STORIES OF OUR FAMILY WHO LIVED AND DIED MINING COAL HIGH ON A REMOTE MOUNTAIN
LENA THORPE WADE STORY
My name is Lena Thorpe Wade. I am the daughter of
John Thorpe and Eva Hall Thorpe. My parents had 8 children: our names
were Lena, Agnes, a stillborn baby, Mary Jane, Tom, Hilda, Alice and
Jack. My sister, Agnes and me were born in Higham, Yorkshire, England.
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Wasatch store
Joe Nielson, & Parmley |
My parents told me they were planning to come to
America. I got the measles, then pneumonia; that held them up until I was
better. They sold all the furniture and everything. When we got on
the ship, the captain asked my parents if I could walk. They told him I
could. If I couldn't, he said we would have to get off the ship.
They put me down and I walked from one parent to the other parent. We
stayed on the ship. My mother was pregnant. She was seasick all the
way. My dad had to take care of us.
We went to a mining town called Winter Quarters in Carbon
County. Mining was all my dad knew. He quit school when he was 12
years old and worked in the mine with his dad.
My dad was bald-headed on the top of his head. When
we were kids, we asked him how come he was bald-headed. The only answer we got
was that he pushed the loaded coal cars with his head.
Winter Quarters was located 1 1/4 miles up the canyon
from Scofield. The altitude was very high. The houses were on one
side of the canyon. On one hill, there were sage brush and sarvis
berries. They were good to eat. The other side was pine trees, aspen
trees, timber, lilies and forget-me-nots that grew wild. There was the
hillside, houses, road, railroad tracks and the creek. It was cool in the
summer and cold in the winter.
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| coming to Winter Quarters |
We got the first snowfall in October. You never saw
the top of the fences until spring. We had dirt roads and no snowplows to
clear the snow off. The train would have a plow on the front of the
engine to clean the tracks. I have watched two trains together to clean
the tracks off. The snow was so high.
We got the first snowfall in October. You never saw
the top of the fences until spring. We had dirt roads and no snowplows to
clear the snow off. The train would have a plow on the front of the
engine to clean the tracks. I have watched two trains together to clean
the tracks off. The snow was so high.
WE had no electricity in the houses. We used
kerosene lamps. We had one in each room. When I was about 9 years
old, they put electricity in the homes. My grandmother wouldn't let them
put the wires above the ceiling out of sight. She was afraid they would
set the house on fire.
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| Joe Nielson & Winter Quarter Truck |
My grandparents and most of the family joined the L.D.S.
Church in England. My mother was 15 years old when she was
baptized. The missionaries converted them. My mother said she did
the laundry for the missionaries every week. My grandparents had the
missionaries for a lot of meals. My grandfather and one son came to
America first. They worked in the mine and saved their money for a year,
then Grandma and the rest of the family came to America. We came a year
later.
I loved to go to my
grandparent’s home. Grandma always had something for us. I was the
first grandchild. She always gave me a handkerchief on my birthday.
My grandpa worked in the fan house that pumped the air in
to the mine. It made a lot of noise. It made him quite deaf.
Grandpa died after my mother's sister, Florence May Hall Nielson
died. She had 6 children, one a baby six months old. Grandma took
the baby (Jim) and raised him until he was 7 years old.
It was hard for her because her health wasn't very good.
ELLA NIELSON BOOTH'S MEMORIES of WINTER QUARTERS
sample of another story in Debbie's Winter Quarters
I was born
December 20, 1904 in Winter Quarters, Utah to James Nielson who was
born 18, October, 1860 in Laasby, Skanderborg, Denmark. My mother
was Christine Smith born 22 March, 1863 at Fountain Green,
Utah. My brothers and sisters were: Ida Marie Nielson, Niels
Nielson, May Nielson, James Nielson, Christian Nielson, Joseph Nielson, Jennie
Nielson, Caroline Nielson, James Nielson, Ethel Nielson, Martha Nielson,
Decinious Nielson, Manila Nielson, and Minnie Nielson. I was blessed and
baptized in Winter Quarters and attended school in Scofield, Utah.
