Hannah Burdette Hollingshead

The above photo was found on the website FamilySearch.org. There is another photo under the Media Tab above which is from another source.

Abraham and "Birdie" both were born and raised in Minersville, Utah. They were married in 1896 and lived in the Minersville area for four years. In 1902, they moved to Lyman, Wyoming, where they had a ranch east of Lyman called The Buffalo Ranch. Their children had lots of adventures and experiences on the ranch. Birdie was one of the last living members of a Utah Pioneer. Her father, James Henry Rollins, and his first wife, Eveline Walker Rollins, came to the Great Salt Lake Valley in 1848. Her mother, Hannah Hulmes, was an orphan girl from England, who married James Henry Rollins in 1851 when the Mormon Church advised Henry he must marry Hannah if he wanted her to accompany the family when they were sent to colonize the San Bernardino area of Southern California that year. Previously, Hannah had been helping Eveline with the household chores and raising James and Eveline's children. James Henry had 9 children with Eveline and 13 children with Hannah. Hannah Burdett "Birdie" was the last child born to James and Hannah.

Birdie was blessed with a beautiful voice, so she sang in the choir as a soloist at many church and community functions. She also loved to play the piano and oil paint. She also liked to sew and quilt and made many quits and pillows as well as clothes for her children, grandchildren and great grand children.

ABRAM (ABRAHAM*) AND HANNAH BURDETT ROLLINS HOLLINGSHEAD: From the histories of Juanita H. Creager, Ted and Ken Hollingshead, Veda C. Turner and Deon C Smith, Edited by Deon Creager Smith:

Abram Hollingshead was born 14 October 1871 in Minersville, Beaver County, Utah, the fourth child of Nelson Stoyell and Elizabeth Evans Hollingshead. Abram grew up and received his schooling in Minersville. Abraham was born in his father’s Grist Mill (flour mill) just east of town. He also had a saw mill. He was nicknamed Abe at an early age. Abe was a handsome man of medium height with sandy hair and mustache and sky blue eyes. He had a strong square jaw and mighty will that carried him through trial and tribulation. At times he was a harsh taskmaster but he never expected anyone to do anything that he wouldn’t do. He was a man of his word and expected others to be the same. He was always willing to teach, help and show love. Abe helped manage and operate his father’s flour mill. He also worked in his father’s saw mill.

Hannah Burdett Rollins was born 27 November 1876 in Minersville, Beaver County, Utah. She was the thirteenth child of James Henry and Hannah Hulme Rollins and was nicknamed “Birdie”. She had brown hair, brown eyes, and a satin smooth complexion. She had a loving, caring personality. Blessed with a beautiful voice, she sang in the church choir and as a soloist at church and community functions. She played the piano and enjoyed painting with oils Her mother taught her the finer things of life and she was always a lady. She was an excellent cook and loved to quilt and sew.

Abe couldn’t help falling in love with Birdie. We are told that Abe “worshiped Birdie with all his heart.” He was often heard to say, “Birdie, your are my lovely, beautiful Birdie.” They were married by Justice of the Peace, Henry Hall 8 January 1896. Abe was a kind and loving husband. Their first three children were born in Minersville: Nelson Hulmes October 1896, Juanita Burdett 21 July 1898, and Abraham Loraine 7 April 1900.

They loved their church and had indelible testimonies of the gospel that carried them through many hardships. When Birdie was seven months pregnant with Hulmes she was struck by a bolt of lightening and thrown backwards and down under the kitchen table. The lightening knocked every lid off of the old wood burning kitchen stove and Birdie and her baby were miraculously saved. Birdie recovered completely, but Hulmes did not. He was born crippled from his knees down . His lower legs were like gristle and his feet were turned out at the ankles making it impossible for him to wear regular shoes. He wore old fashioned buckle type overshoes all of his life. He did not grow from the knees down after he was about eight years old. He managed very well and never complained about his “thorn in the flesh.”

