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The Biography of
ELIZABETH HANKS CURTIS
Compiled by Elizabeth Cook Snow
Elizabeth was born on April 22, 1852, in Horsley Parish, Gloucestershire, England in a small village called Downend. Her parents were George Hanks and Eliza Jane Davis. Her father was a farmer and he worked hard for what he received. He taught his children to also work hard. She had an older sister also named Elizabeth who died as an infant born one year almost to the day before her. She was the fifth of eleven children, only nine who lived past infancy.
When she was a small child, the missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints came to her village. They had great success and baptized many people, most of who came to America to live. Elizabeth and her family joined the church. She was baptized by William Hanks, the brother of her father. This did not create goodwill among those people who lived there and didn*t join the church. A thriving village all but disappeared, because the Saints migrated to Utah.
In England, about 1866 a group of people met quietly in the home of friends. They gathered together again to hear the gospel, as it was being preached by two Mormon missionaries from America. Already thousands of the English people had sailed for America, and many more were making serious plans for going. George Hanks, oldest brother of Elizabeth Hanks was one that had gone already. He had been in America for four years and his letters to his family contained much news of the new Zion.
His last letter, just received, was held firmly in the gloved hand of his sister as she took a seat near the door. She must watch for John Day, her betrothed. He had sent her word that he would be detained because of something important, but would meet her at the meeting. Extremely interesting though the sermon was, Elizabeth could hardly keep her mind on what the elder was saying, so great was her curiosity to know what could be so important as to keep John from being on time for the meeting. His love for the gospel was deep and true.
The first elder was well into his discussion before John arrived. Finding a seat next to her, he gently pressed her hand, but further than that neither took their eyes off the face of the speaker as he explained the new faith. This gospel was the same as Jesus taught when he lived on earth among men. It had been restored to earth in it's original purity. Joseph Smith was the instrument through which this marvelous thing had taken place. His people believed him to be a true prophet of the living God. They were willing to die, if necessary for the faith.
Elizabeth kept thinking. How wonderful is America. In no place else could such miracles take place.
When the meeting ended, John and Elizabeth were among the first to reach the street and to begin their walk homeward. “Now, what is the news, John? I can hardly wait to hear it.”
“You will be surprised when I tell you, but I ‘ope you will not be too sorrowful.”
“Tell me quickly, John. You know I cannot wait with patience. ‘ave your parents accepted the gospel?”
“No, it is not so good as that, but almost. I am going to America at the end of this week. I ‘ave just signed to work for my passage on the emigrant ship.”
“Oh, John.”
“Now aren*t you ‘appy about that, dear? I know it will be ‘ard to be parted, but I'll ‘ave a job very soon and send for you.”
Four days later they said farewell. As the little sailing vessel left the harbor for the open sea, Elizabeth remembered John's words: “There will be lots of work in America. I will work on the railroad, learn to dig gold, or to drive a team. I will send money, and when we meet in Utah, we will be married the next day.”
More fortunate than most girls, Elizabeth was able to find a good job in the home of a physician by the name of Dr. Wall. She was hired to be nurse maid to his children, and company for the doctor's wife when he was called into the country to look after the sick. She also helped with the dusting and light housework before the children were awake in the morning. In the doctor's library, her curiosity led her to peek inside the large medical books. When no one seemed to object, she returned to them whenever she had time to read. One day the doctor found her there absorbed in a book of obstetrics. She was so interested that she did not know the doctor had come and gone away again.
Once when the nurse could not work, Dr. Wall invited Elizabeth to go with him to a home where a baby was about to be born. This was the beginning of a long and useful career for her.
After a few months, Elizabeth had a letter from John Day in which he said he had arrived safely in America, and would soon be making the journey up the river to Council Bluffs. From there he would join a wagon train to Utah. He would write more later.
As Elizabeth became more and more indispensable to the family of Dr. Wall, her life became very full. She studied part of every day, she had her work with the doctor's family, and her meetings with the saints. Besides these activities, she was learning to play the organ. Mrs. Wall found it a pleasure to teach a pupil as apt as Elizabeth was at learning chords, and which stops to use for the most harmonious effects. Before long she was able to play from the hymn book.
It was her very good fortune when the Walls decided to leave England and go to New York to live. She was able to help them with the children for her passage over. They traveled on the ship-“Colorado”. On 28 July 1869 Elizabeth and the Wall family and 376 saints left Liverpool and sailed to America. They were on the water for two weeks, and then they landed in New York in 10 Aug 1869. She was seventeen when she told them good-by in New York and took a seat on the new transcontinental railway train for the west and Utah.
