Heaman lived with his parents and seven siblings in Petersborough, New Hampshire. In 1841 the family was contacted by Mormon missionaries and converted to the gospel. They were the only members of their families to join the church, and were ostracized from their family and friends. In 1843 they decided to leave their comfortable home and move to Nauvoo, Illinois to be with the main body of the church.
After their arrival in Nauvoo, Leonard, being a carpenter and a builder, helped to build many homes in the area. The Hill family rejoiced in being with the saints. They were grateful for their association with the Prophet Joseph Smith and were diligent in accepting and following his leadership and counsel. They were firm and true to their faith. Their grief was heavy when the Prophet and his brother, Hyrum, were martyred in June of 1844.
In connection with this event, Heaman's sister, Maria, related the following story: "One day I was sitting on the doorstep of our home when the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum, stopped at our home and came to our well to get a drink. They were on their way to Carthage. Father said it was the last place they stopped as they left Nauvoo for the last time. The cup they used was kept in the family for a long time." Maria said she remembered the incident distinctly and held it close to her heart, even in her elderly years.
The ninth child of Leonard and Sally was born in Nauvoo on September 30, 1845. He was named Emerald Jasper.
In the spring of 1846, the family was forced to leave Nauvoo, their new home, and most of their belongings. They headed west in a handcart company. At that time Heaman was 9-years-old. After crossing the Mississippi River, the sanitary conditions were so bad that the family took sick. Heaman's father, Leonard, passed away on September, 1846. The baby, Emerald Jasper, died twenty days later. The family was so poor that they did not have enough money to bury them. A man seeing their plight took the family to his farm, gave them one room in his home to live in, put their cattle in his pasture and buried Leonard and baby Jasper in his family burying ground. The family stayed there a long time because their mother, Sarah, and oldest brother, Charles, were very sick.
Later that year the remaining Hill family members moved on with a group of Saints. By February of 1847 they reached the east side of the Missouri river and since it was frozen over they were able to cross it on the ice. From lack of food and exposure to the cold, their mother Sally became very ill and died on February 17, 1847 in Council Bluffs, Iowa. A hand sled was fashioned by her children, and Heaman, then 10-years-old, pulled the sled, carrying the body of their dead mother, that they might bury her on a hill on the opposite shore.
Less than two months later their oldest brother, Charles, died and was buried along the wayside. Out of a family of 11, only five remained--three girls and two boys. The oldest, Sarah, was only 16 years old. They had no parents, no home or food, and traded everything they had to survive. The children were left in a settlement, and eventually divided between several families. Heaman and his brother, George, were placed with the Turley family. While with them, Heaman lost the sight in one eye when whipped on accident by one of the Turley boys.
Their sister, Sarah, married a widower named Bingham Bement. He was a kind man who gathered all the children together to live with him and Sarah in a small, one-room home. They were working diligently, trying to prepare to continue their journey to Utah, when an epidemic of small pox broke out. They all contracted the disease. Sarah was expecting her first child. The baby was born, but it was covered with small pox and only lived a short time.
In the spring of 1850 they were finally able to resume their trek across the plains. Heaman was traveling with a Mr. Bigford and his wife. He was to help them with all of their tasks for his food and keep. Hardship struck again when Mr. Bigford contracted cholera and died. This made the trip very difficult for Heaman, as he was left with much of the work--work meant for a man. He walked every bit of the way, with the exception of one half of a day when he fell ill and was allowed to ride in the wagon. It has been said of him that he walked the entire distance, but it would be more like twice the distance as he had to go back and forth so much to keep the sheep and cattle together and on the trail. The camp arrived in Salt lake City in October,1850. The only possessions Heaman had were the clothes on his body, and surely they were very worn. It had been a long and tiresome trip for a young man still waiting for his 14th birthday.
His sister, Jerusha, married John Courtland Searle in March of 1850. Soon after they arrived in the city, President Brigham Young sent them, along with two other families, to settle the area of the Peteetneet Creek, now known as Payson. There were the Searles, the James Pace family, the Andrew Jackson Stewart family, and two young boys, Heaman Alison Hill and Nathaniel Haws. As winter would soon be upon them, they immediately began to harvest the wild hay growing there, made corrals, and erected log cabins. The cabins were built from rough hewn cottonwood logs from the banks of the river. Young Heaman worked as hard as any man, and was always willing to do his share.
A few years later, Heaman rented a piece of hay land south of Salt Lake City. He had to cut the hay with a hand scythe, and give the owner 3/4ths of the crop as rent. It was while working here that he met Lurancy Chase from Salt Lake City and began courting her. Heaman asked Lurancy to marry him in the spring of 1860. They were married in Salt Lake City in November of that same year, and their first home together was in two rooms of her father's home. These were log rooms with no chinking. They had plenty of fresh air, but must have been very cold during the winter months. After the Endowment House was finished they were sealed together for time and all eternity on Nov 8, 1861.
In 1862 they moved to Payson where they built their first home of which Heaman was very proud. When they had been married five years, still no baby had blessed this home. Lurancy said that one day a Mr. Milan Fillmore, having lost his wife in childbirth, came to her home and asked her to care for the child. She was hesitant because she had no experience with tiny babies, and this one was very weak. When he saw her hesitation he raised his arm and said, "Sister Hill, I promise you, in the name of Jesus Christ, that if you take this child and care for it, the Lord will bless you with children of your own." She took the baby, cared for it and loved it; however, it soon died. Of this experience Lurancy said, "I could have felt no worse had it been my very own." About one year later they were blessed with a baby girl of their own.
When President Brigham Young called for volunteers to go back and help the emigrants who did not have sufficient means to get to Utah, Heaman willingly left his wife and three week old baby, took his team and wagon and on April 25, 1866 he started back across the plains. He was hoping to make the long trip easier for some than it had been for him. He returned home six months later, Oct 1866. This was a great sacrifice as he had missed the growing season of the year. He was needed so much at home to comfort his wife and tiny daughter. Due to the damp cold weather and the exposure on the trip, his health was never as good as it had been before. He developed asthma and it affected him the rest of his life.
Upon his return he sold his team to buy his wife a cook stove. He would walk the distance from Payson to Salt Lake City fairly often.
The Lord blessed the couple with 7 children; four sons, and three daughters. He died on February 24, 1907 at the age of 70.
Ancestral Line: Janeal Kindred Smith... Kent Lewis Kindred... Chloris Hill... Jasper Franklin Hill... Heamon Alison Hill
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