Eliza Mignonette Hunt

submitted by: Leah Gardner

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Eliza Mignonette Hunt, her nickname was Minetta, was born on June 27 1894 in Cedar City Utah. She had twelve siblings, six were boys and six were girls. She sewed her own doll clothes when she was twelve. When she was fifteen she took sewing lessons. Then she started sewing all her moms dresses and some for herself and her aunts. She also learned to milk the cows while she was young. Her dad taught her to milk the cows.

She went with her aunt Annie to Enterprise, so Annie could visit her brother Will. She met Jonathan while she was there. On December 18, 1913 Jonathan and Minetta got married. They had twelve children. When her first baby was three weeks old they traveled to Enterprise from Cedar city in a white topped buggy in very cold weather. It took them five hours.

Her husband was gone a lot for work so she had to milk their 12 cows. Then she skimmed the cream off and shipped it to a creamery in Salt Lake city. That is where they got most of their money. She had to milk the cows while she had four young children. In March 1922 money was very scarce and hard to earn enough money to live on.

Her aunt Mattie Booth taught her how to tat which is kind of like sewing. She went to the county fair with her tatting and won blue ribbons. Her aunt Mattie also taught her music.

In 1950 her daughter Delores and Delores’s husband were traveling from Cedar City to Enterprise and were in a car crash. Delores died instantly and her husband died a few hours later. They had only been married for three weeks.

Minetta became seriously ill in May 1959. She lost all track of time and for 3 weeks she lost control of her thought and speech.

She died April 2, 1982 in St George.

It was very interesting to learn about her and her life. We grew up very differently.