Remembering Our Pioneer Heritage - Charles Heber Dudley
CHARLES HEBER
Their children are: Charles Heber Jr., Dorothy Elta, Mary Ann, George Benjamin, Hannah Ida, Harriet,
In 1889 Charles Heber Dudley of Willard Utah entered into a contract with the Alberta Irrigation Company to build a mile of canal in
While in
Leaving
Two of the children, Dora and Harriet, years later, told of the fun that they had running up the hill onto the roof of the dug-in and down again until "father" put an end to it. The next day the children had great fun building a raft out of slabs and sailing on the pond in front of their new home.
It didn't take Dorothy long to set up respectable housekeeping. She divided the dug-in into four rooms by slab partitions, hung building paper on the slabs and layered cloth on that. A coat of kalsomine was then added. On the floor was a thin layer of straw with rag rugs from wall to wall. Two bedrooms were added later. Dorothy was creative in making everything in her domain beautiful. She was an expert seamstress and would often find the most exquisite dress in the exclusive shops and then would go home and make it. She was also a wonderful cook. Breads, cakes, cookies, pies, fondants, chocolates,
In July, 1902 it rained and rained, causing flooding in the valley. The water rose so fast that the family had to crawl out the north window of the dug-in to higher ground. The organ was lifted onto a table to save it. They moved into the grainery for three days until they could reach safe ground when the water receded. They had no clean water and almost died of thirst, until Sammy Wallace swam a horse over to bring some water. The floor of their home was covered with a silty mud. Dorothy and her girls made it cozy and livable again in short order.
After the flood, a new six room home was built by
The kitchen was in the south end of the home while the living room was in the north. The entrance way was off the kitchen on the southeast side. There were internal stairs on the east wall rising to the south. The bedrooms were upstairs. The Wallace's (Dorothy's family) had a nursery in Salt Lake, so she was particular with the grounds and was concerned when the grass would never grow on a patch of ground on the north side of the house. This remained a mystery until Charles finally realized that the north room was the boys bedroom.
During the winter months, Dorothy and her children had great fun sliding on scoop shovelsdown the hill on the east side of the house out on to the frozen pond. As there was no refrigeration, ice was used from the pond, later known as Ovard's pond. It was cut and hauled up the hill and stored in an underground cellar (ice house), which was about 60 feet east of the house. Packed in ashes, the ice remained frozen and was sold in the summer. Alan has found many artifacts from this and other structures from that era while digging water lines etc. About 100 feet southeast of the house was the chicken coop. It was on a small rise of ground with the stable beyond that. The garden was south of the barn. The spring was toward the creek (pond) about 150 feet southeast of the house and is still there and running.
It has been a labor of love for Alan Dudley to be able to purchase the land and have it once again to be the
Additional tid-bits
Dororthy Ann was a practical nurse and began her midwife career during the flood of 1902 out of necessity. She later went on to deliver 200 - 300 babies in the Magrath -Raymond district. Her charge was $1.50, and this included delivering the baby and 10 days of care for the mother and child. One experience she had was in the dead of winter during a terrible blizzard when a man came to her to deliver a baby in the country, When they got there, snow was drifting into the cabin onto the woman's bed. Dorothy Ann delivered the baby but the after- birth would not come, Knowing the woman was hemorrhaging, Dorothy went into a closet and prayed, asking what to do. A voice gave her instructions, which she followed exactly, and was able to save the woman's life. Because of her great faith, she could tell many faith promoting experiences.
Charles Heber was an ambitious, frugal, and a very religious man. Every morning the family would read from the scriptures and then would turn their chairs with the backs to the table and have a kneeling family prayer. He was the first ward clerk and also the town secretary in Magrath. He always had peppermints in his pockets to give to the kids. One funny story told of Charles Heber was when he got his first car. The boys drove it out from
A favorite story tells of the Rasmus Rasmussen family and their neighborly buck sheep. One morning, while the
This write up was taken from Alison Shaw’s website: http://members.shaw.ca/familytreasures/ch_dudley_sr_.htm
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