Mary and Dan Hess (September 28, 1982)

              Voices From the Past
The Hess Heritage Museum in Ashton, Idaho
By Mary and Dan Hess and others
September 28, 1982
Tape # 47
Oral Interview conducted by Harold Forbush
Transcribed by Alyona Veselova
Edited by Niccole Franc Feb 2007
Brigham Young University- Idaho
Harold Forbush: The Upper Snake River Valley Historical Society: the subject of this interview pertains to the establishment of the Hess Heritage home just out of Ashton, Idaho. It’s my opportunity this evening to be visiting with Mrs. Mary Hess and her husband Dan Hess of Rexburg, pertaining to this museum that has been established. Mary, I’d like to ask you a question or two first pertaining to your own ancestry and ask you to state your full maiden name and something about your parentage coming here to the Upper Snake River Valley.
Mary Hess: Well, my parents weren’t necessarily pioneers of the Upper Snake River Valley though they were pioneers by nature. My grandfather, Thomas Bullock, was the personal secretary of the Prophet Joseph Smith in Nauvoo up to the time of his martyrdom. After that, he was the personal secretary to Brigham Young. And Thomas Bullock, my grandfather, accompanied Brigham Young on that first trek. He was one of the first wagons to enter the valley on the 24th of July in 1847. My father was the youngest of his children. My maternal grandparents, Joseph Dean and Mary Jane Elam were converts from England in the 1870s and at that time they came by train, well they came by ship to the United States, and then by train and helped to settle up in the Garden City area of Utah, the Bear Lake area of Utah. So they pioneered that part of the country. Dan’s folks pioneered up in the Upper Snake River Valley here.
HF: Now on your mother’s side, the Dean side, they actually came here in the Upper Snake River Valley and established themselves.
MRS. HENSLEY: No, they were in the Bear Lake Valley. Joseph Dean and Mary Jane Elam were pioneers in the Bear Lake Valley and Garden City. Now Harry Dean their oldest son and he came up here. He was one of the early settlers of the Sugar City. I think his brother Jack was the first druggist in Sugar City. And then Jack brought Harry up. They eventually brought their younger brother, Doctor Elmer Dean, and the three of them were there in Sugar City and then Harry eventually…
HF: Now, this was your mother’s people.
M. H.: This was my mother’s family, my mother’s brothers.
HF: Now, of the Bullock family, did any of them ever come up into this area?
MRS. HENSLEY: No, Thomas Bullock was sent out to the Summit County to colonize there. He was one of the early… and it was about the same time that Thomas Ricks came up here that he was sent up into the Summit County. And he and his wife Betsy Howard Bullock were up in the Summit Valley and this is where my father was born.
HF: Now, where were you born and reared?
MRS. HENSLEY: In Salt Lake City, I’m a Salt Lake girl. A transplanted potato.
HF: And you came up here as an adult into Upper Snake River Valley? MRS. HENSLEY: As a bride.
HF: As a bride? Dan’s bride.
MRS. HENSLEY: Dan’s bride
HF: And what year was this?
MRS. HENSLEY: 1948. 34 years ago.
HF: Great. Now, Dan, tell me a little about yourself, your background, your birthplace and your ancestry.
DH: Well, my parents are Horace Hess and Mildred Smith Hess. And I was born up in Ashton in May the 5th, 1923. Now, my father and my mother pioneered up in Ashton area and homesteaded land on Fall River and this would be around 1909, around in that period of time. My father’s father was John W. Hess, or my grandfather. John W. Hess was a in the Mormon Battalion, or he would have been in the first company that came in the valley. But he and his wife were called into service in the Mormon Battalion and, consequently, they didn’t come into the valley until about two years later, in 1847. Now they were sent up to Farmington to settle in that area and my father was the bishop of Farmington ward, and was also the bishop when the first Primary was organized and he asked Orelia Rogers to be the President of that. And we have this mural or picture of him and the Primary with Sister Rogers being organized in the Old Rock Chapel in the Farmington Ward. And in this chapel, they’ve just remodeled it a few years ago, they’ve left the main structure so it does retain the original rock that was in it.
He also had seven wives and sixty three children, which is the third largest polygamist family in the Church. He later became the stake president of Davis Stake, also was in the 1850 legislature which, by the way, Thomas Bullock was in that same legislature. And so we feel that we have great pioneer heritage and because our parents were the youngest of the families and then we were born when they were in their middle and late 40’ s, consequently, my grandfather is 99 years older that I am. John W. Hess is was born in 1824.
HF: Now, just to mention of your mother, who was she and when did she come into this? Did she come into this area as a pioneer?
