I'm Steve Richardson.  My father was Milton E. Richardson; his father was Shadrach Milton Richardson; Shadrach's mother was Eunice Lettie Hickman Richardson; Eunice's mother was Lucy Ann Haws, born in 1838, who married Dr. George Washington Hickman in 1858.  A transcript to the funeral of my great-great grandmother was provided by my father's cousin, Patricia Richardson Fullmer.

Report of Funeral Services of Mrs. Lucy Ann Haws Hickman, May 30, 1921,

in the Fourth Ward Chapel, Provo, Utah.

Invocation   Bro. Rhinard Maeser

Bass Solo, "Oh Love Divine"      Bro. Franklin Madsen

Remarks      Bro. J.E. Johnson   (son of Bishop John Johnson)

Remarks      Bro. H.S. Tanner   (a nephew)

Tenor Solo, "Face to Face"  Prof. John T. Hand

Remarks      Prof. G.H. Brimhall   (BYU President)

Ladies Double Quartet, "A Perfect Day"Miss Jepperson, Director

Remarks      Bro. W.E. Rydalch

Tenor Solo, "Oh Dry Those Tears"  Prof. John T. Hand   (great singer of Benjamin)

Remarks      Bishop John Johnson

Remarks      Bishop A.L. Booth

Duet, "The Lord is My Shepherd"   Johnson Sisters

BenedictionBro. H.S. Pine

Interment at the Payson Cemetery

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

RemarksBro. J.E. Johnson

  My dear brethren and sisters, I suppose that there is at this moment nothing that we feel the inspiration of more than the beautiful songs which we have just heard.  the inspiration which comes from these beautiful songs and these beautiful flowers which we see here before us symbolized the life of dear Sister Hickman.  I have known her ever since I can remember.

  When I was a year or two years old, I was at a meeting where she was set apart as a counselor to the president of the Relief Society in the Benjamin Ward.  Sister Hickman has been an inspiration to me.  I have felt the influence of her life directly and indirectly.  This is what I mean, I believe that Sister Hickman and her sons and daughters have done more than any individuals in inspiring me to go on and get a liberal education.  Two of her sons were my teachers while I was in the grades and of the impressionable age.  It was there and by the inspiration which I received that my ambition was fired.  To inspire a person is one thing, and to inspire and encourage them to stay with it after they have begun is another and a more difficult task.  I remember when I went away from home and came to the B.Y.U. to begin my high school work.  I did not tell Sister Hickman where I was going, I just slipped out and came over here and was gone a year.  I came back home for my summer vacation.  One of the first people that I met was Sister Hickman.  I told her that I did not know that she knew that I had been gone.  When I told her where I had been and what I thought of doing, she took me into her confidence; she told me to stay with it.  She told me of here experience and what she had seen.  She told me of certain individuals that she had seen start to get an education and of how they had stayed with it and what they were now accomplishing.  This was the encouragement I needed at that time.  I want to say that Sister Hickman was one of the forces that kept me going after I had started.  That was direct inspiration.  Through her children, I received indirect inspiration.  Her children are natural born teachers.  They have the power to inspire others to worthy activities and through them I have received her inspiration indirectly.  At Benjamin, her home was educational headquarters.  Any individual who came to Benjamin who was of any particular importance found a home at Sister Hickman's.  They found an atmosphere where they could feel at home.  Benjamin fifteen or twenty years ago was one of our country villages.  The most refined and distinguished persons coming to that town felt the culture and refinement of Sister Hickman's Home.

  "Who has loved much, has loved often; who has lived well, has won the confidence and respect of little children, and who leaves the world better than he found it, has been an inspiration and his memory is a benediction."

  Sister Hickman has lived such a life for she has loved much and she has rounded out a long well spent life.  Eighty-three years, and during most of that time she has been upon her own responsibility since she reached the age of accountability.  As she inspired me, she has inspired many others.

  Our town had quite a number of immigrants.  People who did not understand the English Language, and I have it from them that they all fell in love with her because of here many kindnesses and because of her big soul and her big heart.  We do not worry about the future of Sister Hickman.  We know that she will arise on the morning of the first resurrection and that she will be immortalized and glorified.

