Margaret was heartbroken when Hugh left to go to Butte,
Montana at age 16. She was very close to him and watched for his
letters. When he wrote that he was going
to be married in 1921, she made a beautiful quilt and sent it to Crystal and
Hugh. He was very advanced for his age
when he was a youngster, always building a fence or a bridge or a gate and
warning the younger ones not to climb on them.
He went down into the bottoms and brought four cottonwoods for planting
on the farm. Many of them are still
standing in a long row along the west side of the land leading into the home
site. He left in 1904 and came back only
for his parent’s funerals. He was a
successful inventor and farmer in the Spokane, Washington
area; there he worked for Chrysler Motor, and at one time he took an automotive
exam and passed at the top, for which he received a medal. He was well-acquainted with Walter P.
Chrysler and he and another man invented a carburetor for Chrysler Motor. During the depression he was teaching
Chrysler workers. A group would be
brought in and he taught them for six weeks, then another group would come in. Sterling
felt that he had a good income at $35.00 a month at that time, but Hugh was
making $200.00 a month.
At one time Hugh had two 80-acre sections of land and he let one of them go for
an airport. Quartz was mined on his
property and some truck farming was done by the Japanese on his ground. His home was built on a rock quarry. He took dynamite and blasted out several
large holes in the rock, as large as a big room, filled them with dirt, and
planted pine trees there. It was quite a
showplace, and travelers would stop just to see it. High always said he had to stay home at
Christmas time and keep watch, or their trees would be cut down for decorating
purposes.
A daughter, Emma, was widowed when her husband, Frank Gilbert Stevens, died ten
days before their second son, Frank, was born.
Emma had to go to work, so Margaret helped with her grandchildren. Frank lived with her for about eight years
and attended school with the Jones boys, so he was always very close to them
and the farm.
Load after load of hay was hauled up to the Sterling Ward for tithing, before
and after Ricy died.
There was a road up to the Ward through the southeast corner of the
farm.
On 15 February 1908,
Margaret’s husband of forty years died at age 79 at their home on the farm. He had stomach trouble and had been ill for
about six months, but would never go to a doctor. Sterling
remembers sleeping in the next room that night.
Ricy had reached the point in his illness
where he could hold nothing on his stomach, not even water. He was sleeping in a bed next to Margaret’s,
when he raised up and said, “God bless you, Maggie,” and he was gone without
ever losing consciousness.
John, Roy and Sterling
were living at home at that time; Pearl
and Bertha were away at school. John went
on a mission to Ireland
not long after his father died, and Margaret supported him with a herd of cows
and the farm. How she looked forward to
hearing from him! Bishop David Murray of
the Mt. Sterling Ward, was very good to the family,
especially after their father died. He
came often to the home, and kept close watch on how they were getting along.
Ricy had been in the Nauvoo Legion of Utah Volunteers
for which service he was a U.S. Pensioner, and after his death, Margaret drew
the same amount, $12.00 per month.
Margaret sang and counted in Welsh, and J.P. (Pearl)
learned a great deal of Welsh from her.
She and her husband would converse in their native tongue throughout
their marriage. All of her family called
her “Mam,” which is Welsh for mother.
Margaret had a cattle dog on the farm called Rover, given to her by her
son-in-law, John Olsen. Sometimes the
neighbor’s cattle would get in on her fall wheat and she would show the dog the
cattle, and he would shoo them out of the field by running back and forth
behind them and barking. One night on
the way home from town where they had seen a show, Maggie and her son, J.P.,
were driving in the buggy, when their dog, Quess, was
attacked by something lying in wait along the roadside. They fought, rolling under the buggy and
badly frightening the two occupants.
They never did find out what had attacked the dog.
One winter a cougar came prowling around the farm nearly every night. Their dog, Curl, would follow the cougar
around the house, just out of reach. The
family had guns loaded, axes and pitch forks ready, but they were never able to
get it, even though it came close enough for them to hear its cry, which
sounded just like a baby’s cry.
Margaret was widowed 26 years, from age 54 (1908) until her death at 81 years
of age (1934). She had only four boys to
help her with a farm which was mostly dry land.
When some of her neighbors were losing their farms, she didn’t need to
mortgage an acre of ground.
When Sterling went into the Navy in
1917, J.P. took over the farm. Roy
was teaching school and John had married after his mission. When he came home from the Navy, Sterling
took over the farm and J.P. taught school.
J.P. and Sterl were on a ball team and had to go to
town. While they were gone, horses and
cows got into the field where the grain was in sacks. Margaret took her coal-oil lantern and went
up and sat in the field until the boys came home. Needless to say, she was quite perturbed.
