History of Robert Charles Wills and Selena Alice Wheeler Wills

Robert Charles Wills was born 31 March 1858 in Torquay, Devon, England.  A son of Robert Wills and Mary Ann Williams.  In his youth he learned the trade of a stone mason.  As a young man he met and courted Selena Alice Wheeler and they became engaged.  She was the daughter of Thomas Wheeler, Jr. and Lydia Sophia Pullen.  She was born 14 December 1869 in Acton Beauchamp, Worch. England.  While in her early teens, she contacted a contagious disease which left her quite deaf, which was a great handicap to her.

Robert Wills decided to go to Canada to look for work and save enough money to send for his future wife, Selena.  She arrived in Toronto, Canada on August 27, 1884 and they were married that day.  The following year they moved to Mammoth, Utah, where Robert started to work in the mines.  He worked there for twenty-one years, putting in long hours seven days a week.  While working there he contacted miners consumption.

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.

Thomas Hancock III

Thomas Hancock of Long Meadow, Mass. was too young to enlist in the army with Washington in the beginning of the war, but at the last offered his services, but Washington told him "No, one man now will make no difference, you go home and take care of your mother, she has sacrificed enough, having sacrificed her husband and two sons in this cruel war."

He married a daughter of old General Ward, her name was Amy Ward on May 25, 1786 in Longmeadow, MA.

Juletta Eames Hancock

Birth Date and Place: November 6, 1806, Mentor, Lake County, Ohio
Father: Benjamin Eames
Mother: Julia Bacon Eames
Spouse: Alvah B. Hancock
Death Date and Burial: August 28, 1888, Burrville, Sevier Co., Utah

Children: Birth date Death Date
Abigail April 3, 1825
Sarah November 3, 1826
Benjamin April 24, 1830
Joseph Warren October 12, 1832 1912
John Turney June 18, 1835 (died at age 17)
Aurilla April 2, 1838 (died as a child)
Cyrus Mortimer June 6, 1841
Martha Angeline September 30, 1846

Amy Ward Hancock

Birth Date and Place: Feb. 28, 1769, Somers, Tolland, Connecticut

Father: Jacob Ward
Mother: Irena Jones Ward
Spouse: Thomas Hancock
Death Date and Burial: Jan. 14, 1847, Kanesville, Pottowattamie, Iowa


Children:
Elijah Hancock, born Sept. 21, 1786, Longmeadow, Massachusetts
Thomas Hancock, Jr., Jan. 25, 1788, Springfield, Hampden Co., Massachusetts
Clarissa Hancock, born Sept. 3, 1790, Springfield, Hampden Co., Massachusetts
Solomon Hancock, Aug. 14, 1793, Springfield, Hampden Co., Massachusetts
Alva Hancock, born April 19, 1796, Springfield, Hampden Co., Massachusetts
Joseph Hancock, born Mar 18, 1800, Springfield, Hampden Co., Massachusetts
Levi Ward Hancock, born April 7, 1803, Springfield, Hampden Co., MA
Sarah Abbott Hancock, born June 18, 1805, Bristol, Ontario Co., New York
Amy Hancock, born Sept. 18, 1807, Bristol, Ontario Co., New York

Amy Ward was born 28 February 1769 at Somers, Tolland County, Connecticut, to Jacob Ward and Irena Jones Ward. The Ward family had eight children, five girls and three boys. We do not have much information on the Ward Family except for a short biography written by a granddaughter, Sarah Hancock, who said that her grandfather, Jacob Ward, was a general in the army of the Revolutionary War. She said, “My mother, Amy Ward, was a daughter of Jacob Ward, spoken of the Lexington in the history of the Revolutionary War of 1776.” Her pedigree has been traced to William Ward of Sudberry, England

Thomas Hancock

Thomas Hancock was born on 21 Nov 1763 in Bloomfield, New York. On 25 May 1786 he married Amy Ward, daughter of Revolutionary Army General Jacob Ward. By 1820 they were living in Chagrin, Ohio. Thomas was among the very first converts to the newly formed Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He and his daughter Clarissa were baptized by Parley P. Pratt on Sun 14 Nov 1830, on the very day they first hear the restored gospel preached by him in the neighboring town of Mayfield, Ohio. His wife Amy and most of his other children followed immediately thereafter. His son Levi became one of the seven presidents of the Seventy's, being an incredible missionary and retaining that position until his death. Much of this history is taken from his journal.

Amy Ward

Amy Ward was born on 28 Feb 1769 in Somers, Conn. Amy was the daughter of the Gen. Jacob Ward of the Revolutionary army. On 25 May 1786 she married Thomas Hancock, a third cousin to John Hancock, signer of the Declaration of Independence.
By 1820 they had moved to Chagrin, Ohio. While in Ohio, at age 61, Amy joined the LDS Church in Nov 1830, shortly after it was organized. Her husband and daughter Clarissa had been baptized a few days previously and then most of her children followed shortly thereafter. She remained faithful in the church and died on 14 Jan 1847 at Winter Quarters, after having been expelled from Illinois with the rest of the saints. Her husband had died three years previously.

Special thanks to John Pratt for granting permission to re-post this.