History of Hannah Tupper Grover

Hannah Tupper, daughter of Silas Tupper and Hannah Ladd, was born in Parishville, New York, 23 March 1823.

When she was a young woman she and her father's family joined the church and moved to Nauvoo to be with the main body of the Saints. Her father died in 1843 and was buried in Nauvoo. On Dec. 17, 1844 she was married to Thomas Grover (as a plural wife). Her first son was born 17 November 1845 in Nauvoo. She and her husband received their endowmens in the Nauvoo Temple in December 1845. She shared in the hardships and privations of the saints at Nauvoo and at the time of the expulsion she crossed the Mississippi River amidst blocks of ice, with a six week old baby in her arms. At Winter Quarters she gave birth to a daughter after the departure of her husband with the original band of pioneers.

She arrived in Utah October 2, 1847 with her husband and family. In 1848 she settled in Farmington where she continued to reside, except for a short period, until 1870 when she moved to Nephi where her son Joel had been called to preside.

In 1850 she accompanied her husband and family back to Iowa to buy cows to bring to Utah. When they were waiting in Iowa she went on East to Nashua, new Hampshire and got her mother and brought her to Utah with them.

During the trying years from 1850 to 1856 she gave birth to six children, all of whom died on the day they were born.

In 1869 she again returned to New Hampshire and new York and brought back with her a genealogical record of her father's family complete back to 1635, when their ancestor Thomas Tupper settled in Sandwich, Mass.

During their sojourn in Farmington, she, with three of her husband's wives, lived under one roof, and her sister wives many times testified to her fairness and justice in that relationship. Besides six daughters of her husband's first wife who died many years before, a very tender relationship existed between them and to their last days, they spoke lovingly of "Aunt Hannah."

In 1871 and 1872, she and her two oldest sons and daughters went into the Endowment House and started work for her kindred dead. The preformed as many as 500 baptisms in one day. Then in 1877 she and her son Thomas went to the St. George Temple, when it was finished, to further carry on that work. In 1884 she was called to the Logan Temple to serve as an ordinance worker. She continued in that service until the manti Temple was dedicated. At that time she was again called to that Temple in the same capacity. This she continued until failing health made it necessary to give it up. At one time during her labors in the Manti Temple, she was visited by three of her deceased ancesotrs who revealed to her that their name had been omitted from her temple sheet that she was to be working on the following day.

Of her labors in the Logan Temple, President M. W. Merrill wrote, "She was a choice good woman of the nobility of the God's and one of the choicest and best workers here. She seemed to us to be without fault, for we did not see any or know of them."

She was a cultured and refined lady and well educated, one who left an impression for good upon all who came within the cirle of her acquaintancce. After she was 50 years old, she taught school eight consecutive years in one building. She was ardently loved by her pupils.

She was chosen to be President of the first Y.L.M.I.A. of Juab Stake June 30, 1875 by Eliza R. Snow. She searved in that same position for eight years then later in the Primary Association.

One of her pioneer c ontributions to the development of the state was her labors in the Creamery Industry. She was an excellent cheese maker and very efficient in operating the creamery in Ferner Valley in 1883 and 1884 from which hundreds of pounds of cheese were shipped to various parts of the state.

She was especially kind and sympathetic to children. Sister Hannah Price to this day loves to tell when she was a little girl in Sister Grover's school. A cold storm had come during the day and little hannah had no coat with her. As she started to go home, the teacher took off her large fur collar and put it on the little girl. Sister Price adds, "Never did a queen wear furs more proudly than did that little school girl, that day."

She was always dignified and yet very humble. She met with many sorrows and disappointments but never related them; her troubles were silently locked away so securely that not even her children knew of them.

The following poem found among her papers after she was laid to rest is eloquet of her life:

              The Disappointed

There are songs enough for the hero
Who dwells on the heights of fame;
I sing for the disappointed,
For those who missed their aim.
I sing with a tearful cadence
From one who stands in the ark
And knows that his best arrow
Has bounded back from the mark.
I sing for the breathless runner
The eager anxious soul
Who falls with his strength exhausted
Almost in sight of the goal
For the heart that breaks in silence
With a sorrow all unknown
For those who need companions
Yet walk their path alone.
There are songs enough for lovers
Who share love's tender pains
I sing for one whose passion
Is given and given again in vain
For those whose spirit comrades
Have missed them on the way.
I sing with a heart o'er flowing
This minor strain today.
And I know this solar system
Must somewhere keep in space
A prize for the spent runner.
Who bravely lost the race.
For the plan would be imperfect
Unless it held some sphere
That paid for the toil and talent
And love that are wasted here.

During all her life she shared her home and mothered children that were not her own. Among those who shared her later life were sons of her husband by the other wives and also several grandcildren, one a seven month old baby of her son, after her son Jeddie lost his wife, she took his two small children.

Her faith in the Gospel was unwavering and her last request was that the notice of her death b published in the Deseret News and that it should bear the message that she was true to the gospel, a faithful Latter-day Saint, and loved the Lord to the end of her life.

She died at Loa, Utah at the home of her daughter Pauoline Brown and was buried on the 49th anniversary of her wedding day, December 17, 1893. Out of her numerous family only two sons and one daughter were spared to her, the others all having been laid away, several as babies, two as happy rompin little children, one daughter one month after she became a bride, and two sons in the vigor of his manhood - one the father of six children.