Mary & John Reeve Letters, No. 3

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                                                                                                                    Provo, Utah April 13, 1915

Mr. John Reeve

            Hinckley, Utah

Dear Brother Reeve,

If I had a dollar for every time I have read your letter, I’d have enough to finish my college work. For I’ve studied the English, the diction, the spelling, the construction, the description, the paragraphs, the subject matter and feeling that prompted the writer in making such a plea. But it was a something beyond all of them that grips my heart strings and makes me say Yes to all your appeals. And I say it feeling that the God of destiny has led our paths together! Try hard as I might to look at it in any other way it is impossible! And now I feel my plans for the future are subject to vital reconstruction, in order to utilize the choice material God has thrown in my way. Not that I can do as He should like, But that I am willing to try and shall I say ready? And anxious for his next edition of palns for me! I feel that I make this choice in the situations in which I am placed, because it is the only one for me to make. My warring impulses might and do struggle against my will. Which I feel is prompted against by the Spirit and voice of God to me. And the balance is thrown into the proper scale – and the new law of gravitation points me to you and yours, and the message presumes to promise me strength and courage to do my best – If dear brother I were a different sort of individual I could not presume to assist in such a gigantic task. But it seems as I look at it now, My whole life has conspired toward this end. And I feel now that my place is not where a week ago I thot it was. And the climax of my prayer and supplication came to me in the night – “That is your path now.” And I feel that I am ready for your next move – Since this comes up – I feel without you interefere that I must quit school and go to my sister who needs care next month. But I shall await here your next letter. And hope it won’t be long coming for maybe I am imbibing some of the anxiety you refer to!

Of course my letter is not as classical as yours. But I believe my feelings are as deep as yours only you can express them better.

Now accept my heart felt wish for God’s protecting care over you and the children and since Sister Wilkins gave me your photo I do want to win the confidence of your mother. Don’t you think I can? Please burn this and answer right back. And I’ll be happy with you forever.

With Love,

Mary

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Hinckley, Utah, April 16, 1915

Mine, My Dearest Mary,

I cannot express to you the feeling of gratitude that comes welling up in my heart for the great blessing that has now come into my life.

Yes, dear, I know your struggle and what a battle you have had to fight. But when I even faintly try to imagine what I have done to merit the love and confidence of so sublime a life as you have consented to give me I say by the help of God and the influence and beauty of your life I will be worthy of you.

Dear, you will pardon this hastily written note as the dramatic troupe is waiting to take me to Oak City, where we play tonight and in Leamington tomorrow night. So I will write you from Leamington. And I wish to say frankly my happiness would be complete if you my queen were with me on this trip. Especially could I enter with a genuine feeling of affection into the reconciliation love scene if you were my companion!

Now, Mary, relative to our plans for the next act. I am sure we both realize the fact that when the curtain rises on the second act it must be done by obtaining information from the same source that so beautifully and majestically inspired the proceedings and climax of the first act in our sublime drama and romance of life.

My dear, will you please cease to minimize your ability as a letter writer, For really I don’t believe that a more beautiful and magnificent message was ever written than the one you penned to me. And if should study the Bible as much as I am now studying this sweet message I would be a walking Scriptorian.

You come down here? Sure, you must see all. Must know all. But let me fix the date. For I want to prepare for the coming of the Queen, Not that I want to deceive you. But that I would like to entertain you in a manner worthy of you.

May the choicest blessings of Him who has guided our lives together ever remain with you.

With sincerity and love

I am very affectionately yours

(signed) John

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Oak City, Utah  4-16-15

My Dear Mary –

Say, do you know that I kept the troupe waiting two hours to write that letter to you? But I wouldn’t cared if they’d waited till the judgment day I’d have written the letter before I left.

I am writing this letter in Joshua Finlinson’s home 5:30 in the evening – Just one hour before supper, So I knew I’d rather write to you than not,  For by so doing it means another letter from you.

With reference to what you say about living years in the last few days: It all seems so wonderfully marvelous. So unexplainably important – that without taking into account the voice of inspiration it becomes as you say so staggering in its hugeness and immensity.

