so nearly completed the Lord accepted it at our hands and in it on the 10 January 1846 we were endowed, and were sealed 24 January 1846. Our cruel enemies determined that we should not remain in peace. We, according to a treaty stipulation, began some time in the month of February 1846 to abandon our houses and farms in the City of Nauvoo and in all the regions round about leaving our houses in the dead of winter. Many very poorly clad, their sufferings were more than they were able to endure consequently they fell asleep and all their sufferings were over. I took my team, which consisted of a span of horses and wagon and started in what was called the Guards, leaving my family in the city. But the guard being broken up in a short time I was loaded with Church property and some tools belonging to Louis the tinner. Came on to Garden Grove, helped to make the farm and then came to Pisgah, from which place I returned to Nauvoo for my family. Gathering up what little I could haul in my wagon and put out. Came back to Mt. Pisgah where we wintered. In the Spring of 1847 the United Stated Government not being satisfied with the impositions already heaped upon the poor distressed Saints called for 500 of our best and most able bodied men to go and fight the battles of the United States against Mexico. Although, we were in the wilderness without home and shelter, and this is the treatment we have and do receive at their hands always. I left in the Spring of 1847 and moved to what is now called Florence on the Missouri River. Worked this summer with John D. Lee at what is called Summer Quarters about 18 miles from Florence. But this amounted to nothing and in the Fall I found myself with nothing with which to pursue my journey and on the 15th of September 1847 George Washington Woolsey Hickerson was born at 5 o'clock PM. And now notwithstanding my great poverty I was not altogether discouraged. I went into Missouri and laboured with all the power and might that I possessed. And finally succeeded in obtaining a scant outfit with which in the Spring of 1848 I started for Great Salt Lake Valley in the company of Elder Willard Richards, one of the First Presidency of the Church. And it was not until the 4th or 5th of July that we got well under way from Florence. It was a very hard trip on me, my wife being in poor health and part of the time two teams to drive with the assistance of Isaac my little son who was only about eight years old. But we arrived in the Valley on the 19th of October and notwithstanding my scant means I do not think we have done altogether without bread any one whole day but we had some bread every day. I will here make a record of our Patriarchal blessings given under the hand of Hyrum Smith Patriarch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, given in Nauvoo, Hancock Co., Illinois December 21, 1943. Click here for Patriarchal blessings for both George W. Hickerson and his wife Sarah Woolsey Hickerson. The winter of 1848 and 49 we stopped in what was called the North Fort and in the Spring of 1849 we moved on to our City lot sometime in March. Now I had sold the last team I had the Fall previous and had to hire all the team work I needed. But I pitched in and with all my might and fenced for a 10 and a 5 acre lot making 15 acres in the big field, plowed the 10 acre lot and planted corn and sowed buck wheat. On the 25th of May James W. was born. In the Fall I started for California leaving my family in Great Salt Lake City and started in a train of old Pomroy, gentile from Missouri on the 3rd of November. We travelled the southern route and on the 10 of March 1850 ended at Los Angeles, South California. Here four of us left the train in the promises and we walked on foot to the Mariposa Mine. Here we fell in company with several of the brethren from Salt Lake but being green miners and not striking gold by the shovel full we left and went prospecting and in this way spent the greater part of the summer. In the fall I found myself on the Middle Fork of the American River. Here we might have done well if we had worked the banks, but we were still looking for the main pile, but finally we began to work the banks, and made a little money and in the month of October I had a severe spell of sickness. This used up the greatest part of what I made. A little before I was taken sick my brother, A. J. Hickerson came