Mary Goodrich Gagon

Mary Augusta Goodrich was born to Eliza Ann Taggart and George Albert Goodrich.

William and Mary got acquainted after her family moved from Morgan to Vernal. Highland Gagon married Mary Augusta in the Logan Temple on November 20, 1890. She was nearly 23 years of age. William Highland Gagon had first married Lydia Ann Taylor and they had three sons. Lydia got typhoid fever and died on May 1988. William's sons, Joseph and Ira, lived with the couple in their home until they were raised and were old enough to go on their own. Mary was a wonderful mother to the boys. They loved her a great deal.

William Highland and Mary Augusta were blessed with a lovely little daughter on June 18, 1892 in Naples, Uintah, Utah. They named her Mamie Goodrich Gagon.

Mr Gagon filed on a homestead four miles south of Roosevelt, so the family moved from Vernal to Roosevelt April 6, 1907. They had a ranch on the North Myton Bench. They lived in a one-room cabin with a bowery outside. Mr. Gagon went to work in the mercantile store in Roosevelt soon after they were settled. They had about 40 acres of land in the area which was called Hartford.

Mrs. Gagon and the children were home alone much of the time. If past records are correct, it was August 1907 that their little cabin in Hartford burned to the ground. Both parents were away. Mr. Gagon was at work in the mercantile store and Mary Augusta was visiting a short distance away. Fannie, Leona, Rae (George Raymond), Earl, Ella and Maude were home. Rae had been popping matches in an old 22 rifle. Clothes were hanging in one end of the room on a wire strung across from one wall to the other.

Rae was in the corner behind the curtain where they had their clothes. The curtain was by the only door there was in the cabin. Rae shot into the clothes and a fire started. Ella thinks they could have put it out if they had not been so frightened. They all ran out of the house and left their little sister, Maude, who was asleep on the bed. Ella ran back in and rescued her.

The father saw the fire from Roosevelt and asked someone to take him home. he jumped in a buggy and whipped up the horses to their top speed. Who can imagine the anxiety he suffered not knowing just what had happened? On his arrival he leaped from the buggy and shouted, "Is anybody hurt?" On hearing that everyone was safe he threw his hat into the air and yelled, "Hooray! We don't have to worry." The loss of the home and their possessions was a great misfortune, but was nothing compared to the grief the family would have suffered if a life had been lost or one of the children had been injured.

They were able to save a few of the clothes that had been in a box outside the cabin, also a stove. This left the children rather scantily clad. The fire was hard on the mother. It occurred just a few weeks before their son, Leslie Owen, was born. After the fire, they moved to Joe Gagon's place. Joe put up a tent for some of them to sleep in. The people in the community gathered up baby clothes to see them through, and built another one-room house for the family to live in.

On February 22, 1910 Maude died of membranous croup.

Mr. Gagon's health began to fail about January 1922. He passed away in February 12, 1923. Mary was left a widow with an unmarried son at home. World War II was declared December 7, 1941. Her son, Owen, was inducted into the army and reported for active duty at Ft. Douglas on November 23, 1943. He served in Heavy Artillery in Germany. Owen was promoted to 2nd Seargeant in 1945. He was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant May 25, 1945. Mary was so happy when she received word of his promotion, but she was not as happy about that as when he told her in one of his letters how much he appreciated her as a mother, how he appreciated the Gospel of Jesus Christ; and loved her bacause she taught him how to pray.

Ella and her daughter moved into town from Hancock Cove about this time to live with Mary Augusta. Afton attended high school while living there. She graduated in May 1945 and went to Salt Lake to work.

About May 1948, Mary Augusta bacame ill. Her feet began to swell. She went to the home of her daughter, Fannie, to be cared for. It was there that she passed away on July 1, 1948, at the age of 80 years.

- Merle Roberts Edward and Kimberly Horrocks Walker
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Funeral services for Mary Augusta Gagon, 80, prominent Roosevelt pioneer who died Thursday, July 1, at 5 a.m. of causes incident to age, were conducted Sunday at 2:30 p.m. in the Roosevelt Ward Chapel. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Holis Hullinger, bishop, officiated.

Mrs. Gagon died at the home of a daughter, Mrs. fannie Todd. She was born January 4, 1868, at Morgan, a daughter of George Albert and Liza Taggart Goodrich. She was married to William H. Gagon in 1890 in the Logan LDS Temple. The family came to Uintah Basin in 1907 where Mr. Gagon died 25 years ago. Mrs. Gagon was an active member is the LDS Chuch, having served in both the Roosevelt Stake Relief Society and Mutual Improvement Association presidencies.

She is survived by two sons, Rae and Owen Gagon, Salt Lake City; four daughters, Mrs. Mamie Baldwin, Ogden; Mrs. Leona Shumway, Dragerton; Mrs. Fannie Todd and Mrs. Ella Roberts, Roosevelt; two step-sons, Ira Gagon, Roosevelt and Will Gagon, Lancaster, California; three brothers, Lewis and Byron Goodrich, Vernal; and Leslie Goodrich, Bluebell and a sister, Mrs. Nellie Collette, Kaysville.

Burial was in the Roosevelt Cemetery.

-Vernal Express, July 7, 1948

* Check out the Goodrich Family Organization