HIAWATHA, Carbon county - Emory William (Bill) Ricketts, 76, died Monday at 3:15 p.m. at the Veterans Administration hospital in Sheridan, Wyo., after a lingering illness.
He had been hospitalized for the past two and a one half years.
Mr. Ricketts was born Oct. 28, 1876, in Mr. Union, Pa., a son of Wesley and Wilhelmina Jane Cornelius Ricketts. He left Pennsylvania while still a child and came to Livingston, Mont., where he lived for several years.
He was a volunteer in the First Montana Regiment, Spanish American War, and also served during Boxer Rebellion.
He came to Hiawatha in June, 1922, where he was employed by the U.S. Fuel Co., for 28 years. On April 2, 1925 he married Floria Warren in Evanston, Wyo.
He was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and lived in the Hiawatha ward.
Mr. Ricketts was a blacksmith and tool sharpener by trade and was a member of the Hiawatha Twenty Year Club. He was also a former member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Price Post, and an ardent fishing and hunting enthusiast.
Survivors include his widow, Clearfield; three sons, A/2C Milton W. Ricketts, with the U.S. Air Force in Las Vegas, Nev., and Galen W. and Norman Lee Ricketts, both of Clearfield; four sisters, Mrs. Mamie Davis and Mrs. Mine Clingerman, both of Livingtson, Mont., Mrs. Alice Patterson, Casper, Wyo., and Ann (last name unknow), Spokane, Wash.; two brothers, Roy Ricketts, Livingston, and Monte Ricketts, address unknown.
Funeral service will be announced by the Mitchell Mortuary, Price.
"You would lose no more children if you will come to America with us" said the Mormon missionaries to Charles and Catherine Houghton. The promise brought the two converts here to Castle Gate, Utah in 1907. This is their story written more than ninety years later.
For three generations our records list the Houghtons as residents of Heather, Leicestershire, England. So, our story begins with a little of what we know about Heather and what life was like at this time. An Earl, Earl Howe, owned most of the land in the Heather Parish. There was a flourmill on the river dating back to the middle ages. There were several small businesses, a brick making plant and a small coal mine with a railroad passing near them. The Houghtons were all listed as colliers (miners). They lived in a rented house on Main Street. Every house was on Main Street and they all had gardens.
This was where Charles Houghton was born 3 March 1874 in Heather, Leicestershire, England to Ann Wragg and George Houghton. His two sisters were Sarah Jane 5 and Catherine 2. Four months after the birth of Charles on the 20th of July 1874 their father, George was killed in a mine accident. The death of a breadwinner must have caused a great hardship. How the family survived is unknown to us but life would have been hard. Little was done for the welfare of its people then. Ann later married a Smith and had one more child, Edith. Marie, daughter of Edith is 71 and is still alive. Yet, no one here in America knew of this.
We know nothing about the opportunities of these children but education was very limited. Rarely were there opportunities to learn more than to read and write. To them it was a waste of time to teach children whose only future lay in the coalmines, factory or farms. School was only possible if the parents could afford the required fees and ended at the age of 11. There was no secondary education in most towns and they were expensive. Charles must have received some schooling because he acted like it and he had the most beautiful handwriting found anywhere. He served the community in Castle Gate with his talents in various ways.
I have in my possession the marriage certificate when Charles Houghton married Catherine Burrows in the Parish Church in Heather. On the 25th of May 1896 Charles was listed as a miner and she as a twenty-year-old spinster. Witnessed by John Thomas Burrows and Catherine Salisbury (Charles' sister). Catherine's' father and brothers were also miners and they were from Kimberly and Whitwick. The operators of these English mines paid their workers very little for their labor and cared little for their welfare. There were no child labor laws then, both the fathers and their children were lowered hundreds of feet into the earth to work long, hard shifts. Unfortunately the miners in America weren't treated much better.
On the 9th of February 1897 their first child Agnes was born in Heather. Then it seems as soon as the next child was born, they would pack up and move to the next town. Times were poor and work was scarce. The industrial revolution caused a need for more and more coal. Towns were growing and expanding with no thought of a clean healthy water supply or proper sanitation. There was no sewer system, no garbage collection all rubbish was burnt or buried in the garden. Large out breaks of scarlet fever and typhoid were common many children died from disease and malnutrition. Five children would die in the next five years, Agnes, Gladys, Sarah Ann, Elizabeth May and George Herbert. The places they lived during these trying times were Heather, Leicestershire County; Swadlincote, Derbyshire County; and Audenshaw, Lancashire County.
