Everett Mark Hamilton

PERSONAL HISTORY OF EDITH NAOMI HAMILTON FROST (As told to her daughter Uana Lu Tucker) I entered this world May 30, 1906, a daughter of Thomas Mark Hamilton and Gladys Caroline Reynolds Hamilton. I am the fourth child of eight, five girls and three boys. Their names according to age are: Gladys Marie, Everet Mark, Owen Seth, Edith Naomi, Vesta Vay, Weston Eugene, Mary and Ruby (a baby born and died when my mother died in childbirth, Jan. 18, 1917). I was born in Riverton, Utah my father had a farm there and was known as one of the best farmers in Salt Lake County. It joined his brothers farm (Reuben Seaforn Hamilton). The brothers homesteaded this land when they were young men. They built beautiful homes just about a half block apart. Uncle Reuben ("Uncle Rube") and Aunt Matilda ('Aunt Till") Winder Hamilton were wonderful people and I loved them and their children just like parents and brothers and sisters. Uncle Rube and Aunt Till's children are: Florence, Rex, Norma, Eldred, Elmo, Lola, Ralph, Kay and Mildred. We worked together, played together, went to church and school together. My family was all together for breakfast and night dinner. Morning breakfast menu was cooked cereal, toast, eggs, fried potatoes, French toast, pancakes, fruit, jams or jellies, milk and cream. Dinner was at noon and consisted of potatoes, meat, vegetable and desserts. Supper at 6pm was warm overs from dinner or homemade soups: vegetable, tomatoe, potatoe, bean. Once a week we would have navy beans and hot rolls or bread and butter, puddings etc. Sometimes we would have potatoes again. Always, we had family prayer kneeling around our table together morning and night. We were on time to every meal unless we were in school. The time was set and we had to be there on time. All families around us did the same. Mother was home with us in the evening. Father was gone so much of the time that mother was with us to see that we were home early and if it was school she helped us with lessons and put us to bed early. We sat around our big table and when we were getting ready for bed she told us a story or two. Sometimes she sat in a rocking chair holding the baby and reading or talking to us, telling us about her early childhood. One thing that bothers me is when she asked us to help her, we were not very nice about doing it. If we could get out of it by just doing work for a short time and then finding something else to do that was more fun. (I wish I had helped her more). Father and mother enjoyed having us bring our friends to our home and we enjoyed playing games outside until it was too dark, then we went inside and played pit, Rook and other fun games. Outside, we played hide and seek, follow the leader, kick the can, Run Sheepy Run and many others. This would include all of our friends for a long way around us in Riverton. It was so quiet we could hear our parents call us as far as one-half mile or mile away and we left for home when we were called. My mother was so sweet and kind, we took advantage of her much of the time. I cannot remember her ever losing her temper with us and she had plenty of cause to do so. We were all full of life and with energy running over. I remember when we would be sitting around our big table for our meals, she would sit on her left foot and when she laughed, she didn't make any noise or sound but her body shook and tears of joy would roll down her face. My brothers Everet and Owen would try to make her laugh so they could watch her. We had a large kitchen, larger than our front room. When we ate we set the large table. Our meals were happy times, we told about what had happened during the day, good or bad. My dad had a forty acre farm where we lived and then another 20 acres above the canal. He also was road supervisor for Salt Lake County for many years. He hired other men to help him and some of them would eat dinner at noon with us. It was common practice for hired help to eat with the family. Sometimes we wou1d set the table for four or five extra at noon. This required a lot of work to prepare the meals and they were real good meals. They always included meat, potatoes, vegetables, salad, milk, bread and butter and dessert. We made cakes and pies, cookies, pudding, (bread puddings), rice pudding, tapioca, custard, chocolate and vanilla. We, also, took bottled fruit and thickened it with corn starch or flour and put a crust on top and many other things. We always had plenty to eat and it was the very best. In the summer, we bottled everything we could Vegetables, fruit, meats, pickles, catsup, chili sauce, jams, jelly, preserves and juices. For jelly we would strain off the juice to make it. For preserves we just added sugar to the fruit and cooked it a long time. For jam we mashed the fruit through a strainer and then added the sugar and cooked it. We always had meat. We had pork, veal, beef, chickens and fish. In the winter we would kill the beef and pork and have it cut up down to the slaughter house and cutting house and put the pieces in paper and cloth. Then put them in a burlap sack and hang it outside under the eaves of the house and it would stay frozen all winter and be away from birds and mice. The pork was put in wooden barrels with salt in between the meat and it kept all winter. We would parboil it before we ate it to get the salty taste out. I heard mother say many, many times that she loved her family and I am sure she did by her actions. Mother and father were very much in love. They were hand-in-hand many times walking up to the top of the farm and back and sitting together in the evenings. Father was a great "dad". He had a temper that was something else and we knew that when he told us to do something he was not fooling and to do it now, not later. I appreciate this about him now and I didn't let it bother me then because I knew when I was punished I needed it. We were never allowed to talk back to our parents. That was a no-no for sure. Mother didn't do anything about it but if we said or did something disrespectful to her and our dad was there, we didn't try it again. It was terribly cold in Riverton in the winter but we were dressed warm for it and didn't notice it unless we got frozen ears, noses, cheeks, hands or feet, then it was very painful. My father or Uncle Rube would flood some of