Elizabeth Moody

Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel 1847–1868 Company Unknown (1852) Approximate age at departure: 13

There is another photo of Elizabeth Pool Moody under the Media Tab above, which was taken when she was a little older. The photo above taken of her when she was younger came from this source:

http://connectedforeternity.blogspot.com/2010/02/pic-of-elizabeth-p...

From The John Wyatt Moody Family: Past and Present. E. Grant Moody, Editor. 1985. Elizabeth Pool Moody was the daughter of Daniel and Betsy Miller Pool. She was born in Manchester, England, September 6, 1838. (Note: a Certified copy of an Entry of Birth CF444139 from St. George Manchester, Lancaster Co, England gives the name Poole).

Her mother joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1838. Her father would not join the church, so Betsy Pool took her three children to Nauvoo, Illinois, with the first company of English Saints, arriving in 1840. Betsy married John Blazard and died soon afterward, in Nauvoo in 1843. Betsy’s children lived with relatives in St. Louis and were there when Joseph and Hyrum Smith were killed in 1844.

In the confusion of leaving Nauvoo and starting west, Elizabeth was shunted from place to place, stopping for a year at the Punca River near the Punca Indians, traveling bv wagon to Winter Quarters, then back to Savannah. The now ten-year-old Elizabeth had somehow gained and held a firm conviction of the gospel despite her homelessness and orphaned condition. She was offered a home and an education if she would stay with one family, but she refused and finally got to cross the plains in the fall of 1852.

In the Salt Lake Valley she worked out for her living, until as her journal states, “January 23, 1856, I was married to John M. Moody by consent of his first wife Margaret. Like Sarah of old, she wished her husband to take another wife. “We lived in the same house, cooked and ate at the same table, but set up in separate rooms." To the end of her life Elizabeth strongly attested to the divinity of this principle of “spiritual" wives.

Her first child John Monroe Jr. was born while his father was on a mission in Texas. Elizabeth was a witness to the plague of crickets in 1857. In the spring of the next year, the families moved to the south while Johnston's Armv marched through Salt Lake City. John was in Echo harassing the army when he sent word to his wives to get someone to plant ten acres of grain on Cottonwood Creek. With Margaret's sons to help, the two women plowed the land with oxen and planted the grain themselves.

John married a third wife and these two women were left together in Pine Valley while John made a home in St. George with Margaret. The two women stayed there a year and a half and both gave birth to children. Then they moved into St. George where Elizabeth had her own home for the first time. First she was in a partly underground dugout. She bore her fifth child there. When a flood drove her out, she lived in a rented room, then moved into a two-room rented house. Here she had her sixth child. Her next three children were born in a little larger house, still with two rooms.

Her son William suffered with "gravel" or kidney stones. Elizabeth took him and her two youngest children to Salt Lake City for treatment, making the journey with five dollars, her own courage, and the strength of her prayers. This resourceful woman managed to provide food, clothing, and medical treatment for William, though she had barefoot children and hardly any money when she arrived in the City. Moreover, when William had been treated, she managed to get them all home virtually without money, feeding the team with two sacks of corn which were refilled in Fillmore and drawing from the Tithing Office.

John Monroe built a two-story house near the Tabernacle where Margaret Moody, her children grown, could live comfortably. Margaret's larger house was then used by Elizabeth and her growing family, her tenth child, Charles Daniel. being born March 29. 1877. In August, Sarah Damron Moody died, and Elizabeth took her two living children in. The birth of Henry Owen February 10, 1879 gave her eleven children, plus Sarah's two children to care for. Only Urilda was married so far.

John Monroe's decision to marry a fourth wife in 1878, probably the catalyst for Margaret's divorcing him, also severely tried Elizabeth. She said, "It seemed as though I had all I could stand, but Patriarch William McBride laid his hands on my head and blessed me, which gave me strength to overcome my trials to the extent that I could content myself and put my trust in the Lord. The Lord had promised that my last days should be my best days." But those "best days" were yet to come. When Margaret sued for divorce, she received Elizabeth's house, forcing Elizabeth to move into a rented house until the family moved to Arizona in February of 1881.

