Marriage Story of Ann Ham (1824)

Ann Ham was hired to help with Sarah Cordelia Ward’s confinement with William Caleb Hickenlooper who was born Nov. 24th, 1856. After the child was born they told her that they couldn’t afford to pay her any more but that is she would marry Bishop Hickenlooper as his third wife, they would be pleased to have her. (Essentially she was chosen by the two Sarahs.) The only place she could find he privacy to pray about the mater was in the outhouse. She gave her consent and the next day they were immediately married by Pres. Brigham Young.”

Story is from Jean Ohai. No source is given

History of the Hickenlooper Family

By Della H. Barker

According the family tradition, the Hickenloopers were among those persecuted for their religious beliefs in Wurttemberg, Germany; they were put aboard a raft and floated down the Rhine River to Holland. At any rate they sailed from Holland-Amsterdam, on the ship “Peggy” 16 October 1754(Pa.B Vol. 1 p.637)Vol. II contains the orginal signatures, in facsimile, of all the passengers. My ancestor signed his name Andreas Heckenleib. It is spelled the same when he took the Oath Of Allegiance to the king. (Pa. 84Vol. 17 p 440), and also in the book “30,000 names of immigrants in Pa.” by Rupp. This name is found in various spellings in the counties of Goeppinger, Wurttemberg, and Waeschenbeuren, and spelled Heckenlaible, Hoeckenlaible, Huckenlaibe, as well as Heckenleib, as above. In the first census of the United States in 1790 he is listed from Manallan township, York County, Pennsylvania, and name is Andrew Hickenloover. His wife’s name was Katherine and from this union came Andres, Jr., Adam, George, Mary, Ann, and Margaret. They were Luthean.

Conversion Story of Ann Ham (1824)

Ann had a very religious training in the Episcopal faith. She was visiting her uncle in Birmingham and found that they were investigating Mormonism and that a Mormon Elder would be visiting that evening. She was horrified to hear this and said she would not meet him and was sorry she had come to visit her relatives. After considerable persuasion she consented to see him, but said she would put him to the test of the scriptures which she did and to her great amazement, she found that he not only taught the Bible more plainly than any minister she had ever listened to, but was so fair and liberal in his views that her opinion was entirely changed. He gave her a very pressing invitation to attend their meetings the next evening. She attended the meeting and the Spirit of the Lord was there in such rich abundance in singing, speaking and prayer that she went away from the meeting feeling she had found the truth. She made it a matter of prayer for divine guidance and was so thoroughly convinced of the truthfulness of Mormonism that she applied for baptism and was baptized march 3, 1854 by the same Elder Parley Burrows.

Sketch of the Life of Ann Ham Hickenlooper

by Della H. Barker

My grandmother, Ann Ham Hickenlooper was born January 1, 1825, in Devonshire, England. She was brought up by her grandparents and given a very religious training in the Episcopal faith. In the encyclopedia I find that the name Ham is an obsolete form of the word “home” in middle English and Anglo Saxon, and it later came to mean “town” or “village”and we see so many names with this ending, such as Birmingham. Her great-grandfather Ham fought in the Revolutionary War for the English, and my great-grandfather Hickenlooper fought in the same war on the American side. When she was five years of age she read a chapter from the Bible in a Sunday School class and received a great deal of praise and a prize for it. At a very early age she taught a Bible class in the Episcopal church.

Diary of Ann Ham while travelling to Utah

Taken from the Church Historian’s Office by Myra B. Parson.

Recopied by Vanese B. Mathews

Millenial Star 18:217

March 22, 1856 - “The ship “Enoch Train” Captain Henry P. Rich, cleared from Liverpool on Saturday the 22nd and sailed for Boston with 534 souls of the saints on board of whom 19 were from the Swiss, 4 from the Cape of Good Hope, and 2 from the East India Missions, all under the presidency of Elder James Ferguson, Edmund Ellsworth and Daniel D. McArthur. This is the 1st shipload of Emigrants for Utah by the Perpetual Emigration Fund this season. The day was delightfully pleasant, and all things connected with the clearing of this Company seemed peculiarly auspicious. Her Majesty’s officers had a word of admiration to express at the excellence of the arrangements which marked the embarkation of this 1st Co. who expect to cross the plains with Handcarts.”

Recopied by Myra B. Parson, November 14, 1941 Recopied by Vanese B. Mathews, February 10, 1942. Parenthetical notes taken from insertions made in copy of Myra B. Parson by Della H. Barker.