Bessie Frances Cayton was born on February 6, 1895 in Alpine, Utah to Edward Clark Cayton and Frances Maria Beck.
Her father had a piece of property located on the "bench" between Alpine and American Fork where he had built a log house. About a month before her birth. Bessie's mother was sewing by the window and looked up to see a mountain lion coming down the road from the canyon to drink milk from the empty milk cans by the gate. After that incident Frances was afraid to stay alone, so Ed rented a room in Alpine where Bessie was born.
When Bessie was four years old her parents were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple and she remembered the excitement of going to Salt Lake in the wagon - a two-day journey. While they stayed in Salt Lake they slept in their wagon park in the "tithing barn" where the Joseph Smith Memorial building is located today.
She was eight years old when Mel was born and up until that time admitted to being spoiled. Papa took her every place he went on the horse and in the wagon and even carried her on his back.
She remembers getting electric lights install in their Alpine home in 1907. And about that time seeing her first automobile. One of her playmate's grandfathers was quite an inventor. He built an auto on a buggy and came to Alpine to take his grandchildren for a ride. The rest of the kids in town ran as fast as they could after him.
Jim joined the Cayton family in
In 1909 they moved to Salt Lake. Her mamma and Jim were both sick and wanted to be near the doctor who had moved to the city.
The first night they found a hotel room while her Papa walked the streets looking for more permanent quarters. He found two rooms on the second day, with one bed and a cot, 3 dishes for 5 of us and a little table and 2 chairs. "Mama, Papa and Jim slept on the bed and Mel and I on the cot. It was at 6th South and Main and rented for $6.00 per week. We stayed one week. While we were there it was Thanksgiving. We bought a chicken and tried to roast it in the old worn out oven. Our celebration was pretty gloomy and about all we felt we had to be thankful for was each other and the fact we were all together."
"Soon we moved to Sugar House where I loved the ward and all the dances and parties. We had been there about a year when I was called to teach the youngest girls in the MIA who were about two years younger than I was. This began my Church callings."
"Papa bought a smaller team, two white horses, to use in the city. He bought and sold produce and had all the stores in SugarHouse as his customers. Papa often bought cantaloupe and watermelon by the full load. He purchased much of his produce from Oscar and Mose Holbrook who had a truck garden in Bountiful and sold produce at the Market. Once when we went to Bountiful, Papa stopped at the Holbrook farm and we met the Holbrook boys."
The following summer, Oscar delivered a load of melons to our house and Papa told us to fix breakfast for him because he had gotten up at 3:30 A.M. to make the delivery. We made breakfast and the next week he delivered melons again and brought with him a bushel basket of his mother's flowers."
"Oscar asked if he could come and see me, and he came out to Sugar House once. Then Mose asked Papa to bring his family out to Bountiful to spend Sunday. That day Oscar and I walked around the farm and as far town together. That was the beginning....by New Years, we made plans to be married that next summer."
We were married in the Salt Lake Temple May 6, 1914. We had a reception at home; a hot dinner as they always served in those days. I don't remember much about dinner, only cleaning chickens all day the day before."
"My wedding dress was a white crepe with lace overskirt and a "peg-top" style, loose and full at the top of the skirt and so narrow at the bottom I could hardly walk."
Their first home was a 'two bedroom" house in Bountiful that they rented for six dollars a month.
"My dad had a team of white horses and a surrey (with fringe on top). He and mama would leave Sugar House early on Sunday morning and arrive at Bountiful about 10:00 or 11:00 AM to visit, spend the day and return to Sugar house that evening." One night as they drove home they counted automobiles. Imagine. There were 25 crd on the road between Bountiful and Salt Lake. That was in 1914, and at the time Bessie had never ridden in a car!
Bessie states: "we lived about a mile from the farm. When Oscar was ready to come home for dinner he would go to the west side of the house and yodel across the fields." She would be listening and know it was a signal to start dinner.
Their first son Everett was born March 18, 1915 while they lived in Bountiful. They moved to Salt Lake and in October 1916 Oscar began his career working for Union Pacific railroad as a fireman. His railroad job kept him from serving in WWI.
The War ended in Nov 1918. The big flu epidemic of 1918 had just started. Bessie noted that no one went anywhere with out a mask on and most businesses and churches were closed. Grocery stores were only open certain hours. People were dying everywhere. One morning there were five deaths just in their little neighborhood.
Soon a second son, Don, joined the family and in January 1923, Maxine was born. By this time they lived in their big brick house at 664 North First West where they resided until 1960.
