The Springville Utah Herald
April 10, 1952
Native of Wales, Mrs. Mary Jane Reese
On Monday, March 31, Mary Jane Reese
celebrated her 84th birthday with an informal family gathering and greetings
from her many friends.
She was born at Pentyrch,
Glamorganshire, South Wales, on March 31, 1868, a daughter of William and
Elizabeth Jones John. Her father was a coal miner, and
like most other families in the community, were in poor
circumstances. Food was not too plentiful and it was not uncommon to
receive two eggs a week for the family, having to cut them in two to sere four members in the household.
Bread was baked in large brick ovens, located
in the center of a group of homes in order to serve several families. A
long wooden shovel was used to put the dough into the oven, directly on the hot
bricks. She says that was some of the best bread she ever tasted.
Often pies were baked before the bread and the neighbors would take turns using
the ovens.
Mary Jane’s father died one month before her
sixth birthday leaving her mother with three small children, two boys and one
girl. With the help of kind neighbors and six shillings or $1.50 a
week from the government, they managed to get along for the next six years.
In 1880, at the age of 12 years, Mrs. Reese,
with her mother and two younger brothers, William and Thomas, began their immigration
from Wales to America. They took the train from Wales to Liverpool, where
they boarded the boat “Wisconsin” for America. For supper that evening
they were given large round cakes called “Hard Tack”, but they were so hard
they could not eat them so the children used them to play with on board the
boat, rolling them like wheels and having a glorious time. They went to
bed hungry, but made up for it the next morning at breakfast.
They were two weeks crossing the ocean, with
Mrs. Reese’s mother ill in bed the entire trip with sea sickness. Half
way across the ocean they were met with an especially severe storm which tore
the slabs and ropes loose that held the baggage and the heavy trunks would roll
from one end of the ship to the other as it would be tossed by the huge
waves. After the storm subsided, the baggage was again anchored in place
and the water swept out without doing too much damage.
After landing in New York, they spent two
nights with other passengers, sleeping in the luggage room, because of lack of
funds to obtain a hotel room. A small boat then took them to Boston where
they later boarded a train for Chicago and on to Evanston Wyo. This part
of the journey took them on another two day journey by team and wagon to Bloomington,
Idaho, where they were to make their home.
Their first home there was a one-room log
house that was covered with rustic to make it warm. The house was located
a mile from town on top of a small hill. It had a wooden floor that had
to be scrubbed with sand on hands and knees every Friday.
A few months after arriving here, Mary Jane’s
mother remarried and due to the shortage of help in harvesting the crops, Mary
Jane and her two brothers had to go out and help their stepfather in the
fields, binding the grain and hauling it to the stacks. Very often she
would carry her younger brother on her back to and from the field as he was in
ill health.
A few months after her arrival, Mrs. Reese was
baptized in to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, much to the
disapproval of her family. She enjoyed going to the meetings and
participating in all their activities, walking one mile to and from home in all
kinds of weather, often o top of hard crusted snow four feet deep, keeping her
way by the tops of the fence posts.
On December 11, 1884, at the age of 17, she
was married to Lotwick Reese, a hard-working pioneer
of Bloomington. They moved into a four-room frame home, two of the rooms
being up stairs. The house was located in the center of the small
town. Her husband’s widowed mother came to live with them for the
remaining eight years of her life, as did an orphan nephew, who never marrying,
spent the greater part of 40 years in their home.
Very early in her married life she learned all
the phases of keeping up a home, especially in making the family’s
clothing. It was necessary then to make everything that was worn,
including underwear, coats and hats. Long stockings also had to be knit
at night by the light of the kerosene lamps. Cloth to make many of these
clothes as well as the purchase of sugar, salt, and other necessary food
stables were obtained by trading produce-eggs, potatoes, grain and garden crops
at the local store. Very little money was to be had and what they did
obtain from selling cattle went back into building up their farm and paying the
taxes.
Extra money for household use was earned by
churning and selling the butter. She would make from two to twenty pounds
a week, depending on the number of cows milking. This would be sold at 10
cents a pound and in real prosperous times for 25 cents a pound.
Tithing was paid to the Bishop with eggs,
butter, grain or whatever produce they might have.
She and her husband had eight children, six
boys and two girls. Deep sorrow came into their lives with the loss of
three of the children. One girl, Elizabeth, died at the age of 14 of
spinal meningitis. One of the boys, Ezra, died at the age of 21. He
had been called on a mission and had completed his training at the mission
home, had had his farewell to leave and was all set to go when he was stricken
ill by cancer. Another son, George, after marrying and establishing his
own home, died at the age of 40 of heart trouble. Two of their children
fulfilled missions for the L.D.S. Church.
Very often in their early married life there
was no money with which to hire help in harvesting the crops and it was
necessary for Mary Jane to go out and help in the fields. One particular
time she remembers distinctly was a year her husband was very ill and the grain
was ready to harvest, with no way of hiring help to have it done. So she
tied her four months old baby on her back and went to the field and shocked the
grain all day long. When it was all completed the townspeople who did the
threshing, threshed the grain for them free of charge. It was customary
in those times to feed the threshers during the time they were threshing the
grain. They served three large meals a day to ten or twelve men from one
day to a week depending on how much grain had to be threshed.
The family washing was done on the board until
there were eight members in the family. Water would have to be taken from
the well, carried to the house, then heated in the old
copper bottomed boiler on the wood heated stove. Oftimes
the children would have to go to bed while their only dress or pair of trousers
was washed, dried, ironed and ready to put back on again.
All recreation and activities in the community
were under the direction of the church, and much enjoyment was had from the
dances, parties, sleigh rides, candy pulls, and corn popping times that were
attended by all. Many a delightful afternoon or evening was spent at each others’ homes with rag bees and quilting and whenever
they went visiting, they took their work with them.
