The Hadwen Family of Lancashire

Mabel G. Hacking was the second daughter born to Moroni and Emily Jane Jacob Gerber in their Midway home, the 8th day of May. The following July, father and mother took me to Fast Meeting in the Midway Ward Church where father blessed me and gave me my name - Mabel.

In mid-autumn of 1899 our family moved to Ashley Valley where we made our home in Maeser Ward. It was here that I met William Ralph Racking, a fair-complexioned tall young man with a beautiful tenor voice. He was a son of James and Annie M. Glines Hacking, born August 26, at the old homestead 1½ miles northwest of Vernal. Ralph was a musician with unusual talent and ability. While attending Brigham Young University he did much of the solo work in Professor Anthon H. Lund' s choir. He was also a gifted leader and was honored, loved and respected by all who knew him.

Sister Janet and I, with one of our girl chums, Mae Timothy, planned our wedding day together. The six of us--Janet and George S. Bingham, Mae and Theodore Johnson, and Wm. Ralph Hacking and I made the trip to Salt Lake City via covered wagon. Mother, who had been visiting in Midway and Salt Lake City, met and accompanied us through the Temple where we were married September 2, 1903.

We spent our first winter in Provo, where Ralph attended the Brigham Young University. The following spring we returned to Maeser where we made our home. Here in July a baby girl came to brighten our home. We called her Marie, Nearly two years later in the early springtime we welcomed our son Reed James. Ralph was kept very busy with the need of providing a living and also with his church activities as he was Maeser Ward choir leader as well as the leader for the Uintah Stake Tabernacle Choir.

He had studied the carpentry work at the B Y U and followed it as a trade. He also did some farming. During the summer of 1907 he started farming a tract of land near Deep Creek, now known as LaPoint. It was a few miles west of LaPoint in the back waters of the Indian Canal where Ralph met his tragic death August 11, 1907. The Vernal Express printed an excellent tribute to him, and I am quoting a few excerpts here:

THE VERNAL EXPRESS, August 11, 1907. "Ralph Hacking is dead. He was drowned in an unnamed pond last Sunday afternoon about 5:00 o'clock. A pall of gloom hovers over the community. In a fierce battle between life and death, life gave up the ghost and death stalked away, conqueror in search of other victims.

"Of all the struggles for life that have been recorded, the struggle made by young Hacking was one of the most heroic. With both arms paralyzed from cramp, and with only his lower limbs free, he rose to the surface of the water eight times before going down for the last time. Even when he know further effort was almost useless ho crawled on the bottom for at least thirty foot before he gave up. A peculiar feature of the death was the fact that there was not a pint of water in the body and the theory has been advanced that the young man closed his mouth to keep the water out and that he strangled to death. Another peculiar feature is that each time he came to the surface he made a lunge towards shallow water. His arms were cramped and he could only use his legs.

"The funeral services were held Tuesday 2:00 p.m. at the Maeser Ward Church, Bishop S. B. Colton presiding. Nelson Merkley, R. S. Collett, and Don B. Colton were the speakers. The services were most impressive. Each speaker eulogized the dead and commented on his high character and exemplary life. A touching scene of the services was the singing of the beautiful hymn, ‘I Need Thee Every Hour'. Only a few weeks ago in the same church during a similar service, Ralph Hacking's beautiful tenor voice led a quartette which rendered that same hymn.

"Deceased was not only an upright and honorable man, but he was a talented man. He was a musician of rare ability and was the leader of the choir in the Maeser Ward, and leader of Uintah Stake Tabernacle Choir. He was educated in the B. Y. University." After the funeral services and Ralph's body, was laid to rest in the Maeser Cemetery I moved home with my parents, where about time and one-half weeks later my baby girl was born, August 29. I named her Ralphena in memory of her father.

I didn't attempt to work for the first year. Father ran a small general merchandise and grocery store in Maeser where he employed me as a clerk. Soon after I started clerking I moved into two of the rooms in the store building, which had previously been a part of our family's living quarters. Living at the store I could conveniently take care of the store work as well an care for my small family. It was here at work I could see that in order to meet the ever increasing demands of the business world it would be best for me to get some specialized training, so I went to Provo with my three children and attended the Commercial Department of the Brigham Young University. During the summer months I also took a course in dressmaking.

Returning to Ashley Valley, I was employed by the Ashley Co-op store in the alteration department for both ladies' and men's ready-to-wear. In the autumn of 1912 I was elected to the position of Uintah County Recorder and took office January 2, 1913. Later I moved my family to Vernal where I could walk to and from work. It was during the summer of 1915 that my son Reed made a visit to the LaPoint farm and met with a fatal accident. He died within a week, August 15. He was past nine years old, his birthday occurring in March. The following November of the same year my dear mother, Emily Jane Gerber, passed away after a lingering illness of 1½ years.

Our home was a busy one, like a hive of honey bees-each one with her work. It had to be for us to make ends meet and take our places in an active church, school and community life, but work was good for us. We loved it and were as happy as circumstances would allow us to be.

I held the position of Uintah County Recorder for three different terms. During my nine and one-half years at the Uintah County Court House I also worked as Deputy County Clerk, Assistant in the County Assessor's Office and the County Treasurer's Office, as well as holding the position as City Treasurer.

While residing in Vernal I was engaged in various Church activities, serving as Sunday School Teacher, Secretary for the Uintah Stake Sunday School, and Counselor in the Vernal Second Ward Young Ladies Mutual Organization. In June of 1922 we moved to Prove where we have made our home since. My girls continued their educational training at the Provo High School and later Brigham Young University.

I was first employed as a floor lady at Startup's Candy Company, as a cook at the Utah County Infirmary, and finally as a bookkeeper and clerk for Provo City Waterworks Department, which position I held for five years. After quitting work I held the position of counselor in the Grand View Ward Relief Society, in Sharon Stake. Later I served, as supervisor of the visiting teachers for the Provo Fourth Ward Relief Society, Utah Stake, before the ward was divided when we had approximately 74 visiting teachers.

For the past several years I have been in poor health.
/s/ MABEL HACKING

-1956 "Hacking Bulletin"

MABEL HACKING, EX-VERNAL OFFICIAL FUNERAL IN SLC, BURIAL IN VERNAL

Funeral services were held Monday at 260 East South Temple for Mrs. Mabel Gerber Hacking, 80, who died Thursday of last week in a Salt Lake City hospital of causes incident to age.

Mrs. Hacking was the former Uintah County recorder and Vernal City treasurer. She was also the deputy county clerk. She attended Brigham Young University.

She was born May 8, 1883 in Midway, Wasatch County, the daughter of Moroni and Emily Jane Jacob Gerber. Married William Ralph Hacking September 2, 1903 in the Salt Lake Temple. He died August 11, 1907.

Survivors include two daughters, Mrs. Elmer D. (Marie) Taylor, Payson; and Mrs Ralphena Hacking, Salt Lake City. Four grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.

Also surviving are six sisters, Mrs. Ellis (Jean) Merkley, Salt Lake City; Mrs. Janet Bingham, Mrs. Ray (Stella) Gardner, Mrs. Bert (Fern) Swain, all of American Fork; Mrs. Frank (Helen) Jones, Lehi and Mrs. Gilbert (Florence) Richardson of Orem.

Four brothers, E. Lyman Gerber and Hugh J. Gerber, Salt Lake City; Irvin M. Gerber, Lehi and John W. Gerber, Las Vegas, Nevada.

Burial was in the Vernal Memorial Park Cemetery.

-Vernal Express, October 3, 1963, transcribed by Rhonda Holton