MARY: I am the first and oldest daughter of William Casper and Margaret Smith Whittle, born the fourth day of October1902. To me that seems a very short while ago. Calendar-wise, we know better.
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| Mary's father, William Casper Whittle (1876-1937) |
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| Mary's mother, Margaret Shields Smith (1878-1952) |
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| Mary Eliza Whittle (1902-1998) and her brother Merkle Leroi Whittle (1900-1925) |
I was the second child. My brother LeRoi was born the 7th of March, 1900.
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| LeRoi Whittle, summer of 1922. |
Then came Adam Clair. He was given the name Adam for our paternal grandparent, Adam Gibson Smith. Clair was born the 18th day of May, 1905. I remember the day our only sister came to live with us. I guess it was because I wanted a sister so very much. It seemed everyone around us had boys.
My day had been spent with my Aunt Retta Martin, Father’s married sister and a very favorite aunt. It was a beautiful March day, the 16th, to be exact, 1908. The dirty snow of that time of year had just about all melted off the ground and the first signs of good green grass could be seen. I had to walk about a half of mile home before I could see her. It was such a long way this day.
She was about the fattest little baby you ever would find it, seemed to me. She weighed 12 and 1/ 4 pounds. When she was named Lura, I know I was very jealous. My name was as common as it was possible to make, named for both of my grandmothers--Mary for Father’s mother and Eliza for my grandmother Smith--while her’s was Lura May. It took a long time to really appreciate my own name, but I truly say I do now.
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| Lura May Whittle (1908-2001) and Mary Eliza Whittle (1902-1998) |
Next in the family was another boy. I was disappointed but not the folks. I think Father was very happy to carry on the family name. This brother was part of the family tradition--Ralph Casper. I don’t know how many Caspers there are in the family. I do know it goes beyond my father’s. Ralph was born the 26th of December,1910. Our family was growing.
We were very happy when the last brother came. This one we all had a say in what he was to be called. Part of us wanted the name Raymond. It wasn’t the majority because he became Theo Ray, born the hottest month of the year, August 20th, 1914.
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| Theo Ray Whittle (1914-1978), Sept. 1926 |
...Theodore Ray Whittle, Mother's youngest brother. I remember him well....When I returned to Pocatello one summer while in High school. Theo, as he was known, worked for an office supply firm in Pocatello. In the evenings Theo taught me how to clean and repair typewriters, of which there used to be many.
The setting for my early years
MARY: My grandfather [George Page Whittle] built the first brick home in Oakley for his first wife. He was a polygamist. He had two wives. We had the first galvanized long bathtub. My father drilled a hole in the kitchen wall and put a spigot through the wall and let it drain outdoors from the kitchen. When Grandpa, his father, was so very ill they plugged the hole up there and took the bath tub for him. We’d heat the water on the stove and then let it drain out. We only had one pipe in the middle of the kitchen. That was all the water we had.
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| Mary's father, William Casper Whittle, and sons Leroi, Clair, and Ralph? |
We had the first phonograph—a 1901 Edison phonograph. The record was as thick as my finger. All the kids would come to our house and listen to music.
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| Mary wrote: "Mary Whittle--off to high school." |
[Regarding the first electrical appliance:] Ours was a washing machine. I remember Mother had gone to Conference in Salt Lake and when she came back she’d say, “You just can’t imagine. You go over to the wall and touch a little button and whole room would light up. The wire was hung from the center of the room down with one globe in it and the whole room would light up. I thought that was the most marvelous thing in the world. I just couldn’t see how the whole room would light up just by touching a little button. She didn’t tell me it was wired.
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| On the back of the photo: "Helth Dance, 1919. Dovey Puckett, Zara Haight, Clairssa Matthews and Mary Whittle [front row on the left]." Mary added: "Beehive girls." She was 17 years old. |
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| Mary is in the front, second from the left. |
We had one of first radios. It was battery charged. We thought that was just marvelous because we could get the music from the air. That was when we were first married.
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| Mary Whittle and Maybell Haight (first cousin to Elder David B. Haight, who also grew up in Oakley, and was just four years younger than Mary) |
About this time the First World War was making headlines. It didn’t seem to matter much at the time but it wasn’t long until LeRoy was old enough and he would have to go into training soon but the armistice was signed. Many families had much to be thankful for at that time. I had a boyfriend that I wrote to. It was exciting to get a letters from overseas.
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| Mary (on the right) with two unidentified friends |
Other things were making life very interesting, too. About this time almost everyone had a car, phonograph, and movies were coming into the little towns.
