My Great Great Great Gramps- Happy Pioneer Day

Ephraim Knowlton Hanks (1826–96) was ordained a seventy while living in Nauvoo, where he labored on the Nauvoo Temple. He served in the Mormon Battalion. After going to Utah he carried the United States mail between Salt Lake and the Missouri River, a distance of over twelve hundred miles. Ephraim crossed the plains over fifty times in seven years. Three years prior to his death he was ordained a patriarch by Brigham Young, Jr.

One of the first to find the desperate Martin Company was the hardy Ephraim Hanks, who had killed and butchered a buffalo on his way. Ephraim recalled, “I reached the ill-fated train just as the immigrants were camping for the night. The sight that met my gaze as I entered their camp can never be erased from my memory. The starved forms and haggard countenances of the poor sufferers, as they moved about slowly, shivering with cold, to prepare their scanty evening meal was enough to touch the stoutest heart. When they saw me coming, they hailed me with joy inexpressible, and when they further beheld the supply of fresh meat I brought into camp, their gratitude knew no bounds.”