Interview with Anna (Gifford) Wulffenstein

Anna (Gifford) Wulffenstein was interviewed on September 30, 1968 in St. George, Washington County, Utah by Fielding H. Harris, a representative of the Voices of Remembrance Foundation. She related her personal history of living in various parts of Utah. Her sister-in-law, Verna Mae (Isom) Gifford, also participated.

FH:Would you please give your full name?

AW:[My name is] Anna (Gifford) Wulffenstein.

FH:[What is] your birth date?

AW:[I was] born December 11, 1893.

FH:[What was] the place of your birth?

AW:[I was born in] Springdale, Washington County, Utah.

FH:[What was] your father's name?

AW:My father was Freeborn DeMille Gifford.

FH:[What was] your mother's [full] name?

AW:My mother was Amelia Jane (Hepworth) [Gifford].

FH:[What] can you remember about your early childhood? Do you remember [the] 00:01:00names of your girlfriends [that] lived in Springdale?

AW:My girlfriend's names were Marilla Hepworth, she was my cousin, Ada Ruesch and Letticia Langston. They were my pals [and] we ran around together all the time. When we weren't one place, we were at another [of] at their homes. Our 00:02:00parents knew where we were at all times. Except the time we ran away [from home] to school and [had] our picture taken there. We wanted to have our picture because we knew that the school was going to have pictures taken that day, so we ran away.

FH:[Were] you in nice clean dresses?

AW:Oh, no, we were [wearing] dirty [clothes]!

FH:[Laughter]

AW:We had been outside playing all day and we just ran away.

FH:Did the school teacher think [it] was alright for you to be in the picture?

AW:He seemed to because he put us in the front [row] right on the ground. [Laughter]

FH:[Laughter] How many years of [education] did you [complete]?

AW:I [completed] eight years.

FH:Did you get a certificate or diploma?

AW:Yes, I [received] a diploma from the eighth grade in 1910.

FH:Can you name some of the teachers that you liked, or that you didn't like?

AW:I didn't like my first [grade] teacher. He was Martin L. McAllister. He seemed to think, or made us think, that he thought he was a little better than the general run of people. We didn't like those kinds of people. Robert P. [Parker] Woodbury was my next teacher and we all loved him. He was a wonderful teacher.

FH:Can you name some of the other teachers?

AW:I had Frank Petty for a teacher [in the] fifth grade. I'll never forget that because I thought that he was rather ignorant because he [taught] us the whole year without giving us an examination at all. When the year ended, he gave us an examination in arithmetic. He never gave us one problem to work. You can imagine the questions [that] he asked. It was some insignificant things that we thought we didn't have to learn and he didn't tell us. So he retained us in the fifth grade.

FH:[Laughter] No wonder you liked him so well!

AW:[Laughter] I had [Ina] Cannon from St. George as a teacher the next year. We had two teachers that year [and] she was my [teacher]. I was so angry [about the previous year that] I told her all about it. I said, "I know that I should have been passed up [promoted] to the sixth grade."

She said, "I will tell you what I will do. I will keep you in the fifth grade until Christmas time and then, if I think you are able to pass [to the sixth grade], I will pass you on. At Christmas she put me into the sixth grade. I went half a year in the sixth grade and passed to the seventh [grade]. She was my teacher the next year. I was the only one in the class so she put me up into the 00:06:00eighth grade. I missed the seventh all together and graduated that year, in 1910.

FH:Your [education] was really exciting wasn't it? [Laughter]

AW:[Laughter] It was ─

FH:Different!

AW:I loved school. During the years that I went to school I was afflicted with chills and fevers. I wouldn't tell mama that I was sick before I went to school the days that I would [feel ill]. The teacher would have to send me home. [Laughter] I cried more [from] not being able to go to school because I just 00:07:00loved [school]. I went whether I felt like it or not.

FH:[Was] your [education in a one-room schoolhouse] through all the grades?

AW:Yes, it was. They had two rooms, a stage room and a lower room. That was the kind of schoolhouse that we were in. Of course, some of them were in the upper part and some down. Springdale was a very small town then. There were not too many children in the school.

FH:[Did] anything happen in your early life [that] you considered to be an adventure?

AW:Yes, we went up on the mountain. We had to walk up the canyon to go into Zion [National Park, Washington County, Utah] and then we walked up the canyon to the top of the mountain. We went over to [the] saw mill where they were making lumber. The lumber was sent down over the mountain on a cable. [Zion Cable & Saw Mill.] We didn't go over to the cable. We went to the house where the lumber was 00:09:00made. We stayed there all night. There was a bunch of us, boys and girls together, [and] we had lots of fun.

FH:How old were you?

AW:I don't remember how old I was then. I don't remember [what] year this was.

FH:Were you a teenager?

AW:Yes. [It] was quite a climb up that mountain.

FH:[Did it] take most of the day [for] you to get up there?

AW:Yes, [it] took us most all day. We left in the morning and got up to the top 00:10:00at night. We camped there that night and then came back [down] the next day. We had a wonderful time. I remember my father scolded me and told me I had run away. I didn't think I had because I thought he had given his consent for us to go. But I remember that he scolded me for going. A scold was worse than a whipping for me.

FH:This was your punishment?

AW:It was my punishment.

FH:Was there some sickness in your early childhood?

AW:The only thing I remember [is that I was] told [that] when I was a tiny baby 00:11:00that I was [very] sick. They had to take me to Cedar City [Iron County, Utah] to a doctor. That was the closest doctor there was then.