  These lines signify the relation which we will have with her in the future:

  "God does not send strange flowers every spring,

   When pleasant winds blow, etc."

  I feel thankful to my Heavenly Father that I have known Sister Hickman; that I have come under the influence of her and of her good children.  I pray that the Lord will bless them and that they and all who have come under her influence may emulate her example, is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

RemarksBro. E.S. Tanner   (His mother & Fern Hickman's mother were sisters)

  I feel my kinsmen that instead of occupying this position, I should be very near to the front seat with the family.  I have been intimately acquainted with Aunt Lucy Ann for fifty long years.  Fifty years ago she was a supple, erect, strong, magnificent specimen of womanhood as man or woman ever gazed upon.  She has passed away in her 83rd year, had she lived until this October, she would have been 83 years of age.  If any woman has ever lived a full rounded out career from birth until death, it is Aunt Lucy Ann.  She was the product of a stalwart race.  Her grandfather Quimby Haws came to New York a generation ago where his son Elijah, the father of Aunt Lucy Anne, was born.  From New York they moved to Iowa and later to Illinois.  In Illinois, Elijah Haws met the mother of Aunt Lucy Ann, Catherine Pease, when they were married.  Her ancestors came to America for religious liberty.  They were frontiersmen and builders and among them all there has not been a greater builder than the woman who lies before us.  Her father and mother and the older ones of the family joined the Church in 1843.  They suffered the privations of the early periods of the Church.  They were driven from pillar to post and in 1851 crossed the plains.  I am not absolutely sure it was in 1851, as I have two dates in my mind.  One was 1851 and one 1852, but it was one or the other and I believe the latter.  My mother was a sister of Aunt Lucy Ann and they were little girls when grandfather and grandmother crossed the plains in 1852.  Grandfather did not have the kind of teams we use today.  He had a few cows and these cows were yoked together as oxen and behind these cows, members of the family unable to walk and those who walked who were able from the Missouri River to Salt Lake Valley.  I believe that Aunt Lucy Ann was about fourteen years of age at that time and she was one of those of necessity who walked across the plains.  Her people were poor like all the people who came here in those days.  The poverty and privation they were compelled to endure, we cannot now comprehend.  Aunt Lucy Ann married Uncle Dock, as we called him, George W. Hickman.  They raised a family that anyone could be proud of.  We reckoned up the numbers today hurriedly and found that they were the parents of thirteen children.  Uncle Dock died 28 years ago this coming October.  Eight of their children survive, 62 grandchildren and 60 great grandchildren, that is as we hurriedly figured up the number today, making 130 surviving descendants of that stalwart couple.

  Her grandmother Catherine Pease was about five years of age when her father Asa Pease was killed in the War of 1812, fighting for his country.  Her mother died also about two years following her father's death and she was raised by one of her sisters.  In those early days people did not have many advantages.  They were concerned with the earning of a livelihood.  They were compelled to wrest from the earth an existence.

  I remember fifty years ago my Aunt and her husband and family of children lived at Benjamin in a small log house.  Practically everything that they had they were compelled to produce.

  I have a tribute written by one of her family, handed to me this morning, concerning some of the things and principles involved in the life of Aunt Lucy Ann and I tell you that she was one of the noblest workers of the earth.  This tribute, I shall attempt to read:

  "No tribute can be paid to Sister Lucy Ann Hickman which portrays the tragedy and eloquence of her life.  She, from her childhood, was in the maelstrom of banishment and suffered the desolation of the desert.  From six to fourteen years of age, she, with her parents, was pushed and driven from poverty to desolation.  So terrible was the tragedy to her youthful mind that ever after she could not bear to see a covered wagon pass without her soul being depressed with the terrible memories of the suffering, and she was irresistibly plunged back into the dark night of the past with all its horrors.

