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Martha Ann Bingham

I'm sorry I can't remember when we lived to Grandma Hickerson's place, but I remember the day we moved up in town to the man's place that Mother married Brother Nadauld, and I know there wasn't an inch of the ground that I didn't get over that day. I was only five years old. I thought it was a swell place. Before mother married she worked away from home. Eva being the oldest she was both mother and sister to Minnie and me. Mother had to work to support us three girls. We lived with our grandmother and a lot of work was put on Eva. Grandma was a widow at that time and we made it hard for her. She was good to us. Mother said she never could make enough money to ever pay grandma for taking care of us. A dollar and a half a week was as much as they ever paid her. She would buy and make clothes and cute little dresses and send to us. Years after I was grown I heard a woman, You and your sister Minnie were the cutest little redheads she ever saw, we were always so clean and cute. So that was grandma and Eva's that did that. Poor Sister Eva I have heard she had to work hard. It made her seem old, and when the work was done she couldn't play with the other-girls she had to sew carpetrags. As she grew older she wasn't very well. She craved eating adobies. She would take a knife and go around the house digging little holes in the adobies. It was drying up her blood. She used to be so pale. Mother worried so about her and had her go up to River- dale to Grandma Bingham in Ogden. Mother knew she was a good nurse and her house wasn't adobie and Mother sent me up with her. I vas only nine years old. Then I went with Eva up to Cache Valley to see our Dad I had never seen him before. I wouldn't call him Father or Pa, just called him 'Osay'. We didn't stay there very long, we came back to Riverdale to grandma Binghams. I was there six long months' and O so homesick. I cried almost every day to come home especially when Grandma gave me, whipping. I would always go to the backhouse and sat there and cry and cry. A mournful hoot owl would hoot and make me so homesick. Ben and Eva were still in love. Eva worked for a family in Ogden So I didn't get to see her only once a week. She would come and always brought me an orange or banana or candy and O did I love to see her and so Ben ask Mother if he could have Eva and he would go up and get her and he would bring us both home. So they were married in Riverdale in grandma's house. Ben had a team and wagon. We were almost a week getting home that was the longest week I ever put in. O was I happy to see my Mother and Minnie. I use to say to myself, "never would I quarrel with her again". There was one job Minnie had to do that she didn't like to do. So she coaxed me to go to the corral with her to milk the cow. She was so good to me and taught me how to milk the cow. Well in a couple of days that was my job. That was my job morning and night until I got married and O the cold winter mornings to wade in the snow and the pitchfork handle was always covered with ice and to feed the pig that was my job. No rubbers or overshoes or gloves or mits and get chillblanes and go to school with wet feet. Now after two years Eva had a baby boy named Lenard. He was tops to me because I was Auntie now. I was eleven years old and Mother sent me down to help Eva. Mother had a young baby and couldn't spare Minnie. I knew how to cook a meal and I thought I did all right unti1l Ben said what he did about the chicken. He said, "It's a wonder you didn't cook feathers, guts and all." I felt bad by that time I had Eva's plate fixed for her then I went to eat my dinner and there wasn't one piece of chicken left for me. I wanted to cry but didn't want Eva to see me cry. I knew she would feel bad. Then I got mad in my fare said, I'll fix you: I had to wash the clothes. I made some good stiff starch out of flour. I starched his underwareshirttai1 and his socks and hoped he would get scratched good, then I went home. Mother sent me back in a couple of days to help her. Sister said I had to wash all those things out that you starched. Then I was sorry. Eva was always so kind and good to me. My stepfather was a good gardener, raised almost everything and lots of English currants and gooseberries. The people out west would come to him for these berries. He would come in to Mother and say, "I have orders for 40 quarts of currants and 20 quarts of gooseberries." Mother would look at me. I knew then that I had to do out in the hot boiling sun. O how scratchy the gooseberries were if I had been told I would get a nickel or some candy it would have been much easier.