After her ticket was paid for, she still had a little money left that she had earned. With her clothes, a few precious possessions, and the priceless books the Walls had given her packed in a small brass bound trunk at her feet, she chugged along the marvelous steel rails behind the puffing steam engine. She watched the miles drop away behind them at an amazingly rapid rate. She was impressed with the immensity of the country this warm August day in 1869 and was thankful for the ease and speed with which her journey to Utah was being accomplished.
Her mind was at ease for she felt sure that John would be at the station to greet her when she arrived at her destination. She had written him that she was coming, and when to expect her. But John had not received her letter, for he was not in Utah at that time. No one was there to meet her, nor did anyone at the station know anything about her John.
She soon found a place to stay in the home of some of the saints, and for several weeks she followed every clue to learn something of John, but none yielded any information. Before long her money was gone and she knew she must find work. She could not stay on indefinitely with the kind people who had taken her in.
When she could find nothing in Salt Lake City to carry her through the winter, she wrote to her brother George in Salem. She asked if there was any work there that she could get to sustain herself, and could he please come to Salt Lake to see her.
When the harvesting was done in late October, George came to Salt Lake City to see his sister. Fall came early in Utah that year, and it was bitter cold on the return trip to Salem. They had only one horse between them, so the brother and sister took turns riding and walking the sixty or seventy miles between the two communities. It was a blessing that the horse had no saddle, for the warmth of the horse*s body helped to keep them from freezing.
When they arrived at Salem, Elizabeth's feet were almost frozen. To thaw them out they were put in cold water, which process was thought to be the best thing to do in those days. It was very painful to get the circulation started again in this manner, and it was a miracle that the tissue was not damaged beyond repair. But the Lord takes care of his own, and her young body responded to the otherwise kind treatment she received in the home of her brother's employer, Moses Curtis.
Soon she too, was able to begin walking around and helping with the work of the household.
George had said in letters to the family, “Moses Curtis is a good kind man. He is doing very well with his farming, and he has a share in the new lumber mill at Provo, and several other worthwhile enterprises.” She knew now that all George had said was true, and much more.
George now said, “A young girl such as you are could do worse than to many Moses Curtis, as a second wife.”
“But what about John?” she asked.
“Yes, what about John?” he answered. “There is a big chance that you will never hear of him again. America is a big country. Utah is just one part of the great western part of it. It seems to me that a single woman has no reason for remaining unmarried as long as you have. You are eighteen, and some might say you are an old maid. You need a man to take care of you. If Moses asks, you, I think it would be a good move for you to accept him.”
And so it was. By next spring, Elizabeth had grown to love Aurelia and Moses Curtis and their houseful of seven dark-eyed serious children, some of which were older than her. She agreed to join their family.
Moses and Elizabeth were married in the Endowment House on January 11, 1870 and returned to Salem a few days later. She had Moses go with her to the home of the people who had taken her in when she was a stranger in a new land, and with whom she had left her trunk. With her precious books and other belongings that would be a valuable heritage in her new life, and began to make the wagon her home.
They returned to Salem, and had been there only a few weeks when a company from San Bernardino, California arrived and stopped for a few hours on their way to Salt Lake. In the company was John Day.
When Elizabeth and John met they fell into each others arms and wept. Then Elizabeth said, “John, I guess you know that I have married Moses. I waited so long. Now you must forget about me. Marry some nice Mormon girl and be happy with her.
Elizabeth was not one to take the covenants she had made in the temple lightly. She became a devoted wife to Moses. They eventually had eight children, George, James, Francis Elizabeth, Eliza Jane, Mary Sophronia, Joanna, Joseph and Della. The first four were born in Salem, Utah and the next four were born in Arizona. The oldest son George Hyrum died at age 3 before they left Utah. James, the second child, died in Arizona from drowning, at the age of 7 in 1879. Francis Elizabeth was their oldest surviving child. The seventh child, a son, Joseph Lyman died when four days old. He was born in the town of Curtis, Arizona, named for his father who settled it. He was the first person buried in this town*s cemetery.
Elizabeth's parents, George and Eliza Jane Hanks came to America in Oct 1871 and also settled in Salem, Utah, where both Elizabeth and her brother George lived. They lived their until their deaths and are buried in the Salem Cemetery.
Moses had received a call from Brigham Young to take his family and lead a group of saints to settle in Arizona. After a few minutes of being stunned at the thought of leaving his fertile fields, his young orchard and vineyard, and his cattle, he agreed to go. He and his family had toiled for almost twenty years to get the farm to produce profitably. Moses Curtis never thought of questioning the will of Brigham Young as the instrument in the hands of the Lord, for establishing Zion.