We have two stories of the oldest girl, Agnes. The first was when they once lived in a large two story home in Audenshaw where candles were used for lights. It tells of how little Agnes while walking down the stairs caught her nightgown on fire serious enough to have caused her death. The other story tells of a little Five year old girl who got up early one morning to make the fire to cook breakfast. Somehow she was severely burned by a kerosene explosion.
Sometime after their sixth child, Charles Arthur, was born 6 November 1903, the Mormon missionaries came to them and promised them that if they accepted the gospel and immigrated to Utah all the rest of their children would live, and they did. In the later months of 1907, the family sailed to America. Another story tells of an earlier date but the 1907 date is more believable since Charley who was five years old remembers the Niagara Falls in New York and the train ride to Utah. They came straight to the coal mining town of Castle Gate. Charles was an experienced miner by now and a job was waiting for him.
There is where my wife's father Bill was born a few months later on the 26 April 1908. His brother, John Thomas was born October 1909.
This was the site of the first coal found in Carbon County, 1888. Soon after discovery, the Pleasant Valley Coal Company opened the Number One Mine and later in 1890 the Wasatch Store was built. A company town with company houses soon followed. To live in a company house you had to have a company job and if you didn't buy from the company store, you were fired from your job and you were immediately evicted from the town.
I'm told that Catherine's sister Ruth and two of her brothers came with them. One of them was Arthur who married Metta Minerva Harley here in Utah. The Burrow brothers were both miners. Their home was a large three-room house that was later made into the Castle Gate Library. I'm told that they all lived together in this house - Charles' family and the Burrows.
Catherine missed her family and life in England. She hated Utah. Later the two brothers were supposed to have returned to England. We know that Arthur' wife, Minerva, lived a long life and eventually died in Magna. Did they all return and was she left her?
Catherine was very religious but did have a little milk and tea ever day, and her grandchildren could not remember her attending Church, but she was old then. She had a China closet full of glass shoes that she brought from England. She had a lot of commemorative plates from the World's Fair. She also had an old fashioned phonograph with a crank for power. "Grandma would never allow us to even touch these things". All of these heirlooms are in the possessions of Lois Houghton Dansey.
When visitors came she served them tea with milk and caraway seed cake. In later years she became more reclusive and depressed. He blinds were drawn and her mirrors covered. She was afraid of the old lady in the mirror. She died in her home 13 October 1953 and her viewing was at the home of her son, John T. Houghton.
Charles Houghton was a very dignified old Englishman. He was very civic minded. He was secretary of both the fraternal orders of the Knights of Pithius and the Odd Fellows. He had beautiful penmanship. After working in the mine for few years, he injured his hand. His thumb was nearly cut off, but was sewn back on. After this he started working outside the mine doing whatever was asked of him. He delivered coal to the homes, garbage collection and town maintenance. He also built sand dummies for blasting in the mine.
Charley used a horse drawn sleigh in the winter and a team and wagon in the summer. The town's children were often seen riding with him. I have no stories that would tell what kind of person he was and what he enjoyed doing.
Charley smoked a great deal and in his later years suffered from cancer of the larynx. He soon became unable to talk and died in 6 September 1937.
The Houghton's life in England came from the records and stories sent recently from England by the grandson's of Sarah Jane, Paul Winstanley and Trevor Jones. Most of the history of the Houghton's has been lost over the years. Trevor said in his letter, "As you will realize as you read on we now know more of the descendants of Charles Houghton than we do of our own grandmother (Sarah Jane). Life in America has come mostly from the writings of Charles' grandson, John Houghton. Through this cooperative exchange of knowledge we now have a story to tell.
My father, Herbert Burrows was born in 1850 in Whitwick, Leicestershire, England. He was a kind and loving father. He was a Mine Superintendent. He began his mining career at the age of nine years, he was so small his brothers carried him on their backs to work. He was a mine deputy at sixteen years. He was a stern man around his work because he expected things done properly. He had an accident when he was fifty-six years which caused his death. He took us to Sunday School, and when he joined the church he was a devout member.
If you have any information concerning this family please contact Gene Halvorson Back
I was born in Price in 1944, with a Soumi mother and local Morman father. My grandfather Herman Matson (Finn name of Junka) emmigrated to Utah from Finland about 1900. Herman (Junka) Matson and Annie Koistinen were married at Clear Creek, UT in 1906.
Annie Koistinen was born on May 6, 1880, in Koumanniemi, Finland, and came to North America and Clear Creek with her two brothers, Matti and August Koistinen. Her brothers later moved to Canada, but Annie stayed in Clear Creek. Matti's son Ted was born in Clear Creek, but moved with the family to Canada when Ted was 2 years old."
