Mary Ann Chadwick James

MARY ANN CHADWICK

• born 23 September 1867 in North Ogden, Utah
• died 18 February 1952 in Rexburg, Idaho
• was a wonderful baker
• was a very hard worker

MARY ANN CHADWICK JAMES

Born 23 September 1867, Died 18 February 1952

Written by Dora Dutson Flack, a granddaughter

Marv Ann's Beginnings

The Abraham Chadwick and Mary Marinda Garner Family began in North Ogden, Weber County Utah, in the early years of Utah Territory. (Even though Mary Marinda Garner was commonly - known as Mary, to prevent confusion we will call her Mary Marinda throughout this book, because there are so many Marys in the pioneer generations of the Garner, Chadwick and James families.)

Abraham and Mary Marinda Chadwick lived in a little house situated close to the home of her parents, David and Dolly Durfee Garner. Abraham's father also lived in the same area. Both were polygamist families.

In North Ogden, Abraham and Mary Marinda’s children arrived quickly:

1. Mary Ann, born 23 September 1867.

2. William Abraham, born 26 November 1868.

3. Emily, born 25 September 1870.

This young couple decided to follow the example of their polygamist parents. After all, in those days polygamy was a usual practice in the church. Therefore, when Emily was born, a neighbor girl, Olive Ann Cazier, came to help. The two were so congenial that Mary Marinda told Abraham to bring her into the family as a second wife. They welcomed Olive Ann on 21 November 1870, being married and sealed in the Endowment House. That same day Mary Marinda was also sealed to Abraham.

Three more children were born to Abraham and Mary Marinda while living in North Ogden:

4. Louisa Jane, born 14 February 1873.

5. Albert, born 27 April1875.

6. Charles, born 5 September 1876.

In North Ogden four children were also born to Abraham and Olive Ann:

1. Celestia, born 28 January 1872.

2. Joseph, born 27 September 1873 (twin).

3. Hyrum, born 27 September 1873 (twin).

4. Olive Permelia, born 26 August 1876.

By the time Mary Ann, the oldest child, was 8 the Chadwick families included nine small children. Obviously, adjustments in home and income demanded consideration. So Abraham and Mary Marinda traveled to Park Valley, in Box Elder County, to survey possibilities of establishing a new home there. Abraham had been working on the railroad at Promontory. After staying in Park Valley that summer, they returned to North Ogden just before Charles, Mary Marinda's sixth child, was born.

Park Valley Welcomes the Chadwicks

Three years later, in 1879, when Mary Ann was 11, Abraham sold their North Ogden property to Mary Marinda's father, David Garner, and the family returned to Park Valley to establish a home before their seventh child arrived. Unfortunately, Baby Edward was born 14 April1879, during the arduous journey. He died the same day and was buried at Park Valley.

Father Abraham built two homes for his growing families, one for Mary Marinda and one for Olive Ann. The children who were big enough helped to clear sagebrush from ten acres of the farm. While living in Park Valley, Mary Marinda brought five more children into the world, making a total of twelve:

8. Lydia, born 7 April1880.

9. John Garner, born 6 September 1882.

10. David, born 29 January 1885.

11. Eva, born 18 August 1888.

12. George Alonzo, born 29 November 1890.

Olive Ann added five more:

5. Benjamin, born 3 November 1878.

6. Viola, born 9 May 1881.

7. Frederick R., born 29 June 1883.

8. Isabell, born 14 September 1885.

9. Henry, born 10 January 1888.

This meant that young Mary Ann had eleven full siblings, and nine half-siblings. However, Edward had died at birth and David died at age 11. One of Olive Ann's twins died at age 2. Father Chadwick and his two wives supported 18 surviving children. Being among the first settlers in the Park Valley area, strictest economics were practiced.

Obviously they all learned early how to work. Mary Ann, being the eldest of the children, had to be the leader. She was a born worker, which both mothers appreciated. In addition to household tasks, the girls had to care for chickens and turkeys, milk the cows, churn the butter--the list continues. Mary Ann even became an expert cheese maker when very young.

In Park Valley the family moved three times. One home was maintained in the mountains which they occupied in the summer. Remaining there one severe winter, much of the livestock died of starvation and cold. The cows became so weak that family members made big slings to help them to stand and encouraged them to feed. If the animals remained quiet too long, they would have stiffened and died.

