Isaac, Ruth Dixon - History

HISTORY OF RUTH DIXON ISAAC

Written by her Daughter Kathryn

My Mother, Ruth Dixon was born January 12, 1898 at Payson, Utah at 400 north 84 west in the home her grandfather Edward Dixon built and her father, Edward Henry inherited. She is the daughter of Edward Henry and Victoria Alvira Selman.. Her father had the nickname of "Eddie" and her mother was called "Tory".

Mom's folks were quite well off financially because they had a nice farm and many beautiful horses which the family loved to ride through the back fields to visit their grandparents, the Selmans, in Benjamin. William and Emily Richmond were their names.. My grandmother Dixon and my greatgrandmother Selman were beautiful seamstress's and always kept their girls dressed beautifully. Mother was one of 5 girls and her Grandmother Selman had 7 girls so they had to be good dressmakers. Mothers Grandmother Selman run a millinery shop in Fayson City at one time in her life. Both my grandmother and my greatgrandmother did sewing for me and they made some very beautiful clothes and I remember them

Mom had a lot of fun with her 4 sisters and one brother.. I remember one story Mom told me, she was mad at her sister LaPreal and was chasing her around the house and Preal run into a clothes line and caught her chin on it , itflipped [sic] her backwards and knocked her out cold and Mom felt badly about that. Another story she told me was that there was a family gathering at their grandparents home in Benjamin and the kids found some of grandfathers grape wine and drank some of it .That was a sick bunch of kids and after the older folks found out about it and what caused it they just hung the heads over the ditch bank and let them heave.

Mother attended school at the Poteeneet school which is still standing at the corner of 4th East and the old 91 highway. Her friends were Juliette Douglas (who was special) Lillian Huish, Deon Colvin, Waneeta Reece, Glays Perry, Ernest Knutson, and Walter Strong. She went through 8th grade which is equlivent [sic] to our high school now. They went to shows for 5 cents and to lots of dances. As the girls got older grandmother Dixon would go along as a chaprone for them. Mom walked to school which was 8 blocks, back home for lunch, back to school and home in the afternoon. In the winter the hill behind the school was used as a sleding and sliding hill for the kids and is still being used for that purpose as well as the school still being used. All of the Dixon girls loved to dance and Payson had some of the big name bamds [sic] come to play at the dances.

My Father John Isaac and his brother Ben went to Payson to the dances and Dad had a beautiful horse and borrored his fathers nice buggy to go to the dances. He courted Mother and Uncle Ben courted Aunt Julliete Douglass and later married them. Mom was 18 when she married Dad and they were married in the Salt Lake Temple on June 7, 1916. A nice wedding party was held for them at the home of Dads sister Margaret and her husband Bill Leyshon in Springville, Utah they cane [sic] home from the Temple. When Uncle Ben and Aunt Juliette got married in December 1916, Dad and Mother gave them a pig for a wedding present. Mom and Dad first lived in the east of the one we live in now at 1200 west and 7300 south in Utah county. When uncle Ben and Juliette got married they stopped off in Springville at aunt Margarets and had scone, Salmon and tomatoes.

The Isaac family all had fun together especially at East Portal in the strawberry valley. Grandfather Isaac bought a unused hospital there and turned it into a large cabin and the families spent a lot of tome there on vacations. Those who could would go up the first of the week and stay and those left would come up on the week ends, Dad and Mother, Uncle Roy and Aunt Twila, Aunt Margaret and Juliette and the kids would go up early and Uncles Ben and Bill would come later. The group usually would stay for 2 weeks fishing swimming and boating and I remember how we loved that.

The movies in those days were aiscent [sic] so the Theatre managers would hire Mom and Dad and Aunt Margaret to come and sing during intermission while they changed the clumsy film. They all loved doing that as well as earning a  little miney [sic]. Their favorite song was "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles" but they sang many more beautiful ones.

Dad, Mother, Ben and Juliette used to go to the wrestling matches in Salt Lake every Friday night when the weather was good. They"d have dinner out go shopping each time they went On other occasions [sic] Mom, Aunt Twila and Aunt Juliette would go on shopping tours in Salt Lake· and spend all day at 1 t but Aunt Juliette was the only one who had any money because uncle Ben had a money paying job at the Sugar Factory in the office.

My Brother Dixon was born Feb.28, 1917 in the home now owned by Mae Atwood east of where we now live. When I was about to be born Mother sent Dixon, who was 18 months old, to tell Dad who was out in the field, He came born and I was born on Sept 10, 1918 also in the home east of us When my Brother Jack was born our folks had moved into the house at the end of the lane where mother lived the rest of her says. Mother told me she was unable to attent [sic] her mothers funeral because she was recovering from a miscarriage at that time.1921. Jack was born on Sept.17, 1925.

