Francis Ada Williams (wife of Thomas S. Kimball)

Francis Ada Williams Kimball 1862-1942
(Grandpa's great-grandmother, my third great)
*taken from Family Search, and from grandson Thomas' memories

Francis was born in Kaysville, UT on October 27, 1862.

Her parents were converted to the gospel in their native lands of England and Wales, crossing the ocean to America and the plains to Utah in the mid-1850's. Francis grew up in Kaysville, eventually attending the University of Utah in 1880 and becoming a primary school teacher in Kaysville for $40 a month. She ended up in St. David, AZ, where she met and married Thomas S. Kimball on October 16, 1883.  They went back to Utah to be sealed in the Endowment House, where their first daughter Hazel (Grandpa's great-grandmother) was born. Then they went back to Arizona where Thomas ran a sawmill in the Huachuca Mountains. When the mine shut down, they were quite poor and moved to Safford, where they built a small adobe house, with adobe they made themselves. Two children were born in this house, after which they moved to Thatcher in 1899. Thomas and Francis served two missions together- one in 1898 to the Central States, and another in 1919.



                                                                              Fanny and Thomas, with daughter Elizabeth

Francis taught Relief Society and served as secretary; she also served in Sunday School. She also served as secretary for their civil government class, working for women's suffrage. Francis always had a political interest, and her intelligence led her to be chosen as a delegate to Phoenix, and a great advocate for women's suffrage, which was passed in Arizona in 1912.   In 1924 she was even elected as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in New York. But she wasn't finished serving her country yet!  During World War I, Francis was the post master at Thatcher, selling thrift and war stamps, was the Deputy food administrator,  and she also served on the State Welfare Board for four years.

"Aunt Fanny" as she was known, was a tall stately woman as remembered by her grandson, and she was perceptive and wise. She believed in knowledge, and the application of it for righteous purposes. In addition to being an intelligent leader and civil servant, Fannie is also remembered for the extent to which she cared for her husband and family- baking fresh bread and rolls daily, and cooking huge breakfasts every day for her hard working husband.  She died on September 25, 1942, almost 80 years old, due to complications from surgery in Los Angeles.

I love when I can see a little bit of myself in an ancestor- I'm very proud to be descended from a woman's suffragist who was politically active and a community leader- while also maintaining a warm home for her husband and family.  Grandmother Fanny seems to have magnified all of her callings in life, and is a wonderful role model for all of her granddaughters!

Thomas S. Kimball

Thomas Stephens Kimball
(Grandpa's great-grandfather, my 3rd great)
*taken from familysearch, particularly from his grandson Thomas L. Kimball

Thomas was born August 10, 1862 in Salt Lake City.

Thomas- Left

He was tall and broad, weighing over 200 lbs, with a round face and a friendly, booming voice.  When he spoke, people listened! His father (David P. Kimball) was called to multiple missions and settlements while he was growing up, and the family were Arizona pioneers when Thomas was only 14. The journey from Utah to Arizona was long and hard- full of bad roads, hostile Indians, and other obstacles. Thomas even had to drive the ox team himself when his father sprained his ankle along the way.


As a young man, Thomas heard there was fertile farmland along the Gila River and moved there, creating a fine farm with his wife, Frances. He became one of the best horse breeders in the area, having learned the trade from his father, and could calm the most difficult horses.  He also established a freight hauling business from the Gila valley to the copper mines in Morenci and Globe.
Thomas was one of the first to recognize water as the life blood to the arid, developing Arizona  and was a strong advocate of protecting water resources. He advocated the building of a large dam on the upper Gila River with a large reservoir.  He was elected a state senator to help protect water rights and spent his political tenure in federal court protecting Arizona's right to its share of the Colorado River water from California.  Fifty years later, due to his efforts, the Central AZ Project was completed, providing water to the entire Phoenix/Tuscon area.

Thomas, with his mother Caroline, grandmother Albina, daughter Hazel, and grandson Lorenzo
.Thomas, with wife Frances and daughter Elizabeth.


He was deeply religious and took his entire family often into the desert where his father David P. Kimball had his life-changing spiritual experience.  Every year the family went there, and listened to Thomas repeat the story of David's desert vision of his parents, and their ministration to him.   Thomas dearly loved his ten children and many grandchildren and fostered great family closeness.
He passed away October 29, 1939 at the age of 77 and was buried in Thatcher, AZ.

Thomas with some grandchildren- far right is Stanley (my grandpa's father)

Ann Elizabeth Hodgkinson (LARSON FAMILY)

Ann Elizabeth Hodgkinson
(My 3rd great, Grandpa Larson's great-grandmother)


In 1837, the Lord revealed to the Prophet Joseph in the Kirtland temple that Heber C. Kimball should open the door of salvation to the people of Great Britain. Elder Kimball naturally felt weak and shrank from the responsibility but accepted the call. He and the other elders arrived in Liverpool on July 16, 1837. After only a few days they felt constrained by the spirit to go to Preston, 30 miles away. After 8 days of preaching, they had 9 candidates for baptism, including Ann and her husband, Thomas Wamsley.

