Aunt Mary's talk about Zina Cannon

This is a note handwritten by Beatrice C. Evans found among her papers.  It is her report of a talk given by her sister, Mary

 

Can you imagine grandma when she was just a little girl with curls who played with dolls? (Here she is) She had hair long enough to sit on, and it was thick and brown.

 

Grandma liked to play.  She was the fastest runner in her room at school. She liked to play baseball too.  Another thing she liked to do was go with her brothers to milk the cows.  They went through the fields and she would gathr wild flowers.  She thinks city children never have as much fun as she did when she went bathing in the mill race.

When she had time she would go over to Laura Diamond’s place to play. There were other girls over there, while at home there were only boys. (Here she is with two of her girl friends.)

Grandma’s mother was sick quite often.  Then grandma would stay home from school and help with the work.  She didn’t have much time to play.  She wanted to study hard and get good marks in school.  There were lots of meals to get for six brothers and sometimes hired men, too.  She had to cook and wash, clean the house and wash dishes.

Have you ever heard grandma say “ Oh dear, I have so many things to do, but I never seem to accomplish anything!

Grandma always had lots of things to do, not the kind of thing is that bring much money or attention.  Sometimes she thought the things she did were not very important.

She didn’t ride in parades or go into politics.  Her picture was not in the papers.  She never went onto the stage; she never wrote a book.  But if she had, maybe we wouldn’t be here.  Maybe we wouldn’t have tasted any of Grandma’s good graham biscuits.

Yes, grandma had to grow up very fast because Grandpa, was already looking for her.  Bea, Lenore, Jack and Mick were impatient to see the world. Of course she had never heard about any of these people no one had ever called her ma ma or grandma.  She was just a young girl – very pretty too.  Her name was Zina like the pioneer girl in “Brigham Young”.

When she first came in from Taylorsville to Salt Lake City to go to school at the LDS she was just 16, the age of young David Evans. (1940)  Here her favorite teacher was James E. Talmage.  She was never happy until she had her lessons done.  Her favorite subjects were English, science, and penmanship.  She hated arithmetic.

When she had been going to school in town for two years and was 18 years old she went to a school party.  It was here that grandpa, John M. Cannon, first saw Zina Bennion.  He was there with his sister, Aunt Anne, and he thought Zina was the prettiest girl he ever saw.

The next year grandma was teacher and matron at the L.D.S. and the next year she was married.  She was barely 20 years old (and looked about like this.)  Grandpa was about as old as Uncle Clix.

When Grandma was as old as Aunt Phyllis she had two babies, Bea and Lanore. 

When she was as old as Aunt Anne she had five, - two girls and three boys.  Bea and Lanore were in school by then.  When she was as old as I am, she had six children, that’s more than half her family.  The oldest was 13.

During this time she was president of the Young Ladies Mutual in Granite Stake for 13 ½ years.

When Grandma was as old as Aunt Lanore, she became a widow with eleven children between the ages of 23 and one year.

Sometimes I wonder how Grandma managed to feed an old these children and keep them clothed.—how she rocked them to sleep at night – sent to them to school as long as they would go, and who always asked them if they had their lessons at night,--tended them through scarlet fever, whopping cough, measles, chicken pox, bronchitis, and numerous colds,--picked up clothes and playthings after them every day, gave them home-made bread, and still kept the flower pots and gardens watered and weeded.

Maybe when some of us were passing through the know-it-all stage we felt like asking Grandma if she didn’t never have any ambitions.” Didn’t you ever want to do anything big, like Sarah Bernhardt, Florence Nightingale or Eleanor Roosevelt?

Can’t you imagine Grandma smiling cryptily and saying “No I never wanted tto be like anyone one of them.”

She would never tell you the things she has accomplished, but she would be saying the truth if she said  ”This is my work and my Glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of men.” “I am come that ye might have Life and that more abundantly.”

Aunt Mary’s talk about Grandma Cannon.