Sarah Rebecca Howell

Sarah Rebecca Howell, daughter of Elias Willis Howell and Mary Jane Sanderson, born the 2nd day of May 1876, in Fairview, Sanpete County, Utah.
Sarah was baptized the 10th of August 1884, and married in the Manti LDS Temple the 20th of June 1894 to Jacob Rasmussen, a son of Andrew Rasmussen and Severina Marie Madsen. (He was born the 6th of June 1872, in Fairview Sanpete Co. Utah.
Sarah's Father Elias Willis Howell first married on February 10th 1858, in the Endowment House to Martha Jane Rigby. Four children were born to them.
Sarah's Father Married Mary Jane Sanderson on April 17, 1871 in the Endowment House. Thirteen children were born to them.
Sarah Rebecca Howell's childhood was spent in her home town of Fairview, Utah. The duties of the home required her early help. Her Father's children by his first wife and her own mother's large family made it necessary that all the children acquire the skill and ability to prepare meals, make and mend clothing and do all of the other house hold duties which fell almost entirely on the shoulders of the mother and girls. The father and boys took care of the outside chores and other work outside the home. Sarah said her father never asked her to do outside chores or work in the garden.
On November 23, 1952, Sarah visited her own mother's only living sister, Amanda (Aunt Mandy) Jones-Pritchett, in Fairview, Utah.
Aunt Mandy told Sarah about the childhood and girlhood of Sarah's mother, Mary Jane (Janie). The time in Mary Jane's girlhood remembered was when Sarah's father Elias Willis came courting Janie. Janie had been going with a man named Jess Jordan, Mr. Jordan had left town presumably to build up a wedding stake, but with, apparently no definite engagement arrangements with Janie.
Elias Willis Howell had divorced Martha Jane Rigby and began calling on Janie. Because Aunt Mandy liked to tease her 15 month older sister Janie and because Janie took the teasing seriously, their mother Rebecca Ann, talked to Aunt Mandy about Willis Howell and told her never to tease Janie about Willis Howell because he was a good man. Their mother knew that if Mandy teased Janie about Willis Howell that Janie would not have anything more to do with him.
Aunt Mandy says Willis Howell was a good provider for his family and that Janie never wanted for anything that it was possible for him to give her and that he was a good man. Aunt Mandy seemed to be of the opi9nion that because of the difference in age (18 years) of Janie and Willis, that Janie probably missed some of the romance she may have had with a younger man.
Aunt Mandy thinks that because Willis was in the mountains so much of the time, running a saw mill, that this gave Martha Jane the chance to become involved with Thaddeus Hambrick. It was said that 2 even after Willis knew that a baby, not his, was coming, that he was reluctant to divorce Martha Jane and that it was only after being told by church officials that if he did not divorce her, he himself would cut off, that he did obtain the divorce.
In spite of Martha Janes's troubles, she was at least an occasional visitor in Willis and Janie's home. She always received a share of the meat at butchering time and if she was in the home when Willis came home with groceries, fruits or delicacies that Willis let Martha Jane be the first to sample what he had brought home. She was often given something to take home with her.
The children of Ellias Willis and Martha Jane were raised in the home with Janie and her children until they were married and made their own home. Drusilla, (Martha Jane and Thaddeus's daughter) lived with Otis Lysander Terry, Jr. and his wife, Sarah Lovinia until Drusilla married.
Sarah remembers, particularly, the crowd of young people, Roselia Frances' ( referred to as Aunt Zales) crowd coming to the home on many different occasions, popping corn making candy, roasting kidneys over the fire in the fireplace, roasting ears of corn by rolling them over the red hot surface of the kitchen stove, playing game and singing. One young man Chris Allchris, was an excellent singer so there was always a gay time and lots of singing when Aunt Zales crowd was there.
Sarah was baptized in a natural pool in the Sanpitch creek running through town on property that at that time belonged to Sam Bills, the husband of Willis Howell's sister Ophelia.
Sarah's schooling was very limited. When Sarah reached the fourth grade her father took her out of school to clerk in the furniture store. When school started again the next fall, she was asked by her father if she wanted to go back to school, because she was behind in her class, she said, "No"" and since he did not insist on it or there was at that time no compulsory school law, she didn't go back to school again.
The furniture store, Sarah worked in, was in the frame building a half block East and across the street from the Fairview City Hall. A planning mill was located on the same block and behind the furniture store building. A sawmill in the mountains, the planning mill and the furniture store in town were all owned by Willis Howell and Edmund Terry on a partnership arrangement. Willis Howell also owned a farm on Sanpitch.
Her father held to the idea that it was not very important that girls and women be educated but Sarah felt all along and still feels that he was mistaken in his idea. Among the old original pioneers of Fairview, closest to her were her grandfather, Henry Weeks Sanderson, and his two wives, her grandmother Rebeccca Ann Sanders and "Aunt Sally", Sarah Jane Cold, also her paternal grandmother, Sarah Vail, widow of Edmund Wheeler Howell who married Otis Lysander Terry Sr., after her arrival in Utah and also her father-in-law, Andrew Rasmussen and Jacob Rasmussen's mother Severina Marie Madsen and Andrew Rasmussen's two plural wives, Sidsel Maria Jensen, ‘Aunt Maria' and Anna Katrine Mortensen, ‘Aunt Annie".