Mary Ann faithfully cared for one sick calf until it recovered, so her father gave it to her.

(Later, when she was married, that cow brought several offspring to her barn.) When spring arrived, following that severe winter, the family left their mountain home for the valley, singing as they jogged merrily along.

Even though the family was active in the church, Mary Ann was not baptized until 3 July 1880, when she was 13 years old.

She completed school only to the third grade, but her education was the best to be acquired at the time and her father saw to that. At one time he even hired a supplementary schoolteacher because the regularly-employed teacher was Danish and couldn't speak English very well.

As the children reached school age they all walked about two miles to attend. When they were too old for school, they worked on the farm and inside the home. 

Mary Ann Marries

While growing up, they attended dances held in the church house. Father Chadwick was very strict with all their children and wanted to know where they were, with whom, and when they would be home from activities. His strictness discouraged the girls' suitors.

Mary Ann dated several young men, but the story was always the same-her father didn't think anyone was good enough. Neither was Tom James, especially because he was not an active church member. By the time she was 26, she knew she must make her own choice, so she married 28-yearold Thomas Richard James in Salt Lake City on 5 September 1893.

Light-complexioned Mary Ann was taller than Tom, about 5' 8" tall and very thin, and remained thin her whole life. Tom was shorter and plump. She wore her light-colored hair combed up and twisted on top of her head, with a ringlet in front of each ear.

After their marriage, the couple moved into the two-room house on her father's ranch, where their first four children were born:

1. Florence Mary, born May 12, 1894.

2. Abraham Thomas, born November 21, 1895.

3. Iona, born December 22, 1897.

4. Edith Ella, born May 7, 1900.

Fortunately Mary Ann had learned capable farming practices. The tasks of maintaining the home, farm and family were largely up to her because Tom spent most of his time away from home prospecting and working in the Century Mine a few miles from Rosette. In 1901 moving to Rosette seemed logical, thus saving Tom's travel time. There, five more children were born:

5. Gladys Lydia, born January 14, 1902.

6. Irene, born December 6, 1903.

7. Emma, born April3, 1905.

8. Frank, born April 22, 1907.

9. Dora, born March 25, 1909.

(The family picture in front of the log home was taken soon after Dora's birth, when they felt their whole family was complete.)

Mary Ann Runs

This small home was almost next door to the town schoolhouse. So Mary Ann became the school janitor. She could use the money, and the older children could help her by doing much of the work at home and caring for the little ones.  Mary Ann served as Primary President in Rosette. Her daughter Iona was her secretary at age 10.

At another time she taught Religion Class, conducting the sessions in her own home.  Especially while living at Rosette, Mary Ann's mode of travel was a two-wheeled cart, drawn by one horse. The cart had only one seat. Those who couldn't squeeze onto the seat sat on the floor of the cart as they went to visit her mother or friends. A shay and horse replaced the cart. Finally the Ford replaced the horse and shay.

In 191 0 Tom finally decided his mining ventures were not rewarding and that he should devote his entire time to farming and livestock to provide for their large family. Tom's brother, Eliezer, and his wife intended to move from Park Valley, so Tom purchased their farm and home.  Next to that property lived his brother Dave, and the James children formed close friendships with their cousins down the lane.

The following year, much to her surprise, at age 45 Mary Ann was expecting child #10.  Because little Dora was three years old, Mary Ann had assumed her family was complete. At that time Frank and Dora were the only children not in school. So she took them and traveled by train from Kelton to North Ogden, where she stayed with her sister for a few weeks. There, her tenth child was delivered, the only one under a doctor's care:

10. Stephen, born May 31, 1912.

Upon recovery from Steve's birth, Mary Ann's half-trot developed into a half-gallop. Her older children were sometimes working in other people's homes, but all of them were helpful to their mother. Mary Ann's farm and livestock work continued even though Tom was then a full-time farmer. When the whole family was home, they usually milked fifteen cows. As the family members married and only Steve was left, there were only seven or eight cows to milk. Mary Ann did a lot of the milking but family members helped when they lived at home.

