My Story ------------ Lest Forget
By Beatrice Albertine Farr Campbell
Retyped by Mathew Gary Wilson
November 21st, 2006
I, Beatrice Albertine Farr Campbell, am beginning my story August 18, 1937. I’m writing this because I am teacher in the Junior class of the North Ogden MIA and this is our project.
I was born April 24th, 1892, in Ogden Utah (561 Canyon Road). I lived there all my life until I was married June 9, 1915.
I was blessed about May 2, 1892 by my Grandfather Lorin Farr. I was baptized by my father Marcus Farr, April 24, 1900, my eighth birthday. That same day my very dear and favorite cousin, Agnes Farr Goddard, and a very dear friend, Hazel Reeves, were baptized by my father, with me. We went over to the Ogden River in a little pool called “Little Queen.” I was confirmed by my Uncle James Wetherspoon and Bishop Barnard White April 29th, 1900.
I am the daughter of Marcus Farr and Caroline Josephine Ballantyne. I had three brothers and one sister. My oldest brother, Marcus B. is dead. Lionel B. is living in Washington DC and Lorin B. is living in Ogden. My sister, Josephine F. Olsen is House Mother at the Bee Hive Annex in Salt Lake City.
Ever since I can remember, I have wanted to work in the church. Have held many positions in the church. Have been secretary of Mutual, Teacher in primary, and Sunday School teacher and have belonged to two ward choirs and the Ogden Tabernacle Choir. Have enjoyed all of these positions and feel highly honored to have held them.
Can remember when I was quite young of being asked to take part in ward concerts and family reunions. I was asked to sing to one of the Ballantyne parties in Lorin Farr Park. ( Then known as Farr’s Grove) They forgot to call on me to sing my song. Aunt Jane took me down in one corner of the Grove and asked me to sing for her. She had to coax for quite a while but finally I got over being angry and sang for her. I was very indignant at being forgotten.
I remember when I was quite young, the folks all went away and left me with my brother Lionel. He had some boy friends come and play marbles. They wouldn’t let me play with them so I kept kicking them away from them. Lionel didn’t say anything. He just took me by the hand, led me into the house, got the hammer and nails, took me in the front room and there he tacked my dress to the floor. He put play things in front of me but just far enough away so I couldn’t get them. There I sat until they finisher their game. That taught me a lesson.
I used to go to Grandmother Ballantyne’s quite a lot. She always had cookies or candy or something nice to eat. She used to make me dresses, (She said for a little girl about my size) they would always be a surprise to me.
My mother didn’t like me to go away too much but I always had a crowd at home. We would have candy pulls and other parties. I had more parties than anyone else in the crowd. Agnes, (my favorite cousin), and I have had a lot of fun together. She had the sweetest mother. When we would play, Aunt Deana would let us do anything we wanted, within reason.
One day we were playing school in the pantry. We sat on the table and kicked our feet. We were singing as loud as we could when all at once, over went the scrap bucket she kept under the table. We were so frightened at what she might do to us we were almost sick, but when she came in and saw us she just laughed and told us not to be afraid of her. She cleaned it up and then got us some bread and put some cream and sugar on it. She was always that way.
We used to dress up in our sister’s clothes and play house and show. We had several shows in Uncle Win Farr’s and Mr. Wm. Eccles’ barns. We would have large crowds both old and young come and see us act. The admission would be pennies, beer bottles and gunny sacks. We mad good at them.
As I grew older my mind turned to other things. When I was 14 years old they (the third ward bishopric) put me in as assistant secretary in MIA. I was set apart in this position Nov. 7, 1906 by my uncle James Wetherspoon, then Bishop of that ward.
Other positions I have held I will put in here. Feb. 30, 1921 as President in North Ogden MIA. Before I was married I was secretary for the Ogden Stake MIA Stake Board. Held that position for 2 years. Taught the kindergarten class in Seventh Ward Sunday School and sang in two choirs and this was in 1912 and held all positions at the same time.
I love the Mutual. It seems a part of me. Have been first counselor to Ellen Hill in MIA and taught the Junior and what used to be the Senior classes. I am now working with the Junior girls. We have a class of twenty one or two girls and we have on an average of 18 or 19 each week.
We had a nice party for the girls who are going into the Gleaner class (10 of them) and for the girls who are new in our class this year. About 10 or 11 of these girls.
