Annie Elizabeth Brady was born October 25, 1886, in Fairview,
Sanpete, Utah, the daughter of Simeon Henderson Brady and Annie Ostensen. She
was the third child and the first daughter in a family of 11 children. She was
blessed January 5, 1887 by Bishop A. Tucker. On the 30th of August 1896, she
was baptized by Jorden H. Brady and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter Day Saints on the same day by Samuel Bills.
Not much is known
of her early life except that she lived with her parents and other brothers and
sisters on a farm north of Fairview. Her mother always made sure that the
children went to Church and attended to their other religious duties.
Elizabeth attended
school in Fairview, graduating from Fairview schools. She went to one year at
Snow College in Ephraim, Utah where she studied dress making.
During her school
years, the only transportation they had was with a horse and buggy that the
children drove themselves. This way, they took the younger members of the
family too. A pet mare by the name of "Minnie" was the horse they
always used. She was gentle and very dependable but had one bad habit. If the
person who was tying her to the hitching post did not watch her, she would bite
them on the arm. Mother often didn't watch close enough and had black and blue
marks on her arm where she had been bitten by that horse. But they loved her
just the same. Many stories are told about old "Minnie." Elizabeth's
father, Grandpa Brady, was a very friendly man and would stop and talk to
everyone he met. Minnie soon learned this and would take every opportunity to
stop.
One day,
Grandmother and Elizabeth were on their way to Fairview with some butter and
eggs they were taking to the market. Grandmother was holding them on her lap so
they wouldn't get spilled. They saw one of the most prominent men in the
community approaching them. Grandmother, being a very shy woman, didn't want to
stop and talk to him, so she told Elizabeth to hit old Minnie with the whip so
she wouldn't stop. Elizabeth applied the whip and Minnie lunged forward, then
stopped dead still, throwing them off their seats and spilling all of the
butter and eggs, and embarrassing them before the distinguished gentleman.
If Elizabeth and
her sisters went to town at night for any entertainment, they had to take the
horse and buggy. One night while Elizabeth and Caroline were coming home after
a party, they heard a terrible noise behind them which sounded like someone
screaming. It frightened them and they hurried old Minnie home as fast as she
could go. On reaching home, they told their father of the experience and he
said that mountain lions and wolves had been following them as wolves and lions
lived in this country too. Grandfather would never allow the girls to make that
trip after dark again so they spent many nights in town with their
grandparents.
Life on the farm
was hard. They had so much work but very little money. Elizabeth, being the
oldest girl, had to help raise her sisters. I can remember mother saying that
when she was a little girl she didn't think her mother knew any other name but
hers, as she was always being asked to do something. The women and children
always had to raise a big garden so they would have plenty of food to eat. They
had to wash clothes by hand, and scrubbing on a board for eleven people was not
a picnic! The girls had to share in the milking of cows and the churning of
butter, and many other things related to farm life, yet they loved the farm and
were a very happy family.
When Elizabeth was
20 years of age, she got a job working for "The Gold Mountain Mining
Camp" in Southern Utah, as a cook. She and one other girl did all of the
cooking for about 100 men. It was her job to do all of the baking. She would
use about 50 pounds of flour a day. She didn't stay with this job for very long
but it was a wonderful experience and was very valuable to her for the rest of
her life. She became one of the best pastry cooks of her day.
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