Item Detail
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Coombs, Ellis Day
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1883-1981
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MSS 710; BX 8670.07 .C781c; MSS SC 406
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Autobiography, history
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Ellis Day Coombs was born March 1, 1883 in Mt. Pleasant, Sanpete County, Utah to Eli Azariah Day and Eliza Jane Staker. Her father was a polygamist, and their family experienced much persecution. Consequently, the family moved several times within Utah. When Ellis was eighteen, she taught school in both public and church schools. Later, she enrolled in the University of Chicago, where she took teacher training courses. In 1908, she went to Mexico to teach kindergarten, and there, she met her future husband, Leslie McLean Coombs. They were married in the Manti Temple and afterward, moved to Canada, where Leslie worked with his brother in Cardston. However, they returned to Mexico upon hearing that Leslie's brother-in-law was sick. There was much turmoil due to the Mexican Revolution, and in the midst of it, the Coombs's first child was born. After some trouble, Leslie was mistakenly sent to prison. After he was bailed out, the family left Mexico and returned to Canada, where Leslie worked with his brother at a harness shop. They had their second child in 1913, and their third a year later. Ellis conducted a training school for teachers to teach kindergarten in Utah while Leslie aided in the construction of the Cardston Temple. In 1916, their fourth child was born, but the family, because of Leslie's ill health, was only able to make a living from candy-making. They returned to Mexico on doctor's recommendations, but in 1917, Leslie accidentally overdosed, and he died at age thirty-three.
Ellis, left with four children, continued candy-making. Her family continued to experience much sickness, and when about to return to Utah, her son, Leslie, broke his leg. Not long after, the youngest child, Gladys, became ill and died in 1918. The family returned to Utah, where Ellis took a position teaching third grade at Fairview Elementary School. She advanced to fifth grade and then to a junior high school. Ellis began attending BYU Summer Schools, and she received the Junior High Certificate required to teach higher grades. However, after teaching ninth and tenth grades, she applied for and received a position as a fourth grade teacher. Throughout her career, she taught at Fountain Green and Fairview schools. Meanwhile, she was a member of the Relief Society Stake Board as the director of welfare. She was also elected President of the North Sanpete Daughters of Utah Pioneers. In 1943, her father died, and four years later, her mother. She was called on a mission in December 1953, to serve in the central states for six months. Afterward, she returned to Fairview although she moved to Bicknell in 1963 to be closer to family. In 1965, she slipped on her linoleum, and was injured. She died in 1981. -
This is a 116-page typewritten autobiography. A table of contents is provided in the beginning outlining important events in Ellis's life. Ellis begins with a brief background on her parents and how they met. She expresses the fears she had as a child of her father being taken to jail. She also lists games she played at school, such as marbles, jump rope, jacks, anti-i-over, nip cat, stink base, kick-the-can, steal sticks, and different kinds of ball games like Danish ball, one old cat, two old cat, and rounders. During the winter, the children would make forts and have snowball fights. Chores consisted of milking the cows, washing the dishes, straightening up the house, making the beds, and cleaning the coal oil lamps. Ellis recalls in particular an experience in which she tried to milk a calf, and it broke through the fence, allowing many of the animals to escape. Throughout the rest of the manuscript, she does not write about many of her feelings in depth, although she does relate her testimony. She also includes a poem she submitted to a contest titled, 'The Awakening.' At the end of the manuscript, she concludes with her testimony of the Gospel and records of her prosperity.
BX 8670.07 .C781c: This is Ellis's published autobiography as edited by her daughter, Esther Durfey, and Roma Roderick. The main difference between this book and the manuscript is that this autobiography includes Ellis's patriarchal blessing as given by John Smith, the patriarch of the time. It also includes two other blessings Ellis received, in addition to photocopies of her call to be a missionary and her certificate of release. In the back are photographs and articles written about her.
MSS SC 406: This is a sixty-six page history of Fairview, Utah. In collaboration with George F. Olsen and Allie L. Carlston, Ellis compiled these pages detailing the development and organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Fairview, the beginnings of education, farming, electricity, social life, and politics. Also included is an extensive geographical description of the area as it was in 1982. -
1825-1889