"Eliza Jane Manning Casto" by Magdalene Miller Nordmark
Eliza Jane Manning was born 24 Sept. 1864 in Heber City, UT. Her parents were Freeman Manning and Catherine Ann Watkins. She was near the middle of the family with sisters that were older who taught her how to dance barefoot in the door yard and several brothers and sisters who were younger that her mother depended upon her to help take care of. She had to work hard as she grew up. She had a special ability in caring for people. At the time she was 10 years old a local nurse recognized that and wanted to have her go with her as an assistant. Her parents felt she was too young to do anything like that. Besides, her mother needed her help at home.
She went to school as far as the third reader, but after that there was just too much to be done at home. It became a real necessity at a time when her mother was expecting another child. After this, nature became her teacher and school.
Her mother was careful to teach her all that she knew in the ways of taking care of a family, cooking, making soap, washing, baking bread and untold other chores that had to be done to make a go of it in this frontier environment.
There was never any extra money for toys or dolls in the Manning home, so Eliza never had a doll. She learned to make her own Holly Hock dolls. There was a neighbor who had planted many holly hocks all around the chicken run. The flowers made a place for the little chicks to hide and shade for the rest. One never knew when a hawk or owl would come swooping in for its dinner. The neighbor would give her a few blossoms each day.
Here is how she made her dolls. She would turn one blossom upside down for the bottom half. Next she would stick a pin up through the blossom and into a plump gooseberry and in a big red currant. A second blossom was used for a hat. Two of the petals were split to make ribbons to tie the blossom on to the currant. Now she had a holly hock doll.
The summer she was fifteen her family was living in Richfield. The county was building a canal through Richfield. She and her brothers came to watch. The boys thought it would be fun to throw rocks down on the workers. One of them promptly came top side and gave them a sound scolding. This worker happened to be Abel Casto from Manti. For some reason he was a little bit fascinated by Eliza. Her took her to some of the Saturday night dances while he continued to work on the canal. Their friendship grew.
The canal was soon finished. Abel returned to Manti, but kept thinking about Eliza. He decided to go see her again. This meant a two day walk from Manti to Richfield and two days to get back to Manti. They went to another dance while he was visiting and planned to write. The next time he came he had borrowed a horse. This time he asked her to marry him. She accepted and on January 2, 1881 was married by a family friend and Justice of the Peace, Thomas G. Humphry, at Salina, UT.
Their first home was a homestead on Gooseberry. Abel had built a one room log cabin. He made a cupboard for his bride out of a wooden goods box with three shelves in it. Eliza took pride in placing her three cups, saucers, and plates in it. Abel's brother, Brig, had also homesteaded at Goseberry. In the fall of 1882 authorities of the Mormon Church issued an invitation for families to go to Arizona to help establish a colony near Fort Thomas.
Brig and Abel and their wives decided to go. It took a lot of preparation. Abel traded their chickens for a treadle sewing machine for Eliza. This was her most treasured possession. She used this machine for the rest of her life. On it she made all the clothes for her eight children and herself. She even used it to mend the horse harnesses at times.
The day before they left Eliza spent the whole day baking so that they would have bread for the trip. Present day maps don't show any Fort Thomas. I am estimating that this is like a 700 mile trip. The Gila River runs in an east to west direction across the lower third of the state; such as between Phoenix and Yuma. Eliza was pregnant which added another burden to the trip.
Somewhere in Arizona they stopped at the Mathes ranch. It was getting near the time for Eliza to have her child. Martha Mathes was a very kindly person and invited them to stay there. She also acted as midwife for Eliza. A baby girl was born to Eliza and Abel 17 Dec. 1992. They named her Martha Jane after the kind friend who had taken them in. In the meantime Brig and his wife had gone on to Curtisville, AZ. Abel would stay until Eliza and baby were able to travel again.