I was married June 9, 1915 to Harold Scott Campbell in the Salt Lake Temple. I have had eight children, all living. Fawn the eldest, 22 years is married to Raymond C. Rhees. This took place June 27, 1938. Russel, 21 years old is next. He is working for Parley Spackman in his grocery store. Arthur, 19 years old, has enrolled in college (Weber) this year. Hugh, 16, is a Junior in Weber County High School. Marilyn, 13 is in the eighth grade in North Ogden School. Joan, 9, is in the North Ogden Fourth grade. Ruth, 6, is in the North Ogden First Grade. Then little Gaylen Robert, 1 year old is here with me. He is such a comfort to me. He is so full of life and mischief, it keeps me busy keeping the work done up. But then I’m glad he has that much energy.
December 5, 1938
It has been a long time since I have written in my book. My story is having a hard time to be written.
I have been blessed very much in every way all my life.
First, I was born under the New and Everlasting Covenant. Second, I have had the most wonderful parents anyone could have. They were humble and full of faith. I have never come in contact with anyone who has as much faith as they had.
There were five of us and of course we had our illnesses, but we were raised without taking any doctors medicine. We were given olive oil (consecrated) that was our medicine and then we were administered to. Third, I have had the privilege of working in the church organizations since I was 14 years old. I hope I will always find time to do my bit in the church whenever I am called upon. This gives you the pleasure you can’t get any other place. Fourth, I have one of the best husbands in the world, as well as a very lovely family.
I would like to go back a few years before I was married before I tell my courtship and marriage.
I was seven years old when I started to school. I went to Mound Fort School, now known as North Junior High. There was just the one building at that time. It stood on the corner of 12th street and Washington. My first year at school was known as kindergarten. We learned to make designs with colored sticks, (small ones like tooth picks). We sewed cards with colored yarn. Learned songs and recitations. My teacher’s name was Ray Woodrock. She was a thin woman with blue eyes, sharp painted nose and walked very briskly. We all liked her very much. Can remember when we would play our games, she would laugh as heartily as we did. She taught the smaller children for years in this same school.
I can’t remember my first grade teacher.
My second was Pearl Richards, who later became Mrs. Joseph McFarland.
The third grade teacher was Clara Eldredge.
Fourth grade, Mrs. George Wade, whose husband was principal at that time.
Carrie Knapp, sixth grade teacher, Lois Pierce, fifth grade teacher. William Underwood, seventh grade. The eighth grade I took at Weber Academy.
I remember very little of my first three years, but as I got further along I can remember having some very good times.
There were several of us girls in our group. Agnes, Pauline, Edna, and Lyndall Farr, Mamie Peterson, Louis De Lamater, Blanch Leavitt and myself.
I guess we were kind of a problem for a while in the winter.
One morning we had been playing in the snow and got quite wet. The principal told us to go down in the basement and dry ourselves. We were all from different rooms but we all met in the basement. The janitor had his rooms there, bed and stove. The first time we went down he was lying on his bed drunk. We were frightened and didn’t stay long. The next time he wasn’t there so we had a good time making up games and playing them. We decided this time we would bring our own games and make candy, so the next time we planned to get wet. We did make candy one time but the janitor came when we were nearly finished and he was drunk or pretended to be. This frightened us so we were afraid to go down anymore. It was probably a good thing the janitor got wise to us before the principal did. He probably saved us a lot of trouble. I forgot to say that the janitor tried to catch us and that is why we were frightened.
We used to take our lunches quite often. One day, Louise suggested we each bring something different for a change. One of us would take bread and butter, one jelly, another cake, some one else crackers, etc. We would go across the street and sit on a wooden bridge and eat our lunches. We did have so much fun.
When we were in the fourth and fifth grades we started to think about the boys. There were a certain crowd that went around together. We decided to give a party and invite these boys. This is the way we paired off. Agnes and Laurie Dee, Edna and Byron Dee, Louise and Louis Leavitt, Blanche and Ray Jones, and Earl Thomas and myself. We had such a good time at these parties. The girls would give a party and then a boy, this way we had a party every week nearly with every other week being our turn.
We would write notes every day, five times a day. Earl saved all of his notes I wrote to him in a shoe box. A few days before he was married he took them and went down by the Mill Pond where we used to skate, read them and tore them up and put them in the water.
He used to meet me after Sunday School when I went to the Third Ward and take me to the drug store and buy me an ice cream soda. The first box of candy he gave me I told him to keep it and give it to his sister. My sister and cousin Lyndall heard me say that and they sure teased me over it.
