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Life History of Ella Wall Jarvis

My Purpose

My purpose in writing this life story was at first to comply with a request made by my grandchildren. They wanted me to write the true stories I had told them so many times thru the years before. Then, some of those I love so dearly, and who are a part of my life, learned of the request, and asked that I give them a copy also.

There are other similar experiences that I might have written, but I have tried to choose those that would best emphasize my way of life, and my testimony that God lives and is mindful of me. That He hears and answers prayer. He has repeatedly answered my prayers. And I am grateful.

My life has been guided by a Higher Power. Those things I desired and planned to do have been replaced by things to do that I would not do, but I did. To illustrate, I used to say I would never be a teacher under any condition but when the time came, I did the thing that had been planned for me to do. I desired a mission and a higher education, but it was not mine to have.

I am grateful for all my experiences, although some have not been the most pleasant, but they have helped me to see in a big way what produces real happiness and what destroys true joy. I am grateful for my parentage, for my family, for my husband and children; for my neighbors and friends; for the children I have taught, they have all helped to enrich my life. The love and appreciation I have for each of them, and all they have added to my life to make it full, has made me a better individual. I thank my Heavenly Father for them. Ella W. Jarvis

Childhood Years

My Grandparents William Wall and Sarah Sansom, first went to Cash Valley and later were the first LDS people to make homes on the Sevier River in Utah, about two miles north of Glenwood. My Grandfather was a mason and from him, father learned the trade. They built the first house and later father sold the one he built to Bro. Cowley and then built another west of the other. Today it is the town of Venice, Utah. When I was a child, it was known as Wallsville because my grandparents and their children were the first people to "move down on the river" north of Glenwood and build a home. The house we lived in was near where the store is, or the home of Stanley Davis Sr.

I was born the fifth of September 1885. From the first I showed plenty of English stubbornness. If I thought I was right, it had to be proven to me I was wrong, I have been told. I have been told many times I was like my father. I was the sixth child, the baby just older died at 2 years and the one younger died at birth. Father's people lived in Horsely, Gloucestershire, England but they were living in Bristol at the time of coming to Utah in 1863. Mother's people came from Devonshire but they came to Utah in 1852.

I was about two years old when I had the whooping cough. I remember being tossed and thrown about in the air (trying to get my breath) and then standing by Mother's bedside crying. Mother was very ill with a fever.

I remember the first funeral I went to. I was in a queer place made of trees (a bowery) - big sticks standing up in the ground and overhead were branches with leaves on. Mother let the girls (Etta and Jessie) take me over to look in a box. They lifted me up to see a baby asleep inside a box. I have a very vivid image of a mother in a long black dress and her real white face. She had been sick a long time with a fever. Another thing I remember about this time was sitting on a table and a man telling me to look at that box and see the birdy come out, but it never did.

I remember going to Grandfather's house once with the Big Girls after water in the spring behind his house, and how excited I got -- when they talked about a porcupine that had been killed the night before in the bushes not far from the road. They let me see it. Didn't look like much, but how excited I was as I listened to the "big girls" talk about it. I remember the rides the "Big Girls" gave me in a little wagon Father made. It had willow bows and a green cover. Etta and Jessie were the pullers. Once I went fishing with the big girls. I had to keep still or they would take me home. Etta caught a big fish and Jessie sat on it to keep it from jumping away.

Another experience was going swimming in the Cove River. The big girls went out into the deep water where it was over my head. They packed me out so I could see how deep it was. This was the only time in my whole life I ever went swimming for I was always afraid of water.

It was real interesting to watch father. He had made a hole six feet and in the center he put in a pipe. The horse went around and around. Then one day, the hole filled with muddy water but in the center a stream of clean cold water bubbled out of the pipe. There was a lot of excitement in the yard. Everybody came to see and talk and have a drink. Father had made the first Artesian Well in the Sevier Valley of Utah.

I remember Carlo (the big dog) that went with me everywhere. Also the time I fell off from the narrow bridge over the canal in our front yard. I had been to Sunday School. I had on a white dress. I was alone. I remember when our house was completely surrounded with water and we got in a wash and went up to Glenwood and stayed until the flood was over. I remember going to Uncle Joseph's home in Glenwood and the turkey gobbler that scared me "to death."

I was about three when I filled my ears with beans -- I was playing with them -- why were the big people so excited -- one bean was removed from each ear but they couldn't get the others. So I was taken to Richfield. A doctor was called and I was put to sleep. When I woke up the sun was shining through the west window of Aunt Etta Wright's front parlor. (I was coming out of either). Later they took me to another doctor in Provo to have the beans removed. How fascinated I was as two ladies sitting in a seat behind us talked on their fingers.

Mother was in Provo for Father's Polygamy trial. I remember going to Uncle George Bench's home through the lots. It was dark. We crawled through a fence so people couldn't see us. It was when John was born and mother was keeping away from the US marshals. The US Marshals were hunting Father. I remember when we went to Provo on the same trouble. Mother left me with the wagon. I cried myself to sleep. A little boy gave me a little clay dog and two elephants he had made. (I still have one elephant that's 70 years old.)

