From His􀀲􃉯ory of !'-biah Wadsworth: All of Abiah's family and Nelson Arave were converted to the Church in the fall of 1 839 at Lincolnville, Maine by Elders William and Orson Hyde. Abiah was Bishop at Mountain Green, Utah. ELIZA HARDY WADSWORTH. A Sketch of the life of Eliza Hardy Wadsworth, wife of Abiah. Compiled by Martha Ann Hardy Wadsworth. Eliza Hardy was born on April l8, l806 in Lincolnville, Maine. She was the daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth (Betsy) Thorndyke Hardy, who were both of Siersmont, Maine. In 1831, Eliza Hardy married Abiah Wadsworth, son of Sedate and Susan Hassen Wadsworth, who was born in Lincolnville, Maine, May 25th, 1810. Abiah’s parents were also natives of Maine, and his father was a noted ship builder and carpenter. After Elize Hardy and Abiah Wadsworth were married, they lived in Lincolnville, Maine, and Siersmont, Maine. Eliza’s parents had loved to live on this coast. Her father Joseph worked as a Captain on a large freighting vessel and had learned to love the Great Waters. His family learned to love the music of the Ocean waters dashing on the rock bound coast. Eliza loved this life, and has told that she often sat near the water, and the rocks and listened to the stories that the waters whispered to her. Eliza’s mother had told her children that the steady dashing waves against the rocks was as peaceful music, but if they heard the ocean roar beneath, even if it did not look so rough, that the water warned seamen of death and destruction. And at those times the mother worried, it might take the life of her husband, of some brave captain, or more abroad. Yet Eliza’s life was happy by the Ocean, and her husband Abiah who like-wise had lived in these parts and had seen the new ships finished and set out on their first voyage. And had heard many interesting stories from the sailors. They were a happy couple on the coast of Maine and soon had a little family of their own. In the fall of 1839 there was quite a commotion in the town of Lincolnville. Elder of the new Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints came to preach to the people, and to bring them into the New and True Church. Eliza and Abiah and many others were converted and baptized into the Church. In the year 1840 they joined a company leaving for Illinois. Eliza’s father Joseph and mother Betsy Thorndyke Hardy, and three of ther brothers joined the Company, but Abiah’s parents did not go. It was very hard for them to leave their homes they loved so dearly and especially Abiah who had to bid farewell to his loved ones and many of his friends. But they were eager to join the Saints, and believed with all their hearts the teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, and were more than anxious to meet him in Nauvoo. Eliza and Abiah had four children at the time and they, with Eliza’s parents and brothers prepared for the long trip to Nauvoo. The Saints sacrificed all they owned but just enough to take them along their journey, and what little they could take along. Eliza’s mother was not strong and became very ill as they went over the rough untraveled trail and it became necessary for Eliza’s parents to stay with a family of Saints along the way who made them welcome until Betsy was able to travel. The others went on, but the Mother Betsy had told them if her Father in Heaven would only permit her to make the journey so that she might see and meet the Prophet Joseph, she would be willing to die. Abiah, Eliza, and family reached Nauvoo in April of 1840, and soon became acquainted with the Prophet Joseph, and until the time of his death, they were very true and close friends. There being only a few years difference in the age of Abiah and the Prophet Joseph, they often were interested in athletic games together. Abiah and Eliza often told their children what a fine specimen of character and manhood the Prophet was. So fair, so true, and honest, that everyone loved him. The older brother of Eliza had gone back to get the mother Betsy and her husband Joseph, and arrived safely in Nauvoo, where Betsy and Joseph met the Prophet of God and learned to love him as all other Saints had done. And all looked upon the Prophet as being most like an immortal being. Mother Betsy and Father Joseph had received their wish. They had joined the main body of Saints and had heard the voice of their Prophet, and they had believed and were thus made very happy. Betsy died in 1841, in Nauvoo, and her husband died in 1842 also in Nauvoo. Eliza and Abiah with their family and her brothers and their families were as a little group to cling together now as her dear parents had gone, and the Prophet Joseph had been put to death, and everything seemed changed. But it seemed the Saints grew more determined, as they tried to choose another leader to take the place of the Prophet. Abiah was at the meeting and heard Brigham Young speak in Joseph Smith’s voice, and told the story of how this inspirational experience convinced the Saints. Another great leader they saw before them. But people were having to keep out of the way of the mobs, who were determined to do away with all of the Saints, and they had to flee for their lives. They would have to cross the great Mississippi and that meant