ELLA MAE'S RECOLLECTIONS OF MARY

ELLA MAE ' S RECOLLECTIONS

Mother had to quit school. She went back to nursing school later for two years and had to quit again because of her eyes. The nurses training really came in handy in later years, it saved our lives many a day and also helped the neighbors alot in time of illness. When Dad got gored by the bull when we were kids she knew what to do for his concussion that he laid in bed for six weeks with . We finally had to tell him that nothing was getting done, the chores weren't getting done and everything was going to pot and he got up and did his chores again. Another time was when we were all sick with something, with all the childhood diseases and she knew what to do to bring us out of our difficulties. One of our neighbor's babies had convulsions and they didn'tknow what to do for that, she would go up and she knew what to do. With the whooping cough,she knew enough to take David outside when it was warm and give him some fresh air, where two or three other babies died of it,. This all happened in North Logan in the thirties.She got married to Dewey Donohoo who lived in Lonetree and grew up with her and he was about 5 yrs older than she was, They were married Sept. 21, 1923 in Evanston, WY. They lived in Lonetree for awhile. When she was pregnant with her first child she went to Ogden to be with her mother for his birth and that was Adelbert Ross and Dad went down later and brought her home and that summer they moved to West Yellowstone and lived there for a year. While they were Ross ran away one day and he was eight blocks away from home when they finally caught him.Two and a half years later she was expecting another baby. For this baby too she was going to Ogden. They left a month early to take her down by car on the way they got into a rear end collision and it sent her into labor and her second child, Ella Mae, was born a month early. This baby was due on her father's birthday, May 9th. and she had me in her sister Irene's home on April 9th, where she stayed for several weeks. That summer they stayed on the ranch inLonetree. Later they moved to LaPoint in Utah on the Indian reservation and they lived one winter and Dad worked in the coal mines setting dynamite for blasting and while they were there another baby was born and that was Barbara Ann, When she was only three months old Dad got into a coal mine explosion and blew his left eye out and damaged one side off his face,he was sent to Denver to the Veterans Hospital This left Mother with chores to do and three small children to care for, Ross was five, Ella Mae was two and a half years old and Barbara was just three months old. She had to leave three little kids in the house by themselves while she went out and did the chores. This is where her and Aunt Ella {Donohoo} got into a big fight. We don't what that was about but it had something to do with the church and they didn't speak to each again for years . From LaPoint we moved to Logan in Cache Valley Utah. Ross was six, I was three and a half and Barbara was 11 months old. When we first moved here we lived on 4th west across the street from the canal. We had a big dog named Buck who was a really good watch dog with babies. When Barbara would try to cross the street to get to the canal he would walk in front ofher and not let her cross the street and she would scream until somebody would come and get her. Also when we lived there I real speech problems and couldn't talk plain and it was at this house that one day Mary was visiting the neighbors and left her washing machine running.Ross decided he was going to help, he decided he was going to put the clothes through the wringer for her, instead of the clothes going through the wringer his arm went through the wringer and caught on his shoulder. It went round and round, he was screaming and he sent me next to get Mother I couldn't talk and was also hysterical and tried to get me to go home and she kept telling me to go home . I wouldn't and kept on screaming. Finally I made her understand and she went and released the wringer and got Ross's arm out of the wringer, the wringer didn't fit tight and that saved his arm.We moved down below the railroad tracks next, Mary had a miscarriage . we lived there only three months and moved to the house on 5th west and 1st south , this is where we met Ruth and Lavor Allen. When we first met them they were really poor and didn't have any food or any place to live. The way they were living was they were taking coal and kindling door to door to get enough money to eat . So Dewey and Mary took them in that winter. Ruth was pregnant with their first child -Donna-and Mary was pregnant with David, Mary didn't know if she could carry this baby through because of the miscarriage she had just had, Ruth and Lavor stayed all that winter and they worked out an arrangement, Mary would help Ruth with her pregnancy if Ruth would help Mary with hers. In May Donna was born, and in December Mary had David. She had a doctor come and look at her and he never came back, so Ruth delivered this little baby who had no openings in his nose and took care of a very sick mother. She was down for quite a while.