We [did] have the measles. There were seven of us in the family down in bed with the measles at the same time. We had quite a time. My oldest sister [Annice] was the only one [who] there was to help my mother with all [the] sick [children]. We had a lot of marbles and we would get down on the floor and play marbles. We had a fireplace ─

FH:[Was this] while you were sick with measles?

AW:Yes, we [couldn't] go outdoors [so] that was our amusement, playing marbles [on] the floor.

FH:Did you take a trip when you were young?

AW:One time I went to St. George with my father and mother when they went to the temple. They came down and stayed a week. My brother [Anthony] "Tone" was [a] baby then and I had to take care of him while they [were at] the temple.

FH:Were you old enough to tend him while they went to the temple?

AW:Yes, he's ten years younger than me. I was twelve [years old] and he was two 00:13:00[years old]. We stayed at George Lang's place at that time. The Bleaks were living across the street from George. They had a boy about the age of the Lang boy. They thought they would tease me one day. I had gone to sleep with "Tone" in the wagon. "Tone" woke up before I did and they hid him. It about frightened me to death. My little brother was gone! I couldn't find him for a long time. When my parents [arrived], the boys turned up with the baby. [Laughter]

FH:You would have had some tall explaining to do.

AW:Yes, I would. That was the only time I came down with [my parents for them] to go to the temple. I came down [to St. George] one [time] after that. I came down with them to [go to] the Washington County Fair. My father always had prize fruit. He grew fruit that took always the prize down here. [That] is his certificate right up there.

FH:[From the] Washington County Fair?

AW:He [also] took the prize for the best-made axe handles.

FH:[The certificate reads] September 18, 19 and 20 ─

AW:What year?

FH:I don't see a year.

[TAPE RECORDER TURNED OFF]

AW:I was down here that year with them.

FH:[Were] there [any] amusing things that happened [to] you [when you were] younger?

AW:This [happened] when I was in the eighth grade. On Halloween night [a] bunch of us were walking up the street. My Uncle Oliver Gifford was the bishop at that 00:16:00time. His son, "Will" [William Henry], met us at the bridge across the wash that goes down by the schoolhouse. He told us that his father wanted to see us. We didn't know what the bishop wanted to see us about.

When we got a little ways up the street there was a rock fence on the north side 00:17:00of the road and on the south side there was a lot of great big tall cottonwood trees. As we got there, a ghost dropped right down in front of us and just about scared us to death! [Laughter]

FH:You had a trick played on you instead of you playing a trick!

AW:Yes, we [had a] trick played on us alright. It was a Woodbury [and] he lives in Hurricane [Washington County, Utah] now. He and "Will" Gifford had fixed this up in the tree. The Woodbury boy [held] the rope that let the [ghost] down right 00:18:00in front of us. [Laughter] That was about the most amusing thing, but it was frightening too!

FH:Were you busy with work [in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints] when you were growing-up?

AW:Yes. When I was in second intermediate class in Sunday school, my Uncle Moses [Gifford] was [the] teacher [of] that class. His partner teacher had decided to leave town [and] he wanted someone to help him with the teaching of the class 00:19:00when he couldn't be there.

FH:This was Moses Elias [Gifford, Jr.]?

AW:No, [it was] Moses Gifford. [He was Moses] Elias's father.

VG:That is Moses Elias too.

AW:Was his name Elias too?

VG:[Inaudible]

AW:He was the Sunday school teacher in second intermediate class; that is what [it was] called then. I don't know what they call the classes now. He asked me how [I] would like to be [an] assistant teacher. I said, "Oh goodness! I don't know whether I could do that or not." He said, "I am going to ask the class about it." He turned to the class and said, "Would you like to have Anna for a teacher?" Every one of them said yes. So I was made teacher of the second 00:20:00intermediate class. I don't know what my age was at that time.

Before this, I asked my father to get me an organ so I could learn to play. I wanted to learn to play. He didn't know how he could do it but he said, "I'll see what I can do." He wrote the Daynes-Beebe [Music] Company in Salt Lake [City, Salt Lake County, Utah] and got a six-octave organ and brought it home to me. I had no teacher to show me how [so] I just took the book that [came] with 00:21:00the organ and studied it. I would sit down and press a key and hunt for the next note until I learned. [Laughter] After I had learned what I could there, I took the Sunday school [music] book and learned to play the Sunday school hymns.

FH:You enjoyed music then?

AW:Yes. For seven years, before I was married, I was the organist through Sunday school and also the meeting. I had an assistant; my cousin, Ethel Gifford, was 00:22:00the assistant organist in case I [couldn't be] there.

FH:[Did] you have some activity in Primary work before you were married?

AW:Yes, I was a teacher in Primary. I was the teacher of the boys. Boy, were they mean! [Laughter] Especially two of them [who were] my cousins. One day they were so mean to me [that] I went home crying. I went to their mother, my Aunt Ellie [Gifford], and told [her] what the [boys] had done and how they had acted. 00:23:00She whipped them and made them come and ask for my forgiveness for being so naughty. They were never mean again.

FH:[Did] that take care of it?

AW:That took care of it.

FH:[Did] you have a religion class when you were growing-up?

AW:Yes, we had [a] religion class in school.

FH:That's what I meant. Was [that class] later replaced with Seminary?

