- Written by Vada Beckstead 1965
Eliza Jane Prescott was born 16 May 1827, at Dover, Stafford County, New Hampshire. The daughter of Timothy Sanborn and Jane Hutchins (or Hutchings) Prescott. The Prescotts were descendants of early New England families who came from England between 1635 and 1650. They were scattered throughout the New England states. Her father was born in Orange, Vershire Co., Vermont. Her mother was born in Kittery, York County, Maine.
Next, we hear of her, she was living with Prescott relatives in Charlestown, Mass. Here she attended the elementary schools and entered a woman's finishing school where pastry baking and how to entertain were taught.
Eliza seems to have lived in a formal Military atmosphere. She had great respect for the French, and much less for the English as a result of the recent wars. It has been said she would "stand at attention", at the approach and passing of the U. S. flag or any military officer.
Eliza had clear blue eyes and light brown hair. Little is known at this time of her maternal parents. She was always been connected with the Prescotts.
On 10 April 1849 she was married to Charles Sanborn Cram, who was the son of Amos and Jane Sanborn Prescott Cram, her cousin. He was tall, dark and handsome, a builder of fine houses. They were married in New York City and went to Meredith, New Hampshire, the home of the Crams, who were also
descendants of Emigrants from England arriving in New Hampshire in 1635.
Charles was a convert to a new church, the very unpopular Mormons. He was told to choose between his family and "Joe Smith" which he did. His name is not mentioned with his father's family in the History of New Hampshire.
Being builders Eliza and Charles followed the migration westward and southward. Their children, eight of them, were born in six different states, from New Hampshire, to Alabama to Utah. The Charles S. Cram family arrived in Utah in the late spring of 1862. He built a very nice 2 story house on
the corner of 5th South and 1st West in Salt Lake City. They were members of the Seventh Ward, where much of their record is found. It is here that Charles took a 2nd wife. Eliza's hired girl who was a convert in Scotland.
Eliza was baptized in 1860, while they were living in Missouri preparing to move to Utah.
The frontier life, constant moving, the practice of pologamy [sic] were very hard on Eliza and she succumbed to a disease of the kidneys and heart in the fall of 1881 at Kanab, Kane County, Utah, where she and Charles are both buried.
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