Margaret Eleanor Harris Goodwin Hundley
1821 - 1900
Margaret Ellenor [Eleanor] Hundley* was her name, Ellen for short. She had been born Margaret Ellenor [Eleanor] Harris, daughter of James and Francis J. Wooldridge Harris of Abbeville, South Carolina, on March 27, 1821. She attended a girls' school and was known as a "perfect grammarian" by her school mates and family. The Harris family moved to Grimes County, Texas, in 1830 while it was still under Mexican rule. This part of southeastern Texas was part of the cotton kingdom of the old south, a land of large plantations and black slaves. Her father died in the Battle of Golead [Goliad] in the revolt against Mexico in 1836. Her older brother died in a Mexican war camp. During the same year her mother died at Christmastime. This left four Harris sisters on their own: Margaret Ellenor [Eleanor], Martha, Lucy and Eliza. In honor of their father's and brother's service and deaths the Republic of Texas gave to surviving sisters a huge land grant of 8,888** acres, which divided into four plantations and the slaves were portioned out. These plantations were near the village of Anderson, the seat of Grimes County.
Just before her mother's death, Ellen had married Lewis Goodwin on November 6, 1836. To them were born six [records show 5] children over the years following: Lewis James, b. Sept. 3, 1838; Mary Francis, b. July 16, 1840; Alice Gray, b. May 15, 1842; John Robert, b. Jan. 24, 1844; Joseph Kirkpatrick, b. June 21, 1846.
Some time before 1850 Lewis Goodwin died. We don't know when or how, but Ellen was listed as a single woman in the 1850 Federal Census of Grimes County.
On January 6, 1851*****, she married again, this time to Thomas Augustus Hundley (b. Dec. 31, 1824), whom she always referred to as "Mr. Hundley" in her diary. His former wife, listed as 27 years old in the Federal Census of Texas of 1850, was Mary Jane [Cotton] Hundley. They were both Alabamans. The census listed their children as Panina, b. Mississippi, 5; Nancy, b. Mississippi, 3; and Alice, b. Texas, 2. What happened to these children we don't know. They don't appear in Hundley records so-far located.
Thomas and Ellen Hundley's first child, Thomas William "Billy," was born Feb. 11, 1853, according to Mormon generation records.*** A second son, Elijah was born October 6, 1855.
Sometime in the early 1850s the Hundleys seem to have met Mormon missionaries and were attracted to their faith. Preston Thomas, a well-known pioneer of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day [Latter-day] Saints, may have been the one who brought the new message. He carried out several missions to Texas.
It seems that the Hundleys were reticent [not hardly] about actually joining the new church. For one thing, they were slave-holders. This practice was not approved by the Mormon establishment. It would appear that they went overland in 1855 to scout out the land in the Salt Lake area.
The diary which we transcribed here was written on their return trip to Texas in 1856. There are no typical Mormon usages or references in Ellen's diary. She never refers to men and women as brothers and sisters. This omission is particularly noticeable in her reference to Preston Thomas, whom they had known in Texas. In her mention of this highly revered Mormon leader, whom they met on the trail on July 14, she does not use the appellation, "Brother," an unheard-of omission for any Mormon.
The overland journey began in Grantsville, Utah. They traveled in reverst over the usual Mormon trail through Emigration Canyon, past Fort Bridger and via what she called "the Missouri route" (June 16) to Fort Laramie. At some point they turned up the South Platte River and went along the east side of the Rocky Mountains southward in what later became Colorado. They reached Cherry Creek near the later site of Denver on July 8. The rest of their journey took the Arkansas River route, in reverse to its usage several years later in the Pikes Peak gold rush. They traversed Kansas and eventually turned southward through Indian Territory (present Oklahoma) into Texas and on home to Grimes County.
Soon after their return they became Mormons and sold out their property in land and slaves, planning to traverse their 1856 route. By this time Denver had been established and named, and they stopped there to take part in the gold rush. Another son, Jefferson Davis, was born there on November 28, 1860.
