Luella Whipple (1888 - 1924): Our Family History

1888 - 1924 (36 years) Has more than 100 ancestors and 11 descendants in this family tree.

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Name Luella Whipple

Birth 10 Jan 1888 Lehi, Utah, Utah, United States

Gender Female

Census 1900 Lehi, Utah, Utah, United States

Image																Transcript
Ln	Hhold	Given	Surname	Relation	Gender	Race	BirthDate	Age	Status	Years Married	Children Born/Living	BirthPlace	BirthPlace of Father	BirthPlace of Mother	Immigration Year	Occupation
29	7335	Edson	Whipple	Head	Male	White	Oct	45	Married	0		Utah	Ohio	Ohio
30	7335	Mary A	Whipple	Wife	Female	White	Jun	34	Married	0		Germany	Germany	Germany	1870
31	7335	Mary M	Whipple	Daughter	Female	White	Oct	18	Single	0		Utah	Utah	Germany
32	7335	Susan J	Whipple	Daughter	Female	White	Oct	16	Single	0		Utah	Utah	Germany
33	7335	William E	Whipple	Son	Male	White	Oct	14	Single	0		Utah	Utah	Germany
34	7335	Luella	Whipple	Daughter	Female	White	Jan	12	Single	0		Utah	Utah	Germany
35	7335	Amy E	Whipple	Daughter	Female	White	Sep	9	Single	0		Utah	Utah	Germany
36	7335	Delilah	Whipple	Daughter	Female	White	Oct	6	Single	0		Utah	Utah	Germany
37	7335	Leon	Whipple	Son	Male	White	Jul	10/12	Single	0		Utah	Utah	Germany

ED: 0160 Sheet: 16B Microfilm: 1241687 Transcript ID is dbid=7602&iid=004115262_00243

Initiatory (LDS) 8 Nov 1905 SLAKE

FamilySearch ID KWCX-LW7

Death 20 Feb 1924 Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, United States

Burial 22 Feb 1924 Lehi, Utah, Utah, United States

Headstones Submit Headstone Photo

Person ID I18620 mytree

Last Modified 25 Feb 2024

Father	Edson Whipple, b. 10 Oct 1853, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, United States d. 26 Feb 1909, Lehi, Utah, Utah, United States (Age 55 years)
Mother	Mary Ann Beck, b. 13 Jun 1865, Aichelberg, Göppingen, Baden-Württemberg, Deutschland d. 16 Jan 1937, Lehi, Utah, Utah, United States (Age 71 years)
Marriage	9 Dec 1880	Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, United States
Family ID	F8720	Group Sheet \| Family Chart

Family 1 John Gilchrist, b. 4 Aug 1886, Lehi, Utah, Utah, United States d. 11 Oct 1909, Lehi, Utah, Utah, United States (Age 23 years)

Marriage 8 Nov 1905 Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, United States

Children

+	1. Miriam Gilchrist, b. 21 Sep 1906, Lehi, Utah, Utah, United States d. 6 Jan 1979, Roy, Weber, Utah, United States (Age 72 years)
	2. Bruce Gilchrist, b. 22 Oct 1908, Lehi, Utah, Utah, United States d. 22 Oct 1908 (Age 0 years)
+	3. John Cameron Gilchrist, b. 23 Sep 1909, Lehi, Utah, Utah, United States d. 18 Mar 2002, Draper, Salt Lake, Utah, United States (Age 92 years)

Family ID F9144 Group Sheet | Family Chart

Last Modified 6 Mar 2025

Family 2 Henry Alma Wilson, b. 27 Mar 1890, Gaffney, Cherokee, South Carolina, United States d. 7 May 1963, Midvale, Salt Lake, Utah, United States (Age 73 years)

Marriage 21 Jan 1913 Lehi, Utah, Utah, United States

Children

	1. Lyall Alma Wilson, b. 25 Aug 1913, Lehi, Utah, Utah, United States d. 17 Sep 1996 (Age 83 years)
	2. Wilmot Dean Wilson, b. 5 Jan 1916, Lehi, Utah, Utah, United States d. 4 Jul 1959 (Age 43 years)
	3. Gayln Calvert Wilson, b. 10 Jun 1922, Pleasant Green, Salt Lake, Utah, United States d. 30 Apr 1998 (Age 75 years)
	4. Llewellyn Whipple Wilson, b. 15 Feb 1924, Pleasant Green, Salt Lake, Utah, United States d. 7 Jan 1989 (Age 64 years)