AW:Yes, [but] that was long after I was out of school.

FH:[Did] you attend Sunday school regularly through [these] years?

AW:Yes. I never missed Sunday school unless I was [very] sick.

FH:How about MIA [Mutual Improvement Association]?

AW:After I started going to MIA that was my favorite [group]. And it has been 00:24:00that [way] ever since, all my life. I love the MIA!

FH:What can you remember about your father?

AW:My father was gone [from home] most of the time when I was a youngster. [It] seemed like they couldn't [make] enough money from their post office work to make a living.

FH:Was [he] the postmaster?

AW:My mother was the postmistress. The first year, I think he got $5.00 or 00:25:00something [like that] for the whole year's work [of] taking care of the [United States] Post Office. So he had to leave [home] and find work somewhere else. He was gone quite a bit. He used to make molasses [and] I used to help him. I've helped him [make] many a batch of molasses.

FH:If anybody were to ask you how [to make molasses], would you know what to tell them?

AW:[Laughter] Yes, I even helped them run the [molasses] through the mill. I cut the cane. I was my father's man [helper].

FH:Could you tell the process of making molasses?

AW:We would have to top it [the sorghum grass] first [and] take the seed off of it. Then we would cut [the grass] and haul [it] to the mill. We had a mill right on our own place. They would have horses pull the thing around to turn the mill. We would have to poke the [grass] through the mill to squeeze the juice out. [The] juice would run into a barrel. We had a big, what do you call those ─

FH:A vat?

AW:[A] vat that we cooked [the juice] in.

FH:[Did you] build a fire under [the vat]?

AW:[We] built a fire under [the vat]. We had a long place fixed so that we [would] have to put wood under [the vat] to keep the fire going.

FH:Did you keep [the juice] boiling or just warm?

AW:We would boil it and boil it ─

FH:How long [did you boil it]?

AW:Until it became the consistency of ─

FH:How long [would] this take?

AW:I don't remember how long it took, but it took quite a while. We would have to skim the top off all the time and throw it out so as to make the molasses nice and clear when it was all done.

FH:I have heard tell of my father working in a sorghum mill and a good share of his pay was some of the skimmings when he was a [youngster]. [Laughter]

AW:[Laughter] It seems like [that] the last of the skimming we took off [we] used to make candy.

FH:I'm sure that is what he meant. What else do you remember about him?

AW:He grew potatoes, cane and corn.

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AW:My mother used to put cling peaches in the last batch of molasses we [made]. 00:29:00We would wash them good and throw them into the molasses and cook them into preserves. We would put [the] preserves in barrels that my father made.

FH:[Were they] wooden barrels?

AW:[Yes], wooden barrels. I think he would take [the preserves] up north and sell along with the molasses.

FH:[The] peach preserves [were] in [the] molasses?

AW:Yes.

FH:I bet that was good!

AW:I don't like it now.

FH:Don't you?

AW:No, I wouldn't want it now. [Laughter]

FH:Do you know anybody that makes [molasses] now?

AW:No.

FH:What can you remember about your mother?

AW:My mother was a wonderful woman. She went to church all the time. She was in Relief Society, made quilts [and] did a lot of crochet and embroidery work, fancy work.

[END OF TAPE ONE -- SIDE ONE]

[Samuel Kendall [Gifford] was born October 23, 1883. He died January 4, 1884.

Annice Gifford was born January 2, 1885. She married Freeman Nickerson.]

AW:[My brother Freeborn "Barney" Gifford was born April 5, 1889]. [He] married 00:34:00Verna Mae Isom and he is still living. Amelia [Gifford], the child before him, was born January 25, 1887. She died August 14, 1896; she was nine years old.

After Freeborn was Arseneth ["Seneth" Gifford]. She was born March 20, 1891 and married William Mariner Maudsley. [Later she married Lawrence Wilford Mayers.]

FH:Is she still alive?

AW:She is still alive but her husband died.

Penelph [Gifford] was born December 6, 1892 and died December 18, 1892.

Then Anna [Gifford], that's me, was born December 11, [1893 and] I've told that in my story. I married Brigham Peter Wulffenstein March 22, 1916. [On] June 7, 1916, we married in the temple [and] were sealed to each other.

My next one [brother] was [Frank] Ephraim [Gifford] and he was born September 3, 1897. He married [Mary] Jane Nance of Salt Lake City.

Harry Squire [Gifford] was born September 27, 1899. On November 22, 1955 he married Artie [Frances (McCain)] Snyder. She was a widow.

Eva [Gifford] was born November 8, 190. On March 23, 1920 she married Joseph Gile Hardy. She died November 30, 1954.

Anthony ["Tone" Gifford] was born March 25 1904. He married first Alice Barney; they were divorced.

Benjamin [Gifford] was born August 25 1907. [On] July 11, 1940 he married Edwina 00:38:00Lewis from Kanab [Kane County, Utah]. He died April 7, 1951.

Lawrence [Gifford] was born May 14, 1911. [He] married Thelda Snyder.

FH:Is he still living?

AW:Yes, he lives in Virgin [Washington County, Utah].

[TAPE RECORDER TURNED OFF]

AW:My oldest brother [Freeborn] was gone most of the time. He went to Kanab and worked for Dee Willy. I think he worked [with] the sheep. [Freeborn is] Verna's 00:39:00husband. He [was] gone all the time so I had to be the farmer. I had to milk the cows and work out in the garden.

