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Hannah married Gilberth Haws 2 June 1822. She was 16 years old. He was 21 years old. They first learned of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints about 1840. Previous to this time they hadn't affiliated with any church. Hannah was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in November 1842 in Illinois, by Elder Jefferson Hunt. Gilberth was baptized in November of the following year. Also, two of the daughters were baptized m 1843. Lucinda was baptized February 16 and Elizabeth August 19, 1843.
Hannah and Gilberth lived on a ranch located about 20 miles from Xenia, Illinois in the northwest part of Wayne County. They had a herd of sheep, some cattle, and a farm.
In 1845 (the year after the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum) some elders visited them and told them that the saints were being mobbed and driven from their homes, and advised the Haws family to go west with the saints. The Quorum of the Twelve had proposed to the governor of Illinois, that the saints would leave the state the next spring. To carry out this proposal the beautiful city of Nauvoo was turned into a workshop. The sound of Hammer and anvil could be heard early and late as they turned raw materials into wagons, harnesses, and yokes for the oxen.
As Hannah and her family lived in Wayne County, Illinois, which was some distance from Nauvoo, their family hadn't suffered the brunt of the persecution. To leave their friends to join a most unpopular cause was a very grave and difficult decision to make. They left Wayne County in May 1847. With a small branch of the church organized in Wayne Co, they traveled in a northwest direction through Illinois, and crossed the Mississippi River into Iowa. They then went west past the first encampment of the pioneers at Garden Grove, which was about 150 miles from Nauvoo, and traveled on 100 miles to Mount Pisgah where they stayed for the winter.
Hannah and Gilberth's family at that time consisted of six daughters and seven sons, ranging in age from 2 months to 22 years. The oldest son was 16. Their outfit consisted of one team of horses and several teams of oxen.
In the spring of 1848, they went to Council Bluffs, which was located on the east side of the Missouri River, then traveled on to Winter Quarters, crossing the Missouri River in Lorenso Snow's Company. At Winter Quarters they camped to make preparations to go west with the first company of the season. This company consisted of 321 souls, 99 wagons, 20 horses, 3 mules, 388 oxen, 188 cows, 38 loose cattle, 139 sheep, 25 pigs, 158 chickens, 10 cats, 26 dogs and 2 doves.
In May 1848, when several companies left Winter Quarters for the Rocky Mountains, Hannah and Gilberth's family was among them. The trip was difficult, they washed clothes in cold water, and used buffalo chips for fuel. The ground often served as mattress and springs while the stars were sometimes the only blankets.
They saw many herds of buffalo. Hannah helped drive the wagons, they sang and danced around the evening campfires and took turns in family prayers. The company arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on September 23, 1848, approximately 5 months after they started. Later, Hannah and Gilberth bought one of the little adobe houses in the old fort (which had been built by the pioneers the year before). This house consisted of one room twelve feet square. It contained a fireplace and had two portholes about ten inches square on each side of the chimney. The roof of the house was made of logs across which willows and brushes were piled and then covered with dirt. The floor was also dirt.
The old fort was formed by a great many of these little houses built together in the shape of a square with a space in the center, all doors opening into the square. Spaces were left for gates on the east and westside of the fort. No windows were put into houses for fear that Indians, who were numerous and had attacked the fort, might again do so. There were portholes on the outer wall to provide openings for guns in case of attack.
Food was very scarce this first year in Utah. Few crops had been planted and the harvest was meager. They were able to buy a little corn for making bread and sometimes a beef would be killed and a little rationed to each family. At other times they were able to get dried buffalo meat which was cut in small pieces and pounded to be used in making gravy and soup. Flour added to the gravy thickened it and made it more palatable. But at times the family felt quite hungry.
In December of 1848 three of Hannah's daughters married men of the Mormon Battalion who had just returned to Utah after their long trip to California. Caroline married Walter Barney, Mattilda became the wife of Shadrick Holdaway and Elizabeth married George Pickup.