DH: She came into this area with father about 1909 and her maiden name is Smith, and her family were some of the original pioneers into Bountiful, or Woodscross area and run a dairy and she grew up there as a girl and received her education at the University of Utah and taught in Centerville and around that area, when she met my father who was working for her uncle, Kaypeners in Bear River area.
HF: Now, focusing on the subject here, the Hess Heritage museum, as I understand it, through your joint efforts— that is you Brother and Sister Mary and Dan Hess— this, the old family home where you were born, I presume, has now been established and will be referred to as the Hess Heritage Museum.
DH: Yes.
HF: Tell me a little about the home, when it was built and a little about the background of the site itself.
DH: Well, this site is probably, one of the most select sites just south of Ashton. It’s on a little rise and has a beautiful pond next to it. It was established around 1905, or through there, by a Larson family, and my father moved to this site, bough it, in 1919, when they expanded their farming efforts from the Fall River area they’d homesteaded and they thought they’d be a little closer to town, and living would be just a little more comfortable. It’s located one mile south of Ashton and 1/ 4 mile west of the highway on the state Fish Archery road. Now, I was born in the home in 1923 and lived in this home until I was 14 years old, and then we’d built a new home just immediately east of the old homestead. Now, the old home was a three room log cabin and through the ensuing years of life was gradually additions of rooms, and expansion, and porches have taken place. Now, Mary and I, the second year we were married in about 1950, we lived in this home and I went to school and taught school later and farmed and so we made some additional changes and modernized the home. And now, this past year we decided to turn it into a collection of pioneer things that we’d accumulated through the many years and been able to purchase around the country into a home that would be depicting the early 1900s.
HF: So, the home was built what, in the 20s? Originally, the first portion of it was built in the 20’ s?
DH: It’d be about in1905 or around through that period. And then my father moved in the home in 1919 and then additional remodeling and additions were put on.
HF: Since that time.
DH: Yes.
HF: So it goes back a quite a ways, doesn’t it?
DH: Yes.
HF: Original pioneer home.
DH: I would think it would be over eighty years old, the home itself. You can tell it’s a log home because the windowsills are very deep in three of the rooms, and some kind of nice additions have been put on and we’ve maintained it all these years.
HF: And you’ve made it possible to have it modern with a modern bath and running water, and all those things, of course.
DH: Yes, we added those, as I stated, in about 1950.
HF: Now, what’s your overall purpose, what are your goals in reference to Hess Heritage Museum?
DH: Well, of course, we feel we have so many treasures dating back from Brigham Young’s time, Thomas Bullock and then, that same period of time my grandfather, John W. Hess that we felt we should have an area to collect these artifacts, bedroom sets and so forth, desks, and those type of things. So, what we thought, number one, is we’ll preserve our own family artifacts and we hope through that that our families will be more sensitive of the heritage that they come from. Now, our John W. Hess family numbers now in about 17, 000 descendants and we hope that we’ll have these descendants come and look at this. But then we’ve looked beyond that and tried to preserve the things that helped make the history of the Upper Snake River Valley. And so, in addition to having these type of items in the home that our pioneer grandmothers and grandfathers lived with, we also tried to preserve the horse- drawn equipment, the way that they farmed in those early period of time in the Upper Snake River Valley. And so we have brought together a collection of some 25 horse- drawn equipment plus a covered wagon and some carriages, buggies, and so forth that we were trying to collect. We also have one of the first model T Fords, about a 1925 model and also feel, and want to state here, that this is just a start, there’s just many, many things we do need to make the collection complete. We both feel rather hesitant to even call it a museum at this point in time, but though we’d just kind of jump in and collect what we had and put it together, and in hope that it will grow and expand and it will truly be a place that will represent the early life of our pioneer grandfathers and grandmothers and great- grandfathers and grandmothers in the Upper Snake River Valley at home and in the farm.
HF: In addition to the home itself, you have proper coverage, or proper protection for this horse- drawn equipment, a shed of some type, don’t you?
DH: Yes, some of the more delicate things that need to be out of the weather we have in a large cinderblock building about a 40X50 building and this, of course, is locked. We also, after the opening next Saturday October the 2nd, we’ll put back under cover the other equipment that’s a little more rugged, like plows and cultivators and planters and those potato equipment and grain equipment and land moving equipment. We’ll put it back under cover in a shed there. Now, we do have the area we’re able to lock both gates and
HF: It is enclosed, with a protective fence?
DH: Protective fence, and locked gates, and also we have an electronic system to sound an alarm and if anyone comes in when the alarm is activated, and we feel close by, our neighbors, we have also a yard light that comes on automatically, lights within both the homes. We just feel we’re doing all we can to protect it. We, however, feel that it wouldn’t be a very high- type person that would think of taking anything of this historical value. The monetary value isn’t very much, but the historical value is very significant.
