It has been 8 months since my last post! I don't know what happened except that life got very busy and I am now feeling the need to get back into this story and finish it for all of you. I apologize for my long leave of absence. I'll tell you about it sometime! I need to explain again that if you notice any difference in font size or spacing it is because I gave up typing and scanned Granny's story, I then copied and pasted the pages into Blogger. For some reason the different pages copied differently even though they were all typed on the same old typewriter by my mother.
As we pick up the story, Carl and Ida have been living in the Zuni Mts. of New Mexico where Grandpa had found work at a logging camp. It is obvious through her writing that the lifestyle was not the best for a family, but especially for their older girls. There was not a branch of the church anywhere near them and that was a big concern as well. They decided to return the the Farmington, New Mexico area where they had married and lived as newlyweds. Oldest daughter Blanche was married and living in St. Johns, Arizona. This left the family with 10 children still at home. The oldest being Fern (17), the youngest was Herman (1). The year is 1927.
Here are a few photos of the family in the early 1920's before the move to Farmington.
Up front are Priscilla and Fay all dressed up and pretty. Older sister Fern, ever the rascal is photo bombing before it was cool! That's little baby Shirley in her diaper (with one sock on?), and the little one pouting in the background is my mother Helen, so sad because the big sisters did not want her in the picture! Based on the landscape in the distance I think this is in Nutrioso, AZ.
This photo was taken in the Zuni Mts. in 1926, when the family lived at the logging camp. left to right- Ida, Priscilla, Fay, Herman, Orland, Helen, Sylvia, Margaret, and Carl.
Below-The journey from the logging camp in Zuni, to Farmington, New Mexico.
Ida's story continues...
We
decided to move to the San Juan Basin, as we could not go on
living so much of the time away from the church. Fern and Klea
were working so we did not take them to Farmington with us.
Carl, Orland, and Bill Whiting went on ahead of us so they could be there and have a home for us to live in when we came. We went in a truck
with a man Carl had hired to move us. When we arrived he had
rented a four-room house from a Mr. Carrier who lived near by.
They were an older couple who proved to be very dear, kind,
friends, though not members of our church. How
glad we were to be
there. A few days after arriving, I
went to an auction sale and
met Sister Camera Palmer and her son Paul, who proved to be the
Presiding Elder of the church there. He was a very young man in
his very early twenties. We were a branch of the Kirtland Ward.
Attending all meetings, except Sunday School and Relief Society, in
Kirtland. Sunday School was held in our home and the Wade's. One
year it was held in our home because we had a
large living room.
The first building we rented to hold meetings in was the old "Odd
Fellows Hall".
It was just down the
street, west of the old First
National Bank building.
This is the only photo I could find of the Odd Fellows Hall in Farmington. It's not very clear, but it looks like a neat old building.
By then we were a ward and
Paul
Palmer was bishop. There were only five or six families living
here at that time. The Palmers, Wades,
Chapmans, (the mother had
remarried and her name was Emery) Heads, and Jensens. Some were
active and some were not. Sadie Jensen was a great niece
of my
husband. Marietta Maxwell,·her grandmother, was
Carl's oldest
sister. I soon found her and spent many a pleasant hour visiting
and recalling girlhood days in Eagar and Nutrioso. She still
remained a good friend as long as she lived.
This
was a great fruit country. The year we moved there, there was
an apple orchard across the street from us which was loaded with
apples and many were falling on the ground. We gathered these and
dried them. Carl bought all he could pile in his wagon, in gunny
sacks, for around $2.00. That was one time the
children had all
the apples they could eat, and I dried a lot of them for pies.
In
order to obtain the news from the St. Johns Stake and Apache
County, I began writing articles or rather news items, for the
Observer in St. Johns and continued doing so until long after
moving to Mesa, Arizona. I still have many of those columns in
scrap books. The paper let us know of our old friends. Much of
the news was gladdening to our hearts, and much was sad, as it told
of the passing of so many of our dear friends and relatives.
Fern and Klea both came home for Christmas which made us very
happy. Our first grandchild was born to Blanche and
Nathan on
February 14, 1929, in St. Johns. They named him Milton Lee.
Here is Carl and Ida's first grandchild Milton in front of the white house by the river. Look at those cheeks! I love the old truck in the background and the little wooden scooter Milton is on. (He grew up to be an attorney in southern California.)
Carl rented a two story white home down in the south western part of town close to the Animas River. It provided more room for our large family than any place we had lived. The children enjoyed it. Many large trees grew around it which made it impossible to have a lawn but we did have many flowers.
This is the home my mother remembers best. She was 6 years old when they moved in.
Many happy days were spent playing in the shade of those big trees and down near the river.
