EMMA JANE DIXON DOUGLASS
In the little farming community of Kirtland, Ohio, a green spot of rolling hills, Emma Jane was born on October 16, 1855, the sixth child of Christopher Flintoff Dixon and Jane Elizabeth Wightman Dixon. Her father had come from New Brunswick to Kirtland, bringing with him his wife from New York. Both belonged to the Latter-day Saints Church, which probably was their reason for coming to Kirtland.
In Kirtland they lived in a long rambling frame house, one bought from Hyrum Smith. All of her brothers and sisters were born there. The house stood across across the street from the Mormon temple. A tall climbing rose hungs to a corner of the house. When she later visited the spot, the owners were surprised when all she asked for was a rose clipping to take to Utah. Other visitors before her were chiefly interested in the house because of its connection with Hyrum Smit. They had asked for souvenirs such as pieces of the wall or steps or fireplace.
It was in that old house that Emma and brothers and sisters played Ring Around the Roses together. The ones old enough to play were Ruth Elizabeth, Charles Hyrum, John Henry, Mary Adelma, Erastus Wightman, and Emma. Her oldest brother Joseph had died in infancy. The two others, Estelle Victoria, and Christopher Flintoff were too small at the time.
She could remember her mother looking on at the children as she did with her lap full of sewing! She had no machine and stitched for her brood whenever she had time. Occasionally a woman was hired to help her.
When Emma was not playing, she used to like to go out under the old chestnut grove with her father to salt the sheep. Besides farming, he used to herd sheep nearby. Once when they were out there, a troop of Union soldiers appeared. They practiced jumping over their fence. Emma remembered they were all happy that her oldest brother Charles was too young for the Civil War. Then too, he was so sick there that they often feared for his life.
Emma remember that her oldest sister Ruth always had lots of beaus in Kirtland. She was glad for the recognition people gave her. But it was Emma’s sister May, who in her very quiet way, seemed closest to Emma. Often Emma wished that she could sit as May did by her sick Grandmother Wightman’s side and sip tea. Maybe it was because she was too lively to be by her in her sickness. May gave her just that quiet ease that she desired. When Grandmother died, Emma stood with the others, watching her coffin being carried across the street to the temple burial ground.
Once when Emma had her little sister Estelle with her, they got lost near the temple. Emma remembered the tears they shed before someone found them and took them home
Their neighbors in Kirtland were considerate ones. One Sabra Whitley used to help Emma’s mother with the children. When her brother returned home after the Civil War, he brought the smallpox with him to Sabra. When she stood at our gate afterwards, Emma’s mother feared to invite her in because of the dreaded disease.
Another neighbor Hat Frank lived across the street from us. She was blinded in one eye by a boy who threw a snowball that hit a window, causing a piece of glass to blind her. Whenever Hat used to come over to our house she’d sing the song, “Oh, How I Wish I Were Single Again.” The line in the song about the husband wishing the children dead worried me when she sang it. I couldn’t imagine anyone wishing his children dead.
Ella Green, another neighbor, was the child of a rather odd mother. When Ella left her dress on the floor as she hurried off to school, her mother sent after her and brought her home to pick it up. Emma was so surprised that she thought about the incident for a long time.
About the only thing Emma could remember in connection with their plans to leave Kirtland and cross the plains to Utah was the friendliness of their neighbors. They took them into their homes, shared their meals before our the Dixon Family’s departure. Next, they were on a pretty boat on Lake Erie. The light red carpet on the boat seemed very attractive to Emma. On the boat she remembered the captain asking where the mother of the children was. Emma’s mother was sick in her cabin. When they reached Florence, Nebraska, her father left the family to return to Kirtland to settle his affairs. When he rejoined them with an ox team, they made ready to start their long trek across the plains. Emma remembered the many barrels of crackers they had. The two oxen were Bright and Golden. They drew the wagon. Ruth rode a pony part of the time. The rest of the maily rode in the wagon or walked. From Florence on, they rode in the company of Captain Canfield.
Whenever the company halted, they would all start hunting for buffalo chips to burn. Once when they stopped, some Indians looked in their wagon. They laughed when the children cried for fear of them. From June to October they rode over the plains with just two accidents that Emma could remember. Rastus, her brother, had his foot run over and was left crippled because they had no doctor to aid them. Arthur Wightman, just a little boy, fell into the fire and burned the palm of his hand. He held his hand so tightly closed to ease the pain that it grew together. Even though Emma was just seven at the time, she remembered those two accidents.
