Abraham Hoagland

Early in the 19th century, a New Jersey youth, Abraham Hoagland, blacksmith apprentice, answered the call of the west for new settlers. The west in those days extended beyond the Mississippi River and constituted a portion of the Northwest Territory, peopled largely by Indians. The group from New Jersey journeyed into the forests bordering the great northern lakes and settled in that part of the territory which became the state of Michigan.

Such ventures required high courage, muscular strength, and strong hearts. Young Abraham possessed these qualities and more. He was descended from the early Dutch who crossed the seas in 1614 end settled along the Atlantic Coast; founders of the great states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware. Abraham's parents were Lucas and Mary B. Hoagland. He had been born March 24, 1797, in the town of Hillsboro, Sommerset county, New Jersey. Abraham had in his veins the brawn and the courage of his ancestors, also caution and wisdom enough, to go unburdened with family ties until he was assured the venture was for the best. He shod his own horses, and built his own wagon. This he loaded with the necessary provisions and well-sharpened tools and departed on his long and hazardous journey.

At home he left his betrothed--Margaret Quick, a charming girl, who like himself was of Dutch descent. Her family was of equal courage, being in direct line from Captain Peter Quick, a soldier of the American Revolution. Abraham promised to return for her in a year should the new country prove as they hoped. This promise he kept, and in a rude cabin in the Michigan clearing these two began their married life. The frontier settlement was named Royal Oaks. It was here November 3, 1855 Elizabeth, mother of Abraham Hoagland Cannon, was born. She was the third child of a family of six, three sons and three daughters.

In the hospitable Hoagland home a simple faith in divine guidance prevailed, and here elders of the restored gospel, found a welcome, for here dwelt those known as "the honest in heart". They heard the testimony of the elders and without a doubt accepted their teachings. Baptism almost immediately followed conversion, Abraham was baptized by Elder Asaph Blanchard on March 31, 1841. Soon the family migrated to Nauvoo, the gathering place of the saint, where under the inspiration of the Prophet Joseph Smith they too, might build up the Church. Abraham was ordained an Elder under the hands of the Prophet Joseph Smith.

In Nauvoo Abraham Hoagland became a bishop, a position held with honor almost all the rest of the years of his life. Through the dark days of Nauvoo following the martyrdom of the Prophet the Hoagland family like others endured heroically the hardships and the persecutions. They were among the first to leave in the ever memorable exodus from Nauvoo, crossing the frozen Mississippi and a prairies and wending their way over the Iowa prairies to the banks of the Missouri where Winter Quarters was established for a temporary resting and outing post. Here by direction of President Brigham Young he was ordained a Bishop under the hands of Elders Orson Pratt and Wilford Woodruff and set apart to preside over one of the four wards at Winter Quarters.

John Taylor of the Council of the Twelve was in charge of the company of which the Hoagland family were a part.

Abraham Hoagland became second Bishop of the Fourteenth Ward in Salt Lake City. When the people moved out of the forts, and Great Salt Lake City in 1849 was organized into Wards, he was chosen as a counselor to Bishop John Murdock of the Fourteenth Ward. The latter was elected as a missionary and left for Australia early in the spring of 1851, and that was when Abraham was chosen as Bishop of the Fourteenth Ward, being ordained July 13, 1851. From that time till his death Brother Hoagland acted as Bishop of the Fourteenth Ward, enjoying to a remarkable extent the love and confidence of the people to whom he was a kind and affectionate father and leader. Abraham married three other wives. His second wife was Agnes Taylor, his third wife Hester Loose and his fourth wife Rebecca Merrill, an English girl. He had children by all his wives. He died in Salt Lake City February 14, 1872.