The memory picture of the home in Wallsville and the way I saw it twenty-two years later are far different. The landmarks are the same. The memory picture of first Juarez is different than the one when I left it sixty years later. Just a picture is far different than a memory.

Family moves to Mexico 1890

Father had married [his 2nd wife] Mother Susie. He went to Salt Lake to work. The marshals got after him because of polygamy and President John Taylor advised him to go to Mexico or Canada where he could live with both families without breaking any law.

I remember a few instances that happened when mother was getting ready to go to Mexico, of people coming to tell us goodbye, etc., Uncle John coming to the train in Manti to tell us goodbye and giving us a bucket of candy.

Father and Mother Susie went about six months before Mother did, as Mother had to sell the home, etc. She and Sister Ellen Pierce chartered a railroad car putting their cattle in one end and household belongings in the other. The Pierce Boys had charge of this chartered railroad car.

Father met us in Deming. From there we traveled in a wagon-- camping and eating with Sister Pierce and family. At Colonia Diaz we left them where Bro. Pierce had made his home and from there we traveled alone. Frank drove the animals and father drove the team.

We arrived at Colonia Juarez, December 24th 1890. All day the wind blew hard and when it stopped it began to snow. It was dark and as we got to the top of the hill, Father pointed out about where we would live by the few lights we could see.

Colonia Juarez had been settled about two years. It was in a little valley about a quarter mile wide, with low hills around it, a narrow opening at the south. The Piedras Verdes River ran through the center with cottonwood trees and willows growing along its banks. It was dry, or about dry, the most part of the year. The hills on both sides were covered with dry grass and rocks. The few families there were living on the East side of the river. On our side of the river, not one tree, one lone house made of rock and lime mortar, not a fence, nor a road. We had finished a long, long journey, long and hard but the next sixty years would be long and hard too, full of strange experiences in a foreign country.

Father built a lumber "lean to" on to the rock room. Mother Susie and baby John lived in the house and in the "lean to" Mother and her four children lived for better than a year! The girls had their bed in the attic, Frank in the wagon box and Mother in her bed in the "kitchen." Father made me a little bed that was pushed under the big bed in the daytime.

All the water we used was packed from the river. When Father could not haul a load of wood, we gathered it from the drifts along the river. As quickly as he could, Father with the help of Frank, built Mother a small home near the riverbank. (Later he added a lumber room.) We moved into this little home -- one quite large room and two small ones before the floors were nailed down or the windows were put in. Later, when the lumber room was finished, the two small rooms were used for bedrooms.

Not long after we moved into our own little home, Mother and Father made a trip overland to Deming and got the organ and furniture they had stored there. Yes, they took me along. On the way back, we met a man who told us that Mother Susie's baby Myrtle had died and was buried. Mother cried but Father sang. I thought it was strange, but as I got older I learned that he always sang to himself when he was disturbed.

Making a home, there was plenty of work for everybody. No time to play -- always water to pack, run errands. My big chore was to take the cows over the hills every morning and watch the calves and see that they were in the pen before the cows came home, etc. Poor mother! Still a pioneer!

School Days

I started school when I was seven. Sister Carolyne Romney Eyring was my teacher. D.E. Harris was the principal. I remember when Bro. Guy C Wilson took the school, he graded it and I was put in the Fifth Grade with Ellice Bentley, Florence Ivins, Mable Stevens, Maud and Nora Taylor. Theodore Martineau was the teacher. Other teachers I had were Sister Clayson, Louise Hawkins, Samantha Boice and "Uno, Dos" (a Mexican) (I called him "Un Dos" because that's the way he counted when we marched.) In the seventh and eighth grades my teachers were Ella Larsen and Bro. Dalley. My classmates were Mable Stevens, Ellice Bentley, Florence Ivins, Maud and Nora Taylor. Out of school, Eliza and Laura Walser were my friends. Their mother was very dear to me.

When I was eight, Mother took me by the hand and together we walked along a trail through the riverbed to the home of John C. Harper. There by the ledge he baptized me. The next day Thursday, being Fast Day, I was confirmed by Bishop George W. Sevey.

Spelling was the mountain I never was able to surmount. Arithmetic -- percentages had me floored until one day Antone R. Ivins (then a student in high school) explained it to me and helped me over the hump. I have always been grateful to him and appreciate those kind sympathetic words that day when I was so discouraged because I was so "dumb."

I remember during these years the homes that were built on the west side of the river -- the Cox brother's stockades, the beautiful Steven's home (it was painted). Then there were the George Haws homes and the Nielson homes, the beautiful Ivin home. I remember the first school house father built -- the basement where I went first to school, the addition built on when I was in the fifth grade -- the building of the Academy where it is today. I measured all the loads of blue lime rock that went into the kilns that we burned to make the lime that the Academy (Ivins Building) was built with.