HF: Now, Dan, are these premises still associated, as it were, with the ranch, or the farming area? It’s adjacent to the 100 acres, or 160 acres?
DH: Yes, it’s right part of it. We have 240 acres of ground and we farm part of it and rent part of it. We have a full line of grain equipment and hay equipment and we have all this equipment also in different buildings up there locked up and we’re very actively engaged in living there and during the winter come up, of course, several times during the week, and we keep horsed there all winter and sometimes cattle.
HF: So the farming operation is going along, of course, and this will be, just an adjunct or, a real fine attraction to persons who would be interested in stopping by and going through the facility and enjoying what you people have preserved, collected, and so on.
DH: Yes, it’s just a part of the farm, actually. We look down the road a ways, we’d like to have a live farming, or live in farming situation where we would have all this old equipment operating, operable and would have sufficient horses to demonstrate the cutting of hay and thrashing, and planting potatoes, and digging potatoes with the horse- drawn equipment. Now, of course, this is down the road a ways, but we’ve seen different museums that actually have a life situation going at all times and it’s a great demonstration to show our young people how we once operated. In fact, you could ask a young person now, different parts of the harness or wagon or what’s the Frezno scraper, and they wouldn’t know. And so, we’re trying really hard to preserve this type of history and in a live, demonstrative or illustrative style.
HF: Mary, as you and Dan have collected you’ve played a very active role in helping him collect, I presume?
MRS. HENSLEY: Well, I think one of the beginnings was as we said once, one collect, when one junk collector marries another junk collector, we end up with a museum. Yes, my folks have preserved a lot of their pioneer furniture and artifacts. Father have kept a lot of things that had been given him by his father and his mother and by the way, his mother was left an orphan at the age of fourteen with a younger brother and sister to be in charge of, and so, she led little brother and sister in the handcart company, pushed the handcart to Utah. One of the prize artifacts that we have in the museum is her mother’s quilt, that’s my great- grandmother’s quilt, that she had in the handcart that she pushed to the valley from St. Louis.
HF: I’m sure you people must have some very, very choice and sacred, or whatever, heirlooms in the family. And you’re going to share that with people coming there, they can look at these things.
MRS. HENSLEY: I think the beginning of this was when we wondered, how could our own grandchildren and their children have a real appreciation of their pioneer heritage after we were gone. And so the whole idea of this was to preserve and to perpetuate this pioneer heritage and then, as it mushroomed, as it were, and other people were interested in what we were doing, we realized that we had something that perhaps the community would like to share with us or that we would like to be shared with. And so this is what we wanted to do, to share not only with our grandchildren and our great- grandchildren, but the whole valley, all the children and all the grandchildren that are going to be coming so that they would know how their pioneer ancestor lived.
HF: I want to tell you how sincere I feel as a member of the Upper Snake River Valley Historical Society in seeing you good people do this, sort of on your own. As we do this interview this evening, Tuesday the 28th of September 1982, just four- five days before you have your grand opening, on behalf of our Society we truly commend you people for what you’re doing. I would envision that perhaps our society can complement you a little bit, maybe you can help us a little bit. And maybe exchanging things that we need, sharing back and forth, maybe this would be an area where we could work together in acquiring more of the pioneer heritage. So, we would say to you God speed and we look forward to coming to your museum Saturday with many of our people who are leading in the Historical Society.
MRS. HENSLEY: Thank you so much.
[ Tape stops.
Tape resumes. ]
HF: We’re here at the Dan Hess, the Hess Heritage Museum and we’ve just gone through, is this what he calls the shed?
Dallas Howell: This is the Carriage House.
HF: The Carriage House. And I would like Mister, what’s your first name?
D. Howell: Dallas Howell.
HF: Dallas Howell, to describe the items that are in the Carriage House.
D. Howell: To start with here, on your left hand side there’s a 1925 Model T, all enclosed, Ford. And then next to it is a bundle wagon with steel wheels that he has completely restored the oak bunks for carrying that hay rack. Then on over is to, onto my left, is a covered wagon of the old 1890 vintage and beyond that there’s an old fanning mill for cleaning grain, and there’s a walking plow and a walking cultivator there in the corner, and also a grindstone.
D. Howell: And in the back we have a binder.
HF: About 1906 was that? 1909?
D. Howell: 1909.
HF: Binder.
D. Howell: And there’s a sleight for a team of horses with a box on it for hauling milk cans, or feeding cattle, and there’s a buggy beyond that side, a 1909 buggy with a horse hooked to it.
HF: A manikin horse?
D. Howell: Yes.
HF: How much did you pay for that?
D. Howell: I don’t know.
HF: I heard different figures, I heard $ 1100 or something like that, but I don’t know. But that is really something, isn’t it?
