Photos
Right-click [Mac Control-click] to open full-size image:
Eliza Ann Barton
(Back to front L - R) David Barton, Morgan, David Edwards Jr. holding Lois, Ann, Ann Eliza Barton holding Amasa
Eliza Ann Barton
Born: 10 June 1860 in Parowan, Utah, USAEliza Ann Barton
Eliza Ann Barton was born in Parowan, Utah, in the old “Fort” as was the case in many, many small communities. She was one of five children, Joseph, Amasa, Eliza Ann, Mary Matilda, and James William.
When she was a very small child, they moved to Paragoonah. As a young girl, she went only to the third grade which was all that was offered in education. She was an excellent student for she always reached out for more education. She yearned to learn more and more. She could spell all comers [challengers] down. Eliza also wrote and read very well. Consequently, with those desires to learn, she became a school teacher, teaching in Paragoonah for some time.
Eliza labored terribly hard in her home. The post office was in their home, and it seemed to be a gathering place for all the church leaders as they came to and through southern Utah. She “kept” the house; prepared, washed and carded the wool from the sheep; and wove cloth for the family use. She knitted, sewed, mended, cooked….dried the fruit in the fall, made preserves, took care of the curing of the meat, made candles…. ‘Tis said that when David would come ‘courtin’ that she was so tired in the evening that she would go to bed and leave her mother up to entertain him.
In a picture we have of Eliza, at eighteen years of age, she was a very lovely, beautiful girl. She [had] dark, dark brown hair, black eyes, high cheek bones and you wouldn’t believe it, but her hair is fixed a wee-bit like the girls of today…sorta brought up on the head, with a band of ribbon around her head. You can see the sparkle and twinkle in her eyes, as she was a person with rare humor, a wit about her that was simply priceless.
She and David were school sweethearts, and loved each other all those years. They were married in the St. George Temple, 12 January 1881. They were the parents of eight children; Barton, Morgan, Amasa, Jay, Ann, Eunice, Lois, and Ella – four boys and four girls.
Much of their history together is told in David’s [life sketch except for a few memories shared here by her daughter] like when the family was in Provo, she worked so hard to raise her family of seven while David was on his mission. She was never too tired to go help others in need. She took care of her niece’s baby during a Diphtheria epidemic [during which time] the baby passed away. There was so little they could do in those days to prevent, to aid, to cure, whether it be a spreading disease, an injury, or an acute or chronic condition. They did the very best they knew, with faith, good common sense, and hope.
Eliza’s children, except one, were delivered by her mother. Her first child was born in Bluff, when so many of the young married couples were called to [settle the area].Eliza was in such hard and difficult labor with her first baby. Her sister-in-law, made her lie on a quilt on the floor for her labor and delivery because SHE was afraid the delivery would soil and mess up “her bed.”
Eliza taught all her daughters, and her sons to hand sew quilt blocks, starting out with a 9 patch block, and not when they were young ladies and men, but when they were 4 years old.
She held many and varied positions in the church: secretary and visiting teacher in the Relief Society; Primary President while living in Rexburg; and at the time of her death she was secretary of the Genealogical Committee in the Pocatello 2nd Ward. She was a faithful and stalwart worker, dependable, and so loved by all who knew her.
After her husband, David, passed away, Eliza made her home in Pocatello, at her son Barton’s home, along with Ella and Jay. [Later] she, Jay, and Ella bought a small home at 446 So., 9th Ave. in Pocatello, Idaho, where she lived until her death on 8 March, 1936 (you will notice upon reading David’s [life sketch] that both of them passed away on the same date).
She was laid to rest in the cemetery in Pocatello. She had been in a car accident about 2 years before, and had apparently recovered, though she suffered a cerebral hemorrhage that partially impaired her speech. Then at Christmas time in 1935, [she] suffered a heart attack, followed with uremic toxicity [a condition that so often follows] for the last two weeks before her death.
She left hosts and hosts of friends that loved her, respected and admired her for her sterling and fine qualities of character, her wit and humor, her love for people, her compassion for those less fortunate than she. [Eliza] was never known to gossip or to make light of any remark by another person. She had unfailing faith in our Father in Heaven. Her granddaughter, Bernice Watson, summed these many tributes in the following prayer by Max Ehrmann;
“Let me do my work each day; and if the darkened hours of despair overcome me,
may I not forget the strength that comforted me in the desolation of other times.
May I still remember the bright hours that found me walking over the silent hills of my childhood,
or dreaming on the margin of the quiet river, when a light glowed within me,
and I promised my God to have courage amid the tempests of the changing years.
Spare me from bitterness and from the sharp passions of unguarded moments.
May I not forget that poverty and riches are of the soul and spirit.
Though the world know me not, may my thoughts and actions be such as shall keep me friendly with myself.
Lift my eyes from the earth and let me not forget the uses of the stars.
Forbid that I should judge others, lest I condemn myself.
Let me not follow the clamor of the world, but walk calmly in my path.
Give me friends who will love me for what I am;
and keep even burning before my vagrant steps the kindly light of hope.
And though age and infirmity overtake me, and I come not within sight of the castle of my dreams,
teach me to be still thankful for life, and for time’s olden memories that are good and sweet;
and may the evening’s twilight find me gentle still.”
From “The Life Sketch of Eliza Ann Barton,” arranged by a granddaughter, Bernice Watson
Wennergren, as told to her by three daughters, Sept. 1963.
Right-click [Mac Control-click] to open full-size image:
Eliza Ann Barton
(Back to front L - R) David Barton, Morgan, David Edwards Jr. holding Lois, Ann, Ann Eliza Barton holding Amasa