Clara A. Johnson McAllister

History of Clara Albertina Johnson McAllister I was born on a Sunday morning, 11 May 1890. Sister Poulson, my brother-in-law’s mother helped with the delivery. I was the twelfth child born to my parents, Charlotta Christina Anderson and Andrew Gustave Johnson. What a surprise to my brothers and sisters when they came home from Sunday School! Even though my father had a large family and not much to do with, he was called on a mission to Sweden when I was three months old. My oldest sister Louisa was married and living in Kaysville. Charles, my oldest brother was just 16. How my mother managed to keep father on his mission and provide for 10 children, no one except Mother will ever know. However, Mother made many improvements in the home and on the farm while Father was away. Alf and I used to like to play on the bridge over a big ditch that ran in front of our house. One day I fell in and couldn’t get out. Alf jumped in and held my chin on top of the bridge while he hollered for help. He often got me out of trouble. We had a large barn for horses, cows and calves and one for hay, where Alf and I used to have lots of fun hunting eggs. The hens preferred the nice fresh hay and straw to make their nests. Some might crawl right to the top of the hay to hide away their nests, but I could find them. My big brothers called me the “Old Hen”. We also made play houses in the wagon box with the bows and cover on. Yes, the icehouse was a favorite place too. Picking up apples for the pigs was my job, and that was fun when Alf helped. In the summer there were always berries to pick. Father always paid us the same as the hired pickers. When he was criticized for it he would say, “How are they going to learn to handle money if they never have any. Besides I don’t have to buy their cloths when they have money.” In the winter Father and the boys would cut ice from Utah Lake and store it in sawdust for summer use. We could always have cold milk, butter, cheese, and ice cream. We had no refrigerator. Mother made our own soap. I like to help her make candles by putting strings through a brace of 24 molds. Each fall several pigs and a cow, were slaughtered. The hams and shoulders, and side meat would be cured in salt or smoked, then put in sacks and buried in the grain. Mother made lots of sausage and we would dry it over the rafters in the attic. Our best play mate was a black and white curly hair dog, “Watch”. We used to play hide and seek with him. One of us would hold him with their hands over his eyes, until all were hid. Then one by one he would find us. One day Father and Mother held him blindfolded while I tried to throw him off by going around a well that was being dug, around the barn and into the street. “Watch” came bouncing right to me. He seemed to laugh when he discovered us. Mother did lots of weaving of lindsay for sheets and material made into clothing for the family. Carpets, too, were woven for home use as well as sold to subsidize the income. As a youngster my favorite napping place was under the loom. When six years of age, I started school in the little two-room school at the foot off the sand hill. Luella Ellsworth, Hermez Peterson, Calvin Fletcher, Horace Merrill, and James H. Walker were my teachers, quite and array of notables. One morning as we reached school there were several wagons waiting to take us to Tomlinson’s near the Lindon foot hills. A puma had been killed after it had killed 75 sheep. It measured 9 feet from nose to tip of tail. This was very exciting as we kids used to roam the hill a lot. My Father baptized me in the big ditch that ran past our front yard. Alf, Sadie and I went to Pleasant Grove for the 7th and 8th grades. When in the 8th grade, I got a felon on my right index finger and was out school for 6 weeks. Mr. Walker said I could not graduate because I was so young and had been out of school for so long. The next year I went with Alf and Mary to the University of Utah. Not having graduated from the 8th grade, they told me that if I didn’t keep up my classes I would have to quit. So I worked very hard. The next year as Father and Mother were anticipating a mission call, Father said if we went to school, it would have to be the B.Y.U. in Provo, so that we could come home week ends. The next spring, April 1907, they left for Sweden. Alf, Mary, Sadie and I lived at Westwoods, 3rd West and 4th North. Etta Holodaway was my closest friend and I dated her brother Hugh. The next year I stayed home and kept house for Alf and Hyrum but it was decided that I should return to the B.Y.U. the following year 1908-1909. I worked for my board and room at Mayor Deckers. Then in October my parents returned home sooner than expected because Father had contracted Tuberculosis and was ill. Then it was arranged for me to board at Walter Wiles, just a block west of the B.Y.U. That winter I met Richard McAllister at a class party and after a short time began keeping company. Father’s health gradually worsened and he