Person:Eliza Pulsipher (1)

BRIEF HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF ELIZA JANE PULSIPHER TERRY

Eliza Jane Pulsipher Terry was born in Nauvoo, Adams County, Illinois, on the 26th day of July 1840. Her parents were Zerah and Mary Brown Pulsipher.

May I go back and give just a little history of Eliza’s parents, as a little background to her life? They accepted the Gospel in New York State as it was taught by Elder Jared Carter. In 1832 Zerah sold his farm and prepared to gather with the Saints. The family, after moving to different places, finally arrived in Kirtland, Ohio, in 1835, and there saw the Prophet Joseph Smith, and helped work on the Temple.

Father, with another Elder, had the privilege of converting and baptizing Wilford Woodruff in New York State before coming to Nauvoo. In Nauvoo, Zerah was chosen as one of the First General Seven Presidents of Seventy.

Eliza’s mother was steadfast and helpful through all the terrible persecutions that the Saints endured in the early rise of the Church.

Eliza was the tenth child born to this note-worthy couple. She was seven years old when the trek across the plains was made, so no doubt she could remember many of the hardships endured by the family. Her father was Captain of a company consisting of 100 wagons; with this added responsibility perhaps his own family was looked after by the older boys, John and Charles.

Eliza, with the rest of the family arrived in the Great Salt Lake Valley, September 22, 1848. Her father began immediately to prepare food and shelter for the coming winter. Their first home in Salt Lake City was on the 4th block west of the Temple Block. Her schooling commenced in 1849 at the school in the old 16th ward. She was a likeable person and had many childhood friends.

She probably had her share of boy friends, but we must remember that plural marriage was being practiced by the Church at this time. I imagine Eliza Jane had a great deal of respect for her sister, Mary Ann’s husband, Thomas Sirls Terry.

I don’t suppose the fact that he was 15 years her senior bothered her very much, when he started courting her. She knew him to be a good, kind man; he was strong in the faith of the Church in which they had under-gone such hardships for. This marriage was performed by President Brigham Young on the 6th of May 1855. She was just 15 years of age at the time. When the Endowment House was completed, she received her endowments on August 8, 1856.

NOTE: Eliza Jane ‘s daughter, Eva, wrote the following about her mother’s life in 1953: At the time father left for his mission in 1856, Aunt Mary Ann was on his farm in Little Cottonwood, twelve miles from Salt Lake City. My mother was in Salt Lake City with grandmother Pulsipher, but as time went on Aunt Mary Ann exchanged places with mother and went to Salt Lake to stay with her mother (Grandmother Pulsipher), as she was expecting her fourth child.

Uncle Will Pulsipher was to have stayed on the ranch to look after the chores while father was away, but the Church called for volunteers to take teams and go to help the poor handcart saints who were stranded in the snow. Uncle Will went, which left my mother, a young girl of 18 years, on the farm alone with her young child; she was one half mile from any neighbor.

The snow that winter was up to her window sills. She froze her feet so that they come out in blisters and formed sores, while doing her daily chores. She had to dig her corn fodder and any other hay feed from under the snow to feed her animals. She also had to grind corn on the coffee mill sometimes to make bread.

One night she heard someone come tramping up to the door on snow shoes and she wondered who could be coming there. Of course, it frightened her some, being so young and alone. But she put her trust in her Heavenly Father as she always did. Finally a man called her name. She was thankful to know it was Uncle John Alger, her sister, Sarah’s, husband. They had become worried about her down there in the deep snow alone and he had volunteered to put on snow shoes and to go see how she was doing.

When Uncle Will returned with the Hand Cart Company, he had a very severe cold. His sweetheart had taken smallpox and died while he was away. Altogether, his hardships and sorrow caused him to have brain fever and he was very ill for a long time, so mother still stayed alone at the farm.

After Aunt Mary Ann’s child came and she was able to return to the farm, she and mother again exchanged places. Mother never did complain any of her hardships. I am just wondering what any of our girls now days, at that tender age, would have done under those circumstances. It is worthy of mention, I feel.

Later in life when the Pulsipher family was called to come out of St. George to care for all the cattle of the St. George people, father moved his family out to Shoal Creek as it was then called, along with the Pulsiphers.

When father decided to homestead the old Terry Ranch he moved mother on the ranch to live as she had sons growing up to be of help to father in building a new home. Father built Aunt Mary Ann a home in what was then known as Hebron, five miles below the ranch. Her family were all girls at first.

At the ranch the pickets were cut for fencing, the land was cleared, the large rock barn was built. It was quite a hard laborious job with a family of that size to care for. There were also men hired to help do the mason work on the barn. The stage coach came each day from one direction and the buckboard each day from the other way meeting at the ranch. The drivers were stationed at the ranch each day going to take the place of the new drivers. Besides this there were passengers coming in on the stage and mail from Silver Reef and Pioche. So it was no easy life to care for such daily duties.

As Aunt Mary Ann’s boys began to grow, she could see the need of a future for them, so she decided to go to the ranch to live and father moved mother to Old Hebron in the place there.

