HISTORY OF NANCY PACE ANDERSON

Nancy Pace was born March 20, 1801, to James and Mary Ann Loving Pace, the third child as well as the third daughter. much is left to the imagination concerning the childhood of Nancy, but we might assume that it was one of happiness with her four sisters so close in age, as well as a childhood of early learned responsibility. The first two years of Nancy's life were spent in Clark County, Georgia, the place of her birth. At the age of two her family moved to Double Springs, Rutherford County Tennessee.

It was probably with apprehension that Nancy, at the age of twelve saw her father volunteer to serve in the United States Army, and with great s6rrow that she learned of his death in The Battle of New Orleans in 1814.

Shortly after Nancy turned twenty, she married Miles Anderson in Rutherford County. The marriage took place August 9, 1821, and Miles and Nancy settled on a farm near Murfreesboro, Rutherford County, Tennessee. Here eight of their nine children were born. Miles was born in Wilkes County, Georgia October 30, 1795, to Nathan and Sally Nelson Anderson. He had served in the Army and fought in the War of 1812, emerging as a Major.

After living on the farm for nearly twenty years Miles and Nancy heard about Mormonism through the preaching of missionaries. They were baptized February 7, 1841, presumably by John D. Lee. Immediately the family started making plans to join the Saints in Nauvoo, Illinois.

Upon arriving in Nauvoo, Miles and Nancy were rebaptized by the Prophet Joseph Smith and Miles received a patriarchal blessing under the hands of Hyrum Smith. The family located themselves on a farm six miles from Nauvoo and here their ninth child, a son, was born. Tradition has it that Miles was a personal body guard to the Prophet Smith. Miles and Nancy were endowed and sealed in the Nauvoo Temple. Two other families expressed a desire to be sealed to Miles. Shortly after the Anderson's viewed the bodies of the Prophet Joseph and Hyrum as they lay in state3 they began making preparations to cross the Mississippi River.

In 1846, Miles and Nancy and their family left Nauvoo for the long and tedious journey west. Being a family of small means they had to travel very slowly, planting crops along the way and waiting until harvest time to move on. In Sugar Creek, Iowa, two of their children, Martha, age 14, and Milton, age 7, died of fever. They remained in Winter Quarters for two years and here their eldest daughter died giving birth to her third child. She had married several years before this in Nauvoo, a marriage her parents opposed Finally on July 4, 1851, in the Captain Alfred Cardon Company, and with sixty-one other wagons the Andersons started their journey; west They had three span of oxen and an 'old grey mare which was caught in a buffalo stampede along the way, but caught and returned. Two of the Anderson girls, Sarah and Mary married men they met while crossing the plains.

What a glorious day that was on October 6, 1851, when these pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley. The Anderson's were soon called to go south to help colonize Parowan. Here they engaged in farming and probably at times Nancy longed for the lush green of her home in the East so far away. Nancy had carried with her from Tennessee a quart of cottonseed, which, in 1854, she gave to an Agustus P. Hardy from Santa Clara, Utah. Mr. Hardy planted the seed and produced thirty yards of material from its yield, a sample of which convinced Brigham Young that cotton could be produced in the state of Deseret.

In 1863 Miles was called to help colonize Beaver where they lived until settling on Buckhorn Flat. Here they ran a stage coach station. In 1871 Miles and Nancy moved back to Parowan where they were baptized once more. In October of that year they enjoyed meeting old friends in Salt Lake and attending General Conference.

Nancy died April 20, 1875, in Paragonah Utah and was buried in Beaver three days later. Surely she was a true pioneer. Miles died the following year, July 23, 1876 in Beaver Utah.