Phoebe meets the Mormons--And Marries

A beautiful little romance is recorded. Phoebe [Adams Hancock] was an industrious, hardworking girl. At the age of twenty-five year (1836) she was working for a family at spinning wool into yarn. It seems she had so much to do each day, before you could call her day finished. While working one day she heard that two Mormon Elders were holding a meeting in ther town on Saturday. So Saturday morning she awoke real early. She felt so happy, she arose and commenced her work of spinning. Just as the closck struck eleven, she was reeling off her fourth skein of yarn and she said to herself, "Now my day's work I done, I will go to the Mormon meeting." She went to her parents' home and her mother accompanied her. After the meeting the mother asked the missionaries to go home with them. To the mother's great surprise, she discovered one of the missionaries to be the man her sister, Alta, had married 20 years before. He was a member of the Methodist Church, and being talended in vocal music he became their favorite singer in the camp meetings. he had joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when it ws organized, and in a revelation given to Joseph Smith, recorded in the 52nd section of the Doctrine and Covenants, he was called, with others to go on a mission to preach the gospel and baptize. He labored in Ohio an vicinity where he converted and baptized many people. It had been almost 5 years since he had joined the Church and he was then returning to his home, after laboring fo 2 years in several states proclaiming the gospel without purse or script, when he met his sister-in-law Betsy, and her lovely daughter, Phoebe, whom he learned to love and later married. Solomon told them of his troubles, how he and hsi wife Alta had been blessed with a family of ten children, but due to persecution and hardships they had passed through, only four of the children survived. He told of receiving word of his wife's death and how their home and household goods had been destroyed, the wife and children, with others had been forced ro flee to the rock and bush for shelter. Two children died and were buried in the same grave. his wife, Alta, had died from exposure. News traveled very slowly in early days, and it was some time before the word reached Solomon of his wife's death, and his 4 little children ranging in age from 7 to 15 years were living alone, as there was no one to take them in. They were depending on the kindness of friends for food and clothing. Phoebe being very tender hearted, pitied the husband and children, and thei pity ripened into love. As Solomon was returning to his home, he asked Phoebe to be his wife and a mother to his children. She was baptized by him Jun 18, 1836 and married to him the 28th of June 1836. Phoebe was 26 years old at the time. Her stepson, Charles, says of her, "Her goodness, kindness and motherly care was more than could be expected by any woman under the circumstances. She tenderly reared we 4 children through the perils of mob persecutions in Missouri and Illinois, and on to Utah, also reared 5 of her own--all exemplary Christians." (Originally collected by mary H. Elmer of Payson, Utah, from a history left by Alta Davis in the Levi Hancock history.)