  "All her days she longed for refinement but she spent them in making the desert habitable.  She toiled with bare hands on the rocks of necessity while she fed at famine's table and slept in the valley of poverty.  Little by little her dreams of betterment came true.  Necessity truly made her an architect.  Though slender as a sapling and delicate as a flower, yet when necessity required, she dug and builded her own cellars, her summer kitchens; she remodeled her home, painted her furniture, made thousands of pairs of workmen's gloves, as well as gloves of the most classical mold and beauty.  When poverty gripped her and hers, she carded, spun and wove clothing for her children.  She made her own carpets that became the pride and praise of the village.  When her little children were bare-footed and no visible means for aid, it was then her genius rose highest, for she, in the absence of shoe maker's lasts, made her own, and constructed shoes for those whom God had given her.  All her days, she was queenly in her toil; song was substituted for groans and prayer for complaint.  She stood in the shadow and pushed her children into the light.  No sleep could sooth her cares if her children walked in folly's ways.

  "She was home builder, home keeper, laundress, carpenter, shoemaker, spinner, weaver, and teacher.  In those primitive days, without schools, she taught her children the rudiments of learning.  She had her children sit at the head of the spinning wheel, and while she walked from the spindle to the end of the thread back and forth from morn till night, she would teach her children to read.  With hardly a lull of the large wheel, she would stoop and pronounce the unknown word to the baffled child, and then on would go the wheel with its incessant hum.  That same interest never fagged.  She urged her children into high schools and colleges, until several hold degrees from universities of our nation.  Seeing her earnestness for her children, hundreds, if not thousands, have become imbued with this mighty thought of higher learning.  Her life and her toils have been told in private circle and public forums.  Few there are who have had such a clear conception of human minds and the ways of youth with an instinctive method of handling them.  In the shadow of her mortal days, her many descendants were wont to sit and seek advice as to how they could solve the mystery of the childrens' way and what to do when darkness and confusion confronted them.

  "This is but a glimpse of the tragic and beautiful life of her who has fought the fight and gained the crown of those who will stand about the throne of God as He stretches forth His hand as He says to His seer:  "These are they who came out of great tribulation."

  If you ever found refinement in one human being, I want to tell you that it was Aunt Lucy Ann.  She herself was refinement.  Little by little her dreams came true and her measure was filled in the education and successes of her children.  Does not that depict one of the most practical lives to which a human being can aspire?  Many today are born in luxury, in fact all of us have more or less luxury, and when one thinks of the refinement shown in this woman's life and the successful career she has carved out for herself and her offspring, growing up in poverty, struggling for the necessities, making their own clothes, making their own adornments to beautify their homes, and raising their foodstuffs upon their own land.  to my mind the fact that this good woman has left behind her 130 living descendants means that the salvation of this woman is sure if she had done nothing else.  The first and great commandment was to multiply and replenish the earth.  She had done her part.  Aunt Lucy Ann was a woman of superior faith and on account of this, I have selected a little poem of the author Guest, on faith.

                               F A I T H

                           by Edgar A. Guest

"I believe in the world and its bigness and splendor:

That most of the hearts beating round us are tender;

That days are but footsteps and years are but miles

That lead us to beauty and singing and smiles:

That roses that blossom and toilers that plod

Are filled with the glorious spirit of God.

I believe in the purpose of everything living:

That taking is but the forerunner of giving;

That strangers are friends that we someday may meet;

And not all the bitter can equal the sweet;

That creeds are but colors, and no man has said

That God loves the yellow rose more than the red.

I believe in the path that to-day I am treading,

That I shall come safe through the dangers I'm dreading;

That even the scoffer shall turn from his ways

And some day be won back to trust and to praise;

That the leaf on the tree and the thing we call Man

Are sharing alike in His infinite plan.

I believe that all things that are living and breathing

Some richness of beauty to earth are bequeathing;

That all that goes out of this world leaves behind

Some duty accomplished for mortals to find;

That the humblest of creatures our praise is deserving,

For it, with the wisest, the Master is serving."

And I believe that one

Who does his task from day to day

And meets whatever comes his way,

Believing God has willed it so

Has found real greatness here below.

  I selected this because it was the belief of my aunt as nearly as I understood her.  If there was anyone who saw good in everything, it was Aunt Lucy Ann.  She saw good in the children, she saw it in her home and in her work.