Another boy friend was Frank Stratford. He took me to a show one night in the opera house. He said he had to go early and see about his tickets. I thought he had them laid away but when he got there he told the girl at the door or ticket window about it. She took us to the girl who took tickets and said, “These two children have lost their tickets but can remember the number of their seats.” I was fourteen then and thought I was quite grown up. I guess the main reason for feeling so grown up was because I had my mother’s short jacket on. Not having a spring coat or jacket of my own. They say pride goeth before a fall.
My Story Lest I Forget
Continued March 28, 1947
The saying “ Procrastination is the thief of time.” Well I really didn’t mean to put this off so long but here it is, March 28, 1947. Just 20 years later. Am going to try and follow an outline I have so maybe this story will sound connected.
I don’t believe a girl ever had more fun at home than I did.
My parents not being blest with much worldly goods and means we children had to kind of make our own past times. Father and Mother were very kind to us. We must have been quite trying at times as we would run away to play with the children in the neighborhood and be gone for quite a while.
There were five of us girl cousins. We were very chummy and had so much fun together. They were Agnes Farr, my favorite cousin as I have said before, Pauline and Lyndall Farr, Edna Farr and myself. Then there were other friends I have mentioned, some I didn’t mention were Arta Simpson, another cousin Fern Farr, a little older than I was but we were and are good friends and Beatrice Hancock.
Arta and I were asked to sing several times in the ward, she singing soprano and I alto. When they, who were getting up the programs would be disappointed they seemed to think we could fill in. We did.
We were also asked first hand. Kept us practicing but we loved it.
Fern and I and Beatrice and I used to sing together too. I always took the alto part.
A little later “The James Dinsdales” moved across the street from us. They had two girls, Lois and Lizzie and we became good friends too. Seemed we were always having parties and going to parties. This was when I was about eighteen years old, that these girls came along. They had a nice big orchard in their back yard and we used to like to go down there and eat green apples in the summer time. I know they weren’t good for us and we did have some ill effects but it was fun at the time.
Going back to home incidents, Father was always trying to get me to go to bed when the rest of them went, but I would ask to let me sit up and read. One night I was reading a murder story, something about a moon stone, was right in the worst part of it when the bathroom door slowly opened and my brother Lionel stuck his head around it and said “pssst.” I can’t tell you how I felt, but you can imagine for yourself. Still that didn’t cure me. Father used to say, “Beatrice sits up ‘till we are all in bed for fear she will miss hearing, seeing or smelling something.”
Across the street, East of us was a grove, known as Farr’s Grove. It was owned by my Grandfather, Lorin Farr. There were so many lovely big trees there and we would take our doll and lunch and sit in the crotch of the trees. We played house there.
Just back of the grove was the stream “ Little Queen.” About a block from here was an ice house owned by Farr’s and Jone’s. (Miles L. Jones) When this stream would freeze over the men would cut the ice and store it in the ice house and then the larger boys of my uncle’s family would deliver it in an ice wagon.
Well, on day when I went home from school, Mother told me to stay home and get supper for the folks, she was going to town or a meeting... I’ve forgotten which. My intentions were good but Heber Woolley, a boy friend came with his skates and told me to get my skates and go skating. At first I said no, then I thought I could go for a while and then go home and get supper. We went over and found the crowd waiting for us. The men had marked to ice in squares (or cakes as they called them).
There were about fourteen of us and we decided to play whip cracker. Heber led, then I was next. We were doing fine when he decided to go farther in the pond. First thing we knew the ice cracked but we were going so fast we couldn’t stop, in went Heber and pulled me in too. The kids were frightened but they got us out and I went over home, wet and cold and Heber went over the hill the same way. When I got home Josephine was there and did I get a scotch blessing. I was sent to bed without my supper.
One day while I was doing the dishes, I went out to empty the scraps to the chickens. It had been snowing and freezing so it was quite slippery, when I was just about to open the gate I slipped and fell. I did this two or three times and Mother got cross at me saying I was just trying to do it. When dinner time came we were all eating dinner and Mother got up to go outside, the first thing we knew we heard some scrambling around on the back porch. We finally made out what it was. It was Mother, her feet had slipped and she was hanging onto the screen to keep from going on the ground. No one said anything but all of us smiled and when she came in she had a funny look on her face. I felt like saying she tried to do it but I didn’t dare say it.
Father and Mother were kind to our friends when they came home. We could make candy, play school, or do anything we wanted, within reason of course.