It was not until 1862 that the Hundley family reached Heber, Wasatch County, Utah, where they settled for life. Heber lies in a beautiful Alpine-like valley amidst high mountains. It was in those mountains that [Thomas] Hundley worked as a logger, helping to harvest pine, spruce, fir, and Douglas fir.**** It was when he was chopping saw logs that he was injured in an accident, and he died soon afterward on July 18 [15], 1870. His place in the family was taken by Ellen's son, John Robert Goodwin, who lived out his life until August 22, 1900. He had fought for four years in the Confederate army.
Ellen carried out the work of a typical frontier mother. The children and grandchildren remembered how she washed and ironed, carded, spun, and wove. They raised wheat and ground it in a coffee mill for bread. For a time she taught school in Park City.
She was also very active in the Church. She was a primary [Primary] teacher, relief society [Relief Society] teacher and relief society [Relief Society] president for many years. The Hundley home was a gathering place for young and old. She died in her 80th year at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Lucy Rebecca Murdock, on April 7, 1900. A family memorial to her reads, "Rich in love of all who came in contact with her. Rich in services of love and devotion and an abiding faith in the Gospel. Never once murmuring under distressing circumstances she was always rejoicing in the goodness of the Lord."
We are grateful to the Brigham Young University Library, Provo, for the use of their microfilm of the Hundley diary. Mrs. Dortha Kimball of Safford, Arizona, is a kind of family historian, and she shared with us her knowledge of that subject, and also a typewritten biography, "Margaret Ellenor Harris Hundley." This document has been a mine of information. Mrs. Kimball also provided us with the portrait of her ancestor.
.................................
* Discrepancies in spelling of middle name: Mrs. Dortha Kimball, Safford, Arizona, letter of Oct. 31, 1986, says about her great-grandmother; "Notice the spelling of Ellenor. My grandfather insisted it was that way and not Eleanor, and she was called Ellen." However, most family records show it as Eleanor.
** If this acreage seems outrageous, please note that land grants given by the Republic of Texas under a provision of the constitution of 1836 were a league (4,428 acres) to each family head. William Ransom Hogan, The Texas Republic, a Social and Economic History (Norman, Oklahoma, 1946), p. 10.
*** We were able to study these records on microfilm at the South Salem, Oregon, Stake Library, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day [Latter-day] Saints.
**** United States Forest Service, Wasatch National Forest (Wash., D.C., Feb. 1952).
***** Texas Marriage Collection and U.S. and Int'l Marriage Records show it was 5 January 1850.
.................................
--Source: Kenneth L. Holmes, Covered Wagon Women: 1854-1860, From Utah to Texas in 1856 - Ellen Hundley, p. 132-155, University of Nebraska Press, Jan. 1, 1998, 306 pages; accessed and transcribed with some editing by Annie Duckett Hundley, 2nd great granddaughter-in-law.
1821 - 1900
Margaret Ellenor [Eleanor] Hundley* was her name, Ellen for short. She had been born Margaret Ellenor [Eleanor] Harris, daughter of James and Francis J. Wooldridge Harris of Abbeville, South Carolina, on March 27, 1821. She attended a girls' school and was known as a "perfect grammarian" by her school mates and family. The Harris family moved to Grimes County, Texas, in 1830 while it was still under Mexican rule. This part of southeastern Texas was part of the cotton kingdom of the old south, a land of large plantations and black slaves. Her father died in the Battle of Golead [Goliad] in the revolt against Mexico in 1836. Her older brother died in a Mexican war camp. During the same year her mother died at Christmastime. This left four Harris sisters on their own: Margaret Ellenor [Eleanor], Martha, Lucy and Eliza. In honor of their father's and brother's service and deaths the Republic of Texas gave to surviving sisters a huge land grant of 8,888** acres, which divided into four plantations and the slaves were portioned out. These plantations were near the village of Anderson, the seat of Grimes County.
