Susette Cardon was the daughter of John Paul and Susannah Goudin Cardon.  She was born June 23, 1861 at Logan, Utah, the third child.  A brother Phillippe and a sister Mary preceded her.  The family residence was on 1st North between 1st West and Main and it was here that Susette was born.  Her mother was out milking and feeling ill.  She started to return to the house.  The baby girl was born on the doorstep.  Aunt Maune Cardon, 2nd wife of grandfather Phillippe Cardon, cared for her at this time.  Brothers and sisters in the family were:  Phillippe, Mary, Susette, Sarah Ann, Louise, John Paul, Louis, Lucy, Joseph, Moses and Ezra.

When Susette was small, she worked out in the fields with her father.  As children they had to do the housework after the day’s work in the fields.  Susette worked in the house more than the other children and was a very good seamstress.  She also had a very nervous temperament and would often cry when the wind blew.

She attended school in Lindquist Hall which was situated on the southeast corner of the block on 2nd North and 1st East Street.  Sunday School was held in the building on the lot of the southeast corner of 1st North and Main street.  Jos. Hyde and Wm. H. Apperly were her school teachers.  She had little schooling, going only as far as the third grade as her eyes bothered her so.  The lobes of her ears were pierced, and she wore earrings in the belief that it would help her eyesight.

She was always very quiet and unassuming and was kind and thoughtful, endearing herself to everyone who knew her.  Whenever anyone was sick or a new baby arrived, one of the Cardon girls was willing to help out.  In this work she was called out a great deal.  All this was done without any pay.  She was always very spiritually minded.  As a child she was not allowed to be idle and had to work in the daytime and knit in the evenings.

She developed very young and at the age of about thirteen was a beautiful young woman.  It was at this age that Joel Ricks was first attracted to her.  Bishop Marion Lewis was one of Grandpa’s very good fiends and the little girls thought he was wonderful.  When Susette as about 12 or 13 years of age, he asked her to marry him when she was grown up and she said yes.  As she grew older she regretted this very much as he tried to hold her to her promise and she did not love him except in a friendly way.

When about 16 or 17, Grandpa built the hotel "The Cache Valley House".  Susette and Sally did the cooking and waiting on tables.  She was a member of the Logan Choir under Alexander Lewis.  After Evan Stephens came to town, he put on operettas and Sally and Susette took some parts.

Susette always cared for father (Joel Ricks) but was engaged to Hazen Merrill.  When Joel returned and saw her, she changed her mind.  Susette and Joel went to Salt Lake to be married in the Endowment House.  While there he purchased a locket and chain and a wedding ring for her.  After they came back from their honeymoon and Susette was getting ready to leave her home, her father noticed how little she had to take with her so he bought her a blanket.

Susette and Joel Ricks Jr. were married Jan 13, 1881.  At this time Joel was working as a telegrapher at Eagle Rock (later Idaho Falls, Idaho).  There were few houses there, no churches or places to find entertainment, so often they would get the hand car and ride up and down the tracks.  They had to be careful in their contacts with the Indians and also there was trouble with the cattlemen.  There were many rough characters about so that it was not safe for her to go very far from her home which was a discarded freight car.

While Susette was living at Eagle Rock, her sister Sally paid her a visit.  One day they decided to walk along the river and watch the cattlemen round up cattle.  Before they realized it, they had wandered farther than they had intended.  They saw a man riding at top speed toward them telling them to run to safety as the cattle had stampeded and were running toward them.  They didn’t hesitate but ran for their house and just in time for the stampeding cattle would have crushed them beneath their hooves.

Before the birth of her first child, Susette came back to Logan to be near her mother and receive care.  Susette lived in their own home on the island in Logan.  There were few houses on the Island at that time and it was a regular wilderness.  There was the Isaac Smith home north and Carlisle and Nick Crookston homes on the west block.  A daughter, Rhea, was born March 4, 1882.  A son, Joel, was born September 30, 1883.  He was a very delicate child and died at the age of 13 on January 29, 1897.

When Joel was a baby, his father was called on a mission.  He was gone about a year.  He then worked in Salt Lake on the railroad as a train dispatcher.  Rhea was about five years old at this time.  They lived somewhere west of the Tabernacle block near the old university.  Susette used to take the children walking around the unfinished temple and the children climbed around the granite blocks which were used in the construction of the Salt Lake Temple.