to me from Illinois and after my sickness he, myself and four others put our mites together put up a house and kept goods and provisions and a boarding house. This we did until Spring when William Woolsey and myself sold out to the others and went out to Bear River and there kept a trading house until fall when we returned home on the 9th of October 1851. The City had greatly improved and not being used to city life moved onto Weber River 30 miles north and got me a farm at what was afterwards called South Weber. And on the 3rd of August 1852 Sarah Catherine was born at 1:15 o'clock AM. This was a pretty good place for a farmer, splendid range and I began to prosper again. And on the 3rd of January 1854 Andrew Heber was born at 8:05 AM. Now I could have gotten along well here but for the prejudice of the Bishop Thomas Kington, who used his influence against me and finally succeeded in sending me on a mission to the United States. I started on the 6th of May 1854, travelled across the plains in company with a lot of other elders. Separated on the Missouri River some of us going to St. Louis to get our appointments and fields of labour, and others going straight on to their fields of labour. I traveled in Mississippi, Tennessee and Illinois all alone, whenever the people would open their doors and care to hear. But my health being bad I returned home in the fall of 1856 on the 8th of September. The winter of 1855-56 being a very severe winter my stock had nearly all died and I found my family again in extreme poverty. But I went to work if possible with three fold energy, striving to recover myself again from this dilemma of poverty and on the 3rd of June 1857 Mary Jane Woolsey Hickerson was born at 1:15 AM. In this year I got a tolerable crop but our enemies came against us in the latter part of this year. And we were again under arms to defend ourselves through this fall and winter. And in the spring of 1856 we were counselled to take what we could of our effects and move south which we did. And let the soldiers come in which they did under the command of one Johnston, now a commanding General in the Rebel Army. They were sent by Buchanan the President of the United States. But stipulations were again entered into and peace restored. We returned to our homes sometime in the latter part of July 1858 thus entirely losing one crop. Began again to labor on the farm and got a tolerable crop this year 1859. On the 9th of November 1859 Clarissa Melissa Woolsey Hickerson was born at 5:00PM. The crop of 1860 was quite light on my farm. On November 18, 1861 Charles Erastus Woolsey Hickerson was born at 4:00 o'clock AM. 1862-3 crops were some better and in 1864 we got a good crop. But while in poverty of 1857-8-9 my eldest son left home and has not returned to this day and is now in the Service of the Northern or Washington Government. We received letters from him occasionally. It is now 1865. On the 17th of February 1865 my next oldest son George W. Hickerson, Jr. went into the Endowment House and received his washing and anointing and ordination as an Elder under the hand of (this was left blank on my copy) I hereby insert the blessing by the Patriarch Isaac Morley upon the head of my son Isaac. and the Patriarchal blessing for Susannah Hickerson Patriarchal blessings click to see all the blessings for this family. At the end of Susannah's blessing was written: At the foot of her blessing I am now called to record her death which took place on the 12th of November 1866 in Lorrin Co., Surprise Valley, California. George Washington Hickerson died August 17, 1884 at Kanosh, Millard Co., Utah. Sarah Woolsey Hickerson died February 21, 1899 at Kanosh, Millard County, Utah. #6 child: Clarissa Melissa Hickerson b 9 Nov., 1859 in South Weber, Davis, Utah. She died on 21 May 1939 in Salt Lake, Salt Lake, Utah. She was buried on 24 May 1939 in Kanosh Cemetery, Kanosh, Millard, Utah. Married Orson Robinson Whitaker 01 Mar 1876 in Petersburg, Hatton, Millard, Utah. For information on the Orson Robinson Whitaker family see website: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~whitakerwilford/chap10.html 16 children: Orson Adelbert WHITAKER George Washington WHITAKER Sarah Jessie WHITAKER Clara WHITAKER Charles Warren WHITAKER Milton Homer WHITAKER Paul WHITAKER Moses WHITAKER Herman Ellis WHITAKER Grace Eveline WHITAKER Wilford Woodruff