Just before her mother's death, Ellen had married Lewis Goodwin on November 6, 1836. To them were born six [records show 5] children over the years following: Lewis James, b. Sept. 3, 1838; Mary Francis, b. July 16, 1840; Alice Gray, b. May 15, 1842; John Robert, b. Jan. 24, 1844; Joseph Kirkpatrick, b. June 21, 1846.
Some time before 1850 Lewis Goodwin died. We don't know when or how, but Ellen was listed as a single woman in the 1850 Federal Census of Grimes County.
On January 6, 1851*****, she married again, this time to Thomas Augustus Hundley (b. Dec. 31, 1824), whom she always referred to as "Mr. Hundley" in her diary. His former wife, listed as 27 years old in the Federal Census of Texas of 1850, was Mary Jane [Cotton] Hundley. They were both Alabamans. The census listed their children as Panina, b. Mississippi, 5; Nancy, b. Mississippi, 3; and Alice, b. Texas, 2. What happened to these children we don't know. They don't appear in Hundley records so-far located.
Thomas and Ellen Hundley's first child, Thomas William "Billy," was born Feb. 11, 1853, according to Mormon generation records.*** A second son, Elijah was born October 6, 1855.
Sometime in the early 1850s the Hundleys seem to have met Mormon missionaries and were attracted to their faith. Preston Thomas, a well-known pioneer of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day [Latter-day] Saints, may have been the one who brought the new message. He carried out several missions to Texas.
It seems that the Hundleys were reticent [not hardly] about actually joining the new church. For one thing, they were slave-holders. This practice was not approved by the Mormon establishment. It would appear that they went overland in 1855 to scout out the land in the Salt Lake area.
The diary which we transcribed here was written on their return trip to Texas in 1856. There are no typical Mormon usages or references in Ellen's diary. She never refers to men and women as brothers and sisters. This omission is particularly noticeable in her reference to Preston Thomas, whom they had known in Texas. In her mention of this highly revered Mormon leader, whom they met on the trail on July 14, she does not use the appellation, "Brother," an unheard-of omission for any Mormon.
The overland journey began in Grantsville, Utah. They traveled in reverst over the usual Mormon trail through Emigration Canyon, past Fort Bridger and via what she called "the Missouri route" (June 16) to Fort Laramie. At some point they turned up the South Platte River and went along the east side of the Rocky Mountains southward in what later became Colorado. They reached Cherry Creek near the later site of Denver on July 8. The rest of their journey took the Arkansas River route, in reverse to its usage several years later in the Pikes Peak gold rush. They traversed Kansas and eventually turned southward through Indian Territory (present Oklahoma) into Texas and on home to Grimes County.
Soon after their return they became Mormons and sold out their property in land and slaves, planning to traverse their 1856 route. By this time Denver had been established and named, and they stopped there to take part in the gold rush. Another son, Jefferson Davis, was born there on November 28, 1860.
It was not until 1862 that the Hundley family reached Heber, Wasatch County, Utah, where they settled for life. Heber lies in a beautiful Alpine-like valley amidst high mountains. It was in those mountains that [Thomas] Hundley worked as a logger, helping to harvest pine, spruce, fir, and Douglas fir.**** It was when he was chopping saw logs that he was injured in an accident, and he died soon afterward on July 18 [15], 1870. His place in the family was taken by Ellen's son, John Robert Goodwin, who lived out his life until August 22, 1900. He had fought for four years in the Confederate army.
Ellen carried out the work of a typical frontier mother. The children and grandchildren remembered how she washed and ironed, carded, spun, and wove. They raised wheat and ground it in a coffee mill for bread. For a time she taught school in Park City.
She was also very active in the Church. She was a primary [Primary] teacher, relief society [Relief Society] teacher and relief society [Relief Society] president for many years. The Hundley home was a gathering place for young and old. She died in her 80th year at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Lucy Rebecca Murdock, on April 7, 1900. A family memorial to her reads, "Rich in love of all who came in contact with her. Rich in services of love and devotion and an abiding faith in the Gospel. Never once murmuring under distressing circumstances she was always rejoicing in the goodness of the Lord."