D. Howell: That’s a really nice- looking horse.
HF: Oh, I’ll tell ya.
[ Laughter]
D. Howell: He has a mower.
HF: Oh yeah, a mower machine, two horse…
D. Howell: Two horse- drawn mower, yeah.
HF: Well, this is a nice carriage. Is this a building he’s kind of had to restore, or did he just put this up recently?
D. Howell: I think he’s had it as shop one time.
HF: I see. Cement floor.
[ Tape stops.
Tape resumes.]
HF: … ceremony this morning?
Dan Hess: Yes, we had a dedicatory prayer by my brother, Patriarch Hess, and then we cut the ribbon, and the mayor sent his regards and greetings. He had another appointment… HF: Mayor of Ashton?
DH: Yes. Jim Harrell. So we started it off right, and right here’s where we cut the ribbon, it’s the entrance in this Hess Heritage Home. We’re now on the back porch which always was the front entrance to any of these old homes….
HF: Isn’t that the truth?
DH: We have the wooden bucket here and the pewter picture. Now here’s a group that Mrs. Jenkins is just taking through. Do we have another guide for this group?
Mrs. Jenkins: Okay, we’ll move on out of here.
HF: Hey, it’s nice and cozy warm.
D. Hensley: Take around Jerry or somebody who knows what most of this stuff is.
Jerry: It’s beyond me, boy. You’ve got to get it down to somebody older than I am.
D. Hensley: Okay, they have some old sink in the old kitchen.
DH: We have refreshments for everybody.
D. Hensley: The woodstove right here, which is …
Jerry: Does this go with the house, too?
[ Laughter]
HF: What is it?
D. Hensley: Little boy in a cowboy hat.
HF: Oh, little oh.
D. Hensley: There’s a new range, 1919.
HF: Now, this is the porch area? The back porch?
D. Hensley: This is the back kitchen.
HF: I see.
D. Hensley: We just came into the kitchen. There’s a new range, 1919 by Horace and Mildred Hess when they first moved in this house. And then on there they have a bunch of irons that they used to put on top of the stoves to get warm. They have a tea kettle and a few things sitting on the stove.
HF: Oh, yeah. That’s normal, isn’t it?
D. Hensley: And then they have over here by the window a little table, used by Horace and Mildred in 1909 in the first log cabin when they came. And they have a little china closet, or a little place to hold dishes, it’s original hutch 1909. It’s an original hutch and tables and up on top is the kerosene lamps, two of them, they probably used.
HF: Let’s see, Dan Hensley, Does this oven, does this have an oven to it?
D. Hensley: Yeah. That’s where they heated the water, I think.
HF: Yes.
Lady: That’s what they call a reservoir.
HF: That’s the reservoir.
D. Hensley: Yep. And that’s the little bar in front.
HF: Now, what’s the name? Is this a steward or monarch?
D. Hensley: Round Oak Chief.
HF: Chief?
D. Hensley: Remember that?
HF: We had the monarch, I think, or a steward, as I remember. Then they had the two plates over here?
D. Hensley: Uh- huh. That’s the little yellow that raised the plates up. There’s three little plates there.
HF: Wow, that’s a real small teakettle.
D. Hensley: Uh- huh.
HF: And the…
D. Hensley: The needle at the top there. Is that a little warmer or something?
Lady: The warming closet.
D. Hensley: And up there they just …
HF: Lift it up?
D. Hensley: Yes.
Man: For the biscuits
HF: Oh, yeah. You bet.
Man: That’s always the first place we’re all headed for. It’s always the first place we get chased out!
D. Hensley: We’re in kina of a living room in the center of it.
HF: Oh, yeah.
D. Hensley: There’s an old phone on the wall.
Man: They don’t have telephone.
Lady: Well, I don’t think they knew. They said they bought that to replace the one light was here when they first got telephone.
Ardith Wilding When we were married in 1930 they still used these out in Madison Lodge.
AW: Yeah, they still used.
D. Hensley: They’ve got to put dates on the bottom, you know.
AW: When you picked up and said hello everybody listened on the line, everybody. You could hear them click, you could hear them breathe, everything. They’re party lines. Mother came to Dubois to visit us and we were Swedish so I just said to her in Swedish, “ Let’s talk Swedish”, so we did and I bet everybody wondered what’s going on on the telephone!
[ Laughter]
HF: This is Ardith Wilding, that’s talking right now.
D. Hensley: There’s a little register we’re going to sign here.
HF: Oh, yeah. Where’s the heat coming from?
Man: There’s a little, little stove over there on that. HF: What is it? Is that a wood- burning heater?
DH: Either wood or coal.