I think I had more parties than any of the girls, always a birthday party, till I was ten years old then Mother thought I was getting too old for them. My tenth birthday my Aunt Jaune took our pictures. She told me she wanted this picture of me to be without a smile so I sat there in a chair with my mouth drawn down like I had a sour pickle in it. Was always sensitive about it, I looked so silly.
There are many more things I could write but this story would be too long. My home was on canyon road just one and a half blocks from Lorin Farr Park. It is a large brick house with four large rooms, a bathroom, pantry and on the back was a small summer kitchen.
We had a pump in the kitchen, attached to the sink and pumped out water to drink and use other ways. There wasn’t any city water ‘till a few years before I was married.
We had a chicken run, with chickens, barn with a cow and two horses. I can’t remember these but I can the chickens.
On the west of us was what we called “The Brush.” In this we would pick Johnny Jump-Ups, little yellow flowers that looked like small pansies. Also some skunk berry bushes. These berries were small and flat, when they were ready to eat they would be red. They were delicious. On the north east corner of the lot we had a Haw Berry bush, these were very good to eat too. We had no lawn until the city water was put in. It’s nearly midnight so will leave this here.
My Story Lest I Forget
Continued August 9, 1956
My goodness, this story is having a hard time to be written. Will try and write a little more today.
It’s Sunday and Harold and Gaylen are away. Harold to Priesthood meeting and Gaylen has gone to see Bonnie, his girl friend. Doesn’t hardly seem possible, when I started this story he was just a wee one. Now on the 24th of this month her will be 19 years old. A sweet handsome boy. We are all so happy for him. In fact I don’t know where or who has a nicer family than we have. They are all so good to one another. I am thankful for every one of them. This is sort of a testimony to me. Now on with my story.
So many things I remember of my home life, before I was married.
At Christmas time Father would get a large tree and trim it. He was a Master at it. He would place every ornament just where he thought it should be. This was when I was 14 or 15 years old. Before when I was younger we had no tree. Father was called on a mission to the Eastern States when I was about 4 years old. My brother Lorin was just a new baby. He was born in July and the next November Father went on his mission to New York. They were hard years on Mother.
She used to go collecting money. Father was partner with two of my uncles, Winslow and Thomas Farr. Father sold his interest to them and Mother collected the money from people who owed them. The uncle’s were good about that. They said she could have all she collected.
I can remember the night Father left. Uncle Ben Rich (I think it was him) came to take Father to the depot. He left a great big pink box of candy for us. Mother didn’t cry until Father left and then she broke down.
The first Christmas after Father left, (just one month after) Aunt Marie Taylor brought me a doll. Mother got candy and nuts for our stockings. That was my Christmas. The next Christmas Mother bought me a little trunk for my doll clothes. Besides our stockings, that was it. In spite of just having that much, I enjoyed them as much or more than my girl friends. They had so much and soon tired of them.
We had to make our fun. We had a swing and a sand pile and had so much fun. I wish my children had had as much fun as I did.
Up the street aways were some Chinamen. They were next door to Agnes. We used to pick and tie vegetables for them to take to town. One night I had gone to Mutual with Mother and a neighbor lady, Mrs. Dixon. While we were in mutual a bunch of boys and girls went up and threw rocks at the Chinamen’s door. We were nearly home, when Joe (one of the Chinamen) came running down the street with a long knife in his hand. He stopped us, grabbed me and said he was going to kill me. We had quite a job convincing him I wasn’t one of the crowd. That was a scare I can’t forget.
My Grandparents.
I can’t remember too much of my Grand(father’s ?) I never did see Grandma Farr. She died just before or soon after I was born.
Grandfather Ballantyne used to come once in a while. He was tall and thin, had piercing brown eyes and wore a beard. He came one night at supper time and stayed for supper. Mother sent me to the store for a can of salmon. Before I left, Grandfather told me to come right back as he was in a hurry to go to his home. That’s all I can remember of him, but Mother told us about him. He was a great missionary and loved children. The first Sunday School for Latter Day Saint children was held in his home.
Grandfather Farr could have been tall, but as I remember him he was slightly heavy set. He also wore a beard and had laughing blue eyes. He was quite an optimist.
One morning he called to see us on his way to hot springs. He loved to swim and was really good at it. He didn’t stay, just said he wanted to say hello and see if we were all well. When he got out to the springs, the attendant told him to get ready to swim but wait for him before going in the water. Well, Grandfather didn’t wait and when the attendant came he (grandfather) was standing in the pool, with his head on his chest or bowed and hands at his side, dead. Was quite a testimony to me, he didn’t fall in the water and drown. They had his funeral in the Ogden Tabernacle, a building he helped to build. Was a large funeral.
