Marriage of Ellis Clark Ivory and Mary Erma Nielsen

My great-grandfather, Ellis Clark Ivory, wrote a short personal history prior to his death in 1971. Part of that history was typed from Clark's handwriting onto a typewriter. I assume this was my grandfather, Clark's son, who typed part of it. The rest is still in Clark's handwriting. I have been reading through this personal history and typing up the latter half that is not typed. I have a copy of a copy of the original handwritten version, so between the handrwriting being difficult to read and the copy quality not being the best, the handwritten stuff is kind of hard to read. Therefore I am going through and typing up the latter half. I am transcribing the history, so any spelling, grammar, or other mistakes I am typing as-is to preserve what Clark wrote. I will add any clarifications as needed in brackets.

Chapter six of his personal history is all about his and Erma's wedding and honeymoon. Clark began the chapter talking about how high school was over, so he "had to start looking at life just a little different."

​My girl friend and I were getting pretty serious and even though we were just kids we loved each other and started talking about the future which caused me to start thinking about what I was really going to be. It was hard for me to stay out with the sheep but Ivory Bros. had formed a company and I thought that would be it, so I stayed with the sheep as much as I could.

Clark proceeds to talk about how his father, George Washington Ivory, was a licensed real estate salesman at the time and how Ivory Bros. purchased a ranch in Lonetree, Wyoming. Clark went to go work on the ranch during the summer and fall of that year. This would have been either 1924 or 1925 based on when Clark would have completed high school and when him and Erma got married, but Clark does not specify in the history.

I stayed out there until just before Christmas. At that time while I was preparing to go home. [A] little sixteen year old girl, her name was Mona Pape and she was a pretty little thing one day she said, why do you go home, I will be your girl. It was kind of tempting but the letters which I was getting from Moroni were getting pretty mushie so the temptation wasn’t to hard to react. [These letters were coming from Erma.] I could hardly wait for Rube to come out and get me. I remember it took us a full day to get to Lyman and another full day to get to Evanston, then the next day to Salt Lake. There was no oiled roads and it was just fighting mud all the time.

​That little girl from Moroni [Erma] came up to Salt Lake to meet me and it was really great. I am sure that absence made the heart grow fonder. I guess we really loved each other even though we were just kids. We went into Daynes Jewelery and picked out a beautiful diamond ring. It cost me one hundred and ten dollars. I didn’t have that much money but I payed the rent on time so on Christmas we became engaged to be married, that was to be in June. I would be back to Wyoming for the rest of the winter and then in June we would be married and take over a summer herd at Last Creek.

The Dayne's Building still stands in Salt Lake City today. The jewlery store no longer exists, but the exterior or the building wholy remains, inlcuding the large sign on the side of the building. The main floor of the building today is known as the Beer Hive, a very popular pub located in the middle of downtown Salt Lake City.

Figure 1 - Dayne's Building in Salt Lake City, Utah.

​After the holidays were over I went back to Lone Tree but it just wasn’t the same and I became so homesick I could hardly stand it. In the first part of February Rube came out he could see what bad shape I was in and suggested that I go home for a while which sounded good to me, so we proceeded to find our way home.

​Maybe it wasn’t hardly fair to that little gal to just go down to Moroni and surprise her because when I got down there I found her to a party with another fellow. I didn’t like that at all because I thought that was what the ring was for and it made me feel quite bad so the first thing I thought of was to get married and not wait until June. I guess I was really afraid someone might steal her away from me.

​We became so excited about getting married we never even thought about the temple or anything else. The main thing was to just get married as fast as we could. It meant getting my parents consent because I was only twenty years old, so on Feb 23 – 1926 we were married.

​On February 23 at about 7: oclock in the morning we left Moroni in a little Star automobile which we rented from our brother in law for ten dollars. I was an open air type so we had to bundle up pretty good, we took lot of hot brick with us to keep our feet warm, we had my intented Mother in law with us and was to pick up my Mother a we got to Fountain Green as you know I’ve had to have her along because I was not old enough, It was winter weather and we had quite a time getting over the divide and then the canyon but we made it to Nephi when we had made arrangements for a Bishop Bailey to meet us at the court house where we were to be married.

Figure 3 - Photograph of a White Star automobile, similar to the one Clark and Erma used on their wedding day.

Figure 2 - Advertisement of White Star Automobiles

​We had to hurry real fast because my mother was to go back to Ftn Green on the little old Sanpete train and you know – it run once a day. We made it all right and then my Mothers in Law, my wife and myself was on our way to Garfield, a little town out by the Kennecott Smelter, we were to leave the mothers in law there and then go on in to Salt Lake for our honey moon. It was night when we got into Salt Lake and found the Wilson hotel, where my Father was staying most of the time, he was expecting us and was there to meet us. He seemed happy for our marriage, he seemed to love this little girl almost as much as I did. We arranged for a very nice room. We had a very nice dinner and then went to the Pantages Theater with my Dad and E. F. Johnson.