passed away 28 October 1909. I stayed home with Mother the next year but in the fall of 1910, Louise, Mother, and I moved to Provo and rented a little house just west of the B.Y.U. I graduated 3 June 1911 in Arts and Manuel Training. My school days at the B.Y.U. were wonderful years for me, even though I took them one at a time. On 21 June 1911 I was married to Richard McAllister in the Salt Lake Temple. The next two years were happy ones, living in the same house with Florence and George Myers who were married on the same day we were. Dick went to school and sold groceries from door to door. In June 1913 we moved back mothers and Wesley was born Aug 6, 1913. Dick rode the Orem train back and forth to the B.Y.U. that fall we moved back to Provo and I kept boarders to help out. We moved back to Mothers and Vernice was born 7 October 1915. In August 1916, we moved to Blanding, San Juan County, where Dick had a teaching job. What a year! I shed more tears than in all the rest of my life. When school was out I went to Mother’s. DeVere was born 11 November 1917 at Louisa’s in Provo. A month later I took the train for home in Blanding. Arriving in Green River there was no one to meet the [missing]… was cold and I was numb to my waist, when we arrived in Monticello at eleven o’clock. When we got warm in front of the fire place, I was afraid I would be sick, but I wasn’t. The next morning we made it to Blanding and moved into our shell of a house, but we were glad to be home together. Food was quite a problem those first two years. I don’t know what we would have done, had it not been for Theodore Martineau who had a large garden and shared it with us. Meat couldn’t be bought and canned goods were too expensive as it had to be freighted in by wagon and team. We finally enlarged our house to five room with sleeping porches in front and back. Our little four-pound Lester was born in Blanding August 16, 1919, but we were not given the privilege of raising him. He died February 1, 1921. We made a trip to Salt Lake because Mother was very ill. We arrived a few days before her death. Gloria was born in Blanding, the 2 of August 1921. The next year Dick taught at Genola and Vera was born in Salt Lake at Louisa’s, she helped with the delivery. Arnold was born April 2, 1923 in Blanding. After our second year in Blanding, Dick raised a good garden. We had a cow and pig, and chickens. We furnished vegetables, etc. to a lot of people in Blanding. Dick taught two years in Monticello and I helped with the make up for his operettas. Our children went away one by one, to be married, to go to work, etc. until there was just the two of us again. We moved to St. George and lived in DeVere’s house while we built a house. However it was not quite to our liking so Dick bought the old home where he was born. We remodeled it and built another home adjoining it, at 224 E. 100 S. Now the children are all married and have families of their own and we are proud of them. We have 24 grandchildren. We have had one son, one granddaughter and four grandsons go on missions for our church. Both Dick and I have been very active in the church and all our children and grandchildren are very devoted to our church. Dick suffered a series of strokes and after a long illness passed away and is buried in the St. George Cemetery. I have been under great strain and was nervous and weak after his death. I have spent some time in St. George but have spent considerable time visiting with my families. I am so thankful for them and they are wonderful to me.

We did not call my Grandma and Grandpa McAllister by that name they were always Grandma and Grandpa Mac. She told me stories about coming to visit us when we lived in New Mexico and Colorado, I don't remember very much about New Mexico. She talked about trying to have me take a nap with her and I was very wiggly so I got the nickname of "Wiggle Worm". Before that I was the big princess and Sandra Jensen was the baby princess, to her. Clara was born to and raised by parents who came from Sweden. So many of her actions with us as grandchildren reflected that upbringing. She was always telling us, especially me, to SUS or stand or sit up straight. She also would nibble at our ears and neck and say she was looking for sugar. She would say "I see a bare foot" and then pretend to step on your toes. Some of this could have come from Grandpa but I think not when I read about how Swedes raise their children. She did not know much of the Swedish language. If she did she did not use it. The only Swedish I heard was Yah and a lullaby that she sang to the little babies. She and Grandpa traveled a lot after he retired from school teaching. They went on the Indian reservations and sold pots and pans. She loved to do crafts and so anything that was done in Relief Society she would make more to give to her children. She made beautiful quilts and aprons. She was and is loved by her 6 children who reached adulthood and their spouses and her (I believe) 27 grandchildren.

