| OCR Text |
Show • • • JPEG-Bk13 ·" • . .. .. . .· -g· . TITLE · ·p AGE PIONEER (full name) BIRTH (date and place) DEA TH (date and place) PARENTS MARRIED (who- and date). ARRIVAL IN UTAH (date) (Company arrived with) HISTORY (who wrote) (date written) (who submitted) (address) - Elizabeth (Bessie) Elvira Williams Millard 9/19/1889 Ogden, Utah 5/9/1988 Ogden, Utah . . . - Ezra H~nry Grari~er . Willia~s Sarah Ann Hickenl6oper Williams .· 4/3/1913 Joseph Lawrence Millard 1848=49 Pearl Millard Stanger 5/13/1988 Lucille O. Williams CAMP & COUNTY SUBMITTING ..s. ...,o"'u_t_h_.M ..._ o. r....; ;ig. .a... .._n.___ ______ Camp - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - County . ( Camp Historian & address ) __;: ::.L..:::u=c-=i-=1-=l:..::e~O::..,.~W~i=-·l= -1=.i::a.:.:.:m.:::s_ ______ County Historian & address )_ _- -=D;;;...;e=n=a=--C=--=-·. ......:..:R=i-=c=h:...._ _________ SOURCE OF INFORMATION & PAGE NUMBERS: • BESSIE MILLARD September 19, 1889 - May 9, 1988 Elizabeth 11 Bessie 11 Elvira Williams Millard was born September 19, 1889 in Ogden, Utah. She was de li vered by her grandfather Dr. Ezra G. Williams and she was bless~d in Ogden 3rd Ward by Bishop Winslow Farr. The family lived in Pleasant View , and then in Kanesville for a time, until Bessie was 3, they then moved back to Ogden. Bessie was the seventh child and the I youngest born to Sarah Ann Hi ckenlooper and Ezra Henry Granger Williams. There were four boys - John, Charles, Fred and Joe and three little girls - ~ Annie Rebecca, Sarah Melvina and Elizabeth Elvira (Bessie was her nick name ,at . that time). I She was baptiz~d September 19, 1897 on her 8th birthday by her father in the Ogden River, at Gran~ Avenue. Having been called Bessie as a nick name for eight years he baptized her three times sa'ying 11 Bessie Elizabeth Elvira 11 each time. They therefore decided that Bessie should be her name. Bessie attended Grant School and the Weber Academy while David 0. McKay was principal. She had a special playmate, neighbor, and friend all through her life named Bessie Lee . Bessie Lee lived next door and they were together all the time. She and her sisters and friends played much the same as any children in those days. Ridi ng their horse to Washington Avenue and back an~ around the neighborhood which had very few fences or buildings. The Williams family lived at 2229 Hudson Avenue (now Kiesel Avenue). She lived there for 26 years. They pastured their family milk cow between 20th and 21st streets and Washington and Wall Avenue. She took the cow to graze in the morning and home late in the afternoon. Bessie remembered the 1st, 2nd and 3rd tabernacles being built on the present Ogden Temple/Tabernacle Square. She remembers many a circus coming to town and setting up in the very same area Her grandfather, Dr. Ezra G. Williams, owned all the land from Washington to Grant and from 21st to 23rd Streets where Bessie's family lived. They were a humble, religious .family and always attended church and held positions in the 3rd Ward and North Weber Stake. Bessie churned butter dlld ::,uld 111i1k. and ~ggs tc, tlic r,eighbors. Her iiiothe, m<1de lots of yeast and the neighbors came to trade flour or sugar and such in return. Her mother was a good cook and made bread and bak~ry goods to sell. She especially baked delicious lemon pies made from potatoes, eggs and lemon flavoring with meringue and ' all. They gathered prunes in the fall and cut them in small pieces and dried them for raisins ,in puddings and cakes . They also dried apples, peaches, apricots, corn, peas, and such on the rooftop covered with mosquito net because flies and insects were plentifu l them . Her clothes, dresses, petticoats, caps, coats and all were homemade. ' Her high top leather shoes cost about $1.98 and as long as the tops would last they would be resoled. The rest of her clothes were handed down from one to another to her. When she was in the 5th grade she had one dress . \ It was red and was washed on Saturday night and ironed Sunday morning in time for Sunday School. She also remembers while in the 5th grade after being absent from school for two weeks for illness, she returned and during the spelling bee , she spelled down the class on the word, Massachusetts. 