In 1902 Church President Lorenzo Snow called a few of the Minersville saints to go north to settle in the Bridger Valley in southwest Wyoming. They were called to homestead and to help with the Bigelow Canal Project. The canal was to provide irrigation water to the arid land. Abe and Birdie did not hesitate to obey the call. They packed their meager belongings in a wagon and headed north with the rest of the group, including Birdie’s brother Julian (Jule) and his wife Mandora (Dora). The long strenuous journey with three small children took a little over a week. Baby Loraine was only two and a half years old. Moving to Wyoming was a great undertaking and a severe hardship. They prayed to the Lord that He would guide them to the right place. They had very little and had to start from scratch, and scratch they did.

Birdie’s half-sister Ida (Id) and her husband Wallace (Wall) Hamblin were already in Lyman. They were some of the original settlers. They welcomed Birdie and Abe and let them live in their granary until they could establish their homesteading claim and build a home. They pitched a tent at the east end of the house to store their furniture and belongings in. They had four pictures of their parents that they stored in the tent standing against a wall. A torrential rainstorm came and water seeped through the tent, staining the treasured photographs. Birdie cried over them with deep sorrow. Those pictures were her connection with her loved ones and the home she had left. Fortunately, they were not damaged too severely.

Abe and Birdie filed on a homestead of 360 acres plus 360 acres of grazing land located by John and Mary Fields’ ranch. It was about three miles east of Lyman, Wyoming in the Bridger Valley and nine miles east of Fort Bridger. The town was originally called Owen, the The Bench, and finally, Lyman, after Apostle Amasa Lyman. Their priority was to build a home and they worked hard “grubbing” sagebrush to clear the land. While they were working, they found the skull and horns of a large buffalo, so they named their place, “Buffalo Ranch.” Abe had to haul logs thirty miles from the mountain forest to the south to build a log house consisting of two large rooms. Due to necessity they had dirt floors. The home was well built, each log was dove-tailed at the corners and laid precisely into the next log. This made a warm, snug, comfortable home in the winter, and a cool home in the summer.

Happy was the day they loaded their furniture in their wagon and moved into their new home. They covered the dirt floor with straw and Birdie gave it a special touch with her hand-woven carpet, making it quite comfortable. She made calico curtains for the windows. Later they added wooden floors that made the home much cleaner and warmer. When house was finished, they built a large one room barn.

Abe and Birdie grubbed the sage brush from almost 50 acres of land, then cleared, plowed and harrowed it. He leveled it with a long wide board fastened at each end with chains so the horses could pull it. Abe stood on the board to hold it down while Birdie drove the team of horses. After that was completed, she drove the team and wagon while he sat in the back of the wagon broadcasting the wheat, grain and alfalfa by hand. They fenced 200 acres using two barbed wires they stretched and nailed to cedar posts. He also cleared land for a garden. In this plot of ground, Birdie and the children planted potatoes, peas, turnips, etc. They took good care of it and found that it grew very well. They had enough vegetables to store for the winter, so Abe dug a potato pit, covered it with small poles, straw and then clay he brought from the clay flats. Some of the soil was blue clay that held water.

Abe dug two very large basins and filled them with water. One was a few yards from the house for the geese to swim in (the children liked to swim in it, too)! The second pond was on the other side of the hill about a quarter mile from the house. It was used to water the stock. The winters were so cold the water would freeze solid. In the middle it was over three feet thick. Abe and the boys would harvest the ice by drilling a hole with an auger, then they used a long saw to cut through it. Lifting the ice from the hole was a real struggle. An old chicken coop was used for the ice house. They packed the ice in straw and saw dust and it would keep until summer. They left a space about three feet by two feet in between the big blocks of ice for a wooden box. It was the perfect refrigerator. They stored meat, butter, cheese and milk in it. When they made ice cream it was a big family event. Everyone who could help did, especially when it came time to eat the coveted dessert.

One morning the children took the horses to water and found four timber wolves drinking at the edge of the pond. The wolves were as frightened as the children. They ran away and the children took off for the house. The horses didn’t get much water that time. Sometime later, their little white dog was howling and when Abe went outside to see what was going on, he discovered seven mangy coyotes surrounding the pup getting ready for the kill. Abe was able to shoot some of them and the rest went running off with their tails between their legs.

