Henry Richard Emanuel Wessman: A Biography, Part 7

Henry had a very kind heart. There were a couple of times that he sobered some men up (at separate times) so that they could work for him. One man's name was Charley and had a family of seven children. Henry knew him previously and he was one of the men that he tried to help get on his own feet. He had helped many people in several ways.

Henry was very friendly. He was very pleasant and loved to talk. As a result, he could make friends easily. At work, he would talk and work at the same time. He had an old friend by the name of Ivan Dahlquist that he used to play duets with when he was in his middle teens. They spent a lot of time together. When Henry and Jean would play duets that he and Ivan had played, he would say something to the effect of "That's not how Ivan did it." Jean would respond, "Well, you practiced more than I did." He worked with Willard Brann at The Ogden Standard. It was a short friendship due to Henry's death but it was a good friendship. Lou Galiazi worked with Henry in Provo and they were friends for years.

Henry Adams was also a good friend of Henry Wessman's. When both the Henrys would be working, it was not uncommon for one to start singing. The other would join in. The duet sounded very good. They would also talk about old memories and acquaintances that they had known before.

He also had a kind heart for animals. The family was taught to love animals and care for them. They always had a cat or dog around. Of course, it was a heart breaker when one of them died.

While living on 36th and Jefferson in Burch Creek, Henry found a Civil War saber somewhere. He used to get a kick out of taking his saber and trimming down a great big patch of cattails that were on the street corner. He would do this every once in awhile and enjoyed himself.

One time, the family was going from Ogden to Salt Lake but when they got to about Kaysville, they ran into a sticky situation. There was a herd of cows on the road and Henry was going slowly through them. A bull decided that he did not like that. He was very angry. He charged the truck and hooked the fender with his horns. Needless to say, there was a hole made. Henry just waited patiently while the bull got loose and then he continued on as if it was a fact of life.

Another time while in the Model-T Ford going from Provo to Salt Lake to see Elizabeth Hayward (Jean's mother), they were by Lehi, Utah, when a pig ran into the car. It ended up slipping on the ice on its backside squealing all the way. After the wild ride, the pig casually wandered off.

All of the children had the middle name of Hayward. This was Jean's maiden name. Many of the children's first names were names that were in the family somewhere. Some of the other children names were given because the parents liked them.

Dick worked quite a bit with him. He got along with his father quite well. He taught Dick many things. He was always finding a job for Harry and Dick to do. He would pay them even though it was not very much. Still, they still got a little something.

Henry and Jean gave Merle (who had congenital hypothyroidism) a lot of attention. She was a very simple person with the mentality of a six or seven year old or something like that. However, she could do so many things around the house such as iron, sweep, dishes, make beds, etc. It could be difficult at times for the family because her needs were so different but she was still loved very much. There were no hard feelings about Merle and her handicap. Whenever the extended family came, Merle was accepted by them also. They always gave her hugs and kisses.

Henry was a good auto mechanic and did the repairs on his own vehicles. He taught the boys to do the same. Back in those days, one had to know who to fix cars because they were always breaking. On the family's 1926 model Dodges, they were always fixing bearings, repair this and that. One morning when John went to go to high school, the car blew a rod. It about broke his heart but he got to school anyway.

Henry taught the boys to drive. John was the last one to be taught how to drive by Henry long before he was really old enough to drive. He taught all the older boys how to drive pretty early on as well.

To be continued...