History of Dora Stewart Gull, By Dora Stewart Gull
I was born March 1, 1894 to Harriet Elizabeth and Franklin Henry Stewart at Benjamin, Utah. I was the sixth child born to this couple. There were nine born after me, nine girls and six boys in the entire family. One boy died at birth. I had a very happy childhood. We did not have the luxuries of life, but we never went hungry. Being a lot of us it was like a party all the time playing games and doing many fun things together. Where there are kids there are more kids. It seemed that the neighbors' kids would be with us also.
My dad always raised sugar beets and he told us kids, that after we got his thinned, then we could go thin for other people. My brother Jesse, one and a half years older than I, always went with me and made money working for someone else. He was my favorite brother. He was also a champion checker player and we always played together. Once in awhile I could beat him but not very often.
When I was about ten years old, my older sisters said it was time I learned to mix bread. We mixed about 16 loaves at a time. Well, one day I thought that I would try, but I got stuck and Mother had to pull me out.
My Grandmother Stewart lived across the street from us in a large home built in a grove of trees. She lived alone so two of us girls always stayed with her at night. We slept in a large room, just off her room which was also large. There was an upstairs but the door was nailed shut, and as I got older I would get scared. There were birds up there and they made a noise which frightened me. In the evening before we went to bed, Grandmother would tell us pioneer stories. I did not appreciate them then like I would now if I could hear them again.
When I was eight years old, Dad took Mother and us younger kids, I do not remember how many, and went to Meadow to visit Grandma and Grandpa Gull. Of course, we went in a covered wagon and on the way I got a stiff neck. We were down there six weeks and I cried most of the time. Grandfather administered to me many times, but it still hurt. I used to watch the kids play and I could not even raise my head. There was no doctor down there. Then one day I was sitting in the wheelbarrow and Ezra dumped me out and of course I cried, but after a few minutes I was all right even my neck. I guess my neck had been thrown out while I was asleep in the bumpy wagon when we were coming down to Meadow. Anyway it seemed good to be all right again.
When I was between 13 and 14 years old, Dad took a trip to Meadow. He was going to Delta to buy a farm for he did not have enough land to keep his boys busy. Well it ended up that he bought a dry farm in Meadow with 4 or 5 acres of irrigated land and a home. When he got home and told Mother, she was mad and cried and said that she would not go, but of course, she did. We had less in Meadow then we had in Benjamin, but we did not starve. I lived with Grandmother Gull a lot of the time because she needed help and Mother said I was the best she had.
After I was 15, I was very popular with both boys and girls. I nearly always had a boy friend. I had a wonderful time. I was always in the school and mutual plays that were put on. Very often I was asked to give readings. When I was 17 years old, I taught my first Sunday School class.
When it was time to go to high school, Dad did not have the money to send us, so all of my friends went off to school and I stayed home. There was not a high school in Fillmore then, but by the time I was 20 years old, which was in 1914, Dad said we could go to school. Fillmore had a school by then so Madia, Ruby, Lottie, Cowley and I started to school. The kids were all younger and I did not have the good times I used to. The first thing I was put in a school play. It was in December as we were practicing the play that Len and I ran away and got married. I married Angus Leonard Gull on December 2, 1914, at Grand Junction, Colorado.
Len and I lived in Grand Junction for three months, then Len got us a job on a big cattle ranch about 50 miles from Meeker Colorado. We worked for a man, his wife and a four year old girl. I did the cooking and house work and Len worked as a handy man. It was a new home so every thing was nice. They only had 3 or 4 men that lived in the bunk house and I had to cook for them too. Of course, in hay time and round-up time, they had more men. I liked it. It was so beautiful with all rolling hills. It was a beautiful sight to watch the cattle come down the trail at feeding time. The winters got 50 degrees below zero, so in October we decided to come back home.
We fooled around for a year after that and then in 1916 we bought a place in Farmington. We went in with Harry Gull and his wife on the farm. On January 8, 1917 Lila was born, she was our first child. In the winter of 1919 Harry's wife got the flue and died the following summer. After that, we were not satisfied there, so we sold out and bought a place in the northwest part of Salt Lake City, 10 acres and a home. We stayed there 3 or 4 months, I forget which, and sold out and bought a nice home and 10 acres upon 23rd East. We stayed there 3 or 4 months and sold out again and moved to Willard. This time we went in with a brother of Len's. It was a nice farm but Len let his brother Charles have the best part so we never got rich there, just a lot of hard work, but we did have a good time. There were eight of us and we and our friends got together and had parties and went to the dances, so life was not bad. It was here that I taught in the primary 4 or 5 different times. My second girl, Shirley, was born here in Willard on February 18, 1930.
