| Husband: Samuel Alger | |
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10 Children: Eli Ward Alger (1809-1890) Samuel Alger (abt 1809-young) Saphony Alger (1813-young) Frances Alger (1815-after 1884) Amy Saphony Alger (1818-?) John Alger (1820-1897) Alva Alger (1822-?) Samuel H. Alger (1826-?) Thomas Alger (1828-1862) Clarissa Alger (1830-1907) | |
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Father: Thomas Hancock Mother: Amy Ward 
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Clarissa Hancock was born on 3 Sep 1790 in Old Springfield, Massachusetts to Thomas Hancock and Amy Ward Hancock. In 1804 the family moved to Bloomfield, New York. Thomas took his mother Jemima Wright Hancock along with them, and she died in 1809.
Clarissa married Samuel Alger on 25 Feb 1808 and they settled in Rehoboth, Bristol, Massachusetts. There she gave birth to five children, of whom two are known to have died. In those days about 40% of infants died, and her case was no exception. About 1919 the family moved to Ohio, where their last five children were born in four different towns. In 1820 her younger brother, Levi, moved in with them for a year.
At age forty (Nov. 1830), she and her huband became two of the earliest members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which had only been organized a few months earlier. Her mother's brother had been a boyhood friend of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr., but that was not the reason they joined. She first heard the gospel preached by Parley P. Pratt on Sun 14 Nov 1830, and she and her father were baptized that very day. Her husband, mother and brothers followed their example only a few days thereafter. Her younger brother Levi Hancock was later called to be in the Seven Presidents of the Seventy quorum. They moved to Missouri in 1836, where they lived with their son Solomon until they were driven out by mobs. Then they moved to Nauvoo, Illinois, where her father died in 1844. She and her husband Samuel were priviledged to received their temple blessings in the nearly completed Nauvoo temple in Jan, 1846 before the were again driven out by mobs and the temple destroyed.
Their son John Alger had married Sarah Pulsipher in Nauvoo in 1842, and the Algers crossed the plains to Salt Lake City in the company led by Zerah Pulsipher, who was Sarah's father and also a member of the Seven Presidents of Seventy. Clarissa's mother died enroute in Coucil Bluffs, Iowa in Jan. 1847 and her brother Alvah at Mt. Pisgah that July. Her brother Solomon died that Dec. and her brother Thomas in Jan. 1848. Samuel and Clarissa arrived in Salt Lake City in Sep 1848.
At age 60, Clarissa and her husband (age 64) were called on a mission to help settle southern Utah under the LDS Apostle George A. Smith (cousin to the Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr.). The group of 28 families, which included her daughter Clarissa and husband Francis Whitney, founded Parowan, Utah in Jan. 1851. They returned to Salt Lake in 1853 when their mission ended, but then moved back to Parowan. Clarissa died on 22 Jul 1870 in Parowan, Utah.
Some of the information here was taken from Levi Hancock's journal and also from Carol E. Wolf's research.