Lettie Cornelia Stocks

Lettie Cornelia Hendricks was born on 7. May. 1878 at Lewiston, Cache County, Utah. She was the daughter of William Dorris Hendricks and Almira Davenport. Lettie married Daniel Isaac Thompson, son of William David Thompson and Mary Ellen Isaacson, on 14. Mar. 1900 at Logan Temple, Logan, Cache County, Utah. Lettie married James Halley Stocks, son of Moroni H. Stocks and Sarah Heward, on 4. Jan. 1905 at Logan, Cache County, Utah. Lettie and James appeared on the census of 16. Apr. 1930 at Lewiston, Cache County, Utah. Lettie married Louis Edgar Merrill, son of Mariner Wood Merrill and Sarah Ann Atkinson, on 2. May. 1950. Lettie Cornelia Hendricks died on 30. Apr. 1958 at Ogden, Weber County, Utah, at age 79. Lettie was buried on 3. May. 1958 at Richmond City Cemetery, Richmond, Cache County, Utah.

The family moved to Richmond when she was a small girl and she received most of her education in the Richmond schools. She did, however, go to school in Mexico for approximately three years, which in itself added greatly to her education. She married 1st DANIEL ISAAC THOMPSON on 14 Mar. 1900 in the Logan Temple and this marriage was blessed with two children.

Sorrow came to the family, when in Sept. of 1903 their baby boy passed away, and just two months later on 17 Nov. 1903, Daniel died from a heart ailment and was buried in Richmond, Ut.

Lettie and her little girl lived with her mother in Richmond and she obtained employment at the Sego Milk Plant until her marriage to JAMES HALLEY STOCKS on 4 Jan 1905. She and her daughter moved to Lewiston, Ut. with her husband, where they made their home. This marriage was blessed with six children. After the marriage of all of her children, Lettie took maternity patients into her home and also went to other homes to take care of maternity patients, to help earn a living after James had a stroke. On 20 Apr. 1941, James Halley (Hall) Stocks had another stroke and died. Lettie married 3rd LOUIS EDGAR MERRILL. Lettie has always been noted as an excellent cook and her home has always been well kept. She had very beautiful flowers and a wonderful garden in which she took a lot of pride.

Lettie Corneila Hendricks Thompson Stocks Merrill As remembered by LaFaun Johnson, Granddaughter

I remember my Grandmother as being a very tall well dressed lady. I guess because I was so little she seemed so big. She was always dressed in a long sleeved dress with an apron. As I got older I found that she was just as fussy about her under clothes as she was her outside clothes. She always wore long bloomers, over her garments, plus a full girdle which included her bra, from the shoulders to the top of her legs. She then wore a slip , long stockings and then her dress and apron. She liked her dresses to have at least half length if not long sleeves. She was so particular about her clothes and how she looked. She also wore earrings, and sometimes a pin on her dress.

I can remember that later in life she was always saving her pretty slips to be buried in. I think there was at least four or five brand new slips in her drawer for that purpose.

Grandma liked to have her washing on the line before any of her neighbors. If she didn't beat them putting her clothes on the 1 inc she was very upset. She would rise very early to be sure and be the first one. She always washed with a wringer type washer and a rinse round tin tub.

Grandma was a very hard worker and her home was always very neat and clean. She was very fussy about her bedding and she washed the bedding every week. Her pillow cases were always crocheted and ironed to perfection. She would wash on Monday, iron on Tuesday as long as I knew her.

I was named after my Grandmother and I loved her very much. She was not the easiest person to please and not all of her grandchildren tried to please her. Maybe that came from living next door or across the street from her. I lived clear up in Washington and so only saw her on special trips that were not very often. After we moved to Lewiston I spent a lot more time at her home. She loved to eat her meals on the two bread boards that pulled out from her cupboard. She loved to eat home canned tomatoes and bread and butter. Also she loved raspberries. I can remember many a meal with her eating these two things. She had a cook stove plus an electrical stove in her kitchen as long as I could remember her. She loved to get up in the morning and heat up the cook stove and make baking powder biscuts[sic] and so with out mush we always had hot biscuts[sic] to eat with lots of butter and jam.

I can only remember Grandpa at the breakfast table once and he kept running out of cream on his cereal . Grandma would cuss him and keep adding more cream and tell him to eat a little mush along with the cream.

She always drank coffee and so I can remember the smell of coffee as I woke up. I never even tasted it so to this day I only know about the smell of coffee. However if I slip and get some things made of coffee like ice cream or a candy I just about gag. So I guess I just wouldn't like it. I really don't like hot drinks. Grandma did and so she also had tea a lot. I used to be given tea , or ginger tea when I came to her house with monthly uglies and didn't feel good. To this day I can't stand the smell of tea, or ginger. However I love ginger cookies, what happened.