The cows produced lots of milk, so cream was plentiful. Night and morning, fresh milk was set to cool in the milk house, after being poured into large round pans. The cream, which rose to the top of the pans, was skimmed off for butter. Never did they buy butter. A large wooden churn was often operated by one of the children. Mary Ann's butter was sold not only at the Century Mine, but she even sold butter and eggs at the Kelton Hotel, also Brigham City, and the cafe in Park Valley where Gladys worked in her teen years. Chickens and turkeys required constant care when they were killed for meat. Even the children helped cut off heads. Of course they gathered eggs and fed the poultry. Mary Ann "candled the eggs." This was done by placing each egg in a battery-operated small appliance which lighted up and the viewer could determine if it was a good or bad egg.

Food Fun

The fragrance of freshly-baked bread was common, for Mary Ann was an expert bread maker.  Her graham bread (whole wheat) even surpassed her white bread. Yeast cakes, as we know them now, were unheard of then. A "start" of yeast would be obtained from a neighbor. Then each day potato water and a little sugar was added. At bread-making time this yeast-mixture was added with the milk. Sometimes yeast was "started" by using a small, hard square cake of dry yeast, then it was kept alive by adding leftover water after potatoes were boiled.

In the autumn Tom drove over to Cedar Creek by horse and wagon and purchased flour by the ton at the mill. Using a hundred pounds of flour per week was not unusual for such a large family. When they were all at home, Mary Ann baked bread every day but Sunday. On Monday mornings she had to make hotcakes or baking powder biscuits for breakfast because the yeast bread had been consumed.

 (As a child, her whole wheat bread hooked me, her granddaughter and author of this biography. Years later when I was a Relief Society President in Salt Lake City, the bishop requested we teach the sisters how to use the wheat we were urged to store. Three of us, Vernice Rosenvall, Mabel Miller and I, developed a recipe as good as Grandma James' and we gave many bread demonstrations in other Relief Societies.  We three wrote the wheat recipe book, Wheat for Man . .. Why and How, which has sold throughout much of the world for fifty years. In its early years the proceeds helped to build three L.D.S. church buildings.)

At Mary Ann's home three meals a day were served at the long oblong table in the living/dining room. Mary Ann was delighted when Tom built a kitchen on the west side of the house for easier cooking.

Every Friday a big pot of beans was boiled, with slices of home-prepared bacon (salt pork).  Beans were harvested in the autumn by stomping on them on a canvas in the garden area to separate the beans from the shells and stems.

Sunday dinner was always a special treat. When the family returned from church about 3:00 P.M. Mary Ann cooked home-grown chicken or meat, mashed potatoes and gravy, home-dried corn, garden vegetables, bottled fruit and cake. Her special treats included Ginger Crumb Cake, Applesauce Cake, Mince Meat Pie, Apple Pie, Vanilla, Custard and Rice Puddings. Oatmeal Cookies and Rolled Molasses Cookies were favorites.

(Molasses Cookies were the Dutson granddaughters' favorites too. When we lived in Leamington, later in Lynndyl, in Millard County, Grandma James packed these round rolled-out cookies in a shoebox and mailed them to us on the train for birthdays and special holidays. Sometimes it took a week to reach us but they were as good to the last crumb as when they were fresh out of Grandma's oven.)

GRANDMA'S MOLASSES COOKIES

Sift together:

6 cups flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp salt

Mix well:

1 cup butter

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla

Add: 1 cup molasses and mix well.

Dissolve 1 tsp soda in 3/4 cup buttermilk. Add buttermilk with sifted dry

ingredients. Mix well. If necessary, add a little more flour for a very stiff dough.

Chill several hours or overnight.

On floured board roll portions and cut with cookie cutters. Place on ungreased

baking sheet. Bake about 15 minutes at 3 50 degrees. Decorate if desired.

Vinegar was not purchased at the store. Whenever a "mother" appeared in the vinegar jug it was carefully saved. The vinegar "mother" is a large filmy substance which floats in the vinegar liquid. Then the old vinegar is poured off and fresh water added. The "mother" develops new vinegar when juice from cooked apple peelings is added.

Fruit preserves were made each year and stored in 2 Y2 and 5-gallon crocks in the fruit cellar.  As needed, contents were ladled from the various crocks. Spoilage was rare.

