written by her daughter Orpha and son Richard
Orpha Elizabeth Morris, later Andrus, of whom I write was my mother and the few things I jot down came from bits of information she gave to me a few months before she passed away. Perhaps her grandchildren or their posterity may be interested in reading this very brief account of her life.
On January 22, 1872, in the little town of St. George, Utah, a baby girl was born to Richard Morris and his good wife Emma Packer Morris. There was no doctor present at the time but fortunately there was a capable midwife in attendance. She was Mrs. Samuel B. Hardy.
The name chosen for this little girl was Orpha Elizabeth, Orpha being the name of an English lady convert to the Latter Day Saints Church and a very good friend of the parents.
Orpha was the ninth child in a family of eleven, all born in the state of Utah, with the exception of a boy Johnnie who died in infancy at Nebraska while the parents were crossing the plains on their way to Utah.
As the child grew to school age she attended school in the home of her namesake, Sister Orpha Everett, who acted as teacher. The floor of the school house was plain mother earth pounded down firmly by the tramp of many feet. Their tools for study were very meager consisting of one or two readers brought from England by Sister Everett. Later they acquired slates on which they learned to write beautifully shaded letters and to spell and do their arithmetic.
Richard Morris, her father was well established in business in Salt Lake City, conducting both a tannery and a small store. When the call came to help settle the Dixie Mission in 1867, he sold out at a loss financially and for many years in St. George it was a difficult matter to keep the children fed and clothes, especially when flour was selling at $25 per hundred, calico $2. a yard, etc.
For this reason work came first and schooling held a secondary position. Mother, along with the rest of the girls, was expected to do her full share of the house work and the boys were generally occupied with work on the farm in the Washington field. As she grew older however, she spent considerable time working for a neighbor, Brother Johnson, carrying frames of honey from his apiary.
She thoroughly enjoyed horse back riding (in those days women rode side saddle) and spent much of her time riding to and from the farm on errands or taking lunches to her brothers. A good fast saddle pony was her greatest source of enjoyment while she was growing up.
After Sister Everett's school she studied under Martha Cox in the basement of the Tabernacle, then under J. T. Woodbury and Rose Jarvis in the County Court House. There was some religious training included in the studies, especially when the St. George Stake Academy was started in the basement of the Tabernacle with J. T. Woodbury and Nephi Savage as teachers. Practically all of the classes included children of all ages, first one age group reciting then another.
The first system of lighting in grandfather's home consisted of a rag placed in a dish of grease, later there were candles made by mother, her brothers and sister, which were later replaced by coal oil lamps. Grandfather, in addition to a farmer, was the village shoemaker, and mother's shoes were always made by her father while he was in that business. She never had a pair of boughten shoes until she was fourteen years old.
For recreation they created their own fun playing with the neighborhood children in the summer evenings, run sheep run, hide and seek, etc. When mother was in her teens, she developed a better than average singing voice and took part in many operettas as well as stage plays. She took much pleasure also in dancing and was sought after by many young men as a dancing partner. All of the dances in this Mormon community were square dances except for one waltz and one schottische which were allowed during the evening. A squash or any item of produce served as a ticket to the dance. In St. George they first danced in a place walled with willows plastered with mud and a dirt floor. Later the Gardeners Club Hall was used then the Amusement Hall. Jim Booth's dance hall was in operation shortly before mother's marriage.
When she was about seventeen years old she did house work for Libby Ivins, wife of Antoine Ivins, who later served as first counselor to President Heber J. Grant of the Latter-day Saints Church. At eighteen years of age mother took her first trip out of St. George. She rode for seven days on a wagon loaded with bullion and driven by her brother George, until they reached Milford, about 120 miles distant, at which place she took the train for Salt Lake City. Aunt Dora, mother's oldest sister, was working in the city at the time and mother stayed with her for nearly a year. While living there she took five piano lessons from George Careless (one of the early church musicians) and was able to play most of the hymns during the remainder of her life.
Coming back to the home town from the city in the latter part of 1890, she was one of the belles of the town. Father tells of looking out of Wooley, Lund and Judd's store window one day and seeing her. She was young and full of vitality; her clothes were the latest cut and she was evidently good to look upon, and forthwith he decided that she was the girl for him. Shortly thereafter they started keeping company with each other. She was married to Moses Willard Andrus, November 5, 1891, in the St. George Temple by President David H. Cannon. One hundred and eighty people sat down to a hot wedding dinner after the ceremony.
Father had an eight room adobe house under construction before they were married and it was completed ready for them to move into in March 1892. Her trousseau consisted of a straw tick or mattress, two feather pillows, a rag carpet, six sheets made from what they called unbleached muslin.
The first summer and several following their marriage, Mother and Father spent on Grandfather Andrus' ranch called Scootum, located to the east of Bryce Canyon National Park.
