Charles A. Hickenlooper

Writing about recent history, which all of Mormon history is, has a risk other types of historical writing do not: running into people with a personal connection to your subject. In this case, it was a great-granddaughter. Jean contacted me shortly after finding my post on Sawdust. But this risk comes with great potential reward too. This time the reward was spectacular. Jean sent me two things: Photos and biography. Charles is seated in the center in the photo below with three other missionaries who were serving in Tennessee at the time. The biography includes quotes about Charles A Hickenlooper from family records. The first is from Charles' autobiography.

In the summer of 1895, I received a call from President Wilford Woodruff to go on a mission to the Southern States. I left my wife and family of five little children September 24, 1895 and our sixth child, Merl, was born February 14, 1896. It was very hard for me to leave them, especially so because of some dreams I had about the time I received my call in which it seemed that I was given a chance to deny my faith or be killed. Many of the elders really were mobbed, and a few had been killed, so these dreams did not add to my peace of mind. But the Lord watched over us all. I had all I needed to eat -- although sometimes I would get pretty hungry between meals – and a bed to sleep in every night.

I had many and varied experiences, many cases of healing, for which I am thankful indeed. My companion and I were assigned to open up a district in Cane Creek, Lewis County, where missionaries had not been since Elders Gibbs and Berry were killed by a mob. A number of the Saints had remained true to the faith for the eleven years since this mobbing and we were received with open arms by them. Among the four we baptized at Shady Grove was “Grandma” Church who had been a mother to the missionaries for forty years, doing anything she could for them. Her husband was president of the Branch and although she had heard John Morgan, B.H. Roberts, Golden Kimball, and many others preach and explain the gospel, she had never embraced it until now when we had the privilege of baptizing her. It was at Shady Grove that B.H. Roberts disguised himself and got the bodies of the martyred elders Berry and Gibbs. Much of the time we traveled without money, commonly spoken of as 'without purse or scrip'. The Lord blessed me and also my family, but I feel that my wife really had the hard part of the mission and I received the honor and glory.

The four they baptized in Maury County were Mary Ann Miller Church, Mary Bell Church Thomas, Margarett N. Church, and Minnie Lucretia Love Greenfield. Later Elder Hickenlooper was transfered to Overton County, Tennessee where he also baptized Lee Lester Phillips and Emma Morgan Phillips after he obtained a release but before leaving to go home.

In 1961, Charles' daughter Florence H Jensen, wrote a bit about her father's mission as well.

In 1895, Father was called on a mission to the Southern States, to labor in Tennessee. It was a hard thing for Mother to consent for him to go, leaving her with five children and Merl was born four one-half months after Father left. But both of them believed that members of the Church should do whatever was asked of them by the authorities, and he went and filled an honorable mission. Our brother Will was ten years old and he milked the cows. Mother made butter, sometimes getting as little as ten cents a pound for it. She raised pigs and chickens, sold eggs, picked berries, dried fruit and kept us well. It was surely a happy reunion when Father returned home. He always said that Mother had the hard part of the mission and he received the glory.

Jean went on to add her own information about her great-grandfather.

As you can see from both accounts, he gave credit to his wife and family for supporting him. While he was still on his mission in May 1897, Grandpa Hickenlooper was called to be counselor to Bishop Edward W. Wade of the Pleasant View Ward (Weber County) and so was released early. During his mission, he always carried a photograph (attached) of his children and showed it freely so that those not of the Church would realize that he was a husband and father with the same concerns they had and that he had come to share the gospel at some sacrifice. He died in 1938 before I was born.

(Thank you, Jean, for your permission to use these.)