Mary Orebaugh Booth
Grandma was my idol in many ways. You could count on her to be herself. She always baked
bread. She was affectionate, yet stern when I stepped out of line. She loved me and was
always glad to see me. She played the piano and sang a lot to us. When I complained about
my mom, (what teenager doesn't) she kindly put me in my place. She was plump, smiley and
attentive. She seemed to love working in her yard and garden, even in later years when I'm
sure it was a chore. She was active in the Methodist Church but seemed quite tolerant of my
Latter Day Saint membership and often asked me questions about our beliefs.
She was my partner in genealogy, giving me lots of answers to ancestry questions and stories
of her parents and grandparents. If only I had written them down also. Being the oldest
child, I had the privilege of knowing her longer than any of the other grandchildren and felt
it was an honor. I never realized until I had a family of my own, of some of the serious
sacrifices that she and grandpa made for our family. We lived with them for awhile and I
believe that Aunt Eileen's family did also. I never heard her complain about any of this,
though I'm sure we wore her out some days. Though there were some problems and heartaches,
I would not change my carefree days on their farm for anything. Oh, how I wish I could give
my own grandchildren the freedom and fun I had in those golden days of old.
When my own children came along she received them with the same nurturing love that had been
mine in my youth, and the same gentle sternness when they misbehaved. It provided a solid
foundation for knowing what is expected of us.
Sometime during the last few years of grandma Davidson's life, I traveled to Ashton with a
tape recorder because I wanted to know a bit about her life, before I knew her as a
grandchild. We visited and I asked some questions about her life and this is the result of
that special visit. I am grateful that I did this and I appreciate knowing more about this
very special, spiritual, industrious woman.
"I was born June 22, 1897. I was the oldest and had four brothers and four sisters. Harvey, Nelly, Maude, Geneva (aunty Gene), Forrest (uncle Porty), Arden, James and Bessie. I wasn't any closer to one brother or sister. We lived around Fairview most of the time I was growing up. We lived on the farm for several years and then we moved to town because dad got Rheumatic Fever. He was so sick and we had a hired man by the name of Charlie Rogers who was sure a good man. He really took care of things for mom. After dad recovered, we rented our farm and moved into town, so dad wouldn't have to work. We took a cow to town with us and after milking, we kids used to hike across the railroad tracks to deliver milk that we had sold. Mom always worried about us until we got home safely. The trains used to come in the morning, so we would wait until later on to deliver it. We had horses too, and we used to hook the sleighs to them during the winter. We had ten blocks to walk to school. We bought another farm just outside of town. While we lived in town, , dad used to be a TRAINMAN - he would haul various things from the train to the stores. He had a team of bay horses that he used and they were sure pretty.
I had Typhoid Fever when I was about twelve years old and lost all of my hair. My dad had it at the same time, and mamma had such a hard time getting someone to come and work for them. We also had hard times as our family got bigger. I know the kids didn't always get the things that they wanted because we couldn't afford it. We didn't really have a lot of the problems that a lot of people did during that time. I don't feel like life has been really hard on me because we always had something to eat and we were never really deprived of anything important. My advice to my descendants is to be satisfied with what you've got and get along with it. Also you can make things better if you try.
After I got out of high school, I taught school at Margrave Branch. That was a little community and I taught the lower grades. We had two teachers. I had one or two classes of the older group that the other teacher wouldn't teach. We stayed at the Marberry home. Gladys Nelson was the teacher who taught with me. She was very refined - or she thought she was. Once in awhile Mr. Marberry would get to talking about the things that went on at the stable and embarrass her right there.
I met grandpa in 1920. I was going on 22 and I went to Kansas State College and that's where I met him. I knew some of the fellows from his home town before I knew him. He didn't come to school until the second semester and he had been in college before. I got acquainted with him through the the other boys from his home town. But, I don't exactly remember my first date with him. He had been in the Navy also. I first saw him when he came to a boarding house, where I worked for meals a few times. (Mrs. Powell's Boarding House) We didn't go together very long before we decided to marry. I was cutting up with some boys from the boarding house and he told me that he didn't want the girl he loved to behave like that. I guess he decided he was going to have me before I decided I wanted him. When I told my parents, mom came down to meet him and he suited her fine. We were married September 9th, 1920. We were married at the church which was out in the country from Fairview. Harvey was best man and Cecile was bridesmaid. We went on to school after we were married. (And we lived happily ever after!)
Our first child was Elizabeth. She was a cute little thing. She learned to walk on the bed. She didn't know how to walk on the floor. We lived in a little one room house and I cooked on what they called a Monkey Stove. It was a little two holed stove. We burned coal, wood, or what ever we had to burn. The floor was always cold, so that's why I kept Elizabeth on the bed all the time. My husband got work with General Electric and we went to Fort Wayne, Indiana. He worked in the refrigeration department. He helped work out the kinks in the first refrigerators. We lived in two rooms upstairs. There was a kitchen and bedroom/living room combined. Eileen was born while we lived in Indiana. The doctor said he didn't have any boys; even though that's what we ordered! Eileen was a tiny baby, just around 7 lbs. At birth. (Elizabeth was a 9 pounder) While we were there, my sister Nellie came to live with us. We lived in Indiana more than a year.
Our next child, Jimmy, was born in Provo. (We finally got our boy) He was a happy baby. We lived in an upstairs apartment again. We had a bedroom, a kitchen, and a long living room. Elizabeth had a wooden kiddy-car and she could ride it from one end of the living room to another. When Jimmy got big enough to walk, he would get behind that kiddy-car and push it all over. Sometimes it would tip over and he would get so mad. That's how Jimmy learned to walk - behind that kiddy - car.
After Provo, daddy was on traveling maintenance and we moved to Salt Lake. We were in Salt Lake when Elizabeth started school. Auntie Betty came out and lived with us and she worked at the Salt Lake hardware Company. Johnny was our next child born, and I think we still lived in Salt Lake at the time. We lived next to a vacant lot and the kids used to go over there and dig big holes. They sure had a lot of fun.
Eddy was our next child and he was born at Soda Springs. Billy was also born there. He had lots and lots of black hair and his daddy used to say that came down around his face just like a monkey! When Billy got older, Jimmy told him that daddy used to say he looked just like a monkey. It used to make Billy so mad.
Paula was our last child born and she was born in Ashton, where we live now.
I've always been active in church, but I think my most enjoyable job was when I was Superintendent of the Sunday school because I dealt with the kids. I've always really liked kids and I've done lots of babysitting. Lots of the kids around here just call me "grandma". I've enjoyed my family as much as anybody could. I always like to be with my family and do things with them. I think our worst time was when we had to live in the cellar rooms. We lived there after Paula's little house burned down. The kitchen was on one side, the front room was across on the other side and dad and I had our bedroom there with a closet. The bedroom and closet just had a curtain across it. We had two windows in our bedroom area and one in the front room area. I used to make sauerkraut in a big glass crock and kept them out in the cellar. I never worried about anyone snitching it, however I have since learned (now that they are too big for me to paddle) that some of the grandkids have admitted to doing just that.
Fern and Elizabeth lived with us for awhile and Dianne says that the reason she turned out good was because they lived with us and we set a good example for them and loved them. It wasn't hard to be good to them though.
One of my greatest blessings has been having a good husband. I can't think of anytime that he was cross or "hard boiled". I thought sometimes that I wasn't really good enough to him, but of course, maybe that's just natural. "
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of
Sophia Mellenbruch and James H. Booth
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