Ancestral Histories

The following post is about two of my ancestors that I researched and found TONS of information about! John Henry Peterson is my great - great grandfather on my mom's side of the family. Hannah Brown Hibbert is one of my very first ancestors who learned about the gospel of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from the missionaries in England and then later traveled to America.

John Henry Peterson

                John Henry Peterson is the son of John H. Peterson and Mary Jane Skinner and was born October 29, 1881 at Ovid, Bear Lake Country, Idaho.

                When John was only 5 years old his mother passed away. She gave birth to his sister, Jane Mathilda Kerstine Peterson, and twelve days later she died of milk fever. John was the oldest child of four children. Johns’ fathers’ sister took the two small boys, John included, and kept them for a year. John’s father batched it for a while and then he hired a house keeper, a Swedish immigrant who he later married, so that he could take the two boys back to live with him. Part of the time they batched and part of the time they had a housekeeper.

                John attended the district school, which was a one room school with one teacher for all of the grades. He was able to go to the Paris Academy for one term. He also went to the LDS University for a winter semester. John was called to take a missionary course at Brigham Young College at Logan, Utah. He ran out of money before the course was completed. With no place to go and with no money, his friend, Thornick, and him left school and took the train from Logan to Frankland. They then walked across the mountains from Frankland to Bloomington, Bear Lake. They did this in the snow because it was still winter. Then they rode from Bloomington to Ovid with a mail carrier.

                John’s father was a very harsh man. John was only home for a short time after school when his father told him to leave home, which John obeyed. He walked to Montpelier where he caught a freight train to Pocatello. He made arrangements to go to Twin Falls and drive a team of horses on a scraper, building a rail road and grade. He was only able to work a short time when it started raining. It rained for days, which prohibited him working. Small pox broke out in the camp during this time.

John caught a ride on a freight train to Pocatello, and then walked from Pocatello to Goshen where he found work on a farm for $15 a month. John also worked for Webster Sheep Company one spring during lambing season and for Eli Summers on his ranch one summer and with his sheep during the fall season.  In Ucon, John worked for Lee S. Robinson at his ranch. While working there he met Florence Mary Jeffs, whom he married March 27, 1907. John and Florence had 9 children, 6 boys and 3 girls: Spencer Henry, George Floyd, Florence Sylvia, Rozella May, Lee Sylvester, Von LeRoy, Goldn Virigil, Genevieve, and Harvey LeRoy. Genevieve died when she was 5 months old from leakage of the heart and whopping cough.

John bought 40 acres of land at Garfield, Idaho, where they build a home that they lived in from 1908 to 1934, with the exception of 2 years that they lived in Hibbard on R.S. Hunts ranch where John worked from 1910 to 1912. Over the years John rented several acres of land to different people. In 1934 John and two of his boys, Spencer and Floyd, went to Terreton, Idaho and rented 400 acres from F.A. Sweet. He later bought 160 acres from Mrs. F.A. Sweet, after the death of her husband. John and his family lived there from 1935 to 1958.

John was water master on the Harrison canal, and the west branch of the Harrison canal for 6 years. He served on the Garfield school board District #58 for 13 years, 1921 to 1934. He held the following positions in the LDS Church in the different Wards where he lived. He was always a Ward Teacher, a teacher in Sunday School, Counselor in Mutual, Superintendent in the mutual, Counselor in the Sunday School, member of the genealogy committee, chairman of the genealogy committee, High Priest teacher, and High Priest Group Leader.

On November 5, 1957, John was paralyzed from the waist down. He went into the LDS hospital in Idaho Falls, Idaho, where he was operated on for a tumor on his spine. He recovered from the operation but was still in a wheel chair.

Hannah Brown Hibbert

            Hannah Brown Hibbert, the 4^th child of Mathew Brown and Sarah Wild, was born September 26, 1808, at Newton Heath Lancashire, England. Mathew Brown had a farm and a large head of dairy cows. Sarah was a silk weaver, a very good one. She spent hours every day at the loom. Sometimes she could make as much as $4.86 a week from her silk weaving. Mathew and Sarah had six children: Joseph, Henry, Ashton, Hannah, Thomas, and Mary. One day Sarah was taking milk to the cellar and she fell and hurt her hip and leg. She was never taken to the doctor but had to use a crutch the rest of her life and was in constant pain. She had her 6^th child, Mary, in this condition and Sarah got to the point where she couldn’t even walk. She died when Hannah was only 5 years old.

                At the age of 20, Hannah married James Hibbert, son of George Hibbert and Widow Mary Roe. They were married November 10, 1828 at Lancashire, England. James and Hannah had 7 children: Sara (who died at infancy), Mary, Sara, Hannah, James, Benjamin, and Daniel Wild.

                Hannah’s husband, James, was a cobbler who made and repaired shoes. He would either work at home or at a factory. He was a very good whistler and would whistle tunes and keep time with his hammer as he worked. Hannah was a silk weaver and usually worked at home.

                James and Hannah belonged to the Church of England, which was very strict. If anyone was caught working on Sunday, they could be put in prison. At the Church the children were taught the alphabet, a little reading and spelling. They were never taught how to write. Hannah and the children welcomed the first missionaries into England into their home and were very interested in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. James was not interested and told the missionaries not to come to his home and he did not want the Book of Mormon left at his home. Hannah and the children would listen to the missionaries when they spoke on the street corners, or sometimes they would go to the cottage meetings when they could get away. They read the Book of Mormon when James was gone.

                At the age of 39 Hannah and 3 children (Mary, Sarah, and Hannah) were secretly baptized at night on August 19, 1847. By the year 1856 all the children had been baptized. When James discovered this he was furious with his family. Hannah was determined she would come to America, so she started saving money from her weaving for boat passage. Hannah finally went to her father, Mathew Brown, and asked for money so she could come to America. Mathew Brown was a very wealthy man by this time. Mathew Brown told Hannah that if she went to America he would disown her and also disinherit her. He wanted her to stay in England and take care of him in his old age. He stayed true to his word, and Hannah did not go to America.

                After Hannah’s father died, she was 58 years old. She gathered her children together and asked for their help so she could have enough money for boat passage to America. She finally had enough to pay for her and her son, James (called Jim). The day Hannah and Jim left for the boat, she didn’t want her husband to become suspicious, so she left her night cap and night gown hanging on the bedpost, and cooked food and left it by the fireplace. Hannah knew that James would not let her leave England.

                The ship arrived in New York on June 3, 1864, and then by train to St. Joseph, Missouri, and then by a river Steamer to Wyoming, Nebraska. When Hannah’s husband, James, discovered that his wife was gone he was devastated and realized how much he missed her. He would have come to America but he was a very stubborn man and thought that if he did his wife would have won the battle. He went to live with his daughter, Sara and was a very unhappy man that died at the age of 60.

                Hannah  lived longer than her husband, her 3 sons, James, Benjamin, Daniel Wild, and her 2 daughters, Sara and Hannah Dalton. The only family she had left was her daughter Mary Hibbert Smith. Hannah lived with her half sister, Esther Maland, until her death on February 16, 1896. She was 88 years old.