I am intensely impressed with the little, but mighty big story of the sister Wilken-incident – Just one more convincing evidence that Divinity is playing such an important part in uniting our lives together; And its further details I shall be most happy to learn from your own sweet lips when I see you.

Do I think you can win the confidence of my mother? I not only think you can but I know absolutely that you can. And I know further that you could win the confidence of any clean man, woman, or child in the world, for to know you is to love you; To look into your eyes is to see the grandeur, sublimity and purity of one of the finest types of virtuous womanhood God ever created.

Now in relation to your leaving school to assist your sister, and also as to the time when we shall begin this splendid voyage. I don’t know hardly what to say; But one thought came to me. Why not embark at the time of the June conference. So without having a personal talk with you. You may take that merely as a suggestion to think and pray about as I am not doing and shall continue to do. And then when we meet and I am sure that whatever we decide to do will be exactly right.

You ask what brother Lon would say. Why I know exactly what he’ll say. He’ll say as I say that I have occasion to feel and that I am the richest, wealthiest and most fortunate man in all the world.

Did you notice dear, that the last time we dined together that our orders were unconsciously practically the same. And did you not notice how congenial and happy we were together? It simply shows how our feelings were converging and harmonizing together.

I haven’t told mother the details of our affair yet, But I promised her I would when I returned from this trip. I simply told her, that when she heard the story she would see the hand of God in it in bringing us together.

Supper is ready, dear, won’t you please come and dine with me again tonight? I’d enjoy it immensely, and I believe you would, too.

So with a heart overflowing with love for you I will say unto you My sweet heart good Night!

Lovingly

(signed) John

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Mary & John Reeve Letters, No 2.

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Hinckley, Utah April (no date - but likely sometime in early April, after conference)

Miss Mary Lyman

            Provo, Utah

My Dear Friend,

Some are born writers, some achieve the distinction and since I belong to neither class you will not expect much of a letter from me. However, I will do the best I can in the hope that I may get one of your lengthy letters. Yet I would like very much to give shape to some of the thoughts that are absorbing the attention of my mind and heart.

Before we arrived home, I became confidential with Pres. Hinckley, and told him a great many things that passed between us. And from my interpretation, he seemed to think our affair was developing nicely. I related to him how beautifully and skillfully you taught that young couple a lesson on prayer, which pleased him very much.

The more I think of my dream, the more I am impressed with its deep significance, and the more I am convinced of its coming from a divine source and of its being a final and definite answer to our petition. So in view of its sacred importance, and its decisive impressiveness I must seize this chance to reiterate and reemphasize the expressions my heart are so anxious to make to you. The thoughts of your soul, so pure and sweet, makes me falter at your feet, Makes my happiness complete. Oh! How vividly I recall the picture of your magnificent eyes as we fondly stood together at parting at our last evening together! Such an entrancingly sweet expression! Such a deep and brilliant light shone out from the depths of a soul purified by the presence of Divinity that my soul went out to you in the tenderest affection. I want to make you happy. I want to devote my life’s service to your happiness. I want to love you with all my heart. I do love you, tenderly, sweetly, fervently, and dearly. Can you reciprocate my love for you? Our lives shall flow silently sweetly down the stream of life until it reaches the blissful ocean of life’s eternal happiness. Let me say unto you my dear Mary, will you be my sweetheart, my companion my love, my wife, forever and forever?

If, dear, you can say yes to this appeal prompted by the Spirit of God, it will mean your happiness as well as mine, and I feel sure that by the time this reaches you, your heart will be prepared to answer definitely and positively. And the quicker we know what the answer is the sooner we can adjust our life to the results, and the better it will be for us both. But I sincerely hope that it shall be the great purpose of the Almighty that your feelings shall be impressed to respond to my own feelings.

I am sure you know how intensely anxious I shall await the answer, and sincerely I pray that your heart and pen shall be guided wholly and solely by the Spirit of God. May the peace of heaven forever permiate and bless your sweet soul is the sublime wish of your devoted and affectionate lover.

