By Eldora Hadfield Paskett Barrett

Jessie Hadfield was born in Glossip, Derbyshire, England on August 17, 1893 and died on June 17, 1972 in Salt Lake City, Utah. She is the daughter of Mary Shaw and John Hadfield. Jessie was the 6th child in the Family of eight children. While in England her grandfather owned three houses on Horrup Street. Jessie and her parents lived in the middle house. There were three large bedrooms upstairs, and a kitchen, dining, and a large parlor downstairs. The house was beautifully furnished and the children were not allowed in the parlor. Nevertheless, the children had full run of the kitchen and the dining room. The kitchen had a large stone sink. It also had a large fireplace built into the wall that had a bake oven on one side and a small water tank for heating water on the opposite side. The family always had plenty of food and were comparatively well off.

She came to America on May 11, 1900 on board the ship “City of Rome” which was bound for New York City.

The events that occurred prior to that sailing were interesting as John Hadfield owned the row of street houses, which Jessie remembered going from door to door collecting rent, and a silk worm factory. Without any warning, he came home one evening with eight large trunks and announced each member of the family was to pick their trunk. He said, ” I have sold all my business and we are sailing for America in two weeks. You can take what you choose as long as it fits in your trunk (My mother’s trunk is still in my family.)

The family was met at Ellis Island by my father’s brother who had moved near there a few years before and lived back east somewhere so it was easy for them to be picked up. They stayed with the brother for a few days to prepare for the trip by train to Ogden, Utah as that was the closest, they could get to their destination of Grouse Creek, Utah. His family was already settled there.

There is a period I know nothing about. The courtship of Jessie Hadfield, and Frank Paskett, was never told to me. Frank was sent on a mission to the Caroline’s and was gone for two years. When he returned it was love at first sight.

They were married in the Salt Lake City temple 26 September 1911. Jessie was eighteen at the time and Frank was twenty-six.

I don’t know where in Grouse Creek they lived but I am pretty sure he worked on his family’s farm.

On August 27, 1912, their first daughter was born. Ivy Hadfield Paskett.

The Paskett and Hadfield families were known and treated like the upper class of the town and lived on what was known as the Cove. Frank bought one of the first model T cars.

Jessie was the only woman who could drive and she was known to handle a car better than any man. She told the story of a man driving toward her and Frank on the wrong side of the road, she was driving, and Frank grabbed the steering wheel pulling the car to the other side. Jessie grabbed it back feeling the man would try to correct his error and they would crash. She was right which caused them to have their first disagreement of their married life. She gave him orders in no uncertain terms that when she was driving, he was to keep his hands off the steering wheel.

While living in Grouse Creek, four more children were born, Merton Hadfield, Edwin Hadfield, Jesse Hadfield, and Cavell Hadfield Paskett.

After Jesse was born, Jessie was told to have no more children as her heart would not stand it and she would leave a fine family with no mother. It turned out that she had six more and lived to a ripe old age of seventy-nine.

As I have gone through church records, all I find is that Jesse and Cavell were born in Grouse Creek. I am not sure they ever really lived there as my Grandma Hadfield was a registered nurse and delivered all the kids to this time, so mother could have gone home to have the two boys.

My father was called by the church authorities to move to Malta to organize a new stake along with Brother Elison. I cannot find what that date was but I feel very strongly that it was before Jesse was born.

It was a big move for my parents as they had to leave many friends and family behind. They rented a plot of land on Darby lane for the 50 cows they brought along.

They purchased a lot in the small town of Malta, Idaho. They were having a hard time. The first year the cows got a poison weed and every one of them died. My father then went partners with Pres. Elison and built a flour mill on the lot next to our house. His partner was not very trust worth and the flour mill failed.

All this time as money and time permitted, they began building a new home. During this time, she gave birth to a stillborn child. Frank built a small casket and as the floor of the home was not down yet the baby was buried under the house.

The business failures caused Frank to go elsewhere to find work to provide for the family. He worked on the railroad in Elko, Nevada for a while doing blasting.

On February 12, 1921 Jessie started labor with another child. She was having a bad time. Frank asked Sister Elison to come be with her while he went down to the post office to call Dr. Sater. Sher was taking chills and Sister Elison wrapped a hot flat iron from the stove and placed it in bed with her. Jessie had passed out and Frank had not made it back yet. The baby girl (Mary) decided to make her entrance. She came out directly on the hot iron burning off the lobe of her right ear on down her right side, taking off her breast, inside of her arm and on to her knee.

When the doctor got there, he was astonished. Mary was quickly wrapped onto a board and was taken immediately by the doctor to Ogden, Utah to the Dee hospital where my Grandmother Hadfield was working as a registered nurse. As Jessie was able, she also spent the time with Mary as she was healing. She had many operations and it was a real blessing she ever lived. Frank and Ivy took care of the family for many weeks while Mother was away.

