- Mary Elvira Bigelow Lee
Posted 10 Aug 2012 by toyman791
Ancestry.com, Sehl Family Tree
MARY ELIVIRA BIGELOW LEE
In the early morning of the first day of November, 1858 a little black eyed daughter was born to Hyrum Bigelow and Martha Mecham in a two-story log house in Provo, Prove, Utah.
She was named Mary Elvira for her two grandmothers Mecham and Bigelow. As soon as she learned to talk, her Grandmother Bigelow began teaching her to read and continued at every opportunity to instill in her little granddaughter, along with the others, the value of education. As a result she obtained a very good education for the times and circumstances, and taught schools in a number of locations where she later lived.
She was fortunate to live near both grandparents and enjoy their interest and love. Her Grandfather Moses Worthen Mecham held her on his lap many a times and told her a story. It was at his house she saw her great grandmother Permelia Chapman Mecham when she was an old lady in a pretty white cap all trimmed with lace ruffles. When she was about seven her parents moved to Round Valley, a sort of summer resort. Cool, lots of water and grass and wild fruit, but they did not fare too well here, and the Indians drove them out and so they moved back to Provo when she was about eight or nine years old. In Provo they had a good home, with a half block of orchard, and a garden spot, also some land down by the creek about five miles away which was rented to some Danish people who brought vegetables, fruit, and hay for their rent.
Her father was a lather and carpenter by trade, but was handy in many ways. Mary Elvira was the eldest girl of her brothers and sisters who were all much above the ordinary of attractiveness and beauty, but Mary Elvira was the favorite of her father and her other relatives. It was while she lived in Provo that she went to visit her father’s sister Aunt Mary Jane Bigelow Young. Aunt Lucy had an adopted daughter Ina and a daughter Mabel and between Mabel and Ella, as she was called, there began a friendship that grew along with their continued relationship in St. George, Utah and lasted until death ended their correspondence many years later.
The family continued in Provo until Ella was about fifteen or sixteen and attending the Timpanogos University, but soon there after, in response to a call by President Brigham Young, they prepared to go to St. George, Utah where her Aunt Lucy was already installed in President Young’s summer home, and who was very lonesome.
Here Mary Elvira lived with her Aunt Lucy for a year before her family was persuaded to join the United Order at Middleton which was organized and functioned as such for about a year, after which the family moved back to St. George [where the] Temple was under construction. Her father, Hiram Bigelow, worked for five years beginning first at the quarry and only stopping when all the floors were laid. During this time the family received help from the Tithing Office.
Ella and her sisters were very popular at the dances held in the upper story of the large court house in St. George and had many beaux who took them to the dances and theaters. But Ella would never get too serious with any of them. She would like one and then another, making fun of or jilting those who became serious with her, or if some young man persuaded her to promise to have him, she would change her mind when she saw someone else. It seemed that as soon as she saw she could wind him around her little finger, that she no longer cared for her suitor.
These were the circumstances that prevailed when her Aunt Elvira Mecham Bigelow came down from the Magadso to visit. After talking over the matter, the Two sisters decided to persuade their daughter and niece to go ahead and marry the nice young man she was engaged to. But Ella had already found someone else more attractive and already didn’t care for her suitor.
However after considerable persuasion, she reluctantly married Lyman Peck 17 Apr. 1878. About three weeks later, Hyrum Her brother, married Amelia Peck, Lyman’s sister, and the two boys went on a freighting trip and were gone for many days.
Although Lyman loved her devotedly, and Ella felt sorry for him, she was ill and unhappy nearly all the time until she moved back with her family. Lyman followed and lived with them a summer, and made a number of attempts to persuade his wife to come back to him.
It was while Ella and Lyman, Hiram and Amelia and Ella family were crossing Lee’s ferry on their way to Arizona that she first met her future second husband. Ella had a gay time crossing in the little life boat, but Lyman, afraid of the water, had crawled under the covers in one of the wagons and covered up his head.
On the way up Lee’s backbone on the south side when, they were having such difficulty getting the wagons up the grade, two young men came riding down the dugway on their horses, and one of them lassoed the wagon tongue and helped them for hours, as his wonderful horse just squatted to the ground in response to his rider’s wishes.
It was when he saw Ella standing against a big rock that John Lee said to his brother Frank, “That’s my girl, right there.” But Frank only laughed and said, “Oh! You’ll never see her again.” Neither knew she was married.
The next time she saw John was when she and Lyman had separated and her family was settled in Springerville, where her father was threshing for Billy Waddell and Ed Lewis; and the girls, Ella and Lucy, were cooking for the threshers. Ella didn’t remember him when John came in with the thresher but John remembered Ella very well and was very much surprised to see her come in with the food.
John began to call on Ella, as had many others, and perhaps because John was too proud and sensitive to be treated as Ella had the others, she found she could not wind him around her finger, and there began to grow Ella a new love based on admiration and respect. After a courtship of several years, during which Ella learned something about ‘give and take”, they were married in Springerville by brother Hales on 1 Jan 1883, the same day Janey and Milton Gibbs were married.
Very shortly there after they, with her husband’s relatives, Grandma Lee, Mabel, Hebe and Nancy Dalton left for the Gila River. After three weeks of mud and sleet, they arrived at Smithville, near Pima, and lived on that side of the river for about a year while they raised corn, melons, worked for wages and freighted and improved themselves generally.
Then they crossed the river and rented a farm up the river by the Brewery, and then moved to Layton near Safford where they farmed and John built homes of adobe and brick for the townspeople. He also freighted, as did many other settlers of that day.
Each time they moved, they bettered themselves a little. But Ella’s heath was not good, and in an effort to find a more healthful situation, they left their two-story brick house in Layton and moved out to where Lebanon now is and bought the Goodspeed ranch of 160 acres with a well and mountain water and obtained Artesian water.
His relatives and others also moved out and a prosperous settlement was begun. Here they raised their children to be active in the Church, meanwhile extending the traditional Lee hospitality which included an always well-laden table.
Except for intervals in Gila, New Mexico, and San Diego, California, their lives were spent in Lebanon until the death of her husband 29 Apr. 1939. Ella then lived with her daughter Effie for a number of years, and then went to Mesa, Arizona to work in the Temple where she died in her sleep 27 Dec 1946.
Her son Doyle lived with her much of the time after her husband’s death and was always very good to her. It was quite surprising that such a frail little body would outlast the exceptionally sturdy and strong body of her husband.
Her husband was always very tender and considerate of her, and despite her frailty and poor health, they were the parents of ten children. Ella had a strong testimony of the gospel and was known for her faithfulness. She was an ardent tithe payer and devout. She was a strong believer on the power of prayer, and loved to read the Bible.
May God bless the memory of the sweet mother, grandmother and great great grand mother who set such a wonderful example in so many ways.
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1858 - 1946 (88 år)
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