  I know that my aunt was one of the truest friends I ever knew and as Brother Johnson has said, she was the friend of many and the friend of all who knew her, and for which reason I have selected another little poem, which I trust you will pardon me for reading, because I believe that Aunt Lucy Ann was just the kind of a friend here depicted:

   E T E R N A L    F R I E N D S H I P

                        by Edgar A. Guest

"Who once has had a friend has found

The link 'twixt mortal and divine;

Though now he sleeps in hallowed ground,

He lives in memory's sacred shrine;

And there he freely moves about,

A spirit that has quit the clay,

And in the times of stress and doubt

Sustains his friend throughout the day.

No friend we love can ever die;

The outward form but disappears;

I know that all my friends are nigh

Whenever I am moved to tears.

And when my strength and hope are gone,

The friends, no more, that once I knew,

Return to cheer and urge me on

Just as they always used to do.

They whisper to me in the dark

Kind words of counsel and of cheer;

When hope has flickered to a spark

I feel their gentle spirits near.

And Oh! because of them I strive

With all the strength that I can call

To keep their friendship still alive

And to be worthy of them all.

Death does not end our friendships true;

We all are debtors to the dead;

There, wait on everything we do

The splendid souls who've gone ahead.

To them I hold that we are bound

By double pledges to be fine.

Who once has had a friend has found

The link 'twixt mortal and divine."

  A few weeks ago, I cut a piece from the Deseret News called "Mother."  Mother is the sweetest and truest word in the whole human language.  It is the greatest expression of true kindness, of sacrifice, and of love that we have in this wide world.  the poem entitled "Mother" was written by C.E. Linford to his dear mother, and I think it is especially applicable to the daughters of Aunt Lucy Ann.

M O T H E R

by C.E. Linford

"As the sun is slowly sinking in the west,

And golden clouds go drifting through the blue,

I seem to need no couch on which to rest,

But sit and think, sweet mother dear, of you.

My thoughts are racing back to childhood days,

In memory I see the old log home,

The tiny window panes where sun's glad rays,

Shone from the mountain tops I longed to roam.

And, mother dear, it seems but yester-night

I see you kneeling by your sick child's bed;

I hear you pray with all your heart and might,

I feel again your cool hands on my head.

In fancy, mother dear, I still can see

The joy that filled your eyes to see me well.

Oh, mother mine, what you have done for me

No gifted brush can paint, no tongue can tell!

I well remember graduation day,

When I stepped forth my laurels to obtain;

I felt that I could never you repay;

For all your sacrifice had been my gain.

And then again upon my wedding day

You kissed me, smiled a bit, your tears to hide;

And now I hear again your dear voice say:

'My girl, there never was a sweeter bride.'

But, oh, how little did I realize

Just what your sweet life had meant to me!

How little did I sense your sacrifice,

Until a mother I had come to be!

You stood beside me in my bitter pain,

You held my hand to ease my agony;

And when I could my consciousness regain,

I knew that you had felt Gethsemane.

Mother 'o mine, I could not love you more!

To me you are in very deed a queen.

And when you leave for that far distant shore,

My grief, dear mother heart, will be so keen!

In memory your kindness still will live,

And mother, I will still your counsel heed;

Be near, I pray thee, good advice to give --

Dear mother, you I'll always, always need.

  I selected these lines on "Mother" because nothing in my heart or mind could equal their expression.  She has gone through the valleys of sorrow, she has lived a fully rounded out life for which we all came to earth.  Blessed are they who die in the Lord after having filled a mission as full and complete as Aunt Lucy Ann has done.  We are all proud of her.  She has not a son or a daughter or a grandson or granddaughter of whom we are not justly proud, and that is more than can be said of many of us.  I feel that while Aunt Lucy Ann has been called from us, we have no real grief, no real sorrow because of it--she finished her courses.  Her children who have lived with her, especially Laura, who has been her bosom companion since her father's death, will feel the loss most keenly, because they have been all and everything to each other.  The other children have their families.

