Oral History Program Zel Whitmeyer Interviewed by Margaret Rostkowski 17 March 1977 i Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Zel Whitmeyer Interviewed by Margaret Rostkowski 17 March 1977 Copyright © 2014 by Weber State University, Stewart Library ii Mission Statement The Oral History Program of the Stewart Library was created to preserve the institutional history of Weber State University and the Davis, Ogden and Weber County communities. By conducting carefully researched, recorded, and transcribed interviews, the Oral History Program creates archival oral histories intended for the widest possible use. Interviews are conducted with the goal of eliciting from each participant a full and accurate account of events. The interviews are transcribed, edited for accuracy and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewees (as available), who are encouraged to augment or correct their spoken words. The reviewed and corrected transcripts are indexed, printed, and bound with photographs and illustrative materials as available. Archival copies are placed in University Archives. The Stewart Library also houses the original recording so researchers can gain a sense of the interviewee's voice and intonations. Project Description The Weber State College/University Student Projects have been created by students working with several different professors on the Weber State campus. The topics are varied and based on the student's interest or task for a specific assignment. These oral history assignments were created to help Weber State students learn the value and importance of recording public history and to benefit the expansion of the Weber State oral history collections. ____________________________________ Oral history is a method of collecting historical information through recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed Kelley Evans, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account. It reflects personal opinion offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ____________________________________ Rights Management All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to the Stewart Library of Weber State University. No part of the manuscript may be published without the written permission of the University Librarian. Requests for permission to publish should be addressed to the Administration Office, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, Utah, 84408. The request should include identification of the specific item and identification of the user. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Whitmeyer, Zel, an oral history by Margaret Rostkowski, 17 March 1977, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, University Archives, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. iii Abstract: The following is a student report about an oral history interview with Zel Whitmeyer. The interview was conducted on March 17, 1977, by Margaret Rostkowski. Mrs. Whitmeyer discusses her family’s history and her memories of growing up in Ogden, Utah. In studying Utah history it is very clear why members of the LDS Church moved to Utah. Many of these early pioneers left extensive records of their experiences once they were here. It is not so clear why non-LDS people moved to Utah. The experiences of these people are not as readily found. I had often spoken with Mrs. Whitmeyer about her memories of childhood and the stories she remembered her family telling. I decided to interview her for the purpose of writing this paper. She willingly consented. In addition to the interview I had with her, I consulted the Ogden City Directories to verify dates and addresses. I also consulted the Ogden Standard Examiner for information about her father, Chief of Police John Edward Davenport. The interview was not transcribed from tape as she preferred not to speak into the tape recorder. The paper is written from notes taken during the interview. Mrs. Whitmeyer read the finished copy to verify the information. Mrs. Whitmeyer's family on her father's side came to America from Scotland in one 1700's. The family settled initially in Vermont. During the American Revolution, the family opposed the separation from England and supported George III. Because of this unpopular position, they were forced to leave Vermont and move to Ontario, Canada. Here the family went into dairy farming. 1 Jonas Bresee, Mrs. Whitmeyer's grandfather, married Ann Marigold Allan, a member of a Scotch Presbyterian family living in Ontario. They continued the family's dairy farm and also went into cheese making. The business prospered and the Bresees began exporting their cheeses to England. This involved more risk and the business suffered when an entire shipment was lost in a storm at sea. Alva Nichols, a relative of Jonas Bresee, had converted to the LDS Church and had moved to Brigham City, Utah, where he was a bishop. The two families corresponded and Alva encouraged Jonas and Ann to come to Utah. He spoke of the good dairy country near Brigham City. Around 1879 the Bresees decided to move to Utah. They came to Brigham City with their first four children, Carrie Eleanor, Maud Helen, Peter Leopold and Mabel Vaughn. Mrs. Whitmeyer said Alva had hoped Jonas and his family would become members of the LDS Church, but the Bresees did not convert. The Bresees spent several difficult years in Brigham City. Jonas had received some money after the loss of his cargo of cheese. He also helped in the planting of trees in the center of Brigham City along Forest Avenue. But it was hard for Jonas to find work and the family was generally not well received in Brigham City because they refused to convert to the LDS Church. 