their farmland with water and it froze over. We had ice skates and we spent many early evening skating and playing ice games with our friends and neighbors from far and near. When I was going to school, I was a baseball fanatic and I loved to play it or loved to watch others play it. I used to hurry to get down to school fast so I could watch the boys that would graduate that year into the seventh grade, play ball. I had a lot of long golden hair, so they called me goldilocks. I was their mascot. One day, I was sitting and watching a game and thoroughly enjoying it, when all of a sudden one of them hit a ball and it came over and hit me in the head and knocked me out. It hit me just above the eye. The boys took me home to mother and she put cold packs on my head. The boys were very good to me; they brought me things at home. This incident did not dim my attitude toward baseball, I still loved it. We lived nearly a mile from the church and school and we walked both going and coming and enjoyed doing it. We got pretty wet and cold but so did everyone. It was still great fun. To keep warm we wore heavy winter underwear, long sleeves and long legs. Then we talked our parents into short sleeves, but it was many years before we could have short.-legged underwear. We wore a garter belt made of one and a half inch wide elastic and then elastic garters and this held up our long cotton ribbed black stockings. We girls, also, wore black bloomers , or underpants, over our underwear. Then, we graduated to white underwear and stockings. One time I folded my long underwear up above my stockings so no one could see them and when I was playing baseball, my underwear fell down my legs to my ankles. I was embarrassed, but not for long. My friends got a good laugh out of it. I hurriedly pulled them back up and went on playing ball. I had just hit a home run and was so happy about it, I ran and danced all around the bases because it was the winning run of the game for our side. When I was out on second base, I felt my stocking coming down on one leg. I just went on and when I got past home plate, I pulled up the underwear and pinned it back to my pants. I never seemed to let things like this bother me too much. It was more important to win the game. I did learn a lesson from this, however, it was so cold I had to wear long legged underwear or freeze, so, from then on I tried to tuck them down to my ankle neatly and then pull the stocking up over them and they were not too bad, really. We were going to have a dance and I wanted to wear my nice dress. I was told I could wear my only dress, (we only had one dress to wear to church and that was the only place we could wear it). All of the young people in the ward were the same way, they had a shirt and a pair of pants for the boys and the girls had one dress. They were very nice and we had to take care of them. But, this one day I wanted to wear my best dress to school, and I didn't want my underwear to show. So when I got by the school, I took my underwear off and put my dress back on again. I didn't know where to put the underwear. There was an apple orchard on the other side of the school, so I rolled them up and put them in a little pile there in the weeds. Someone found them, so I couldn't find them when I went to go home. When someone came out and asked who owned these underwear, I wouldn't say, so I never did get those underwear back. I loved to play games outside or run races. I always came in second in the school in running. My friend, Rose Bunker, was always first. She took first in our district. My dad was the road supervisor for Salt Lake County. He had to make the time cards and send them in each month. He had to get it right to the post office so they would get it and the fellows would get their pay. Well, he knew I was going to school, so he said: "I want you to go early and go right down to the post office and make sure you mail this today, because the fellows are depending on it for their livelihood." Well, I forgot all about it. and when I got to school, they were having a ball game, and they said: "Edith, hurry up we want you to play in a certain spot." So I ran in and put my books and the letter in the back of my desk and left it there. Two weeks later, my dad got the word from all the workers that they had not received their pay check. He called the company to see where they were and they had not received the time cards. He came to me and said; "Edith, where is that letter I told you to take right down to the post office?" I had to think for a minute, then I said: "It's down in my desk at school". He said. "You little so and so, you get yourself out of here and we are going to go down there", He walked back of me all the way down there telling me, "now this hurts me more than it does you, but you knew that was important to all those men for their pay checks and they are all without it. Some of their kids don't have anything to eat". Well, I got my pants kicked all the way down there and it's a long way, a little over a mile. I was in my first year in junior high school. I loved to be doing things with the group. We had so much fun going and coming from school and church in a large group. We sang songs together. Sometimes, on our way home from school we could see apples in the orchards we passed. We were hungry, so now and then we would grab an apple that was close to the fence eat it. Near the Riverton School where I attended grade school, there was an orchard which was not fenced in. The children often sneaked out of the school yard and into the orchard, taking the fruit with no thought of whether it was right or wrong, but only of not being caught. My father heard of the problem and asked me if I had been guilty of taking the man's fruit. I said "no, I was afraid of being caught". He said, "You would have been caught, all right, even though the man didn't see you, you can' t hide from the Lord, He sees and knows our every act". He told us that our Heavenly Father has given us the Ten Commandments. One was "Thou shalt not steal". He said if we couldn't live these easy laws, then we will be unable to live the greater laws. He, also, told us the farmer was going to sell the apples for winter storage and he soon wouldn't have any left so then he couldn't get money to keep his family warm and well-fed. We