Item Detail
-
Davidson, Eliza Jane Garr
-
1821-1901
-
MSS SC 10
-
Letters
-
Eliza Jane Garr Davidson was born on 1 April 1821 in Wayne Co., Indiana. She was the eldest of 12 children born to Fielding Garr and Paulina Turner, the others being Nancy, Richard Rue, John Turner, Abraham, William Henry, Abel Weaver, Caroline Martin, Sarah Anna, Mary Virginia, and Benjamin Franklin.
Not much is known about her personal life except through the letters she wrote to her family. When the Garr family became exposed to the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Elizas mother and later her father joined. Most if not all of her siblings also joined, and before long they moved first to Illinois with the Saints, and then to Utah. Eliza, however, did not join the Church until much later in her life.
On 31 October 1839 in Richmond, Indiana, she married James Davidson. Together, they had 11 children, John Garr, Nancy Jane, Mary Ann, Paulina, Marjane Garr, James F., Joseph, Joseph William, George, Sarah Isabel, and Louella E. Of these children, unfortunately Joseph, born in 1852, did not survive his infancy.
The couple worked hard to provide for themselves, renting the McClure farm in Richmond, Indiana. The farm was about 60 acres of land on which they planted oats, wheat, corn, sweet potatoes, cabbage, and more. Some of her day-to-day duties included canning, carpet weaving, watching and raising turkeys, as well as churning butter and sugar making.
When the Civil War began, she wrote to her family in Utah inquiring about their stance on things. She was for the Union but had heard a rumor that the Mormons were for the confederacy. She was nevertheless sympathetic to her family and their religion, often expressing wishes for the persecution against them to lighten, if not end.
It is unknown exactly when, but sometime between 1898 and her death, Eliza, and her family finally joined the Church.
She died on 19 February 1901 in Boston Township, Indiana. -
This folder contains a paper bound book entitled 1856-1899. Eliza Jane Garr Davidson. Richmond, Indiana. Letters to her Utah Folks, Compiled by R. L. Ashby. It numbers 21 pages of various sizes of handwritten letters.
The letters included in this collection are 10 in total, and their dates range from 16 March 1856 to 6 October 1899. Almost all of them are written by Eliza herself, and addressed from Richmond, Indiana, with the exception of one letter from 24 December 1896, which is actually a letter written by her nephew, Rodney C. Badger, to Eliza, and is addressed from Salt Lake City. The majority of these letters from Eliza are addressed to her sister, Nancy Garr Badger Stringham, as well as sometimes one of Nancys daughters, Charlotte Badger Richards, or else they are addressed to Nancys son, Rodney C. Badger.
On the inside cover of the book, there is also a note that reads, Grandmother had 3 children buried at Uncle Rues on the south side of Aunt Nancy, Richard William and Jane, and a note that reads, The first letter written to her father about 1 year after his death; The last one written to her sister less than 6 months before her sisters death.
Prefacing the letters, there is a list entitled, Family of James Davidson and Eliza Jane Garr Davidson, which goes as follows:
- John Garr Davidson, 4 July 1840
- Nancy Jane, 15 Jan 1842
- Mary Ann, 8 Oct 1843
- Margaret, 22 Jan 1848
- James Fielding, 19 Jan 1850
- Joseph William, 24 Apr 1853
- George Franklin, 20 Sept 1855
- Sarah Isabel, 6 Jun 1858
- Luella, 30 Dec 1861
- In addition to this list of names is a pedigree of the family.
In the letters, Eliza relates news of her family and farm and the state of things in the Midwest, and she inquires after the state of her family in Utah. While most of the letters contents involve updates on crop yield, family members health, her own health and weight, and other aspects of everyday farm life, some notable pieces of news include: her mention of Uncle James health failing, rendering him unable to take care of the family farm; a story about a man who shot a Mormon dead and was not punished for the crime, about which she felt indignant, having Mormon relatives; and how she has friends that are going to Kentucky to fight in the Civil War. Along with this last piece of news, she asks her family if they and other members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Utah support the Union or the Confederacy, with the hope expressed that its the Union they support.
Along with these letters, there are photocopies of each page of the same.