Once on a beautiful sunny day there was a strange occurrence. Somehow, the sun sucked the water and it contents up out of the pond in front of the house, then let it fall again, like rain. Little frogs and polliwogs dropped all over the ground. The children were delighted as they ran around picking up the little amphibians and taking them back to the pond.

Times were hard and money was scarce. Abe found work in one of the mines in a town named Cumberland 30 miles north of Lyman, just south of Diamondville, Wyoming. He needed funds to buy cows, horses, feed, farm implements and food for his family. Often he would say to his lovely wife, “Birdie, I wish I could give you a better home and a better life. You are so wonderful and deserving of a better place." Birdie would tell him, “The Lord will bless us. We are doing all right. Just keep up your faith.” Even though she was very homesick and lonesome out on the ranch, she would say, “Just keep a stiff upper lip and keep plugging and we will get there.” Birdie asked Jule and Dora to live on the ranch and take care of it until they could return. Once more they packed their belongings in the wagon and moved with their children. They decided to take their milk cow, “Old Roanie” too. They found a small house to move into and settled down for the night. The next day Birdie straightened the house and Abe went to work on the Tipple in Cumberland Mine #2 greasing the cars that ran down into the mine.

The children enjoyed their new home. Hulmes was six, Juanita was four and Loraine was two years old. Birdie started Hulmes in the first grade here. The teacher gave Juanita a pencil to play with and she immediately said it was her pencil, so the teacher gave it to her.

The family went to church on Sunday and met a lot of friendly people who welcomed them into the community. Cumberland was a large mining town with stores, churches, and a pub for the miners. Twice a week a train came from Kemmerer, Wyoming, to pick up coal and passengers.

They were not there very long when they had a streak of bad luck. Abe was caught off guard and knocked down when a cable on the Tipple broke. The coal cars rolled back into the mine and ran over Abraham’s hand almost severing his fingers. Later his ever present positive attitude came through when he said, “It could have been worse, it could have cut off my hand.” He could not work for several weeks so Birdie sold milk and butter, and took in washing and boarders to help make ends meet.

Shortly after Abe’s accident, Birdie suffered a serious deep cut in the palm of one hand when her glass washboard broke while she was scrubbing clothes. A friend, George Jarvis, came and helped out as much as he could. Hulmes and Juanita were able to stand on chairs to do the dishes.

Not long after Birdie’s injury, Old Roanie, the milk cow got out of the barn, wandered onto the railroad tracks and was killed by a train. That meant no milk for the children. That did it. That was the last straw. Abe and Birdie decided enough was enough, so they packed up their belongings and moved back to the Lyman area. They leased a place from a man called Bally Larsen for one spring and summer then moved back to their own ranch. They expressed their gratitude to Jule and Dora for taking care of their place and helped them move back into Lyman.

Nine more children were born to their union: Henry Golden, 15 June 1902; Theodore, 24 September 1904; Kenneth Glenn, 2 November 1906; Inez Elizabeth, 16 January 1909; Delila Jane, 15 February 1911; Effa Hannah, 5 October 1913; twins Clarence and Carl, 25 April 1916; Bruce “W” 7 April 1919.

For several years Abe peddled food and supplies in the mining camp. He raised turkeys, chickens, geese, sheep, cattle and pigs and was able to sell his excess. He hauled beef, mutton, poultry, butter, eggs, and produce from his own garden to sell to the miners in Cumberland. They made it a family effort. Everyone that was old enough helped prepare things for the market. Usually one or more of the boys helped with the hauling, too. To make the trip really count, they hauled coal and wood back for themselves and to sell to the neighbors and the Lyman Mercantile Company. He bought the coal for $2.00 a ton and sold it for $8.00 to $10.00 a ton. Abe had a leather pouch with draw strings on it that he kept his coins in and separate one for his green backs. He hid the one with the greenbacks underneath the coal to guard against being robbed. He would say, “Now, if anyone should stop us to rob us, we can tell them we put the money in the bank.”

Sometimes Abe would pick up a bolt of cloth for Birdie. She enjoyed sewing for her children. The children were happy to have something new even if their shirts and dresses were out of the same material.