  I want to tell you that the departure of Aunt Lucy Ann is just as essential and just as necessary in the great scheme of life as it is to be born into the world.  I believe that when we come into the world we have friends who sorrow because of the severing of companionship relations.  When we leave here we have friends who sorrow at our departure.  I believe that when Aunt Lucy Ann went on the other side that she found her father, mother, husband, children and many friends who were glad to welcome her home.  I believe that the good Lord will say to her, "Well done thou good and faithful servant, enter into thy rest."  I do not believe that this good woman will have any penalties to pay.  I believe that her devoted life of service, her travail and superior womanliness will pay for everything she may have improvidently done in this life.  I never knew of an expression of unkindness from this woman.  I was with her children and around her influence and at her table for fifty years and I never heard an unkind expression or an unjust remark against anyone, and that is why I said before that if there were refinement embodied in anyone, it was in Aunt Lucy Ann.  May our work revere her memory.  Our duty is to follow in her footsteps and to do as she has done, to raise our children up to be honorable and noble men and women.  She has been faithful over the trust that was imposed in her and I believe that no one can raise his voice against her life or any part of it and if there is a woman worthy to go into the presence of God, it is your mother, and I pray God that you may be comforted and that nothing may come in your lives to keep you from your saintly mother, for she was one of the noblest women that I have known on earth.  May God bless every one of you that you may follow her life to the end and that you may not grieve.  You must not grieve for her because she has finished her life and she has kept the faith and she will go to her earned reward.  God bless you, Amen.

RemarksBro. Geo. H. Brimhall  (President of Brigham Young University)

  It was only this morning that I learned of the passing away of our dear Sister Hickman.  I was not very intimately acquainted with her personally except during the last year or two.  However, I have known her by my great acquaintance of the generation of which she is the mother.  The fruit of this woman, the fruit of where whole being, her body, her spirit and soul, her everything, she must have been a godly woman all her life.  Now that I have heard rendered her history this afternoon, it is almost, oh, in so much of its detail a parallel column to the history of my own dear mother.  The traveling across the plains, the making of the shoes and clothing and spinning while the little boys and girls were struggling with their lessons and she stopping to pronounce the hard words for them.  She then was loved and has lived all her life in the hearts of her children.  That is success to live in the hearts of those we love.  She stood on the brink of the grave thirteen times in obedience to the second great command in the history of the earth.  First, let there be light; second, let there be life; and third, let there be love.  She obeyed them all.

  Her children have all been registered in the Brigham Young University.  Four of them have graduated and two of them have held professional positions in that school.  One is still on the roll call of the faculty.

  I would say to Sister Hickman, knowing her ancestry, and knowing her through her posterity, that she was blessed at the day of her birth.  As a boy, I knew her husband.  We all knew "Dock" Hickman.  He was a man with a big heart.  He was spiritually and physically clean, and a strong and noble character.  I would say that she was not only blessed at her birth but she was fortunate in wedlock, and she was victorious in death.  She has laid this body down, the spirit has departed, she has laid it down to come up as if awakening from pleasant dreams.  there is something sublime about her daughter's fidelity and devotion.  the last two years I have been in close contact with her, and it was a love that transcends any form of selfish interest.  I believe that Laura would have given her life at any point if it were necessary to save her mother from agony.  To me her devotion was sublime.  Now, what are we to do?  Why, we are to remember her as one of the heroines.  Her life would be a tragedy if left here, because in a tragedy the hero goes down.  This is not a going down, it is a passing over, over into a dream of endless life where all shall be for her triumphal.  God bless her posterity.  No one need to say God bless her memory, it is blessed beyond anything that we could utter in her favor.  My testimony is that of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.

RemarksBro. W.E. Rydalch

  My brethren and sisters, there lies before me a woman whom I loved.  It seems to me this afternoon, if her spirit could speak, it is much rejoiced this afternoon to have at her funeral services the boys and girls whom she has so much inspired.  Her nephew, speaking, her friend Brother Johnson, and Brother John t. Hand, who started his career as one of the boys of  Benjamin, and Bro. Brimhall who has known her, all of us, and if she could be permitted she would say that she was surrounded by her boys.  I can do nothing but rejoice on such an occasion.

