Elizabeth Gardner Blackhurst was born in Preston, Lancshire [Lancastershire?], England, February 10, 1841. Daughter of John Gardner and Martha Dunlop Gardner. Preston has the distinction of being the home of the first branch of the Latter-day Saints Church in England, and the Gardner family was one of the first families of Preston to join the Church.

The family consisted of the Mother, the Father, four sons, and five daughters.

As a young girl, Elizabeth worked for a well-to-do family in England as their housekeeper. She told of rising early each morning to make the fires ready for the morning breakfast.

The family left for America on the ship “John Bright” and spent six weeks crossing the ocean. They crossed the plains in Captain Wright’s Company and arrived in Salt Lake on September 2, 1856.

She [Elizabeth] married David Blackhurst on November 29, 1864 in the Salt Lake Endowment House.

At the age of 23, David was one of the members called to meet Johnson’s Army in Emigration Canyon. Their accommodations were crude and he contracted severe rheumatism in his knee joints from the cold wet conditions. Later in life, his joints stiffened from this affliction and he had to do his work, hauling legs [logs?] from the mountains, farming, among other things, with the aid of a crutch. At the age of 60 his right leg was amputated.

To Elizabeth and David were born five sons. They also had three daughters each of whom died at birth or shortly thereafter.

Their first boy, David Gardner Blackhurst was born on September 5, 1865. He died in an accident at a mining mill at about the age of 30.

John Gardner Blackhurst was born October 3, 1867. He married Rose Robinson. They had three sons and two daughters all who married and are alive at this time.

William Gardner Blackhurst the third son born March 9, 1872. He married Bernice West and was the father of two daughters and one son. William and Bernice were divorced and Elizabeth, their eldest daughter, went to live with her grandmother until she married in 1912. Bernice is still living and is now 84 years old.

Elizabeth and David’s fourth son, Robert Gardner Blackhurst was born March 19, 1875. He married Tora Eliason. They had two daughters and one son, all presently living.

The fifth son, Lafayette, was born December 31, 1878. He married Gertrude Bullock. They were the parents of four boys and two girls. Aunt Gertie is still alive in Pleasant Grove, Utah.

Elizabeth Gardner Blackhurst was always thought of by her boys as being a proud and dignified lady. She is remembered as being about 5’ 4” tall, having small, well-kept hands, dainty feet, blue eyes and long brown hair that she combed straight back and caught up in a bob. She was very proud of her husband and family.

She was active in the Farmer’s Ward Relief Society and at conference time was often visited by her sisters and their families who were residing in Malad and Cache Valley, Idaho.

Among other real estate holdings, David and Elizabeth bought the Governor Wells farm in Pleasant Grove where they lived for a time when the boys were old enough to help their father work the fields.

David retired later in life and was considered well-to-do. They did, however, live most unpretentiously.

Grandma Blackhurst had her first stroke in 1908. At that time the granddaughter she had raised, Elizabeth Blackhurst Mason, quit high school to take care of her. During the following six years Grandma suffered two more strokes and died in her sleep on August 18, 1914 at the age of 73.

David, her husband, died at the age of 82 in April of 1922 at his granddaughter Elizabeth’s home.

Elizabeth Gardner Blackhurst left four namesakes, one daughter of each of her four married sons being given the name Elizabeth.

She had 17 grandchildren, 30 great grandchildren, and according to our information, 25 great, great, grandchildren.