113. Levinah Emmaline Wilson, my mother Ruth's mother. Widow for 32 years.
Levinah Emmaline Wilson, or “Emm” was born down on “The Muddy”, St. Thomas, Nevada, as it was called, on April 14, 1870. It was covered now Lake Mead. She was born in a dirt floored and dirt roofed house. Her father had been called there to start a saw-mill. She told the story, as it had been told to her, that at her birth it was raining, (a rare thing for that section), and that sisters had to hold pans over the bed to catch the rain water, during her birth process.
Only the tops of a few trees used to show through the lake to show where the town had been. It since is uncovered now due to the lake having less water. Her father was George Deliverance Wilson, and her mother was Martha Ann Riste. She was the 7th child out of eleven. There were eight boys and three girls. Aunt Martha was 10 years older than Mother and quite sickly. Aunt Sadie was 8 years younger, so Levinah had brothers both younger and older than she was.
When Levinah was about 1 ½ years old the territory was divided and the whole valley then belonged to Nevada. Nevada imposed such heavy taxes upon the settlers that Brigham Young again called them back to Utah. The family moved back to Utah and stayed in Panguitch, until Hillsdale was settled, and Grandfather’s saw mill was established. They had a large farm and Grandfather built a large home. People traveling from Salt Lake City to Arizona, or south, always planned to stay at Wilsons, where Grandmother always had a fresh loaf of bread, and milk to share, and feed for their horses. It was a haven to the weary. George and Martha Ann moved around a lot before that, because he was called to start saw mills in several different towns. When one was up and running, they were called somewhere else.
Mother was a happy child. She had a quick sense of humor, and all of her life turned serious things into funny situations. She inherited her mother, Martha Ann Riste’s beautiful voice, and was always singing. See Martha Ann Riste's history in blog # 96, and about George Deliverance Wilson in blog # 64.
This is a photo of Martha Ann Riste, Levinah's mother, from England.
Levinah was a beautiful child, curly brown hair and brown eyes. It was no wonder all her brothers idolized her, but they did not spoil her beautiful disposition. This she kept all her life, and the talent of drawing people to her and making friends stayed with her forever. She had such a sunny disposition and put song and laughter into everyday tasks. Her influence for good and peace and happiness could always be felt by those around her. Never in my life have I heard the slightest comment except praise for my Mother. To know her was to love her.
One time someone gave Levinah a nickel. Her father asked her what she was going to do with it. She said, “Give it to the temple”.
They were building the St. George Temple then. Her father, George Deliverance Wilson, told her that someday she would be able to go there and spend a long time there. Her last years were spent as a ordinance worker there, about 17 years. Another time the Indians came trading pine nuts, they saw the beautiful little girl and wanted to trade something for her.
Levinah had more than her share of house work to do, with 6 boys and an invalid sister. In pioneer times, everything had to be raised and then made by hand into clothing or food for the family. As she grew older and 4 more younger children were added to the family, her duties and work were greatly increased, but she danced and sang her way through all of her tasks. Many a time I have seen her dance to some lively tune.
This picture is of Levinah, center top, her mother Martha Ann, center bottom, and her 4 sisters. Her father, George was photoshopped in!
The schoolhouse was one large room right across the street from their home. This building was used for their church and all public meetings. Levinah went to school in this building. She also taught school three years in it before she was married. They went from Hillsdale to Panguitch to do their shopping. But they grew and made most everything. It was busy times to keep the large storeroom filled for a large family.
Aunt Martha was nearer father’s age and many thought he was interested in Martha, but Martha’s health was not good. She was ill during this time, and John fell in love with the vivacious “Emm” or Levinah Emmaline. They were married November 19th in the Manti Temple, when John was 34 and Levinah was 23. John took his bride to live in the new brick house he had made for her in Panguitch.
Ruth wrote of her mother, Levinah Emmaline Wilson Allen:
Some of my memories of my mother are: Her love for beauty, culture and refinement, her friendliness to all, her natural and delightful sense of humor, her love for good language, and her disgust with any expression that bordered on to anything vulgar. (This also describes my mother, Ruth). She loved to "hear the news" but gossip was to be avoided at all costs with her. She had more courage and fortitude than anyone I have ever known. I think she would have been aristocratic if she'd had the money. Head high, she met the world with a smile that often covered up deep sorrow and worry. She was firm in her convictions, and discipline I might add although it was administered in gentleness.
