Mabel Palmer

The Life Story of Mabel Biggs Palmer, written by her daughter, Madge Palmer: The Biggs family was located on the LaPlata River in a settlement called Jackson. It is now known as La Plata, San Juan County, New Mexico. At this time Johnathan George Biggs and Sarah Catherine Steele Biggs had a family of three children; Evaline, eight years of age; Jess, six years and Pearl, three. It was a warm summer and a new addition was expected at anytime. On the 25th of July, 1891, a new baby girl came to brighten their home. Mabel was born in a frame house that was shaded by a large cottonwood tree, near the river, on a 180 acre farm. Johnathan said, “that was the best land he had ever owned but they were not able to supply enough water.” They lived there for seven or eight years trying to get the necessary water. He helped to make Jackson Lake. Some say that Sarah Catherine’s father, Jessie Pierce Steele, named the lake after his mother, Susannah Jackson. While living in Jackson, Maude Syrina Biggs was born on July 27, 1893, and Etta Grace Biggs was born November 16, 1895.

Aunt Ruth remembers her father telling about Mabel when she was very small and they were still living in Jackson. He said it was in the summer time and it was very hot. One night they couldn’t go to sleep so he and his wife, Sarah Catherine, went outside and slept in the wagon. Maude was just a baby, so they took her with them. The next morning when they got up and fixed breakfast Maude wasn’t there. Mabel looked around for her. She couldn’t find her out in the yard either. Mabel became very excited and asked where she was. Jonathan like to tease. He said, “he didn’t know”. The kids didn’t know either. So Mabel made another search around. She didn’t find her. She came in in tears and said, “I guess the old sow had got Maudie”. Father Johnathan then told her to look in the wagon. Of course, she was really thrilled to find Maude. This shows a characteristic of Mabel all through life of loving her family and being concerned about everyone’s welfare around her.

Aunt Ruth thinks Alma has a disposition very much like her mother, Mabel. Since times were hard for the Biggs family they looked for land that could be irrigated and they moved down to the San Juan River in Kirtland. Here another daughter Gertrude was born into their home, October 11, 1900. They lived there in a mud and rock three room house. There was a rock cellar there for food storage. This same year Johnathan George Biggs and Elmer Taylor (brothers-in-law) built their families new brick homes. Elmer did the brick work on both houses and Johnathan George did the stone work for both. Both were beautiful homes and are now occupied by Daisy Jones, which was the Taylor home, Bonna Bond in the Biggs’ home. My mother, Mabel, was privileged to live in the lovely home for nine years.

Her close girlfriends were the Tanner girls. Ethel and Loncey, who lived in a beautiful brick home diagonally to the east across the street from the Biggs’. Mabel and Loncey called to each other from the upstairs windows. When the girls were getting ready for a dance, they usually got ready together. Aunt Ruth says in those days girls wore a corset with steel stays in them. The corset was laced in the back. It was fashion to have small waists and large hips. So all the girls would cinch up so much that they would be very uncomfortable. But they would endure it to be small around the waist. Also, they usually wore shoes that were too short for them so their feet would look small.

Five years after Gertrude was born another baby girl joined the team of girls. Zetta was born in the new brick home December 11, 1905. Three years later a stillborn baby came into the family, making nine girls and one boy. A total of ten children for the Biggs family.

There sisters and their brother had very good training from their father and mother. Grandfather Biggs liked his children to be clean, as well as his home. He had the right wife for the home was always very well kept. Each Saturday the windows were washed, the curtains aired, the cupboards were cleaned, the floors scrubbed, the rugs shaken and replaced and the dusting was done. At the end of the day the house was immaculate and clothes ready for Sunday.

In those days church and school were attended in Fruitland where the Alma Branch is now. The white church faced east instead of north. They either walked, rode horseback, or rode in a wagon or buggy drawn by horse to the gatherings at the church or the dances at the co-op.

On May 29, 1904, a move was made by the leading people to consolidate the Fruitland and Kirtland school districts. They desired a nine month school year instead of the five or six months they had been having. When Mabel was a teenager, she and a group of girls were walking, talking, and laughing along the road. A young man, two years their senior, came prancing along on his pony and grabbing Mabel by the hand ran her up the road to ask her to go out with him.

Al and Mabel enjoyed good times together, but the other kids teased them so much they decided to quit going together. About a year later they began their courtship in earnest.

Aunt Ruth remembered the day Mabel got married. Loncey Tanner, her friend, came over to help Mabel get ready. Aunt Ruth, who was eleven years old, sat on the bed and watched Loncey comb Mabel’s hair, cinch up the corset (Mabel was an ideal 18 inches around the waist) and helped her get into her dress. The white dress was the prettiest Aunt Ruth had ever seen. Aunt Ruth though Mabel looked so pretty and remembered saying, “I wish I could get married.”.

