January 14, 1936. History of my Grandmother and Grandfather Bolingbroke. Margaret Elizabeth Roberts and Charles Edward Bolingbroke. 

I just spent one of the happiest evenings of my life, visiting with Grandma and Aunt Jane Thomas and by asking them questions, hearing them relate as they remembered their earlier days. I am taking the pleasure to write down many things as they told them to me. 

Grandmother was born in Dinas Shire, North Wales in the year August 11, 1857. She was the daughter of Edward Roberts and Elizabeth Lewis Roberts. She had one sister Jane L. Roberts Thomas whom I will mention in my story as they were together in their earlier travels and are visiting together tonight. 

In Wales my grandmother’s father worked in a woolen factory where they spun wool and made blankets and material for jeans and dresses. 

My father Geo. [George] Daniels’s grandfather bishop Daniel Daniels came to Wales on a mission and stayed many weeks with grandmother’s family. Grandma says they all worked in the church in Wales. The missionaries baptized her father and mother. And the day Grandma was eight years old, she was baptized by her father. Aunt Jane was baptized when she was ten years old. Grandma was blessed by Enoch Reese, a missionary from Lehi, Utah. Grandma said how tickled she was because she thought she would surely go to heaven. 

And then one day father told them they were going on a long journey far from home. They sensed the importance of the trip, they were coming over to embrace the church. They packed all their things they needed most, but had to leave many things they loved behind. Some were given to neighbors and friends. The two girls were eight and eleven. The missionaries had told them what would be best to take. Grandmother remembers her mother working all day making oatmeal cakes that were cooked on a griddle until they were hard. She said they had a big stack of these round cakes and they were sure good. They churned all the cream for a week and made butter and packed in jars and so they had cakes and butter and  coffee and tea in their luggage, also herring. 

They boarded the Good Ship “John Bright” the Captain of the ship was a man by the name of Dawson. He was a very kind Captain. They rec’d rations on the ship. Grandma says her mother gave butter to ones that were sick on the ship and she was very good at dividing what she had with all the others. It seems this butter was quite a luxury. They were on the ocean for seven weeks. The only other survivor in Malad that came over on that ship is Jamina Stewart. 

Grandma remembers seeing the men take the sails down when a severe storm would come for days and when it would be over, up would go the sails and they would go. The good ship on its return trip was battered to pieces and sunk in the ocean. 

After they landed in America, they expected to meet my Grandmother Mother’s sister and her two brothers who lived in Pennsylvania. But they were not there to meet them. Grandma said it must have been because they were so much longer on the ocean than they thought they would be. They had not joined the church and Grandma said they never did see them. Their names were Lewis. 

They were six months coming across the plains, Grandma said the continent to Salt Lake City. Grandma said the Captain across the plains was Captain Chipman, a man from Lehi, Utah. She said he was a very nice man. 

She Remembers Aunt Jane being terribly sick when they got to the Miss. [Mississippi] River. She had an abscess on her head and they both had the measles. Aunt Jane still has a running sore from that abscess but it is on her hand. She was only 12 years old then. Now she is 82 years old. Grandmother was nine then. All she can remember is at noon on one stop the Indians stole half of their oxen and cattle. She said she can remember the Captain saying he would rather lose all the cattle than one of his men and so they did not go after the Indians to get the cattle back. 

This made them travel slower because they had to trail more wagons. They had been only going 15 miles a day. Aunt Jane said she had to walk all the way, but Grandmother rode except up the steep inclines. It seemed because she was nearly three years younger, she was favored. Her mother and father walked all the way. They arrived in Salt lake October 2, 1865. 

They had to stay there until Grandmother’s Uncle Dave Roberts, her father’s brother, came to Salt lake after them. On their way to Malad at night, when they were camping, sleeping, someone stole their ox team. They hunted all the next day and found them in a barn where a peepstone lady told them [where] they were. Then they came on to Malad. They arrived here in the year of 1866. 

Dave R. Thomas a cousin of Grandma’s was the first boy born in Malad and Mrs. Charles Thomas was the first white child born here. 

Grandma remembers her Aunt Susan Thomas was the only woman who had a Charter Oak Stove and so all the ladies would take their wood and go up to her house to do their baking. They used to do their baking and visit all day. 

Some who lived here [in Malad] then were; Benjamin Thomas, Henry Peck and Reese Thomas. 

After they came to Malad, Grandma says they settled on the lot where she now lives. Their old home was on the corner, a little above where Aunt Jane now lives. Their father was a weaver. I can remember seeing his weaving machine and spinning wheel in one room when I was a small girl. I don’t remember Grandma’s father but I do remember her mother. We called her Mumgee. She used to make root beer out of herbs and sell it for 5 cents a bottle on the 4th of July. It was good. She always had cookies to give us too.  

Grandma’s father used to weave material for dresses and jeans and her mother would cut them out. Grandma said many times she used to wish he wasn’t a weaver because she had to stay home to wind the bobbins. She never could play for long. She said especially if they put stripes in the material. They used to put red and green stripes in some of the material for dresses. He also made rugs and carpets. 

Grandma remembers once going off to work and she stayed three days and got so homesick she left the lady in bed with a baby and walked home. She never did work after that because her father needed her home. But Aunt Jane worked out most of her time, she tells of some of her experiences which I will relate now. One time she worked three months for Oldman Bush, she called him for three sheep. He gave her the sheep on Christmas and on New Years they were all dead. Her father went to see what the trouble was and he said they just died from old age, that none of them had any teeth. 