Family ID F9145 Group Sheet | Family Chart

Last Modified 6 Mar 2025

Event Map

	Birth - 10 Jan 1888 - Lehi, Utah, Utah, United States
	Census - 1900 - Lehi, Utah, Utah, United States
	Initiatory (LDS) - 8 Nov 1905 - SLAKE
	Marriage - 8 Nov 1905 - Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, United States
	Marriage - 21 Jan 1913 - Lehi, Utah, Utah, United States
	Death - 20 Feb 1924 - Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, United States
	Burial - 22 Feb 1924 - Lehi, Utah, Utah, United States

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Notes

Biographical Sketch of Luella Whipple Gilchrist Wilson, My Mother
by Lyall Wilson

Luella Whipple, fourth child of Edson Whipple and Mary Beth Whipple, w a s born in Lehi on 10 January 1888 at the family home on 1st East and 4 2 7 North. The home, like so many homes built at that time, was construct e d of adobe. It was a two-story building facing east with the living ro o m and bedroom downstairs and two bedrooms upstairs. There was a built- o n lean-to on the back or west side. This was made of lumber outside an d l ined with adobe inside, then plastered, which made a well-insulated k itch en, cool in the summer and warm in the winter. This is where the peo ple s pent most of their time indoors at that time, in the kitchen with t he bi g coal stove complete with a warming oven above the cooking surfac e an d a water reservoir on the side to warm water by the stove, which ca me i n handy for washing the face and hands and for many other little thi ngs t hat needed a bit of warm water. It was an unwritten law that if yo u too k a gallon of water out, you put that much back in at once for th e next p erson. Just outside the back door of the kitchen was a root cell ar wit h a rock foundation, a packed earthen floor and earth or dirt fro m some f ield forming a huge mound over the whole cellar. There was a doo r on th e south side for easy entrance.

The things that I have always loved about these kitchens, they were ve r y clean and comfortable and had a large table with a tablecloth coveri n g it. It seems that whenever you came into one they had the smell of go o d cooking and fresh bread and in some cases fresh made coffee. I can re me mber Grandmother Whipple’s kitchen as if it were yesterday.