Abe always took along a song book and a Book of Mormon. They would sing or read out loud as they went, making it a happy event. They liked to snack on the canned sardines and good crackers Abe bought for them, too.

The long weary days, 32 miles back and forth from Lyman to Cumberland with a team and wagon, through sometimes muddy or snow drifted roads, plus wind, sleet or rain, was difficult at best. Even so, they made a fairly good living and were able to take care of the needs of their large family.

After the mines burned in Cumberland, Abe sold his wares in Rock Springs and Granger. Besides having his farm goods to sell, he would buy hay for $9.00 a ton, bale it and sell it for $1.00 a bale. He usually got 33 bales to a ton.

Because of his faithfulness and honest and hard work in all his doings, people called him “Honest Abe.” His word was a good as gold so he never had to sign a bill of sale. He could judge the weight of a beef or a mutton within a few pounds of what it would dress out. On one occasion a man said to Abe, “I’m sure that my steer will weigh twenty or thirty pounds more than you say.” Abe said, “Then I will pay you the difference,” But the man said, “No, we will wait until it is weighed and then we will settle.” When they weighed the animal, it dressed out ten pounds less than Abraham’s estimate. Abe always guessed a little higher so he would be on the safe side in purchasing beef stock from another man.

They drew water from a well about 100 yards from the house to use inside. They had galvanized tubs to do the washing in, and the family took their Saturday night baths in them, too. Birdie used home-made lye soap to wash clothes, but it was too hard on their skin so they bought hand soap. The kitchen stove had a reservoir on one side that held about ten gallons of water. It was always warm to use for dishes, washing and bathing. Abe would often say how grateful he was for that stove with tank on it so Birdie didn’t have to heat the water on top of the stove where she had to do the cooking. They had kerosene lights at night. It was a big improvement over the hand dipped candles they used to use.

The family was getting big that Abe and the boys decided to build an L-shaped kitchen on the north side of the house to give them more room. It was a most welcome addition. Birdie was a good cook and the neighbors came for miles around to eat at Abe’s home.

In the evening the family would make popcorn and play their musical instruments making up their own orchestra. Hulmes played the violin, Juanita played the violin and guitar, Ted played the saxophone, Ken the cornet, and Delilah played the viola. Their mother accompanied them on the piano. Everyone sang. Abe was often observed with tears of joy rolling down his cheeks.

Many times during the irrigation season Abe would have to work up until midnight in order to get everything watered. The mosquitoes were so thick he would have to put a handkerchief over his face and use his hat to hold it on. He would take a hand full of lucern (alfalfa) and swish it around on his head to keep them away. He wore gloves to keep the insects from chewing on his hands. The mosquitoes were so bad that when they landed on a black horse, it would look gray. Abe would throw gunny sacks over the horses to kill the mosquitoes. The mosquitoes didn’t seem to bother the horses much, but the big horse flies and deer flies would drive them crazy.

The family enjoyed many outings together. Every year they would pack a picnic lunch and go into the nearby mountains to get Haws. The perfect time to go was right after the first frost when they were the sweetest. They would spread a canvas under the Haw tree and take long sticks to knock the, off the thorny trees. Then they would gather the Haws in buckets to take home. On another day, and another picnic lunch, they would head for Smith’s Fork to pick Bull Berries. They were like red English currents hanging from the silver leafed trees. After filling their five and ten pound buckets with the delicious berries, the children would hunt for Indian arrowheads and artifacts. They always found a pocket full of arrow heads and sometimes found a spear head or clay pot.

At home, Birdie and the girls would take the berries off the vines and make special treats. They would roll out some sweetened dough, spread the berries on it, roll it up and bake it. Birdie made a special sweet sauce she poured over it before serving. She also made jelly, cakes and pies with the prized Haws and Bull Berries.

When the Thrashers came in the fall to help with the oats, wheat and barley, supper was a feast. Their favorite meal was chicken soup with dumplings or homemade noodles. The boys would fill a big kettle with water and put it on a bonfire to heat. Then they would kill four big roosters, and pull off as many feathers as they could before dipping them into the boiling water. The rest of feathers came off easy then. Sometimes, they had to use pliers to remove the pin feathers. They cleaned and washed the chickens for Birdie to cook. Other big meals would be made with roasts of beef or venison.