When Eliza was able they went on to Curtisvulle which was on the Gila River, four miles from Ft. Thomas. They chose a spot to homestead and started farming. There was a lot of trouble with Apache Indians. There were many mosquitoes that left Malaria with their bite. They raised tremendous melons there. Abel had one melon that weighed 65 pounds and a squash that weighed 100 lgs.
They remained in Arizona for about 3 1/2 years. Two more children were born. Frank was born 23 Aug. 1883 and Clara Elizabeth was born 7 Nov. 1886.
By April of 1887 they had returned to Goseberry. They traded a team of mules and a set of harnesses for the squatters rights to the place he had originally homesteaded in Gooseberry. The following year Eliza gave birth to a daughter, Mary Grace on 8 Nov. 1988. The one room cabin was too small for the family now. Abel bought an additional piece of property referred to as the Water's place. It had a large two room log cabin on it. Abe farmed both places. Here three sons were born. Rudolph M. was born 17 June 1890. Edwin James was born 2 Nov. 1892 and Ferdinand M. was born 14 July 1894.
For a while there was a school at Gooseberry and the Casto children attended. One winter the school was discontinued at Gooseberry so Eliza and Abe tutored their children themselves. They knew their children needed more education so Abel purchased a lot in Salina with a two story rock home on it.
While school was in session, Eliza would stay in town with the children while Abel would stay at the ranch to take care of the stock and do what ever chores needed to be done. He would come home once a week, weather permitting, to stock up on some home baked bread and pies and whatever else he needed.
Sometimes the boys would go back with him after school Friday and stay until Monday morning when they either rode their own horses the 10 miles to Salina or found a ride with a neighbor.
When Ferdinand was eight years old, a baby sister was born 19 Nov. 1902. They named her Ila Ruby Casto. He was glad that he wouldn't be the baby of the family any more. She was born in the rock house which by this time had running water and electricity.
This was much easier than living on the ranch. These are some of the things Eliza had to do as a ranch wife. First of all she was responsible for making sure that food was prepared for each meal. It was made from scratch. She baked all of her own bread, pies, cakes and cookies. She kept a flock of chickens to have all of the eggs she needed as well as plenty of fryers for eating. She helped raise a big garden each year. It was important to plant enough for the family to eat all summer and fall, some for canning and drying, and some for seed. She saved every scrap of fat from the meat to be rendered and used for making soap. Nothing was wasted. If the cream got too old for table use, they made butter out of it anyway and used that on the harnesses during the winter time to keep them pliable. When clothes had too many holes in them to be decent, the good parts would be cut into strips and sewn together for carpet rags which were then wound into a ball and later used to make rugs.
Eliza enjoyed having someone else come to dinner. She was so isolated at the ranch that she yearned to see most anyone. Her grandson, Morris Curtis, stayed with then each summer between the age of 8 and 12. He described the situation this way. They would detect a cloud of dust rising where the traveler forded the Salina Creek and turned up the hills toward Gooseberry. Eliza would send someone to the garden for vegetables, another person would be assigned to kill an extra rooster which was plucked, eviscerated in very short order then put in the pan, and Eliza would whip up a batch of baking powder biscuits. By the time the wagon would arrive at their ranch, dinner would be nearly done. By the way, the only existing road at that time went through everyone's farm. You had to be careful to close the gate behind you. Their farm was first on line.
Eliza had a way with food. She could make meager provisions turn into a feast. She didn't have the recipes written down, they were in her head. Ila remembers the way she made chicken with Danish dumplings. Edwin Casto really liked his mom's mincemeat pie. He encouraged his wife to make it and constantly tasted it until he was satisfied with what had been added.
My late father, Janus Miller, was eating Thanksgiving dinner at Maude and Ed's house. For dessert there was mince and pumpkin pie. As he took a mouthful of the mince pie it brought back memories of the time he was courting Ila and had many a piece of Eliza Casto's pie. Janus said, "Maude, this pie tastes just like Eliza Casto's pie !"
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| Lloyd Allen holding Tillie, Clara Allen, Eliza Jane Manning Casto, Abel Casto, Ila Casto Miller |
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