had a long walk to school, but we didn't seem to let it bother us. We had many to walk with and had a good time going and coming. In the winter, we had so much snow that it would be higher than the fences. Therefore, when it was that high and hard we walked over the fields and fences covered with snow. When we were young, all of us in the community around there, had one outfit for best and we had to take that off as soon as we came home from Sunday School. We had a nice pair of shoes, nice dress and nice coat. We had to bring them home and hang them and take good care of them. There was always a group of us that walked home from church together. Sometimes it took us half of a day to get there. The longer we stayed away the less we had to do with getting the dinner and washing the dishes. I had been wanting to ride a bicycle, but. I didn't know how. All of the clothes I had on were new. One day on the way home I was invited to ride a bicycle. When I had a chance to ride on the bicycle, I was so thrilled that I forgot all about the dress and new shoes. So I got on the handle bars and one of the boys I liked real well was riding on the seat and he was pedaling. All of a sudden, a horse came past and started leaping around and we both got frightened and fell off. I dug the toe out of my new shoes and took the knee out of my new stockings and tore my new dress. I started in school at five and one half years of age. I was afraid of my teacher, Miss Miller, she was always making us put our hands out if we missed words or talked or looked out the windows, etc. Then she would hit them so hard we had red marks on them. I didn't tell my parents about it because my dad was on the school board and if teachers didn't treat the children right, they were fired. I was afraid he would say something and she would hit harder. During that year, I had a lot of sickness, especially a sore throat. I was really sick with the sore throats and couldn't go to school. When we started school the next year they decided not to have kindergarten anymore. Therefore, I went into the first grade with my cousins and friends that were a little younger than I was, but I was happy to be with my friends and cousins and not be in Miss Miller's room anymore. I had a real nice teacher in the first grade. Her name was Miss Anderberg. She was so very kind and taught us a lot more than Miss Miller. In the next grades I got along fine, because mother was home and she helped us every night. Father was gone to church meetings nearly every night, so mother helped us while we sat around the table together. When I was in the first grade, I had to get up and read in front of the class. All of us had to. There were three of us up in front at a time, so that when one had read a certain amount and the teacher said change, the next child took over. I had to read it second. The first boy read his, but I got so frightened by the time it was my turn to read that I started wetting my pants. There was a big puddle below me on the floor. I was so embarrassed I didn't want anyone to know it was me, So I pushed the little boy next to me over gradually until he was standing over the puddle of water and I didn't get blamed for it. This happened, though, because my teacher wouldn't let me go out to the restroom. She thought I didn't need to go because it had been too close to when I had left in the morning. In my days at Riverton school, I remember hearing the men and women talk about the teachers. If they kept some of the kids back a year, it was the fault of the teacher. She should have taught them more things and helped them more. It was always the fault of the teacher if we didn't get our reading, writing, and arithmetic. We were always working on singing and giving plays to put on for our parents and our parents came out to seem them, too. Whenever they needed someone with golden hair, I got the part. Especially "Goldilocks and the three bears". I, also, loved to sing so I was in many of the plays. I really enjoyed it. My dad was always in the minstrels and choirs and he encouraged us to participate in church and civic affairs. When we were living in Riverton we had a nice home, but we didn't have any inside plumbing to speak of. Father decided he was going to put in a toilet, which he did, and also a bathroom. Up until that time, for a bathtub we used to have a big tub of water. Every Saturday night we each took a turn taking a bath. We didn't get clean water every time; two or three of us would bath in the same water. We would put chairs around the tub and a quilt or two on these, so that if someone came in the door they couldn't see us. They used to call it the walls of Jericho. That was our method of taking a bath. We did finally get a bathtub and parts of the bathroom without the toilet. The toilet was in a room by itself. We did have hot and cold running water, which was a big asset to us and very few in Riverton did have it. We had carpeting on the living room floor and linoleum on all of the other floors. Father kept adding to it until we had a real nice home. We didn't have a sewer, so they had to dig a big hole about as big as an ordinary kitchen and then very deep about 10 feet or more. They would bring in loads of rocks to put in it. That's where they would drain what was left over from the toilet. The only time we could go to the bathroom was in the middle of the night or if we were sick, because it might run over. The other times we would run outside to the outside toilet. One time our toilet started leaking and father knew it was time to dig another hole. So Everet and all of them had been digging all day long on this hole that was quite deep. Everet went out to the bathroom when it was quite dark. He had a date with a very special girlfriend. On his way in, he forgot that the new hole was there and he fell in it, and he couldn't get out. We were all inside because it was night and some were getting ready to go to the dance, too. Finally, we heard a very, very weak, "help". We went out and there was Everet trying to get out of the hole. We had to get a big long ladder to get him out. I'm telling you about our plumbing so that you will understand the way it was with us. They used to have the best stories in the old Era. They would have two or three stories and sometimes they were continued from one