HV vs HG - One of my favorites

I always loved hearing the following story from my dad about a disagreement he had with his dad. As I recall, it happened while they were living in Oakley and had a Jeep on the ranch which was losing power and oil. Dad claimed he knew the problem was a blown head gasket and grandpa said he couldn't know that. Grandpa also told dad that he was going to town (Kamas or Salt Lake City) for the day and not to touch that Jeep. Of course dad waited until his dad was out of site before he drove that Jeep up to the high pasture and dismantled the engine onto a large canvas tarp on the ground. Later that afternoon as dad was pounding out a new gasket from some scrap leather (cardboard milk cartons weren't as easy to get in those days, I guess), up rides his father on a horse and looks down at him disgusted-like and says, "Get this Jeep back together and back home by dinner." Grandpa immediately rode off leaving dad to finish which he did, and drove the Jeep back home in time for dinner. With a story like that, it's truly amazing I, or any of us, wasn't more rebellious.

Mothers Beware

An interesting thing happens when parents go off and leave the oldest child in charge. [I understand people go for a spin in the dryer, etc.] A quick memory that has never left me is one time when mom went somewhere and left Mike in charge. I don't recall if we were having lunch, or we just got thirsty, but I do know we all got chocolate milk - and Mike gave us all (especially the "little kids") strict instructions that we were not to tell mom that we had chocolate milk. So as soon as mom walks in the door, Wes shouts out, "Guess what mom? We didn't have any chocolate milk!"

Sugar Lettuce

I must say that I have a lot of books - A LOT OF BOOKS. More than I can read in fact. But one of my very favorites is the one compiled by Victor. I really enjoy the insights I have gained from reading about some of our closest distant relatives. One of my greatest finds was the historical context of lettuce with sugar on it. I remember eating this when I was young, and I always really loved it - and still do. Here is the excerpt from Victor's book:
"Five of “Grandpa” and “Grandma’s” children, Merrill, Lafe, Alvin, Harvey and Clint, made homes in Hurricane. Hilda in Toquerville; Nora lived in Paragonah, and Vern in Wyoming for a number of years. All eight had married in the Temple and were generally taking active roles in church and community activities. The Alf Hall home, across from Harvey’s at Second South and Second West was the scene of a more-or-less ongoing family reunion. By 1930 there were over twenty-five grandchildren in the immediate area. To a child of Harvey’s who grew up just across the street, it seemed quite normal to be in the midst of twenty to thirty close relatives. Arbon, born in 1917, frequently did chores for them. Grandpa was not demonstrative, but he did let Arbon know he was pleased with his work. Grandma pampered Arbon. She would prepare little treats for him and when he would sleep over on cold winter nights, she would heat bricks so the bed would be nice and comfy. It was no stretch for Grandma to be fond of young Arbon; so was everybody else. The writer, living just across the street, would be sent on frequent errands to his grandparents. By doing so he developed a taste for one of their favorite treats: lettuce with sugar on it. You take some lettuce leaves in the hand, sprinkle, or preferably pour, sugar on and the treat is ready. One such time Grandma had sprinkled the sugar on and Grandpa said, “Oh, put some more sugar on. They get danged little at home.” It was a true statement. Because of life-long industry and thrift, they remained financially independent in their old age. Their children, on the other hand, who were launching their own families just as the Great Depression settled in, were facing dire economic circumstances and could barely afford basic necessities. Emerson encountered a cousin one forenoon hurrying towards their grandparent’s home. She said, 'We’re going to Grandma’s to eat; and we’re going to have butter!'"

The Canterbury Times

I have lots of great memories from my trip across the pond, not the least of which was visiting the Canterbury Cathedral. That's not a photo of it I posted here, however. This is the famous dunking (or ducking) stool in Canterbury - and I think everyone who went on this trip with G&G Hall saw this particular sight. The other thing that made this particular portion of the trip so enjoyable is that this is when Vern introduced me to the just about the best food item in the whole of Great Briton. Ice-cold milk dispensed from a machine in little cartons - 2p each. Actually, now that I think about it the price may have been 4p. Whatever.

Nevertheless, WOW! I also think it was the first time I realized how much I have in common with Vern. Over the years I have come to believe that he and I may be more alike than any other ancestor familiar to me. I'm certainly much more like him that I am my own father. I don't know that there's anything wrong with that. I enjoyed being around my Dad more than almost anyone else I know. And quite frankly, if Vern and I had grown up together it's possible neither one of us would have amounted to any good at all.

But here's a case in point. Vern and I are in Folkstone (on the coast in Kent). Having wrapped up the day's work he says to me: "Hey, want to go see France?" "Sure!" say I, thinking this is the opportunity of a lifetime. So he takes me down a few blocks to the coast highway, points across the channel and say: "Look. There's France."

