Scope and Contents This journal begins when Mary is eleven years old. On the first blank page in the front of the book Mary has written this dated January 1949: "First I will say that the journal or diary writing habit was inculcated in the lives of his children by Utah pioneer John E. Bennion. His son Heber passed it on to his children. When we were given little black bound note books one Christmas, our father...

Scope and Contents 1906 Mary is now sixteen years old. April "We decided to have a 'weighing party'. That is all the ladies are weighed and their pardners pay a half cent per pound to get admission for themselves & ladies. To make it more interesting the ladies go behind a curtain and each place a toe under the edge, then the gents chose from the display of toes and thus get...

Scope and Contents August "About noon papa hooked up the wagon and took all the women folks up East Fork where the boys were haying. We took dinner with us and spread it out on the grass just as we had finished eating a thunderstorm came up which lasted the rest of the afternoon. The boys got in the hay stack. Some of us got under the wagon and sat facing each other with a quilt over our laps. Soon the rain began to...

Scope and Contents 1909 August 23 "Lucile and Ethel washed and I did the housework. In the afternoon Ethel went to the Keyster. Ivy came over to sew. I went to Dr. Richards the same day and he said there wasn't anything the matter with me. I was much relieved." September 22 "I have been worrying so much lately that I don't seem to get anything done. None of us went...

Scope and Contents 1930 September 2 "Lucile, Norma and I went to Lagoon to swim in the fresh water lake. We had a jublilant time. There was a big barrel floating on the water which we tried to ride." September 6 "Bottled tomatoes. About 5:00 pm Ethel, Lucy, May, Kate and I went and saw the new Deseret Gymnasium." October 5 "Ethel...

Scope and Contents 1914 June When I came home from Logan after school closed I found at Thorndyke besides Aunt Mayma and her family three other families. The place looked like a tenement district. Tin cans, papers, egg shells, etc., were scattered about the lawn, and dirty- oh! Mother and Ethelyn had returned from Moapa early in May and had just stopped in Salt Lake a few days. Ethelyn was much...

Scope and Contents Mary had returned with Lucile to school in Logan, and one day with another friend, named Willard, she writes: 1915 October 11 "We three made fudge on the chafing dish and talked till a late hour. As soon as Willard left I took a double dose of sleeping pills and went to bed." December "The week before Xmas was so much of a strain...

Scope and Contents July 22 "Heber, Helen, Lucile, Conrad Jr. and myself to Pine Cliff ranch in the Ford." Charles made several visits to see Mary while she was there. Lucile has a baby now, Conrad Jr., and Mary helps to tend it. "As night approaches the baby begins his wails of protest against things in general and our lantern which gives about as much light as a match, wavers and...

Scope and Contents Mary's mother Susie is ill. October 14 "We came home and helped mother get ready to go to the hospital. She is going to have an operation on Wed. and has to have some kind of a test tomorrow. It seems awful but we musn't be afraid. That won't help." October 18 "That operation was successful but was more serious than the doctors expected, as one of...

Scope and Contents This journal begins with sewing instructions. Methods of taking measurements, standard measurements and patterns imposed over what appears to be notes from a book or class. This portion of the journal is very difficult to read. Following this is a section of notes taken during a nursing class, written over philosophical notes. Perhaps Mary lacked money for paper at this time in her newly married life. The nursing...