Mary Blanche Beck Smith

Mary Blanche Beck Smith

When Mary Blanche Beck was born on Highland Bench, her father rode a horse across the snow covering the fence posts to get the mid wife. It was a raw spring day, March 16, 1881 and Blanche was the second child to be born to this couple, Jacob Stephenson and Elizabeth Healey Beck. Miriam, always known as Minnis, had been born sixteen months before. And it was on Highland Bench; a high bench land in the northern part of Utah County, State of Utah, that Blanche spent her childhood with her parents and fourteen brothers and sisters.
Blanche’s parents were a typical pioneer couple of that late nineteenth century. Jacob Stephenson Beck was a convert to the Latter-Day Saint Church from Denmark. Mary Healey had been born and raised in Alpine, a small mountain town about three miles east and north of Highland.
Blanche walked the three miles to Alpine to attend church and school. As a young girl she sang in the Alpine Ward choir. A quick-moving, high-spirited intelligent girl, Blanche had a keen sense of humor and a twinkle in her green eyes. Her fair complexion was topped off by light auburn hair. As her younger brothers and sisters were born they looked upon her as their second mother. She was a hard worker and kept busy all her life. She helped both in the house and on the farm. In the summertime she took her turn herding the cattle and cows on the lands surrounding her father’s farm. On holidays the children got up extra early to take the cattle out and back by noon so they could attend the celebrations in the neighboring towns later in the day.
When Blanche finished the grade school in Alpine she went to live with the Adams family in American Fork and attended school. On washdays most of the wash would be finished before Blanche left for school, and when she returned in the afternoon the washtubs would be sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor waiting for her to empty them.
In the summer Blanche returned to the farm to help with the children and farm work. About this time a young man from Lehi, Utah, Moroni A. Smith, came to her father’s farm to buy cattle and feed. Rone, as he was called, was a young livestock man. He said he first remembers Blanche as a young lively, freckle-faced girl of 15. Rone was a slight, fair-skinned Englishman, who highly disapproved of allowing one’s skin to be exposed to the weather. He later viewed with alarm the fad of sun tanning. Therefore, it is understandable that he was extremely conscious of Blanche’s outdoor look.
It seems likely that Blanche was more attracted to boys closer to home and her own age. Evidently she didn’t pay much attention to Rone Smith at that time. Her father, however, told her that Rone was a fine young man and would always make a good living and later proved to be correct.
This may have helped influence Blanche for she and Rone were married six years later on January 2, 1903 at her parent’s home on Highland. After the wedding a supper was given and the next night Rone and Blanche gave a large reception at the Lehi Opera House.
The young couple spent their first two winters with Rone’s mother in Lehi. Rone was the youngest child in a family of fourteen children and his mother, Ann Coleman Smith, had been a widow for a short time. Blanche spoke highly of her mother-in-law and often recalled how she enjoyed the winters she spent there.
Rone with two of his brothers, David and Albert Smith, had established himself in the sheep business. Their sheep were run in the Uintah Basin in eastern Utah in winters and in the mountains of Wasatch and Duchesne Counties during the summers. Rone and Blanche spent the first two summers of their married life in Heber City, the county seat of Wasatch County and the sheep camps about forty miles east of Heber.
After these two summers Blanche and Rone bought a home in Heber on the east side of town. On June 22, 1904, Lela Fern, their first child, was born. Lela was a beautiful, dark haired baby who in many ways grew up to resemble her mother. She too has been a quick-moving lively girl helping out with the younger children in Blanche’s family, just as Blanche had done with her brothers and sisters. Early Lela started cooking and by age fourteen she was doing most of the fancy cooking for the family. Lela too has a reputation of an excellent cook and housekeeper.
With the beginning of their family, the couple settled down in Heber City. They lived there for nine years where six of their nine children were born. They looked back on these nine years of their married lives as one of their happiest and busiest times.
Rone had been successful in his business ventures and their lives were full of activity and purposefulness. Here Blanche acquired her reputation as an expert housekeeper. Although Blanche was a good cook, it was in keeping an immaculate house that she excelled. She admitted in later life that her sisters and various hired girls did most of the baby tending while she turned out the washings, ironings, and kept the cleanest house for miles around. A hired man took care of the outside chores, his wife did Blanche’s sewing and Blanche’s younger sisters who were visiting her and the hired girl helped inside.
