Joseph Hancock (1800-1893)

Zions Camp Participant
One of the most interesting episodes in the early history of LDS Church was the march of Zion's Camp (1834). The members of the Church in Missouri were being persecuted, and the Prophet Joseph made it a matter of prayer and received a revelation on February 24, 1834. The Lord instructed the Prophet to assemble at least one hundred young and middle-aged men and to go to the land of Zion, or Missouri. (See D&C 130:19–34.)

Zion’s Camp, a group of approximately one hundred and fifty men, gathered at Kirtland, Ohio, in the spring of 1834 and marched to Jackson County, Missouri. By the time they reached Missouri, the camp had increased to approximately two hundred men.

Joseph would march to Missouri with his brother, Levi Ward Hancock (1803-1882), both were ordained to the Quorum of Seventy of the church in the following year. At the time he was a widower, but he would marry the following year, Experience Wheeler (1792-1852), the widow of Erastus Harper Rudd (1787-1834), who died of the cholera in camp, leaving her with 13 minor children to raise.