EDNA STIMPSON GALE
Edna Stimpson Gale was born July 14, 1867, at Riverdale, Weber County, Utah, one of the first generation of pioneers born in Utah. She was the sixth child of William Stimpson and Edna Hinchcliff Stimpson, both Mormon Pioneers from England.
Her father, William Stimpson, crossed the plains in the ill-fated Edward Martin Handcart Company, arriving in Salt Lake City on November 30, 1856. He buried his first wife and one child near Fort Bridger and continued to Utah with one other child, Frederick. Her mother, Edna Hinchcliff, William's second wife, came across the plains with Captain James Brown's Company, arriving in Salt Lake City October 3, 1854. They were married May 1, 1858.
The family settled in Riverdale after arriving in Utah. Here they had enough property to raise all the food they could eat with a very large garden and many varieties of fruit trees. They raised horses, cows, chickens, etc., and were quite self-sustaining. There was a large family to feed. Edna's mother bore William six children. Just four months before Edna was born, her father took a polygamous wife, Ann Mary Christensen, and they had seven children.
At an early age Edna learned to love the Gospel of Jesus Christ. At the time of her birth, her father was second counselor in the Riverdale District with Sanford Bingham and the family attended church regularly. When Riverdale was organized as a ward on May 28, 1877, William was called to be the second counselor to then Bishop Sanford Bingham.
Edna married Hyrum Edwin Gale December 18, 1884. He was 20 and she was just 17 years old. Edna had lived in Riverdale all of her life, but she and her husband moved into a brand new frame home in Ogden to begin their married life together. Their home was located at 359-30th Street. They started out with no electricity and had to light their home with oil lamps. They lived here many years before they added the luxury of indoor plumbing. Hyrum was a furniture maker at Boyle Furniture Company and they always had nice furnishings.
Edna and Hyrum began their family right away. The first of eleven children born to them was Mary Laneta (Neta), born October 19, 1885. Then followed Lula Edna, born January 9, 1887, and died June 18, 1887, at the age of six months; Bertha Astella, born February 11, 1888; Hattie May, born August 1, 1889; Sarah Elizabeth, born June 5, 1892, and died August 9, 1893, at the age of 14 months. Their first son, Joseph Hyrum, was born November 18, 1893, followed by Ada, born October 14, 1895; Glen Derrick, born March 26, 1897; Fred Eugene, born January 13, 1899; Harold Fay, born June 18, 1901; and Eva Merle, born May 13, 1904. All of the children were born in the family home in Ogden.
The family had an organ. They loved music in the home and most of the children learned how to play a musical instrument of some sort. Edna loved to sing along with them.
Edna was a very good cook. When the children came home from school she'd have a snack for them to eat. Sometimes it would be rice pudding or hot biscuits and jam. She dearly loved her family and would be the first one up every morning to have a good breakfast for them before school. In the wintertime she would get up earlier and have the kitchen all warm and have the children's clothes all warmed by the stove for them to get dressed.
Before they had inside plumbing Edna carried water several times a day from a large pump outside by the back door. She kept a large boiler on the side of the stove filled with water to keep hot for bathing and dish washing. Years later there was a long pipe brought in the kitchen so Edna didn't have to haul water from the outside anymore.
During the cold months Edna would keep about four or five bricks in the oven all day. At night she would wrap each one in a blanket or towel and put them in the foot of the beds to warm the beds at bedtime. The comfort of her family was always foremost in her mind.
Edna was also a very good seamstress. She made all the children's clothes from shirts and pants for the boys to dresses and aprons for the girls. The girls wore crisp aprons to keep their dresses clean. She taught all of her daughters to be good seamstresses also and they soon made their own clothes.
Their oldest daughter Neta married at the age of 19 and moved to Salt Lake City to live. This was in 1904 when Edna was still having children herself. In 1911 Neta divorced her first husband and moved back home with her two sons, Herbert, age 6, and Leslie, age 4. Bertha divorced her first husband and moved home for a short while with her daughter, Vera, about 5. All of these children were close in age with Eva and Edna treated them all as her own children making everyone feel welcome and loved. She was more mother to them than grandmother.
Edna had longed all her married life to have her husband and children sealed as a family in the temple of God for time and all eternity. All of the family, except Neta because she was already married to a non-member, went to the Salt Lake LDS Temple on November l, 1905, and had their sealing work done. Eva was only a year and a half old when she was sealed to her parents. The two deceased daughters were also sealed this day. Bertha acted as the proxy for Lulu Edna and Hattie served as proxy for Sarah Elizabeth.