When we were in the first house we all had whooping cough, including Mary, which was the beginning of the childhood diseases. Somehow along the way she missed having all those diseases. One year Ella Mae brought home the measles and she tried to get Ross to stay home with her and he wouldn't. David was a small baby at the time and Mary David and Barbara came down with the measles at the same time. At that time there was a really bad earthquake in Logan and Mary and David were in bed with the measles and the bed started shaking, Mary said " Barbara ,will you stop shaking my bed. Barbara wasn't even in the room. Before then Barbara had a pneumonia really bad and Mary saved her with her nurses training. Bistlines' were our very good friends at the time and whenever we needed help would go to their house and Jenny would help . When David was delivered , Lila , Ruth's sister was supposed to take care of us kids and tend us, she took us out of the house so fast ,that I got hysterical and screamed and screamed, " I want my mother." Jenny Bistline came to her rescue and took me to her house until the baby was born. I thought I had lost my mother for sure that time.Ross was eight years old was baptized. Dad was still not a member of the church and he was baptized two months after Ross .Then we moved to North Logan , to an old house without a bathroom or running water or any other conveniences. We had to haul water from outside to wash in and had an outhouse that we had all the time. We all had the mumps while we were in this house, including Mary. The years in North Logan were really hard because we were in the depths of the depression and Dewey got a thirteen dollar a month pension from the government and we paid ten dollars a month for rent, so Mary really had to work hard to keep us alive. She was an excellent seamstress so she could sew for us. She also canned lots of things . We grew a garden and canned everything. We had fruit trees in the backyard, apple ,cherry, and plum trees and she canned all that. What she couldn't can she traded with the neighbors and she 'd sew for their children so she could get the food she needed to feed us during the winter. Uncle Ray Hinchcliff brought us a herd of cows from Ogden for us to raise on the farm we where we were living. They were purebred Jersey's and we kept them for several years and took care of them and that gave us milk. Mary made cheese and butter and sold butter and cream in Logan for a few years.One of the worst things that happened to us in North Logan was getting scarlet fever.Dewey got it first and had it very light. Then the rest of the family came down with it including Mary. We had five us in bed with it at the same time . During the time we were all down and very sick Dad read to us. He got books from the library and read to us to help pass the time. We were in quarantine for six weeks. We were all very sick and each of us had after effects to go with the disease. Mary had a severe case of rheumatism, Ross had infected ears, Barbara had a big abscess on her neck, I had complications which were more severe and was in bed the rest of the winter and missed a year of school. Ross and Barbara finally got back to school. Ross passed that year but Barbara and I both stayed back a year.Some summers when we lived in North Logan we went to Uncle Will Donohoo's house in Sandy where they lived on a fruit farm with lots of trees and we could run and play inthe orchard .Their kids ran barefoot over the sand burrs and we wore our shoes. We would sleep out and we had a good time running in and out of the house. We always had good times there.Uncle Neal lived in Sandy and had a girlfriend no far away. That was Aunt Lillian who he latermarried. He would take us to her house and she would bake cookies for us and that was way out in the country and we had good times there also Once when were small we went out to Lonetree. We had an old Model A Ford and we would chug up to the top of the hills and stop and wait for the car to cool down and then coast downthe hill on the other side. That's the way we got out there. We stopped at Uncle Neal's house the first night and stayed overnight in Mountain View and the next day we went over to Lonetree to Uncle Gid's house and then over to Uncle Alan's and then we went to Uncle Owen's. While we were at Uncle Owen's there was a real bad cloud-burst . It flooded Uncle Gid's house and also Uncle Alan's. It didn't hurt Uncle Owen's house as he was on higher ground. We stayed a few more days. We also spent some time with Uncle Edgar and his family and enjoyed them. On the way home the flood had gone a long ways down into Utah, and Echo Canyon had a mud slideand we had a hard time getting to Uncle Will's house where we stayed overnight . When we got to Willard it was really flooded. The road was gone. We had to go around the mountain on a make shift road until we got to Brigham City and then we could get home. The road through Sardine Canyon went around the edge of the mountain and was very narrow and you could lookdown into Brigham City, It wound round and round the mountain until it came down into Wellsville. It took hours in those days where now it takes 15 minutes. That used to be a scary ride, we were afraid another car would come along and force us off the road and we'd roll down the mountain. In the summers we always did alot of picnicking and at night we played lots of games with all the neighborhood kids, like " Run Sheep Run" ,and "Hide and Go Seek". Also in the summersthe farmers would get together and hay and the wives would cook a big meal. We used to go upto the Gilgens to eat. Mother and two or three other neighbors would help.The Gilgens were a very special family in our lives. They lived just of us when we moved toNorth Logan. They were really good to us. We always played up there a lot with their kids who were close to our ages. Mrs. Gilgen helped Mother a lot with us kids. She would get our food.They would slaughter a pig for us winter. It was our pig and they'd help Dad slaughter it. They were very special in our lives and taught us kids a lot of good principles to grow by. Mother was very talented. She crocheted a lot and did beautiful handwork She was also a very good cook and could make excellent food on a cook stove. People always looked forward to her cooking and because of the frustration she had trying to raise four kids without any money and with all the illnesses she had, she was quite short tempered, but she was a very good motherand a very good person. She taught us the right things to do . She was the only active member of the church in her family and she taught us the right principles, and she was a good example. She was also a good friend and would help other people. No one ever knocked at our door at mealtime that another plate