Hannah Last Cornaby

Hannah Last Cornaby was born on March 17, 1822, in Suffolk, England. She and her husband joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Norfolk County England in 1852 and arrived in Utah the following year. They stayed in Salt Lake City until they settled in Spanish Fork, Utah in 1856.

Her experience with the temple endowment, performed in the Endowment House before the completion of the Salt Lake Temple, was profound: "On the twenty-first of March [1856], we passed through the Endowment House. Those who have enjoyed the privilege, can appreciate the blessing it was to us at this time. having left all for the gospel's sake, we were repaid a hundred fold. I recollect how happy we felt next morning, as we joined a company going to dig roots. The warm rays of the spring sun seemed to diffuse gladness all around; everybody seemed cheerful; I was as free from care as the birds; and like them, wanted to praise the Creator for all His goodness.”.

Hannah was famous for her poetry and at one time was Utah’s poet laureate. Her poems appeared in the Deseret News, the Woman’s Exponent, and other periodical publications. In 1861 she published Autobiography and Poems. She wrote the words to the hymn “Who’s on the Lord’s Side?” which was included in the 1985 Hymns of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

She married Samuel Cornaby in 1828 and they had six children. She died on September 1, 1905, in Spanish Fork, Utah.