She was still young when her father was called to Hillsdale near Panguitch, Utah, to start another saw mill. Here she grew up with all the activities connected with pioneer life. Hard work with an occasional "dance until dawn" and an occasional time off for fishing with her father and brothers were the high lights.
She was the only girl in the family for nearly 20 years, the siblings immediately older and younger than she being boys. Thus placed in a family she soon learned the art of handling boys and often getting her way by extra baking, etc. This art was priceless when she was left with 8 children, 3 of them teen age boys. I remember how these brothers of hers seemed to idolize her and how they often came to visit and help after my father died.
She taught school for 3 years, and at the age of 23 was married to my father. They lived on a farm named Casto in the summers and moved to town in the winters, (a distance of 5 miles, but it was almost like a different planet then.) My father died at age 56, leaving mother with 8 children, aged 19 to 1 year old, one son having died in infancy. This child, Gideon, born 13 Aug 1903, died in the early morning of Dec. 24, 1903, and was buried that afternoon, so that the little dead body would not be there to spoil the Christmas of the 5 small children (ages 9 and under) in the house. (There were no mortuaries then.) This is typical of the bravery that was so much a part of my mother's makeup. See her husband John's story in the previous blog, # 112.
Before my father's death he requested Levinah never leave the home to work and that she keep the farm for the boys to work. This request she honored. Rearing a family of 8 with nothing but a farm to prove up and pay for was a supreme challenge which she met bravely. There was no relief, no welfare, and no widows or orphans help available then, yet we grew up understanding that we each were to go to college. (Very few where we lived ever left home after high school then, but we knew we were to go.) Six of the 8 later taught school.
One precious memory of my mother is after I had been teaching school for 1 or 2 years I asked her what she would like for Christmas. I told her I now could afford anything her heart desired, and her reply to me was, “Ruth, I don’t know if you had planned on spending as much as I’d like for Christmas. I’d like your tithing receipt for the year, paid in full, for my Christmas present.” She did receive my tithing receipt for the year, paid in full, but I couldn’t afford anything else. Now, each year after I get my tithing receipt paid in full for the year, as I have done each year since that, I show it to my mother, looking at her picture, and say, “Merry Christmas, mother.”
The following was written by LaVern Allen Smith: Our Home Life
The earliest that I can remember was the day Ruth was born, May 10, 1908. From then on I remember much that Father and Mother did and said. Father was a quiet person but his word and quiet tone sank deep and demanded attention and respect. He had black hair and blue eyes but his beard was quite red. His occupation was farming.
While we were children, Father and Mother would move out to the ranch in the summer time, and back in to our home in Panguitch for winter. They also ran different ranches in the summertime. Mother would make cheese. Some of the cheese was put up for winter, but some cheese went to buy fruit and other things. The stores were always glad to buy Mother’s cheese. Cheese making business stayed in the family for three generations. Father’s Mother, (Sarah Adeline). Mother, (Levinah) and Beulah, Ruth and LaVern's brother Earl's wife.
Mother was very religious and relied a lot on prayer. The big table in the center of the room was also our gathering place for prayers. It seemed that our family had more than our share of illness. Each one in its turn was nursed through to health again, with Mother sometimes wearing masks so not to spread it to the others. George and Ruth had diphtheria. Marcia, appendicitis and typhoid, LaVern, scarlet fever. We all, except Ruth, had the 1918 flu, and I (LaVern) had shingles after. Mother was a good nurse.
We always had a lot of company. There was always room for one more. At conference time many people from Hillsdale would come on Saturday, and stay for two meetings on Sunday. We always had a crowd. We were all so anxious to go to church. We knew if we stayed home there would be the dishes to do. And that meant carrying water, and heating it on the coal stove, before we could even start the dishes.
Mother always went to church and expected us to go. She served 17 years as secretary and treasurer of the Relief Society. She was always taking care of a sick neighbor or friend, just going in their home and nursing them, and home to us. Mother was on the short side, and was inclined to be plump. She had curly brown hair and brown eyes. She was always full of fun and kept everyone happy with her wit, and had an inner happiness. She was a great magnet with her fellow beings. Both young and old had an understanding friend in mother.