FH:You did just whatever there was to do.

AW:Yes. [I] had to cut the wood lots of times. All the other boys were younger than me, so I was the chore boy.

FH:Were there some faith-promoting experiences [in] your family?

AW:My mother [had] a [very] sick spell one time. She grabbed my father's throat, like she was gasping for breath and he jumped up out of the bed. [He] told me to run and get Uncle Moses, quickly. I jumped out of bed and ran over to Uncle Moses' place; it was just a little ways away. [He came] and administered to her.

As soon as [he] administered to her, she came out of it. She said, "Why didn't 00:41:00you let me alone?" She wanted to go and I guess she was nearly gone [dead]. I felt that was a real faith-promoting story.

After I was married, my father was hauling wood and fell. [He] broke two ribs in two places, a place about that big. [The] two ribs went right into his entrails.

They administered to him and he said he felt those ribs go back into place. He never stopped working. So that was another [event]. Those are the only ones I 00:42:00remember. We have all been administered to when we were young and made well by administration.

FH:[Was] this is a common place [event] in your life?

AW:Yes. Whenever we were sick, our elders always administered and [we] were made better at all times. One [time] I remember, they had that terrible disease that was so [bad]. What was the name of [it]?

FH:[Was it] typhoid fever?

AW:Oliver [DeMille Gifford] was the bishop then. He came over to my mother [because] nobody dared go over and take care of [the] two children and get them ready for burial. Uncle Oliver came to my mother and said, "Jane, if you will go and take care of those two children, I promise you in the name of the Lord that you or your children will never have that disease."

She put on an old dress that she didn't care about and went over there and took care of them. We had a granary in the back of our place [and] when she came back 00:44:00she went in there, changed her clothes and washed in Lysol water to disinfect every thing she had about her. We never ever did, none of the children, even since they have been married and away from home, they have never had that disease. So that was the promise of the Lord. That was my faith in Him that time, in the Lord.

FH:What were some of the things you did to have a good time [while] you were growing-up?

AW:We had parties every week of the world! We never [let] a week pass that we didn't have some kind of a party, and [they] were mostly [held] at our house.

FH:What did you do?

AW:We would have fun, sing and play games.

FH:What kind of games?

AW:All those old games they used to play.

FH:How are we going to know if you don't tell us?

AW:Charades [was one of the games]. I don't remember all the games that we played. Then we would cook a big supper. All the [young people] in town would be 00:46:00there. We would go outside and play Run-Sheep-Run. We had lots of fun!

FH:Did you have any dances?

AW:Yes, we used to dance all the time.

FH:What kind of dances?

AW:All the old dances, waltzes, two steps, quadrilles and polkas.

FH:What kind of music did you have?

AW:We had violins and guitars. Sometimes [we would have a] violin and organ. I 00:47:00used to play for some of the dances.

FH:[You] kind of missed out on the dancing when you had to play.

AW:When I had to play, somebody else would take my place [so] I [could] dance.

FH:How [did] you meet your husband?

AW:In the fall of 1914 I came to St. George to [go to] school. I went to a school to learn how to teach the kindergarten class. I was here for three 00:48:00months. That is when I met my [husband].

FH:What school were you going to?

AW:Dixie College, it was called Dixie High School then. It wasn't a college [in] 1914 and 1915. I was in school when we [put the] "D" on the hill. I [had] my picture [taken] inside [of the] "D" that year. [For the] first part of the year 00:49:00I stayed with Joe Snow over here in this part of town. After Christmas I went way up in Sandtown [in the Diagonal section] and stayed with my cousin Charles Hepworth and a friend, Sterling Russell. We hired [rented] a house in what they called Sandtown.

FH:That's the north part of ─

AW:Northwest ─

FH:[It is in the] northwest part of [St George].

AW:Yes. In fact it was Laney's place [that] we [moved] to. [There] was a big 00:50:00room and we divided [it] up with a curtain, so I could have a bedroom and the boys could have a bedroom. I told them I would do the cooking if they would pay the rent. I would get out and work on Saturday, when there wasn't any school, what- ever I could find to do to help to buy the food that we ate.

The three of us stayed there all winter. Along about in the spring, just before school let out, I and two girlfriends, the Woodbury girl and the Scott girl, 00:51:00were up there. We were running just as fast as we could go. We could all run then! [Laughter] I nearly run into my husband! [Laughter]. He was sitting on a bicycle on the north side of the house talking to Charles and Sterling. That was the first time I met him. So they introduced me to him. A bunch of us got 00:52:00together that night. We went down to "Brig" [Brigham] Prisbrey's place and had a little fun. The Prisbrey's had [young people] there, so we had fun there.

FH:[You] had a social?

AW:Yes. Anyhow, they were friends of mine and that was the first time that I met him. He wanted me to go with him. I said, "Do you dance?" He said, "No, I don't know how to dance." I said, "Well, you can't go with me if you don't dance." 00:53:00[Laughter] I said that was one thing I wouldn't have is a [fellow who] didn't know how to dance, because dancing was my life.

Charles decided that I didn't want to go with him. Charles said [that a] faint heart never won [a] fair lady. [Laughter] That year [Brigham Peter Wulffenstein] came up to Springdale after school. In fact, he used his father's team and buggy to take me and Charles home. We left here the first day of May. It started to 00:54:00snow on us. Can you imagine it?

FH:Not in St George?

