Rhoda Clayson

Written by Eliza Ann Clayson, her daughter:

Rhoda Burris, daughter of James Burris and Sarah Chamberlain, was born at Irchester, Northamptonshire, England, 17 March 1844. Her parents were poor people; hence their children had to work to help to earn a livelihood. Nothing much is known of Rhoda until she was six years of age, at which time she was sent to work in a shoe factory to learn what was called “shoe fitting”. This was the making of tops of shoes and boots. This she learned to do by hand, not with a sewing machine.

From this time until she was twenty-two years of age, she spent the greater part of her life in the shoe-fitting trade. During this time she had heard the Latter Day Saints Elders preach and had become converted to what was known as the “Mormon Doctrine “. She was baptized into the LDS Church in the year 1861. In the meantime, she had fallen in love with Eli Clayson of Wilby, Northamptonshire, England, and on 3rd May, 1866, she was married to him on board the ship “Caroline”, and set sail for America on the same ship 5th May, 1866, and landed in New York, 11 June, 1866, being a little more than five weeks on the ocean.

She and her husband started west from New York by rail, but did not come directly to Utah. They stopped on the way for her husband to do some work, and earn money to continue the trip. They reached Utah in the fall of 1866, and located on a farm owned by Willard Snow, which was located on South State Street. Here on August 9, 1867, her eldest son, Eli James, was born.

I have heard Mother say that while living on this farm, they went to bed one night and left a beautiful field of grain, and awoke the next morning to find every bit of it eaten by grasshoppers. In their bad financial condition, this must have been very discouraging.

While some of Mother’s sisters joined the Mormon Church in England, she was the only one of the family that ever immigrated to America. She left father, mother, brothers, and sisters (10 siblings) to come west for the Gospel’s sake, never again meeting one of her father’s family in this life. When she left England, her oldest brother, John, who was very bitter against her joining the Mormon Church, said to her, “If you go with the Mormons, I will never write you a line”, and he never did in the 44 years she lived after reaching Utah.

In the fall of 1868, she, with her husband, moved to Payson, her husband’s parents having moved to Payson shortly before that time. Here they lived in a home of William Clayson for a time. In the early 70’s, her husband bought a lot in the western part of Payson City. Here they built a one room lumber lean-to. In this humble home, they lived happily together until her husband was taken with typhoid fever and died 26 October, 1877.

After her husband’s death, she went to work in the shoe shop belonging to Uncle William Clayson, at her old trade of shoe fitting. Here she spent from three to four days a week, besides doing all her own washing, ironing and general housework. This was a very hard strain on her and had a tendency to break her health. This she continued, however, until she married Uncle Nathan Clayson, Father’s younger brother in the early 80’s.

Mother had five children by her first husband, the youngest died six weeks before her husband died. Then she had two by her second husband.

She died in American Fork, Utah, 21 March, 1910, after being practically an invalid for a number of years.

History from Rhoda's memory page on familysearch.org.

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Aug 4 2018, 20:40:43 UTC