• • • SARAH HOGG GILES I, Sarah Hogg Giles, was born in Heriot Midlothian Scotland on May 23rd 1871 where I lived with my parents Robert Hogg and Mary Ann Norman Hogg until I was 4 years old when my parents heard and accepted the gospel as taught by the Latter Day Saint missionaries. They were baptized in the spring of 1875 and came to America the following July. I don't remember very much about the trip just little things a child would remember like leaving my kitten and the white swans in the pond not far from our house. On the trip I was grieved to see my parents and everyone else so stricken with sea sickness. I remember the soup in big cans and the sea biscuits, tin cups and things we had on the ship and the funny train we crossed the country in. Then when we arrived in Morgan, Utah the log house with no ceiling in it. About the second winter I was taken very sick with diphtheria. We had no antivaccine in those days, no doctor, so just had to depend on the remedies our parents knew of. I was given up for dead but was healed by the power of the Priesthood. It took a long time to get my health again. My eyesight was nearly gone but came back as my health improved. 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, have gone barefooted to carry my father's 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 school 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 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 17 or 18, 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 they taught us to respect them and their teachings. When I was about 16, I first met Wm. 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 4 years later, I married Wm. Giles in the Logan Temple on Nov 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 50 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 28 years when he was called to be a member of the high council in the Morgan Stake. 7 of our children were born in the old house. Elmer being 8 months old when we moved into our new home. The rest of my story is told in connection with that of Ann Giles. (Larson). Note: to this point this story is told in the words of Sarah. I am adding some information about the family: (Barbara D.Whittier) Sarah and William Giles had eleven children. Geneve, born 1892; Robert Henry (Harry), born 1894; Mary, born 1896; Bernice Adra, born 1899, (she died when she was 13 months old); Rulon, born 1901; Leah, born 1903, (died in an accidental drowning when she was 19 years old); Elmer, born 1905; Smith, born 1906; Ann born 1909; Fannie, born 1910; Wilma born 1913; Woodrow, born 1916. In 1923, Geneve's husband of eight years, Arch Simmons Geary, died, leaving her with three small children. She and her little family moved in with her parents and their family. She remarried about three years later, and moved away from the family home. In 1928, Mary's husband of eleven years, Charles Brooks Whittier, died and left her with two small boys, Gene and Gerald. About 1930, it became financially necessary for Mary and her sons to move back with her parents. There were still five of the Giles children, unmarried and living at home. At various times some of Geneve's children came to live with "Grandma and Grandpa". On 7 February 1938, Geneve and her husband, Fredrick Criddle, along with three other friends and in-law family members were killed in an accident when the car they were riding in was hit by a train. Geneve and Fred had one //7 • • • son, Sheldon. He and his older half-brothers, Rex and Bruce, moved back to live with the Giles family. Sheldon lived there for a few months, then went to live with his father's parents. ******* Another excerpt-this written by Sarah: About 12 years later our oldest daughter Geneve (and her husband) were killed in an automobile accident. Then Elmer died of a heart attack. Well, there is worse than that caused by death, and along with the sorrow we have had a lot of joy and happiness and the Lord has answered our prayers in many ways and in later years. I am thankful for the blessings I have enjoyed, for a good faithful! husband and for Family that I have been privileged to be a mother in Israel and for my parents who came to this choice land of America, that they accepted the Gospel and remained true and faithful. There is much more I should have written but have left it too late. Another time, Sarah wrote in a record for her granddaughter, Gwen Geary Adams: I have nothing but happy memories of my girlhood and I have been abundantly blessed of the Lord in the privilege of being the wife of a good true man whom I have always loved and respected and being a mother in Israel of a family of good clean men and women and my life bas been just like a happy dream with just enough ups and downs to make it real. I am only wishing that yours may be a lot like it. This was copied from a record that was hand written by Sarah Hogg Giles . I I'?