1 Georgia Isabel, the third daughter, was born in 1880; a doctor from Corinne, Utah delivered her. 1 Mrs. Whitmeyer preferred not to have the actual incidents that happened to the family reported in this paper. She stated she still had to live here in the community and this rather sensitive material might cause some hard feelings. 2 After the death of Ann's grandfather, the Bresees inherited enough money to enable them to move to Nepher, Idaho, near the Raft River. Here Jonas started a dairy herd and again did well. The family was growing and Jonas and Ann felt their location was too isolated, too far from schools. They moved again, this time to Montpellier, Idaho. With the money from the sale of the dairy herd, Jonas built a home In Montpellier. Here the last five children, Allan, DeWitt Owens, Ruby, Blanche Victoria and Hazel, were born. Ruby died in infancy, leaving the family with nine children. With the family established in Montpellier, Jonas went to work in the mines in Kemmerer, Wyoming. He worked up to the job of supervisor. He was killed in an accident in the mines. Mrs. Whitmeyer’s mother was Carrie Eleanor, the oldest daughter of Jonas and Ann Bresee. At the age of 15, Carrie married John Davenport. The year was 1887. John Edward Davenport led a fascinating life before he ever met Carrie. He was born in Ellenville, New York, in 1858. After his birth, his family moved “out west” to Meadville, Pennsylvania. John's father, also named John, was a drayman; he also cut ice during the winter to sell during the hot months. John Edward left his home at age 14. He first worked as a mule drover on the Erie Canal. Then he went to the oil fields in Pennsylvania. There, he worked as a tool dresser. Finally, still a young man, he became interested in the railroad. He worked on many different lines, gradually working his way west. He worked for the Erie, Atlantic and Great Western, the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul, the Union Pacific, the Oregon Short Line and the Denver and Rio Grande. Mrs. Whitmeyer said that in his later life her father had arthritis as a result of his work on the 3 railroad. As a brakeman he had to run along the tops of the cars and jump from car to car. This was especially hazardous in winter when the cars were covered with ice. John and Carrie Davenport had two children. Russel was born in 1889, delivered by Dr. Armstrong. Zel was born in December, 1890, delivered by Dr. Colter. At this time the family lived in the 100 block of 24th Street, between Wall and Lincoln Avenues. According to Mrs. Whitmeyer, Lincoln Avenue was then the residential street in Ogden. The Eccles and the Richards, both prominent families, lived on Lincoln. The Davenports moved to Lincoln Avenue after the children were born. Their home was north of the Eccles’ home, between 23rd and 24th Streets, on the east side. It was one of "four little blue frame houses”. Mrs. Whitmeyer remembers the Hamburger tracks running down the middle of the street. In 1890, John Davenport left railroading and went to work for the police department of Ogden as a "member of the city's first uniformed police force". The family moved to the northwest comer of 28th Street and Madison Avenue. This part of Ogden was then largely rural. The family west of the Davenports, the Wattis family, worked as draymen; they kept their stock in a barn in the back of the house. Mrs. Whitmeyer remembers that the Wattis’ worked on the Lucien Cutoff; they hauled soil and rocks for the fill. Across the street from the Davenports lived the Covingtons, who pastured their horses on the northeast comer of 28th Street and Madison Avenue. Mrs. Whitmeyer's brother, Russel, would follow the older boys in the neighborhood who went into the pasture to get horsehair for braiding. On one of these excursions Russel was kicked by a horse. Mrs. Whitmeyer also remembers sledding down 28th Street on two sleds 4 connected by boards. Adults as well as children sledded, girls and their beaus, parents, uncles and aunts. One by one Carrie's sisters came to live with the Davenports until they married, so the house was full. Two of Carrie's uncles also followed their niece to Ogden. Norman Allan lived in Wellsville. He converted to the LDS Church after marrying the daughter of a bishop. He managed the ZCMI Co-op and also took charge of the tithing yard. Marshall Allan came to Ogden with the railroad. He was a member of the Reformed LDS Church which had a church on 7th Street. Mrs. Whitmeyer was named for his wife. In 1892 John Davenport became City Marshall and ex-official police chief; he held this position until 1900. This was an appointive office through