#52Ancestors - Week 11 - WHO WOULD I LIKE TO MEET

"Though hard to you this journey may appear, Grace shall be as your day." Come, Come Ye Saints, No. 30, Hymns of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 1985. Did my great-great-great-grandmother Alice Hardman Clayton ever feel the comfort from this hymn written by her husband, William Clayton? Following are some facts as documented online in FamilySearch and found in An Intimate Chronicle, the Journals of William Clayton. Alice was christened on 23 April 1816 in Kirkham, Lancashire, a daughter of Richard and Elizabeth Hardman. William Clayton's journals make mention of the Hardmans, and Alice in particular, on several instances in 1840 during his mission to Manchester, and I believe she had been baptized before that time. The 1841 England census has her living with her mother in Manchester, Lancashire, England, at the age of 20. She is listed on the Louisiana, New Orleans Passenger Lists, age 24, arrived 26 April 1842 on the John Cummins. Entry in Clayton's journal, 13 Sept 1844: "At 3 went to see Alice Hardman who is sick and was united in the E[ternal] C[ovenant]. Alice's marriage to Austin Sturgess on November 3, 1844, two months after her marriage to William, is witnessed in a civil ceremony performed by Levi Richards. On November 20, 1844, about three weeks after Alice married Mr. Sturgess, William married Alice's cousin, Jane. Alice would later divorce William in 1858 and Jane would also divorce William (An Intimate Chronicle, pg 149 fn112). Footnotes in An Intimate Chronicle state that Alice began the trek west on February 27, 1846 with William Clayton, two other wives, four children, and a mother-in-law. Records on FamilySearch indicate William and Alice had four children: Clara Agness born 1852, died 1856 Isabella Alice born 1854, died 1913 Aaron and Moses both born January 1857 and died October 1857. Alice dies and is buried in November 1894 in Glenwood, Sevier County, Utah. I wish that I could speak with Alice and find out about her life. The entry about William and Alice’s marriage stating Alice "is sick" makes me wonder if she was married because they thought she was going to die? How was she married again a few weeks later? What were her marriage circumstances? Did she ever love William Clayton? How did she feel about plural marriage? How devastating were the deaths of her three young children? Did she have a testimony of the gospel, and could say, "Our God will never us forsake"?