When Joel and Susette lived in Logan, they befriended many people whom the government deputies hounded because of their polygamous practices.  Among the people who stayed at our house was Brother C. O. Card.  Mother never allowed us to mix with the guests so when it was meal time Mother (Susette) would say, "Dinner is ready" and Joel and Rhea would run upstairs and stay until she called them back.  One day Rhea went up to Grandpa Ricks and climbed on his lap and stroked his beard and said, "There is a man at our house with whiskers just like yours who sleeps all the time."  He laughed and told father he knew who it was.  Also, Sister Lavinia Card was staying there to be near her husband.

Joel was then assigned a railroad agent job in Provo.  They lived in the old Johnson house near the railroad station.  There was a spring with a house built over it and here Susette worked over butter for the stores.

They next moved to Springville where they remained for three years.  At this place, Susette (Zettie) and Reda were born.  In Springville they made many friends, among them the John Hafen family, the M. C. Crandalls, Ed Andersons, the Allemans and others.  Joel taught a Book of Mormon class here.  When they moved from Springville, the whole town gave them a party in the town hall and gave him a lovely rocking chair.  Here the menfolk would play baseball on Sunday afternoons in a pasture the women and children would sit along the fence and watch.

The family moved back to Logan and started the produce business with Bro. Crandall.  It was called the Ricks, Crandall Produce Company.  While in Logan on May 8, 1892 a son, Lewis, was born and on Jan 27, 1894 a daughter Phebe was born in the old family residence.

The produce business did not prosper so Father went back to the railroad and was sent to Salina.  They first lived in an old stone house known as the Knighton place, then they moved to another place owned by a Mr. Gates. Their last move was to a place one block north.  At this place Irene was born on November 29, 1895.  They lived in Salina for three years and again made many friends.  Just before Irene was born, some women of the Relief Society General Board came to Salina as it was the railroad terminal.  They had to stay in Salina overnight in order to go to a conference in Richfield.  The ??? was not able to accommodate them so Father asked Mother if she could possibly take them in.  Although she felt poorly, she invited them into her home and made them comfortable.  Because they appreciated her kindness so much, the Sisters gave Mother a special blessing and promised her that a choice spirit would be sent to her.  This was really fulfilled in Irene who is a most charming and lovely person, beloved by all who know her.

 The family moved from Salina to Richfield because of young Joel’s health. Before his death, they had moved back to Logan. At the time Joel died, Mother was reading "Swiss Family Robinson."  It was so interesting that she read until late.  Just after she had blown out the light, she heard Joel sigh.  On lighting the lamp, she saw that he had passed away.

Father had remained in southern Utah and then was transferred to Castle Gate.  After Joel’s death, the family moved to Castle Gate where they stayed three years.  Susette came back to Logan before her son Paul was born.  The family remained in Logan from that time on except for visits to their father who continued to work on the railroad for several years.  Her last child, Carrie, was born 4 Mar 1902 in Logan.

About 1906 Joel obtained two passes from Salt Lake to Chicago for Susette and his sister, Ellen Nibley.  Uncle Charlie Nibley paid their other expenses so they went by Pullman to Chicago.  They had a private room, Ellen sleeping in the lower birth and Susette in the upper.  She had to ascend by a small ladder.  They were met in Chicago by Preston Nibley, her son, who took them to a hotel and proceeded to show them the sights around town.  The room at the hotel was $7.00 per day which seemed an enormous amount.  Susette brought each of her children some present which thrilled them very much.  Phebe got a dress and locket and chain, Rhea a trunk and tablecloth.

Susette used to read to her children almost every evening from the "Youth’s Companion", "Juvenile Instructor", "History of Joseph Smith", "Wilford Woodruff", "Robinson Crusoe", "Swiss Family Robison", "David Copperfield" and many other favorite stories.

In order to help out with the family budget, Susette took boarders in and did some nursing.  She was a Relief Society teacher in the Logan 1st Ward for many years.  She went out among the sick a great deal.  Susette was made a counselor in the Relief Society after the family moved to River Heights in 1914 which position she held until the time of her death, Jan 2, 1919.  She was the first president of the Joseph Smith Camp of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers.  Sarah Bullock Jensen was her secretary.  Ragna Maughan was a counselor.  In her spare time she worked in the Temple and did the work for many people.