Autobiography of JESSIE MARGUERITE PACE GRAHAM

Autobiography of JESSIE MARGUERITE PACE GRAHAM

Her personal story of her early years

My mother, Julia Anna, called Julie Ivins, daughter of Dr. Israel Ivins and Julia Hill, married Aaron Johnson McDonald 12 January 1881 in the St. George Temple. Aaron was the son of Alexander Findley McDonald and Elizabeth Graham. He and his father had recently returned from a mission to Scotland, their homeland. After Aaron and Juie were married they made their home in St. George but in the year of 1883, Aaron made a trip to Mesa, Arizona, and decided to make that their home. He returned to get Juie and their little son, LeClaire who was born 17 December 1881, and they made their home in Arizona.

They were very active in the church, played in dramatic productions, sang duets, and gave music lessons, Juie giving lessons on the organ, and Aaron on the banjo. They were really a help to the little community.

Aaron was roofing a house early in July of 1884, when he fell from a heart attack or a ruptured blood vessel, and died almost immediately. After Aaron's death mother lost a pair of twins, born prematurely, and they were buried in Mesa beside their father. Shortly following these incidents, mother returned to St. George, and lived in the home of her father, Dr. Israel Ivins.

Julie was a milliner by vocation and made her living by this trade a good part of her life. However, she always wanted to study to be a doctor and finally made arrangements to go to Ann Arbor, Michigan to fulfill this desire. While in Salt Lake preparing to leave for school, she and my father, John Ezra Pace, son of James Pace and Lucinda Gibson Strickland, journeyed to Logan, Utah in August of 1888, and were married in the Logan Temple. This was my father's third marriage. His first wife was Caroline Augusta Ivins, daughter of Israel Ivins and Anna Lowrie Ivins. His second wife was Phoebe Ann Covington, daughter of Robert D. Covington and Nancy Roberts. Mother's little son, Claire, was left in St. George with his grandparents, while she went away to school.

There was quite a group of Utah students attending Ann Arbor, and she enjoyed their friendship and her studies very much. After three years, and shortly before graduation, a severe heart attack put an end to her schooling and it was necessary for her to return home. Her cousin, Heber J. Grant who was in the east, accompanied her home as she was too ill to travel alone. She gradually regained her strength and resumed her home duties again.

Because of persecution of men practicing polygamy at the time, my mother left St. George and went to Salt Lake to await my birth. She lived in a little home on "F" street near Third Avenue. I was born March 31, 1892, and Uncle Heber sent the happy message of my birth in code to father so that no trouble would come to him. I was named after my mother's best friend, Jessie Johnson. Mother's health was very poor and she had to remain in Salt Lake for a long time before she could make the long journey back home to show her little daughter to all of the family. After the Manifesto came into effect, the men who had more than one wife were able to return to their homes and better care for their families.

My recollection of my early childhood are very dim, perhaps because I never had a mother to share memories of the many happy times. I do have some memories of my grandparents with whom we lived. Grandfather Ivins, a doctor of note in those early days, lost his sight several years before he died. I loved to guide him about the house and garden and remember many happy hours with him. He never failed to have candy in his pocket to hand out to every child that came into the home.

Grandmother Ivins was a convert to the church from England, and crossed the plains in a handcart company. She was a milliner by trade, having learned the business in England, and taught it to my mother. I remember that she was noted for her "green thumb" and our flowers in our garden were beautiful, with English ivy growing over everything. Her vegetable garden was an equal success.

I never knew my grandfather Pace, but grandmother Lucinda Pace lived at my father's home the latter part of her life. Her death was the first death in the family that I remember.

Father's first wife Caroline, Caddie as she was called, had four children. Edith Anna, Rachel Lucinda, John Ivins, and Israel Woodward. Aunt Caddie died of pneumonia when her baby Israel was only nine months old, leaving her four little ones motherless.