Mother never did go outside the home to work but the salesmen going through Panguitch always needed some laundry washed, or suits cleaned and pressed. Mother would wash on the board to do this cleaning. There was no social security or welfare then. It was make it by yourself or do without, and with the farm and extra jobs the children could do, we made it. Mother was very quiet in her wants and suffering. If we watched we could see a tear but never a fuss or word. She set her goals high and quietly pursued them.
I must mention our brother, George D. Allen. He has no children to write about him. He was the brains of the family, and the loyal one to Mother and us younger children. During Philo’s illness he was our support financially, and helped us greatly to see our way through school. He was as honest in his dealings as Father. He farmed, taught school, was a salesman, and also did prospecting for uranium. He married later in life to Delta Russell. He died in St. George in March, 1952, and was buried in Panguitch. Although he had no children, he was greatly beloved by all of his nieces and nephews.
Mother was famous for her bread. Every loaf was just perfect. They didn’t vary an ounce in weight. Even when mother baked them in the old iron coal or wood stove with no heat gauge, every loaf would come out a golden brown. She always had an extra loaf for someone in need, or ill. How delicious those hot biscuits were, as we came in cold and hungry from school. She also made salt risen bread. This was not made with the regular yeast. She made her own some way. There was a special bran she had to fix special. It was a very special treat to have salt risen bread. There has never been a substitute for it, it was so good. Mother also made “green salve” from pine gum. Mother’s family made this. When a couple got married, a big long new stick of green salve would be in the medicine chest.
Mother’s cold medicine was the only insurance we had against pneumonia and cold; flu is a new term for it. Mother would gather and buy the herbs and oils to make this, and gave each one of us a bottle for our medicine kit. This was the same as gold. It was so expensive.
Then there were the quilts. We were always saving every piece of cloth for quilts. Mother had her own special pattern. Whenever we saw a quilt made like that we knew it had been stitched by mother’s hands. One or two of these were a “must” for our wedding day. We had quilts and plenty of them. Now quilts are a luxury. Mother made a special kind of rug. She would cut up old wool knit socks and sew them in strips on a base, then ravel them down. This made a beautiful rug.
Mother was very brave and had courage to face new situations. Philo was very seriously ill all the winter of 1922/23, and it affected his heart. George was away teaching school, and the rest were married and away from home. That left me (LaVern) the oldest one to do the chores, feed animals, milk cows, etc. It was a long cold winter. I can remember how cold the pitch fork was when we had to do the feeding, and how the milk froze on the buckets as we milked the cows.
Philo lived through the winter. In the summer he gained strength, but the Doctor said he would never live the winter through in Panguitch, it was so cold and the elevation was so high. He recommended St. George. When Philo had paraletic rheumatism she bravely moved to St. George for his health. This move proved a distinct blessing, not only to him, but to we 3 younger girls who all came back here to college. We all found and married "Dixieites. We didn’t know anyone in St. George and Philo was so ill.
I was the oldest of the three younger girls, and was in the second year of High school. School had been going six weeks. Mother got a fruit peddler to take us and all the things we needed to St. George. We arrived there Sunday afternoon and had nowhere to go. But Mother knew what to do. She called Edgar M. Jenson, the President of Dixie College. He found us a place for the night, and a large lovely brick home for the winter. Philo gained strength, and was able to work in the Temple. Mother could spend extra time in the Temple. We loved it there. That year was one of our happiest years, and the beginning of our living in St. George. Later Mother was called as an Ordinance Worker in the Temple.
It was in the spring of 1928, about March I believe. Mother was going back to Panguitch from St. George in a car load of Temple workers and a missionary. South of Cedar the car was in a terrible accident, several were killed and mother was the only one in the car who wasn't killed. Her arm and all ribs on one side were broken, yet in this condition she attempted to take care of the ones dead or dying . Mother went through the roof of the car the second time over. She was terribly banged up. It seemed for a day or two that her life might not last, but by administration and a prayer circle of all the Temple workers, she was promised "You will yet live to sing 'I Know That My Redeemer Lives' and you will yet work many years in the House of the Lord." This indeed was fulfilled. (Story told in full on Page 246 of the book of Pal’s ancestors.) While she was fighting for her life, she saw Father. He was building a home. He said, “Emm, go back, the children still need you.” From then on she began to get better. This was my first year of teaching, and I was in Henrieville. Ruth and Adelia were with Mother.