Mabel's whole wardrobe that she purchased for her marriage only cost $15.00, which consisted of a long dress, a linen slip, shoes, and hat according to Aunt Ruth’s memory. Al and Mabel were married at her parent’s home on May 29, 1909, by Bishop Neilson. After the marriage they left by horse and buggy to meet the train in Mancos, Colorado, to go to Salt Lake to the Temple. They stayed in Provo a week with Al’s brother, Asael, who was going to school in Provo, Utah. There were sealed for time and all eternity on June 9, 1909. Al had borrowed $300 for the trip and arrived home with very little left. They lived with Al’s parents on their return home.

When George Asael and Lucity Palmer and family moved down on the river, Al and Mabel lived in the Palmer home until his parent returned. Aunt Ruth stayed with them most of the summer. Mabel was afraid to be alone all day while Al was at work, as tramps came by quite often begging for food. When George Asael and Lucity Palmer returned to their home, Al and Mabel moved into a two room tent with board floors, windows, and door. The tent was placed in a field by a large iton bush, the closest thing to a tree, east of where the Jay Bloomfield home is now. They hauled their water from the San Juan River in a barrel. Here I was born April 11, 1910. My mother suffered very much in giving birth to her first baby. She went into convulsions and they were afraid she would never make it. Later daddy bought some land where the Warner’s now live (on the arroyo). They moved their tent on this land, and that is where their second child, Ray Leon Palmer, was born, November 13, 1911.

Later Al built a one brick room with a lumber room addition, which is still standing. Elmo was born there on April 21, 1915. Aunt Gertrude stayed with them at that time, along with Aunt Iva Palmer. Mabel was always nervous living there. She still feared that a tramp would come by. So Al bought her a bull dog, which was plenty mean.

One day as Mabel and the kids were going to Kirtland she crossed a bridge at the head of Lovers Lane, looking back she saw a tramp peek out from under the bridge. She hurried with the kids down to Taylor's(now Daisy Jones.) When she got there she realized she had left some money in the cupboard. So she got the grown Taylor girls to go back with her to get it.

Another time she was home alone. A sewing machine salesman tried to come in to sell her a machine. He asked her where her husband was. She told him that he was just up the road farming, and that she did not want to buy a machine. He left and went up the road. In a short time he came back as he saw no one farming. As he started through the gate she told him not to come any farther or she would set the dog on him. He started on, picking up a good sized club. He went after him. He beat her and she held tight tearing his pant leg. He yelled, “Lady call off your dog and I will leave.” Which he did.

The next place they bought was a two room lumber house where the Bigelow’s live now. It was better for them. They could walk to church and the children could get to school with out much trouble. This was where Lyle was born, June 2, 1917. This time Aunt Ruth was with them. Mabel again had convulsions in delivery but recovered in time. While living in this home, their son, Leon, had Saint Vitus Dance. They took Leon to a doctor in Durango, Colorado. Al got a job at the plant there to get the necessary means to pay the costs and Iva, his sister, went with him to care for Leon and take him to the doctor.

After they had been there for some time Leon seemed to get worse. One morning Al got up with the feeling he would take him home and Aunt Iva felt the same way. The only way to be able to do that was to get his pay check to settle accounts and train fare home. It was very early in the morning, but he went to the plant in hopes someone would be there. The man who wrote the checks was there and he gave Al his money. They were just barely able to catch the train. On the way home Leon broke out with measles. Al did not want to take him home to expose the other children so he left him with his mother while he went home. When he opened the door there lay Madge just broken out with measles as Leon. So Leon was soon returned homed.

A Prayer Circle was held for Leon and within two weeks time Leon was as well as strong as ever. A man who had a daughter in the same condition visited Al about two weeks after he had left Durango. He couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw Leon as healthily and strong. The family knew it was through the blessing of the Priesthood, the power given to men from Heavenly Father, that he regained his health so quickly.

This house was so small they sold it and bought an eighty acre farm with a three room adobe house, where the Bushman’s now live. Sage Bushes grew all around the house. There were no other houses on the south side of the road until just before you get to the Grace B Wilson School. Neither was there water on the hill for gardens or lawns. The farm land was below the hill next to the river, and a productive orchard was below the hill with all kinds of fruit trees. Al worked hard to get water for the land around the home. They needed the garden near. Water for the home was obtained from a spring down the side of the hill. A watering trough for the animals was also fixed below the spring.

The house was a two story adobe. There was a crack in the wall from the upstairs window down to the first floor window. When the wind would blow you could see the wall sway. Daddy got a telephone pole to prop it up. One night the wind was blowing so hard that he moved the family down to the cellar. Mabel gave birth to another daughter on July 19, 1920. They were all so happy that she was a girl, especially her sister, Madge. They gave her the name of Alma in honor of her father, Al.

Al worked at making adobies and bricks and building houses. He hired Frank, an Indian, who called himself Frank Palmer, to work the farm and Frank’s brothers and friends to help with the other work. About the same time that Alma was born Frank’s wife came over to the Palmer home. Mabel and Frank’s wife laid their babies on the table together to measure and compare them. Alma had no hair. She was plumb and round, beautiful white skin, pretty as a picture with sparkling blue eyes. Andrew had coal black hair, sparkling eyes, a handsome baby boy. It was a picture never to be forgotten.

