Davinah Elizabeth Roderick Waldron was born June 5, 1859, in Pendoylan Parish, Glamorganshire, Wales. She was the daughter of David and Hannah Spencer Roderick. They lived near the mines and her father worked as a carpenter there.
Davinah Elizabeth, or “Lizzie,” as she was always called, was one of nine children in the family. She had very little schooling because they lived such a long way from school and she only went for a short time with her brothers, for in those days it was dangerous to travel over the isolated roads as there were many stragglers or tramps as we call them. However, for the meager education she had, she was a very good speller.
When Lizzie was a small girl, her father became ill and wasn’t able to work. The Mormon missionaries visited their home many times. They promised him that if he would be baptized he would get well and be able to work. He was converted and decided to be baptized, but his wife wouldn’t give her consent. She said, “Why the idea of putting a man in his condition in the water would kill him. Are you all crazy”? One day when she was away, he was baptized and became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was soon well again and felt fine.
About three years later the family decided to come to America to join the Saints. Lizzie’s mother prepared a large box of food for the family to eat on their way to America. They sailed from Liverpool on the steamship Minnesota. They got along fine as long as the box of food lasted, but after that they had to eat sea biscuits which weren’t very appetizing. Lizzie wasn’t seasick at all on the ocean. There was a large number of Saints on the ship. One night a terrible storm came up and nearly sank the ship. Lizzie said that she remembered that the Saints held a meeting the next morning and thanked God for their deliverance from death. They arrived in New York in about three weeks and came to Ogden on the first train that crossed the continent (the first time converts came all the way by train). Lizzie was ten years old at that time.
The Roderick family stayed with their daughter Margaret for a while, then moved to Perry, Utah, and later to a place called “Pole Patch,” which is now called Mt. Pleasant. After living in “Pole Patch” for two years they moved to Samaria, Idaho, in 1873.
On January 11, 1875, she married Levi Savage Waldron in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City, Utah. Levi had built a home for his bride in Samaria. Whenever he would mention that he had built a house before he was married, he would say, “I always believe that you should build a cage before you got the bird.” They lived in Samaria for a few years, and then they decided to settle in Gwenford, Idaho. When they left they also moved their house and made a permanent home there. Over the years they built on and remodeled their home until they had a modern house with many conveniences, unusual at that time.
To this couple thirteen children were born. Lizzie had to work hard to care for her family. To keep house for a husband and twelve children, one having died, was no easy task. Many times she had to wash until ten o’clock at night on the washboard with home-made soap. She did all of the sewing for the family and knit mittens and stockings for all of them. Many a night she had to sit up almost all night to finish a pair for one of the children. When the children were small, she would help clear sagebrush from the land. When he was away from home she had to milk the cows. Oft times she would bundle her baby up in a shawl and go out to the barn to milk.
She loved to hitch her horse to the buggy and go to visit her family and friends. When anyone was in trouble or needed help, she was always there to assist in every possible way. She said, “It wasn’t always easy to go to church with a large family like mine, but I tried to teach them to go and I think I have a good family.” Even though she had plenty to do, she found time to entertain many guests, and everyone was welcome in her home. She was a very good cook. All her grandchildren loved to come and enjoy her raisin bread and they often said that her homemade bread was better than cake.
On January 11, 1925, Levi and Lizzie celebrated their golden wedding anniversary. Most of their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren were present.
Levi became ill and was confined to his bed for fourteen months before his death and no one could have been kinder and gentler to him than she was. After his death, she kept house for her son, Charles, and seemed to have good health for several years. Even though she was getting old, no one ever came to her home without her wanting to fix them something to eat, no matter what time of day or night it might be.
A short time before her death, she was honored at a Mother’s and Daughter’s program at Malad. There were five generations present, and they had their pictures taken together.
She passed away at her home in Gwenford, January 14, 1947, at the age of 87, after an illness of three months. She was survived by eleven children, seventy-nine grandchildren, one hundred twenty-one great grandchildren, and twelve great, great grandchildren.
-The Waldron Family