Barbara Ann Phelps (Mrs. John Seymour Allen) (1877-1957)

Autobiography

From Pioneer Women by Roberta Flake Clayton. Privately Printed, Mesa, Arizona: [n.p.,] 1969. BX 8670.07 .C579p also Americana BX 8670.07 .C579p, pp. 1-5.

[Lillian Ann Bushman Palmer’s daughter, Lois Palmer married Ben Rich Allen.  Barbara Ann Phelps Allen was his mother.]

My parents were Hyrum Smith Phelps and Mary Elizabeth Bingham Phelps.  I was born August 26, 1877 at Montpelier, Bear Lake County, Idaho.  I was 16 months old when my family moved to Mesa.  The first house that father built was on the corner of Second Ave and Hibbert.

Among my first recollections of this place was the first Sunday School I attended.  It was held in the school house, a one-room adobe.  Hannah Peterson (Miller) was the teacher.  We recited the alphabet from cards.  We were seated on a low bench in the front of the room.  I attended my first Primary with my sister Lucy.  We were very devoted to each other.  Each week we anxiously waited while the secretary read the program for the following week but we never got on the program.  I never went anywhere without Lucy.

When I was nine years old the school put me on a program and every child in the room was given a part but me.  I felt disgraced and I never even told my mother.  I always remembered the feeling I had and in the sixteen years I presided over the Primary I always favored the backward child and never slighted anyone to my knowledge.

Father built a long room on the back of the house to accommodate the growing family.  Grandmother Bingham lived with us a while before moving into a house where the Sixth Ward now stands.)  On the corner of Mesa Drive and University).  We children were staying with her after father was taken to the Yuma penitentiary.  The officers were there one night looking for mother, they had a warrant and grandma wouldn’t take it so they threw it on the floor.  I thought she wasn’t very polite.

When I was twelve years old mother gave me an accordion for Christmas.  I soon learned how to play it.  A few years later she and Lucy gave me a larger one which I kept until after I was married.

One time Father went to Tempe and bought a bolt of cloth called Zephyr gingham, it was a beautiful plaid.  As I remember five of us girls had a dress alike.  Lucy and I always dressed alike.  Most people thought we were twins.

The first MIA class I attended had only one class for everyone.  Pres. Charles I. Robson told the story of Joseph Smith’s first prayer.  That was the first time I had heard it and I have never forgotten how it impressed me.  Soon after this Lucy and I was asked to sing at one of the meetings.  We sang “Write Me a Letter From Home.”  After that I think we were asked to sing at every public entertainment held in Mesa until after I was married.  Lucy and grandma Phelps bought us an organ which I learned to play by ear.  Father and I played for the dances at Lehi a few times.  I earned $2.50 over the Christmas holidays playing out there.  I left my organ there during that time so I wouldn’t have to carry it back and forth.

Lucy and I joined the choir when I was sixteen and I sang with them twenty years.  I memorized 200 hymns besides the anthems we sang.

        I well remember the first dress I made, it was a real pretty blue.

And I wore a blue ribbon around my waist, that mother’s sister Anne LeSueur sent to me because I told her I looked so much like her.  In the summer of about the year 1891 there was a conference held at Pine Top and mother and Aunt Clarinda, in company with quite a group of saints attended, Brother William took them.  I took six weeks to make the round trip, Amy was four years old.  While they were gone I made Amy a dress, I made it a plain tight waist with a full skirt that came nearly to her ankles, and so tight I could hardly fasten it.  She had it on when mother came and when she saw her she began to cry, she said Amy looked like we had starved her.

One night at a dance John S. Allen, known as Seymour came into our lives.  He rushed across the floor, came up to me and said, “Come on Caddie, let’s dance.”  Then he saw his mistake and after an apology asked me to dance.  From then on he never failed to dance with me and Lucy.  Later on he began making regular visits to our home but we did not know which of us he was most interested in.  We had a lot of good times together.  One night he asked if he could take me home.  Up to this time he had never taken us any place.  He had a lady friend and we were just side issues, but after this night we knew which were his favorites.

John S. And I kept company for about nine months and were married 2 October 1895 in a quiet wedding in our home on the corner of Hibbert and East First Ave.  Only close relatives were invited.  The ceremony was performed by Bishop Jame Mailen Horne.  We stood at the head of the table and guests were seated around it ready to partake as soon as the ceremony ended.  Mother and Lucy cooked a very fine dinner.  When we went through the kitchen to be married Mother and Lucy were standing by the stove, Mother was crying and Lucy was looking sad but I didn’t see anything to feel sad about.  One week after we were married we started to the St. George temple in company with Eli and Medora Openshaw.  It took six weeks to make the round trip.

When we returned home we started housekeeping in the two-roomed house built for Fannie and Warner.  It was here our first child, Ashael was born 31 July 1896.  At this time fast meeting was held on Thursday afternoon and he was blessed by Grandpa Allen.

