Eliza Maria Allred

Eliza Maria Allred was born Oct 2, 1836 in Richmond, Missouri to Isaac and Julia Ann Taylor Allred. Eliza is a Founder of Richmond. Eliza is the mother of James I. Shepard.

History

Before Eliza was born, her parents had converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She relates:

"I was the fourth child in my mother’s family and the first girl. My mother had en children. when was a small child, I was taken ill. The Prophet Joseph Smith was sent for. He administered to me and I was immediately healed. I remember sitting on the Prophet’s knee. He and the family were great friends of my parents and grandparents.

Father spent most of his time working for the church and traveled much as a preacher of the gospel in different States. [We] participated in the exodus of the saints from Nauvoo in February in 1846, spent a short time in the camp on Sugar Creek, Iowa, after which , we crossed the prairies of Iowa to the Missouri River. Later we crossed the plains in 1851. Oran Glazier was captain of ten, Isaac Allred, my father, was captain of fifth and Easton Kelsey was captain of one hundred.

I was fifteen years old when we arrived in Salt Lake City, Utah and had many experiences while crossing the plains. The men had to be so watchful of Indians who would steal the horses and cattle if they were not watched very carefully. Sometimes we had trouble with buffalo which would cause a stampede of the cattle."

The Allred family joined the Easton Kelsey Company on June 29, 1851 and arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on Sep 22. After their arrival, they moved to Kaysville, Utah. Eliza married Justin Shepard on May 1, 1855 in Farmington, Utah. In 1859, the Shepard family moved to Cache Valley and founded Richmond. Eliza relates her time in Richmond:

"The early days in Richmond were not very pleasant days, The Indians were so troublesome we had to watch our children so closely, afraid to let them go out of the house for fear of being stolen. One or two children were taken by them. They were stealing horses and cattle. Men were called to be minute-men and had to be prepared at a minute's warning to protect the few people in Cache Valley and Idaho, and in our own town, Richmond, and many a scare was had and for a number of years before they got friendly.

"...Later we had good times even though they were hard times. We had dances and parties. Women visited each other, took their work with them. We had quilting bees, rag bees, wool picking, and spinning bees to see how many skeins we could do a day. Nearly every family had a spinning wheel. Many had looms to weave cloth for clothing for all the family. We had to make all our clothing by hand. We had no sewing machines for a long time. We did all of our knitting, too, a lot of it at night. We didn't have electric lights either, to work by. We would get tallow from beef, put it in a cup or pan, put a rag through it for a wick and light it."

Epilogue