However, Blanche didn’t spend all her time working. It was her idea to be through by noon. Then the hired man would drive around to the front gate a beautiful team of matched horses, Chief and Dick, harnessed to the “surrey with the fringe on top”. Blanche and her sisters would sweep out of the house in their long white dresses and feathered hats. With some of the children tucked in, they would drive to visit friends or downtown to shop.
Rone’s brother, Albert and his wife, Maud also lived in Heber. Blanche and Maud became friends and remained so all their lives. Maud was interested in fine china and glassware and so under her influence the two of them started collecting some lovely pieces. The stores in Heber would let Blanche and Maud know when a new shipment was in and they would take their pick. Years later Maud had a beautiful collection of cups and saucers, relish dishes, vases, plates, etc., in both china and cut glass, But all Blanche had to show for her efforts was an impressive stack of saucers. Evidently she had been very careless.
Blanche and Rone made many friends in Heber that remained their closest friends all their lives. Their immediate neighbors were the Jim Murdock’s, the Parley Murdock’s, the Lindsay families, the Clyde’s, and other sheep men of Heber. Jim Murdock was a big hearty man with a family of beautiful girls and two handsome sons. The Parley Murdock’s lived across the street and they also had a family of beautiful daughters and handsome sons. It was Liz Murdock and Blanche who started on a friendly housekeeping rivalry that went on until the Smiths moved to Salt Lake. It was a race to see who could get her washing on the line first on Monday morning. Years later Jess Murdock Klecker, one of the daughters, confessed to Blanche that several times when she got home from a late Sunday night date her mother, Liz, would make her stay up because she wanted to beat Blanche in getting her wash on the line. Blanche laughed saying she suspected something was not quite right because she herself had gotten up at the legitimate hour of four in the morning and had been beaten.
Blanche was close to her own brothers and sisters. In the June after Blanche had married, her mother had her last child, a daughter, Golda. Blanche went to help at her mother’s during this time. As Golda and Blanche’s Lela were born only a year apart, these two girls have remained close friends through the years. All of Blanche’s sisters and brothers spent some of their young lives with her in Heber. Three of her sisters, Minnie, Winifred and Amanda met their husbands while visiting in Heber.
When summer came, Blanche and Rone would load their children, hired girl, visiting relatives, supplies, cats and dogs in the wagons and buggies, and head for the sheep camps. At first Rone and his brothers, with several other sheep men, leased thousands of acres in Strawberry Valley to summer their sheep. Here Rone would take the bed out of one of the sheep camps and this would be used for the cooking and eating. Other sheep camps would be drawn around for sleeping purposes. Blanche and her help cooked for the hired men while they were on the summer range.
About 1916 Rone bought some land four miles east of Strawberry Valley, known as Deep Creek and built a ranch house there. Rone and George Batty brought the logs down from the Mountains above the house site, trimmed them and put up the big log house, which is still used today as the Emory Smith ranch headquarters. This house was built in 1918. It had a large kitchen, which served as dining room and living room, two small bedrooms at the back on the main floor and a dormer upstairs with two large bedrooms.
On one of these trips to the ranch, Minnie was with them. She had complained about the rough trip, the slowness, the heat, etc., the whole day. Rone stopped at a creek lifted Minnie out and dropped her in the water. The story was recalled many times as a threat to any of the children who sometimes thought it was taking too long to go from Salt Lake to Deep Creek – a trip that usually took the whole day, a distance of only eighty miles, because Rone had so many places to stop and visit.
Blanche’s second child, Leland Ray, was born September 11, 1905. A blonde, curly headed boy, Ray was the pride of his father’s life all his life. Many statements and assertions of Rone’s began with “My son, Ray, ------.” Merrill, the third child, was born February 22, 1907, and daughter Evelyn, on March 31, 1908. Blanche said Merrill had had a poor start because she had to wean him so soon when she was pregnant again. At any rate Merrill was a small scrawny, freckle-faced boy with beautiful auburn hair. Merrill carried a nursing bottle for several years. At the sheep camp he sat ton the woodpile with his bottle cussing the chipmunks as they ran in and out of the wood and shavings. Merrill was trying to hit them with pieces of wood and usually missed.