was not put on the table and the person invited to eat whether we knew them or not. When we had scarlet fever so many of the neighbors would bring us food.They would leave it outside every night for supper because everyone was in and we couldn't go to the store.The church at that time was a little one room rock church and we all went to church there. Mother was always active and always did the things she was to do and did them cheerfully. When she was younger she had hair long enough to sit on. We used to comb it and braid it for her. When we washed the clothes, we had to boil the water on the stove and washed our clothes and hang everything out on the line. We washed every two weeks because it was too hard to do it oftener. In summer I remember thousands of bottles of fruit, canned and put in the basement so we 'd have food for winter. Sometime during this time Ross got into an accident and a horse stepped on his leg and cut open from the ankle to the knee. He was in the hospital and it was Barbara's birthday. Mother had told her she could have a party, So Barbara and Ella Mae went and invited the kids to the party . Mary was at the hospital with Ross, so Ruth Allen had to come out and give the party. It was fun even though it was bad April when I finally got out of bed and could finally get around again. Mary gave me a birthday party too. We had apretty good time. Each of us got one birthday party growing up. The only time we went to the Dr.was if something was pretty bad, Otherwise, Mary would take care of the problem. Her nursing training was always coming in handy during our growing up years.We were in North Logan for eight years and during this time our parents went though theTemple and took their four older kids to be sealed to them, that was a really special occasion .We lived in one house for six years and moved down west of town for two years, when we lived in that house we always played " Anti-I-Over" Also in that house was where we were living when Eldon was born, and a year later we moved back to Logan. We really enjoyed living in town after living out in the country for so long. Ross joined the service and was gone, Ella Mae was in the 9th grade, Barbara was in the 7th grade and David was in 2nd grade and Eldon was14 mos. old. It was a big adjustment coming from where there were only four rooms and eightgrades and all the kids were the same every year and rarely any new kids ever came . These were also good years as Dad was working at second St. in Ogden at the Army Supply Depotand Mary wasn't feeling too good even this early in the year. About a year later Karen was born and Mary was feeling even worse then because she wasn't even strong anymore. But we still enjoyed our years in Logan. We lived near the bus line and she could ride the bus to town andpay her bills and come home again. She enjoyed this,.When Karen was nineteen months old , Mary's Gallbladder burst and she died leaving her small family . I'm sure it was hard for her to go but it was time for to go to her calling. While Mother was in North Logan she taught Primary alot. The trekkers were the ten year old boys,and she taught them for several years. She was also Secretary Of the Primary for some years. She was Secretary of the Daughters Of The Utah Pioneers which we all liked very much. When the would have mother/daughter days they would make everything fancy with fancy dishes and cups, punch and mints and nuts which were real treats for us because we hardly ever got those things. Our Christmas's were really fun. Mother worked really hard to get enough money to buy us Christmas , but we always had really good food to eat. The Allens always hadChristmas with us and we had good times. We always had games to play. It seem like that Gramma Bullock always sent Ross a game, the same one our parents had just bought for us, so we always had two of the same game, so we played a lot of games on Christmas. In the summer we'd go up to Blacksmith Fork Canyon and camp for a few days. TheBisline,s lived in North Logan at that time and the Allens lived in Logan and when we got the two of them together there was always trouble because the Bislines were always on time and theAllen's were always late. One year we went up the canyon with the Allens and the Bislines and John Bisline got so mad he just left and the Allens were two hours later as usual. We went up and they were putting water pipes in the canyon to carry water to the valley. The kids all were rolling in the pipe and Barbara rolled it over her foot. Also the river was real high that summer and Mother, Ruth and Jenny went wading and fell down and spent the rest of the afternoon wrapped in blankets trying to get their clothes dry enough to put on again.Gramma Bullock came to visit us once while we in North Logan , we went up the canyon and it was the only time all summer it rained. The Workman's, Germ and Palette moved toSmithfield at this time and they were a real treat for they were the only relatives we ever lived close to and we enjoyed going places with them. Mother and Dad liked to dance and went dancing with a group in North Logan a lot, in fact they were in the North Logan dance before we moved out there . Mother had lots of good friends and did lots of good things. With all her hardships she managed to keep us clothed and fed and taken care of . Dad was our friend and pal and he would take us to the ball games . We went to all the plays put on in North Logan, and went to a lot of the plays they put at the college. She taught me to crochet and embroidery at a young age , a lot of this was because I was sick so much in those early years and couldn't do an awful lot so she taught me those things to keep me busy and she was my room-mother in school the first year I went back to school after being so sick and that was really fun because she always came to school and baked delicious cookies and that really made me special to the other kids in school because she was my mother. Room-mothers were always special people to the other kids in school and their kids were special too. Later after the two little kids were born I would come home early from school so she could go to town, but it seems like she was always doing things for me and was always there to listen to me when I had a problem and she would help me with them. One time she came to parents day at school when I was at Logan High and at that time all of us in high school had late babies and that's what we talked about and she brought Karen with her and that was really something to be able to show little brothers and sisters to the rest of the school. One time I brought a friend home and she baked cookies and brought up to us in my room. She made our clothes for us so we would have nice things to wear. It was a real blow to us when she died and left us alone.