AW:It did! It started to snow on us the first day of May. We stopped at Hurricane [Washington County, Utah] and camped there at the [William] Ruesch home in Hurricane that night and went on to Springdale the next day.

My sister [Arseneth] "Seneth Ephraim " and I taught him how to dance. We used harmonicas and we taught [laughter] him how to dance. Each of us would take turns dancing with him. I will tell you he became one of the best dancers in St 00:55:00George. [Laughter]

FH:[Laughter] He knew what he wanted, didn't he?

AW:I guess [so]. He wanted to learn enough to get me anyhow. We were married on March 22, 1916 [in St. George].

FH:Where did you live after you were married?

AW:We lived mainly with his parents. [Do] you know where the chapel is up here?

FH:Yes.

AW:That big house on the corner is where [we] lived. That was his parents' 00:56:00place. Then we finally [moved] away from there and went down to work on the farm. They had a farm across the [Virgin] River down here.

FH:How long did you stay on the farm?

AW:We stayed at least twelve or thirteen years on the farm.

FH:Did you have any children during this time?

AW:Oh lands, yes! [Laughter]

FH:Let's hear about your children.

AW:While we were still living at his parents' place, our oldest daughter [Neva Wulffenstein] was born in Springdale. We had gone there for a visit and she was born premature, came too soon. She was born November 22, 1916.

The next [child] was Alona [Wulffenstein]. She was born October 9, [1917] the next year.

FH:The first [child's] name was ─

AW:Neva.

FH:Neva, and the second [child] was [named] ─

AW:Alona. I only gave my girls one name. Alona was born [at] her grandmother's house, the big house.

Arthur Garth [Wulffenstein] was born August 13, [1919]. Alona was born in 1917 and Arthur Garth was born in 1919.

FH:[Was he born] in the same place?

AW:They were born in the same place. When he was about five months old, we moved to the farm. We had the two children [and] lived down there in a tent. We had to 00:59:00move to town in the winter-time because there was no way of getting back and forth from down there. When Ward [Wulffenstein] was born, we [had] rented a place over here ─

FH:Here in St George?

AW:Yes, on First West. Ward was born April 6, 1921. The next [child], Seymour 01:00:00[Wulffenstein], was born June 19, 1922. These two [children] were only fourteen and a half months apart. We lived against the hill over here [on the] west [side].

FH:Over towards the "D."

AW:There was a house right next to the hill that we lived in, but that house burned down lately. After Seymour [was born] I had quite a bit of sickness and 01:01:00lost two or three [babies]. [They were] too little to be mentioned.

FH:[Were they] stillborns?

AW:No, they were just three or four months along.

FH:[They were] miscarriages.

AW:[Yes]. In 1927 Elaine [Wulffenstein] was born a block or two from where 01:02:00Seymour was born. She was born without a doctor. We couldn't get the doctor to come. He wouldn't come, that was all, so the nurse had to take care of me. When she was born I had quite a time but she was fine. All of the children were born well [and] in good shape. Dean [Mardell Wulffenstein] was born in this house. 01:03:00Then it was only two rooms. We put this room on.

FH:Was he the last [child]?

AW:He was the last [child], four boys and three girls.

FH:Would you tell about what has happened to those children?

[END OF TAPE ONE -- SIDE TWO]

FH:Where are [your children] now?

AW:My first baby [Neva] died. [She] lacked two days of being three weeks old.

I think Alona was seventeen years old [when] she married Marion Cluff Higley.

FH:Where did she go to live?

AW:Goodness, she has lived in California, she has lived in Oregon, [laughter] and she has lived in the northern part of Utah, American Fork [Utah County, Utah] and Alpine [Utah County, Utah]. She lives in Alpine now.

FH:How many children does she have?

AW:She had six [children]. She lost her first [baby] the same as I did mine. She 01:05:00had five boys and one girl.

Arthur Garth went to England [during] World War II. [He] met Eileen Davenport over there and married her. They had quite a write up in the London paper about [their marriage]. He was put on a secret service over there too. He had to dress as a German and be a German right along with the others. He was really a spy 01:06:00among the Germans. He said he had some narrow escapes but he never told me anything about them, just that much. After the war they came home.

FH:[Did they] come here to St George?

AW:Yes, and then they moved to Salt Lake [City]. She had a baby up there [and] named [him] Robert, no Richard. After [the baby] was born, she left him.

FH:She left your son?

AW:Yes, she left Arthur Garth. I don't know just where he went from there, until he finally landed down in California and married his brother's sister-in-law. They had three children and then she left him. He has had a rough time of it.

FH:Is he still in California?

AW:He is still [living] in California, but she and the family [children] are up in Oregon.

FH:What happened to the next [child]?

AW:Ward married Beatrice Lorene Roper. She was a spoiled girl. She never did grow up and she hasn't yet. They had five children and then she divorced him. He married another girl after their divorce was over. He married Bessie Smith. Now 01:09:00he has left her and gone with another [woman].

FH:That didn't work out either?

AW:No. He is the one that worries me most of all. Because Beatrice insisted on him going to the temple and he wasn't ready for it. Now he is living with another woman. I would like to get to him and show him where he is doing wrong. But I can't get to him.

FH:[You] can't reach him?

AW:No, I can't reach him. It makes me sick to think he has stooped that low to live with a woman when he is married to another one. That is my trouble with him. I sure worry about him.

FH:Would you like to see that corrected?