Then again she worked for four months for Daniel Daniels, my great grandfather who had three wives. She worked for 50 cents a week and her board. She said they had to work hard, milk cows, cook and scrub and do washings on a washboard.  (Just felt an earthquake at 11:10 on January 14, 1936). Then she relates working for old man Dredge for $1.50 a week but she had to go home to eat her meals or go all day without dinner. She also worked in Cherry Creek and used to walk home. She remembers when a caravan of freighters went by, if she was walking she would go way up by the mountains as she was afraid they would take her to Montana with them. Sometimes she would go up by the cemetery to miss them. 

Grandma became very efficient at cooking and cording wool on spools about the size of a candle and then spinning it. 

Aunt Jane said she worked for a month for a pair of shoes for old man Jones and they were made out of such poor leather they wore right out.  

Grandma said they called their best material they made Lindsey and they trimmed it with black braid and she said anyone who had a “Lindsey Dress” was very proud of it. 

She says they had many happy times and their faces just beamed at the recollections of them. 

They never missed Sunday School because their father was Superintendent for 27 years and during that time, only twice was he absent. Once when in Samaria to a funeral and once when he was in Brigham. He was certainly a faithful man and loved and respected by everyone. I did not know him but I did, his wife and loved her. I hold her in fond remembrance. 

When Grandma met and married grandfather, Charles Bolingbroke who I shall proceed to give what little I know of him as at this time he had passed away. He was born January 11, 1853 in Savannah, Missouri, U.S. His parents came from England. They were of the upper class of English people. They were musicians, masons, and trades people. It seems they were of the well to do class as they did not have to travel in companies but had their own outfits to travel in. Two main streets in London are named Bolingbroke. My grandfather had two brothers and one sister who died in Savannah when she was seven years old from the effects of vaccination for smallpox. She was their only girl. They came in their own outfit to Logan and had enough provisions for a year. That is Logan, Utah. 

Uncle Harry, grandfather’s brother, went back to England on a mission. He said his relatives treated him like a king. They took him to the King’s Palace and several places where he couldn’t have gone had it not been for them. That was when he had a family and lived in Malad. 

Grandfather came to Malad and married Grandmother in 1875. 

Grandfather built his own home in Malad and where my mother, their first child was born.  When she was 2 ½ years old they moved to Deep Creek on a farm. They lived there for 18 summers, moving to Malad in the winter time. They had ten children, five boys and five girls. Two boys died when young, Thomas John and Leo. Elizabeth died when her first baby was born, LaVern and Grandmother raised him. He is now married and has one girl. Mary Mae [May], my mother died at the age of 43, leaving six children. Louise, another daughter died at the age of 44 leaving five children at home.  

So you can see Grandmother’s life hasn’t been all pleasure. But sorrow and trouble have left their marks. 

Grandfather Bolingbroke fell from a house or horse and was crushed and left as an invalid for years. I remember him as always having a cheerful smile and being pleasant. But when he used to walk with grandmother, he was tall enough that he always rested his hand on her shoulder as she was little. 

Now to go back to their lives together, they lived 18 years in Deep Creek and then a friend, Thomas Price wanted them to come to Bannock Valley and homestead, which they did. While there they engaged in farming and cattle raising and Grandfather and the boys did carpenter work. They milked at one time 35 cows for David Daniels, my father’s half brother. They have lived out there in the same home 40 summers and moved to Malad in the winter time. In front of Grandmother’s home is a big rock near the side of the road. Last year surveyors wanted to dynamite it out of the way but Grandmother refused. She told them if they did she would be sitting on it. She said it is a dear old landmark held in memory of the old days. The rock is still there. 

Now the Government is trying to buy the land back and give it to the Indians or get the water right to build a large dam. Grandmother refused a check of $5,000 for her farm. She told them she would stay till the dam was built and ready to break, she holds her home so dear to her. (By the way, her grandson runs the farm now and no dam has ever been built. 1980). 

Grandmother was loved by people far and near. She always has loved company and it doesn’t matter how many, she’s always ready to put on a meal for you and ask you to stay. She has the power to make friends easily. She is the oldest pioneer left in Bannock Valley or Arbon as it is now known. 

Every year on her birthday, all in the valley remember her and so does all her family that can make it over there. 

Her health is failing but her memory is perfect. She still has many happy days when friends call in. She has moved over to Malad this winter. Her son Guy and his wife and two sons who are not married are over here with her, Alfred and Edward. 

Grandmother is always happy to see us and feels badly when we don’t. Aunt Jane calls every evening and how nice it is to see the love that exists between them and how they enjoy each other’s company. After such … to enjoy each other again. We all love Grandma and Aunt Jane and hope they spend many more happy days upon this earth. At this time Grandma is in her 79th year and Aunt Jane is in her 82nd year. 

I forgot to mention that Grandfather’s Uncle Edward came over from England and visited here with his nephews for six months at one time and he was a carver. Grandmother has three canes that he carved out with a pocket knife while Grandfather was in the canyon. One of the canes has a dove carved on the handle. Grandmother still has those three canes. 

She also has a plate that was given to her years ago. It was made in the old country. It is a gold color with glass over the front which covers red roses. Grandmother says the plate is mine after her day. 

Written by Estella D. Jones January 14, 1936. 

Aunt Jane died in January 1947. 

Grandmother died January 26, 1943. 

Her family were born and died: 

Name	Birth	Died
Mary May	December 18, 1876	August 22, 1921
Elizabeth	August 8, 1879	October 3, 1901
Magaret Louise	December 3, 1881	June 26, 1923
Minnie Jane	July 14, 1884	January 22, 1944
Charles Edward	December 3, 1886	February 22, 1969
Claribel Bolingbroke	October 12, 1890	May 7, 1977
Thomas John	October 15, 1892	February 2, 1894
Alfred	December 29, 1894	January 21, 1978
Leo	March 15, 1898	December 27, 1897
Guy	January 14, 1901	–