We are grateful to the Brigham Young University Library, Provo, for the use of their microfilm of the Hundley diary. Mrs. Dortha Kimball of Safford, Arizona, is a kind of family historian, and she shared with us her knowledge of that subject, and also a typewritten biography, "Margaret Ellenor Harris Hundley." This document has been a mine of information. Mrs. Kimball also provided us with the portrait of her ancestor.
.................................
* Discrepancies in spelling of middle name: Mrs. Dortha Kimball, Safford, Arizona, letter of Oct. 31, 1986, says about her great-grandmother; "Notice the spelling of Ellenor. My grandfather insisted it was that way and not Eleanor, and she was called Ellen." However, most family records show it as Eleanor.
** If this acreage seems outrageous, please note that land grants given by the Republic of Texas under a provision of the constitution of 1836 were a league (4,428 acres) to each family head. William Ransom Hogan, The Texas Republic, a Social and Economic History (Norman, Oklahoma, 1946), p. 10.
*** We were able to study these records on microfilm at the South Salem, Oregon, Stake Library, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day [Latter-day] Saints.
**** United States Forest Service, Wasatch National Forest (Wash., D.C., Feb. 1952).
***** Texas Marriage Collection and U.S. and Int'l Marriage Records show it was 5 January 1850.
.................................
--Source: Kenneth L. Holmes, Covered Wagon Women: 1854-1860, From Utah to Texas in 1856 - Ellen Hundley, p. 132-155, University of Nebraska Press, Jan. 1, 1998, 306 pages; accessed and transcribed with some editing by Annie Duckett Hundley, 2nd great granddaughter-in-law.
Margaret Eleanor Harris Goodwin Hundley
1821 - 1900
Margaret Ellenor [Eleanor] Hundley* was her name, Ellen for short. She had been born Margaret Ellenor [Eleanor] Harris, daughter of James and Francis J. Wooldridge Harris of Abbeville, South Carolina, on March 27, 1821. She attended a girls' school and was known as a "perfect grammarian" by her school mates and family. The Harris family moved to Grimes County, Texas, in 1830 while it was still under Mexican rule. This part of southeastern Texas was part of the cotton kingdom of the old south, a land of large plantations and black slaves. Her father died in the Battle of Golead [Goliad] in the revolt against Mexico in 1836. Her older brother died in a Mexican war camp. During the same year her mother died at Christmastime. This left four Harris sisters on their own: Margaret Ellenor [Eleanor], Martha, Lucy and Eliza. In honor of their father's and brother's service and deaths the Republic of Texas gave to surviving sisters a huge land grant of 8,888** acres, which divided into four plantations and the slaves were portioned out. These plantations were near the village of Anderson, the seat of Grimes County.
Just before her mother's death, Ellen had married Lewis Goodwin on November 6, 1836. To them were born six [records show 5] children over the years following: Lewis James, b. Sept. 3, 1838; Mary Francis, b. July 16, 1840; Alice Gray, b. May 15, 1842; John Robert, b. Jan. 24, 1844; Joseph Kirkpatrick, b. June 21, 1846.
Some time before 1850 Lewis Goodwin died. We don't know when or how, but Ellen was listed as a single woman in the 1850 Federal Census of Grimes County.
On January 6, 1851*****, she married again, this time to Thomas Augustus Hundley (b. Dec. 31, 1824), whom she always referred to as "Mr. Hundley" in her diary. His former wife, listed as 27 years old in the Federal Census of Texas of 1850, was Mary Jane [Cotton] Hundley. They were both Alabamans. The census listed their children as Panina, b. Mississippi, 5; Nancy, b. Mississippi, 3; and Alice, b. Texas, 2. What happened to these children we don't know. They don't appear in Hundley records so-far located.
