Vilate Nyman Johnson--Part 3

Vilate Nyman Johnson (1917)

Marriage and Family

I met my husband-to-be, Oliver Guy Johnson, at a North Logan social. He was on a threshing crew that would come out to do the threshing with my brothers Charley, Golden, and Andrew, and he would stay with the thresher so he attended the social function of the ward. Our dates consisted of coming to Logan to the public dance on Saturday night and then to church on Sunday. We went together four years before we were married. Our courtship was in the horse and buggy days.

We were married in the Logan Temple, 25 April 1917. My husband-to-be came out to North Logan in a buggy and we went to the Temple early in the morning. We went on the streetcar to Salt Lake City for our three day honeymoon. When we got home we had a reception at my home in North Logan and had a wedding dinner for all the families and a few close friends.

We lived with the Johnsons the first summer. Oliver had registered for the draft in World War I in April and his name came up in the first call up in July and he left Logan the third of October for Camp Lewis, Washington. I had come to Logan in my father’s buggy and Elder Sonne had seen the list, and told me it was in the window at the Herald Journal. Elder Sonne was a neighbor to the Johnsons and a family friend. I went out to the hay field in North Logan where Oliver was working and told him.

After six weeks at Camp Lewis he was sent to Camp Kerney down by San Diego. I left Thanksgiving Day 1917 to go to California. My folks didn’t want me to go way down there, but Ollie’s folks thought that was the place for me to be. I had a job in a small neighborhood grocery store while I was there. Oliver would only be able to come home on weekends and we would go to a show on Saturday night and to church on Sunday and then Ollie would have to leave to go back to camp. We were there about nine months and it was a very enjoyable time. We went to the zoo many times. Ollie got orders to go overseas so I had to come home alone on the train. He was in France from August to January 1918.

I worked at the John Anderson Department Store in Logan for the three months and stayed with my in-laws. Oliver came home on my birthday, 23 January 1918 and I was very sick in bed with the flu. He got off the train at the Depot on Center and Sixth West street and had to march to the college before being discharged.

That spring we went to our Dry Farm in Blue Creek which Ollie and his brother James had homesteaded before he went into the service. We went out in a covered wagon and it took two days. We came home in July for two weeks to put up the hay, and then went back and stayed until the planting was all done in the fall. I helped when needed with drilling, and plowing and hauling water for the horses and the household. From 1918 to 1924, Oliver and I traveled to Blue Creek in a covered wagon.

Vilate and Oliver at the dry farm in Blue Creek

In 1919 we bought our first home and large lot at 537 North Main Street, Logan, Cache County, Utah and it was here that our first son, Nyman Oliver was born 10 October 1920. James’ wife Ingeborg came and stayed a few days. Nyman was a very beautiful baby and we were so thrilled over him

We started going to Blue Creek every other year and changing years with James [Grandpa Johnson’s brother] and Ingeborg.

James Warren was born 25 August 1923 at home and my sister Annie came and helped. Jim was named after his Grandpa Johnson and after Warren C. Harding, who was President of the United States at that time. He was a very sweet baby with blond hair and blue eyes. He was so good we hardly knew he was around.

We bought our first car in 1924, a 1924 Model T Ford Sedan and in this year, 1968, we still have it. This helped us out greatly on our trips to Blue Creek.

On 6 May 1926 our first girl arrived. That morning Ollie was hit by a car and broke his shoulder. When the doctor came to set it he asked me when I would be at the end of my rope and I said right now. That night Beth came. We didn’t know what to name her until the day of Fast Meeting, walking to church we thought of Beth and both agreed to that.

August 15, 1929, our third son Jay Reed was born. Beth went and stayed with my sister, Annie, and Oliver took care of the two little boys while I was in the hospital.

January 20, 1931, another girl came to bless our home. She had dark hair and blue eyes, we were so happy over her. We named her Ollie Jean, and she grew up to be a lovely girl.

On March 22, 1934, we had another boy, a rather cute little guy and of course we all learned to love him. We called him our baby boy and sometimes we still refer to him as our baby boy, even though he has grown up and moved away from us. We named him Carl Guy, after his Grandpa Nyman and his father. In fun we used to call him and sometimes still do, “Bidda Carl” which is Danish for “little Carl.”

Vilate and Oliver (1935)

 

The Oliver and Vilate Johnson family (1943)

I joined the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers (Zina D.H. Young Camp) on May 16, 1935. To join the Daughters of the Pioneers, one has to be a direct blood line of a pioneer. We meet once a month and have a lesson pertaining to pioneer history or events and each one of us has to give a history of our pioneer ancestors. Some of the ladies that have been in the Daughters of Utah Pioneers with me are: Emma Holmgeen, Louise Poulter, Nora Hansen, Melba Johnson, Mildred Cannon, Clara Berntson. I have enjoyed the Pioneers so very much. I have also been a Relief Society Visiting teacher for many, many years.

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[Note: Vilate and Oliver lived at 537 North Main until Oliver’s mother died in 1942 and they moved in with Oliver’s father at the family home at 100 West 600 North. They took care of Oliver’s father until he died in 1947. The farm and house were then divided amongst the children. Oliver got a share of the farm and his brother, Milton, got the house so Oliver, Vilate, and family needed to move. This is when they bought the house in the picture above on 200 West where they lived there the rest of their lives.]

The Oliver and Vilate Johnson family at the time of Carl's wedding (1960

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The growing Oliver and Vilate Johnson family at the time of Carl's wedding (1960)

The Oliver and Vilate Johnson family at the time of their 50th wedding anniversary (1967)

 (From Vilate Nyman Johnson' history, July 1967)