There were several acres of farm land which we made good use of by
planting corn and grain for feed. We raised food gardens and I
canned and put up vegetables and fruit to help with our living. It
was hard to find work, though we managed to do so, and were able to
keep out of debt. Our neighbors to the north were Mr. and Mrs.
Lloyd Martin and daughter Jeanie, and Mr. and Mrs. Francisco and
children Jessie, Tony, Bob, Jack, Ben, Vern, and Betty Jean. They
had several already married, Ruth and a son they called "Tuck".
We all enjoyed these good
neighbors very much. It was a long walk
from there to church. It was in this house that Sunday School was
held for a year or more. How much of the religious uplift we had
missed while working in the mountains, away from the church and
this was a real treat for us. When our Branch was made into a
ward, Relief Society was held in the home of Camera Palmer. I worked in the Relief Society, which I enjoyed very much. I held the office of secretary, then a counselor to Camera Palmer. Later
I became president of the organization. I took pride in the work
of the Relief Society. New families began moving into the ward.
The Burhams, Thaynes, Whipples,
Goodmans, and many more. Our ward
commenced to
grow and grow. One day Bishop Palmer asked me to be
president of the Relief Society, which I gladly accepted.
After we got settled in this house, we were so far from the school that I took the children to school on the first day. I stopped at
the store on
the way home to get groceries and when I got home I found Orland and Margaret hiding in the
clothes closet. They had beat me back home. I gave them such a talking to that I never
had any more trouble with their going to school. I
could sympathize with them though, for they were in a larger school
and among strangers. It did not take them long to make friends and enjoy school.
Our family had begun to diminish. Klea had
married Gwyn Furman. Her marriage didn't work out. She lost a baby boy at birth. He was born in our home. Blanche had given birth to Davena prior to this. Klea married Lloyd Sherman Wilson and had a little girl Betty Jean. Fern married Casper Kemp and had a little girl named Ida Joan (pronounced and called Jo-Ann). April 9, 1932, Fay married Murray T.
Belshe. Klea gave birth to Patricia, Fern to Doral Dean (Dody), and Fay to Walter Carl, all in the summer of 1933. Fern's marriage didn't work out and she went to Grants, New Mexico, to work. Klea went to San Carlos in Arizona where Mr. Wilson was employed with the Government.
Carl was working down at St. Joseph,
Arizona, on the road. He came home for the 4th of July. He had been gone for ten months, but regardless of his absence I had planted a large garden and kept things going at home. About the last of the month he wrote and said he was sick. I wrote back and told him to come on home. I was sure he had typhoid fever. Blanche and Nathan were in the same camp that Carl was in. After they went home to St. Johns, because Milton was sick, Blanche became ill with typhoid and Aunt Lillian took her home to care for her but when she discovered she had typhoid they took her back home. It was then they knew
that Milton had the fever too. I went over to care for her and as soon as she was well, I went back home. Carl started home before he got my letter. He got one of the boys working there to bring him to Holbrook and put him on the train. He rode it as far as Gallup. He got off in Gallup and went to the fork in the road that went to Shiprock. Finally two men came by with a truck load of bailed hay. They were going to Cortez, Colorado, and said they would take him as far as Shiprock. One would have thought that the man in the front seat would have ridden on the hay and let Carl ride inside, but no, so he climbed on top of the hay and stayed there. He lost his hat, so rode most of the way without one in the heat of August. Of course he wanted to get home at any cost. When they got to Shiprock, instead of turning to Cortez they turned toward Farmington and went thirty miles, really sixty, out of their way and brought him to Farmington. They wanted to bring him all the way home, but Carl wouldn't let them. He had them let him off at Claude Averett's. Claude then came down home with him. What a great act of charity that was, for these two strangers [to give Carl a ride all the way to Farmington], and gave me more faith in mankind. When Carl arrived home, he was burning with fever. I put him right to bed. I wanted him to let me send for the doctor, but he just scoffed at the idea. I put up a cot in the same room that he was in. His bed was put in the dining room as all bedrooms were upstairs. I sent for the Elders. They came and administered to him but he was no better in the morning. So he said, "I guess you had better send for the doctor." Which I did. When he came, he told us that he was in the second week of typhoid fever, and recommended that all the children be inoculated. Luckily I had been inoculated when I went to stay with Blanche. Murray and Fay were with us at the time, so they were inoculated along with the children. Not long after this, they moved to Glendale, Arizona, because they couldn't find work. (Fay says," It was the hardest thing I ever did, leaving poor Mama, with Papa so sick, and so much to do. Murray got in plenty of wood before we left.")