Before the two youngest boys were married, Margaret moved them all to town for
the winter, where they lived in the front two rooms of the Henry Garrett
home. The remaining cows, one or two of
them, she took to town with them.
The next winter she bought the home where Sterling
now lives. This home was originally built
by Will Baxter, and the building she used for a barn had been the home of
Amanda Durfey.
After she bought this house, she lived in town during the winter, and on the farm in the summer.
After the two youngest boys were married, Margaret took trips to visit her
children quite regularly. She would go
to Portland, Oregon
to visit her daughter May, and her husband, Ted Stoll; to Rupert,
Idaho to visit her daughter Saidee, and husband Victor; to Spokane
to visit her son Hugh and his wife Crystal.
Her daughter Molly Chapman, lived in Pocatello,
Idaho; Emma Stevens in Brigham
City, Utah;
and Hettie Olsen at Logan,
Utah. John settled in the Salt
Lake area. Roy was principal of a
school in Fillmore for many years and also lived in Salt Lake City and Rupert,
Idaho. J.P. lived in Howell and Tremonton,
Utah; and Sterling
in Wellsville.
Sterling remembers a chickaree that
he and Pearl had in the home in
Wellsville while Margaret was away visiting some of her children. Some of the other boys went out to rustle some
chickens and next morning it was discovered that Margaret’s coop was the one
that had been raided.
In the fall of 1927, she bought the red brick house next to the Second Ward
Church and sold the other home to Sterling
because she wanted to be closer to the stores, church, and the show house. She loved picture shows. As soon as they moved to Wellsville, she went
every Friday night, rain, hail or shine.
She had a Victrola (cylinder) and telephone
(crank on the side) while living on the farm.
After she moved to town she bought a more modern Victrola. She thoroughly enjoyed listening to it, and
would stay up until midnight listening
to it. When radio came along, she
enjoyed it just as much, and would listen to Major Bowes and his amateur hour.
Margaret always attended her church meetings.
She was especially faithful in paying her tithing. Tithing was paid in hay, grain, or whatever
they had. She never took a trip without
coming home and paying her tithing the first Sunday she was home. When the Mt. Sterling Ward was dissolved and
combined with the Wellsville Second Ward in 1928, the Relief Society had 2,000
bushels of grain in their granary contributed by the members, of which Margaret
was one.
In 1932, Margaret took a cross-country auto trip with Saidee
and Fred Victor. They followed some of
the pioneer trails, and Margaret remembered some of the places from her journey
across the plains when she was a child.
She was 80 years old, and she missed only one day of sight-seeing. They traveled 8,000 miles, through 26
states. They spent ten days in Chicago,
visited Fred’s folks in Wisconsin,
and spent seven days in Washington, D.C.,
where they visited Arlington National
Cemetery where her daughter Bertha
is buried.
They also spent two weeks in Jacksonville, Florida. They were going somewhere almost every
day. They came home by way of Denver,
Colorado, and visited with Owen Olsen. She was a member of Daniel H. Wells Camp,
Daughters of Utah Pioneers, and after returning home she took up several of
their meetings to describe in detail the high points of that trip – without any
notes. She described them the National
Library, Senate Chambers, White House, Arlington,
the World’s Fair, and all of the sight-seeing side trips.
Margaret had good friends and neighbors.
Esther Gunnell was a very good Welsh friend,
who would walk out to the farm in the winter and stay two or there days to help
make carpet rags. They were about the
same age and size. Sister Alvira Baugh was good to her and checked on her every day while
they were neighbors on 3rd South.
Annie Leishman was her neighbor when she lived
in the red brick house, and checked on her regularly.
Margaret’s adopted daughter Bertha, went to college
(U.S.U.) for two years; then became a registered nurse after attending the Illinois
Training School for Nurses at Chicago. She graduated with honors after three years
of training. During World War I, she
volunteered her services and went overseas to one of the busiest hospitals
there. She became ill several times
while there, but as soon as she was well, she returned to caring for the
soldiers. Her experiences while overseas
caused her hair to turn white. At that
time, the nurses went out to the battlefield to attend to the wounded.
In 1921 Bertha served at the U.S. Public Health Service Hospital in Chicago,
then in a similar hospital in Connecticut,
where she served as chief of the nursing service. In 1925, she was transferred to the Central
Office of the Veterans’ Bureau. After a
few months a problem presented itself that required the training and executive
supervision that she possessed and she was assigned as Chief
Nurse, U.S.
Veterans Hospital at the Mt. Alto
Hospital in Washington,
D.C.
She was devoted to her job. While
working at Mt. Alto,
she contracted erysipelas, “an acute febrile (feverish) disease associated with
intense edematous (swelling) local inflammation of the skin and subcutaneous
tissues caused by a hemolytic (blood) streptococcus.” She passed away after
much suffering, 24 January 1928.
