Franklin Idaho Pioneer Association

BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
By
Ruth A. Hatch Hale.

 

Lorenzo Hill Hatch was born at Lincoln, Addison County, Vermont, January 4th, 1826. He assisted his parents on the farm. At the age of fourteen, he accepted the Gospel as taught by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and was baptized in February 1840, by Elder Sisson A. Chase.  He emigrated with his father, Hezekiah, to Nauvoo, Illinois in 1843.  in 1844, he went on a mission to his native state.  He was there when he heard of the assassination of the Prophet Joseph Smith; and he returned home at once.  He with his brother, Jeremiah, made arrangements to gather with the Latter-day Saints in Utah, they being forced to leave Nauvoo due to persecutions.  He went with the early company of emigrants, and became well accustomed to building bridges, making roads, and doing other pioneer work which qualified him for the labor which he was later in life to perform.  He married Hannah Fuller, daughter of Edward Mix and Hannah (Eldredge) Fuller, on 3 February, New York in 1844 while on  his first mission.  She was born 24 February, 1827.  the privations incident to pioneer life were more than she was abear.  She died 10 August, 1847, in Nebraska.  Lorenzo was very ill at the time of her death; and hardly knew when she died.  He, together with his brothers, Jeremiah and Abram, established a wagon-shop at St. Joseph, Missouri; and after a successful year’s business, they purchased cattle for the journey across the Great Plains.  Early in the Spring of 1850, Lorenzo and Abram left St. Joseph for the Rocky Mountains.  They became part of a company consisting of fifty wagons of which David Evans was appointed captain.  They entered Great Salt Lake Valley by way of Parley’s Canyon, 15 September, 1850.

 

    As a widower he married Sylvia Savonia Eastman on 27 February, 1851.  she was the daughter of James and Clarissa (Goss) Eastman.

 

    Sylvia’s father accepted the Gospel on hearing the first sermon in Boston, and her mother embraced it as soon as she heard it in Newfane, Vermont.  Sylvia’s father died in Nebraska.  In the Fall of 1848, the widowed mother, her daughter, Sylvia, and son, Ozro reached Salt Lake City.  Here Sylvia met and married Lorenzo Hill Hatch as above stated.  Their first home was in Lehi, Utah, 30 miles south of Salt Lake City, where they were among the first settlers.  And Mr. Hatch’s experience as a pioneer of the past was valuable in building up this new town.  He helped build the first grist mill near there in American Fork canyon.  He entered plural marriage, 11 November 1854, by taking Catherine Karren as a wife.  She was the daughter of Thomas and Ann (Ratcliffe) Karren.  She was born 12 August 1836, Liverpool, England.  Her father was a native of the Isle of man, and her mother was derived from the red cliffs of that locality at the time of William the Conqueror, 1066.  Catherine, with her parents, accepted the Gospel in England and emigrated to Illinois and later to Lehi, Utah, where she met Lorenzo Hill Hatch.  

He was called on a mission to Europe in 1856 with a about forty other Elders.  He returned in 1858.  During his absence, his wives, who had been well supplied with food when he left them, suffered from the lack of necessities of life because they had shared with less fortunate neighbors.

 

    He was elected Mayor of Lehi; and he served three terms in the Utah Legislature.

 

    On 2 January 1860, Lorenzo married Alice, the daughter of Thomas and Caroline (Barker) Hanson.  She was born 10 December 1836, at Little Horton Green, Bradford, Yorkshire, England.  Her mother was a widow of William Noble, when she married Mr. Hanson.  She had three children by her second husband, and Alice was the second child of three by this union.  She joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in her native land in 1854-56 and was baptized by William Attwood.  She crossed the ocean in a sailing vessel and walked across the continent, pushing a hand-cart in order to be with the Saints in Utah.

 

    In 1863, Lorenzo was called by the Church Authorities to Franklin, Idaho to preside as a Bishop.  His three wives up to this time had lived in one home in harmony, but were now forced to separate.  Alice with two small children accompanied him to Franklin.  He later moved Catherine there and still later, Sylvia went.  He served thre in the capacity of Bishop for 13 years and was the first appointed Mayor of Franklin.  He traveled extensively as a home missionary.  In 1876, he was asked to visit the Saints in Arizona in company with Daniel H. wells and others.  In crossing the Colorado River, he narrowly escaped drowning.  One of the party, Lorenzo Roundy, was drowned.  On his return to Utah, he was called to take part of his family and return to Arizona and New Mexico, as a missionary to the Indians.  This he did by taking Catherine and her unmarried children as far as Obed, Arizona where he left them and proceeded to the Indian villages in New Mexico.  He visited at a Mexican town San Lorenzo, where he and his fellow missionaries baptized a number of Indians.  He then returned to his family at Obed and removed them to San Lorenzo.  In 1878, he went back to Utah for Alice and her family and located them at what is now Woodruff, Arizona, where he later united his two families.  They suffered untold hardships in New Mexico and Arizona, but witnessed many miraculous manifestations of the power of God over themselves and the Indians.

 

    Lorenzo continued to travel as a missionary and helped to found and organize settlements on both sides of the Mogollon Mountains.  His wife, Alice, died 27 December 1891, at Woodruff.  After Alice’s death, he and Catherine continued to reside at Woodruff.  He was Stake Patriarch and 1st Counselor in the Stake Presidency until January 1901, when he was honorably released.  Then he and Catherine returned to Logan, Utah, where Sylvia was then living.  He had left her in Franklin, Idaho in care of her sons.  The eldest, Lafayette, having succeeded his father as the Bishop there, and the second son, Hezekiah E., being employed as a telegraph and ticket agent on the Utah Northern Railroad.  The old home in Franklin was sold, and a home built for Sylvia in Logan, where the second son, then married, was living.  Here they spent the last years of their lives in temple work and other church activities.  Sylvia died 9 November 1904, and Catherine died 24 February 1910; and in less then two months, Lorenzo passed on, 20 April 1910.  The three were buried in Logan.