A short distance from the back door of the house was a low adobe brick building which was actually a cement root cellar, with a ceiling just high enough to accommodate adult workers. A lower, cooler level was reached by going down several steps to a dirt floor where squash, potatoes, turnips, carrots, etc. were stored for winter use. This was a cool storage spot in the summer and warmer than outside in the winter, which kept food from freezing.

Shelves lined the walls for hundreds of bottles of fruit and other kitchen equipment which was not in constant use. Milk was brought there to cool after milking the cows. Mary Ann also candled the eggs there. Of course the cellar door was kept closed, especially in the winter, to keep the snow outside.

(Years later when grandchildren visited the farm, Mary Ann expected their help in gathering eggs, feeding chickens, picking fruit and flowers, helping with the washing, especially pulling the agitator on the washing machine 15 minutes per washing load.)

(Iona's daughter Virginia remembers that when she was 8 years old, "Grandma" handed her a big kettle and instructed her to go pick some gooseberries for jam. Not realizing the difference in the many bushes, Virginia returned to the house with a kettle of green currants, instead of gooseberries. No doubt Grandma Mary Ann was short of currants for jelly that year.)

After Mary Ann was told that eating onions counteracted the flu bug, she served onions with meals most days.

For such a large family, hundreds of bottles of fruit were prepared, then stored in the fruit room. Much of the fruit was raised in their own orchard near the house. However, they had to travel to Brigham City for peaches. In addition to all the bottling, Mary Ann dried a lot of apples and plums in the yard, as well as com. Daughter Dora explained that the food to be dried was put on sheets on top of the house with netting over the top to keep the flies off. Some of the com was hand-ground with their small muscle-powered grinder. During World War I, at times the family tired of so much com bread. They also ground com and grain and mixed it with home-made cottage cheese (whey) to be fed to the little chickens and turkeys. During the War, food was scarce, but the James Family raised sufficient on their farm.

Mary Ann baked birthday cakes in a round tin milk pan. Icing made from egg whites (undoubtedly 7-Minute Icing) topped the cakes. Then candy was sprinkled on top. Cakes were the only special treat for birthdays. No gifts.  The family loved Ginger Crumb Cake which is also a favorite of grandchildren's families.

GRANDMA'S GINGER CRUMB CAKE

4 cups sifted flour

2 cups sugar

1 cup butter

Mix flour, sugar, butter in large bowl and cut with pastry cutter. Measure

3 1/2 cups of mixture into mixing bowl. Set aside residue for topping.

To mixture in mixing bowl, add and stir:

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp ginger

1 tsp baking powder

Add:

1 cup buttermilk

1 tsp soda, dissolved in buttermilk

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla

Beat well.

(Modem option) To crumbs which are set aside add:

1 cup chocolate or butterscotch chips

1 cup chopped nuts

Grease 9" x 13" pan. Sprinkle on one-half of flour mixture which was

set aside. Pour batter evenly over crumb mixture. Sprinkle remaining crumbs

over top. Bake 45-50 minutes at 350 degrees.

Occasionally there were candy pulls. Often com was popped for refreshments. Tom ate popcorn as he read, sometimes with a thimble perched on his head while the children played "Who's Got the Thimble?"

The James children enjoyed Dutch Noodles, but their father didn't. When he was away, Mary Ann often prepared this main dish. The noodles were made from Baking Powder Biscuit dough, cut into small pieces and fried. Milk was heated and seasoned and the noodles were dropped in and quickly served.

Parties were frequent at the James home because of the big dining/living room. Guests played "Hide the Thimble," "Button-Button," "Blindman's Bluff'' and other games. Torn always sat reading the newspaper at the table with the coal oil lamp close by. His ear or bald head provided an unexpected hiding place. He never moved, which kept the thimble from dropping and being discovered.

Gladys related that they were never permitted to go barefoot. But some days in Rosette they sneaked out the back bedroom door, took off shoes and socks and ran in the grass. One day the barefooted girls heard a strange noise.

One of the first cars putted down the dirt road. The little girls ran around the house to the front and Mr. Jones took them for a ride some distance down the road. Then he let them out and they had to walk back home barefooted. How their feet hurt!  One day all seven daughters took lunch to the church house and joined friends under a  bowery made with willows over the top.