After we girls were married, she spent most of her time in the temple and living with Ruth and Adelia. But the last few months she spent with us in American Fork. Mother knew that her time was close, and she tried to tell me, but we had no idea it was that close. She passed away at Adelia’s and Ern’s on March 24th, 1946, with a heart attack. She was buried in Panguitch. Mother really truly lives on in all the fond memories we have of our darling Mother. When we count our blessings we are humbled at how really blessed to have such a choice person for our Mother.
All of Levinah's eight surviving children, taken when they were together for her funeral. Levinah and her husband John Butler Allen are inserted on the top. The next row are the three sons L to R: George, Philo, and Earl. The bottom row is L to R: Adelia, Ruth, LaVern, Marsha, and Vina.
Back to Ruth’s writings:
While I was teaching at Salt Lake City and going to the U. Of U. I was summoned to Adelia’s. Mother had had a heart attack. I arrived there a few hours before she died. She died as she had lived–Bravely, with no word of complaint. Her last words were, “I’m glad to be here with my children. Your voices are so quiet:, and then, “It’s so peaceful here,” and with a smile she breathed her last. God bless her memory. How wonderful it will be to see her smile again.
A poem written by Ruth, for her mother’s funeral: (Also in blog # 95, with other poetry she wrote).
The last expressions of Sister Levinah E. Allen arranged in poetry by her daughter Ruth Allen Miles, March 26, 1946.
Farewell my children; my girls and boys.
You were my pride, the source of my joys.
I’ve been permitted to stay to see you all grown
Now weep not for me, nor think you’re alone
For the spirit of Him who helped me through
The same is waiting to strengthen you.
I leave you not honored glory, or fame,
I leave you instead an untarnished name.
I leave you courage and faith and strength
And determination to do right, until at length
When your journey of life is through, you’ll trod
In my footsteps back to the throne of God.
Farewell to earth. I have lingered long.
I’ve tasted your sorrow and I’ve joined in your song.
I’ve loved your hills, Temple spires and dome.
I’ve loved the shelter of a humble home.
I performed the tasks He gave me to do,
My earth path was busy as I traveled through.
For new experiences I anxiously wait
I welcome new service as I pass through the gate.
Greetings to you, my beloved John.
Once more your face I look upon,
Once more mine eyes look up to thine
Once more your hand gently touches mine.
The years so long that we’ve been apart
Are ended now, my youth’s sweetheart.
When first you left me with our family
The task was unbearable, it seemed to me.
But when the way was rough, and I’d tremble with fear
Yet though unseen, I felt you were near,
And feeling your strength I was encouraged anew
And the burden seemed lighter that I had to pass through.
And so now together in the morning dim
Together we go to the feet of Him
Together forever in His service we’ll be–
Oh what glorious joy of eternity!
Ruth and LaVern have written the histories of their parents, from which this story was taken. They have been close all their lives.
This is Ruth and LaVern, in their later years, just before Aunt LaVern passed away. She was just over 3 years older than Ruth. But Ruth lived to be five years older than LaVern was when she passed away.
Only the tops of a few trees used to show through the lake to show where the town had been. It since is uncovered now due to the lake having less water. Her father was George Deliverance Wilson, and her mother was Martha Ann Riste. She was the 7th child out of eleven. There were eight boys and three girls. Aunt Martha was 10 years older than Mother and quite sickly. Aunt Sadie was 8 years younger, so Levinah had brothers both younger and older than she was.
When Levinah was about 1 ½ years old the territory was divided and the whole valley then belonged to Nevada. Nevada imposed such heavy taxes upon the settlers that Brigham Young again called them back to Utah. The family moved back to Utah and stayed in Panguitch, until Hillsdale was settled, and Grandfather’s saw mill was established. They had a large farm and Grandfather built a large home. People traveling from Salt Lake City to Arizona, or south, always planned to stay at Wilsons, where Grandmother always had a fresh loaf of bread, and milk to share, and feed for their horses. It was a haven to the weary. George and Martha Ann moved around a lot before that, because he was called to start saw mills in several different towns. When one was up and running, they were called somewhere else.
Mother was a happy child. She had a quick sense of humor, and all of her life turned serious things into funny situations. She inherited her mother, Martha Ann Riste’s beautiful voice, and was always singing. See Martha Ann Riste's history in blog # 96, and about George Deliverance Wilson in blog # 64.
