Biography of Eliza Rebecca Piersol

This biography was submitted by Virginia Smith.

Eliza Rebecca Piersol spent her first sixty-some years in Millcreek Township. She was born February 2, 1875, the first of five children born to George and Abigail C. Robinson Piersol. She never used the name Eliza, preferring “Lida: or “Lydia”. She occasionally boasted of her red hair, fair complexion, and tiny feet—apparently desirable traits of her era.  During her youth, she attended church services at Long’s Chapel, located on the Delaware Road (later, US Route 42). 

She left her parents’ home at the age of 25 years, when she married a neighbor, William Adam Smith November 29, 1900 in Union County.  They lived on the Millcreek Township farm William inherited from his father, Wilhelm (or William) Schmitt, located on Brown Road. Their union was blessed with the following children: Roger W., Esther, Donnell, Stanley P., Joseph T., an unnamed infant, Woodrow E., and Mary B.  In 1920, the family suffered their greatest tragedy when Donnell or “Don” accidently suffocated at the age of 17 while working in the gravel quarry at White Sulfur.

Despite struggling financially, the Smiths valued education enough to pay tuition for their children to attend public school at Ostrander, outside their designated district.  A portion of the family income was derived from raising turkeys and selling chicken eggs from the door. Eliza always baked her own bread and did laundry by hand.  Occasionally, the family listened to a radio powered by a car battery because their rural area did not get electricity until the 1930’s. 

All of Eliza’s children left the community of their birth, so when her husband died in 1942, she sold the farm and left also. For nearly 10 years, Eliza worked at a children’s home or as a private care giver in exchange for her living quarters.  She spent much time crocheting or reading her bible while the patients slept. Later, she lived with several of her grown children and eventually moved to her sister’s home in Erie, Pennsylvania where she died January 13, 1964. She was survived by her sister, Blanche Stoney, and three of her children.  Oak Grove Cemetery in Delaware, Ohio is her final resting place.