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Soon after, Charles Oakden, a tall, dark, handsome, young man began to pay attention to her. They had been going to parties, church and dances for about six months when he proposed marriage. Elizabeth rather reluctantly promised to become his wife, at the same time wondering if she could live happily with him. While she was making up her mind, William, Charles' brother, came to visit them. Theil' natures being more in tune with each other and he being more congenial than Charles, they soon became devoted lovers. On October 10, 1854, they were married by Bishop Hoagland. They started housekeeping, renting three rooms from William's people. Charles, the rejected suitor, boarded with them. In March Charles and William went out on an Indian farm to work until the last of June. 'Vhen they came back home, after they had been ther.e a few days, they decided to go over to the west mountain for a load of wood. After they had their wood loaded, Charles suggested that they go swimming in the Jordan River. At this time, William was drowned. Elizabeth could not believe that such a terrible calamity could befall her. She was a wife, widow and mother before she had reached her sixteenth birthday. The first winter after William's death, Charles stayed and boarded with her, asking for her hand in marriage. She refused and went to Provo to live in the home of an uncle, her father's brother. 'Vhile there she met Thomas "Villianl "Whitaker, whom she married on September 4, 1858. The ceremony was perfOlmed by Brigham Young. Thomas Whitaker had purchased some land in the Centerville area, and it was here he and his wife began to make their first home, which was a log cabin purchased from Thomas Ricks, containing furniture made by Thomas from tinlber taken from the mountains above the Centerville area. Here the family farmed and hclped in the establishment of a thriving community. . Again Elizabeth was widowed and once more "gathered up the broken threads of her life under its changed conditions by studying and preparing herself to be a nurse. She had a natural ability for caring for the sick and her services were rendered ill Salt Lake City, Ogden, and surrounding towns. She was tho mother of six sons and six daughters and lived a full and eventful life. Many lives were enriched through the service she rendered and her unselfish consideration of others. Elizabeth died at Centerville; Davis County, Utah, on June 7,1937.