Mother's Day Tribute to Grandma Ruby Andrew

I love this picture of my Grandma Andrew reading to her children. To me it typifies the wonderful kind of mother that Grandma Andrew was. I admire how Grandma would take time out of her busy life to read to her children. I love how attentive the young children are and even Diana is deep in thought, pondering on her mother's words!

As I see the picture of my Mom in her wedding dress on the table, it reminds me of what I read in Grandpa Andrew's journal. When my Dad was released from his mission, the Andrew family traveled to Los Angeles to pick him up, even "Sherm the Worm" and "Doug the Bug" as my Grandpa Edwards would call them. Ray had arranged to give an engagement ring to LaDeane the minute he was released from his mission. LaDeane was the first to get married and the wedding date was set 6 weeks away. After the ring was presented, they travelled down to Mexico to see the sites. Grandma Andrew worried for the rest of the trip how to get everything ready for the wedding! Oh the things mothers go through for us!

Mother's Day Tribute to Grandma Addie May Edwards

In our family growing up as young kids, we would always run to stand next to Grandma Edwards and measure ourselves up to her to see if we had reached her height. Once we had, it was a day of celebration and a symbol of achieving greatness and maturity.

Did any of you cousins do that in your families? 

She was such an amazing example of someone that we can still look up to and attempt to try to "measure ourselves" up to the kind of person that she was.

My Dad once said this about his mother
"Mom was small in stature, but as a mother, she was a giant. Whatever life offered her each day, she adjusted to it quietly, no pretense ever. At the age of five, I was stricken with polio. I remember the long hours and days and months Mother cared for me. She would boil hot Kenny-packs and pin them on me around the clock. Mine was a miraculous healing. Through the efforts of my Mom, my family's faith, and prayers and blessings from my Father in Heaven, I was healed.

George Alexander Reid

George Alexander Reid was my Great-Grandma Barlow's father. He was born in Salt Lake City in 1862, just a short 15 years after the pioneers arrived in the valley. He grew up in a beautiful home at the corner of 3rd West and North Temple, where BYU Salt Lake and KSL TV are located today. I work only one block west of there and as I walk past that corner daily, I think about the Reids living there in the late 1800's - what life was like for them as Salt Lake was growing around them and where the Salt Lake Temple was being constructed only a couple of blocks away. He grew up knowing Brigham Young for the first 15 years of his life. 

Young George was probably fascinated with trains as he lived only two blocks down from the train station. His father did some carpentry work for the railroad. When George was only seven years old, the trains tracks from the eastern United States met the tracks from the West Coast just north of the Great Salt Lake to form the first transcontinental railroad. George studied and learned all about the railroad and became a train engineer for the Union Pacific Railroad Company.

George met a young lady named Eliza Jane Garrick, whose family benefited from the transcontinental railroad as they arrived by train in Salt Lake City from New York City when she was 15 years old. The Garricks built a house just up the street from the Reids and only a few short years later, George fell in love with the young lady with the east coast accent. More about her next week!

George Alexander Reid and Eliza Jane Garrick

This week I was telling my Mom how much fun I am having being a grandpa and some of the things that I enjoy doing with my grandkids. She then told me how much she enjoyed when her Great-Grandpa Reid would tell her stories and nursery rhymes and then teasingly mix up or alter the ending causing her to giggle and correct him. That is one of my favorite things to do as well!

I loved hearing Mom tell me that about Great-Grandpa Reid. I had never realized before that she knew her Great-Grandpa and Grandma Reid. They are Grandma Barlow's Mom and Dad. Grandpa Reid died in 1947 when my mom was eight years old and Grandma Reid died in 1954. They were both born in the 1860's in Salt Lake City, just a little more than 12 years after the first pioneers came into Utah! It just amazes me that my Mom knew someone that knew Brigham Young! 

I don't know much about Grandpa and Grandma George and Eliza Reid, but fortunately Grandma Barlow wrote a few pages about her parents before she died. Aunt Glenda sent me these writings recently and I will be sharing a little about them in coming weeks.