Care of the Home

The dining/living room was the main room in the house, with a big long table on one side near a window. A tall china cabinet stood against the west wall at one end of the table. Tom's oak desk stood against the east wall at the other end of the table. A couch on the west wall accommodated Tom’s mid-day nap, or anyone else who wanted to nap. The sewing machine, a few chairs, two rocking-chairs, and a coal heater completed the furnishings of the room. Even with all this furniture, there was floor space for children to play.

Mary Ann kept a clean house. She and Torn occupied the east bedroom. Their bed had a soft feather mattress. All the other beds, had straw ticks. (The heavy mattress covers were filled with straw and were called straw ticks.) She checked carefully every few weeks for bedbugs, then treated the surfaces with coal oil so that bedbugs couldn't survive if any happened to invade the house.

Children were not permitted to sit on the beds. If they wanted to lie down during the day, they rested on the floor. 

Floors were covered with woven rag carpeting. Worn-out clothes and cloth were cut into

strips about two inches wide. The strips were sewed end-to-end, then rolled in balls which were

deposited in baskets until they were woven on a loom into carpets to be used on the floors. Every

spring the home had a good housecleaning. By then straw under the carpets would be mashed into

dust, so the carpets were pulled up and hung outside on the clothesline for cleaning and beating. The

bare floors and walls were cleaned. New straw was laid on the floor and the carpets laid over the straw. Then the carpet was tacked into place.

The prized organ stood in Mary Ann and Tom's bedroom. Emma and Dora learned to play the organ and accompanied family singing. 

Four bedrooms accommodated the family of twelve. This was indeed spacious compared to most other homes in that locale and time period. Yet the house was crowded. Therefore, in the summer a bedroom was contrived in the granary, which was quite large, and grain occupied only one bin. Abe and Frank used this "bedroom." A candle became their night light. One night Abe dozed off before blowing out the candle. When he awoke, flames were rising up the side of the building.

Abe grabbed an old coat and tried to pound out the blaze, then dashed to the well for water. Since the gas engine was hooked onto the pump, he had to start the engine to get the water. The noise woke his parents. Fortunately, the fire was extinguished before much damage occurred.

A big vegetable garden required much care. In addition, Mary Ann always raised flowers and arranged them for the dining room table-marigolds, pansies, cosmos, gladiolas, roses, lilacs, foxglove, Canterbury bells and sweet peas. Her summer sweet peas exuded fragrance as well as beauty.

(When vacationing in Park Valley as a child, I loved to pick Grandma's sweet peas and take them to Aunt Minnie and Uncle Dave down the lane to the east, and to Marne Carter's family to the west. Because of my attachment to her sweet peas, we have planted them every year since acquiring a home three years after our marriage.  Neighbors and friends still receive them with great pleasure all summer. Many years ago when I took a large bouquet for a Relief Society luncheon, the President said, "Do you know why your sweet peas bloom so profusely?"  "I just take good care of them," I replied.  "No, you give them away. They don't bloom unless you share them." Thank you, Grandma James.)

Saturday was bath-time, using a large galvanized wash tub. Water was carried in buckets from the pump a short distance in the yard, then heated in a metal oblong boiler on the kitchen wood burning range. When heated, the water was dipped into the tub with a pan. Chairs were lined up around the tub, and sheets hung over the chairs for privacy. The oven door of the stove was opened to send out as much warmth as possible. When the family was small, they all bathed in the same water. But with twelve individuals, perhaps they emptied the water after the first few, then changed the water for the rest of the family.

The home had no bathrooms. Tom maintained the outhouse, painting it every spring, inside and out. This outhouse had two holes. Screened vents at the top of the walls allowed circulation.  Crockery chamber pots were kept under the beds for night use so that individuals didn't have to brave the dark and cold and run outside to the outhouse. The pots were emptied and washed every morning and put back under the beds. 

In those days there was no electricity, so coal oil lamps furnished light at night. Each morning the glass chimneys had to be carefully washed and dried and placed back on the glass bases which held the coal oil.

In their growing years, Mary Ann placed a thick Sears Roebuck catalog on the chairs for the little ones so they could eat more comfortably. The Sears Roebuck catalogs, and other sales books were also used for toilet paper in the outhouse.

