| Notes |
- Find-a-Grave
Elmira Powers was born on June 16, 1846 to Moody Barrett Powers and Abigail Holden Nason. She was born on Deer Isle, Maine, where the Powers family had been living for four generations. Before that the family had lived in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, where they had originally settled in about 1650.
Moody and Abigail moved their family to Kansas in 1854, when Elmira was 8 years old. Why they made the move is not entirely clear, but there are several possibilities. The Kansas Territory was created on 30 May, 1854 by the Kansas-Nebraska act. There was much land to be had, for those who were willing to pioneer a new area, and that was probably the main reason that they went. Also, the Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed for the people of the territory to determine by popular vote whether or not Kansas would be a free state or a slave state. As a result of this, an emigration company was created called the Emigrant Aid Company, whose purpose was to send anti-slavery New Englanders to settle in Kansas, so they would be able to vote for Kansas to become a free state. The Moody Powers family was listed in the fourth company that was sent in 1854. They left from Boston on October 17, 1854, arriving in Kansas City on 28 October, 1854. The list of the Powers family who were in the company was: Moody B. Powers, Mrs. Abigail H. Powers, Almira N., Augusta A., Moody, Milton, Abba E., and Merrill Powers. Also in the company was Amos H. Powers, a nephew of Moody. Since they went to Kansas with the Emigrant Aid Company, they must have been anti-slavery in their beliefs.
As pioneer journeys go it was probably not that tough. First they rode on a train, and then rode on a steamboat, the Sam Cloon, down the Missouri river. Still, to have left home and taken your entire family to homestead a new territory would have been a tough thing to do. Elmira must have been excited, as well as a little scared, to be moving so far from the home she knew. Conditions during the trip and when they arrived were not as the company had assured them. Accommodations were insufficient, and everything was more expensive than they had been promised. When the immigrants arrived in Kansas City, there was, once again, insufficient housing for all of them. Many turned around and went back to New England, but the Powers family stayed.
Initially, Moody and some of the other settlers created a new settlement on Rock Creek, but it only lasted less than a month. Then, many settlers moved westward to the vicinity of Big Blue River, in Pottawatomie County, and settled at Juniata. In the census of Kansas territory taken in January and February of 1855, Elmira is listed with her family as living there.
Ten years later, on January 1, 1864 she married Oliver Francis Ingraham in Manhattan, Kansas. She was 9 years his junior. Together they had 4 children, Emma, Edna, Henry Francis, and Milton Powers Ingraham. Her son, Milton Powers Ingraham, was named after her brother, John Milton Powers.
In 1873 they moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado. Her first three children were born in Kansas, and the last one was born in Colorado. Sometimes obituaries can tell us much about a person, but hers doesn’t say anything that we don’t already know. Still, it is very complimentary. Here is the final paragraph:
Deceased has many friends both in Colorado City and thruout the county who will deeply regret to learn of her passing. The husband and other members of the family have the sympathy of all in their sad bereavement. Truly a grand and noble woman has passed on to her final reward, leaving as a rich heritage the memory of a life well lived.
She passed away on March 17, 1921 in Colorado Springs, Colorado at the age of 74.
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1846 - 1921 (74 years)
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