Eliza Withington
I
am Mrs. Elizabeth Kirby Withington. I was born March 17, 1825 in New York City.
Mr. George Withington, my husband, an agent for the “Pico Grant”,
was already settled on a ranch in Ione Valley when I journeyed to California on
the Overland Trail in 1852. My intention was to join my husband as well as bring
him a span of fine horses for the ranch. My eldest daughter, Sarah, 5 years of
age, accompanied me on the trail along with fellow traveler, Mary Stuart Bailey.
A chronicle of events was kept in her dairy. My daughter Sarah was quite miserable
on the trail. As for me, I fell quite ill with the dysentery. I did eventually
recover. My husband George met the wagons as we nearly ended the journey. We had
indeed a happy meeting.
In 1856 I returned to New York to learn photography and visited the famous Matthew Brady gallery. In January 1857 I returned to California and opened the Excelsior Ambrotype Gallery in a house I rented from the Bowmers. My portrait studio is on Main Street in Ione City. It features a large and well arranged skylight for taking portraits. I can provide satisfaction to all who patronize my studio by giving them a faithful likeness as they can procure elsewhere. I provide lessons in Oriental Pearl Painting.
During the summer months I prefer to escape the heat and turn to stereograph work in the local towns and mountainous mining areas. We have some of the prettiest little lakes, the loveliest valleys, the most picturesque and stupendous mountains and peaks of the Sierra Nevada range in our county. It is here that I take photographic views of the vicinity. I invented a traveling kit and developing methods for fix plates out in the field.
In 1875 I became a member of the San Francisco Photographic Art Society of
the Pacific. In 1876 I wrote an article “How a Woman Makes Landscape Photographs”
that was published in the Philadelphia Photographer.