They settled Thatcher, and not only was Elizabeth’s husband the first bishop of the ward, but she was the first Relief Society President. She rejoiced when her first son John Monroe moved back to be with them in 1883 after having lost his wife and baby in St. George. But she lost her husband January 27, 1884, and her eldest son March 23, 1888, a double blow. Elizabeth continued to live in Thatcher surrounded by her children, until her death April 18, 1918. Her grandson, Francis Winfred Moody, Jr. said of her, "She was the grandest old lady I ever knew." Compiled by Brent S. Child, December 2001

SOURCE: https://familysearch.org/photos/stories/1627522/elizabeth-pool-mood...

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And from another source, a first hand account written by Elizabeth Pool Moody:

Autobiography of Elizabeth Pool Moody 1838 – 1918 I, Elizabeth Moody, daughter of Daniel and Betsy Pool, was born in Manchester, England, on September 3, 1838. My mother joined the church (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) in 1838. Her husband would not join the church, so mother took her three children to “Zion" with the first company of Saints that sailed for America in 1840. I think we were about six months reaching Nauvoo, where my mother soon married a John Blazard. She died in Nauvoo in 1843 when I was five years old, whereupon I lived with my Uncle Thomas and Aunt Susan Miller. We went to St. Louis and were there when the Prophet Joseph Smith was killed, returning then to Nauvoo.

My uncle, who was in the habit of drinking and did not think much of religion, went back to St. Louis and my aunt was sealed (married) to John Kay. We then went to Winter Quarters and from here we went with the pioneers to Punca, stopping on the Punca River among the Punca Indians. While we were traveling here, it was the custom to drive the wagons in a circle at night so that the stock would be in the center. I remember that our wagon and the tent in which we were sleeping were at the mouth of the opening of this corral.

My uncle was sleeping close to the tent opening. All at once the cattle started to stampede. He jumped up and warded them off with his gun, but not before they had broken two wagons. I acknowledged the hand of the Lord in saving our lives that night. We stayed there three days before the wagons were fixed to move our family. While we were living on the Punca River, the Indians set fire to the prairies, thinking it would burn us out; but all of us who could turned out to whip back the flames by making fires and burning the grass close by before the flames reached us. By this means we were able to control the fire. I well remember seeing cinders flying over our town while we were down by the bank of the river.

We stayed in Punca over a year. While here we were obliged to grind our corn in a coffee mill, and the last two or three weeks we were obliged to eat meat alone, so we started for Winter Quarters, Iowa. After starting, John Kay went on ahead to get food for us, leaving us with only one biscuit to travel a distance of 200 miles. Then we saw him coming back, my aunt told us to turn out and make a fire. We soon had something on cooking, and I have never enjoyed a meal as much as at that time.

From Winter Quarters, my aunt took me back to Savannah. Here I found my sister, Sarah Ann, married to a Peter Jones who drank considerably and did not treat her well. She left him and went with me to Saint Joseph. My aunt went back to St. Louis to get some clothing. We were both young, my sister got a chance to work out. My brother came from St. Louis and took me to Council Bluffs, (leaving my sister in St. Joseph) and put me with a family named Ripley. My brother told my aunt I was all right when she inquired of me. If he had not taken me, I would have gone with her in the first company of Saints moving west; however, he objected to the possibility of my becoming a "spiritual wife" (meaning marrying a man who already had a wife).

The Ripley's took me back to Illinois where we stayed two years. While here I stayed at Whitlock's (non-members of the Church) because Ripley's were poor; and I was offered a good education if I would stay and not go to Utah with the Mormons. However, my brother sent my Uncle Charles Miller from St. Louis to get me in order that I might go with him to Utah. The roads were quite mucky and there were several small streams to cross in the five miles to the Mississippi. After failing to get a conveyance to take us down to the ferry because we were Mormons, my uncle took a small trunk containing my clothes; we started out on foot, and he carried me across the streams.

After crossing the Mississippi by ferry, my uncle took me to a hotel while he went back to the wharf to wait for the steamboat. Among the strangers at the hotel there were two young girls who took me up to their room, staying out of school in order to keep me company. During my 3 days there, they became quite attached to me, and did not charge my Uncle anything for my staying there. They offered me several inducements if I would only stay with them. Although I was only about 10 years of age, I never doubted the truthfulness of the Mormon religion, so I went with my Uncle by steamboat to St. Louis, arriving there just after a big fire had almost destroyed the city.