DH: Wood here, but an empty coal bucket, so we’ll guess it’s a wood burning.
HF: It’s nice and comfortable, isn’t it?
D. Hensley: Yes.
[ Inaudible]
[ Tape stops.
Tape resumes.]
HF: Now, are you the guide, are you going to be our guide?
Lady: I will be, I will be.
HF: Well, super. That’s great.
Lady: As you stand here, let’s see, you could register as you leave…
HF: Ok.
Lady: In the porch you saw a oaken bucket, right, or did you notice that? Would you like to go back and start there and see, the oaken bucket in the porch? It’s usually talked about it, the old oaken bucket.
Man: Go ahead, you want to get in with her and she’ll explain some of it here.
HF: She’ll come back through here in just a second.
Lady: How are you, Harold? I finally made it!
HF: Hello there, how are you doing, young lady? Got a few of your people, here?
Lady: Yeah, we’ve had them off and on.
HF: Great.
Lady: Just trying to help on one leg.
Man: Oh, they’ve done a marvelous…
[ Tape stops.
Tape resumes.]
Lady: Your house across the street here for some time. It was brought out and the boys, Dan’s boys, spent several days restoring it, painting it black and brightening up the silver trim on it and, of course, we all remember the old…
Lady2: Reservoir.
Lady: Reservoir, that held how many gallons did it hold?
Man: Quite a few, when I had to fill it for mine!
Lady: When I had to dip it up with a dipper out of the ditch into the bucket, and pack it in and fill the reservoir, and, of course, the ditch water, we really look down upon that now, but at that time that was before we knew so much about germs and we were fairly…
HF: Is this portion of the home the original?
[ Tape stops.]
[ Tape 2]
Lady: The crock jars, that were always used by the women. The term they used at that time in the early part was to “ put down” fruit, put down fruit, and to put down mince meats and things. Well now we use the term we’re going to “ put up” fruit. And, I thought that was interesting to me, It’s was such a little thing, but it was interesting to me. I explored into that trade, why would they be putting them down? And it was the fact that in most of the early American homes there was a door that lifted up and down under the porch or the kitchen, wherever, was a cool cellar. And the things were always put down in there.
[ Tape stops.
Tape resumes.]
Man: Person who said Joseph Smith has a destiny. This person…
Phyllis Jenkins: They went back years later and got…
Man: There’s an old typewriter there too.
HF: Inside of the desk?
Man: By the side of the desk, down by the little container there.
PJ: Probably not half as old as the desk.
Man: Oh, yeah.
PJ: I never did hear them explain the chair.
HF: This chair here?
PJ: Yeah, this one, she said, that her mother that her mother rocked her children on and she says, “ and I once rocked on it”.
Man: There’s a little pad there.
PJ: When my son went to strip it down, he decided there was at least seven coats of white paint. And she says they were really pleasantly surprised when they seen what a beauty there was under all our paint.
Man: That old bed became…
PJ: It’s one of the first wagons that came into the Utah Valley when…
Man: This is Bullet’s? Bessie Howard bullet’s.
PJ: He bought it, didn’t he?
Lady: Before he ever came to Nauvoo, Illinois.
HF: So this would go back to the beginning to the 19th century, then? It’s be the 1800s wouldn’t it?
PJ: Yes.
Man: The bed looks like it’s from England, too. When I was over there. It’s an old- old…
HF: Is it the high…?
Man: Real high…
PJ: And, I guess, it’s been in use most all these years because she says that we used it in the other house until we had replaced it in the other house to get things… Somebody said, “ Where have you kept these things all these years?” And she says “ In our house here, over here and in Rexburg.” She said “ We used some of it all the time,” and I never did hear her say where this is from.
Man: There’s an old rocking chair here, too. It’s be reupholstered, but the wood…
PJ: The little rocking horse, they said, was in the Hess family. Dan rode it when he was little and some of the older ones later. Man: It’s a rocking horse that’s on a metal frame underneath it, and you kind of slide back and forth on a couple little, you know, wire type things.
PJ: I can remember when these tables were in every house.
Man: What, just a little night- stand table?
PJ: Yeah.
Man: A shelf and one down towards the bottom?
PJ: Yeah, they were probably used mainly for lamp stands, you know move from one room to the other.
Man: Coal lamps.
HF: Are you Missis Nedrow?
PJ: No, I’m her daughter. I’m a Jenkins.
HF: Oh, you’re a Jenkins.
PJ: Yeah, I am Phyllis Jenkins, but I was Phyllis Nedrow.
HF: And what’s her first name?
PJ: Lila.
HF: Lila. Your voice is just like your mother’s. I interviewed her long time ago, she and your father.
PJ: What is your name?
HF: Forbush.
