Meet The Prigmores--They're Among Best Americans

July 1952 newspaper article:

Since Friday is the 4th of July, and we all wave flags and talk loudly of independence, I should like to tell you about some good Americans. Although both Mr. and Mrs. Prigmore of Kaysville still carry their broad English accents, they are, nevertheless, as fine Americans as anyone could be.

'Way back in 1910 in Sheffield, England, Charlie Prigmore's uncle, one James Smith from Kaysville, went to study some geneology. It was not hard to persuade his nephew to come to America. Charlie, on the other hand, experienced little difficulty in persuading Bertha (who was not then Mrs. Prigmore) that here was the land of opportunity. So, in May, 1910, while hating to leave his native England, Charlie Prigmore came to America and straight to Kaysville. Bertha came a few months later, in October, and they were almost immediately married by the late Henry H. Blood.

The Prigmores were converts to the LDS church but they became Americans, too, as soon as they arrived. Immediately they started taking out citizenship papers, it took five years to complete, according to law, and they have been good citizens ever since.

Mrs. Prigmore is a dear little lady, still unmistakedly British in appearance and talk. She is a great lover of the literary. Her father was somewhat of a poet (Rose, one daughter, has some of her grandfather's writings in a scrapbook), and she inherited from and was encouraged by him to pursue matters poetic. The result is that you would travel far to find anyone with a wider knowledge of the best in English and American literature. She can quote reams of poetry-- including Shakespeare -- and for several years has been in charge of the literature lessons in the Kaysville First Ward Relief Society.

She says she has always found comfort and enjoyment from the poetry of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and likes to quote her "Psalm of Life" when she feels the need for some sort of uplift.

Charlie Prigmore, too, is an unusual person. When I was a child, I remember well the beautiful grounds surrounding the U.P station in Kaysville. There were roses, many other flowers, and a small hedge that spelled "Kaysville." He tells me that, back "on the other side of the water" he first started working with flowers when he was 16 on a huge estate.

When he had been in Kaysville only a few days, his uncle took him to Lagoon. Seeing the gardens there, Charlie said "There's a place I'd like to work." It so happened that the chief gardener there was looking for a helper, so he was hired. He worked there for five years, then later for the McDonald Roof Garden, and for seven years cared for the U.P. grounds.

There are three Prigmore sons and two daughters. Two of their sons were fighting Marines during World War II, seeing action on Pelelieu, Iwo Jima, and many other bloody places. One daughter, Edna, was a Wave, too, during the war.

The Prigmores are ideal citizend in many ways. They have raised their sons and daughters to be active members of society. I don't suppose, either, that any member of the family has ever done anything which was harmful to other people or to society. They are, indeed, the type of people who make America, and especially Davis County, the best place on earth!

---newspaper clipping does not give the author's name. The title of the column is "Personalities." Newspaper name is not known, probably not the "Davis County Clipper," but was possibly called "The Reflex."

About James Windross by Charles Prigmore

James Windross was Bertha's father, he was a good Christian gentleman, he believed in truth and honesty, he was a great man to study the scriptures. Sometimes in an evening we would read the bible and comment on what we had read. Sometimes Bertha (your mother) would play the piano and we would sing hymns. It was something like Home Evening. He was a writer for what was known as the Factory Times that was in Lancashire, and the pieces he used to put in the paper, he made lot of enemies because he believed in the right. Your Mother told me at one time there was a man very faithful at his job who was getting starvation wages, he felt so badly the way the factory had treated him with the hard work and low wages that he felt so sorry for him, he (Grandpa Windross) just broke down and cried. And this man had a large family. Well when the writeup was put in the Factory Times, it did not please the bosses too much. That caused a rumpuss, but Grandpa did not mind for he believed in fighting for the poor, helpless man who was being took advantage of. The last I see of him, Grandpa Windross, he had come with me from Sheffield to see me off on the ship, Zeeland. I shall never forget it, when I had to say good bye to go on the ship, he said, "Goodbye, trust in the Lord, and don't forget your prayers." And he tied his handkerchief on his cane and waved it as long as he could see. And I never shall forget his answer to my letter when I told him we were baptized into the church. His answer back: "Now you have joined the LDS Church is a sign you believe in it, so now, work for it, live for it and if needs be, die for it, and May God Bless you, love your father, James Windross. The temple work has been done for him. I am sure he is now rejoicing.

The above story was handwritten by Charles Prigmore for his children. At times I had a hard time deciphering the writing. I tried to keep it as close as possible to the way he wrote it. I have looked through Grandpa Prigmore's album dozens of times but I don't recall taking the time to read the note containing the above remembrance. I can just visualize Great Grandpa Windross tying the handkerchief to his cane and waving it.

Poem by James Windross

Shadows are we one and all;
A photo is a shadows play.
And written words like shadow fall;
The shadows of the mind are they.

Then shade this page whoe'er you be;
Tho' also here your mark must fade,
Except not immortality;
Where even light itself is shade.

Yet, all the same your hand display;
Yet, all the same your mind relieve,
If like the flowers we pass away;
Like them expressive let us live.

By James Windross
April 22, 1907

This was taken from a page hand-written by Grandpa (Charles) Prigmore.

Bertha Windross' Book

Jean has Grandpa Prigmore's journals. I didn't even know he had any. It would be great if they could be digitized and his posterity have access to them.

Marsha used to have a little beaded purse that belonged to Grandma Prigmore. She is uncertain whether or not she still has it.

Marilyn has a sampler of Elizabeth Smith Prigmore, Grandpa Prigmore's cane and some candlesticks that were wedding gifts of Grandma and Grandpa. Until she gets home from her mission at the Salt Lake Family History Library, she will be unable to provide pictures.

I was straightening a bookcase and came across the following book of daily thoughts that belonged to 'Miss Windross.' It is very old and dirty.

Heirlooms

Grandma Prigmore (Bertha) kept many years' worth of the Relief Society Magazine. She had them bound into books. Mother (Edna) said she couldn't keep or store them all. I selected one for a remembrance of Grandma. The bound magazines are from 1954.

One year for my birthday, Mother (Edna) wrapped up this glass relish tray/candy dish for my birthday. My first thought was that it was rather impractical and I probably wouldn't use it. In my estimation, Tupperware would have been a better choice. Then I saw a little handwritten note that said this was a wedding gift sent to Grandma and Grandpa Prigmore (Charles and Bertha) from relatives in England. Suddenly the value of the pretty dish went up considerably! I still haven't used it, but have it on 'display' in my curio cabinet.

This is a sampler made in the Oakley School in England by my Great Grandmother, Elizabeth Smith Prigmore. She was born in 1845 and it is thought that she made this in the early 1850's. I have always wanted a granddaughter named 'Oakley Elizabeth' in her honor. Unfortunately, none of my daughters chose that name. It is still up for grabs! (Click picture to enlarge and see detail)

I know there are other priceless family momentos out there. We need to have pictures of them to share with other family members. Also, I hope to have many of you author submissions on the blog. We can add you all to the list. Thanks!

Thomas Prigmore

Thomas Prigmore
A Brief History
Written by son, Charles H. Prigmore


Date of Birth: May 1839
Place of Birth: Felmersham, Bedfordshire, England
Parents: Ann Saunders and Dickens Prigmore
Spouse: Elizabeth Smith
Date of Marriage: 12 October 1882
Child: Charles Henry Prigmore
Date of Death: 7 July 1896

My father was in the British Army before he married. He was never at war but was a guard in the British colonies in India. After he left the service he married and lived at Oakley, Bedfordshire, England. He was employed on an estate owned by the Duke of Bedford. He had some kind of disagreement with the foreman of the estate, and as all the homes were owned by the Duke of Bedford, Father had to move from Oakley to Milton Ernest, a village about 2 ½ miles from Oakley. I was about 10 months old when we moved. Father was employed by farmers part of the time and part of the time he worked for himself. He used to earn money gathering mushrooms, water cress, getting violets and many other wildflowers and taking them into Bedford where the wealthy people would buy them like hotcakes. He had a pension from the British government which kept us going financially. His money from the government came through the mail every 3 months. I well remember the envelope in the mail for on the top was “On Her Majesty’s Service.” (Queen Victoria was queen at the time) I looked forward to these envelopes as Father used to hire a horse and trap (as we used to call it in England). It was a real treat to go to Bedford in a horse and trap and to eat in the restaurant, go to the grocery and clothing store, and sometimes to the store for tools to work with. I always got candies, nuts and oranges.

When Father got sick I remember the doctor coming and telling Father to have patience. Dr. Hicks said he was doing all he could for Father. I remember at times Father had to struggle to get his breath, and Mother would try to help him. I used to go to Sharnbrook to the doctor’s office for medicine. The doctor used to make up the medicine himself. We did not go to the drug store or the chemist shop as it was called in England. If we wanted a doctor in a hurry we just had to go in person to get him as there was no telephone. My father died when I was 12 years old. I do not know what caused my father’s death, but Mother used to think it was the Indian climate that had a lot to do with it.

Sarah Alice Booth Windross

Sarah Alice Booth Windross
A brief history of her life
written by Granddaughter, Edna P. Milligan


Date of Birth: 16 January 1851
Place: Harwood, Bolton, England
Parents: John and Elizabeth Crook Booth
Spouse: James Lowe Windross
Date of Marriage: 1878
Children: Bertha and Rose lived, Ethel died at 7, and three others died in infancy
Died: 28 February 1894


Sarah Alice Booth was the eldest of eight children born to John and Elizabeth C. Booth. Her father died young and her mother married Robert Prestwick about a year after the death of her father. Since Sarah Alice was the eldest child of a large family, she had many responsibilities caring for younger children and household chores. According to the youngest child in the family, Ann Ellen Prestwick, they were a close knit family and along with aunts, uncles and cousins they had many family gatherings and their mother cooked in large quantities.

At age 27 she married James Lowe Windross. At this time in the history of England the economic conditions were poor. However, her husband James worked hard at various types of employment to support his family.

Sarah Alice, no doubt, had poor health and difficult pregnancies and much sorrow and disappointment as she lost four of her six children. Three died as infants and one at age seven years. Sarah Alice died at age 43.

