Daughter of John Quincy Knowlton and Mary Newton

Married Charles Albert Griffith, 8 Feb 1894, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah

Children - Helen Griffith, Mary Lulu Griffith, Margaret Griffith, Joseph Quincy Griffith, Maurine Griffith, Charles Albert Griffith, Charles Albert Griffith, Virginia Griffith

History - At the death of her parents in 1887, there were seven natural children ranged in age from twenty-two down to five. Added to these were the two foster Indian girls, "Topsy" and "Ressie."

The older members "refused to have the children separated, and assumed the whole burden of caring for them." Fortunately, Mary Eugenia, affectionately known as Mame, who was twenty-two, had already obtained enough education to continue school teching; George, age twenty, worked at the ranch in Skull Valley, and "Ressie took care of the house in Grantsville and did a magnificent job.

In 1888, two years after their parents' death, Mame "sent Cora to Salt Lake to University for one year, then she and Cora taught. Cora lived with Aunt Rachel Golding (their mother's sister) while going to school." Their salaries as teachers ranged around twenty five dollars a month and board. During the following few summers "these two sisters and Ressie would work in a laundry...the salary was three dollars and fifty cents per week." by the time Eva, the third sister, reached fifteen she gradually assumed more of the family home duties. William was responsible for taking care of the cow, "and was charged to make her a good cow."

In 1891 this entire family moved to Salt Lake City, William spent part of the time with brother George, then engaged in mining. "The girls lived in part of Aunt Rachel Golding's house at 248 West First North in the 17th Ward. Ressie lived next door at 244 West First North and Topsy boarded where ever she worked. All the girls worked in the laundry, did house work in the summertime. During the following year the older girls continued school teaching and Eva attended the LDS College 1891-92 but had been absent a lot because of her health, long hours of sewing had been too much for her. During the next few years, Eva and Lulu, the fourth sister, assumed greater responsibility of holding the family together as the older sisters prepared for marriage.

Mame married Charles Albert Griffith, 8 February 1894, in the Salt Lake Temple. They made their home in Lake Point, Tooele County, Utah where six or seven of their children were born. Charles is reported to have been employed by the Garfield Water Company and the American Smelting and Refining Company. Mame shared her home, as Cora, her younger sisters, did with the younger members of her parents' family. Charles died 9 November 1906, as the result of an accident, just four months before their seventh child was born. Consequently the burden of supporting her own family of seven children fell upon Mame's shoulders, the oldest being but eleven years of age.

The remainder of her life was spent with them in Tooele County where she continued school teaching, the gainful employment which proved so important to her own brothers and sisters. When she retired she had taught school for a total of twenty-nine years. All during her life, by example and precept, she had also been a loyal church worker. Mary Eugenia Knowlton died at the age of eighty-three at the home of her daughter, Margaret, in Tooele, Utah. Her funeral was conducted in the Tooele First Ward Chapel with burial in the Lake Point Cemetery.

Salt Lake Tribune, March 12, 1947.