My first girl, Lila, was married to Wallis Baird Nelson on March 28, 1940. It was during this same year the Len took sick and on April 29, 1941, he died. I stayed in Willard the rest of that year and then came to Salt Lake City to stay with Lila when her first child, Carol, was born which was April 12, 1942. I never went back. I finally sold my farm and bought a home in Salt Lake City.
In Salt Lake City I worked at different jobs for two years, and then I got a job at the Y.W.C.A. where I stayed 14 years except for 8 months when I went to California and worked in an old ladies home. It was the easiest job I ever had. I liked it, but Shirley was not married, so I came home to look after her. Shirley married Richard Earl Gaisford on March 26, 1951.
While I worked at the Y.W.C.A., I had several incidents happen, three of which I will tell. When my Boss, Mrs. Paulson, went on vacation, which was anywhere from a month to six weeks I was elected to run the place and do her work and mine to. At that time I had to do all the night work. One night about 12:30 a.m. the phone rang and I answered it. It was the police. He wanted to know if I had any rooms, he said he had two girls who wanted a room. I told him all I had were a couple of cots in the hall on the third floor. Well, he said it was alright. In about an hour, the door bell rang and I got up and answered it. It was the police with the two girls. I invited them in. There was just a dim light on and after they got in I looked at them a little more closely and gasped. I said, are you girls or boys. Well, I took them upstairs and worried the rest of the night, afraid they would rape the girls. By morning I was a nervous wreck. Finally they checked out. I will always believe one of them was a boy.
Another time a woman came in about 7:00. I had her register and as usual I asked her to pay. She said that she had millions of dollars, but her sister had it and would not let her have any. I gave her a bed in the dormitory. I knew after talking with her she was crazy. I was so sure that I called the police and asked them if they had a report of any one missing from the asylum. They said that they did not, but that night I locked my door. I felt guilty, but I could not tell the girls. Well, the next morning the police called and said they could call and pick up that woman for she had escaped. Well I told them she had checked out.
We used to have a woman about 50 years old that stayed at the Y. I liked her very much. Well she moved away. Finally she came back and wanted a room. We were filled up. I was not living at the Y then and Mrs. Paulson called me and wanted to know if I would take her. I liked her, so I said yes. When her sisters brought her up they said to her, now behave yourself. I thought that was a funny thing to say, but after a few days, I did not wonder anymore. One day she said to me, "Dora can I borrow your pen", and I said she could. In a day or two, I asked her for my pen and she replied, "I do not have your pen, this pen is mine". After a day or two I ran across her pen and I took it to her and she said that it was not her pen. Well, I said alright, but this is a better pen than mine, so she traded. Another time she was late getting home to dinner so I sat down to eat. I had two or three vegetables so I decided not to cook me any meat. She came when I was about finished and so I jumped up and put her on a chop. She said, "Where is yours," and I replied that I did not want any. She immediately said that I will not eat any, you have poisoned them, so I cooked me one and gave her her choice and she ate it. After that she started opening my mail and at the time I was gathering genealogy. She went down to the Y and told Mrs. Paulson that I was trying to steal her children. She did not have any children. She told Mrs. Paulson that the names and dates were her children. Some nights I was afraid to go to bed. I thought of going out to stay with Lila but I was afraid of what she would do if she missed me. I told Mrs. Paulson she would have to take her back to the Y for I was afraid of her. She finally did take her back. After she got back to the Y, she said one day that she was going to call the police. She said that what stockings Dora did not steal, the Y had. I told her to call the police and after they came, she pranced up and down the hall screaming at everyone. The police watched her a minute or two and then said to her "come with us and we will help you find your stockings." That was the last I ever saw of her. When she was getting ready to leave my place, I brought her suitcases up from the basement and she said those are not mine, and she went down and brought up mine, which were nearly new. She was going to take them but I would not let her. After the police took her, we went to pack her things and found a half a pair of new stockings in her things.
We had one girl from India who was going to the University. When she would come home in the afternoon, she would ask me to play canasta with her to help quite her nerves, which I loved to do. I had many good friends among the girls at the Y. I think they liked me and I surely did them. I left a good reputation at the Y.
In 1958 I retired from the Y for my health was not what it had been in the past. A short time before I retired, I went in half on a duplex that Lila and Baird had built. They lived in one side and I lived in the other. A little later I sold my other home. It was real nice to be so near to my family.
When I was nearly 70 years old, people would call up and want me to work for them as they had heard that I was such good help. I have always worked hard and done my share. I was a companion to two different elderly ladies for a few months each. It was easy work but because of my health and the fact that I liked being in my own home, I gave it up.
At the age of 73 I am the Mother of two girls and the Grandmother of three girls and two boys. My first great grandchild is expected to arrive soon. As I finish my story, I would like, as long as I am able, to go to the Temple once every week and do the work for the dead.