Family:Jesse Kemsley and Rebecca Jewkes (1)

Living Kemsley is preferred.

Jesse Kemsley & Rebecca Jewkes, by John Kemsley

Source: Ancestral Legends & Lore

This is the story of my parents' lives. I have included it here in order to connect my life with those in my past and to let you know what kind of people my parents were. This chapter describes many events during my father's life with his second wive Rebecca Jane Jewkes (my mother). It also contains a brief description of my siblings. Again, some of this information comes from the paper my sister Amy and I wrote.

Their Marriage (1898)

After Eliza died in Sublett, Idaho, Jesse tried to get a woman to stay with his children, but no one stayed long. Shortly thereafter he hired a house keeper, Rebecca Jane Jewkes Argust, after her husband Francis Walter Argust died. It wasn't long before they were married on 10 September 1898 (he was 41 and she was 26) and had children of their own, in addition to those they already had from their previous marriages.

Life In Utah, Part II (1898 - 1925)

A neighbor, Thomas Bates, moved to Utah, but soon returned to put a stone on his daughter's grave. She had fallen out of a wagon into a ditch and drown. His son, Richard played with my father's sons. Thomas talked my father into moving to Utah, which we did the following winter after Reuben's birth. He bought a farm in Farr West, ten miles from Ogden, near the Bates' place. When my sister, Beatrice, died Thomas took my father down and bought a burial plot next to his in Plain City.

Santa Jesse

My dad played Santa Claus every year at the community Christmas party in Idaho. One of his sons took over for him after he moved to Utah. Some ten years after he moved to Utah, he returned just before Christmas for a visit. He replaced his son as Santa without anyone else's knowledge. Everyone thought it was his son until he started telling some the old jokes of years ago. When they realized who it was they made more fuss over Santa then the kids did. The kids had to take a back seat while their parents visited Santa.

Later he went to spend the night at some of his friends. Since their daughters were away at a dance and would be there the entire night, he stayed in their room. But a boy offered to bring them home instead of waiting until morning. When they arrived the went right into their room without turning of the light--they didn't want to wake their mother. While they undressed in the dark dad woke up and lay there very still to surprise them. When they got into the bed they felt his mustache and ran into their mother's room very surprised and scared, not worrying about waking her.

Jesse, the Man

My father was a good natured, hard working, religious man. He was very set in his ways and did not accept change or new ideas readily. For example, when margarine was invented, he would not eat it because nothing could take the place of butter, and for the same reason never learned to drive a car because they attempted to replace the horse.

He was a well liked man, never too busy to butcher or shear a sheep. All he ever asked for his work was the liver.

My father rarely got angry, a trait which I inherited. I've been angry only three of four times in my whole life. I was in a play at church one time. My part called for me to get angry at another player. When it came to that scene everyone broke out laughing; they thought it was so funny because I could not express myself like I was angry. I guess I've been better off for it. I've never had any grudges against anybody or anything like that. I guess that another thing I inherited from him was my ability to work hard. He was a hard worker all of his life. In the profession that I picked, I did a lot of hard work too -- physical work.

One thing I did not get from him though was his love for gardening. He loved gardens. He loved farming. He loved flowers. Almost everyday he would bring home a rose, or some flower, and put it in the hair of my mother. He hardly missed a day.

Life In California (1925 - 1932)

When we moved from our farm to the city (See 1919-25 (Ages 10-16): Moving To Ogden, Utah & Junior High) there was about an acre of vacant ground that belonged to a doctor. He arranged with the doctor to let him farm it. He planted corn, peas, everything, all kinds of vegetables, flowers. I used to go down and help him work in it. We had so many vegetables and things that we couldn't possible eat them all ourselves, so I had a little four wheel wagon I used to load up with vegetables and go around the neighborhood selling them to the neighbors. So we kept ourselves and all our neighbors with vegetables. Along with that I used to mow half our neighbors lawns for them. I got the big sum of 50¢ a lawn.

