Item Detail
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Hendricks, Mary Addrienne Harris
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1866-1954
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MSS SC 902
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Autobiography
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Mary Addrienne Harris Hendricks was born in Toquerville, Utah on June 3, 1866 to Charles and Lousia Harris. Her parents had moved there in response to a call to settle Dixie. They later moved to Parowan where they lived for ten or twelve years, and then to a large ranch on the Sevier River. Addie left home to attend school, first at Monroe and then at Richfield. Because there were so many students in the school, the teacher let Addie take some of the smaller classes. She was influenced by his confidence in her and decided to become a teacher herself. When she went home, she set up a little school for her siblings. She taught the children of three families in Kanab, and was later a teacher in Junction and Richfield. While she was in Richfield, her sister Belle's husband, N.L. Nelson, told her 'of a very fine young missionary by the name of Milo A. Hendricks who had been his traveling companion in the field and who had become interested in me through seeing my picture, along with Belle's, and having Brother Nelson elaborate on our virtues. He asked Brother Nelson to arrange an introduction through correspondence.' Addie and Milo wrote for the fourteen months left of his mission, and were married September 19, 1888 in the Logan Temple. They operated a Co-Op in Lewiston, Utah and another in Oxford, Idaho. They then moved to Pocatello, Idaho and went into the grocery business with Hyde, Woodland, and Pond. They also owned a creamery. Addie and Milo lived in Pocatello for twenty-five years, and were involved in community and church affairs; Milo participated in the local government and the state legislature. They moved to Provo, Utah in 1927. Milo and Addie were the parents of seven children: Ivy Lucille, Vera May, Birdie Ione, Ila Fern, Jessie Bell, Nellie Jean, and Milo Calvin. Milo A. died of heart disease in 1943, and Addie moved to Salt Lake to be close to some of her daughters. She died November 30, 1952.
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Addie's autobiography is part of a collection of Harris family biographies that includes biographies for her parents and siblings. She begins her autobiography, 'St. George, Utah, November 15, 1938: Brother Hendricks and I are here for the winter to work in the temple and as I have a little spare time I have decided to write a small part of my life's history.' She starts with her birth and gives some information about her grandfather Emer Harris and other relatives. Then, she recounts some incidents that she remembers from childhood. One of her earliest memories is the death of Charley, a big black horse that the family loved. Her father dug a grave and buried the horse, and then used this occasion to teach his children about the resurrection: 'This was my first impression of a Hereafter and it was a great comfort to my childish mind to feel that anything that died should live again. We have learned a lot about the resurrection since then, and what a joy it is!' Addie describes her time away from home getting an education as the beginning of 'the more serious part of my life.' She describes in detail her and Milo's courtship by correspondence. The later portion of the autobiography is more journal-like. Addie records entries on June 8, 1946 in Provo; on December 5, 1946 in Salt Lake City; in January, 1948 in Salt Lake, and in March 1952. One incident she recorded was, at age eighty, riding in a plane for the first time. She said, 'It gave me the thrill of my life.' She mostly records recent events in her family life and talks about her children and their families. Her family had its share of tragedy: several of her children died in infancy, her daughter Jessie was abandoned by her husband with three young children and died of pneumonia shortly thereafter, her husband died of heart disease, her son Milo died prematurely leaving a young family, and on the way to Milo's funeral her daughter Birdie and Birdie's husband were in a car accident in which Birdie's husband was killed. Despite all of this, Addie remained constant and faithful to her beliefs. She said of these trials: 'The Lord knows best and we have always been thankful for the ones [children] he did send and acknowledge his blessings in all things. We have never complained when he saw fit to call one of them Home, and we have carried on as best we knew how.' At the end of the autobiography, several of Addie's poems are included.
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