Biography as told by daughter Margaret Lambert - Page 157 Rawson Family Gen Book
In 1851 the Rawson family went to Ogden and the Pace family was sent to Payson. Eveidently the Rawsons went to Payson for a time also, for their son Arthur Morrison & Pace daughter, Margaret, became endeared to each other in 1859 - at 19 and 17 respectfully, were married.
After the first child was born they moved to Ogden, and there 2 more children born. Then they moved to St. George for a time. here another child was born. They again returned to Ogden, or Harrisville, where the rest of the family was born - 8 girls and 4 boys in all. The eighth child was Mary Luetta Rawson Grow, born 10 August 1875 in Harrisville.
"Mother what do you remember most about time you lived in Harrisville?" "No much of anything. Just going to school and helping mother." "That is where you learned to knit and sew?" "Yes, I was with mother all day long. I didn't go to school untlo I was 11 & everything mother did around the house, I learned to do with her. She taught me to crochet, to knit & sew. When she sat down to work I would do whatever she did. If she would knit, I would knit; if she would sew, I would sew; if she would crochet, I would crochet. This is the way we could spend our time."
"How old were you when you made your first dress?" "I was 12. I cut out the pattern and the material and made the dress all by myself." "You also learned to cook and make bread?" "Yes, as I said before, everything mother did, I did. I learned to cook, wash, made the soap we used and to do all the things mother did." "How about preserving the fruit?" "We all worked together to pick and prepare the fruit. We had trees on our place, worked together during the day picking fruit, in the evening helped to prepare it for drying."
"I remember Grandfather Rawson not wanting his girls to curl their hair." "Father was very strict how we girls dressed and wore our hair. He told us how we should dress and wear our things. He was very king to us, but when I was old enough to go to school, I wanted to have curls in my hair, as I saw the other girls have. One evening, I put my hair in curlers. It was just about prayer time when I had finished. I marched into the room with curls in my hair. Father said, "What is the matter with your hair, daughter? If God wanted you to have curls, he would have made them for you before you came here. March right into the other room and take them out." I left the family waiting for me, while I went in and combed my hair the way it should have been."
When mother was 12 yrs, her father took her and her 3 brothers to Idaho to homestead some land. While the men cleared the land of sage brush & planted crops, mother cooked and kept house for them. When crops were planted, grandfather began to build new home. It was a wonderful experience for mother to help get the new house ready for her mother and have all the family united once more. They had to travel 5 miles to the nearest church, so meetings were being held in Grandfather's home and he became Branch President.
The new community was named Ammon, and their home was the gathering place for all the young people. Grandmother loved to sing and dance, and she composed many songs for their enjoyment. Before long, they had a chapel built and grandfather was made Bishop. Mother taught Sunday School, then became secretary, which office she held until her marriage. Several families moved into the community. Among them was the Grow family.
"Mother, what did the young people go to amuse themselves in those days?" "Well, we had horseback riding, riding in the carts, things like that. Everything we did, we tried to make fun out of it. All the young people joining together and we were all sociable. We all had out work to do all the time, but we tried to make fun out of our work."
"How about dancing. Where did you go to dance?" "We had a place in the valley which was shady and nice and they fixed it up so we could dance there. We also went to dances in other communities north of us; sometimes we went to Idaho Falls west of us." "How did you travel?" "Sometimes by horse back; sometimes we went in a big wagon; sometimes we went by carriage or surrey."
“Where did you first meet Dad?” “Well we had a home in Idaho and just one mile from our home was my sister’s home. One day I was going to visit my sister, and when I came to the gate a little way above her place, I saw a young man walking along. He had a smile on his face, I looked at him as though I expected him to say something, He caught on and said, ‘How do you get across the creek?’ I told him how to cross. He look so wonderfully nice to me, as I looked at him, that I almost fell in love with him and I said to myself, ‘If I don’t get this young man for my beau, it won’t be my fault.’ So that way, we got to talk and we had a nice little visit then. By the next Sunday, the whole family had arrived and the young people had gotten acquainted with each other,. He and my brotherbecame friends and planned a little carriage ride after Sunday School. So my brother took me aside and whispered to me that they had planned to do. He said to me ‘If you don’t mind, I would like you to ride with him,’ I said good, go ahead. That suits me. So we had our carriage ride and all became good friends.”