The home father had built was the only home they had. All of their children were born there and some of their grandchildren. They were the parents of seven children: four boys, three girls. One son, Roy, died in infancy. The other were: Orpha Elizabeth; Moses Willard; Pauline; Richard Morris; Mary; and James Alwyn. Orpha, Bill, Paula, and Jim were born in mother's bedroom, and Mary and I were born in the parlor. Mother's sister, Aunt Ida Seegmiller acted as midwife when Mary and James were born.
My father, being a cattleman, was very well acquainted around the country, and was generous to the Nth degree. Whenever there was a county fair, a rodeo, horse races or a ball game to attract visitors from around the country, mother's house was filled with star boarders for three or four days at a time. Through out the past thirty years I have often heard some of the same visitors tell how very much they enjoyed mother's cooking.
For many years after father and mother were married, water for the house hold had to be carried from an irrigation ditch which ran down the street in front of their lot. This was placed in a barrel to settle beofre using. The horses and cows in the corral had to be driven or let to the ditch to be watered twice a day. Father being out to the ranch often the care of the animals fell to mother until the children were old enough to take over.
Saturday night, the #2 zinc tub was placed in front of the wood stove and bathing each child was a regular ritual. For many years mother made her own soap, especially for laundry purposes, using the loose rut and ashes for lye. When they first moved into their new home, lights were furnished by coal oil lamps until 1914 when the house was wired for electricity. Cleaning the lamp chimneys was a task assigned to us children.
When Orpha, their oldest girl, was about six years old she was severely burned when she was playing near a fire in the yard where mother was boiling wheat. Only the quick action of a neighbor saved her from being burned to death. Later when Orpha was in her teens she developed heart trouble and was confined to her bed for over six months. Accidents and illnesses if this kind together will all of the childhood diseases and minor complaints served to keep mother busy from morn until night with never a dull moment about the place.
Her husband always provided well for the family so far as food and clothing were concerned, but though his income was large he spent unwisely and for this reason as the children grew older, mother had boarders in the home for many years.
In 1917, her son, Willard, served his country as a soldier in World War I, and was on the front line of battle in the Argonne Forest, in France, when the peace treaty was signed November 11, 1918. Mother worried constantly until he returned home safely.
Her activities in the Church were very limited while we children were small. She did take each one of us to church and have us blessed and given a name. Then as we grew more independent of her care, she went to work in the primary, serving as teacher, counselor, and in 1920 was called to serve as St. George Stake Primary President. At this time the St. George Stake consisted of Zions Park area, and the Enterprise area.. The white top buggy was used for transportation. This slow way of travel made it necessary to spend some nights away from home when visiting the out lying wards of the stake. She served in this calling for five years. The same month she was released, she was called to serve as Relief Society President of the new West St. George Ward. Again she served faithfully for five years.
Mother was always willing to sacrifice her own pleasure so that others might be cared for. She was in attendance when practically all of her twenty-one grandchildren were born and helped until their mothers were able to do their regular household duties. Mother loved and enjoyed her neighbors and friends, she always had such sympathetic understanding. When others failed to comfort she always knew the right thing to do and say. She spent many hours night and day with the sick and helped prepare many bodies for burial.
Going to the temple to do work for those who had not had the priviledge of going for themselves, was another pleasure for her. Better than one hundred names she did work for. A session at the temple took half a day at that time, because you did the washing for the person, as well as the endowment work.
About three or four years prior to Father's death his eyes became clouded with cataracts which could not be removed. Mother answered to his every call and worked tirelessly to care for him and keep his wants supplied. He suffered also with high blood pressure, and died as the result of a Cerebral Hemmorage, December 12, 1941.
Richard Andrus talking: "On April 22, 1944, my wife, Irene, passed away leaving me with two children, Richene, eleven years old, and Richard, nine years old. As soon as Mother heard she closed her own home in St. George and came to Bell, California, to assist me in caring for the children.
She was 72 years old. She was with us about fourteen months and took care of the children just as their mother would have wanted them taken care of. When she departed for her home in St. George her California friends were numbered by the hundreds because of her neighborliness, affability and kindness to others. Many times she expressed the desire to die when her time came without being bedridden and being a burden to any of her loved ones. She was ill only about four or five days before passing on to her reward. Her life was full and complete and through losing herself in the service of others she found true happiness in the sunset of her life."
October 2, 1946, the West Ward Relief Society officers were honoring the five living past ward Relief Society presidents. When mother responded to the call, she seemed almost transparent, her face was white, her hair was white, and she spoke with such a fine spirit. She said she hoped the Lord would see fit to call her home before she outlived her usefulness, and told how she had enjoyed her work in the different organizations and how she loved the ladies.
Mother took sick the following Sunday and passed away Wednesday, October 9th, talking to us until the last, telling us everything would be alright if we would all stick together. Her only regret in passing was that her children would mourn . She had lived to keep us from pained heartache as far as she could. Her life was full and complete through loosing herself in the service to others.