My uncle Eliel John Matson was born May 30, 1910 in Clear Creek, UT. His brother Walford George Matson was also born Feb. 29, 1912, in Clear Creek. My aunt's Hilda (1914) and Edna (1916) were also born in Clear Creek. My mother Elma Edith (Matson) Hunt was born June 4, 1918 in Astoria, OR. Elma was the baby of the Matson family.
According to discussions I remember, the Matson family, with others, moved to the Astoria and Portland, OR area during World War I to work as welders in the shipyards. After WWI, they returned to Utah to work in the coal camps.
I left Carbon County in 1964 and currently live in San Jose, CA.
If you have any information concerning this family please contact Clark Hunt
BackHe was born 14 December 1886 in Richfield, Sevier County, Utah. One of fifteen children born to James Nielson and Christina Marie Smith, he was the fifth. Ida Marie born 3 October 1880; Niels, born 28 June 1882; May, born 20 October 1883 James, born 22 February 1885; Ed, born 14 December 1886; Joseph born 14 July 1888; Jennie, born 26 December 1889; Caroline, born 4 March 1891; Jim, born 2 April 1892; Ethel Ordena, born 2 June 1894; Martha, born 16 November 1895; Dicinio, born 7 January 1898; Manila Viola, born 10 February 1899; Minnie, born 10 January 1901; Ella, born 20 December 1904.
On a trip to Richfield, he had us drive by the log cabin where he was born. Later on a trip we tried to find the cabin so we could take a picture, but we were unable to locate it. Perhaps it had been removed to make room for a newer home.
When Ed was about nine years old, he went from the family home in Richfield to Blue Mountain to obtain a milk cow for the family. He traveled a distance of about fifty miles one way.
In approximately 1898, the family left Richfield and moved to Spring Glen, Carbon County, Utah. While living in Spring Glen, Ed worked for Matt Warner, who is noted in Utah History as "the last of the good bad guys".
James Nielson, father of Ed, at one time owned much of Spring Glen, also a good share of land in Richfield. After the death of a favored child, he started gambling and drinking. He lost most of his belongings by gambling, leaving the family near poverty. James had injured a hand sometime in his life -- and always wore a glove on the bad hand. by trade he was a rock mason and a good one too - he worked on several public buildings in both Richfield and Spring Glen. He also helped with the building of the Manti Temple.
Ed had a way with horses. He had chased wild horses on Utah's desert. This is where the original "Old Nettie was acquired. In his younger days Ed drove freight wagons through Castle Valley, often the would race the teams from Price to Huntington to Castle Dale. He was not much different from his sons and their racing in cars. Driving freight wagons even is close to driving trucks, as does his youngest son Vern Dee.
On 31 July 1907, he was married to Sarah Evelyn Gibson. By this time his occupation was that of a coal miner. He worked on many rescue crews after mine explosions, until his health no longer permitted.
Ed and Sarah Evelyn were blessed with 10 children.
All of the children were born in mining towns. After the last child was born, it was decided that the family should have a farm to keep the three young boys from running around a mining town. Ed and Sarah cashed in a life insurance policy and purchased a farm near Price, Carbon County, Utah - where they lived out the rest of their lives.
Things I remember about my father in law. He was a choice man. He was a wonderful Grandfather. I remember watching him with his grandchildren, seeing how he enjoyed them and they enjoyed him. I regret that my children never knew him, except by the stories we have told them and the pictures we have. I remember he used to save a cigar for when he went for a ride with Dee and I (he usually smoked a pipe).
He rarely missed a news report on his radio, which was on a stand next to his favorite chair which was a platform rocker. After TV became popular in Carbon County, the family all got together and gave him a television one year for Christmas. He spent many hours watching it. He even got interested in some soap operas.
Pine nuts grow close to Price, so in the fall we would go gather some. He didn't have any teeth to crack them with as most people do, but he would sit and crack the tiny nuts with a special little pair of pliers, until he had enough in his hand to chew on for awhile.
On wash day it was a common sight to see him out wiping off the clothes lines so the clothes would not be soiled when clipped to the line. He did enjoy having his picture taken, especially with a movie camera. He had a special jig or dance he would perform.
He and the family farmed after moving to Price. They raised meat and vegetables that provided most of the families food. The boys usually had a hard time catching the horses, which were used to pull the farm equipment. But Ed could walk out to the corral and call or whistle and the horses would come to him. Even after he quit doing most of the farming, he still had a small garden spot, where he raised fresh vegetables.