PJ: Oh, well, that should have… you’re Judge Forbush. I’ve heard about you but I never…
HF: Mister J. Edgar Birch and I went up to interview your folks in about 1970 up at their home, and had dinner with them.
PJ: Well, mother should be here today.
HF: Well, that’s great.
PJ: I don’t know. Her eyes are getting so she can’t read.
HF: I see.
PJ: Now, this picture up here is of the Bullock family and Mary pointed out that the baby on the knee is her dad and he was, she said her grandfather was born in 1806 and her father in 1877, or so. Anyway…
Man: He was 70 old.
PJ: Her grandfather was 71 or something like that when, when her dad was born. So that usually should have been three generations, but it’s just two.
HF: That’s interesting.
Man: Let’s go in this next room here. There’s a step up there. This is the front room. There’s an old organ. There’s an old family Bible 1891, there’s an old picture on the wall, an old rocking chair, there’s an old rug on the floor.
HF: This rug, huh?
Man: Let’s kind of come on back.
HF: This is a rocking chair.
Man: Little rocking chair.
[ Inaudible, lots of people talking]
Man: There’s a little, difference in the rug there and there’s a little lamp, and the mirror, and they have old curtains on the window, the old type curtains.
Mrs. Hensley: This is the old rugs, old rugs with fringe on it. These are two, two just alike.
HF: Oh, I see. I see, with the fringe.
Mrs. Hensley: Yes, now this one’s fringe is to the wall. We had those in 1910. Over here’s the spinning wheel.
Man: Old spinning wheel.
Mrs. Hensley: Some pictures made by hand.
Man: The spinning wheel is 1750 spinning wheel for spinning flack.
Mrs. Hensley: And this here was the original flack, that bag that was left on the spinning wheel.
HF: Can I just feel it a little bit? Oh, for Pete’s sake.
Mrs. Hensley: This is a piece of the flack.
HF: Oh, for Pete’s sake.
Mrs. Hensley: It’s just hanging on. It’s one of the last that they they’ve preserved of that.
HF: This is Mrs. Hensley that’s explaining the spinning wheel.
Mrs. Hensley: Yes, I came with it.
HF: Okay, well, tell me a little more there.
Mrs. Hensley: This is the wonderful curtains…
Man [ in the background]: Look outside, this is the front room window looking out towards the street.
Mrs. Hensley: And the curtains are velvet like the plush of the rug.
HF: They’re not modern, particularly, are they?
Mrs. Hensley: Well, they’re old.
Man: I don’t think these are the original curtains, I think.
Teresa Garret: No, these curtains are from 1883 and they are not the originals. The sun would have ruined them by now. They’re a good color, they have a design in them with fringe on the ends of them and it’s a fine texture of curtain. It’s lace, what they call the lace curtain.
HF: But they represent the style of 18- something?
Mrs. Hensley: And they early 90s cause we had some many of these on our windows in 1924.
TG: I don’t think it would be earlier than 18… It could be the 1880s. That’s what it says in here, that it’s the 1880 period of time for the curtains. I don’t know about he drapes she didn’t explain.
HF: How about the rugs, do they, do they go back?
TG: Now. These are replicas of orient rugs. These are replicas of what they had in their home when they, Brother and Sister Hess, lived here as husband and wife, you know, when they first married. There were two rooms here that had this living room on the left here and there’s the three original rooms of the original house.
HF: And that was built 1905, I think.
TG: Yes, and then there’s a porch right in front of you here. There’s a porch that she had lots of flowers in, there’s lots of windows on it. So it’s a beautiful area for her to have for her flowers. They’ll explain to you this little room of off the living room here. On the wall here, one the left, and one on the right of the window are two samplers that was made by Sister Hess’s, Mary’s great- great- grandmother, Harriot Olfield, and they were made by her when she was 8 years old. And then there is another one on the other wall, it’s the Solomon’s temple, and has embroidered on here April 7th 1846.
HF: And that comes on Mary’s side?
TG: Yes. Shall I read to you what it says? “ And the House when it was built was in building, was build of stone made,” I have to get up a little closer so I can see. Oh, it’s just a design. “ Made ready before it was brought thither, so there was neither hammer, nor ax, nor any tool of iron heard in the House while it was in building.” This was Solomon’s temple. This is April 2nd, 1846. It’s a beautiful peace of work. It’s a sacrifce.
HF: What’s your name?
TG: I’m Teresa Garrett. And I’m from St. Anthony, Idaho.
HF: And you’re one of the guides here today?
TG: Yes. I’m with Freemont County Historical Society.
HF: Right, right. Dianne, yes. Isn’t this, to me it’s going to be a wonderful contribution, you know, to our heritage.