Luella or Ella as she was known by her friends and relatives, grew u p i n Lehi attending the Ross and Central schools. Mother was a very pret ty , well-liked person and very popular with her fellow students while at ten ding school. Mother and her first husband John Gilchrist were schoo l swee thearts. And they spent a lot of time together. They even held han ds whil e on their way to school or back home. Mother graduated from th e Centra l School completing the eighth grade. The students then, or mayb e I shoul d say at that time, went over to American Fork and took their f inal exami nations test in the American Fork’s school. They held their gr aduating ex ercises in the American Fork Tabernacle, as a matter of fac t Lehi, Americ an Fork, Alpine, and Pleasant Grove all held their graduat ion exercises a t the same time in the same place. They had high school s just starting t o get organized at that time but I can’t find out if mo ther went to hig h school.
Mother married John Gilchrist on 8 November 1905. She wasn’t quite 18 a n d her husband John was a little older than 19. He wasn’t old enough t o b e married without his parents’ consent so his father signed the marri ag e license giving them his consent. They went to Provo 2 November and a ppl ied for a marriage license then on 8 November they were married in th e Sa lt Lake Temple for time and eternity. Mother had three children fro m thi s marriage. Miriam, born 21 September 1906, Bruce, born 22 Octobe r 1908 , who died the same day, and John Cameron, born 20 September 1909 . Mother ‘s husband passed away 11 October 1909 at the age of 23, from ty phoid fev er, just three weeks after Jack was born. In just four years’ t ime Mothe r had had three children, lost her second child, and her husban d. This wa s a tragedy in itself, but the hard times were yet to come . A young wido w at that time had nowhere or anyone to turn to, except he r relatives, fo r help. They had very few job opportunities, cooking fo r ranchers or cons truction workers, taking in borders, or perhaps housek eeping. So to put i t bluntly, they were between a rock and a hard place . I’ll add a little m ore to the story while I’m at this time in Mother’ s life. Her father pass ed away 22 February 1909, at the age of 56, leavi ng her mother with fiv e children at home. Grandmother Whipple was 44 a t this time. It is safe t o say that Grandmother Whipple and John Gilchri st’s folks tended to the c hildren whenever mother could find work durin g this time. John, her husba nd, and his father had built a home next t o his father’s place. This woul d be at 750 N. 3rd E. His father gave the m the property and helped to bui ld the home. When John died, the propert y was still in his father‘s name . They sold the home and gave the mone y to mother. When the freeway was b uilt through Lehi, in later years, th e home was torn down to make way, bu t her father in law’s home is stil l standing and in good condition. Mothe r went to Idaho for a short tim e about this time in her life, and staye d with her uncle Leo Jacob‘s an d her aunt Zena Woodhouse. The rest of th e time she made ends meet the b est she could .
Mother was a widow just over four years until she met dad and was marri e d to him 21 January1913. I could not pinpoint where the Wilson family m ov ed to when they came back to Lehi. Sister Miriam says they lived acros s t he street from the Gilchrist home and my cousin Albert said they liv e jus t east of there. So it is safe to say that Dad saw Mother when sh e was ma rried, and later when she was a widow. Dad was two years younge r than sh e was. Mother and Dad went to Provo and applied for the marriag e license , then came back to Provo bench and were married there on the b ench whic h is now known as Orem. Mother was 25 at this time and Dad wa s 23, but Da d put his age down on the marriage license as 24. This was 2 1 January 191 3.
Before I go any further with this story maybe I should describe Mothe r t o you when she was married to Dad. My sister, who knew her well, tell s m e Mother had a lot of pride and dignity and was pretty and stylish wh en s he dressed up. She had hazel-colored eyes and pretty chestnut brow n hair . She was better looking than her sisters and was about 5’6” tal l and wa s of slender build. She liked to read and was well-informed o n a lot of s ubjects. She could laugh and have a good time but was more s erious in he r outlook on life. She had a gift of writing and could and d id give talk s or teach, and she also took part in several plays in her y ounger years.
Mother and Dad lived in two or three homes after they were married an d r eturned to Lehi. I was born in one just east and north of the Fourt h War d church on 25 August 1913 and brother Dean was born in Lehi, 5 Jan uary 1 916. Dad worked around the Lehi area wherever he could find work . At Merc ur, Toyclift, on a sugar processing plant in the north east cor ner of Pro vo and for Uncle Monroe whenever he needed help. Jack (or Came ron as we a lways called him) only lived with Mother and Dad a short tim e then he ret urned to his grandfather’s home (Robert Gilchrist), to liv e with his gran dparents. Dad found work in Magna at the Arthur Mill a s a carpenter in 19 17 which was during World War I. Dad‘s brother Bill m oved there the sam e time. Perhaps the two families moved out there toget her. I don’t know a t this time if they did, but I do know that Mother an d Uncle Bill never d id get along too well. We lived in a rented house o r two before Dad and M other bought their home on First West where we liv ed for the next 12 year s that we were in Magna. I can remember one insta nce when we were in a re nted home, I was sitting on a wooden porch facin g south. I had found a ha mmer and a few nails and had sat down and naile d my pant legs down on th e wooden porch. When I couldn’t get up I reall y made a lot of noise. Moth er came out to see what was wrong and everyon e got a good laugh out of it .

Miriam was with us in Magna but Jack was still with his grandparents bec a use Dad could not get along with him because he reminded him so much o f h is father, John. Jack did spend some of his vacations in Magna durin g th e summer and some of the holidays however and Mother wrote letters t o hi m which he has kept a few as mementos. I always looked forward to hi s vis its because he was my big brother and have always liked him so much . Moth er and Dad seemed to get along well together because I can remembe r the m going to dances and parties in Magna and picnics in the summer a t Sarat oga and down to Provo in a horse and buggy they borrowed from unc le Hi An derson.

When we moved into the house on First West, the ward house was directl y a cross the road from our house. We lived on the west side and the war d hou se was on the east side. This building was a wooden structure quit e lon g and narrow. They held their service in the west end and their cla ssroom s were in the east end. There was an annex just off the chapel o n the nor th side. This was used for small get togethers like parties an d bizarres .