(signed) John Reeve

            Hinckley, Utah

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                                                                                                             Provo, Utah April 12, 1915

Mr. John Reeve

            Hinckley, Utah

Dear Brother Reeve,

There’s so many things to say if you were here. But I’m afraid I’ll get strangled if I begin spelling them into words for thoughts and feelings are deeper than all words and I’ve lived years within the last eight days – do you believe it?

You letter came today and I was not displeased to get it. Strange as it seems to me to say so, But, just as you have prophecied – I had found my own decision before it came, - And that decision was that I could meet you and promise to reciprocate the wealth of love you have endeavored to express for me. I do not see how in the face of the facts I can say this. It staggers me to do it. When I think of what is ahead, and yet I feel I will be equal to it, providing you prove yourself to be the man you have made me feel you are.

Now Bro. J.R. you have my answer. But there are provisions to be made for our future adjustments as you say it is the best for each of us. But I must come down and see for myself. Tho what I feel now tells me my visit will not cause a revision of my feelings, But point out the path to preparation for the assuming of the responsibility --! See !

You hadn’t been gone long when I knew my feelings; - A most mature and well established decision I had too and I wouldn’t have cared if you had been left by the train and found your way back! But! I see you have paid me as genuine a compliment as a noble man could pay a woman and I appreciate it! I have written by brother Albert, and of course it will be a profound surprise to him as of course it has been to me.

I’ve a story to tell you now, - But am afraid you are more of an adept at such arts than myself. Tho I greatly appreciate them. I find it difficult to produce them. I have a friend out in Granger whom I have been wanting to see for some time. Well, last Sunday afternoon I came out. She was pleased to see me and we had no sooner got into the house than she began counseling me for my experience last year. Then she stopped and looked at me and perceived I had a bigger problem on my hands than that. And she stopped and says, “Mary, what is it?” Is he married? What are you fighting it for?” Well I tried to turn her off the tract, and endeavored to appear unaffected and inferred there was nothing. She told me to sit still and imagine my consternation when she brought in an old photo of yourself and mother! And asked if that was him! I sat like one petrified! What could I do! She had known your folks in Dixie and she says, “Mary – mine was a selfish wish for you. I wanted you for mine! For Martin. But this is where you belong. And don’t you ever repent of having to put yourself in God’s hands for Him to dispose of you.” Well of course I had to talk then but it only confirmed my conviction. For strange and unusual as it all seems I had known that thing three days before, And had been happy in the knowledge of it, For I had been relying on your promise that I should know and do, now!

But, Bro J. R you understand the rest. My position in school, My desire to finish, my wish to go home, My plans for summer school. And yet new and strange as it seems, my longing to be with you, now! And as you are to be my captain from now on, I await your further orders! There! You have my position! What will Bro Lon think now? It stifles me to think of my frank confession! But that dream of yours left nothing to grope after and I think your interpretation was correct. For I can answer Yes to your propositions and feel I am prompted by God’s Spirit. Now I must close as ever.

(signed) Mary

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Mary Lyman Reeve - Basic History & Background

So, I thought maybe it would be a good idea to tell you a little bit about Mary Lyman Reeve, so you know where she is in her life at the time these letters are being written. So I have copied a basic genealogy list out of her history, and a paragraph that she wrote about her life up to the time of her marriage to John Reeve. I am going to put some pictures up, too, but I haven't gotten those scanned in yet. But I promise I will get that done soon.

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Basic Genealogy of Mary Lyman Reeve

(copied by Grant L. Reeve from “Genealogy of” #219 {Church Archives abt 1915})

Your Name in Full:             Mary Lyman Reeve

Date of Birth:                     Aug 3, 1882

Place of Birth:                    Bluff, San Juan Co, Utah

Home Address:                  Hinckley, Millard Co, Utah

Your Father’s Full Name:  Platte De Alton Lyman

Date of Birth:                     Aug 20, 1848

Place of Birth:                    Platte River, Neb

Your Mother’s Maiden Name in Full:  Adelia Robison Lyman

Date of Birth:                    Dec 21, 1848

Place of Birth:                   Crete, Will Co, Ill

Her Father’s Name:          Joseph Robison

Her Mother’s Maiden Name in Full:   Lucretia Hancock Robison

(copied as near as I can, Grant L. Reeve, 30 Apr 1986)