Dad raised sheep and farmed and there was not much money floating around in those days and we didn't have much but we always had lots of good food and was the same as everyone else during the depresson [sic] so we didn t [sic] feel poor. Everyone was hit with money problems then and Dad and Mother worked hard to make end meet. When I was a Junior in high school the old home was remodolded [sic] and where we were using 4 rooms we now had 6 and a bath. Dad worked at the Leland Mill for Uncle Ben and he bought and sold grain so he made a little more money, Mom didn"t like it when Dad and Jack bought the mill because it left her alone more and she had been used to going all of Utah plus Idaho and wyoming, This was in 1955 and Dad worked there for 6 years and had a heart attack in July of 1961 and another one in Sept. He died in Hughes Hospital of a blood clot hitting his heart.. Steven stayed with Morn for 3 years after Dad died but when he got old enough to date girls and stayed out later she said she didn"t need him, She had a nice car and could go and come as she pleased.. She had some nice flowers and enjoyed working in them. She had a little white poodle named Nikki which she loved and she kept him looking so nice, She had taken him to Nebo clinic to get him clipped and they let him get away and we never did find him, It. nearly broke her heart und the clinic offered her another poodle but she didn't want it ..  

Bill and I would take her shopping with us whenever we went anyplace interesting like shows, visiting out kids, shopping in Provo and she even went to Virginia with Bill when he came to visit us.. I had gone back to be with Suzanne when Ben was born and h:.td been there 2 weeks when Mom and Bill came back to stay a week, We took her to the Smithsonian Institute to see the Presidents First ladies gowns and the beautiful Hope Diamond. She had a wonderful time and we had to take her back to see them all over again before we came home. She was fun to take anywhere we went because she enjoyed life and had such a good time.. Jack and Mary Esther were very good to her also and took her many places. The great grandchildren loved her as much as her grandchildrcn did and they were very sad when she passed away..

Mother took good care or herself and kept her neat and clean and saw that her yards were kept up also David, Becky, Janene, Mary Esther and Linda helped her with the yard work. Aunt Juliette and Mom were still very close and they went to the Senior Citizens to play cards, have dinner and they had a ball. Everyone loved to have them come because they were so much fun and were always laughing and cracking jokes.. Jack was always good to Mother and handled her finances and saw that she had what she needed and the her bills were paid on time and such. I am sure that Dick would have done the same if he had been near so that he could have done it too.

In October of 1977 Becky was married to Mark Hasson in the Manti Temple and Mom was at the marriaga  cermony [sic] and also at the wedding in her new dress of Orange and white which was long. and she looked so nice. After this event Mom was always tired and she had the flu and she didn't feel very good. At Christmas time she told me that her b.m.. stools were black and I knew that she was bleeding internally so I got her to the Doctor and he tested her blood and found that it was counting 8 when it should have been 13 at least so he gave her some Iron shots and medicine to bring up the count but she was bleeding as fast as she was making blood. She went to the Hospital in January and had 3 pints of blood and while she was there she had her 80th birthday and Garth made her a pretty Jello Cake to help her celebrate. The blood seemed to perk her up so we were able to take her home but she was in so much pain from the bleeding ulcer that she could not sleep nights and Doctor Brockbank would not give her any pain pills because he said it would make her bleed more. Mary and I took turns staying with her and it seemed that when morning would start to break she would go to sleep for a few hours but as soon as night would start to fall she would get those terrible pains back. We had her home for 3 weeks and then had to take her back to the Hospital for more blood and she cried every time the nurses would come near her with the needles to give her blood. She had black and blue arms, hands and feet from the needles, She was in the Hospital for 2 weeks end then we took her home but she was far from well. It was a saturday afternoon when I took her home and I stayed with her from then on until Monday.

Aunt Juliette and Joyce came to see her on Sunday afternoon and they had such a good time laughing like they always did. Mother was resting a little better now because the Dr.. had given her pain pills.

On Monday morning at 5oclock shecomplained [sic]of her stomach hurting her and I felt  it and knew she was bleeding again because it was so hard and distended so I gave her a pain pill and it relieved the pain somewhat. At 7oclock she started to vomit and it was pure blood and I dldn't dare leave her until she stopped for fear she would choke then I called Mary to get an ambulance and they took her back to the Hospital. They again gave her more blood against my wishes but she rested a little.. We called Dlck and Lucile and they came on Wednesday and had two good visits with her and at 2 oclock Thursday morning she started hemmorrhaging again and the Hospital told us to come over. We were with her all day and she never had a pulse nor any blood pressure and when evening came we decided to take turns staying with her so Jack and Mary went home to take care of the kids after school and we stayed until 6 and Jack and Mary would then go and stay awhile with her.. Dick, Lucile and I came home to get some supper and at 7 oclock the Hospital called to say she had passed away. I know she waited until we were not there to go because she had seen Dad die and she did not want us to see her.

I was brokenhearted to have her go but neither could I stand and see her cry with pain and pray that God would take her home. we buried her on March 6, 1978 beside Dad in the Spanish Fork cemetary. She had passed away on March 2nd and the funeral was s very lovely. Her casket was off while and the casket spray was pink and white rosebuds. Her three sisters came from California and there were many many of her friends there.. The great grandchildren sang I am a child of God" and Paul played some of her favorite songs on the piano and she would have liked that.. Kent came home also and gave a very beautiful prayer.

My parents were such wonderful people and I will ever be grateful they were steadfast in the Gospel because I know that I shall be with them again in Eternity.