AW:I sure would. I would like to see him straighten himself up. He drinks quite a bit and uses tobacco. I feel like I have been a failure as a mother.

Elaine married Ted Fullmer. She had two babies [with] him and then left him. He wouldn't give her a divorce without [her] giving the babies to him. She couldn't stand him any longer so she let him have the two boys. Now she [is] married [to] Garth Spendlove. [They are] living in Granger [Salt Lake County, Utah and] have 01:12:00seven children. So she has had nine [children] all together. But she never sees the first two boys. She saw the second one, Robert, a little over a year ago. He was up in Spanish Fork [Utah County, Utah] where his grandfather lives. Her oldest boy is married and has a baby. So I am getting posterity.

FH:I should say; a great-grandmamma.

AW:Yes, fourteen times.

FH:Fourteen times! [Laughter]

AW:Dean [Mardell] married Carol Yvonne Myers from St George.

FH:Where are they living?

AW:They haven't had any babies. They are living west of Salt Lake [City]. I don't remember [the name of] the town. I [don't] have his address, so I don't really know exactly where he is living. But he is working in Ogden. He is a 01:14:00builder [and] worked on [the] new part of the LDS [Latter-day Saints] Hospital that has just been put up. He worked on [the] school out here.

FH:The college?

AW:Yes, way out in the east side. That is about all I can tell you about the children.

FH:Tell about your activities in the church after you were married. Were you active in the church quite a bit after your marriage?

AW:Well, not too active. I was assistant organist in the Relief Society for awhile. And then I was one of the visiting teachers.

FH:Have you had had some training in genealogical research?

AW:Yes, I have had some training in that. But my daughter and my son, Seymour, are the genealogists.

FH:Which daughter?

AW:Alona, the oldest one. She is a real genealogist. In fact, she is one that has to

test ─

FH:Service the [family group] sheets?

AW:She has to put their name on, or service, the sheets when they come in. I 01:16:00haven't done [very] much.

FH:Have you done quite a bit of temple work?

AW:Yes, I have done lots of temple work.

FH:How much you have done?

AW:[There are] about 1,190 some names I've gone through the temple for, besides [the] sealings [that] I have done. I don't know how many sealings I have done.

FH:You are liable to have a large group of people greeting you when you come over there.

AW:To meet me? I hope I will! [Laughter]

FH:Tell a little more about your husband.

AW:He was a farmer for twelve or thirteen years. He was a miner also [and] he 01:17:00did a lot of mining.

FH:All in this area?

AW:Yes, out at Copper Mountain [Mine in Mohave County, Arizona], south of here about ninety or a hundred miles. He did lots of road work too. But he was mostly a farmer ─ that was his vocation.

FH:[Did] you live close around here all this time?

AW:All this time. After we lost the farm, his mother took the farm and turned it 01:18:00over to his youngest brother, Jim [Wulffenstein]. Jim sold it and we never got a cent out of it. After all those twelve or thirteen years that we worked on that farm, we [didn't] get a cent and neither did his mother. She lived part of the time with us down here in this next house. [That] was where she [was] living when she died.

FH:Your husband worked [in] different kinds of work?

AW:Yes. He was going out to [the] copper mine past Littlefield [Arizona and was] 01:19:00out in the mountains [when] he [was] in an accident and fractured his hip. He had a [terrible] time. He took jobs wherever he could, for us to live. It was a struggle because we didn't have any money coming in [most of] the time. We had 01:20:00to scrimp and save all we could. We built these two rooms in 1928 [and] this has been our home since 1928.

FH:How long ago did your husband die?

AW:It was three years ago [on] August 4, 1965. We had gone up to Zion [National Park] and camped for a week. We had a regular little camper. We had one of those big station wagons. He made a cupboard to put in that, one that would fit in, 01:21:00something we could take out [with] legs on it to set it down on the ground when we camped. We stayed in the canyon for this week and on Wednesday, August 4, we were coming home to go to a ward supper to help pay for the chapel. As we were coming down the [Johnson] Twist, down between Virgin and Grafton, it was about a mile above [the] 101 Rancho, [a little store and beer joint owned by Evan Lee]. 01:22:00Have you have been there? [Communities in this paragraph are in Washington County, Utah.]

FH:Yes.

AW:We were coming around the point when these crazy [youngsters] from Hurricane were going up to Zion to work. There were six of them. They lost control of their car at [the] 101 Rancho [store]. They were going like that up [the] road. By the time they got up where we had just turned the corner, they were on our side of the road and lost control of their car. I don't know what happened. It 01:23:00just [slid] right into us [and] killed my husband instantly. [I] cut my knee from here to here. I was in the front, down on the floor, with my chin caught on the dashboard. They said that my eyes and mouth and ears were all full of glass [from] the windshield. Elroy [Brigham Peter Wulffenstein's nephew] said he picked glass out of my face while they were operating on my leg. I was in the hospital for twenty-two days.

When I came out of the hospital, Alona, came down and took me home. The night of the day that Alona came down, somebody went through my nice bedroom window, came in and stole cash I had in the house. I had some old dollars [from] the 1800s. They were in that box right there. [It] was locked [and] they broke the hinges and took every bit of money out of there. Alona stayed down at Dean's place, 01:25:00down there at Elroy's home, down here on the corner.

FH:You had a lot of bad luck right at once.