Grandfather Ballantyne had three wives, my Grandmother being the third one.
Grandfather Farr had six wives. My Grandmother the second one.
Grandmother Farr was a small heavyset woman. She did a lot for sick people. This I got from Mother. Mother said I was more like her than any of the other grandchildren.
Grandmother Ballantyne was a large heavyset woman. She had the kindest, sweetest face. We loved her so much. I used to like to go visiting her. She was a marvelous cook and sewer. She sewed for the rich people of Ogden for many years. She was always busy. She did beautiful embroidery and when she was seventy-seven she didn’t even wear glasses to sew, or embroider. She lived with Mother before I was married. Every little thing anyone did for her she would say “ Thank you, my dear, bless you.” She always called me her little Bea. I sat up with her all night the night before she died. She was a remarkable person and I hope I have inherited a little good from her.
I have told a lot of my childhood incidents and of my school teachers.
The next topic is trips. Well, I never took any trips until I was married, unless going to Salt Lake for a week once in a while could be called a trip.
We used to stay with Father’s sister, Aunt Sarah Smith, Uncle John Henry Smith was her husband and they are George Albert Smith’s parents. Aunt Sarah had a large house to keep and lots of company to cook for. Uncle John Henry was an Apostle and they used to have so many go and stay during the conferences, there in Salt Lake.
Aunt Sarah let Elsie, her daughter and I sit out on the back porch and have lunches. At night they let us go over by the Tabernacle (they lived across the street from the Tabernacle) and we would buy English peanuts from a peddler and eat them in bed. We had so much fun.
The first trip I took after my marriage was in 1915 with the Tabernacle Choir. (I was a member of this choir six years) Harold couldn’t go but I went with Josephine as my companion. Was a nice but hurried trip. Seemed we were on the go all the time.
Just after we struck the desert, going to California, I got hay fever. I was a mess. Every time we passed a store I would have to buy handkerchiefs. One night our crowd, (Ray ? And wife Edna, Will ? Parker, Mr. and Mrs. Israelson, Josephine and myself) were walking through the resort places. The fog was so bad we wore veils over our faces to try to keep the moisture from taking the curl out of our hair. Well, we were talking and I was talking so fast I forgot my veil and blew my nose right through it. If I didn’t get razzed!
While in California we took a trip out to Tijuana (Mexico), just over the border from California. Was a long way out but we enjoyed the trip. Aunt Nettie and Uncle Jed Ballantyne, Carl and Mrs. Allison, Rueben Wright and Josephine and I went on this trip together. Was a Sunday morning but you wouldn’t know it from the way the people were doing. The shops were open and there was to be cock fighting so the people were all excited. Not because of the open shops but the fight.
In going to San Diego, a few curves away, Josephine stood up to put her jacket on and the train rounded a curve and threw her against the back of a seat. She had quite a bit of pain so the first thing we did was hunt up a chiropractor. She examined her and she had cracked one or two ribs. Well. She was all taped up and me blowing my nose all the time.
We had to attend choir practices and concerts so we had little time to do things on our own.
The last night we were in San Francisco we were all going to China Town after our concert. I was too ill to go even to sing, so Josephine gave me a hot bath and I stayed in the hotel alone. She came right home so she didn’t see China Town either.
All of us,(the choir) were invited out to the Schillings plant. We sang there and had a lovely lunch. They took us through the plant and treated us royally.
This part of my story is being written May 26th, 1957. (Not very consistent an I?)
Have been alerted by Bill that Marilyn wasn’t too good last night. She is going to have her fourth baby.
On with my story. We had a good time while we were away. Oh, yes, we went out to Coronado Beach and Venice... Resorts out from San Francisco. We went on the roller coaster at Venice. Never was so scared in my life. The thing went right straight up and then dipped straight down, seemed like we would go out of the car (on the coaster) on our backs of our faces. The dips seemed to be blocks long. I sat next to a man from the Choir and after the first dip I grabbed him around the neck and hung there. He was a bachelor. Well, when we finally got down and ready to get off, he took my hand and said, “ That was fun, let’s go again.” End of quote. I didn’t go again and was never so glad to be on the good old earth again.
