STEWART, Eliza Luella^{[1, 2, 3]}

1855 - 1937  (82 years)  Submit Photo / Document

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• Name	STEWART, Eliza Luella
  Birth	21 May 1855	Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, United States
  Gender	Female
  WAC	31 Jan 1870	EHOUS
  _TAG	Reviewed on FS
  Death	28 May 1937	St Johns, Apache, Arizona, United States
  Burial	30 May 1937	St. Johns Cemetery, St. Johns, Apache, Arizona, United States
  Headstones	Submit Headstone Photo
  Person ID	I51427	Joseph Smith Sr and Lucy Mack Smith
  Last Modified	19 Aug 2021

  
  

  Family ID

  F25721

  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	UDALL, David King ,   b. 7 Sep 1851, St Louis, St Louis, Missouri, United States St Louis, St Louis, Missouri, United Statesd. 18 Feb 1938, St Johns, Apache, Arizona, United States (Age 86 years)
  Children	1. UDALL, Pearl ,   b. 20 Jun 1880, Kanab, Kane, Utah, United States Kanab, Kane, Utah, United Statesd. 7 Apr 1950, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, United States (Age 69 years)
  Family ID	F25719	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	24 Jan 2022

  
  

• Photos		At least one living or private individual is linked to this item - Details withheld.
  		At least one living or private individual is linked to this item - Details withheld.

  
  