In the fall of the year the flies would come in droves from the barn into the house. To combat them, Birdie tacked cheese cloth to the ceiling of the kitchen, closed the door into the front room, then opened the kitchen door and windows. The flies would settle on the cloth so thick the ceiling would be black. The nights were cold so the flies were dormant the next morning. Birdie would scrape them off the ceiling and burn them.

One time when Abe and Birdie went to town to a dance, the children were home alone and frightened. The coyotes were howling, the dogs barking and weather was stormy. When their parents got home they told the children there was a Mountain Lion that had come down out of the mountains and was going through the country killing sheep and cattle. The next morning they saw the tracks of a large lion in the snow near the barn. That afternoon, several ranchers got together, tracked and trapped the cougar.

The winters were hard. Abe fixed up a sleigh with a sheep camp on it and put a stove in it to help keep the children warm when they went to church and school. They went to church in Lyman in a building called the Town Hall. We are told that “some mighty fine sermons were preached there”. Abe had a big white topped buggy they used in the summer. When they were old enough the children usually rode horses to shows and dances. For the first several years, they went to school in a one room schoolhouse where all twelve grades were taught by one teacher. Loraine and Golden did not go to school every year as they had to help with the farming. Taking turns, they went every other year. Theodore also shared the responsibility for a few years.

Birdie knitted all the families stockings and she hand-quilted quits for their beds. She sewed rags together to make a carpet. There was an old lady in town who had a carpet loom. She charged by the yard to weave the rags together. The carpets were very colorful and quite pretty. Birdie also made checkered and braided rugs.

Quilting was her hobby and Birdie loved to have ‘quilting bees’. She would cut pieces of cloth into diamond and star shapes, sew them together for the quilt tops, and use wool for the bats. The boys sheared the sheep and the girls carded the wool. All of the girls learned to quilt at an early age. They made heavier quilts out of old denim to use inside the school wagon. In the winter they heated rocks in the oven, then wrapped the rocks in the bottom of the quilt to keep the children’s feet warm.

It was years before a telephone line was brought into the valley. When it came, a single line was hung on tall log poles. Several homes were on the same “party” line and each family was assigned a certain ring. Theirs was two shorts and one long. Whenever anyone’s phone range everyone else would pick up theirs to listen in on the conversation. The click, click, click could be heard. The usually reply to that intrusion was, “Get off the line, we are talking private here”. Nevertheless, the phones brought security and peace of mind to the family

Christmas was always a special event. The biggest turkey on the farm was served with all the trimmings. Each of the children received a sack of peanuts and candy, an apple and an orange. They each received one present and Abe would say, “well, I guess that’s the best old Santy could do”. Sometimes the present was homemade, but it was always appreciated.

Not long after the birth of Ted, Abe went to Minersville, Utah, to get his mother, Elizabeth Evans. Two years earlier she had a stroke that left her paralyzed from the waist down. She brought a lot of love and tenderness with her. The children adored their Grandmother.

Abe added a room on for his mother and remodeled the rest of the house so the living room was longer. Birdie was able to have her treasured piano, buffet and dining room table all in one room. All seven boys shared one bedroom, and the four girls shared another one. Elizabeth lived with them for 16 years until her death 18 March 1921.

Abe and Birdie taught their family pure gospel principles. They had strong faith and abiding testimonies. They had a strong belief in the power of prayer. Family prayer was always held around the kitchen table where they would turn their chairs out and kneel beside them. Birdie taught many lessons through prayer. When Abe prayed he would start with himself and Birdie and go right down the line to the youngest child and back up again. He taught them about the Savior and God the Eternal Father through prayer. He always asked the Lord to bless the family and help them in all their righteous endeavors.

They didn’t have much money so they paid their tithing in kind, which means if they had a litter of ten pigs, they gave one for tithing. They donated one calf for each ten born. If they had ten tons of hay, they took the tenth ton to the tithing yards. Birdie would send eight or ten dozen eggs at a time. Tithing collected in this manner was given to the poor and needy.