James Smith

James Smith
Information taken from family group sheets and
words written by his grandson, Charles Prigmore


Date of Birth: June 1800
Place of Birth: Oakley Bedfordshire, England
Parents: Mary Griggs and Thomas Smith
Spouse: Elizabeth Craddock
Date of Marriage: 2 Mar 1824
Children: 1 – Samuel Smith
2 – Ann Smith
3 – John Smith
4 – George Smith
5 – Fanny Smith
6 – James Smith
7 – Mary Smith
8 – Lucy Smith
9 – Elizabeth Smith
#3 John, #4 George and #5 Fanny died as very young children but the rest lived to adulthood. #6 James was the uncle who was very close to Charles Prigmore. He was instrumental in getting Charles to come to Utah. #9 Elizabeth is the mother of Charles Prigmore, so is the one from whom we descend.
Died: 7 Feb 1884


My grandfather, James Smith, joined the church known as the Bunyan Meeting. By what Mother told me, Grandfather was a good man, and had he known of the restored gospel I am sure he would have embraced it. He was anxious to go to the Bunyan meetings. As his work involved looking after cows, he had to do some Sunday work. Mother said that on Sunday morning he would milk and feed the cows, clean up the cow shed, come home, eat breakfast, clean himself up, change his work clothes into his Sunday best, walk all the way into Bedford taking his lunch with him, and go to his meetings morning and afternoon. Then he would walk back, change his clothes, milk the cows, come home, clean up again, and go to a cottage meeting. After the cottage meeting he would come home, read the Bible, have family prayer, and then go to bed. He was a good grandfather; I should have liked to have known him. Perhaps I will meet him on the other side.

James Lowe Windross

James Lowe Windross
A brief history
written by granddaughter Edna P. Milligan


Date of Birth: 30 March 1855
Place of Birth: Bolton Lancashire England
Parents: David and Ann Lowe Windross
Spouse: Sarah Alice Booth
Date of Marriage: 1878
Children: Six, Bertha and Rose lived, Ethel died at 7, and three died as infants
Death: 03 January 1940

James Lowe Windross was a self-educated man. My mother, Bertha Windross, had great respect and was proud of his accomplishments. He was a very active member of the Wesleyan Methodist Church and was a local preacher. He had a good singing voice and at one time he taught piano lessons.

His main work and the work he enjoyed was writing articles for a newspaper. He wrote about the poor working conditions in the cotton mills and factories. He once wrote a book called “The Darkest Bolton.”

He wrote poems about nature, about friends, relatives and grandchildren. He could type and write shorthand. He worked in his community trying to improve the plight of the down-trodden, poor, and unfortunate in slum areas. He had great compassion for those in need.

He was the only living grandparent by the time any of his grandchildren were born. Grandpa Windross lived all his life in England. Because of his letters, we Prigmore grandchildren in the United States felt like we knew him even though we never saw him.

Elizabeth Smith Prigmore

Elizabeth Smith Prigmore
A Brief Sketch of My Mother
By Charles Henry Prigmore


Date of Birth: 22 December 1845
Place of Birth: Oakley, Bedfordshire, England
Parents: Elizabeth Craddock and James Smith
Spouse: Thomas Prigmore
Date of Marriage: 12 October 1882
Child: Charles Henry Prigmore
Date of Death: 14 April 1903

Mother was born in Oakley Bedfordshire, England. Her Father, James Smith, was a religious man who read the Bible and believed in family prayers. Mother belonged to the Wesleyan Methodist Church. She liked her religion, the best she knew, and she saw to it that I went to my church meetings and we studied the Bible. I learned to pray at mother’s knee. This was a stepping stone to the true and everlasting gospel. Prayer was a safeguard as I got older. I am sure mother would have accepted the gospel, as we know it, had she had the opportunity while living. However the work has been done for her. What a kind Heavenly Father we have in giving those who did not have a chance in this life to hear the gospel, the opportunity in the spirit world. Oh what a plan this is! Our Heavenly Father does not want to lose one of His children.

Mother did not marry until late in life because of her bedridden mother. Her mother could not dress herself and needed much attention. My mother made a living making pillow lace and always had a market for her lace. She liked to sell to the wealthy people in Milton, Oakley or Bidnam and other villages ‘round about. If she couldn’t sell it there, she could always sell her lace at the stores, but she did not get as good a price.

My mother was widowed when I was 12 years old and she died when I was 19 years old.

Edna May Prigmore Milligan

Edna May Prigmore Milligan
A Brief History Written by Herself


Date of Birth: May 2, 1917
Place of Birth: Farmington, Utah
Parents: Charles Henry and Bertha Windross Prigmore
Spouse: Horace James Milligan
Date of Marriage: November 20, 1946
Children: Jean M. Malouf, Marilyn M. Adams, Kathryn M. Conlin, Marsha M. Walker, Richard Kent Milligan, James Keith Milligan (deceased) and Ronald Dean Milligan


I was the third of five children, having one sister and three brothers. I was born toward the end of World War I when the world was in a state of great confusion and in great need of both material and spiritual blessings.

The eldest child in our family, my sister Rose, was a great help to our parents and a good influence in the lives of us younger children.

Since our parents had left England and all relatives, we grew up without grandparents, aunt, uncles or cousins. However we did have some of our father’s cousins who were good substitutes for the aunts we didn’t have. We also had good neighbors and always a caring bishop and conscientious teachers in the public schools.

During my teen years was the great depression. I suppose we were considered to be poor at least in material goods. Many of the very rich had lost their material wealth. During those years I worked at the canning factory, picked fruit, tended children etc., to help with the costs of school clothes and books.

I enjoyed school and after graduating from Davis High School in Kaysville, I attended USU in Logan, Utah. At that time it was called the Utah State Agricultural College. Those were four interesting years. I studied hard, met many good friends and had fun. It was there that I met my husband to be. I graduated in 1940 with a BS degree.

During my college years and World War II and before marriage, I worked at USU Extension Service, Kaysville Post Office, SLC Deseret Book, did typing and filing at Hill Field, and taught in the Davis County schools. During World War II I was in the WAVES in N.Y.C. I was a teacher, information clerk etc. At the end of the war I worked in a business office in San Francisco, California.

As for church: I’ve been Relief Society President, Primary President, and I am currently serving in the Oklahoma Tulsa Mission with Horace. (1993)

Stories about
Edna May Prigmore Milligan
….portions of the book by the same title…
written by daughter, Marilyn Adams, December 2004


Mother was born in Farmington, Utah while the family was living there. Her first Bishop, who gave her a name and a blessing on July 8, 1917, was Amasa Clark of the Farmington Ward. Bishop Clark had the distinction of being one of the first children of the first Primary of the Church. Although he was one of the older children at the time, he outlived every member of that first Primary and died at the age of 103.

When Mother was about a year old the Prigmore family moved to Kaysville. They lived on the Simmons Farm for about a year and then moved into the Blood home opposite the Kaysville meetinghouse. During the year they lived there, Eugene was born.

The Prigmore family bought the home at 620 West Center Street in about 1922. It is referred to as the old Barton Home. Mother would have been about 5 years old. The home sat back from the road about 50 yards. It was located 120 feet east of the Union Pacific railroad track. Uncle Gene says they heard every screeching freight and passenger train that went through. As a child, I remember being in the upstairs where there was a door at the end of the hall. It opened up but had no porch or anything, just a drop to the ground. I stood there and felt the train shake the house and was sure I would fall out. I don’t think we were supposed to open the door.

The white, two story frame house with a green roof was north and a little west of the old Kaysville Cannery and Kaysville-Layton Milling Company (now owned by the Church and called ‘Deseret Milling). There was always a nice garden out back and a shed or barn-type building.

Although the street was West Center, it was not a main street. If I remember correctly, there were just a few houses on that street, theirs being the last one before crossing the tracks. It was more like a country lane. It was a very rural area. The entire population of Kaysville when Mother was a teenager was 800.

When the freeway was built (I’m guessing in the late 50’s or maybe 1960) it came through Kaysville and divided their home from the town. The highway was just east of the house. Today, their house is the only one still standing on their street, and the whole area is a built up industrial area.

The Prigmore children slept upstairs in their home. On the main floor, the living room was on the west, an “add-on” kitchen was on the east, with the “parlor” or main gathering room in the center. I don’t know what it was like in the early years, but I think they only had an outhouse. The bathroom as I remember it was also an “add-on,” east of the “parlor.” There was a small bedroom off the parlor to the south where Grandma and Grandpa slept. Even as a child, I remember the rooms being very small and the house being “crooked.” The upstairs was not level and had old linoleum on the floors.

Kathy’s note: [Upon entering the front door there was a tiny little entry. I still remember laying on my stomach in that entry with a piece of paper and a pencil that Grandma had given me. I was about 4 years old. It was the first time I had written my name by myself and I was really proud of myself. I think there was a little telephone stand in the entry. I remember Prigmore family Christmas parties in the living room when we were really young. I loved to shake the little “snow globe” that was in the living room as it fascinated me. The stairs leading to the bedrooms went straight forward and up from the entry. I thought the upstairs of the house was spooky and I worried about the creaky floors giving way. We might have stayed there one time. I know Dad used to say he spent one night there and that was one night too many. In the parlor just in front of the bathroom door there was an ‘under the floor’ radiator-type heating system with a grill on it. It was fun to stand over it. The hot air would make our dresses billow out. The bathroom had a distinct aroma to it, probably from the strong smelling, ever- present green soap, maybe “Lifebuoy” brand. It seems Grandpa had his razor and soap container with the brush used for lathering his face in there too. The parlor had some cupboards or a hutch of some sort on the south wall. They contained dishes, glassware, and lots of treasures and “junk” that Grandma saved…rubber bands, string, little balls of yarn, pencils with erasers on them that had gone hard etc. There was another little narrow lean-to “add-on” on the north where Grandpa used to putter around. The table in the parlor always had an oil cloth table covering. I could go on and on…oh the memories!]

Mother used to talk about their neighbor. I think her name was Mrs. Waite. I believe she was a great neighbor. Mother talked about playing there and Ron wondered if it was there that she learned to play the piano. Kathy recalls that Mrs. Waite had a few “prophetic” dreams…anyway some of her dreams came true or “foretold” of an upcoming event.

The Prigmore family was poor by our standards. Grandpa was employed as a gardener at Lagoon. He also worked at Miller Floral Company, McDonald’s Chocolate Roof Gardens and at the Naval Supply Depot in their greenhouses. He loved working with plants. All of Mother’s teenage years were during the depression. I recall Mother and Dad talking about the depression once. Dad said it really wasn’t as bad as people said. Mother got really stern and said he just had NO idea how hard those times were.

It was during the depression sometime in the 1930’s that Grandpa was without work for a period of time. He was up on a ladder and put his glasses down. He stepped on them and broke them. It was just the last straw. Although he had poor eyesight, he had to go without glasses for quite a period of time.

Aunt Leola told me that the children used to walk along the railroad tracks to pick up coal that had fallen off the train. They used it to heat their home.

Uncle Gene recalls a Christmas where they had no money for a tree, so they cut branches off the hedge and used that for a Christmas tree. At other times Mother talked about her brothers walking all the way to the mountains to the east to cut a Christmas tree and dragged it back home in the snow. They were very young and it took them all day.

