My mother, Mabel Clair Britt Cunnington, was born in Vernal, Utah, January 12, 188_ to Elizabeth Montgomery and Wilbur Britt.
She was their second born, tiny, blond-haired with huge blue eyes, fringed with extra-long black lashes.
Her father was an attorney from Iowa and was sent to Vernal by the government to draw up abstracts for the city of Vernal and Fort Duchesne. Here he met Elizabeth Montgomery and married her. Her parents were converts from Scotland, and came to Utah with the hand-cart pioneers and helped settle Vernal. Grandpa Britt was a very handsome man with violet-blue eyes and blond hair, known as a natty dresser, he always wore a thistle in his buttonhole. Grandma Britt was a lovely, black-eyed beauty with rosy cheeks and black hair. Both had a very mild disposition and my mother often boasted she was never spanked by either.
The Britts owned a hotel and a drug store in Vernal, and my mother told us of many interesting experiences they had with the Indians. She said the Indians would eat in their hotel dining room, drink all the catsup, hot sauces, and put sugar, salt and pepper, mustard, crackers, or any leftovers available in their pockets. When grandma would try to collect, they would say, "Me no savvy". So, she finally made them pay in advance as there were too many to feed free.
The Britts liked the Indians very much and the Indians were true friends to them, often bringing them presents. Most of the population of Vernal at this time was Indians. They were my mother's only playmates. They were garbed scantily in deer skin or sleeveless, fringed gunnysack jumpers. Mother loved them and learned their language fluently, speaking it with them most of the time.
Mother has an older brother, Bill, and a young sister named Mary Laurie, for the famed Annie Laurie, who was an ancestor. Life was good to them and they enjoyed their comfortable home. Grandma was a lover of beautiful dishes and grandpa built her a large shelf around the hotel dining room to display her many pieces of cut glass and hand-painted china. They enjoyed a lovely flower garden and grandpa built a very beautiful summer house which gave them a great deal of joy. He also built an ornamental walk of bottles. He buried them neck down, leaving the glass bottoms exposed; making a most imposing walk and one my mother never forgot.
The family moved to Ft. Duchesne for a while where grandpa's work took him. They lived just across from the Fort. It was occupied by colored troops at this time with just a few white officers. Mother and Bill went to school with the Indians, colored, and a few white children of the white officers. Bill was a talented little boy with the bugle and soon learned all of the calls. He'd get on a small hill and blow the calls getting the soldiers out to fire call, etc. Finally, an officer called grandpa asking that Bill be restrained. One day, my mother informed her parents she had invited a little girl friend to spend the weekend and she was coming in on the stage the next morning. The folks were very pleased and they all met the stage. Imagine their surprise when a cute little colored girl stepped off the stage winging her suitcase and my mother ran and greeted her most affectionately. Both being so sweet and understanding, made the little girl, Lu Lu Pratt, most welcome. My mother told of her many pretty, starched dresses and of her beautiful manners.
Sometimes people would give the Indians whiskey and there would be trouble. My mother was about four or five and Bill a little older, when they went down on the little creek bank to play. They heard a lot of commotion, screaming and fighting. Two drunken Indians were fighting with small axes. One cut the other to ribbons, tied him with rope, got on his horse and dragged the dead Indian all over the field, racing his horse and screaming. The children were so frightened they couldn't move, believing they'd be killed any minute. Help came and the mad Indian was jailed. My mother knew both Indians.
Things were going so well for the Britts and they were so very happy, when tragedy struck. Grandpa was walking downtown when suddenly he fell dead in the street with a heart attack. The family was heart-broken. Six months later, grandma Britt died very suddenly, leaving the three little children orphans.
My mother never did get over the shock of losing her parents so close together, both of them so young. Grandma Britt had been married before and had two older daughters, one married and living in Vernal. However, the little children lived with other relatives for the time being. Aunt Teenie and uncle John Smithers took the baby, Mae, to raise, and my mother went to live with her aunt Aggie and uncle John Turner, of Heber, where she attended the Heber Public School. I do not know what became of Bill. However, it was very sad that they were separated. The Turners owned a large dance hall in Heber.
They had twelve children but made room for my mother and treated her with much love and kindness. Each child had his own work to do and my mother and Maggie had the job of sweeping out the dance hall mornings after the dance. They loved this work and ate much candy on the job.
Mother enjoyed being with so many children and especially loved Maggie. She stayed with them until her half-sister Gertie, left Vernal for Bingham, where she worked for a large boarding house. She was an excellent cook. She loved my mother very much and sent for her to come and live with her, which she did. She helped wait tables and did whatever she could but she was only twelve at this time.
When she was fifteen, aunt Gertie married and they all moved to Salt Lake City. My mother went to for Johnson Studio soon after where she learned to be an expert photographer. Here she met many actresses, actors and celebrities in the theatrical world. She had grown into a very beautiful girl and was told so many times a day by these people. She had offers to go on the stage but was not interested in theatrical life.
She also had many proposals of marriage. Maude Adam's mother was a frequent visitor to the studio and often told her how much she resembled her "Maude". She was very fond of her mother.
Mother was a very popular and had many friends. Her lovely chum, Frances Cunnington, invited mother to come live with them. Frances' mother agreed as she loved mother very much. So, she moved to the Cunnington's and that is where she met my father. At this time he was away in the Phillipines, fighting in the Spanish-American war.
