What Advice would George and Kate Give?

George and Kate Findlay

It’s been an unprecedented few months, especially for us younger folks who haven’t experienced rations and wars and restrictions on our day-to-day living. The World Health Organization declared, on March 11, 2020, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak a global pandemic (1).

The San Francisco Bay Area of California (where I live) was initially hit particularly hard with the virus. All of the people and things that we love were rapidly becoming inaccessible: Schools, libraries, parks, churches, beaches, friends over for dinner, museums, restaurants, kids sports teams, traveling, etc. And our normal routines have been drastically disrupted: It still takes hours to go grocery shopping, wearing masks and gloves, long lines to enter the store (it’s exhausting, though the lines have gotten shorter as of late); husband D works from home exclusively now, moving from bedroom to back patio to kitchen table (wherever there’s the least amount of noise from the family); we slogged our way through online school for the kiddos. It’s been an exercise in resilience, ingenuity, deep breathing, and looking forward to when “normal” resumes (and trying to not have panic attacks thinking about how long that will take.)

Although much of the US is opening back up at this point, the Bay Area still has quite a few restrictions about wearing masks and the allowable size and place for gatherings (which admittedly some folks follow and some don’t). Many types of businesses are still closed (we’re looking forward to when hair salons are open!) And of course there’s the social distancing - keeping a minimum of 6 feet between you and others not of your household.

Sent to me by my sister AG in Glasgow. Love the visual!

We spend our days pretty much as we have been the past few months: Going for walks/scooter/bike rides in the neighborhood, going on hikes (many of the local state parks were closed, now open again), enjoying the sunshine and mild weather, taking a slow-food approach to our daily meals. We’ve planted herbs, baked lots of sourdough, cooked with dry beans, and picked berries to make homemade jam. We’ve deep cleaned our home. We’ve played lots of games and snuggled. We’ve prayed and cried. Our kids have learned how to cook more in the kitchen, how to take on more jobs around the home. We’re doing our best to stay connected to the people we love. We have not been personally affected by the virus, other than our lives being disrupted, feeling isolated, and the anxiety that comes from uncertainty. Our hearts ache for those who have been physically, economically, or otherwise affected. 

Image Source

Throughout all of this, I’ve often thought about George and Kate Findlay and other dear ones who hung on during previously grim times in our world’s history, such as during World War II. Now, I recognize that “sheltering in place” (especially in 70-degree weather in California) is very different from sheltering in a bunker when the air raid sirens go off. But I’ve had so many questions I wish I could ask them: How did they maintain hope? How did they “keep calm and carry on”? How did they look after each other? Was there a feeling of unity in their community? What did they cook? What was school and learning like? What were the little things that brought them joy? What advice would they have for future generations? 

Anyone have any insights to share?

Read more about George and Kate and their family during WWII in Aberdeen here: http://greatflyingscots.blogspot.com/2019/05/more-memories-of-aberdeen-during-wwii.html

Memories of Earl Inglish (1873-1958)

Earl Inglish

It’s been so fun for me to learn more about Ralph’s maternal “granddaddy”, Earl Inglish (1873-1958) (and relatedly, his maternal grandmother, Bertha Clarice Copeland Inglish (1882-1977).)

Although there’s some information that I’ve been able to learn about him through census records and other documents, the real treasures are the first-hand accounts from his son CI, Grandpa Ralph, and Ralph’s first cousins MJ and AP. Spoiler alert: Earl apparently had quite the sweet tooth; could fix just about anything, from the buckle on a sandal to a cotton gin; had an incredibly high pain tolerance, kept bees (with his son Garland), and had a way of making his grandkids feel so special.

Please note: We can’t confirm the facts 100% on all these details, but these are the family members' remembrances.

Have any stories or photographs to add? We'd love to hear it! If so, please reach out through the Contact Form at the bottom of this page.

(And please forgive the formatting on this post! Blogger was giving me quite the battle, and it seems to have won.)

See these related blog posts:

• Places of Significance: Mesa Arizona (see one of the homes that Earl and Bertha lived in)
• Memories of Bertha Clarice Copeland Inglish (1882-1977)
• Places of Significance: City of Mesa Cemetery
• Inglish Pioneers

..........

Early Years

Earl was born on 27 February 1873, the 3rd of 13 children and the oldest son of Alexander Soloman Inglish (1838-1923) and Martha Ophelia Skipwith (1851-1934). (Fun fact: 9 of the 13 children of Alexander and Martha had names that started with “E”: Ethel, Earl, Edna, Elsie, Emmet, Eva, Ella, Emma, Ernest.)