1 2 I I Their home was always open to relatives and friends who came to Ogden - • JPEG-Bk13 from the valley, North Ogden or Pleasant View to do business or just visit. Sometimes they would stay for days at a time. They would put their horse $ and wagons or buggies in the barn and care for them during their stay. I Mother Williams was always generous in spite of her ill health. They wer~ treated as guests and given the best available, although, Bessie remembers the family was served bread and milk or mush so the food would go around, and some of family gave up their beds as well. They depended greatly on 4 the cow and the chickens for their main survival. Bessie grew up to be :very generous as her parents and grandparents had been. She was always willing to cook a meal for someone or let them stay in her home. Bessie's great grandfather, Dr. Frederick G. Williams, was a doctor among the Latter-day Saints in Illinois and a couns,elor to the Prophet Joseph Smith when the LOS Church was organized. He donated $500.00 and tre land to build the Kirtland Temple. They made bricks at his brickyard and l hauled sandstone from the rock quarry on his farm to build the temple. Many of his patients he never collected from. They usually paid with a sack of flour or potatoes, etc. He was a very generous man. When he die~ he was buried in Quincey, Illinois while the saints were still there. His wife Rebecca was the only wife of the First Presidency that made the trek to Utah with the Saints. Rebecca rode on a rocking chair on the back of the wagon as they crossed the plains. Bessie's grandfather, Ezra G. Williams, was also a doctor. He brought his wife Hennr1etta and family and widowed mother Rebecca with the Saints to Utah. Rebecca died while they were living in Smithfield, Utah. Bessie's grandparents, Dr. Ezra G. Williams and Hennrietta, moved to Ogden to set up his practice. Bessie remembers when they built a home on Washington near .23rd Street. Their two front rooms were his office and operating room. He was the first doctor in Ogden to use anesthesia. When he died, the family moved the house and her grandmother to 22nd and Kiesel Avenue next to Bessie's parents so they could care for her. Bessie remembers bei11g with h~r grandparents Dr. Ezra G. and Hennrietta Williams. One day Bessie and her father were with her grandmother when she said, "Ezra, today is Bessie's 10th birthday, do we have something for her?" Her grandfather reache~ in his pocket and drew out .15 cents and gave it to her. Instead of Be~sie running straight to the candy store to buy herself a treat, she passed it by and went straight to Wright's dry goods store where she bought three yards of cloth so her mother could make her a new dress. Her father owned and managed a music store for most of his life. It was located about where the Bon Marche is now, along Washington Blvd . While the family was growing up some ~f the boys worked in the music store. Bessie being musically inclined at home and at the store, taught herself to play the piano, beginning at age four. She later played the violin . Later, Bessie on the piano, her father on the violin and her brothers playing brass instruments, played together for dances and in the band. At /0 • ' • 3 home her father would play the organ and they would all sing. Later they sang in duets and quartets at programs and entertainment. They were a very musica l family and spent much ti me in the evenings practicing together. When Bessie was a teenager she sang in the Ogden Tabernacle Choir for 10 years. She became a soloist and her friend Bessie Lee accompanied her on ·the piano or organ for many years. Sometimes her sister Sarah would sing with her. She sang at many .funerals around town. She was chorister for ~any years in two or three organizations at the same time in her ward. She lqved her music very much. Music was the highlight of her life for many years. When she was 18, her father was called on an LOS mission to the New England states. Bessie worked as an office assistant for Dr. G.W . Baker while her father was on his mission. Her bro thers managed the music store. When he returned home Bessie worked for him in the music store business. It was there she met her husband to be when he came to Ogden to buy music and violin strings. Joseph Lawrence Millard was a farm boy from Marri ott and had a dance orchestra. He played at Rive rdale every Saturday night for many years