Father and Brother George Haws made the first canal (or ditch) that brought the water to the little fields and the town (west side). Later the water was brought from above the upper fields to both sides of the river.

Father made the first foot bridge that ever crossed the river. It wasn't satisfactory because every flood took it away. Then he made a boat bridge. He did it by fastening a rope cable to two large cottonwood trees, one on each side of the river, then, with a small rope and pulleys, the boat was pulled from one side to the other. This worked until the rope wore thin. One Sunday morning, Bro. Stowell needed to go to his mill below town very badly. Father went across to get him. On the way back, the rope broke and the swifts of the water turned the boat upside down. Bro. Stowell went under it and father was clinging to the side. People on both sides of the river were screaming, running up and down the banks, crazy with excitement. Men went in on horses and rescued the half-drowned men about 200 yards down the river. Then the swinging bridge was built and served the purpose until it was moved down by Harpers and a wagon bridge took its place and now it has been made of cement.

Today, 1963, a good highway enters town on the same grade as that road we traveled that Christmas Eve a long, long time ago to go into town. (This old road had been changed and Juarez was entered on a point south.)

Over the years I had several serious sicknesses and when we lived without the aid of doctors, we must acknowledge the loving care of our Heavenly Father. I had several spells of rheumatism that lasted for weeks. I remember the St. Vitus Dance when I could not stand or hold anything in my hand or my head up. It rolled from side to side. When I was three I fell and broke my jaw and hurt my back which has been a Jonah all my life. The measles left me with eye trouble. After weeks of typhoid fever, I learned to walk over. Pneumonia, operations, partial stroke, etc, at times put me real close to the gate. I could have easily slipped in if St. Peter hadn't been so busy and had opened it a tiny bit wider. Well, I am still here. "Burned Legs" will never be forgotten. [This was in 1932 -- see Burned Legs]

I was about ten or eleven when I lived with Bro. Brigham Pierce and his wife, "up in the fields". I picked strawberries and cared for the baby Mary. Mary's mother's death and funeral was the first one I remember in Juarez. Sister Martha Pierce lay in her coffin with a tiny twin baby on each arm.

I loved the children's dances; one each month. Apostle Teasdale always led a Grand March. I was never asked to lead the march like some other girls my size were but I could sing with everybody else "Whither Shall We Follow, Follow Thee" while we marched. And then we could have one nickel to buy a popcorn ball from Sister Hilstrom. Father often piled us into the wagon. We would go once or twice each year to the Walnut Grove, spend the day and gather up walnuts. These were put to dry in the sun and how we enjoyed eating and cooking with them. Then we went to Jackson Mill to get flour which always took a full day. Once we were going there, the wheel hit a rock, the back seat tipped backwards. Etta and Mother Susie went out backwards. No one was hurt seriously, but badly scared. Those sitting in it hit the ground and the rest of us got the "dumbfuddles" scared out of us. Father had to haul all the wood we burned. Mother and one of the girls would go with him. I went once. I'll never forget how tired I got. When he needed lumber he went to the saw mill in the mountains for it. One day his horse dropped dead in the harness.

I loved the celebrations--the 24th, the 16th of September, May Day, especially, if I had a little part. In the races, I soon learned I could not run with other kids. Thanksgiving and Christmas were home days. Thanksgiving we went to our friends' home or they came to ours. Father always had his Christmas Plum. To have a new dress or a pair of shoes were luxuries never to be forgotten.

I had started to school when I was seven, and graduated from the eighth when I was thirteen. I had two and a half years in high school then for several reasons I dropped out and did not graduate from high school until 16 years later, but in the meantime I took a course of bookkeeping in the USA and completed the International Business College in El Paso.

Church Callings and Work

I was just thirteen and I was the only big girl going to Primary so Sister Maggie I. Bentley asked me to work as an assistant teacher in the kindergarten. I was very happy to do so and I really tried hard to tell stories well. It was my job to take the cows over the hills every morning and so I told my lesson or story to them (the cows). Gathering pretty rocks was a pass time on the way back home.

When Sister Caddie Telford was made president of the MIA, she made me happy as the Librarian. Mable Steven and I worked together as the teachers in a school of the First Intermediate class in S.S. Guy Taylor was Superintendent. When the Sunday School was reorganized after the Exodus, I was given the position of Secretary as well as an Intermediate Teacher. In the MIA, I was a counselor, a Secretary and Class leader. And in the Stake, I was Secretary as well. I was a class Supervisor as well. While in Primary, during the sixty years I was connected with it, I had experience as a President, Secretary, Teacher Trainer, and a Teacher of every group from kindergarten to the girls 14 years old. In El Paso, I worked as class leader and Secretary in Sunday School and MIA. In Garcia I was just chinking. Then in Pacheco I was Secretary of the Relief Society and substitute teacher. I was class leader one year in Juarez RS, but because of school responsibilities, I could not go to Relief Society, so I had very little experience in it. I worked several years in the Genealogy as Secretary.

