Gertrude

 Gertrude

I thought maybe today I would share something about someone I actually knew.  I was 10 years old, almost 11 when my Grandmother, Gertrude (Jackman) Montague passed away...but I had developed a strong impression of and love for her in that mount of time...she had made a deep imprint on my soul.

In looking for something else (hw often is this the case) I ran across two separate remembrances of her by two individuals, each of which capture a different aspect of her multi-faceted life.  I will share parts of eac of them here.

The first is from a friend.  She writes:

Gertrude was a pleasant hard-working woman.  She always had a smile and a good sense of humor  and was very east to associate with...

She was always helping someone besides keeping their home and family together.  She also had a nice family and she worked hard for them and loved them very dearly.

My husband lived close by them and after I moved to Payson I met Lucille Kinder Johnson and she took me to visit Gertrude and her family.  That was when I first met her.  I really liked her.

Then WPA was introduced in Payson.  She became a nurse and helped many people.  She was paid by the WPA which was a work project.  

After Bus & I were married and it was our second son when  Curtis was born.  Gertrude came to our house morning and night to take care of me & the baby.  That was in 1937 and we really appreciated her and what she did for us.  And then in 1940 when our second daughter was born, we had Gertrude come again to care for me and the baby...She was a very good nurse.

We always felt better after visiting with her.  I remember her walking everywhere she went.  She was indeed a good mother, a good housewife and home maker and a good friend.  I am glad that we knew her.

And this from a nephew, William Dean:

She was kind and cheerful.  She had a happy personality.  She loved her family and worked hard to make a good home for them.

In hard times she would fill all of her bottles with fruit, then fill several honey cans with peaches, and as the bottles were empty in the winter she would put the peaches form the cans in the bottles.  She raised a garden...chickens, pigs, and kept a cow for milk.

She cared for women who were confined with baby’s, and worked for sick people.  She was a good worker and always brought a happy spirit into any home that she entered.

She loved her parents and was always ready too help them when they needed her.  She had many friends and the neighbor children loved her and she had a yard full of them a lot of the time.

I have many memories of her, but I will share just two.  She had what seemed to me a huge upholstered rocker, and it was a competition to climb on her lap, it seemed that there were always two or three of us there at any given time, and she would just laugh the most wonderful laugh...and she would read to us, or tell us amazing stories...and I always felt such love and security on her lap in that big rocker (as I type this, I can hardly see the page through my tears).

By the time I was old enough to remember, Grandma had married a fine older man, Leo Condor, and lived in a rural area outside Richfield, Utah.  My family loves to tell the story of when I, probably all of five years old, came running breathlessly into her kitchen, grabbing her by the hand, and taking her hurriedly outside to see the chickens that had invaded her yard.  I think that was probably the first time I had seen free-range chickens, outside a coop.  She very patiently accompanied me, and shared my sense of amazement at these feathered creatures that she had seen every day for many years.

I still love my Grandma...I hope now you do too.  

 TWO ENTRIES INTO THE VALLEY

As we approach Thanksgiving, I thought it appropriate to note two of our ancestors’ entries into the Salt Lake Valley...separated by over eight years...after long treks across the vast and often treacherous plains.

The first, more historic and still remembered, was celebrated with little fanfare; the second, no longer remembered by any but angels and descendants, was celebrated with great fanfare.

From Levi Jackman, my great great great grandfather, who entered the valley with Parley P. Pratt’s party July 22nd, 1847, two days ahead of Brigham young’s party:

“July 22- This morning a part of the camp that we had left came up with us and others had to stop because of sickness.  Our movement was slow for it took all the able-bodied men from one-half to three-fourths of the time to make the road so that we could possibly get along.  It took us till 4 p.m. to fix the road and go about four miles.  We had to pass through a canyon that was full of timber, mostly small maple and the bluffs came almost together at the bottom.  And when we finally got through, it seemed like bursting from the confines of prison walls into the beauties of a world of pleasure and freedom.

We now had entered the valley and our vision could extend far and wide.  We were filled with joy and rejoicing and thanksgiving.  We could see to the west, about 30 miles distance, the Sale Lake, stretching itself northwest to a distance unknown to us.  And the valley extending far to the north and south.  No timber was to be seen only in the mountains...

July 23- We went a short distance north to a small grove on a little stream and camped.  Brother P. Pratt called the camp together and dedicated this country to the Lord.  We then commenced plowing to put in a little early corn, buckwheat, potatoes, peas, beans, etc.

The soil was good and before night we had put in seed.  We felt to thank the Lord that we had been preserved on our journey; that no lives were lost, that we had found a good country of land where we thought our enemies could never find us and where we could worship God unmolested.  According to our measure, we are 1040 miles from Winter Quarters.

Saturday, July 24- 

About noon, Brigham Young and company arrived and we had a time of rejoicing without restraint.”

Humble beginnings...

From my great great grandmother Sophia Bush Stradling, whose wagon train arrived Tuesday, September 25th, 1855:

“After a slight frost during the night, the day was pleasant in Great Salt Lake City.  The 1st division of P.E. Company consisting of 46 wagons arrived in the evening...Met by Band.  Pres. Young met the company at the camp.

Erastus Snow and lady, Sister Ballentine and others met the Company Sep 24th and stayed overnight with them.  Night spent in feasting, dancing, music, prayer and general rejoicing at the end of a perilous journey.  Next day, led by a band on horseback, with their flag born by two young men on horses marched into the city, corralled on Union Square and were addressed by Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball.”

Quite the welcoming committee!

By that time the Perpetual Emigration Fund had been established. The Bushes were beneficiaries (The P.E. mentioned in the first paragraph)...they missed out, however, on the fund being extended to help immigrants from overseas to cross the oceans, which was not incorporated until 1857.