Ione Perkins Hunt
Birth: 11 March 1894 at Bluff, San Juan, Utah, USA
Parents: Benjamin Perkins and Sarah Williams
Married: Marion Perle Hunt 02 October 1914 at Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, USA
Death: 5 July 1956 at Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, USA
LIFE SKETCH OF IONE PERKINS HUNT
By sisters Gladys P. Lyman, and Irene P. Lyman and daughters, Ilene Hurst, and Helen Woods (adapted)Tiny little twin girls arrived March 11, 1894, at the two-room log cabin home of Sarah and Benjamin Perkins in Bluff, Utah. To the older children in the family, it seemed like a miracle had happened, when they returned home after spending the day with relatives and found two little bundles of babies.
The twins together barely weighed five pounds. How could they be cared for...what means used to keep warmth and life in those little bodies...how could they be fed? There were no incubators in which to place them, no medical skill to call on, no conveniences whatsoever in Bluff in those days.
But those people were pioneers and through their faith and ingenuity always found ways to meet new and strange situations. Two wicker baskets with handles that could be used to carry them, were lined with a baby blanket, then a thick layer of cotton batting, the babes wrapped in diapers then in cotton and placed in the baskets with flasks of warm water placed around them.
That water was carried from a well about a block away then heated on a wood burning stove. It had to be kept warm 24 hours a day. A good part of the time the little hearts failed to function properly causing the babies to have spasms, from which it seemed they could not recover. Many times they were pronounced dead and the minutes seemed hours before they showed signs of life. But through constant vigilance, faith, prayer, and the power of the priesthood, they lived through it. It was months before they could even be dressed.
Aunt Jody Wood was the “doctor”. She was astonished and almost dismayed with the twins arrived. “Aunt Jody” was not a professionally trained doctor. She was a woman who had been called and set apart by the priesthood to fill this position. Everyone loved her very much, and she was a very capable woman.
These babies were given the names of Irene and Ione. Mary Ellen, Beatrice Ann, Sarah Elizabeth, Gladys, and Richard Leonard preceded the twins. When Ione was about three years old, scarlet fever was contracted and each one of the family had a siege of it, even to Alberta, who had joined the family when the twins were only 18 months old. The family was in quarantine for 13 weeks.
A little later on the twins had a relapse, complications set in, and again their lives almost despaired of, especially Ione. She had brain fever they said. Brother Platte D. Lyman was called in to administer to her and he told her mother that sometimes after long spells of such high fevers a person's brain might be permanently damaged and he advised releasing her to the Lord. Ione had such a pale little face and her big burning eyes and restless little hands picking at her ears till they were bleeding. So her hands were covered with mittens.
That siege of sickness passed, only to have a second relapse to both twins. A doctor came from Mancos, Colorado, and he said it was their kidneys, and unless they were taken to a hospital immediately, they could not live. How could that be, a hospital was a week away with team and wagon! A lady in Moab heard of their plight and sent word to their mother to steep watermelon seeds and give them the tea. Again the Lord was in charge and they lived!
All through Ione’s childhood she suffered with intense headaches and what was called growing pains in her legs, causing her not only to suffer greatly, but to miss many a happy time other children enjoyed. When yet a small child, she went rushing out to greet her father who had just returned home after quite an extended absence. He was just turning the horses into the gate as Ione reached it, and was knocked down by one of the horses and trampled. But again by the power of the priesthood she was preserved, as she was through sieges of chicken pox, measles, mumps, and other ailments.
The children were allowed to play away from home once a week, usually on a Saturday, and they had to be home by sundown. They spent a lot of times playing games such as “Hide and Go Seek”, “Steal Sticks” and “Run, Sheep, Run”. In the summertime they hoed corn and beans for neighbors to help the family finances. Irene recalls, “One year after Brother Peter Allan harvested his beans, I picked up enough beans to pay for a slate. We used slate and pencil a lot in those days. I divided my slate with my twin sister Ione as it was a double one put together like a book.”
The family enjoyed gathering wild sweet peas and climbing the hill where the cemetery was. On May Day the Primary, with the mothers and children, would ride up Cow Canyon or Calf Canyon and sometimes Sand Island down the river. They were wonderful trips.
For Christmas the children were glad if they got a few nuts and candy in their stockings, or, on rare occasions, a new hair ribbon, story book or an apple or an orange.