Up to this time, I had helped myself by working in other homes -- Dr. Keats, Eunice Harris, Minnie Taylor, Lizzie [Elizabeth] Pierce (cared for Mary whose mama had died a few years before), and Gertrude Romney; in their home as well as the post office.

In 1902, Father began selling hay, grain and flour. Then in 1904, he bought Bert Redd's interest in a little store near the school house. I became father's clerk and bookkeeper. In the years that followed, Father and I became real partners. I would thrill when he would introduce me to people -- "My right-hand man" -- whatever she does is okay." His interests were my interests and remained so as long as he lived.

When Father bought the store it was predicted by a few people that we would be "broke" in six monthe, but people don't always know what they think they do. When we took inventory in 1912, we had assets of $25,000 with no liabilities. The store had become a part of me after fifteen years. I love the work of accounting.

I was Father's bookkeeper for 15 years as well. I was an assistant in the Guarantee Shoe Store in El Paso and for 15 months as a bookkeeper for the Sewing Machine Co (Singer). Then in Juarez, helped Bro. Lucian Mecham in his store, and Ernest Farnsworth after Bro. Mecham sold.

The Mexican Revolution

It was in 1910 when we first paid much attention to the rumors of a Mexican Revolution to the South of us. Father let John and Jessie care for the store and he gave me a trip to Utah for eight months. That was a wonderful eight months with Frank and Minnie's families. It was in the fall I went with the older children and worked in the beet fields. Yes, it was hard work but the pleasant experiences made it worthwhile. This was the only time in my life I was a member of a group of young people. All the rest of my life I was alone or with one or two friends. This was always true in the few MIA trips I went on.

Colonia Juarez was a little Mormon Hamlet by itself in a foreign country. The other seven colonies were the same and all eight were held together by bonds that the outsider could not understand. The people were LDS, living their own way of life, complying with the requirements of the laws of Mexico. The country had been at peace for 30 years; now for two years we had read of a revolution in the states to the South of us, but we were not concerned.

The 24th of July [1912] was celebrated in the usual way -- all the young people piling on a hayrack and serenading the town, a pioneer program at 10 am, sports in the afternoon, and dance at night. Everybody was happy. Then the clouds of war closed in on those eight Mormon Colonies. Orders came [July 25th] from the President of the U.S. -- Pres. Taft -- for all American citizens to leave Mexico. Most of the people in the Colonies -- all (but a few) -- were American citizens so when the order came, they took what they could in a suitcase -- leaving a life's earnings, many of them never to return to find them, and went out to the country that had called for them to make the sacrifice. As they turned to take a last look of the place they called home, inexpressible emotion showed on each face.

Father was in El Paso buying goods when the orders to leave came and the Priesthood made the decision to obey. We made no preparation to leave until Father came home Monday on the train. He arranged with "Old Andrez and his wife" to stay in Mother's home and care for things in general, Bro. Joel H. Martineau was to care for the store. He being one of the three men who were Mexican Citizens, and were to stay and take care of the town as best they could.

As quickly as it was possible, Father arranged for Mother and I to go to Utah. Mother Susie and children remained in El Paso.

It was about the first of November, Father came to take us back to Mexico. We spent Thanksgiving Day together, had a dinner at Minnie's home. In the afternoon father took us to Richfield and had our family picture together. We left for Mexico the middle of December, 1912.

Before deciding to go back, Father had talked with President Ivins and when Father told him he wanted to go back and try to save what he could, "Go back Brother Wall, you go with our blessing. Keep the commandments of the Lord and counsel of Pres. Bentley and the Lord will bless you," he said.

Father was sick with pneumonia when the only train that went into Mexico for Chihuahua via Casas Grande left, so we were not able to go with the first to return, but Mother, Father and Angus went in late April [1913]. Mary was very bad; Irma and Lynn had whooping cough. Urban was a tiny baby so I stayed with my sister Etta [Martha Henrietta] for a month, then I went in on the train. [May 1913] During this stay in El Paso (winter/spring of 1913) I worked for Kress.

Mother and Father had arrived home in the evening and found things well cared for except for the Store. Bro Martineau had "trusted out" the goods and they were never paid for. Father had already 'begun to restock it with staple goods.

Mother could not speak Spanish and Mrs. Andrez could not speak English but Mrs. Andrez (dear old soul) took Mother to the dresser and showed her by signs the sack containing the money, 63 silver dollars. Then it was that Mother remembered putting it there ten months before. When I got home and balanced my book, 63 dollars was right. The dear old honest soul had found the money not long after we left and told her husband of its hiding place, but had told no one nor used a cent. They were Lamanites, but honest, honorable children of our Father in Heaven.

About every so often a group -- some small, some larger even up to a small army -- came to town. Several times we had several hundred camp in our yard. John and I made bread and fed better than two hundred. Some of these groups carried a flag of the Republic, Red, White and Green. Some had a flag, Cross Bone and Skull, a red flag, and a dirty white one that might have been a shirt tail or towel. They would buy a kilo of flour, pour in a little water, pat out a tortilla and throw it on the coals to cook. When they killed an animal they caught the blood if it had any, and drank it. Often it would seem they would take every particle of flour or beans but the Lord always provided a way for us to have what we needed. Once a bunch took all the people's flour out of the loaded wagons and started to drive away, changed their mind and left us enough to get by on until harvest. These groups often acknowledged the fact they never did the mean things to the Mormons they came to do.