Bessie's story stops here but Elaine has added memories that she has a grandma:
Grandma was always busy serving her family, in church callings or in the community. She served in the Primary, Sunday School, and Relief Society Presidency in the 24th Ward and in the Stake. She was the PTA president at Washington Elementary School. She was a n organizer and a "doer."
She was a skilled homemaker and mother. Her house was spotless. She scrubbed her kitchen floor every night before she went to bed. She was a good cook. Everett, Don and Maxine's friends congregated there because she would feed them. She made wonderful bread, was noted for her lemon and coconut cream pies and coconut cakes with white mountain icing. I've been told she made six pies every Saturday for her Sunday guest.
I remember hearing stories of her feeding the hobos who knocked on her door who had wandered from the railroad yards. She made them work for their meal, but was kind to them.
Her homemaking skills included sewing and tailoring, quilting and needlepoint. She made the gradndaughters beautiful dresses; she loved making children's clothes...her specialty. She and Aunt Gwen were avid quilters and their specialty was the Double Wedding Ring pattern, one of the most difficult pieced quilts. Grandma pieced Double Wedding Rings for her children and all of her grandchildren as they got married...a wonderful tradition. She send hours needlepointing. All of her dining room chairs displayed her work as well as other chairs and piano benches and pictures.
Somewhere along the way, Grandma acquired enviable social graces and skills even though she grew up in small Alpine and did not come from a family of wealth. She was comfortable in all social situations and at all occasions...it was jut natural for her! She was very fussy about her appearance and always had her hair done at the beauty shop.
She passed on a legacy to her granddaughters of appreciation for fine things: crystal, fine china and sterling silver. Due to her "tutoring," Connie and I spent hours in the China department at ZCMI looking at china and silverware patterns much to the horror of the clerks. We were only nine or ten years old at the time, but Lenox, Wedgewood, Noritake, Hummel and Royal Dalton were part of our vocabulary. Each year for our birthdays we were given a piece a sterling silver. At nine or ten, getting a spoon or fork was no big event, but as we prepared later for marriage we were grateful for this tradition.
She was always a child a heart and loved Holidays. She always took us to the Pioneer Parade on the 24th and then fixed a picnic and made homemade ice cream and bought us sparklers.
Halloween meant hours of her sewing "custom created costumes" such as Raggedy Ann, Princesses or scary witches. We never wore store stuff. She made a hundred decorated cupcakes to give out to the children who came trick-or-treating at her door.
Thanksgiving at Grandmas was a tradition. Plucking pinfeathers from the turkey and helping set the table with fine china are things I remember well. Also, for the older folks here, remember her clothes chute and how much fun we had going down the CHUTE!!!
Christmas was her favorite time of year. She started shopping in July and hand picked gifts for all on her list. She always ha all the presents wrapped and hidden in the "Sleeping porch" and all of her Christmas cards addressed before December 1st. Usually, by Thanksgiving, her yummy fruit cake and carrot pudding were made and "aging" on the back porch, as were huge tins of short bread and other cookies baked and ready for the holiday ahead.
She loved the movies and especially the musicals of the 40's and 50's and would take us to the Uptown, Utah and Center theaters to see them and we'd head for Fish and Chips at the Mayflower. I remember their first TV, a big Magnavox console - the best you could buy at ZCMI. She never missed "Lawerence Welk" or "Amos and Andy."
Grandma didn't receive a great formal education, but she educated herself. She was an avid reader her entire life. She had a great love for history and added to her knowledge by traveling and learning. Before her health stopped her, she had been to more places than most people of her generation and time. Her free railroad pass helped her in accomplishing some of her adventures. In 1940, she and Maxine got on the train and traveled across the U.S. to visit Uncle Jim and his family in Florida. She visited every state in the United States when there were still 48 saw most of their capitol buildings. She and grandpa traveled to Alaska on a cruise before it became a state and before cruise ships as we know them were popular. She also had visited nearly every province in Eastern and western Canada. I'm sure she had crossed into Tijuana, too!
She had hundreds of friends who loved her and were recipients of her love and service. She an Aunt Gwen were more like sisters than sisters-in-law an shared a lifetime of experiences together. She also ha a very special relationship with Ella Edwards, Almeda's mother. They were best friends rather than in-laws.
The ladies auxiliary of the locomotive engineers and the OLD TIMERS were a big part in her life. She served in many offices in those organizations including President. She loved to travel with those friends to conventions.
In the early 1960's, with health declining, Grandma and Grandpa moved to South Cottonwood on 1300 East near the Big Cottonwood Creek to be near Maxine so she could look after them.