While staying there two weeks, I saw my sister for the last time. After fitting up a team my brother took me with him 4 miles from Kanesville, Council Point where he married an Ann Welcher. I stayed with them and was here baptized. While my brother went to St. Joseph to freight, his wife was mean to me. I remember being sick and looking up I saw the house was suddenly on fire. Running out, I gave the alarm, but it was too late for people to save much and I lost all but what clothes I stood in. Our good neighbors gave me some things and as soon as possible I went to Kanesville to work in the Clark Hotel.

From there I worked in various places unto the fall of 1852 when I crossed the plains with Frueham. After arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, I worked out for my living until the winter of 1856. On Jan. 23, I was married to John Monroe Moody by consent of his first wife, Margaret. Like Sarah of old, she wished her husband to take another wife, therefore I became a "spiritual wife" after all. We lived in same house, cooked and ate at the same table but slept in separate rooms.

The following spring my husband went to Texas on a Mission for the Church. being gone one year and a half. During this time I gave birth to a son, naming him John Monroe. My husband was called home because of Johnston's Army coming upon the Saints, and was sent to Echo to prohibit the army from coming in. While there he wrote home for us to get someone to put in 10 acres of grain on Cottonwood Creek. We thought we could put this in ourselves, so we had Sr. Moody's three sons to yoke up the oxen and we went down. While the boys plowed, I sowed, and we stayed there until we got through. T hen we put our traps into the wagon and started home. Then we got up into Main Street, our wagon tipped over and I went out on my feet while Sr. Moody went into the creek; but we managed to get home all right.

The grasshopper war and crickets were in 1857, and in the spring of the next year we all moved south when we saw the army was determined to come in, leaving parties to set fire to the city and destroy all the crops should the soldiers come in not peaceably. We went as far south as Fillmore but did not stay long as the soldiers passed through in peace and camped 35 miles, a little west of south from Salt Lake City. We all returned to cur homes again and on August 26, 1858, I gave birth to another son, Francis Winfred.

On March 28, 1860, Urilda was born, and in the fall of the following year we moved south to St. George. Matilda (Mr. Moody's third wife) and I were left at Pine Valley, 35 miles distant, where we stayed for a year and a half. While here Edward was born on March 3, 1862, and Matilda gave birth to a second daughter named Helen (her first girl was named Sarah Margaret). In 1863 we moved to St. George. From this time on I lived by myself, that is, apart from Mr. Moody's other wives.

First, I moved in a cellar partly underground, where my fifth child, William was born on March 8, 1864. Soon a flood came and filled up my cellar and I was obliged to move out, so we rented a room four or five blocks out on what was called State road. After staying here awhile, we moved back within a block of our first location in another rented house with two rooms. Here I gave birth to my sixth child, Elizabeth, born Sept. 19, 1866. We had some sickness at this place. We moved from here into a small house close by which Mr. Moody had bought. While here my son William took sick with the "gravel" (stones in the bladder or kidney).

Pa had built Matilda a house with two rooms, which she exchanged with me as I had more children than she. While at this place I gave birth to three children: Thomas, born May 23, 1869; Susan, born Oct. 5, 1871; and Emma, born March 16, 1874. For five years William suffered from the "gravel." There would be weeks at a time when he did not rest, and his condition grew worse. Pa said I had better take him to Salt Lake City for treatment, so I started with him, taking my oldest son, then 14 years of age, and my two youngest who were barefooted. We only had $5 to travel a distance of 350 miles by team, but I felt to put my trust in the Lord, not realizing what I had before me.

While on the road I made a pair of gloves and sold them for two dollars in butter. I left one dollar to collect on my way back and took the other with me. I also knit stockings for my children so that they might keep their feet warm. Many times my sick boy would want us to leave him to die on the road, but by talking with him he would feel all right again. Throughout the trip I felt that things would be all right; but when I reached the city my heart failed me and I felt as though I was forsaken . I went to my Aunt Susan Keys where we stayed all night.