Emma never forget reaching Salt Lake City on October 16, 1862, which was her seventh birthday. The peaches were just getting ripe and a Mormon elder brought them some. How good they tasted to to the family! In Emigration Canyon they were met by Orawell Simons, who had preceded them to Utah. From Salt Lake they came right on to Payson, taking four days for the trip. In Payson they were again with those that knew. Her father’s sisters were already established there.
On the public square in Payson, they made their camp. Later they moved down to the “Old Place” as they later called it. Emma remembered the large, clear stream of water that flowed near the house. They had to make adobes for the house and live with relatives until the house was built. It nestled in a green grove of box elder and cottonwood trees, close by Peteetneet Creek.
When Emma was little, they made their our own candles. They hung strings on sticks, dipped the strings in tallow, and then brought them out to cool. By repeating the process they made candles the size they wished.
They were taught thrift. Regularly they gleaned wheat that scratched their hands. They weeded too. Emma could remember going with her Aunt Betsy McKinley, her father’s sister, out to pull the cockle weed from the wheat field. Iemma thought the cockle weed a pretty one.
Emma was always interested in the animals, both on their “Old Place” and on their second place over on the “Bench.” She often helped with the milking and did other farm chores. Her father gave her many calves because of her interest.
At home, they often made candy from the skimmings of molasses. Part of their work was in gathering saleratus from the hills to put in water for cooking purposes. They made their soup too from extra grease drippings. Nearly always they had cheese in the making.
Her father’s estate in Kirtland had brought him a considerable sum, large enough for him to get well-fixed in Payson with his farmland, homes, cattle and sheep.
When Emma was in her early teens, she went in a cart drawn by a horse that the family had bought from a man who had it in a show in Montana, over the old Spanish Fork Road to the house on the Bench. Just as Emma got to the top of the hill, she saw a band of Indians running around on their horses in the pasture. She was so frightened upon seeing them that she turned and hurried back to Payson, forgetting that her mission to the Bench was to bring back her sister May who was there, with some friends. Of course, nothing happened except that those at the Bench had to walk to Payson. May often joked with Emma about the incident, saying that she cared so little for her that she had left her to the Indians while Emma made my own safe getaway.
The Douglass’ always feared the Indians. Even when they came to the door and knocked and said, “Wine,” the family was afraid.
Down at the Old Place Emma’s father planted a large orchard a few years after their arrival. They had apples of all kinds, peaches and plums. Emma thought the plums were delicious. She remembered cutting the peaches in the old granary for drying and laying them on a lath out in the sun to dry.
If ever Brigham Young or any of the church leaders were to be in town, the Douglass’ were dressed in their Sunday best and taken out to see the leaders go by. It was always an event for them.
At the age of thirteen, Emma was quite a big girl and a tomboy. Her chief delight was riding horses and running races. When she started to school, her first teacher was Lucretia Wightman. The schoolhouse was the old Wightman home across the street from the Old Place.
Our Friday’s the spelling matches were always an excitement event. Two students called up sides with John Tom Hardy for teacher. Isaiah Coombs, who taught them in the old Central School, was the teacher of arithmetic. If ever Emma needed help, William Patten, who was good in figures, helped her out. Mr. Coombs also taught reading, writing and grammar. They had a grammar book for any questions in grammar.
Later, I went to T. B. Lewis, who taught in the old tithing office upstairs. It was while she was in his school that she was voted by popular vote the best student, and she received for a prize Eliza r. Snow’s book of poems.
After leaving Mr. Lewis’ school Emma went to Provo, where Warren and Willson Dusenbury taught in the Lewis building. After that, she went to the Deseret University on Main Street in Salt Lake, where Dr. John R. Park was my teacher.
When the Philomathion Society was organized by T. B. Lewis, Emma made her first public appearance, reciting from memory Saint Gadula’s Bells. She always attended Sunday school regularly in the old Union Hall, a hall used for not only religious work but for dances and stage performances as well. In Sunday School they were taught the Bible by memorizing certain chapters.
Emma was past 19 years old when Samuel Douglass and Emma were married in the old Endowment House in Salt Lake on October 26, 1874. They returned to Payson in a buggy the following day. When they reached Payson, her mother had a big dinner for them. They were married a little sooner than they had planned because her father was going on a mission to New Brunswick.
Soon after their marriage, they moved into the new house just built. After her they had oil lamps in thier home. They used them until the night Emma and Samuel’s daughter Nell was married when their electric lights were installed.
Samule and Emma had eleven children: Mary Estelle, Armanella, Samuel, Charles, William, Emma, Henrietta, Edith, Stanley, Marguerite, and Kathryn.
Emma Jane passed away on June 4, 1943 and was buried next to her husband in the Salt Lake City Cemetery.
