In April 1862, the Thomas Paul family left Fremont, Iowa, for Washington Territory. Mrs. Elizabeth Mortimore Paul, pregnant and having a difficult journey west, died here on July 27, 1862, at age 32 while giving birth to a daughter. The infant, named Elizabeth for her mother, lived only a week. Several contemporary diarists recorded her death and burial beneath a large pine tree, enclosed by a post, paling fence, or picket yard, and noted the beauty and care of the grave in a forest opening. Verses apparently written by James S. McClung mourned her death in the mountains and hoped for her resurrection. Thomas Paul continued on to Washington Territory with his seven surviving children and settled in Walla Walla County, where he died on September 29, 1904, at age 75. The original pine tree still stands over Elizabeth Paul's grave.