From: Hardy and Hardie, Past and Present(1)
Samuel Brocklebank Hardy (son of Benjamin Hardy, grandson of David Hardy, of Stephen Hardy, of Joseph Hardy, of John Hardy, of Thomas Hardy—first of this Hardy line to arrive at the Colonies), born at Bradford, Mass., 21 September 1804; died at St. George, Utah 9 September 1899; married at Georgetown, Essex County, Mass., 17 January 1826, Caroline Bacon Rogers, daughter of John and Rhoda (Davis) Rogers. She was born at Novidgwock, Me., 16 September 1806 and died at St. George, Washington County, Utah 1898. She was an excellent nurse and her services were greatly in demand in those early days. It was said she was in attendance at the birth of more than a thousand children. There were but few deaths among her patients.
Samuel Brocklebank Hardy was a shoemaker by trade. He served on the first police force in Salt Lake City. He was so generous that he could not bear to see anyone in want. He would give all he had to the poor, and he did not accumulate wealth. He had a host of friends whom he seemed to enjoy more than worldly possessions. (pg 757)
(The following is part of a history of Sarah Finley, who was the second wife of Samuel B. Hardy. He married Caroline Bacon (sometimes indicated as Baker) Rogers in January 17, 1826. He married Sarah Finley June 29, 1854.)
From: The Charles William Merrell Family(2)
Compiled and edited by Velma Merrell Grimshaw and Marie Stevens Facer
Sarah "Polly" Finley, daughter of John G. Finley and Mary Ann Bozarth, was born 18 February, in Grayson County, Kentucky. She was married to Charles Merrell in Lewis County, Missouri, on 12 October 1834 (IGI 1988). (pg 318)
The period of time that Charles and Sarah spent in Iowa and their removal to Utah is written in the Merrell chronicle (See p. 315). We now continue Sarah's story of her life without Charles.
The spring following the arrival of Sarah and her children in Utah found them settled in South Farmington, where they lived for about two years. On 29 June 1854, Sarah married Samuel B. Hardy(3) , by whom she had three daughters: Caroline Matilda, Martha Ellen, and Sarah Hanna. Samuel moved the family to Bountiful, which was their home unti1860.
The intervening years were very hard for Sarah. Her new husband did not adequately provide for her and her children, so her sons herded cows and sheep to earn food for the family in lieu of money, which was practically nonexistent in Utah at that time. Joseph, age seven, herded sheep for a neighbor and received 15 pounds of wheat for ten months work. Her other sons worked in similar jobs to earn "shorts" and bran from which to make bread. While they were in the hills herding animals, they had nothing to eat but sego bulbs and thistle roots which they dug up with sharp sticks (Merrell Family Papers, Joseph Merrell).
Mr. Hardy had come from Boston and was a shoemaker by trade. As he was accustomed to living from hand to mouth, he did not make provisions for hard times. Sarah's son, Joseph (Ibid.), later recalled trapping wolves and foxes to eat. He told of a time in 1855 when they had boiled fox for dinner and company came; they told their guests they were eating rabbit. The family had a cow, so there was a little milk to supplement the game and the weeds they gathered to cook for greens. (pg. 319)
In 1857 when Johnston's Army was sent to Utah to quell the " dissident Mormons," the settlers were asked to evacuate before the soldiers arrived. Sarah's family moved with their neighbors to Springville, leaving one of her sons in Bountiful to guard the house and burn it if the U. S. Army came to their part of the settlement. When the discord was settled, the family moved back and stayed for two more years.
In 1860 Hardy was called to go to Southern Utah, so he went south with a younger wife, according to Joseph's story. Sarah's son Orson moved her and the two little girls to Willard where some of her older children lived. Twelve days after the move, Sarah gave birth to her third child by Mr. Hardy. She named the child Sarah after Sarah Merrell, the daughter who had died in Council Bluffs on 8 October 1847.
Sarah learned nursing and midwifery and thereby earned her living and supported her children. During her practice she delivered about 900 babies and never lost a mother or child. After twenty-five years in this situation she went to live with some of her children in Idaho. She died in Elba, Idaho, on 2 February 1901 and was buried on February 5 in Willard, Utah (Ibid.).