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| Mary (on the left) and friends on an early version of a "pioneer trek"? |
My home town
Of course, we didn’t think Oakley a small town. [Click here to read a recent Church News article about Oakley.] It had two drug stores--the Oakley Coop and Peoples and another store--Prices. This made rather a long main street. Anyway, we thought so. It used to take all day to do the town on the Fourth of July. We would start just as soon as the stores were open, and walk from end of main street to the other, buying a box of pink popcorn first thing. Later in the day, watermelon would be served and this would be the season’s first–a marvelous treat for the tired and thirsty. Melons have never been just that good since. Yes, Oakley, Cassia County, Idaho was a wonderful place to live.
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| Mary and an unidentified friend--Maybell Haight? |
My Grandparents
My mother’s people lived in Marian, about five miles from Oakley. She would take us children for visits. It was almost an all day trip with a horse and buggy. I never knew my Grandmother [Eliza Primrose Shields] Smith. She died the Fourth of July, 1899.
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| Eliza Primrose Shields (1857-1899) and Adam Gibson Smith (1852-1911) |
But I knew Grandfather [Adam Gibson Smith], and he was one of the kindest persons I have every known. His store was a delight and the jelly beans he would give us were the best ever. They are a favorite candy to this day. Grandfather was Bishop of Marian Ward for many years. He was Bishop when he died in 1911. He, with his family, were the first to colonize that town.
The following account is taken from the History of Idaho: a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume 3, 1914 (Google eBook) by Hiram Taylor French:
Adam G. Smith, who was a native of Iowa, and who came to Utah as one of the early pioneers of that state. He became a farmer in his new home and until 1880 was a well known resident of Utah. At this time he came to Idaho and settled in Goose Creek valley, where he engaged in farming and stock raising. He was quite successful in this business and continued to be thus engaged until 1902, when he began his mercantile career, by buying out the branch store of the Oakley Co-operative Company, at Marion, Idaho. He became an even more successful merchant than he had been a farmer, and at his death was accounted one of the prosperous men of the county. He died in June, 1911. Adam G. Smith was three times married, and was the father of thirteen children. His second wife, Eliza Shields, was the mother of George A. Smith, who was the tenth child. Mrs. Eliza Smith was born in Utah, and died on the 4th of July, 1899, in Idaho.
Back to Mary's account:
My grandfather [George Page Whittle] built the first brick home in Oakley for his first wife [Mary Jane Lee]. He was a polygamist. He had two wives [Mary Jane Lee (1856-1919) and Ann Jenetta Severe].
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| Mary Jane Lee with grandchildren, circa 1909 |
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Early memories
The family was growing and our interests also. The town of Oakley was to build a dam. Father did a great deal of the construction work on the trestle that would carry the water from Cottonwood to the valley of Oakley. [The dam was completed in 1911.] This at one time was the largest dirt dam in the world--or so we were told. At Easter time on the days we would play hooky from school, the dam was the most delightful place to go.
I believe the school teachers welcomed “Hooky Day.” This was as traditional as Easter itself. About a week before Easter, it was understood that all the eggs that were to be found were to be stored in what we called an Easter hole. This was a hole in the ground where the grass was cut into a square place, the earth scraped out, making a cool place to keep the eggs until we could take them to the store and trade for Easter candy and things to fill a picnic basket with.
My first major trip
The first trip of any consequence was when I was about eighteen years old--probably seventeen. My Mother’s brother, George A. Smith, lived in Portland, Oregon. He came to Oakley to visit us. I’m sure I must have been a challenge to him. I’d never been 25 miles from home, never eaten in a restaurant, and certainly was in need of something to stimulate a desire for broader understanding of life. In fact, to put it in Uncle George’s words (I can hear him yet), “Maggie, that girl needs to get the sage brush out of her hair. Let her come to Portland to visit.” I guess Mother and Father thought that was a big request for one so inexperienced to go so far away. It took some time before they consented, but I did spend two weeks away.
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| Mary and her Uncle George A. Smith at Crown Point, Columbia River Highway, Portland, Oregon, 1922 |
They put me on the train in Minidoka, near Burley. That way I wouldn’t need to leave the train until I arrived in Portland. I was excited and worried, too. How would I manage at the other end of the line? I’m sure Uncle George had my concern at heart for he came to the Dallas (?), Oregon just to ride back to Portland with me. He surely was a wonderful and welcome sight. I stayed at the nicest hotel, Multhomah, for ten delightful days. The nice part about it all was Uncle George’s friend to see that I was cared for at all time. I have never been in a city so big and to be alone was frightening. In fact, when I left the hotel by myself, I would only go one block each way around it so I couldn’t get lost. The trip at that time of my life was more than mere words will ever be able to express. It did show me the necessity of getting more out of life than being content with the small world we lived in at Oakley.