Even though Blanche and Rone worked hard, they also had fun. Swimming and a chicken dinner at the Hot Pots in Midway, about three miles west of Heber, was one form of entertainment. Visiting with friends and having friends and relatives visit was another. At one time Rone was in a business partnership with Al Miller of Heber. Al and Martha Miller were their special friends all through life. The two couples had many enjoyable times together.
During this time Rone was called on a mission for the Latter-Day Saint Church. He seriously considered it but decided he had too many responsibilities.
Rone had the first car in Heber, an Overland. This may have given him the idea of selling his business to invest the money in General Motors Corporation stock. Blanche was against this idea. In later years they would conjecture what their lives might have been if the family had moved to Detroit at that time as Rone had wanted to do.
As Rone had been troubled with rheumatism during his life, Blanche and Rone decided to move to Salt Lake thinking the climate might not be as damp and cold as Heber City sometimes was. As a child Rone had what we know now is rheumatic fever. He remembered having swollen joints, sore throats, and spending a good deal of his childhood in bed.
Emory, Blanche’s third son, was born February 5, 1910. He was the darkest child in complexion. Sometimes Blanche said he was so dark because she had had so much work to do at that time he was little she didn’t have time to keep him washed. Three weeks after their fourth son, Scott was born on October 4, 1911, the family moved to Salt Lake. They rented a home on Second Avenue and “T” Street for about a year and a half. Then they bought three lots on the northeast corner of 3rd South and 12th East. The lot on the east was sold to a young Dr. Douglas. His wife died shortly after he built his home and a housekeeper, a Mrs. Holmes, came in to raise the children. About ten years later he sold the house to the Winn’s who where the Smiths neighbors.
On the back of the north lot a chicken coop was built. All the children had their share of carrying water, grain, and table scraps through the snow and mud to these chickens. In the summer the chickens were crated up to be hauled to the ranch. In the fall they made the return trip. Merrill became interested in these chickens and entered several of the White Rocks in the Utah State Fair. One of his pullets won a cup for the Championship Pullett and many blue, red and yellow ribbons were won by his entries. This north lot was later sold to Dr. Arthur L. Beeley, a professor at the University of Utah, who still lives there.
Blanche and Rone were proud of the house they built on the corner of 3rd South and 12th East. It was a large, English manor brick, two-story house. The main floor had kitchen, dining room, living room, parlor, two bedrooms and bath. The second floor had a ballroom across the back of the house, a walk in storage room, three large bedrooms and bath. The basement was completely finished with a furnace room, coal room, laundry room, drying room, and two bedrooms and bath for the hired help. Blanche told the story of he and Mae Epperson using twelve bars of Crystal White Soap every spring to clean it. The basement bedrooms were never used for anything but storage. When they moved to Salt Lake City they had only one hired girl. Julia was a German girl who stayed with them for about a year. She had just come over from the old country and she had quite a time with our language although she spoke German and French fluently. She evidently knew little about housework but liked the children and they liked her. After she left the Smith’s she worked as a governess for the Kearns and Bamberger families for many years.
After Julia, Blanche had help by the day. Mrs. Sarah Shelton, a cousin of Alice Smith, came twice a week for years. A Miss Haslam, a seamstress, came for $3 a day to do the sewing for the family. Blanche never learned to sew so clothes were made in quantities on the days Miss Haslam came. However, Blanche did do beautiful mending and patching. When her daughters married, they brought all their mending to Blanche and as long as she was up, she sat by her big dining room windows in her favorite rocker mending her grandchildren’s clothes as she had her children’s before.
Blanche’s fifth son, Blaine was born February 27, 1913. He had a circulatory condition and lived only three weeks. On October 18, 1914 Alice Marie was born. Six years later, Phyllis was born on August 27, 1920.
Albert and Maud Smith also moved to Salt Lake. They also had a large home on Virginia Street about six blocks form Blanche’s. David married an American Fork girl, Alice Greenwood, and they too lived about three blocks away. Maud, Alice, and Blanche were close friends and their children spent many a happy hour together. As the husbands were often away, the sisters-in-law got together quite often. Especially was it a treat to go to Maud’s house. She too had come from a big family and large crowds of people were staying at her house, eating at her house, and later on scads of girls were getting ready to go out on dates at her house. A coal fire burned in Maud’s fireplace from October till May. Everyday Maud called both Blanche and Alice to give them the latest information and collect any news they had. A “Cousins Club” was started by these aunts and some of the other Smith aunts and their daughters and daughters-in-law, which has continued to this day. Monthly meetings are still held of these cousins twenty-five years later.