Levinah was a beautiful child, curly brown hair and brown eyes. It was no wonder all her brothers idolized her, but they did not spoil her beautiful disposition. This she kept all her life, and the talent of drawing people to her and making friends stayed with her forever. She had such a sunny disposition and put song and laughter into everyday tasks. Her influence for good and peace and happiness could always be felt by those around her. Never in my life have I heard the slightest comment except praise for my Mother. To know her was to love her.
One time someone gave Levinah a nickel. Her father asked her what she was going to do with it. She said, “Give it to the temple”.
Levinah had more than her share of house work to do, with 6 boys and an invalid sister. In pioneer times, everything had to be raised and then made by hand into clothing or food for the family. As she grew older and 4 more younger children were added to the family, her duties and work were greatly increased, but she danced and sang her way through all of her tasks. Many a time I have seen her dance to some lively tune.
The schoolhouse was one large room right across the street from their home. This building was used for their church and all public meetings. Levinah went to school in this building. She also taught school three years in it before she was married. They went from Hillsdale to Panguitch to do their shopping. But they grew and made most everything. It was busy times to keep the large storeroom filled for a large family.
Aunt Martha was nearer father’s age and many thought he was interested in Martha, but Martha’s health was not good. She was ill during this time, and John fell in love with the vivacious “Emm” or Levinah Emmaline. They were married November 19th in the Manti Temple, when John was 34 and Levinah was 23. John took his bride to live in the new brick house he had made for her in Panguitch.
Ruth wrote of her mother, Levinah Emmaline Wilson Allen:
Some of my memories of my mother are: Her love for beauty, culture and refinement, her friendliness to all, her natural and delightful sense of humor, her love for good language, and her disgust with any expression that bordered on to anything vulgar. (This also describes my mother, Ruth). She loved to "hear the news" but gossip was to be avoided at all costs with her. She had more courage and fortitude than anyone I have ever known. I think she would have been aristocratic if she'd had the money. Head high, she met the world with a smile that often covered up deep sorrow and worry. She was firm in her convictions, and discipline I might add although it was administered in gentleness.
She was still young when her father was called to Hillsdale near Panguitch, Utah, to start another saw mill. Here she grew up with all the activities connected with pioneer life. Hard work with an occasional "dance until dawn" and an occasional time off for fishing with her father and brothers were the high lights.
She was the only girl in the family for nearly 20 years, the siblings immediately older and younger than she being boys. Thus placed in a family she soon learned the art of handling boys and often getting her way by extra baking, etc. This art was priceless when she was left with 8 children, 3 of them teen age boys. I remember how these brothers of hers seemed to idolize her and how they often came to visit and help after my father died.
She taught school for 3 years, and at the age of 23 was married to my father. They lived on a farm named Casto in the summers and moved to town in the winters, (a distance of 5 miles, but it was almost like a different planet then.) My father died at age 56, leaving mother with 8 children, aged 19 to 1 year old, one son having died in infancy. This child, Gideon, born 13 Aug 1903, died in the early morning of Dec. 24, 1903, and was buried that afternoon, so that the little dead body would not be there to spoil the Christmas of the 5 small children (ages 9 and under) in the house. (There were no mortuaries then.) This is typical of the bravery that was so much a part of my mother's makeup. See her husband John's story in the previous blog, # 112.
Before my father's death he requested Levinah never leave the home to work and that she keep the farm for the boys to work. This request she honored. Rearing a family of 8 with nothing but a farm to prove up and pay for was a supreme challenge which she met bravely. There was no relief, no welfare, and no widows or orphans help available then, yet we grew up understanding that we each were to go to college. (Very few where we lived ever left home after high school then, but we knew we were to go.) Six of the 8 later taught school.
One precious memory of my mother is after I had been teaching school for 1 or 2 years I asked her what she would like for Christmas. I told her I now could afford anything her heart desired, and her reply to me was, “Ruth, I don’t know if you had planned on spending as much as I’d like for Christmas. I’d like your tithing receipt for the year, paid in full, for my Christmas present.” She did receive my tithing receipt for the year, paid in full, but I couldn’t afford anything else. Now, each year after I get my tithing receipt paid in full for the year, as I have done each year since that, I show it to my mother, looking at her picture, and say, “Merry Christmas, mother.”
The following was written by LaVern Allen Smith: Our Home Life
The earliest that I can remember was the day Ruth was born, May 10, 1908. From then on I remember much that Father and Mother did and said. Father was a quiet person but his word and quiet tone sank deep and demanded attention and respect. He had black hair and blue eyes but his beard was quite red. His occupation was farming.