Irene related the time she and several of her sisters were hoeing weeds in a neighbor’s corn field. They had to cross a canal. Sadie got on one side and Gladys on the other. One would try to throw the younger girls across. They all made it except Irene, who landed in the middle of the canal. It was very swift and she nearly drowned before one of them caught Irene by the hair and dragged her out.
The years passed and Ione grew to be an attractive young lady. Though she lacked opportunities of getting a formal education, she was adept at many things. Quoting her sister, Sarah Elizabeth, "Ione had an alert, quick mind, with a particularly keen sense of humor. Few there were who could surpass or even equal her in repartee. This characteristic, with her fun-loving nature, made her good company and a welcome member of social groups."
On the 2nd of October, 1914, Ione and Marion Perle Hunt were married in the Salt Lake Temple, and to this union six children were also born: Lamont Marion, Ilene, Benjamin, Beatrice, Richard Leonard, and Helen. Marion was a good provider and their home was a place where people liked to gather, for Ione was a good cook and she and Marion delighted to have people eat with them. She loved music. Marion bought her an organ and she could play most any tune she ever heard on it. She especially loved the church hymns. She also enjoyed playing the mouth harp and guitar.
Ione dearly loved the Elk Mountain where Marion served as forest ranger at Kigalia Station, and the beauties of nature which surrounded her there, in spite of the many inconveniences. Her daughter, Helen, remembers watching her doing the family wash out on the porch. All the water had to be carried from the well at the bottom of the hill, then heated in the boiler on the wood stove. It was quite a process to get the weekly laundry finished. She remembers as a child how the children helped by carrying their small buckets up the hill and slopping half the water all over them before they reached the top.
Ione enjoyed the walk down to the garden just outside the station gates, and enjoyed the process of the planting and harvesting of this little garden which kept the family supplied with fresh produce all summer.
Helen said, “I recall she and daddy (and often the whole family) going over to the Ed Nielson's cabin. They enjoyed each other’s company and were good friends throughout their life. I recall the excitement of moving back and forth from the Elk to Bluff or Blanding so that we could attend school. I can almost see mother packing the dishes so carefully in her old faithful Maytag washing machine.”
One of the things Ione enjoyed doing most was sewing. And it was a familiar sight to see her at the sewing machine happily engaged in making some cute thing for one of her children, and later for her grandchildren.
Ione loved Bluff. It was home for her for the most part of her life. She spoke of what a beautiful place the "old meetinghouse" was and what a sad event it was when it burned. She loved to walk down to the river as she loved the scenic beauty of the cliffs and enjoyed the pretty cliff flowers.
Ione also loved their big rock house in Bluff, (one of the nicest ones there) and she took so much pride in its appearance inside and out. There was a beautiful vine which covered the complete front of her home, and my, but she admired it, along with some pretty yellow rose bushes in the front yard.
The family had company or friends and neighbors in their home very often. Ione and Marion were most gracious hosts, and were among the most admired and respected people in the surrounding communities.
Ione admired her husband for his very good job with the Forest Service and was proud of his devotion and interest in his work, and for being such a good provider. She admired him also for his thoughtfulness in remembering birthdays, anniversaries, etc. Whenever he was out of town he never failed to bring some sweet gift to her and always something to delight their children. She was proud and thankful for their home, the necessities and many luxuries provided for her. She diligently strived to make it a "haven of love and happiness." Marion wasn’t one who actually took the initiative in teaching the children the spiritual aspects of life, although he would always defend the teaching of the Church and would bear testimony of the truth. Instead it was she who gathered the children around the stove for family prayers and taught them to have their own individual prayers.
Ione was proud of her children. Ilene was the scholar of the family, and was loving and considerate to her and a most independent individual. Ben had talent galore and made his folks very proud of his ability to write poetry or songs or stories or whatever he might set his mind to. They bought him a guitar at a fairly early age and he became quite efficient. As all proud parents do, they gave him the opportunity to perform very frequently. Helen doesn’t remember of R. L. or herself having very many of the above mentioned qualities, although she does remember that R. L. had artistic ability that she envied.
Lamont was a most obedient boy, and a source of joy and happiness in his few years. He accidentally drowned at age eight. BeBe was considered a very bright child, but she succumbed to diphtheria at age five and one-half (January 31, 1928) in a Cortez hospital. Ione was also proud to count her niece, Freeda Perkins, as part of her family, and she loved her as her own.
