Elizabeth's Story
Birth: July 31st, 1849 | female | in Hamble, Hampshire, England
Death: August 18th, 1866 | 17 years old | Crossing Plains between North and South Platte Rivers
Memorial: Stone 14 | left column
Elizabeth Oliver is the third of seven children born to Francis Oliver Jr. and Elizabeth Bailey, both from England.
When Elizabeth was 16-years-old, her family joined the John D. Holladay Company to travel to the Great Salt Lake Valley with other members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Exhaustive travel conditions, disease, injury, lack of food and medicine, premature birth, and extreme weather were some of the greatest threats to pioneers. Cholera, a bacterial disease caused from contaminated water, infected many of the travelers.
While the company approached the North and South Platte Rivers, Elizabeth suffered from Rocky Mountain Fever came down with “mountain fever,” a serious bacterial infection transmitted by ticks. She passed away and was buried there.
From the company journal: “Elizabeth, a girl of 16 years took Mountain Fever on the journey and died 19 August 1866. She was wrapped in a sheet and buried by the roadside.”