When we got on the train and had gone about one block from Coronado beach, the train stopped. There was a lot of commotion outside. We wondered what was the matter. Charley Ross, the Choir manager, came through and told us there had been an accident, and to keep our seats. Our train was a chartered one for the occasion. (Our whole trip in fact) A fruit peddler was crossing the track when the train hit him. Mr. Ross told us to say we saw nothing by those who would be asking how it happened. They could have held us there for witnesses. We kept our seats and when the train got going again we (some) of us looked back and my the fruits and vegetables that were thrown around. Poor man never knew what hit him. That spoiled the trip a little. We arrived home without any further trouble.
We crossed the bay from San Francisco to Oakland on a ferry boat and boarded our train for home on a Saturday night, arriving home on Monday. We crossed the Lucien cut-off about 5 o’clock Monday am. At 7 o’clock we were in Ogden.
The summer was uneventful, just the usual things, getting meals, putting up fruit etc. Was the first time I ever bottled fruit, (on my own.) Had done some at home for Mother but there was always some one to help me if I did something wrong.
At home I usually did the dishes, Josephine would do the cooking, so poor Harold suffered for a while. Mashed potatoes and milk gravy for a long time. Frequently he would stop off at his Mother’s before coming home and ate there, then I would eat cold potatoes and gravy by myself. I was quite peeved about the whole thing but I should have been happy for him. He never did or never has complained about what I fixed for him. He eats everything and seems to like it.
( More later, Now I want to tell of some of my school teachers.)
I started to school in the kindergarten at Mound Fort, (in Ogden.) My first teacher was Miss Ray Wood Cook. She was a real good teacher. She was thin, hair a little gray, blue eyes and a sharp pointed nose. She was a spinster but her disposition wasn’t too bad.
Lettie Richards was my second grade teacher. She wasn’t pretty but so sweet. She was a little heavy set, blue eyes, brown hair and she had a lisp when she talked. She married Robert I. Burton and has done much temple work and church work.
Pearl Richards was the third grade teacher along with Clara Eldridge. Miss Richards was sort of sickly and Miss Eldridge would take over. Pearl married Joseph McFarland and had two girls. They did temple work too. One night when they were coming home from the temple a train hit their car and they were killed. Pearl was a beautiful woman and had a sweet voice. She used to sing for us sometimes. I remember Joseph came to the school a few times to see her. Her cheeks would get all pink and her eyes shone. They were a fine looking couple.
My other teachers in turn, I skipped the fourth grade. Miss Hume and Mrs. Wade fifth. Mr. Underwood my sixth grade teacher. He was a nice looking and all had a crush on him. Mrs. Wade was the wife of our principal, George Wade. She was small with black hair and snappy dark brown eyes.
Miss Hume was light and medium weight.
Can’t remember my seventh grade teacher.
I went to Weber Academy for my eighth grade. Le Ray Cowles was our teacher but Wm. McKenderick had us for theology and a Mr. Bradford for arithmetic.
Uncle Joseph Ballantyne was the choir leader in Weber Academy and I sang in the choir. Incidentaly, so did Harold. That is where I first saw him.
We had such fun at school. In the grade schools there was quite a crowd of us.
Louise DeLamater, (Mrs. Barlow now) Blanche Leavitt, (Mrs. Carlson now) Arta Blakely, Mamie Peterson, Agnes, Pauline, Lyndall, and Edna. All Farr girls and cousins.
We used to assign different things to eat for lunch and sit on the bridge, across from the school house and eat. We also played on the sand hill across the street on the west side. The Mound Fort Ward is there now.
At Weber we had a different crowd. We used to go to the dances and never missed a dance. Our crowd consisted of Azalia Goddard, Ellen Foulger, Margaret Land and myself. Azalia’s beau was Arthur Bingham and mine Sanford Wright.
We had such good times. We went to Bro. Cowles and made candy while they, (Azalia and Margaret) would take Bro. Cowles and wife for a buggy or cutter ride. We stayed with the Cowles children.
Bro. David O. McKay was our principal for a year or so. He was an Apostle and when he would go to council meetings every Thursday, Bro. McKendrick would take over.
Bro. McKenderick was fat and short and real jolly.
We had a Japanese boy come in our class one year. The kids would ignore him. I felt sorry for him and spoke to him. Well I guess it was a mistake because he got real serious about me. Wanted me to accept gifts from him and wear his diamond ring. He wrote for a Japanese newspaper and had to go away for a few days. He wrote me a card. I showed it to Bro. McKay and Bro. McKendrick. They told me to ignore him and if he kept on they would speak to him. Well that didn’t do any good, he wrote to my parents and told them he wanted to marry me and take me with him in (1915) to the Japanese doings. Well, we had quite a siege but finally I told him I didn’t love him and that was it.
