About: Hannah Chapman (1813-1898) Written by: Marjorie Beus Brewer, October 1993 Hannah Chapman Chester Goodworth Babcock Raymond England, a country smaller in area than the state of Alabama, was the birthplace of Hannah Chapman, my maternal great grandmother. She was born March 2, 1813, to William Chapman and Merry (Mary) Drury in Ousefleet, a township in the Whitgift parish, located in West Riding, Yorkshire, England. Ousefleet is about twenty-six miles southeast of York and lies on the river Ouse which empties into the Humber River and ultimately into the North Sea. The general area where the family lived is a lowland region south and east of the Pennine Chain, sometimes called "the backbone of England," because it extends southward from the lowlands of Scotland through the central part of England. There were rich deposits of coal and iron in the Pennine Chain while the lowlands - excluding marshy areas - were used for farming. Other activities common to the area were mining, shipping, and fishing. On April 11, 1813, Hannah was baptized by Minister Simpson in the Whitgift parish. She was the eighth of ten children. Her older brothers and sisters were William, George, John, Mary, Sarah, Richard, and Mary while James and Betty were the younger. Hannah did not lack for playmates, but they all probably had their assigned chores in a family that size. Beyond the information on family group sheets for Hannah's parents and her grandparents, William Chapman and Mrs. Mary Chapman, all of whom lived in Belton, Lincolnshire, England, nothing is known about family occupations or the childhood of Hannah. Thomas Chester, the son of John Post Chester and Frances Davis, was born in Crowle, Lincolnshire, England, on August 8, 1811. Crowle was not too far from Ousefleet so Thomas, when he grew up, did not have far to go to court Hannah. Their wedding day was January 28, 1833. Seven children were born to Thomas and Hannah in nine years, but death and sadness plagued Hannah's life. Little James, Mary, and Emma died in childhood while Ann, Thomas, France's, and William lived to adulthood. On September 11, 1844, sixteen months after the birth of their last child, tragedy struck again; Hannah's husband died. A story has been told in the family that Thomas Chester was a sailor and was lost at sea, but this is not factual. Thomas was a coal merchant and may have sailed on ships, but he died from an abscessed knee at the age of thirty-three. Hannah was with Thomas at the time of his death, undoubtedly ministering to him to the end. This young mother had her hands full with four children and herself to support. Most likely the demands made upon her left little time for mourning the loss of her husband. About a year later, Joseph Goodworth, an eligible bachelor, entered Hannah's life. Joseph, the son of Richard Goodworth and Hannah Brooks was born April 23, 1826, in Barugh, Darton, Yorkshire, England. Whether Hannah had known Joseph before or met him after the death of her husband is not known. Hannah must have been a charmer because she was a widow with four children and was thirteen years older than Joseph. Yet the two were attracted to each other and were married October 29, 1845. Joseph and Hannah lived in Crowle, Lincolnshire, England, where three sons were born to them within a four year period - Richard Brooks, Joseph, and Frederick. Joseph worked as a waterman, and Hannah was kept busy as a wife, homemaker, and mother of seven. It seems unreal that Hannah's second husband - only twenty-eight years old - would be taken from her, but she lost Joseph on May 11, 1853. Another family report is that Hannah lost her second husband at sea. However, Joseph died from kidney disease and a back problem, and Hannah was also present at this death. She buried Joseph three days later in Crowle, Lincolnshire, England. By 1853, Hannah Chapman Chester Goodworth, at the age of forty, had been twice married, twice widowed, and had seven living children. She had lived a lifetime already with experiences that would have cowed a less courageous woman. She could easily have cried, "Why Me?" with the terrible losses she had suffered. Maybe she did, but somewhere she found the wisdom to recognize how many were dependent upon her, the inner strength to endure, and the resolve to make the best of things. She saw an opportunity for improving her situation and was brave enough to leave her homeland, and her saga moved to another continent. Following the founding of the Mormon Church, missionaries were sent to England. Of the nearly seven thousand converts in 1840, five thousand had migrated to Illinois. By 1850, the Perpetual Emigration Fund Company (P.E.F.) had been established to assist in the gathering and transporting of Saints to Zion, but it was not until 1852 that the fund was used to assist Saints in Europe to come to Utah. It became increasingly difficult to keep the fund large enough to accommodate the large numbers of foreign Saints, even though the immigrants were expected to repay their loans through public work. Applications for passage to America were to be accompanied by a one pound deposit for each person, and passengers were to furnish their own beds, bedding, and cooking utensils. In