ELIZA FIELD JONES (1804 - 1890)
There were many things about life on the reservation that annoyed Eliza. She couldn't get used to the people entering her home without knocking. She found the men's habit of spitting on the floor disgusting. "How I long to understand their language and converse with them fully," she wrote in her diary.
Inter-racial marriage was generally not accepted at the time. The union of Peter and Eliza caused a great sensation. People couldn't imagine a "lady" marrying an Indian - even one who was a "civilized" Christian. When Eliza left to visit her parents in England, everyone felt that she was gone for good.
Eliza did return. A strong woman, she accepted the extreme temperatures, poverty, and loneliness as part of life in Upper Canada. She staunchly faced the loss of four children and death by diseases that couldn't be stopped. She continued to assist Peter in his mission to "make the Indian people as European as possible." Peter and Eliza hoped to integrate the natives into the white community and help them to become economically independent. They needed to be able to compete with Europeans who were settling on Indian land. Peter and Eliza saw the need to establish schools and develop communities for the native people.
In 1847, Peter was granted full title to a lot of land on the New Credit Reservation. In 1851, he purchased fifty acres of forested land near the village of Brantford, in the Grand River Valley. He built Eliza a home in the style that she might have had in England. The couple named the home, "Echo Villa."
Peter's health was deteriorating rapidly. All of his life he had lived in poverty and neglect. It was taking its' toll. It is possible that Eliza built Echo Villa for him with her father's money because she knew he was dying. His doctor cautioned him to enjoy the comforts of his new home and retire. Still, Peter continued to travel to the New Credit Reserve, twenty miles away. He did so even in extreme weather conditions. Five years after the couple moved into "Echo Villa" Peter died. Eliza sold the home in 1867.
After Peter's death, Eliza raised their sons and took up painting once more. She married a local farmer. In 1879, her watercolor, "Hiwathay's Wedding," [sic] was on display at the first Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto. The painting was based on the second stanza of "Hiawatha," but Longfellow.
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