Abe and Birdie had a strong desire to take their children to the Salt Lake Temple to be sealed to them for Time and Eternity. Each time they decided on a date, problems came up. One year Abe planted wheat on Lars Larson’s land and when it was about ready to harvest a big hail storm hit and thrashed all the wheat onto the ground. Every year they prayed for help that their hearts desire could be attained. Once Abe told Birdie, “This year we have a very good crop and I think we will be able to got to the temple”. That was the year the range cattle broke into the field and trampled down most of the grain and hay they had planned on having to sell along with the stock so they would have the funds they needed. The next year one of the horses ate too much grain and died, so they had to use their money to buy another horse and feed; their trip to the temple was postponed again.

Just one year later the government sent veterinarians to check stock for Glanders, as many farm animals in the area were dying from the disease, especially horses. One of Abe’s horses had distemper and the government man declared it was on the verge of Glanders. So without cause, he condemned all of Abe’s horses. The vet took them away, killed and burned them.

Before he left, Abe made this prediction to the vet: “I know those horses are not sick, and if you take those horses and kill them, you will suffer a greater death than the horses will in being shot and burned”. A few years later that man walked into a burning barn in an attempt to retrieve his tools and the sides of the barn collapsed on him. He was buried in the barn, screaming for help. Unfortunately, no one could reach him.

At the time of this incident Abe had a four-horse team hitched to a wagon loaded with meat and produce ready to go to Cumberland. The Vet took the horses from the wagon, shot and burned them. Immediately after the Vet left, Abe had to travel on foot to go buy more horses so he wouldn’t lose his load.

Uncle Will Hollingshead had a better way of protecting his horses. He had his shotgun in hand when he met the veterinarian. Will had a large, beautiful stallion he stood near, and said, “If you try to take this horse or any of the other horses, you’ll be a dead man, even though I may have to die for it”. Needless to say, the veterinarian did not take that stallion or any other animals. None of them ever developed Glanders.

Once again Abe and Birdie had to delay their desire to go to the temple. Hard luck had struck so many times the family was almost getting discouraged. But this family was of pioneer stock and they had faith, hope and courage. They knew where misfortune and sadness came from and where blessings and happiness came from. They never permitted the adversary to come into their lives. They fasted and prayed asking for protection and guidance so they could go to the temple. Now the family was more determined than ever.

Happy was the day when Abe was finally able to take his wife and seven children to Salt Lake City. They were sealed for Time and Eternity in the Salt Lake Temple by President Wilford Woodruff 7 April 1910. Aunt Mary Osborn cared for the children while their parents were endowed. The children were then sealed to their parents. The many sacrifices were worth it, it was everything they had hoped for. Gratitude filled their hearts.

The twins, Carl and Clarence were born early. Eighteen year old Juanita helped deliver and care for them. Carl was very small and sickly. He was so tiny that Juanita bundled him up, put him in a shoe box and kept him close to the stove to keep him warm. She fed him with an eyedropper, but the struggle was too much, Carl lived only five days. It was sad occasion when Abe and Birdie laid their precious little tenth child to rest. Their Bishop and Apostle Joseph F. Smith told his mother, “You have always paid your tithing and now the Lord has accepted a tenth of your offering. You, my dear sister Hannah, will be given this baby back to raise as you would your other children. He will be handed to you during the Millennium because he will have to learn and understand the things of life”.

Two months after their twelfth child, Bruce, was born, Juanita was married to Charles William Creager in the Salt Lake Temple on 18 June 1919. They moved to Morgan, Utah.

Loraine married Catherine Clawson 14 June 1924 and they also moved to Morgan. When they divorced Loraine took his two young children, Elden Loraine and Lela June, to live with his parents. Birdie mothered the children as if they were her own and had the pleasure of watching them grow for about ten years until their father married Vera A. Thompkin. They would have rather stayed with their grandparents as they were always happy with them, and they were never mistreated.

