The Minor Family of Somerset

JESSIE LAMB STEWART (1888-1893) Daughter of William Lamb and Cha
rlotte Grainger
HER LIFE IN HER OWN WORDS
I was born in Brigham City, Arizona, on MonDay,24 December 1888
. My father, William Lamb, and my mother, Charlotte Grainger, w
ere married in Toquerville,Utah, on 24 December 1887. They move
d to Arizona after they were married, and I was born a year fro
m the Day they were married. We always celebrated the 24th of D
ecember along with Christmas.
My mother was a gentle, sweet, little and soft-spoken woman, ver
y good-hearted and kind to everybody. She was a great seamstres
s and wonderful homemaker, andshe taught me all about the Gospe
l that I every knew until I grew up. She was better that way th
an I ever was with my children. She'd call us to her knees ever
y night, and we'd kneel down at her knees and say our prayer. T
hatwas just as regular as getting up in a morning. I think m
y mother is the one that instilled the religion in me. There ne
ver was a time that she would sit down with us that she didn't t
ell us some pioneer story or something to promote the Gospel.
I have often said that I was just like my father. I never had a
bit of my mother in me -- she was so gentle and ladlylike. I wa
s morelike my dad.
Mother loved flowers. No matter if in the desert or wherever w
e lived, she always had flowers. I can just see her now there i
n Alamo getting up in the morning and picking a bunch of honesuc
kle and two or three rosesand taking them to some of the neighb
ors that weren't well. She was alwaystaking somebody a bougue
t of her honeysuckle.
Dolly was born two years afterme. I remember now, more than 9
0 years later something that happened to mebefore I turned tw
o years old. It occurred as my family was moving from Brigham C
ity to Toquerville. I got in the habit of holding my breath tha
t whole time. I f I wanted something I'd hold my breath, and I'
d always get it. They had the wagons loaded, and I wanted the
m to do something for me, go backfor something. Father was han
ding me up to Mother. I said, "I'll hold my breath if you don'
t let me do it." He just took and pulled the plug out of theba
rrel on the side of that wagon and held me under the water. H
e held meunder that barrel and let the water pour down to me, a
nd then he handed me upto Mother. I never did hold my breath a
fter that.
That was in the Fall, and we went to Toquerville. Dolly wasn'
t born until November, and I wasn't twoyears old until December
.
We moved to Toquerville and lived with Grandfather and Grandmoth
er Granger, my mother's folks. I remember Grandfather Grainge
r playing with us children. He came home one Day (he'd been dow
ntown) andlaid down on the couch. I even remember the couch. I
t was made with a printthat looked like spools of thread on a b
rown-colored background. GrandfatherGrainger laid down to res
t a while. Grandmother called him to dinner, and he didn't wak
e up. He had died just laid down there and went to sleep. I re
member Mother holding me up to see him after he was in his caske
t. And there I was only 20 months old; that was before Dolly wa
s born.
My sister Georgina, called Dolly, was born while we were livin
g at my grandmother Grainger'sshe was just two years younger th
an I, and we grew up and were very close toeach other all our l
ives.
Father bought us a nice brick home in Toquerville,and the groun
ds were lovely. We had orses, all kinds of flowers and fig tree
s. We loved our home very much. Since I was the oldest child i
n the family I had many chores and things to do. Mother had he
r babies close together,and there was so much work in those Day
s since there were noc onveniences.I used to have to wash th
e lamp chimneys every morning and fill the lamps with what we us
ed to call coal oil; they call it kerosene now. We used to brus
h our fireplace hearths every morning with some