In his last years, he was hospitalized several times because of his heart. He passed away 18 December 1957 in his favorite platform rocker in his home on the farm near Price, Utah.
If you have any information concerning this family please contact Gene Halvorson
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By Gina Myrberg (Granddaughter) - born July 7, 1916, died November 15, 1997
In 1896 Herman Junka and his family came to Ellis Island, N.Y., U.S.A. with other immigrating families. They had come from Kannus, Finland. Herman changed his last name to Matson and set out for Wyoming with other Finns to find work in the coal mines. Soon the coal miners heard about the boom in Carbon County, Utah and headed Southwest. Mr. Matson, who was in his twenties, ended up in Clear Creek, Utah, a common place for migrant Finns. That was where he met Annie Koistenine who had come to Clear Creek, Utah from Koumeniemi, Finland to be with her brothers when she was sixteen.
In their twenties, Herman and Annie were married in Clear Creek. They had three children there and then moved to Kenilworth, Utah where Edna was born on July 7, 1916. While she was still a baby her family moved to Astoria, Oregon where her youngest sister was born. When Edna was five years old her family moved back to Scofield, Utah. She moved several times while growing up because her father was a coal miner and was always being transfered. Throughout her childhood she lived in Astoria Oregon, Kenilworth, Scofield, Clear Creek, Mohrland, West Hiawatha, Helper, Spring Canyon, Standardville, and Price. (Grandma gave me this information. She told me she was born in Kenilworth, although her birth certificate says she was born in Clear Creek.)
The Finnish language was always being spoken around Edna when she was growing up. This was only natural with her parents both coming from Finland and many Finn immigrants living around her. The Finns were the first non-Mormon immigrants to enter the Carbon County coal mines, the Finns by 1903 accounted for more than 1/3 of the miners at Clear Creek and Winter Quarters.
There were many Finns around that helped the Matson's keep their culture alive and the Matson's contributed a great deal to keeping it alive for others. Finn socials were held often where everyone would get together to speak their language, eat their favorite foods, and of course dance.
Another tradition that the Matson's partook in was the sauna Grandma use to always tell me how she would get in the sauna with her family naked. It was tradition for families to do this together.
While Edna was in high school her family moved to Kenilworth, Utah for the second time. She would ride the school bus to Carbon High School in Price. When she was a senior in high school she met John Burton, who was a best friend to her older brother Eliel. John was six years older than Edna, but that made little difference to her.
When Edna was seventeen she graduated from high school. Her and her two best friends then decided to move to Salt Lake to look for work. They all found jobs doing housework for different families and caring for their children. Edna missed John but he visited her often. While visiting, they loved to go out dancing with their friends. Their favorite and the most popular place to go at the time was Saitair at the Great Salt Lake. The dance floor at Saltair was advertised as the largest in the world. On special occasions two bands would play, one at each end of the floor, one picking up when the other stopped playing so the dancing was continuous. Couples customarily dance the first and last dances with each other and changed partners in between. Those who forgot and danced cheek to cheek were asked to leave the dance floor. They danced everything from the maxixe, to the Charleston, to the polka.
They not only loved to dance at Saltair but in the daytime they enjoyed swimming, as did many others. The salt water allowed them to bob up and down in the water like corks. Perhaps that is why they enjoyed it so much - they could not drowned.
After a couple of years a job opened up in the Kenilworth store for a bookkeeper, so Edna went home and got the job. When she was 21 she married Mr. John Burton who was 27. For six years she worked at the Kenilworth store, but then quit to start a family. The first baby was a boy, born in 1942 and died when he was one month old. He had been sick since he was born. John and Edna moved to Salt Lake in 1943. Edna had been working for ZCMI for about a year when she had to quit her job because she became pregnant again. A baby boy was born in 1944. They named him Stephen. They moved back to Price and John got a job at Redd Motor Company and worked for them for many years while Edna stayed home with Stephen. In 1946 Frank was born. Five years later another was on the way, but turned it out to be "some more". Edna had twins, a boy and a girl that were named Scott and Sue.
Edna stayed home to raise her children, which she said, "is unheard of these days!" Edna had many adventurous times with her children. Living in the small town that Price was, it was not hard for young ones to get into trouble.
Edna helped her three sons earn some extra money by getting them up every morning for ten years to deliver newspapers. Her children were very involved in sports. Sue always took dance and gymnastics while the boys were involved mostly with baseball and scouts. Edna made sure they were always active.
