Abel Hicks Hancher

 1. Nicholas Hancher (1705-1777) m Rebecca Smith (c1707-?)
 2.. John Hancher (1734-1793) m Sarah Caudy (1739-1807)
 3... William Hancher  m Ann Dunn (c1756-?)
 4.... John Hancher (1796-1853) m Nancy Ann O'Rourke (1807-1882)
 5..... Abel Hicks Hancher (1845-1916)
        +Caroline Cooper (1847-1926)
 6......  Adelbert Edison Hancher (1868-<1942) 1,2,3
 6......  Melvin Park Hancher (1870-1928) 1,2,3
 6......  Eva Lois Hancher (1872-1918) 1,2
 6......  Charles Everett Hancher (1876-1942) 1,2
 6......  Thomas Albert Hancher (1878-1956) 1,2
 6......  Alma Estella Hancher (1881-1959) 1,2
 6......  Edith Belle Hancher (1886-1969) 1,2,4
Abel Hicks Hancher     [ID 09381] Click here to switch to Ancestror Tree view: Tree View

Abel Hicks Hancher1 [Hicks Hancher5, Able H. Henshaw6, Dick Hancher7].

Born May 1 1845, Harrison County, Ohio.1,3,6,7,8  

He married Caroline Cooper, Oct 6 1867, Des Moines Township, Pocahontas County, Iowa.1,4,9  Caroline, daughter of Beriah Cooper, was born Sep 8 1847, Des Moines Township, Pocahontas County, Iowa.1,8,9  (c1849, New York).3  

Hicks Hancher was shown in the 1870 census (Aug 4 1870) living in Powhattan Township, Pocahontas County, Iowa:3

Hancher, Hicks, age 25, born in Ohio; farmer; $1000 real estate; $500 personal property.
Hancher, Nancy A, age 72 [sic], born in Virginia; "no occupation".
Hancher, Caroline, age 21, born in New York; keeping house.
Hancher, Delbert, age 2, born in Iowa.
Hancher, Melvin, age 2 months, born May 1870 [sic] in Iowa.

Abel Hicks Hancher died Jun 30 1916, Rolfe, Pocahontas County, Iowa; buried Powhatan Township Cemetery, Plover, Pocahontas County, Iowa.1,7,8  

An obituary for Abel Hicks Hancher appeared in a 1916 newspaper, as follows:7

Abel Hicks Hancher

Abel Hicks Hancher, known familiarly as "Uncle Dick," was born in Harrison county, Ohio, May 1st, 1845, and departed this life at his home in Rolfe, Iowa, June 30th, 1916, aged seventy-one years, two months, after a prolonged illness.  He was the son of John Hancher, who was born in Virginia in 1795, took part in the War of 1812, and in 1827 married deceased's mother, Nancy A. O'Rorke, who was born in Virginia, Dec. 31st, 1807.  Mr. Hancher was one of twelve children, all of whom have preceeded him in death except Thos. J., of Elcamp, Tex.; J. T. of Whiting, Kas., and Mrs. Henry Tilley, of Ransom, Kas.  The father died in Brown county, Indiana in 1853, when the subject of this sketch was eight years old, and his sister, Belle, still younger, the eldest son, Barney, being in his 22nd year.  We mention these preliminaries to show the kind of stock the deceased sprang from.  We should not forget that Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana were then covered with forests, which had to be cut off and the wood burned before crops could be raised.  No wonder the father of twelve children, who had struggled for twenty-eight years with the wilds, gave up the task at the age of fifty-seven, aged before his time.  But the mother of the twelve struggled on to support them in those days of hard times, when footwear was a winter necessity, and a second suit came after the first one had worn out.  As for fashionable clothing, it was nearly all homespun and woven on a loom by some member of the family too old and feeble to chop timber or harvest the crops with sicle and sythe.  The fact that Mrs. Barney Hancher engaged in weaving when she returned to Pocahontas county in 1883, shows how people had to struggle to earn both feed and clothing in the pioneer days.  

Mr. Hancher's father having died in 1853, and congress in 1856 having made a grant of land in Illinois to build a railroad, the attention of many people of small means was drawn to a small prarie section of this state.  Mr. Hancher's mother removed to Bureau county, Ill. in 1859.  At this time there were nine living children, the deceased being at this time a youth of fourteen years.  The Homestead Act of 1862 drew the attention of many homeseekers to all parts of the west where government lands were obtainable.  This act granted eighty acres within previous grants, and 160 acres outside of such grants.  Barney, the eldest brother of the deceased, having married Ellen Thomas in 1862, came with his brother-in-law, Jerry Young, in 1863, and wintered at McKnight's Point.  Young lived in the Slosson cabin on the SE 1/4 of Sec. 24-93-31, the Slossons being in the Union army.

Caroline died 1926, buried Powhatan Township Cemetery, Plover, Pocahontas County, Iowa.8  


Sources

  1. Contribution from Larry Hancher.
  2. "Leading Citizens of Plover and Powhatan Twp."; USGenWeb Archives:
    http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ia/county/pocahontas/citizen2.html.
  3. 1870 census, Rolfe P.O., Powhattan Township, Pocahontas County, Iowa; page 65, line #1, dwelling #19, family #21.
  4. Pocahontas County, Iowa Births 1880-1888; USGenWeb Archives:
    http://www.rootsweb.com/~iapocaho/pocbirth.html.
  5. 1870 census index, Pocahontas County, Iowa; page 65.
  6. 1850 census, 2nd District, Campbell County, Kentucky; roll 195, pg 109, family #562.
  7. Obituary, newspaper articles and notes on a 1939 Hancher/Henshaw etc. family reunion, contributed by Larry Hancher
  8. Iowa Cemetery Records. Provo, UT: Ancestry.com, 2000.
  9. Obituary of Charles Everett Hancher.


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