Happy Birthday Mina

Sarah and Alonzo Haws started their family with a little girl - our birthday girl Mary Armina Haws - and ended their family with a girl.  Oh yeah, there were eight boys in between.  How would you like to have eight brothers????  The Haws family and the Stradling families (Sarah and Alonzo's parents) had been called by the prophet to colonize St. John's Apacha County, Arizona in the early 1880's.  While there, Sarah and Alonzo met, fell in love and married on November 13, 1885 in the St. George Temple.  Mina was born  June 21, 1887 in Arizona.  Alonzo went back to Provo to help his mother move to Vernal to be by two of his sisters because of his mother's ailing health.   While he was in Vernal he bought a farm and in December 1890 he moved Sarah, Mina and her newly born brother Louis out to Vernal. Here is a quote from Mina's History:

" Louis Haws was just three months old, but father prepared things to keep his wife and the two babies warm. He made a sand box in the back of the wagon and put a stove in it.  He had one sack of coal to make a fire.  He made a bed in the wagon so Mother and us children would be warm.  It was nice in the day time and at night there was usually some place along the road to sleep."  (Read that again if you are feeling a little weary and cramped on the road to Nauvoo.)

Can I chime in once again about the power of personal histories???  My dad helped his mom to write her life history, complete with pictures to punctuate each page.  Then he had her read her history and recorded it.  My cousin has broken that recording down to 2-3 minute clips and they are available in the memory section on Family Search.  I can actually hear my grandmother reading the above incident and everything else in her history.  YOU COULD TOO!!

I can always remember my grandmother's birthday.  There was a Hodgkinson Reunion held every year on the closest weekend to June 21st.  I think that was something that really helped the Hodgkinson family stay close.  Right from the beginning they rotated through the 10 children, each one taking a turn to be in charge of the reunion.   With that many children you only were in charge once a decade. I remember vividly the several times my dad was in charge of the reunion.  A few of you may remember that too.  Maybe that is why I feel so strongly about reunions.

I am always amazed at the pictures above and below.  Both of these pictures must have been taken in St. Johns.  I imagine it being a pretty primitive place, and yet these pictures look so sophisticated. 

She was a beautiful girl with an amazing story.  We will be hearing a lot more about Mary Armina Haws Hodgkinson Strong.  She is someone we can look to and admire.