My Great Grandma Hamblin—Maree Berry
This amazing woman was born June, 4 1908 in St Johns,
Arizona. Maree’s parents had four girls and three boys, and she was one of
those seven kids. She married Mark Hamblin and had four kids, three girls and
one boy.
Right out of high school Maree got her teaching Certificate at
BYU. Back then it only took her three years. Then she went on to teach an
elementary school as an English and Reading teacher.
Dancing was a popular pastime during Maree’s time period.
She dominated the Charleston and the Big Apple. Two famous dances during the
1920’s. She also loved to act. She acted on stage of the Whiting Theatrical
Company in Arizona and Utah. One play she acted in was called, “The Orphan”.
She cooked delicious chicken and dumplings. And also had a
few Hawaiian dishes up her sleeve. She could new how to surf and could hang
five!
Maree was a young mother and wife during the Great
Depression. To survive during the economic collapse she taught school, so her
family received a small income. She lived in a small cabin (practically a
shack) and never starved because of her garden. She even gave money to her
parents that lived in Holbrook, Arizona. Even though her father was a dentist,
his Dentistry business had gone downhill. No one wanted to have their teeth
look good because they couldn’t afford it. They only went to her father if
their teeth had a major problem or severe pain. Her parents didn’t exactly live
in a mansion either. He was a dentist but her parents lived in a warehouse with
no windows.
Maree’s husband Mark Hamblin left her for another woman. He
fled to Alaska and became a professional bum. He started drinking and let his
life waste away. He was an alcoholic but managed to start a store with a bar in
it. By the time World War II began Maree had joined Mark in Alaska. She went
after him to mend their marriage, but her efforts were in vain. She didn’t end
up winning his heart back and faced living in Alaska during World War II.
Maree mentioned when she was living in Anchorage, Alaska
that they had blackouts. It’s where all the lights were turned off at night so
that the Japanese couldn’t find their town and bomb it. Anchorage had five
thousand people in it, and thirty thousand troops were sent to protect the
citizens there. It was like tent city everywhere. Soldiers were busting the
seams of Anchorage, Alaska to protect the people from the Japanese.
After World War II Maree took her children and moved down to
California.
Her father bought an avocado farm and gave it to Marree to manage.
She supported her four kids off of that farm. When all her children matured and
had lives of their own, she moved back to Alaska. Maree loved that state. She
thought it was so beautiful in Alaska. She went up there by herself and became
a teacher, slowly making her way up to the superintendent of all the schools
throughout Alaska. And even started a university in Point Barrow, Alaska.
When she retired she moved close back to her children and
bought a cabin in Vernon, Missouri, close to her children. Her four children
produced thirty-one grandchildren, making a very large family.
If anyone told Maree they were bored her retort would be,
“Only boring people get bored”.
She had an outhouse built a little ways away from the cabin,
it was a three seated outhouse. With two big holes for adults and one for
little kids. The outhouse was on top of a hill, and had a beautiful view, so
Maree had a large window built in the outhouse. But it didn’t have any glass in
the window. She was commonly found reading newspapers and magazines in her
customized outhouse.
Maree taught a good lesson to one of her grandchildren in
her little cabin in Vernon. She taught nine-year-old Genette Hamblin how to
face her fears. Genette was sleeping in a corner of the cabin when a scratching
noise came from the wall she was laying by. Cougars were often seen in Arizona,
and Genette feared it was the ferocious cat. So she ran to her Grandma Maree’s
bed and woke her up. Maree put her slippers on, grabbed a flashlight, and took
Genette’s hand. The little girl shuttered at the thought of going outside to
face her fear. But Maree told her she had to. They went outside and see the
wind pushing a piece of cardboard against the cabin, causing a scratching
noise. From that night on Genette learned to face her fears from her grandma
Maree, and discovered that imagination can be the worst of enemies.
Martha was
born on May 7, 1822. Martha’s father died when she was very young. She was
living in Jegindo, Denmark at the time. It was a devastating blow to her family
since the head of the house brought in the bread and butter. Martha’s mother
Maren, had no way to support their family, so they moved and found work
wherever they could. Martha took a job for a Lord on another island, but her
sisters and brother were all sent away. She was picked up at her home to go
work for this Lord, crossing the ocean to the little island of Bowlking to work
for seven years. Her mother cried; her heart was crushed to send her children
away, but couldn’t think of anything worse than hearing her children cry for
food. They had to do what was needed, otherwise the whole family would die of
starvation.
When Martha
arrived to Bowlking the Lord promised Martha the wool of two sheep to make her
clothes and knit her stockings, a bed to sleep in, and food. She was also given
eight dollars a year—which was sent to her mother. Martha’s mother would send
her wooden shoes every year.
Some of
Martha’s duties included tending to the ducks and geese. They used the feathers
to make bedding. When she reached the appropriate age Martha was sent into the
fields to follow the reapers and bind grain. Her mornings started early to milk
the cows, prepare meals, do housework, and watch after the butter and cream.
And when the day was over and everyone was asleep Martha would knit in the
dark.
One day
Martha heard that her younger sister Metta was going to come and work with her.
She was so excited to have the company of her sister! Although, not to long
afterwards Metta died from severe bleeding. She was in the fields binding grain
with Martha. Metta was slow and the man with the scythe was teasing her and got
too close to her leg. Martha had to keep going on to work as Metta was carried
back to the house. At the end of the day, when Martha was done with her work,
she went to Metta and found her dead. Martha recorded that experience as the
saddest day of her life.
Martha
didn’t leave the island until she was a little over thirty-years-old. Martha’s
mother had sent for her to come home, so Martha left her work. Her mother had
discovered the gospel and joined the church, sharing it with Martha. Not too
long after Maren died of cholera and was buried in the plains of Denmark.
Martha noted that her mother wanted desperately to go to Zion.
Martha and
few of her siblings made it to Zion—Salt Lake. She worked at the home of
Lorenzo Snow to earn room and board. Then she moved to Ephraim to be with her
sister and brother. That was where she say Peter Isaacson again. The handsome
man that was on the boat with Martha when she crossed the ocean. They were soon
married and lived in an adobe house that Peter made. They had a baby boy that
died, but they had three other healthy children: Isaac, Anna Maria, and Martin.
But Martha put flowers on her dead son’s grave often, appreciating the
knowledge that families could be together forever.
Martha never
learned how to read or write because she never had the opportunity, and she
never spoke very good English because she spent most of her time with Danish
people anyways. She helped Peter farm, mended clothes, nurtured her children,
and fulfilled her motherly duties. She was blessed to live in the same house as
her kids and felt even more blessed to live in America. She had a strong
testimony of the gospel and loved being surrounded by her family until her
death on December 13, 1913.