AW:I'll say! It was something terrible to lose that money that I had saved up. I didn't like it a bit. We never did find out who took it. I don't know if the sheriff ever did anything about it or not. They even [left] their footprints on my bedspread. They had walked right over my bedspread. [Laughter]

FH:That was worse than taking the money!

AW:It was just about as bad! [Laughter]

FH:[Laughter] Are you getting over that now?

AW:No, I'm not.

FH:[Have you been] ave youHave slow healing?

AW:The healing [is] alright but I have [had a time] with my legs. I am [fairly] well crippled up. I hardly ever walk across the street.

FH:You have had quite a life. [Is there] anything that [we have] missed asking about?

AW:No, I don't [think of] anything. When I got out of the hospital, Alona took 01:27:00me up to Alpine. I stayed with her for nine months. [I] went up in September and came back last of June. I stayed until I could take care of myself. I go up there every summer.

FH:[Do] you have company now?

AW:I left her here alone this summer! [Laughter]

FH:Who is staying with you?

AW:My sister-in-law, Verna [Mae (Isom)] Gifford. At least I am not alone.

FH:How long has she been [living] with you?

AW:[For] a year.

FH:You are good company for one another.

VG:[Laughter]

AW:I hope so. Anyhow, we are not alone.

VG:We haven't had a fight yet! [Laughter]

FH:Good! [Laughter]

AW:[Laughter]

FH:I think this is the time for you to give counsel to your descendants. Tell them what you think they ought to do [with their] life. Maybe you would like to bear your testimony to them.

AW:The testimony that I have is that I know God lives and that this gospel is the only thing that will bring them out of their bad living, what they are 01:29:00doing. I hope that if they ever hear this story of mine that I have been telling, that they will take heed [to] be better and do better and live right from now on.

[Fielding H. Harris returned to Anna (Gifford) Wulffenstein's residence the next day and recorded the following.]

FH:Anna (Gifford) Wulffenstein has determined that there are some things that she has missed that she wants to tell about. So we are putting a postscript on here. Go ahead and tell about those things that you missed.

AW:Right after my mother died [on] April 7, 1943, I went down to Nevada to live with my husband. He [was] working there and so I went down to [be] with him.

We went to Jean, Nevada. He was mining there for the man that owned the company at Jean. I worked there for my board and room for awhile; then we went to Goodsprings [Nevada]. We stayed at the hotel [in] Goodsprings for some time. I helped the cook to pay for board and room for me, my sons and my husband. We 01:31:00stayed there for quite a little while and finally moved to ourselves [own place].

While we were there, we bought a piano, this piano that I have right here. I enjoyed the piano. I had my youngest boy and girl with me when we moved there. I 01:32:00took in washings and ironings to buy the food and my husband used his check to pay on our home here in St George. That [was] the way we arranged it.

I went down in April and we came back the last of the next June. We were gone from here for that long. We visited back and forth [and] came [here] on holidays. That was in 1943 and 1944.

Then my husband went to California to [find] a job. I went down and stayed with him for three months. He left me with my son, Dean, down there for awhile. We were there when that big earthquake came and destroyed [a] little town up in the hills in California. I don't remember the name of [the town]. But it frightened me when that earthquake came. It was in the night and we were in bed. I said to Dean, "What in the world was that?" It jiggled our bed you know. He said, "That 01:34:00was just an earthquake, mama." [Laughter] I guess he had experienced an earthquake down there before, so he knew what it was. I stayed down there for three months; then I came back home. My husband had come a little while before, but I didn't get back home for three months.

When our daughter, Alona, and her family had their vacation, they wrote a letter: "Dad and mama, come up and we will take you with us."

[END OF TAPE TWO -- SIDE ONE]

AW:" ─ interesting and beautiful up there." Then we came home on the south 01:37:00side, we went in at the west side. We went through the corner of Colorado and then into Yellowstone [National Park]. We made that trip that year.

[They] wrote a letter to me that they would be here the next Friday night. My husband and his brother, McMurrin [Wulffenstein], had gone out to the copper mine, south of here about ninety miles. There was no way of communicating with 01:38:00him. [He] said they weren't coming back until Sunday or maybe Saturday night. If they didn't get back here before Friday night, I didn't know what to do, so I prayed. I prayed that the Lord would make something happen to cause those [men] to come in. Well, He made it rain [and] they came in Friday night. That was one of the faith-promoting incidents that I know that my prayers were answered. The Lord caused the rain to come. Out there, they couldn't do anything when it was 01:39:00raining. If they stayed when it rained, they wouldn't be able to come back. So they knew enough to come [home].

That night, [Alona's family] came from the north and picked us up the next morning and we went to California. {We] went down around California and up the coast into Oregon. Marion has a sister living in the central part of California [on] the coast at River Bank, so we stopped there. We stayed there over night and then went on to Oregon ─

FH:That is a beautiful trip up there.

AW:─ where my son, Seymour, lives. His son, Ray, lives there and he had a 01:40:00brother and another sister up in Oregon We visited and had a swell time for a couple of weeks [on] that trip. That was the time though that Marion [was] in a wreck. It was a terrible wreck. [An] Oregon State truck hit the car that Marion was in. He was in the hospital for quite a few days while we were there. Then 01:41:00dad and I came on home.

Another year, [we] made the trip up into Oregon [and] went up through Idaho. [We] went over the Columbia River, we went across The Dalles [Oregon and] went down the river on the Washington side for quite a ways; then we come back across a bridge down below The Dalles. We had a swell trip. [Laughter]

FH:That is a pretty place up there, isn't it?