The girls had so much fun together and the whole Cunnington family loved "Mabel". My grandmother was so fond of her, in fact, she wrote dad about the most beautiful and the sweetest girl who had come to live with them and enclosed an especially beautiful photograph of her. Dad fell in love at once. When he returned months later, my mother was engaged to another but it was love at first sight and after a whirlwind courtship, they were married May 29, 1899. Dad's brother, Bill, went with them and Judge Blair married them. They hurried home to tell the folks and they were all delighted. Grandma said, "I couldn't be more pleased and I wish you ever blessing."
The newlyweds moved into one of the Cunnington homes and dad and uncle Bill went into the wallpaper and paint business. I was born May 20, 1900 and we were a very happy family. My mother was a born homemaker, good cook, manager, and could sew beautifully. I remember some of the little French-style dresses she made me with many rows of ruffles. I was named "Frances Gertrude", for my mother's best friend and my father's sister, Frances, and for my mother's beloved sister Gertie.
My sister, Mildred, was born October 15, 1902, a very tiny, dainty and beautiful baby, full of dimples. She had typhoid fever when two and we nearly lost her. Mother watched over her night and day. I can remember Mildred in bed with her twenty-two dolls, gifts from many friends, and mother and dad.
My brother, John Wilbur, was born September 20, 1905 a darling little, husky, brown-eyed boy. In 1906, the family moved to Cottonwood. Mom and dad believed the country was a better place to raise their children. Dad had a good position on the Walker Farm. We lived in Walker's Lane for quite a while. Mother was very lonely at first so far away from her friends and the city, but grew to love it more each day.
We next moved into a new home on the Cheeseman Estate. One day while we were in town, some cars in the garage near our house caught fire, burning them, the garage and our house. Everything we owned burned with the exception of what we had on.
We then moved to Holladay where my brother George Raymond was born, December 5, 1907. He was our blue-eyed, blond baby and we called him "Pud", for pudding; he was so fat and sweet. He was so husky, he walked at seven months.
Dad always came home to lunch which pleased us all very much and it was the highlight of the day. My mother loved to cook things he liked best and I remember the steaks, fried potatoes and chocolate cakes she cooked him. She was always humming as she worked and she made Mildred and me many lovely dresses. We were a very happy family.
Renting was very unsatisfactory so dad bought mother a nice home in Holladay, right next to the mountains. We were very happy and made us a garden, bought a cow and a horse and all went well until my mother saw a snake. She was mortally afraid of them. She lost all interest in the place, afraid to walk outside, so they sold the place and moved back to Cottonwood.
Grandma Cunnington lived with us all this time and became very ill with pneumonia. Mother nursed her back to health. We children adored grandma and couldn't stand her out of our sight. My mother was very well read and could discuss literature with the best. She and grandma especially loved Shakespeare and being Scotch, my mother admired Robert Burns very much. She also, like her mother, loved beautiful dishes and had a large collection of hand-painted china and cut-glass.
One day, Frank Judge called on us and asked my father to take charge of his estate. So, we moved on the Judge's farm in a nice, new house. We lived here many years. The Judges were away most of the time and we were isolated on this huge farm which consisted of many acres of oaks and cottonwoods. We had a large swimming pool at our disposal and my mother saw to it that the many children who swam there had some kind of a swim suit. She also watched that none would drown. She couldn't swim but went in up to her shoulders one day and rescued my little two year old Jim who had fallen, saving his life.
Sundays at our house meant lots of company. Our friends from Salt Lake would drive out and stay for dinner. Sometimes as many as fifteen would be at our table enjoying mother's famous pot roasts, brown gravy, mustard pickles, chocolate cakes, biscuits, currant and cherry pies. Dad was very proud of these dinners and always praised my mother for her efforts.
She and dad loved good movies and saw most of them. They also enjoyed dancing and young folks. Mother's favorite color was blue which she wore mostly.
Aunt Gertie died at our house in 1910, leaving five young children. Mother and dad took them all in and kept them from time to time until they were grown. Mother never forgot aunt Gertie's goodness to her and she couldn't do enough for her children. The folks also helped raise another niece and nephew.
During world War I, mother was very active and a diligent worker for the Red Cross. She was Secretary for the Cottonwood Chapter and made many pairs of pajamas and thousands of bandages, earning her crosses which were merits. My brother "Pud" was seventeen when my sister Marilyn Patricia, "Pat" was born October 30, 1924. She was an exceptionally pretty little baby with huge brown eyes and honey-colored hair. She was mother and dad's pride and joy. Needless to say, she had everything her heart desired and was thoroughly spoiled by us all.
My mother had a premonition of an early death and said to me many times that her ardent wish was to live until Pat reached eighteen. Her wish was granted, for Pat was eighteen when mother passed away suddenly in her home, April 29, 1943, of a coronary occlusion, after just a few days illness. She was only sixty one years old. This broke all our hearts and we cannot seem to adjust ourselves even yet as she held such a place in all our hearts and was the hub of the whole family. She is buried in the Cunnington Plot in Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Salt Lake City, Utah. We will always remember her great beauty and her beautiful character, truly, an outstanding and great woman.
Source: Isaac Higbee and Sophia Somers Family Magazine 1958