All of the Prigmore children had odd jobs they did for people around the neighborhood doing yard work, housework, milking cows, taking care of children, picking fruit, working in the cannery, etc. The money they earned was to help with the cost of clothing, school books, and other expenses. Mother often talked about working at the cannery doing whatever produce was in season. Mother worked many summers in the beans and I have yet to see anyone that can snip beans as fast as she can. Her hands just fly. Uncle Gene is just two years younger than Mother and says that he spent many a day working at the cannery in his early teens for 27 cents an hour. In the summer of 1936 when he was 17, he made $125.00 and thought he had made a fortune. When the government inspectors came in the front door to enforce the child labor laws, they would yell and all the kids would run out the back door. Mother worked long hours in the summer which was against the child labor laws. Gene also talks about working on Earl Waite’s farms doing odd jobs, thinning and hoeing beets, raking hay and cleaning out ditches. He says that they all did a lot of hard labor for stingy wages in those depression years and the stingy people who they worked for were always telling them to be thankful.

In the short history Mother wrote in 1973 on her life she said, “As I look back now these were years (speaking of her childhood in Kaysville) spent mostly in school and work. I, along with the children of that day, was willing to work in the fields picking beans, peas, cucumbers and all kinds of fruits for marketing or working long hours at the canning factory during summer months plus baby tending and housework. Money was scarce, and the depression was in full swing during my early youth. For recreation we swam in the creek in the summer and skated on natural ice ponds in winter. We often went to Lagoon, Liberty Park, Ogden and Salt Lake City by way of the Bamberger Railroad.”

The Prigmores kept a cow. One day Mother’s brothers were playing around with a gun and a shot went through the shed, killing their cow. Uncle Gene says, “Oh, Pa was mad!”

I remember Mother saying how she didn’t have money for anything when she attended the AC (Agricultural College—now Utah State University). One time her Mother sent her some butter in the mail. “Oh what a treat”. It was like a delicacy.

Still today, Mother is very compassionate to people, especially children who don’t have much. Just visiting not long ago, she showed me her 4 or 5 pair of shoes she wears and asked me if I would please take them and give them to children that needed shoes.

I remember many times Mother saying that when she thinks of the hard life her Mother had, she could just cry. As an adult, she tried to help them whenever she could. I remember when she arranged and paid for a new kitchen floor. She was always having dresses made for Grandma as she was hard to fit as she got older because she was short and round.

Their entire life, Grandpa and Grandma never spent much money. They were very frugal. One of the few times they did spend some money on themselves was when they returned to their native England in 1955. Grandma had always longed to return. She missed England and her family there.

I know when Grandpa passed away, Mother was shocked how much money he had in savings. She was sorry that they hadn’t spent some of it to make their life more comfortable and a little easier.

Grandpa and Grandma never owned a car or drove one. I am not sure why, but it was probably because of financial reasons. The family walked everywhere they went. The high school was a mile and a half walk each way which each of the children walked everyday for four years. Later Mother’s brothers had a car.

Mother talked a lot about riding the Bamberger Railway. It was an electric interurban railroad that ran from Ogden to Salt Lake. I am sure that is how Grandpa got to work, and on occasion the family or Grandma would ride it into Salt Lake City or Ogden. In a letter Grandpa wrote about the birth of their first child Rose, he talks about how when the labor went for a couple of days and Grandma was in tremendous pain, still no baby arrived. They had to put her on the Bamberger in order to get her to the hospital. At first the local doctor suggested that they call a doctor from Bountiful, but later thought the hospital in Salt Lake would be better. That decision was made Saturday night, but they had to wait until the first train on Sunday morning to get her to Salt Lake. I can’t imagine taking a train after being labor for over two days. She would have been so weak and in so much pain. Kathy’s note: Grandpa always told me what a very difficult time Grandma had during childbirth. Then when I was expecting my first child, he told me he was really worried because he felt I might go through some of the same difficulties. Although I never thought so, other than being short and round, he said I was built like Grandma. I did have a bad time of it, but the doctors decided to do a c-section. If Grandma would have had her babies in modern times, I am sure she would have also had her five children cesarean.

The Prigmore children had only four first cousins who lived in England. They were the children of their mother’s sister Rose and her husband Jack Fletcher. The cousin’s names were Bertha (called Bindy), Dorothy, Kathleen, and Arthur James (Jim). Mother and her sister and brothers also had a grandfather (James Windross) and step-grandmother in England. Grandpa and Grandma would talk about their families in England all the time and even though they hadn’t met them face to face, they knew a lot about them. They corresponded by letter. Mother has copies of letters her grandfather sent her and Rose over the years. Most encouraged them to work hard in school and comments on what they had learned or their penmanship. He also displayed a faith in God.

Because Mother really had no immediate relatives except her Dad’s Uncle James Smith, she said the people that they were closest to her were her teachers. She said, “We also had good neighbors and always a caring bishop and conscientious teachers in the public schools.”

Mother had to deliver some milk from the cow to some people on the way to school. She would carry the milk in a bottle. She didn’t have any gloves to keep her hands warm in the winter and her hands would get so cold carrying the milk they would hurt and she would cry. When she got to school her hands still hurt so much that the principal would sit and hold her hands and rub them until they warmed up. Mother also used to talk about walking to school in the winter with the snow frozen so solid that they could walk over the fences. Once on the way to school they found a frozen cat.

Kathy remembers a story about Mother being in a barn. They were playing in a hay loft and a pitch fork went into her foot. It seems she used to show us a white scar she still had from the accident.

Both Kathy and I remember a story about someone having their tonsils out on the kitchen table by a doctor who came to the home. Whether it was for Mother or a sibling, we can’t remember.

The Prigmore family belonged to the Kaysville First Ward which met in the old Kaysville Tabernacle. In Mother’s scrapbook she has a “Certificate of Promotion” to the Third Grade of the Kaysville Religion Class of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. At the time she was almost eight years old.

Mother was baptized a member of the Church on May 3, 1925 just the day after her 8th birthday. She was baptized in the Kaysville First Ward Chapel by Clarence B. Stewart, an Elder and confirmed the same day by John. F. Meldrum, a High Priest.

Mother also has a “Junior Seminary Certificate.” She received it in the 7th grade. She had just turned 14. They had religion classes at school where they received a certificate of promotion. Mother taught Junior Sunday School in her ward.

Mother went to the Kaysville Public Schools. She enjoyed school and did fairly well. She graduated from Davis High School on May 22, 1936 with a graduating class of 252. I don’t know why, but she was 19 years old when she graduated. She also graduated from the John R. Barnes Latter-day Saint Seminary that year.

In the fall she enrolled in Utah State Agricultural College in Logan, Utah. It was a longer ride between Logan and Kaysville than it is today. Of course there was no freeway and they could take the old highway. It went all along the old mountain road you can still see today driving through the Dry Lake area in Sardine Canyon. She could only go home for a visit when she could get a ride with someone. In her papers is a letter she wrote to Rose saying she was able to catch a ride home with someone that lived in Bountiful. For a trade she gave them her activity card to get in the football game and then she worried that she would get caught and lose her card.

Mother says in her brief history, “Those were four interesting years where I studied hard, met many good friends and had fun.” I know at one time she lived in an apartment at 518 East 4th North. She used to talk about walking up “Old Main Hill.” She often mentioned a good friend named Edith Barton, later to be Edith Carroll. Another friend of hers was Ione Andres. Her sister later taught Jean in the 6th Grade. On her transcript it shows she attended Fall, Winter and Spring quarters for the 1936-37, 1937-38 and 1938-39 school years and the Fall and Winter Quarters for the 1939-40 school year. She received a BS degree with a major in Physiology and public Health and a minor in English and Zoology.

During her college years she worked at a number of places including the USU Extension Service, Kaysville Post Office and the Salt Lake City Deseret Book.

From 1940 to 1942 Mother taught school at the Clearfield and Kaysville Grade Schools. She received a temporary certificate in order to get the jobs. I think she taught in the 2nd and 3rd grades.

In her records is a registration at the University of Idaho in Moscow for the summer session in 1941. She enrolled there in order to get a high school teaching certificate. She already had a certificate for teaching high school in Utah, but openings in the secondary schools were scarce at that time.

In the summer of 1942 when World War II was in full swing, Mother was hired as a typist at Hill Field Air Force Base in Clearfield, Utah. The salary was much more than what she had received for teaching school.

During the time she spent in Davis County teaching school she enjoyed her nephew, Donny Prigmore (her brother Jim’s son). He was the only niece or nephew for several years. Kathy recalls Mother saying something about taking Donny to see the movie “Bambi.” It seems he cried in the movie and she thought the story might have been too sad or upsetting to him.

Sometime in the 1943 time frame Mother joined the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service). There is a picture in her scrapbook of her on top of the Empire State Building and it is dated September 1943. She was 26 years old. I don’t know why she decided to quit teaching school and join the WAVES, nor do I remember her ever talking much about this period of her life. Whenever there was a movie or book about World War II, she was never interested in seeing the movie or reading the book. She would say that she had lived through that period of time and didn’t want to go back to it. She did tell us that she was in the WAVES, lived in New York City (I think Brooklyn) and that Aunt Rose got a job in New York and lived with her. Rose worked for the Columbia Broadcasting Company, General Cable, and the Bell Telephone Laboratories. Mother taught corps school at the US Navy Hospital in Brooklyn, New York and also did clerical work. In one place she writes that she was an information clerk.

The WAVES was a unit of the US Naval Reserve. As World War II was heating up, a bill was passed in Congress in July 1942 authorizing it’s’ organization. The Navy attempted to lure the brightest women and to utilize them in all lines of work. A recruiting brochure boasted, “It’s a proud moment when you first step out in brand new Navy blues! The trim uniform was especially designed…to flatter every figure and to make you look and feel your best!” A year later in 1943 27,000 women wore this WAVES uniform. Mother was one of them. Her mother mentions that Mother served in the WAVES for three years, but I think it must not have been much over two years.

I thought it was during this time that Mother took up playing the violin. Marsha thinks she might have taken a few lessons when she was in college, but took from an elderly gentleman in New York. She got her violin from him. I thought she told how she had played her violin in Carnegie Hall, but Marsha thinks that the man had played there, but probably not Mother.

Leola tells the story that when Rose and Mother were in New York they decided one day to splurge and buy a brick of ice cream. When they got home and sliced it, there was a mouse in the middle of it.

Mother writes, “We had many good times together (speaking of Rose) going to stage plays, seeing the Hill Cumorah, and witnessing the building of the famous ship Queen, Elizabeth. I met many interesting people. Some were famous ones like Eleanor Roosevelt and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.”

The following is a letter from Edna in New York City, to her parents in Kaysville, at the end of the war. This was a five page handwritten letter.

