Item Detail
-
Stringham, Miranda Campbell
-
1904-1996
-
MSS SC 1523; MSS 2077
-
Autobiography, newsletter, diary
-
Miranda Campbell Stringham was born July 17, 1904 in Ammon, Bonneville County, Idaho to David Charles Campbell and Minerva Elizabeth Duel. She was the sixth child in a family of fifteen although two of the children passed away at young ages. As a youth, she aided with work on the homestead; at age five, Miranda attended some school but did not finish the year. Her second year, she caught up by finishing the second and third grade together. After the new school building was erected, a new branch was organized called Hillsdale, later to be called Ozone. Miranda worked as a janitor with her brother in the school but couldn't progress on to high school due to financial reasons and transportation difficulties. However, Miranda's brother moved to Idaho Falls in the fall of 1920, and Miranda roomed with him in order to attend Idaho Falls High School. Her second and third year of high school, she went to Delta, Millard County, Utah and lived with her aunt, while working for her room and board. Back in Idaho, however, her family struggled financially, and they were finally forced to leave their home. At this point, Miranda quit school and found work in Salt Lake City as a nursemaid to a rich family of Jews. In preparation for her wedding (her fiance having been on a mission), Miranda quit her job and left for southern Utah, where her family lived. She was married to Bryant Stringham on June 6, 1923 in the Salt Lake Temple by George F. Richards. The newly wed couple then moved back to Idaho to the A. J. Stranger ranch where Bryant had been promised a job. The next year, the couple moved to Glenmore to help Bryant's family, and Miranda gave birth to their first boy, Bryce, on June 22, 1925. Following, Bryant closed a deal on four hundred and eighty acres of land at Seventy Creek. For a while, Miranda helped her husband and worked as an assistant mail carrier although this necessitated a move twice a year from the Seventy Creek ranch in the spring to the Rockwoods ranch in the fall. On June 22, 1927, Forrest, their second child was born. Following, the Stringhams struggled through the Depression era before coming out with two more children and an economic increase on the farm. In order for Bryce to attend school, the family moved to Glenore a few years thereafter. The family moved from farm to farm, and they eventually lost nearly everything because of poor crops. In 1942, they found and bought a home near Shelley, Idaho. In 1953, two of the children, Bryce and Miranda, left to serve missions in Aberdeen, Washington. In 1956, Miranda was called to serve a two-year district mission with Laura Anderson, and in 1960, Miranda took some classes from Ricks Adult Center and Brigham Young University, thus finally obtaining her high school diploma, in addition to several college credits. She and Bryant served as officiators in the Idaho Falls Temple for twelve years (although given a leave of absence when they were called to the Texas Mission in 1966). Thereafter, the Stringhams served in the church while also visiting many of their grown children all across the western United States. Both Bryant and Miranda suffered from various physical ailments, but none too serious, and in their later years, they resided in Firth, Idaho. Miranda died in May of 1996.
-
This is a 34-page typed autobiography, titled the 'History of Miranda Campbell Stringham.' Included in the back is a 4-page ward newsletter from the Riverview Ward of December 1978 that includes a spiritual message, upcoming events in the ward, and a birthday calendar. In the 34-page manuscript, Miranda begins by briefly recounting the history of her pioneer ancestors before she continues on to her own history. She describes her life as a youth, growing up with all brothers on a homestead in Idaho. Miranda mentions her achievements in school, as well as her callings in the ward. She continues by elaborating upon her feelings about her first child's birth, and then her excitement for their new home in Seventy Creek. She writes about the work to do on the ranch, and then about the blessing of having her mother and another woman there to help after the second baby is born. Following, however, Miranda expresses the difficulties of living during the Depression. Likewise, Miranda demonstrates her excitement when the family purchases their first real home through her expansive descriptions of her life and her children's activities. However, in 1932, Miranda was rushed to the hospital for a gallstones operation. She later writes about the development of the church in the area and of her different callings, which included being ward chorister, choir director, and Relief Society Stake Historian, among others. She also includes experiences she had in the Texas Mission. Following these descriptions, Miranda writes about the lives of her oldest children. Beginning in 1974, Miranda becomes more elaborate in her descriptions, with a page or so dedicated to each year thereafter. The last two pages of the manuscript Miranda entitles 'Here are some lessons I learned as a child,' and she thus concludes with various experiences from her youth in which she procured certain values, such as honesty.
MSS SC 2077: This is two holographic volumes and one typescript: the first volume provides a more lengthy and detailed account of Miranda's life from 1980 to 1981 in the format of a journal; the second holographic volume that she titled 'Courtship and Married Life' is a record of the years 19201942, in which she begins with how she first met her husband, Bryant and follows with her experiences as a wife and mother; the typescript is a daily account of Miranda's life beginning with the New Year of 1978 to 1979. Miranda also published a number of other histories: Old Ammon (the first fifty years), The People of the Hills, Basalt-Firth since 1900, History of the Cedar Point: Dedicated to Cedar Point Community, and Diaries. -
1822-1886