Elizabeth Yarbrough

BIRTHDATE: 23 Dec 1808  Montgomery, Tennessee

DEATH: 15 Jan 1894  Pleasant Green, Salt Lake, Utah

PARENTS: William Yarbrough & Permelia Parker

PIONEER: 17 Sep 1850 Warren Foote Wagon Train

SPOUSE: Abraham Coon

MARRIED: 1829  Saint Claire Co., Illinois

CHILDREN: 

Susannah, 22 Jul 1830

John, 30 Nov 1832

Permelia, 8 Jan 1834

Sarah Ann, 6 Jan 1836 (died at age 13)

William, 4 Dec 1837

Elizabeth, 20 Dec 1838

James David, 7 Dec 1841

Francis Ann, 16 Aug 1843

Erastus, Sep 1844 (died in infancy)

Rachel Caroline, 22 Mar 1849

Elizabeth grew up as a “Southern Belle” on her father's plantation and was used to a life of luxury. Her parents sold their plantation and moved to St. Clair County, Illinois.

Elizabeth met and married Abraham Coon in 1829 at Belleville. After their first two children were born, they moved to Greene County, Illinois, where five more children were added to their family.

Elizabeth and Abraham were converted and baptized as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in 1839.

In 1841, they moved to a three hundred acre farm three miles south of La Harpe, Illinois. When the Mormons were driven from Illinois, Abraham and his family joined the Exodus of the Saints. Hundreds of the weary exiles died during the trek because of lack of food and exposure to the elements. They reached Council Bluffs on June 14, 1846.

They obtained a farm on Mosquito Creek at the Indian Mill settlement. Her husband, Abraham, served as bishop and served until the members of the Mormon Battalion returned for their families.

They traveled west in the Warren Foot Wagon Company with Abraham serving as captain over ten wagons. Their oldest daughter, Susannah became ill and died of cholera on her twentieth birthday. They arrived in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake on September 17, 1850.

In 1856, Abraham Coon was called by Brigham Young to go to the Carson Valley Mission. He took his third wife, her four children, and Elizabeth's son, James David, with him.

Elizabeth and her other children remained on their Jordan River Farm and attended to their ranch and the saw mills in Coon's Canyon while Abraham was gone.

Her home was made of four apartments. This building was used as a home and also as a work shop. One room was used as a kiln. Elizabeth spent the closing years of her life at the home of her daughter Frances Ann in Coonville (now Bacchus).

From the book: “Pioneer Women of Faith and Fortitude” Daughters of the Utah Pioneers.