John and Edna had many friends from different ethnic backgrounds. They spent numerous weekends dancing the polka (their favorite dance) and loved accordion music. The family spent many vacations in the desert of Moab and the mountains of Clear Creek.
When Edna was 50 she became employed. The youngest kids were 17 and she thought they were old enough to stay out of trouble. She got a job part time at the Price Court House where she worked nine years as Deputy Assessor. All the kids were out of the house and some married by this time so she began working full time as Deputy Treasurer.
One year after she started working full time John passed away at the age of 69, leaving Edna widowed at the age of 63. This brought her much sadness and it was decided at that time that she would never marry again or even consider dating. She would always tell me, "John was the only man for me".
As a widow, Edna enjoyed watching her children grow and make families of their own. She retired from the courthouse as Deputy Treasurer in 1990. She worked there for 24 1/2 years. She continued to live in Price, in a home that was built by John. She loved her weekly hair do's and sitting on her back porch. She would often visit her children and grandchildren in Salt Lake and San Jose, California.
Grandma visited Salt Lake for her 80th birthday. At this time, her children convinced her to stay in Salt Lake permanently. In October of 96' she moved into a cozy little home in Sugarhouse. One thing that always stood out in Edna that she had ever since she was young was her great sense of humor. Last spring grandma, my mom and I flew to San Jose to visit with Stephen and Sue. We were in the car driving to dinner and grandma didn't have her seat belt on. She was sitting in the front passenger seat and I was sitting in the back directly behind her. I was trying to put the seat belt on her from the back seat. It was taking me a while to get the seat belt into the buckle and grandma couldn't figure out what was taking so long. So I said "I can't get the seat belt buckled". Grandma looked at me out of the corner of her eye and surprisingly blurted out "well why don't you stick it up your buft!"
Another sunny day last spring my mother and I were driving in the car with grandma. She was sitting in the passenger seat once again. At the end of our street is the busy street of 21st south. Police always sit at the end of our street waiting for speeding cars. On this particular day, there were four very good looking motorcycle police officers parked and awaiting. They happened to be parked in front of a fire hydrant. We were sitting at the corner waiting to make a right hand turn when grandma rolled down the window, looked at the police officers and blurted out "you better move those motorcycles or you are going to get a ticket!" All of the officers looked at each other and cracked up laughing. My mom and I were laughing so hard we almost wet our pants. Grandma always said the darndest things!
In April of this year grandma's leg broke out with sores. The doctors did many tests trying to figure out the cause. By June, the sores on her leg caused her to lose circulation in her foot and she became somewhat disabled. This was extremely difficult for grandma. Especially considering the fact that she had never been in the hospital previous to this (except when she gave birth to her children.) Grandma didn't talk as much and became a lot less active after this experience. My mother Sue took care of grandma in our home from June until October. Steven, Frank, and Scott also took care of her in her home.
Grandma never really complained much, so no one ever really new how much pain she was in. About mid-October grandma moved to St. Jose Villa where she stayed for 3 weeks. The nurses were wonderful. Grandma had many tests and the doctor's diagnosed her with liver cancer. They said that with type of cancer the individual does not live longer than 3 to 6 months. Grandma was such a strong woman. She rarely ever complained and she had to have been in so much pain. She probably had the cancer for 5 to 6 months without us knowing. Throughout grandma's life she never was a complainer, especially about her health.
I believe that there is something after this life, although I don't have any clue what/where it is. I think that everything happens for a reason. Everything meshes together in an order that allows us to constantly grow. Whether we are happy, glad, sad, or mad, we are constantly learning. It is all a process. I know that we all learned something from grandma and her time spent here on earth. Although, what we learned is probably different for each one of us.
Grandma was the last of her siblings to be alive and grandpa died 18 years ago. She lived for her job at the courthouse, her children and her grandchildren. Everyone had their own lives and families. I know that she was lonely and constantly missed grandpa. I feel that she was ready to go and I strongly believe that wherever she is now, she is closer to grandpa than she has been in 18 years and happy as a clam!
The day that grandma passed away, I envisioned her and grandpa dancing the polka to those accordions. Grandma's smile was bigger than I've ever seen. The song they polkaed to was "in Heaven there is no beer that's why we drink it here." Grandma was drinking a Long Island iced tea..
Grandma didn't say I love you much, but she didn't have to. We all knew. Grandma and I had our own special way of saying I love you: "Mina Racastaan Sinuaa Iso ltii!" "I Love You Grandmal
This story was donated by Clark Hunt. If you are related to or have any other information about the family please contact him.