The next day he purchased another wagon and team. He said to Elizabeth, “When we make the trip to Arizona you will be in charge of this wagon, and probably the driver of the team, as well.” This proved to be true, but she did not wait until time to leave for Arizona to begin to learn to drive the horses, or to take possession of her wagon.
Elizabeth Hanks Curtis went to Arizona, and there she became one of that territory*s most respected and honored citizens. Her name is recorded in the history of that state, and in the hearts of many who knew her.
In 1876, Moses left Utah with his two wives and families and journeyed to Brigham City, Arizona where he lived in the United Order, until it was disbanded by President Erastus Snow in 1881.
President Snow had come to see how the settlement was doing and he observed that the land was poor, water was bad and hard to come by. The upper valleys along the river were well established with nice homes and farms, he turned the Order people all free to go either to the Gila or the San Juan Valleys. Moses and his families chose to go south to the Gila Valley and settle. They crossed the mountains with the Skinner Party and Elizabeth drove an ox team all the way. Moses and his oldest son, by his first marriage, bought two quarter section claims on the North side of the Gila River and founded the settlement first known as Curtisville. It was later changed to Curtis in honor of Moses Curtis. It was known as Curtis until 1895, when the Postal Service refused to honor the name because of a similar name already established in Arizona, so it was changed to Eden.
However, it wasn't until February 8, 1898 that the Curtis Ward was officially changed to the Eden Ward on the records of the Church. In about 1881, Moses was called to be Presiding Elder over all the Saints on the North side of the River in the newly formed Graham County. This area included what is now know as Graham, Hubbard, Bryce and Eden. Elder Curtis did the very best he could in keeping the Saints together, but the distance he had to travel by means of horseback or team and wagon made it a difficult task.
The Indians were a constant menace to the settlers in those outlying areas during those first years. As a result a “Stockade” was built in Curtis for protection. Moses Curtis built a cottonwood log cabin inside the stockade and the first church meetings were held in this small Curtis home. But even the stockade was not sufficient protection at times and they were forced to seek refuge at some of the larger settlements.
In 1881 an alarm was sent to the Curtis settlement that the Indians were on the warpath, so they began making a rush to Smithville (now Pima) for protection. The river was at high flood stage and too deep and swift for them to cross, so the men of Smithville built a large raft and were able to bring them across. The people of Smithville took them in as best they could, but accommodations were not always the best under the crowded conditions. Moses and his families camped at an old farm where a calf corral and a pig pen had been made. They cleaned out the pen as best they could and used it for a temporary shelter. That night Elizabeth gave birth to a baby girl. Her bed was a corn shuck “tick” laid on the ground. The ants were so bad that she asked Moses to move her and the baby into the wagon bed. She also told him that there was a lump in the tick under her shoulder and she thought she had felt something move. Moses investigated and found a rattlesnake curled up in the shucks where her shoulder had been! The baby was named Joanna. After she was grown, when asked, she said she was born in a Pig Pen.
Elizabeth was a woman of unusual ability and talents. She was an outstanding seamstress, dressmaker and tailor by trade. She made many fine suits, entirely by hand with needle and thread, for men throughout the whole valley. It was claimed by many that they were as fine as any that came from factories in the East.
One of Elizabeth's greatest talents was her natural nursing ability in caring for the sick and expectant mothers who needed her tender and thoughtful help. During the year of 1881, she was called and set apart by Apostle John Henry Smith, as a nurse and midwife to help with the sick. At this time she was given a special blessing and the name of “Woman of Mercy.” She faithfully fulfilled this calling the rest of her life. It is reported that she delivered over five hundred babies during her lifetime, all the way from Globe to Wilcox (a hundred miles) and throughout the Gila Valley. When she went out on a confinement case, she stayed ten days and charged $3.00. If the people didn't have the money, she took her pay in produce, or whatever they had that she could use.
When Arizona became a state, she was required to file birth certificates for each child she attended, she had to raise her fee to $5.00. On many occasions she risked her life crossing the swollen river on a boat or on horseback to deliver babies and help the sick at any call during the day or night. She was the attending midwife to many of her grandchildren and great grandchildren.
Her home had a distinct charm about it that was rare in the homes of the valley in those early days. It had a stairway with one room built above another, and all around the house the sweetest garden grew. She had both vegetables and flowers, and her generosity with both in those times when such things were very scarce or did not exist, filled an acute need in life, especially of children. The fragrance of her many kinds of old-fashioned flowers made passing by her house an important event in the lives of others. Hers was a quiet home with shade trees and cool vines that made a spot of shade in summer for bare feet of children to step in and pause. Her lot was as an oasis in the midst of a burning desert. Inside, the lamplight of evening gave a positive charm to rag carpets, pieced quilts, hand carved furniture, and the lace window curtains starched stiff and white and held back with red crepe paper roses. It was a home where little girls were invited to come after school to practice singing while she played the organ. She helped each little girl learn the words, “Hush my child, and peace attend thee, All through the night,” and when it was time to render it in the Ward Christmas Program, she knew where to find a small hand carved child size rocker for each little girt to sit in while she sang and rocked her dolls.
