Rachel Abertha Brown Parsons

THE LIFE SKETCH OF RACHEL ABERTHA BROWN PARSONS

Written by her daughter, Della Parsons Ware

Rachel Abertha Brown, the third child of George Austin Brown and Rachel Savage, was born November 12, 1878, at Payson, Utah. She moved with her parents to Box Creek, Piute County, Utah in 1880. Although she was given the name, Abertha, she always signed her name “Bertha.” Bertha was baptized, May 18, 1888 at Box Creek, by her uncle David B. Brown. She attended school along with the other children of Box Creek, but she didn’t seem to care as much about books and reading as she did about home making. From the time she was very young, she was happiest when working to bring a touch of beauty to otherwise shabby, homely surroundings. It was not an undesirable task for her to scrub a board floor until it was yellow and clean, mix a pail of whitewash to touch up around the fireplace where smoke and grime was bound to collect. She helped knit long stockings and socks, mittens and mufflers, which were necessary clothing to be worn during long, cold winters.

Dairying was the principal industry in the valley. An abundance of knee-deep grass grew everywhere. There was plenty of grazing in the West Mountains. When Bertha was a young girl she went to the mountain to do dairy work with her brothers, Henry and Alma. They milked the cows that were turned on the range and made cheese. When Jemima, their sister, was old enough to do the work she went to the mountain dairy and Bertha hired out to work for other ranchers. She received a wage of two dollars a week. Prices of commodities were correspondingly low. Calico for dresses was only five cents a yard.

Bertha was working on their own dairy at Fish Lake in the summer of 1900 when she began a courtship with Arthur Parsons. Arthur was thirty-one years of age and Bertha was nearly twenty-one. He had just returned from a mission for the LDS Church in the Northern States. Arthur was considered fairly well to do financially. He and members of his family were also at Fish Lake dairying that summer. Quite a number of dairy herds were feeding on the meadows at Fish Lake that summer. The young people had picnics and often got together for an evening of fun.

Arthur and Bertha were married January 16, 1901, in the Manti Temple. Bertha’s brother, Henry, and Mary Christensen were also planning marriage so the two couples decided to be married the same day. The two couples traveled by wagon to Manti, a distance of about seventy-five miles. It took them nearly a week to make the trip. Arthur and Bertha brought a new bedroom set home with them. The set consisted of a bed, dresser, and washstand, all finished in golden oak. Their first home was a two-room log house on a little farm at the point of the mountain between Koosharem and Box Creek.

In this farm home their first child was born. Della May was born November 30, 1901. Bertha developed phlebitis and was confined to her home for six weeks. Her brother, Lee, a lad of fifteen years, lived with them that winter to help around the house as well as do chores outside. Arthur’s farm chores kept him busy and his church duties took him away from home sometimes at night.

Before the birth of a second child, George Stanley, born January 8, 1904, they moved to Koosharem and lived in a house owned by Bertha’s father, George Brown. With Bertha’s ambition and ingenuity she thought of ways to make extra money to buy some pieces of furniture that she could use. During that fall and winter, she took special care of her little flock of chickens, boiling a kettle of potatoes for them each morning to mix with a bran mash. This good care increased the egg production considerably. She saved the money from eggs she sold and had enough to pay for a nice baby carriage. She also raised turkeys. Gathering the eggs in the spring, she used chicken hens for brooders. When the turkey hen was ready to “set,” she broke her up so she would produce more eggs to be hatched by the “setting” chicken. She sold the turkeys to buy furniture for the new home that was being built.

They moved into the new home in 1905. Bertha had torn strips of worn clothing and sewn them together, having enough to make floor coverings for three floors. These balls of carpet rags were taken to a weaver and made into yard wide strips of carpeting. The bright colored warp made a very nice looking floor covering. She scrubbed the wood floor in the kitchen until linoleum was available.

Bertha was especially talented as a seamstress and dressmaker. She gave special attention to keeping her family well clothed. When the children’s shoes had worn shabby, she was reluctant to send them to Sunday School.

Bertha’s third child, Rachel Mary, was born March 4, 1906; Aaron, February 14, 1908; Cora, February 17, 1910; and Cleone, November 5, 1915.

Each summer the children eagerly awaited the day when they would move to the ranch, three miles south of town. The hired girl went along to help with chores and household work, and look after the children. With homemade equipment and skillful hands, Bertha made two or three large cheeses a day. Milk produced by a dozen or more cows was strained into a large metal vat. Enough of the milk was heated in a large utensil on the stove to warm the full amount to room temperature. A tablet or two of rennet was dissolved and stirred into the milk. Bertha cut the curded milk with a long knife, dipped off the whey and heated it to just the right temperature to partially cook the curd. It then could be worked with her fingers. She continued to stir and mix until the whey was out of the curds. These were salted and pressed into a cloth-lined hoop. The hoops were then place on a corrugated board, called a follower, and a wooden lid was place inside the hoop firmly but gently covering the cheese. A heavy rock was suspended from the end of a plank that pressed all the whey out of the cheese. Then it was trimmed at the edges, covered with a cheesecloth jacket, and placed away on a shelf to cure. This cured cheese bought clothing and food for the winter.

Summer vacation for the family came in the latter part of the summer each year. They were well prepared to sleep on the ground under star-lit skies for three nights. This vacation came when Arthur went to Seven-Mile and Johnson’s Reservoir, north of Fish Lake, to round up his cattle and start them on their way off the mountain. Later, he would ride to Fish Lake on horses back to bring them into the valley for the winter.

It seemed that after 1910, ill health and disappointments brought reverses into their lives. Bertha suffered from phlebitis again after the birth of her fifth child. Her legs always gave her trouble after that. She under went a major operation in 1912. Arthur contracted a severe form of bronchial asthma, for which there was no cure and very little relief.

Bertha was expecting her sixth child in November 1915 so they moved to Richfield where they could be under the care of a good doctor. Arthur’s health seemed improved in the lower climate, so they decided to sell their property in Grass Valley and buy a home in Monroe. There the children could attend high school.

They moved to Monroe the day after the General Election in 1915. Bertha and the girls went to work immediately to clean the house from top to bottom. It was her first experience with electricity. She soon learned that it is not safe to wash the inside of an electric light socket with a damp cloth. By Thanksgiving Day all was in readiness for Thanksgiving dinner. A nice dinner was prepared and a lonely bachelor neighbor was invited to have dinner with them. Arthur and Bertha were charitable and kind to those in unfortunate circumstances. They won the love and devotion of many people, especially relatives and neighbors.

In October 1920, Bertha underwent a serious major operation and spent a month in a Salt Lake City hospital. As she regained her strength she worked hard again, having a few flowers in her yard and growing a good garden, providing for the needs of her family. Being ambitious and always striving for the better material things of life, she faced many disappointments in her life. Bertha was spiritually minded in her way, but feeding and clothing her family and making a comfortable home for them was her first consideration.

Her husband passed away in August 1935, leaving her a widow for over twenty years.

She was a Relief Society block teacher for a number of years, did some temple work, was appointed by the Monroe South Ward Relief Society to sew for and clothe the dead. This position she held for twelve years before that work was finally done entirely by morticians.

For more than eight years before her death Bertha suffered an affliction that resulted from a severe illness with shingles. This involved her left eye and one side of her head and face. The malady was incurable and she suffered constant neuralgic pain. It became necessary for her to have care in a nursing home.

She passed away January 9, 1956, in a Richfield nursing home and is buried in the Monroe cemetery.