In 1919 Rone and some sheep men went to Washington to testify before a congressional committee. Several of the wives made this trip, including Blanche. Even at that date eastern people knew little of what was actually going on in the west. One senator even asked Albert Smith how many wives he had back in Utah.
Blanche and Rone made many trips through the years. Rone had been one of the organizers of the National Wool Growers Association. They attended many of the conventions of this association held in western cities. Several of these trips they made with Quincey and Delphia Crawford. The Crawford’s were sheep people and Salt Lake neighbors. A particularly pleasant trip they often recalled was one made with Tom and Criss Jones (one of those beautiful Murdock girls) by auto down through Arizona, up to Los Angeles and San Francisco, attending a wool growers convention en route. Whenever they took a trip Blanche’s sister, Winifred Huffaker, from Midway came to tend the family. Winifred had no children but later on she took two of her brother, Reed’s, children to raise. The Smith children looked forward to these visits of Winifred’s. She had such a good disposition.
As the children grew up they attended Wasatch and Stewart grade schools, East High School and the University of Utah. Merrill was in a serious sleigh riding accident on the 3rd South hill just west of the family home. He was on the front of a sled, which hit the running board of a moving laundry truck. His leg was severely mangled and never did heal properly, leaving him with a limp. He had rheumatic fever and that left him with a sever heart condition.
When Merrill was sixteen Blanche and Rone sent him to California for his health. At that time the sheep business was in a slump. Rone had suffered several financial reverses. Merrill had raised a beautiful horse called “Perfection”. He sold this horse to Tom Kearns, Jr. for $200 and used this money for this trip. Blanche said she never did know why they let Merrill go to California alone, but go he did. He found a place to live, a school to go to all on his own. Merrill had missed a lot of school due to his accident and rheumatic fever. Part of the time he was in Hollywood he lived with Blanche’s cousin, Helena Beck McGarry.
In 1926 Merrill came home for Christmas vacation. A heart specialist started treating him with some new theories. However, Merrill did not improve. He got weaker and weaker. He suffered several severe internal hemorrhages and later nose bleeds. On April 6, 1927 he passed away at twenty years of age.
The death of this son was a blow to Blanche and Rone. As Merrill had been physically inactive he head done a lot of reading, thinking and observing. He talked with many people while in California and had developed an insight of life that showed an amazing and keen intelligence. They thought he was getting better when this new doctor had taken over. They had looked forward to his being with them for many years.
During their married life Rone had tried to get Blanche to take a more active part in the sheep business. He was interested in “business and industry” as he called it and wanted her cooperation. He had never considered all that housework important. Rone had a herd of sheep in Blanche’s name and she had a livestock brand in her own name. He had put the Deep Creek land where the ranch headquarters were in her name. Blanche took pride in these properties as she got older and she would never hesitate to remind Rone that she had property of her own. Especially did she keep bringing up that that ranch was hers and she intended to keep it that way. As her children grew older Blanche did turn more to outside activities, which pleased Rone. She was an active member of the Utah and National Wool Growers Auxiliary organizations.
Though Blanche and Rone extended their holdings into western Colorado and Wyoming and had several ranch houses, the Deep Creek Ranch was their favorite. Blanche looked forward to having the grandchildren there during the summers. Rone would return to Deep Creek from his trips and saying he could sleep better in that little bedroom off the kitchen than any place in the world.
And it is an ideal place. The big log house, and which since has had an addition, sits on the end of a ridge dividing two small hollows. Surrounded by deep green grass and white fences with the docking corral spread out in front and red outbuildings to the left, it is like a scene in many watercolor paintings. Rich lush meadows extend to the right of the house where the riding horses can be seen grazing. A thin coating of oil over the water keeps the mosquitoes away.
Blanche had a very generous nature. When her sisters and brothers had little children she sent big boxes of clothing and presents to them every Christmas. Her home was always open to relatives and friends. During the LDS conference sessions in Salt Lake the house would be overflowing. She enjoyed these visits; and especially did look forward to her sister, Amanda, and her family from Idaho. A few times Amanda brought her whole family of eight children. Then the house was really full of grownups and children of all shapes and sizes.
