Bambudder’s Weblog

     Between 1952 and 1956 my aunt, Johnnie Haggard Hindman, received three letters from an elderly lady from Bell, California.  She was doing the family history of our branch of the Haggard Family in America. ( I am descended from John Quitman Haggard and she is descended from David Carrol Haggard, two of five brothers whose mother was Sarah Pace Haggard, daughter of Edmund Pace and wife of John William Haggard.)   She and her sister, Sarah Haggard Bullard had been working on the Haggard family since about 1924.  She also wrote a short personal history in 1951 when she was about 75 years old.  It was written in her own hand, but was typed from the original copy by Carmen Butler, who put certain of her own comments in parenthesis, except about Indians.  Later it was retyped by Kay Dawn Dortch.  The only change she made was Latter Day to Latter-day and placed in brackets.  No other changes were made, not even those of grammatical editing.

Following is Vida’s own history in her own words.

Before starting this sketch of my life I will say that I am not much on history writing, but as we are record keeping people I will try to live up to my religion.  In making this sketch I will have to write some about my father’s family.

I was born 29 December 1876 in Fearn Springs, Winston County, Mississippi.  My parents were William Adley Haggard, who ws born 8 October 1848 and married Permelia Louisiana Fain 9 October 1873.  She was born 9 May  1856 at Kellis Stoe, Kemper County, Mississippi.  They were married at her mother’s house in Noxubee County, Mississippi.

My father taught school near my Grandmother Fain’s home and my mother went to his school before they were married.  They settled in Winston County, Mississippi, where my father owned a farm of one-hundred-sixty acres.

When my father was three years old he had what we now believe is Polio, and was a cripple for the rest of his life.  However, he was a good provider for his family.  He hired a man to run the farm.  After we children go old enough we helped on the farm.

My father taught school or held county offices.  He was never idle.  He owned and operated a grocery store.  I remember the Darkies used to bring cotton and trade for groceries.

He decided to go out of business and teach again.  He got a school a few miles from our house.  Grandfather took charge of the farm and we moved to what was known as the Bateman neighborhood.

It was while we were there that the humble Mormon Missionaries came to our place.  They first stopped at Mr. Bateman’s and stayed all night.  When his children came to school the next morning they said that two strange preachers stayed at their house the night before.  My father told them when they went home that evening if the men were stiill there to tell them to come over because he wanted to talk to them.  The next day the Elders came over and I think it was my father who asked them to hold a meeting in the schoolhouse.  They were glad to do this, but the men in the neighborhood tried to get a mob to run them out.

A short time after this school was out and we moved back to our farm.  We invited the missionaries to visit us which they did.  As soon as it was known they were visiting us Satan began his work and the mobs got furious.

I remember one Sunday afternoon the missionaries were at our house.  We were sitting out on the front porch and the Elders were singing when a bunch of men rode up, I think there were more than seventeen in all.  It being a new experience for my father he hardly knew what to do.  He asked Elder Bramwell, who was the older of the two, if he did not think they had better hide out in the cornfield which came almost up to the house.  He replied that he did not think so as he thought if they did the mob would surely get them.

My father was a very brave and fearless man and everbody knew it.  He stepped in the house and put his six shooter in his pocket and went down to the gate to where the men were stopped.  They were still sitting on their horses and each man had a gun.  My father asked what they wanted and they said they wanted the Mormon Elders.  Then my father explained who they were and what they were doing, thinking the mob might go away and let them alone, but they would not.  They were going to take them dead or alive.  My father told them that they had better go home and get a wagon for they would haul someone home – That they might get him, but he would get some of them and they did not know which it would be.

We had many trials which I won’t try to tell, but will say that my father and mother, along with three of their children, and my father’s father and my mother’s brother and two of his sisters and mother were baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of {Latter-day) Saints.

The Elders had orders not to come to Winston County again.  My father wrote them while they were in Alabama.  They had to come to the County after dark.  My uncle was to meet them at a certain place and show them the way.  Somehow he got off the road that he was supposed to take to their meeting place.  They also got off the road but they all met.  We always felt if they had not gotten off the road some of those wicked men might have met up with them.

On 10 October 1887 there were thirteen of us baptized at midnight.  After the baptisms were over we spread a lovely lunch the women prepared and enjoyed it.  After talking and visiting until just before time for the missionaries to get out of the County before daylight we all bid farewell to our dearly beloved Elders and they went on their way.  We went home rejoicing in knowing that we were members of the true Church of Jesus Christ.

Shortly after this my father sold his house and everything he owned and we went to Western Colorado where we could live free to live our religion among the {Latter-day} Saints.  This was a newly town where we lived from 1887 to 1889.