Thomas and Ellen Hundley's first child, Thomas William "Billy," was born Feb. 11, 1853, according to Mormon generation records.*** A second son, Elijah was born October 6, 1855.
Sometime in the early 1850s the Hundleys seem to have met Mormon missionaries and were attracted to their faith. Preston Thomas, a well-known pioneer of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day [Latter-day] Saints, may have been the one who brought the new message. He carried out several missions to Texas.
It seems that the Hundleys were reticent [not hardly] about actually joining the new church. For one thing, they were slave-holders. This practice was not approved by the Mormon establishment. It would appear that they went overland in 1855 to scout out the land in the Salt Lake area.
The diary which we transcribed here was written on their return trip to Texas in 1856. There are no typical Mormon usages or references in Ellen's diary. She never refers to men and women as brothers and sisters. This omission is particularly noticeable in her reference to Preston Thomas, whom they had known in Texas. In her mention of this highly revered Mormon leader, whom they met on the trail on July 14, she does not use the appellation, "Brother," an unheard-of omission for any Mormon.
The overland journey began in Grantsville, Utah. They traveled in reverst over the usual Mormon trail through Emigration Canyon, past Fort Bridger and via what she called "the Missouri route" (June 16) to Fort Laramie. At some point they turned up the South Platte River and went along the east side of the Rocky Mountains southward in what later became Colorado. They reached Cherry Creek near the later site of Denver on July 8. The rest of their journey took the Arkansas River route, in reverse to its usage several years later in the Pikes Peak gold rush. They traversed Kansas and eventually turned southward through Indian Territory (present Oklahoma) into Texas and on home to Grimes County.
Soon after their return they became Mormons and sold out their property in land and slaves, planning to traverse their 1856 route. By this time Denver had been established and named, and they stopped there to take part in the gold rush. Another son, Jefferson Davis, was born there on November 28, 1860.
It was not until 1862 that the Hundley family reached Heber, Wasatch County, Utah, where they settled for life. Heber lies in a beautiful Alpine-like valley amidst high mountains. It was in those mountains that [Thomas] Hundley worked as a logger, helping to harvest pine, spruce, fir, and Douglas fir.**** It was when he was chopping saw logs that he was injured in an accident, and he died soon afterward on July 18 [15], 1870. His place in the family was taken by Ellen's son, John Robert Goodwin, who lived out his life until August 22, 1900. He had fought for four years in the Confederate army.
Ellen carried out the work of a typical frontier mother. The children and grandchildren remembered how she washed and ironed, carded, spun, and wove. They raised wheat and ground it in a coffee mill for bread. For a time she taught school in Park City.
She was also very active in the Church. She was a primary [Primary] teacher, relief society [Relief Society] teacher and relief society [Relief Society] president for many years. The Hundley home was a gathering place for young and old. She died in her 80th year at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Lucy Rebecca Murdock, on April 7, 1900. A family memorial to her reads, "Rich in love of all who came in contact with her. Rich in services of love and devotion and an abiding faith in the Gospel. Never once murmuring under distressing circumstances she was always rejoicing in the goodness of the Lord."
We are grateful to the Brigham Young University Library, Provo, for the use of their microfilm of the Hundley diary. Mrs. Dortha Kimball of Safford, Arizona, is a kind of family historian, and she shared with us her knowledge of that subject, and also a typewritten biography, "Margaret Ellenor Harris Hundley." This document has been a mine of information. Mrs. Kimball also provided us with the portrait of her ancestor.
.................................
* Discrepancies in spelling of middle name: Mrs. Dortha Kimball, Safford, Arizona, letter of Oct. 31, 1986, says about her great-grandmother; "Notice the spelling of Ellenor. My grandfather insisted it was that way and not Eleanor, and she was called Ellen." However, most family records show it as Eleanor.
