Excepts from Lerona's journal
My father's women were industrious They used to spin and
knit. There was a Scotch weaver by the name of Shields and his
wife who used to come there and say 'Now you have got to spin me some
yarn so the that piece out of the loom' and then how the wheel s would
fly. One of them (the women) had a little wheel and I learnt to
spin on it and when I was eleven years old I could spin three skanes of
yarn a day and knit a sock. We got a dollar a piece for our socks,
75 cents for mittens. My mother was a seamstress, Martha (wife #8)
was the school teacher, the old lady 'Brunetta gramma' (wife #1) as we
called her, was the peace maker and mother to us all and we all loved
her.
I was born January 12, 1856, at Shambip, Rush Valley (now known as
Tooele County) Utah, daughter of Wm. A Hickman and Minerva Wade
Hickman. I was the first daughter born there. My little
brother, Edward, died and was buried there with two others in an unknown
grave. The sand has blowed over them till it seems it didn't
happen.
When I was three weeks old the Indians got bad and my father wrapped me
in a blanket and we made it back to our old west Jordan home in safety.
We had the prettiest place on all of Jordon, three or four miles up the
river from where the little Cottonwood emptied into Old Jordon
River. There was a big bridge there.
We had a little log school house about half way from the bridge to
our place. Our place had a beautiful little mound on it. The
banks of the old Jordon River overflowed and there was a big pond just
below the mound that circled round a bend. A high bank on one side
was covered with rose bushes and the little mound covered on the north
side the same, and when we would go on the mound we could see the river
for miles with the willows on it's banks.
There ibis a remembrance of the sports of childhood with my brothers and
sisters. There were about fifteen of us and six women. The
old lady, the first wife, Brunetta gramma, sure was good to us, but hard
times was to come. The range was gone and Pa sold out to a man by
the name of Bringhurst.
We moved to little Cottonwood where my youngest sister was born and the
baby of the Hickman family. I used to think Little Cottonwood one of the
beautifullest streams on earth where it emptied into the Old Jordon.
The sand on it's banks was as white and dishes.
Pa owned land over on the state road toward Sandy and raised a big crop
of wheat there, that done us through that hard winter, that the mills
froze up and we had to grind it on a coffee mill, and so did lots of
others.
Our house on the Jordon (had) seven rooms, old fashion adobes, three
large front rooms, four small ones in the back with a porch in front
facing to the east. They all lived kindly together. It had a
big mud wall around it built in the times the Indians were so bad,
fifteen or sixteen feet high with tow pairs of bars, on in the south,
one in the north. Quite a few say the mound was something
ancient. It didn't seem like the elements put it there.
Some day I will wander back again, yes, back to where the old home
stands. Pa bought a small piece of land and built a log house with
an upstairs in it. We lived there two years while he went to
Bingham Canyon to work in the mines.
The family began to pull apart. Mother sent for her brother,
Edward Wade, to come and get her.
I will pass over this part of my life for it seems the hardest in my
thoughts. Someday we will get proper credit (for what Father
did). A professor in the Ogden High School said to his (Bill
Hickman's ) granddaughter, "Your Grandfather would never let the
weak be imposed upon."
The small log cabin lived in before the big home was built.
It is most likely Maude and Ester in the photo.
Lerona washing some vegetables.
On the back of the photo is written:
August 14, 1923.
They were sorry I wouldn't give them time to clean up.
But, I wanted them just as they were.
(Jess, age 76. Lerona, age 67)
Vernell's remembrances:
She was my favorite person in the whole world. She used to stick
up for me.
The last time I saw Grandma, I was working for the resettlement office
in Malad. They had to have names of an old man and woman that
lived about six miles out in the west side of Blackpine Valley so they
could resettle them. I had to go through Snowville. When I
got their names, I went back through Snowville and stopped by to see
Grandma.
She lived alone but she had two daughters and a lot of grandchildren
that would come to see her often because they would always get something
to eat.
It was Aunt May that got the family ranch for only about what the stock
was worth and not the land itself. Her little home was about three
miles from her old home.
She fixed me a lunch. When it began to get dark, I told her I had
to leave or they would send out the rescue squad. I said goodbye
and was almost to the gate where my pickup was parked when she came
calling to me. She was crying and threw her arms around me.
She said, "I did not want the Shawls to get our ranch. I
wanted you to have it."
But, you see, I was a teenager when grandpa died and I did not have an
idea that she would want me to have it. After all, her own kids
would come first. Her daughter married Roy Shawl. When she
died of cancer in her mid fifties, the ranch went to the Shawl estate.
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September 12, 1938
Snow Ville, Box Elder Co., Utah
Dear Son Warren and family,
I set down to write you a few lines for I want to hear from you
and how you are getting along and I guess I can't till I write
again.
I am down here to the old home with May. I took sick and had the
flew and pretty nigh froze in that old log house. She has
given me back my little old room and got it fixed up real
comfortable.
For the winter we have had some real bad weather that is
something we have got to take where ever we are.
Roy is working real hard. He got the eighty broke up
and put in and it looks real nice. He got a load of wood
every day. That foggy weather it has turned colder and
cleared up but it is a long time till Spring.
I don't have to do anything. She does it all. |
 |
I hate to see her work
so hard.
Your girl was over here just before she got
married.
Said she would come again. I was pleased to see her.
I am glad some of you will still stay here. Now we have
got ____to ___we can go and see one another if we are a thousand
miles away.
I want the little boy to write to me again and draw me some more
pictures. Everyone that has seen your place likes
it. It there is a ____ that is enough. No one
is trying to get rich. Be _____and have the comfort of
life. That's all we need. ___ be content and
be good natured and love one another and you will enjoy life
because I want to see you all once more.
There has been lots of sickness and lots of folks have
died.
Now write and tell me all about Jessie's family.
I will close for the time with love to you from your mother
Lerona Vanderhoof |
Lerona
lived 83 years.
Lerona
H. Vanderhoof
Ogden—Mrs.
Lerona Hickman Vanderhoof, 83,
widow of Jesse L. Vanderhoof,
died at
8:45 p.m. Saturday at the home
of
a daughter,
Mrs. Grace Shaw of
1165 Kiesel avenue,
of causes incident
to age. She had been in
failing health
for the past year.
Mrs.
Vanderhoof was born January 12,
1856, the first white child born in the
Little Cottonwood area of Rush valley in
Tooele county, a daughter of William and
Minerva Wade Hickman. She
moved to
North Ogden with her parents when she
was but a child, where she was married
to Mr. Vanderhoof in 1869. They
moved
to Missoula, Mont., where they fought In-
dians until they decided to return to North
Ogden to escape further trouble.
About 20 years ago they moved to
Snowville, where she had resided until
she came to stay with her daughter two
weeks ago. She was a member
of the
L.D.S. church.
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