month to another. When I would see the mailman coming I would run out to the mail box and put a sweater on and take a lite out to the toilet to read my magazine before any of the rest of them had a chance. The kids used to come out and throw rocks at the outhouse and say: "Come on Ede, its time, you've been in there long enough. We need a chance at it now". So then, I'd have to give it up. Instead of toilet paper we used to use the old Sears and Montgomery Ward Catalog's. Our home front faced east and back of the house, which was west, we had three or four Box Elder trees. I thought they were just beautiful. They grew up and out and gave us shade to protect the house from the hot afternoon sun. The trees were close enough that we made play houses in them. My brothers and dad took some long heavy timbers and put them across from one tree to another. We each had our own tree. We made telephones out of a small salmon can for a mouthpiece and a long pineapple can for the receiver. We really had fun and used the tree houses for years. I thought our home was great. From the time I was a small girl, our home was always open to the people and friends in the ward, I especially remember that Marie and Everet had their friends there many times. I always wanted to be in on everything and I seemed to manage this. Every Sunday night, these groups met in homes after church and had prayer, songs, lessons and discussions. After, refreshments were served. Our front room was large and it was full all around the room. They invited all young people in the ward and they must have all come. When they wouldn't let us come in, I would be able to hear what they were doing while I was in bed. I thought it was great and I could hardly wait until I grew up. Music was very important then, and all of us liked to sing. Marie played very well and we would all stand around the piano and sing. Some nights when we couldn't seem to go to sleep, we asked Marie to play and she did. It was always soft music to put us to sleep. I loved to hear her play. Our piano was in the parlor on the north-east side of our home and our bedroom was just west of it and the rooms were separated by doors you pull together. My dad loved music and had a very good Bass voice. He sang in quartets and the choir and, also, the stake choir. He tried to teach us to enjoy it also. He succeeded as far as I was concerned. He would turn on the phonograph and say, "Listen to the tenor or that bass" or if it was a band, he would have us listen for the horn or violin or other parts and I learned to love to sit with him in front of the player and learned to love music. When Vesta and I were very young, we sang a lot in the ward. We were in the ward choir for years. When they had entertainments in the ward, we sang together with Marie playing for us. We sang at Republican and Democratic rallies. My dad was a strong democrat, but we sang at both of the party rallies. After we had been to the Republican rally, dad would say: "That Reed Smoot, should watch what he says. Here he is an apostle and tells lies like he does." Reed Smoot was the Republican Senator from Utah. William H. King was the Democrat Senator from Utah. Vesta and I thought King was the worse of the two, but didn't like to hear either one of them, because they both seemed to be mad at each other and both said things to hurt others with real harsh words. I learned to dislike politics then and I never did get over it. We thought it would be fun to sing, "Let Us Oft Speak Kind words to Each Other", or "Nay Speak No Ill". We had a list of songs we tried to get Marie to teach us and play for us at the rallies. Each year on the 22 of February, Riverton Ward held a homecoming. It started with a dinner at noon. In the afternoon, there was dancing and games and always, we had several people who had left the ward come back for this day. In the early evening we had a program. It was always full to capacity. On one of these parties, Vesta and I were going to sing. We were still young and frightened. When we got out on the stage and Marie played the prelude. I started to sing the alto but Vesta just stood there and wouldn't sing. I looked at her and nudged her but still no sound. Our dad stood just inside the drapes on the stage and he tried to help Vesta sing, but instead, she started to cry. He took her off and asked her what was wrong. She said: "I have to go to the bathroom." He took her to the restroom and brought her back. Marie started again and Vesta still wouldn't sing, so we didn't do our part that night. We were both frightened but Vesta was always very much so. For dinner, in the daytime, each family in the ward, member and non-members, were asked to bring a certain amount of food. I know we cooked about four chickens, a ham and roast; pies, cakes, potatoes, etc. They had the men come around in wagons and later trucks to pick up the food and take it to the church house. I remember how happy we were to have the non-members come and join in the fun. We went to school with these people and it was good to have them come to our ward. These same people came to our ward parties when we were raising funds to build our church. They still do this in Riverton, I am told. We made ice cream a lot and in order to do this we had to store ice in the winter. Uncle Rube and dad had a building about twelve foot by twelve foot. In the winter when the river froze over they would go down to the river in horse and wagon or sleighs and cut 'the block of ice. The blocks of ice weighed about 80 pounds. They would then, bring them back in the wagon. They would put some sawdust down on the floor of the building, then the blocks of ice, then put sawdust on the ice and in between more ice etc. until the building was filled to the top. This lasted our two families all summer to make ice cream and cold water. This was a fun time when we made ice cream and had to turn the Ice Cream Machine. At first it was easy to turn the freezer but when it was getting frozen it got harder and harder to turn. We put the ice cream in a metal container, ours was five gallon. Then we set that in the middle of the wooden bucket or freezer then put the dasher in and the ice cream mix. We then put the lid on the metal container and put the handle and gears that turn the ice cream on the bucket and metal container. Around the inside of the wooden freezer, we put cubed ice and rock salt. Every Monday morning we washed our laundry, come rain or sunshine. We sorted the clothes into groups. We had about four batches of white clothes, which we sorted first. The procedure went as follows: 1. First, we scrubed each one on a scrub board. We then put them in to the washer and washed it about thirty minutes. 