The family had its problems. Hyrum did not keep the Word of Wisdom and this upset Edna very much because Hyrum would become verbally abusive when he had been drinking. She kept it all to herself, accepting her lot in life. She was very devoted to living the gospel and her church callings. She taught the children the importance of attending church meetings.
She and Hyrum separated for awhile. Hyrum still lived at home as long as there were children home, but slept in another room. After the last child, Eva, got married at the age of 15 in October 1919, Edna and Hyrum got their divorce. This became final on Christmas Eve, 1919. However, they never got a temple divorce.
Edna served as a midwife to Doctors Edward and Ezra Rich for many years, being on call all hours of the day and night. After the divorce, she took in washing to help make ends meet.
In a personal interview Eva described her mother as being a small, well-built woman, with black hair and blue eyes. She was always very quiet and good-natured, never arguing with anyone. Edna was always busy and never seemed to have any time for herself. Every year Edna would take some of the children, mostly the boys, to the cemetery to clean off all the family graves prior to Memorial Day. Eva remembers that her mother liked to put sugar on her tomatoes to take the acid taste from them.
Edna loved to quilt. On a regular basis Edna would put baby Eva in the buggy and walk all the way to Riverdale to visit relatives and quilt all day long, breaking only for lunch. Edna and her sisters would spend all winter long making quilt blocks out of anything they could find. Then in the summer they would hold regular quilting bees and all work together to make these blocks into quilts for everyone. Not one scrap of material ever went to waste.
Eva said her mother always seemed old to her and endured a lot of hardship. But what else could she do? By the time Edna was 37 years old she had borne eleven children.
Edna was always very active in the LDS Church. She served as President of the Primary for 11 years, as well as in the Genealogy Society for 12 years.
On Labor Day, September 6, 1937, all of the then living sons and daughters of William Stimpson and others of his descendants rented a bus and drove to Fort Bridger, Wyoming, to have a family reunion where 81 years before their father had buried his first wife and child. They were not successful finding any of the graves they were looking for. They had lunch on the grass where the old fort had stood and visited the museum and viewed many of the relics from those early days. This proved to be the last time this particular group was ever together again, as just weeks later Edna was killed in an accident.
Edna was struck by a car on Tuesday, September 28, 1937, while crossing the street at 30th and Washington, just one half block from her home. She was badly injured. Her head was split open exposing her brain, her legs badly crushed, and her right arm broken. She lingered alive for four days, suffering terribly. She passed away October 2, 1937, at the age of 70 years. Her viewing was held at the family home. Bishop James H. Riley conducted the funeral held in the llth Ward Chapel at 3:00 p.m. on October 5, 1937, directed by Lindquist and Sons Mortuary. The Chapel was filled to overflowing with people and flowers bearing witness to the love everyone felt for this small little woman with a dynamic spirit.
George C. Child, a lifelong friend, said at her funeral that she was a beautiful singer in her girlhood days. "She always had a pleasant smile and always remembered her associates. She had a gift of spreading good will and happiness."
Mary J. Anderson, who had worked with Edna for many years in her church callings, said "her whole life was service, unselfish, untiring. She was always giving her best, always thinking of others, always doing more than her share in everything that she was called upon to do."
President Nathan A. Tanner, who was the Bishop who called her to her Primary job, said of her: "Edna lived the gospel fully. She was independent--always felt it was better to give than to receive. She always gave in plenty of service and labor of love. She was most unassuming--would rather be kept in the background."
Other words that seemed to describe Edna were: outstanding, industrious, thoughtful and loyal, honest and honorable, and faithful. If she went into a home, if there was sickness there, she would know exactly what to do. She was a natural nurse. Her hands would instinctively do the right thing in times of sickness.
One of the boys said: "We could give her $25 to help her and before we knew it she would give us $26 back in gifts for ourselves and our families." She wanted to do the helping. Being independent she wouldn't go live with any of her children. She preferred to live in her own home.
Edna was survived by nine children, sixteen grandchildren, and six great grandchildren. She is buried in the Ogden City Cemetery in the Gale Family plot.
SOURCES:
Obituary, Ogden Standard-Examiner
Eva M. Gale Ogden (daughter) personal interview
Family Records
Certified Copy of Death Certificate
Salt Lake Temple record of sealings
Written and submitted by Mrs. Joy M. Belnap (great granddaughter)