James and Marie Davidson

Peter Reid and Diana Davidson are my Great-Grandma Barlow's grandparents. Diana's parents, James and Marie Davidson, were expert weavers in Scotland. A little more than ten years after Diana came to America, the Davidsons decided to come across the ocean and settle with the Saints in the Salt Lake Valley. With their expert weaving skills, they quickly found work at the woolen mills at the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon. Unfortunately, tragedy struck the Davidson family only a couple of years later.

James and Marie Davidson and their twelve year-old son, Joseph, left Salt Lake and went down to the southwest area of the Territory (currently Nevada) to visit their married daughter, Maggie, and possibly settle there themselves. After the visit, they mounted their horse-driven wagon and started back on the 60 mile trail to St. George. Along the way, their wagon wheel broke and they were quickly getting short on water in the deadly June heat. Possibly knowing they would all not make it with the little water they had left, James and Diana sent their 12 year-old son on horseback with the canteen to fetch some water at the well-known watering well along the trail which was several miles away.

During the night on June 12, 1969, three men were at the watering well when a famished horse came straggling into the camp. One of them back-tracked the horse's trail and found the young boy's body only a scant ½ mile away from the well, so swollen and distorted from the heat that recognition was impossible. The empty canteen by his side bore eloquent testimony as to the cause of his death. Four days later, fearing what they would find, they found the bodies of the boy's parents, lying side by side under a blanket propped up against a desert palm for shade against the deadly summer heat.

This tragic story of Grandma Barlow's great-grandparents was written in the 1915 church magazine, "The Improvement Era". It is also recorded in the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers Lessons. All three were buried there in the Nevada desert, and there is now a marble and rock gravesite set up for them there. There is a lot more to this story. You can read about it from these sources:

https://books.google.com/books?id=H3AwAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA513&lpg=PA513&dq=James+Davidson+Nevada+desert&source=bl&ots=MgFVfIHJtq&sig=XEiFORvOVso9Ypg2ejEcanFZTC4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=uF6pVIDLFoiuyQStmYCYAw&ved=0CD4Q6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=James%20Davidson%20Nevada%20desert&f=false

https://dcms.lds.org/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE3197126

http://www.utahsdixie.info/hs/y02-davidson.html

Grandpa Barlow's Brilliantly Colored House

My Grandpa Barlow's house was featured in the 1938 Salt Lake Tribune describing it as "the most colorfully brilliant thing visible for blocks around there". I love this article's description of the brilliant colors of their yard.  I remember vividly the arch entry way into their backyard on the right side of the house. It was magical. It seems many of my ancestors had talents in horticulture and landscaping. Why couldn't I have gotten some of those genes?

Welcome to the family, little Leonard! Only 106 years late:)

Today, I was honored and blessed to add little Leonard Wolstenholme to our family tree on FamilySearch.org. Who is Leonard? He is my Grandma Barlow’s nephew. His mother, Mabel, is Grandma Barlow’s eldest sister. Unfortunately, Mabel died as a young 21 year-old the day she gave birth to Leonard in November 1908. Little Leonard tried holding on, but he also passed away after only 5 weeks of life. So why wasn’t he ever recorded on our family tree? I am not sure why, but fortunately it only took a few hours of research to find the defining link between mother and child.

As I was viewing the Reid’s family tree last night, I noticed a warning that Mabel may have a duplicate record on FamilySearch, as show here:

Wanting to help keep our Family Tree up-to-date, I wanted to research to determine if the duplicate records were actually the same person that existed on our family tree.

This is my family tree before adding little Leonard. Mabel and her husband, William Wolstenholme, are shown having only one child - William Arvel Wolstenholme, born in 1906.

Reid Family Tree

This picture shows the duplicate record. It shows a Mabel Helen Reid on FamilySearch being married to a William Wolstenholme, but their only child’s name is Leonard Lee Wolstenholme living in 1908. There is no record of their other child, William Arvel.