The following spring, March 1849, the Hannah and Gilberth Haws family, together with thirty other families were called to go to Utah Valley to settle the place called Vineyard. After three days of travel they arrived at the Provo River March 12, 1849, where they were met by Timpanogos or Ute Indians, who would not let them go across the river until the interpreter had made a treaty. The company established the Provo branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints March 18, 1849 with John S. Higbee as president.
When they arrived, they immediately began to prepare the fertile soil for the planting of crops. On April 3, the settlers started to build a fort. The approximate site of that first fort is now marked by a monument erected by the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers in 1937.
On June 4, 1849, Mattilda died and was buried on a little knoll near the river. Later the remains were exhumed and moved to the Provo City Cemetery.
Hannah's and Gilberth's 14th child, Gilberth Oliver Haws, the second white child born in Provo, was born October 8, 1849. There being no doctor or midwife in Provo, Gilberth went to Salt Lake and brought back a midwife by the name of Angel, "Mother Angel" as she was called.
That same fall and winder, the Indians became hostile and made many raids on the settlers. Loss of livestock and property was heavy and a company was organized to fight the Indians. Several Indians were killed and the rest fled to the mountains. One white man, Joseph Highbee, was killed and several others were wounded.
In 1850 the settlers moved farther northeast where the city of Provo now stands, and built another fort. That summer the Indians again threatened to attack. Walker, the Ute Indian Chief, and his tribe camped around the fort out numbering the Mormons four to one. After the Indian attack waned, there were roads to build, timber to cut, ditches to dig, food to harvest, clothes to make. They all learned new skills and improvised. The young men learned to tan leather and make their own shoes. Many of the tools used were handmade. The women learned to spin, weave, knit and sew with limited equipment. The limited varieties and amounts of food taxed the ingenuity of the women who tried to cook tasty and nourishing meals in iron kettles over fireplace coals.
In the year, 1853, grasshoppers destroyed part of their late crop. In 1855 adversity came again; crops being destroyed by grasshoppers made them go on half rations.
On July 24, 1857, President Brigham Young with about 2.600 people had gone to the 10th anniversary celebration at Silver Fork, in Big Cottonwood Canyon. Brigham Young received word that the U.S. Army was on its way to Utah. Interestingly, the first sight that greeted the couriers' eyes upon dashing into camp was the Stars and Stripes billowing in the gentle breeze.
It was with sad hearts that the saints returned to their homes the next day, not knowing what might come to disturb the peace and happiness of their Mountain home that had become so dear to them.
Some of Hannah's sons were called to serve in the Militia to watch the movements and build fortifications at the narrows in Echo Canyon.
The following spring saw a general exodus south. Salt Lake City was virtually a ghost town. As the people moved south, Hannah provided shelter to many as they moved through Provo. The atrocities of Missouri and Nauvoo were deeply imprinted on their minds.
The newly appointed governor, Alfred Cummings, helped make arrangements for the approaching army to pass through the city by way of Emigration Canyon. In accordance with these arrangements the army under the command of Col. Albert S. Johnston marched through Salt Lake City without incident and set up camp at Camp Floyd, some twenty miles southwest of the city. The troops remained there for several years.
Several of Hannah's sons were called on Missions, some leaving wives and children behind for Grandmother to help care for. One son Caleb Haws was called to go on a mission to England, in 1871. He died there on November 20, 1871 as a result of smallpox.
Because of the cold winter in Provo in 1872, it was late spring before much could be done on the farms. All the women and children had to help out with the planting, irrigating, weeding and harvesting.
These were trying times for the Latter-day Saints. President Brigham Young had died, so the church's enemies felt it a good time to strike with vengeance against polygamy. Some of Hannah's sons had to leave Provo and move to Mexico.
On March 2, 1877, when Hannah was 71 years old, her husband Gilberth Haws, died. He is buried in the Provo Pioneer City Cemetery. Hannah Whitcomb Haws died 21 August 1880 in Provo, Utah, at 74 years, and is buried in Provo Pioneer City Cemetery.