Mother's Day ended just a couple of hours ago and for this challenge, I wanted to share a story about one of my female ancestors on my maternal line. I have said before that I come from a line of strong women who have been good examples to me and I wrote about one of them, Catherine (Cameron) Southam. This time, I'll write about her daughter, Alice (Southam) Haslam, and the way God responded to her faith and brought closure to a grieving family.
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| Alice (Southam) Haslam |
A Family's Prayers Are Answered
Alice was the daughter of Mormon pioneers, George and Catherine (Cameron) Southam. My mother, Alice Carey Boyd (you can see that Alice is an important name in my family) shared an incident related to the death of father George on her website:"George Southam...had a dream that he was going on a mission. He told his wife that he was either going on a foreign mission or would be called to the other side of the veil, and if he did die to be sure he was buried in a Mormon Cemetery, and in his temple clothes."
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| George and Catherine (Cameron) Southam |
As it turns out, the dream was fulfilled about a week later. Alice Southam Haslam was just thirteen years old. She later wrote about the family's circumstances at the time of his death: "When I was about two years old my parents moved to Evanston, Wyoming. Father bought a ranch eight miles out of town where he raised cattle and owned some farm land. Each winter we would move into Evanston to go to school."
She continues, relating how her father died, "Each winter after Father had moved us into Evanston for school he would drive the team and wagon back and forth to the ranch to feed the cattle, and it was during one of these trips on December 24, 1884 that Father was drowned while crossing Bear River on his way home from feeding the stock."
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| Bear River crossing, head of Cache Valley. Cache County, Utah Image from NARA and taken 31 December 1870 |
"The day before this happened Father and Mother had planned on taking we children to the Christmas celebration at the church house, where they were going to have a large Christmas tree. As it came near time to go, and Father did not come, we thought perhaps he had decided to stay at the ranch all night. So we got ready, and went to the celebration, and did not hear of the accident until Christmas Day. As Father was crossing the river, the ice broke and took team, wagon, and all under into the water, although they had crossed in the same place many times, and never had this happen before."
Amy Gardiner and Dorothy Hein related that, “His body went under the ice, and wasn't found for five days while his family suffered, and friends searched in vain to locate his body. All had given up hope of finding him..."
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| Stereographic image, "Wasatch Mts. from Bear River" |
Alice stated that her family turned to the Lord for help. "When it was first decided that he had fallen through the ice, they searched for him without success. so we knelt down and prayed to our Heavenly Father and asked for guidance."
Amy Gardiner and Dorothy Hein tell of the miraculous result: "...[T]he mother of George Southam appeared to his daughter Alice (thirteen years old), in a dream. She told Alice her name was Lucy Hunt, and she was George Southam's mother, and she needed her son to help her. She also told Alice where to cut the ice, some mile or so from where he had drowned to find him. Alice said she had seen the willow branch that he was lodged in, in her dream just as plain as when they saw it, and found her father. Alice woke her mother in the night after her dream, and said, "We will find Papa tomorrow."
My mom added, "James Williams said he would try just this one more place, and then they would give up the search, as it was so cold on Bear River, cutting ice. This time Alice showed them the right place to cut, and they were successful."
Alice testified, "When we got up the next morning, I told them that I had seen the place where he was, and told them where to go, and they went and found our Father. My uncle was killed in a snowslide and they did the same thing, they prayed, and the next morning they found him. By chance? No, this was God's way of answering our prayers."
Alice's Adulthood
Alice continued to be faithful throughout her life. When she and Joshua Haslam decided to marry, they undertook a journey so they could marry in the temple. Alice had been working in Vernal at the time. "Holmes's were going out to the Temple, so we decided to go with them and get married in the Logan Temple, as the Salt Lake Temple was not yet completed. We went by way of Fort Bridger and Evanston, Wyoming. Aunt Lizzie Bennett lived near Evanston, so we visited with them on our way. Our way of travel was team and wagon. After visiting a day or so, we went on to Logan, and were married in the Logan Temple July 27, 1887." |
| The Logan Temple, where Josh and Alice married Image from lds.org |
She left 128 direct descendants at her death. Her granddaughter (and my grandma) Beulah Green Carey told my mother on a recording that, "I remember Grandma and Grandpa Haslam. We used to go out every summer on their farm, their big eighty acre farm, and have lots of fun in this big sandstone house. it was about a block back from the road, and there was a creek, and you had to go over a little bridge on the creek to drive in your car, and open the gate because they had cattle. We used to swim in the creek. Every year all of Grandma and Grandpa Haslam's kids that could, would come about harvest time, which is July or August, and help get in the hay and wheat crop, and things like that. We'd have a big old family reunion. The men and the boys would all sleep out on the haystack. The women would sleep in the big farmhouse which had five bedrooms upstairs, one bedroom down stairs, and all the girls would sleep out under a big, huge weeping willow tree on cots or beds. It was a lot of fun, because usually the men would play jokes on each other, and usually someone would lay their blankets and wake up in the morning and find out they'd been laying them on a hen's nest or something like that. All of my mother's sisters and daughter-in-laws used to get together and do all the cooking. Grandma Haslam was a real good cook, so we'd have a big time. While we were there the threshers would come to thresh the wheat, and we would have the big, long, harvest table with all the men and the threshers around it, and they would have all kinds of food- turkey, ham, chicken, beef, and lamb. It was a feast. Lots of pies and cakes, and they would cook all day long, and then feed the men at noon, then the threshers would go home, and we'd have our family supper. All the kids had to wait until they were through, then we got the second seating at the table. But there was always plenty of food to go around."
