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Friday, March 27, 2009

This Is Confidential You Know ~ 19 Mar 1901

Mid-March, 1901 was still snowy and cool at the Logie home in American Fork, UtahCharles Logie and his son, Walter, had hauled manure into the garden to fertilize the peas, but on the morning of March 19th, snow had covered the ground again.

His wife, Rosa, rarely if ever wrote letter or notes of any kind, but rather relied on Charles to handle all of that activity for their family.

Issues with school teachers were again a source of discussion in the Logie home.  Their boarder, Frances Gailbraith, was a school teacher who seemed to struggle with her students much to the amusement of Charles.  In this letter to his daughter, Beatrice, you can “hear” his wry smile as he wrote that Miss Gailbraith observed that “she was beginning to find that she couldn’t believe everything her students said”. 

Charles was famous for his sharp wit and humorous insight into life’s foibles and peccadillo's by those around him.  He cautioned Beatrice to keep his comments to herself as he was sure they would upset the tender Miss Gailbraith.

William Barnes Smith’s wife, Harriet Harrington Smith had died a few days earlier and was buried on the previous Saturday.

Charles, though ill with cancer, was preparing his garden for the coming growing season as we enter this letter.

 

Lehi Cooperative Store

American Fork Mar 19/01 (1901)

Dear Beatrice

I thought I would Send you a few lines in answer to your letter which duly arrived to & found us the same as usual.  The weather Seems verry Changeable this month.  The ground was white with snow this morning when we woke up & it don't seem to be the right time to plant the garden yet a while.  We had a warm day last Saturday & me & Walter hauled several loads of Excrement (wheel barrow) on to the place where the peas ought to grow. 

I am in the habit of asking the dame what she wants to Say but I find no change in her.  She allways says I don't know of anything.  There is no news So I have to hush up the items & do the writeing.  

Well there seems to be gran dues among the Teachers lately.  They seem to be verry discontented all at once.  I believe the Trustees have been makeing them an offer to teach next term & some of the Dirgs Girls & passible some others would sooner have a change. 

So poor Miss G. is in another peck of trouble.  She has heared that Johnson of Alpine the Whitby woman wants to come hear to teach & poor G_h is afraid that Johnson might be put over her & another thing.  She says if the present teachers leave it is verry likely their places will be filled with a lot like Graver. 

Gal says that Cora is going on a mission but I verry much doubt it.  Then there is another calamity.  She told us at noon that there are sixteen of her Students absent today & she is beginng to find out that She cant believe any thing that they say. 

It is fine amusement for me because a while ago She used to tell us that she had her children under such splendid controle so far superior to Will Robinsons gang up in the cock loft. 

This is confidential you know for the good Lord knows where Id be if She knew I was telling you this kind of news. 

Mother says she hopes you will be able to pay us a visit on conference time.  Long time we no see you.  I got a letter from Georgenia the other day they have both been kind of under the weather some but was getting better.  We heared from Eliza too & She talks of coming over on conference time. 

I suppose you see the papers W.B. Smith buried his Harrington Wife last Saturday.

I will now close. I am kind of poorley myself.  Mother seems first rate.  Hoping this will find you quite well.

I remain your

afect Father

Chas Logie

 

 

 

Friday, March 20, 2009

Do Not Go Out At Night Without a Suitable Escort ~ 11 Mar 1901

The eleventh of March 1901 found Charles Logie in a good mood.  His slicing humor was intact and functioning fully once again.  Although it was still cold in American Fork, Utah, the Logie’s were snug and warm with coal stoves scattered throughout their home.

A new church organist was brought up from Provo for some reason.  Charles reported that Brother Grant gave the closing prayer (spasem) in the meeting.  Charles again called a local church leader by the nickname he always used when mentioning him.

Utah Mapleton Woodward RL A man by the name of Garf was in town courting all of the single older women.  According to Charles, he was and old devil of sixty.  At age seventy-one, I guess that Charles knew that it was an apt description.

Miss Gailbraith, their lodger, had lost her cat and was lonely. 

Beatrice’s boyfriend had left her and she was going out by herself in Salt Lake City at night.  Charles and Rosa were concerned that she was going out dancing too often in the evenings.  He gave her advice that she “should not go out at nigh without a Suitable Escort”.

Apparently there was a trial for slander going on in American Fork.  Charles and his son, Walter, had gone to the proceedings on the previous Saturday.  As usual in small towns, the trial and outcome would be reported in detail in the newspapers of the day.