8/15/45
Dear Mama and Papa,
So much has happened so fast and so furious of late in the past week that I’m not quite sure whether or not I’m awake or just dreaming.
The end of the war and the exciting events leading up to it are never to be forgotten. Ever since the first news of the first atomic bomb, the people of New York have drifted around like bombs themselves awaiting a spark to explode them. Last evening after a week of intense waiting the good news came over the radio at about 7:05 o’clock and New York simply went mad.
Rose and I got home around six. We turned on the radio immediately but didn’t expect to hear any too favorable news because of the word we had heard in the afternoon informing us that the Emperor’s first note to Switzerland had not been enlightening.
But at 6 o’clock the atmosphere was changing. Rose and I stayed glued to the radio and when the final news came we dashed around like mad and got up to Times Square. So did everybody else. The factory whistles blew (many of them out where we live), the subway trains screamed at every station and church bells rang. All street cars and automobiles detoured around the square. There wasn’t room for the people let alone anything else. For twelve blocks the streets were packed with yelling, screaming people. Rose and I pushed ourselves through the streets about 8 o’clock and finally found ourselves in the middle of the square. We went up in the Bell Telephone’s Servicemen’s Lounge and got a good view of the swarming beehive of people below. In about 20 to 30 minutes we went back into the street again to fight our way up Broadway. And it was a fight. It was a sight to see and we would have stayed longer but there were so many silly service boys so determined to kiss the girls and especially the ones in uniform that it became unbearable. I was becoming a little doubtful that I’d make it out in one piece.
This morning Rose decided that she rated two days off according to the radio. Now that she’s been home all day she decided that it was for government workers only. Oh well, I suppose we will all be getting canned soon.
I went to work this morning but at 10:30 we were told to go home and not come back ‘til Fri. morning.
Now the important problem that is facing me at this point is concerning the point system that was announced over the radio this afternoon on the release of naval personnel. I need 29 points for release and it so happens that I have exactly 29 points at this date. You see it’s not the points that are the problem with me. I can’t make up my mind whether to ask for release immediately or to stay in a couple more months ‘til I get finances settled etc. And again I don’t know whether they will release me on account that most everyone is new in our office and it might be necessary that I stay and help out for awhile. But if I arrive home as a civilian in another week, don’t be surprised. Happy day.
Wally and Gene will have to have 44 points to be released. Wally gets ½ point for every year of his age making 11 points plus ½ point for every month in the service. This gives him 29 points. He like thousands of others won’t get out at that rate for a long time. But you see they will lower them and I’m sure he will come home now for sure. Anyway the war is over and you won’t have to worry about the fighting part of it.
I’ll be seeing you.
Love,
Edna

I can’t find any record of anything that shows when she got out of the WAVES, but in 1945-46 she taught at Stoker Grade School in Davis County for a few months and then finished off the school year teaching English at the Bountiful Junior High.

In June of 1946 Mother enrolled at the University of California in Berkeley in order to teach in the California schools, but shortly found out the course she was taking would not help towards a certificate. She dropped out and found employment in a payroll office for Longshoremen in San Francisco. She was able to learn how to operate several business machines while working there. Kathy remembers her saying she used to carry a money bag full of cash some distance along the streets in the dark to make a night deposit. I remember her telling us that one time a man started following her. She was afraid so she turned into a restroom where she stayed for a while. When she left, he was gone. She said after she thought how stupid that was, because when she got into the restroom, she was the only one there and there was nothing to stop him from coming in and doing whatever. During this time she lived in Oakland and commuted to work in San Francisco each day.

In Mother’s papers is a teaching contract for Davis County for the 1946-47 school year for $1800 in 10 equal payments beginning October 1, 1946. She obviously decided not to accept this contract as she was still living in California at the beginning of that school year and also got married that fall.

Mother talked about seeing Dad at church in the Oakland Ward. He had been a dentist on Mare Island during the war, serving in the Navy, and he was still stationed there. She remembered him from some biology classes and labs some years before at the USAC in Logan. They began dating or as Mother says, “immediately became very friendly and soon were talking of marriage plans.” In September Dad returned to Logan to look for a dental office to set up a private practice and to buy a car. At that time he sent a telegram to Mother that said: Dear Edna, I’m having a good time but haven’t found an office or a new car as yet. I’ll look a few more days before returning. Be good and do let me hear from you. Please excuse the delay. With love, H.J.

It was on Halloween night, October 31, 1946 that Mother and Dad were engaged. I remember the story that Dad parked under a street light and gave Mother a diamond. As soon as he did, all the lights in the whole area went out. Dad used to tell the story that as soon as he gave her the diamond, Mother broke into sobs and cried. Apparently she had misrepresented her age to him. She was 29 years old, a full four years older than he was.

This seemed to be important enough to them that just three weeks later, on November 19, 1946 they applied for their marriage license in Box Elder County so their ages would not appear in the local paper in Logan. Dad had been released from the Navy the first week of November.

Mother wrote a note home to her parents. At the top of the letter it had written: Oct. 31, 1946 – Halloween. It said, “Dear All, I just received a diamond this evening. Officially – I’m engaged. We are flying home Tues. 5/46. ‘Will go through to Logan. See you Wed. Love, Edna

Horace James Milligan and Edna May Prigmore were married on November 20, 1946 in the Salt Lake Temple because the Logan Temple was closed at the time. It was a very snowy day. I have never before paid attention to the fact that Mother received her own endowments 3 ½ years earlier, on February 10, 1943, probably just prior to her entering the WAVES.

Kathy found a registration at the USAC in the name of Mrs. Edna Milligan and address of 314 East 2nd South, Logan (Grandma Ruby and Grandpa John Milligan’s home). We were not aware that she went back to school after her marriage.

I think Mother had a fairly happy childhood, but things were not easy. She met her trials with courage and managed them as best as she could. I remember her saying how some people would like to go back and live their childhood again. She said there was no way she wanted to do that. She didn’t want to have to make all the same mistakes again and go through all of that. She was just glad she had progressed as far as she had.

This concludes the history of Edna May Prigmore Milligan up to and including her marriage.

Charles Henry Prigmore

Charles Henry Prigmore
An Autobiography
January 1953


I was born in Oakley, Bedfordshire, England, November 21, 1883. I was born of very humble parents whose names were Thomas Prigmore, who was born in Felmersham, Bedfordshire, and Elizabeth Smith. She was born at Oakley, Bedfordshire. My father was a former soldier in the British Army stationed in India. After he married he was a workman on the estate of the Duke of Bedford at Oakley.

When I was about a year old my father got into an argument with the steward of the estate and quit his job, and owing to every house in the village belonging to the estate of the Duke of Bedford, my father had to move right away from Oakley. Here I might say everyone rented their homes. So Father and Mother moved to another small village called Milton Ernest also in Bedfordshire.

It was here my father used to work some rented land. Sometimes he worked for farmers 10 hours a day at a wage of two shilling per day, equivalent to 48 cents in United States money. He could make more money in the winter by going in the hedge rows or fences digging out the wild rose stocks. These could be sold to the nurserymen for a shilling each (24 cents). These stocks were budded with some choice rose bud and sold to the public.

Also in the very early spring about two or three miles from where we lived were large woodlands, and nestled in the shady nooks you could find growing the loveliest violets, primroses, blue bells, and cow slips or primulas. Father and I would gather lots of the flowers, especially the violets. These we would bunch up for sale at 2 pence or 4 cents per bunch. Then too, all through the country fields of Bedfordshire were lovely streams in which lovely water cress used to grow. This also we used to gather, bunch and take to the city of Bedford. The water cress and violets would sell like hot cakes at 2 pence or 4 cents per bunch. It may seem a small sum to live on, but rent for a month was about 2 shilling and 6 pence or 60 cents. This would be two rooms downstairs and two bedrooms upstairs. Also a large piece of garden for vegetables, and in some cases a pig pen and a chicken coop.

Of course we did not have the modern things such as sewers and piped water in the house. Most people used to have wells and pumps.

My father died when I was 12 years of age. I was the only child in the family, so it was up to mother and me to carry on alone. My mother used to make lace with pillow, beaded bobbins and parchment patterns to work on. The stores and wealthy people would pay good prices for lace. Mother always had a place to sell her lace.

My parents did their best to teach me the ways of right living as far as their knowledge would allow in a religious way. I was brought up in the Wesleyan Methodist Church and Sunday School. The very strict Wesleyans did not believe in dancing or theatre going. I did see a few movies such as travelogues, and temperance lantern slides, this being connected with our Wesleyan Church. I might say here that they were very much against the drinking of alcohol, they did not object to smoking, but bad language such as we hear in Utah, they would blush with shame, and to take the Lord’s name in vain you very rarely heard that pass anyone’s lips.

Occasionally I went to the Church of England. There were just the two churches in the village, the Wesleyan Methodist and the Church of England. I went to the Elementary school which was under the direction of the Church of England. In the school every morning from 9 to 10 we had scripture lessons with instructions on the Church of England beliefs. This caused much friction as our parents who were of the Methodist faith did not care to have their children taught the Church of England faith.

All my schooling was at this one school. I did go some to evening school. I can remember my parents giving me three pence or 6 cents every Monday morning to pay the school principal, or school master as we used to call him. This old school master was very mean and for the least offense he would use the cane. We made up a little song about him. His name was Mr. Barnett. Here’s the song:
Daddy Barnett’s a very good man,
Tries to teach us all he can
Read, write and arithmetic
But he never forgot to give us the stick
When he does, he makes us dance
Out of England into France
Out of France into Spain
Over the hills and back again

As I have mentioned, this was the only school I attended because I had to leave to help mother out with our living. So the schooling I had amounted to what we term as the eighth grade.

I was working before I was 13 years of age. My first job was to herd milk cows along the country lane and roadsides. There was always lots of fresh green grass in England. My next job was to walk 4 miles to work every morning, then work 9 hours a day, then 4 miles walk home in the evening. This I did for 5 months for three shillings or 72 cents a week. I then found a job nearer home at Milton Ernest; here I worked for a Scotch farmer for 3 shillings and 6 pence per week or 84 cents. I used to work 10 hours a day 6 days a week.

When I was about 16, I went to work at a place called Sharnbrook about 4 ½ miles from my home. Mother thought this would be better as I received 3 shillings per week and my board, room and washing, but I really earned all this. I used to get up at 5:30 a.m. milk 5 cows, feed pigs, and 3 horses. Then I would have breakfast then peddle milk around the village. I might say the milk was carried in a bucket with a hinged lid. The measuring can used to hang inside the bucket. There were no sealed milk bottles in those days.

I should say here that the lady I worked for was a widow; she also ran a small laundry employing three women. I too here had to help. I used to go with a donkey and cart on Monday morning to collect up the laundry to be washed from the wealthy estates such as old squire, the church parson and the very rich old maids. The wash was laundered and then on Friday the donkey and cart and I would take back everything all spic and span.