Duplicate record of Mabel Helen Reid

Could this be the same Mabel as the one in my family tree? This record didn’t have any birth dates or death dates for Mabel or William, but little Leonard definitely seemed to fit the same time period as his parents. Looking closer, I noticed that Leonard’s birth date matched exactly to the day that Mabel died as shown on my family tree. Could that be the reason that Mabel died? Did she die giving birth to Leonard? It seems likely since she was only 21 years old when she died, but why wasn’t there any information about a baby? Neither was there was any documentation anywhere on our family tree that showed the cause of death. Further research was needed.

I jumped to Ancestry.com and viewed other people’s Reid family trees. Not one of them had little Leonard on them. I then wanted to find the cause of Mabel’s death. I searched for her death certificate, but couldn’t find it at first. I had to eventually search through all the death certificates for people who died in Utah in November 2008 and finally found it. The name on the death certificate was “Wilstonhome” instead of Wolstenholme, thus explaining why the simple search didn’t find it. The cause of death was difficult to read, and didn’t really provide any information to me that her death could have been caused due to complications with delivering a baby as shown here:

Mabel's Death Certificate

The next step was to run searches on Ancestry’s 13 billion records to find anything about Leonard. From experience, I have learned that you have to sometimes be creative when searching for records. 

You have to vary the criteria to allow for misspellings and inconsistencies. After a few searches, I was finally able to find two key documents. The first was a tombstone for “Lenard Lee Wolstenholme”. Even though the spelling of the name was different, the date and place matched up. It didn't show who his parents were though:

The second document, however, provided the golden answers to what I was searching for. This death certificate shows that Mabel and William Wolstenholme did have a child in Pleasant Green, Utah in November 2008 and that his name was Leonard Lee Wolstenholme! His death was also correctly shown in December of that same year.

Leonard's Death Certificate

This death certificate provided the proof I needed to be able to merge the duplicate record back to Mabel in our family tree. Little Leonard now appears with his older brother on my Reid Family Tree. Welcome Leonard, nice having you on our family tree!

Stolen By The Indians At The Age Of Six

Pamela Elizabeth Barlow came into this world at a time of mourning and reflection in Nauvoo as the Barlows’ good friend and Prophet, Joseph Smith, had just been martyred three months previous. Then, just as Pamela turned 4 years old, her family was forced out of their home and she had to cross the plains with them to the Salt Lake Valley. They stayed their first winter in Salt Lake in the old Pioneer Fort where Pioneer Park is now. Soon after, they were one of the first families to move to West Bountiful. There were quite a number of Indians in that area. Pamela said that she would look out from their farm and count as many as 50 teepees. The Barlows treated the Indians kindly and gave freely of their supplies. 

When Pamela was six years old she was stolen by the Indians. She was about a mile from home, following her eight year-old brother down a path surrounded by a tall forest of sunflowers, when she was suddenly swooped up by several Indians. They quickly covered the kicking and screaming young girl with a blanket and sped off with her on their horses.

Her brother, Israel Jr., jumped into the tall sunflowers, bent low, and ran like the wind towards home. He found his father and through the tears told him what had happened to his sister. Israel Barlow quickly gathered a few men and they were soon off at full gallop to rescue the little girl. They frantically searched the valleys and trails and then finally three hours later they found the band of Indians along the bench, toward the mountain. Pamela was still wrapped under the blanket and held tightly by one of the Indians who wanted to raise her as his squaw. They immediately recognized Israel Barlow and turned the young girl over to him, apologizing and saying that they wouldn’t have taken her if they had know she was his. Pamela cried and sobbed with gratitude as she sprang into her father’s arms. She told him that she thought that she would never be able to see him again. There was a joyful reunion back at the Barlow household as Pamela was reunited with her family that evening.