Sarah's childhood activity, outside her home, was mostly visiting with her friends in their homes. Some of Sarah's friends lived out of town and she in company with girl friends made frequent walking trips to visit these out of town friends. Because of the Indian scares and stories picnics and other kinds of trips to the nearby hills and mountains for recreational purposes were never taken by the girls. Indian stories made emphatic by the recent events made a deep and lasting impression on Sarah's mind.
A young man named Eric Olsen was her first boy friend and he used to date her for Mutual, on Sundays and for Ward shows. They became familiar enough that he used to kiss her goodnight. Jacob Rasmussen who had been living in Mantua Utah moved back to Fairview and began going around with Sarah's brother Willis (Willis Henry Howell, so it became easy for a romance to develop between Sarah and Jacob. This broke up the affair with Eric Olsen and about seven months after she began going with Jake, they were married on the 20th of June 1894, at the Manti Latter Day Saint Temple.
In the winter of 1898, Jacob's brother Nephi suggested that they go to Wyoming and homestead land. Jacob had an exploring spirit and this suggestion met with his approval, so he quit his job at the mill,sold his new home for 550 dollars and moved to the Bench, (now Lyman) Wyoming between Christmas and NewYears. Both men homesteaded 160 acres of land. Jacobs land was south east of Lyman. Their first home was a 12 by 20 ft. log cabin erected on land about a mile and a quarter from what became the townsite of Lyman. Jacob was not content to spend his time tilling the soil, so he opened a grocery store in the log house by hanging up a wagon cover as a partition to divide the room and separate the store from the living quarter of the cabin. A lean-to the same size as the house was soon added and it became the bedroom occupied by two full size beds with just enough room to walk between the beds. Jacob also became postmaster of ‘Bench' Wyoming which position he held until he sold out the store about three years later to John Guild.
Jacob was very active in church affairs as a class teacher and various committee work and ward teacher to isolated farm families. He made his visits alone on horseback which consumed much time. He became a counselor to Bishop Samuel R. Brough in the Lyman Ward. He was also the head watermaster.
All of these activities, away from home, threw the responsibility of chores and other outside duties upon Sarah when Jacob was away from home.
About Sept. of 1899, the young daughter, Myrtle, standing up in an ordinary roundbacked kitchen chair leaned too far back and the chair tipped over with her. It is believed that this fall resulted in an injury to her kidneys from which she had never fully recovered. Later she contracted a case of what the midwife, Mary Hamblin described as walking typhoid. Sarah said that she first noticed that little Myrtle was seriously ill at the Christmas Party. Myrtle died on the 29th of December 1899.
Rulon Howell Rasmussen (Oral's Father) was born in a log cabin in town on January 10 1902 while Jacob was away getting a load of coal. Such trips were usually two or three day trips.
Sarah recalls that one winter an epidemic of small pox went through the community. Her own case was so severe that it left her face badly pock-marked and some people ran from her when she went to the store. Jacob and the children had light cases. ( 2011- I called Aunt Melda to see if she remembered seeing any scarring on her Grandmothers face. She said there wasn't any sign of the Pockmarks. – Ann)
Jacob and Sarah lived during pioneering times where there was much hard work. To get two or more barrels of water from the frozen creek, Sarah and the children would hitch up a team of horses and haul the water back to the home for washing, bathing and other necessary household needs. Many other women would have permitted the clothing to get dirtier and baths less frequent, but Sarah was willing to put forth the effort necessary to see that the standards of cleanliness she desired for her family were maintained.
In the early fall of 1905, Jacob bought (with credit) a new binder to harvest his grain. Jacob was in the process of cutting his wheat, which was ripe, when he went in to have dinner (lunch for us) . Sarah recounted that he made the remark "Well, old lady, this is one year when we will have enough grain to see us through the winter." But—before the noon meal period was finished, a violent hailstorm came up and the part of Jacob's field left uncut was threshed out (destroyed), the new binder was not needed on Jacob's fields any more. Because of this occurrence, together with Sara's unhappiness brought about the decision to sell out and return to Utah. Uncle Otis and Aunt Mary provided one room of their home as a temporary residence for the family. They arrived at Provo on November 9 1905. A new baby – Eva was born there shortly thereafter on November 24 1905
In the spring of 1906 Jacob rented a place near the edge of the Provo Bench above lakeview. The place was not large enough to produce sufficient income to support his family so he made many peddler trips to Eureka to the mining towns, also to Scofield, Clear Creek and Winter Quarters, Park City and the Sanpete County towns.