After he finally made it to California (remember that Jesse and Eliza had set out for California to hunt gold in 1877), he liked to joke about how long it took him to get from New York to California. He finally arrived in 1925 after fifty years on the way. He liked to say, "That was even slower than Moses."

My father died when he was seventy-five in Inglewood, California. At this time the great depression was on.

My mother worked very hard. She raised fifteen children without the helps that modern women have. She was good natured and seldom showed any anger. She counseled us, comforted us, and nursed us when we needed it. She only had one girl that lived past the age of eighteen: Victoria, who was from my mother's previous marriage to Francis Argust and was herself married with children of her own at the time of the influenza epidemic.

My mother lived about ten years after my father died. She had heart trouble for two or three years but just light heart attacks which they called silent heart attacks--nothing very strong or serious. One day she went down to Bellflower (in Los Angeles) to visit my sister Amy. The two of them went to bed together and lay there talking. When mother quit talking Amy kept right on talking and asking her questions, but got no answer. So she got up, turned on the light and saw mother laying there dead. She died without a murmur, gasp or anything. She was about seventy years old, I think.

My Brothers And Sisters

Our family was a large one, it being the second marriage for both of my parents. In addition to this, my mother's first marriage was to a widower who had a child; so ours was actually a combination of four families. I remember my father saying, on one occasion, "Mother come quick. Your kids and my kids are beating the hell out of our kids!" His stock answer for anyone who asked who the children belonged to was, "Mine, hers, ours and somebody else's." In all I believe we totaled 19 children. Fortunately, we were never all home at the same time, as the oldest was about 40 years older than the youngest. I was third from the end, two brothers being born after I was. Since many of my older brothers and sisters were married before I was born I really didn't know them very well, so you must allow for some error in my assessment of them.

"Mine" (Jesse and Eliza’s)

Nellie, the oldest, died from membranous croup while my mother visited her family in New York, as I mentioned above.

Lewis (died at age 75) was uneducated and somewhat slovenly in his habits. He loved nothing better than playing practical jokes on others and laughing at their discomfort. As I mentioned above, he married my mother's younger sister, Ann Catherine Jewkes. He was about seventy-five when he died.

George (died at age 1) died from the Croup

Charles (died perhaps from a heart attack) was a very energetic man, and although uneducated was very intelligent. He spent much time thinking and inventing things to make life easier. He was hard to get acquainted with. Being very frugal with his money, he never bought any clothes to dress up in, fed his family mostly on beans, and lived for many years in a house trailer that he built himself.

While in Idaho he purchased a few ponies. They quickly multiplied until he had about 60. He could not sell them because the kids who rode them didn't like their feet dragging in the sage brush. He then brought them all down to a town just outside of Ogden called Harrisville (after we moved there when I was 9) where he started a pony track in Loren Farr park (where I ran the merry-go-round). He didn't like to work his ponies too hard, so he would have the kids ride his ponies out to his house five miles away, where they would then get a fresh batch to return to the park. He later sold all but 15 or 16 ponies when he moved to LA about the Spring of 1922 and started a pony track in Selig Zoo. My dad followed him down to LA the next Spring and went to work for him at the Zoo. I moved down in 1925 at which time Charlie moved his business to Eagle Rock and my dad hired on as the night watchman at the zoo. My mother stayed in Utah until she was able to sell the house in 1926. Then Jesse moved to Eagle Rock to work for Charlie.

He was in business for himself most of his life, often running several businesses at once. For example, while in Los Angeles, he had five pony tracks, a boarding stable for horses, three furniture stores, and two apartment houses within a period of about five years. He became quite affluent. Finally, though, when he was about fifty years old he changed completely. He bought himself a new home and two new cars with cash, new furniture, new clothes, and lived for a few years like a king. He lost his money to pay doctor bills when his health failed him.

As I mentioned above, Charlie married my mother's sister-in-law, Laura. After being divorced from her, he married another woman, Agnes, whom I only met once--at his funeral.