addition, passengers signed a P.E. Fund bond, part of which read, "And that on the arrival in Utah, we will hold ourselves, our time, and our labor subject to the appropriation of the Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company, until the full cost of our emigration is paid, with interest if required." Modifications were continually made to keep the expense of travel as low as possible, and the plan was born for overland migration of the Saints by handcart. Frightening as it must have been, Hannah had faith and took advantage of the P.E.F opportunity to come to America. She was one of those hardy Saints who had the courage to shepherd her family, by herself, across the plains by handcart. It brings a smile to my face to know how many times Hannah was baptized...she was indisputably a member of the Mormon Church. The Soda Springs Ward Record shows that she was baptized in 1848, and the Hull Conference Record records her baptism in 1853. Another baptism was performed in September 1854 in the Endowment House. There were yet other baptisms, and all previous church blessings were reconfirmed and ratified in 1967. As Hannah made plans for her departure to America, she had four Chester children and three Goodworth children for whom she was responsible. It is an assumption that one son, Thomas Chester, was not included in her plan to emigrate. He was married to Priscilla Taylor in the same year that Hannah emigrated, and their names did not appear on the ship's passenger list. Passengers listed with Hannah included Ann, France's, and William Chester together with the three Goodworth sons - all participants in the P.E.F. plan. It is interesting to note that Ann Chester, at the age of twenty, was listed as a spinster. We consider a spinster too old to likely be married. The English thought of a spinster as marriageable. Several Stories surround Hannah and William at this particular time. One was that Hannah met with some resistance from the Chester children's grandfather with regard to religion and the family emigration to America, and it was claimed that he was bitterly opposed to Mormonism. Another was that when the group was at sea, Hannah discovered that William was missing and someone reported to her that an elderly gentleman had been seen walking away with the boy. Yet another story appeared in print - after the death of both Hannah and William - that William had been taken into the home of his grandfather as a baby, which would have meant that William was not in the care of his mother. Searching has also revealed that though the name of Frances was on the ship's passenger list, there is no evidence that she ever left England. Perhaps she was removed from the ship by her grandfather along with William, or she chose to leave the ship. Maybe neither child ever boarded the ship. It is possible that this is one of those experiences so painful that it remained buried in Hannah's heart. In any event, the names of Frances, who was sixteen, and William, soon to be fourteen, do appear on the Enoch Train passenger list as it prepared for departure from Liverpool. Most certainly, Hannah had every intention of keeping her family together. Another passenger list exists in church records which does not contain the names of William or Frances, and their names do not appear on the Ellsworth Handcart membership roster. Whatever circumstances are true, the fact still remains that William and Frances did not travel with their mother to America. We can only imagine the blow to Hannah together with the shock and grief she must have experienced at being separated from her children and guess that she was consoled only by knowing that Grandfather Chester loved his grandchildren and would properly cared for them. Hannah did not ever see Thomas or Frances again, and it was not until years later that she was reunited with William in America. Hannah and her family were among the P.E.F. passengers to set sail on the ship Enoch Train on March 23, 1856, and Boston, Massachusetts, with Captain Henry P. Rich. Five hundred thirty-four saints under the presidency of Elder James Furguson, Edmund Ellsworth, and Daniel D. McArthur made up the first shipload of emigrants who would participate in crossing the plains with handcarts to Utah. Hannah and her charges must have been filled with excitement and fear. It would seem that only a deep abiding faith on Hannah's part could have supplied her with the courage to leave everything that was familiar to her in England. They crossed the ocean in thirty-eight days arriving in Boston April 30, 1856. There was a report that the Saints had to form a louse committee, and they had four births and two deaths on their voyage. For all the emigrants, death on board a ship was a distressing experience because the body was put in a box or simply wrapped in a sheet with a weight attached and put overboard. Other situations endured were overcrowding, illness, difficult cooking arrangements, poor diet, unsanitary conditions, and the smell. However, the emigrants observed routines, participated in religious services, and had other activities which contributed to a generally pleasant and successful voyage on the Enoch Train. On May 1 the group passed inspection and boarded