Joseph C Bentley Home

I meant to write all of these entries from the Bentley Reunion ages ago.  The family history class that I'm taking has reminded me that I want to get this information down and available, even if it's late!

Here's a little about the Joseph Bentley home at 76 W Tabernacle in St George --

Joseph C. Bentley moved with his parents to St George at the age of 5, (see the previous post on his father Richard Bentley).  This home was actually built by his brother William who sold it to Joseph upon completion.  It is directly next door to the his father's home, sharing the red brick drive you see on the left.  Both homes are directly across the street from the beautiful St George Tabernacle, which had just been completed at the time of the home's construction. The home is also part of the current day Green Gate Village Bed and Breakfast.

At the age of 20, Joseph served a mission to Great Britain (1879-1881).  Upon his return, he sometimes worked as telegraph operator in the telegraph office behind the Brigham Young home (across from Israel & Julie Ivin's home).  A few years later, Julie Ivins asked Joseph if he would teach her daughter Margaret telegraphy.  Joseph agreed.  Maggie, though almost 9 years younger, was reported to be mature for her age and an apt student.  Their relationship developed into a romance, and Joseph would often walk Maggie home from their lessons.

In 1885, Maggie was hired as a teacher in Pine Valley, 35 miles north.  She frequently visited the Pine Valley telegraph office, where she was able to send messages to a certain telegraph operator in St George. (They courted via text messaging!) The story was told-- on one occasion, Maggie messaged Joseph to notify her brother to come pick her up for a weekend at home.  Joseph did not relay the message, but came to retrieve her himself!

Joseph and Margaret were married in the St. George temple the following June.  Their first three children were born in this home before the family left for Colonial Juarez when the third, baby Charles, was just a few weeks old. (1892)

Joseph Bentley sold this home in 1908, after apparently deciding they would be staying in Mexico.

A little more about Maggie-- she was known as an artist by nature.  She painted well and was an accomplished musician.

Hello? Hello? Is anyone still there? YES THERE IS!

The title for this post is one that few can appreciate. I'll leave it to the comments to see if he wants to claim the quote as his own.

Anyway, it's been too long since I last wrote in here. You see, I've moved to a different venue (and I've been a bit lazy on this front). I was checking into the LDS family history site a few months ago, and was pleasantly surprized to find the revamped site.

A Hug for Grandma Nicholls

This is a small experience of mine involving Great Grandma Nicholls. A confession, really. This happened several years ago, I was probably between 10 and 12. I went on a trip with Dad and Kara to Canada where we spent time in St Thomas, Ontario with Grandpa and Grandma Wilson. Grandma's mom was well advanced in years, at least 85, and was living with them.

One morning, Kara and I gave Grandma Wilson hugs. Great Grandma Nicholls then turned to me and said "Grandma wants a hug too." At the time, my little 10-yr old brain thought "Hug Grandma? I just DID hug Grandma less than 5 seconds ago. Her age must be getting the best of her mind, poor Great Grandma." So...what did I do? Nothing. I just stood there awkwardly smiling at her. Didn't budge. I didn't know the best way to respond to a request that didn't make sense. A request that, as far as a little kid like me could tell, suggested mild dementia. 

Kara looked at me and said "Bryan," a bit reprovingly, suggesting that I do as she requested. In a moment I suddenly realized that SHE was asking for the hug...because, of course, she is Grandma too. But I still didn't budge, and she just waited there. To the best of her understanding, she was simply rejected by her great grandson. But, in reality, my poor self conscious and awkward self got the best of me! I felt embarrassed about my mistake, felt embarrassed about being reproved, and didn't know how to acknowledge my mistake and right the wrong. 

Later that day or maybe the next, someone mentioned to me how sad it made Great Grandma that I never gave her a hug. Again I felt embarrassed by the situation and didn't know how to respond.

She passed away in 2003, and I don't think I ever took the chance to give her a hug since the time of the incident. I'm very sorry Grandma! I didn't mean to make you feel rejected. I am grateful for you, what you've done for me, especially for raising such a magnificent daughters, my Grandma and Aunt Betty. I like to think that you can understand some of my feelings now and recognize how bad I feel about the situation. I want to make it right. I am sorry for causing you that grief. So from the virtual world into the spiritual world, here is a heartfelt hug from your great grandson Bryan. I love you very much. I can't wait to see you again! I look forward to giving you a real hug then!

Sincerely

-Bryan

PS, Dad or Kara, if I've got my age wrong in this story, please let me know. I'm thinking it was between 1994 and 1996.

Family names for our boy

Aisling and I are expecting a baby boy in April. Our first, Carter, was named after Aisling's side of the family (Grandma's maiden name). Now it's my turn to come up with a name (or at least propose something that Ais doesn't veto.) So I was looking through names in on my side of the family from Family Search. Here's a big list of male names I found starting with myself and siblings, then going back several generation. These lists aren't comprehensive by any means, so I'm sorry to the many people I missed.

Personal favorites....Theodorn, Mahlon, Drake, Wilmont, Milton, VanCannon, Dunbar. I joke about naming our boy after these guys but Aisling doesn't appreciate it much.

Re: Why I'm Starting a Blog.

Let me share an experience I had while I was in the Carolina's for Grandpa Garner's funeral. At Grandpa's viewing and funeral service, all the extended family members and my mom and her siblings had unique perspectives of Grandpa. They shared several family stories that I had never heard before, and I knew that I might never hear them again. I doubt that my siblings/cousins knew any of them, and it would be just a matter of time before all this information was lost. If only I could write these experiences down! But the stories were coming out so quickly and I didn't have a pen and paper on hand. Pretty soon, my mind was a big jumble of names and dates, and I couldn't keep straight who was connected to who. My brain felt like a tangled up ball of yarn with a couple of loose ends sticking out...but the task of unknotting the whole mess was daunting, to say the least.

Photos of my family

I added some random photos of my family that were taken in 2004 and 2005. I am almost nowhere to be seen; I was on my mission in Milano, Italy. I'm glad that my family didn't wait around for me to have fun (but obviously it would have been even more fun if I were there.)

FYI, these might seem pretty random. I don't know the context of many of them. They are just pictures that Aisling and I liked while we were looking through them late at night.

Enjoy. What I need to do it track down the older Wilson family pictures and start scanning those (not a small task!)

-Bryan

Letter to my Grandpa

Thomas Harold Garner, - July 4, 1930 to October 14, 2012

Dear Grandpa,