Monte Cristo 2022

Google is forcing me to either pay them money or stop using Google Photos for free photo storage. I'm not the type of person who pays extra money to store my unused stuff in a storage unit (outside of moving), so I'm certainly not going to pay Google to store my digital stuff. Ergo, massive photo dumps coming in the near future onto the blog. I'll try not to post too many unflattering or sensitive photos, but it's either post them, or lose them.

Here are the photos from our family campout with Mom and Dad, my siblings, and a few Johnson cousins.

Arm in Arm

 Last June I posted a letter written by my maternal Great-grandpa, John Edgar O'Neil to his fiancée, Auretta Empey. Mom shared a picture from about that time, that I think gives a great visual for the letter.

Auretta and Edgar

Picturing Margaret Ellen

Margaret Ellen Johnston Johnson
with her husband, Chesley Austin Johnson

My mom's Grandma Johnson passed away when Mom was a toddler. At the age of 51, Margaret Ellen Johnston Johnson died when her breast cancer metastasized. Her youngest was still in elementary school. Mom doesn't remember much about her, since she was so young, and she doesn't have pictures of her grandma.

At a family reunion decades ago we got a plastic-bound family record book with family charts, stories, and scanned black-and-white images. Included was a little scan of a blonde girl with curls. For years this has been my only image of Great-Grandma Johnson. Whenever it would put the two pictures of Margaret Ellen and her husband Ches together on my AncestryDNA ThruLines, it looked a little skeevy as it showed an old man married to a preschooler.

Now that Mom has retired, she's made a goal to go through her paperwork and get organized. She and my brother Ammon have scanned family photos to upload and share. In a binder from her mom, Margaret A. Johnson* (Margaret Ellen Johnston Johnson's daughter-in-law), Mom found an image of her parents' wedding line. Grandma and Grandpa were married in 1956, and were surrounded in the picture by both sets of parents!

I was so happy to see Great-Grandma Johnson's face, and to see how cute she looked with her husband at their oldest child's reception. When I colored it, I wasn't sure what the wedding colors were, but I liked her in this periwinkle purple.

This wedding line photo has many relatives on both the Johnson and O'Neil sides of the family, with several treasures. I think I'll do a few more posts to feature those unlocked treasures.

Margaret A. O'Neil and C. Brent Johnson with family on their wedding day, 11 October 1956. The two couples on the far right are Margaret and Ches Johnson, and Auretta and Ed O'Neil.

*Note that my grandpa's parents are Margaret and Chesley Johnson. While he went by his middle name, Brent, Grandpa was named Chesley after his dad, so he and Grandma are also Margaret and Chesley Johnson. Not confusing at all.

Living in the World

While on my maternal grandpa's familysearh.org page, I noticed some records to be attached. I guess there were church census records in the 1940s and 1940s which have been indexed. Mom and I got a good laugh as we noticed the residence of Brent Johnson, his parents and siblings as "World." The other day Mom uploaded some new pictures of Grandpa as a handsome young man.

Everyday Love Letter

While searching through the binders Grandma Margaret O'Neil Johnson assembled, I found photos, applications for Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, and letters collected by Margaret's mother, my Great-Grandma Auretta Empey O'Neil. She was definitely the genealogist of the family. What can now be sent in an email or a message on Ancestry.com or familysearch.org used to require full hand-written letters to ascertain basic facts. Among those letters, I found one sent to Auretta from her fiancé-at-the-time, John Edgar O'Neil, whom everyone called "Ed." 

During his second marriage, Ed worked as Motorman and Conductor for Grand River Valley Railway Locomotive Engineer, and then with Union Pacific Railroad as Steam Engineer and Fireman. He and Verla lived in Grand Junction, Colorado; Vallejo, California; and Provo, Utah. He left Verla around 1934. She filed for divorce in 1936, and it was finalized on April 7th of 1937. 

Uncle Laurence, Auretta, Margaret, Ed,

and Bob in the mid-1950s

Eleven days later, he and Auretta married in Las Vegas. They had Margaret one year later, and Bob arrived five years after her. Ed and Auretta were married for thirty years before he passed away in 1967.

In January 1937 while they were engaged to be married, Ed wrote Auretta from Helper, Utah.

                                                        

                                                           Helper Utah.

                                                           Jan. 10, 1937

Dearest Auretta.-

Your fine letter received last night and was surly glad to get it. Was so tired last night that I just went to bed instead of writing.

We worked 16 hours and that is about 8 more than I like to work. However it is good money as the time over 8 hours pays time and a half. This is Sunday but had to work. Made 9 hour (?) 55 minutes. Am on what they call the National mine run and expect to hold it four or five days yet.

We usally get out about 5 a.m. It is too bad "dear," that your side bothers you. Hope soon that you get over that.

It does not look as if I could get off very soon as business is holding up fine. I may have more time off than I want after Feb. Would surly like to have a few days off now as I am getting tired of working long hours and what worries me more than that I want to see you.

Yes dear, the car is snowed in again. Maybe I can have it out by the 4th of July. May try to dig it out the first day I have off.

It has been so cold here that I have to wear two suits of underwear and two pair of socks to keep warm. Was a little warmer today.

I will be glad to meet your friends from Helper that you wrote about.

Am sorry that Mother has not been feeling so good and also Dale. He is young and in a few days he will be going strong and will not know he ever was sick.

Am enclosing a letter to Mother so you can deliver it to her.

Hope she feels better now. She has too much to do but don't suppose she would be content unless she has things to do for all her boys. Wonder if she wants one more?

Dear I am anxious to see you and find out what all you have to tell me. I am wondering what I have done now that you want an understanding. Hope that it is nothing serious.

Well Sweetheart I am going to have to get to bed. I don't seem to have any news to write about. Will try to write more next time when I am not so sleepy.

                                                                    Love + kisses to my Little Auretta

                                                                    As ever your Ed.

Auretta in 1962 [colorized]

Mom was pretty young when her grandpa died, so she doesn't remember them together as a couple, just seeing pictures. Aunt Brenda is Mom's senior, so I asked her how they were together. Brenda remembered Grandpa O'Neil's repeated line to his wife.

"I love you with all my heart and all your farts!"