Hulmes never married and he lived with his parents nearly all of his life. He became a shoe repairman, saddle and harness maker. Children did not care for him but he got along well with adults

Henry Golden married Bertha Carrie Barnes 4 November 1932, Theodore married Harriet Andrews 23 June 1927, Kenneth Glenn married Lillace Lucile Fisher 14 April 1932, Inez Elizabeth married Marion “N” Davidson 28 June 1928, Delila Jane married Marvin John Ferrin 16 May 1929, Effa Hannah married Kenneth Rudolph Larson 23 September 1931, Clarence married Edna Wootton 9 April 1939, Bruce “W” married Virginia Evelyn Herring 21 June 1943.

The grandchildren were a great source of joy to Abe and Birdie and their love was reciprocated. The children loved to go to Grandpa and Grandma’s. There was always lots of love, hugs and special treats. There was always something new for the “city kids” to explore and wonderful things to do. They hunted for Indian arrow heads and found magnificent treasures.

Everyone loved the horses. “Old Whiskers” was the favorite. He was a quiet, lovable, dark brown horse with the patience of Job. He never needed a rein, and he loved the children as much as they loved him. When the youngsters came, his old eyes lit up as he trotted over to the house and with a gently whinny, coaxed them to come for a ride. He would lay down on the ground and nudge two little ones at a time up on his back, the carefully stand up and slowly walk all around the barn yard. He was always fair. After a short ride he returned to his “spot”, lay down ad let his little charges off, and then encouraged the next little ones to climb aboard. Everyone got as many turns as they wanted. Whatever they wanted to do was okay with him.

When the time came that Abe and Birdie couldn’t take care of the ranch any more, they sold it for a total of $5,000.00. That included all of the animals and farm equipment. But in turn, they went into Lyman and purchased three acres of ground, built a two bedroom home, garage and chicken coop and still had two thousand dollars left. Things were much different than they are now.

Delilah’s husband, Marvin, and their sons helped build the new home in Lyman across the street from Birdie’s sister Id and her husband, Wall. Other family members helped when they could. Abe and Birdie were happy to be in Lyman where they could attend church regularly. Birdie was able to attend Relief Society where she enjoyed socializing with her friends and relatives. Abe worked with the church taking care of and delivering the commodities to the poor.

The years were overtaking this wonderful, faithful couple so in 1946 Abe and Birdie sold their Lyman home, and moved to Bountiful, Utah, to be nearer to their children. Again, with the help of their children, they built a comfortable red brick home. It was built on the vacant lot between Ted’s and Delilah’s homes where they could be watched over and helped. For the first time in their arduous lives, they were able to have time to do the temple work they had longed to do.

This bit of heaven was not to last. Just three years later, Abe, slipped in the bathtub and was critically injured when he struck his head. He returned to his Creator 25 September 1949 and is buried in the Bountiful Cemetery. He was 78 years old.

Tragedy struck once more, this time it was Hulmes. He had just gotten off a bus and was walking across the highway towards when a young man in an automobile, on his way to his own wedding, passed the bus Hulmes had just gotten off. It was dusk and Hulmes was wearing dark clothing. The young man did not see him until it was too late. Hulmes died instantly on 16 April 1956. He was 59 years old.

We are told that time heals all wounds. Birdie was deeply hurt but she was a strong woman. She continued to lead a happy, useful life. During this period, the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints recognized her as the oldest living person whose father had personally known the Prophet Joseph Smith.

Birdie’s children were able to be with her in her final hours. She was heard to say, “here is Daddy with beautiful white hair, he has come to take me through the veil. There is an angel with him”. Kenneth was standing close to her when she remarked, “Daddy has something to tell Theodore. He is to see to it that all the children get to the temple”. Her last comment was to her eldest daughter who was holding her hand, when she gently and lovingly said her name “Juanita”.

Birdie went with her beloved Abe and his heavenly escort 16 October 1961. Her mortal remains were placed to rest beside her husband and son in the Bountiful Cemetery 19 October 1961.

NOTE: The family called him Abraham but he is listed as Abram on Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day-Saints records.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION:

Juanita B. Hollingshead Creager, Theodore Hollingshead, Kenneth Glenn Hollingshead, Veda Creager Turner, Deon Creager Smith, Records and certificates as listed on the back of the Family Group Record.