From: Builders of a Heritage , The History of Charles Merrell & Sarah Finley Merrell Hardy . Submitted by Kelly Anthon(4)
[The portion relating to Samuel B. Hardy only.]
With God's help, the family arrived in the Valley on October 12th. Her eldest son had gone ahead of the group and met them upon their arrival. He and a Mr. Chaffin took the family to a small two-room house where they stayed temporarily. They soon moved to the North part of Salt Lake City where they stayed until spring. Friends then arranged for the family to move to South Farmington where Mrs. Merrell met and married Samuel Hardy in June 1854. Sarah and her new husband moved to Bountiful, Utah after their marriage; together they had three daughters. The family stayed in Bountiful until 1860 when Brother Hardy was called to go to southern Utah. At the time of the calling, Sarah was expecting a child. Together, Samuel and Sarah decided that she should move to Willard, Utah with her daughter Nancy Merrell Call and her husband Homer Call (our ancestors) instead of traveling to Southern Utah. Homer and Nancy provided a home for Sarah and her young children -- Sarah delivered her last daughter twelve days after arriving in Willard.
From: Hardy and Hardie, Past and Present(5)
[Regarding the 3rd wife of Samuel B. Hardy, she had previously been married to Mansel (Mansil) Hardy. From Hardy and Hardies]
Mansel Hardy (son of Simon Hardy, grandson of Stephen Hardy, of Joseph Hardy, of John Hardy, of Thomas Hardy), born at Bradford, Mass., January 1795; died at Bradford, Mass., 30 November 1852; married at Bradford, Mass., 9 August 1818, Martha L. Foster of Haverhill, Mass., or West Newbury, Mass. She was a daughter of Isaac Foster of West Newbury, Mass. His widow, after his death, went to Salt Lake City with the Mormons. (pg. 591)
From: MEMBERS & MISSIONARIES OF THE LOWELL, MASS. BRANCH OF
THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS, 1835-1860 Compiled by Martha Mayo and Connell O’Donovan
Samuel Brocklebank Hardy(6)
2nd cousin of Leonard W. Hardy. Born September 21, 1804 in Bradford, Mass. Also joined the LDS Church and migrated to Utah in 1850, with his wife Caroline Bacon Rogers (of Maine) and their five children (all born in Massachusetts); a sixth child, 2 year old daughter Caroline Matilda, died during the journey. They were in the Wilford Woodruff Company, leaving Kanesville, Iowa on June 15, 1850 and arriving in Salt Lake on October 14.
Lowell Institute for Savings Bank Records show that a "Samuel Hardy" had a savings account there "in trust for" him in 1847.
The 1840 Census of Lowell lists a "Samuel P. Hardy" (sic) and the family ages are all accurate (except one child, Samuel Prescott Hardy, is missing). Note also that Brocklebank is often spelled Procklebank in Massachusetts records. Samuel B. and Leonard W. Hardy lived next door to each other in the 1850 Census of Salt Lake City.
Samuel died September 9, 1899.
(1) Hardy and Hardie, Past and Present. 1935. H. Claude Hardy, Reverend Edwin Noah Hardy. Hardy Association of America. From Microfilmed record: FHL US/CAN Film 1698037 Item 3.
(2) http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~maureenbryson/id107.htm#charles_william_merrell_hist (11/2/2009)
(3) Samuel B. Hardy was previously married to Caroline Bacon Rogers. He had a third wife whose name was Martha, according to a Family Group Record on file in the LDS Church Archives, FHL Film #439,397.
(4) http://www.geocities.com/familyquilt/game/card/sf1819c.html (2/17/2009)
(5) Hardy and Hardie, Past and Present. 1935. H. Claude Hardy, Reverend Edwin Noah Hardy. Hardy Association of America. From Microfilmed record: FHL US/CAN Film 1698037 Item 3.
(6) University of Massachusetts Lowell Center for Lowell History http://people.ucsc.edu/~odonovan/lowell_members.html#brocklebank (11/17/2009)
