Morgan 2: Harold Morgan, Part VII

In the summer of that year I was invited to join the staff of the Salt Lake City Herald. Jessie and the babies went back to St. Johns and I went to Salt Lake City, the place I had been aiming for during the previous two years. On arrival I found the Herald had merged with the Salt Lake Telegram and the Herald was scrubbed. The town was full of reporters, copy readers and sales people out of work. The publisher offered me a job in Anaconda, Mont., but I wanted to stay in Salt Lake, so sought a job on the Deseret News. The Col. John Q. Cannon, editor of the paper listened sympathetically to my tale of woe and on the first opening at the start of the vacation season, gave me a job. I was overjoyed.

My first assignment was the City and County building, which housed most of the city and county offices as well as the adjacent county jail.

After about two weeks of feeling my way around I sent for Jessie and the babies. I rented a house on south Main Street. I knew the day they would arrive but not the hour. As I rode the street car to the Union Pacific station, I spotted them coming south from the place I lodged on West Temple Street. Grabbing the stop cord I nearly created a riot getting to the front to stop the motorman. I raced to my little family and we were soon having lunch at a nearby café. How happy I was to see them.

Alta, Helen, and Cal.

We stayed in the Main Street house for about a year and then moved to the 300 block on Quince Street. Here our wonderful son, Paul was born… After a few hectic months on Quince St. we moved into the 1100 block on Windsor St. It lay between 8th and 9th east and south of 9th South. We were near Liberty Park and often went there during the summer. We attended church in the 31st Ward.

Helen, Maxine, and Alta.

Helen was now of school age but we kept her home until Alta could attend kindergarten. Fearing the school was too far away for our darlings we moved to a house on West Sixth South, almost in the back yard of the Grant School. Joe Christensen, Jessie’s brother came to stay with us and complete his high school. The house was not too comfortable and Paul contracted bronchial asthma. The following year on the doctor’s advice we moved to the 500 block on 11th East. It was a 5 room duplex so we were very comfortable. The following year we were overjoyed when our little Calvin was born the following September. What a sweet little fellow he was.

Alta, Maxine, Helen, Joan, Paul, and Calvin.

During the spring of 1924 we purchased a home at 1536 East 13th South St. Joe was still with us but by this time was attending the University of Utah. It was a nice neighborhood, close to schools and church. We were in the Wasatch Ward. Here we spent 14 or 15 happy years, in spite of low wages and many calls on our meager funds. This was the birthplace of three of our other children. What wonderful little souls they were and are. Maxine, personality plus girl, was born…

Joan.

Sweet, lovable Joan was born three years… What a darling, she was. So healthy looking and so active. Then like a bolt of lightning out of the blue, she was stricken. The doctor pronounced it leukemia and we rushed her to the hospital shortly before her fourth birthday. A few days later after the doctors had done everything possible for her she succumbed to this dread disease. What a tragedy for our little family.

The month Joan died. From Harold or Jessie Morgan's papers.

Jessie was almost inconsolable. For almost a year she made daily trips to the little grave in the City cemetery. It was most heart rendering. Then almost five years later … our darling Anne was born. As if in answer to prayer she was almost the express image of our little Joan. What a wonderful experience.

Anne, Maxine, Helen, and Alta.

Two or three months after Anne was born and our darling Francis Alta was married to Russel Shurtliff, son of our neighbors, we left our little home and moved to a large house in the 1100 block on Third Avenue. This was really a sad day.

To be continued...


Photo of Salt Lake City and County Building from wikipedia.