FAMILY HISTORY FRIDAY

MARY BULLOCK
part 1
The first part of this story was written by Mary Bullock herself.

Out on a lonely homestead in the corner of the North eastern part of Utah, on the 30th day of January, 1903, the stork left a wee bundle in the arms of a tired mother, who had as her only care an old midwife. This wee bundle turned out to be me. I was named Mary after my mother. I was the tenth baby to come to this home; there were four sisters and three brothers who waited for my safe arrival. There was one baby brother and sister who had been called back to our Father in Heaven to make their home.My mother was Mary Alice Webb, daughter of Pardon Webb and Clarissa Jane Lee. She was born June 1st, 1859, at Payson, Utah.Her parents started with one of the first company of pioneers acrossed the plains, but stopped over at Winter Quarters to make wagons, as Pardon Webb was a very good wheelwright. They arrived in Utah in 1848.I was the daughter of Isaac Bullock Jr., who was born at old Fort Supply, Wyoming, on September 19, 1857. His father, Isaac Bullock Sr., was president of the company of settlers who had been sent there by President Brigham Young. When my father was eight days old, a messenger brought word that Johnson's army was coming, so they burned the fort and put my father and his mother, who was Electa Wood Bullock, into a covered wagon and drove into Provo, Utah.There was no church in Lonetree so I was a big girl before I was blessed. I must have been five or six years old, but I can remember going to church and two or three men taking me up on the stand and I knelt down on the stand and I was sure frightened when they laid their hands on my head.I was baptized when I was sixteen years old. I was living in Ogden, Utah going to school, so when they set a date for baptisms, I got a recommend and went. It was done in the first ward of Ogden; each ward had their own font where they did the baptisms of their own ward. I was baptized on the 23rd day of October in the year 1919 by Frank E. Newman, and was confirmed the same day by William E. Newman. I will never forget the thrill it gave me when the brethern laid their hands on my head to confirm the gift of the Holy Ghost. It seems as if I was being transformed. I have never had a Patriarcal blessing yet, but I am planning on getting one soon now. The little community got its name Lonetree from a big cottonwood tree that stood alone right close where the first postoffice building stood. The town was made up of one general store and postoffice, with H J Gregory, the caretaker's home in the rear of the building, and a school house and dance hall in one. In the early days there was a saloon there but I do not remember that. For a good many years there was just one teacher for all eight grades.This was the first school I attended. Part of the time I rode the seven miles horseback, and part of the time I would board with some of the neighbors who lived close to school, then when it was the coldest I would try to stay home and study but that didn't work so well. Then when I was in about the 3rd grade went to live at Lyman, Wyoming, which was about 25 miles from my home, at the home of Jim Phelps, an old batchelor, who was a very dear friend of ours; his neice and her family lived with him. They were good to me. The next two years I boarded with friends in Lonetree and went to school. One of my brothers would come on his horse and get me on Friday night and take me home, and then he would take me back to the place I was boarding either Sunday night or Monday morning. When I was in the 6th grade, I went back to Lyman to school. I went to live with my sister who with her husband was working for Jim Phelps. I only went about a half a year that year. They had some trouble with the teaacher and they went without a 6th grade the rest of the year. The next four years, I went to Ogden to school, part of thr time I lived with my sister and part of the time mother and I rented a furnished room. I skipped half of the 6th grsde and all of the 7th and went into the 8th and from there into high school when my eyes got so bad that the doctor told me I would have to quit school or I would go blind.