Gladys recalls how their mother sat at the end of the dining room table every night, darning socks. Even in the summer they wore long black stockings, sometimes hand-knitted. Underwear reached to their ankles.

Mary Ann made a new dressy Sunday dress for each daughter for Christmas but not much in between, except for summer dresses. The girls wore the same school dress all winter, changing to a cotton ''wash dress" as soon as they returned home. In warmer weather they had a few more  dresses. Clothes were handed down from older to younger children.

Sewing and mending to keep ten children well-dressed was a Herculean task. Mary Ann sewed everything they wore, including underwear even for the boys, and it was always white. Her mother obtained proper fabric from an underwear factory in Ogden and sent it by train to Mary Ann to sew for her family. For the girls, petticoats were as important as dresses. 

Bloomers reaching to the knees were made from flour sacks, with a ruffle on the bottom, but no elastic. The bloomers were fastened with buttonholes onto buttons at the waist.

Of course the clothes were washed on a scrubbing board and wrung out by hand until Tom finally ordered through the catalog a hand-agitator washing machine with a roll-wringer. Clothes were swished clean by one of the girls pulling the agitator back and forth for fifteen minutes per batch, then feeding them through the hand wringer into two galvanized rinse tubs. After swishing in the rinse water, the clothes were fed through the wringer again into "bluing water" to keep whites white and colors bright. Then clothespins were used to hang articles on the clothesline for drying. Sometimes the drying took all day. Then the dry clothes were brought in, sprinkled with water (called dampening), folded and rolled and stuffed in a bushel basket for ironing the next day.

Mary Ann always made her own soap by saving grease from cooking. When pigs were butchered, the fat was melted and saved for cooking, then leftover fat was used for soap.

Everything was ironed with hand irons heated on the stove. With such a large family, ironing required two workers, one at the ironing board, the other ironed on a sheet on the kitchen table. All sheets and pillowcases were ironed. The heat for this lengthy job was unbearable in the summer. In the winter, instead of sheets, the family members slept in between flannel blankets. This saved on the ironing.

Of course with winter came Christmas. The family never had a Christmas tree. Each family member set out a box, probably a shoebox, and Santa filled it with candy and an orange. They didn't hang up socks.

Three times a week someone in the family picked up the mail and newspapers at Kelton where the items arrived on the train. Mary Ann didn't have much time to read the newspaper with her daily tasks so consuming. But she tried to keep up with the times.

Other Activities

Church was held on Sundays in the big room on one side of the building where Goodliffe's store operated. They climbed the stairs and enjoyed their meetings. During the week sometimes other meetings and events were conducted there, including dances.

People enjoyed being around Mary Ann because she was outgoing. Even as busy as she was, she found time to be a good neighbor and visitor. Quilting bees furnished socials for neighbors and relatives. Whenever a quilt was needed, customarily friends were invited to spend the day quilting.  A delicious noonday meal was served to quilters and their children who played under the quilt as their mothers plied the needles up and down.

Piecing quilt blocks was an artistic expression for Mary Ann. Then she sewed them together, into quilt tops. Friends helped with the quilting, as mentioned above. In her later years she pieced quilt tops for grandchildren. Some were a long time being made into quilts but all are enjoyed on the beds of her posterity.

For one 24th of July celebration, all of Mary Ann's seven daughters wore white dresses. They took a lunch to the park for enjoyment with people from surrounding towns. The James house was always full on celebration days. The children returned from the evening dance and never knew who might be overnight guests in their home.

Gladys remembers reading UNCLE TOM'S CABIN to her mother but the whole family also listened, including her father sitting at the end of the table, seemingly absorbed in reading his newspaper. But he heard every word.

Family Leaves Home

As members of the family reached marriage dates, they simply traveled to the Salt Lake Temple. No special socials or parties were held for any of them. 

During World War I in 1917 and 1918, young men 18 and older were drafted. Abe was one, but he didn't have to go overseas. Before being drafted he had purchased a Model T automobile, which he left at home, to the delight of his siblings. Young people didn't worry about a driving age or training in those days.