He was born in Bonham, Fannin County, Texas, a small town (1) that his grandfather, Bailey Inglish (1793-1867) founded.

(I wonder: What was Earl’s father’s (Alexander) occupation? Did they have a farm? Daily life growing up in a household with 13 children?)

Religious Roots

Growing up, Earl’s family were members of the Methodist church, and his father (Alexander Soloman Inglish, 1838-1923) was a devout student of the Bible, even writing articles on various biblical subjects. Alexander taught Earl, his oldest son, that the church that Christ had established when he was on the earth needed to be restored, and that he should seek for that restored church. 

In particular, what encouraged Earl to later  be especially receptive to learning more about the doctrines of Mormonism was learning about the restoration of the Levitical Priesthood to the earth, as this was something in particular that he had studied in the scriptures and was seeking. 

Here’s a brief retelling of their conversion, shared by Ralph and Cousin MJ. (Read a longer account of their conversion to Mormonism/The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints here.)

Recorded 26 October 2018

3:40 min

Courtship and Marriage

Cousin AP recalls:

[They met] at some dance, and somebody wanted her to come over and meet this fellow. I think he introduced himself as Earl Inglish. I can’t remember what it was he said about why he was there, and she made some remark about he looked like one that the cat brought in or the dog brought in, something to that effect....but it didn’t seem to deter his longing to date her. [Chuckles] She talked like she was a little bit smart aleck about it.

When it was time to get married - she was 19, he was 28 - it was a very common practice in that era that “they got in the buggy and rode to the justice of the peace’s home, and just sat in the buggy, he came outside, and married them, and signed all the documents and so forth and gave them, and they went on their way.” As far as AP knows, their parents were not in attendance and there were no witnesses, but we don’t know for sure. They were married 15 December 1901 in Ivanhoe, Fannin County, Texas.

They had 7 children together (5 boys, 2 girls. The two girls are Ralph’s mother and cousins AP and MJ’s mother.)

(Read more about Bertha and their courtship here.)

Setting Up Home

Cousin AP once related how she had mapped out where Earl, Bertha, and their young family lived by looking at where each of their children were born. Genius idea! Here is a similar attempt, with data from census reports included as well. You'll see that they moved around quite a bit, until they settled in Mesa, Arizona.

• 1902 - Paul, born in Elwood, Fannin County, Texas
• 1904 - Garland, born in Ivanhoe, Fannin County, Texas
• 1906 - Juanita, born in Neanda, Jones County, Texas
• 1909 - Hugh Ophelia, born in Elida, Roosevelt County, New Mexico
• 1911 - Rayburn, born in Menard, Menard County, Texas
• 1914 - Alvin, born in Menard, Menard County, Texas
• 1922 - Carl, born in (city? county?), Arizona 

The census records from 1930 and 1940 list Earl and Bertha as living in Mesa. We know that they lived there from that time until they passed. 

323 S Lesueur Avenue, Mesa, Arizona

The first home that Earl and Bertha ever owned (having lived in rental properties previously) was one built for them in 1945 by their son Ray, at 323 S Lesueur Avenue, Mesa, Arizona. After he returned from World War II, he used his GI Bill to help finance the project.  

(Any memories of the home? Number of bedrooms or bathrooms? Family gatherings here?)

Bertha, Earl, with son Ray
About 1940

Livelihood

Son CI describes him as having been mechanically inclined, working on and maintaining steam tractors and engines. 

Granddaughter AP describes him as a machinist. While their family was young, they were moving west to follow better work opportunities. Earl worked primarily on cotton gins, moving to new locations with his family as employment was available. They would stay for a time (a year or so? we’re unsure) while Earl would fix the machinery and get it in good working order, then would move to another spot when the work was finished and his skills were needed elsewhere. (Read more about their journey west from Texas to Arizona here.)

According to census records, Earl listed the following as his occupations: (2)

• 1900 Census - age 25, day laborer, living in parents household, Justice Precinct 7, Fannin County, Texas
• 1920 Census - age 46, farmer (what kind? The census indicates, but the handwriting is hard to read), living in Cartwright, Maricopa County, Arizona
• 1930 Census - age 57, Retail sales, service station, (Bertha was listed as a “sales lady, service station”. Was this at the same station?), living in Mesa, Maricopa County, Arizona
• 1940 Census - age 67, Gardener helper, temple grounds,  living in Mesa, Maricopa County, Arizona

From first-hand family accounts, we know that Earl also worked in the boiler room of the Mesa temple, maintaining the heating of the temple, retiring from that around 1950.