I will now add just how mother decided to become a trained mid-wife. Uncle Will Pulsipher’s wife, Esther, was about to give birth to a baby. The mid-wife was ill with pneumonia and couldn’t attend to the expectant mother. When Aunt Esther took ill, Grandfather Pulsipher came and said, "Eliza, you are the only woman that can handle the job, so you go and care for her and I promise you if you will, the Lord will bless you and all will go right."

After that, the people of the surrounding country felt mother was capable, so depended upon her. However, it was a source of worry to mother, so she finally told father it was too much and nerve racking and she felt that she must have training.

In St. George there was a lady who had come from the East as a convert to the Church, who was a trained nurse. She was teaching classes in obstetrics there. So father moved mother to St. George to receive that training.

Back in Hebron she went about her work of caring for the sick with renewed confidence. She was in much demand all over the county. The families living in Clover Valley sent for her and soon her ability as a nurse and mid-wife spread to Panaca, Nevada, and her services were much sought after at that place. It was a long stretch of rough road between the two places and it was quite hard on her to be on the road so much in all kinds of weather, but she always went where and when she was needed.

Clyde Terry, a son of Zerah’s and grandson of Eliza Jane’s, remembers what ambitious woman his grandmother was. Neither could she tolerate idleness in anyone else. To illustrate her industry and show what a masterful woman she was Clyde tells how she used to go a bit early to the home of the woman who was to be confined and she was engaged as mid-wife. While waiting for the event, she would keep everybody busy. She usually had them bring out all the rags for a carpet, wash them, tear them in the proper strips, sew them and have a nice carpet woven before she left that family.

Her price for confinement was $10.00. After she moved to Panaca she worked with a doctor in Pioche and she got more money for her services. She was very independent, and from her nursing she always had plenty of money of her own. In fact, she bought her own home in Panaca.

Clyde remembers that she always wore a long black dress with big pockets. She favored her grandchildren and always had a little reward of money for services rendered.

Again he says, "When grandma was alone in her 70’s there was a big canal project on to run the water out of the Santa Clara Creek. A cook was needed badly to prepare meals for the 40 men on the job. When anyone else wouldn’t take the job of cook, grandma said she would and did preparing nourishing meals for the hungry men."

Still quoting: "I have heard grandma tell about when she was crossing the plains. They used to milk the cows they had along. Sometimes they would make cheese for the families by using improved methods, even pressing out the whey by the weighting of the wagon tongue."

She used to tell us about her little log cabin home out at Union and how she dug roots to eat to keep from getting so hungry.

Eliza was a helpful, devoted wife and loving mother. She was privileged to be the mother of twelve children. Four died in infancy - namely: John William and Charles Henry, twins; Oliver Amelia and Tracy Rosellee, The eight growing to maturity, marrying and raising families were: Zera Pulsipher, Thomas Nelson, Eliza Jane, Aluna, Sarah Mariah, Josephine Rebecca, Frank Dermoth and Eva Elthera.

This good woman was lovingly cared for in the declining years of her life by her daughter Eva. She passed away peacefully on the 5th of May 1919. Her husband was not there at the time, but upon receiving word of her death, came immediately from Enterprise, accompanied by his son, Frank D.

Funeral services were arranged to be held in the Panaca ward where she had spent the later years of her life. Her husband talked at the funeral, which perhaps was unusual, but he gave a stirring sermon and bore a strong testimony on the occasion.

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A word picture and character sketch by Anna Marie Terry Andrew.

Eliza Jane’s hair was parted in the middle and drawn to the back. All the other Pulsipher family members were white-headed, but Eliza’s hair was brown. She was average in height and build. Her long black skirt touched the ground as she walked, and it had two deep pockets. In these pockets this kind and generous woman could always find a dollar to help some member of the family.

Brigham Young called the Pulsipher and Terry families to help settle Southern Utah and this they did. Eliza Jane and her people went into a new part of the country to make their home.

She dearly loved her husband. They lived in the day when polygamy was taught by the Church, and he endeavored all his days to be a good husband and father. Thomas Sirles Terry was married first to Eliza Jane’s older sister, Mary Ann. He married Eliza Jane second when he was age 30 and she was 15. To his first marriage only girls had been born, and it was Eliza Jane who presented her husband his first son. (This Zera Pulsipher Terry.)

Since Mary Ann’s first children were girls, her family lived in the town of Hebron. Eliza Jane lived on the Terry Ranch so that the boys could help their father. Later, when Mary Ann’s family of boys came along, she moved to the farm and Eliza Jane moved to Hebron until her children were almost all married. Then she bought a home at Panaca, Nevada, where she followed her doctor work the rest of her life.

Thomas Sins Terry married again to Hanna Leavitt, by whom he raised another nice family of six - 3 boys and 3 girls. Because he had the three families to watch over, Eliza Jane could only have her husband with her part of the time. She never complained over this or any of her hardships during her life. When her husband came, he usually brought fruit that she needed. Eliza Jane was cheerful and even-tempered. She prepared the finest meals and kept her home lovely and clean. She was a devoted wife and a loving mother.

1. ↑ May have been born in Nauvoo.