they must be ferried across the river in all of the hours of the night and day. The weather was bitter cold and men had to stay right on the Ferry job. 184 There was sickness and trouble. Eliza’s brother, Zachariah Hardy, who had had an experience on the large freighting vessels, with his father in Maine, was put in charge of the ferry boat. He was not relieved of his trying position, there being so much sickness, so he had to stay long hours, until he became exhausted and chilled with the extreme cold. He was taken to camp but died soon after of pneumonia. He died Feb. 12, 1846. Grief stricken, the little group with the Saints moved to a little town called Mont Rose. But Abiah was chosen to be guards, to watch with others, the Nauvoo Temple, which the mob was threatening to burn. But soon after the little group, Abiah and Eliza, their family which was now five (as Eliza had given birth to a child while in Nauvoo) and the two brothers and their families moved to Salem, a small town about fifty miles away. Here they lived in peace and safety for one year. Abiah and his oldest son Joseph worked for a farmer, doing farm work and carpenter work and for it they earned a team of horses and a wagon and supplies to take on their journey to Council Bluffs, where they went in 1847, staying until 1851. In the meantime Eliza’s husband Abiah had turned out a team of young oxen and numerous other supplies to help companies who went west before he was called. He was an efficient worker repairing and helping those who had trouble in preparing to go. But in the early spring of 1851 (May 10th) they too received their call and were on their way with the Saints in Captain Day’s Company. Abiah had a very good outfit, having five yoke of oxen, one team of ponies and four cows, and three wagons in which they carried supplies, bringing with them grain for seed. Abiah drove two yoke of oxen and one of cows on one wagon and his oldest son Joseph drove one yoke of oxen and two of cows on antoer and Eliza, the mother, drove the ponies on another and kept the youngest children with her. Their family, Joseph Warren, Susan, Arline, Nancy, Ellen, Eliza Ann, Abiah and Lucinda, who was born in Council Bluffs. Abiah not only took all of his working tools with which to help those on the way, but he took his cherished violin and his drums. They all left in good health and in fine spirits and got along wonderfully. Although today we might not term it such a nice journey were we to travel as they did. In the evenings Abiah played his violin and sometimes the drums, and they danced and sang, making it a pleasant journey to them, and they were [a] grateful and happy company when they reached Salt Lake City, their Land of Promise. They arrived in Salt Lake September 17, 1851 with every member of the company in high spirits. They had taken care of each member in the very best way along the journey and had likewise taken best care of the animals that often needed attention. Brigham Young, in a meeting after they had arrived, complemented them highly on having gotten along so wonderfully. But he also told them not to unpack, that they were to join a colony going to East Weber, near Weber Canyon, and here they arrived on Sept. 20, 1853. They were called upon for settling of tithing and Abiah gave a team of oxen and a new rifle. They gathered wood and logs from the mountains and together they fitted log cottages and dugouts to see them through the winter. In the spring of 1852, in conference at Salt Lake, volunteers were asked to meet a company of saints who were coming that fall. Abiah volunteered, but could not go on account of sickness, so Joseph, his son went in his place. Abiah said, “Jose is a much better bull whacker than I am anyway.” Going well equipped, Joseph and his helper, Dad Blodget, he called him, went on this journey, and met the company stranded in deep snow, on Sweet Water. But having everything to aid them, even the strong courage Joseph possessed, they were aided to the Salt Lake Valley. Mother Eliza was very proud of her brave son and so was his father who always put so much confidence in him. But that year the settlers of East Weber were forced to go to the forts for protection from the raging Indians, and on their return home it was late in the spring and dry, and their crops were very poor. And that winter having so little food for stock and so little for themselves, the families endured a terrible winter, losing many of their best cattle and animals. Joseph was married to Abigail Higley in March 1855, and later he married Lydia Stoddard as it was time of polygamy. Abiah also married again. He married Phoebe Agusta Hubbard in the spring of 1857. Now there was another wife for Abiah to support and to Eliza there was another to claim a share of the love and attention of her husband Abiah. But Abiah was an energetic worker and always did his work well, and it seemed he could always furnish his two families with a good living. If October of 1856 another call came for Joseph their oldest son to aid a handcart company on their way to the valley of the Mountains. And once more he proved …. …. … braver than before, as the story he told of the stranded Saints, half starved and some of …. Was almost more than one could