Reunions within Reunions - 3

Day 4

or as Amy says,

Our Heritage Series

  And the mother commandeth the children, saying, Of every day on the mountain thou mayest do as thou pleaseth. But on the Thursday when thy visiteth thy ancestral homes, thou must be up and ready to leave at 9 AM sharp. for on that day, we have many miles to travel and much to see and do, for in that day be on time or thou shalt surely die.

  Or in plain English, I'm only going to boss you around on one day. We had an appointment in Moccasin at 1 PM. that I was determined to keep.

 First we stopped at Cedar Breaks to get our first family photo.

Brent, Dad, Mom, Karlton, Jan, Naomi, Jonathan, Eddy, Brooke, Klarissa,

Elizabeth, Amanda, Isaak, Brigitte, Amy HUGH

Second. we stop to fill our water jug.

Alton

I forgot to tell Amy's car that we planned to stop in Alton. When Brooke reminded Isaak and he reminded me, they were at the 1/2 mile to Alton sign.
Things just clicked like that all day.

Brooke's van: Elizabeth, Brooke, Brigitte, Eddy, Jonathan, Klarissa, Amanda
Amy's car: Brent, Jan, Naomi, Amy.
Ed's Buick: DeRay, Jeanette, Isaak, Karlton

Amy wrote on Facebook:  Today we drove out to Alton to look at Jonathan Heaton's home, my great grandfather, here with his family. My Grandma Amy is the smallest girl in the dark dress in the front. Mom says one family is on one side and one on the other. Amy is kind of on the wrong side she says.

Grandpa's home with his first wife, Amy Hoyt, actually my dad's mother's sister,

was at Wildrose, about 4 miles out of town.

He built homes in town for three of his sons and their families.

When Brooke started teaching seminary,

he discovered that one of the teachers was DeRay Young,

a great great grandson of Jonathan and Amy's.
(Brooke is a great grandson of Jonathan and Lucy.)

DeRay Young grew up in this home and gave us permission to go inside.

DeRay's dad, Royce, grew up in Kanab just a block from Brooke's dad, DeRay,

so maybe he liked the name of his neighbor.

Elizabeth, Ed, Amanda, Klarissa, Jonathan, Jan

DeRay Young told Brooke the key was hidden someplace.

Everyone searched under rocks & stepping stones, 

under the doormat, on the window sills, in cracks.

No key.

Amy walks up and tries the door.

It opens

and we all file in.

 The peddle organ came natural to me after all these years.

We had one in the Orderville church.

  

 

  

Klarissa, Naomi, Jan, Brigitte, Eddy, Karlton, Isaak, Amanda Hugh 

 The posts are as good as the signs.

    Oh, oh, it's 11:20. We're an hour and a half from Moccasin. We'll only have time to stop in Orderville and Kanab to take quick pictures. We'll have to see what we saw when we get home and look at our pictures. 

Orderville

 This is the house where I grew up,
as well as Daddy and all my brothers and sisters.
Daddy, DeLoy and Lynn James were born in this house
built around 1901.

Mama would be mortified if she saw the yard,

She had a beautiful lawn, flowers, and weedless vegetable garden.

Our Wedding Reception on the front lawn that doesn't exist anymore. 1956

The house in 2005

MAMA WAS FROM MOCCASIN

Jeanette Hugh, May 25, 2002

Early on a June morn,

99 years after her birth,

25 years after her death,

as I was weeding our grow-boxes.

I thought of Mama.

Mama was from Moccasin,

a family ranch in northern Arizona

where the sand is deep and the furrows wide.

.

Even after she moved to Orderville

with clay and rocks,

she had zero tolerance

for weeds.

Particularly she despised Morning Glories.

To this day, I loathe them too.

(Who says hatred is not taught?)

Mama planted fruits and vegetables

to feed her brood,

and flowers to

beautify her plot on earth.

To her, idleness was a sin,

visiting around town,

especially with the elderly,

a commandment.

Mama was from Moccasin

her roots and mine.