• Notes

  ELIZA LUELLA STEWART UDALL (A sketch written by her son Levi) ELLA (as she was affectionately known to her intimate associates), the second child and eldest daughter of Levi Stewart and Margery Wilkerson, was born May 21, 1855, in Salt Lake City. While she customarily signed her name "E. L. S. Udall," we shall refer to her as "Ella." The Stewarts were of Scottish descent. Ella's paternal progenitors were among the early settlers (1674) in the South. Around the year 1800 the Stewarts lived first in North Carolina and later in Tennessee. Her father, however, grew to manhood in Illinois; there the Mormon elders found and converted him in the year 1837. From that time, having cast his lot with the "saints," he endured the persecutions of his people in both Missouri and Illinois and it was not until the autumn of 1848 that he reached Salt Lake Valley. Ella's earliest recollection was of their home at 4th South and State Street, in Salt Lake City. When she was ten years of age the family moved to Big Cottonwood. She attended private schools in Salt Lake, which included President Young's school located near Eagle Gate. Among her teachers was the gifted poetess, Sarah E. Carmachel. The knowledge thus gained, inspired and remained with her throughout her life. She could and frequently did repeat many poems and stories from the famous old "McGuffey Readers." All of the Stewart children were brought up to love the restored Gospel. Their father had personally known and guarded the prophet, Joseph Smith, and was also a confidant and devoted follower of Brigham Young. Faith- promoting stories were perpetuated by family lore, chief of which was about dividing the flour, scarce as it was, with hungry emigrants camped near their home in Salt Lake City. Their father told them never to turn away a hungry person and they didn't. The family firmly believed that the Lord increased their supply of flour as He did the widow's meal in biblical days. As a part of their early training the Stewart girls were taught to cook, and learned to "stitch a fine seam"; make tallow candles, homemade soap, and to dry and preserve fruit and cure meats. Furthermore, their mother, who had had some training in health problems, particularly hydrotherapy, passed this knowledge on to her children. All of these practical accomplishments stood Ella in, good stead when, in her own right, she became a pioneer mother On the outskirts of civilization. Time was found in the Stewart household for play and recreation. Ella was fond of telling how the family, while living in Salt Lake, had season tickets to the Salt Lake Theater, and the older children were permitted to attend dances in the Social Hall. There were picnic parties up City Creek Canyon in the summertime, and sleigh rides in winter with tinkling bells and buffalo robes to keep them warm. In Cottonwood the girls learned to skate and swim, even having their own swimming hole. Levi Stewart was a good businessman and readily accumulated property through his activities as a merchant, farmer and stockman. Ella was thus early schooled in finance and the value of thrift. These traits became a part of her, and throughout her life she manifested a keen business sense, fully understanding the value of money. Many instances evidencing these qualities appear elsewhere in this volume. In the spring of 1870, President Young called Levi Stewart to take his family and livestock and move to southern Utah, where he was to preside as Kanab's first bishop. The "call" was accepted without question. Before they left Salt Lake, President Young requested that one of the girls stop off in Toquerville, a small town en route, and learn telegraphy, thereby preparing to be an operator at the new Deseret Telegraph Line out of Kanab. Ella, then fifteen years of age, was chosen as the one for the job. In six weeks time, under the fine tutelage of Sarah Ann Spilsbury, in whose home she lived, Ella mastered the Morse Code which she never forgot to the day of her death. Her first assignment, in December 1871, was on a branch line ending at Pipe Springs in Arizona. This is now a National Monument. It was the first telegraph office in Arizona Territory. Later as operator at Kanab, Ella sent out over the wires to Washington, D.C., the reports of Major John Wesley Powell's Grand Canyon expedition. An appalling calamity occurred in the Levi Stewart family in the early morning hours of December 14, 1870, when a fire broke out in the back room of their home within the Kanab Fort. (The thick walls of the Fort in which there were no windows or other openings formed one side of the house.) Five of Ella's brothers were sleeping back there and were trapped by the fire with no avenue of escape. Her mother, Margery, rushed in through the flames to waken the children. Ella was closely following but was pulled back by her father at the last moment. All six of them perished as there was no chance, of rescue, due in part to the explosion of combustibles (kerosene and powder) stored in a room near them, coupled with a high wind, that fanned the blaze. This tragic event left a deep imprint upon Ella, turning her from a carefree, fun-loving girl of fifteen to a serious woman. It is felt that Ella's life story--subsequent to her marriage to DAVID K. UDALL--is quite fully portrayed in his "Memoirs." There are, however, certain characteristics she possessed and attainments in her life that should be told. To the end of her days she was a scholar and displayed great intellectual powers; her perception was keen, her memory clear, She was a woman of unusual foresight and good judgment. A close friend said this of her: "Aunt Ella was a queenly woman, a natural hostess, and she truly represented all that a woman should be." Medical help was rarely available in those early days. Ella, because of her early training and the knowledge gained from a prized book by Dr. Hall, entitled "Health at Home," became known as "an angel of mercy." Isaac Barth, editor of the local paper (who had known her all of his life), editorially paid this tribute at the time of her passing: Ella Udall's life was dedicated to untiring and unselfish service to her neighbors. She aided the helpless, she ministered to the sick and wounded, and comforted the afflicted. She not only taught the Gospel of the Lord--she lived it. * * * She always found time to help the Spanish-speaking