Orrel Emma Greenwood Bateman

     This is a picture of my Grandpa and Grandma Bateman with the image of their home on Garfield in Salt Lake City (Sugarhouse).  I drew it for a Bateman reunion a few years ago.  I remember going to Salt Lake to visit them and loving the house and the creek bed across the street where we would play so often.  I remember the smells, especially the aroma of fresh baked cookies.  We used to congregate with our many cousins for Thanksgiving holidays.  The men would go to the U of U vs. Utah State football game,  while the women and some of the older children prepared the Thanksgiving feast.  There were adult bridge games and tag football in the backyard.  This was a tradition for many years when my siblings and I were young and living at home in Logan.
 
     My Grandma Bateman, Orrel Emma Greenwood, was born in Union, Salt Lake County, Utah on October 13, 1898.  She was the first child of Thomas Foster Greenwood and Emma Burgon Greenwood, in the home which her Dad had built just previous to his marriage to her mother, Emma Burgon Greenwood on December 15, 1897.  It was a two- room,  white brick house trimmed with red, built on granite foundations.  The inside flooring, floor and ceiling joists, rafters and sheathing were hewn from lumber that had been brought from the canyon.  It had a twelve foot ceiling.  The kitchen was furnished with a cupboard, table, flour bin, a few chairs and a coal stove.  The front room had a rag covering for the floor and had a new bedroom suite - quite humble beginnings.
     Orrel was joined by sisters, Grace, Eunice and then Lucile who died at five months from meningitis.  Two years later Mirla was born.  (Mirla authored, "I Wonder When He Comes Again", a familiar LDS children's song.)
     My Grandma Orrel finished eighth grade when she was thirteen.  There was no compulsory education in those days, and many students dropped out after eighth.  Her father wanted her to finish high school, but he wouldn't let her go to college, as he didn't think girls needed a college education.  That was the attitude of the day, for the most part.  Her father was called to serve a mission to Great Britain for three years when Orrel was 10.  When she was sixteen they moved to the family home on State Street, where she lived until she was married.  She was fifteen when Foster, her first brother was born and then Don came later (both after her father returned from his mission). The following are some excerpts from my Grandma Orrel's biography:

     "I spent my time after school studying and doing chores.  I helped mother a lot, as she had no washing machine and had to wash by hand on a washboard.  I used to help Dad, being the oldest, too.  I would guide the horse when they hauled hay.  I helped prepare meals, swept floors, and did the dishes.  We didn't have indoor water or toilets, and drew our water from the well.  We used to put our butter and cream in a bucket and lower it into the well to keep cold.  We had a dirt cellar lined with boards.  It had a door and steps going down into it.  It was lined with shelves and here we stored bottles of fruit and cured meat.  It would stay at about 50 degrees winter and summer.  We would get ice and make ice cream.  We had our own cows and chickens.  We always had a team of work horses and a horse to be used with the buggy ('a surrey with the fringe on top.').
     I remember a trip I made with my Grandfather Burgon to Ogden when I was about seven years old.  My Great-grandfather Parry (the first husband of Ann Malin whose story was told earlier in this blog.  We are descended from him and Ann Malin through her daughter, Ann Henrietta Parry.) lived in Ogden, and he was a good friend of Grandpa Burgon. He was a rather well-to-do, prominent man in Ogden at that time, and he lived in a large two-story house.  I was so in awe of that house.  It seemed like a mansion to me.  My Great-grandfather took me to buy a present for each of my sisters and my mother.  We stayed for two nights.  It was my first trip to Ogden and first trip out of Salt Lake Valley.
     For Christmas we would get a stocking with a big orange and an apple in it.  That might be the only orange we would get in a year.  We got candy and nuts in our stockings.  When we were young, we might get a new doll or some doll clothes.  We didn't get a lot of things.  My uncles used to make me toys.  I was the first grandchild on both sides of the family, so they gave me special attention.  We decorated our Christmas trees with chains made from colored paper and we threaded yards and yards of popcorn and cranberries to put on it.  We used little candles on the tree, and we would light them and mother would stand by and watch carefully for awhile, and then we would blow them out.  When I got older, I got books for Christmas as I read everything I could put my hands on.
     I was kind of a loner.  I didn't talk to my sisters about my personal feelings.  I never could communicate very well with my mother.  Grace was more affectionate and out-going than I was.  Eunice was more like me.  Mirla was was the artistic one.  I never remember quarreling in our family.  We had strict rules.  We had all of our meals together and family prayer, that that was typical family life in those days.  We were obedient, almost to a fault.  We didn't question our father's authority.  Mother was very quiet and soft-spoken.  Mother and Father got along amazingly well.  I never heard them argue.  They seemed to have a common understanding of what should be done.  I can only remember once getting a spanking, and that was when I refused to do something my father had told me to do.  We lived in a happy home, but it was a disciplined home.  We went to church without question, but we wanted to, as the church and the school dances were our social life. We had our church dances in the old amusement hall by the church.  When movies started , we would have Charlie Chaplin type movies for ten cents each week.
    By the time I was in high school, the street-car was running between Midvale and Salt Lake so we could go to General Conference.  When I was a junior, they opened the building which is still Jordan High.  The school had a good program.  They had a high school orchestra and chorus, drama with a play eery year.  They played football and basketball.   I was the valedictorian when I graduated.  After graduation I stayed home and helped my mother for a year, as she wasn't very well at that time."
 
     Grandma and Grandpa Bateman both went to the Midvale grade school.  He was three years ahead of Orrel and she didn't know him then, but knew his sisters.  The first time she remembered being aware of him was when she was a freshman at Jordan High School and he was a senior.  He was on the football team, a debater, in the school play, and a student body officer.  She always admired him and it was the next year she began to see him at church meetings.  They eventually started dating when Orrel was a sophomore.   Her friends were envious that she had a "college man" for a boyfriend.  They were married a couple of years later.  Grandpa will be focused on in another "story".

     I always thought my Grandma Bateman was such a gracious lady.  She was quiet and reserved, but very loving to the grandchildren and everyone else in the family.  She was a hard working mother and wife and always made a wonderful home for her family.  She said that she did a lot of sewing, making all of the children's clothes.  She and Grandpa raised eight children, 7 girls and 1 boy.  My mother, Alice, was the second oldest. She took care of Grandma Bateman, Grandpa's mother for about 10 years before she died.  I remember "Grandma Great" sitting in her rocking chair in the back bedroom.  We would always go visit with her when we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house.
      My first memories of Grandma Orrel are of her standing in her kitchen in a dress with an apron on.  I loved to sleep in the back room upstairs in their house with the "mysterious" staircase.  Her beds were high and soft, and I loved the feel of the covers and pillows.  Grandma was always interested in what I was doing, and I loved to watch her crochet or embroider. She did the most beautiful hand embroidery stitches that I have ever seen.   I have pillowcases that she embroidered and she made Brandon's baby quilt that he still has.  I will always remember her little laugh and pleasant smile and her subtle sense of humor.  She was truly an example to all of us. My own Mother developed many of her "domestic" talents as a result of the mentoring  and example of this wonderful woman.  After my Grandpa died, Grandma started oil painting and found that she had an artistic gift that she originally thought only belonged to her sister, Mirla.  My Grandmother Bateman was a very intelligent, humble, talented and gracious lady and left her family a great legacy.