The rest of the time I used to plow, harrow and farm in general with the help of this lady’s son. So with milk hauling, washing to and from the squire, parson, old maids etc., this added up to an 11 hour day.

In passing, the old maid I mentioned had a very elaborate home, and they used to have lots of visitors so with visitors came lots of luggage from the railway station. I used to like this as these dear old maids gave me a good tip, mostly 1 shilling; and in case luggage was heavy I would carry it upstairs and for this I would get an extra 6 pence. These ladies were very generous in this way.

I might add that these ladies were good Christians and did a lot of good in the community. They founded a Temperance Society and helped a lot of young people who otherwise might have got on the wrong track. They were the type of people who if our Gospel had been presented to them they would, I believe, have readily accepted it.

Well I finally left this job as I was offered a place in the work I like most of all. I was about 18 now and started working at garden floral and greenhouse work; so I was back home with mother again.

The estate where I worked was known as the Milton Ernest Hall. The gardens consisted of greenhouses, flower beds, vegetable gardens, tennis court, and orchards. The house was very large. I am not exaggerating when I say it would take up the space of our Kaysville 1st Ward church. Of course I mean just the church part.

The owner of this estate was a widowed lady and her daughter, and her married children used to come there often. These people were very wealthy (as far as this world’s goods are concerned). The help employed to run the place both inside and out were as follows: 4 gardeners, 2 game keepers, 2 men for farm and animals, 1 dynamo operator for private electrical plant, 1 chauffer (as autos were just beginning in England), 1 coachman, footman, 1 butler, 1 cook, 1 kitchen maid, 1 chamber maid, 1 scullery maid, and 1 head house maid.

It was while employed on this estate that my mother died April 4, 1903. It seemed then I had lost all and I felt I had to face the world alone. I was then 19 years of age. It was true I had some good friends and I had a cousin living in Bedford who I often used to go to stay with on weekends. I used to go there on my bicycle. It was about 5 miles from Milton Ernest.

My employer was very good too during the sickness and death of mother—financially and other ways too. After mother’s death I lived with some friends of mother’s, a Mr. and Mrs. Crow, a dear saintly couple. They tried to be parents to me and to help fill the gap that the passing of parents make. They were very good to me, and I in turn, tried to be all the help I could to them.

About 1905 another change took place. The Milton Ernest Hall estate was sold and changed hands. Owing to the fact the people who bought the estate brought all their gardeners with them, I had to seek other employment. I advertised in what was known as “The Gardener’s Chronicle.” I had a gardener’s job offered me at a place known as Clifton Mills, near Rugby, Warwickshire. It was the estate of Sir Albert Muntz and sounded ritzy, but it did not prove to be a very good place. The head gardener used to drink very heavily and he was so disagreeable that I only stayed three months.

In the fall of 1905 I moved to Sheffield, Yorkshire where I stayed with a Mr. Crow, son of Mr. and Mrs. Crow of Milton Ernest. (I mentioned them a page or two back) With work being so very scarce I had to take any job I could get. So with my funds running low I grabbed the first job I could find which was digging basements with pick and shovel and wheelbarrow.

Next I worked at a foundry known as the Brightside Foundry and Engineering Company. Here I worked as a moulder’s helper. I would get castings out of the moulds in the morning, help the moulders with their sand, then in the afternoon help carry and pour red hot metal which ran like water. I shall never forget the first day with the roar of the furnace melting the metal and pig iron until it ran like water. I did not know whether I wanted this job or not as it deemed to me like all hell had broken loose. It was a very hot job; one false move to step in these castings might mean the loss of a foot or perhaps the whole leg, this I witnessed with one fellow worker. It seems though this job was to be a short one, as the company laid off a large group of men, me included. I combed the whole city of Sheffield for another job for days only to be told, ‘sorry, we are full up and are laying off men.’

I felt very discouraged as my little money I had kept getting smaller, and I was strictly on my own. You can get lonely in a country place but to be in a city about 5 or 6 times the size of Salt Lake rubbing shoulders with the crowds is where you feel a lonesomeness that’s hard to describe.

I finally found another job with a company known as Vicker’s Son and Maxim, makers of shipbuilding material, armor plate for battleships etc. My job there was a bricklayer’s helper. The job was relining large furnaces. The purpose of these furnaces, which were heated with gas, was to get large blocks of steel weighing from 80 to 150 tons heated through to a white heat. When this was done this hot steel was taken to the pressing machine, stood on end and with the gentle pull of a lever this steel was pressed flat easier than you could press a pound of butter setting it endwise.

At this place were employed between 5 and 6 thousand people, but this place like all others over there you were sometimes working overtime. Then at other times it was so slack that 400 or 500 would be laid off at one time. So it was during one of these layoffs that I was again out of work.

I finally got the work I enjoyed most, that is greenhouse floral and landscape work. I started this work in the suburbs of Sheffield. The place was known as the Beech Hill Gardens, and was on the estate of the Duke of Norfolk. This was my last place of employment in England.

It was while at the city of Sheffield that I met your mother. This seemed the first real happiness I enjoyed since the passing of my own mother. Your Grandparents Windross and your Aunt Rose were always very nice to me. I still have many happy memories of those years in Sheffield.

One Sunday evening, a little out of the ordinary, I boarded a street car and went right into Sheffield proper. In my roaming about I finally came to a group of people who had just closed their meeting. But a young man came forward and said they were missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly called Mormons. He gave me a very hearty invitation to their meeting the following Sunday which was held in the upper rooms of a warehouse, remember not such a comfortable place as we have to meet in now.

I shall never forget that first LDS meeting. I can picture the LDS Elder now as he stood on a raised platform. He first gave out the hymn, “Prayer Is the Soul’s Sincere Desire.” He then called on one of the members to open with prayer. Then you can imagine my surprise as the elder gave out the second hymn, “The Boy’s First Prayer,” (“Oh how lovely was the morning” etc.) I had never heard of Joseph Smith, the boy prophet, or the restored gospel. I was very much impressed. “God moves in a mysterious way;” it was no accident that urged me to leave the church I usually attended on Sunday evenings and go into Sheffield to listen to the Elder of Israel. When the meeting was over, I found out the elder conducting was Christopher Boynton of Kaysville, Utah. Brother Boynton was very good to me and helped me a lot in a spiritual way. I told him I had an Uncle James Smith (my mother’s brother) in Kaysville and Mr. Boynton knew him well. Then to my surprise one day going home to the place I was staying, I found my uncle there. He told me he was in England in the interest of the genealogy of his kindred dead. This of course, I did not understand; it was all vague to me. He helped me as best he could. When he returned home to Utah, we kept up a correspondence. He sent me tracts and other literature relative to the Restored Gospel. Then one day a letter came from him saying, ”Why don’t you two get married and come out to Utah?” (By the way, he met your mother and her folks while in England)

We talked things over and decided it would be best for me to come first then if I liked it I could send for your mother. Arrangements were made and on May 17, 1910 I said goodbye to Old England. Your mother’s folks as I have said were very good to me, and her father came to Liverpool from Sheffield to see me off on my sea voyage.

It was quite a thing to say goodbye to the land of your birth. It’s true my father and mother had passed away; their remains lay in Milton Ernest Churchyard and I had no brothers or sisters. Still when the final goodbye and handclasp came, I got that choked up feeling.

I set sail for a new land on the S.S. Zeeland. At this time I did not belong to the LDS Church. I did, however, come with a company of elders returning from their missions, and LDS members coming to Utah to make their home. Charles T. Burton who was returning home from his mission was asked by my Uncle James Smith to help me with my traveling affairs. The trip across the ocean was a pleasant one. I thought the company of Saints were some of the best people I had ever met. I learned a lot about the church on board ship. I also heard Charles T. Burton speak at a Sunday evening service conducted by an LDS elder; he also bore his testimony to the truthfulness of this restored Gospel which was very impressive to me.

I would like at this point to relate something that happened in mid-ocean. One day it was very stormy and the sea was very rough; it seemed the ship was being tossed like a cork on the water. It was so rough the steward of the ship would not let us stay on deck. While the storm was raging, I was chatting with the steward and he said, “I don’t mind how rough the sea is; I do not belong to this LDS Church or any other, but I have sailed this ocean for a good many years, and if I have Latter-day Saints on board I never worry for I know they are servants of the Lord, and He will see them safely home.” This is a testimony in itself from a man who did not belong to the Church, but who had great faith in its people and in the work of the Lord.

Our ship landed at Boston, ending a very pleasant ocean trip. From there by train we traveled into Canada. Toronto was our next stopping place then back into the States. At Niagara we saw the falls, both by day and illuminated at night; this was a glorious sight. One of the highlights of our journey was Chicago. We had a seven hour stay-over there, so we saw quite a few sights of the city. After walking around for some time, part of the group, including me, went back to the waiting room to rest. At this period one of the men belonging to the other half of the group came all excited into the waiting room shouting, (he being a Yorkshire man) “Come with me I have been to a shop and found a new kind of a drink.” He told us it was ice cream and ginger beer, and said that you suck it up through a straw. Well, we all went with him to said shop, and on arriving at the shop he said to the store keeper, “Hey mister, give these folks some of that ice cream and ginger beer you suck up through straws.” We learned, of course, it was an ice cream soda. My, and how delicious! This first one I tasted was only 5 cents, and today they are about 25 cents.

Well, we left Chicago very tired and we were glad to rest on the train. The whole company was soon fast asleep. Next morning at daylight we were traveling through beautiful farms, small towns, and our food was running low. Finally we felt the grinding of brakes, the conductor came through our car telling us we would stop for twenty minutes at a small town. Here we replenished our food supply and felt much better.

It seemed our next stop was Omaha, one thousand miles from Ogden, so we were told. The conductor told us we would be in Ogden the next day. The journey was very pleasant from Omaha to Ogden. The Elders as they came nearer home were very excited, but still they did not forget to give thanks in prayer and praise to Him whom they had trusted during their mission. I was very much impressed with the massive snow capped mountains; it was a beautiful scenic journey.

We arrived in Ogden on the morning of May 31, 1909 and about an hour after, we arrived at Kaysville at 7:30 a.m.; thus ended my 14 day journey being 9 days on the ocean and traveling 5 days by rail.

I was met at the Kaysville station by my Uncle James Smith. As we rode up the main streets of Kaysville in Uncle’s buggy a man was sweeping outside his store. The man, I learned, was Brother James Sheffield. Uncle called to him, ”A good morning Brother Sheffield, meet my nephew just arrived from England.” The moment I saw him I knew he was a good, genuine man. His friendly handshake and his bright, kind, friendly smile made me feel I was among friends, and he proved a friend and a helpful brother to me up to his death.