We could not stay long because my father contracted rheumatism and had to go to a warmer climate.  He sold our house and bought a team and wagon.  We put all our belongings in the wagon and started out not knowing where we were going.  After a journey of one-thousand-ninety-three miles through a barren and desolate county, (We passed through country where the Indians were not civilized-both man and women dressed alike.) we finally stopped in what was known then as the Creek Nation in a small town of Eufaula.  There my father put up a shoe shop where he did a good business.

We were there for about two years when  my father decided to go back to Mississippi.  We sold our wagon and went by train to our native state.  My parents were not content to be away from the Church so we bought a wagon and a yoke of oxen and started on another journey of five-hundred-forty-seven miles.  We stopped this time at Krebs, Indian Territory for a short time.  We finally settled at Coalgate, Indian Territory.

Soon after we stopped there were two missionaries came to visit and soon we had the missionaries often.  finally there was a Sunday School organized with only four families of Saints.  After that we were more contented and had missionaries often and they held conference there, too.

It was there tht I saw my first miracle performed.  My sister, Sally, was very low and our family doctor said there wwas no chance for her to live.  He had done all he could-it was up to the Lord.  Death was on her, she was cold.  It seemed she would only be with us for a few minutes longer, but our doctor still stayed with us.

I think it was about elevern o’clock at night.  We had just knelt down around her bed when in stepped two missionaries.  We did no know they were anywhere around.  then in just a few seconds it seemed to me, two more Elders came in, and before they could administer to my sister, two more elders arrived.  They administered to her and the next morning we propped her up in bed and she took a little nourishment.  She recovered and is still living.

Sally has done a wonderful lot of good in the world and is still doing all the good she can.  We give all credit to our Heavenly Father.  We know he sent those Elders to us that night in answer to a prayer.  Each pair of Elders said they were inpressed to come to the Haggard home and had come from different directions and each were many miles away.

It was here I met my husband, Samuel Benjamin Dye.  He accepted the gospel in Texas when he was eighteen years of age.  He came to Coalgate with Brother W. C. Harless who, too, was trying to locate the Saints.  This was in 1901 and we were married in 1903 on the 8th of May.

We heard of a Mormon seettlement in Marlow, Oklahoma, as the Indian Territory had become a State. The Sharon Branch was  soon organized after we moved there.  My parents, brothers, and sisters moved there, also.  We stayed for a few years and enjoyed our little branch of the Church.

In 1917 we decided to move to Thatcher, Arizona. {President Spencer W. Kimble’s hometown} We lived there for five years and then moved to Los Angeles, California.  We settled in Home Gardens.  Shortly after we moved there a Branch was organized and my husband was put in as Branch President with Benjamin N. Lincoln as First Counselor and Abinidi Porter, Second Counselor.  In 1925 the Home Gardens became a Ward and he became the first Bishop there.

I think I enjoyed myself more there than anywhere else I have ever lived.  It was where I did the most church work.  I was First Counselor in the Relief Society, also Assistant Secretary and Relief Society Visiting Teacher.  I have been a Visiting Teacher in all the Branches and Wards that I have ever lived in.

I have not mentioned our adopted children.  In 1904 we took a little baby boy eighteen months old.  He was a very sick child.  We nursed him back to health.  His parents deserted him.  He had not had any care and was in a very bad condition. He had been mistreated and had scars on his head where he had been knocked around.  He would not look at anyone and especially when he was eating he kept his eyes closed.  We named him Joeph Clyde Dye and called him Clyde.  We were very careful with him and as kind as we could be so it was not long until he seemed normal and as happy as other children.  He grew up to be  a stong man and was a carpenter by trade.

When Clyde was about five years old a very dear friend passed a way and left a baby girl two weeks old.  It was her dying request that I should have the baby, when she was five weeks old they gave her to us. (She was never adopted by them) Her mother was Mary Cope,  my brother’s mother-in-law.  Her father and brothers and sisters could see her whenever they wanted to.  We called her Mary after her mother.

We felt that our home was complete as we had a little boy and a little girl.  They have brought us lots of joy as well as some sorrow.  I suppose everyone has had joy and sorrow that ever raised a family.  I don’t think any girl ever loved her parents more than Mary loved us, and she has done all she could to make us happy.

We raised them up in the Church.  Our boy has not been as faithful as our girl.  She has worked in the Church ever since she was old enough to teach Primary.  She married a {Latter-day} Saint man her own age, Cyrus Marshall Tolman.  They have been married in the Temple.  He is and always has been very thoughtful of us.  They have had five children and only two of them are living.  (One was born after this history was written and is living).

I have written this sketch from memory.  If there are mistakes they are unintentional.  I am now in my severnty-fifth year.  I go to Chruch on Sunday and to Relief Society on Tuesday.  I do all my own work and help others some.  the greatest thing I possess is a testimony of the Gospel, which I hope and pray I will always have.

Written  in  1951 by Vida Haggard Dye