Religion: Conversions, Missions, Spiritual Experiences

Conversion Stories

The following are short facts on the conversion stories of my Ancestors. They reflect the first in their family to join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Arza Hinckley—Arza’s father died when he was young and he went to live with his grandfather in Leeds, Upper Canada. Missionaries Page and Sherwood were sent to this area to preach the Gospel. His grandfather was baptized in 1836 and Arza was part of a group of converts led by Elder Page to Missouri in 1838 and Arza was baptized that year when he was 12 years of age. He lived in Missouri, Nauvoo, Winter Quarters and was in the Mormon Battalion before arriving in the Salt Lake Valley. It was there in the fall of 1852 he met his first wife Amelia Woodhouse.

Amelia Woodhouse, her brother John and parents Charles Woodhouse and Ann Long.—Amelia’s older brother John was a devout Methodist. He had planned to go to Africa with others on a mission. In 1849 he was working in a town called Bawtry, Yorkshire. His landlady first told him about a new religion and he was touched by her teachings. He resolved to go to the small branch about 3 miles away and prevail upon the minister to baptize him in May 1849. He took his enthusiasm for the religion home to his parents and siblings. Ann was baptized in June, his father in September and Amelia the following June of 1850. The family immigrated to the United States, (through New Orleans) in 1851. Due to the need to earn money for further travel it was not until September 1852 they were able to arrive in Salt Lake City. In March 1853 Amelia married Arza Hinckley.

Henry Rock, his mother Catherine Mentzer and his wife Leannah Robinson. The Rock and Robinson families were long time residents of Franklin, Pennsylvania. Many of their families joined the church in the mid to late 1850’s. Actual baptism dates are not verified. One reason is that people were often baptized more than once and Family Search records often show the later baptisms. Catherine, a widow and her son Henry were baptized around 1858-59. Leannah, Henry’s new wife was baptized in 1859. (The Rock and Robison families had first been introduced to the Gospel of Jesus Christ by two missionaries, Elders Karl G. Maeser and Angus M. Cannon in the late 1850’s. Maeser lived in Pennsylvania from 1857-1860 before going to Utah). Their first daughter was born in Pennsylvania in 1859 and her name was Elizabeth Rock and she married Ira Nathaniel Hinckley son of Arza Erastus Hinckley. Their second child was born in Utah in 1861 so the migration was between the two children’s births. Family records indicate that due to the rising political trouble that culminated with the Civil War, they had been encouraged to move to Utah. Thirty-two members of the Robison family were known to have journeyed westward from their homes in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, to Florence, Nebraska, on May 7, 1860. This included Alexander Robison, his wife, Nancy Ellen, nine of their ten living children with their spouses and children. The daughter Leannah came west with her husband, Henry Rock, with their daughter, Elizabeth, in the Ross Wagon Train, three days later than the handcart company.