I was born December 1, 1921, in Ogden Utah, to Buena May Anderson and Porter Squires Tillotson.  Mine was the fourth generation to live at 748-24th Street.  I attended Madison School, the same as my father.  Also, my first teaching assignment was at Madison School.  I was assistant to my own first grade teacher.

After graduation from Ogden High School I attended Weber College for two years, then Utah State Agricultural College in Logan, graduating with a BA degree in 1943.

I met my husband, Farrel Francom, in an 8:00 AM history class winter quarter.  We had an enjoyable courtship spring quarter before he marched off with the marines.  World War II was on.  We married on the 14th of March 1945, in the Salt Lake Temple.

Five valiant little spirits were born to us, Karen Lynn, Steven Farrel, Daren Craig, Denise, and Diane.  I was a stay-at-home mom until we realized how difficult it would be to send our children to college and on missions.

Karen was ready to graduate from high school.  I would need a fifth year of schooling to teach in Moses Lake, Washington, where we were rearing our children.  In preparation I attended summer school two years at Ellensbury Washington College.  After teaching two years, a Slingerland workshop was offered in Moses Lake for two summers.  At last I could reach the slower children!  The program was good for top students as well.  It gave me the basics needed to teach in a structured way, blending for reading and spelling and for writing.  I was motivated to work hard and it was well worth it.  The longer I used the program the better teacher I became, and the students made greater progress.

The last two years in Moses Lake I taught only learning disable or ADD children.  These children were all average IQ or above.  They just needed more repetition so that the sounds and rules could come automatically to them.

And so I taught ten years in Moses Lake, Washington, two years in Salt Lake, and eight years in Box Elder (Brigham City), as Farrel’s transfers came along.

Perhaps it wasn’t always in the best interest of my children to have a working mother.  I feel now that I put too much time into the schoolwork.  On the other hand, I think the children grew from the experience.

From then on the girls made their own clothes, even their own wedding dresses.  The two boys and summer jobs where they learned to work hard.  Like their father, they became good fix-it men.  They always find things to repair when they visit me in St. George.

Each child has been a pleasure to have in our family, righteous and trustworthy, and active in the church.  Four have served missions.  The most difficult thing now is that we are so scattered we can rarely get together as a complete family.  Hopefully we can all be together in Heaven!  Let us work toward that end.

Farrel Jay Francom was born to Mary Ann Cole and Joseph Francom on the 3rd of July, 1919, in Elwood, Utah, the youngest of ten children.  He learned to work hard growing up on the farm in Elwood and on the dry farm in Snowville.  When the weather was too wet for farming, they could always mend fences or repair machinery.

Farrel filled a mission in New England.  He graduated from Utah State Agricultural College with a BS degree in Agronomy and Soils.  He was hired as a fieldman for Utah Idaho Sugar Company in Toppenish, Ellensburg, and Moses Lake, Washington.

After World War II, the Columbia Basin Irrigation Project was established.  Farrel was made Agriculture Superintendent for that area, where he helped establish sugar beets as a major crop from 1967 to 1972.  He was made research agronomist for Utah and Idaho from 1972 to 1979.  In 1979 the company got out of the sugar business and purchased company farms instead.  Farrel spent the last five years before retirement as a chemical technician for Thiokol Corporation, from 1979 to 1984.

Farrel and Helen bought several new homes as his work assignments necessitated moves.  Farrel proved his building skills by finishing several basements with lots of storage.  He landscaped the yards beautifully.  Each year he raised a large vegetable garden.

Wherever we lived, he thoroughly enjoyed his church responsibilities.  He was an outgoing people person with a great sense of humor.  He was helpful to neighbors, especially the elderly.  Lucille Berchtold said she could write a book on the things he had done for her.  He carried his tools when he visited his children, sang in their church choirs and was comfortable wherever he was.

As his health began to decline, Farrel and Helen made their move from Brigham City to St. George, Utah.  They would be near a dialysis center.  Helen did not want to be left alone with the big yard to care for and to have to drive in ice and snow.  Farrel was anxious that she be well cared for.  How blessed she has been to have such a good, righteous man for a husband.  How blessed their children have been to have had Farrel for their father.  He passed away on February 5, 1996.

Porter Squires Tillotson was born October 3, 1891, to Charlotte Squires and Charles Tillotson, the second of five sons, in Ogden, Utah.

One thing that makes Squires unique is his penchant for figures and dates.  From his own record of events I count 143 dates, most with days of months and years.

Somewhat related to such attention to detail is his tithing record – to the penny.  Imagine a young man of 20 who sets a goal to pay $10,000 tithing in his lifetime.

In 1952 he met his goal.  After that he recorded the amounts over $10,000.  In 1973, his last entry was $25,858.65.  He passed away in August, 1974.

His projects also were well thought out and planned for.  He had two weeks vacation coming every year.  The years they were not homesteading in Wyoming or working on the Brigham City fruit farm, they took trips.  Squires would figure out how far he would travel each day, anticipated time of arrival to the destination, with 10-minute intervals when he could rejuvenate with a little nap.  At such times the family would pile out of the car and take a walk.

As a lad Squires worked for his father on Saturdays, after school, and summers, in his broom factory.  After completing eighth grade, he took some business courses.  Through a civil service exam he accepted an appointment in the office of Chief Signal Officer of the Army, Washington DC.  From there he enlisted in the US Army in March 1918.  He enlisted as a private and was discharged as a corporal January 21, 1919.  He was then reinstated in civil service, in the US Bureau of Public Roads, in the Ogden, Utah office.

