ELIZABETH ROUNDY
President 1904-1905
Elizabeth Jefford Drake Roundy was born March 16, 1830 in Axminster, Devonshire, England, the only child of George Morley Drake and Hannah Jefford Drake. She was 10 years old when her father died.
Originally reared in the Episcopal faith, in December 1851 she attended a meeting at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints mission on Aldenham Street, and heard a sermon by Jacob Gates. She was baptized in London on December 31, 1851. On July 13, 1852, she married Henry Richard Ballam in Bethnal Green, Middlesex, England. Together, they had 5 children of which 3 would survive to adulthood. They settled in Philadelphia in 1857 and a year later, in 1858, her husband died.
In 1859 she arrived in the Salt Lake Valley and on April 29, 1860, she married Daniel George Davis (a solider of the Civil War). Together, they had one son.
Later, she returned east on an appointment to a clerkship with the Treasury Department, secured through Gen. F. E. Spinner. In May 1870, on the eve of the consideration of the Cragin "Anti-Mormon" bill by the U.S. Senate, she succeeded in persuading Senator Charles Sumner to speak against the bill which contributed to its defeat. The long Cragin Bill – 41 sections – was especially punitive, proposing the abolition of significant elements of the Bill of Rights. It abolished the right to trial by jury in cases involving polygamy. It interfered with the freedom of religion to such an extent that merely attending a sealing ceremony – even when it did not involve a plural marriage – was criminalized. The right of Latter-day Saint clergymen to solemnize marriages – even non-polygamous ones – was abolished.
An editorial in the Deseret News reported on the bill stating:
“No American citizen who is a Mormon has any rights – he is not a free man but a slave, to be tried, convicted, fined, imprisoned, at the will of his masters – to be made to pay taxes, but to have those funds spent by his masters in persecuting and torturing him, and enriching them for the service – to wear the form of man, but to have none of the privileges of manhood – to have no right to believe the Bible, practice its precepts, follow its examples, or to worship its God”.
Following her return to the Salt Lake Valley, Mrs. Roundy had a most interesting career in public service for Salt Lake City. In 1874, she suggested the celebration of the birthday of the Prophet Joseph Smith, which was held in the fourteenth ward assembly hall. Her plans for the celebration were approved by President Brigham Young and the exercises were attended by Elders Orson Pratt and John Taylor. In 1875, she was appointed by Brigham Young as chairman of the women's committee in preparation for the celebration of the United States centennial. The celebration was in the form of a fair in the old Constitution building.
On Jan. 17, 1879, she married to Jared Curtis Roundy, who died May 24, 1897 at St. David, Ariz.
She was President of the Woman's Democratic Club of Utah in 1904 and 1905 and also acted as corresponding secretary of the club. She was Vice President for the Utah of the Woman's National Democratic league, and it was Mrs. Roundy's telegraphic nomination to the convention in Washington D.C. which resulted in the election of Mrs. (Edith) Woodrow Wilson as president of that organization.
Mrs. Roundy, at the age of 62, took her first lessons in oil painting and for years prior to her death had produced many canvases of merit, representing portraiture, landscape and still life studies. She passed away in 1916 and is buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery.
Information taken from her obituary published in the Deseret Evening News, Monday January 31, 1916, page 14; Marriage and children information from the Family History Library.