Mary had many, many operations in a short period of time, as her little body grew it meant more operations. Jessie spent a lot of time away from home and did housework for room and board in cities according to the hospital the operations were performed in.

As I think back, I don’t know how my mother was strong enough to handle all she went through.

Jessie was always a very busy church worker. I have tried to find dates but failed. I know that she was second counselor, with Sister Udy as president, in the Stake Primary for 19 years. At the same time, she also working as the counselor in the Relief Society working with the bishop and the Welfare department. She remembered many times she was given bolts of material to make clothing for children. It bothered her as her own family needed the help, she was giving others but was too proud to say anything.

On May 28, 1925, Mother gave birth to a son, Darrell, this being her sixth living child. Everyone who knew him thought he was a very special child. He was very bright, kind and well behaved.

I, Eldora, was born 2 years later October 9, 1927. We now are a family of three girls and four boys.

On May 2, 1929 Philetta entered the world making four girls and four boys.

December 1930 my father came from work a very sick man. On December 28th, after a short illness, my father died. The cause was rock dust on his lungs from the earlier blasting on the railroad. It was very hard on all of us.

Merton tells of a time, when he and his dad were alone, his dad told him that he would not live much longer and that he, Merton, would have to be the man of the family. Merton took this instruction very seriously.

February 12, 1931, two months after my father died, Frankalene was born. We all really loved the new baby and really spoiled her. Since then, Frankalene had her name legally changed to Frankie as that was what everyone knew her by.

Mother was very determined to take care of us herself. I saw her more than once take checks people gave her and throw them in the stove. We as a family seemed to realize it would take all of us to make a go of it. If any of us made a quarter it was all put in the pot. It was never said it was to be that way we just knew.

The State of Idaho sent a widow’s pension of $35.00 every month. The boys were all hired by farmers. Some were live in situations. We girls worked for others with feeding hay crews and just plain house work and that money all went into the pot.

On the 25th of November 1931, Ivy was married to Lawrence Jardine in Brigham City, Utah.

On January 30, 1932, my brother, Darrell, went to my mother and ask if he could sleep with Merton that night. Of course, Merton had become a substitute father for Darrell. Early next morning Merton, with Darrell in his arms, woke Mother up and told her Darrell was very ill and could not breathe. Mother sent for Dr. Sater and while he was coming my mother was rocking Darrell.

I remember Darrell asking my mother if he could have a casket just like his daddy. I was sleeping on a small cot in the room close by the stove as we were short of beds. So, I just sat on my bed and watched. Mother told him he wouldn’t need a casket as he would soon be well. He then said to Mother “You need to put Brother Harper’s glasses further on the table so the little kids can’t get them and break them”. Dr. Sater arrived and started preparing to put Darrell from hot to cold water baths. Before this took place Darrell passed away in my mother’s arms. Just one year after my father.

He had a very large funeral as everyone loved him and felt he was very special. His first-grade teacher said she always felt he was a true angel sitting in her class.

This was very hard on Mother. She was having some real challenges with Cavell. He was a star in football and become rough and rowdy when drinking. When he was 16, Mother signed for him to join the Navy feeling they could handle him better than she could.

One of the worst days I saw her go through was the Sunday Pearl Harbor was attacked as that was where Cavell was. It took many weeks before she got word, he was safe on a vessel on the Pacific.

In the fall of 1933, we were given the treat of going to the movies that came to Malta just once a week. When we got home, we were all cold and cuddled around the kitchen stove to keep warm while we undressed for bed. Someone had given us a box of oranges. Mother went into the next room to get us an orange before we went to bed. As we had no electricity in Malta as yet, my Mother took a lighted match to make her way.

We were working on the oranges when we smelt smoke. My Mother opened the hallway door which lead to the room where the oranges were and was met by a wall of flames. She called to us to leave the house. We all got out safe. There was just Mother and us three youngest girls.

The neighbors hustled around and kept the fire to just the one room but, unfortunately, Mother had just finished making all new clothes to start school and they were all completely gone. The end of the match which my Mother used had fallen off and started the fire.

At the time of this fire, Mary, who was a young teenager, was at the St. Alphonsus Hospital in Boise, Idaho. She was there for about 9 months and had 14 operations during that time. Mother would go up to visit her as often as she could and especially was with her during her operations. At that time Merton would stay at home with the younger children while she was gone.

During these years, Edwin married Naomi Nedeo.

Mary met John Edward “Willie” Wilson, who came to Malta to work at the CCC camp. They were eventually married and lived with our family.

And I married Larence James Barrett who was my band teacher in high school. As soon as we were married, we moved to Provo for Larence to continue his schooling at BYU.

Mother had tried to work at the cheese factory in Malta to support the family, but the work was too hard for her. So, I suggested that Mother should move to Provo where we were going to school. Surprisingly, she and all the family decided to move. That would have been in 1946.