I might have been mad - except I couldn't stop laughing. What a guy. What a trip.

Things Were Different Then

Having found that I was in possession of my father's missionary journal, I started reading it. They certainly used to do things differently. It is too long to quote, but let me summarize a few entries from the beginning.

Fri. Sept.10, 1948
This was the day they had his farewell "down at the ward", I assume the old Oakley meeting house. Two brothers in the ward spoke of their missionary experiences, "Uncle John" (McAllister?) sang, and some local girls tap-danced. "Grandpa" (hmmm, I think his grandfather Alfred Lorenzo Hall was still alive at this time) and "Pres. Richards" (he's not yet his father-in-law, so let's keep it formal) said the prayers. They collected $150.00 toward his missionary labors.

Sat. Sept. 11, 1948
He put a second coat of paint on the DeSoto that he'd applied the first coat to the day before. He and Raona "hiked to the top of Pinyon Canyon, then down Swift's canyon", locating a spring "worthy of supporting range cattle."

Sun. Sept. 12, 1948
The rest of the family went to a Mutual Conference in Park City. He stayed home and went to Sunday School, took a nap, took some pictures of the Richards family, and he and Raona went to Kamas, twice, once in the "Kiazer" and once in the DeSoto. The evening was spent at a fireside.

Mon. Sept. 13, 1948
Eleanor took Howard and Raona to Salt Lake City, where she started working in the "Bishop Office Building" and he registered at the mission home. He was assigned to room 316 in the Carleton Hotel and attended missionary classes all day. In the evening he visited Raona, who was staying at her Aunt Nell's, and then went back to the hotel to memorize the books of the Old Testament.

Tuesday through Saturday he spent a couple days mostly in the temple and attended various missionary classes which seem not to have occupied a great deal of time. He had lunch with Raona a couple of days and rode home with her on the bus when she got off work on some other days. He had dinner at a variety of relative's homes. He also registered with the Selective Service. He and Raona went to a show Saturday evening before returning to Oakley on the bus together, having dinner at the Richards' and then going to a dance in the evening in Heber. He notes that the dance hall had a "spring floor" and the Russell Buys orchestra provided the music.

Sun. Sept. 19, 1948
He spent the day attending meetings, eating at the Richards', and packing.

Mon. Sept. 20, 1948
Raona, Reva, Utahna, Nina, and Howard rode the bus back into SLC. He bought his rail tickets and attended classes. Lunch with Raona. Charles stayed at the hotel with him overnight (Charles was likely in town because he was exhibiting a ram and some other things at the State Fair and needed a place to stay).

Tues. Sept. 21, 1948
Today he went to the church office building and was set apart (see, you thought all this time he was maybe stretching the rules...) by Henry D. Moyle. He was impressed with the blessing he was given. He, Raona, Charlie and Reva went to see the show "Luxury Liner" (OK, maybe now he's stretching the rules) and Charles stayed over at the hotel again.

Wed.Sept.22, 1948
"Today was my last day in Salt Lake so Raona arranged to get the day off to spend part of it with me." They had a testimony meeting in the morning. Vern and Eleanor came down to see him off, but had to leave again before the train departed to get back and milk. Charlie and Raona saw him off at 5:20 PM and by nightfall he was passing through Evanston. He would arrive in Roanoke, Virginia three days later on the evening of September 25th.

Just to be consistent: Andrew Hall > Michael Hall > Howard Hall (and Raona)

Massachusetts Roots

Our Richards and Lewis (Hall–>McAllister->Young->Lewis) lines both come out of Massachusetts, in fact within a fairly small area around Boston. Cambridge, Framingham, Hopkinton, Salem, and slightly further afield in Richmond, Barnstable, and Gorham, over the border into Maine. Chris may be familiar with some of these towns. Both families were primarily farmers, the men served in the Revolutionary War as soldiers, and both before and after the war, were community leaders.

Between 1836 and 1844, only about 170 years ago, the restored gospel found both the Richards and the Lewis families. It seems hard to imagine that both families had been in Massachusetts already for about 200 years at that time. The first ancestors, Edward Richards and George Lewis, arrived in America early in the 1600s, the Richards coming from Portsmouth in Devonshire and the Lewises from Kent, England. Undoubtedly, given their Massachusetts destination, these first immigrants left England in part because of their religious beliefs. We know that the Richards family were firm members of the Congregational Church, which some consider a direct theological descendant of John Wycliffe and the Lollard movement that began in the 1300s. That being the case, it is likely the family had fallen out with the Roman Church several hundred years prior to leaving their homeland and later also shunned Henry the VIII’s self-interested coupe of the church in England. So with this background they were in the right place, right time and right frame of mind to accept the message of the restored gospel.