people, by advice, by teaching them bow to sew, by helping them with their sick children or helping restore some one of them to health and in a hundred ways was useful and helpful to those people who really were strangers to her.... Ella was blessed with refinement and culture and through her work with the women of the Relief Society she aided in setting high standards in the homes of the people. Dignity and poise were an innate part of her life. She was an ardent advocate of "Woman's Suffrage" and was alert to the need of fostering in the women of her acquaintance a keener sense of civic responsibility. In her maturity Ella developed a wealth of human understanding which made it possible for her to be patient and forgiving in her dealings with people. Secrets were safe with her. There was always room in her heart and in her home for the motherless, and even the stranger found therein a sanctuary. Mother's last illness, death and funeral is beautifully covered by Pearl's summation, which follows: On May 28, 1937, Ella bad been very busy. The $20 worth of plants she bad brought from her beloved Utah to beautify the outside of the big home place must be planted for the great occasion--The Golden jubilee in July--the fiftieth anniversary of the organization of the St. Johns Stake. She wanted the home to be beautiful for the homecoming of her family, as they were expecting a great reunion on that occasion. In the afternoon she had a heart attack and did not rally therefrom. They sent for the doctor, who gave her a sedative. At about one a.m. she suffered a second attack, and as her loved ones gathered around she passed over the great divide. It was the desire of her husband that she be laid away like a queen. Her daughters, assisted by Bertha A. Kleinman, performed this sweet service and saw her laid away in. all her queenly loveliness. She had not suffered; she was not wasted, and she lay smiling and serene as all had known, her. The funeral was unusually beautiful. There was no hint of death. It was rather like a pleasant interview of friends and loved ones bad gathered about her. In her behalf death seemed a benediction--a glorious consummation of everything that was beautiful and ennobling in her life. There were no sermons preached. Everything was in eulogy and sweet tribute to her. It seemed that every life bad been richer, ideals loftier and hope of the future made more absolute and certain because of the association with her. Wifehood and motherhood were, of course, Ella's greatest achievement. Mrs. Eliza Luella Stewart Udall, 82, wife of Pres. David K. Udall of St. Johns, Ariz., died unexpectedly,Fri, May 28, 1939, at the family home according to word received by relatives in Salt Lake. The daughter of Bishop Levi and Margery Wilkerson Stewart, she was born in Salt Lake, May 21, 1855 in the old Stewart home at Fourth South and State streets. She was married to David K. Udall Feb. 1, 1875, her husband leaving shortly after to fill a mission in England. Following the division of the Eastern Arizona Stake and the creation of the St. Johns Stake in July 1887, President Udall was named to preside over that stake and at the same time his wife was named stake president of Relief Societies. In this capacity they served 35 years, being at the time of their retirement among the oldest stake officials in point of service in the Church. Mrs. Udall was the mother of nine children and is survived by her husband and the following sons and daughters: Dr. Pearl Udall Nelson of Salt Lake City; Mrs W. W. To a geologist the country extending through northern Arizona and southern Utah is known as a black plateau region. To a traveler it is the painted desert, a land of contrast. The desert stretches for hundreds of miles and is interrupted by the bluffs bordering the higher land above which in turn extends a generous distance and blends with the mountainous region of Utah. Some gorgeous color effects are found in this corner of the great Southwest. The bluffs are of various hues with vermillion and shades of red and with the red predominating. Bryce Canyon is the ultimate in beauty of the region. Nestled at the base of this same rim near the border of Arizona and Utah the little town of Kanab is tucked away. Founded in _____. My great grandfather Levi Stewart was called by Pres Young to settle in Kanab and it was there that my mother Maud Rachel Stewart Udell was born and reared. She was the daughter of William Thomas Stewart and Tamar Hamblin and was born 25 Apr 1875. Grandfather was only 19 and grandmother ____when they were married and as a little girl mother, childlike, remarked when being corrected by grandfather, "You are not big enough." Grandmother died of eresephalis at the birth of her second child who also passed away. Grandfather spent some time during the next few years in the St. George Temple acting as assistant recorder, leaving mother in the charge of her Grand Aunt Artemesis Wilkerson who she called Grandmother and Aunt Ella Stewart Udall who lived in Grandfathers house. Levi Stewart had established what is now the VT. Ranch in the Kaibab forest or the Buckskin Mountains. In the summer the family would go there. Mother remembers how "Grandmother Artemesis" would make big casks of butter, covering each churning with a layer of salt which preserved it very well. she also remembers seeing a bear track when she went to the spring for water and on one occasion hearing the wail of a mountain lion. She was somewhat afraid of the buck Indians who often visited the camp but was not afraid of the squaws. Grandfather had a very affectionate nature and took delight in pleasing his little girl at which he was skillful. Grandmother Artemesis and Aunt Ella also were very good to her. Once mother spoke to them about being visited by her dead mother who told her to be a good girl. Grandfather married Fanny Little when mother was about four years old and Aunt Mary Udall about 1 1/2 years later. Shortly after this he was called on a mission to New Zealand. Aunt Mary of course felt very lonely in his absence and........ (Nothing further was written)

  
  

• Sources

  [S101] GEDCOM file imported on 18 Oct 2001. [S103] GEDCOM file imported on 23 Sep 2002. [S32] Unknown, (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members.), Ancestry Family Trees. http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=32128504&pid=13618