  I met Bro. Lund the son of President Lund and I told him that I was not in the city when his father passed away, I met him after I returned to the city when his father passed away, I met him after I returned to the city and I said, "Tony, you should certainly rejoice in the heritage that the Lund family has."  He said, "That is the most comforting thing that I have had spoken to me."  I say to Bro. J.E. Hickman, whom I have known for a quarter of a century, and whom I love, and to all the rest of the family, your mother has left you a heritage such as money or place or power could not give you.  This glorious life, would to God that when we all pass on, because I do not believe in death, I believe that Sister Hickman is just as much alive today as she was a week ago, and as she was when she walked across the plains.  I am a firm believer in the doctrine that we go on in progression and that this is simply as the great Dr. Maeser says, as a school room from which we step into another.

  I met Sister Hickman about a quarter of a century ago.  I shall never forget the kindness that she showed me when a boy.  I was in my teens and Bro. J.E. took me to his mother's home and she treated me kindly, she treated me as one who was her equal.  Her kindness, I never can forget.  I thank God for her association.  You know my brethren and sisters that we are affected each day by each man with whom we come in contact.  I cannot go away from this meeting the same man that I came, I shall either be better or worse.  There is no question as to this philosophy.  Speaking of this dear woman, she has indeed graduated on this glorious Decoration day, and I am better for having associated with her, her soul has made my soul better and lifted me to a higher realm and when I lie down to rest I know that I shall have been a better man than if I had not met her.

  I was speaking to my wife and I said, "I feel honored to have the privilege of speaking at a funeral like this."  I came down as a son might to the funeral of his mother.  I am thankful to be here to pay my respects to Sister Hickman.  I give it as my humble testimony and judgment that there lies before us today a great woman.  The limitations of greatness are simplicity and true friendship.  She was true to her friends, true devotion to God, and she was surely true to her ideals.  See what she has produced.  The last time I saw her she had the same sweet manner as when I met her a quarter of a century ago.  I believe that we are no older than our minds.  Now this woman is 83 years of age, being born in 1838.  Eight-three years of age but she was not a day older than twenty years.

  I came down to judge a debate and after the debate I asked Laura to take me home to see her mother.  I felt that I could not go home without saying hello.  We found her bright and cheerful.  The next to the last time I saw her and she showed me a lot of fancy work that she had made.  It was beautiful.  I wish that you could have seen it.  She told me that her eyes had gotten a little bad and that she could not read so much as she used to so she began about two years ago to do fancy work and she had done some of the most beautiful work that anyone could do.  She was in the flush of her maturity.  She wanted something for her hands to do, something to keep her mind occupied.  I do not believe that I ever saw her clearer in her mind and memory than she was this spring.  She said, "I hope to live and see this work put in competition."  She learned it just the last two or three years of her life.  She was reading when I went there about six months ago.  I spent the afternoon with her and she got out a book, The History of Utah, and she said, "I have been having them read this to me," and she gave me a very clear, complete history of the Church that she had had read to her.  Her vigor of mind impressed me.  She impressed you as one who was a thinker, and she impressed you as one who was humble.  I feel it a privilege to be here my brethren and sisters.  I am thankful to God that I have had the opportunity to mingle my voice with yours.  this woman will be a queen in the heavens with such women as are the jewels of the earth with such as are as great as the greatest.  What we do, my brethren and sisters, counts not so much as what we are, and not what we profess.  This woman will be greater in 83 years from now than she is now.  One does not die but continues on and continues to be influenced and to influence those with whom he comes in contact.  Our great Savior is greater than when He hung upon the cross, Joseph Smith is a greater prophet today than he was in 1844.  Brigham Young is greater in the hearts of the people today than he was in 1877.  This woman’s influence will influence her children, her grandchildren and her great-grandchildren and her example will ever by a guiding star to their lives.  The brethren could not bear a stronger testimony than they have today.  the influence of this good woman will be greater as the years come and go.  I cannot but rejoice in the example that she has set before us.  I hope that when we come to lie down to rest the same good things may truthfully be said of us.

  Jesus, in His sermon on the mount said:

  "Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

  "Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted;

  "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth;

  "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."

That Sermon on the Mount depicts the life of Sister Hickman.  I shall never forget the words of Brother Brimhall when he so truthfully said, "Of such is the Kingdom of Heaven."  She was pure in heart, because to the pure in heart, all things are pure.  Further continuing the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said:

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God."  Out of the mouths of her friends shall she be judged.