In the year 1932, three years after the death
of her husband, and after spending one year with a daughter, LaVina in Los Angeles, Mrs. Reese came to Provo to make her
home where her youngest son, Eldon was attending the B.Y.U.
Since his graduation and marriage, she had
visited with her other children, Ivan and Victor at Bloomington, Idaho; Merrill
at Heber City and LaVina at Los Angeles, while
maintaining her home with Eldon and his family. She is happy and proud of
her 18 grandchildren and seven great grandchildren. She has lived in
Springville for the past ten years, where her son, Eldon teaches at the high
school.
Four years ago at the age of 80 years, she
underwent two major operations and has enjoyed fairly good health since then.
She has been active in the LDS church working
in many capacities. She is well known for her beautiful crochet work,
quilts, and rugs.
She is very grateful that she had the
privilege of coming to this wonderful country and accepting the LDS faith and
the opportunity of rearing her family here.
Additional Information
By LaVina Reese Hunter Doerfler, a daughter
Even at the young age of almost 17, Mary Jane
could see what a good, honest and fine man Lotwick
was, and when he asked her the important question, “Wilt thou?”, it didn’t take her long to make up her mind to say “Yes”.
Their courtship was short.
One incident they often spoke of was going to
the circus in Montpelier. They went by a team of horses in a big lumber
wagon. They traveled in this fashion each way 12 miles. Isn’t that
romantic? Well, it seemed so to them at that time.
Lotwick’s friends often kidded him and asked, “Lodi,
where did you get such a beautiful young woman?” He always had a dry witty
answer, he said, “Hard work always pays off, if you work hard enough, you can
do anything in life, but had better pray a little too.”
Lotwick and Mary Jane lived in the two room house for
a short time, then later built on four rooms.
This house was and still is located in the center of town on Main street and Canyon Road. Everyone says, “It is the
nicest home and people are always so welcome there. It has the good old
pioneer spirit.”
They did not have any vacuum cleaners or any
kind of sweeper, only the broom. Well Mary Jane Reese was a very
meticulous housekeeper. Often she would take the carpets up and put them
on the clothes line and beat them and shake them and give them a thorough
airing, but the harder thing yet was to put the carpet back down. First
she padded the floor with fresh straw, then she laid
the carpet on the straw. She had carpet stretchers, and she would be on
her knees and tack the carpet down on three sides, but the last side was so
hard to do, she would clinch the stretchers into the edge of the homemade
carpet and pull on it to bring it to the wall, she would have to sorta jump off the carpet (get her weight off) and then
pull on the carpet stretchers to bring the carpet in the right position.
Then she would tack it down to the floor. This was done in four rooms and
they were large rooms. Hard, hard work, but she was happy when everything
was clean and in good shape and she never complained.
She made her own soap for washing
clothes. She saved all the waste fat and suet and when she had collected
enough, she would make a can of soap, and she used a large honey can which made
about 20 pounds of soap. She made and quilted one quilt with 1300 small
pieces in it. She made one of these for each of her children. Mary
Jane and LaVina picked from 30 to 50 quarts heaped up
of raspberries every other day. We put up some and sold the rest of
them. People would come from all over Bear Lake and Northern Utah to get
my mother’s raspberries. There were the must luscious large and sweet
berries in the valley. My mother put up over 800 quarts of fresh fruit
each year, also vegetables from our own garden. Our store house in the
basement was always full of good food.
Mary Jane Reese was an ardent church worker,
and she was very musical. She had an outstanding sweet fine voice and she
gave of this talent very generously in Relief Society and in all the Ward
parties and entertainments. One song, a favorite of everyone’s was, “Just
A Flower That You Plucked For Me One Day.” I
have this song and I accompanied mother.
Mary Jane was an excellent cook. Once a
year the Ward had an “Old Folks Party” and she would make from 200 to 300 tarts
for the party. They were so light and flaky. I haven’t tasted
anything like them and the men would cry out, “Pass those Mary Jane Tarts this
way.”
She mixed bread by hand every other night or
four times a week, making eight loaves in each batch, and oh, so flaky and
good. We had big dinners and parties in the Reese home for our families
and all the relatives who resided in Bloomington, about thirty or more.
We sang songs, told jokes, played games, had
candy pulls, popped pop corn, and everyone had such a
good time. We all looked forward to those Mary Jane Reese parties and
delicious big turkey or chicken dinners with all the trimmings.
In her later years Mary Jane said, “I am 82
years old and living with Eldon and Venna and their
family and many thoughts of my past life have been running through my
mind. We had many experiences in the little town of Bloomington in
raising our family; some faith promoting incidents and some bad ones. I
am very grateful for having had the privilege of coming to this wonderful
country and accepting the gospel and for having eight fine children, all reared
by the gospel principles, and I would like to advise them all to stay close to
the church.
“Today has been a happy one with my children
and friends. LaVina here from California,
Merrill and Stella and some of their family from Heber, and we are with Eldon
and family. Ivan and Victor telephoned me from Idaho,
I wish they could have come, but too much snow.
“I am so thankful for my family and
friends. Many came today including the Bishop and family.”
Mary Jane Reese lived a life full of love,
kindness and compassion for everyone. Always her example was living the
Golden Rule. She taught this to us children and admonished us to be
cheerful and happy and full of love.
Sometimes she would repeat the following to
us, “Set your jaw bone, stiffen up your backbone, go often on your knee bone,
laugh with your funny bone, and forget your wish bone.”
She died November 29, 1954 at the age of 86 ½
and people remarked, “She is beautiful in death even as in life.” I feel
that her reward even as my father’s reward will be great and that they will be
exalted together throughout eternity.