Migrated from Bluff, San Juan Co, Utah. In Scipio, Millard Co, Utah was but a child of ___, was baptized there. Shortly afterward father was called back to San Juan to act in the Presidency of the Stake. Here I spent the greater part of my life. Our people were in poor circumstances and many were the lessons impressed upon me in hardship and resourcefulness. The winter of 1900-1901 I attended the B.Y. Academy at Provo, working my way. The spring of 1902 had a very severe fever which left me very weak – the affects of which lasted for years. Attended school at Provo again that winter to next summer in summer school and taking a course in nursing. From 1905 to 1913 I was postmaster in Bluff. Taught school in Grayson, UT (now called Blanding) from 1909-1911 and attended summer school at U of U both summers. Filled a mission between 1913 to 1914. Attended B.Y.U. from 1914-1915. Married John Reeve of Hinckley Utah May 18, 1915.

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Mary was 32 when she met and married John Reeve. I am not sure how A.A. Hinckley knew her, or knew of her and her circumstances. She had been told, because of her severe fever in 1902, that she would be unable to have children of her own. So, A.A. Hinckley thought she was a good candidate to marry John Reeve. John lost his first wife on Jan 4, 1915, which left him with 7 children to care for all by himself. A.A. Hinckley was John's Stake President, and was just looking out for him and his family, and thought John and Mary would make a good match.

Mary Lyman Reeve - Letters and History - #1

You probably know already, but I am interested in family history. And living at my grandpa's house, where there is a plethora of family history information, has proved to fuel my interest. Just recently, I found a book with letters that Mary Lyman Reeve, Grant's mother, wrote and received from various people. The ones that peaked my interest where the letters exchanged between her and her future husband, John Reeve, as they met, and decided to marry. I think it is a great story, and with Grantpa's permission, I am going to post them here. I will fill in some of the story to provide details as necessary. These first two letters are from A.A. Hinckley, a general authority, to Mary Lyman, about meeting John Reeve, and Mary responding to him.

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Office of

DESERET STAKE PRESIDENCY

Hinckley, Utah

Mar 31, 1915

Miss Mary Lyman

Provo, Utah

Dear Sister: -- Just a line to learn if you would like to meet John Reeve, the brother I spoke to you about, our neighbor widower. He will be at Gen’l Conference in S. L. City, & would be pleased to meet you if it is agreeable on your part. Please let me know your views in reference to this matter and oblige.

Yours Truly,

(signed) A.A. Hinckley

P.S. I will be here until Friday morning, if your reply is delayed at all, better write me in S.L. City, 311 McCormick Building

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Provo, April 1^st, 1915

Pres A.A. Hinckley,

   Hinckley, Utah

Dear Bro. Hinckley,

Yours of yesterday came this morning – among – shall I say more April Fool Jokes – And I value your opinion highly. You will excuse me if I decline your invitation to meet your friend John Reeve. For you can readily see what an embarrassing position it places one in. So I will trust I am not wrong when I choose to regard this as nothing more than an April Fool Joke!

Hoping you have said nothing serious about this to Bro. Reeve, so the affair can be immediately closed.

I beg to remain

Yours truly,

(signed) Mary Lyman

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Should I just let the story be? Or continue? I assume you would guess that Mary and John met, despite Mary's misgivings in this letter. 

I have not seen this part of the story written down. It might be in John Reeve's history, but I cannot locate grandpa's copy of that right now. He has told me the story a few times. But I'm sure he is a little hazy on details. So, this is what I know of what happened. John came from Hinckley to Salt Lake for General Conference. Mary came up from Provo to Salt Lake for conference as well. But, Mary either changed her mind about wanting to meet John, or came up to Salt Lake with the intention of staying away from conference so John, and Pres. Hinckley, couldn't find her. The story goes that Mary spent the entire time of conference hiding out in the Cathedral of the Madeline, just down the street from Temple Square. When she thought she was safe, and wouldn't run into John, she left the Cathedral and was walking down the street. When, by fate, or coincidence, she met John Reeve.

