Hannah Carter York
Pioneer: 22 Oct 1850 Joseph Young Wagon Train

Hannah was born in 1809 in the state of Maine. She married Aaron Mereon York on December 03, 1830 in Newry, Oxford County, Maine. Their first several children were born in that county.

In 1837, Hannah and Aaron joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and moved to Kirtland, Ohio. They then went to Missouri with the Kirtland Camp in 1839, and were driven from there by a mob. They settled in Sugarbush, Missouri where Hannah provided for her family while her husband was on a mission to the Eastern States for fourteen months. They were surrounded by "gentiles" but were treated very kindly.

When Aaron retuned from his mission, he was ill and Hannah continued to provide for their family and also took care of her sick husband. When he returned to health, the family was able to move to Lima, Hancock County, Illinois, closer to the main body of the Saints.

John William, their fifth child, was born in Lima, but he lived just about eight months only. Hannah supported her family by weaving when her husband left on his second mission to the Eastern states. Eight months after her husband left, she gave birth to her sixth child. Another son was born May of 1845.

That fall, the family was driven from Lima into Nauvoo. Everything they owned was burned, and their horse was shot. Their food had either been destroyed or stolen.

In January, 1846, Hannah and Aaron went through the Nauvoo Temple to take out their endowments. They left Nauvoo that spring and traveled as far as Mt. Pisgah, Iowa where they stayed for the next four years. While there they took into their home three orphaned children of the Hallet family after their parents died.

Mary Elizabeth Hallett Snow 1845-1927 findagrave # 70350202
Thatcher Clark Hallett, Jr 1836-1908 Findagrave 75957042
Hyrum Hallett 1841-1920 findagrave 31021291

So in the spring of 1850, this family, of eleven persons, left Mt. Pisgah for the Salt Lake Valley. They arrived on October 22, 1850. Hannah's daughter, Julia Ann, was married sometime after their arrival in Salt Lake.

Hannah lived in Salt Lake until the Spring of 1852 when the family moved to Provo. Their son Levi, age fifteen years, died in 1860. This loss was felt by all the family.

Hannah's husband, Aaron, Passed away on November 27, 1881 in Santaquin, Utah. Hannah passed away on September 18, 1894 at the age of eighty-five years, she died in Provo, Utah, and was buried there.

She was truly a brave pioneer woman of faith and fortitude, who survived the mobbings, and persecutions along with the other Saints. She had done an excellent job of caring for her family even during the times her husband served the Lord on missions. Hannah's posterity honor her for her great examples of love, faith, and endurance.

Source Pioneer Women of Faith and Fortitude
Daughters of the Utah Pioneers

My thanks to Kat Carter, a Find A Grave contributor, for providing this detailed story of Hannah's life. A York