Elizabeth Hanks Curtis and Her First Love

Elizabeth Hanks, daughter of William Hanks and Jane Davis, was born in England in 1852.  She along with her parents and nine other brothers and sisters, were baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  After they were baptized, their first thought was to go to America, so they all began making preparations to go.  Elizabeth got a good job working for a family by the name of Walls, who were going to America in 1869, and she planned to go with them.  She was then 17 years old.  Her oldest brother earned enough money for his fair, so Elizabeth, her brother and the Walls family sailed in 1869, along with many other Saints.  They were on the water for seven weeks, and landed in New York in July, then went to Salt Lake City.

After arriving in Salt Lake, Elizabeth was very anxious to find a young man she had promised to marry before she left England.  He had come to America and Utah six months before she had, to make a home for her when she came.

Elizabeth stayed in Salt Lake with the Walls.  Her brother went on to Provo to get work and prepare a home for the rest of the family that were to come later.  He worked on a big farm owned by a man named Moses Curtis, and he thought him a very fine man.  Elizabeth continued to search for her boyfriend, but without success.

After six months of searching, her brother persuaded her to marry Moses Curtis, who was a good, kind man, but who was 36 years older than she was and had children older than her.

They were married in the Manti Temple on January 11, 1870(?).  When she had been married to Moses for six weeks, she met her first lover face to face.  He had been searching for her.  Elizabeth told her girls in later years the sad story of how they both felt when they clasped each other in their arms and told what had happened.  Elizabeth said he surely was broken hearted, but he did marry later and lived in Provo.