The last few years of his life he worked as a parking lot attendant at Lockheed. He came home from work one night, went to the grocery store about a half block away from him, bought a newspaper, and came back home and sat down in his easy chair to read it. Agnis was out in the kitchen getting dinner ready. When she came back in the room, he was sitting in the chair dead from a heart attack, I think.

Charlie had two daughters, both of which are dead now.

Jesse (died at age 56 from a heart attack) spent his early life as a cowboy. While my family lived in Idaho, he was a taxi driver--with a horse and buggy. Then he went to work for Charles running a pony track in LA where he remained until his death at the age of fifty-six from a heart attack. He was a hard working, fun-loving man, always ready with an endless array of funny jokes and interesting stories. He was one of my favorite brothers always so full of fun, with a joke on his lips and a smile on his face -- a very friendly fellow. He especially loved children. I spent many hours with him. He never made much money, but was always happy.

Jesse had two sons, both were born in Idaho. One moved back to Ogden after his younger brother died.

[Editor's note: Jesse and Pearl Kemsley had four children: Earl (died in 1955 of a heart attack in Ogden Utah); Ava (died 1995 from a heart attack in California), Boyd Ray (died in 1969 of a heart attack in Upland, California) and Frank Jesse (died in 2001 of a heart attack in Phoenix) - Source: Boyd Kemsley, Jesse and Pearl's grandson]

Grace (died at age 83 from old age) lived a life of hardship. She had one outstanding quality that I will always remember. She made everyone feel that they were very important to her. She had a knack of cheering up the downhearted and making them smile. She died from old age when she was eighty-three.

Carrie (died at age 83 from old age) was an old-fashioned back-woodsie type person. She had many quaint ideas such as that if you tied a silk string around your neck, it would cure or prevent croup, now known as the flu. She spent several years transforming a weed patch into a nice cemetery in her home town of Lyman, Wyoming. She raised a large family. She also died from old age when she was eighty-three.

Amy (died about age 60 from a heart attack) was such an interesting woman that I could spend several pages just on her alone. She had ten children. One died in infancy, but she raised the others by herself because her husband deserted the family soon after the youngest was born. In her later years she did lots of traveling within the United States--including Hawaii--and even went to England searching for genealogy.

Her children used to tell her that when she died they would not bother to bury her because she wouldn't stay in her grave if they did. It was suggested that they put her body in a car, put it in gear, and head it down the highway. But when she died they buried her at Rose Hills. I haven't checked to see if she is still there or not.

She died at about sixty from a heart attack. When we both were visiting Reuben and Ila, she complained of pains in her chest. Reuben and Ila waned her to go to a hospital, but she wanted her own doctor to see her. She was living up in Oaji, which is about sixty miles away. Reuben put her in his car and drove her home to her doctor. She died the next day. The funeral precession ride was the longest I've ever had: her funeral services were up in Ventura, CA, but she was buried down in Whittier, Los Angeles county-- about 75 miles away by freeway.

Cora (died from influenza in 1918) was a plain, motherly type. Although I spent much time as a youngster playing with her children, I never really got acquainted with her. As I said, she died from influenza in 1918, leaving four children.

"Hers" (Rebecca and Francis Walter Argust’s)

I remember nothing about Mattie, as I only saw her a few times as a young boy.

Victoria, as her name suggests, was a very prim and proper lady never given much to levity. She was very friendly and had many friends. She was rather timid, being afraid, for instance, of driving her car on the freeway although she would drive most anywhere else. Until I convinced her otherwise, she wouldn't use her fireplace for fear of making smog. She is my only sister that lived past the age of eighteen.

"Ours" (Rebecca & Jesse’s)

Reuben (born 15 Sept. 1899, Idaho) and I were very close both as boys and as adults. Of all our family he and I seemed to have the most in common. In addition to making our livings the same way, our personalities were very similar. Like Jesse, we both enjoyed levity. He raised a fine family with all his children being active in the church. He made friends easily. As he was ten years older than I, he was the one I went to for advice when I needed it. He was always ready to help anyone who needed help of any kind.