 

American Fork Mar 11/01 (1901)

Dear Miss Beat,

As it is some hours since we heard from you I thought it would be adviseable to drop you a few lines to let you know that we are still living in the Same place.  This is a verry dull day.  The clouds are hanging over our devoted city in a threatening manner all day ~ looks as if there might be any amount of snow decend upon us at anytime.  We have not removed any of our Stoves yet ~ have one in each room & pleanty of coal to feed them so they cant freeze us out. 

Anyway well we had a new organist yesterday.  The new Expert from Provo.  He played the first three tunes & then was invited on the Stand to Show himself to the congregation.  Bro Grant rendered the Closeing Spasem.  The Catfish did not wave.  The music club ~ the new lights from Alpine by the name of Vance performed the Gracefull a cha so you can see it is all Grand Change.

Old Garf is hanging round Miss Coray in fine style.  Visits her in the School room & went with her to Provo last Saturday.  It was teacher day over there.  The old devil must be Sixty years old.  He was Chasing after Mable Christiansen a while ago. 

Mother says she don't think that Miss Gal wants to go to any other parts of the Earth.  She seems to be settled down for the present any way.  She did not even go to Church yesterday too tired.  She lights her fire & sits in the shade & don't want to go out at all.  The poor soul has not any cat now, so she talks to the canarie some times.

You stated in your last epistle that you had no Fellow now.  Mother says what is the matter with Mr James the member in Salt Lake.  Do you ever hear from him.  We think you would be too tired to keep school in the morning if you go dancing verry often in the evening but at the same time we are pleased to hear that you are enjoying yourself but there is one little item that I wish to mention & this is do not go out at night without a Suitable Escort.

Me & Walter were at a trial last Saturday between Dav Rogers & Miss Marr for Slander.  Judge McNeil takes a week to render a verdic prehaps you will see the account in the paper.

Oh thats all,

With Kind Love,

Same as usual, Logie

 

 

Friday, March 13, 2009

I Am Not Ready to Bow Down to the Likes of Him ~ 1 Mar 1901

The first day of March 1901 found Charles Logie in a slightly bad mood.  The weather had turned warm that day to his surprise. 

His wife, Rosa, was in the kitchen talking to Mrs. Evans, who was a little disgruntled at not being chosen as the Sunday School Secretary.  Charles colorful descriptors were invoked yet again throughout this letter.  Mrs. Evans didn’t like “having a squirls of a boy put over her.”  He goes on to use his favorite nickname for a certain church leader … “Whiteliver”, relating that “I am not ready to bow down to the likes of him yea.”

Utah American Fork Early Mayors An “Ovid” (Lyman W. Ovard) boy accidently shot himself a few days earlier and would be buried the next day.  He was the ninth of eleven children in the family of Joseph and Rheuamah Hess Ovard.   

The Logie’s grandson, Silas Bennett from Alpine visited them relaying the message that his mother continued to be ill.  Her malady would continue on and off throughout the remainder of her life.

The Logie’s boarder, Miss Gailbraith, continued to complain about the lack of funding for schools with too few teachers and too few school rooms as a result -- A complaint that continues to this day.

 

American Fork March 1/01 (1901)

To Miss Beatrice Logie Esq.

I take another oppertunity of Sending you another report of currant events.  It is a fine to day & I am able to appear without my coat & I think that Spring has taken us unawares.  I don't know what to tell you this time. 

Mrs. Evans is giving the Dame the groans & the wounder in the back kitchen.  It seems that the new Stake has been putting new officers in the Sunday School & among other changes they have put that Gardner boy that clerks in the Co-op for Secretary & kept her in the same place as Sis Tenty & of course she don't like having a squirls of a boy put over her after all the years She has served in Sunday School.

We are having curious times in our town since Whiteliver has come in to power.  The catfish Seems to be loosing favor lately he was put in for one of the high council & he is out of the Sunday School now & I believe he will be releaced from the chair soon.  Whiteliver had the poor old fellow rakeing rocks out in the street yesterday.  I began to think that I am pretty luckey that I don't hold any of their offices because what I have never received they cannot take from me.  Whiteliver never notices me I am not ready to bow down to the likes of him yea.

One of the Ovid boys accidently shot his self last Wednesday.  He is to be buried tomorrow some time.

About the conference trip, mother says could not you come home on Friday evening & then go to town the next day & return to Bingham on Monday.  You would only loose an hour or two.  Silas Bennett was down today & said that his farther & mother were both sick with de la Grip.  I believe Rosa is in bed still.  They did not seam to be able to make a wis with the Small Pot. 