and sometimes Bessie played the piano with them. His brother Ray played the coronet with him in the orchestra . Lawrence and Bessie were married April 3, 1913. He ran a milk route for Irving Dairy. On their third wedding day, they moved to Marriott, where they raised a family of three boys and two girls. Their home was across from the Marriott School on 1200 West, where the Internal Revenue Servi ce Building now stands. They al l attended Marriott Elementary and Weber High schools. The Millard family lived in Marriott until July 1941 when Ogden Defense Depot bought their home and they moved to Ogden . Raymond, Pearl, and Margorie were married by that time and Harry and Merle were married shortlr after they moved to Ogden . They all live in the Ogden area. Lawrence later retired from the Arden Dairy without missing one day of work. Lawrence, her husband of 57 years, died June 16, 1970. Bessie's family came first in her life and she ~njoyed the company of her f ive children and their families of 25 grandchildren and 82 grea t grandchildren and 11 great great grandchildren. l Bessie enjoyed cooking, sewing, crocheting and embroidery and appreciated that art done by others as well. She sewed all of her own clothes and those of Pearl and Marjorie . She always prepared a nice meal with p,lenty of fresh vegetables from the ga rden. She loved anima l s , especiall y dogs, cats and lambs. She spent many years raising puppies, kittens and baby lambs along with her children. She enjoyed and cared for animals and talked to them as people. She had compassion for them and nursed many of them back to good health . JPEG-Bk13 I/ , 1 • .. • JPEG-Bk13 4- . She loved a beau tiful green lawn and many flowers . She enjoyed /~ growing them and could repeat the names of each flower in her gar den. She loved the roses around her yard on Monroe Avenue. She loved the mountains and wo~ld always tell stories of Ben Lomond peak and hik i ng to Ma l an's Bas in . After Lawrence died, she stayed alone in the big house on Monroe. She la'ter spent a lot of time in the homes of her daughter Marjorie and granddaughter Connie. As her health required, she was placed in a home for elderly ladies and then the Crestwood Care Center, where she won the hearts of all of those who cared fo~ her . · As written by her daughter I -- Pearl Stanger , 1I Grandma passed away quietly and peacefully at the age of 98. She had_ many struggles in her life as she grew up and raised a family in time of hard work and no luxuries, but she always made the best of it. Even up to the last few minutes of her life, as she struggled to breathe as she suffered from pneumonia. Grandma never gave up . The spir it just quietly left her body and went to meet her Heavenly Father. Many of us would say, "How could she ever live to- be 98 years old?" 1 1 found a little poem once that helped me understand. One day at a time This is enough, Do not look back and grieve over the past, For it is gone ... And do not be troubled about the future, For it has not yet come . Live in the present, And make it so beauti ful That it wi,U be worth r emembering forever. Grandma lived one day at a time and for those around her , every day was beautiful as she talked about the flowers and the bi rds she could see out the window and the mountains she use to climb, and she always appreciated everything the nurses and family did for her . • • I 5 A MOTHER'S LOVE , There is a legend that an Angel came down to take something beautiful back to Heaven, · and he took a bouquet of Roses, a baby's smile, .and a mother's love. When he reached the Heavenly realms the roses had withered, the baby's smile had vanished, but the mother ' s Love had endured forP.ver. One thing I know for sure she loved her children and appreciated all they did for her. • She loved her grandchildren and always asked about them and kept track of w~ere they were and what they were doing. She loved her great grand children and she never forgot their names · and how many were in each family. This I know, that Grandma loved all of us. As I saw her lying so peacefully I can honestly say I have never seen such a beautiful lady . Dear Grandma, Ever since my childhood, I've admired you, wanted to be like you, respected you, and always ..•. always loved you. Love, Marian r Marian Stanger Smout May 13, 1988 JPEG-Bk13 |