History of Clara Albertina Johnson McAllister I was born on a Sunday morning, 11 May 1890. Sister Poulson, my brother-in-law’s mother helped with the delivery. I was the twelfth child born to my parents, Charlotta Christina Anderson and Andrew Gustave Johnson. What a surprise to my brothers and sisters when they came home from Sunday School! Even though my father had a large family and not much to do with, he was called on a mission to Sweden when I was three months old. My oldest sister Louisa was married and living in Kaysville. Charles, my oldest brother was just 16. How my mother managed to keep father on his mission and provide for 10 children, no one except Mother will ever know. However, Mother made many improvements in the home and on the farm while Father was away. Alf and I used to like to play on the bridge over a big ditch that ran in front of our house. One day I fell in and couldn’t get out. Alf jumped in and held my chin on top of the bridge while he hollered for help. He often got me out of trouble. We had a large barn for horses, cows and calves and one for hay, where Alf and I used to have lots of fun hunting eggs. The hens preferred the nice fresh hay and straw to make their nests. Some might crawl right to the top of the hay to hide away their nests, but I could find them. My big brothers called me the “Old Hen”. We also made play houses in the wagon box with the bows and cover on. Yes, the icehouse was a favorite place too. Picking up apples for the pigs was my job, and that was fun when Alf helped. In the summer there were always berries to pick. Father always paid us the same as the hired pickers. When he was criticized for it he would say, “How are they going to learn to handle money if they never have any. Besides I don’t have to buy their cloths when they have money.” In the winter Father and the boys would cut ice from Utah Lake and store it in sawdust for summer use. We could always have cold milk, butter, cheese, and ice cream. We had no refrigerator. Mother made our own soap. I like to help her make candles by putting strings through a brace of 24 molds. Each fall several pigs and a cow, were slaughtered. The hams and shoulders, and side meat would be cured in salt or smoked, then put in sacks and buried in the grain. Mother made lots of sausage and we would dry it over the rafters in the attic. Our best play mate was a black and white curly hair dog, “Watch”. We used to play hide and seek with him. One of us would hold him with their hands over his eyes, until all were hid. Then one by one he would find us. One day Father and Mother held him blindfolded while I tried to throw him off by going around a well that was being dug, around the barn and into the street. “Watch” came bouncing right to me. He seemed to laugh when he discovered us. Mother did lots of weaving of lindsay for sheets and material made into clothing for the family. Carpets, too, were woven for home use as well as sold to subsidize the income. As a youngster my favorite napping place was under the loom. When six years of age, I started school in the little two-room school at the foot off the sand hill. Luella Ellsworth, Hermez Peterson, Calvin Fletcher, Horace Merrill, and James H. Walker were my teachers, quite and array of notables. One morning as we reached school there were several wagons waiting to take us to Tomlinson’s near the Lindon foot hills. A puma had been killed after it had killed 75 sheep. It measured 9 feet from nose to tip of tail. This was very exciting as we kids used to roam the hill a lot. My Father baptized me in the big ditch that ran past our front yard. Alf, Sadie and I went to Pleasant Grove for the 7th and 8th grades. When in the 8th grade, I got a felon on my right index finger and was out school for 6 weeks. Mr. Walker said I could not graduate because I was so young and had been out of school for so long. The next year I went with Alf and Mary to the University of Utah. Not having graduated from the 8th grade, they told me that if I didn’t keep up my classes I would have to quit. So I worked very hard. The next year as Father and Mother were anticipating a mission call, Father said if we went to school, it would have to be the B.Y.U. in Provo, so that we could come home week ends. The next spring, April 1907, they left for Sweden. Alf, Mary, Sadie and I lived at Westwoods, 3rd West and 4th North. Etta Holodaway was my closest friend and I dated her brother Hugh. The next year I stayed home and kept house for Alf and Hyrum but it was decided that I should return to the B.Y.U. the following year 1908-1909. I worked for my board and room at Mayor Deckers. Then in October my parents returned home sooner than expected because Father had contracted Tuberculosis and was ill. Then it was arranged for me to board at Walter Wiles, just a block west of the B.Y.U. That winter I met Richard McAllister at a class party and after a short time began keeping company. Father’s health gradually worsened and he passed away 28 October 1909. I stayed home with Mother the next year but in the fall of 1910, Louise, Mother, and I moved to Provo and rented a little house just west of the B.Y.U. I graduated 3 June 1911 in Arts and Manuel Training. My school days at the B.Y.U. were wonderful years for me, even though I took them one at a time. On 21 June 1911 I was married to Richard McAllister in the Salt Lake Temple. The next two years were happy ones, living in the same house with Florence and George Myers who were married on the same day we were. Dick went to school and sold groceries from door to door. In June 1913 we moved back mothers and Wesley was born Aug 6, 1913. Dick rode the Orem train back and forth to the B.Y.U. that