2. Then we put them through a wringer to get as much water out as possible. 3. The next step was to put them in the boiler to boil for thirty minutes. 4. The last step was to put them through the wringer again and put them through two rinse waters and then the last rinse which had a little bluing in it. Even if the wringer was a good one it still took the clothes a long time to dry. On winter days we hung the white things out until they were nearly dry and then we brought them in a few at a time am dried them in different places in the house. On bad days our colored clothes had to be dried the best way possible in the house, because freezing made them fade. They were not color-fast then. The materials would shrink, so they were washed in luke warm water before they were made into clothes. Ironing was something else then compared to what it is now. We had a flat piece of iron shaped like our electric irons are now but they were flat with a handle. We put about four of these on our coal range until they were real hot, then we would use a thick hot pad to bring the iron off the stove. We would rub it over a clean cloth and when we felt it was just right to iron the clothes without scortching it, we would iron as much as we could before it got too cool. Then back on the stove it. went and we used another one until it got cool. This went on and on until we were through. It took us a long time to iron because of changing iron so often and also because nearly everything we washed had to be ironed. The materials were 100% cotton or silk, satin, organdy and batiste. We nearly always washed the material before it was cut out so it wouldn't shrink so much after it was made. We washed the best dresses and fine clothes out by hand in warm water gently using the scrubbing board and a gentle soap. Then we starched them and hung them away from too hot a sun to prevent fading or freezing. It took us a good day to iron and a good day or about two-thirds a day to wash. Then the process of mending. Everything was gone over and buttons replaced and holes mended before we put them away. We didn't have refrigerators in our early time. We kept some things in the cellar. The milk, butter and other perishable foods we put in our home made refrigerator. This was made by making a cupboard or chest of boards or lumber with legs on it so mice or insects or animals couldn't get to it. We covered the outside with burlap and then put a pan of water on top of the cupboard and then put strips of burlap in the pan and hang them down over the outside of the refrigerator. The water from the pan on top would slowly soak the strips of burlap and the water would keep the burlap wet and the inside of the cupboard cool. We would put our milk in pans about two inches high and the cream would come to the top and we would have enough whipping cream to last us a long time. This cooler worked great "as long as we remembered to fill the pan on top every day. If we forgot, everything spoiled and we got a good kick or jolt in the seat hard enough that we remembered it for a long time. We never had to worry about our neighbors having less or more than we did because if a person was in need in those days the neighbors were right there to help out. We milked several cows a day, night and morning. We let the cream come to the top of the milk then we carefully scraped the cream off and when we had enough cream we churned it into butter. The churn was like a wooden barrell with a lid at the top, The dashers revolved inside churning the cream. We turned the churn for a long time, at least an hour. When we could hear a different sound, the cream had gone into small pieces of butter. We drained the buttermilk off, then added cold water to the churn with the butter and started turning again until the butter collected into one large lump. It was taken from the churn and worked with a wooden spatula until all of the buttermilk and water were out. We then added enough salt and worked that in and then put the butter into a wooden Mold the size for a pound. We would weigh it to make sure it was one pound. We sell our butter any place because it was clean and fresh and good. We made our own soap when we had enough leftover fat from animals. We put our big boiler over a bon fire outside and boiled and boiled the fat and lye until it reach a solid stage. Mother was the youngest member of her family. Her brothers and sisters missed her when she married father and moved to Riverton. It must have been twenty-five or thirty miles from South Cottonwood (where she lived) to Riverton, where our home was. Mother's brothers and sisters were married and had families. About once a month some of them would come out to see us and stay a few days. They came in horses, and buggies or wagons and it took a long time to get there. I remember how happy we were to see them come. We had a good time sleeping with our cousins on the floor. If mother wasn't there, they would prepare dinner. I remember one Sunday, they came out to see us and we were to Sunday School. They looked around and couldn't see anything mother had prepared for dinner so they went out and killed two chickens and came in a cleaned them and cooked them and had dinner ready when we came home. We were all so glad to see them because we didn't get to see them very often. In the summer-time it was really fun because we all slept out on the lawns. In those days they either boiled or baked the chicken and they were really good. I think, and I have been told this, that the families in the city didn't have good food like we did. We always had plenty of real good delicious food that was grown on our farm or raised on our land. When we would go out to milk the cows, our cousins liked to come and help. We used to squeeze the utters (we used to call them taps). They didn't have cows, they were on a farm but it was in the city. One time I was trying to be a smarty and tried to aim the milk from the