I hate to tell this but its the truth when Grandpa Nadauld was out of his store working in his garden the inside door of the store was unlocked. I slipped in and filled my apron pocket with candy. O boy did I have a good fill on that good candy. I told my sister Minnie and we sure did have fun. We never did tell on each other for we never did have any candy given us only on Xmas, no matter how hard we worked in the store moping and washing windows. Mother taught to say our Prayers and never take anything that didn't belong to us. We use to lie in bed and talk about it and wondered how we could ask the Lord to forgive us for stealing in a little while Sis said, "I know we didn't steal we worked for it and just took it." I said, "Sister you are a smart girl." Our Mother was listening to us talk and came in and asked us what we had done, so we had to tell her. She said if we would kneel down and tell the Lord all about it and promise him we would never take any more candy or anything that didn't belong to us, the Lord would forgive us and our sins would be forgiven. We were so happy we never did steal or take anything again. Now Minnie is going to get married. She is 16 years old and I'm 13, and Mother is going to have a baby the first of Nov. What am I going to do we don't have a washing machine. We had two tubs. I took the clothes through the first suds and Minnie the second. I sure did miss Sis. I didn't get much schooling that winter. Mother hired Clara Barney for the first month. We were taught how to wash and handle baby clothes. They were all flannels. We had to test the water with our elbows for washing and rinsing. That was a hard winter for me. I had to get up early, for I had the cow to milk and feed and get the beds made before going to school. I had to hurry home for Mother had all our sewing to do. She would sew up into the late hours. I had the ironing to do and the bread to mix. The baby was a boy and his name was Phillip. He was a cross baby. I didn't have a chance. I didn't have a chance to go and play or go anywhere with my girlfriends with out taking Phillip with me. But I'm thankful Mother taught me how to work. I had a wonderful mother full of Faith and the gospel but went through life with a broken heart. When ever I saw my Mother crying instead of putting my arm around her and ask her what was the matter I would run down in the lot and cry and cry. I never could stand to see my Mother cry. As I grew older I understood her feelings. Eva has her third baby. It's a girl, her name is Juanita, the cutest little black head you ever saw. She and Phillip just a week apart. Minnie has a cute little home but Joe is having a real nice big home built with three big bedrooms. I asked her why so big. Orbe says I'1l fill it up with babies for she said she was going to have another. Eva has three I wonder if I want to get married although I'm engaged. I hate to leave my Mother with all this work to do. Alice, will be nine years old, she's small and mother has never put the work on her that she did on us three girls. Now at the age of 17 I married Robert H. Segwine, the 22 day of December 1898. I was married by a Latter-day Saint. My husband was not a member of the Church. He didn't belong to any church. But his Parents belonged to the Methodist Church. We moved to a farm three miles below Kanosh. I did' t make a very successful farmers wife, for I didn't understand the language of a farmer, the double trees, Single trees, neckyoke brichen strap nose--sacks and new land, was all Greek to me. The first thing in the spring my husband was very busy. I was to go to town for groceries. He hitched up the horses on the buggy and asked me if I could drive to town. I had no experience with horses. And felt very timid, but didn't let him know. When I returned, to save him the trouble of coming up from the field, I unhitched the horses. I undid every buckle on both sides and it was a job, I said I will never hurry him again, when he is unhitching the horses for dinner, it was a bigger job than I ever thought. But it was a bigger job for him. He spent the rest of the afternoon getting it back together again. We spent two and a half years on the farm and during that time we had two baby girls born to us and lost both of them. My husband got a job on the railroad with his team making a new road on the Leamington Cut-off-- I went along to cook for him. We lived in a tent in the sand hills, everyday or so, we would have to pull the table legs up out of the sand. We drank warm stale water out of the Sevier River that stood for days in barrels and you gagged every drink you took. It was a den of rattlesnakes, scorpions, and tryantulas, some of the men and boys that had their beds made on the ground would sometimes find a snake curled up in their bed. We toughed it out for three months. And went from there to Fillmore, Millard County Utah and bought us a home it was a log house of two rooms, but it seemed like heaven to me to get out of the boiling hot sun and sand, but it seemed like the snakes followed me. The very next day in that strange home I was coming up out of the cellar, something dropped on my head it felt like a chain with links. I put my hand up on my head to see where that chain came from and a snake ran down my arm and jumped to the ground. It frightened me. So I got out of the cellar in about three jumps. I clinched my fists and went around and around, before I could speak. I called to my husband where he was out chopping wood. He hurried to me for the thought something had happened. He hunted the cellar over and we watched for days, but we never did find the snake.