  J.E. and I taught school together for two years down in Fillmore.  I loved him then and I love him now.  He is a great son to a great mother.  Francis and I were boys together.  Charles is a boy whom I have always loved.  Leslie, one of the youngest boys, is making his mark among his fellow men.  When I met J.E. today, I said, "We are friends even in death."  May the Lord bless us and save us that we may be worthy of an exaltation and salvation.

  May we emulate her example, and may God be good to us as He was to her.  I think that she must have been born under a lucky star.  I feel sure that great shall be her glory in Heaven.

  I knew a man who recently passed on.  He said that four years ago he could have written his check for seventeen million dollars.  The Governor of the State of Idaho died in the poor house.  His power was gone.  It was only a few years ago, seven years ago this August, that this man walked up and down the earth and the earth shook with fear at his tread.  I would rather stand today in the place of this good woman, I would rather take her chances of exaltation than the greatest on the earth, because her soul was good and her life was glorious, her ideals were high and God will rank and reward her for the glorious deeds she has done on earth.  God bless you all, Amen.

RemarksBishop John Johnson

  When listening to the many good things that have been spoken today, I felt in my soul to say amen.  I am one of the men who have been inspired by this good sister.  I guess I am one of those who whom my son referred to when he mentioned the immigrants.  I came to Benjamin something like 36 years ago and I had to learn the language and I felt just like a little child.  You can imagine how you would feel when you could not express your thought, when you wanted to say something and could not do it.  The Bishop of the ward at Benjamin called on me and gave me employment in the church.  I was selected to be one of the ward teachers and was a ward teacher for a number of years.  I was a ward teacher to this family.  That was after Sister Hickman had lost her husband.  I remember how I trembled when I went to her home, realizing that it was a refined family and that this family stood for education and knowing that I spoke such clumsy language and I felt that I would not be very interesting to listen to and so I trembled to go there, but, oh, I felt, after I had been there, so much lifted up!  When I visited her as a ward teacher, I felt myself at home, and anything that I tried to express, it seemed that I could speak freely and I felt that she would understand.  I remember so well how I preached the gospel and how we discussed the principles of the Gospel together.  She knew and understood my position and she made me feel that my visits to her home were appreciated.  I went away from her home full of the spirit and anxious to come back again.  I kept going back and so I learned much through the inspiration of this good woman.  She has been a wonderful inspiration to me and today I am a better man for having had the privilege of her acquaintance.  My soul was full of appreciation today when I listened to my son tell of the inspiration and force that has been brought to bear upon him through this family.  I remember well when he graduated from the grade schools how he was filled with the inspiration to go on and get an education and he set out with a determination to attend the B.Y.U.  I remember when school time came and he was ready to go.  I had to say to him that I could not meet the expenses and that it looked like he would have to wait another year.  He broke down, but he waited and when the next year came that same boy came to me and said, "Pa, I believe that I have a fairly good education and it will be such a hard struggle for you to keep me in school, so I am going to stay out and make some money."  He asked for the privilege of going to the mining camps to get work.  That was sufficient for me.  I said, "My boy, it looks good to me now, I have plenty of money.  You can go to school."  As a matter of fact, it did not look any better to me than it did the year before, but I could see then that there was no time to lose, so I said, "Go," and oh, how thankful I felt today when I learned of the force and inspiration that had been brought to bear upon my son by this good family.  Later when he came home from school, I remember that we sat up all night and talked and I let him preach to me and I was delighted to listen to him.  After he had been to school for two or three years, and I had another one in school at that time, he said, "Pa, I had better quit school and go to work, I have to have some money and I will go and earn it and then go back to school."  I wondered if there were something the matter with the boy, so I told him that I had enough money now and I told him to go ahead and go to school.  He went back to school and has been there most of the time since.

  In connection with the influence that was brought to bear upon us while visiting this family as a block teacher and later on as the bishop, I want to tell you that this influence was the spirit of the gospel of Jesus Christ and it is working upon us as never before.  I feel today to thank all those who have meant so much to me and who have been so valuable in influencing my life for good.  I can count them almost as milestones in my life.  I rejoice and am honored to be here today.