The history of the church and Doctrine and Covenants 111 indicate significant missionary activity in Salem, Massachusetts and around Boston in 1836. Two of these missionaries were Brigham Young and his brother Joseph. They were first cousins to Phineas Richards, whose mother was an older sister to their mother, and they introduced the family to the Book of Mormon and the restoration. At that time Phineas was 48 years old. Two of Phineas’ older sisters, Rhoda and Susanna, and his two younger brothers, Levi and Willard, joined the church. All of Phineas children also joined. The three Richards brothers spent some time in Kirtland in 1836 and 1837. Phineas’ two sons, Franklin D. and George Spencer went to Missouri after they were baptized. George Spencer Richards was killed at Haun’s Mill.

Phineas’ father, Joseph Richards, his mother, Rhoda Howe, and the older brothers did not join the church, but did give lodging and assistance to missionaries as they passed through the area.

Phineas and his wife, Wealthy Dewey, moved the family to Nauvoo while the Saints were building the temple and were sealed there. They left for Winter Quarters in May of 1846 and after more than a year there, they traveled on to Utah in 1848 in a company led by his younger brother Willard. Phineas and Wealthy lost another son during this period, Joseph William, a member of the Mormon Battalion.

Chris Hall – Peter Hall – Raona Richards Hall – Ralph Ashton Richards – Albert Damon Richards – Franklin D. Richards – Phineas Richards (and Wealthy Dewey)

Although James Lewis was born in Gorham, now in Maine, in 1814 that territory belonged to Massachusetts. His father and grandfather were some of the original inhabitants of Gorham and his father was a Methodist preacher of some prominence in the area.

After leaving home at 20 and going to sea, James tired of that life and by 1840 found himself in St. Louis where he became, in his words, “… acquainted with the persecutions of the Latter-day Saints in Missouri…”

“… sympathizing with them and … hearing the doctrine taught by them, being the same as taught by Jesus Christ and his apostles …” he “… sought diligently to know the truth …” and “... was baptized at Keokuk, Iowa by Elder Hollister and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and ordained an elder at the same time by Brother Abraham O.Smoot.”

James Lewis then traveled to Nauvoo where he “ … became acquainted with the Prophet Joseph Smith and the leading men of the church.” He was called from there to preach the gospel in the Eastern states in 1843 and he was there when the news of the martyrdom reached him. Although we don’t know for sure, he may have met Emily Jennison Holman of Cambridge, Massachusetts, during this time. We do know she was baptized in 1844, but not by him.

After returning to St. Louis, he was ordained a Seventy and served with a not-fully-identified Brother McAllister in the presidency of the 29th Quorum of Seventy. Lewis and McAllister descendants would cross paths again in Kanab, Utah and end up married to each other.

James Lewis was married to Emily Holman, fifteen years his junior, by Jedediah M. Grant in May of 1847 and they traveled to Utah in 1849 in the company of a “Brother Richards”.

Chris Hall – Peter Hall – Howard Hall – Luetta and Eleanor McAllister Hall – Ida Young McAllister – Ida Francel Lewis Young – James Lewis (and Emily Jennison Holman)

Sorry for the Interruption

I intend to keep the "business" at a virtual null point on this site and handle announcements and such via other means so that the stories posted here are all family stories.
However, I have received a couple of encouraging comments about this site. This has reminded me to let you know that everyone who I have invited I have also given permission to post to this blog. I haven't invited everyone yet as I am still researching some email addresses. If you know of someone who is left out, let me know and I will fix that. The site viewing is currently restricted to only those I have invited as blog authors.
My intent is to share the stories of the ancestors of the generation who are sons and daughters of the eight Howard and Raona Hall children. Therefore we might also expect to see stories of Ottleys, Johnsons, Mumfords, Empys, and others here. This means that when posting please add a note on how the person whose story you are telling is related to one of the generation I have mentioned.
Now, in the immortal words of someone we all know, "Have at it!"

Emily Jennison Holman Lewis

Emily Holman was born March 20, 1832 in Cambridge, MA to Nathaniel Holman and Elizabeth Downs. Her mother joined the church in 1836 or 1837, about the time Brigham Young, Joseph Young, and Lyman Johnson were on a mission in the Boston area. Her father, Nathaniel, was very set against Emily's mother becoming a Mormon, and left her, dying in New Orleans. Emily lived with her mother, a widowed aunt, and a maiden aunt until she and her mother left for Missouri to join the Saints.

Emily was very small and had the nick name of “Tot” as she was growing up. However she was said to have had a tremendous voice and as an infant she would sing songs her father taught her and even sight-read music from a score.