Everyone who had someone in the Army hung a red-and-white silk flag with a blue star in the middle in the window of their home. This notified everyone that someone from that house was serving in the military. Many flags had two stars, indicating that two men from that home were serving.

Soon after Abe was released from the service he was called on a mission in 1921. His car remained behind. Frank, at age 14, became his father's chauffeur. Abe's mission call to the Western States, with headquarters in Denver, was a point of pride to the whole family. After he returned, Frank also filled a mission in the Western States. In those days few women learned to drive.

Neither did Tom become expert, so Steve became his chauffeur, even at age 12. Because he was the only one still at home, he could not accept a mission call when he became old enough. (Many years later Steve and his wife Berneice served a mission in Australia.)

Grandchildren loved to visit at Grandma's and Grandpa's. Iona's three girls spent many a summer vacation on the farm because they could travel free on the train to Kelton. The stereoscope with its three-dimension pictures furnished enjoyable afternoon entertainment for them.

Back to Salt Lake-Again

Most of the family were married and gone by 1927 when Iona's husband died, leaving her with three little girls. It seemed advisable for Tom and Mary Ann to sell the ranch and move to Salt Lake City where Iona lived.

At the time of October Conference, in 1928, Tom and Mary Ann purchased a home at 2758 South 51

h East in Salt Lake City, Utah. Steve accompanied them. He was 16 and became the chauffeur even in the big city. However, work in that small yard was not sufficient to keep Tom happy. So they invested in a larger place at 4232 Highland Drive where Tom could raise fruit trees.  But he was not really happy in the city.

Next they purchased a ranch near Cambridge, Idaho. Irene had been living with them in the Highland Drive home and she remained there. It was a good thing they hadn't sold it, because they · · stayed in Idaho only a month when Tom contracted Mountain Fever and returned to Salt Lake City for medical advice. They soon sold the Idaho property at a loss and moved back to Highland Drive.

The family was widely scattered by this time and grandchildren were numerous. For short vacations some traveled to Salt Lake City to visit Tom and Mary Ann. Florence and Gladys lived in Oregon. Irene, Dora and Iona lived in Salt Lake City. Iona remarried and had a second family who also enjoyed having their grandparents nearby. The other James siblings lived in Idaho, rearing their growing families.

After marriage, Irene and her husband Melvin Newman moved into the Highland Drive house with Tom and Mary Ann, which reduced the work demand. "Busy hands make light work." Mary Ann's hands were never idle, but now her work was light. Quilts kept her busy. Other sewing diminished, however. Iona had become a professional dressmaker and made Mary Ann's clothes.

Embroidery work on pillowcases and table runners kept Mary Ann's hands busy, as well as lots of crocheting. Crocheted pieces for arm chairs were popular and time-consuming. Large doilies and centerpieces, especially in her favorite pineapple design, are still enjoyed by grandchildren in their homes. In 1932 Mary Ann made star quilt tops for each of her children.

After moving to Salt Lake City, unfortunately Mary Ann was not a faithful churchgoer, nor did they make many new friends. She continued to drink her cup of coffee with breakfast and Tom his green tea.

Mary Ann Loses Tom

In the late '30s Tom developed an asthmatic condition and was put on a strict diet. Three weeks later, on 18 August 1939, at age 74, he died in his sleep at home. 

Most of the family came from far and near for the funeral service in the Winder Ward Chapel on Highland Drive. Mary Ann had reached the age of72. Tom was buried in the James Family plot in the Salt Lake City Cemetery. Mary Ann wondered how long it would be before she would be buried beside him.

Mary Ann lived thirteen difficult years after Tom died. Her greatest fear was that she would become incapacitated. In order that she might have a degree of independence, yet necessary supervision, Dora and Willard moved her into a small house next door to them. Irene and Melvin purchased the James home on Highland Drive.

Her hands kept busy crocheting so that her grandchildren would know she had done something in her life. She made quilt tops for many of her older granddaughters.

The church was important to Mary Ann, but even more to all of her children. Because of Tom's total inactivity in the church, they had never been to the temple. Soon after Tom's death, she went to the temple for her own endowment, 4 October 1939. However, getting her family members together was difficult. Finally on 1 June 1942 she and seven of her children attended the Salt Lake Temple and they were sealed to her and Tom. Later, in the Idaho Falls Temple, Gladys was sealed to her parents 7 April 1949, and Florence and Frank were sealed 28 May 1951, only ten months before Mary Ann's death.