AW:I'll say, beautiful! We went over to see Willie [Higley] ─ that was 01:42:00Marion's brother. We stayed at Willie's place for awhile. Then we went down and visited with Seymour. At that time our son, Arthur [Garth], was living in Oregon with his wife, so we had a visit with all of them. I stayed with Seymour and Arthur [Garth] part of the time [that] Marion was in the hospital recuperating so he could go on home. We had a swell visit with the [children] up there. We 01:43:00went down through part of California and then over into Nevada and came back home that way. We made a different trip each time that we went up there.

FH:That was nice.

AW:We had wonderful times. My husband was so thrilled, as well as I was, with the trips. We went up there at a later time. This summer they had their vacation and were going up in Oregon again. I went up there in the bus and went along 01:44:00with them. It didn't cost me a cent [as] they wouldn't let me pay anything. These trips were free for me. [Laughter]

We left Alpine at three o'clock on Saturday morning, it was August 19. We had the two little [children], Larry [had] their son with us this time, Larry and his wife and two little girls. They were the cutest little [girls]. They were 01:45:00thrilled with the lights along the road as we went up through Salt Lake [City]. It started to rain on us and it rained every minute of the way. [It] hardly let up a bit! [Laughter] We hadn't had breakfast so when we got up into Idaho, I don't remember the town, we stopped for breakfast. It was still sprinkling a little when we got there. We couldn't use our own [food] and stay outside on account of the little [children] and the sprinkling, so we went to a café and got our breakfast.

Larry drove all the way up to there; then his dad got in the drivers seat and 01:46:00drove for about a hundred miles. We stopped to get gas and Larry took over again. We got into Oregon to his brother's place [and] it was six o'clock, by our time ─ not by Oregon time. Their time is slower than that.

From three o'clock in the morning to six o'clock at night we were traveling in rain. It rained all the way. I thought it never was going to quit and all the 01:47:00while we were in Oregon it rained. On our way to see Marion's sister in the northern part of Oregon, there was a cloudburst. It was just terrific! We couldn't see ahead of us. [We] had to [have] the lights on, yet it didn't do any good because [the] rain came so swift. It [would] let up just for a few minutes then [start again].

[By the time] we left Oregon on Monday, it had cleared up a little bit, yet it 01:48:00sprinkled a little bit on us that morning. As soon as we got into California, there was no rain. We had good warm sun all the rest of the way. When we got down to River Bank, we stayed with his sister again. They were so tickled to see us, even me! [Laughter] It was about noon when we [started] to leave the next 01:49:00day. Her little girl said, "You can leave her here," meaning me. She said, "We'll take care of her good." [Laughter] They said they couldn't leave grandma here. We camped that night in Carson City, Nevada. We had a nice double cabin there. They had those double cabins there where two families can sleep. They got an extra roll-a-way bed so that I would have a place to sleep. It was really 01:50:00nice there. We came back to Salt Lake [City] on the 30th.

FH:You have surely had some lovely trips.

AW:I sure [have]. They brought me back home the next Saturday. We [were] home Thursday night to their place [and] on Saturday they brought me down here.

[On] Saturday morning they were looking for Virginia, their daughter and her 01:51:00family. She has a family of six children and her husband. They came in a little while before we were supposed to leave. We had my picture taken with the little great-grandchildren and with the grandchildren. [There] was just the two of them at the time. While we were in Oregon I had my picture taken with the great-

grandchildren there and the grandchildren. I [don't] have those pictures yet.

FH:How many great-grandchildren did you say you have?

AW:I have thirteen but one of them wasn't there. I didn't get a picture taken 01:52:00with him.

FH:Your posterity is growing then.

AW:There is one great-grandchild [that] I have never seen.

FH:Is that right?

AW:Yes, so I have fourteen [great-grandchildren]. One is dead. Virginia's first [child] died, so that's the amount [number] of great-grandchildren that I have living. Elaine's grandchild [is the one who] I have not seen. I guess he is down in California somewhere, I don't know. I guess that is [all] the trips I can tell you about. I know I have had a lot more. We did have such wonderful times 01:53:00after World War II. All four of my boys [served] in the [United States] Army. Two of the boys were in Germany and England. The other [boy] was in the Philippine Islands; that was Ward, the second boy. He was in the Philippine Islands and he got malaria fever. He never got over it. He [received] a medical discharge from the Army.

It seems like the government didn't give him anything worthwhile for his medical 01:54:00discharge, to keep him a going, so he has had to keep going [working] whether he was sick or [not]. He has had a terrible time. This is the boy I told you about yesterday [who] is drinking quite a bit. I sure would like to see him anyway.

FH:[I'm] sure you would.

AW: I love him just the same. I love all of my children and think the world of all of them. The grandchildren and the great-grandchildren are dear to me too.

I pray to the Lord all the time that He will take care of them [and that they will] reform and do things [they] should. Alona and Marion have been to the temple and had two of their children sealed to them. The rest of them just haven't been. Of course, the one child was dead. My husband was sealed for him to them.

We were there when it [took place] in Salt Lake [City]. I was there when my 01:56:00grandson and his wife had their two babies sealed to them. That was while I was up there this summer.

I've had many, many blessings and I am so thankful for them. That is all I have to say.

[END OF TAPE TWO -- SIDE TWO]