So much for school.
Picnics come next. (I’m following an outline)
Mother and Father weren’t much for picnics, that is they didn’t go any place but we as children had lunches packed for us and we would go on the mountain to Bear Cave or just go across the street from my home, to Grandfather Farr’s Grove and picnic there.
Aunt Diana and Uncle Valasco Farr made a play house in back of their barn and we a fine time there. We also played in their pantry and granary.
Aunt Diana and Mother were real good about fixing picnics and play dinners for us.
Dates.
My first date was Earl Thomas. I was eleven and he twelve. We used to have parties every week at one of our homes. He was my date but Father always chaperoned us.
When I got older I had many beau’s and dates. Until I was seventeen or eighteen Father always went to the dances and watched us dance. He would walk behind us a ways. I always knew I was safe because Father wouldn’t be far away.
As I grew older of course, I wasn’t chaperoned but Father was always up when I came home. One night I went to Marriott to a dance. I was with Wells Marriott. We went down in a cutter. There was snow then, but when we went out to come home it had it had rained and melted the snow. This took longer. Father told me to be home by 12 o’clock if I wanted to go out on Friday evening. Well it was 2 o’clock when I got home. I set the clock to 12:30. When Father called from his room and asked the time I told him it was 12:30 by the clock but he said “It was 2 o’clock five minutes ago.” I never did that trick again.
I can see, now I have a family of my own, why Father’s chaperoned their girls. I am thankful for my Father and for the love and concern he had for his children. I pray I will be like him in so many ways.
The way I’m writing this story, I hope it won’t be too disconnected.
My home was not beautiful the way some of the girls homes were but we were happy and contented. We had a pantry, small but nice. Bathroom but no tub, the old one was tin and had long worn out. We used to say we were bathed in a quart cup. Two bedrooms, a parlor and a small front hall. In the back we had a back porch and off that a kitchen, (a summer kitchen.) This room had no covering on the floor but boards. These boards were nice and white. I had to scrub it on my hands and knees, using lye water and suds. If the floor didn’t look white enough the first time it had to be done over. My how I hated that.
Outside we had no grass but we did have a small front porch. This we sat on and watched the crowds go by on the street car and walking.
In the back we had a sand pile and swing. We spent many happy hours out there. Also there were four peach trees. The sweetest peaches I ever ate. Then there was a coal house we used to climb up on and hide. We had an old barn in the back yard, also a chicken coop. We used to like to play in the barn. Later when we were larger they used the barn for a kind of store house.
We used our Father’s barns for a show house. We gave shows in them. We were giving our version (my cousins and I) of Cinderella. I was the Mother. When I told Cinderella (Lyndall Farr) she couldn’t go to the ball I called her a slut. Uncle John Farr and Fern, his daughter were sitting on a bale of hay next to the manger. When I called Lyndall or Cinderella that name, Uncle John laughed so hard the bale of hay slipped and he and Fern lit in the manger where the cow was eating.
I’ll bet the cow was surprised.
Our parents, most of them came out to see our shows and they said they enjoyed them.
Next door to us was a brush or small grove. This grove was on the West of us and across the street East of us was Grandfather Lorin Farr’s Grove. There was one big tree that had a kind of a platform in it. We would climb this and have a picnic. Mother made us sandwiches and cookies and we had a grand picnic.
I have been following an outline and have got some mixups here but maybe it will make a little sense.
Dances.
Dancing seemed a part of my life. Mother said I danced all the time. When I was ten years old my Sister and her beau would take me with them to Glenwood Park to dance. It was her friends who taught me to dance, Alma Larkin, Alma Lindsay and others. Then there were the primary and Sunday school dances in the Third Ward. These would usually be held in the afternoon, Christmas, Thanksgiving and New Years dances. They would start at 2 o’clock and go ‘till 5:00. A lady named Mamie Tribe would play the comb and piano for us. We would have candy canes and peanuts just as we were leaving. As we grew older we had our dances at night. We always danced with the Superintendent of the Sunday School and some of our Bishopric. I remember an old bachelor (Pete Lever) always asked me to dance. One night some way he tripped and fell, me falling in his lap. I was so mad I told him never to ask me to dance again. He didn’t. I was only ten but was old enough to be embarrassed.
When going to Weber Academy we would have dance matinees as well as evening ones. I never missed a dance. Was too young to go with dates alone so Father would walk behind us. He was afraid some night the fellow might take some one else home so he (handy?) by. That was quite a custom for quite a while. The boy or girl going together and then going home with someone else. Father said he thought I would be tired of hopping around so much but I loved every minute of it.
