OCR Text |
Show Sarah Hogg Giles Morgan Pioneer History Binds Us Together I was homesick, so was mother. Not much green grass like at home, just sage brush all wild like. But I soon forgot my homesickness and became interested in our new surroundings, learned to dig segos and hunt wild currants and service berries and find bird's nests. My father had a sad experience with a skunk; tried to catch it and had to bury all his clothes. You could guess how hard that would be. There was still much pioneering to be done when we came. I have seen my grandfather and father cut their grain with a scythe and tie the bundles by hand with part of the new cut straw. I have ridden in a wagon drawn by oxen, and have helped gather sage brush when they were clearing the land to make gardens and build homes. I have gone barefooted to carry my fathers dinner, and to drive the cows to hills, and the road was not graded or oiled, just a cow trail or wagon road. My first teacher was James Mason. We only had one teacher for all the grades. The school house was a one room building. I think it was brick about where the welfare building is now. We sat on long rough benches and the desks were so high we little ones had to stand or kneel on the bench to write on our little slates. We had no paper to write on. Some of my other teachers were Charles Welch, Miss Gunda Anderson and others. Our Sunday School was held in the same school room or sometimes in a bowery. I belonged to the first Primary organization in the stake with Sister Fry and Sister Welch as our teachers, then the M.I.A. when a little older. Sister Eliza R. Snow and Zina D. H. Young came and organized the Primary and M.I.A. and the Relief Society. I first gained a testimony of the truth of the Gospel when Sister Snow told us about the Prophet Joseph Smith. She showed us the watch he had in his pocket when he was shot in Carthage Jail, how he went into the woods to pray to know which was the true church, and God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ appeared to him in answer to his prayer. She told us many interesting things about him, and from that time I have known that he was indeed a prophet of God. Then, when a girl of seventeen or eighteen, I attended the Stake Academy. My testimony was again strengthened by my study of the Book of Mormon and other fine experiences gained at that school. We enjoyed having Dr. Carl G. Maser visit our school. He was always an inspiration to us. We also enjoyed the choir organization and spent many happy hours there. We also had many happy times at the school, parties and dances and other entertainments all under the direction of our school. In the summertime, we always held our Fourth of July celebration in a nice new bowery. I can smell the new-cut green cottonwood branches as I recall the wonderful celebrations with the stars and stripes and the band playing at sunrise. I will never forget the thrill we got on such occasions. I do not remember my parents ever finding fault with the authorities of the church, but always taught us to respect them and their teachings. When I was about sixteen, I first met William Giles. He and his brother, Charles, and his two sisters all attended the Academy, also many other dear friends. We had many good times together and about four years later, I married William Giles in the Logan Temple on November 18, 1891. We both grew up in homes where family prayers was the rule, so we at once made it the rule in our home and kept it up all thru the fifty years of our life together. When our first child, Geneve, was a few months old, my husband was called to be Bishop of the Milton Ward and held that position for twenty-eight years, when he was called to be a member of the high council in the Morgan Stake. Seven of our children were born in the old house; Elmer being eight months old when we moved into our new home. The following information added by Barbara D. Whittier: Sarah and William Giles had eleven children: Geneve, born 1892; Robert Henry (Harry), born 1894; Mary, born 1896; BerniceAdra, bom 1899 (she died when she was thirteen months old); Rulon, born 1901; Leah, bom 1903 (died in an accidental drowning when she was nineteen years old); Elmer, bom 1905; Smith, born 1906; Ann, bom 1909; Fannie, bom 1910; Wilma, bom 1913; and Woodrow, born 1916, |