And that winter on Christmas Day at four o'clock in the afternoon, a baby girl was born to us, it lived two weeks and died. The following spring I joined the Relief Society. And was put in as a block teacher. The next December 23, another baby girl was born and we were very fortunate to keep her. She was a beautiful baby. We named her Golda. And when my husband carried her to church to have her named and blessed. The baby dresses were long almost to the floor. All the way to Church I walked by his side keeping her dress pulled down so not to have any wrinkles, as he took her up to the front row he doubled her dress up. She was a mess of wrinkles. About three years later I was asked to be a teacher in the Sunday School. I was so happy for I wanted to go and take my daughter. I accepted it but my husband was very bitter against me going. He said, if I went to Sunday School he wouldn't go to Church with me. Which he was very good to go to Church. I hated to tell the Superintendent I couldn't be a teacher and I didn't want him to know how my husband felt. But I had to go the next Sunday, for it was my turn to give the lesson. When I came home my husband was angry and had gone up town and didn't come home till it was to late for Church. I knew he was angry, but I had time to think it over. I know our first duty is to make our home happy. I knew I would have to handle him with kindness. The bell was ringing for church. I told him our dinner was ready. After we ate I ask him if he would like to sit on the lawn under the trees. He said He would. But I knew he had a lot of wonders. A little later in the afternoon we walked up town, just in time to meet everybody coming from Church. Of course they wanted to know why we wasn't out to Church. I made some alibis and we got through that day all right. I never prayed harder in all my life than I did that week. I ask the Lord if he would help me for I loved my religion and I wanted to live it and I wanted to work in the Sunday School, which I loved and I hadn't been very much since I was married. So between my prayers, I was wondering what I could tell the superintendent and what excuse I could make the next Saturday night when my husband came home, which his work called him away from home during the week. He said, "Dearie, I'll wash the dishes in the morning for you while you are getting ready for Sunday School. We won't have to get up so early will we?" You can imagine my surprise. I looked at him while the tears ran down my face. I put my arms around him and told him he would never know how happy he had made me. I know the Lord had answered my prayers and had soften his heart and from that time on he was willing for me to do church work. I remained a teacher in the Sunday School for six years and also a teacher in the Primary at the same time. Then I was put in a Counsellor in the Primary for a year and was asked to help do the sewing for the Dead. The Relief Society looked after that work making the Temple Clothes and the shoes. Making the shoes was my job. I had a very sad disappointment. A death in town. I hurried with my work knowing I would be visited by the Relief Society Officers, to go get the measurements and make the shoes. They never came never. I went to the funeral and wondered who made the shoes, but to proud to ask. It went on till another death came and the President of the R. S. came to me and said Don't feel bad and hurt they had received word from headquarters not to let anyone sew on Temple Clothes, only those who had been through the Temple. I wondered then if I would ever go to the Temple. I thought of my Patriarchal Blessing, I had just a short time it says. You shall go to the Temple, which you do so desire. That gave me courage and hope. I hadn't been very well since my first baby was born. And every baby I had I seem to get worse, when my last baby was four years old and I had to have a major operation, unfortunately we had a quack Doctor and less than two years. I had another major operation, which was very serious. For five days the doctors didn't give my Husband any encouragement. Doctor Midleton, and Allen was counted two of the best Doctors in Salt Lake. For months I had been praying constantly to the Lord: if he would spare my life that I could raise my little girl, I would work in the Church the rest of my life. I would never refuse anything I was ever asked to do. The good Lord did answer my prayers. I got well, in a few years I had gained my strength. I was asked to be second Counsellor in the Mutual. When they first ask me I didn't feel capable and I was ready to refuse. I had forgotten the promise I had made the Lord. And my husband not in the Church, he didn't like me to be out much without him. But the thought came to me, the promise I had made to the Lord. If he would spare my life, I didn't dare to refuse, so I was second Counsellor for four years to Sister Swallow. Then I was put in First Counsellor to Jennie Ash by for three years. Making seven years steady in the Mutual. And was released to come to California. My husband was still not a member of the Church.

One thing that impressed me very much. A lady bore her testimony at a Testimony meeting that she had been praying for three long years for one desire of her heart and finally her prayers were answered. I thought, 0 what a little time that was and I had been praying as hard as I knew how for twenty years and still my prayers weren't answered. My Daughter married a Mormon boy a month or so before we came to California. And we brought them down with us. We stayed here a little over a year and went back to our home in Fillmore, which we had a very nice five room brick house. As soon as I got back home the Bishop came and ask me to be President of the Primary. As I didn't dare to refuse, I accepted. There were two Wards and I lived in the second Ward. The Primary had never been self-sustaining, and with all the good help I had and my twelve missionary Boys as I called them. They would soon be twelve years old. I had them come to my home. I gave them free access to my husband's workshop, and tools. It wasn't long till I had my husband in charge of the work, we spent most of the years making quilts and furniture of all kinds, cupboards, tables, pedestals and sets of quilting frames. We had our Bazaar in the fall and cleared $85. Spent 5 dollars for song books and gave 50 dollars to the Seminary, which they was just building and left 3O dollars in the treasury. That year was one of the happiest times of my life. That winter we came back to California and have lived here ever since. We found Latter-day Saints in Highland Park, were conducted by two missionaries to start with they had 44 members. They grew rapidly in a couple of years they had 424 members. And they organised a Ward. Bishop Hogland was put in Bishop, and White and Witoff were the counsellors and Sister Harriet Pack was President of the Relief Society, and I was her first counsellors and Susie Hogland was Second counsellor. I worked in the Relief Society for four years. And after that I was put in as a Relief Society Block Teacher and held that until two years ago; but during that time ten more years had passed, when my husband said he was ready to be baptised. I don't have to tell you the joy that it gave me; the l4th day of July 1933 he was baptised. It seemed far sacred than when I was baptised at 8 years and in eight years from then on October 25, 1941. We had the greatest joy of our lives. We went to the Mesa Temple, there we was married for time and all eternity. And one month from then in November, I was asked to be a Missionary and the 7th day of December. The day Pearl Harbour was bombed. I was set apart and received my certificate. I filled my two years mission, which my patriarchal blessing said I would. And now I expect to spend the rest of my life doing Genealogy work and Temple work.

August 1965-

I wrote down my troubles every day and after a few short years, when I thought of the heartaches passed away, I read them with smiles, not tears.

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