Hannah Davis

Hannah was teaching school at fifteen when she met and was courted by James William Huntsman. They were both living in LaGrange County, Indiana, a sparsely settled wilderness, and decided to go to White Pigeon, Michigan to find a preacher to marry them in the proper way.

The school was one room, built of tamarack poles at a cost of $50.00. She taught the three "R's" and boarded around with the families and received $8.00 per month salary.

Hannah possessed all the homemaking skills necessary to make a good home. When they lived in Tooele County, Utah they had a ranch that sold produce and dairy to travelers going to California. She carded, cleaned and spun the wool from their little flock of sheep. "She won a wide reputation for her "tastewell" pies, bisquits and the good ranch butter, as well as her homemade cheese."

In Huntsman Annals the story is told: "The local Indians or Paiutes were not openly hostile around Shoal Creek, but had to be watched when people started out on the roads alone or in small numbers. In other words they were a bit treacherous.

"Desiring to visit her daughter Sarah Jane at Minersville, Hannah, along with Aaron, had traveled to Sulpher Springs and was about to camp when they spied fleeting shadows back down the road. They knew they were being stalked by a small band of Indians. They watched carefully while the team was watered and grained. Putting the horses back to the wagon, they moved on slowly all through the night, keeping up a steady, lively conversation to deceive the red fellows they were sure were not far back. Upon arriving about daylight at Minersville, they were feeling freer." If they had camped and gone to sleep, their horses would have been stolen in the night.

She spent her last years in comfort with son Aaron in Shoal Creek (near St. George, UT) where he had twenty acres. Here she was Relief Society president. When the little community decided they needed a building for church meetings and school she was taxed along with everyone else, $23.00. This was the only brick building considered safe to stand in after the great earthquake of November, 1901.

Source: all information is from Huntsman Annals by Lamond Huntsman 1971. Page 109 of the Huntsman Annals states that a complete genealogy record was microfilmed by Lamond Huntsman in 1966 and put in the Salt Lake Genealogy Library.

Hannah is #11 on Chart 3