Elizabeth Ann Naylor Allen

Elizabeth Allen

A Life Sketch of Elizabeth Naylor Allen By her Daughter, Hazel Allen Udy As I remember and attempt to relate some of the incidents regarding a life sketch of my dear mother, I hope I can do justice to her. Mother was someone very special to me, with an understanding heart. She was always very loving, and had the sweetest way to encourage me when I was sad or discouraged. She was helpful to me when I needed a helping hand. Deep in my heart, she holds her place with the beautiful smile that would light up her face. Mother was a beautiful woman who took great pride in her appearance. She took great care of her hair. She used a hot curling iron to curl the front top of her hair and bobbed the back. Her clothes were always clean and pressed. She always wore an apron over her dress, but she kept a very special apron to slip on when company came. She stood straight and tall, even when she was crippled with arthritis, and maintained her beautiful Womanly stature. Her hair was always combed with a curl on her forehead and a braided bob wound up in back. My mother was a very quiet person and always had a smile and a gentle word for everyone. She never raised her voice to her children and we all loved and respected her deeply. She kept her feelings to herself. If she felt sad and needed to cry she never let us see her. She disappeared from our presence to cry to herself, but I always could tell how she felt by her reddened eyes. She loved us all dearly. She always seemed to enjoy us all at home and around her. It was such a lonely place to live that she probably tried to fill that loneliness with the presence of her children. She was kind and generous to everyone, even the tramps as we called them. No one was ever turned away from her door hungry. Many a meal was prepared for them and put on a plate with a napkin or a wet wash cloth and towel to clean their hands. However, she was cautious about asking them into the house . Friends and relatives from Malad Idaho seemed to find refuge at our home even in the middle of the night. They may have had car trouble or were snowbound, but they somehow always stopped at our home. Many a time, My dad and‑mother cooked meals for them. It did not matter whether it was ten oclock p.m. or two oclock in the morning. They were always made welcome. We even gave up our beds and slept on the floor. I suppose we were being taught what it meant to sacrifice to aid other people. My mother was a good cook. She always had plenty of delicious food prepared to fill our empty stomachs as we came home from school. She made good bread, and did we enjoy it while it was hot. Each day she cooked eight loaves of bread. The bread was cooked in the wood burning stove. I have never tasted better peach preserves than my mother made. She always purchased clingstone peaches, preserved them and put them in a big crock jar with a lid on top. Our cousin Isaac Allen and his wife Elmena, who lived in Brigham Utah, frequently came up to visit with us and always brought a supply of fruits and vegetables such as raspberries, cherries, peaches, apples, watermelons, and cantaloupes. They were indeed very kind and generous, loving people. They must have realized that we had no means of transportation to obtain these fruits, etc. With all this fruit, she bottled a lot of fruit and preserves or jam. Her peach preserves and plum preserves were delicious. We would go down to the basement and bring up a big bowl full of peach preserves. Hot bread, butter, and jam could not be equaled anywhere at any time. My dad was generally away herding sheep or he was working for a neighbor, John Wells on his farm and eventually on his own farm in Washakie. My dad and brothers went up into the hills, dragged wood out of the hills behind a horse and brought it down to our home. The wood was chopped and used to cook food and to heat the house. We didnt enjoy the comforts of modern living. Kerosene lamps were used to light up our home. A great deal of pride was displayed in my mothers ability to keep our clothes clean. She scrubbed the clothes on a washboard till we got a washer that was hand operated. We all took turns in turning the wheel of the machine. It was a tedious and tiring job. Later we acquired a gasoline motor washing machine. The white articles were boiled in a boiler, rinsed and hung in a very organized manner on the line. She made our own soap out of the fat from the pigs. She mixed the fat with lye and cooked it for several hours till it was of the right consistency. Then it was pored into flat pans, cooled, and cut up into bars of soap ready for use. She was equally as fussy about her ironing of clothes. No wrinkles were found in any of the ironed clothing. I was allowed only to iron the flat pieces such as handkerchiefs, pillowcases, etc. She used hot flat irons, which were heated on the coal stove. It seemed that we were almost living in a primitive time, but electricity was not available in that area yet. I was twenty years of age when electricity was finally acquired. Oh, how wonderful. Electric lights were. Just to switch them off and on was amazing to us. Then a refrigerator arrived to take care of milk products and other foods. It was almost too good to be true. Then we obtained an electric washing machine and an electric iron. Sometimes we dont appreciate our blessings till we really realize how it was then without all of these conveniences. We had a hand operated separator which separated the cream from the milk. The cream was churned into butter in a hand-operated churn. We always had plenty of good buttermilk and cottage cheese, again thanks to my dear mother. She even made headcheese from hogs heads. She worked and scrubbed and cleaned on these hogs heads then cooked them for hours and pressed it in pans so it could be cut in slices ready for sandwiches. Another attribute of my mother was her ability in teaching us to hang up our clothes. With our limited living quarters, our clothes must not be left lying around. We had make shift closets in the corner of the room which were kept covered with sheets to protect the clothes from dust. She darned socks and patched holes in articles of clothing to preserve their life. Before we had linoleum on the floor and the floor was bare, she would actually scrub those board floors with lye in the water to disinfect as well as clean them thoroughly. A great responsibility was placed on my mothers shoulders. She never complained and I sometimes wonder how she ever carried on. She was a very economical person. She spent her money wisely because it was hard to get. She would cash her meager cream check and managed to save a little for a rainy day. We had to carry the water from a spring below the house. It was quite a job to carry buckets of water up that hill. My mother carried many buckets of water up the hill. She carried water to trees that were planted. She was so proud of her shade trees since it was so hot and dry around their tub. Our bath water was heated in a copper boiler on the coal and wood burning stove. Then we each took our turn to bathe in a round galvanized tub. She always insisted that we kept ourselves clean and well groomed. Her motto was that you can be poor but you can be clean. She set a beautiful example for us children, and we are proud to have had such a beautiful and loving mother who cared for us. I remember when she made my school dresses and I would get so tired modeling them for correct measurement. She would always say "hold still a little longer, Ill soon be through". This seemed like hours to me. Although many years have passed since we lost her, thinking of these memories always lifts me and helps me to try a little harder. I hope that I have been able to pass on some of her love to my own family. Notes by the typist: This history, as written by Hazel Loretta Allen Udy, ends at this point. Darlene Udy Harrison, a daughter, and her husband, Vaun E. Harrison, compiled and typed this history from Hazel’s notes in the year 2003.