Father Zachariah Hardy (1799-1846)
Mother Eliza Ann Philbrook (1807-1881)

husband Ezekiel Wells Cheney (1828-1886)
married May 11, 1848 North, Mount Pisgah, Illinois

Lucy was born February 24, 1829, in Belfast, Waldo County Maine. Her parents were Zachariah and Eliza Hardy. They all joined the LDS Church in Maine, then moved to Nauvoo, Illinois to be with the other church members.
They knew the Prophet Joseph Smith and his family. The Prophet had a special horse that he rode most of the time and really loved that horse. One day when Lucy and some of the other younger children were playing near the horse-watering trough, the Prophet and some other men came to water their horses. He spoke to the children and Lucy told him she liked his beautiful horse. He asked her if she'd like to ride on that horse and when she said yes, he pulled her up onto the saddle in front of him and gave her a short ride.
When the Saints were forced out of Nauvoo by the mobs, Brigham Young requested Zachariah to operate the ferry boat to take families across the Mississippi River to the Iowa side to get away from the mobs. It was a very cold February and a bad storm came up, and he became ill with pneumonia and exposure and died. He was buried in the Nauvoo Burial grounds at night so the mobs didn't see them.
Many of the Saints were forced to leave Nauvoo with only those belongings that they could carry in their arms. Lucy's mother, Eliza, who was now a widow, had seven children when she fled from Nauvoo and was carrying the youngest in her arms who was only 5 days old. Lucy was 17 years old. The family had help from other family members and friends and they made it to Winter Quarters in Nebraska Territory. One other family there was the Cheney family whom they had known in Nauvoo. She and their son, Ezekiel, were married there at Mount Pisgah in March of 1848. A year later, in 1849, they started on the trip to the Salt Lake Valley.
Lucy gave birth to her first baby 3 weeks after beginning the trip at the Elk Horn River Crossing. The people made a bed for her on bags of flour in a wagon. She was traveling with Ezekiel's parents and Ezekiel had been asked to be a scout ahead for the wagon train so he was not with her when little Eliza Ann was born. During one of his scouting trips, Ezekiel awoke to discover his head and hair were frozen to the ground by water that had seeped out from the river. He was unable to reach around to break the ice or to cut his hair, so he jerked his head up with great effort, which pulled out a large patch of hair causing great pain and infection. This injury caused him problems the rest of his life.
The Hardy family was very musical and loved to play instruments, sing and dance. Lucy loved to dance and was an exceptionally good step-dancer. Music and dancing was a tradition in the Hardy family. She had just 2 pairs of shoes when they started the trip. She wore one pair every day and they soon wore out with all the walking she did. She wanted to save the other pair for church and for dancing so she walked the rest of the way barefoot.
There were hard times in the Salt Lake Valley. No one had any money and everyone had to make their own clothing, shoes and food. They settled in what was called Uintah in 1849 but later moved to Centerville and then to Mound Fort at the request of Ezekiel's father, Aaron. It was while the family was living at Mound Fort, that the crickets came and devoured the crops. The seagulls came and saved part of them by eating the crickets until they were full, then vomiting them up and eating more. There were dead crickets everywhere that the seagulls had vomited up.
They moved many times helping settle new areas in Utah and then in Idaho. They moved to Oakley, Idaho and had a farm there. Ezekiel died in Oakley and later their son, William also died there. Both are buried in the Basin Cemetery near Oakley.
After that, Lucy sold the farm and went to live with a daughter in Ogden, Utah for a time, then later went to the Snake River Valley of Idaho and lived with or near other family members in the Rexburg and the Ririe areas. She was a great entertainer and dancer and she loved to dance. At a ward old folks' party, they had Lucy and her oldest daughter, Eliza Ann, give a dance recital for the entertainment. She was honored for being the oldest at this party. She entertained the great-grandchildren with stories about her life in Nauvoo and the trip across the plains and would dance for them. She entertained at church doing step-dancing by herself or with her daughter, Eliza, even when she was in her 80's.
Lucy was very active and did all her own housework and took care of herself until the day she died. The night that Lucy died, she had spent the day getting all her nice blouses out that she always wore with her long, black skirts and ironed them all up. She had some beautiful blouses and she loved to iron them. Her granddaughter asked why she was ironing her blouses and she said, "I'm going to a wedding tonight. You'll see." When she finished, she told them to sit down and to all line up on the sofa and she would dance for them before she left. So she danced for them and then she said, "Well, I'm getting kind of tired. Move over some of you, and let me sit down." She sat down and passed away on the sofa.
She was 84 when she died and had led a very long and hard life. She had 11 children—8 girls and 3 boys—but 1 died as a newborn, 1 died at age 2, and 2 died as teenagers. She had been an expert seamstress and made clothing for the family as well as for others. She loved the Church and was very active in the Church all her life. She had 46 grandchildren, 78 great-grandchildren and 20 great-great-grandchildren when she died. She died November 2, 1913 and is buried in the Ririe Cemetery.
Contributor: Darline (47927660)