T. G.: I didn’t tell you what color the curtains were, the drapes are maroon color, and the curtains are ecru. The walls are blue and more of a peach color than the ecru.
HF: Thank you, Sister Garrett.
Man: We wanted you to know that Sister Hess is in here and has lovely army…
Mary Hess: [ Talking to someone else]… saw him alive and saw him land alive, so…
Well, here he is…
HF: So, how are you, Sister Hess?
MH: Well, fine, how are you? HF: Just keep talking and we’ll get you.
MH.: Oh, keep talking? We were talking about Colonel J. Hess, who was here with us today to help us open the museum and, of course, he being a cousin and a grandson of John W. Hess, he’s interested in all this Hess genealogy and Hess memorabilia also.
HF: And he’s here with you today?
MH: He’s here with us today. In fact, he was just here in this exhibit room guided though while we were busy elsewhere. So, he was explaining to you some of the things.
Man: I didn’t get a chance to talk to him, I saw him, and he slipped out and went somewhere else. I saw him for a minute.
HF: Just go ahead, Sister Hess.
MH: Marva’s the one who was the one who takes you through here and explains all of the, the theme of the room, of God country and family. Go ahead, Marva.
Marva: The family motto that Dan and Mary have set up is “ Duty God, country, and family.” And above the door there they have their little theme posted, and as we come into the room on our left here we see a word in wood carved out of “ God”, and beside that we see a framed picture of Christ and one of the First vision. Below that is a big frame of the map of the world, and on that is framed pictured of the missionaries that have come out and have rendered service to the Church and God though their efforts for Christianity and they’re in the process of collecting all of the pictures of the missionaries on both sides of the family that they can get. And then there are certificates, pictures of members of the family that have been in bishoprics, stake presidencies and whatever. And also a picture of, an aerial view of Ricks College area.
Man: What’s the year on that picture, do you know?
Marva: 1972, which would imply his service to community and his service through working at the College. There is a silver beaver framed certificate when he was working in scouting.
HF: He was awarded that, when was that?
Marva: That says 72, also, doesn’t it?
Man: Oh, yeah, 72, 15th of April.
Marva: And so, we see several of these Phi Delta Kappa, and things like that. Then, we have a case here. Within the case we have an account of the Bullock fellow who was grandfather to Mary who was in the Mormon Battalion, and several other, other things. Man: There’s a lot of caps and things, pictures of caps and swords and different things that…
Marva: Depicting their military service through the years and from the ancestry time. And then on the wall, there are more of the same pictures of Dan, and several fellows. This Jay Hess they were speaking about. There’s picture right here in front of us of their son Steven being probably right after he was sworn into, as a chaplain of the United States Air Force. And, of course, Dan was a chaplain. There are three generations of the chaplaincy, I guess it’s the way you’d say that, of the service that’s been rendered through the family.
Man: They have two manikins right here. One in the Army, one in the navy uniforms, too. And the flag between them.
HF: Army and Navy?
Marva: Yes, and the flag standing between. The Navy uniform belonged to Dan. He wore it, and he said when he was much smaller around.
[ Laughter]
And, of course, that wall, right ahead of us there, depicts their devotion to country while this one on our left depict devotion to God. This one here on the right is depicting devotion to family. And, of course, they have a plaque up there with wooden letters that says “ family” above that display. On the wall, we have two pictures, or two wooden trees with holes in the trees. I have seen them at our history displays at Ricks and genealogy seminars. They have, round holes cut in these threes, and, of course, you put your photographs behind them.
HF: Yeah, yeah.
Marva: And so, one of these trees shows Dan and Mary in the center with these little holes as their family when they were small. The second large tree is a later picture of Dan and Mary and it has pictures of their family groups, family groups of their children on that. Then they have the family crest is depicted up there of the, that they received from the institute of heraldry. Also, they have several framed genealogies, and going back to the date of 1472 right over here on one of the branches. Now, in the case here right by us are many items of memorabilia that belonged to their ancestry. There’s a little parasol, and fan, and shawl that belonged to Mary Margaret Dah, and that’s dated 1814. Mother of Pearl glasses brought from France at 1906 by one of the Bullocks. Can’t you just see somebody in the Opera house in the Old Germany or England using those Mother of Pearl field glasses, is what they look like, miniature field glasses, and that way they could see, watch the opera? There are spectacles dating 1855 belonging to Magdalena Garn. A beaded evening bag that belonged to Mildred Hess, dated 1881, an example of Backenburg lace made by Mary Jane Inham in 1885, an example of wave crest jewelry China. A shawl…
Man: There’s a lot of stuff there ... Nice, nice display.
HF: Isn’t this lovely, though.
Man: Yes.