Ann was born August 24, 1807 in  Chipping, England. Ann was one of the first visits for the missionaries and she had been confined to her bed for months with the dreaded consumption. She was a mere skeleton of skin and bones according to her son, and had been given up for dead many times. When Elder Kimball testified to her of the gospel truths he raised his hand and declared, "Sister Wamsley, I promise you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that if you will repent and be baptized you shall recover."  Ann believed Elder Kimball and on July 30, 1837, she was carried to the River Ribble and baptized as the first woman convert in England/Europe. 7000-9000 people came to witness the baptisms.  At her confirmation her disease was rebuked and she was healed completely a week later.



After her husband Thomas died, Ann immigrated  to America, suffering the persecutions with the saints, crossing the plains, and married Isaac Palmer.  They settled in Bear Lake, ID, where Ann raised her children and lived to be 82 years old. Rumor has it that Isaac left Ann some time between 1850 and 1860 for the gold mines in California, and never came back.  He later died in Warren, Illinois the same year Ann died in Idaho.  It would seem that Ann had even more trials in her life than initially appear, and ended up raising her children alone in the harsh pioneer conditions.  She bore 11 children and buried three in childhood, one at the age of 22.  Yet she seems to have been a devoted and faithful woman who endured her trials with courage.   Ann was known as an excellent housekeeper, orderly and neat, a fine lady and a humble, devoted member of the church.


Her son, Isaac, said this of her miraculous healing and baptism:
"Through this healing and baptism, President Kimball is responsible for bringing many hundreds into the church, because in her one child, myself, the church has over a hundred members- for I have eleven children, 64 grandchildren, and 32 great-grandchildren."

One of Ann's granddaughters, Zilpha Sophronia Palmer, later married Heber C. Kimball's great-great grandson, Stanley Kimball Larson. And those are my Grandpa Chuck Larson's parents!  Perhaps my own mother inherited some of her great-great grandmother's grit, faith, and courage to raise the six of us mostly on her own. Coincidentally, Ann died the same date my mother was born.  I am thankful for the many great women I have to look up to as examples of faith and courage!

Grandpa Chuck Larson's parents-
Zilpha, Ann's granddaughter, and Stanley, Heber C. Kimball's great-great grandson.

John Van Cott and Lucy Lavinia Sackett (TAYLOR FAMILY)

John Van Cott and Lucy Lavinia Sackett
(My third great, Grandpa Taylor's great-grandparents)

John Van Cott was born September 7, 1814 in Canaan, NY. He was a descendant of the first settlers in Long Island from Holland in 1640.  10 generations back they belonged to the Holland nobility. His parents were Losee and Lavinia- aunt and uncle to Parley and Orson Pratt. John was only 10 years old when his father died. His cousin, Parley Pratt came to stay with his aunt Lavinia, who he loved like a mother, and he brought with him a Book of Mormon.  John and his mother read the book and believed, but John wasn't baptized until 12 years later in Nauvoo in 1845.  By that time he had married Lucy Sackett, who was from a fine family.

While in Nauvoo John and Lucy temporarily lived with Parley Pratt, and John contributed a significant amount of $400 in gold to the temple, plus some lots he had purchased. He and Lucy received their endowments in the Nauvoo temple. In 1846 they are forced out of their homes with the rest of the Saints and lived in a log house in Winter Quarters. They left for the Salt Lake valley in the summer of 1847, in company with Parley Pratt.  Their son Losee was born near Independence Rock in Wyoming. They arrived in the valley September 25, 1847.  John built one of the most substantial houses near Temple Square.  They developed a great friendship with the Prophet Brigham Young, who later married one of their daughters. John was ordained as a Seventy by Joseph Young.

In 1852 John was called on a mission to England, and later transferred to Denmark, where he became president of the Scandinavian mission. He was sent back to Denmark again in 1859 to be the mission president and had such a love for the Scandinavian Saints that he had a special call later to help the emigrants settling in Sanpete County. The Scandinavian Saints loved him deeply in return for his service among them.  By the end of his missions he spoke near-perfect Dutch.

Later when Johnson's Army was marching, John was deputized to stay in the city and set Fire to the property in case the soldiers were hostile, which luckily never happened. He ended up with 5 wives and 28 children. He was a member of the Utah House of Representatives, on the Salt Lake City council, street supervisor, and city marshal. John was a great businessman and missionary, an intelligent and eloquent speaker, full of integrity and courage.  John and Lucy lost four of their seven children in childhood, and passed through many hardships and sacrifices for their faith. I wish I had more personal stories or Lucy, but I will keep looking.

When John died on February 18,1883 at home, he was mourned by the entire church, especially the Scandinavian saints. The Deseret News reported on February 20, 1883: "It would be difficult to find a more exemplary and conscientious man than Brother Van Cott. He was a good man in the broad sense, not negatively so, but as a producer of the goods of a well spent life.  He was one of those whose character and motives seemed so far above reproach, that we doubt if they have ever been the subject of even suspicion. At home or abroad, wherever Brother Van Cott sojourned, he was regarded with esteem, his very presence and appearance inspiring sentiments of that nature."

I visited the Salt Lake Cemetery to find John and Lucy's graves.  It was a beautiful fall day and how glad I was to find them and pay tribute to their memory.