Eliza Quinn

Eliza Quinn was born about 1820 in Littletown in County Kildare, Ireland. She was the oldest daughter of eight children. Her parents were James Quinn and Esther Ennis (Quinn). At about age 30 she sailed to St. Louis via New Orleans with a sister to live with her brother Edward, who worked for a factory. She arrived during a deadly cholera epidemic that killed 10% of the population. 
She married a widower who had one young son and eventually settled in Pocahontas, Iowa where she and her husband ran an inn and a farm on the Lizard Creek in Des Moines Township. People described her as a "walking dictionary" and she took great pride in being well-read. She gave birth to seven children, five living to adulthood. She died at about age 83 in 1903.