While we were children, Father and Mother would move out to the ranch in the summer time, and back in to our home in Panguitch for winter. They also ran different ranches in the summertime. Mother would make cheese. Some of the cheese was put up for winter, but some cheese went to buy fruit and other things. The stores were always glad to buy Mother’s cheese. Cheese making business stayed in the family for three generations. Father’s Mother, (Sarah Adeline). Mother, (Levinah) and Beulah, Ruth and LaVern's brother Earl's wife.
Mother was very religious and relied a lot on prayer. The big table in the center of the room was also our gathering place for prayers. It seemed that our family had more than our share of illness. Each one in its turn was nursed through to health again, with Mother sometimes wearing masks so not to spread it to the others. George and Ruth had diphtheria. Marcia, appendicitis and typhoid, LaVern, scarlet fever. We all, except Ruth, had the 1918 flu, and I (LaVern) had shingles after. Mother was a good nurse.
We always had a lot of company. There was always room for one more. At conference time many people from Hillsdale would come on Saturday, and stay for two meetings on Sunday. We always had a crowd. We were all so anxious to go to church. We knew if we stayed home there would be the dishes to do. And that meant carrying water, and heating it on the coal stove, before we could even start the dishes.
Mother always went to church and expected us to go. She served 17 years as secretary and treasurer of the Relief Society. She was always taking care of a sick neighbor or friend, just going in their home and nursing them, and home to us. Mother was on the short side, and was inclined to be plump. She had curly brown hair and brown eyes. She was always full of fun and kept everyone happy with her wit, and had an inner happiness. She was a great magnet with her fellow beings. Both young and old had an understanding friend in mother.
Mother never did go outside the home to work but the salesmen going through Panguitch always needed some laundry washed, or suits cleaned and pressed. Mother would wash on the board to do this cleaning. There was no social security or welfare then. It was make it by yourself or do without, and with the farm and extra jobs the children could do, we made it. Mother was very quiet in her wants and suffering. If we watched we could see a tear but never a fuss or word. She set her goals high and quietly pursued them.
I must mention our brother, George D. Allen. He has no children to write about him. He was the brains of the family, and the loyal one to Mother and us younger children. During Philo’s illness he was our support financially, and helped us greatly to see our way through school. He was as honest in his dealings as Father. He farmed, taught school, was a salesman, and also did prospecting for uranium. He married later in life to Delta Russell. He died in St. George in March, 1952, and was buried in Panguitch. Although he had no children, he was greatly beloved by all of his nieces and nephews.
Mother was famous for her bread. Every loaf was just perfect. They didn’t vary an ounce in weight. Even when mother baked them in the old iron coal or wood stove with no heat gauge, every loaf would come out a golden brown. She always had an extra loaf for someone in need, or ill. How delicious those hot biscuits were, as we came in cold and hungry from school. She also made salt risen bread. This was not made with the regular yeast. She made her own some way. There was a special bran she had to fix special. It was a very special treat to have salt risen bread. There has never been a substitute for it, it was so good. Mother also made “green salve” from pine gum. Mother’s family made this. When a couple got married, a big long new stick of green salve would be in the medicine chest.
Mother’s cold medicine was the only insurance we had against pneumonia and cold; flu is a new term for it. Mother would gather and buy the herbs and oils to make this, and gave each one of us a bottle for our medicine kit. This was the same as gold. It was so expensive.
Then there were the quilts. We were always saving every piece of cloth for quilts. Mother had her own special pattern. Whenever we saw a quilt made like that we knew it had been stitched by mother’s hands. One or two of these were a “must” for our wedding day. We had quilts and plenty of them. Now quilts are a luxury. Mother made a special kind of rug. She would cut up old wool knit socks and sew them in strips on a base, then ravel them down. This made a beautiful rug.
Mother was very brave and had courage to face new situations. Philo was very seriously ill all the winter of 1922/23, and it affected his heart. George was away teaching school, and the rest were married and away from home. That left me (LaVern) the oldest one to do the chores, feed animals, milk cows, etc. It was a long cold winter. I can remember how cold the pitch fork was when we had to do the feeding, and how the milk froze on the buckets as we milked the cows.