His second wife, Phoebe was a woman of much love and understanding and she and Aunt Caddie were like two sisters, and loved each other very much. They had a wonderful relationship, never any jealousy nor envy between them. They cared for each other's children and shared everything, but each maintained their own home. At the death of Aunt Caddie, Aunt Phoebe, bless her heart, took Caddie's children into her home and into her heart and raised them as her own. This wonderful mother eventually had twelve children of her own but gave unselfishly to the others. She lost one daughter, Caddie, who died as a child.

Father had nineteen sons and daughters and we never think of each other as half-brother or half-sister, but have always been one big happy family. This proved to me that these wonderful women and my father were truly wonderful spirits who lived as our Father in Heaven wants us to live, with love and understanding in our hearts.

My sister, Julia, was born April 24, 1897 and a brother, Karl Ivins was born August 1, 1899. Karl was named after Karl G. Maeser, a great Latter-day Saint teacher under whom my mother had studied.

I remember a long sickness of typhoid fever that my brother Claire had, and also some of the sick times from my childhood. One of the first faith promoting instances in my life was my mother calling in the Elders to administer to me when I was suffering from and earache that I felt I could not stand another minute. Our good neighbor, Brother Gardner, came over with another person I do not remember, and administered to me and promised me I would go right to sleep and not suffer any more. This I did immediately and was well in the morning to enable me to go on a picnic with the Gardners. I will never forget how quickly Heavenly Father answered that prayer.

I remember one Christmas when I was about six years old, I got a beautiful playhouse that you could walk into, and all we children had wonderful times in it. Another exciting time in my life was when Uncle Tone (Anthony W. Ivins), my mothers brother was called to go to Mexico to help colonize a group of Latter-day Saints down there. They lived next door to us at the time, and the novelty of this great move was very exciting to we children, but it was a must that we stay on our side of the fence and keep out of the way.

From the stories told me by my mother's brothers and sisters, as well as my own family, my mother was a woman of great faith in our Father in Heaven and in His church, and received the many blessings which she needed. I shall always be thankful to my mother for the faith she tried to teach me, and the great power which comes to us when we pray to our Heavenly Father. As a child I did not realize my mother was in such poor health, but I do remember her needing to take medicine every night before going to bed. On the night of 17 January 1900, I was awakened by the crying of my sister Julia. Claire and I slept upstairs while mother and the two small children were downstairs. When the crying continued, I got up and went down to see what was the matter. As I opened the door my mother seemed to be sound asleep, with her arm thrown over little Karl who was on the outside of the bed. Julia was at the back of the bed with no covers over her and was very cold. I tried to awaken mother, but could not, so I covered Julia as well as I could. I remember sitting on the floor by the side of the bed crying, and wondering if my mother was dead, and what would become of us. I went crying upstairs and awakened Claire. He was about 10 years older than I and seemed to understand the situation when I told him I could not awaken mother. He rushed me downstairs, built a fire in the bedroom, got both the children up, gave the baby to me and told me to hold him very carefully, and that he would be right back. In a very short time he was back with my father whose other home was but a short distance from ours. My first realization that mother was dead came when my father stood at the bedside and sobbed. I was very frightened. We children were all taken up to Aunt Phoebe's who opened her arms and comforted us.

Aunt Phoebe had a small baby girl just a month or two younger than Karl, who was about six months. She also had three other children who were younger than I, and I was nearly eight. She had a houseful of small children, but she fitted us all in some place. This wonderful mother took us in and loved us and cared for us as her own. I wonder now how she ever was able to care for so many of us. Three times a day 12 children sat down to eat, as some of the older boys were now working most of the time. President Heber J. Grant came to St. George for the funeral, and when he returned to Salt Lake he took Claire with him and gave him work in his office learning the insurance business. Claire worked there for the rest of his life, becoming an officer in the Heber J. Grant Insurance Company.

On May Day, 1900, a beautiful spring day, father took me to the St. George Temple where I was baptized by W. H. Thompson and confirmed by David H. Cannon, President of the Temple. I have always been happy for this wonderful experience, for the Temple always seemed to be such a hallowed place.

