Hannah Jane Gammell

Daughter of Isaac Davis and Edith Richards

Married Isaac Hill Brown, Spring 1846, Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois

Children - Isaac Davis Brown, Emily Jane Brown, Hannah Jane Brown

Married James Gammell, 7 Oct 1852, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah

Children - Mary Edith Gammell, Robert Maylon Gammell, Francelia Gammell, William Andrew Gammell

Married Henry Harts Boley, 28 Nov 1870, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah

History - James Gammell was married five times. His first wife, Harriet Fitzgerald, died in Michigan in 1848. His very short marriage to Mrs. Editha Clark of Michigan in November 1849, ended in early 1850. In October 1851, his third wife, Elizabeth Hendricks, died. His fourth wife was Susan Mariah Brown. The fifth was Mariah's sister-in-law, Hannah Jane Davis Brown.

Hannah Jane and her family became members of the Mormon Church while living in West Township, Columbiana, Ohio. A few years later her father, Isaac Davis, moved the family to Lee County, Iowa, about four miles from Nauvoo, where he bought nine hundred acres of farmland. At this time many members of the Church had fled the persecutions in Missouri to settle in Illinois and Iowa. Although Nauvoo, located across the Mississippi River in Hancock County, Illinois, became the center of Church, there were also several Mormon congregations organized in Lee County, Iowa, under the direction of Stake President John Smith, the uncle of Joseph Smith.  At the time of the martyrdom of Joseph Smith in June 1844, nineteen-year-old Hannah Jane was living in close proximity to Nauvoo. Here she met Isaac Brown, and they were married in the Nauvoo Temple in spring 1846, before being driven out of their beloved city by intense persecution. They made the 300-mile journey across Iowa along with hundreds of other Latter-day Saints. The following spring, while they were camped at Winter Quarters, Nebraska, Hannah Jane gave birth to her first child, Emily Jane. On May 20, two days after the birth, Hannah Jane's father, Isaac Davis, died of bilious fever. Emily Jane died six days later and was buried in a tiny grave next to her grandfather and her aunt Sabina Ann Davis Harrison, who had also died in Winter Quarters in February 1847.  Leaving behind the graves of loved ones, Hannah Jane and Isaac Brown began the trek across the plains with the Spencer/Sessions Company consisting of 185 individuals and 75 wagons. Although Perrigrine Sessions was a captain of fifty, his company was called "Parley's Company" after Parley P. Pratt of the Council of the Twelve Apostles, who was a member of the company. Parley was traveling to the Great Salt Lake Valley for the first time, having just returned from a mission in England. An excerpt from one of the trail journals recorded this incident, "I recollect one day that a large heavily loaded wagon ran over one of Bro. Pratt's little boys, about two years old; he took up the child and laid hands on him, and the child never complained, and soon was as well as before to all appearance."

For the most part the company followed the trail on the north bank of the Platte River, "sometimes leaving the river some miles, crossing streams and sand hills and passing long reaches without a single tree to relieve the sameness of the river valley." Along the way they had access to plenty of buffalo meat and other game. As the journal stated, "…one Isaac Brown [husband of Hannah Jane Davis Brown] of our fifty was an excellent hunter and kept the camp supplied with fresh antelope meat." On the trail they met Willard Richards and other Church leaders from the Salt Lake Valley who were headed back to Winter Quarters to give support to the continuing exodus of Mormon pioneers. Richards assured them that "they had found the place for the gathering of the saints, that they had laid off a city and named it Great Salt Lake City, Great Basin, North America." The company arrived in the valley on September 25, 1847.

By 1851 the Brown's were settled in Utah County. The widow Avis Brown was living with her children, Maria, Sydney, and George, and according to the census, her son Isaac H. Brown's family was living in the house next door. Hannah Jane Davis Brown, twenty-five years old, is listed, along with her three-year-old son, Isaac, and year-old daughter Hannah Jane. Isaac Brown, who worked as a freighter and could have been traveling at the time of the census, was not listed. The more logical explanation is that he had already died or was missing. Isaac was reportedly killed by Indians while building railroads in Nevada. Another version of the story claims that Isaac was actually killed by his partner, and it was blamed on the Indians. It is estimated that Isaac died sometime between 1850 and 1852. The actual date and specific circumstances of his death are unknown. Even his wife didn't know the full story. Hannah wrote that she "lost her husband sometime in the 50's."

See The James Gammell Chronicles

Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel, Daniel Spencer/Perrigrine Sessions Company (1847); Age at Departure: 22* Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Mar 18 2019, 22:38:27 UTC

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Oct 10 2021, 20:40:34 UTC