This young man who stole the heart of my mother was David Henry Grow, son of William Moyer Grow of Huntsville. The Grow home was across the street from the McKay home, and David O and David Henry were boyhood friends. David was named for his grandfather, Henry Grow, Jr. who was architect of the tabernacle roof. Though it was not his ancestors, but his sweet smile that did the trick, that carriage ride was the beginning of a sweet courtship, which culminated in marriage in the Logan Temple on 1 November 1893. Mother was 19 and father was 21.
A very memorable event in their lives just before the wedding was a trip to Salt Lake City with Grandmother Grow to the dedication of the Salt Lake Temple 4 April 1893.
After their marriage, they returned to Ammon and built a home on the land given them by Grandfather Grow.
During the next 7 years, 4 children were born: Jess, 26 July 1894; Louella, 6 May 1896; Pearl, 14 May 1898 and Burt 6 May 1900. She worked in Relief Society, taught Sunday School Class for a time and served as President of the M.I.A.
My father was then transferred by the railroad to Oregon, where Grandfather Rawson had gone for his health. A small group of church members had formed a new township, which they named Nibley, after Charles W. Nibley. Mother again was MIA. President and helped nurse our neighbors through a typhoid epidemic, which finally spread to the family. Though 5 died, our family was spared and on 11 October 1902 her 3rd son was born. When father regained his
health, he moved the family to LeGrand, Oregon where the 6th child Margaret was born on 10 April 1905. The following year on 14 July 1906, father was struck and instantly killed by a passenger train, and mother moved the family to Cove, Oregon to be near her mother and brothers, where she purchased a home.
Mother relates: “The first Sunday after I moved into our new home, a knock came at our door, and it was Bishop John A. Abbott and his two counselors. Joseph C. Picton and Joel H. Orten and their wives bringing a somber spirit with them. They told me the way to overcome my grief was to work and keep busy. They invited me to come out to all the meetings and be a teacher in Primary and Sunday School. I was never without work and the children always had plenty. I always tried to pay a full tithing and felt this contributed a hedge of safety to our daily lives.” Mother was Sunday School and Relief Society teacher for a few years, then was Primary President for 6 years. Then the Bishop said he was going to give her a promotion and called her to be the president of the Relief Society. Then it became her job to care for the sick, and she spent many nights sitting up with the sick, while working to support her family.
About this time, Fred contracted rheumatic fever and remained under a doctor’s care without much improvement. On 25 March 1915, Louelle married I. A. Hallmark and shortly thereafter Mother and Jess took Fred to Ogden, hoping to improve his health. Mother had him prayed for in the Temple and he immediately improved and soon was able to attend school. Pearl and Margaret joining them there at the end of the school term.
During WWI my eldest brother Jess enlisted and mother went back to LaGrande to see him off. She secured a position in the hospital there, where she remained until after the war.
On 1 January 1909 Pearl married C. A. Fowers in Ogden. At this time we returned to our home in Cove where mother worked in Relief Society taking charge of the Temple clothes and care of the dead. Loved by all, she was ready to help anyone in need and on Sunday afternoons, our home became a gathering place for the
young people.
The next year we sold our home in Cove and returned to Ogden, Utah.
On 24 June 1925, Burt married Marion Shaefer and one year later, Jess married Lydia Fahay. The family now consisting of mother, Fred and myself, now moved to Berkley Branch. There at an MIA party, J. Edward Johnson introduced me to a young man who later became my husband, Leroy Lambert, 27 August 1927.
Mother then moved to San Francisco, where she became active in the ward.
Shortly afterwards, Louella became very ill and mother rushed to Walla Walla, Washington to care for her until her death 28 January 1941. On 2 August 1941 Fred married Beatrice Wardell Coons. This marriage was later solemnized in the Salt Lake Temple by Pr. Wassoups 3 October 1951. During this time mother served as Magazine agent and aided their bazaars with her handiwork and pastries. In 1951, when the Church Authorities requested all members to attend the ward they lived, mother transferred to the Sunset Ward, where she served faithfully until ill health forced her release, but she continue to aid the Relief Society’s many programs.