Blanche was born 15 Feb 1898.  When she was four months old John S. was called on a mission to the Southern States.  He left in June and I milked from eight to ten cows while he was gone and my sister Esther stayed with me to help care for the babies.  Mother was very good to me and I wondered how I could get along without her.  I did all of the sewing for her six daughters, Lucy, Hattie, Amy, Esther, Clara and Gertrude.  At this time Lucy was working in Johnson’s store and did a lot to help the family. 

I was blessed all the while John S. was gone and we all enjoyed good health.  When it was time for him to be released I went to Utah in company with my parents and Father Allen and his wife Annie.  Uncle Perry Bingham met us at Price, Utah and took us to Vernal where I stayed until I heard form John S. and then I went to meet him in Cove.

After we returned home John S. and his brother Warner went in partners and purchased eighty acres of land on the base line.  Hyrum Loren was born 7 Oct 1901 and Barbara was born 5 Oct 1903.

On 26 July 1907 Gove Liahona was born and John S. went on another mission.  This time to the Eastern States.  I was left with more responsibilities and work but Ashael was a big help and one of my sisters stayed with me most of the time.

John S. came home in 1908 in June and Mary was born 1 Sept 1910.  On 27 March 1912 Eldred Phelps was born, but only lived six weeks.  This was the first real sorrow to come to us.  8 July 1914 Russell Hoopes was born.

On 2 Dec 1915 Ashael left to go on a mission to the Southern States.  Ben Rich was born and 5 Nov 1917 Joseph Seymour was born while Ashael was still on his mission.

When Joe was about eight months old I took a little motherless baby Robert Southern (four months) to raise.  I kept him nine months and his aunt Mrs. Ellingbou wanted him so bad J.S. told me I should not be selfish and keep him so I let her have him.

After several years the depression came on and we decided Seymour’s have brother Benjamine should live with us for a couple of years.  J.S. sent him on a mission.  Also Charley, Seymour’s oldest brother, lived with us quite a lot.

Della, our youngest was born 11 Nov 1920, four days after Loren had left for a mission in Louisiana.  We struggled along for several years in the depression and decided to rent our ranch as the boys wanted to go to school and it was too much for Seymour to run it alone.  We bought a home at 48 West Second Street in Mesa and lived there for more than a year.

John S. and his brother Jim took a job building a fence along the railroad.  It was at this time when the next great sorrow came when Della died, Nov 21, 1925.

We sent Gove on a mission to the Eastern States and in 1935 we sent Russell to the Samoan Islands to fill his mission.  Before he returned home we sent Ben to Argentina for a mission.

All our family have very fine companions and have been sealed in the temple.  In all our family gatherings they are with us 100%.  We are very proud of our family and their families and always pray for their success in righteousness.

We held our Golden Wedding Anniversary 29 Oct 1945.  The first time all of our family had been together for a long time.  For the celebration Ashael came from a Spanish American mission, his wife Ida from Los Angeles, Russell from Kirtland, New Mexico and Mary from Vallejo, California.  We had a dinner at the ranch with our ten children, their companions and 27 grandchildren.  It was a lovely time.  After this celebration, Ida was called to labor with Ashael on his mission and they took their son George with them.

Our mother was very strict about us attending our duties and being punctual.  Because of this the Sunday School superintendent called on me to be a substitute teacher while still quite young.  When I was 17 I attended conference.  At this time they reorganized the Stake YLMIA and I was surprised when they sustained me as stake secretary.  I served in this capacity for twelve years and under five presidents: Ann Eliza Leavitt, Jannett Johnson, Lula McDonald, Fanny Dana and Mary Hibbert.  Soon after I was released I was chosen stake secretary for the Relief Society.  I held that position for about six years and was released to be president of the Mesa First Ward Relief Society.  I was in this position for about a year when we moved to Gilbert.  There was no Gilbert ward then so we were in the Chandler Ward.  After this I spent about sixteen years as president of the Primary in Chandler, Gilbert and Mesa.  I was president of the Primary at the same time I was superintendent of Religion Class in the Gilbert Ward.  At this time my son John was attending Gilbert High School and he assisted me in Religion Class.  We rented our ranch and bought a home in Mesa.  At this time I was president of the Primary in Gilbert and Bishop Haymore Sr. asked me to preside there until my daughter Barbara came.  This I did and at this time I was made president of the Mesa First Ward Primary.  I presided over both Primaries for about six weeks.  I have been president of the Gilbert Ward Relief Society two different times, second counselor in the Mesa First Ward to Grace Nielson and second counselor to Adelaide Peterson in the stake Primary, and held several other positions.  Now at this time of 74, I am a Relief Society district teacher and a Guide teacher to four boys in the Primary of the Mesa Ninth Ward.  I am very grateful for the many opportunities I have had to serve.