​We spent a couple of days just seeing Salt Lake City. We were very happy, my dad was realy a great guide, showed us a lot of things we did not know about.

​We went back out to Garfield where Cloyd and Lula were living to get Erma’s mother, then went on back to Moroni.

​Now I was a married man with a responsibility and a very lonely little wife, we were very very happly even though I only had fifty dollars in my pocket which my brother Rube had given me.

​After a few day of just being happly I went back to Lone Tree for the rest of the winter leaving my wife to live with her folks but I felt sure that she would be true to me now that we were married and she was. It was hard to stay at Lone Tree now that we were married but I felt the responsibility and just dreamed about spring and summer and when we could be together again.

The story of their lives continue past this point in Clark's history, but more of that will continue in another post.

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Sources:

Figure 1: Shipler Commercial Photographers, photographer, “Daynes Building, Daynes Jewelry Company,” photograph, (no city, no state: Shipler Commercial Photographers, 1906); “Daynes Building, Daynes Jewelry Company,” Shipler Commercial Photographers, Utah Departments of Heritage & Arts, J. Willard Marriot Library, University of Utah (https://collections.lib.utah.edu), accessed January 2017.

Figure 2: ​Unknown author, “White Star Automobiles,” advertisement, (unknown city, unknown state: unknown publisher, unknown year); digital image, “The White Star Automobile & The White Star Co.,” American Automobiles (http://www.american-automobiles.com/White-Star.html), accessed January 2017.

Figure 3: ​Unknown author, “1911 White Star Touring Car & Roadster,” photograph, (unknown city, unknown state: unknown publisher, unknown year); digital image, “The White Star Automobile & The White Star Co.,” American Automobiles (http://www.american-automobiles.com/White-Star.html), accessed January 2017.

Figure 4: Shipler Commercial Photographers, photographer, “Wilson Hotel P.1,” photograph, (no city, no state: Shipler Commercial Photographers, 1906); “Wilson Hotel P.1,” Classified Photographs, Utah Departments of Heritage & Arts, J. Willard Marriot Library, University of Utah (https://collections.lib.utah.edu), accessed December 2016.

Figure 5: Shipler Commercial Photographers, photographer, “Wilson Hotel Sign,” photograph, (no city, no state: Shipler Commercial Photographers, 1908); “Wilson Hotel Sign,” Classified Photographs, Utah Departments of Heritage & Arts, J. Willard Marriot Library, University of Utah (https://collections.lib.utah.edu), accessed December 2016.

Figure 6: Shipler Commercial Photographers, photographer, “Wilson Hotel P.6,” photograph, (no city, no state: Shipler Commercial Photographers, 1935); “Wilson Hotel P.6,” Classified Photographs, Utah Departments of Heritage & Arts, J. Willard Marriot Library, University of Utah (https://collections.lib.utah.edu), accessed December 2016.

Figure 7: Shipler Commercial Photographers, photographer, “Wilson Hotel P.5,” photograph, (no city, no state: Shipler Commercial Photographers, 1935); “Wilson Hotel P.5,” Classified Photographs, Utah Departments of Heritage & Arts, J. Willard Marriot Library, University of Utah (https://collections.lib.utah.edu), accessed December 2016.

Figure 8: Shipler Commercial Photographers, photographer, “Wilson Hotel P.7,” photograph, (no city, no state: Shipler Commercial Photographers, 1945); “Wilson Hotel P.7,” Classified Photographs, Utah Departments of Heritage & Arts, J. Willard Marriot Library, University of Utah (https://collections.lib.utah.edu), accessed December 2016.

Figure 9: Shipler Commercial Photographers, photographer, “Pantages Theatre P.14,” photograph, (no city, no state: Shipler Commercial Photographers, 1920); “Pantages Theatre P.14,” Classified Photographs, Utah Departments of Heritage & Arts, J. Willard Marriot Library, University of Utah (https://collections.lib.utah.edu), accessed December 2016.

Figure 10: Shipler Commercial Photographers, photographer, “Kearns Building, Pantages Theatre,” photograph, (no city, no state: Shipler Commercial Photographers, 1920); “Kearns Building, Pantages Theatre,” Classified Photographs, Utah Departments of Heritage & Arts, J. Willard Marriot Library, University of Utah (https://collections.lib.utah.edu), accessed December 2016.

Figure 11: ​Shipler Commercial Photographers, photographer, “Pantages Theatre Entrance,” photograph, (no city, no state: Shipler Commercial Photographers, 1920); “Pantages Theatre Entrance,” Classified Photographs, Utah Departments of Heritage & Arts, J. Willard Marriot Library, University of Utah (https://collections.lib.utah.edu), accessed December 2016.