Nancy Ann Turpin was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, October 14, 1852, the third child of Jesse and Jane Smith Turpin. She was born in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, her parents having joined the Church in its infancy. Jesse and Jane were married April 16, 1846 at Nauvoo, Illinois, by Lorenzo Snow.
Nancy's father Jesse Turpin built the first adobe house in Salt Lake City and ran the first tavern. He was a harness and saddle maker by trade. In the spring of 1852, Jesse left to fill his second mission, going to the West Indies, leaving his wife with two small children and her mother to provide for. On his return home he contracted cholera and died near Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas on June 22, 1854. Her mother had many hardships and sorrows, but was always a faithful member of the Church. She died May 7, 1893 at Salt Lake City.
Nancy's childhood was spent doing whatever she could do to help her mother. She went to school -- some part of her schooling was on the days that her brother could not go. She hired out as a baby sitter. She stayed for a long time with an elderly lady Mrs. Willis. At times she would tend the children of Mrs. Willis' daughter -- Mrs. Brigham Young, Jr. While staying with Mrs. Willis, Nancy had to stand outdoors to wash the dishes in the winter as well as the summer.
When Nancy was seven, there was a famine in Salt Lake City. They didn't have any bread for six months. They gathered sego lilies to eat. There was also a white root that grew along the ditch banks which they would gather, boil and fix with butter, salt and pepper, which they thought very tasty. The white root was never found after the famine. They ate greens fixed from several kinds of weeds, such as the mustard and pig weeds. They were thankful when they got bread and vegetables to eat again.
She well remembered the move south when the Johnston army was going to enter Salt Lake City. They had no way to travel on their own, so her mother's brother Samuel Smith of Brigham City, moved them. When they were returning, the wagon tipped over on the dugway and most of their belongings went into Provo River. Nancy remembered the crickets and grasshoppers as well.
Nancy's mother had married Samuel Crawford. When she was ten years old, they moved to Brigham City, Utah. Mr. Crawford was the best mechanic in the west, the church would send him from place to place to install machinery and get it in good running order. Nancy always carried her step-fathers lunch to the factory, One day an Indian followed her to the factory. When she had gone in, he crawled under the plank platform in front of the building, waiting for her to come out, but one of the workmen saw him and he was frightened away. The Indian found out where they lived and came to the house wanting to buy the pretty little papoose. They stayed in Brigham a little over a year.
Nancy's grandmother, Sarah Wooding Smith was the daughter of Lord James and Mary (Dainton) Wooding of England. She was highly educated. She was one of the very first doctors and surgeons in Utah. Although the Utah History does not chronicle the same, she came to Utah September 20, 1848. At age twelve, Nancy helped her grandmother, Sarah Wooding Smith with a serious operation by handing her the necessary instruments and bandages, etc. They took a large portion of a crushed skull from a man's head -- the skull laying against the brain. They removed it and inserted a silver plate. The man recovered and lived to be of old age. Nancy aided her grandmother many times and acquired a great deal of knowledge of medicine.
While on a trip to Tooele, Nancy met Daniel Lee Higley and later became his wife, April 5, 1871 in Salt Lake City. One year later, they were sealed in the Endowment House. They made their home at Tooele, Utah, for eight years, then settled at Black Pine, Idaho, and later moved to Brigham City, Utah, so their children could attend school. Daniel would go back and forth between the ranch and Brigham and the older children would go out to the ranch in the summer. In 1893, they made the move back to the ranch, their children totaling nine.
In 1895, Nancy was brought to Brigham City where her tenth child was born.
In January 1919, Nancy contracted the "flu" which claimed her life on January 26th.
She was short of statue, with blue eyes and black hair. She was faithful to her religion and an honest person.