Hannah Hodgetts Smith
Pictured here is Hannah Hodgetts, the first wife (second if you count his short lived marriage to Hannah Dodds). This was possibly taken around 1857 and may have been her wedding photo. Poor Hannah died at the young age of 25 and shortly after giving birth to her youngest child also named Hannah. Baby Hannah died about a year after her mother passed. I believe the three surviving children: Thomas, Ralph and Mary Ann were raised by Ralph and my great-great-grandmother Emma Girdlestone.
The following is her biography called "Hannah Hodgetts' Journey to Zion:
Hannah Hodgetts was anxious and excited as she waited in Liverpool, England, for her turn to board the emigrant sailing vessel. At 18 years of age, she was not the youngest Mormon emigrant preparing to baord, but those who were younger were all traveling with their families. Eventhough she didn't have any family by her side, she felt at home with all her brothers and sisters in the (Mormon) Gospel.
Two years earlier, Hannah had been introduced to Christ's Gospel by two missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day SAints in her hometown of Dudly, Worcestershire, England. Many of her friends told her she was crzy, but she knew the truth of the things these missionaries taught her. Even before her baptism on the 14th of March 1855, she felt she must someday join with the Saints who recently traveled to the Salt Lake Valley. Her chance had come sooner than she had really expected. She had saved what she could, but she knew it would take a long time before she could afford to join a wagon train. She wondered at the time if she would ever have enoughmoney, but then one day as she was reading in the Millennial Star, she found the answer to her prayers. For a deposit of one pound and by providing her own bed, bedding and cooking utensils, she could join with a group of Saints that were preparing to depart for America. The editorial by Elder Franklin D. Richards, promised the Saints that "The Lord can rain manna on the plains of America just as easily as he did on the deserts of Arabia. Ancient Israel traveled to the promised land on foot. The Lord calls uponmodern Israel to do the same." Hannah's prayer had been answered, she could walk and pull a handcart across the plains to the Salt Lake Valley.
Hannah's five week voyage from Liverpool to Boston was relatively good, though they did experience two weeks of rough sailing. At 5 a.m. each day, the bugler woke them so they could get dressed and clean their bedding area before the morning prayers at a quarter to six. Each evening, after a devotional meeting and prayers of thanksgiving, they would sing the songs of Zion until bedtime.
Within a few days of her arrival in Boston, hannah found herself on a train bound for Iowa. Iowa City had beenselected by the Church leaders as the jumping off point for the first handcart companies. At Iowa City, Hannah was assigned with four or five others to a handcart family. These brothers and sisters would together pull a handcart Zion. Her handcart family would travel with the Second Handcart Company under the leadership of brother Daniel D. McArther, a 36-year-old Saint returning from his mission in England.
Each family set to work preparing their handcart for th elong journey. Each cart was built from iowa Hickory. It was about six feet long with about tow and a half feet between the body of the cart. The carts were the usual width of the wide track wagon so that they would fit in the ruts made by them. They squeaked and made a lot of moise at first but were repaired and adjusted at Florence. After leaving Florence, they passed many camps of Indians all of them peaceful and saw hundreds of buffalo.
On September 26, 1856, the first two handcart companies reached the public square of Salt lake Valley around sunset. They were greeted by Brigham Young with band music and shouts of gladness and the waving of hats. Each member of the company was personally introduced to Presidents Young and Kimball.
Hannah had walked over 1,300 miles in less time than it had taken the average wagon train. The tears which rolled down her face were not for all the hardships she had suffered but for the Lord's blessing at having brought her safely to this place of her dreams.
Not long after her arrival, Hannah was introduced by Brigham Young to Ralph Smith, a recent emigrant from Durham, England. Ralph described her as "a woman well in health and spirits and full of interest in the words of the Lord."
On October 25, 1856, Ralph went to ask President Young if was willing that he (Ralph) should take Hannah to be his wife. President Young gave his permission so Ralph went to Hannah's brother JosephHodgetts to ask for his blessing. Ralph and Hannah were married on 8th November 1856 by Bishop John Sharp of the Salt Lake 20th Ward in his home. Ralph and Hannah's first son, Thomas Hodgetts Smith, was born on June 19m 1858 in Salt Lake. Soon after the birth of their first son, the Smiths were asked by the Prophet to leave the Salt Lake Valley to start a new settlement in Cache Valley. Along with her husband seven other families, Hannah arrived in Cache Valley on May 1 1859. A week later, they started building their new home in what is now Logan. Hannah's second son, Ralph Hodgetts Smith was born on June 10, 1860 and is reported to be the first white male born in Cache Valley. The next year, the Smith's young family went together to the new Salt Lake Endowment House to be sealed together by brother Daniel H. Wells for time and all eternity. Hannah had two other children Mary Ann and Hannah, before her death on 13th February 1864 in Logan. She was 25-years-old, giving birth to her last baby.
Hannah Hodgetts Smith did not enjoy a long life with the saints in Utah, but she was one of a select group of saints who had been given the opportunity join her brothers and sisters in the gospel by walking her way to Zion.
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