During the year 1901 Karl, Julia, and I went to Logan to live with our mother's sister, Edith Ivins Lamoreaux. We stayed only a matter of months and then returned home. I remember when we got back home to St. George, Karl was very sick. Aunt Phoebe was so unhappy she had let him leave her. She stated that she would never let him leave her again, and he never did until he was out of High School and went to Salt Lake to work.

In 1902 I again went to Logan to stay with Aunt Edith, and went to school there that winter. Aunt Edith's little girl Shannie came down with scarlet fever that winter. Her other daughter Diane, merely a baby, and a hired German girl and I, were put in the other part of the house and none of us came down with the disease. Shannie was ill for a long time and Phoebe Peart, mother of Amelia Peart whom my brother Claire later married, took Diane and me to her home and kept us with her. Little Shannie died of this dreadful disease. After her funeral, the house was completely cleaned so there was no danger of us returning to the home.

When LeClaire and Amelia were married, I went to Salt Lake to live with them. They had a little home on First Avenue and I went to the Lowell School for a little while. Later we moved to Center Street and I went to the Washington School for one winter. The year I turned 15 I returned to St. George and graduated from the eighth grade the next spring. That was a happy year for we girls at home. There were six of us and we thought life was wonderful. I fell desperately in love with several of my school mates which made life very exciting.

That summer my sister Lutie had twins, Milton and Mildred, and I was sent down to give her a helping hand with the babies. I stayed the summer with them and in the fall, went back to Salt Lake to live with Claire again. I went to the LDS Business College that winter which I enjoyed very much.

A new baby came to the home of my Aunt Edith, mother's sister, so I returned to Logan the summer of 1909 to give her a helping hand. In August, the GAR (Grand Army of the Republic) held their convention in Salt Lake, and the town was filled with visitors. A girl friend from Idaho was staying with us and we had made arrangements to meet at Second South and Main at 5 o'clock one evening to go to a show or do something else fun. When I met my friend, she was talking to a young man, Archie J. Graham, to whom I was introduced, and little did I know at that time that he was to be the "man in my life." He was in the city for several days and during that time we became very well acquainted. I thought him very nice, and remember telling Aunt Edith that he was the ideal I had been looking for. His home was in Idaho and he returned home four days after we met. He came back for October Conference and we had a lovely evening together.

The next time I saw Archie Graham he was on his way to Old Mexico, where his father had purchased a big ranch. He and his brother Eugene were traveling in the freight car that held all their belongings. I met his brother for the first and last time as he died before the family returned to the United States. Up to this time we had only been with each other eight times, but Uncle Sam carried our messages back and forth in the mail with great regularity, and things kept getting more serious with each letter. The most important letter was waiting for me one day when I got home from work, but before answering it I prayed earnestly to my Father in Heaven, talked to my Aunt Edith, and brother Claire. Then I wrote to my father, telling him of the great question I had to answer. I guess I pictured this sweetheart of mine in glowing colors, as my father wrote back and jokingly said, "If he was all that I had described, marry him quick!"

By the time spring came, even though we wrote every day, we found that letters were not very satisfactory, and in April this wonderful man that I had promised to marry made arrangements with his family to return to Salt Lake. He arrived 1 May 1910, but had to come to Farmington as I was there spending May Day with Claire and family, and a very dear girl friend.

I was really ready to marry and settle down in a home of my own. It seemed to me that I had spent all of my life moving from one home to another. However, in all of these homes I had really had good training in home making and caring for children. Aunt Edith was always so good to me, and had taught me to love and appreciate literature. I think she read aloud to me everything Shakespeare wrote, and explained it as we read. She helped me in so many ways and I shall always be grateful to her for what she did for me.

Amelia, Claire's wife, was not well much of the time. As I lived with them I took much responsibility around the home. She was a very talented person and especially helped me in learning to sew, which certainly has been a blessing to me in the raising of a family of girls and boys. I do love and appreciate her, and my brother, Claire was closer to me to than any other person, excepting my darling husband. I shall love Claire eternally for many kindnesses to me and my family.