*******

From The Story "New Wagons": The Myers Company of El Paso has sent three new wagons to sell on commission. They were under the shed but could be seen from the street. Lopez and his men rode into the yard and examined them. He came to the fence in front of the house and they wanted those wagons to haul flour and other supplies they had appropriated to their camp on top of the mountain. I told him they could not take them for they were not ours, but belonged to people in El Paso, they could go find some old wagon. No, they would be back in a little while with teams

"No", I said, "You cannot take them." They rode out of the yard. As soon as they were out of sight, I proceeded to remove every burr [Ed. Note: Apparently the washer and nut or pin that hold the wheel on -Mark Jarvis], put them in a sack and buried them under a pile of weeds up in the lot. In a short time they came with their teams and men, but found they could not move them. He knocked on the fence, "Where's that kid?" he asked when I went to the door.
    "What kid?"
    "Your brother"
    "I don't know, up the river fishing, I guess."
    "Where are the burrs? I want them."
    "How do I know," I snapped, "If you want them go find them," I sneered.
    "I'll shoot you." he threatened.
    "Shoot coward! Hombres muerto digan nada" [dead men say nothing] and I walked back into the house and closed the door. They got on their horses and rode away.

*******

From The Story "One New Years Day": Four A.M. The first day of a New Year. I opened my eyes. Yes. No mistake. A shot. I hurriedly put on my clothes and went out side. There was trouble up in the field. For a few minutes it sounded as if there was a real battle in process, then the firing stopped, only now and again an occasional shot in different places.

After several hours the Government Troops filed through town on their way back to their camp in San Diego Flats. They said they had surprised the Red Flagger in their camp. Two men had been killed and men had scattered. There supplies and horses had been cleaned out.

Everything was quiet in town. The people went about their work. Father went to the wash to get a few husks of corn that had been shucked. Mother had gone to visit a friend. I was alone. The sewing machine was in front of a window, I could see three ways. We were always watching for the appearance of unwelcome quests which came often.

I heard Father cross the bridge, saw him back the wagon up to the door of the store room to unload the corn, saw him come through the gate and enter the store through the back door. Everything seemed to be normal.

Then! Startled! Father was running backwards. Two men stood at the gate with their guns leveled on him. I jumped and ran out on the porch. I don't know if I slammed the door or screamed, but the men looked toward me and as they did, Father slipped through the door and closed it.

What should I do? Under the treadles of the organ my 32 automatic was hidden. I dropped on my knees, reached to get it. A voice said, "Put it back and you'll be alright." There was not a soul around. Father must have the gun to protect himself with. Again I reached to get it and had it in my hand and again came the command, "Put it back and you will be alright." I got to my feet, started outside, Father he must have the gun, back to the hiding place and the gun in my hand and again for the third time the voice commanded me to put it back. I did. Those men were reaching the yard. Two more were crossing the bridge; two were coming up the river bank. I met the two men at the gate to the house yard, "Where did that old man go?" they asked.
    "What old man?" I asked. "If you want him, find him. You saw him."
    They went down the river bank looking for him.
    "Father, none of them in sight, run for the house," which he did.
    I went out to the wagon, unloaded the corn, took care of the wagon and team, locking the horses in the barn. Then stood at the house gate watching movements, answering their questions without telling them the truth. Others came, some with out hats, some with out shirts, shoes, or coats. They searched and re-searched the barn, corral, yard, river bank, but they never went near the house. Mother came home, Angus came home from fishing. About Sundown they all left. [the men] The little automatic 32 was still in its hiding place and we were all right.

*******

Once, one of the leaders was making his threats as to what he would do when he got to Dublan. There was a narrow road through the Lakes the army was following the road -- he and his horse were drowned - and the Lord spared our lives through the eight long years.

Peace was declared, the country wasted, ruined. It was eight years [1912 to 1917] of experience -- not sorry to have had, but hope and pray me or mine will not have to go through like experiences.

After the Revolution

After the Revolution, the Stake MIA sent four of us on the train to Chuichupa - Bro. M.A. Romney, Ernest I. Hatch, Maud T. Bentley and myself. Coming back we asked the conductor if we might ride on the back platform going thro the lumber tunnel. When we were about half way through (better than a mile long), it got so dark that everything looked fiery red to me and I had to go back in the train coach. This was a worthwhile experience because of the story. The conductor told us the story as we went through the tunnel. It was his train the Rebels set burning and run it into the tunnel, at the time the train from El Paso entered it from the north end. Years later the Pearson Company decided to reopen the tunnel and clean it out. That was the work the men were doing. The only light they had were from wood fires. The story - on the train from El Paso was a woman and her children. They had all died in the act of praying. Their bodies were baked meat. One man had tried to go back but had died a short ways from the North End. He, the conductor, said Caranza, the General, had taken the crew off, sent the burning train into the tunnel, then went around the mountain to hold up the train from El Paso to get the Payroll and the freight it carried but he got there too late. The fire in the tunnel burned for weeks.

