Mable Lambert Wilson

Taken from her personal histories:

Mable was born 12 July 1909 and was the 6^th of 9 children of John Lambert and Adeline Miller. Fred Dall was the oldest (27 Aug 1897), Mary (12 Nov 1899), Emily who died in infancy (12 Oct 1902), George (15 Feb 1905), Clarissa (19 Feb 1907), (Mable), John (28 Feb 1912), Maude (2 Dec 1913), and then Helen (11 Dec 1913). She was able to entertain herself, her aunt said even as a baby she would sit in a quilt and play by herself while the women quilted under the trees or in the house. Her grandfather Simon Miller passed away in 1911 when she was only two.

When she was 3 ½ the family moved to Miami, Arizona a copper mining town where her father worked. There were a few Mormon families there so they had a Sunday School. If they had church she doesn’t remember. Meetings were held in a rented Hall but later a church was built in lower Miami. She lived across the street from the grade school so each evening the children would play on the school grounds if the weather was good. They played baseball mostly, boys and girls together, it took all to make enough to play.

Every summer her mother would gather the kids and off they went to visit relatives in the valley (Pima). Sometimes they took the train from Miami to Bowie and then on to Pima. They would pack a picnic basket and all their clothes packed in a trunk. They would play jacks, old maid and other card games. All the neighborhood kids loved to come over to the house. Her dolls were her favorite toys. She had two beautiful dolls that she took good care of and kept in a special drawer. One night she remembered being woke up and there was her mother and aunts making doll clothes. She was about 12 when she received her last doll, a porcelain German doll. In High School the young people would come over to her house to learn to dance, she had a phonograph for music. Her dad was always away on prospecting trips.

Her mother was a good cook and liked all food except for fish. Everyone always had a special birthday cake but says she never did like the white fluffy egg white frosting. She remembers her mother always giving her anything they wanted. Sometimes she would buy a large Hershey bar and break off the squares, most candy was about 5 cents a bag. Her mother used to sing the song ‘Put your shoulder to the wheel’ as she worked around the house.

Growing up most people would walk from place to place, some had a horse and buggy but others used a wagon when more than one or two went anywhere. My father walked all the time. The families first auto was a Studebaker. Her sister Clarissa bought a Chevrolet and her younger brother John and sister Maude stole it to visit relatives, they could barely see over the steering wheel, but they wrecked it and went home.

Fred Wilson and Mable Lambert were married 27 June 1925 in Miami, Arizona, she was only 16. They lived with his parents for a year while both continued to go to school. Fred graduated a year later and Mable only finished her sophomore year. Fred’s folks sold the transfer business and their home and they left Miami to get a business in a more secure location than a mining camp. The family looked around in California for a month but were soon back in Miami. San Diego was very different then, a lot of open space and the buildings were only 5 stories high. Balboa didn’t have a zoo then, instead it was a large camping site with tents and small cabins, each had a place to cook and every day the fruit and vegetable truck came by with fresh produce. Long Beach was a big amusement park with rides. They ate a lot of Chinese food and drank a special tea (Tao Tea) it was Amelia’s favorite. The roads were not very good on the return and out of Yuma there were sand dunes and over the dunes was laid a plank highway with turnouts every so often. When you met someone, one would have to back up to a turnout, if one got off the plank road you were enviably stuck. The tires were terrible about 3 inches across and bullheads could cause a flat, always fixing flats. They camped along the road in route. Fred went to work for the Miami Commercial Company.

Amelia, Fred’s mother, wanted something to do to pass the long lonely hours away while her husband was away hauling goods to Chrisitile, an asbestos mining camp. The trip was 24 miles of dirt roads and would take all day to go to the mine and back if he got started early enough and the road wasn’t to bad. Amelia bought the Tiffany’s service station at Hill Top. She found it was to much for her so asked if Fred and Mable to come help in the Fall of 1926. After packing the few things they had they went to help Mother Wilson. The winter was early and bad and Mable was expecting so in December they went to Miami to stay with her folks. Billee Louise was born Sunday 13 March 1927. They had her blessed the first Sunday in April. When Billee was a month old the family returned to the mountain where it was still quite cold. The folks had bought a cow and Fred and Mable had learned to milk her with some trials. Mable said one day Fred tied a rope to the cow and then wrapped it around his own waist but must have pinched the cow because she took off and dragged him all over the corral. The owners of the other service station (Hills) decided there wasn’t enough room for two stations so they sold us theirs. For a time they had a store and service station at one and a restaurant and service station at the other. Fred Robert Jr was born in Miami 2 February 1929 and returned home as soon as the weather permitted. It was still cold and the baby had colic for several months. Mother Wilson was sick most of the time and was in the hospital in Globe.

Fred Wilson-Mable Lambert Wilson-Fred Wilson Jr-Billee Louise

Grandfather Wilson was a partner now in the White Mountain Stage Line and was one of the drivers. The depression was well on its way for most people in the U.S.A. but the family was getting along very well by working 18-20 hours a day. There was an engineering party surveying the Salt River Canyon planning a diversion dam for power for the mining companies who bought supplies and stayed making trips in and out of the river. This project kept the family on its feet. The cattle ranches in the area would get supplies also so they got along quite well.