the city council. It was during his time as Chief of Police that Coxey's Army passed through Ogden. Mrs. Whitmeyer remembers her father saying that he and the other police officers had to send Coxey's Army "on their way" in order to protect the town. By the time Zel was ready for school, the family had moved back to the center of town to 2925 Grant in Lindley Terrace. The first school she attended was a private kindergarten on 30th Street and Childs Avenue. She then attended the Little Green School on 29th Street and Childs Avenue. This school was used for the overflow from the Pingree School. The family then moved to the northwest comer of 26th Street and Grant Avenue. They lived on the upper floor of the Bennet Block with stores below. Mrs. Whitmeyer remembers the fire department was located across the street and the whistle that blew every day for morning practice. 5 John Davenport was a life-long Republican and voted only once for a Democrat—William Jennings Bryan. After serving in the office of the City Treasurer under Mayor P. F. Kirkendall, John Davenport left public service to open a business. In 1903 the city directory lists Davenport's business as a saloon. By 1915 it is listed as a grill bar, and by 1920 by its name "The Grill". By 1925 the directory lists no occupation for John Davenport. Prohibition, as well as his own advanced age of 87, probably necessitated his retirement. He died in 1939 when he was 81. Carrie Davenport died in 1900 when Zel was 10 years old. The children and the household were then cared for by Miss Lee who was related to the then well-known Alexander Topanz who hauled freight from Corinne to Montana. Before her death, Carrie Davenport joined the Church of the Good Shepherd. The children were initially sent to a Presbyterian Mission Church at 31st Street and Washington Boulevard. Later, both Zel and Russel were confirmed in the Episcopalian Church. Zel Joined the First Presbyterian Church later with her husband and his parents. Both Zel and Russel attended Ogden public schools through high school. Russel became Interested in Amherst College through Reverend Eldercin, the Congregational Minister. Both he and a good friend, Rinehart Gideon, son of the Attorney General, planned to attend Amherst. In 1912 the entire Davenport family traveled to Massachusetts to enroll Russel in Amherst. No plans had been made for Zel’s further education, but John Davenport felt it was very important that both Russel and Zel be educated in the east. He believed westerners ought to go east for college and easterners ought to come west. 6 The family stayed with John's sister, Mary, in Buffalo, New York. There they met Grace Finch, the daughter of a friend of Mary. Grace had graduated from Wells College in Aurora, New York in 1907 and spoke highly of the school, so Zel boarded a train in Buffalo, changed at Auburn and arrived at Aurora. There were other girls going to Wells on the train. Zel remembers the train being met by a group of upper-class women. The entire group spent the night at an inn, then went on to the college the next day. Fortunately, a girl from Ithaca had backed out, so when Zel presented her high school diploma and her credentials, she was accepted at Wells. With both children in the east, John Davenport became very lonely, according to his daughter. He made a bargain with her. If she would return to Utah for her sophomore and junior years, she could go back to Wells for her senior year. So Zel studied two years at the University of Utah. She studied geology, which was known as a "good course”. In her higher math courses she met George Whitmeyer, a young man she had known from Ogden who was studying engineering. After graduating from Wells, she returned to Ogden where she taught in the public schools for several years before marrying George Whitmeyer. Mr. Whitmeyer’s father had come from Germany to avoid military conscription. He was a carpenter and was brought to Utah to build the flume at 12th Street and Harrison Boulevard. He and his sons established Whitmeyer & Sons, a construction company. They built Ogden High School, the First Presbyterian Church at 28th Street and Quincy Avenue, and numerous buildings at Hill Air Force Base. 7 Mrs. Whitmeyer has spent her entire life in Ogden, She has been active in church work, the Daughters of the American Revolution and Eastern Star. She was one of the leaders of the Children's Aid Society for many years. She is a fascinating source of information about Ogden and its citizens. She remembers many of the people of the town as well as the location of all the first schools and businesses of the town. She always speaks of the town and its people with affection. Although her family never converted to the LDS Church, she seemed to feel this caused her no great harm in growing up here. She said she was never singled out in school or made to feel she was different. Except for the early years in Brigham City, the years of her family in Utah as Protestants among Mormons seem to have been good ones. 8 Sources of Information Interview with Mrs. George Whitmeyer, February, 1977 Ogden City Directories, 1890-1939 Ogden Standard Examiner, September 25, 1939 9