Living with Family Members

With the home on Highland Drive sold, Mary Ann moved into a little house next door to her daughter Dora, but she was not happy. So she moved to the homes of her children for weeks or months at a time. When she watched TV at their homes, she told her relatives how much she disliked it, but watched for hours. While living with her daughter Dora, on washday Mary Ann told her daughter she had no clothes to be washed. Then after Dora went to work, Mary Ann washed her own clothes by hand and hung them on the clothesline outside to dry.

"Old age" set in and the younger grandchildren did not develop the appreciation which her older grandchildren possessed. George Throckmorton reported that, as a young boy, he often "had to stay with Grandma" and the time spent with her was difficult. She was critical and repetitive.

Carol Muir remembers that Grandma crocheted a rug while staying with Iona and she still read the newspaper every day. By then, Grandma had false teeth that didn't fit well. In fact, as she sat reading the newspaper, they almost fell out of her mouth. But Carol recalls how much she loved Grandma.

When Mary Ann stayed at Iona's, both Marjorie and Dora were diligently studying music.  Mary Ann enjoyed only hymns and cowboy music. She wondered why Marjorie didn't play music as she sat so long at the piano keyboard. Mary Ann did not realize her granddaughter was studying difficult classical music. Why did Dora sing all those strange sounds? That wasn't music for Mary Ann. She didn't realize Dora was singing classics in various languages. Mary Ann wondered why the girls didn't use real music, such as "Home on the Range."

When other company stayed at Iona's home, Grandma Mary Ann slept with Marjorie.  Her loud snoring kept Marjorie awake much of the night. Such complaints could go on, judging from discussions with other grandchildren. 

However, Mary Ann was proud of her offspring and their faithfulness in the church. Two sons had filled missions, also four sons-in-law and one daughter-in-law. Later Steve and Berneice

filled a mission together in the East. Many of her grandchildren filled missions.

She was delighted when her first great-grandson Jean Addams was born the day after her 75^th birthday. By the time she died, Mary Ann had gained many great-grandchildren. At this writing, a multitude of her posterity reaches down to third-great-grandchildren. Mar lane Flack, born 24 March 1954, was Mary Ann's 1001h descendant.

On Mary Marinda Garner's 87th birthday, Iona hosted a big party at her home at 76 "R" Street in Salt Lake City. Many relatives attended and a picture of four generations was taken of Mary Marinda, Mary Ann, Iona and Virginia, Virginia being the eldest great-granddaughter. Soon thereafter Virginia gave birth to a son Jean Addams (mentioned above) who became Mary Marinda' s first great-great-grandchild. So Virginia placed his picture in the frame, making it five living generations, which was rare in those days.

Daughter Edith related a later accident that stopped Mary Ann's half-trot. In 1943, when she was 76 years old, Mary Ann was living at Edith's home in Idaho. At that particular time Granddaughter Eva was also staying with her parents and remembers the accident. 

One night Mary Ann went to the bathroom. Not wanting to disturb anyone by turning on the bathroom light, in the dark she misjudged where the seat was located, and fell beside the toilet. The doctor was summoned and an ambulance took her to the hospital with a broken hip. Hospital fees were not so exorbitant in those days and she remained there for eight long weeks. Never again was she able to walk straight.

As Mary Ann stayed in the different homes, she tried to train great-grandchildren. At one point Edith's daughter Amy was staying at her home and had her small son Paul. Her husband, Charles Brizzee, was in the service. At times Amy was forced to leave Paul in Mary Ann's care for very short spells. With her cane Mary Ann directed Paul's activities and kept him entertained with a football. The crook of her cane always pulled Paul away from questionable situations.

On 18 February 1952 Mary Ann left this life while living with Emma and Faye Wasden in Salem, Idaho. Her body was brought to Salt Lake City for her funeral held in the Parley's First Ward where Steve lived. The chapel was filled to capacity with her descendants. Other relatives were present, but only a few people in addition to the family.

She was buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery beside her husband in the James Family plot.  The view from that spot extends out over the growing Salt Lake City.