So, I settled down to caring for a very sick husband,keeping a family of seven in school taking care of my garden, canning f r u i t and making jam and jelly. The doctor told me to bury all refuse and bathe Carl every day, I did all the washing on the scrub board Orland was so good to help me. He went
to Bishop Palmer's and
helped to
milk the cows and he brought a large bucket of milk home
each day. The fever
ran for six weeks instead of the usual three.
But God was with me, and gave me the strength to do my work. I
have always depended on the Lord when in need of help
and He has never failed me. After about five
and one-half weeks, Carl was
able to sit up and feed himself.
Josephine Averett
brought me a bucket
of elderberries.
I
had made beautiful
jam and jelly out of them. One day, while
I was picking them over to make jelly, Carl
said, "Don't
bother with them,they won't be fit to eat."
Of course, I
paid no attention to him. After the jelly
was made, I put some on his plate
one morning, he tasted it,
and after that if he saw any of the children eating any, he would start
crying and saying, "Don't let them eat my jelly." (This is how Typhoid effects a person. Makes
them nervous, and also he was
still a little "out
of it.") The
doctor came every day to see him and
finally one day he said, "He is going to be alright. He has had a wonderful nurse." It was much longer after this before he was up and around. He was never the same again. He was always very nervous. I had taken care of him without any help, only the doctor, and he gave me a lot of encouragement. Mrs. Francisco would come every day and talk to me through the window, but she was the only one. I can't blame them, they were all scared of the fever. (In those days, families were put under quarantine with any communicable disease. The health department would post
notice on the house.)
"Typhoid fever is a bacterial infection that can spread throughout the body, affecting many organs. Without prompt treatment, it can cause serious complications and can be fatal. It is caused by a bacterium called Salmonella typhi, which is related to the bacteria that cause salmonella food poisoning."
That winter it
started freezing in November, and our road from the house to the gate was solid ice. Orland started with chills and fever and it wasn't long until most of the family had it, including Carl. He was really sick because he was so weak from having
Typhoid Fever. One day Orissa Thayne came by and told me to give him quinine. It helped all except Helen and she was sick most of the summer. Shirley went to
Sunday School and stopped at one of the neighbors houses on the way home and when they found she was
chilling, they sent her home. We had moved back into town in the house we had lived in when we first moved to Farmington. Fern and the two girls had been living with us and she was working and we didn't like her walking back and forth alone, [it being] so far. I was
caring for Joan and Dody. Carl had obtained a job and was to go to work the next morning, when he started chilling. Someone had to work, so I got a job working in a laundry run by Violet Patterson. Later, we purchased some land and built our own home, just down the
street and west.
While we were still living in the other house, that winter the rain and snow came thick and fast and it was not long until the road was frozen from the house to' the
gate and not only there but on up through the lane to the old Catholic Church. (This old abandoned church sat on the south west corner of what is now Lorena and Pinon Streets.) Carl hauled enough wood and bought some coal to keep us warm. We would enjoy each other and sing songs, and talk of the day when Orland would be called to fill a mission for the Church.
One thing I have learned in going over this story so thoroughly is that her life was never easy. Her husband was gone so often to find work. I really, really want him to settle down and farm, or open a business, or something; but their home in the White Mountains of Arizona was not conducive to good farming with a short growing season. The area they lived in was not highly populated so a store or some other business would not do well. He was a tradesman and went where the work was. Ida was very good at being on her own and in charge. (Not that she had to like it!) Then, when illness hit, it hit hard! This typhoid story just makes me cry! Grandpa was so very ill. Then the "fever and chills" started. All of those children were sick at the same time as their father, and he was so very ill from the typhoid that he caught that too. (My Mom was the sickest of the children, something I had never noticed in other times I had read this.) Ida's dear friend, Mrs. Francisco, was so kind as to stop by daily and talk through the kitchen window. I imagine Ida got quite lonely and overwhelmed. What was this illness? It sounds like malaria, but I have no idea.
I'll share with you some photos of happy times in the white house, Victorian in style, though not fancy, it holds many dear memories for this family.
Handsome Carl Hamblin!
Carl and his two sons, Orland and Herman. Look at that silly face on Herman!
In back is Ida (barely visible), middle row- Margaret, Orland, Carl, Sylvia, Helen. (Mom's wrinkled up nose reminds me of...me!) Up front-Shirley, grandson Milton on Carl's lap, & Herman.
These two are in front of the house and are both of Herman and a cousin. Herman is on the left above, and on the right below. Don't these boys look like "The Little Rascals"?
This is a rare action shot for those days.
Shirley is running up to Herman and Old Tramp, the family dog.
Lastly, my granparents, Ida Lee and Don Carlos Hamblin. They were hard-working and so faithful!
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Next time I post it will be the last bit that Granny Hamblin wrote of her story. I thought I was going to include it all in this one post, but it was longer than I liked. See you soon!
