Eliza Hart Spalding (1807–1851) was an American missionary who joined an Oregon missionary party with her husband Henry H. Spalding and settled among the Nez Perce People called the nimiipuu in Lapwai, Idaho. She was a well-educated woman who was among the first missionaries to learn a Native American language. She developed a written version of the language and printed Bible story lessons and hymns in the Nez Perce language. Her hymnal was the first book written in the Nez Perce language. She taught hundreds of native people by first teaching a few people a lesson or a song, and after they memorized it, they taught it to groups to people.
Early life
Eliza Hart was born in what is now the town of Berlin, Connecticut on August 11, 1807 to Captain Levi and Martha Hart. Her father was a farmer and may have been a captain in the local militia. The oldest of six children, she had three brothers and two sisters. Her family moved to Oneida County, New York in 1820 and lived on a farm near the village of Holland Patent. She learned to make cheese, butter, candles, and soap. She was able to spin thread and weave fabric. She also learned to draw and paint as a child.
She attended Chipman Female Academy. Located in Clinton, New York, it was about 20 miles from her family's farm. She is also said to have taught school. Deeply and nearly mystically religious, she joined the Presbyterian Church of Holland Patent on August 20, 1826.
Marriage and children
A mutual friend connected Henry H. Spalding, who was seeking a pious woman, with Eliza Hart. A student at Franklin Academy in Prattsburgh, New York, Henry began corresponding with Eliza in 1830. One year later, he enrolled at Hamilton College in Clinton, but transferred to Western Reserve College in Hudson, Ohio, where other students receiving aid from the American Education Society felt more accord with the school. She married Henry in Hudson on October 13, 1833, becoming Eliza Hart Spalding.
In the Spring of 1838, after she had become a mother, Spalding made a commitment with fellow missionary Narcissa Whitman to spend the hour between 9 and 10 a.m. "to seek divine assistance discharging the responsible duties of mothers and for the early conversion of our children." This practice helped her feel connected to Whitman, who lived in Washington, and maintained the cultural practices she learned as she grew up about motherhood. In September 1838, Spalding, Whitman, and the newly arrived women missionaries—Myra Eells, Mary Walker, Mary Gray, and Sarah Smith—formed the Columbia Maternal Association.
Missionary
Journey
thumb|To Narcissa Prentiss Whitman and Eliza Hart Spalding, Missionaries. First White women in Wyoming and first women over Oregon trail, 1836. Placed July 4, 1956, by The Historical Landmark Commission of Wyoming.
The Spaldings joined a Presbyterian missionary party bound for Oregon Country (a large region of the Pacific Northwest) in the winter of 1835. and William Henry Gray for the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM). They were led and protected by fur traders from the Hudson's Bay Company and the American Fur Company. The Hudson's Bay Company forts sold supplies to the missionaries over the course of their journey. With Narcissa, the two were the first white women to cross the Continental Divide. and another along the Oregon Trail at Independence Rock near Casper, Wyoming.
Establish mission
The Spaldings arrived at their mission site on November 29, 1836.
She taught girls to knit, sew, and weave cloth, using the first weaving loom west of the Rocky Mountains.
Relationships
She asked for and accepted help from the nimiipuu, such as help with the delivery of her daughter, Eliza, in November 1837. She felt it was important to learn from the native people before asking them to change.
thumb|Spalding Mission, ca. 1880
The mission grew to become the first white settlement in Idaho, with a blacksmith shop, two schools, student dormitories, a meeting house, two print-shops, a spinning and weaving shop, a summer kitchen, other outbuildings. It had 44 acres of cultivated land with 146 horses, pigs and cows.
Death
Eliza Spalding died of tuberculosis near Brownsville, Oregon on January 7, 1851. Her tombstone, among other sentiments, was engraved with words from Henry: "Mrs. Spalding was respected and esteemed by all, and no one had greater or better influence over the Indians". The cemetery is also called the Lapwai Mission Cemetery and is located near the Spalding Mission.
Spalding Mission site
thumb|left|Spalding Mission Site. Only the foundations are preserved. The site is part of [[Nez Perce National Historical Park.]]
A tablet was installed by the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) in 1923 that commemorated the Spalding Mission, A marker was also placed at the nearby Spalding Home Site.
thumb|Tipis near [[Nez Perce National Historical Park in Spalding, Idaho. Traditional tipis dot the landscape of the Nez Perce Indian Reservation.]]
The DAR lobbied the state for the mission site to become a memorial park, which was established as Spalding Memorial State Park in 1936. Since 1965, it is now part of the Nez Perce National Historical Park.