The next day when I went down town to buy my boy a hat and a pair of shoes out of the five dollars I left home with, I came across Sister Moody (John Monroe's first wife), who had gone there on a visit to her daughter. Here I could not control my feelings and had a good cry. She gave me one of her boy's old hats and I bought a pair of shoes for $2. I went to my cousin Ann Peck to stay while I remained in the city. T he moment that I entered her door all that feeling I had had before left me.

I learned that we would have to stay three weeks and it would cost $100 to doctor my boy, but I felt that it would be all right. By paying $30 down, they would wait for the rest, so the Lord opened up my way. One of my nieces came to me and wanted me to go live with her. She had a good many valuable clothes that her mother had before she died. We sold a pair of furs to Sister Taylor for the $30 to pay Dr. Richards, who got four others to assist him.

They had good luck in getting the stone. At the end of three weeks, I made preparations to go home. I had $5 that I could draw on the tithing office and $1 Sr. Moody loaned me with which I bought bacon and other little rations. Then I started back without any grain for my team. We came as far as Lehi where I had some acquaintances who asked me how we were fixed for feed. When I told them we had none, they told my son to help himself. I thought nothing more about it until we had got outside of town. When I asked him how much grain he had taken, he replied, "One bucket full." I wanted to know why he did not get more as they said we could have what we wanted, and he said that he did not like to take much without paying for it.

Then we got as far as Provo, my Uncle Charles Miller filled two sacks with corn which lasted until we reached Fillmore where the Damron brothers filled my sacks again. By drawing things from the tithing office and the dollar's worth of butter, which I collected, we fared well and the Lord blessed us. When I got home I felt that quite a burden had been taken off my shoulders. All things went along well until 1877 when I had considerable more sickness. I gave birth to my tenth child, Charles Daniel. My son Edward took down with consumption.

Just prior to this Mr. Moody lost his third wife Matilda, leaving me quite a family to see after. On Feb. 10, 1879, I gave birth to my son Henry Owen. Mr. Moody married his fourth wife on Sept. 15, 1878. It seemed as though I had all I could stand, but Patriarch William McBride laid his hands on my head and blessed me. This proved a great strength and helped me to the extent that I could content myself and put my trust more in the Lord.

The Lord promised that my last days should be my best . In the fall of 1879 Sr. Moody (Margaret Anglin) brought suit in the Court at Salt Lake City against Mr. Moody and she was granted the place on which I was living. She gave a young man power of attorney to receive it, so I had to move out. Mr. Moody then rented a house for me and I lived there until we moved to Arizona in February of 1881.

We arrived on the Gila River in Pima on March 28th. We bought a ranch 5 miles east of Pima, and then Thatcher was organized into a Ward. I was called to be the first Pres. of the Relief Society. In May 1883, my husband was called to be Bishop of the Thatcher Ward, with Joseph Cluff and James Pace as Counselors. The ward embraced all east of Pima on the side of the Gila River.

On Nov. 10, 1883, my son John Monroe came home after an absence of five years. He had been on a Mission to Europe when we moved here. After two years there he had gone back to St. George, married and had a child. The mother and child died and he moved here. We were glad to see him, but the poor boy was not long for this world. I began to feel quite contented and everything was going smoothly, but this was not to last long. On January 27, 1894, I mourned the loss of my dear husband, who had been sick only three days. I can say that he was faithful to the end, and observed strictly the Word of Wisdom. He was well respected by all.

Note: The above section was taken from the diary of her son Francis Winfred. To read these few pages telling of the toils of this true pioneer, from the time of her early orphanage, where she was tossed from one home to another, to the end of her gallant life, causes one to be inspired with the philosophy of honesty, hard work, thrift and sacrificing love for her children by which she lived.

One can easily appreciate the statement made by one of her grand¬sons, Francis Winfred Moody, Jr., "She was the grandest old lady I ever knew.” Mrs. Moody lived in Thatcher until her death in 1918. Preceding document obtained from The Daughters of Utah Pioneers historical department, October 2001. Submitted by Jo Anne Homer Mills 25 April 1973. Compiled by Brent S. Child, December 2001.

SOURCE: https://familysearch.org/photos/stories/1627510/elizabeth-pool-mood...