We went on up the street arriving at Uncle’s home. There we met Aunt Polly (uncle’s wife). It was here I ate my first meal in Utah. After breakfast I went to bed, being very tired. I slept until late afternoon, and before I knew it, it was supper time. I don’t remember what else we had for supper, but standing out in my mind is a large dish of strawberries fresh from Uncle’s garden. Well, we chatted about my trip until bedtime.
I did not lose any time, as the following morning, June 1, 1910, I helped uncle with the hauling of his hay crop. This lasted three days. The next day being Saturday, Uncle said, “Let’s rest this morning,” and in the afternoon we went to Lagoon to a Sunday School outing of the Stake (old Davis Stake). As I looked around the beautiful grounds I told Uncle I would like to work there as it was my line of work with flowers, lawn etc.

Well, Uncle hunted up the head gardener, a Mr. Boylin, and as he was short of help I got a job right away. I started work the next Monday morning which made me very happy. Mr. Boylin also came from England, and he and his wife and family were very nice to me. I worked at Lagoon about 5 years steady. I also worked at Miller Floral Company and all in all, I was wonderfully blessed temporally.

My first Sunday in Utah was quite impressive. At this time I had not joined the Church. It being Fast Day, it was also testimony bearing. The members stood up and testified to the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and that Prophet Joseph Smith was a true Prophet of God. And an instrument in bringing to earth the restored Gospel. This, as I have said, greatly impressed me, and I was very desirous to know the truth. I sought the truth through good people, good books, and through prayer. Nevertheless, the evil one tempted me through people who did not love the truth. Still, I had the courage to say, “Get thee hence Satan.”

In October of 1910, your mother came to Utah, and we were married on Oct. 28, 1910 in the best room of Uncle James Smith’s home. Bishop Henry H. Blood (later Governor Blood) performed the marriage ceremony. As he handed us our marriage certificate he said, “It has been a great pleasure to perform this ceremony. I hope too, sometime I will have the pleasure of handing you a temple recommend for you to be married for time and all eternity.”

About two years after this time, I am happy to say, Bishop Henry H. Blood did have this pleasure. He gave us our first recommends to enter the temple where we were married for time and all eternity.

This Gospel is a glorious work; it helps both the living and can help the dead through our willingness, those who are yet alive. Not only have I done my own temple work, but it has also been a joy to do the work for my own parents by having their endowments and also being sealed to my parents.

I have had the joy not only of doing work for my own kindred dead, but for people I have never seen or known on this earth. But every time I go to the temple, I come away feeling happy in the thought that some soul has been given an opportunity to go on and progress on the other side of the veil.

I have written this sketch of myself in all humility that whoever may read this will believe me. I tell you my children, as I have mostly written this for you. It was not chance or luck that brought your mother and myself to this glorious land and to the tops of the mountains. We had a work to do and still do have work to do. You, my children were destined (by us leaving England) to be born in a land choice above all other lands. Through us, your parents, accepting this Gospel, you have been born under the new and everlasting covenant, a priceless heritage that can be envied by kings.

No matter what I may do, I could never deny this work, for I testify to all that this is the Lord’s work, that God still lives, that Jesus is the Christ who suffered and redeemed us from eternal death, that the true Gospel has been restored to earth through the instrumentality of Joseph Smith, the boy prophet. Joseph Smith, being confused as to which church he should join after reading in the Bible in James 5:1 “If any of you lack wisdom etc.,” sought the Lord in humble prayer in the Sacred Grove, and these things were revealed to him. Thus today we have the true Gospel.

I am now about to close this writing. I am grateful I have had the opportunity of coming to this land that the Prophet Isaiah speaks of. “And it shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the tops of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills and all nations shall flow unto it.”

“And many people shall go and say, Come yea, let us to up to the mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us His ways and we will walk in His paths; for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”

Now, I say to all who may read these lines, though you may be in a world of turmoil, you may have a lasting peace, a peace that the world cannot give, nor can it take away.

Now, to my children and my children’s children, peace be unto you.

Charles H. Prigmore

Charles Henry Prigmore
A Brief Synopsis
Written by daughter, Edna P. Milligan



Date of Birth: 21 November 1883
Place of Birth: Oakley, Bedfordshire, England
Parents: Thomas and Elizabeth Smith Prigmore
Spouse: Bertha Windross
Date of Marriage: 28 October 1910
Children: Rose Alice Prigmore Flint, James Windross Prigmore, Edna May Prigmore Milligan, Eugene Charles Prigmore, and Wallace Henry Prigmore
Died: 29 October 1982 in Logan, Utah
Buried: Kaysville Cemetery


My father, an only child, grew up in Oakley, England in a small village 50 miles north of London, England. He attended a one room school house and recalls having a strict schoolmaster as they would get the stick or cane for the least offense.

He became very interested in soil and plant life and worked as a gardener at a big English estate.

Both his mother and father had died by the time he had reached the age of 19. His Uncle James Smith of Kaysville, Utah persuaded him to come to America. At age 27 he sailed to the United States and joined his Uncle James and Aunt Polly in Kaysville. His sweetheart Bertha Windross left her native England six months later and arrived in Kaysville. Charles and Bertha were married in 1910 at Uncle James Smith’s home by Henry H. Blood.

Charles was a convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and was an active member the remainder of his life. He was faithful and obedient to the commandments and had a strong testimony of the gospel.

My father was first employed as a gardener at Lagoon, later he worked for Miller Floral Company and at McDonald’s Chocolate Roof Gardens. Prior to retirement he was employed at the Naval Supply depot in their greenhouses for 16 years.

After mother died in 1968, he moved from Kaysville where he had lived 58 years, to Logan, Utah to be near his daughter Edna and her family. He lived there for 14 years until he passed away at age 98 years and 11 months. He was blessed with an alert mind right up to the day of his passing.

Charles Henry Prigmore’s
Patriarchal Blessing


A Patriarchal Blessing given by James H. Linford, Patriarch at Kaysville, Utah, June 23, 1914, upon the head of Charles Henry Prigmore, born at Oakley, Bedfordshire, England, November 21, 1883.

Brother Charles Henry Prigmore, In the name of Jesus Christ and by the authority of the Holy Priesthood, I place my hands upon your head and seal upon you a blessing. You are one of the chosen spirits of our Father in Heaven to come forth to earth and take a body when the everlasting gospel is upon the earth. Your course of life has been marked out from your birth up to the present moment of time and circumstances have been shaped in your behalf that you have had an opportunity to hear the gospel. The spirit of testimony was given to you that when you heard the gospel the spirit bore testimony of its truth. Through the labors of your uncle James Smith (which was a great factor in your receiving the gospel), you have been gathered home to the body of the Church. The more you study of these conditions and circumstances the more you will give God the Glory and Praise. If you are faithful to the gospel you shall be added upon by the Holy Priesthood and as your mind expands and you comprehend the beauties of the gospel, the more humble you will be. The more obedience you give to the principles of the gospel and to those who preside over you in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints the greater will be your blessings and the guardian angels of your presence will watch over you if you will continue to do so. No evil formed against you will prosper because of the watchcare of those who are appointed to protect you. You are of the tribe of Ephraim and you in common with others of that tribe will receive the blessings and promises that belong to them. The promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are yours to enjoy through faithfulness. Be true and faithful to the Covenants made at the waters of baptism, be true to the Kingdom of God and search for a knowledge of the principles of the gospel. Live each day so that in your feeling you are satisfied with your course in life, your Heavenly Father will be pleased with you, if you take that course. May the blessings of long life be with you, and rest upon you, that you may live long to do good and take an active part in the great latter-day work, that the spirit of your dead progenitors may rest upon you, that you may seek them out and be interested in the work for them. I seal upon you the blessing of everlasting life and the privilege of coming forth in the morning of the first resurrection if you will be true and faithful to the end of life. I seal these blessings upon you in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.





WORK FOR THE DEAD
Written by Charles Henry Prigmore
January 21, 1972


It was one day before the death of my Uncle James Smith that I had a dream. I might relate here, that when I first came to Utah, I did not belong to the church. I learned a lot about the church and the gospel from my uncle. One day the subject of genealogy came up. My uncle told me that the work had been done for my mother (James Smith’s sister) and that he was leaving the work for my father with the hope that I would personally one day do it. I did do my father’s work some time later when I joined the church. I would like to say in passing that this work for the dead did seem strange to me at first. Understand, I was not stubborn about it, but I just could not see it. Well, Uncle referred to the apostle Paul where he said, “If the dead rise not at all, why are they then baptized for the dead?” I had heard this scripture at many funerals in England, yet I had never heard it explained. Even after I joined the church, the idea of work for the dead bothered me. When Uncle told me about mother’s work being done, I said,”Why not let her rest in peace. After all, she had been a good Christian.” But Uncle said that all must have a chance to receive the gospel either in this life or in the life to come. As I have said, I did not want to be stubborn so I prayed that in some way I might see that the work for the dead was the thing to do. Well, my prayers were finally answered through a dream that I will relate.

The night before my Uncle James Smith died I had a remarkable dream. I dreamt that I was walking through the loveliest green field. Such a rich green field I had never seen before. As I walked along I came to a lot of trees which might be called a small forest. On coming out of the forest, I came to the most beautiful flowers you ever saw. Never in my entire gardening career have I seen such flowers, either in England or the United States. Then beyond the flowers there appeared to be a very large lawn. At the far end of the lawn was a crowd of happy people who seemed to be preparing for something. As I watched, one person came out from the crowd. As this person came closer, I got a surprise, for it was my own mother. She was nicely dressed and looked happy and well. I said, “Mother, what is all the excitement about?” She talked to me like she had talked to me on this earth. What a thrill to talk to my own mother! I was with her again! “Well,” she said, “we are getting ready to give your Uncle James a welcome. He has done his work on earth and is coming home” While saying this, she placed her left hand on my shoulder, and pointing with her right hand said, “See your Uncle is coming up the hill. He is tired.”

The scene then left me. I pondered a minute or two trying to find out where I really was. I turned on the light which we had at the bed head. I found that I was in bed. Truthfully, I must say that I was sorry because I had had such a delightful experience. I told Grandma the next morning about my dream. She said it looked as if the end were near for Uncle James. We got word later that day that Uncle James had passed away.

The scenes I saw in my dream will never leave me. My prayer had been answered. I gained a testimony that the work for those who never had a chance to have it done while on earth must be done. I am grateful now for a testimony of this work. I am grateful for the gospel. With all due respect for England, the land of my birth, I am very appreciative for the privilege of coming to the land choice above all other lands. I have been greatly blessed. I am thankful for my wife, children, and grandchildren who have been born to us and call us blessed. May we so conduct our lives that when all is done here on this earth, we may be together eternally. I am ever thankful to my Uncle James Smith who was most instrumental in my and Grandma’s accepting the gospel.