utter into my cousin’s mouth. I accidentally pinched the utter and the cow kicked me right out of the stable. I really had a welt on my back. We couldn't get over the fact that they liked that warm milk. Mother was always so glad to have her sisters come. They would laugh and cry and laugh together. They would sit around the kitchen stove to keep warm. Some would have their feet in the oven. The oven door was as big as the ovens are here, they'd put their feet on there and sit and tell stories about their early days. We used to just love to hear about it. These were the fun days of our lives. Grandpa Hamilton was a little on the harsh side and yet when you knew him you'd like him real well. One cousin says I'm wrong about this following incident and another cousin says I'm right. He used to chew tobacco and he had a big beard and it looked like it turned it yellow, too. When he would ask me to come over and kiss him, those big whiskers all around his mouth and chin would make me say: "Grandpa, I can't, they tickle me". Every time he came he would ask me to come and kiss him just so I would say that. They lived in Millcreek. We used to go over there fairly often, because they had a big modern dairy farm, and one of father's brothers lived in the same home as Grandpa and Grandma Hamilton. Then just across the way, a few steps was another home that another brother of father's lived in. These brothers were Uncle Frank and Uncle Aunce Hamilton. He had one sister that died of Diphtheria and it nearly broke grandma up. I'll just never forget how all of them felt so terribly sad. She was just a young girl. So they adopted another girl, whose mother had passed away. Her name was Aunt Ida. My Grandma Reynolds, my mother's mother, was born in England, if I remember right, and came to America with a group of Mormons because she had met a missionary over there from North Ogden, who told her to come over here and he would marry her. She had a terrible time on the way over. She had to work all the time and she was frightened, because everything was so new to her. But, she still wanted to come over because she had met a missionary. When she got here, she let him know she was here; but he never came to see her. She didn't have any place to stay. He had sent word to just wait because he wasn't ready yet. In those times to get from North Ogden to Riverton was a long ways to go. She waited for a while and then she called him and he kept saying he would come. Later on she found out he was already married and wanted her to be his second wife, but she wouldn't. Grandma Reynolds was very broken up over this and didn't know what to do. At the time she was out of money and living with some people who had been on a mission over to England. One day she decided to go for a walk across the fields. Grandpa Reynolds’s first wife was not too well. He talked to my grandmother for a few minutes that day, but he didn't know who she was. At the time, he was headed through the field looking for someone to come and help him take care of his children and home. His wife had been very ill and couldn't handle all of the responsibilities. She said she would think about helping him take care of his home and then went back and talked to the people she was living with. They told her he was a very nice fellow and thought everything would be all right. She, therefore, offered to do it for a short time, because she was intending to get married. So she went to work for the other woman. It was while she was there that they fell in love and she married as a second wife. Grandpa Reynolds had the two wives then, and they lived side by side, in nice homes. His children from the first wife just loved Grandma Reynolds. They would come there and stay and stay and she couldn't get them to go home. Hazel told me the whole family would come over there and stay and visit because she was such a card. She always had something pleasant to say and made them Laugh. She'd play games with them, and things until they learned to just love her. Of course, she took care of them, for a long time too, which makes a big difference. We all seemed to think the world of Grandma Reynolds. My fond memories go back to our evenings, especially in the winter. Father was gone nearly every night to meetings, but mother was always home with us. We would sit around a warm stove and mother in her rocking chair would either tell us stories or read to us. Again, I say she never raised her voice in anger and laughed or smiled nearly always. For example, one night, she was sitting in her rocker in the front room telling or reading us a story. Everet had been out "chivareeing". In those days, when a person got married, they were "chivareed" , or had tricks played on them. On this particular night, my cousin, Florence, was getting married and the boys thought they all had to play tricks on them. Everet took his gun out and shot it several times. When he came in, he stood by the rocker and mother said: "Everet be careful with that gun". Just then it went off and went between the rockers on the back of the chair. Mother was holding two children. The bullet went through the floor and just missed Vesta and I. It caused a big hole, which was fixed with a piece of tin or wood. It was still there when I left our home. Vesta and I Were sitting by the rockers on the back and the shell went between us. Mother cried for a few minutes and then talked to us. She especially talked to Everet. Some of this I remember: "Be careful with a gun. When you are all through and before you bring it into the house, see that all of the shells are out". After I was grown, a man in Riverton, (Abe Bowen, a neighbor of ours) talked to me and said: "Edith you are all good children, but you are not as good as your mother. She was the best woman that ever lived". He said that, "one time in church a mouse ran up her skirt and she jumped a little and then grabbed it with her hand through the skirt and held it that way until church was over and then walked outside and let it go. It was dead". He said mother then smiled and went on home. Our mattresses were ticking, sewed on four sides with an opening at the top to fill with chicken feathers. We had another ticking that we filled with straw. First the straw mattress next to the springs and then on top of that we had the feather