Mother has always been a vague memory to me. I can just remember bits a n d pieces about her while I was a child before we lost her so I’ll put d ow n some things that come to mind. They probably won’t be in the order t he y happened but maybe they will help you know her a little bit, like on e S unday morning when we were getting ready for Sunday school and I ha d to p ut on a pair of knickers, which I hated with a passion, I asked Mo ther ho w old I had to be before I could wear regular pants. She though t for a mi nute then said, “when you are 12 years old we will get you a p air.”
Mother and Miriam were quite active in the church organizations and th e y probably had a job in one of these, in this ward at this time. The sa cr ament bread was made and brought to the meetings by the members of th e wa rd and it was quite an honor when it came your turn to bring a few s lice s of bread for the sacrament services. Mother and Miriam would fus s ove r this bread until it was just right then they would wrap it in a c lean n apkin and away we would go to church. I can remember one fine summ er even ing sitting on the front steps of our home listening to the congr egatio n singing one of their hymns. It was warm and they had open the do ors an d windows and their voices carried across the road to where I sat . I coul d tell by the way they sang they were enjoying every word an d I can remem ber the song. It was “Come Come Ye Saints.”

They started to build a new ward house just before Gayln was born. Th i s was in 1922. The new building was on the north side of the old one wi t h the space of about 50 feet between the two buildings. On June 10, 192 2 , brother Gayln was born. I can remember running all over the neighborh oo d telling the neighbors we had a new baby brother at our house. It pro bab ly wasn’t as much of a surprise to them as it was to me. Dad wante d a gir l because of some of the things he and Mother talked about when t hey didn ’t know I was listening.

Dad got a car about this time of our lives and after showing it off to t h e neighborhood we all loaded into it one day and went to Lehi to show t h e car off to our relative and after showing it off to the neighborhoo d w e all loaded into it one day and went to Lehi to show the car off t o ou r relations and some of Dad‘s friends. We had left Mother home for s ome r eason and when we returned home after dark we found her sitting i n the da rk in the kitchen beside the kitchen stove crying. We all gather ed aroun d her to find out the reason she was feeling so bad. She wiped h er eyes a nd said she had wanted to go with us so badly just to see her f olks onc e again.

Dad always smoke cigarettes and sometimes a cigar which I don’t think Mo t her approved of. Dad didn’t smoke in the house. He would leave the ciga r s and cigarettes out on the back porch on a 2 x 4 just inside the scre e n partition as we came in the door. He did this in respect of Mother , I a m sure.

Mother and Uncle Joe Wilson always got along good together. I can rememb e r going out to Ophir on a train with mother and Dean for a visit and ag ai n after we got the car, Dad drove out there. Mother and Aunt Pearl vis ite d while Dad, Uncle Joe, his son Sherman, and I went down the canyon a nd o ut on the sagebrush flats and shot jack rabbits which we skinned an d brou ght back to the house and the women cooked them for supper .

A few weeks before Bud (Llewellyn) was born, Mother came down with a co l d. It must’ve been a bad one because Mrs. Bezzant, who was a nurse an d li ved two houses south of us, was helping her fight it. They went t o a doct or in Magna for help but he brushed this cold off as a minor thi ng. Whe n the baby was on the way they called this doctor and had quit e a hard ti me getting him to come help with the baby. When he finally di d arrive, h e gave Mother ether even when she told him she didn’t want t o use it an d didn’t want it. The ether drove the cold and congestion dee per into Mot her’s lungs until she developed pneumonia. Once again they t ried to get t he doctor to come help but he wouldn’t. Finally at Mrs. Bez zant’s insiste nce, Dad got the doctor from the Magna Mills to come to lo ok at Mother. W hen he saw her and examined her a little bit, he sent he r right into th e St Marks Hospital in Salt Lake, but by then Mother wa s so bad she onl y lived about six hours.

They took mother from St. Mark’s down to the Lehi mortuary. They held t h e viewing in grandmother Whipple’s living room and the funeral in the L eh i First Ward chapel. As I can remember, it was a large funeral. It see m s like all of Lehi was there. We sat down in front with flowers and ros e s all around us and with the organ playing hymns from the song book. Fr o m that day until this, the smell of roses and organ music makes me abo u t half sick. After the services, we all went up to the Lehi cemetery a n d Mother was placed beside her first husband, John Gilchrist. Mother pa ss ed away February 20, 1924 and the funeral services were held the 23r d o f February. She left a five day old son (Llewellyn), Gayln, Dean, mys elf , Jack Gilchrist, and sister Miriam, also Dad who was 34 years old a t thi s time. And mother was in the prime of her life. She was just 36 ye ars ol d the month before this sad day.