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| Nielson's at Winter Quarters |
I was the 15th child of the family. My mother died
with the 16th child, and I was 18 months old at the time. I was raised by
my father and my sisters helped. When I was a little girl, my father
would put me in a sleigh and put a harness on the dog and I would ride all over
town. In the summer he got a little red wagon for me and we went all
over. There was a beautiful picture of me with light hair when I was
young and I looked like Jalynn. When I was little, I had mumps, measles,
and diphtheria. They always had a sign on the house, when anyone in the
house had the measles. When I lived in the house in Winter Quarters, I
sold the newspaper and became a news girl and sold the San Francisco
Examiner. In mothers words, they charged me five cents and only gave me
two cents. Then I sold the Grit and it was ten cents and they gave me
four cents. I'd go on one side where the rocks were and the other side
where the trees were. I'd sell all over town. I thought I was rich
making all that money. I got tired of that and started tending children
for a butcher and his wife. I got tired of that too.
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| more Nielsons |
In MIA,
when I was young, we had dances in a big amusement hall. They had dances but the boys wouldn't
dance. We had to dance with girls all
the time. They had shows on Charley
Chaplin, the silent movies. We would go
there once a week and have to pay for it.
When I was young, I played basketball and you should have seen my
bloomers. They were black with elastic
on the middle and elastic on the legs.
We would go up where there were cattle and get mushrooms. My brother fished and gave us some. I went horse back riding up the hill with
Winifred on Joe's horse. Oh, it was so
much fun. My father went with us on
picnics. He watched me skate. He would say,
"Ella quit letting those girls fall on top of you." The first car I rode in was the old Model T Ford
with Stanley Harvey. It made me sick as
a dog. I have a picture of the school
with Millicent when she was visiting us.
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| Nielson's |
I was dressed up with a crown on my head and a thing in my hand. I was the Statue of Liberty. Our outdoor toilet had a catalogue in
it. We had dreams every time we went to
the toilet probably about some of the things you couldn't get at the
store. On the 24th of July we went up a
big hill to Lee Marsden's. They had a
bunch of lambs. The men built a great
big platform and put brush on every side of it and they would give popcorn, ice
cream and hamburgers free anytime we wanted.
The Bishop was sponsoring it and he was the head of the mines. The Bishop's son married Lavern Parmley of
Salt Lake. We had the best time. We ran races and made a lot of money, just
like we did in Rupert. They played ball,
and I like to play ball then. We had
fun. When we got hungry again, we went
back and had all the food we could eat.
I would love to play horseshoe's.
My brother, Niels said to me one day,
"Ella you take off those overalls or I'll be mad at you and give
you a licking". I went home and
never liked him so much. I have a
picture of me with his daughter, Julia and the big dog.
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| Bernice Nielson |
At Christmas time when I was 12 years old, it was snowing like the dickens in
Winter Quarters, Utah. Tomorrow was Christmas and I wanted my Christmas
tree. My dad had been to busy to get one. I put on my rubber boots,
coat, and hat. I went down the hills, over the road, over the railroad
tracks and walked in the water. I went way high in the hills. When
I found my Christmas tree, I took my ax and cut it down. I let it roll
down the hill. When I got to the water, I pulled it across the water,
across the railroad track across the road and up the hill I went. When my
father came home, he said, "Ella, your brothers and I could have got
the tree". I said, "I don't care: tomorrow is
Christmas". He said, "OK". He made a wooden
stand and put it up in the room.
I made popcorn, colored it pink and put
cranberries around it. We put a bundle of tinsel on the tree. Its
not like Darlene's She has the most beautiful tinsel I have ever seen.
On the tree, my father put handles all over the tree to put candles in.
The candles were red, white, blue,
