Joseph Warren Hancock, Sr.

This oral history was posted on a personal Web page for which a relative posted a link on the Wall of this group, but it is now a dead link. However, while the Web page was still up, she copied what follows:

Joseph Warren Hancock, Sr.: A short history by his grandson Lewis Alma Hancock

To Alvah Hancock and Juletta Eames on 12 October 1832 was born a son they named Joseph Warren. Not much of his life is known as far as I know but from meager stories. It seems that his folks went to missouri with the Saints to Nauvoo. He was baptized April 1840. The family owned a lot in Nauvoo.
They must have left Nauvoo with the main body of the saints as they were in Mt. Pizgah, Harrison Co. Iowa where Alvah was buried on 17 July, 1847. Also Juletta gave birth to her youngest child about three months later there. The Alvah's death left Warren the man of the family at age 14.
They stayed in Mt. Pizgah until 1852 when they came to Utah and went right to Payson, Utah where Warren's Uncle Levi Hancock had settled. It is said that Warren had a fine team of oxen named Buck and Balley and thet he made several trips back to the Missouri River for supplies.
In 1855 Warren married Clarissa DeGraw from Lehi. They seemed to be very much in love and happy. On 16 November, 1856 a son was born to them and they named him Joseph Warren after his father. But one thing bothered Warren--Clarissa had been married to a man in polygamy but never went home with him. Brigham Young told her that the marriage was cancelled but Warren wanted proof. No record of the cancellation was ever found. As she took Brigham Young at his word it caused a rift between her and Warren which resulted in their separation when the baby was about a year old.
After a time Warren married Jerusha Seabury. This was never a very happy marriage but they raised ten children. Their home was between Payson and Santaquin. He was also taxed and owned land in Goshen. They also lived part of the time at Spring Lake, south of Payson.
While in Spring Lake their oldest boy, still quite young, saw some boys coasting. They had raised a wire near the bottom of the hill which they ducked under as they came down the hill. Jerusha's and Warren's boy wanted to coast too but he neglected to duck his head and was scalped by the wire. He only lived a short time. This was a shock Jerusha never got over.
Grandfather Warren must have learned shoe-making and repairing from his father and passed it on to his son, my father. Mostly though he was a farmer.
When he was close to 80 years of age he started for Old Mexico where his son, Joseph (Jode), was living, whom he had not seen in over 25 years. When he reached Pima, Arizona, he stopped to visit two of his sons, George and Finn. While there he had a stroke. When Joseph heard of it he took part of his family and moved to Pima to help care for his father. Warren died there in 1912 and was buried in Pima, Arizona.