Christmas in England
By Charles Prigmore


Note: This was a talk given by Grandpa Prigmore in the Logan 11th Ward at when he was in his nineties.

Good morning brothers and sisters, and A Merry Christmas! Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace & good will toward men. It is again Yuletide, and there is again the usual preparing for this joyous occasion—shopping, wrapping presents, sending a cheery message to friends near and far, and the purchasing of a Christmas tree. But amidst it all, let us not forget the most precious gift of all. For God sent His Son into the world that we might have life, and that we might have life more abundantly. Let us in imagination go to the manger in Bethlehem to visit the newborn babe who came to earth in all humility to save the people. He grew up to manhood, walked among men, and finally died, the cruel death on the cross. As he was on the cross He cried out, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

Forgiveness, then perhaps should play a part in Christmas and it did on the estate where I was employed as a gardener in England. The lady of the house at Christmastime used to give all in her employ a Christmas party, and before the party got underway she would give a Christmas talk and say, “If you have grievances one with another, forgive one another. Forgive each other and start the New Year right. So shake hands and be friends. If you are friends you will do better work. Then the good Christian lady would say, “Enjoy yourselves, have a good time, good night and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.”

When I was a boy in England we didn’t know much of Christmas until Christmas Eve. As a boy we used to go carol singing on Christmas Eve. The carols we used to sing were similar to what we sing now. We would start singing at the door of a home and would soon be invited in. We would be given sandwiches, mince pie, and cake. We would continue until about 10 o’ clock when we would go home. We could not go to sleep right away as we had eaten too much. The homes were heated mostly with logs. A log was put on the fire at bedtime Christmas Eve, and it would smolder at night so that Christmas morning the logs could be rounded up and in a few minutes a blazing fire warmed all the children.

Christmas morning all of the children got up to see what Father Christmas had left. In England, Santa Claus was known as Father Christmas. The church bells would ring from 11 to 1 to ring in Christmas. Christmas morning about 10 a.m. it was customary to take our Christmas dinner down to the village bakery where it would be cooking while we went to church. The church I belonged to before joining the LDS Church was the Wesleyan Methodist Church. They would have a short sermon on Christmas and Christmas hymns. After we got out of church we would go to the bakery to get our Christmas dinner which consisted of Yorkshire pudding and a large roast of beef. Oh how delicious the beef was in those days. The price of the roast was about 4 English pence or about 8 cents of our money.

It would not be Christmas without Charles Dickens’ story of Old Scrooge, Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim. Handel’s Messiah is also a must in England. I am grateful for the elders who first explained the Gospel to me. It has been a blessing to me. I am grateful I have been brought to the land choice above all other lands.

May this be the happiest Christmas we have ever had. There is not much peace in the world but we can have peace in our hearts. I say in the words of Tiny Tim of the Dickens’ Christmas Carol, “God bless us, every one!”



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Kathy’s Note: Each year as we gathered as a family for Christmas Eve at Mother’s and Dad’s, we had a nice dinner and opened presents. Before the noise and confusion of opening gifts began, the time was usually turned over to Grandpa Prigmore. He would usually give us a little speech or read the account of the Savior’s birth from Luke, Chapter 2. The following is the Christmas message he gave to us in 1972. This was Grandpa’s 90th Christmas and was the 1st Christmas of Kimberly Conlin Johnson and Jennifer Adams.
Christmas1972

Dear Everyone,

It is again Yuletide, and there is again the usual preparing for this joyful occasion, shopping and wrapping presents, sending a cheery message to friends near and far, the purchasing of a Christmas tree, and the anxious time waiting for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. But amidst all the joyful time, unwrapping the presents, let us not forget the most precious Gift of all; the Gift of the Babe of Bethlehem and the Gift of our Heavenly Father who gave His only begotten Son who came into the world, who took upon Him the form of man in the flesh, who suffered all and more than any human beings have ever done in this mortal life, for He gave His life that we through keeping the commandments might finally gain eternal life.
At this season of the year I look back and ponder over the year almost gone. I really have been well blessed. For one thing, I recall the many trips you have taken me on in the area and countryside and the canyons of Logan. I recall last Labor Day when the family went up in the canyon and had lunch amongst the beautiful scenery. There was a lovely stream of water. As it ran over the rocks, I thought of my favorite saying:
If it wasn’t for the pebbles in the brook,
We would not hear the music of the water.
Such is the way of life.
The only way I can describe Logan is that it is like a picture framed with beautiful landscape and mountains all around. Another time Jean took me on a trip through Logan Canyon and branching off into what is called Blacksmith Fork. It was a most beautiful scenic drive. The trees and vegetation were putting on their autumn colors. Sights like this make you feel very close to God. Here I am reminded of the time I was in the employ of the Navy Supply Depot at Clearfield. My job was running the greenhouse. We used to grow plants for the grounds in the summer and flowers and plants for the officers’ quarters in the winter. One day in the winter it was snowing very heavily when the Captain came in the greenhouse for a plant. He said, “You have got the best job on the base. Here it is snowing outside, and you are working in the Garden of Eden.” He went on to say that working amongst plants and flowers brings a person a spiritual feeling, a nearness to God. He said that just a few moments in the greenhouse amidst plants and flowers made him feel better.
The real highlight of the summer was when I went by plane to San Francisco. I was met there by Jean and Marcia Sperry. They had a car and took me sightseeing all over the city. It was good to see the many different places. To mention a few, we went to Fisherman’s Wharf, Chinatown, and a store with carvings, and all kinds of things imaginable from all parts of the world. It was good to see the ways of people from other parts of the world. With myself being a native of England it was good again to see the ocean once more on the sands of the seashore. We also rode on the famed trolley cable cars. We went out to the Oakland temple and enjoyed a conducted tour with a guide and company through the temple grounds. We saw slides depicting our journey through this life and right on into eternity; a most interesting picture. Then we went on by car to Lake Tahoe where Jean and Marcia Sperry were at that time working. Whilst there I was taken on lovely drives amongst tall pine trees and lakes and it was just heavenly. We visited the famous Ponderosa ranch were the Cartwright’s house their horses, cars, wagons and all their material, and where they make the pictures for the TV show, Bonanza. This was very interesting. We then walked through one of the elaborate gambling houses. (We did not gamble) We watched the people throw away their money. Well, all good things must come to an end, so when I was ready to return home, Jean took me to Reno by car on another scenic route. There I boarded the plane for Salt Lake where I was met by Horace and Edna. We returned to Logan, thus ending a glorious trip that I have lived over many times since coming home.
I don’t know why I have rambled on like this, but I wanted to write some sort of a Christmas story. Now, I would like to say that since coming to Logan I have been greatly blessed. Your Mother, my daughter, were she a dozen daughters, could not do more for me. She has seen to it that my clothes are clean, that I have wholesome food, and phones me first thing in the morning and last thing at night. She is interested in my welfare. You children, grandchildren and great- grandchildren, bless your hearts, I love every one of you. You have all shown every respect since I came to Logan, and I do appreciate it from the depths of my soul.
And now, Ralph and Marsha, as you are about to enter into matrimony, I wish for you all the Peace and Happiness in the world. It may not be all smooth sailing but as this poem goes, you will get along all right.
This good old world we live in
Is mighty hard to beat;
You get a thorn with every rose
But ain’t the roses sweet.
And to you, Kent, as you are about to go on your mission, may you be blessed with good health. May you be so blessed to master the language. May the Holy Spirit be your guide. May your tongue be loosened and that you may be prompted to say the right thing at the right time. May you be protected from all things of an evil nature. May you travel in Peace and Safety and when all is done, come home to those you love. This is the wish and prayer for you from me. God Bless you.
This is my 90th Christmas. I have seen some varied ones. My first Christmas I was just one month of age.
May this be the Happiest Christmas we have ever had. There is not much Peace in the world, but we can have Peace in our hearts and love, as life, for the most part is what we make it. So now, for all the love and kindness you children and grandchildren have shown to me I say in the words of Tiny Tim of Dickens’ “Christmas Carol,” “God bless us every one.”

-----Grandpa



My Introduction to Mormonism
By Charles H. Prigmore


It was Sunday evening the year 1908 in Attercliffe, Sheffield, Yorkshire, England. The Wesleyan Methodist Church that I then belonged to had just ended and, as it was the custom for me and my friend in nice weather to go for a walk after church preferably in the country, so we started off. On walking from the church to the street I said to my friend, John Fletcher (I always called him Jack), “Let’s go up into Sheffield this evening instead of going out into the country lanes.” He asked, “Whatever do you want to go into Sheffield for on a beautiful evening like this? The side walk on a Sunday evening will be so crowded that you will be pushed right onto the street.” I said, “Let’s go; here is the street car coming. Hurry, let’s go.” “Well, where do you want to go and why?” asked Jack. I said, “Jack, to tell you the truth, I don’t know, but I feel so impressed that I should go.” Jack said, “It seems like a wild goose chase to me.”

We rode to what is known as the Queen’s Monument and there was a crowd of people there. A man was preaching for Socialism. I said, “Jack, let’s go on farther up the street,” and as we had gone about a block there at the end of a side street was some sort of a meeting just breaking up. I walked up to the young man who seemed to be in charge and said, “Who are you people?” He told me that they were Latter-day Saints, commonly called Mormons. He then gave me his card and also gave us an invitation to the meeting the following Sunday.

The following Sunday both Jack and myself went to the meeting. At that time in England they did not have nice chapels to meet in as of today; no chapels, no temples in England at that time. The meeting was held in an upper work place over the top of a factory. There were a few chairs, but the most part was nail kegs with a plank placed on them. When the meeting started the surroundings of the place were forgotten as there seemed to be such a good spirit in the meeting. The meeting was brought to order, and the Elder, whose name I learned afterwards, was Christopher Boynton, gave out the hymn, “Prayer Is the Soul’s Sincere Desire.” Then a brother gave the opening prayer. We then had the hymn “Oh How Lovely Was the Morning.” I thought, “What a beautiful hymn.” But it was all so strange to me, so I asked the man next to me who and what this hymn was referring to. He said, “By what you say, you cannot belong to the LDS faith.” I told him that this was the first time I had been in an LDS meeting. He said that as the meeting went along that I would hear more about it.

I don’t know if it was their fast day or not as it seemed to be partly speaking from the stand and partly testimony. However, I did learn about the origin of the hymn, and although I had read the passage of scripture, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, etc.” many times, I now connected the scripture with the boy prophet and the visit of Heavenly Father and the Son. It made a great impression on me.

