Eliza Birdsall Van Tuyl was born on September 2, 1799, daughter of Lewis Birdsall and Patience Lee and sister to Jane Harris. Eliza married Dr. Abraham Van Tuyl in New York. He received a medical license from the State of New York in 1819, and in 1823, he was appointed a military surgeon in the New York Militia. The Van Tuyls remained in New York despite the continuous encouragement from family members to join them in Texas. While Eliza desperately wanted to be with her family, lack of money and Abram's refusal to accept the Birdsalls' offer to pay their passage kept them in New York. Eliza lamented that they were no better off in New York, where she must live subjected to poverty in this aristocratic land. By 1844, she had given up any hope of travelling to Texas to see her family and began urging them to come visit her. However, she may have visited Texas as early as 1845. The Van Tuyls lived in Penn Yan, Waterloo, Bavaria, and Yates County, New York. They had two children, Eliza Jane and Henry. Prior to the Civil War, possibly after the death of her husband, Eliza moved to Harrisburg, Texas, where she lived with her sister, Jane. During the Civil War she gained the reputation of being a skilled nurse to Confederate soldiers. Eliza Birdsall Van Tuyl died within eight days of her sister on August 24, 1869.
From the guide to the Abram abd Eliza Van Tuyl papers MC068. 50105484., 1819-1845, (Bulk: 1839-1845), (Albert and Ethel Herzstein Library, )