Dale D. Palmer was born July 11, 1922. Dale was about two days old when another wind storm more wild than the first came in the night. Daddy was away at work. Aunt Sally Palmer was staying with us. We had kerosene lights at that time. She got mother up. Mother carried the baby and Aunt Sally carried the lamp. I was able to get all the kids from upstairs where I was sleeping and we all went to the cellar, which my father had finished building. Mother remembered that there was kerosene lantern upstairs in the corner of the room. At one time there had been a stove down stairs with the pipe going up through the upstairs. The stove had been removed as Daddy had built a fireplace in the downstairs room. I went with Aunt Sally upstairs to get the lantern. She had to go by the hole left from the stove pipe which had never been covered. She had forgotten about it and fell through with one leg, which was really frightening. She was able to get out and get the lantern so that we had a light for the rest of the night.

Not long after Dale’s birth Daddy took seriously ill with typhoid fever. His mother, Lucity Palmer, who was a mid-wife and helped with all kinds of sickness, came to the home to care for her son. He seemed to get worse and worse. He became unconscious and lay that way for weeks. The doctor told Mabel not to call him anymore for he was same as a dead man. Uncle Tom Stolworthy told the doctor, “We are praying for that man, and we are praying for you, so please come anytime Mabel calls you.”

A Prayer Circle was held at Mabel’s brother, Jess’s home which was just across the fence from the Palmer home. The room was filled and prayers were offered. When I left the Prayer Circle I knew my father would be made well. One morning soon after the Prayer Circle was held, Al’s mother walked into his room. He turned over in bed and said, “Good morning, mother”, just as though nothing had happened. He began to mend from that time on. He had lost all his hair. His eyes were set far back in his head. The skin was stretched tightly over his skin. He had to learn to walk again. He recovered beautifully. His hair grew curly and brown. He used to be a red head. Soon he was able to carry on his regular work. Leon was a very active boy helping his father with the cattle by riding to see if the cattle in the hills had water and food. He loved to ride horses. Many times in the evening we would hear the clatter of the horses hoofs coming up the road. He’d swing into the gate and out to the corral. He also helped with all the chores and irrigating as well as on the adobe yard. He loved baseball and was catcher for one of the teams.

When he was 13 years old he took Saint Vitus Dance again. This time he did not recover. It took five men to hold him down at his passing which was May 18, 1925. This was a great loss to the family. During all of these trails, Mabel carried on assuming the responsibility of the work, the farm, family, and all. Her health was not good and she was told by the doctors not to have anymore children or she would never make it. They planned to be careful and six years after Dale was born Mabel became pregnant again. All her babies had been born at home but this time she was able to have a doctor’s care and go to the hospital.

I was left in charge of the family as Daddy had to work in Pagosa Springs making three hundred thousand adobes, setting them into a kiln and burning them to brick. I was a senior and it was graduation time. Jack Wendell Palmer was born May 10, 1928, in the San Juan Hospital in Farmington. Again Mabel suffered greatly. Her one eye turned back in her head and didn’t come back to place for a month. Again she recovered and things progressed normally.

Al and Mabel were always active in church. Mabel held positions as Second Counselor in Relief Society and Primary President. Al held the positions of Teacher in Sunday School, Activity Leader in MIA and Counselor in the Bishopric.

Then came the supreme test. Mabel discovered she was pregnant again. The doctors said we must take the baby or you will never make it. Mabel had been told that many times. She had suffered death for each of her children. Her answer was no, I want to have my baby. Baby Bruce was born February 18, 1932. Mabel lived five days after his birth.

Before she went into delivery, she said, “You kids listen to Daddy and help him and be good.” That was the last time I ever talked to her. She passed away February 23, 1932. We were called to the hospital just at sunrise. I’ll never forget the glow of the sky. But, we were too late. She was gone. Her body was taken to her father’s and mother’s home. Her funeral was at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-days Saints and she was buried in the Kirtland cemetery February 25, 1932.

Mabel was a wonderful manager though she had little to do with. She made the best of things, always trying new dishes for the family meals, making clothes for her family, making her own patterns and styles. She helped her sister Maude as Maude didn’t sew. Maude had a daughter, Winifred, the same age as Alma and when she would make something for Alma, she would make something for Winifred, too. She pieced quilts for herself and her sisters on shares. It became quite a project. The sisters would furnish the material, she would piece them together and then there would be a quilting altogether.

Mabel was very handy with the sick and helped her own family and her mother’s family many times. She enjoyed helping her sisters by caring for their children occasionally. Aunt Ruth says, “Mabel was a good manager. Al was gone so much of the time. He always had Indians working for him. They always had stock and chickens to take care of. She had the family and the farm to worry about, but she managed. Mabel always made people feel welcome in her home. My children always liked to go there. If there got hurt she always took care of them. One time Kay got hurt and I didn’t know what to do for him. He said, “I wish I was down to Aunt Mabel’s. She always knows what to do”. She always had sympathy for anyone in trouble."

SOURCE: Family Search.org