[ Tape Stops
Tape Resumes]
Marva: ... dates back to about 1855. And the bed spread was hand- made by Mary Garn, and she made that in about 1919. On the dresser there’s two lamps and they have been brass candlesticks converted into electric lamps. And then under the window is an old chest and the rugs, I’m not sure whether these were hand- made, although I know they did hand- make the rugs back then. There’s a Zinger sewing machine, a treadle, that dates 1906, and this does not belong to the family, they purchased this, it was in a Spaulding house when they bought the Spaulding house. And then behind you, Harold, is a rocking chair. They don’t have a date on this chair, but it’s really neat. I don’t know how to explain it because I’ve never seen one like this before. They said the back on it is kind of adjustable for your own comfort. Although it sticks out a little bit from, there’s a solid back and then piece in the front that kind of tilts that, you know, is supposed to make you more comfortable. On the walls are pictures of Dan’s father and these two pictures are Dan’s mother and these are her sisters.
HF: Now, they occupied this bedroom, I suppose, his parents I guess?
Marva: I’m not sure whose bedroom this one was, they didn’t tell us.
HF: Is this an English type of furniture?
Marva: Yeah, most of this furniture came across the plains.
Man: This is different from the one in the other room, though.
HF: It is.
Marva: The one in the other room, I don’t know if they told you, I just found this out, is a match to the bed Brigham Young had in Salt Lake, and he wanted to purchase this bed, and before he could purchase it for the match, Thomas Bullock bought it. And, of course, he went right to Thomas and said: “ I want to buy that bed.” And he says: “ You’re not getting that bed”.
HF: That’s interesting. He couldn’t pull his rank, either, could he, I guess, [ he] apparently didn’t assert it.
Marva: And they bough these beds back East and then transported them across the plains, and evidently, they had trouble getting everything in the wagon, and they says“ You’re going to have to leave the bed behind, well, Thomas was not going to leave that bed, so they loaded it on horses and brought it across the plains.
Man: They’ve got a lot of good pictures in here.
[ Tape stops.
Tape resumes]
HF: This is Steve Hess, the oldest son of Mary and Dan Hess, and he’s commenting about Dan’s cousin, Colonel, what’s his full name?
Steve Hess: Jay
HF: Colonel Jay Hess, who was prisoner of war in Vietnam for five and a half years, and Steve brought him here today, and he is now relating a little of the Colonel’s comments about his experience as a prisoner of war.
SH: I asked Jay to put in prospective his experience as a prisoner of war, this whole time in South- East Asia and how it has affected his life and just his feelings about prioritizing that experience in his life. Indicated that the unburdening experience he had, he said that “ Probably the first things we went through was a very hard interrogation torture process” but at the same time he knew his soul was going through a repentance process. He said after a while there, during the first year he received a realization that he had purged his weaknesses from him and that he was ready to go on and death didn’t hold any fear for him. There was a real unburdening. He said even though the conditions were terribly austere and cruel, spiritually he felt he was more whole and it was almost a light feeling of being.
HF: Was he solitaire? Was he alone? Did he have to endure all this alone?
SH: There were the first period of time that interrogation and torture was a solitary period and after they finished the interrogations with him he was given a room with, I believe, he said four others, three others or four in the room. He indicated that all four of them had grasped what faith bases they had and become deeply spiritual people.
HF: I see.
SH: Now, do you want some macaroni salad?
HF: Yeah.
SH: Let me get that.
HF: Have you got something to eat?
[ Tape stops. Tape resumes.]
HF: This a little luncheon followed after going through the carriage house as well as the home which reflects living conditions, oh, I suppose one could say, 1910 to1930 or 40. It’s really before the days of electricity. And the way and manner in which Brother and Sister Hess put together this Hess Heritage museum is really wonderful. They should be commended indeed for a display of the horse- drawn equipment which is located on the outside of any protective area as well as the Carriage shed house, plus all the things they have in the home itself, much of the heirlooms of both sides of the family, the Hess family, the Thomas Bullock family, and other outstanding pioneer families in which they have ancestry and heritage. I’m delighted that this has happened. The dedication was done there and the ribbon ceremony was done, a dedicatory prayer of the facility and I think, they’re on their way. They had a fine crowd despite the very chilly wind, some sun shined, but oh, the wind was chilly. And it was a real delight. At the end we had a little bite to eat, we were delighted to have Sam Beal and Bessie with us, we were delighted to see a lot of friends up there and we would think it was a super experience. Now, this is located one mile south of Ashton and one, about quarter to half a mile west of the highway. I think, it can actually be seen from the highway. Should be a good location and hopefully they will be able to share it with many travelers in a way. And we take hats off to Brother and Sister Mary and Dan Hess for restoring this Hess Heritage, their old ranch, and making a wonderful museum from it, which many can learn.