Business and Religion by Matthew C. Godfrey

Author:Matthew C. Godfrey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Deseret Book Company
Published: 2019-08-13T22:38:28+00:00

Eliza Maria Partridge Lyman. Courtesy of the Church History Library.

In the aforementioned 1870 letter, Eliza and Caroline informed Amasa that, among other necessities, their children—a total of eight minor children—who were also his children, needed food.19 Eliza’s letter, in fact, reflects several areas in which her economic situation affected her life’s circumstances. She wrote that she had “no Husband to lighten my cares, no Father to provide for my children or to help me in rearing them, no home that I can call my own, no means that I can command to support myself and Family, all are gone, gone.” While strict economic realities matter—how much food one has, where one lives, who is providing—the mental, emotional and psychological impact of one’s financial well-being on an individual is perhaps even more critical: not knowing if there will be enough food to eat or wood to burn today or tomorrow or next week or next month or next year affects one’s daily outlook. Because of that insight, this paper focuses not just on the physical reality of their situation, but specifically on Eliza’s yearnings relating to economic stability in the following five areas: a consistent external provider, the assistance of others, the ability to provide for herself, the ability to share temporal resources with others, and a stable or comfortable home. I will explore the ways in which she yearned for each of these, and the varying degrees with which these yearnings were fulfilled in her life.

Early Life of Eliza Maria Partridge Lyman

Insights into Eliza’s early life help illustrate how her formative childhood years differ greatly in economic stability from her married life. Born in Painesville, Ohio, in 1820, to Edward and Lydia Clisbee Partridge, she was the oldest of seven children. Her father owned several pieces of land—even though he was primarily a hatter—including three plots on the Main Street of Painesville, Ohio, and over 130 additional acres in two different parcels of land elsewhere.20 Eliza’s sister Emily later described the home the Partridge children grew up in as having “rose bushes and sweet-brier” in front, and in the back “an arbor, or summer-house … with seats on both sides … covered with grapevines with clusters of blue grapes hanging among the leaves and twigs.” She also recalled flowers of many kinds, including “daffodils, blue bells, lilly, iris, snowballs, etc.” lining the path between the house and arbor. Other foliage around the home included a “delicious cling-stone peach,” a cherry tree, and a “large weeping willow near the shop.” The shop adjoined Partridge’s hat store next to the street. A large frame barn and a “yard full of black fowls” with a cow and horse completed her word picture of their childhood home.21 The first ten years of Eliza’s life were a time of prosperity for her family.

In late 1830, her family joined what later became called The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and moved to Missouri within the year. After traveling to Missouri in the summer of

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