We enjoyed the few MIA trips to the Colonies in the mountains. They were not very often, because of the wilderness of the country. No law outside of the towns.

For another ten years the two Mormon Colonies existed, and then we began to see that a slow change had been growing. A few more people came to help in the rebuilding. During this time only one year was the school closed. In 1934, it was closed by the government. There were no people to have school the winter of 1912-1913.

Because of the affects of the Revolution, father had great losses. The store had been robbed eight times. He had tried to hold on and keep things together until 1917, when the store was again robbed while Brother Lara, a good friend, was doing the selling. Bro. Lara was a faithful L.D. Saint (a native). He was threatened with death and that they would kill him by torture. He was so frightened, he said, "I am going away". Father tried to find him for 10 days. Then one night father learned that he was with his daughter very sick and wanted father to come and see him, he wanted to tell him something. Early next morning Father went, but Bro. Lara had died during the night. A few months later Father closed his store forever.

Teaching School

It had been 16 years between the time I graduated from the eighth grade and began my teaching career. My Sunday School class was marching out to their class when Pres. Bentley, Principal Ray Oberhansly and John Wilson stopped me and said they wanted me to start school the next morning. Bro. Joel Martineau would have the Mexican Department, Sister Cecil Skousen, First Grade, and I Second, Third and Fourth Grades. Mother gave me my sister Jessie's teaching material, and with Bro. Oberhansley's help, I was able to try my hand at teaching.

My equipment was -- windows with most of the glass gone, a wood heating stove, blackboard full of holes, a half dozen pieces of chalk and a rag for an eraser, sixty-three children and about as many kinds of textbooks (one each of a kind) as there were children. For my half years work I got $40 U.S.-- 800.00 villa pesos [villa money at that time brought $2.00 U.S. for $100.00 Villa Pesos] which bought me one 5 gallon can of coal oil, 1 pr of shoes, and 5 yards gingham. From then until 1952, I was in some way connected with the school. Three years I worked in the Academy -- one year in Garcia and about 6 years in Pacheco. The balance of years in the school in Colonia Juarez, having taught kindergarten to senior high school students, librarian and office work, bookkeeper and the bookstore. About half my teaching time was as the principal of the Elementary School. So my experience in the Juarez School System was over a wide and varied scope.

The first few years one fourth of our salary was produce, cattle or merchandise, or whatsoever the people could turn to us. Our tithing was kept out, which was alright with me, then I didn't have the responsibility of paying it, but many of the teachers objected and after several years, the teachers were paid with full cash salary. When I stopped teaching, I was drawing a salary of $156.00 per month for 9 month period.

Hopes and Dreams

The last time [my sister] Jessie was home we knew how much we were to each other. We made our plans. We would work together. She would teach Home Economics, I would specialize in Business. Then we would spend the rest of our lives. A year later, she died [1921]. My hopes were gone; my plans had been air bubbles. I was lonely. I was melancholy. While Mother and Father were alive, things were okay but when they were gone, what then? I had made up my mind I would be an accountant if I had to do it after I was a "hundred." I would make something of myself. The things Pres. Junior Romney had said still rangled in my mind. I would make him take them back. True, the store was gone, but it wasn't because I was what he said my family was.

I attended the University of Utah for summer school. In 1919, I attended the International Business College at El Paso, Texas and worked, and then I returned to Col. Juarez to teach

Marriage

About two years later, Brother William H. Jarvis met me on the bridge as I came from Sunday School and asked me if I would consider marriage. NO. Definite No I was not interested in any degree. I only tolerated men other than my father and brothers. I hated a far larger number than I felt kindly toward. So the answer was a flat no. I was going away to school.

A few weeks later, I was persuaded to go to Pacheco to teach school 1923-24, Mother and Father favored the idea -- Mary and Etta would care for them. I had 33 students in eight grades. Five of the children were Brother Jarvis'. We were brought together because of the school activities. This is where I got acquainted with Bro. Jarvis and his motherless children. One of the highlights of that years work was the school Socials, every two weeks that brought parents and children together.

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I went to Pacheco to teach [1925-26] and to try being a mother pro tem to eight motherless children and trying to be a wife and helper to a good man but I was not equal to the responsibilities and made many mistakes.

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From the Story Healed: I was married in September and went to Pacheco to teach school the second time. A month later I caught a cold I could not get rid of. For several weeks I went to school every day but I was sick. In February I went to Juarez for Conference and to see Mother. On the way back I lay on a mattress in the back of the wagon too sick and weary to sit up. The next morning, Tuesday, I went back to school but was a sick woman. There was no Doctor or nurse to talk to. That Saturday Will was going out to look for cattle and I went with him. We were riding along the ridge between Pacheco and the Gavalan. He left me to rest while he rode to the rim of the hill or canyon to see if any cattle were there.

