"A Sketch of the life of My Grand Mother Margaret Elzirah Frost Rawlins "

This was given by Elva Arminta Rawlins Hogan

Margaret EIzirah Frost Rawlins , was born 28 April 1830. at Knox County, Tennessee. She was the youngest of a family of eight children. When a small child she moved with her parents to Jefferson County , Iowa .

Being the youngest and no other small children, her Father was very fond of her and with him she spent many hours singing to him and playing with shavings as he worked at his carpenter's bench.

She was baptised in 1842 by her only brother Samuel B, Frost who was the oldest of the family .

On December 3, 1846 at the age of 16 years , she was Married to Harvey M. Rawlins .

In May , I848 when her first baby was two weeks old she started across the plains with her Husband and a company of saints . They arrived in Salt Lake Oct 12 , 1848, after the long tiresome and hard journey. They lived in Draper , Salt Lake County, moved to Spring City Sanpete County, and then moved from there to Richmond Cache Co.Ut. 1 Nov 1865 . There she made a home with her for her aged parents, and also a grandson who was made an orphan by the death of her oldest daughter, Margaret Elzirah Rawlins Kerr. ; she was died and burried before her parents heard about her death . Grandma weaned her own baby and nursed her grand son so she raised him for a long time .

They moved to Lewiston Cache Co Ut . 1.April 1872 where she made her home the remainder of her life.

They experieiced the hardships of building a new home with frost, drouth, crickets and grasshoppers to combat. She was the Mother of twelve children , seven sons and five daughters . She lived to see them all narried in the Temple and have families with the exceotion of one son who died in infancy .

On January 6. 1876 , She was made President of the first Relief Society organized in Lewiston, a position she held 26 years , Lewiston at that time extended from the Forks of the river on the South to Glendale on the North .

The organigation was as follows .

Later the counselers were released and reorganized as,

After Sister Martha F. Wiser's Death , Amanda Taylor Marler was sustained in her place .

The organization remained thus until they were released 23 April 1902 ...

The Relief Society was made a National Woman's Organization the 19 July 1893 by John Nuttle . They were advised by the President of the Church to store wheat in case of famine . "A, lot was bought by the Relief Society for $100.00 A granary was built and filled with wheat gathered by the Relief Society Teachers .

Then a red brick meeting house was built where for many years the Relief Society meetings , quorom meetings , as well as many socials were held .

Then a small two room frame dwelling house was built to provide a home for the aged and widows . Our well known and much loved Sister Eliza Champion, convert to the Church, was the first to occupy it , Mother at the suggestion of her kind Husband, took Sister Champion and her four fatherless children in and gave them a home with her for six weeks until the little house was finished and ready to occupy.

On her 50th Birthday , the Relief Society surprised her with a party . They came with a picnic and pitched a tent in the door yard , set tables and had dinner and a program and spent a very pleasant day , Many tokens of love and respect were given her as well as a poem composed by Rebecca Egbert for the occasion.There were 50 in attendance .

There were no Doctors or Nurses available at that time . Mother was a very good Nurse and went into Hundreds of homes nursing and caring for the sick, Her Husband was always willing and anxious that she help where help was needed. She spent many days, even weeks , caring for scarlet fever, small pox , and diphtheria , She was in the home of Brother Marion Stephenson when his family had diphtheria . He lost 6 children, and his wife , one dying after another , She stayed and perpared the bodies for burial only coming home to put on fresh clothes. She would hang her clothes on the line to air and go back . But during all her nursing she never brought home any diseases to her family. While she was President of the Relief Society , She perpared 125 bodies for burial , never receiving one cent of pay for help she gave.

She washed, cared wool into rolls, spun the yarn and wove it into cloth, cut and made clothing for all the members of her family as well as for many others .

On 21 November 1903 when she was 73 years old , she fell and broke her hip. She was in bed all that winter. The Dr. said she would not live and if she did she would be in a wheel chair. But through her faith and prayers of her family and friends she was healed and did her own house work for 14 years . Her prayer to God that she might live to lay away her aged Husband who had lost his eyesight was granted her .

She spent her last years piecing quilt blocks , She was very handy with her needle and took great joy in it . She was confined to her bed for six months before her death . She was nursed and cared for by her children, assisted by Sister Emily Rogers , She died April 4, 1920, 24 days before she would have been 90, years old .

With all her family ar her bed side, We laid her to a well earned rest by her Husband in the Lewiston Cemetery
April 7, 1920.

Back to top