July 31, 1921
Dear Folks: - I know I’ll not finish but perhaps can make a beginning before Guy comes home or Marjorie wakes for a late lunch as she usually does about 11 PM. She is so good we scarcely know we have a baby in the house. Mrs. Thomas will help me wash and general clean up Tuesday otherwise I find the work no great drag. Am so strong again. I’ve had lots of company ever since baby came which has taken some time but has been a great joy to me too. I don’t see how any one has pep to go out this hot weather. Did I tell you that the club gave me chain and locket for baby. They have usually sent flowers etc., but we like the other better. Every one has been so lovely to me. Oh, you asked so many questions. Marjorie was born July 16th, length 24 inches, weight a little more than 7 lbs after subtracting clothes. She looks a lot more like her daddy than either of the others. Has quite a lot of dark hair, quite the usual number of features generally. A few more than average dimples and a heavenly disposition. Both her sisters think she is the most wonderful. Yesterday after I washed Frances for her nap, she climbed up by baby and went to sleep. Margaret will sit and hold her till the busy little muscles must ache but it’s her baby
Monday night – another few minutes before bed time. We had such a very lovely letter from you today. We do enjoy your letters. So sorry you had to wait for our letters. IT seems simply impossible to write when the children are awake. They always discover me and want to help till I give it up. You spoke of scarcity of fruit. Some kinds have not been plentiful here but I never do put up small fruits. “Did” a bushel of berries. The canning fever has not struck me. When Mrs. Davis mentioned apple jelly I hated the idea. Believe I’m getting soft. This summer I did not seem able to care whether or not we raised any garden if we got a few flowers. Guy has done everything outside. And inside I didn’t even want to bother to think what we should eat when I did not have to cook. Worst of it is, it’s pure laziness for I’m so well in every way. When doctor was here he spoke of my being in such good flesh and everyone nearly speaks of how well I look. Won’t it be awful if I get fat and lazy with the years. Horrors! I’ll lose a perfectly good husband if I act like that.
Friday, Aug 5th. Guy went to Provo to make proof on the 480 A [acres]. You see we did not have to live on it, just put 1.25 per A improvements on it. At present prices the fencing quickly ate up the required $600. Things surely have changed the past year. Why a year ago it was almost impossible to hire a man to do anything now there are hundreds of idle men everywhere. Things seem to be picking up in the camps tho – mines are running 5 days a week for the first time in months. I’ve seen George only once since baby came. She was only a few days old when he came up for some things. He was then working for a ranchman near Woodside and told us to forward mail there. We have done so – but he does not favor us with any remarks. He seems to think no one need worry if they don’t hear of his “taking off.”
Honestly, I’m happier about George this summer than I’ve been at any time since he came out here. While he never did anything to worry us, in common with so many of the young men of the day, both those who had been in the army and those who had been making a great deal in industries, he found it very hard to get his poise again. He realized it and talked of it and even when he had filed on the land he did not at first seem to have that nerve to take a long chance and win in spite of odds. But that trip to Pueblo helped him. He says he feels more like himself again, that in some way conditions there were quite as horrible as anything he saw in Europe. The counter shock of that – meeting different people and realizing more how much the mass of people are up against to begin to succeed – etc., has done worlds of good. We older people had gotten ours in the world of hard knocks and were seasoned to bear the unbalancing effects of the past 7 or 8 years. We can’t blame the younger ones if it hits them harder.
Well I must close. Nearly bed time – Love to “you all” from “us all.”
As ever, Dora
Don’t forget to give our love to the Glendale family.
My husband and I flew to Salt Lake City to visit relatives and planned to visit the "ghost towns" where my great uncle and great aunt and family lived between 1913 and 1924 or so. These have such charming names as Tucker, Gilluly, Soldier Summit, Castle Gate, Helper, Rains and Winter Quarters. I have a drawing of part of Tucker done by my great-grandmother and she waited for the birth of her first grand-daughter Margaret. The drawing shows the house, cellar, nearby church, hills, railroad and creek and I had had such hopes of being able to find a foundation or two and perhaps match up the drawing with the terrain. Alas, what is left of Tucker is now buried under a vastly improved road. We didn't have time to find the little cemetery that is supposed to be on the hill on the other side of the highway, but sometime hope to see if there is a little headstone for a cousin Ruby who was either stillborn or only lived a short while. So, Tucker was buried, Gilluly was only a sign along the highway with not so much as a hole in the ground to give perspective. Soldier Summit still survives with a gas station and a few houses, no longer the bustling train center it once was. We chatted with a local man who remembered Tucker and who said that the drawing looked very much like what he remembered. He told us about the museum at Helper and there we learned about the fact that all the houses at Castle Gate had been moved to land on the outskirts of Helper. So perhaps the homes of my relatives are now there, but there is no way to know which house might have been which. Castle Gate is now the coal source it was then, but fires an electric plant to keep us all warm, fed and on line with all our gadgets. I don't imagine Dora and George would recognize it now. Our last attempt, late in the day, was to find our way to Winter Quarters. Rains is now on private property and for all intents and purposes is not easily found. But we had hopes for Winter Quarters. We drove to Scofield, but then couldn't seem to find the road that was supposed to lead to Winter Quarters. As we were leaving later we saw a gas station, but by then it was too late. While there we didn't see anyone outside, driving around or otherwise available to ask for directions. So we gave up and headed back to Salt Lake. Over all it was a fun day, somewhat disappointing, but the autumn colors were spectacular and well worth the trip in and of themselves. 
Later, at my second cousins house, we discovered a few photos of Winter Quarters. So while we didn't make it there this time, we have these old photos to share. This photo says that it is George Sherwood, Homer Lidell and Neil Carswell, Trackman. This was taken in December of 1920. The middle man looks like George, I'm guessing that Homer is on the left and Neil on the right. But am open to being corrected about that. The photo of the saloon at the top of this entry has instructions on the back. We are NOT to hyphenate Frank's last name because if you do it "sounds like something naughty." 