They rented a house about 10 blocks from where we lived and Mother got a job in the operating room at the hospital. It was so hard for her to watch the young children and babies. She was the one that cleaned the operating room to prepare for each surgery so she often had to remove amputated limbs and other debris from the prior surgery.

And about 1947 Mother and Mary purchased a little home on the corner of 5th North and 9th East where she and Mary’s family lived for about 20 years. Willie was killed in action in WWII and so the family was Mary, Richard, Barbara and Patsy.

In the fall of 1948, Mother was offered a job at BYU as a dorm mother. She worked first in the girl’s dorms and then in the boy’s dorms. She loved the work and the kids loved her. Being a dorm mother in those days was a management sort of thing. She enforced visiting schedules and resolved maintenance issues and just kind of “mothered” the students in the dorms.

In 1961, Mother and Mary purchased another home just a half a block away. They never really liked living right in the old home on the corner, because the streets actually made a “fork” right at that corner and their home had been hit by cars several times as it sat right in the middle of that “fork” in the street. The new home was a nice, newer brick home in the middle of the block.

Mother worked at BYU until she retired in the late 1960’s.

After Mary married Theron Corbridge in 1966, Mother moved to our old family home in Malta. When she was not able to live alone any longer, she lived with Frankie for a while. She was very hard to handle as she had Alzheimer’s. She would wait her chance then pick fights with the kids. She lived with Ivy for a while and hated that as she felt Ivy was treating her like a kid.

So, Merton built a room on his house and moved her in.

Mother had three nice trips. First was to San Antonio, Texas with Mary to visit her husband, Willie, while he was there on his R & R. The second was her trip to Vallejo, California to visit Cavell on his R & R and to meet his new wife, Margaret.

I had been trying very hard to get her to come to visit us in Alaska. She had never been on an airplane and she was afraid. We sent her a ticket and were finally going to have a visit from her. She was so excited when we picked her up at the airport. She was so proud of herself. She said, “Even when they said you could take off the seat belt, I just kept mine on.”

This was during the month of June in about 1957 or 1958. The plane always came in at 12:00 noon. We showed her around a bit. As the glacier was nearby, we took her there. She was so amazed. We went home and had supper and of course the sun was still high in the sky. Larence had a meeting so I said to Mother, “We will take a ride out the road”. About that time the neighbor kids came over and ask if the girls could go to a movie with them. I just said it would be alright. Mother asked how I could let the girls out at night, especially in a wild place like Alaska?

We had a real nice ride to the end of the road and when we got back the kids were already home. The sun was still high in the sky. Mother was really astounded and a bit embarrassed for making such a fuss. In the summer, the sun stays up until 1:00 or 2:00 am.

Mother had a real hard time adjusting to the almost 24 hours of daylight. The next day I left her in bed sleeping. I went to work then came home for lunch just to check on her. I had to wake her up. She told me she would get breakfast so I would get to work on time. When I told her I had been to work and had come home again to eat lunch, she had a hard time believing it.

On the third day of her trip, Doc Rude (our local doctor) called to ask if my mother would like a trip around Portland Island. He said he was picking the yacht up and bringing it back to Auke Lake to another mooring. I could tell Mother was afraid and yet I knew it would be great for her. First her excuse was nothing to wear on the boat. I said you will be wearing my pedal pushers and Laura Lee’s tenny runners. She was sure her body would fall apart if she wore those clothes.

I didn’t listen I just started dressing her. She looked rather cute. So different. When we got on board, Doc said “Jessie I have tied up two whales for you to see as we round the point.” I just said, “Sure you have.”

Off we went. Such smooth sailing. We came to the point and to our surprise there were at least six whales playing. I thought Mother was going to jump over board she was so excited. Doc told me to take over the wheel and keep the motor running so they would stay far enough away that there would be no chance of them going under the vessel and tipping it over. Mother was so exhausted when we got home, she went right to sleep.

Mother had very mixed emotions when she left for home. She was anxious to be home again, but hated to leave the slow space of Alaska. Alaska was the only place she could sleep without 3 pillows to sleep on. Her breathing came really easy. Many times, later she told me that Alaska was the best memory of her whole life.

Mother was living with Merton when she passed away. She hadn’t felt well for several days. Marion’s family was having a 50th wedding anniversary that they needed to go to so they ask Frankie to come and be with her.

Frankie stopped and picked up Mary and the two of them were with her. About nine o’clock Frankie called Merton and told him she thought he should hurry home. Mother was not doing well. When Mary and Frankie left, Marion said it seemed like they were holding her here as when they let go of her and left, my mother passed away. One source told me she called out my father’s name as she was going, but I really cannot confirm that. It sounds right to me as I know my father visited her more than once.

After her death on June 17 1972, Mother was taken from Salt Lake City, Utah, where she was living with Merton, back to Malta, Idaho to be buried beside her husband.