Box 5
Container
Contains 16 Results:
Journal, 1922
File — Box: 5, Volume: 11
Identifier: III
Scope and Contents
February 19
"I was so exhausted that I had to go to bed for awhile. It is the nervous strain of trying to take care of the children and work at the same time that wears me out. Charles really does most of the work himself and yet I find myself growing weaker and more nervous everyday."
Mary gets up at 5:30 every morning and works all day. Charles is a salesman of sorts canvassing...
Dates:
1922
Journal, 1922, 1934
File — Box: 5, Volume: 12
Identifier: III
Scope and Contents
This journal begins with notes on food, their classification, sources and uses in the body. About bread she says:
"Bread is the most common and the most important article of diet. Absolute cleanliness is necessary in bread making. 1 slice of bread made with milk is worth 4 slices made with water."
Recipes follow for such dishes as Currant Loaf, Eggs for the Typhoid convalescent,...
Dates:
1922; 1934
Journal, 1922
File — Box: 5, Volume: 13
Identifier: III
Scope and Contents
July 8
"I asked C. to tend children while I got us & our clothes ready for the Powell reunion to be held at Ed's tomorrow. He said he would & then kept me waiting while he did first one odd job then another. I hadn't felt well in the morning by the middle of the afterward when C. was ready to take the children I was so worn out that I had to go to bed. He did a small washing leaving the...
Dates:
1922
Journal, 1922
File — Box: 5, Volume: 14
Identifier: III
Scope and Contents
On the way home from Church in Upton Mary and family were caught in a cloud burst and took shelter in a nearby house:
"I looked with envy at the sparkling cleanness of the linoleum on the floors, the ruffled white curtains, the snowy bedspread seen through the open bedroom door, the colors of the new braided rugs on the kitchen floor vieying [sic] with the geranium blooms in the windows. When at...
Dates:
1922
Journal, 1922-1923
File — Box: 5, Volume: 15
Identifier: III
Scope and Contents
1922
October 24
"He [Charles] unloaded the car and then took us and went house hunting. We found only one house that was still for rent & it was $22.50 a month & small at that. After we got home C. called up Noel Pratt and learned that we could rent his house next door for $25.00 a month. We just about decided to take it. I couldn't sleep for thinking how grand it would be...
Dates:
1922-1923
Journal, 1923
File — Box: 5, Volume: 16
Identifier: III
Scope and Contents
1923
May
"We have company everyday and all day. Inez & Mrs. McKibben and Effie and our other neighbors who are not too busy. How I envy people who have time for visiting and yet when I think how blessed I am to be the mother of these four lovely children it passes my understanding."
May 6
"C. & I took our darling baby to meeting and had him...
Dates:
1923
Journal, 1923
File — Box: 5, Volume: 17
Identifier: III
Scope and Contents
It is apparent that the care of four very young children so close in age is a strain on Mary emotionally and physically.
August 12
"I was terribly ill during the evening and part of the night. I thought I was going to die. C. administered to me & finally I went to sleep."
August 24
"Felt very worn & weary on waking up this morning, but...
Dates:
1923
Journal, 1924
File — Box: 5, Volume: 18
Identifier: III
Scope and Contents
April 18
"We are out of money and don't know where to go to borrow. Charles could not go to work because he couldn't buy a gallon of gasoline to take him there. He took the few pennies I had in my purse and went up town to seek counsel of the bishop. I am so weak & have so much pain that I find it hard just to sit up and write these few words. Well they say the darkest hour is just before dawn,...
Dates:
1924
Journal
File — Box: 5, Volume: 19
Identifier: III
Scope and Contents
April 19
"It is now 3:00 A.M. I have to keep putting musterole on Norma's chest and her cough doesn't get any better. I am about exhausted with worry and lack of sleep. I feel greatly tired in my spirit over things that are not my fault or Charles's or the children's. I am almost heart broken with the long continued strain of puzzling problems, anxieties, and misunderstandings. I will say that it...
Dates:
1844-1949
Journal, 1934
File — Box: 5, Volume: 20
Identifier: III
Scope and Contents
April 4
"Our baby is six weeks old today. I had to stay in bed for three weeks after coming home from the hospital. A nurse hired by the Metropolitan Life Insurance company used to come nearly every morning and give me a bath, but the bulk of the nursing of both me and the baby fell to Charles' lot."
In this era of depression in the early thirties, when the Relief Society of the...
Dates:
1934
Journal, 1941
File — Box: 5, Volume: 21
Identifier: III
Scope and Contents
One of Mary's strongest points was her intellectual curiosity. She continued to be an avid reader and interested in many issues.
January
"I organized a woman's club in Taylorsville, the first one in history, but resigned within a few months, because the other members flatly refused to take up any subject or subjects of study. I hadn't time for a purely social club. Last winter I...
Dates:
1941
Journal, 1941-1942
File — Box: 5, Volume: 22
Identifier: III
Scope and Contents
"If I had to choose between being the richest person (in money) in the world and being the mother of my six wonderful children, well you know such a thing as a choice between the two would never enter my mind. I am really a powerful capitalist already. My capital consists of the undivided love of a good husband, the love and miraculous unfolding into the light, of these six jewels among the young, our...
Dates:
1941-1942
Journal, 1948
File — Box: 5, Volume: 23
Identifier: III
Scope and Contents
Mary is now 58 years old. In this, the last journal of hers in the collection, there is little mention of physical illness or poverty. She does have arthritis of the spine for which she takes vitamin B, but life doesn't appear to be the constant crisis where physical and financial collapse appears imminent. She enjoys a summer visit from her grandchildren. Lyman and Daddy as she now calls Charles are the only ones...
Dates:
1948
Journal Fragments, 1918-1949
File — Box: 5, Folder: 1
Identifier: III
Scope and Contents
From the Collection:
The Bennion family papers (1844-1949) include the diaries of John Bennion (1820-1877), Heber Bennion (1858-1932), and Mary Bennion Powell (born 1890), as well as family correspondence and autobiographical sketches. John and Samuel Bennion and John's son, Heber, were Utah sheep ranchers and polygamists, while Mary Bennion Powell was a daughter of Heber Bennion. The collection begins with the Bennion brothers, John and Samuel, who converted to the Mormon Church in Northern Wales. John was a...
Dates:
1918-1949
Short Stories
File — Box: 5, Folder: 2
Identifier: III
Scope and Contents
This folder consists of three portions of short stories written by Mary, two of which were obviously submitted for a writing class. Short story by Mary Bennion Powell, "The End of Childhood", is an account of Mary's realization that her father was a polygamist. The end of childhood is symbolic of the end of her innocence. She feels shattered and betrayed. She gives a beautiful description of the good life she and...
Dates:
1844-1949
"A Utah Idyll," Chapters 1-2
File — Box: 5, Folder: 3
Identifier: III
Scope and Contents
Chapters I and II of Mary's life story "A Utah Idyll" consists of 129 typewritten pages. This is a fictionalized history of Mary's family. It begins:
"In the sagebrush territory of Deseret, two babies were born to four adoring parents in the year 1857. All four parents were members of the Mormon church, especially Brother and Sister Bennett of Stayville, who had obeyed the counsel of Brigham Young...
Dates:
1844-1949