The second of a four-part history of Nelson Holder Ritchie (1840–1913), written in 1975 by a daughter, Grace Ritchie Ashton. Nelson married as his second wife Annie Cowan Russell (1857–1950), and they were the parents of Olive Ellen Ritchie Cleverly (1881–1945), who was the mother of Ivard R Cleverly (1915–1988).
Before they left Kansas, Father received a letter from the government telling him he could go to Oklahoma to take up 160 acres of land for each of his children, also himself and his wife. Father went down there to look it over, and when he came back he told Mother that that was no place to take a family to raise. I see now it was a blessing for us all to come to Utah where the Saints are and the House of the Lord.
Nelson and his family came to Utah in 1892 and went to Bountiful to live. They stayed with Elder Mann until they found a house in Centerville a mile away. Father worked for the railroad in Centerville as freight agent. At Centerville another boy was born, and he was named Nelson Holder. He was born October 16, 1893, and died March 19, 1896, in Bountiful and was laid away in Bountiful cemetery. Father was the first person to plant trees and flowers there, but the trees died because they lived too far away to water them.
While they lived in Centerville, Olive, their oldest daughter, had a very bad sickness. There was a pond across the tracks, and she went swimming when she should not. Old Dr. Stringham came to take care of her. At last he told Mother he had done all he could for her and it would be up to the priesthood to save her life. Father at the time was in Salt Lake City on business, and this is what he found when he came home. After the doctor left, Mother and Bessie were sitting watching her, when all at once Olive raised up in bed holding her hands out saying, "Willie, take me with you." Then she turned to Mother and said that Willie was there in the wall with a lot of roses beneath him and that he said she couldn't go with him for she had a lot of work to do here. Olive still cried out for Willie to take her, and then she saw a lady beneath him and said, "Who is that woman down there?" and he said that it was Papa's first wife and "she wants her temple work done."
When Father arrived home, he was told what had happened to Olive, and he could hardly believe it. He asked Olive how the woman was dressed, and Olive told him. Father said, "That is the way I laid her away." And then Olive told them that she asked Willie why this lady looked so sad, and Willie said, "She is not in as high a glory as I am."
The next day Olive opened the door for Dr. Stringham, and she did live a long good life and gave birth to 13 children. She raised all but one who died as a baby, and they all had families except for one son. Olive was a very spiritual-minded person all her life, and everybody loved her. She was kind to all she knew.
Three months and eleven days after Nelson Holder died, Mother had another child, a girl named Grace Samantha. She was born July 11, 1896, in Bountiful, Utah.
Father hurt himself lifting such heavy things that he had to give up the railroad job, and they moved to Beck Hot Springs or now North Salt Lake. We lived in a rock house, and Russell was born there November 21, 1898. A month later Olive was married to Henry William Cleverly. She took me to live with them because Mother had this new baby and was not so well. I was going on three years old and lived with Olive until just before her first child was born, which was in November.
Father had a very hard time to keep things to eat, and he did everything he could. He even went up on the mountain to the old McNeil place to raise turkeys, and when they were ready for market someone beat him to it, and he lost them all. Someone stole them.
Then he took a lease on a fruit farm in Provo, now Orem. They made a little on that. I just remember going down there. That was before I went to school. Father came back to Salt Lake City and made a payment on a house just off south Second West south of 13th South. We had a big St. Bernard dog; he was a beauty. We had a lot of fun with him. He went out nights and killed sheep so we had to lose him. That was a hard time for all of us. Father had a little spring wagon and sold fruit and nearly every night when he came home the children came running to see what he had left and always received some little thing, apple or fruit. Father was good to all children. He was very tender hearted and would always say, "Let your mother take care of you" when we were bad.
Now about this time James Alvie could not get work, so he went in the Navy. Because he was under age, Mother and Father had to say they were willing to let him go. I can see my mother crying, and Father stayed out of the picture so he could not see him, as he felt so bad. Alvie left home for four years. He used to write and send $10 home to help pay for the house, but Father had a chance to trade for a place in the mouth of Parleys Canyon. When Alvie found we had moved, he would not send any more money to help out. Mother went to work to help make ends meet. Before we went to Parleys Canyon, Mother had a daughter born April 14, 1903, and she was named Elsie Virginia. She was about two years old when we moved there. Father farmed and raised chickens and pigs, and we had geese, dogs, and cats, a cow sometimes, a horse, and a ginnie, which we kids loved. She was good and kind, and we had some good times with her.