** If this acreage seems outrageous, please note that land grants given by the Republic of Texas under a provision of the constitution of 1836 were a league (4,428 acres) to each family head. William Ransom Hogan, The Texas Republic, a Social and Economic History (Norman, Oklahoma, 1946), p. 10.
*** We were able to study these records on microfilm at the South Salem, Oregon, Stake Library, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day [Latter-day] Saints.
**** United States Forest Service, Wasatch National Forest (Wash., D.C., Feb. 1952).
***** Texas Marriage Collection and U.S. and Int'l Marriage Records show it was 5 January 1850.
.................................
--Source: Kenneth L. Holmes, Covered Wagon Women: 1854-1860, From Utah to Texas in 1856 - Ellen Hundley, p. 132-155, University of Nebraska Press, Jan. 1, 1998, 306 pages; accessed and transcribed with some editing by Annie Duckett Hundley, 2nd great granddaughter-in-law.
1821 - 1900
Margaret Ellenor [Eleanor] Hundley* was her name, Ellen for short. She had been born Margaret Ellenor [Eleanor] Harris, daughter of James and Francis J. Wooldridge Harris of Abbeville, South Carolina, on March 27, 1821. She attended a girls' school and was known as a "perfect grammarian" by her school mates and family. The Harris family moved to Grimes County, Texas, in 1830 while it was still under Mexican rule. This part of southeastern Texas was part of the cotton kingdom of the old south, a land of large plantations and black slaves. Her father died in the Battle of Golead [Goliad] in the revolt against Mexico in 1836. Her older brother died in a Mexican war camp. During the same year her mother died at Christmastime. This left four Harris sisters on their own: Margaret Ellenor [Eleanor], Martha, Lucy and Eliza. In honor of their father's and brother's service and deaths the Republic of Texas gave to surviving sisters a huge land grant of 8,888** acres, which divided into four plantations and the slaves were portioned out. These plantations were near the village of Anderson, the seat of Grimes County.
Just before her mother's death, Ellen had married Lewis Goodwin on November 6, 1836. To them were born six [records show 5] children over the years following: Lewis James, b. Sept. 3, 1838; Mary Francis, b. July 16, 1840; Alice Gray, b. May 15, 1842; John Robert, b. Jan. 24, 1844; Joseph Kirkpatrick, b. June 21, 1846.
Some time before 1850 Lewis Goodwin died. We don't know when or how, but Ellen was listed as a single woman in the 1850 Federal Census of Grimes County.
On January 6, 1851*****, she married again, this time to Thomas Augustus Hundley (b. Dec. 31, 1824), whom she always referred to as "Mr. Hundley" in her diary. His former wife, listed as 27 years old in the Federal Census of Texas of 1850, was Mary Jane [Cotton] Hundley. They were both Alabamans. The census listed their children as Panina, b. Mississippi, 5; Nancy, b. Mississippi, 3; and Alice, b. Texas, 2. What happened to these children we don't know. They don't appear in Hundley records so-far located.
Thomas and Ellen Hundley's first child, Thomas William "Billy," was born Feb. 11, 1853, according to Mormon generation records.*** A second son, Elijah was born October 6, 1855.
Sometime in the early 1850s the Hundleys seem to have met Mormon missionaries and were attracted to their faith. Preston Thomas, a well-known pioneer of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day [Latter-day] Saints, may have been the one who brought the new message. He carried out several missions to Texas.
It seems that the Hundleys were reticent [not hardly] about actually joining the new church. For one thing, they were slave-holders. This practice was not approved by the Mormon establishment. It would appear that they went overland in 1855 to scout out the land in the Salt Lake area.
The diary which we transcribed here was written on their return trip to Texas in 1856. There are no typical Mormon usages or references in Ellen's diary. She never refers to men and women as brothers and sisters. This omission is particularly noticeable in her reference to Preston Thomas, whom they had known in Texas. In her mention of this highly revered Mormon leader, whom they met on the trail on July 14, she does not use the appellation, "Brother," an unheard-of omission for any Mormon.
