NANCY WINCHESTER

Nancy was born August 10, 1828 in Erie County Pennsylvania.  She was the only daughter of Stephen and Nancy Winchester.  When the younger Nancy was four-years-old the Winchesters were visited in Erie by two Mormon missionaries, John F. Boynton and Evan M. Greene.   Nancy’s parents and older brother, Benjamin, were soon baptized.

The following year, the Winchesters moved to Kirtland, Ohio to be near others who shared their faith.  Following Mormon practice, Nancy was probably baptized when she turned eight- years of age.

By 1842 the Winchesters had spent time in Missouri and were now settled in Nauvoo, living in the “third ward”.  In May of that year, Nancy joined the Female Relief Society where she served on committees with the charter “to search out the poor and suffering-To call on the rich for aid and thus as far as possible relieve the wants of all.”

Nancy’s marriage to Joseph is undocumented, although according to Mormon Church Historian Andrew Jenson, Nancy married Joseph sometime before his death in June of 1844.  Nancy would have been fourteen or fifteen years old.

A few months after Joseph Smith’s death, Nancy and another six of Joseph’s wives married Heber C. Kimball.  Since the temple had not been completed when Nancy married Joseph, she was re-sealed to him in 1846 in the near complete, but dedicated, Nauvoo temple.  Her husband “for time”, Heber C. Kimball stood proxy for Joseph Smith in this sealing.

Nancy immigrated to Utah in 1849.  Several years later she received a patriarchal blessing from John Smith.  She was blessed, “to heal the sick, cast out devils, and raise the dead, if necessary.”

Nancy died on March 17, 1876 in Salt Lake City.
 

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