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."