a train the next day for New York City and the westward journey to Iowa. They arrived in Iowa City on May 12 and spent almost four weeks preparing, enduring, and waiting for the handcart trek across the plains. Finally, the first handcart company left on June 9 under their assigned leader, Edmund Ellsworth. the company was organized with about five persons to a handcart and twenty people to a tent. There was a total of fifty-two handcarts and five wagons to be shared by two hundred seventy-four people. We can easily imagine Hannah and her children being responsible for a handcart and being together in a tent. The "traveling" is unimaginable. When the company arrived in Florence, Nebraska, they spent about two weeks regaining strength, repairing the carts, and readying themselves for the thousand mile journey that lay ahead. Though a large number of individuals left the company at Florence to await easier transportation, Hannah and her family were determined to travel to Zion. She, her young sons - six, seven and ten -, and her daughter Ann, walked almost the entire distance across the plains, approximately twelve hundred miles. Richard, the ten year old, pushed the handcart while his mother pulled. He, at such a tender age, developed broken blood vessels in his legs. We have no personal record from Hannah, but some people kept diaries along he way. it is certain that Hannah and her family endured the same hardships - the smothering sand and dust, heat exhaustion, storms, weariness, hunger, illness, fear of Indians, deaths and burials along the trail, and constant handcart repair. Finally, the entire company arrived in Salt Lake City, Utah - receiving a joyous welcome - on September 26, 1856. The serious reader can find a more detailed account of daily travel of the handcart company in Hafen's Handcarts to Zion. After the handcart arrival in Salt Lake City, some emigrants went to the Bear Lake area while many others went to Bountiful, Utah. The exact whereabouts of Hannah and her sons is not known. She was not listed in the Utah 1860 census, and no family record has shown where she was between September 1856 and July 1857. She could have remained in Salt Lake to share her daughter's baptism and confirmation March 10, 1857, and her marriage to Benjamin Ashby on October 25, 1857, or Hannah may have gone to Bountiful, Utah, where her daughter went to live with her husband. Frederick Goodworth, the youngest son, was found at age nine in the 1860 Utah Census living in the Chauncey Loveland household in Bountiful. The other two Goodworth sons had evidently been placed elsewhere while Hannah looked for work. There is a record of Joseph and Richard B. Goodworth being baptized and confirmed March 29, 1857 in the Draper, Utah Ward. Hannah undoubtedly was concerned with repaying her P.E.F debt and was reported as having found work as a housekeeper with the Aldolphs Babcock family. He, a widower, and his children lived in Spanish Fork, Utah. It is relatively certain that she had made the acquaintance of Adolphus Babcock prior to July 1857 because she gave birth to their only child, Hannah Alice Babcock, on April 8, 1858. He was a church member, and possibly public sentiment placed him in an untenable position for Adolphus Babcock married Hannah Goodworth on May 25, 1858. Shortly thereafter, the two separated so the marriage must not have been a happy one. My lineages is through Adolphus Babcock and Hannah Chapman though I never had the joy of knowing my great grandparents. I can remember my mother speaking with love and admiration of her grandmother Hannah and indignantly relating that Hannah was not even allowed to have material for baby clothes for little Hannah Alice. Facts surrounding the family are so limited that we can only assume that Hannah had such a deeply wounded spirit at this time that she chose to be silent. We do not find Hannah again from 1858 until 1865. However, she must have been near her children or must have visited them. It seems likely that Hannah met Charles Jeremiah Raymound in Bountiful, Utah, during such a visit with Frederick, her youngest son, for it appears that Charles was living in Bountiful. On November 7, 1865, Hannah was sealed to Charles Jeremiah in Salt Lake City at the Endowment House. The Raymounds then made their home in Bear Lake Valley, Idaho. Charles and Hannah Raymond were listed in the 1870 Idaho Census with Frederick (Hannah's son), Albert (Charles' son), and Hannah Alice (Babcock) shown in the household. In a personal letter written by Beth Cheney ( a Hannah Chester descendant) to Susan Brady (a Hannah Goodworth descendant) Hannah is quoted as saying, following her marriage to Charles Raymond, that for the first time in her life she had found happiness. It is fortunate that Hannah had found companionship and some happiness for she was again to know great sorrow. Joseph Goodworth, her son, was fatally shot in 1865 when he was just a couple months short of seventeen years old. The Goodworth family related a story that Joseph had been killed by a young man jealous of Joseph's attention to some young lady. However, the following account was found: "FATAL ACCIDENT;- Through Bishop Bradley of Moroni, we learned that a fatal accident