Item Detail
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Crompton, Hannah Hardy Eckersley
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1815-1901
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MSS SC 3302
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Biographical Sketch
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Hannah Hardy Eckersley Crompton was born on 10 June 1815 in Oldham, Lancashire, England to James Hardy and Mally Scott. She was the 4th youngest of their 10 children, the others being John, James, Betty Sally, another James, Mary, Nannie, Isaac, and Charles.
On 21 October 1833 in Oldham, Lancashire, England, Hannah married William Henry Eckersley II, and together they had 7 children, Ann Etta, Sarah (who lived to be only 3 years old), Mary T., Henry (who died at birth), Hannah Francisco, Sarah, and James Henry (who died at birth as well).
Hannah had never been satisfied with the churches her friends and family attended. So, in 1841, when Hannah and her family became acquainted with some Mormon missionaries, Hannah was more than ready to be baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Soon after their conversion to the Church, Hannah and her family immigrated to the US, settling for a time in St. Louis, Missouri until the persecution against members of the Church there got too intense. Having lost her firstborn son and her husband in St. Louis, Hannah worked in the Planter Hotel to save up enough money to move the remainder of her family to Council Bluffs, Iowa in order to prepare to cross the plains.
On 28 February 1851 in Pottawattamie, Iowa, she married John Crompton, and together they had 5 children, Hannah Elizabeth (who lived to be only 1 year old), Margaret Emma, Elvira, John (who died at birth), and John Isaac (who also died at birth).
In 1853, Hannah and her family started the trek to the Salt Lake Valley, joining an independent company captained by Edward Pugh. It was a hard journey, but they made it, and they helped to settle Little Cottonwood, Cedar Valley, American Fork, and Sanpete County.
Hannah served many callings within the Church, including callings such as Relief Society counselor and Sunday School teacher, and she did a great deal of ordinance work in the Logan, Manti, and Salt Lake temples for her ancestors.
She died on 14 March 1901 in Freedom, Sanpete County, Utah, and she was buried there for 14 years until her remains were moved to American Fork. -
This manuscript is a 2-page photocopy of a typescript biographical sketch entitled, Sketch of the Life of Hannah Hardy Eckersley Crompton. The author is unknown.
The sketch details Hannahs birth in Oldham, Lancashire, England, and how she eventually joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and immigrated to America with her husband and 4 daughters. Shortly after arriving in St. Louis, Missouri in 1846, she gave birth to and lost a little boy, and then, less than a year later, her husband also passed away.
Having married again, Hannah and her family made the trek across the country to Utah with an independent company in 1853. She gave birth to another daughter, Margaret Emma, just a day before the company crossed the North Platt River in Nebraska. It was a rough journey, as Hannah became too ill to nurse, and cows milk made little Margaret ill much of the time as well.
When they arrived in Utah in September of 1853, they got potatoes on shares, which got them through the winter. When the weather improved, they moved to Little Cottonwood, living there for 2 years before moving to Cedar Valley in the spring of 1856. Food was often little more than gathered weeds, berries, and thistle roots until they were able to put in a crop to make bread.
When Hannah was 60, she made a trip back to England to get genealogy of her family for temple work. She was able to find one living brother and one living sister, and while they never joined the Church during their lives, they reportedly came to her in dreams urging her to do their work after their deaths. Hannah did a lot of work for the dead in the Logan, Manti, and Salt Lake Temples, and in her ward in American Fork, she served as a counselor to Sister Mary Hindley in the Relief Society for 17 years. She also served as a Sunday School teacher under a Brother William Paxman for a number of years.
When she and her family left American Fork in 1890, they moved to Sanpete County to live with their eldest daughter. While her wish was to be buried in America Fork, when Hannah died in March 1901 at the age of 86 in Sanpete County she was buried there, and it was not until 14 years later that her daughter, Mrs. Warren B. Smith, had her remains moved to American Fork. She left behind a posterity consisting of 6 daughters, 80 grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and 1 great-great-grandchild at the time of her death, as well as a legacy of faith and hope in the Gospel.