Elizabeth Paul

Elizabeth Paul. . , In April 1862 the Thomas Paul family left Fremont, Iowa, for Washington Territory. Mrs. Elizabeth Mortimore Paul, who was pregnant, had a difficult time on the journey west, and here on July 27, 1862, age 32, she died giving birth to a daughter. The infant, named Elizabeth for her mother, lived for only a week. , The death and burial are well recorded by several contemporary diarists. , Hamilton Scott: "We remained in camp all day. Thomas Paul's wife died about 9 o'clock this morning … She has been poorly for some time. We buried her this evening under a large pine tree and put a post and paling fence around her grave." , Jana A. Gould: Monday, July 28, 1862 "Came past a camp of thirty-six wagons who had been camped some time here in the mountains … there was a woman died in their train yesterday, she left six and one of them only two days old, pour little thing it had better died with its mother, they made a good picket around the grave." , H.M. Judson: Tuesday, July 29, 1862. "We passed this afternoon a beautiful grave made in an opening in the forest and directly beneath a fine fir tree - Twas made on the 27th inst. (only 2 days ago) and was enclosed in a picket yard of hewn timber - a board set into a notch sawned into the tree informed us that the grave contained the remains of Mrs. Elizabeth Paul - aged 32 years - beneath some kind friend had pinned a paper on which were written 3 beautiful and appropriate verses and and which I regret very munch I had not time to copy." , These verses apparently were written by James S. McClung, a member of the Paul company. In his diary entry for July 27, he notes the death and burial of Elizabeth Paul and then writes the following lines: , ,

Friends and physytions could not save , This mortal lovely boddy from the grave , Nor can the grave confine it here , When God commands it to appear , For tho it was her lot to die , Hear a mong the mountains high , Yet when gabriel trump shall sound , Among the blessed she will be found , And while she rests beneath this tree , May holy angels wach and see , That naught disturbs her peaceful clay , Until the dawning of the day.

. , Julius Merrill: August 15, 1864. "Passed a grave enclosed by a picket fence, painted white. A lovelier spot I never saw. There was a opening of perhaps half an acre, with one large shady pine tree near the center. Under this lone tree was the grave. The beauty of the place and the care bestowed upon the remains of the of the woman caused us all to stop and look at it." , Thomas Paul, with his seven surviving children, continued to Washington Territory and settled in Walla Walla County where he died September 29, 1904, a the age of 75. The original pine tree still stands sentinel here over his wife's grave., In cooperation with the Bridger-Teton National Forest, Kemmerer Ranger District, and the descendants of Thomas and Elizabeth Paul.