bear. ….. once more he filled a mission in …. Again …. bring them to …. … to be able at all times to speak the truth, and to stick with it. In 1860 the families moved to Morgan on account of the Indians, and lived there two years, where Abiah served a term as Bishop as he had been in East Weber and Mountain Green. They moved back to Mountain Green, where Abiah and Joseph worked together, cutting logs, and their professional work at that time. Some of the Indians were friendly and called often to see them trusting them in many ways. Abiah had been in the Tannery business while at Morgan making harnesses, saddles, and that sort of thing’ fpr for his work and kindness to the Indians, they had given him several buffalo hides, which Eliza had carefully lined and kept for extra covers on beds in cold weather. She had also arranged some of them for rugs. She was proud of having more of these hides than any around her, and she was proud of her work, keeping them especially clean and attractive. Abiah having two families to support bought land and moved to Hooper, Utah, west and near the Great Salt Lake. He moved the families in 1868. Abiah had a home across from the Naisbitt home or where the Naisbitt home is at present, his work shop a few steps east of his home. A short distance west of his house was a daughter Cindy, a bit farther west on the same side of the street was another daughter Nancy and in the west corner of the block on the south was the home of his second wife Agusta, and half way on the west side of the same block was the home of their son Abiah Jr., and on the north east corner of the same large block was another daughter Ann, who married Eli Spaulding. And just half way on block going south, across the road was the home of their son Joseph, and his two wives and families. The children were all within one mile of their home. Eliza was happy to have her children near her. She had always been an ambitious worker for her family. It seemed in whatever work she was to do she always tried to get through before her neighbors. Her hands were eager to work just a little faster, to pick the most berries, to work harder and get the most ferkins of butter. Ferkins were containers made of wood like a bucket, made of certain kinds of wood which did not contain pitch, and there were made by her husband to hold several pounds of butter in store. She would be prepared for winter it seemed before any of her friends and neighbors. This was her ambition… . She could knit real fast, to supply menfolks with winter socks. Her husband Abiah was a genius in his work shop and with his son-in-law made many things to be used by the people. The two of them worked out many ideas together, and men often called to the little work shop to watch the work and to hear Abiah tell sea captain stories that happened back in Maine. He was a witty man and always had a good clean joke in mind. He was an athlete and loved to wrestle and play games with his family. School children from the old West school house, which Abiah and his sons helped to build, used to run down to Abiah’s work shop and watch him work, where he always had a kind, cheerful greeting for them. Abiah had helped with all of the meeting houses and school houses in towns where they had lived and Temple and Tabernacle. But Eliza and Abiah were getting older and Eliza had been troubled with a catarach on her eye, and it grew worse, finally taking the sight of both of her eyes. This was a tragedy for one who was so ambitious. For those hands that loved to work fast and that always loved to win. It seemed she could hardly bear such a thing to come into her life. Her family were also grief stricken. Father Abiah was unable to take care of her and even to take care of himself. And thus the little home was broken up. Mother Eliza went to live with her daughter Arline who lived next to her on the east side. Arline was a very good daughter to her as was her husband. Eliza’s life for all the kindness of her daughter was so different, her husband Abiah was taken care of by the second wife Agusta, who was someyears younger. Eliza loved her husband dearly but her life must be changed. She was weary and blue but friends to her were many and came to her often. Her own children were extremely good to her, and she began to study the voices of those who called, to call them near her side, that she would feel their shoulders or their hair and in her shrewd keen way she could guess each one. Children came with sweet cheering words to her, and often brought dainties their dear mothers had arranged. Tears of gratefulness ran down her face as she studied what had been given her. She with her keen fingers, could feel every stitch, she had done that work and knew how long it would take, she appreciated all. But she could not help crying as she thought of her many friends and her dear children. Abiah and his second wife and their family moved to Taylor, Idaho, soon after Eliza became blind and he could work around a bit for several years, but died April 18, 1899. Eliza later stayed with her daughter Ann and her husband Eli Spaulding. Here she was also treated wonderful and no one could be more thoughtful, and more kind than Eli Spaulding. When he came in from work he would hurry to mother.