The 1^st of June 1930 was a sad day for everyone, Mother Wilson (just 48 years old) died. A family lot in Tempe, Arizona was bought in the Tempe Butte Cemetery and a large stone made for the center of the plot with just WILSON engraved on it and a small marker for the grave.

When Fred Jr was two when the first contract for the new highway 60 was issued a the family got a permit from the San Carlos Indian Reservation to locate their place on the new highway. They built a store and service station. After a month they received a contract to run a boarding house and Company Store. Fred an Mable lived at Hill Top for 5 ½ years, then moved to Seneca Creek where the new highway 60 went through between Globe and Show Low and lived there many years. They enjoyed the camp and people and had a good place to live and plenty of everything. The children had Shetland ponies and all the trappings. They would saddle up and go visit friends at the mines some 10-12 miles away.

On 10 February 1932 Norman Edward was born in Miami Inspiration Hospital. The road building was very slow but they had cows, chickens, pigs, and a nice garden. There was no place to go so they didn’t need money anyway. When Billie was 6 ½ she was brought to Bakersfield to stay with Aunt Maude to go to school where she received a good foundation. The next year they bought a house in Globe and sent the children to school there for 1 ½ years and then back to Fish Camp where they had a one room school.

Grandfather Wilson was quite a horseman so we all had a horse and would go with him to visit friends, Fred Sr didn’t like to ride. The family had a few head of cattle which were kept on the mountain about 2 miles from the Trading Post, so had to go look after them every few weeks. Norman was to small so he stayed home with his dad, he never liked to go even when he got older but said it was better than washing dishes. They would hunt for arrow heads each week. Norman was 11 when George came 12 January 1943.

The Trading Post at Seneca was sold in the Summer when George was 4 and moved to Lakeside where they bought 20 acres on the Lake front. It was nice there in the summer but very cold in the winter -20°F. Fred went to work at a general store for awhile, worked as a fire guard one season, and worked for McNary Lumber Co. After he quit they bought a lease on a restaurant in Show Low but only had it a short time. Fred’s heart was bad so had to leave the high altitude. After school was out the family moved to Vista, California. This is where they met the Missionaries and joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on 2 December 1950. Fred, Mable, Norman, and George were baptized in a manmade lake (cow pasture pond). Fred Jr had joined the Navy and Billee Louise was married so weren’t with the family at this time.

Norman was going into the Navy and the family returned to Pima, Arizona to take care of Mom Lambert who was no longer able to live alone. The family got a good foundation in church work there and met many nice people and relatives. Lived in Pima 4 ½ years till Mom Lambert decided to go live with her oldest son Fred Lambert in Oregon. The family moved to Van Nye, California with Billee Louise and Arthur Pearson.

In 1951 Fred, Mable, and George traveled to Cardston, Alberta, Canada to a family reunion with the Dall family. While there they attended the temple. They met the missionaries for the church and they were poorly dressed and unkempt, at that time they served without purse or scrip in the mission field. On the way home they stopped at the Idaho Falls Temple on 5 July 1951 and were sealed as a family.

In the 50’s they traveled by freighter to Puerto Rico to visit Billee Louise and family. As she remembers this was when she flew on an airplane for the first time when they flew home. Mable also traveled to Georgia through the southern states to visit the Pearson’s and her brother John. She enjoyed eating catfish but loved the beautiful big homes with the magnolia trees in full bloom.

Moved to La Mesa, California where Fred worked and became a registered nurse and worked at the hospital. Mable spent here days working on her yard and garden. She had fig trees, citrus and a small garden, and loved her flowers. Mable never drove but relied on the bus system to get around and would travel to Balboa Park and the San Diego Zoo. Here she would collect cuttings from the exotic vegetation and would take it home to propagate and develop here own garden. Family would visit and would spend time on the coast on the beaches playing and swimming, sometimes they would stay late to catch grunion by the light of campfires as they swam up and spawned on the beaches. She loved to visit Sea Port Village and picnic in the park. Sometimes family would drive to the peer to tour a ship at dock, to Balboa Park to walk around or to visit one of the museums (free on Tuesdays), or to the zoo. Fred died of a heart attack 8 October 1974 and was taken back to Arizona and buried in the family plot in Tempe, Double Butte Cemetery. Mable lived alone in the house until she sold the house in 2005 and moved to Payson, Utah and moved in with her granddaughter Jennie Little.

Mable loves jewelry and has a very nice collection, mostly Indian, turquoise, coral, and silver. While in Arizona she compiled a collection of rugs, pottery and baskets.

Family has gathered several times to celebrate Mable’s life either at a family members home or the last two big gatherings in Park City, Utah for her 95^th and 100^th birthday, two books have been published from these events. I hope everyone remembers to stay in contact with Mable my grandmother and the Matriarch of the Wilson family. She has been such a great inspiration in my life and a source of knowledge and wisdom throughout my life. This was written in celebration of her 101^st birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA

Newest great great grandson Kale Andrew Wilson