Her funeral services were recorded. At
the services Congressman Don B. Colton (Utah)
said, “Not all the Queens of the earth are crowned. She chose not the glamour of the footlights,
not people, not the applause of fellowmen.
No – she chose another life, a life devoted to the sick, spent in the
hospital, away from the glamour and crowd of men, away from business. Where is her reward? … Some live for
applause, some for wealth. Their reward
is here. What of those who do not think
of their reward? Their crown is
assured… In the State of Utah
there is an aged Mother today who is praying to God and asking his prayers for
those of you who have helped this girl in her last hour of sickness. She believes she will see Bertha again. Say to that Mother that she died in the midst
of friends here … surrounded by flowers she loved so well.” At the time of her death she had received her
papers to become Chief Nurse over all the Veterans’
Hospitals in the country. Her funeral
was held at the Tobler Funeral Home in Washington,
D.C.
She was buried in Arlington Cemetery, Virginia,
with full military honors. Sterling,
Saidee, Molly and her son, Bert, attended the
services.
All who knew Bertha spoke very highly of her.
She was very good to her mother, and to everyone. She helped a great deal on the farm when she
was there. The other girls were all
older, and had married and moved away when Margaret needed the help with the
five boys she had to raise. Bertha was a
great help when there was an illness in the family.
Saidee, being childless, showered attention on her
parents, and was a very efficient helper.
She was the only one who had written histories of her mother and father,
until this one was compiled. She said
that her mother was like Grandfather John Morse, patient and long-suffering.
Margaret had dark hair and brown eyes, was about 5’4” in height, with a medium
stocky build. She loved to talk. Most of her children had brown eyes also, all
except John, Hugh, and Sterling. Most of the children had brown hair, too,
except Hugh and Molly who had auburn hair.
A brief introduction to the children of the family would be: Molly was cheerful and a good worker,
Margaret said that Molly was a demon to work; May was quite frail and proud,
she looked like a model. May and Emma
married servicemen while living in Salt
Lake, and May’s first husband,
Joseph Farrell, died while in the Phillipines. May had a millinery shop in Boise,
then in Portland, and married her
second husband, Ted Stoll, who ran a grocery store in Portland,
Oregon.
Emma was a good worker and very efficient. She, Saidee, and
Margery Chapman went to New York City
and learned the art of trimming hats. Saidee entered a Register in Salt
Lake and was given employment in Rupert,
Idaho.
It was there that she met Fred Victor who had an electrical shop
there. Hettie
was a good worker, and was very jovial and happy. She was also a good seamstress. John played a harmonica, was a good heavy
worker and was a student of religion. Roy
was an intellectual, very efficient student.
He graduated from college in Logan
and was in the military program there. Pearl
was jovial, a sportsman, athlete, and he attended summer school to complete his
education to be a teacher. Sterling
was a hard worker, a good businessman, and an athlete. He and his wife, Melba, tried to help
Margaret with correspondence and things which were difficult for her to do
later in her life. The whole family
would get together quite often and sit up way into the night visiting. They all seemed to be nocturnal people.
Margaret frequently came from the post office to Melba’s for a visit, and to
have Melba read the letters she received in the mail. Then, Melba would invite her to have lunch,
to which Margaret would reply, “Ok, I’ll stay for lunch if you’ll answer the
letters for me.” In this
way Margaret kept in touch with her correspondents although she herself
could not read nor write. And no one
knew any different, not even her closest friends. She made up for this with her remarkable
memory, and was often jokingly called “a walking newspaper.”
Margaret had 41 grandchildren, 18 grandsons and 23 granddaughters when she
passed away. She raised 11
children. Molly had five girls and one
boy; Emma had two boys; Hettie had two boys and three
girls; John had three girls and five boys; Roy
had four girls and three boys; Pearl
had four girls and two boys; and Sterling
had three boys and four girls.
In the summer of 1934, Margaret had a partial stroke. Roy
was staying with her at the time, and Hettie was
visiting, too. She gradually got
worse. The circulation in her legs was
impaired, and she suffered greatly. She
had leg troubles for a long time, but they gradually worsened. It would get so bad, that she would have Sterling
get someone to help give her a blessing.
Toward the final stages of her illness, all of the family was called
home, and all were present when she died at her home 18 August 1934.
Services were held in the Wellsville Tabernacle and she was buried in
the Wellsville Cemetery,
next to her husband, Ricy, 21 August 1934.
This history was written by Ruth Jones Clark, a
granddaughter, June 1977.
Sources: Saidee
J. Victor, Sterling M. Jones and wife Melba, Owen J. Olsen, and Hazel Wyatt
Jones. Revised
February 1980.