There was no movement of any kind among the trees that I was aware of, but [something caused] Tjuana to jump and pitch and I used all the strength I quiet her. Will galloped back to me and we returned home. Sunday I spent in bed -- just weak, tired, and sick.

Monday morning, I got up early as usual to get ready for school. As I stood by the fire, I fainted. Will put me on the bed and went for Sister Martineau (Annie). She did all she could do but as I watched the sunshine move westward, I realized my life was slowly ebbing away and by [time] the sun hit the east hills I would since away with it. I thought of the children, I had not been with them long -- yes Will would -- oh well he could adjust. Mother and Father -- my mind was with them much of the time -- Etta and children would take care of them -- they were all wonderful grand children. It was all right to go.

It was late in the afternoon. A knock on the door and Brother Harlem Johnson asked if Ella was sick, he had come to administer to her. As he laid his hands on my head, to seal the anointing, a power entered and went through my entire body to drive the sickness out of the soles of my feet. I went back into school the next Monday. I knew then as I know now I had been healed by the Power of the Priesthood.

Later Bro. Johnson told me he was plowing in his field -- a voice told him to go administer to Sister Jarvis. He left his team standing in the field while he came across the hills to my home.

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The sailing in married life was rough -- too tough to tell about -- but the Lord was watching that we didn't break up entirely but neither of us would want to take another voyage in the same storm.

The three older children have not been too compatible but I have no reason to say they have not had justifiable reasons to feel as they do toward me. The following years were hard for each of us -- ten months to feed, and backs to cover, my money from the school could not begin to meet the needs and the cows and garden brought only the part of the food. The wants and the needs of the family worried me.

My Father left the property, pasture, etc in my care and went to Utah. I was alone only for Etta with a situation I didn't know how to cope with. I went to my Heavenly Father with my problem and the answer was no. Etta said No, too. Then I went to my Heavenly Father and He sent Bro. Keeler to me with a school proposition which I accepted. When Bro. Keeler became the President of the Juarez Stake, he gave me the opportunity to work in the Academy -- I had charge of the library, the bookstore, and taught some classes mostly 7th and 8th grades. I worked there three years then the work was given to a better man.

There were still misunderstandings in the family, still heartaches and worries and desperate need for the necessities and so the years passed leaving scars in the family -- individually and as a group. The boys left home as soon as they were old enough, Lenora married. The boys all married. I love them all as my own but when their Mother calls them, they are hers.

The next year in August [1926] Mother was too sick and I went back to Colonia Juarez to live. Father had given me the home to do as I pleased, but it was his and mother's savings and I would not sell it as long as they lived, although he tried to persuade me to and buy in Mapleton, Utah.

My own two little girls became my sole comfort. Mother died the 28th of January 1927. My Mary came to me in March 1927. In October of 1927, Brother Jarvis and I went to the Dedication of the Mesa Temple and were sealed. Mary was sealed to us at that time. Then Amy came in March 1929. From 1927 through 1929 I taught in the Juarez Stake Academy. I stayed home during the 1931-32 school year.

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Burned Legs

From the Story Burned Legs: [about 1932] One day while the children were eating, I thought I would heat the milk and get it ready to make the cheese. I took the large kettle of boiling water from the red-hot-stove and set it on the floor behind me out of the way of the children. The tub (no. 3) extra full and heavy -- in the moving of tub from table to stove, it slopped over onto the stove. I jumped back to save my face from the steam (I had been steam burned before) and stepped into the kettle of water with one foot up to my knee and tipped it over on the other. I had on heavy stockings and by the time I could get them off, from my knees down were cooked. The skin came off with the left stocking; I put the left foot and leg in sink and turn on the cold water to stop the pain while I told the children what to do. Mary was 5 years old, she ran to the organ and played with one hand, When Dark and Drear the Sky Appear perfectly, then came to me in the kitchen and said, Wasn't that pretty music mama? Yes, darling, play it again for me. She ran back and played it again, but missed three notes. Later when her Father got home, and we told him about it she said, Shall I play it for you, Daddy? She tried, but came back and said, I can't play it Daddy, I can't remember it. She was disappointed, but her mama had had a lesson. When Dark and Drear the Skies Appear, Providence is Over All, God is near. We never knew where she had heard it, unless it was at church. [This was in the Hymn Book prior to 1985.]

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In 1934 Pres. Keeler asked me to go to Garcia to teach school. Rita Skouson and Roy Hatch were the other teachers. That spring Bill went on a mission to Mexico.

The next three years I taught in Colonia Pacheco, Halver Cluff being the principal. During the school year of 1937 and 1938 I was in Utah with father and attended the BYU. It was the year of my life, a small, small part of a dream that never came true. That year was one of the bright spots of my life. The following July, [1938] I went back to teach school in Pacheco and taught until Mary was in the eight grade. Mary graduated from the eighth grade and the following fall I moved back to Colonia Juarez and lived with Alma in the Hawkin's home.