Ione’s life wasn't always a happy, pleasant one. In fact she endured many tragedies and sorrows. And Ione herself was never entirely well from the day of her birth when she had to struggle for survival. In 1936, she began having seizures and many, many times it was feared she couldn't live through another day. It was around this time Marion began drinking heavily, which only aggravated her condition. As a course of speculation, perhaps his wife’s condition worried him and he attempted to drown his sorrows, which of course brought only heartache and sadness to all concerned.
When he realized his condition and its effect on his job, he resigned just a year or two before his death. This left Ione with two children to raise and absolutely no income of any source. In spite of these conditions, his sudden death, 24 October 1938, brought much grief and sorrow to their home. They had been one of the most respected and well to do families in the surrounding communities; now they faced these adverse conditions as best they could.
It’s hard to imagine how Ione ever carried on. Her seizures became more and more frequent. One of the hardest things she had to do was to accept help from the State Welfare, but it was dire necessity, and trying to live on $18.00 a month was certainly no easy thing.
Then another tragedy came. Their home in Bluff burned to the ground on November 4, 1940, and only a very few belongings were saved. Nearly every material things Ione possessed was gone, leaving only sacred memories. The home was insured for about $6,000, but through the maneuvering of some shady characters involved with the insurance company, and through ignorance of the law on her part, Ione only received a little over $2,000.
With that money Helen and Ione moved to Salt Lake and purchased a little home on 131 W. 3rd North, right next to Ione’s sister, Gladys, and her husband, Albert R. Lyman. They helped immensely in the adjustment to this move, as did her son, Ben and his family who were also living in Salt Lake.
Things began to look somewhat hopeful again. Ione thoroughly enjoyed being close to her mother, to Ben and Ula, Gladys, another sister, Bob, and their families.
After several years she and Helen felt they could better themselves and purchased a home at 1064 Princeton Ave., and then later another darling little home at 2613 Elizabeth Street. Ione really loved this one.
She tried to work in Salt Lake several times, but her health simply wouldn't permit it and many times Ben was notified at his job to come and get her or she was taken home by ambulance. In 1944, when Helen told her she'd made plans to be married to Wes Woods, a military man, Ione felt very much like the bottom had dropped completely out from under her. She was quite relieved when Wes was discharged from the service and he and Helen moved home with her in July of 1945. She soon realized that Wes was a fine son-in-law and appreciated his kindness to her.
As their home only had one bedroom and the family was soon to have an increase, they began looking for a larger place and found a darling home at 1911 Sylvan Ave. They all pooled their resources and bought it. Then Wes was transferred to Elko, Nevada, so the home was rented out and they all moved out there for about nine months. Neither Ione nor Helen particularly enjoyed the time in Nevada, and were happy when they moved back to Salt Lake.
About this time (June, 1946), Ben died in Blanding. This was an especially hard experience for Ione, and became even more difficult as the days passed and there was no letter from Ben, who had always been so faithful to write and to remember her with gifts on special occasions.
Wes joined the service again and Ione chose to remain in Salt Lake; she hated to see Helen’s family leave again. She was left pretty much alone as the family and relatives had moved from Salt Lake. The doctor advised Helen shortly thereafter that Ione should not live alone, so she went with Helen’s family, and they again rented out their home in Salt Lake. Ione rather enjoyed seeing the different parts of the country and took several trips to visit Ilene. But she wasn't entirely happy away from Salt Lake although there wasn't much interest for her there. When Wes and Helen finally moved back to Sylvan Avenue, she was quite happy once again.
In her later years, Ione found great satisfaction reading the scriptures which she kept near her bedside. She loved to hum the hymns that she had loved and sung all her life. In all her sorrows and struggles she never lost her sense of humor. Even in the hospital, in her last sickness, the nurses, doctors, and other patients got many a laugh at her clever quips. She never lost faith. She was a loyal, devoted wife, and a loving, self-sacrificing mother.
She died July 5, 1956, in Salt Lake City. In spite of sadness, her children felt relieved that their mother no longer had to endure the pain and suffering which had been so much a part of her entire life. A funeral was held in Salt Lake on July 7th, and another in Blanding on July 9th, and she was laid to rest in a grave next to her husband’s in Bluff.
Sources:
1.FamilySearch Memories
2. Walton, Elaine Perkins. “Rememberings,” privately published. 1992.
Right-click [Mac Control-click] to open full-size image:
Ione on left, Alberta, Irene and Vilate (seated)
Ione Perkins
Ione Perkins
Ione and Marion Hunt
(composite photo)
Home of Marion and Ione Hunt