occurred on the 20th ult. While part of the Militia were assembled for drill, and some of them were engaged in target shooting, a gun went off uncapped and shot B. Joseph Goodworth in the right temple, who died about half an hour afterwards. He was a young man about 19 years of age, of good character and much respected." (Des. News 15:84). Hannah's youngest son served in the militia in Idaho and may have been living with his mother in 1867. She was to bear the loss of yet another son, and Frederick's death was listed in the family records as March 12, 1869. However, this date is questionable because he was found, as mentioned previously, living in the Raymond household with his mother and half-sister, Hannah Alice, in the 1870 Idaho Census. Nevertheless, he did die as a young man, unmarried, in his early twenties. One Goodworth family record relates that Frederick was never a very robust boy and that he died of pneumonia, but there seems to be no death report to validate the cause or date of his death. As a matter of fact, mystery surrounds Joseph and Frederick. Joseph was found only in 1857 in the Draper Ward and again in the 1865 Deseret News report of his death in Moroni. Frederick was located in the Idaho militia and in the 1860-70 censuses. No burial dates or places have been found for either Goodworth son. Charles and Hannah Raymond were cited among the first early pioneers in Bear Lake County. The Latter-day Saints colonized this area where they worked hard and endured many privations. The winters were hard, and it was impossible to produce full crops. These pioneers practiced the United Order and believed in the doctrine of plural marriage though they were obedient to the church decision to abolish polygamy in accordance with state and national law. The church system of allowing a man to own the property he obtained by drawing a lot number from a hat was quite different from the homestead law passed by Congress. The conflict made it difficult to secure a title to property, and there appears to be no title to a home for Charles and Hannah in the Montpelier area. Later, the family moved to Soda springs, Idaho. Hannah's church membership records were received in Soda Springs in 1871. The couple homesteader this south east quarter of section twelve in township nine containing one hundred and sixty acres and received the patented title in 1881. This area comprised "what is now the southwest section of the city, beginning near the corner of the Lallatin Market, continuing south on Main Street to the present site of the Fish Pond and west to include much of what is now the Lakeview addition. Mr. Raymond owned and operated a shingle mill on Spring Creek about 1878. At one time he built a bathhouse near Heyser Hill which proved to be outside the patented area. When the railroad was being built through the valley, he was employed as a tie cutter. A butcher shop which he owned, near the present location of Fowler's Market, was later sold to William Clemens." Interestingly, by the summer of 1874, William Chester - Hannah's son from England - and his family arrived in Soda Springs. Hannah undoubtedly experienced great joy with this reunion and must have been very happy that William made his home in Soda Springs, not far from where she lived. Hannah Alice Babcock had by 1874 married Jared Edward Campbell and also lived very near her mother. Ann Chester Ashby lived in Bountiful, Utah, with her family, and Richard Brooks Goodworth lived with his family in Kamas, Utah. Still in England were Hannah's other two children and their families, Thomas Chester and France's Chester Clarke. While Charles was busy making a living with farming and pursuing his various other endeavors, Hannah - in addition to caring for her family - found time to be involved in church activities. A group of seven ladies met with Elder Jeppe G. Folkman on February 5 1876, to organize a Relief Society. Mrs. Anna Folkman was named president on April 5, and she chose Hannah Raymond and Mary Jane Sterrett as her counselors on April 8. The Relief Society was reorganized on June 26, 1879, at which time Hannah Raymond became president. Hannah chose Dorothea Lau and Sarah Horsley as first and second counselors. The soda Springs Ward Record refers to Hannah's "ordination" in 1881, but this was not mentioned in the Relief Society minutes. What was called an ordination for Hannah then would be like someone being set apart now. This organization remained intact for fifteen years until July 11, 1894, at which time Hannah, then 83 years of age, was released. There was a steady growth in membership from the initial seven to a total of twenty-five. In 1892, the Soda Springs Relief Society held its first social to celebrate the fifty year jubilee marking the beginning of the parent organization in Nauvoo, Illinois. Other activities during Hannah's years of service included regular donations made to the building of the Logan temple, immigration, Deseret hospital, carpet for the temple, Bear Lake Tabernacle, and sending a missionary to Switzerland. Additionally, Hannah served as a teacher. Mrs. Rose Lau Torgesen related a story about "the time when she, with other little girls of Soda Springs, was entertained by her Sunday