FamilySearch.org Autobiography of Elizabeth Haven

Nauvoo Miracle

This is a follow-up to the story, “Daddy, Do Not Leave Me Here”, where Israel Barlow moved his firstborn’s grave from their Nauvoo farm to the Old Nauvoo Burial Grounds at his wife’s request. Supposedly, the exact gravesite was not known, but I recently read a Nauvoo missionary couple’s blog where they witnessed one of Israel Barlow’s descendants find the grave in 2013. The descendant, Elizabeth Hemple from St. Louis and an Olympic hopeful, came to Nauvoo to visit the grave. She was originally directed to another cemetery, but didn’t feel right there. But when she went to the Old Nauvoo Cemetery and walked around it, she was prompted to go to the far corner of the cemetery.

The Nauvoo missionary couple saw her sobbing in the far corner of the cemetery and carefully approached her. She told them why she was there and that she felt that THIS was the spot where he was buried. They introduced her to Elder Mengel, who has been researching the cemeteries and mapping out the graves. He told her that this spot was not likely because it was out of the boundary of the cemetery. She said, “I don’t know why, but I feel the Spirit telling me that this is the correct place. Elder Mengel had her use the dowsing technique and it verified there was a small grave.

This account, which they have submitted for publication in the Ensign, says that in the 1840’s the entrance to the cemetery was at this far corner. Israel Barlow quickly entered the cemetery and buried his child just inside the entrance rather than go deeper inside. There was no official record of him doing this and therefore the location was lost until Elizabeth Hemple found it by the Spirit’s promptings.

The blog is found here: http://ririenauvoomission.blogspot.com/
Go down to March 16 and March 18, 2014 posts

Edwards Family 1961

One of my cousins recently posted a family picture that was taken about fifty-five years ago. There were eighty-four people in the photo and I could only identify less than 20 of them. I took the photo, numbered each person, and reposted the picture on Facebook. With the picture, I also posted a link to a Google Doc with numbers listed 1 to 84. I asked everyone to identify the ones they new and to put the person's parents in parenthesis after their name.

With a collaborative effort from many cousins, some of which we had to search out, we were able to identify every member of the family in that picture! It is priceless to me. It also brought us closer together as an extended family. It was fun!

Ruby Eliza Reid Barlow

The most memorable thing I remember about Grandma Barlow is that her birthday was on Valentine's Day. Every year on Valentine's Day, even to this day, I still think about Grandma Barlow and how her birthday was on this day. As a child, I have fond memories of our family driving up to Salt Lake to visit her on her birthday. She would have dishes of Valentine's Day candy out on the living room tables for us to enjoy. She would smile and give us hugs as we wished her a Happy Birthday and a Happy Valentine's Day! 

I feel fortunate to have known Grandma Ruby Eliza Reid Barlow for the first eleven years of my life. She was alone for eight of those years as Grandpa Willard Elmer Barlow passed away when I was three years-old. Their cute home was in a beautiful part of Salt Lake with large trees lining the streets. Their yard was beautifully landscaped. I remember walking in their front door and immediately drawn to the large deer head that was hung near the pantry down the hall. I remember thinking how old-fashioned her kitchen seemed to me with old appliances and lacy doilies, yet it was very clean and tidy. I loved the smells and warmth felt by Grandma Barlow. I still remember her laugh. I enjoyed her candy dishes! I remember being fascinated with the confectionery Sweetheart candies she had with sayings on them such as "Kiss Me", "Be Mine", and "Call Me"!

Elizabeth Haven Barlow

I have written the last couple of weeks about Israel Barlow. Today, I would like to write about his incredible wife, Elizabeth Haven Barlow. I am amazed when I read about everything she went through and experienced in her life. Her mother died when she was only nine years old. This was very difficult for little Elizabeth and she wept and refused to be comforted for many days. As she grew, she developed a passion for reading. Her favorite book was an old family Bible that her ancestors had brought from England in 1645. She quickly became very acquainted with the stories and teachings of the Bible and began teaching Sunday School in her father’s Congregational Church.

Elizabeth wanted with all of her heart to become a school teacher but finances were difficult at that time, so she learned to braid straw hats, sew delicate laces and dresses to earn money for her education. While attending Amherst College, she would lead many lengthy discussions about religion and began searching for a church that held all the truths of the Bible. She graduated with a teaching degree in 1836.