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| Josh and Alice's house in Vernal |
Of her grandmother, Grandma related, "Grandma Haslam (Alice Southam) was a counselor in the Relief Society, and she used to go out, while we were there on vacation, and do her visiting teaching in a horse and buggy with another lady. Grandma was a good cook and she always did quilting, and things like that. She was busy. She was a farm wife. She raised vegetables and fruit and flowers in the front yard, and of course, Grandpa had the hay and the grain and the cows and pigs and the lambs and all that, all the cattle in the back." She also served in the Primary.
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| The family of Josh and Alice (Southam) Haslam |
As with Catherine, I am grateful to have such a good example of womanhood--a faithful young woman who, through faith, was able to gain heavenly aid, a woman who traveled out of her way to receive the blessings of the temple, and a mother and grandmother who served in callings and made a pleasant home that her family wanted to gather to every summer.
Alice's Recipes
By the way, when I was a girl, I wrote to Velda (Haslam) Johnson, one of Alice's daughters. I was in middle school and was taking a cooking class. Great-great-aunt Velda sent back these recipes, all from Alice's collection. I've made the chowder on a couple of occasions and it's quite tasty!RECIPES OF ALICE SOUTHAM HASLAM
CHICKEN CORN CHOWDER
3 cups chicken broth 3/4 cup butter
1 Tbs. parsley 3/4 cup flour
1 cup chopped celery 1 qt. half & half
1/2 cup onion 1 cup frozen corn
1 tsp. salt 1 cup noodles (optional)
Pepper to taste 1 cup chicken (cooked & deboned)
Cook first six ingredients until the vegetables are tender. Melt butter. Add flour to the butter, mixing until smooth. Stir in half & half. Add this to the vegetable mixture and stir well. Add corn, noodles, and chicken. Simmer one to two hours. For best flavor make soup a day ahead.
CARROT PUDDING
2 cups grated apples 2 cups raisins
2 cups grated carrots 1 cup shortening
1/2 cups sugar 2 tsp. cinnamon
4 unbeaten eggs 1 tsp. cloves
1 cup walnuts, chopped 2 tsp. nutmeg
4 tsp. baking powder 1 tsp. soda
1/2 cup milk 1 tsp. salt
3 cups flour
Cream sugar and shortening; add eggs and beat. Add apples, carrots, raisins. Add milk and flour that has spices added. Stir well. Makes 13 X 9 pan. Bake 350 about 45 min.
Sauce: Mix 1 cup sugar, 2 Tbs. cornstarch, and add to two cups boiling water. Cook until as thick as desired, and add 4 Tbs. butter and 1 tsp. vanilla. Be sure to stir sauce all the time when cooking.
VEGETABLE SOUP
Cook short ribs of beef in water, cut off meat and cut into small pieces. Add vegetables that are grated (carrots, celery, cabbage), about a cup of each. Also a large handful of split peas and pearl barley that have been soaked overnight in water, using the water in the soup. Season to taste.
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| Alice (Southam) Haslam |
Remember that mission George said he'd be called on?
Interestingly, my mom has noted that she is still finding a remarkable number of the names of George's ancestors and performing temple work for them. Is he still on his mission on the other side? It seems so.
And that reminds me of a quote by President Henry B. Eyring:
"For me, knowing that turns my heart not only to my ancestors who wait but to the missionaries who teach them. I will see those missionaries in the spirit world, and so will you. Think of a faithful missionary standing there with those he has loved and taught who are your ancestors. Picture as I do the smile on the face of that missionary as you walk up to him and your ancestors whom he converted but could not baptize or have sealed to family until you came to the rescue. I do not know what the protocol will be in such a place, but I imagine arms thrown around your neck and tears of gratitude.
If you can imagine the smile of the missionary and your ancestor, think of the Savior when you meet Him. You will have that interview. He paid the price of the sins of you and all of Heavenly Father’s spirit children. He is Jehovah. He sent Elijah. He conferred the powers of the priesthood to seal and to bless out of perfect love. And He has trusted you by letting you hear the gospel in your lifetime, giving you the chance to accept the obligation to offer it to those of your ancestors who did not have your priceless opportunity. Think of the gratitude He has for those who pay the price in work and faith to find the names of their ancestors and who love them and Him enough to offer them eternal life in families, the greatest of all the gifts of God. He offered them an infinite sacrifice. He will love and appreciate those who paid whatever price they could to allow their ancestors to choose His offer of eternal life."
Next week's challenge from No Story Too Small: "Week 20 (May 14-20) – Black Sheep: Each of us has an ancestor who was the troublemaker or the ne’er-do-well. This is their week." Oh! Black sheep...I got 'em! I've already written about my great-grandfather and his father, the counterfeiters. This time, I'll write on another father-son team. This pair, however, started a riot.
And while we're at it, I'll mention another of my father-son pairs, who ended up in court records for reasons that made me laugh. But are the two pairs connected? Well, yes, the son in the second pair ended up participating in the riot started by the first pair...more or less accidentally. Come join me to learn about a group of ancestors who kept me in stitches while I was researching them!