Family moves to Blackfoot
It wasn’t long after that the family moved to Blackfoot, Idaho. Father had started to work for the Elkhorn Creamery that was owned by the Armour Company of Chicago. His headquarters were to be at Pocatello. A place to live there was difficult to locate so the family settled in Blackfoot on South Shelling Street. This was an interesting lime for us at an age when boyfriends were important and we didn’t date as early as they do now. In our neighborhood were families with boys the right age for me.
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| William Casper Whittle (1876-1937) |
GERALD: Grandpa Whittle traveled a good bit. He worked for a National Dairy but I do not recall in what capacity. I do remember that he would take Richard and I down to the dairy plant in Pocatello. It was always cold inside. They processed and bottled milk and cream and churned butter. The buuter was held in large steel tubs and kept in cold rooms until they were ready to package it. Grand pa Whittle would take us into the cold room and dig a chunk of butter out of the tub with his fingers and put it into his mouth and invite us to do the same - which we eagerly did.(sanitation standards were a little different in those days) I can still remember how good that fresh butter tasted. I could not have been more than 5 or 6 years old at the time .
Because of his traveling job, I did not know Grandpa Whittle very well not like I did Grandma Whittle, or Ralph and Theo. I think they referred to Grandpa Whittle as Casper Whittle.
LETTER FROM MARY’S MOTHER, MARGARET SMITH WHITTLE:
The original of the following letter was sent to Richard G. Scott on June 21, 2006 by Diane Ellis, Assistant to the Matron in the Anchorage Alaska temple and a descendant of Adam Gibson Smith. The letter was written to her mother, Dorcas Janette Smith Wilson, by her Aunt Maggie, Margaret Shields Smith, who had just visited her in Oakley, Idaho. Sister Ellis writes: “Edna Smith, my mother’s mother, had passed away in 1930 and Mother was raising her three younger brothers. Mother did this for six years. Mother said that Aunt Maggie thought she did not have a nice dress and so sent her one.”
Pocatello, Idaho
May 31st, 1933
Dear Dorcas,
Don’t be too surprised when you get this letter and a package from me.
I was in town this afternoon and found something I think you might like if it’s the right size. You may wonder why I have done what I have, but I’ll tell you just why and also how I feel about a lot of things.
My heart goes out to you, because I realize you have a big job and I know you miss your mother like I missed mine, but I know this too, if you do your best and don’t complain you will be blessed above any thing that you can even imagine. We sometimes have to go thru a lot we cannot understand but it’s the things that develop our characters more than any thing else. I’m perhaps peculiar in a good many things. I believe in flowers for the living, while they are here to enjoy them and for the dead, a life worthy of the approval of my loved ones who are gone, to me then, flowers are only a waste of money, but a life above reproach and one that can be said, she is so and so’s daughter, I’m proud to honor my parents by my good actions and works, and I know that’s just the way you feel. Don’t feel blue or discouraged because you will be rewarded for your good deeds. I know it’s nice to have things like others, but money cannot take the place of a conscience that knows it has done its best.
Well Dorcas I won’t go on any longer. I only hope I’ve got the right size, and that you like it. If it’s too large sent it back and I’ll try and get one that fits.
Have sent it with lots of love to ou, and only wish I was nearer so I could chat with you occasionally.
We thoroughly enjoyed our trip the other day. Casper went to Star Valley yesterday. I must quit now and shell some peas for dinner. Am having greem peas and new spuds.
Lots of good luck & good wishes
Aunt Maggie
If any one asks where you got your dress, tell them it’s one you had a coming. Be sure & write. Love to you, Dad & the boys.
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| Margaret Shields Smith Whittle (1878-1952) |
Impressive neighbors
MARY: We lived across the Street from Idaho Senator Peter G. Johnson. He was also in the stake presidency and he had a son, Lloyd, that I did enjoy going places with. Of course, the folks did approve of him because he was from a good Mormon family. I used to help Aunt Flora, as we called Sister Johnson. I remember one day she was so excited because Idaho U.S. Senator Borah, was to be a luncheon guest at their home. I was impressed I can tell you, for I, too, got to see him. I remember Uncle P.G. as we called him said not to fix special for him, that they would just eat in the kitchen. They did, too. It was a great big homey kitchen with table dining-room sized. He knew that a good man, no matter what his station in life, likes to be one of the family and Senator Borah was just that.
Meeting my future husband
About this time in my life another chapter was beginning to open up. My brother LeRoi came home from work one night with the news that a new fellow had arrived in town....after I met the new man in town [Kenneth Leroy Scott], the one my brother thought wouldn’t be interested in me, we were married in six months [on 20 July 1925]....
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| Mary and Kenneth on their honeymoon |
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