ELI DAVID SPAULDING ELIZA ANN SPAULDING Minuteman Eli David Spaulding 1863 Eli David Spaulding was only nine years old when he helped drive a herd of livestock across the plains, trailing the wagon train in which his family traveled from Winter Quarters to the Great Salt Lake Valley. It was no small task for a youngster on a pony. He was only 18 when he was called as a 'Minute Man' who patrolled Echo Canyon when Johnston's Army threatened the peace and safety of the Saints. Their maneuver¬ing among the rocks and along the ridges led the government troops to believe they were outnumbered. Eli David Spaulding was born 30 July, 1839, in Crownpoint, Essex County in Upper New York State. His parents were Ira Newton and Eliza Drake Spaulding. They were baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1842 and mov¬ed to Nauvoo, Illinois. In 1848 the Spauldings crossed the plains to the Great Salt Lake Valley. Eli David married Eliza Ann Wadsworth 16 October, 1861, in Riverdale, Weber County. She was a daughter of Abiah and Eliza Ann Hardy Wadsworth and was born 4 January 1842, in Searsmont, Waldo, Maine. The Wadsworth family had crossed the plains in 1851. The young couple settled in Riverdale, Weber County, where their first child, Clara Ann, was born. Two years later they were living in Mountain Green, Morgan County, where the next six children were born. They were Eliza Ellen, Lucinda Arline, Eli, who died at birth; David Abiah, and twins, Julius Frank and Julia Francis. The last four children, Asa, Lewis, Lenna May and Effie, were born in Hooper. When the Spauldings arrived in Mountain Green, Eli David cleared 20 acres of land and began farming. He later added another 90 acres. All the land had to be cleared of sage brush and other growth. 156