Levi W. Hancock

Levi Ward Hancock (April 7, 1803 – June 10, 1882) was an early convert to Mormonism and was a general authority of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for nearly fifty years. He was also one of the witnesses of the Book of Commandments.

Biography Hancock was born in Springfield, Massachusetts to Thomas Hancock III and Amy Ward. In 1830, while living in Ohio, Hancock heard Latter Day Saint missionaries Parley P. Pratt, Sidney Rigdon, and Oliver Cowdery preaching in Mayfield. Convinced by their words, Hancock was baptized in the Latter Day Saint church on November 16, 1830. He married Clarissa Reed on March 20, 1831. Hancock wrote the words of the twelve verse-song sung at the placing of the Far West Temple cornerstones in 1838.

Hancock followed the Latter Day Saints as they moved to Missouri, and then to Nauvoo, Illinois.

In 1844 Hancock became a member of the Council of Fifty, and in 1846 joined the Mormon Battalion. In Utah Territory, he became a member of the Utah Territorial Legislature. He served a full-time mission for the Church attempting to grow cotton in southern Utah. Hancock helped settle Manti, Utah; Payson, Utah; Harrisburg, Utah; Leeds, Utah; and Washington, Utah. He was ordained a church patriarch in 1872. He died in Washington, Utah on June 10, 1882, at the age of 79.

Like many early Latter Day Saints, Hancock practiced plural marriage. Hancock was married to five wives, three of whom eventually divorced him; he was the father of 18 children.