Blanche’s excellent taste in clothes for herself and her children is almost as well known as her reputation as a housekeeper. Samual Makoff, of Makoff Fashion Center in Salt Lake, still stops Blanche’s daughters to tell them he remembers Blanche as one of his first customers. He tells how charming she was, her exquisite taste in clothes and how well she always looked. The sales ladies liked to wait on her, not only because she usually bought, but because of her delightful sense of humor and her pleasant nature. Although she had beautiful clothes she was never extravagant. She bought wisely and took care of what she did buy. Rone never criticized the money she spent on clothes. When asked what he thought about her clothes, he said he didn’t think anyone could spend enough money on clothes for it to make much of a difference. He himself like nice clothes and dressed very well. Blanche was proud of her appearance and every morning would dress completely even to putting on makeup before leaving her bedroom. Her hair was thin and hard to manage yet she could fix it so it looked beautiful. She told the story of one of her old boy friends seeing her in middle age and telling her, “Blanche, you’re better looking now than you were as a girl.” She said she didn’t know whether to kill him or kiss him.
As her children started marrying and bringing their children home, Blanche said she wanted them to call her “Blanche”. All her life she thought she had a beautiful name and wanted everyone to call her that. Blanche had never been called “Mother” by Rone and many people she addressed as Mrs. So-and-So, even called her Blanche. Gradually the grandchildren took to calling Rone by his initials, “M.A.” and he was known by that for the remainder of his life.
Blanche had been full of fun and enjoyed teasing children as a young girl. So when her grandchildren came back home she started teasing them. On of her favorite tricks was to get down on her hands and knees and pretend to be a bear around her big dining room table. Even though these children knew who she was, she would often scare them by rearing up and growling at them. Sometimes they would take her hand, saying, “Get up, Blanche. Get up. Don’t be a bear.” As the grandchildren grew more numerous, the older ones, Glenn and Ann Wixom, Lela’s oldest children, Sidney, Emory’s daughter, and Lu, Ray’s oldest daughter knew her best.
As the family grew up Lela attended the University of Utah. Where she met a Brigham City boy, Reynold Valentine Wixom. After a two year courtship, they were married December 28, 1926. They lived two years in Denver, one in Kansas City and then back to Brigham City, Utah. Reynold was in the gasoline and service station business for several years. Later they moved to Salt Lake where they now reside. They had four children losing their oldest son, Glenn, when he was nine years old of rheumatic fever. Ann, Gary and Dean are their other children.
Leland Ray took over the management of the Colorado branch of the Smith Rancho. He married Mary Jane Jebens of Baggs, Wyoming. They have lived in Craig, Colorado for most of their married life. They have six children, Lu, Diane, Lynn, Jane, Johnny, and Brad. Three of their girls are married.
Emory was the next son to be married. Verland Evans of Lehi, Utah was the girl he chose to marry on July 25, 1933. Verland and Emory lived with Blanche and Rone for nearly four years where Verland says she learned her housekeeping habits, including the one of fully dressing with makeup and hair fixed before starting the day. Emory has taken over the management of the Utah sheep business. They live in Salt Lake and have four children, Sidney, Allan, Mac and Lee. Sidney is married.
Evelyn completed a normal course at the University of Utah. She taught in the Salt Lake City schools for eight years. She married a Salt Lake man, Ross W. Olsen, February 22, 1937. He is the transportation superintendent at the Tooele Ordinance Plant and besides being a genial, fun-loving, quick-witted person; he has been a good father to their four children, David, Maryann, Kent and Janet. They also live in Salt Lake City.
On February 15, 1939 Scott married Charlotte Varley. He graduated from the University of Utah in the School of Business. They have two children, Kathleen Blanche and Larry. Charlotte still claims it took her two years to straighten out the Smith clan. Scott is a wool buyer for a French conern. He has remained in the ranching part of the business with his brothers. Scott and Charlotte have just bought a beautiful home near the St. Mary’s of the Wasatch Girls School on the east bench of Salt Lake.
