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Show 113 my success." This, coupled, as always, with a prayer: "...upon Thee, Father, do I rely." If Maggie could not endure it, were there not factors in Ellis also which would militate against success in such an auspicious enterprise? Three come immediately to. mind: 1) Her delicate health. She had been ill more often than well in the two years prior. 2) Her bonding with her children for whom her concern and affection seemed genuine. This bond was surely strengthened by the loss of two infants. 3) Her love for and emotional dependence upon a husband whose absences from home were frequent and protracted. What qualities were present in Ellis to forecast success in the undertaking? Oddly enough, almost her only reference to the fact that she was a "pioneer" is a single statement that her parents "emigrated to Utah in 1852..." She was then five years old. With what we now know about the importance of the first five years of a child's life, it is impossible to imagine that the experience of leaving her birthplace in Davis County, Iowa, and crossing the plains with her parents in the company captained by her grandfather could not have left an imprint. By 1875, (less than a quarter of a century later) when Ellis left for medical school, there had scarcely been long enough for goal-oriented personal sacrifice to be erased as a popular ethic. Further personal preparation lay in her habit of "deducting golden moments from sleep" for intellectual study (usually from 4:00 to 7:00 a.m.). What a plus that practice could provide in formal study. Though she disliked the long |
