Hannah Hansen

 

 

Birth: 30 October 1869 in Odense, Denmark

Death: 16 October 1950 in Cleveland, Franklin, Idaho, USA

 

 

Hannah Hansen was born in 1869 to Rasmus Hansen and Ane Caspersen and was one of their youngest children. They immigrated to America, traveling directly to Idaho while she was still a young girl.

Pictured below is the Hansen family. Hannah is the young girl next to her mother, Ane. When this picture was taken, one of the children had already passed away, and one was yet to be born.

Hannah grew up in southern Idaho where she met her husband, Nathan Smith Junior. They were married and sealed in the Logan Utah LDS Temple on 22 October 1891.

Together, Nathan and Hannah had many children, raising them all in Cleveland, Idaho. The names of their children are: Nathan Leroy Smith, Thomas Smith (died at birth), Howard Rasmus Smith, George Lyman Smith, Annie Jane Smith (died at birth), Mary Smith, Oral Christian Smith, John Wilford Smith, Nellie Smith, Joseph Franklin Smith (died as a newborn), Mabel Smith and Albert Smith.

The Smith family was well noted for their musical talent. Hannah’s husband and children would sing and play songs together, performing them for family, friends and members of their community. Hannah valued the family’s musical interest so much so that at night, she would do the dinner dishes by herself, allowing her children to practice their singing and instruments.

Hannah was a talented homemaker, wife and mother. She would milk the family’s cows, make delicious food (including butter and her sugary pancakes) and take care of the children. She was also a talented story teller.

Hannah is pictured to the right with two of her daughters, Mabel and Nellie, as well as three of her grandchildren.

While, Hannah was a wonderful and lovable woman, that is not to say that she did not have trials in her life. Three of her children died shortly after birth, while others, including her husband, were also taken during her life time.

One night, she had a dream in which she saw six caskets lined up in her living room. Sadly, this dream became a reality throughout the following years. In 1926, John Wilford Smith died. Less than a year later, in 1927, Hannah’s husband Nathan Smith Junior died. In 1929, Albert Smith passed away as well at only 17 years of age. The 30s were no better, with her sons George Lyman Smith and Oral Christian Smith dying in 1932 and 1935, respectively. Only two sons outlived her, Nathan Leroy Smith and Howard Rasmus Smith. Howard died only two years after his mother, in 1952. The men had died from a variety of causes, namely deadly illnesses and injuries.

It should be noted as well that she outlived both of her parents and all of her siblings. Despite these troubles, Hannah was still able to pass on a faithful and cheery disposition.

Hannah Hansen died on 16 October 1950 in Cleveland, Idaho. She and much of her family are buried in the Cleveland Cemetery.

Roland Smith writes this about the remnants of the Smith family home after Hannah died:

A few months after Great-grandmother Smith died, her home was purposely burned to the ground because it was too infested with termites to be saved.

The next spring the farmhouse caught fire and burned to the ground as well. An electrical short in the attic sparked the disastrous fire which destroyed most of the pictures and other genealogical information about the Nathan Smith Jr. family.

A couple of years later the school house was demolished. The rubble was pushed into the basement where the boiler room had been and was then covered over with dirt. By 1955 the Cleveland population had dwindled enough that the ward was disbanded and the members sent to either the Treasureton Ward or the Thatcher Ward. The building was sold as a private residence but never occupied. It burned down a couple of years later and was eventually demolished.

Today a couple of nice manufactured homes now sit on the property where the old farmhouse and ward building once stood. There are no traces of the general store, ward building, or school house. Some of the structures for the swimming pool still stand in the midst of a number of natural hot springs.

Roland Smith has an entire website dedicated to the Smith family’s ancestry. The URL is:

http://www.williampsmith.com/