He married Buena May Anderson on December 22, 1920, in the Manti Temple.  They had four children, Helen, Joseph, Marion, and Joyce.

Their tranquil life in Ogden was interrupted in 1942.  World War II was on.  Squires was assigned to help open up offices for the Alcan (Alaska, Canada) highway project, working in Seattle, Edmonton, Chicago, and Washington DC for two and a half years.

On completion of that road, he was transferred to the Denver, Colorado office where he was Administrative Manager of the Colorado District.  He retired December 31, 1954.  He was asked to stay in Denver temporarily as Bishop of Barnum Ward, Denver Stake, from October 18, 1953 to December 19, 1954.

Squires and Buena served a mission to the West Central States.  They labored in Fort Washaki, Wyoming, and Minneapolis, Minnesota.  Here they felt close to President Kimball.  As a young man Squires served a mission in Great Britain from 1912-1914.

At retirement they moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, where Squires worked in the temple as an ordinance worker until his health declined.

He will be known by his family and friends as a kind, loving, Christ-like man.  He never swore or picked up bad habits; was trustworthy and honest in his dealings.  In Ogden it was Squires who was assigned to pick up the office payroll every two weeks.  It must have made him feel good to get his in a wad of ones to stash in the oil can above the closet.

Buena May Anderson Tillotson was born March 29, 1898, in Fairview, Sanpete County, Utah.  She was the fourth child of John A. Anderson and Lucinda Sanderson Anderson.  Two of the older children had previously died, leaving Buena the oldest daughter of the ten children.  With little ones there was often sickness in the home, so much responsibility was place don Buena’s shoulders.  She learned at an early age homemaking skills of cooking, sewing, and caring for children.

On occasion she visited her aunt and uncle, Mary and Owen Sanderson, then bishop of the Ogden Sixth Ward.  Here she met her future husband, Porter Squires Tillotson.  They were married December 22, 1920.  For their first home they remodeled the house at 748-24th Street, where Squires’ parents and grandparents had lived.

Though Squires didn’t grow up on a farm, he always hankered for country living, loved the outdoors, the visits to his Grandma Squires in Brigham City, and the romps through her field.

After Buena’s parents moved from Fairview to a ranch in McKinnon, Wyoming, Buena and Squires homesteaded 640 acres next to her father’s ranch.  Buena and her small children lived there summers.  On occasional weekends squires would commute from Ogden.  Theirs was beautiful virgin land that had never been lived on: rolling hills, sagebrush, lots of cedars, 1 ½ groves of pines and quaking aspens.  Wild flowers covered the hills and scores of bluebirds soared overhead and perched in the cedars.  In the pines were some springs.  A stream of sparkling clean water ran past the little two-roomed house on the hillside.

Buena walked the children to her parents’ home most every day where there was always lots of activity.  She enjoyed quilting with her mother and sister.

When the wild berries were ripe, the Anderson clan would pile into a horse drawn wagon, head for the hills to pick berries.  Buena kept a crock-pot of sagebrush tea on hand.  Children learned to love eating dandelion and pigweed greens.  On picnics in to the pine grove they could garnish their sandwiches with watercress from the spring.

After gaining title to the land, Buena and Squires said good-bye to that project and its pleasant memories.  No way could they develop the land further and they would be burdened with taxes.

They next turned their attention to Brigham City and the five-acre fruit farm that had been Squires’ brother Ephraim’s.  The goal for this project was to earn $2,000 from the fruit.  Buena and Squires would match that money, leaving $1,000 to each of their four children for their education.  Now Buena and the children lived in Brigham during the summers.  Squires came on the weekends.  All worked very hard.  Buena supervised the pickers and bargained with the fruit peddlers.  In any spare time she was picking dewberries with the rest of them.  Joe was her right hand man.  Marion was needed at the house to tend little Joyce.  When that project ended, the farm was turned back to Ephraim.

Buena’s greatest joy was homemaking and raising her four children.  She kept a clean, orderly house, painted kitchen and bathrooms often, and papered the other rooms.  Of course she canned lots of fruit.  She made most of the clothing for herself and the girls, found much enjoyment in crocheting, embroidering, and quilting.

At one time or another she worked in all the church organizations and supported her husband in his church callings.

She was always on hand for the birth of a grandchild, arriving well in advance of the blessed event so she could assist with the other children.  She and Squires established a missionary fund to help support their grandchildren.  Eleven of their seventeen grandchildren filled missions.

In November of 1973 Squires suffered a stroke.  Buena cared for him at home until he was mobile again.  He passed away quietly on August 8, 1974.

Tragedy of Tragedies!

Grandpa Anderson sheared the sheep that grew the wool that grandma washed and carded, batting for the tops that grandma pieced and quilted.  She was anticipating a big party where she could present each grandchild with an heirloom quilt.  Unfortunately, before the event, the ranch house burned to the ground and with it, all the quilts!

Burgoyne, Charlotte Tillotson. Remembering John & Mary Rycroft Tillotson and their Descendants: Autobiography of Helen Tillotson. Mesa: Cox Printing, 2001.  Scanned 11 Mar 2006 by J.F.