Eliza West Draper by Ella May Draper Smedley

Eliza West Draper

By Ella May Draper Smedley

My mother, Eliza Alice West, was born April, 18, at 8:30 pm, at Goswell Road No. 9 Rahere St. Saint Lukes Parish, London, Middlesex, England. She was the sixth child of Charles Henry John West and Eliza Dangerfield.

Her parents were members of the church, having been converted and baptized 16 Oct. 1849, in Pentonville Paths, Islington b Elder John Hyde Sr. and Orson Pratt, an apostle, before their marriage on 25 Dec. 1850.

About the time of Mother's birth, her parents, who had been striving to save every penny to take them to Zion, were advised by the elders to send two of their children ahead and then the rest could follow later. This proved a very great test to their faith, and Grandmother said that considering the mental strain she had been under, Mother was a great blessing to her. She was a very good baby, seldom requiring more than the necessary attention.


As Grandmother had to work hard at her trade (a fancy box maker) my mother was cared for mostly by her older sister and her older brother Jabez. Acting upon the advice and promised blessing of Elder Brown, their oldest daughter, Caroline and her sister, Ann were chosen to go. This was a terrible strain, more than words can describe. Their faith never failed them and besides paying for the girls transportation and extra money to make them comfortable, they, by the help of the lord, were able to save enough so they could follow the girls one year later.

On June 1, 1863, they went aboard the ship "Amazon". Bro. George Q. Cannon spoke to the saints (nearly 1000 on board) and blessed them. They were then divided into wards or groups. Soon after they were aboard, an English gentleman came aboard the ship and went among them asking all kinds of questions. When he came to Grandmother, she felt rather indignant at first but reflected that it was becoming a Latter Day Saint to be polite. He frightened Mother, and Grandmother nursed her to stop her noise. The gentlemen then asked Grandmother why she was leaving England and going to a strange place. In answer she told him about the church and that they had sent two of their children to Utah a year ago and was very anxious to be reunited with them. She later learned that this was Charles Dickens, the great English writer, who had been authorized to go aboard the ship to investigate the reason for so many English people leaving to go to America. He went aboard to criticize, and ended praying with them.

In his book, "the Uncommercial Traveler", he has this to say: "on a hot morning in early June I go aboard an emigrant ship, the 'Amazon'. Now I have seen emigrant ships before but these people are so strikingly different from all other people in like circumstances that I wonder, "What would a stranger suppose these emigrants to be?" They cam from various parts of England and had never seen one another, yet they had not been two hours aboard when they established their own police and made their own regulations, and before 9o'clock the ship was as orderly and quiet as a man of war." (Grandfather took his turn with police duties.)

Charles Dickens says also that when he first came aboard he noticed several people writing letters on trunks and boxes. "While 200 strangers were asking questions about 200 more, and while the children played up and down the steps and in and out among the mens legs and were beheld, to the general dismay, toppling over all the dangerous places, the letter writers wrote on calmly." He also noticed every one was happy and there was no crying as they were being checked in and asked to please take care of the luggage, children, and tickets.

"A father, mother and several young children on the main deck below me had formed a family circle close to the foot of the crowded gangway where the children made a nest for themselves in a coil of rope and the father and mother (she suckling the youngest) discussed family affairs as peacefully as if they were perfect retirement."

"Later in the day the boat was filled with choirs who sang glees and catches for a long time. One of the singers, a girl, sang her part mechanically all the while, and wrote a letter while doing so."

(On board ship were two Weish brothers who were very musical and it wasn't long until they had formed a band and a choir. Grandfather was a good musician and a singer so he joined both the band and the choir.)

Charles Dickens also interviewed a Mormon agent: "I say, England," he commented. "They are a very fine set of people you have brought together here."

"Yes sir, they are a very fine people."

"Indeed, I think it would be difficult to find to find *00 people together anywhere else and find so much beauty and so much strength and capacity for work among them."