She often met and dealt with strange characters such as the frontier produced: cowboys, Indians, rustlers, teamsters, miners, soldiers, prospectors, and preachers. She was fearless, and was never known to shrink from doing her duty.
She read everything she could get about medicine, took courses and tests by correspondence, and received both nurses and doctor*s certificates, such as were available at the time.
She was a friend and counselor to maidens in search of knowledge about the great mystery of life--love. She was a shining, crisp example of cleanliness to homemakers and little children and of generosity when dealing with the poor, of firmness when dealing with peers, and of keenness when dealing with competitors.
She taught her family to pray, and to develop their talents. She taught several of her eight children to play the organ, and the whole community to sing; through her efforts a pioneer community was made happy and reverent through music--their most perfect expression of a perfect faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Besides being an efficient wife and the mother of eight children, and the many other responsibilities she was called to perform in those early settlements with few conveniences, she still found time to be actively engaged in any church calling that she was called to. When a Relief Society was first organized on Dec. 31, 1882 in Curtisville, she was called to be the first President. She served for 5 years. She was then called to be Young Ladies M.I.A. President for four years. She also served as a teacher in nearly every organization most of her life.
In 1883, after his first wife died, Moses lived with Elizabeth in the two story house until his death 24 years later.
Elizabeth had a prescription to remove cancer from any place she could get to it to treat it, and she removed many cancers from people. She died February 20, 1927 at the age of 75, of cancer of the stomach, where her medicine could not reach to cure it. She and Moses are also
buried in the Eden cemetery. Thus ends the chronicle of two faithful pioneer foreparents and the end of an Era which will never be repeated.
Remembrances of Elizabeth by her daughter Jane Curtis Palmer-
“Mother never was a grouchy woman. Mother was kind and good to every one that knew her. I never have known of her ever having anyone that spoke a disrespectful word against her. She was a friend to everyone that knew her, only father's oldest son, Monroe, and he was older than my mother and of course thought Father should listen to him in everything that went on between the two families. And of course Mother would tell him off in a way he didn't like. But Father's first family would come to our house and mother's children and theirs would play and we all were very happy together. I never knew of one time of any trouble or fussing among the children or the grown-ups.
Mother was a woman that believed in making her children mind the first time she spoke, not speak a dozen times then give up and do it herself, like mothers do now days. My father was the same and I am very thankful to my parents for that, for it was instilled in my mind till I tried to raise my family the same way. I didn't tell them 100 times then do what I wanted them to do, myself I don't believe in that way of bringing up children.
My mother was a happy woman. Jolly, cheerful, always singing some lovely song or the tune of some songs she knew, she was very musical and love to sing. She always sang to please the heart, was always humming or singing as she worked. She always sang in the choir at church, most of the time leading the singing. She had a voice like one of the sweetest birds you ever heard. She always sang her babies and grand babies to sleep as she would rock in the old rocking chair.
She was a great dancer and did love to dance so much when we all went to dances in Eden. She never lacked a chance for a partner to dance with. She was always graceful in her figure, and her dance and in her way of dress. She was a dressmaker and a tailor by trade. She made a man's suit and you would of thought it had just come from New York or some of them big factories there.
She was always planting gardens in the spring and Father would keep the weeds out and hoe while mother was off on a confinement case earning something for the family to live on while it grew. Never was there an idle moment for my mother while she was able to work, and that was from the time she married my father until two months before she died.
My mother had filled this whole valley with the charity she had for all people, both black and white and raised a family that always will love and cherish her memory for it. She surely did earn a gold crown in the eternities.”
This biography was compiled from all the histories Elizabeth Cook Snow could find.
Sources:
“The Garden and How it Grew- Eden 1881-1981" Compiled by Verna Rae Colvin
“The Life and Ancestry of Erastus Elijah Hancock” by Spencer J. Palmer June 22, 1958
“Love’s Labor Not Lost” by Elizabeth M. Lauritzen
“Curtis Family Book” compiled by C. Fern Burrell Tempe, Arizona
“Mormon Immigration Index-CD”, Family History Resource File
© 2000 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.
“Family Records Centre- General Register Office” London, England
Original Birth Certificate for Elizabeth Hanks in the possesion of Elizabeth Cook Snow, Mapleton, UT, USA
Obituary
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