My Grandparents, Joseph Welton Ward and Elizabeth Allen, and Jesse H. Dredge and Nellie Kunz, were from Malad, Idaho. Both grandparents were sheepmen and farmers.
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| Joseph Welton Ward and Elizabeth Allen |
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| Jesse Horatio Dredge and Nellie Kunz |
I remember Grandpa Ward would call me “Dolly” every time I walked in the door. I remember walking in the house one time when I wasn’t very old and he was laying on the couch and said, “Come here Dolly” and I went over and laid down by him and he just hugged me and talked to me. He died quite early in my life, so that’s mostly what I remember about him.
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| Grandpa Joseph Ward |
Grandpa Dredge was a businessman, and he was kind of stern and maybe I was a little afraid of him, I don’t know, but I always admired him. He was a patriarch and gave me my patriarchal blessing when I was twelve. We had to get special permission because we didn’t live in his area or Stake, but we got permission so he could give it to me. I was always closer and warmer to my Grandma Dredge.
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| Jesse and Nellie Dredge |
Grandma Dredge made me feel like I couldn’t do anything wrong, so I think that’s why I felt so close to her. She always made me feel very special and fussed over me, letting me know how much she loved me, and made me feel good about myself which is what I needed. She was the best storyteller. She’d have us sit around her and she could tell stories with such animation you could just see it all and feel it all. I’ve never forgotten her Indian stories. She was there when I did the show in Palmayra and I was so tickled to see her there and have her there to watch the show that night. When I graduated from High School and spoke in my Seminary Graduation I remember looking down and seeing Grandma & Grandpa Dredge sitting there and her looking at me and just beaming from ear to ear, just giving me the confidence that I needed because I was so scared. After she met Arlin and was always so sweet with him, I knew she loved Arlin, and that made me feel so good too. I never had a mother-in-law and I had always looked forward to having one, but since Arlin’s mother had passed away Grandma Dredge kind of filled all that in for me. She was just really special to me.
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| Grandmother Nellie Dredge |
My mother was a sweetheart, but she wasn’t very affectionate or anything and very critical of everything I did. It seemed I worked so hard all my life trying to please her. I did things much faster than she did, so one day when she sent me to clean the bathroom and I did it and came back she said, “You did that too fast. You go back there and do it again” and she wouldn’t even go look and see what I had done. Just little things like that. Mom stayed home to raise us kids, but she was always busy. She was Relief Society President for quite a few years when we lived out in Snowville. I remember going with her to visit some of the older people and one lady had a really bad leg. I think she had diabetes and it had ulcerated. I remember going with mother and watching her change her bandages and seeing the gangrene and it was a horrible experience and I have never forgotten that smell. But every once in a while, I would go with mother when she was Relief Society President and visit the ladies, and I wasn’t very old. She wasn’t into sewing, so she would always take me shopping to buy new things and it didn’t matter what the price was, if we liked it then she bought it for me. We’d always have to go to Ogden where the mall and the big stores were since there wasn’t much where we lived. In high school I remember you just had to have a Jansen Sweater to be ‘in’ and all those things mother would get me. Mother was blessed in a way where she would have things come to her in dreams. One time she had a dream about her brother Dave who was killed in a car accident near Provo and she told my Dad all about it before they even got the news. It happened several times when they were first married and she’d tell daddy about things that would come to her, and at first he’d sort of laugh and knock it aside, but after they were married for a few years he paid attention to everything she said. She was told in her patriarchal blessing that she would be blessed with the spirit of discernment, and she was.
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| Rose Dredge Ward |
My dad was a farmer. Both of my grandparents were sheep men, so my dad raised sheep while we lived on a dry farm and grew hay and grain, but mostly grain because we didn’t have any irrigation or anything. My dad worked in Garland, Utah through the winter months at the sugar factory when he wasn’t farming. He sold mineral and did a few other side jobs, but mostly farming and milking cows and raising sheep. What I remember most about my father while growing up on the ranch was his love for the sheep. We always had little lambs lying by the stove downstairs to keep warm. Daddy had a very tender heart and would do anything for anybody. Lots of times people would stop at the ranch for help of one kind or another and he would help them out if he could. He would give you the shirt off his back, but he was very independent as far as letting anyone do much for him. He never wanted to be a burden to anyone. When I started high school and started dating, I remember Daddy telling me, "Don't ever do anything you wouldn't want to do in front of me." That always stayed with me. He was a sensitive sweetheart and was always so good to me.
