1. Martha Ann Gillson Hall.
2. Mrs. Hall lives at 358 Harrisville Road, Ogden, Utah.
3. She is still able to do her own cooking and taking care of herself and home.
4. She has raised her family and worked helping her husband in anyway she could.
5. Mrs. Hall was born October 21, 1850.
6. Her father and mother, William Gillson and Charlotte King were born in England. Five of their children were also born in England. In 1845 they left Long Clawson, England and went to South Africa to live. It was in Unbentage [Uitenhage], South Africa that Martha and her brother John King Gillson were born.
7. In October this year, Mrs. Hall will celebrate her eighty-eighth birthday.
8. She was married to William Henry Hall on November 22, 1869 in the Endowment House of the Latter Day Saints Church in Salt Lake City, Utah.
9. Sometime after moving to Africa, the Gillsons were visited by two Mormon missionaries who were laboring there. Mrs. Gillson was afflicted with a large growth on her neck. The elders told her if she would have faith, she would be healed of this affliction. She believed their teachings were true and obeyed the gospel and was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and the promise was fulfilled. Her neck was healed. This was a great testimony to them of the power of the Lord. In March 1859, they left South Africa and came to the United States. They came on a sailing vessel named the Alacrity and were eight weeks in crossing the ocean. They landed at Boston, Massachusetts.
[10. At
what place did you join the company of wagon train with which you came
to Utah?]
10. They came by train and boat to Omaha and then across the
Missouri River to Council Bluffs, Iowa where they fitted themselves up
with an ox team and a wagon for their trip across the plains.
[11. When
did it leave for Utah?]
11. They left Council Bluffs in June 1859.
[12. What was the place
of your destination in Utah? Why did you come to Utah?]
12. Their destination was Salt Lake City, Utah.
[13. When did you arrive
there?]
13. September 16, 1859, they arrived in Salt Lake City and
they
came to Ogden later the same year.
[14. Who was the leader
of your company or train?]
14. Captain Edward Stevenson was the leader of their company.
[15. Method of travel
(handcart, ox team, mule team, horseback, etc.)]
15. Their wagon was so heavily loaded that the family were
compelled to walk most of the way. The wagon was drawn by two
yokes of oxen.
16. The first home in Ogden was in the Lynne Ward and was made of logs. This was about where the 15th Ward of Ogden is not at Five Points.
17. Candles were the first lights they used but these were scarce so they used the light from the fireplace most of the time.
19. Sage brush was the first fuel they used and along with this also they burned wood. They cooked over a fire place. Mrs. Hall never had a stove until after she was married.
20. The food they had was the garden supplies they raised. Their family often never had enough food. They would mix bran with the flour to make bread. This was done to make the flour last longer as it was scarce. She remembers how she enjoyed the bread her mother baked. Many times when she was out in the fields working all she would have to eat would be a piece of bread with a cucumber and some salt.
21. The clothing they wore were nearly all made of homespun wool. Mrs. Hall would spin the wool herself. She also went gleaning in the fields, gathering wheat. Sometimes she would glean as much as ten bushels which she would sell for five dollars per bushel. This money would help to buy her clothes. She would start walking to town with a bushel of wheat on her back or maybe she could get a ride to town. She would sell her wheat and buy calico that cost sixty cents per yard. She felt very proud when she was able to get enough material for a new dress.
22. In the early days, candles were very scarce and if her beau was coming to call she would get sage brush to put on the fire for light. Her mother said they had to save the candles in case someone should get sick or for any emergency. So she and her beau would have to "spark" by firelight.
[34. Tell about coming
to your state in a covered wagon.]
34. When they came across the plains in 1859
their progress was very slow. One of their oxen gave out
along the way so they had to use only the three to pull the heavy
wagon. She remembers how her poor mother would become so
tired she would sit down by the side of the road and tell them to drive
on and leave her there to die. It took them three months to
get from Council Bluffs to Salt Lake City.
In the early days it was often necessary to have each one do their part in trying to make a living for the family. Her mother would walk to North Ogden and wash all day for a little white flour. When her mother was away she remembers how frightened the children were of the Indians.
Mrs. Hall often went out spinning wool. She would spin from Monday morning until Saturday night for which she was paid two dollars and her board. She worked hard, helping her father strip sugar cane to grind for molasses, carrying sage brush for the fire place and anything she could do to help.
She also helped with the family cooking. The bread was baked in a large bake kettle over the fire place.
They would often go up the canyon in the wagon to gather service berries. On one of these trips she had eaten so many of the berries she was very sick. Her mother put a cloth over her stomach and lay her across the bottom of the wagon.
They attended the Conference of the Mormon Church in Salt Lake and would go with the ox team pulling the wagon. It would take two days to make the trip down and two days returning.
Mrs. Hall was baptized when a child into the church. She was a member of the Relief Society for years and was also a teacher for about seven years. Mr. Hall was a farmer and later in life he bought a farm directly across the street from his father-in-law's farm on Harrisville Road, so Mrs. Hall has spent almost her entire life in the same neighborhood.
She told of how she had to make a bed of straw on the floor for her boys and she had a trundle bed that she could slide under her bed so it was out of the way during the day. Their homes were usually one room and they had to have the space. The youngest child would sleep in the trundle bed at nights.
Mr. Hall was a good dancer being very capable of dancing the double shuffle. They attended many dances. They often went down to dances in the Mound Fort district. She thought the dances were held in the school house there.
38. Mrs. Hall's parents were very poor and didn't have the money for tuition for their children to attend school. The English people didn't seem to mind or worry very much because their children didn't attend school. She did attend the Taft school for about three months.
39. This school was located in Bingham's Fort on 2nd street.
40. Louis Taft was the teacher.
41. She didn't remember how much the tuition was but her parents only paid for the three months for her. After she was married to Mr. Hall she lost her baby boy and her husband suggested that while she wasn't tied down with the care of the baby, that she attend a night school that was being held down on 2nd street. It was called Reno's school by the children although she said this wasn't the name of it. This was the extend of her education. She didn't remember if she ever attended school when they lived in South Africa as she was only nine years of age when they left. The only recollections she has of Africa were of the palm trees and monkeys.
76. Mrs. Hall was the mother of ten children, eight who are
now living.
77. She has twenty-eight grand children and thirty great grand children.
Mr. and Mrs. Hall were hard working people and were very thrifty. Besides having a comfortable two story brick house on their farm, they were able to own other property and to save enough to take care of their old age. She worked and helped him earn the living during her younger days, washing and drying fruit, such as apples, plums and peaches. She also dried corn and sold many a sack in the fall at ten cents per pound. She was a good mother to her children, all of them now are married and have their own home and families. They were all taught to work in the home and to milk cows, make butter and all the other things that are necessary to do on the farm. They were all given a good education.
Both Mrs. Hall and her husband were charitable and good to the poor, and better neighbors were hard to find. Their friends and neighbors were always remembered with milk, butter, eggs, fruit and vegetables in season, if they did not raise them on their own place. Mrs. Hall was an excellent cook and whenever there was sickness or trouble, she carried well prepared dishes of food to the family that was in need of sympathy or aid. She has many friends and on Christmas or her birthday, she receives as many as fifty lovely cards and letters. Her family are very kind to her and do her hard work or anything she is unable to do for herself. She has recently had a long illness of which she is not entirely recovered but able to be up and around.
