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Note: WAS BAPTIZED BY Jas. (JAMES) E Hall MARRIAGE # 2: [JENSEN] (DIV) THIS MARRIAGE COULD HAVE BEEN ANNULLED MARY AMELIA BRYAN BIRD; By Manila Bird Brown "Mary Amelia (May) Bryan Bird was born in Springville, Utah, February 14, 1881, a daughter of John and Emma Noakes Bryan. She went to school in a one-room building which had a big stove in the middle of the room. There were only a few books and as a boy or girl was able to read through one book, they were advance in school to another grade. After going as far as she could in schools here, she did housework, it being about the only kind of work available to young girls. She did washing and tended children. In 1897, she married William Arthur Bird, a Springville fellow who lived quite a distance from her, as her parents lived on a farm east of town and his in town. Both however, were in the same First Ward and most of their courting was done after church and at dances in the old Reynolds Hall. They had many good times in those days at oyster suppers and buggy riding. The first home they had was a two room frame, which her husband built himself at about sixth east and ninth south in Springville. In their early married life she stayed alone with two or three children in the little house while her husband worked in railroad camps. Sometimes he was gone several weeks at a time. The little two-room house was on the outskirts of town at that time and nearby Indians camped during the summer. They came to the houses each day to beg bread, apples, potatoes, and other edibles. Sometimes there would be such a small amount of food in the house that mother would have to lock the doors, pull down the shades and hide until the Indians had gone. One child generally kept on the lookout for the old squaws. They wore heavy red blankets all summer. After the death of her husband's father and mother, they moved into the old Bird home at 696 South 400 East. It seemed good to have a big house. As the years went by and the family grew, more rooms were added to the home until when Arthur died December 25, 1943, there were three bedrooms, a large kitchen with a big coal range, a bath room with a tub, a large living room and a dining room. They made all the improvements on the home themselves even to mixing the cement by hand and laying the brick. The family lived in this home for about 35 years. There were many happy times and sad experiences. It was home for eleven sons and daughters, seven being born there. Two children died in infancy. When the boys and girls were young inoculations were not heard of, so each year for three or four weeks the family would be quarantined with a big orange colored flag on the house for measles, chicken pox, whooping cough and even small pox. It seemed that by the time one disease would get through the family and the children were back in school, a child would come home from school with another disease. In those days sulfur candles were burned in the house to fumigate after each disease and it was a big job for mother to wash the clothes and burn the candles to kill the germs. In spite of all the work and hardships of rearing a family, mother made the best of everything she had. Her motto seemed always to do the best she could with what she had and she never complained. They always had a garden with vegetables and potatoes. Two pigs were butchered in the fall for meat and lard. Fruit was picked and bottled in summer and enough wheat raised on the farm to take to the mill after threshing and exchange for the winter's flour. Such things as celery were only had at wedding suppers and a handful of raisins or an orange or a banana were reserved for Christmas. Mother served as a teacher in Sunday school, in Relief Society, and in Primary. She was president of the religion class when it was first organized. She filled a stake mission in Kolob Stake and served in the Relief Society presidency in the 17th ward in Salt Lake City while living there. She was a captain in the D.U.P. and with her husband served on the Black Hawk and Old Folks committee. After the death of her husband she sold the old home. She did temple work for a short time in St. George and then moved to Salt Lake City where she worked in the temple until her health failed. She moved back to Springville in 1957 and purchased the home at 44 South 200 East. Besides the work she did in church and caring for her children and grandchildren, she made hundreds of quilts, rugs, and pieces of crochet and other handiwork. She was always busy and seldom wasted a minute of her time. When she would visit her children's homes when she was very old, she would always find something that she could do for them in sewing, mending or making rugs for them. At the time of her death she had nine living sons and daughters: Manila B. Brown, Bryan Bird, Arvil Bird, Lloyd Bird, Thelma B. Harmer, Lewis Bird, Russen Bird, Dean Bird, and Clara B. Averett; 38 grandchildren and 43 great grandchildren." *COPY IN FILE
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