Daughters of Utah Pioneers, Phillips Camp Biographies, Campkin to Curtis

page 4

SKETCH OF ELI A SMUI N CLARK l iza Smuin , l ater a wife of Michael Clark of Kaysvi ll e , Utah ~as born Jan . 6 , 1840, at Abi ngd on, Berkshire , England , a daughter of Thomas and Mary Hood Smuin . Having become a member of the church she sai l ed from Liver pool, Engl and , Ap ril 1€, 1861 , with 380 Sain ts on the ship " Man ches t er' ·, in charge of Captain Claudius V. Spencer . The ship arrived i n New York May 18, 1861 . The L. D. S. passengers on this ship then travel­ed by rail to F l orence , N e ~ raska , and crossed the plains in Captain David H. Cannon ' s ox trai n , wh ich l eft Florence May 29th and arrived in Salt Lake City August 1 6 , 1 8 61. Captain Claudius V. Spencer , who had charge of these s aints whil e crossing the ocean , also crossed the p l ains i n this compa.n y . Two months aft e r her arrival i n Utah , El iza Smu in wa s ma r ried to Elde r Michael Clark of Kaysvi lle , the ceremony being performed October 28 , 1861 . Sh e wa s a plural wife , Brother Clark ' s f i rst wi f e , who he had married September 24 , 1 859 , being Harriet Smuin , a daughter of J oseph Smuin, who a l so ca me f rom England . Eli za Smuin became the mother of thi rteen chi l dre n , 7 sons and 6 daughters , and died September 9 , 1905 . She l i ved for sometime after her marriage i n Salt Lake City. Then in 1867 they sett l ed on a homestead i n Kaysville . Eliza and her family moved into a dugout . I t was a hol e dug back i n the hil l side and rocked up in front . The s oi l was clay so it made a g ood hard f l oo r . A wheat bin was in one corner and the top of this made a bed for the childr en . Eliza ' s bed was in another corner curtained off . In those day s the women played an important part in the supporting of a s;amily . So she planted her early vegetable garden on the hjllside. They would al {so gather wild greens such as dandelions , willy- britches , and mustards to hemp out with their food , and many times they were lucky enough to find mushrooms which were a real tr~eat . The later vegetables were planted in the flat at bottom of hollow e The summer the grasshoppers