"I think so," said the Mormon agent. "We sent out about 1000 more yesterday from Liverpool."

"You are not going with these emigrants?"

"No, sir. I remain."

"But you have been in the Mormon territory?"
"Yes; I left Utah about 3 years ago."

"It is surprising to me that these people are all so cheery, and make so little of the immense distance before them."

"Well you see," said the Mormon Agent. "Many of 'em have friends out at Utah, and many of 'em look forward to meeting friends on the way."

"On the way?"

"This way 'tis. The ship lands 'em in New York. Then they go on by rail right away beyond St. Louis, to that part of the banks of the Missouri where they strike the plains. There wagons from the settlement meet 'em to bear 'em company on their journey across twelve hundred miles of prairie. Industrious people who come out to the settlement soon get wagons of their own and so the friends of some of these will come down in their own wagons to meet 'em. They look forward to that greatly.

"On their long journey across the Desert do you arm them?"

"Mostly you will find they have arms of some kind or another already with them," said the Mormon Agent."

"I left here with the making of tea (lunch) in full action. What is in store for these people on the shores of the Great Salt Lake, or on what miserable blindness their eyes may be opened to them I do not pretend to say. But I went aboard their ship to bear testimony against them if they deserved it, as I fully believed they would. To my great astonishment they did not deserve it, and my **************** and tendencies must not effect me as an honest*******."

Grandmother related the story to my eldest sister many times and when uncle Jabez (her son) went to England on a mission many years later he bought the book "Uncommercial Traveler" and at his death it was given to Eliza who still has it.

The "Amazon" pulled out and was piloted up the Thames River until it got cut to open sea. Leaving the White Cliffs of Dover, they left their homeland forever but they sang and rejoiced because they were leaving "Babylon" and going to Zion which they had been looking forward to for so long. Grandmother tells in detail the story of the voyage but mother was only 14 months old so she wouldn't remember the voyage and the tedious trip across the plains. When they arrived in Utah they did meet their two daughters and thanked the lord for their reunion.

The hardships and trials that Grandfather and Grandmother and their family went through were very severe. They never complained and Mother said she was always taught to pray for the best and be thankful for what the Lord sends.

Eliza, my mother, grew up as most of the early pioneers in Utah, living most of the time in Salt Lake City. She used to tell us they went up in the sand hills to gather Sego roots and dandelions for their meals.

Her parents taught school, and Mother was left with the responsibility of caring for the younger children. Because of her congenial disposition, she was a great favorite among the children in the neighborhood and was loved by old and young alike.

She had little or no opportunity to attend school, but was always anxious to learn what she could. She played school with the children and while teaching them she taught herself to read and write, to add and multiply. However, Mother loved to sing and her father took great pains to teach her to sing correctly. This talent and ability helped her to be very popular in the wards they lived in.

Eliza was baptized in the church by Elder Joseph Bean.... She was rebaptized on November 25, 1875 and reconfirmed that same day. This they had to do before they could go to the Temple.

When mother was very tired or nervous, she never complained but reacted in her sleep. One night her Uncle Jabez Dangerfield, who lived several blocks away, her her calling loudly, "Uncle Jabez." When he found her she was on the brink of a very deep ravine nearly filled with flood water. He crept carefully behind her, caught her in his arms and carried her home without her ever waking up. When another time she was lost in flood time and many were out searching for her. Grandfather had secured grappling hooks and was ready to ford the stream. As he looked under the porch for another length of rope, he found Mother fast asleep there. She had gone to sleep on the porch, rolled off and under it without waking.

Mother was full of fun, and as Grandmother used to tell, to the extent of impishness. This was reflected in her eyes when she was going to play a joke on some one. She was never known to do this to extent of injuring others.

She moved with her parents to Provo, Heber City, then back to Provo, finally coming back to Salt Lake City in 1878. There her parents taught school in the combined 5th and 6th wards - living in the back part of the school house. In 1877 they were able to secure a home from George Vine in the 11th ward where mother lived until her marriage.