Eliza Ann Bickmore was born 29 Jan 1830 in Madison, Illinois.  She was the daughter of William and Christine Bagley Bickmore and was one of a large family though all the other names of the family are not known.  Two brothers, Gilbert and Orlando, and two sisters, Christine and Fidelia, are listed on the records.  Fidelia married a man named Kidd and lived at Fort Herriman.

Eliza Ann had her endowments 7 Feb 1846.  After the return of the Mormon Battalion she met and married Elijah Allen in 1852.  After a short stay in Provo, they settled in Fort Herriman.  They had seven children, one daughter and six sons.  Her husband died 21 Apr 1866 as a result of the hard trip and severe treatment he received with the Mormon Battalion.  He never knew what good health was after that journey.  Her husband’s brothers, Charles, Andrew and Levi, had her move to Richmond with her family so they could help to look after her.  They must have been in very strained circumstances as the children had to go without shoes in the wintertime.  Andrew said he went to school barefoot when quite a good-sized boy.
Eliza Ann was a hard working woman.  The family kept sheep and she spun and wove the cloth for all their clothing.  She knit the socks, wove carpets, churned and made butter, made good salt-rising bread in the summer and yeast bread in the winter.  She was quick about her work and could wash, churn, bake, and iron in one day besides getting the meals.  She was a good "plain food" cook and her meals were always appetizing.  She taught her family to work.  The people of Richmond would put all their cows together in one herd and hire her boys to herd them.  They hired Eliza Ann’s sons, two at a time, until they got old enough to do a man’s work.  Her son, Elijah, worked in the canyon and Will worked down in the lead mines in Bingham, Utah.  Will became leaded and it affected his mind.  He died at an early age.

The family first lived in a little log house in the northeast part of Richmond.  As the boys grew older, Elijah homesteaded land out in Coveville and the family moved out there in a one-room log house.  They stayed there and built a nice two-room frame house with lumber they cut in the canyon.  It was painted white.  Elijah got pneumonia working in the canyon and died.  Eliza Ann lived in this home until her children were all married, and then she lived with one or another of the children, wherever she was needed until she died in March of 1901.  She was religious in a quiet way and attended church wherever she could.  She was a good woman and notably neat and clean.
 

August 21, 1999:  Converted to HTML and typos fixed by Matt Young.  Transcribed from the following source by Quinn Young:  Fuller, Gerald R., Ancestors and Descendants of Andrew Lee and Clarinda Knapp Allen, Andrew Lee Allen Family Organization, 1952, p. 111-113.