Elizabeth J. Aufderheide

Elizabeth Scrivenor Jones Aufderheide's life exemplifies the resilience of women who faced widowhood after the Civil War. Born in England, Elizabeth Aufderheide made her way to the United States, where she was widowed twice and made a single mother. She then ran and owned her own homestead in Nebraska, until finally moving to Seattle when she was well into her late 70s. Her life reveals the nature of widowhood as a result of the Civil War, and how these women were able to make their way in a patriarchal society.

The following information is available thanks to the hard work of Lisa Oberg, who has extensively researched Elizabeth Aufderheide’s life.

Early Life & Widowhood

Elizabeth Scrivenor was born in Southampton, England on October 16, 1820 to Joseph and Elizabeth Scrivenor. When exactly she came to the United States appears to be unknown, but she married a Welsh man by the name of Richard Jones and lived in Galena, Illinois. The couple had a daughter, Lucy Ada, in 1851, but Richard died just a year after the birth of their daughter, leaving Elizabeth a single mother and widow. She then moved to Wisconsin, where she married a German immigrant named John H.F. Aufderheide in 1855. The couple had a son named Frederick in 1856. John enlisted in the Union Army in 1862 with the 33rd Wisconsin Infantry. Unfortunately, he died in 1864 of pneumonia, once again leaving Elizabeth a widow.

Widowhood during the Civil War was tragically widespread, and often placed a great social and financial burden on the woman affected. Though widows received pensions if their husband died in war, they were often meager and not easy to support a family with. Elizabeth Aufderheide’s pension was only $8 a month — the modern-day equivalent of about $247. On top of this meager financial support, societal expectations for mourning women were lofty: upon the death of her husband, a woman was expected to enter a period of mourning. Typically, this was a two-year process consisting of two stages: full mourning and half mourning. A woman remained in full mourning for a year and one day after the death of her husband, and was expected to wear all black including a veil that covered her face, correspond using black-lined stationary, and leave home only for church. Following this phase, a woman entered half mourning, where she was able to wear lighter (albeit drab) colors and remove the veil from her face. Widowhood carried a deeply gendered set of expectations for American women, both Union and Confederate, and as the war raged and times became harder, these traditions became harder to uphold.

Homesteading & Later Life

It seems that times were hard for Elizabeth, as it appears she had to place her son in an orphanage at one point. This was not uncommon for widows to do at this time, as supporting a child financially without a wealthy family was an incredibly difficult feat. Thankfully, she found respite in the Soldiers and Sailors Homestead Act of 1872, which allowed widows to apply to receive homesteads. When granted a homestead, an owner was expected to cultivate and develop the land they were given, and after five years, they could sell it for increased value. This was an appealing opportunity for many women, and Elizabeth was no exception. After her daughter was married in 1878, Elizabeth filed for a homestead and was granted 160 acres of land — one of the few ways women could own land in the United States at this time, and a rare opportunity for a woman to build her own fortune in the 1870s.

This was a challenging area to farm, as Nebraska experienced droughts, blizzards, and locust plagues, but she was successful in “proving up,” having sufficiently developed the land to raise its value to $250. To get her final title to the land, Elizabeth had to become an American citizen and renounce her British citizenship. She remained in Nebraska until about 1900, when she moved to Seattle’s Ravenna neighborhood. It is a mystery why exactly she left Nebraska and made the journey to Seattle, especially considering she was nearly 80 years old at the time. She lived here for a brief time, dying in 1902.

Though her time in Seattle was brief, her story reflects a unique one in this cemetery. A widow who fought hardship and made her way to Seattle despite her age and setbacks, Elizabeth J. Aufderheide’s life story is one of incredible perseverance. Her life also illustrates the larger patterns of her time, giving us a glimpse into the experiences of single women during the late 1800s.