"Raising the Victorian" Part 2

A common definition of raise is to put or take to a higher position, elevate, make nobler. Ironically, raise also means to put an end to, to break up and remove. My objective in using the title "Raising the Victorian" is to apply both definitions to "The Old House". We want to pay tribute to this grand old lady and evelate her in the hearts and minds of her posterity at the same time that we put an end to her earthly existance. Sid told Earnie on the phone tonight that after someone has died it is time to bury them and now was her time. She was magnificient in her day. Built in 1884 certainly qualifies her to be designated "Victorian" which is anything associated with the reign or time of Queen Victoria of England (1837-1901). Our "Victorian" - The Old House, had three bedrooms upstairs and two on the main floor including my favorite, the beautiful large West bedroom with it's bay windows. If I had been able to do a 'make over' on the house which I always hoped possible, that bedroom would have become a beautiful library. Last fall I removed approximately 8 layers of wallpaper down to the very first richly hued ornate wall covering printed in New York City. The magnificent deep burgandy, gold metalic and green medallions and swirls in coordinating patterns graced the walls of the mainfloor bedroom, and dining room. Both rooms were finished with superbly beautiful 18inch borders and matching ceiling paper. The window in the door of the foyer entrance was etched with a replica of the Salt Lake Temple. Before her "raising" on July 4, 2008 we preserved two of the beautiful newel posts from the stairway, a few of the doorway medallions and the three decorative pieces on the outside of the bay windows. Reese, Steve's son, was wise enough to preserve some of the door medallions in the doorways of the home he built.

It was to this house that the Orson P. Thatcher's moved in 1909. The Thatcher's themselves were often referred to as "Victorian". Grandma Nettie was very proper, straight laced and conventional. She never went anywhere without her hat and gloves. She was very careful and close about what was said and to whom. Thus she would never let Grandpa Orson P. talk about the circumstances surrounding Moses Thatcher being dropped from the Twelve Apostles. Family members would have liked to have known Grandpa's perspective but no one was ever able to hear it from his lips - at least that we know about.

When ORT's twin sister Virgina divorced her husband, their oldest son Gilbert said he chose to live with his father's family, the Olsen's, "because the Thatchers were so straight-laced and the Olsen's were fun loving and easy going." That was before Amelia came on the scene because she had a wonderful sense of humor which her children consciously or subconsciously inherited - thank goodness!

When ORT (Orson Reeder Thatcher) and his new bride Amelia (Emelie) Fuhriman moved into the house following their marriage in January 1936 they were given the main bedroom. It helps to remember that this was during the Great Depression when it would have taken real courage to even get married. Grandma lost her first baby, Reed, during child birth in November of 1936. She said he was a perfect full term baby. No reason was ever given for his death but she felt that his neck was broken during delivery. He was buried under the walnut tree West of the house. Sharon was born the next year in November 1937, Howard March 14, 1939 and the twins in May 1940. Steve in 1942 , another still-born son Grant and Aurelia last. As far as we can determine they lived in the "Old House" until after the twins were born because she often told of hanging over a hundred diapers on the line as she had four children in diapers at the same time. Sharon was three years old but she had contracted meningitis when she was 18 months old and although her life was saved by the "New" sulfa drugs she was left physically and mentally impaired. Thus four babies with mountains of diapers washed in a wringer washer in the basement under the kitchen which was more like a dugout - dark, damp and without heat and hung on the line two and three deep winter (when the clothes pins froze to the frozen diapers), spring, summer and fall. One of the most admirable characteristics of Amelia was that in spite of all her hardship; living in one room with four children, sharing the rest of the house with her austere in-laws, washing and hanging all those diapers in all kinds of weather, her sense of humor squelched and unappreciated, she was never bitter and she never complained then or since. Whenever she talked about it she recited the details as if it were a documentary - without guile or accusation. In fact she always chuckled when she told us how resourceful she was to discover Grandma Nettie's recipe for flaky pie crust which she refused to share, by discreetly watching her and making a mental note of the amount of the ingredients. Amelia's pie crust was amazing.

The photo of Amelia kneeling under the window of "The Victorian" with her new born twins is one of the most touching old photos I have ever seen. Of special interest are her gloves and shoes. The photo of her with her four babies in diapers shows only the peace and satisfaction with which she accepted her 'lot in life'.



















Sid believes ORT must have built the basement house in the early forties as the pictures of Sharon, Howard and the twins were taken in front of it. Ill advised that it wasn't necessary to reinforce the two-bedroom cinder block basement it wasn't long before it split at the corners. The children remember waking up in the morning with snow on their beds which blew in through the cracks in the walls. It was in the basement that Sid innocently aimed a loaded gun at Howard and instead of blowing him away, blew out the window above his head.












Shortly before Amelia delivered the twins, she asked the doctor if he thought she might be having twins. He laughed at her and said, "Why would you think that?"










"Well", she replied, "My sister just had twins."

He laughed again. But the last laugh was on him when five minutes after the first one was born, he said,

"Woops, here comes another one."

Orson P. and Nettie moved to Logan First Ward in the 1950's and ORT and his family moved back into the Victorian. To them it was a mansion after having lived in the deteriorating cinder-block basement.