Autobiography of Elizabeth Stewart Marriott
Written at the age of 83 (1912)

I was born in Colmworth, Bedford, England on April 12, 1829. My father's name was Charles Stewart, and my mother's name was Sophia Tingey. She died when I was five years and three months old. My father was a miller by trade.

I grieved over my mother's death many years, and wished I had someone to comfort me. I sat under the weeping willow trees many days praying for help. Later I took the small pox when I was eight years old which blinded me for several days. The next winter I had the "Third Day Hagar" very badly, and was left alone without seeing or speaking to anyone for many days.

I had one sister who married after mother's death, and she moved twenty-five miles away. Father was working in his mill most of the time, and my brother, who was five years older than I, did all that was done for me and my needs.

One day a Gypsy lady came to me and said, "If you will do as I tell you, I will make you well". She helped me and I got well. Her remedy was three tablespoons of gin and two black pepper.

Later, my father married another woman, Sarah Kempton, but she was not kind to me so I left home and hired out. I was still very young, and the people were not as thoughtful of me as they should have been. One time, they put me in a cold room to watch a sleeping child. I took a very bad cold and was sick for one year. This same Gypsy, who was very kind to us, told me what herbs to use which were "Feathery Flue, Rue, Ouslick old man, and Tansy". It seemed the Lord raised friends for me when they were needed.

One day while getting water from a large pond, for my father, I slipped in and went to the bottom. I had faith and I worked hard until I got hold of some willows and climbed out. It was the blessing of the Lord that I was not drowned. I was almost eight years old then.

A few years later in 1845, while working out, I was taken very sick. The doctors gave me up, and I was taken to my brother's home on a stretcher. Before I got well, in November 1846, my father died. One thing I wish to say is: When my father died, he was unable to tell us that the Church of Jesus Christ was true, but Caroline Marriott, my husband's sister, told us what he wanted to say through the Gift of Tongues that this is the only true Church of Christ.

After his death, I lived with my uncle for three months where I was treated very badly. I was very unhappy, for many reasons which I should not tell. Then I went to live with two of my old maid aunts. They were very wealthy. One day, they lost some money and blamed the hired girl for stealing it. The police searched her but could find nothing. This girl was a good girl, and I knew she did not take it, but my aunts had her transported to the island where they sent all ...

Six months later, my aunts found their money where they had hidden it in a pillow. I tried to have them set the girl free, because she was innocent, but they would not. Since I could not live with such dishonest people, I left, and went to work at a gentleman's house at the age of eleven.

There I learned to read all by myself. Every evening after supper, the gentleman would read the paper out loud to the family. After he got through, I would pick up the paper and remember the lines he had read, and pick out the words. In this way, I learned to read. I also learned to cook at this place.

I was convinced that this gospel was true, but I was not baptized because I felt I could not be a good member according to the requirements of the Church. However, on November 11, 1848, I was baptized at Bedford, England by William Burbage. I was nineteen years old then.

After I joined the Church, I lived where I could not go to Church very often, and I had to walk five miles to the meetings. I only had four hours off on Sunday, and I had to go and come in that time. I always felt better after spending my time at the meetings, and I rejoiced to know that I belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and I knew it was true.

Later, my brother informed me that he intended going to the Valley of the Mountains in Utah. I was not willing to stay behind, so I worked until the very last day, and then I was lacking twelve shillings, so I sold my beautiful black silk dress, and a good shawl, worth fifteen shillings, getting twelve shillings in all. I paid my own fare as my brother was not able to help me. One shilling was all I had left. With this shilling, I bought me a calico dress (eight yards).

Later on when I had been married six months, I sold this calico dress for two dollars and bought me a bed tick. It was a great change to leave a rich man's table, and remain on a ship and eat the fare, mixed with mice tracks and other animal remains. (Note: Elizabeth Marriott and her brother, William Stewart, were the only ones of her family that joined the Church and came to Utah).

We left Liverpool, England, and crossed the Ocean on the James Pennell, along with two hundred thirty-six Saints. We were two months crossing the ocean. Our boat was so badly shipwrecked that our sails were torn from the masts. We were left to the mercy of the wind and waves, but we all landed safely and were thankful. After the landing at New Orleans, on October 22, 1849, we went on up the Mississippi River to St. Louis. We landed there on December 3, 1851.

I was not sick on the ocean but became very ill after landing. After I recovered I went to work. My brother went on to Salt Lake in the spring of 1852, and I was left to get along the best I could. The same spring in the month of April, I met with a bad accident. While carrying a kerosene lamp, it exploded. I was carrying two gallons of oil in my hand. My sweetheart ran in and carried me out of the fire. He saved my life, but he died in ten days from inhaling the flames. I was burned very badly.

My suffering was such that only God and I knew. I learned to know that God was a friend to the poor and orphans. He helped me to partially bear my great sufferings, and has helped me all through life.

