Elizabeth Harriman Nichols (Goodrich Hardy)

Elizabeth was born in New Hampshire or Massachusetts about 1796. Elizabeth first married in 1817 a man from Haverhill, Essex, Massachusetts named Barnard Goodrich or Goodridge, the son of Barnard and Mary "Polly" Silver Goodridge. They had at least one child, a son named William Goodridge, born in 1818. Barnard then died on February 11, 1825 in Haverhill, at the age of 27. Elizabeth Nichols Goodrich then married a shoemaker 10 years her junior named Leonard Wilford Hardy in October 12, 1826 in Bradford, Essex, Massachusetts (about 20 miles from Lowell). 

The couple had four children:

1. Charles Aaron Hardy (1827-1852)
2. William Hardy (1829-?)
3. Rufus Leonard, born March 14, 1831; died April 7, 1833
4. Clarissa Henrietta or Harriman Hardy (1834-1903)

The Hardys (and Elizabeth's son William Goodridge) were converted to Mormonism in 1832 by Orson Hyde. In 1839, William Goodridge (now a carpenter) married Anne Jane Griffin Platt, of Newbury, Essex, Mass., and they had six children, born in Haverhill, nearby Georgetown, and one daughter born in Nova Scotia in 1849 (where William was probably serving a mission). The Hardy family migrated to Nauvoo, where Leonard was called on a mission to England in December 1844, along with Apostle Wilford Woodruff. Upon Leonard's return to New England in October 1845, Betsey Hardy and children joined him and they moved to Lowell by 1846.

Lowell Institute for Savings Bank Records show that a "Betsey Hardy" had an account there in 1848 (and family records indicate Elizabeth Nichols Hardy went by "Betsey").  Her occupation was a weaver at that time.  Her youngest child, Clarissa H. Hardy, would have been 14 at the time, certainly old enough to allow Betsey Hardy to work outside the home.

The Hardy family migrated from Lowell to Salt Lake in the Wilford Woodruff company, arriving in Salt Lake on October 14, 1850. One month after their arrival in Salt Lake, Leonard Hardy married his first plural wife, 24 year-old Sophia Lois Goodridge (no relation to Barnard or William Goodridge) - Leonard would later marry two more of her sisters as well. The Goodridge sisters were in the same pioneer company. Leonard and Elizabeth's daughter Clarissa either met Apostle Woodruff during his brief visits to Massachusetts, or more likely during the long pioneer journey. Although Clarissa first married Alonzo Haventon Russell in 1853, she later became one of Woodruff's plural wives, although she then divorced him as well. Meanwhile, Elizabeth's son, William Goodridge, was living with his wife and children in Haverhill until at least 1851, when they too started west to Utah. Unfortunately, William died on July 18, 1852 at Council Bluffs, Iowa.

She died in Salt Lake City on October 13, 1872, aged 76.

 

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