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Show early life and work as president of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers: "Concerning my birth, my mother has told me this story. It was in July and the weather was hot and there were no cooling systems as we have today. It was in the afternoon and my fa¬ther's aunt, Vigdus Bjornson Holt, who had been trained in Ice¬land as a doctor, was there attending my mother. Another man from Iceland, who lived across the street and was cutting the lucern in our yard, kept coming to the window and saying, 'Is she born yet?' and then the next time he would say, 'Is the boy here yet?' Then Vigdus and he would stand and talk in Ice¬landic. The interesting thing is that these two people who loved my mother very much kept up the conversation the whole aft¬ernoon. When I was born, great-aunt held me in her arms and called me Vigdus. She had given me her name and one that I am known by today. "It was in this adobe house that I spent the first years of my life. Mother carried water for blocks to start the first lawn. She had a beautiful flower garden and around the house was an orchard which had every kind of fruit tree. Apples, plums, peaches and many other varieties of fruit and berries were grown. Around the trees grew the lucern of which I have spoken. One space was fenced off because we had chickens. On the lawn was placed a big table with benches. Many times people laughed to see the Bearnson family having their evening meal or noon lunch outside. Mother was really a woman who loved the out¬doors and made her home one of beautiful surroundings. "We would leave our lovely little home in Spanish Fork and go with our father. He was a hard-working man. He was not skilled, so he worked at many of the occupations of our town. He had secured a job in Scofield and took his family there. I shall never forget that we owned the largest house in the canyon. My father bought the Eaton home. Mother was a wonderful housekeeper. It was there that I started to school. We had to go a long way to what was known as the 'Y' where under the tutor¬ship of good teachers I learned to read and write. In 1900 we moved to Rush Valley upon the advice of my half-sister Jose¬phine. Not long ago I took my Board out into the place where my home was located. Not many families lived there and Mother was not happy because she felt that the children were not get¬ting a good education. She decided one night to go home. Home meant Spanish Fork. After our return, Mother saw to it that we children were active in school and church. I graduated from the eighth grade and high school there. "When I came to live in Salt Lake City, I did so because I wanted to attend business college. Part of the time I was with my half-sister Josephine. Most of the time I lived with a woman I called Aunt Lizzie Ashton, who kept boarders. I helped her for my room and board and went to school too. She was so easy on me during that time and it was while living with her that I learned to be a good cook. She had me help with the cooking for the students who lived in her home. "Fourth East Street was the location of the next place that I got a job working for my board. That woman kept me until about ten o'clock every night and then after that I had my studies to do. Years later after I had married and was president of the Relief Society in the Second Ward she came to one of our meetings. She did not remember me until I reminded her that I had worked in her home. We renewed our friendship. "After I finished my schooling I went back home to Spanish Fork and worked for William Beckstrom. That family became my dearest friends. He always praised me for the work I had done in his store." Now she speaks concerning her work as president of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers. "In 1960 Clara Steele became my secretary, not of the organ¬ization but a secretary chosen by the Daughters to help me with the lesson work, and in that year we published Volume 3, Our Pioneer Heritage. Each year from that time on, I have written an outline for the next year's lessons, presented it to the Central Company, Daughters of Utah Pioneers, and they have accepted it and we have published a book. We are now working to com¬plete volume 18, which will be presented at the October conven¬tion this year. Each book has been well received by the public, and people from all walks of life are anxious to purchase them. They have served a purpose- they have largely maintained the financial obligations of the Central Company, Daughters of Utah Pioneers. "Through finances thus obtained, we have been able to furnish the different rooms of the museum- for instance, the Lecture Room. It has been carpeted, painted and new chairs pur¬chased. Book sales have helped to a great extent in maintaining our building and meeting other obligations incurred. "I believe that I ought to tell the story of our Carriage House. When Saramarie Van Dyke of Tucson, Arizona, passed away and her will was read, she had willed all she owned, after several small obligations were paid, to the Daughters of Utah Pioneers for their building fund. I had talked with Mrs. Van Dyke on several occasions and she had told me that she would, at her death, will us the money. I did not think that she was a wealthy woman. She never appeared to be. I thought it might be two or three thousand dollars, but it really amounted to about one hundred forty-two thousand dollars that we received. With that money and added donations from our camps and counties and from the Central Company funds, we built what is now known as the Saramarie Van Dyke Carriage House. In that build- |