Shortly after returning home from college, her two cousins, Brigham Young and Willard Richards came to her house from Kirtland, Ohio, bringing a new book called “The Book of Mormon” and preaching a strange gospel, based on angels and revelations. After several visits and bearing their testimonies, they left. Elizabeth’s father shook his head, being sorry that his family relations had been led astray. Elizabeth, however, being of curious nature, shut herself up with the strange book and within a week of reading and praying, announced to her father that she had received a religious experience and knew, for sure, that “The Book of Mormon” was divine and that her cousins taught the true Gospel. She and her brother were soon baptized by Parley P. Pratt. She desired to join the Saints and to meet the Prophet, Joseph Smith, so at age twenty-six she left her family and set out on the 1,500 mile trip to Missouri.

Brigham Young, who knew of Elizabeth’s college training quickly assigned her to be a school teacher and she taught his children along with Joseph and Hyrum’s children and many others. Joseph Smith was aware of Elizabeth’s writing abilities and suggested to her that she save all of her letters and journals. She took the prophet’s advice and her writings have been used in many references in Church History as well as being preserved in the family book, “The Israel Barlow Story and Mormon Mores”.

At age 27, she met Israel Barlow, a stalwart man of thirty-three years in Quincy, Illinois and they were married the next year. They settled in Nauvoo where they anxiously awaited their firstborn child, but sadly, little James Nathanial only lived a few short hours. She did have three more children in Nauvoo, but she was forced out of their Nauvoo home by mobs only one month after giving birth to her fourth child, Ianthus. Less than two years later, while expecting her fifth child, she and her family were also forced out of her Illinois home by mobs and she delivered little John Haven Barlow on the trek towards the Rocky Mountains.

Only five short years after getting settled in the Great Salt Lake area, her husband, Israel, was called to serve a mission in England. She was supportive of his call, even though she was expecting another child within months. She was prompted inside to ask her husband to stop at their old Nauvoo farm on his way to move their firstborn’s grave to the Old Nauvoo Burial Grounds. You can read about this touching account of a mother’s and father’s love for their child in last week’s post, “Daddy, Do Not Leave Me Here”. The child she was expecting while Israel was on his mission turned out to be twins. One of the twins died 9 months after birth and the other twin, Wilford, was my Great-Grandpa Barlow’s father.

Elizabeth was called as Relief Society President and served in that capacity from 1857 to 1888, three years before her death. Her daughter wrote this about her: “To mother, the gospel meant everything. No sacrifice was too great in order to send her husband or kindred into the mission field. Nothing stirred her soul more than repeating the events she had passed through in Missouri and Nauvoo. The gospel, coupled with seeing her family live righteously, was the joy of her life.

http://neelfamilyhistory.com/ui45.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Barlow

Israel Barlow, Horse and Whip

This is another story that I had heard before, yet I didn’t realize it was about my third great-grandfather until recent family history research.

Israel Barlow helped build the Nauvoo temple by transporting large slabs of rock from the quarry to the temple site. One day while he was backing up his wagon at the quarry, Joseph Smith came over to him and said, “Israel, on your next trip, stop and buy yourself a buggy whip.” Now Israel trusted his pair of beautiful black mares and had never carried a whip because he didn’t think he had use for it, but on the way he decided to stop in town and buy himself a whip.




Israel arrived back at the quarry and picked up his load of stone. In order to leave, he had to back up the wagon until he could turn down the right road to town. The horses backed up as usual, but when he gave his “Whoa” to stop them, they would not stop. Looking behind him, Israel realized that he was approaching the edge of a large cliff. He continued to shout, “Whoa!” but the horses refused to listen. In a final attempt to stop them, Israel quickly grabbed the whip and cracked it above their heads. This new sound jolted them to instantly stop, right at edge of the cliff! 

Fortunately Israel decided, against his own judgment, to follow the Prophet and it saved his life.

https://www.lds.org/manual/doctrines-of-the-gospel-teacher-manual/chapter-17-obedience-a-law-of-heaven?lang=eng