After the meeting was over, I talked to the Elders and asked if their church paid the expense of their mission and was told that either their parents, friends or even they, themselves, footed the bill. I was told that the Church just paid their way back home. I thought that this was a real sacrifice. Not many churches would do this. I told my friend, Jack, on the way home that the Latter-day Saints had something that other churches hadn’t got. Well, I made it a matter of prayer as it really set me thinking. Another thing the Elders told me was that they were called on missions from all walks of life; from farms, butcher’s shops, offices and everywhere. It came to me right then how that Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, called his disciples in the same way.

Toward the fall of 1909 I was to have another surprise. My uncle, James Smith, who was in England to find out all he could about his ancestors, came to see me. I might mention that he joined the Church at the time of the early settlers of Utah. When he came to Utah there was not a railroad within 1,000 miles. He pushed and pulled a handcart. He filled a mission to England when I would have been a baby. He found out where I was, and although he was only with me three days, I learned a lot. He could not stay longer as he wanted to go to other parts of England and also to Scotland. He told me to get to know all that I could about the Church. When he got home to Utah he kept up a correspondence with me. When he had been in England he visited with Grandma’s (Bertha Windross) parents as I had been keeping company with her at the time. So in one of his letters he said, “If you are still keeping company with that young lady, why don’t you get married, and come to a good country, or come here to Utah and get married in a proper way.” He did not explain what this “proper way” was, and at first the way we read the letter, it made it appear that in England marriages were not performed in a decent way. However, we found out later that he was referring to temple marriage. Well, we talked things over, and I spoke to Grandma’s father about it. He said, “Why don’t you go, and then if you like the country, Bertha can follow, and if you don’t like it, one can get back cheaper than two.” I mailed a letter back to Uncle telling him that I would come to Utah. Uncle mailed a letter to Charles Burton who was then on a mission in England. Charles Burton arranged my passage so that I could travel with him when he was released from his mission.

On May 17, 1910 I said good-bye to my native England, and sailed on the ship, Zeeland. I traveled with returning Elders and converts. The journey was a very pleasant one. I learned more about the Church on the ship. On Sunday evening the LDS Elders held a service, and Charles Burton was one of the speakers. A large number of the passengers came to the service. But whilst Charles Burton was talking, a man who had no respect for a sacred service yelled out, “Joe Smith, who is he? We don’t want to hear that stuff.” Well, two stewards of the ship marched him from the meeting and locked him up for two days. When he came on deck after his two days of being locked up he addressed a lady on deck saying, “Good morning.” The lady said, “Don’t good morning me. I don’t want to talk to you.” The man said, “Are you a Mormon?” She said, “No, but I have a great respect for them; so get out of my sight.” A similar thing happened to him when he tried speaking with the other passengers.

One day one of the converts on deck told me he had joined the church two years before, and his parents had turned him out of the home. He said that a few days before sailing he went to try and talk to his parents to say good-bye. His mother on coming to the door asked, “Are you still belonging to those Mormons?” The answer was yes, and his own mother slammed the door in his face saying, “We want no more to do with you.” This young man was heartbroken. He said that he told his mother against the closed door that she would live to be sorry for what she had done.

One day on the ship there was a very bad storm. It was so bad that the steward of the ship would not allow anyone on deck. One of the waiters of the tables told us that he had crossed the ocean back and forth for twenty years. He said he was not a Latter-day Saint or any other religion for that matter. But when the Elders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were on board, his wife rested at ease knowing they were the servants of the Lord. She knew they were on an errand in the service of the Master, and that no matter how rough and stormy the ocean was, the ship would arrive safely into port. This lady, although not a member of the Church, had great confidence in the Lord whom the Elders served.

On the 26th of May we docked at Boston, thus ending a pleasant sea journey with good people. After a six hour wait, we boarded the train which took us to Chicago where we changed trains again and had another six or seven hour wait. We toured the city in two separate groups. I was with the group that got back to the waiting room first. When the second group came back, one of the party said in his Yorkshire brogue, “Cum wit me, I are fine a new dring; ice cream and ginger beer, an yer suck it up we a straw.” We went with him to the drug store, and he said to the store keeper, “Ge these folks sum a that stuff you sucks up we a straw.” The owner of the place said, “Where are you people from?” We told him that we were from England. He told us that when we wanted this drink again we should ask for an ice cream soda. He said it came in lemon, strawberry etc.

Well, we were on the train again at last. The next change would be Ogden, Utah. After getting to Omaha we were told we would be in Ogden the next morning. We came through a lot of the Rockies during the night but did not see too much. We arrived in Ogden, Utah at 6 a.m. At 6:30 a.m. we boarded a local train for Kaysville. So after 15 days of travel I arrived in Utah May 31, 1910.

I was met at the station by my Uncle James Smith. After washing up and eating breakfast, I rested most of the day. The day following I helped Uncle with his hay. After working two days with the hay I went to a church outing at Lagoon on Saturday. As soon as we arrived I told Uncle I would like a job there amongst the flowers, lawns, and greenhouse as this had been my main work in England. We found the head gardener, and he told me I could have a job and start on Monday morning. I started working on Monday and worked steadily for five years.

All during the summer I attended church, Sunday School, Aaronic Priesthood, and the Mutual. From every source I could get more knowledge of the Church. Of course, I was doing much writing to Grandma. Finally on October 23, 1910 she arrived in Kaysville. As the day she arrived was Sunday, we went to the sacrament service in the afternoon. On the following Friday evening we were married by Henry H. Blood who was then bishop of the Kaysville Ward at Uncle’s home. I shall never forget what he said. “I am honored to perform this marriage; I hope at some future date I will be able to give you a recommend to go to the temple.”

Around the time that we were married Uncle and Aunt Polly were planning to go to California for the winter months, and Uncle told me that if I wished I could stay in his home so that he would have someone in the house. He told us that we could stay rent free. We did stay in his house until they came back the following March in 1911. To be close to my work, we then moved to Farmington, and we both still tried to get all the knowledge we could about the church. With the help of very good neighbors and home missionaries your grandma and myself finally felt within ourselves that being baptized was the thing to do. We made it a matter of prayer together and were sure we were taking the right step. On Sunday afternoon of July 14, 1912, we were baptized in the creek just south of Lagoon. This creek ran through Bishop Amasa Clark’s field. The water had to be dammed up by a James J. Steed. As we came up out of the water, I was confirmed by an Edward B. Clark, and grandma was confirmed by an Edward A. Cottrell. We were then members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and were very happy about it knowing we had taken the right step.

As time went on we moved back to Kaysville in the spring of 1914. As I was still working at Lagoon, and as the Lagoon and the Bamberger Railroad were connected one with the other, my boss said that if I wished to live in Kaysville, I could have a free pass to ride the train. So in November of 1914 Bishop Henry H. Blood got his wish; he gave us a recommend to go to the temple. At this time we now had Rose. So on the 14th of November 1914 Grandma, Rose and myself went through the temple to have Rose sealed to us for time and all eternity, and Grandma and I were married for time and all eternity. So at last we were married, as Uncle James Smith puts it, “in the proper way.”

Since that time I have been through the temple for some of my own people and many, many others whom I did not know. I often think what would have happened if I had not accepted the invitation of that elder from Utah whom I was sure I was destined to meet in Sheffield, England. I am ever grateful to all who have helped me in any way. My testimony is that this is the true gospel and that truly Joseph Smith conversed with Our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, and that Joseph Smith was instrumental in bringing back to the earth the true gospel that had, for ages, been lost to mankind. I am grateful too, that you my children, grand-children, and great-grandchildren are trying to walk in paths of truth and righteousness and that some of you have had the joy and privilege to carry the gospel to foreign lands. God bless every one of you. We sometimes sing, “Oh say what is truth, ‘tis the fairest gem.” May we all so live and conduct our lives that when we have to leave this earthly abode, we may be eternally together. This is my prayer for all of you.

Grandpa Prigmore
October 15, 1972

Kathy’s note: Much of the content of these histories is repetitive while other things were omitted. As a young child I delighted in Grandpa Prigmore’s stories. I can think of an incident that he used to tell us that was left out of his history:
As a young boy Grandpa and his friends liked to pull pranks on people. One day he and a friend decided to conduct a little mischief by climbing onto the roof of the blacksmith’s shop with a bucket of water. The plan was to dump the water down the chimney and put out the blacksmith’s fire. That is exactly what they did, but they were unaware that while climbing on the roof of the blacksmith’s shop from the backside of the building, the town constable entered the front door. The constable had just walked over to the fireplace and turned around to warm his backside when the water came splashing down. I believe they were caught but I can’t remember ‘the rest of the story.’ As a youth, when Grandpa was riding a horse under a tree, a branch poked him in the eye. From then on, his left eye appeared to be cross-eyed. I enjoyed having Grandpa around all the time when he moved to Logan. He played checkers with us. He always liked horehound candy. I thought they were yucky. He usually had those little round mints (high priest mints) as well. I cut Grandpa’s hair quite a bit. He would tell me not to cut it too short because he took pride in his pretty white hair. Sometimes Grandpa would offer to pay me for the haircut and I would refuse. Sometimes he offered and I accepted…usually a couple or three dollars. Sometimes he would just say, “Thanks, and yours ‘til you’re better paid.” I remember telling him I wished he lived to 100. He said, “I don’t.” Grandpa was witty and had a sound mind right up to the end. The day before he died he reminded Mother to pick him up some candy for the trick-or-treaters who would be coming in a few days. Grandpa wore suspenders but to him they were called braces. His boots were called rubbers. I got a kick out of his pronunciation of aluminum. Grandpa was short and bent over and walked with a cane. His pants were worn nearly up to his arm pits. As a kid I struggled with Grandma and Grandpa drinking tea. I remember telling Mother I couldn’t believe they would drink it when it was against the word of wisdom. I asked her how they could get a temple recommend. She told me that their bishop knew about the tea. She said since they were from England it was just their custom. She said at their age, she doubted they would be giving it up. I thought Mother was being too soft on them. When Grandma and Grandpa came to stay at our house, they brought their tea along with them. I was so proud of Grandpa when in his later eighties or maybe even early nineties he bagged up his supply of tea and put a note on it which said, “Get thee, Satan, behind me.” (or something to that effect) Then he marched over and handed the package to Mother. Grandpa was always appreciative of whatever I did for him. One Christmas I drove him down to Gene and Leola’s to visit. After a few hours we headed back. It had been snowing and the roads were horrible. Many cars were off the road. I think we were about the last car to make it through the canyon before it was closed. I was so nervous and white-knuckled. At one point in the canyon I started skidding and I actually did a ‘360’ and ended up back in my lane and headed in the right direction. I glanced over at Grandpa and he looked so calm and peaceful. He seemed oblivious to the terrible road conditions and my near accident. Anyway, his demeanor had a calming influence on me.