 

  Isaak & Karlton 

  Jeanette, Jonathan, Karlton, Isaak, DeRay, Eddy, Jan, Brigitte, 
Elizabeth, Klarissa, Brooke, Brent, Amy, Naomi, Amanda 

V for Valley

Yea! yea! Valley High

 The White Mountains

  The church in front of Red Hollow.

 Kanab

 The home where DeRay grew up.

Where is the lawn he so painstakingly mowed on those hot summer days? 

The dress shop where his mother sold clothes for several years.

An apartment now.

 Moccasin

  It's 1:10. Gilbert had driven out from St. George to mow the lawn and get ready for us. I thought John was coming from Kanab. He was the cousin who answered my letter and called me. 

  The kids found a picture in the album of  me with some of my siblings and first cousins. Front row: Eva Johnson, whom we picked up at Short Creek. I don't know why they let her go away for the day. Next to her is VeRene Tait, Gwenivere White, Osa Figgins, Eva's sister, and Georgia Lou Schmutz, who with her sister, Anna Laura, bought and restored the Big House; Back: Shirley, Jerry, Jeanette, Peggy and Mack Esplin.

  We often went to Moccasin while staying in St. George and I always wanted my kids to tour the house and town. Moccasin was a magic place when we were growing up. Mama loved it so much. Shangri-La. To have my entire family come out today was a dream come-true.

 

 

  

The Big House was the first school in Moccasin.

Later they built a school across the street.

They say Grandma liked to look out the window
and watch her grandchildren at play during recess.

 The eleven siblings who grew up in this house. Lucy's children.

Uncle Charl, Aunt Esther, Aunt Lucy, Uncle Ed, Uncle Fred, Aunt Zidie,

Aunt Ella, Uncle Chris, Uncle Sterling, Uncle Gilbert, and Mama.

 Bill, Georgia Lou's husband, did all the rock work on the outside.

He drove out from Kanab. Georgia passed away a couple of years ago.

This is the room where Mama was born.

 Gilbert is telling the story of the only picture they have of Darlene,

his mother's younger sister who choked on a pine nut on Christmas day,

and died in Panguitch on their way to Salt Lake to the doctor.

 

 Gilbert came out from St. George to mow the lawn, open the house, and share the history.

 The boys' room upstairs.

 Original flooring.

 The Girls' Room

 Our picnic.

  

 The Long Reservoir.

This is where Mama learned to swim.

When we visited Jennie, her niece and best childhood friend, she told us:

"Your mother was born first

She could run faster

She could swim further

She could stay under water longer

She could dive deeper

She was married first

She had one more child

And one more husband."

Jennie didn't mention this, but Mama also died first.

Mama died at age 73.

When we visited with Jennie in Moccasin she would have been in her 90th year (1993).

Jennie & Mama

  

  The brave ones hiked to Moccasin Springs.

 Jonathan, Brent's son, at the branding barn looking his his great grandpa Jonathan's brand.

This is an original water pipe that brought water into the homes in Moccasin.

A tunnel by the reservoir where they kept perishables cold.

The Granary where Jennie was born behind the Big House.

Written on the door of the granary. Gilbert said they are pretty sure it's Grandpa's handwriting.

Sure, I had to explain to the kids how a ringer works

and how Jerry got his arm caught in one once.

  

How do we compare?

Grandpa Jonathan Heaton, his two wives, 26 children and grandchildren.

 

 The monument in his honor.

 This is Brent standing by the tree that we witnessed lightning
strike in 1968 as we sat in the car directly in front of it.
When Verla told the story in Mama's history,
she forgot Brent, Jeanne and I were there too.
She thought it was just Mama, Grace, Parl and her.
Brent remembers it vividly, as do I.

Coming home, we went through Cedar and visited with my sister, Shirley.

Fifteen visitors on the day she got her new hearing aids!

Believe it or not,

after we got back to the condo,

Brooke's family and Amanda

went swimming until they kicked them out at 11 pm.