The return of my sweetheart was a great surprise to me. Of course we had planned to marry sometime in the near future, but after he arrive we hurried our plans and were married in the Salt Lake Temple on May 20, 1910 by President Anthon H. Lund. Archie was fortunate in getting temporary work, and in the late summer he was hired by I.X.L. Furniture Company, to go to Tooele, Utah to manage a store for them.

We faced our new life together with lots of love, some courage, and much faith in the future. My husband did a very good job in the store, we were very active in the church, and enjoyed our stay in Tooele. The people were very nice to us. We made some friendships that became life-long comrades. In the spring, we were transferred to Bingham Canyon, to manage another of the I.X.L. stores. We lived in a nice Ward with wonderful people, but there also lived there many very rough miners who spent much of there time in the saloons that lined the streets.

On March 2, 1911 a lovely little daughter, Julia, came to bless our home, and our lives and we were happy and felt complete.

In the spring of 1912, we moved to Hooper, on a little farm of Father Graham's This was a new experience for us, but a good one as my husband was a farm boy and loved to make things grow and reap a harvest for the hard work that he did. We did work hard and enjoyed it very much. We also loved the Ward in which we lived.

In the spring of 1913, Claire bought a fruit farm in Bountiful, Utah and had us move there to care for it. In November, on the 8th, another small daughter, Mildred, came to bless our home. We were so thrilled to have this little one come to us, and little Julia thought she was wonderful. Complications set in immediately after her birth, the first time in my life that I had been seriously ill. Finally, the doctor tried some new medicine to control blood poison. It was the first he had ever tried, but it worked with me and then other women who used it later. It did take me a long time to get well and strong, but by spring both the baby and I were well and the baby was growing strong and active. She was such a happy baby and as quick and active as she could be.

Claire had purchased another farm at Highland, just a few miles north of American fork, Utah, and in the fall of 1915 we moved down there. We built a nice large barn and lived in a part of it during the first winter, until we completed our home. There was but a small ward at Highland and my husband was a pillar of strength in the different organizations. His best work was done in the Sunday School where he was Superintendent for several years. I had never attended Relief Society before, until we joined this ward, but I was soon called as second counselor and gained much experience while serving there.

On May 1, 1917, our son and heir, Maurice J. came to join our family. His father was so elated that his head was in the clouds for days. Even the unusual snow storm which arrived the same day failed to dampen his father's happiness in the birth of his son. The little girls welcomed this new baby with open arms and enjoyed him very much.

In the year 1918 just after Christmas, my darling husband caught the influenza. This was the year so many people had this disease and so many deaths resulted. Much faith and many blessings by the Elders, at last gave him a turn for the better, and we were a very grateful family that his life had been spared. He was sick for many weeks and it took him a long time to regain his health again. Father and Mother Graham lived with us at various times after they returned from Mexico and we were very thankful to have them with us during this long illness, and their help was so very much appreciated. The children also had the flu during this period, but they were ill only a few days and were soon up and around again. Fortunately, I did not contact it.

In the spring of 1919 Claire sold the half the farm we were living on, so we built another home on the west half of the property. Also, we built a new barn for our dairy cows, and increased the size of the herd. Our little Julia started school at Highland School and had a long walk, coming and going. It did not seem so bad at that time as all the children had to do it, many walking much further.

On March 22, 1920 our second son, Archie Lloyd came to make our lives even more happy and we felt greatly blessed with our little family. When Lloyd was seven weeks old, he and Maurice took cold. Maurice had a bad case of bronchitis, and Lloyd's cold developed into pneumonia. He was a very sick baby for two weeks, and the doctor worked hard and did everything he could to help, but we know that it was only through the blessings of our Father in Heaven that his life was spared and we had the pleasure of watching him grow into manhood. A good friend, Sister Strasburg, stayed right in our home and cared for him night and day, as did his father, one or the other never leaving his side. After the disease had spent itself, it took some time to get the infection stopped, but it was not long before he was a rosy-cheeked baby again.

We were blessed very much for all our children were a healthy lot. Of course they had the various childhood diseases, and these were generally at the same time, but we were blessed that we had no more serious sickness or accidents.

ALG NOTE: Sadly Mother never up-dated her history beyond this point.