Joseph Hancock, 12th Ten

JOSEPH HANCOCK (12th Ten) was born March 17, 1800, in Springfield, Massachusetts, the sixth child of Thomas and Amy Ward Hancock. He married Betsy Johnson, and they were baptized by Elder Daniel Stanton into the Church or Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She died a few months after her baptism, leaving several small children. Joseph then moved to Kirtland, Ohio, to join church members there. He took the children with him and they were cared for by his sister, Clarissa Alger. He later married Experience Wheeler Judd.
Joseph was a brick layer, and engaged in this trade until he was called to Zions Camp. During the subsequent migrations of the church to Nauvoo, Illinois, he followed his leader faithfully.
When in his 47th year, he was called to be one of the vanguard to the regions of the Rocky Mountains. Joseph was one of eleven men who were selected as foot hunters.
Joseph entered the Valley of the Great Salt Lake on the 24th of July, 1847. In the division of the property, Joseph was given a lot not far from the temple site as his inheritance. Soon after, he returned to Missouri for his family. However, sickness and poverty caused him to be delayed for two years, and by then his property had been given to someone else. He was then given a tract of land near Provo, Utah.
In the spring of 1852, Mr. Hancock left for California. His brothers Charles and George Hancock, and other relatives were then living in Payson, Utah.

Note:
There seems to be some confusion here -- Charles and George could not have been Joseph's birth brothers. Possibly they were his nephews. In the book Peteetneet Town -- A History of Payson, Utah, by Madoline Cloward Dixon, it states that Joseph was a brother of Charles and George, but it also says that Charles and George were the sons of Solomon and Alta Adams Hancock, and that they were born at Columbus, Ohio, in 1823 and 1826. Joseph Hancock was quite a bit older than Charles and George, having been born in 1800. He also had different parents (see above). However, it is possible that they had all been adopted and sealed into the same eternal family in a temple ordinance.

After spending ten years in California, he returned to Utah in 1863. Three years later he returned to Council Bluffs to visit his children. In 1882 he again returned to Utah, and died in Payson on 5 July, 1893, at age 93.

(From Our Pioneer Heritage, Vol. 2, Daughters of Utah Pioneers -- by Aurora Hancock Duncan)

INTERNET Adaptation
by Sandra S. Bray