Eliza (born 21 Aug. 1901, Farr West, Utah. Died at age 18 from influenza) was a very sweet girl who looked after me when I was small. I felt a great loss when she died at the age of eighteen (1918). I was just nine years younger. As I said earlier, she was the first in the area that died of influenza during the great epidemic of 1918.

Beatrice (born 29 May, 1903, Farr West, Utah. Died at age 2 or 3) died when she was about two or three years old--I don't know how. Pearl (born 6 May 1906, Ogden, Utah. Died at age 18 from diabetes) was a fun loving girl who as a teenager loved going to dances and parties. With a little encouragement she could have been the wild type. She was very good to me when I was young.

She had diabetes which was practically unknown at the time, so the treatment in those days was very primitive. Someone had just invented Insulin. So her treatment was to eat Gluten bread which was made out of Gluten flour. It was black, tasteless and almost as hard as a rock. You couldn't cut it with a knife. You had to chop it to get a slice off of a loaf. She had to inject insulin into her arm, which would improve her for a while.

She would be alright for a while, but she would go off her diet and the first thing you know she would be right back in bed again. After that happened about three or four times she finally said, "I can't do this. I cannot stay on that diet and I'm not going to try anymore." She said she would rather die than suffer all her life. She went to Salt Lake City and started working in a hotel. About a month later we got work that she was in the hospital in Salt Lake City. My sister-in-law Ila, my mother and I drove to Salt Lake to visit her in the hospital. She was unconscious laying there moaning. She died the next day, at eighteen years of age.

I, John (born 9 April 1909, Farr West, Utah, died 22 Nov 1993 two years after breaking his leg and never fully recovering), was included in this group.

La Mar "Red" (born 15 Jan. 1917, Ogden, Utah, died 20 Apr 1997 from cancer), the only one of the family besides myself who is still living, is a hard working, intelligent man. His education was limited to high school, but he has made a big success in the carnival business. He owns one of the largest shows on the west coast. With the help of his wife and family he has managed to amass all that he has. Forty-five years ago he was working as a service station attendant.

Darrel "Roy" (born 19 Nov. 1918, Ogden, Utah. Died at age 40 from a heart attack), the baby of the family (he went by the name of Roy), was a happy-go-lucky sort of person. Very good natured and always full of fun, he was a joy to be around. One time when I lived in a one room shack down on Eleventh Avenue when I was between marriages. I had to go out of town one time for a few days, so I had him come down and take care of things for me. Quite sometime later, after I returned, we had a rain storm and water just poured through the roof all over everything. I got up on the roof and found little holes all over it. I asked Roy if he knew anything about it. He said that when he was watching the place he would lay in bed at night and shoot flies off the ceiling with his twenty-two rifle.

When he was in the army his ship was attacked as it was going across the ocean. He said he had never been so scared in his life: he was shaking all over.

He died when he was forty years old. He was apparently a very healthy man: He worked for Sparklets water company driving one of their big trucks from L.A. to San Diego and Santa Barbara delivering bottled water. Then one day he had a little problem with his heart; it wasn't anything very serious. They put him in the hospital and turned him loose three days later (maybe four). They said it was alright for him to work. He had a paycheck coming and when down to the company to collect it. On the way home he stopped at a little restaurant, sat up on a stool at the counter and ordered a hamburger and a cup of coffee. When the waitress returned with his order he was laying on the floor dead. He was only forty years old; it seems strange he should go so young.

"Somebody Else's" (An Adopted Daughter)

Florence was actually the daughter of my uncle and aunt, but was adopted by my parents. She was deaf and lived in Idaho where there was no school for the deaf. The one in Ogden required that she be a resident of Utah before she could attend. Hence the adoption. She only lived with us during the school year for a few years, so I never really counted her as a sister. The only way I could correspond with her was by the writing of notes. But she was a very pleasant person to be around.

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