Emily was baptized in December of 1844, at the age of 12 by Elder Nathan Felt, the President of the Salem, MA branch. A hole was chopped in the ice large enough for the baptism and she always remembered how cold the water was.

Emily married James Lewis in St. Louis in 1847 and arrived in Salt Lake City in November of 1849, one month after the birth of her second child. They were not to rest long as they accepted the call to settle in southern Utah in 1850, moving to Parowan. The main diet at that time for the young family was boiled corn and pigweed greens with Emily expecting their third child. Their faithful prayers were answered one night long after they had retired to bed when a knock came at the door.
“Who’s there?”, asked James Lewis.
“I and a sack of flour.”, came the reply.
When the door was opened, the flour was there, but no one ever found out who it was that delivered it.

When Emily died in 1911, she had lived in Massachusetts, Missouri, Utah, (what would become Nevada), and Arizona, having lived through most of the early years of the restoration and having participated whole-heartedly in the Saint’s colonization of southern Utah and Arizona.

Emily Hall - Richards Hall - Howard Hall - Luetta and Eleanor McAllister Hall - Ida Young McAllister - Ida Francel Lewis Young - Emily Jennison Holaman Lewis (& James Lewis)

Emily Treharne Ashton Richards

To help you place her, Em, as Emily Treharne Ashton Richards was often called during her life time, was the mother of Ralph Ashton Richards, who was the father of Raona Richards Hall, the mother of Richards Hall, who is the father of our current Emily. That’s 4 generations back, but Em was still with us a mere 12 years before Richards was born, so that isn’t so far off. Em was born in Salt Lake City and lived there and in Oakley, Utah for all of her 79 years. The text here was obtained from the CD accompanying the Edward Ashton and Jane Treharne Ashton book published by the Ashton family organization in 2005.

“I was born February 14, 1864, on 6th West midway between 1st and 2nd South in the 15th Ward in Salt Lake City. The first school I went to was Sister Baker's school, on 7th West. It was held at her mother's home, Sister Wright. My parents were strict Latter Day Saints, and taught us the gospel in all their lives. It seemed to me that a testimony came with me when I was born for I have felt that spirit burning within my heart all my life, and with the years it has grown stronger than before.”

[speaking of her mother] “I remember how kind she was to the Indians. In those days they used to beg for something to eat. … When they come they would sit down on the floor and take their sack off their backs to rest. They had a little Papoose on their back and they would take it down to rest. Mother would always give them flour and sugar and sometimes they would ask for tea or coffee. She would always give them a slice of bread and Molasses. The squaw would lick the Molasses off and put the bread in the sack for the husband.”

“I remember one old squaw. She came every year. She had a large goiter on her neck. Once she hadn't been there for a while and when she came Mother wasn't there, she had died a little while before. She asked where she was and when we told her she was dead she felt very bad. She kept saying "Wino Squaw" meaning good woman. And she never came again.”

Her brother Ed kept a hired girl while his children were young due partly on his wife Effie's poor health. Em worked for them for a couple of years. On one occasion while working for Effie, she heard a knock at the door and upon opening it, she was confronted by two large buck Indians. They asked for sugar and flour. She told them to sit down on the doorstep. She closed the door behind her and locked it, and taking the key with her she sped to her own home to find Ed. He took the key and came back with her. Through the back door and out the front he sallied and sat down quite unconcerned to chat with the Indians. Em trembling like a leaf, went for flour and sugar, but her dislike of them kept a wide bridge between her and the red men.

She says she worked extremely hard to keep things going right. Rough board floors to scrub and other crude furniture made hard work necessary, but the floors were scrubbed until they shone, and the children and the eats did not suffer for lack of care. Girls in those days received little pay for their work. The most she ever received for the housework was $1.50 a week.

Emily was born in the final year of the Civil War and died two years before the end of World War II. During her life, she saw the advent of the telephone, the airplane, and the automobile.

Emily Hall - Richards Hall - Raona Richards Hall - Ralph Richards - Emily Treharne Ashton Richards (& Albert D. Richards)

Making a Start

I suppose we could start anywhere, with anyone. And it occurs to me that imposing too much order on a blog isn’t in keeping with the spontaneous nature of the beast. Still, I had an idea come to me that I am going to use as a springboard to get this going.

We have in our family an Emily (aka MLE), who for the unacquainted is the youngest of Richards’ and Joann’s children, currently attending one of the BYU campuses. I don’t know what R&J had in mind when they named her Emily, there is the entire Ottley ancestry that I know nothing about, but on the Hall/Richards side there are two prominent ladies named Emily. So I will begin by posting some stories from the lives of Emily Treharne Ashton Richards (a great-great grandmother of Emily Hall) and Emily Jennison Holman Lewis (one of Emily Hall’s 4th great grandmothers).