..........

Now, for more personal remembrances, the following are stories that Ralph and his cousins AP and MJ shared about Granddaddy Earl and Grandmother Bertha.

Double Motion, and Sweet Rewards

Cousin AP remembers: 

He loved lemon drops. And my kids cherish the memories of, my oldest daughter would, he was a machinist and would work with metal and filing metal and things like that and he would get metal splinters in his hands. And he would give the kids a lemon drop if they would pick the splinters out of his hands. And so my daughter talks about how she would always go and pick the splinters out. 

And he would also do double motion. Double motion means that when one hand is doing something the other hand is moving the same. Aunt Wee (Juanita) was that way and my brother Hugh was that way, and I think Mauna a little bit. It seemed to get weaker down the generations. I haven’t heard about it in years. He was quite double motion, so he would reach in his pocket and he’d be feeling around to get the lemon drop out but his other hand was moving and the kids would watch it and when those fingers came together they knew he had gotten a hold of it and would be pulling it out. [chuckles.] My kids talk about that all the time, watching Granddad get the lemon drops out of his pocket and taking the splinters out of his hands.

A High Pain Tolerance

AP: I know that whenever he would get a rotten tooth and it would ache, he would take a pair of pliers and go down to Ralph’s mother, Aunt Wee (Juanita)... to have her pull that tooth with a pair of pliers. And no anesthetic, no shots, no nothing, just a pair of pliers. And she finally pulled just about all of his teeth. They wouldn’t use anything to deaden the pain or anything. He would just stand there and take it and she would pull it out. 

Secret Passage Into the Mesa Temple

Another memory from AP:

Granddaddy, when they lived in the little house, this was after they moved out of the Little Jerusalem and they got a house right directly across the street from the temple, from the boiler house. The boiler house…[was] a small building just south of the temple in the parking lot that they called “the boiler house” and it had big tall chimney. That was the way the heated the temple in those days. And he was in charge of the boiler house, to keep the boilers fired up and keep the temple warm in the winter. And there was a tunnel that went from the boiler house into the basement of the temple, right into the baptismal font, underneath where the oxen were.  

Halfway between the boiler house and the temple was a little small building; it looked like a playhouse to me. I thought it was a playhouse when I was a kid. It was actually the ventilation to the temple. It was a square building with a screen around the top and a roof on it. It was after I was baptized -- I was baptized in the Mesa Temple. At that time, we were all baptized there because there were no fonts in any chapels, so many of us our age were baptized in the font at the Mesa Temple.  

And it was after I was baptized, Granddaddy took me through this tunnel—that was the way he got into the temple to check the temperature and make sure everything was correct there—and he took me through that tunnel and let me go up and touch the oxen that were holding the baptismal font. It was just a really neat experience! I do not remember him telling me not to tell anybody, but I never did! Years later, after I was married and I was here visiting with my sister Mauna...we were reminiscing about our childhoods, MJ told this story about Granddaddy taking her through this tunnel into the baptismal font. And I said, “Oh, he took me too!” And [another family member] said “Oh, he took me too!” None of us had told anyone else until then, so we decided that as the children were baptized, that was what he did: he took them in to touch that oxen that were holding the baptismal font. It was kind of a neat experience for an eight-year-old child!

Personality

From AP:

AP: I never heard her [Grandmother Bertha] raise her voice or get upset or mad at anybody or anything. She did get a little out of sorts with Granddaddy every once in awhile. [Chuckles]RM: Earl! [Chuckles]AP: He was quite overweight and he loved to eat candy bars. And sometimes I think he did it just to get at her. So he would sit and eat candy bars and he was real quite overweight, and she’d ask him how it felt to pregnant all of the time. [Chuckles] The more she fussed at him about those kinds of things, the more he did it. [Chuckles]

Here, Ralph and MJ share memories of Granddaddy Earl and Grandmother Bertha: Walking home from school and visiting with Granddaddy who was working at the Mesa Temple; Granddaddy pulling his friend's tooth; sugary indulgences; napping on the porch; fixing shoes.

