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After arriving in America they crossed the plains with an ox train company led

by Captain Horton D. Haight. They arrived in the Great Salt Lake Valley of Utah

on October 19, 1862. They were then sent to Brigham City, Box Elder County to

help settle that new area.

William Thorpe obtained work taking care of the charcoal pits in the canyons

east of Brigham City near Mantua on the road leading to Paradise Valley. He was

attacked by Indians with bows and arrows and beaten with their leather whips,

then when he fell to the ground was stabbed in the throat with a dirk and

stripped of all his clothing. The Church Chronology in Salt Lake City, Utah, page

69, states the following:

―

On Friday May 8, in the year 1863, a small band of

Indians made a raid on Box Elder Valley, four miles above Brigham City, killing

William Thorpe and driving off several head of horses.

‖

After the death of her husband, Elizabeth and her seven children seemed very

much alone in a strange land. She went about doing nursing for the sick in the

valley and helping anyone who needed help. After a couple of years, she decided

to leave Brigham City and go north into Idaho where her older sons could get

some land and make homes for themselves. They stopped at Four-mile Creek

(now Woodruff, Idaho) and made their home for four years. Elizabeth Thorpe

moved on to the Malad Valley, near Samaria, Idaho in the fall of 1868. Her home

was on a little mound near the Samaria Spring. She and her family planted

vegetables and sold them and she also went about nursing the sick and helping

as a mid-wife when there was need of her services.