N. C. Hanks's Survival and Restoration to Hope after a Mining Accident
Published October 26, 2026 at 2:31 AM
Contributed by
Millennial Star Research
N. C. Hanks was involved in a premature explosion in a mine, which resulted in the loss of one eye, total blindness in the other, and the amputation of both hands. He initially prayed for death, but subsequently experienced a spiritual reversal, finding hope and determination. He went on to spend five thousand dollars on education, memorizing fifty thousand words of classical literature and becoming a lecturer and leader.
The mining accident occurred in approximately 1903. Following the accident, his recovery and transition from despair to determination were notably influenced by a doctor who shared Edmund Vance Cooke's poem, "How Did You Die?" which became a central and frequent element of his later lectures.
In Their Own Words
“"Gentle reader, if you shed a tear, let it be of joy, for all these cuts, scars, and gashes have long since grown together With cleaner, stronger, finer tissues than before. Eighteen long years have rolled away siuce that humble beginning. I have wandered this great land through and through. High schools, colleges, uni- versities, and the great seats of American democracy have been my haunts. Five thousand dollars I have spent in schools and earned it all. Seven lectures and fifty thousand memorised words from classical literature are in my possession to-day. I have tried not to pause or stop, but to march straight along. All the good things in the world are ours if we but take them, students, teachers, all." — Millennial Star 87:5”
Sources & References
The Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star (Manchester, later Liverpool, England, May 1840–1970), Vol. 87, No. 05 (1925). https://archive.org/details/millennialstar8705eng (account extracted verbatim from the issue's Internet Archive OCR text; research confidence: high) Additional sources (periodical research): N. C. Hanks, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N._C._Hanks
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