mattress. Each year after threshing the wheat we emptied the old straw out of the mattresses and put in new straw, just threshed. Every week or so we would take the mattress and shake them good so they wouldn't pack in lumpy. On top of the straw mattress, we had a feather mattress for softness. My dad was in the bishopric for many years. Well, nearly as long as I can remember. David Sills was the bishop. He was the father of Bills Pollard, who has lived in South Ogden for many years. We had so much love in our home with mother to guide us and help us, and also, the love that mother and father had for us and the home, they also, had for each other. We knew that when we were told to do something that it must be done or we would get a good solid spat on the seat from our dad when he came home, never mother. He worked hard and expected us to do the same or we were spanked good. My dad meant business. When he told us to do something we did it or else:: I appreciate this about him, because we learned how to work and also, how to act at home and away. Mother worked in the Relief Society and she loved to go each week to this. When there was a death she and other sisters in the ward would go to the home and wash and clean up the dead person and get them ready for the mortician to finish up. Mother was secretary for a long time and she had her own horse and a pretty buggy. When she needed to go to church or a meeting or visiting, the boys and father would see that her horse and buggy would be ready and tied them up to the fence in plenty of time. One morning, father came in and told mother that her horse was sick and couldn't get well. When it died mother really cried and especially when the truck came to get the horse's body and take it away. It wasn't long before the boys and dad got another horse trained to pull the buggy as well as the other one. I have always wanted to have a personality like mothers but I got a fiery one like my dad. Our home was always a home for our friends. Maria and the group in our ward her age had a study club after church on Sunday night. They always had a lesson and then served refreshments after. We had a large front room and it was always full when they came to our place. I loved to sneak in and listen and then help serve the treats. Marie was good to let us help. On January 18, 1917, our mother died when giving birth to her eighth child. This was very hard for us to take because she was so patient and thoughtful of everyone. Father had, had a hold of mother's hand and the doctors and nurses were over working on the baby because she wasn't doing well. As he looked over to watch them to see how the baby was doing, holding mother's hand, her hand just fell out of his. He looked down and he could see that she was gone and he called: "Oh, doctor, Gladys". They all came over, but they couldn't do anything because she was already gone. Father came out of the bedroom door, on his way to the telephone and said: "Oh, your mother, I'm afraid she's gone. She's dead". He fell and then he got up and went to the telephone. In those days in Riverton and Bluffdale and those areas, we had operators who got so familiar with all of us that they knew this was T.M. Hamilton, that was talking on the phone and that he was trying to get his brother, Uncle Rube, next door. Father fell and so the operator called Uncle Rube and Aunt Till and they came over. She also, called a lot of people that she knew, knew us. Earlier in the afternoon, (it was winter) I had heard father say: "Gladys, you're going to burn your feet, I can see you are, you’re going to have them blistered." She said: "No, Tom, I can't even feel it". She had them placed right up on the stove. She always had had heart trouble. He came into the room to tell us that our mother was gone and immediately all of us knelt around the couch and prayed that she would come back to us, but she didn't. Vesta and I were a little bit bitter over this. All of the people who came through the viewing would say, "Oh, it's too bad, but you'll get another mother". I said to Vesta, ''we don't want another mother, do we", she said "no". Our house was packed with people within one half-hour after she died. The Relief Society came and started washing her and getting her ready for the mortician to come out. They had to come out in sleighs. They brought a high table or stretcher to use to work on her with. She was stretched out on this and they let us come in and see her after they had gotten through fixing her up and getting her ready. They had a nice clean gown on her and her hair was so long and thick that it fell off the four foot high stand down into a puddle on the floor. She had beautiful auburn hair, none of us got her hair. The next morning when we got ready to go to the funeral, Mary wanted to hold the baby. The mortician said "by all means, let her hold the baby." So they let her sit in her cute litt1e rocking chair and hold the baby. There were even people coming through to view her. The mortician said to let her hold the baby as long as she wanted to. I remember that all of her family, brothers and sister and all came to the house. It was in the winter time and they pulled the oven door down to put their feet on and warm themselves. They all sat around talking about old times and then they'd stop and say,” And here it is, our baby sister, that goes first!" Then they would cry some more. They were so good to us. My Aunt Sarah wanted to take me and Hazel's mother wanted to take Vesta. When it came right down to separating us father wouldn't let any of us go. Mary and Weston were young and were such cute children. Mary was about three years old. Father was very active in church and community and was gone most of the time. He was in the bishopric for many years and recreational leader, in the stake superintendency of Sunday Schools and M.I.A., taught classes, directed plays, took part in several plays, stake genealogy work, etc. Then he was sheriff and road supervisor for many years. After mother died he seemed to take over as much as possible in her capacity. I know I always went to father with all of my troubles and interests. Our oldest sister, Marie; our cousin Hazel Bowthorpe from Holiday, Utah (Mother's sister's girl); along with our wonderful Uncle Rube and Aunt Till,(lived next door) took care of us