Elizabeth Lucina Mecham (1836-1903)

Elizabeth Lucina Mecham (1836-1903)
Born	February 27, 1836 Delaware, Mercer County, Pennsylvania
Died	November 17, 1903 Grantsville, Tooele County, Utah
Husband	George Bryant Gardner

Elizabeth Lucina Mecham was the daughter of Joshua Mecham and Lucina Harmon. She was born in Delaware, Pennsylvania. The brothers (Daniel and Lorenzo Dow) were born at Springfield, PA. Joshua and Lucina Mecham followed the Latter-day Saints from Springfield to Kirtland, Ohio in the early 1830s. They possibly left Kirtland with the group called Kirtland Camp about 1838 and stayed over at Springfield, Illinois with the sick and infirm. Joshua's parents and several of Lucina's brothers also stopped at Springfield, Illinois to recover from illness and find work in order to earn money to join the Saints at a later date. Joshua was one of those who were sick and he passed away on March 8, 1840. Elizabeth Lucina was just four years old when her father died. The Harmon family saw to it that Lucina and her children were able to travel to Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois with them. They were there by 1842. In 1844, Elizabeth Lucina's mother married her father's brother, Joseph Mecham. However, on October 5, 1845, Lucina died. Also in 1845, Joseph Mecham passed away leaving Elizabeth an orphan at the age of 9 years. It is unknown who cared for her beyond this point.

Elizabeth was married in polygamy at the age of 17 to a man nearly twice her age. However, this marriage lasted less than two years. Her second marriage was also into a polygamous family at the age of 18 and this second husband was 24 years older than Elizabeth. Again, she was unhappy in this situation and divorced her husband. He took their child, a son, and moved to Ferron, Utah. Elizabeth married a third time, again in polygamy, to a man 23 years her senior. Together they had four children, at a time when there was incredible persecution of the polygamous families. Probably to escape some of the persecution and to keep as much of his family together as possible, George moved to Arizona. Elizabeth divorced him and remained in Utah with relatives helping her with her young family. When she married again, it was to a younger man. There is much discrepancy as to the age of Levi Bectel. Some records say he was born in 1856, but census records show that it was between 1847 and 1836. So, he was either about 10 years younger or just a year younger than Elizabeth. Together, they had four children. About 12 years after Elizabeth and Levi's youngest child was born, Levi married Elizabeth's daughter, Hannah Gardner. Hannah was about 15 or 16 years old at the time of this marriage. This did not cause a rift in the family as Elizabeth continued living with them and is listed on the census records as Levi's "mother-in-law".