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Show Utah’s oldest resident Three Women 301 Years. By Harold H. Jenson. Mrs. Celestia Snow Gardner, who celebrated her 90th birth last week is native of … . Women have a corner on longevity laurels in Utah at present. The three oldest residents, all of whom hav passed the century mark, and Mrs. Julia Caroline Burr, Provo; Miss Sarah E. Guernsey and Celestia Snow Gardiner, both of Salt Lake City. Mrs. Burr was born March 30, 1858, in Manti, Utah, a daughter of William and Eliza Nielson Brown Beal. Her family moved to Glenwood, Sevier County, and lived in a dugout until they could erect a small adobe home.With the outbreak of the Blackhawk Indian War, they were forced to return to Manti. When hostilities ended, the family moved to Spring Valley, Nevada, where for awhile it was difficult to obtain anything to eat except “gritty flour, dark in color.” Mrs. Burr recalls, “I well remember how happy we were to get some good white bread to eat.” From Spring Valley, they then moved to Shunesburg, in the Dixie Valley on the Virgin River. Here the father contracted chills and fever. He later died at Glenwood, where the family had moved thinking the climate would improve his health. Thus, at the age of 10, Julia Caroline learned to spin, knit, and cord wool, … doing all other kinds of work to help her mother earn enough to keep the family. At the age of 14, …. UTAH’S SECOND OLDEST PERSON, Miss Sarah E. Guernsey, has never been married and spent the major portion of her career raising everyone else’s children. Born Nov. 24, 1858 in Vermont, Miss Guernsey started her teaching career at the age of 16 and, after graduation from Mr. Holyoke Seminary in 1883, one of her early assignments was teaching Choctaw and Cherokee Indians in Massachusetts. Later she taught English, Latin, and History in Chicago and southern Utah, teaching a total of 50 years. “There’s nothing like teaching to keep one happy,” she declared. “Though I have no children of my own, I have watched over the welfare of thousands.” On her 100th birthday last Nov. 24th, she received cards or flowers from countless pupils and well wishers, including President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and the governor of her home state of Vermont. UTAH’S THIRD-OLDEST PERSON, Mrs. Celestia Snow Gardner, was also a teacher at one time. She became a centenarian March 12. She was born in Lehi, Utah, when it was a mud-walled fortress. Her early recollections are of her schooling in an adobe school room with nine other pupils, and watching amazed at the mill as rollers and vats transformed sugar cane into molasses …. Following is a favorite poem from a wide collection of favorite poems; MY HOME I've seen a lot of country And I've made a lot of friends, I've traveled through the nation From Its centre to the ends. I've sought for Joy and happiness The fullest life can give, I've found it in the cottage There my beloved live. I've found the comfort graater In that humble little place, I've feltt the heart strings drawing When I'd leave it for a space. I've found the welcome surer And the atmosphere more sweet Amid the circle of the home Where just the family meet. I've found the fireside brighter Within these sacred walls, I've heard the voice of angels In little children's calls. I've found the home folks dearer Than the strangers where I roam Eternal God of peace protect My loved ones and my home, (Copied and mailed by Celestia Snow Gardner March 24 1946, the month of her 87th birthday.) Part of the Pine Valley congregation entering their little New England-designed Church Built by Ebenezer Bryce, Shipwright, later cattleman who grazed his heard in and near the canyon which now bears his name. The Church, oldest in Washington County, Utah, built in 1867, |
