Maria Louisa Pickett

The above picture shows Maria Louisa Pickett Tolman Read with the Read children Left to right: Ulea Jane (youngest), Robert Locke, and Waldemar Pickett (with curls). There is another picture of Maria Louisa Pickett with her son Mannie Pickett, daughter Mary Elizabeth Tolman and son George Orin Tolman on Mary Elizabeth Tolman's profile page. These photos were taken from the following website: http://marialouisapickett.homestead.com/

"Miriah Louise Pickett:" a history by Patricia Miller

Miriah Louise Pickett was born 28th of November 1856 in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, just before or just after her father George Pickett died of small pox. Miriah and her mother Priscilla Clark Pickett came west with George Pickett's brother William Pickett and his wife Mary. They came to Salt Lake City in 1857 or 1858.

Priscilla Clark married William Pickett and then divorced him. She joined some people going to Nevada. In Nevada, Priscilla married William Wilford and was later murdered. After her mother's (Pricilla Clark Pickett) death, Miriah Louise Pickett was placed in a boarding school or an orphanage. It was here that she was "taken advantage of" as Mary Elizabeth Tolman (her daughter) said, and a son was born.

Her son Manny Pickett was born in Salt Lake City, 4 January 1876. Also, after her mother's death Priscilla Clark's property was divided. Among other things, Miriah Louise received a cream colored wool and silk baby shawl with pink roses on it and some good jewelry. Mary Elizabeth Tolman Glenn had the shawl until it crumbled with age. Miriah Louise Pickett married Cyrus Ammon Tolman 13 December 1878 and they had two children: Mary Elizabeth Tolman and George Orin Tolman.

Miriah and Elizabeth, Cyrus' first wife, were very close. They were cousins. Mary Elizabeth Tolman said that Elizabeth Pickett Tolman was like a second mother to her. Miriah Louise had a beautiful bone structure and was on the small side. She wasn't pretty in the face, but had beautiful hands and feet. She was self-educated and quite a scholar. She taught school in Marion, Cassia, Idaho for several years. She also taught the little ones in Sunday School. She was one of the few adults who went to Sunday School as adults didn't "pretend" to go then.

She was active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints throughout her life. She had all the Sunday School children over to her house for a party once. Miriah Louise was drawn within herself and was a little sharp in her talk. She always had a come back for those who would criticize others. She liked good sound common sense. She wrote poetry and read a great deal. She was an excellent seamstress and took tailoring classes in making patterns and fitting while in Utah one year. She made all the burial clothes for the people who passed away in Marion.

Miriah Louise Pickett divorced Cyrus Ammon Tolman in 1890 when Wilford Woodruff gave the Official Declaration on polygamy in 1890. She later married Franklin Read in June 1891. They had three children: Robert Locke Read, Walderman Pickett Read, and Ulea Jane Read. Miriah Louise Pickett Tolman Read died on the 27th March 1930 in Twin Falls, Twin Falls, Idaho, and is buried in Marion, Cassia, Idaho, now known as Oakley, Cassia, Idaho. The above information was told to Patricia Ann Glenn Bates, by her grandmother Mary Elizabeth Tolman Glenn.