Uncle (3G) Ephraim Knowlton Hanks

Jenson, Andrew. LDS Biographical Encyclopedia, 1951. Volume 2, pp 764-66 (paragraphing and emphasis added): Until he was sixteen years of age, Ephraim worked with his father (who was an edge tool maker or blacksmith, after which he left home and went to Boston where he enlisted as a sailor before the mast in the U. S. Man of War “Columbus” which carried 74 guns. He served on board that ship for three years, during which time he visited France, Spain, Gibraltar, Italy, Brazil, and other countries. On one occasion he had a narrow escape from drowning. While working on top, he fell accidentally from the fore royal yard into the foretop, but was saved by his grasping a rope while his two companions were killed. One of these fell overboard and was drowned, the other fell to the deck and was mashed. Ephraim was discharged in New York in 1844 and returned to his home in Ohio. In the meantime his father had died and his brother had joined the Church. Through being warned in a dream the latter paid a visit to his mother’s home and there met his returned brother, Ephraim, to whom he related how he (the brother) had been miraculously healed from a bad case of rupture through the administration of the Elders. The mother being displeased with her son who had joined the “Mormon” Church, induced Ephraim to call in three of the ablest sectarian preachers in the neighborhood. They came promptly and discussed with his brother, but were beaten in the argument. As usual in such cases, the ministers got angry and commenced to abuse the baptized brother. They also called Joseph Smith a murderer, a horse thief, a black leg, etc., adding that all his followers were like him. This accusation raised the ire of Ephraim, who immediately seized a chair and drove the three ministers out of the house, declaring at the same time that henceforth he would remain a friend and defender of Joseph Smith. He kept his word. Ephraim now went to Chicago, Ill., and reached Nauvoo in 1845. Here he was baptized by Horace S. Eldredge. He was also ordained a Seventy and went to work on the Nauvoo Temple. He enlisted in the first company of pioneers which was sent west from Nauvoo, but before he could get ready to start, he was sent to Indianapolis, Indiana, after a company of Saints who returned with him to Nauvoo. Soon after that he left Nauvoo with the companies going west and had got as far as Mount Pisgah, Iowa, when President Brigham Young came along raising volunteers for the Mormon Battalion. Ephraim offered his services at once, enlisted and marched as a private in Company B to San Diego, Cal. Thence, after serving his time, he came to Great Salt Lake Valley in 1847. He spent the winter in the “Old Fort” and in the spring of 1848 located a farm, on Mill Creek, near the spot where [Four-Greats-Grandpa] John Neff the same year built his mill. In the fall of that year he went east as far as Sweetwater to meet President [Uncle] Brigham Young’s company. After his return he became the first pound keeper in Salt Lake City,… [continued]

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