Your Mother

transcribed by Leona Elizabeth South Andrew

As told to Dorothy [Andrew Nielsen] by Aunt Sadie South Brough

 

Your mother (Leona Elizabeth South Andrew) was born in Randolph, Utah, 21 June 1892. She was the fourth child born in the family. Mother’s [Sarah Jane Peart] first child died a few hours after birth. He was a premature baby. William and Janie named him John.

 

Dad [William Rich South] loved every one of his children, but Leona was his favorite. She was a pretty little blonde, with big blue eyes. My mother always said she was the best looking one in the family.

 

I will have to explain a few things before you can understand how we lived. Our father was a very restless person. The grass always seemed greener to him on the other side of the fence. Before he left Randolph, he worked in the timbers. He owned and operated a sawmill, about eight miles from town. It was too cold to work at the sawmill in the winter, but in the summer he would take mother and all us kids up to the mill and return to town in the fall to send us to school.

 

Your mother [Leona] had a very good sense of humor. We would get very lonesome sometimes, without much to do. Your mother once said when she was a small girl, “I wish someone would fall in the creek so I could have a good laugh.”

When your mother was about 7 years old father sold the sawmill, the home, and everything he owned and left Randolph. The first move was to a small town called Cumberland, Wyoming. It was not far from Kemmerer, Wyoming. In the fall of that year we moved to Logan. He made several moves after that and always took mother and all us kids with him.

 

Finally he moved to Logan again for the second time. Your mother was about 12 years old then. Your mother attended school at the little rock school house. Your father [John Earl Andrew] attended school there too, but they never knew each other then.

 

That is where this picture was taken. [unknown picture] When this picture was taken your mother was 13 years old and Ray was 11. I made the dress she is wearing. It was made of pink and white stripe gingham. I have always thought a lot of the picture, but when I am gone it will mean more to you than anyone else.

 

Our next move was to Ogden. One summer after we moved to Ogden, dad took mother and all the kids to Wyoming, all but Phoebe and me; we went to Salt Lake City. I stayed with Aunt Kate Spencer [William’s sister Catherine] and Phoebe stayed with Aunt Agnes Call [William’s sister]. They returned to Ogden in the fall again.

 

Our folks always sent us to Sunday School when ever possible. Your mother never worked much outside the home. When we lived in Ogden, she worked in the overall factory for a little while, and did a little housework for a neighbor.

While they were in Wyoming, your mother met Shell Eppich. Mrs. Eppich would have liked very much for Shell to marry your mother, but they were both too young. Shell was a little younger than your mother, so they would have had a lot of growing up to do before they were old enough to get married. Your mother wasn’t interested in him anyway.

 

We were getting along just fine and would have liked to stay in Ogden, but Dad decided to move to Trenton. This was in 1910. In Trenton is where your mother and dad met, fell in love and got married. I didn’t like Trenton, but that is where I met Albert and got married also and stayed there 30 years.

 

When we were living in Trenton, I made a dress for Leona. She wanted it shorter than I wanted to make it. After she went to do something else, I took the hem out and made it longer. When she put on the dress she knew in a second what I had done. She went crying to dad. He insisted that I make the dress shorter. So I did.

 

[Your] mother and Dad, John Earl Andrew, were married 6 February 1913 in the Logan Temple. When your parents were first married, they had a very nice two-roomed house. It was somewhere down where the Merrill’s lived. Your father farmed a little and was janitor for the school. I can’t remember when they left Trenton to go to Grace, Idaho to live. I know that Fern and Stuart were born in Trenton, but I can’t remember where you (Dorothy) and Irene, and maybe Darlene were born.

 

Your father and mother left Trenton to live in Grace, Idaho where your father got a job working for the Anderson Lumber Company. When your Grandfather Andrew retired from the Anderson Lumber company in Trenton, your father got the job and your folks moved back to Trenton.

 

One time when they were still living in Grace, Idaho, they came down to Trenton on a visit. Your mother had all you girls dressed in white, you looked like little angels. You said you remember your mother talking about the Eppichs, the Hausers and probably the Fackrells. They were all from Randolph, trying to find a better place to live.

 

About the time you were born, your father bought his first car. He took us for a ride in it. We went 20 miles per hour. We really thought we were speeding.