In September 1950, Brother Clark told me because I was 65 years old I would not be able to teach after that year of 1950 and '51 so I finished up my teaching, turning in all reports and handing them to Bro. George Turley, Principal.

The Principals of the J.S.A. under whom I worked were Ray Oberhansly, I.D. Stewart, Bro. Exkelson, Lucian Mecham, Ralph B. Keeler, and Bryant R. Clark. They were all wonderful men. In my estimation, there were few better, because of their integrity the students of the J.S.A. have made good everywhere they have gone.

Retired from Teaching

Alma and family were living in Dublan but all the other children were making their homes in the U.S. I had been faithful and loyal to the J.S.A. but I had no way of making a living in Juarez. Amy and Mary gave what they could for babysitting.

They had shortened the water until there was not enough to raise a garden or feed my cow. The home was sadly in need of repairs. The barn and fences along the riverbank were no longer fences, just pieces of one.

Mary was working and I went to care for the children during the summer of [left blank] and returned home in August. The neighbor on the west of me had used all my water during summer for his lawn and garden, the neighbor on the east had used the lot for a cow pasture a big part of the time. Mexicans had promised to irrigate and plant a garden. In places -- grass stubble, in others, weeds as tall as I was. The roofs of the porch and granary were gone, ---- well, when I got out of the back of the Mexican's truck and packed my bags onto the porch, my heart broke. No one cared but me. The house was filthy and badly in need of repairs. The home my Mother and Father had worked so hard for and I had enjoyed all my life, to be in such a condition -- no school, no income. I would sell as I had the pasture and go away.

In October, Brother Clifford Whetten said he would buy it, but when it came to paying for it, I had to wait. There must be an operation and I must have at least a thousand dollars for that. I would or hoped I could buy another home. When I went back to Juarez two or three years later, Bro. and Sister Judd had fixed it up just like I would have done it if I could, which made me happy. I have never wanted the home back and yet it will always be Home.

When I was no longer teaching, I spent a part of my time with my girls. There was nothing to do and no income. I sold my home in Juarez - with the first payment of $7000. I paid for operation to have tumors removed. With the balance of two thousand, I bought a place in Mapleton. It was not satisfactory and sold it in July 1960 but had to repossess it in 1961 and told the girls (Mary and Amy) to pay for it if they could. If not, resell if they could.

The home in Mapleton cost me $9000.00 but of course I could never get that out of it. I hope Mary, Amy and their Father will get something worthwhile out of it for what it has cost them.

In fall of '52 (about), David made a trip [to Mexico City]. I and his Father went with him. I will always be grateful to him for giving me that wonderful opportunity. It has been a real pleasure to have had the experience of seeing so many places of interest. I had visited in school with the history classes I had taught.

In Sept of 1960, Bro. Jarvis and I went to St. George. We were very happy there. We did better than 300 endowments and some sealings. In January 1961 Dan moved us to Mesa to live in his little apartment. I went to San Diego to help Mary. She was working and I cared for Danny and Marcie. In June I went to Utah and stayed until August. During the year of 1961 we did quite a bit of Temple work.

1962 found us still in Mesa -- during the summer I spent part of it with Amy and children and part of the time with Dan trying to learn how to do research work, but made no head way in it.

1962 I went to San Diego to help Mary. She was working and I cared for Danny and Marcie. In June I went to Utah and stayed until August.

In 1962, Will and I went to the World's Fair in Seattle, visited Ervin and family at Vancouver and Uncle Lee at Salem. This too was a very worthwhile and enjoyable trip. Reading about places and things are very educational, but to see the places are more impressive. I always enjoyed the trips my Father and I went on to El Paso. Once he took Mother and I over to the Catalina Island on the boat while we had a layover in Los Angeles.

Ervin and Margaret took us to see the Rose Garden of Portland and the largest log cabin in the world which to me are among the wonderful things I have ever seen. It was a rare privilege to see the great Red Wood trees of California. Will and I spent one day seeing some of the wonderful things of the city of San Francisco. I remember the time that city was destroyed by earthquake and fire. I attended Mary Ruth's graduation in Marysville. Other places that were interesting were the mining camp of Santa Barbara, Mexico and in Bisbee, Arizona. The mining in an open pit mine was surely a sight never to be forgotten when several acres of dirt was raised 30-40 feet in the air with one blast of dynamite.

Reminisce

I have just passed my 76th Birthday, [written in 1961] as I have read what I have written a flood of memories pass through my mind; my talks with Mother, my work with Father, and the thrill as I remember him as he would introduce me to people, My righthand man. What ever she does is okay.

Ella's Parents and Siblings

Ella passed away on Nov. 5, 1973 at the age of 88, in the hospital in Payson, Utah and was buried at the Springville Evergreen Cemetery in Springville, Utah.

[[Ella's history typed by Judy Cloward, minor editing & photos added by Danelle Curtis Oct. 2010]