  We are so busy in this life.  Time and time again I have said that when I came up from Benjamin the next time I wanted to go and see Sister Hickman, but always when I came to Provo, I had no time or was in a hurry.  Life is just full of these things, we have problem after problem.  The brother referred to her life's struggle.  I have been in her home and have seen her busy always busy making carpets and all kinds of work.  No matter when you came she was always taking up the problems as they came in the school room.  So I picture her before me and I find myself something similar.  I believe these Things really make life worthwhile.  I was wondering when I listened to these things, if there were not great rejoicing at the other side at her coming.  The overcoming of obstacles in our lives is the making of us.  We are full of the spirit of the Lord, we rejoice in achievement.

  One thing I shall mention as the Bishop, now her inspiration was brought upon me as Bishop.  I recall that it was the time for the settling of tithing and the closing of the records.  I went down to Sister Hickman's and said:  "We will close the tithing record tomorrow."  Before I could say more, she said, "Oh, I am so glad that you came, I was thinking about it and I knew until it was the time for settling of tithing and the closing of the records, but I have not been well and strong enough to come out."  I remember that she had a sack in which she kept her money, and she emptied the money out on the table.  She said, "This is my tithing."  I took it and gave her credit for it.  I felt that the impression which I had to call on Sister Hickman was right and when I left she said, "I am so glad that you came, I am so glad that I can turn that over to the Lord."  I went home and the next morning before I closed the record I told my wife that I was going to ask some of the saints if they did not wish to pay their tithing before the record was closed.  She did not understand as I did but found that all those people whom I went to had the same spirit as Sister Hickman.  It was Sister Hickman's attitude toward me that prompted me to speak to others.  I did not want the money but I wanted them to have the blessings which come from attending to this duty.

  May God bless this family, for they had a most noble mother and she has left them a wonderful example to follow.  If you follow in her footsteps, her influence will be upon you and I do not imagine that you will go very far astray.

  I do not feel to say anything more but I am thankful for the privilege to come.  I feel bad that I came too late to go to the home.

  Asking God to bless you is my humble prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

RemarksBishop A.L. Booth, Provo. (Married to Edith Young, a daughter of Brigham Young)

  I am certain that the remarks that have been made today by all the speakers this afternoon have done good to the hearts of those that listened.  I cannot explain how I know some of the things I do know.  I have not had a personal acquaintance with Sister Hickman, but I can say that I know that the remarks that have been made this afternoon by those who did know her are true, all of them.  It has not been my privilege to be acquainted with her as the other speakers.  They have been acquainted with her.  I have known her as one of the members of our ward since she came here.  There are so many members of the ward, and they move in and out, that it is impossible for us to become intimately acquainted with all of them.  Sister Hickman's health has been such that she could not take an active part.  But as I said, I can bear testimony that what has been said concerning this good woman is true in every particular.  I know that, from the spirit that has been upon the speakers and that spirit has testified to my soul that it is true.

  One brother in speaking said that he was glad that when people die that we are not inclined to remember anything but the best of them.  I too am thankful that this is so.

  I am going to read some short passages from the scriptures which seem particularly fitting in relation to our good sister who has been called from us:

  Romans 8:35-39:

  "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ!  Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

  "As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

  "Nay, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

  "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come.

  "Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

  The testimony has been given that Sister Hickman has been called to pass through a great many of the trials enumerated here and in all of this she has not been separated from the love of Jesus Christ.  She has manifested it in her life and in her case future generations shall rise up and call her blessed.

  These services will close by the rendering of a duet entitled "The Lord is My Shepherd," by the Johnson sisters.

BenedictionBro. H.S. Pine

Interment in the Payson Cemetery.

To view Lucy Ann's death certificate, click here.

To read a biography of Lucy Ann Haws Hickman by her daughter Josephine, click here.

To learn more about Lucy Ann's husband, Dr. George Washington Hickman, click here.

To read the detailed diaries of Lucy Ann's son Prof. J.E. (Josiah Edwin Hickman), click here.

To return to the Hickman Family index page, click here.