School teacher, Mrs. Hannah Rayond,at the Raymond home on Spring Creek. As part of the day's festivities, the children were taken for a tour of the mill. Mrs. Torgesen has a vivid remembrance of the big water wheel which lifted water in tin containers and dumped it into a long trough that carried it into the mill." The mill referred to in this incident was the shingle mill on Spring Creek. Hannah was also cited by Dr. Ellis Kackley as one of the ladies around the Soda Sprigs community who helped nurse his patients. Perhaps part of the reason that Hannah remained so busy in the church and the community was that she continued to suffer the loss of family members. Charles Raymond died in Soda Springs December 2, 1883, and was buried in Montpelier, Idaho. Thomas Chester died March 19, 1886, in England, and Richard Goodworth died May 9, 1896 in Kamas, Utah. Hannah bore the additional burden of losing her eye sight, but she continued to live in her home doing her own work even though she eventually went blind. One amusing story has been told in our family that one of Hannah's neighbors was slipping over at night and diverting her water to his own use. Jared Edward Campbell, her son-in-law, armed himself with a shovel one night and met the water-snitcher in action. The shovel seemed to curb the man's desire for obtaining extra water from a lady with limited eyesight. Hannah Raymond died February 15, 1898, in Soda Springs and was buried in the Chester plot in the Cedar Cemetery. A monument, erected by the daughters of the Utah Pioneers in 1963, bears the names of those buried there. Some names have partially eroded and are now difficult to read. Hannah's obituary, a transcript somewhat repetitious of this account, has been placed at the end for more leisurely reading. There is an epilogue to this stalwart lady's life in which Hannah was spared one final indignity following her death. The Cedar Cemetary had not been used for burials for years. It had not been cared for beyond family members taking flowers on Memoral Day. Headstones were continually destroyed including two for Hannah made and brought from Arizona by a great grandson, LeRoy Campbell. Teenagers were known to have frequented the area where they partied and on one occasion dug up a grave. A stop was put this activity only to be replaced by a more sinister one. A local Soda Springs resident had mad some property available to a building contractor, , and the property apparently included the Cedar Cemetery. New homes were built closer and closer to the graves, and the fence was removed from around the cemetery. One day a call was made to Joy Thomas, a great great granddaughter to Hannah. Joy was told that excavations were being made in the cemetery, and she immediately notified local authorities. After speaking with them, Joy contacted the Idaho Attorney General, and an order was issued making it perfectly clear that a cemetery was consecrated ground which no one could own and on which no building was allowed. Thanks to Joy, no further damage was done. the local National Guard Built a sturdy log fence around the cemetery. And the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers were granted stewardship over the area. It is not until we are made aware of the heartache, the suffering, the labor, and the challenges of another's life that we can be truly appreciative of the strong inheritance and all the comforts and privileges that we enjoy. More importantly, we can view with pride, love, and thankful hearts this dear Hannah who made our lives possible and left us each an outstanding legacy. * * * * * To Hannah The soul would have no rainbow Had the eye no tear. * * * * * Contributions to the story of Hannah Chapman, completed in October 1993, were made by the following people: Marjorie Beus Brewer, a great granddaughter descended from Hannah and Adolphus Babcock, worked for over a year gathering data and writing this story in hopes of presenting, as accurately as possible, a long overdue account of Hannah's life. Susan Goodworth Brady, a great granddaughter descended from Hannah and Joseph Goodworth, unselfishly shared documents obtained from England, information and genealogy on the Goodworth family, and pictures of Hannah, her daughters Ann and Frances Chester, and her son Richard Goodworth. Joy Wilson Thomas, a great great granddaughter descended from Hannah and Adolphus Babcock, related the story about the Cedar Cemetery and was instrumental in preventing the desecration of graves including the grave of Hannah. Joy also supplied the picture of Hannah Alice Babcock. Marilyn Goodworth, a great granddaughter-in-law whose husband descended from Hannah and Joseph Goodworth, secured a picture of the Enoch Train from the Church History Museum in Salt Lake, which allows us a glimpse of the emigrant's transportation from England. Virginia Chester Hall, a great great granddaughter, and Thomas Chester, a great grandson, descended from Hannah and Thomas Chester provided pictures of the Chester plot and the monument in the Cedar Cemetery in Soda Springs on very short notice. Virginia (Ginger) supplied her father with the camera, and he made a special effort to make the trip from Pocatello to Soda Springs to take pictures.