The letters continue a few days after this meeting, and the histories I have read do not go into detail about how this meeting went, or what happened for the next few days. The letters seem to imply that they spent several days together, so perhaps they went to the rest of general conference together. Whatever happened, it must have been a good meeting, as the letters will show.

I will try to post new letters regularly, so check back. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the letters, so I hope you will too. 

Jon Schmidt & Cute Things Kids Do

* I went to a benefit Jon Schmidt concert tonight in American Fork, with my sister Rachelle. It was so fun! Jon Schmidt is a great, funny, crazy entertainer. It was more low-key than some of his concerts, and his sidekick cello guy, Steven Sharp Nelson, couldn't make it tonight, so he was alone. He paid tribute to a military family who was there - the dad is home on leave for a week before deploying for a whole year. When he was talking about this family, and their 4-year-old girl whose birthday it was today, I was imagining people much older than me (for some unknown reason - sometimes I forget how old I really am). But after the song, he had the family stand up, and they looked like they could be my own age. Which is totally normal, but it just made me think about that little family, and the things they are sacrificing for the rest of us. It made me proud to be an American.

* I played 3rd parent to some of the Bennett children last night. I took Carson to his soccer tryout, and had to leave him there to go get Lindsey from gymnastics. (One of the dad's took Carson home, don't worry!) On the way home from gymnastics, Lindsey was informing me what I should do as a parent. Her two bits of advice for me: Let your little girl get her ears pierced whenever she wants. Don't make her wait until she's 12. And, when you have pudding with dinner, even when it is Oreo pudding, let your kids eat it whenever they want. Don't make them eat their potatoes first. (Although she did tell me she likes potatoes, too.) Thanks for the advice Lindsey! When we got back to the house, Carson was at home alone, and when we walked in the door, he was sitting at the kitchen table, doing his homework. He is such an awesome kid!

Trying out this blogger app

So, I downloaded this app forever ago, and I'm just now getting around to playing with it. But, it might actually mean that I might post more often. We'll see how it goes.

This month I went on a trip with my mom back to Rhode Island and Boston area. It was amazing. I need to write down what we did, but here is a picture from our drive to Cape Cod. These are some of the cute little cottages right on the water in the town of Wellfleet. We were there before tourist season started, which I was happy about, because there was no one around. But the weather was still nice enough for us to enjoy it.

Hopefully I will have more stories and pictures to post later.

A Good Day

For some reason, I woke up today with a renewed motivation to get some things done. So, here's a rundown of my day, mostly for my sake, because I want to see it written down.
7:00 wake up
7:10 make to do list
7:20 gather up all the garbage in my house, clean and organize basement a bit
8:00 call in prescription
8:05 check email, facebook, reader
8:15 dishes, take out upstairs garbage
8:30 make muffins for breakfast
9:00 fix my crochet hook holder (that I made a year ago, and am just getting around to finishing it)
9:15 sew button on knit bag I finished last week
9:30 sew project bag, cut out three more project bags
11:00 put tree branches from the backyard into the green waste can (think about mowing, but grass is too wet)
11:30 check email, facebook, reader again, KSL too probably
12:00 make lunch - eggs & hashbrowns - second meal of the day eaten at my dining table
12:30 lay down on the couch to rest my back - sewing hurts my back a bit
12:45 take a shower
1:00 leave my house, run errands - Smith's, library, Hobby Lobby, Target
3:00 go to Daybreak, sit by lake, work on Relief Society lesson for tomorrow, read a book, watch the ducks
5:00 walk around the lake
6:15 home, dinner (Arby's) - eaten at the table again - the third meal of my day - I think that's a record
6:45 lay on couch again, play on iphone - games, facebook, email, reader, etc
7:00 move all the rest of the tree branches in the backyard onto the cement, off the grass
7:30 mow back lawn
8:10 wash feet, because they turn green when I mow
8:30 grocery store
9:30 back home, exhausted

Now I'm watching the end of Last Holiday, which is a pretty good show to end my day.

Here's a picture of my to do list for the day. I like to write it down, so I can check things off as I go. Today I got to check off several things. Some days I'm not so productive.