Saturday, August 29, 2009

Lillian Adelaide Hurst 1861 - 1910

As a child on holidays we had dinner with our relatives with all the good food of the day, turkey, pumpkin pie.  We children played pomp pomp, pull away, hide and seek and jump rope and jacks and dramas.  Grandfather had been a very fine actor, also Uncle Phil.  The men played tug-o-war with long ropes, choosing up sides, each side pulling and hollering and laughing.  I got very excited and clung to mother’s skirt, I was afraid someone would get hurt.  It was nice to have my parents and relatives relax and enjoy themselves.  So we had many relatives who were very kind to us, they teased us in fun, and sometimes corrected us when we needed it.  When Mama and Papa spanked, we felt very sorry for ourselves, but we loved and needed our parents, as all little children do.


Mother had mounted a lot of picture prints from famous artists that hung in all of the rooms except the parlor where the pictures of Edna and Harold hung in large frames.  The dining room, kitchen hall, stairs, and bedrooms had large loom woven carpets on their floors.  Mother always went to the best homes and loved our Latter-day Saints.  She also visited non-members with Father and she entertained them in our home, notably Dr. Skipwith.

My mother tried to make the best of her life.  She was really religious.  She was a little over 5 foot or less and had lovely brown hair.  She wore it in a round bob at the nape of her neck.  She had lovely brown eyes and a pretty straight nose.  She was a little overweight and her feet hurt so she wore comfortable shoes.  She wore her dresses to her ankles.  She hired her best clothes made.  She raised chickens and made butter and sold eggs, butter, and buttermilk to buy our clothes.  She bought Father a new suit so he would go to church with her.  She was honest but liked to be treated fairly and did not let people take unfair advantage of her except Father.  He did not treat her right; he knew it and repented of it many times over.

My mother's endowment was done for her in the Manti Temple on December 5, 1912.

Brother Turley and others sold us fruit.  We always had bottled fruit except the year mother died.  She died August 23, 1910. 

To Ernst Young (Mary’s brother) Colonia Dublan Mexico:
‘Mother passed a restless night, examination this morning. Dr. says he can cure her all right, don’t know when operation will be performed.  In better spirits at this hour, 8 o’clock.’ Father (James Absalom Young)

Lillian died in 1910 in El Paso, Texas from an operation for female weakness.”  Mary Brown (daughter)