It is all off up there since the McMillin bill passed.  Well there is nothing extra. 

Sir Charles & Lady took supper with us last night.  Miss G. is lamenting because there are so many children & so few teachers & school rooms.  Says trustees are all dough heads because they don't build more School rooms. 

Did you get the paper I sent you?  We would like to see you if you can come at conference time.

Will say adiew with

Kind love

Chas Logie

 

 

Friday, March 6, 2009

Thanks For That Dirty Piece Of Paper ~ 25 Feb 1901

Late February 1901 found Charles Logie ill with cancer on his face.  The cancer had been cut out earlier but had returned to plague him.  In this letter to his daughter, Beatrice, he noted that he had to get up during the night and was feeling poor.  

His unmarried son, Walter, was home from the mining town of Mercur, Utah to see his folks.  The other Logie children hadn’t visited for a while. 

Logie Beatrice divorce 17Mar1907Apparently Beatrice Logie had sent a letter telling her parents that she was getting married.  The marriage to Gerald Coughlin would occur on the 23rd of Dec 1901 at the Logie home in American Fork, Utah.  Unfortunately, Beatrice hadn’t followed her fathers frequent remonstrance's to choose a mate carefully, because by the 17th of March 1907, Beatrice had filed for divorce.  In her divorce filing, she stated that her husband hadn’t supported her for the past three years and was a habitual drunk.

Beatrice was also making other poor choices in her life.  She planned to join a private club in Salt Lake City and would pay for it using the funds she normally used to pay tithes and offerings to the church.  Later entries and tidbits in Charles record substantiates this statement.

The School Marm boarder at the Logie home, Miss Frances Gailbraith, was still a good renter although Charles noted that she seemed to spend a lot of time in bed. 

On the behalf of his wife, Rosa, Charles using one of his “Logieisms” thanked Beatrice for the ‘dirty piece of paper’ that she had sent her mother.  The dirty piece of paper in Charles parlance was printed money. 

A legal ruling regarding forced immunizations had been released by this time and Charles noted that people were happy now that the “beautifull docters cant wave their butcher knives over our Sacred persons any more”.

Although his wit and jibes continue in this letter, the glitter in his eye was fading.  The illness and pain associated with cancer had taken the Logie Charles Joseph Gordon 1890s sight from his right eye and bent his nose.  Now, although he didn’t know it, cancer was slowly spreading deeper into the fibers of his body.

 

American Fork Feby 25 _ 01 (1901)

To Miss Beatrice Logie Esq.

Well, here I am sitting in the kitchen trying to compose a letter to you in answer to your communication.  I don't feel verry O.K. to day.  Had to get up several times last night to watch the stars & see that there were no tramps, poarchres wandering about the estate. 

We have had our dinner & the dishes are all cleared away & Walter is explaining to mother all about the way they drive mules in the mines & of corse She understands all about it & don't half try.  Old Lady Whitaker was telling Laura Boley that you were goint to be married & it fairley took her breath at least that is what the dame tells me to say in this report.  Laura says she has seen Mr. Hopkins & that he is a Small darm man.  Mother says is that realy So. 

About the Telescope, the horonable Galbraith says that you need not bother about it untill you come home.  About that magnificent club.. Mother Says its wont be like paying titheing.  You will have to keep the dues payed up & there is always other incedentals & expences to all such affairs that are troublesome to keep paid up sometimes when members are not prepared.

We don't know anything about Sister Rebecker but tis against the council of our church for the members to join any of the Secret Societies.   So you mush use your own jidgement about joining the Oak Stick. 

There is nothing much to write about.  She people down here feel mighty gay now that the beautifull docters cant wave their butcher knives over our Sacred persons any more weather we like its or not.  The noble battey must step a one side now when healthy people want to assemble.

Mother Sends a multitude of thanks for that piece of dirty paper that you sent her She says.  She don't know yet weather She will go to town on Conference but I think likely She will if She feels well.  I am happy to say she is doing fine this winter so far.

Well what more can I say.  The school marm is the same.  She injoys her bed.  Always seems tired goes to bed earley & rises late but we get along first rate.  We have not seen any of the mountaineers lately.  Sir Charles & family are geting pretty scarce lately. 

Will now close hopeing this will find you quite well we send kind..

Love & remain as even your affect Father

Chas Logie Esq

 

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