Philo lived through the winter. In the summer he gained strength, but the Doctor said he would never live the winter through in Panguitch, it was so cold and the elevation was so high. He recommended St. George. When Philo had paraletic rheumatism she bravely moved to St. George for his health. This move proved a distinct blessing, not only to him, but to we 3 younger girls who all came back here to college. We all found and married "Dixieites. We didn’t know anyone in St. George and Philo was so ill.
I was the oldest of the three younger girls, and was in the second year of High school. School had been going six weeks. Mother got a fruit peddler to take us and all the things we needed to St. George. We arrived there Sunday afternoon and had nowhere to go. But Mother knew what to do. She called Edgar M. Jenson, the President of Dixie College. He found us a place for the night, and a large lovely brick home for the winter. Philo gained strength, and was able to work in the Temple. Mother could spend extra time in the Temple. We loved it there. That year was one of our happiest years, and the beginning of our living in St. George. Later Mother was called as an Ordinance Worker in the Temple.
It was in the spring of 1928, about March I believe. Mother was going back to Panguitch from St. George in a car load of Temple workers and a missionary. South of Cedar the car was in a terrible accident, several were killed and mother was the only one in the car who wasn't killed. Her arm and all ribs on one side were broken, yet in this condition she attempted to take care of the ones dead or dying . Mother went through the roof of the car the second time over. She was terribly banged up. It seemed for a day or two that her life might not last, but by administration and a prayer circle of all the Temple workers, she was promised "You will yet live to sing 'I Know That My Redeemer Lives' and you will yet work many years in the House of the Lord." This indeed was fulfilled. (Story told in full on Page 246 of the book of Pal’s ancestors.) While she was fighting for her life, she saw Father. He was building a home. He said, “Emm, go back, the children still need you.” From then on she began to get better. This was my first year of teaching, and I was in Henrieville. Ruth and Adelia were with Mother.
After we girls were married, she spent most of her time in the temple and living with Ruth and Adelia. But the last few months she spent with us in American Fork. Mother knew that her time was close, and she tried to tell me, but we had no idea it was that close. She passed away at Adelia’s and Ern’s on March 24th, 1946, with a heart attack. She was buried in Panguitch. Mother really truly lives on in all the fond memories we have of our darling Mother. When we count our blessings we are humbled at how really blessed to have such a choice person for our Mother.
Back to Ruth’s writings:
While I was teaching at Salt Lake City and going to the U. Of U. I was summoned to Adelia’s. Mother had had a heart attack. I arrived there a few hours before she died. She died as she had lived–Bravely, with no word of complaint. Her last words were, “I’m glad to be here with my children. Your voices are so quiet:, and then, “It’s so peaceful here,” and with a smile she breathed her last. God bless her memory. How wonderful it will be to see her smile again.
A poem written by Ruth, for her mother’s funeral: (Also in blog # 95, with other poetry she wrote).
The last expressions of Sister Levinah E. Allen arranged in poetry by her daughter Ruth Allen Miles, March 26, 1946.
Farewell my children; my girls and boys.
You were my pride, the source of my joys.
I’ve been permitted to stay to see you all grown
Now weep not for me, nor think you’re alone
For the spirit of Him who helped me through
The same is waiting to strengthen you.
I leave you not honored glory, or fame,
I leave you instead an untarnished name.
I leave you courage and faith and strength
And determination to do right, until at length
When your journey of life is through, you’ll trod
In my footsteps back to the throne of God.
Farewell to earth. I have lingered long.
I’ve tasted your sorrow and I’ve joined in your song.
I’ve loved your hills, Temple spires and dome.
I’ve loved the shelter of a humble home.
I performed the tasks He gave me to do,
My earth path was busy as I traveled through.
For new experiences I anxiously wait
I welcome new service as I pass through the gate.
Greetings to you, my beloved John.
Once more your face I look upon,
Once more mine eyes look up to thine
Once more your hand gently touches mine.
The years so long that we’ve been apart
Are ended now, my youth’s sweetheart.
When first you left me with our family
The task was unbearable, it seemed to me.
But when the way was rough, and I’d tremble with fear
Yet though unseen, I felt you were near,
And feeling your strength I was encouraged anew
And the burden seemed lighter that I had to pass through.
And so now together in the morning dim
Together we go to the feet of Him
Together forever in His service we’ll be–
Oh what glorious joy of eternity!
Ruth and LaVern have written the histories of their parents, from which this story was taken. They have been close all their lives.
Comments