Recorded 26 October 2018

7:34 min

And here, Ralph and MJ share memories of Grandmother's homemade pancakes and biscuits; Granddaddy with his hot drink and bowl of sugar; snuggling Granddaddy in his chair; and hearing aids

Recorded 26 October 2018

3:20 min

Death

Earl passed away on 13 February 1958 in El Paso, Texas, while visiting his son CI who was living there. He was two weeks shy of turning 85. He is buried in the City of Mesa Cemetery next to his wife Bertha. (3)

Sources: 

• From conversation with CI and JI on 9 August 2015
• Phone call with AP and RM, grandchildren, on 11 October 2015
• Video of Ralph and MJ filmed 26 October 2018

Notes:

1. Population of Bonham in 1870: 928. In 1880: 1889 - Quite the population boom! Source: http://population.us/tx/bonham/
2. Earl's occupations through the years, according to census records:

• 1900 Census - age 25, day laborer: "United States Census, 1900," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/M3G3-661 : accessed 5 May 2016), Earl English in household of Alex English, Justice Precinct 7, Fannin, Texas, United States; citing sheet 12B, family 225, NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,241,634.
• 1920 Census - age 46, farmer (what kind? The census indicates, but the handwriting is hard to read. Include a screenshot) - "United States Census, 1920," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/MCR2-VFF : accessed 5 May 2016), Earl Inglish, Cartwright, Maricopa, Arizona, United States; citing sheet 5B,  NARA microfilm publication T625 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,820,049.
• 1930 Census - age 57, Retail sales, service station. (Bertha was listed as a “sales lady, service station”. Was this at the same station?  "United States Census, 1930", database with images, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XH1S-CVT : accessed 5 May 2016), Earl Inglish, 1930.
• 1940 Census - age 67, Gardener helper, temple grounds. "United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VYWT-M88 : accessed 5 May 2016), Earl Inglish, Mesa, Supervisorial District 1, Maricopa, Arizona, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 7-68B, sheet 11A, family 253, NARA digital publication T627 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012), roll 106.

3. The location of Earl and Bertha's graves in the City of Mesa Cemetery: Block 531, Lot 1, Graves 1 and 2.

The Day Ella's Family Was Sealed in the Temple

Vintage Postcard of the Mesa Arizona Temple
Source: Postcard Bought on eBay

After converting to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in June 1932, Ella’s parents, George and Kate Findlay, started making plans to emigrate to America. They would leave their homeland, their family, friends, occupations, and the comfort of a communal culture...to buy one-way tickets on an ocean liner.

It wasn’t fame or fortune that called to them, but the desire to gather together “in Zion” with other members of the Church and to receive the blessings of the temple. At that time, the only operating temples of the Church were in the United States and Canada, and there weren’t any announced plans to build any others in Europe anytime soon.(1) If families wanted to receive these saving ordinances and be sealed together, they made the sacrifice to emigrate.

Mesa, Arizona, would be their final destination, with the family coming in waves: First George in December 1948, then Kate and Ella in May 1949, and Ina following a few months later in October 1949. (Read more about their emigration story here and here.)

The Mesa temple was just a few blocks from their home. And the day for them to be sealed together as a family had finally arrived, in spring 1950.(2)

Ella was 16 at the time. And unfortunately, when I finally thought to ask Ella about details of the day, she couldn't remember much. However, when we visited Ralph's first cousin MJ in October 2018, MJ shared what she happened to remember about that day - it made such an impression, recalling it almost 70 year later. How is this relevant? MJ, although a cousin of Ralph's, she was also a classmate and friend of Ella's.

MJ recalled (3):

We were friends in high school, and I remember the day they were all going to be sealed. And they were looking forward to that day....And then they had a dance that night; it was a big party. It was like the Gold and Green Ball. And I remember you [Ella] said to me, "But isn't being sealed together such a sacred thing that would we want to end the day joyfully and jolly, you know, going to a dance?" And I thought, Wow! This girl is just golden! I mean, I was so impressed with that because the sacredness of finally having your family sealed together and you didn't want the day to end partying, you know, or taking away from that sacred [experience].

This girl certainly is "just golden"!

Ralph's cousin MJ, who was also a classmate of Ella's, recalls when Ella's family

was sealed in the temple. Filmed 26 October 2018.

1:03 min

Notes:

1. The first LDS temple in Europe (and 9th operating LDS temple) was built in 1955, in Bern Switzerland. Source: http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/chronological/
2. I'm still trying to track down the exact details, but it looks like George and Kate were sealed together on 7 February 1950, while Ina was sealed to them on 31 March 1950. If Ella was sealed to them on either of these, or another day close to this time, she would have been 16 at the time.
3. From a visit on 26 October 2018.