Fanny Jane Young
LIFE STORY OF
FANNIE JANE YOUNG
Fannie Jane Young Ross was born at Charleston, Wasatch County, Utah, August 13, 1881. Her Father was David Toomer Young. Her Mother was Mary McDonald Young.
When she was a very young child they moved to Heber City, Utah, where they lived until Janie was about 12 or 13 years old. She was the oldest of 10 children. While they lived at Heber, Janie’s father taught her to milk cows, saying she might have to milk cows some day for a living.
She at a very young age went to stay the night with her paternal grandmother Young. This grandmother was Sarah Young. She lived in a dirt roofed one room house, and had on her bed a straw mattress or tick as they called them and on top of this is a feather tick. They had strong winds at Heber in those days and the grandmother would get up all hours of the night worrying for fear the roof would cave in and praying that it wouldn’t.
This grandmother was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and very staunch in her religion. She always said her prayers at night and other times during the day. She took Janie to church on Sundays and here Janie learned to love going to church. She always loved to go to church and was still saying this at 92 years of age.
She would wash dishes and learned to scrub her grandmothers floors which were wood all over as far as the bed, but under the bed was dirt floor with some straw.
Later after this grandmother passed away she went to stay with grandmother McDonald, who was the first wife of William McDonald. Her name was Sariah. While staying with this grandmother Janie milked her two cows night and morning and also helped with the house work. She was probably 10 or 11 years old then.
They named her after her two aunts, Fathers sister was Fannie and Mothers sister was Jane. She worked for both of these aunts. They would pay her 50 cents a week and her aunt Jane also bought her some dresses. She was so proud of these dresses.
At one time she worked for her mothers cousin, Mary Willis who was the photographer of Heber City at the time.
When she was about 12 or 13 the family moved to Ashley Valley which in now Vernal, Utah. Here Janie soon found a job doing house work. She was always ambitious. She loved to work and did everything well. She didn’t want anyone to ever think she was lazy. When she was 14 years old a month before her 15th birthday she married Isaac Ross who was born and raised at Midway, Utah. His family had moved to Vernal before the Young’s did. He was 19 1/2 years old.
Janie loved children and brought 11 of them into the world. She was a very devoted and loving wife and mother. Her whole life was spent making her home and family comfortable.
She was very energetic and economical. She could prepare a nice meal when there was very little in the house to make with.
She scrubbed the families clothing on a washboard each week and always when she was through washing the clothes she would scrub her floors with the suds as water was hard to carry from a ditch. She carried the water from the ditch for all household uses as well as for drinking. She has chopped wood for the fire to cook the meal many times when our father and the boys were busy taking care of our big farm. She has milked the cows, churned butter, and baked 8 loaves of bread nearly every day for a large family.
She had a garden which she took pride in. She was always up at dawn and either out hoeing the garden or went across the field and picked currents while the family was still asleep. These currents she would have all stemmed, washed and into a pie for our noon meal. Many times she did this to make our meal nice and complete.
Besides our farm, father had a ranch at Mountain Home, Utah, where he would put our herd cattle on the range to graze through the summer months while he planted the crops of hay, grain, corn and such for the feeding of the stock through the winter. He would take mother and the family when school was out in the spring to this summer home. Mother and our oldest brother would take care of the ranch here while he planted and took care of his crops. Here Mother would help milk cows and churn the butter and also she made many a large round cheese. The older children would help but most of us were too young to do very much those days.
When the family grew up and got married each one would go get mother to work for them when they had the babies. She would leave her home and go stay with these children do all the work, washing, cooking their meals and taking care of the mother and new babies until they could get on their feet again. She worked very hard for years but seemed to enjoy it.
When the crops were ready to harvest in the fall of the year Father would have the wheat and grain threshers come to thresh out our grain. There would be several men in this crew and they would always eat several meals at our house as father had many bushels of grain and it took a few days to get it all done. Mother did all the cooking for these meals and they were like banquets. We would have such meals as roast beef and beef steaks, whipped potatoes and gravy, home made bread and butter and her own canned jam and pickles, cooked vegetables from the garden and always either a pie or cake for dessert. She was a very good cook. She dearly loved to fix a pie or a cream cake for company. Or make something special for her grandchildren who always seemed to be under foot. No one could make a prune cake or bread, or tell stories while they were gathered around the warm oven quite like grandma.
The family moved from Vernal to American Fork then to Park City. Then to Roosevelt, Utah, where they lived for many of their last years.
After Father passed away she lived with her two daughters most of the time. Life was never comfortable for her after her companion of about 70 years went to live with our Father in Heaven.
She looked forward to being with him again.
Janie was extremely creative and agile with her hands. Her crocheted doilies and runners and lace edgings were appreciated by all who knew her and she never hesitated to teach anyone who wanted to learn how to do this. Her beautiful quilts have made history. With endless hours of cutting, piecing and matching colors of material. She could make the most beautiful bouquet of roses out of an old tin can, a little crepe paper and a bit of chewing gum. Her roses were much in demand by all who saw them.
Her greatest talent was love for all those around her.
In Proverbs King Solomon says “Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies”. Janie was one of these.
There is a story of a little boy who was standing on a street corner selling newspapers. It was a chilly day and his feet were bare on the cold pavement. As he called out the news a woman crossed the street near him. She looked at him and said, “What is your name?” “Johnny.” “Well Johnny, where are your stockings?” “I ain’t got none.” “Where are your shoes?” “Don’t have no shoes either.” Taking him by the hand she said, “Come with me for a minute”. Taking him into a store near by she bought him some shoes and stockings. As he looked at his warm feet in the mirror he looked up and said, “Lady, are you God’s Wife?” “No, Johnny, I’m not God’s Wife. But I am his daughter.” “See!” he said, “I just knew you belonged to his family somehow.”
Like the woman in the story, Janie’s life was a life of love and service. She always exemplified the fact that she was truly --- a daughter of God.
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| Fannie Jane Young and James Isaac Ross. This picture is a colored black and white which was merged from two separate photographs taken at different times. This modified photo was done prior to his death. Kim Chandler Nielsen, their great-granddaughter has the picture in it's original rounded glass frame. |
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| Fannie Jane Young and James Isaac Ross at their home in Roosevelt Utah just prior to his death.. |
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| This is James Isaac Ross's Word War I draft registration card. |