Russell was now about ten years old and a cute boy with light curly hair. One day Father took him to Salt Lake and told him he could look in the store windows till he got ready to come home. It was near to Christmastime, and while he was looking some well dressed lady came and talked with him and saw he was not dressed very well. She asked him where he lived and what his name was, and he told her. When Christmas morning came, you should have seen the lovely things they gave us—things to eat as well as books and toys.
They loved Russell. He was a sweet clean boy, and we used to play ball with our friends around where we lived. Father had a horse called Prince and a dog Bonce. That horse and dog knew how much he loved them, for they loved him. After we left the place and my sister Blanch and her family went to live there, the dog and horse walked away and never did come back again.
Father was a hard working man all his life and a good father and husband. One day I was a bad girl—I don’t remember what I did—but anyway I ran and hid myself under some rose bushes, as we kids had a play house there, and there was an old quilt, and I laid down, and the first thing I knew I was fast asleep. When I came to myself, it was dark, and I kept thinking Father would soon come home, and I would go in the house. We had some geese that always made a big noise when Father came home, but there was no noise, so I began to be afraid a little while when Father let me in. I went to bed and was very sick, I guess from nerves. My mother did not whip me; I guess she felt sorry for me when I was so sick. And to think after Mother and Father had worked hard all day, I had them looking all over the place for me.
Mother worked hard all the time we lived in the canyon. As a little girl I never saw much of her—only at night. Father would say, "Girls, clean up the place so your mother can rest." He used to bring Mother an apple nearly all the time and say he was sorry he didn't have one for all. But we knew how he felt about Mother. Mother used to go to choir practice and take Esther and me with her. That is where I learned to sing all our beautiful songs.
May, my sister, came third in winning a piano, and she paid $250 for it. That was in about 1910. (Today, 1975, I have the piano after all those years.) My father loved music and wished he could have had me take piano lessons. I got a keyboard that helped a lot and could play a little, and I started to learn "Oh, My Father," a song my father loved. Well, after he passed away I learned it, and I feel like I am playing it for him.
Mother loved to read, and she read to us children, which made me read and want to know things for myself. She also taught us to pray. Father was a great man of faith, and he would have us pray, and he prayed always. When Father and Mother were married, he said, "Let's quit drinking coffee and tea and other drinks that we know are not good for us or our children." And they did, and Father always wanted us children to be good and live clean. I remember Mother telling us that in Great Bend a man was going to hang. Father was getting ready to go out with the rest of the town. While he was getting ready, Mother was also, and he asked where she was going.
She said, "With you."
Father said, "Oh, you can't do that."
And she said, "Well, if you go, so do I."
So Father said he wouldn't go, and years later he was happy he never had a part in the hanging.
Father always called my mother Dove. I never heard him call her Annie. It was always Dove or "your mother." He loved her dearly. We always called him Papa. To let you know what kind of man he was, he was going to dig a well and Mother asked him when he was going to do it so we wouldn't have to pack water from the creek or go up the hill to get it. Well, he said that he had changed his mind because if he dug it there then the man up on the hill wouldn't have any water. That was the way he was, always thinking about the other fellow.
I remember when we moved we only had two rooms, and there was a nice shed which with a little help could be put up to the house and give us three more rooms. Father had the shed up to the house, and he needed some strong arm to put it where it belonged. So one day a young man came to Father and said, "I see you need some help," and Father told him that he did, so the man helped him put it in place. The man gave Mother a book and told her to read it, but we were all messed up at the time, and she did not read it. When the man left and things began to look better, she remembered the book but never found it. She never did know what was in it. We always felt like he was sent to help us, as we needed it so badly because all of us children were just little kids at the time. It could have been one of the Three Nephites. As far as I know, my father never turned anyone away who asked for help.
It was in the wintertime and very cold when a man came and asked to stay all night, as he was going to Park City. Father did not like the looks of him, but he took him in and gave him something to eat and made a bed in own bedroom in front of the big fireplace with a fire in it. Father never slept that night for watching that man and the next morning sent him on his way.