fall we moved back to Provo and I kept boarders to help out. We moved back to Mothers and Vernice was born 7 October 1915. In August 1916, we moved to Blanding, San Juan County, where Dick had a teaching job. What a year! I shed more tears than in all the rest of my life. When school was out I went to Mother’s. DeVere was born 11 November 1917 at Louisa’s in Provo. A month later I took the train for home in Blanding. Arriving in Green River there was no one to meet the [missing]… was cold and I was numb to my waist, when we arrived in Monticello at eleven o’clock. When we got warm in front of the fire place, I was afraid I would be sick, but I wasn’t. The next morning we made it to Blanding and moved into our shell of a house, but we were glad to be home together. Food was quite a problem those first two years. I don’t know what we would have done, had it not been for Theodore Martineau who had a large garden and shared it with us. Meat couldn’t be bought and canned goods were too expensive as it had to be freighted in by wagon and team. We finally enlarged our house to five room with sleeping porches in front and back. Our little four-pound Lester was born in Blanding August 16, 1919, but we were not given the privilege of raising him. He died February 1, 1921. We made a trip to Salt Lake because Mother was very ill. We arrived a few days before her death. Gloria was born in Blanding, the 2 of August 1921. The next year Dick taught at Genola and Vera was born in Salt Lake at Louisa’s, she helped with the delivery. Arnold was born April 2, 1923 in Blanding. After our second year in Blanding, Dick raised a good garden. We had a cow and pig, and chickens. We furnished vegetables, etc. to a lot of people in Blanding. Dick taught two years in Monticello and I helped with the make up for his operettas. Our children went away one by one, to be married, to go to work, etc. until there was just the two of us again. We moved to St. George and lived in DeVere’s house while we built a house. However it was not quite to our liking so Dick bought the old home where he was born. We remodeled it and built another home adjoining it, at 224 E. 100 S. Now the children are all married and have families of their own and we are proud of them. We have 24 grandchildren. We have had one son, one granddaughter and four grandsons go on missions for our church. Both Dick and I have been very active in the church and all our children and grandchildren are very devoted to our church. Dick suffered a series of strokes and after a long illness passed away and is buried in the St. George Cemetery. I have been under great strain and was nervous and weak after his death. I have spent some time in St. George but have spent considerable time visiting with my families. I am so thankful for them and they are wonderful to me.

We did not call my Grandma and Grandpa McAllister by that name they were always Grandma and Grandpa Mac. She told me stories about coming to visit us when we lived in New Mexico and Colorado, I don't remember very much about New Mexico. She talked about trying to have me take a nap with her and I was very wiggly so I got the nickname of "Wiggle Worm". Before that I was the big princess and Sandra Jensen was the baby princess, to her. Clara was born to and raised by parents who came from Sweden. So many of her actions with us as grandchildren reflected that upbringing. She was always telling us, especially me, to SUS or stand or sit up straight. She also would nibble at our ears and neck and say she was looking for sugar. She would say "I see a bare foot" and then pretend to step on your toes. Some of this could have come from Grandpa but I think not when I read about how Swedes raise their children. She did not know much of the Swedish language. If she did she did not use it. The only Swedish I heard was Yah and a lullaby that she sang to the little babies. She and Grandpa traveled a lot after he retired from school teaching. They went on the Indian reservations and sold pots and pans. She loved to do crafts and so anything that was done in Relief Society she would make more to give to her children. She made beautiful quilts and aprons. She was and is loved by her 6 children who reached adulthood and their spouses and her (I believe) 27 grandchildren. written by Claranita McAllister Ernstrom

On the 7th of June, 1957 I wrote the following letter to my grandfather, Richard Wesley McAllister. I include it in my stories because it is the only letter I can remember writing to him and he is one of my all time favorite people. I was turning 9 years old. The letter is sent from the Virgin Islands. I love you grandfather very much. I have been sick. I’m getting well. I went to the doctor. He told me to take some medicine. We like the new shirts that our mother made for us. I got some new jeans. I like them very much. We have a pair of trousers to wear to Sunday School when we get back home. We have a new pair of shoes. Have you been feeling well. I hope you are feeling well. We bought some beds that cost 260 dollars. We got some new socks. I wish you a very happy . . . Here it ends. The reverse side contains a short note to Grandfather and Grandmother McAllister. I am not sure of its date. Since it is written on the same piece of paper I assume it was written around the same time. Dear Grandmother and Grandfather, Hello Grandmother. Jimmy and I has had the flu and we got well. ?We had pinkeye at the time we had the flu. I’ve been good for my teacher. I’ve got a lot of friends. The names of some of them is Frilo. A girl in my room is Priscilla. A boy in my room is Owen, another girl in my room is Sandra. I get along in school in all programs. I love you, Tommy.