Vilate Nyman Johnson--Part 1

Vilate Nyman Johnson (1967)

 

January 23 is the 120^th anniversary of the birth of my grandmother, Vilate Nyman Johnson. In July 1968, at the age of 75, she wrote her history. The next several posts will be from that history. These are her words.

The Early Years

I, Vilate Nyman Johnson, was born in North Logan (Greenville), Cache County, Utah, 23 January 1893, the eighth daughter and fourteenth child of Carl and Albertina Loving Nyman. My father and mother were pioneer Swedish emigrants, coming to Utah in 1863 in the same ox team company.

My father, Carl Nyman, was a tall thin man and had beautiful black curly hair that just laid back in waves. He wore a beard as long as I can remember. He was very strict and when he spoke to us we knew he meant it. He died when he was 84 years old on 19 August 1931. As he was laying in his casket with his silver gray hair, it still had those beautiful waves in it. He was buried in the Logan City Cemetery.

My mother, Albertina Axelina Loving, was a short woman. As a young girl she was small and slender, but as the years rolled by she became heavier. Her hair was real dark, but as the years passed she too had lovely silver hair. She worked hard with her large family but had a happy life with them. She died 26 July 1925 at the age of 74. She died in North Logan and was buried 29 July 1925 in the Logan Cemetery.

The Carl and Albertina home in North Logan

We had a large kitchen and the table would be pulled out across the room to make places for 12 or 14 when all the family was at home. The kitchen in those days was always the largest room in the house, this was our “family room,” this is where we lived. We got our water from a well. There was always a dipper at the pump, so anyone could get a drink of water at any time.

We had a bench in the kitchen that had a wash basin and a bucket of water with a dipper in the bucket at all times. Above this bench on the wall, was a mirror with a little comb case. Always a comb and brush were there, we didn’t all have our own comb and brush in those days, like we do today.

We had a very simple but happy home life. We had to work when very young to help with most everything. We raised most everything. Always had a nice vegetable garden, had chickens for eggs and very often had one to stew. We had cows so we had plenty of milk, made our own butter, cured our own meat and many times cured meat for the neighbors. Father had his own smoke house you see.

To the stores in Logan, my parents took their fresh eggs and home made butter. The butter had been molded into one pound molds, then wrapped in a fine butter paper. Then the products were traded for family supplies.

The pioneers were also proud of the art of making soap. All old lard, and grease were saved and put into an iron kettle, lye was added along with some water and then boiled and stirred until a jelly mass was formed. They made the years supply of soap this way, and dirt disappeared instantly. They scrubbed their wood floors and they became beautifully white. Clothes were washed on a wash-board, then boiled on a hot stove in a large copper boiler, this made the clothes so white and beautiful. Later they were able to buy hand turned washing machines, this made washing so much more easier. I made home made soap for many years after I was married and it is still one of the best soaps.

My father, Carl Nyman and my uncle Andrew Nyman owned a molasses mill on the hill south of our home. I can remember as a small girl taking a small bucket up there to get some molasses. My father raised sugar cane and we children would have to strip it down and get it ready to go to the mill. The cane went through two wheels, pulled by a horse hitched to a pole and went round and round in a circle. The juice went into a vat and was cooked until it got to molasses stage.

I went to school at the North Logan School up to the eighth grade. Some of my teachers were: Josephine Maughan, Lofter Bjarson, Katie Cragun, Merlin Hovey, James Cragun, Christian Larsen, William J. Alien, Percilla King, and Rose Daniels. There were two rooms in the school house and four classes to a room. I graduated from the eighth grade in 1908. For school parties we would carry salt, bucket, and the makings for ice cream and hike up Green Canyon until we found snow and there freeze ice cream by hand, by turning the bucket, in the snow, half way round and then back again, all this was done by holding on to the handle of the bucket.

The Carl and Albertina Nyman family in about 1904

(From Vilate Nyman Johnson's history, July 1968)