In 1908, a few days previous to Reed's birth, Sarah had contracted a cold which she feels was largely responsible for her getting a very serious case of pneumonia, which had developed on the day of Reed's birth. The attending doctor, Dr. Westwood, gave her a one hundred to one chance to life. Sarah was isolated in the north front room, the window sash was removed from the frame and she was covered with only a single sheet during the worst part of this illness. Most of two or three days she was in a delirious condition. A professional nurse was in attendance and just as soon as the fever broke the window was replaced, a hot fire was made in a heating stove in the room and fruit jars filled with hot water were placed all around the body which was covered with heavy quilts and blankets. Sarah's one chance to live had arrived and she pulled through. She remembers telling Aunt Mary Terry to take the little girls (Pearl and Eva that she would never do for them again.
Jacob took a job with the Utah Fuel Company at Winter Quarters firing boilers in the mine powerhouse. In the spring of 1909 Jacob had Sarah bring the family to Winter Quarters (now not even a ghost town). The family stayed there until the spring of 1910 when it became evident to Jacob that the needs of his large family could not be adequately taken care of on the income he was receiving.
Correspondence with the Rawleigh Company which produced medicines, spices, extract etc. Resulted in Jacob accepting work with this company and was assigned to Juab County with headquarters at Nephi, Utah. Jacob wanted a larger territory in which to carry on his Rawleigh business so then a move to Manti was soon under way.
An opportunity to return to the Union Roller Mill in Fairview as miller was offered and Jacob was ready to change, so the family made the move to Fairview into the mill home where Jacob and Sarah had lived when they were first married.
About this time some lands of the Uintah Indian Reservation located in the Uintah Basin of northeastern Utah were opened for white settlement. So two years after moving from Manti to Fairview, the family was again on the move to a new home. In November 1917 the move by team and wagon was made from Fairview to Lapoint. This was a long and tiresome journey.
Sarah was always busy with chores, milk to care for, cream to churn, butter to mold into pounds, also to be sold and making cheese for the family's use. There were constant trips with buckets to the creek a half block away for water needs for the home. Cooking, dishwashing, bathing, face and hand washing, mopping, etc.,
Sarah decided to raise and hatch chickens. Under difficult conditions and many hours of watchful care, she turned the 504 eggs over each day, testing the eggs several times during the last two weeks to cull out those that were not good. Mothering the chicks took a lot of time, work and patience. Purchasing feed was a problem. When they were full grown the fryers were killed and dressed, (plucked, prepared for eating) and then hauled to Roosevelt 17 miles away to sell to stores, hotels and restaurants. Later as the laying Hens started producing, many more trips were made to sell the eggs wherever possible, traveling with a one horse, two wheeled cart which Dad and the boys had fixed up for her to use. Many times she didn't get home till way after dark when the night was so black only old Maud (the horse) could see the say and slowly followed the road home.
Sarah had the responsibility of raising a big garden. We had all the tomatoes and melons we wanted to eat. Sweet corn was cut from the cob, cooked in the oven, then dried them for winter meals. Popcorn was a family treat, with butter and salt or sugar syrup. Honey Candy was another favorite.
When times were pinching and clothing not too plentiful Sarah ‘made over ‘ old used clothes into new ones for the younger children. Much time was spent washing and ironing the school clothes while the children were in bed so that they would be clean and ready for another day. There was mending and patching to be done. Her sewing talent was used to goo advantage. Many coats, dresses, shirts and even underwear were made from large size ‘Sale' clothing she bought whenever possible. Many quilts in different materials, percale and wool pieces, outing flannel, sateen, the good parts of worn-out overalls, and even the good part of the long stockings that had been worn by the children were used in making soft warm quilts. There was soap making about every fall too. Sarah always helped to grub brush and grease-wood, to clear more land. This was a strenuous job for her already tired shoulders. A batch of eight loaves of bread was baked practically every day - for a year. When a day was missed, two batched were baked in a day or rolls or biscuits were made for a change of bread.
In Sarah's older age they moved to Reed Rasmussen's house in SLC in the fall of 1942, where the conveniences of plenty of cold and hot water, a bathroom to use, made an easier life and gave time for her desired hobbies, even then she was not entirely content in the crowded city. She loved plenty of room, the out-of-doo life at her wishes, in the open country with the pure fresh air to breathe. She loved and enjoyed the feel of the soil, that had been a part of her life, as she had worked in it on any available spot to raise a few fresh vegetables for her needs and for lovely flowers, to her heart's content and satisfaction. She loved nice things, nice clothes to look dressy in, believed in keeping her body clean.
" Mothers life was complete devotion to her family. The gardens she worked so hard in, canning she did so much of, sewing patching, and quilting with nimble fingers. Chickens, millinery (Selling Hats), berry picking were her unending effort to help supplement the family income. Her desire to give gifts to all though they maybe were no too expensive was LOVE from the heart. She gave us birth and clean bodies and a desire to keep them thata way. She taught us the truths and purities of life and to seek God in humility in times of need and always. What greater gift could anyone give?" quote from Pearl Severina Rasmussen