Eliza Stewart Udall

Eliza Luella (Stewart) Udall (May 21, 1855 – May 28, 1937) was the first telegraph operator in Arizona.

Eliza Stewart's bedroom at Pipe Spring National Monument showing a recreation of the telegraph terminal.

A daughter of Levi Stewart, she was born in Salt Lake City in 1855.

In 1870, at the request of Brigham Young, she studied Morse code and moved to Pipe Spring, Arizona, to work for the Deseret Telegraph Company. Thus she became the first telegraph operator in Arizona. Later, working in Kanab, Utah she telegraphed the news of John Wesely Powell's Second Expedition to Washington, DC.

In 1875 she married David King Udall. They moved to Saint Johns, Arizona in 1880, where David was a LDS Bishop. Their marriage produced 8 children. A lifelong member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she consented to her husband's participation in plural marriage, though David's second wife (Ida Hunt) lived in another town.

She died in 1937 in Saint Johns.

Legacy

• Her son, Levi Stewart Udall, was Chief Justice of the Arizona Supreme court.
• Her grandson Stewart Udall, was a U.S. Congressman from Arizona, and U.S. Secretary of the Interior.
• Her grandson, Mo Udall, was a U.S. Congressman for 30 years, and a candidate for President of the United States in 1976.
• Her great-grandson, Mark Udall, Mo's son, was a U.S. Congressman from Colorado from 1999 to 2009. In 2008, he was elected to the U.S. Senate.
• Her great-grandson, Tom Udall, Stewart's son, was a U.S. Congressman from New Mexico from 1999 until 2009. In 2008, he was elected to the U.S. Senate.