Ella Elizabeth Haderlie Frank Written by her daughter, Luella Frank Jensen

More Options   Print/Save More Documents View Pedigree View Photographs

On July 10, 1871, when the Indians were still roaming and fighting the white men in Cache Valley, Utah, in a humble two room log cabin in Providence built by John Ulrich and Anna Elizabeth Zollinger Haderlie upon their arrival across the plains with the pioneers, Ella Elizabeth Haderlie was born.

John Ulrich Haderlie Family Back: Rosalia, Charles Henry, Louisa Front: John Ulrich, Ella Elizabeth, Anna Elizabeth

When Ella was six years old she started school which was held in an old log cabin building the Saints called "The Old Prayer Circle." This building was located on the southwest corner of the present ward chapel grounds. Emily Madison was her first teacher.

During the summer months from when she was six to ten years old, she learned to heard cows, glean wheat from the fields, drive grasshoppers from the crops, and carry water from the Blacksmith Fork River to the thirsty men who cut and bound the grain.

Her father was a casket or coffin maker. The coffins were made of hard wood, and Ella would help with the lace trimming. She took a liking to trimming and sewing, and while she was just ten years old, she and her cousin, Mary Zollinger Bullock, pieced a star-pattern quilt, put it on willow frames, and quilted it by themselves. The quilt was auctioned off at some ward affair. Charles Checketts bought it.

She and her cousin, Mary, really had a scare one day. Hearing a commotion outside, they ran to the window and looked out just in time to see a number of Indians coming toward the house. They quickly closed the latch, pulled the string inside, and then ran and hid under the bed. The Indians left when they couldn't unlock the door, and it was later learned that they were looking for one of their squaws who had gone contrary to the tribe's wishes. She was found near Mendon and burned at the stake.

The following summer when she was eleven years old and quite grown up for those days, she went to work in Logan for a Mrs. Manwaring to keep house while the latter was sick in bed suffering from the effects of a hemorrhage. The floors of the house were bare, and the mischievous boys of the family threw sand all over them as soon as she would finish scrubbing.

The next summer at the age of twelve and during the construction of the Logan Temple, she carried berries to the cookhouse which was located on the northwest corner of the temple block. On July 24th of the same year, there was to be a big celebration in Providence. This was an event long anticipated by the youngsters in town for it meant good things to eat and free lemonade. It was rather disappointing for Ella to awaken that morning and find that she had a job to do before going to this gala event. Her mother had promised a woman in Logan she would send some raspberries that day, and it was Ella's job to take them. After asking her girlfriend, Eva Hockstrausser, to accompany her, the two started out each with a gallon bucket full of berries. They were running down the lane when Eva fell and spilled the fruit in the dirt. In their mad rush to get back to the celebration, they washed the berries in the ditch and delivered them as if nothing had happened.

After graduation from district school in the old rock building which stood where the city school now stands, she attended a private school in the basement of the Logan Tabernacle. James Langton was the teacher. Others from town attending were: Lulu Hammond Hanson, Hyrum Fredrick, John Miller, Thomas Friday, and Abbie Rice. They walked to and from school. Many times they would have to thaw their clothes out as they were frozen.

She was secretary in the Primary when she was fourteen. When she was fifteen, she and her sister Rosalia walked to Logan, washed on the board all day and walked home for twenty-five cents each. When she was sixteen, she taught one of the four classes in Sunday School. She was also secretary in Mutual when Ella Campbell was president.

By this time, Ella was a very attractive young lady. She loved life and was never idle. She liked to dance and was considered a very good partner whenever the orchestra struck up a waltz. Sometimes the young couples from town would travel as far as Corinne by bobsled just to attend a dance.

Louis and Ella

At the age of eighteen, she took a job at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Calder Fullmer ironing and waxing stiff shirt fronts. In this same year, in addition to serving as a secretary in both Sunday School and Relief Society, she renewed acquaintance with Louis Frank of Logan, whom she had met at a Providence social a year or so before. After a year's courtship, they were married November 26, 1890, in the Logan Temple. Apostle Marriner Wood Merrill performed the ceremony. They made their home in Logan until the next spring when they moved to Providence to assist her parents during her mother's ill health.

1  2   3   NEXT