Grandma used to always have some kind of candy hid in her closet which she would give to me on the sly so that the rest of the kids didn't see. She wouldn't give it to them. I liked the attention at first but as I got older it was not so much fun to have something that my bothers and sisters didn't have.

I remember Grandma sitting by the hours playing soli tare. She would read the paper at night and then sit and play cards. If she could get me to we would play hearts. I think Margene and some of the other kids liked to play cards with her. However I never played cards at home and so didn't care to much for it. I did learn to like Flinch and so played that some.

I used to get so tired of listening to her read the paper. She always read it out loud and I just wanted to read the funny book or something that I was doing but I always had to listen to her read the evening paper.

She was a very good cook and people use to rave about her cooking. My mom tells me that she can remember when grandma would stay home from church to fix a big Sunday meal while the rest of them went to church with grandpa. Everyone raved about her cooking and so I'm sure she was very good. The girls and her boys all were excellent cooks and so I'm sure they got this from their mom.

I can remember her rolling out pie crust and making delisious[sic] tasting pies. I also liked her meat loaf. I don't know how different it was than any other but it is something that I can remember.

I was at grandmas when I was about 14, and Amber was having a baby. All I can remember is that I felt I had to do a lot of goffer work and Aunt Amber called me a grumble bum. I guess I must have been.

Grandma was a maternity nurse and always had women come to her home to have their babies. I only remember about the one of Ambers, I don't even know for sure who it was.

I can remember a few funeral bodies being layed out in her front room. I can remember looking at Grandma Last. I thought he was the best person I could remember. He ran a candy store and I used to love to go and get a pennys worth of candy. I always came away with a sack full. I can also remember others there but I don't know now who they were.

Grandma always had a beautiful garden. I can remember her always bending over and I could see her bloomers. She would always bend straight over from the waist. She raised beautiful flowers. I will always remember the sweet peas growing on her fence. I loved the smell of them and they always looked so pretty. She always had some Holly hocks at the back of her garden. And around the side of the house I can remember lots of green flowers leaves and orange flowers.

I can remember that she always put her hair up on curlers. And when she combed it out they would go right back into the little rolled curls around her head. She taught me how to put rags curls in my hair. I couldn't stand to sleep on curlers. Her hair was always dark brown. Even when she got older her hair didn't turn grey very early. She had black or dark brown hair on the back of, her head the last time I ever remember seeing her.

Grandma loved to quilt and so she was always making or quilting or tying quilts. I can remember going to Relief Society as a little girl and my Grandma quilting. I guess I come by it naturally. I also love to work on quilts.

Grandma also crocheted. I learned to do that and embroidery from her. She loved pretty and nice things and so she was always making something to decorate or make things look nice. I don't remember her knitting and so I don't know it she ever did that or not.

I can remember when she came to Washington when I was about eight. Grandpa brought us a big bunch of suckers and he made the mistake of giving them to Thad or Sharon and Grandma took then away from them and said " we can't give them candy before supper" I can remember he didn't agree with her but she won the battle as she gave me the suckers and I had to put them up to be divided later after supper.

I also remember her coming when Nola was born. She had to sleep in my bed and I was left on the coutch[sic] where I could watch and see if Santa came. He put a chair with something on it and I didn't see anything.

Grandma could be very cross and down right mean to some of the kids and so my sister Hallie hated her. I can remember Hallie went up and said Grandma I love you and she couldn't hear and supposed her to be begging for something and so she slapped her and sent her away. I don't think Hallie ever forgave her.

She used to sit and look out her front room windows. She always knew who was coming and going and what everyone was doing . She blamed the neighbors for leaving her water running and for turning on her burner and leaving it going. I know that she did these things herself but she would never admit to it.

She always layed down and took a little cat map after lunch. She never slept , mind you, but she would snore so loud you could hear her all over the house. That is until she would wake herself up and cuss whoever happened to be around for making so much noise that she couldn't rest.

She would write me letters and I don't know if I ever wrote her back or not.

I loved my Grandma and would love to have all children love a grandma like I did.

When she died I was married and expecting Jana, I think. I was living in Seattle and so I didn't get to go to the funeral. I'm sure that she gave people around her all the time a much harder time than she ever gave me.

Grandma was very particular about being well dressed and yet I heard she would run around the nursing home with nothing on. I guess we just have to try different things.

I am only one of the many granddaughters that she had and so I'm sure that if each one would write the things you can remember about grandma we would get a pretty good picture of her.

Written this day of February 13, l996 by LaFaun Johnson.

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