The overland journey began in Grantsville, Utah. They traveled in reverst over the usual Mormon trail through Emigration Canyon, past Fort Bridger and via what she called "the Missouri route" (June 16) to Fort Laramie. At some point they turned up the South Platte River and went along the east side of the Rocky Mountains southward in what later became Colorado. They reached Cherry Creek near the later site of Denver on July 8. The rest of their journey took the Arkansas River route, in reverse to its usage several years later in the Pikes Peak gold rush. They traversed Kansas and eventually turned southward through Indian Territory (present Oklahoma) into Texas and on home to Grimes County.
Soon after their return they became Mormons and sold out their property in land and slaves, planning to traverse their 1856 route. By this time Denver had been established and named, and they stopped there to take part in the gold rush. Another son, Jefferson Davis, was born there on November 28, 1860.
It was not until 1862 that the Hundley family reached Heber, Wasatch County, Utah, where they settled for life. Heber lies in a beautiful Alpine-like valley amidst high mountains. It was in those mountains that [Thomas] Hundley worked as a logger, helping to harvest pine, spruce, fir, and Douglas fir.**** It was when he was chopping saw logs that he was injured in an accident, and he died soon afterward on July 18 [15], 1870. His place in the family was taken by Ellen's son, John Robert Goodwin, who lived out his life until August 22, 1900. He had fought for four years in the Confederate army.
Ellen carried out the work of a typical frontier mother. The children and grandchildren remembered how she washed and ironed, carded, spun, and wove. They raised wheat and ground it in a coffee mill for bread. For a time she taught school in Park City.
She was also very active in the Church. She was a primary [Primary] teacher, relief society [Relief Society] teacher and relief society [Relief Society] president for many years. The Hundley home was a gathering place for young and old. She died in her 80th year at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Lucy Rebecca Murdock, on April 7, 1900. A family memorial to her reads, "Rich in love of all who came in contact with her. Rich in services of love and devotion and an abiding faith in the Gospel. Never once murmuring under distressing circumstances she was always rejoicing in the goodness of the Lord."
We are grateful to the Brigham Young University Library, Provo, for the use of their microfilm of the Hundley diary. Mrs. Dortha Kimball of Safford, Arizona, is a kind of family historian, and she shared with us her knowledge of that subject, and also a typewritten biography, "Margaret Ellenor Harris Hundley." This document has been a mine of information. Mrs. Kimball also provided us with the portrait of her ancestor.
.................................
* Discrepancies in spelling of middle name: Mrs. Dortha Kimball, Safford, Arizona, letter of Oct. 31, 1986, says about her great-grandmother; "Notice the spelling of Ellenor. My grandfather insisted it was that way and not Eleanor, and she was called Ellen." However, most family records show it as Eleanor.
** If this acreage seems outrageous, please note that land grants given by the Republic of Texas under a provision of the constitution of 1836 were a league (4,428 acres) to each family head. William Ransom Hogan, The Texas Republic, a Social and Economic History (Norman, Oklahoma, 1946), p. 10.
*** We were able to study these records on microfilm at the South Salem, Oregon, Stake Library, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day [Latter-day] Saints.
**** United States Forest Service, Wasatch National Forest (Wash., D.C., Feb. 1952).
***** Texas Marriage Collection and U.S. and Int'l Marriage Records show it was 5 January 1850.
.................................
--Source: Kenneth L. Holmes, Covered Wagon Women: 1854-1860, From Utah to Texas in 1856 - Ellen Hundley, p. 132-155, University of Nebraska Press, Jan. 1, 1998, 306 pages; accessed and transcribed with some editing by Annie Duckett Hundley, 2nd great granddaughter-in-law.
Inscription
A light from our household is gone,
A voice we loved is stilled,
A place is vacant in our hearts
That never can be filled.
Gravesite Details
Ellen shares a headstone with her husband, Thomas, inscribed on opposite sides of the beautiful old monument.
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