WHITAKER Paloma Maria WHITAKER Melba Lucile WHITAKER Lowell McClellan WHITAKER Leah WHITAKER Carroll Douglas WHITAKER My mother's sister married into the Whitaker family. Which was her cousin. Sarah WOOLSEY was born on 02 Oct 1820 in Lexington, Fayette, Kentucky. She died on 21 Feb 1899 in Hatton, Kanosh, Millard, Utah. She was buried on 23 Feb 1899 in Kanosh Cemetery, Kanosh, Millard, Utah. George Washington HICKERSON, Black Hawk War, was born on 13 Dec 1813 at Hickerson Branch, Goose Creek, Smith, Tennessee. He died on 17 Aug 1884 in Hatton, Kanosh, Millard, Utah. He was buried on 19 Aug 1884 in Kanosh Cemetery, Kanosh, Millard, Utah. George married Sarah WOOLSEY [Photo] daughter of Joseph WOOLSEY and Abigail SCHAEFFER on 28 Jul 1838 in , Fayette, Illinois. Sarah was born on 02 Oct 1820 in Lexington, Fayette, Kentucky. She died on 21 Feb 1899 in Hatton, Kanosh, Millard, Utah. She was buried on 23 Feb 1899 in Kanosh Cemetery, Kanosh, Millard, Utah. They had the following children: i. Elizabeth Abigail HICKERSON was born on 22 Jul 1839 in Vandalia, Fayette, Illinois. She died on 28 Sep 1840 in Vandalia, Fayette, Illinois. ii. Isaac Woolsey HICKERSON was born on 28 Nov 1840 in Vandalia, Fayette, Illinois. He died on 25 Jan 1914 in , , Utah. He never married. iii. Susannah Woolsey HICKERSON was born on 11 Dec 1842 in Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois. She died on 12 Nov 1866 in Surprise Valley, Modoc, California. Susannah married Martin L. SMITH about 1862 in South Weber, Davis, Ut. Martin was born about 1840 in of Weber, Weber, Utah. iv. Joseph William HICKERSON was born on 21 Mar 1845 in Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois. He was christened on 27 Jun 1847 in Summer Quarters, Douglas, Nebraska. He died in Dec 1847 in Florence, Douglas, Nebraska. v. George Washington HICKERSON Jr. was born on 15 Sep 1847 in Florence, Summer Quarters, Douglas, Nebraska. George married Nancy Jane SHUPE Photo daughter of James Wright SHUPE MorBat and Sarah Coats PRUNTY on 05 Dec 1870 in Endowment House, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah. Nancy was born on 31 Jul 1853 in Ogden, Weber, Utah. vi. James Willard HICKERSON Photo was born on 25 May 1849 in Salt Lake, Salt Lake, Utah. He died on 24 Oct 1924 in Kanosh, Millard, Utah. He was buried in Kanosh Cemetery, Kanosh, Millard, Utah. He never married. vii. Sarah Catherine HICKERSON was born on 03 Aug 1852 in South Weber, Davis, Utah. She died on 22 Nov 1871 in South Weber, Davis, Utah. Sarah married William Henry FIRTH son of Mrs. Photo on 07 Dec 1870 in South Weber, Davis, Ut. William was born on 02 Apr 1846 in Albion Place, Hunslet Leeds, Yorkshire, England. He died on 21 Oct 1932. viii. Andrew Heber HICKERSON was born on 03 Jan 1854 in South Weber, Davis, Utah. Mary Jane Woolsey HICKERSON Photo was born on 03 Jun 1857 in South Weber, Davis, Utah. She died on 04 Feb 1933 in Salt Lake, Salt Lake, Utah. She was buried on 09 Feb 1933 in Kanosh, Millard, Utah. Mary married (1) John BINGHAM son of Sanford BINGHAM Photo and Martha Ann LEWIS on 24 Aug 1872 in South Weber, Davis, Utah. The marriage ended in divorce.John was born on 30 May 1853 in North Ogden, Weber, Utah. He died on 24 Oct 1924 in Provo, Utah, Utah. He was buried on 25 Oct 1924 in Trenton, Cache, Utah. Mary married (2) Albert NADAULD son of Peter NADAULD and Jane CHEESEMAN on 30 Jan 1887 in St. George, Washington, Utah. Albert was born on 24 Oct 1840 in Tunbridge, Kent, England. He died on 30 Mar 1923 in Kanosh, Millard, Utah. He was buried on 02 Apr 1923 in Kanosh, Millard, Utah. x. Clarissa Melissa HICKERSON Photo was born on 09 Nov 1859 in South Weber, Davis, Utah. She died on 21 May 1939 in Salt Lake, Salt Lake, Utah. She was buried on 24 May 1939 in Kanosh Cemetery, Kanosh, Millard, Utah. Clarissa married Orson Robinson WHITAKER son of George WHITAKER and Eveline Parsons ROBINSON on 01 Mar 1876 in Petersburg, Hatton, Millard, Utah. Orson was born on 15 Sep 1855 in Salt Lake, Salt Lake, Utah. He died on 02 Dec 1934 in Salt Lake, Salt Lake, Utah. He was buried in Salt Lake City Cemetery, Salt Lake, Salt Lake, Utah. xi. Charles Erastus HICKERSON was born on 18 Nov 1861 in South Weber, Davis, Utah. He died after 1920 in , , Colorado. Charles married Ella CLOVER on 01 Jan 1889 in , , Wyoming. Ella was born in 1876 in of Chicago, Cook, Illinois. She died after 1920 in , , Colorado.