for nearly two years. In those days they felt it was important to keep your bowels moving every day. So father felt that every Saturday, we should get cleaned out. They used to use Epsom salts as a laxative and it has a terrible taste. You'd mix it up in a little bit of hot water in a cup about half full. Then he'd say, "get in line", and we'd line up. None of them wanted to and the boys would try to run out. He'd say: "If you'll take it, I'll give you a big spoon full of jam and you'll never taste it." I didn't know which were worst the salts or the jam. This happened after mother died. He felt a responsibility to keep us healthy and he really tried hard. He had not remarried yet. He'd say time and time again: "Edith, I have to do this. Your mother's gone and I have the whole responsibility". He was strict, but he was a good father. If we weren't home at a certain time he was out walking the streets for us. One time we had been to a field day over at Jordan High School, we were in junior high then, but we always went anyway because it was a big deal. When we got over there, the bus driver hadn't come yet and we were afraid. So we said: "Well, there's no use of us waiting, let's walk". So we all started walking. That night in Riverton, there was a big dance that my dad was in charge of. We had to walk from Jordan, across the valley over the Jordan River. It was miles that we walked. It got to be past nine o'clock, as we were coming down the Redwood Road, someone said: "Edith, there's your dad coming". I was scared to death of what I was going to meet with, because I should have been home four hours ago. And now I can see how he felt to have a child out like that and wonder where she was. I was walking with some of the boys and he said: "Okay, I'll take her from here". I walked all the way home and I never said a word. When we got home he said: "Don't plan on any dance, you had your dance today." So I didn't get to go to the dance that night. In August 1918, father married Annie Madsen in the Salt lake Temple. He learned to love Annie as much as we could think of a mother. She was a very good housekeeper and was exceptionally good in sewing. We were always well-dressed and cared for. Father and Annie had one child named Ruth. We were all glad to have another sist'3r and as the years go by, I seem to become more and more attached to my brother s and sisters. Father and Annie went to Salt Lake a lot on Saturdays and left us home to clean the house. We had a lot of responsibility, but really, we shouldn't have played around the way we did. We played teacher, we played school, we played house until it was about time for father and Annie to come home, and then we really had to dig in fast and get it done. My cousins came out to help us sometimes. We used to have to wipe our floors up every day. On the weekdays we would take a damp mop and kind of dust the floors. On Saturday, we had to scrup on our hands and knees. We didn't want to on those days, especially in the boys' room because it was so dirty. So, on this one certain day and I guess many days, I didn't sweep under the beds, and boy they were dirty with a lot of lint under there, I pulled the bedspreads down so that Annie could not see it. I then took a quart cup of water and threw it on the floor and wiped it up as fast as I could and it. Looked pretty good, unless she lifted up the bed spread. She found out about it and she told me. She was very nice about telling me that is not the way she wanted us to keep house. I appreciate him for this. We worked all day long; we had to clean every cupboard in the cabinet off every Saturday. We had to carry all the chairs in the kitchen out and scrub them. That's another time when Vesta and I would play school. We'd get them all lined up together and one would scrub and the other would wipe. Sometimes we would turn the water on them and wipe it off. We did get through in a hurry and I thought the house looked pretty good. An incident I remember was one time when my dad had had a heart attack and the doctor said he had to have some whiskey, right there, so that he could take it in a hurry if he had to. This would stimulate the heart. We hadn't had this in our home and didn't know what it looked like, but we knew the sheriff had to bring it out. There was just about an inch in the bottom of the bottle was all he got. Vesta and I had to clean the cabinets this certain day and father was still in bed and Annie wasn't there. Vesta was cleaning out the top of the cupboards and she handed the bottle down to me , She said: "Edith, let's try it". I said: "We hadn't better, because it smells on your breath". She said: "They'll never smell it". So, we each had a teaspoon full and it was so nasty that I decided never again would there be any whiskey for me. I attended school at Riverton for both elementary and junior high and graduated from Jordan High School in 1925. In 1926, I graduated from L.D.S. Business College and started working for Utah Woolen Hills. I worked in the office there for nearly three years. I enjoyed going to school but I can see now that I should have spent more time studying. I got through without any trouble and had plenty of fun but I wish I had taken it more seriously. When I was in the seventh grade the Frost family moved to Bluffdale, a town just south of Riverton. Ivan Frost was a member of that family and the girls in Bluffdale went all out for him. I didn't pay much attention to him at the time because he was a little over a year younger than I was. When the Bluffdale students came to Riverton for junior high the next year, Ivan and I were in groups together and we were for the following four years. I liked to dance and talk to him but I never once thought of anything serious, until I was out of high school and going to Business College. Ivan said that his friend used to go with Edith. The friend would walk her home from all of the shows and he would go along, too. He liked her then, but didn't want to horn in on any friendship. Our stake always held their summer outing at Saltair and at one of these stake outings, Ivan and I were dancing and had so much fun together, that we have been dancing together ever since. We went together nearly three years. We were married in the Salt Lake Temple on June 27. 1929. by President George F. Richards.