The youngest child, Phyllis, was married January 4, 1940. She chose a young Magna man, Richard L. Stewart. She was with him in the service for three years in the San Francisco area. They returned to Salt Lake in 1945. They lived with Blanche and Rone until they built a nice home on the east bench. Richard is with the public relations department of the Utah Copper Division of Kennecott Copper Company. They have three children, Scott, Leslie and Martha.
Alice married Mitchell G. Sheya March 14, 1942. She met Mitch while teaching school in Price, Utah. Alice graduated from the University of Utah. Mitch served in the army during World War II for two years. Mitch has been in the service station business for years. At the present time he is operating a service station of Foothill Drive in Salt Lake. The live just a few blocks from there with their three children, Norman, Michelle and Paula.
From 1926 to 1942 Blanche and Rone were busy with their children and grandchildren. During this time they were going through a severe financial crisis, as was the rest of the world. Rone and Blanche were forced to mortgage their holdings to keep going. Eventually the agricultural and farm people were able to better themselves. With the beginning of World War II the demand for more food and clothing fiber brought about better conditions. However, many sheep man had lost all they had. Before it was over Blanche had had one or two of her married children and families living with them at 3rd South and 12th East continuously for fifteen years. They had literally been surrounded by their family. It is amazing how few quarrels developed from this close association. Today the children of the family are close friends. The family started having Christmas Breakfast at Verland and Emory’s house when they moved to their first home after leaving Blanche and Rone in 1938. This occasion has continued today with some of the great grandchildren starting to come. About thirty people attended this gathering on Christmas Day, 1958.
All of the children are genuinely interested in each other’s families. The sisters and sisters-in-law maintain close ties and the children of various ages are close friends. With most of the holidays the family has a family dinner or outing and two or three times a year the adults go out for an evening of laughter and kidding. Several of the children have inherited Blanche’s sharp wit and clever phrasing it is a rare evening when some of them get started.
In 1945 Blanche had an attack of flu, which lasted only about twenty-four hours. She spent several days in bed and never recovered from the effects of that short illness. From that time on she was going downhill. About five years later a doctor told the family she was suffering from Parkinson’s Disease, a degenerative disease of the muscular and nervous systems. Blanche had become almost helpless before she broke her hip in the fall of 1951.
Mamie Thomas of Lehi had come to the house to help out. She took care of Blanche and the house for three years. The entire family is grateful for the help she gave.
A pin was put in Blanche’s hip and she returned from the hospital but she never walked again. Mrs. Clara Tibbitts nursed her during this illness and until she died. In addition to Mrs. Tibbitts and Mrs.Thomas a cleaning woman came in twice a week to do the housework and laundry.
Two and a half years later on April 27, 1954 Blanche passed away. Funeral services were held at the Federal Heights Ward Chapel under the direction of Bishop Merrill Wood. Burial was in the Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Salt Lake City on April 30, 1954.
Rone had been ill during this last year. He had been in the hospital several times for hemorrhaging of the esophagus. After Blanche’s death he decided to stay in his home at 1205 East 3rd South. He had found a housekeeper and seemed to be doing very well, but on July 3rd he suffered another hemorrhage. He died within a few hours on the July 4th, just ten weeks after Blanche had passed away. They had been married fifty-one years.
Blanche and Ron were born in the Latter-Day Saint Church. Rone’s parents were married in the Salt Lake Temple. They maintained their affiliation with the church all their lives. The children were baptized in bunches and were dutifully sent to church. No request for money from the church was ever refused. Large checks for building funds and ward maintenance projects were regularly sent to the ward bishop.
Blanche enjoyed attending and working in the Relief Society where her quick wit and sparkling eyes were a welcome sight as was her open checkbook. She was a visiting teacher for many years for the University Ward in Salt Lake. Her older grandchildren especially liked to stay with her and go to Sunday School and Sacrament Meeting with her in the Federal Heights Ward, which was then known as the University ward.
Blanche’s memory will be one of a lively person whose generous nature knew no bounds. When anyone speaks of her a memory returns of he housekeeping exploits, her beautiful clothes, and her generosity. She served her family and friends constantly. Fortunately she bestowed most of these qualities to her children.
Together, through hard work, this couple raised a large family with relatively few mishaps and catastrophes and would probably be proud of their seven living children. All of them have grown to adulthood as hard-working, ambitious, generous people with sensible philosophies of life and wonderful senses of humor.