When the Weber Stake was divided it put us in the Mound Fort Ward, now known as the Seventh Ward. Three of us girls, Lois Dinsdale, Edith Read and I gave two or three dances to raise money for our new Sunday School room.
The old church was just a one room building with a stage. We had such good times there. Many a party and show was put off here. We were happy with this meeting house. Of course the new one was nicer but didn’t go to it long enough to become too attached to it. I got married and moved to North Ogden.
Parties.
I hope I’m not duplicating here. It’s been so long since I have written I forget. After I was married I had more parties at my home than anyone else. Children’s parties, showers (baby and wedding) for the Mutual girls.
Dates
My first date was when I was eleven years old. Earl Thomas was my first beau. He was twelve years old. We weren’t allowed to go to parties alone but in a crowd we paired off. The girls would go together and the boys the same. Father always came for me but when at the party I had my partner. Earl was dark, brown eyes and rosy or ruddy complexion. Was quite handsome.
Many more dates I could tell about but they might be boring.
A Brief Sketch of the Life of
Beatrice Albertine Farr Campbell
I was born April 24th, 1892 at 561 Canyon Road, Ogden, Utah. My Father was Marcus Farr, son of Lorin Farr, a pioneer of Ogden.
My Mother is Caroline Josephine Ballantyne Farr, daughter of Richard Ballantyne, organizer of the first LDS Sunday School in Utah.
I was baptized on my eighth birthday by my Father, in Ogden River, near the corner of seventeenth street and Jefferson Avenue. I first attended Primary, Sunday School and Mutual in the Ogden Third Ward.
When I was fourteen I was sustained as assistant secretary in the Mutual and also worked on the old folks committee in the same ward.
When the Weber Stake was divided and two new stakes were formed, namely Ogden and North Weber, it placed us in the Ogden Seventh Ward.
In this ward I was secretary in the Mutual, taught in the kindergarten groups in Sunday School and Primary and sang in the ward choir. I was also active in ward dramatics.
The Seventh Ward at that time was using the old Mound Fort Meeting House which was a one story frame building on 12th street. Later a fine new building was built on 13th street. At the time I was teaching in the Sunday School with Lois Dinsdale Smith and Edith Read VanDyke. We sponsored a dancing party and helped furnish the kindergarten room.
In 1909 I sang in the Ogden Tabernacle Choir under the leadership of my uncle, Joseph Ballantyne. I was a member of this choir for six years, going to the California Exposition in 1915.
In 1913 I was Stake Secretary for the Ogden Stake Mutuals. I held this position for two years.
On June 2nd, 1915 my Mother and I went to the Salt Lake Temple and I received my endowments. On the 9th of June, 1915 I was married to Harold Scott Campbell in the Salt Lake Temple. President Anthon H. Lund performed the ceremony. We commenced our married life in North Ogden in a little frame house located on the place on the hill known as the Clifford Place. Here our first child, a girl was born. We named her Fawn. In the fall of 1916 we moved to Ogden, returning to North Ogden the next spring, where we have lived ever since.
There have since been born to us three more daughters, and four sons, whose names and ages to date of this writing are as follows :
Fawn 25 now 44
Harold Russel 24 now 43
Arthur Farr 22 now 40
Sterling Hugh 19 now 37
Marilyn 16 now 34
Joan 12 now 30
Ruth 9 now 27
Gaylen Robert 4 now 22
Despite the cares of a large family I have worked in several organizations. Have been a member of the North Ogden Ward Choir for 15 years and am still a member. I worked in the MIA for 22 years. Have been on the recreation committee, Senior and Junior Class leader, committee on Standards. I served as second counselor in the YLMIA and later was set apart as president, this date Feb. 18th, 1921. I was set apart by Bishop Fredrick Barker.
I am at present a block teacher in Relief Society. Also served for one year, in 1939. I was also Literary teacher in the Relief Society for two years. I was on the refreshment committee in Relief Society for two years. And now I am Work Leader and a block teacher now, 1959.
Have been on the Daughters of Utah Pioneers Board for two years.
Was one of the first committee members to start kindergarten in North Ogden. It was one of the first health clinics here in North Ogden.
Also I have been a member of the Singing Mother’s Chorus in North Ogden.
Another one of my jobs in the church was Primary Stake Leader for group 1. They were six year olds. I held that position for three years.