Charlotte Swife, a native of England, only a poor girl who had to work for a living, provided for me after I was burned. She was a true friend to me in all my troubles and suffering. Later on, when she came to Utah, she married a man by the name of William Matthews of Tooele County, She had eight children which were like their mother, faithful. and true to the gospel. She died a loving mother, faithful and true member of the Church.

In 1853, I crossed the plains, walking all the way from Kirkland to Salt Lake City, which was fifteen hundred miles. My burns did not heal for three years. I immigrated to Utah in the Hyrum Clawson Company, consisting of fifty wagons and ox teams. When I reached Salt Lake Valley, a barren-looking place, I had no home to go to, no money, and no way of earning any. Everyone was too poor to hire and pay for help. I offered to work for my board if I could just get something to eat. I was still not discouraged because I knew that I had come to the land of Zion and to raise a family.

One day, a knock came to the door. It was a returning missionary who said he had the impression to come to see me. He told me the Lord had sent him to come and tell me I would go to Zion soon. He said goodbye because he had to catch his boat in twenty minutes.

One day shortly after I had arrived in Utah, while looking out of the window, I saw a man who had just climbed down from the thrashing machine coming toward the house, and the spirit said to me, "This man is to be your husband". A few days later, he came again to the house and asked me to become his wife. I was thoroughly convinced that he was the man the Lord wanted me to marry, and that polygamy was a true principle which I had first heard preached by Orson Pratt in St. Louis sometime before. The same thing was revealed to my husband. We were married on February 26, 1854. His name was John Marriott.

It was a trial to me, but it has proved a blessing to me, and I am thankful that I was willing to do the Lord's will. I was very weak, and as I wished to please the Lord, and do my part on earth, I went to Father John Smith, the Prophet's uncle, for a blessing just before my marriage. He told me that the Lord was pleased with me because I was willing to do His will. This has always been a great comfort to me when trials come. I want to thank God for giving me faith in Him which is a gift from Him and not of man. I would advise all my dear children never to find fault with any of the principle of the Church, for I promise you all that all are true. This I do in the name of the Lord, amen.

After my marriage, I lived in Kaysville, Utah, until February 4, 1855, then moved to Weber County; the place we lived in was called Marriott after my husband. We lived in a wagon box for six months, but was thankful to the Lord that I had the hope of some day having a home, as I had never had that comfort in my life. I can say that my home has been a blessing to me, and I love the people in this Ward. They are my brothers and sisters.

In the year 1858, I went south with the Saints at the time of Johnson's Army. On my way, we stopped at Salt Lake City for three weeks. While there, with the help of my husband's wives, we succeeded in weaving sort of a wagon cover, which covered the wagon while traveling in the hot sun. The house we staved in had two windows opposite each other, nails were driven in the sills, and hemp stretched from one window to the other and fastened to the nails to form sort of a loom. A person sat on each side of the loom handling balls of rags through the strings of the loom, thus weaving a long coarse cloth. The Saints were promised that they would be provided with food if they would go south and meet Johnson's Army. When they returned they found a volunteer crop of barley. This, they lived on until their crops were ready. The next year, we lived on bran bread, many lived on dead cattle in 1859. I lived to see the desert blossom as a rose.

I know that the Lord has blessed me, and I make acknowledgment of His hand in the bitter as well as the sweet, and while I am writing this, I rejoice in His goodness and mercy to me.

In 1855, 1 was chosen Relief Society Teacher, and it was a work of love to me. Sister Binginton was put in the same time as I was. We visited Marriott, Linn, Mt. Fort, covering over five miles, and reported our visits to Ogden. The first meetings were held in the old council house of Ogden. Sister Palmer, being President at that time, and we had very good meetings. The gift of Tongues was given me which gave me great comfort in our trials and poverty.

On April 27, 1880, I was chosen President of the Primary Association in our ward, by Bishop James Ritchie, who fasted, and prayed before choosing me. But still I did not feel I could do this great work, but I was willing to do the best I could in my weak way, and I can say truthfully that was a work of love. The children and teachers were very good to me. I tried to be good to them.

Those who worked faithfully with me were still good workers in Relief Society, Sunday School, Primary, and religion Class, and will still continue their good work. I was President of the Primary for twenty-three years, and it gives me pleasure to know that my labor was not in vain. In 1903, I resigned of my own will, because I felt that younger people could carry on the work better than I could, because I was over seventy-five years old.

I was a teacher in the Sunday School for ten years, and counselor in the Relief Society at the same time as I was in the Primary. I resigned that position in July 1909. I have worked in both the Salt Lake and Logan Temple for about twenty years. I had seven daughters and three sons (one pair of twins ... a girl and a boy). My' husband's first wife, Susanna Folks, died leaving nine children which I raised beside my own family.

Elizabeth Stewart Marriott died on February 10, 1914 at Marriott, Utah