An American Family History

Eliza and Twyla Mae Larson
feeding chickens.

Eliza with Donald and Maryon White in Denver, Colorado about 1940

Eliza on the Larson's Front Porch.

Chariton is the county seat of Lucas County, Iowa and is in Lincoln Township.

Lucas County is in south central Iowa. It was founded in 1846 and the county seat is Chariton.

Eliza Fox Smith was born in Benton Township, Lucas County, Iowa on October 18, 1865 just at the end of the Civil War. Her parents were John Newton Fox and Sarah Jane Ricketts. She was probably named for her father's mother, Eliza Yerkes Fox. She was listed in the 1870 census as Liva age five.

According to the 1940 census, she attended school until the 8th grade.

She married Josiah Allen Smith in 1886 when she was 21 years old. Their children and family life are described in detail in the section on Josiah and Eliza Smith and in the Wind in the Willow.

She was very serious, introverted, and religious and was a member of the Baptist church and attended the Methodist church. She had a habit of singing hymns while she worked. "She knew every verse of every hymn in the Baptist hymnal. She had a pleasant voice and really loved to sing."

Besides raising her family, she worked in restaurants, cooked, washed and cleaned at the Ouller Farm, and worked in the laundry of a Catholic hospital in Sioux City. After she left her husband for the second time, she moved around visiting or living with her children.

Her grandson, Bill Smith remembered that

Grandma had beautiful geraniums in the south window of their living/bedroom on the first floor. . .[and] prepared good meals when we lived with them . . . The main words that I remember Grandma saying were "Tut tut" and "dinner (lunch or supper as the case was) is ready Joe" and there would occasionally be pork and sometimes fried chicken, corn on the cob and watermelon in the summer, fresh milk when the cow had a calf, always home made bread, lettuce with salt on it in the summer, plenty of coleslaw, often custard pie and always sugar cookies in a large jar. Grandma kept her butter and milk in a pail lowered into a very deep well about 25 feet south of the house. She kept house and did a lot of canning. Canned goods were kept in a dugout cellar about 50 feet south of the house. . .Grandma didn't walk outside much. I remember her reciting me on my arithmetic and I knew she was smart.

Her granddaughter Maryon White wrote

Twyla [Smith White] said one time that Eliza's idea of a bed time story was to tell you about the Voluska (sic) axe murders! Poor Eliza was always afraid and managed to instill this fear into some of her children and grandchildren.

Eliza divorced her husband, Josiah, but remarried him about 1930 and then left again about 1935. After she left the second time, she lived out of a suitcase for about 15 years and moved from family to family.

When her grandson, Donald White completed the 8th grade in June of 1940, he worked the Smith ranch He had Eliza's support and she moved there to keep house for him. For all the time Eliza and Donald were on the ranch, she was an interested and helpful adviser. 

At the time of the 1940 census, she was living with the Larsons.

In 1946, she was in Milwaukee and fell and broke her hip. She was in a complete body cast for several months and never fully recovered

She died at age 82 in her sleep at the home of her daughter, Augusta Smith Larson in Sac City, Iowa on May 16, 1947. She was buried in Moorcroft, Wyoming  next to her husband, Josiah Smith.

Eliza with her grandchildren Maryon and Donald White Easter Sunday before church