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CHAPTER X

GOLDEN WEDDING ANNIVERSARY

DURING THE WINTER Of 1924-1925 Ella and I were in Salt Lake City, Utah. We made our home with Pearl and husband, Joseph Nelson, and did work in the Salt Lake Temple. Pearl and Luella, and their husbands, arranged to honor us on the first day of February, the fiftieth anniversary of our marriage.

Quoting from the Arizona Republican, February 1, 1925:

Felicitated and honored by more than one hundred guests, Mr. and Mrs. David K. Udall observed the Golden Anniversary of their wedding at the jade Room in Hotel Utah, in Salt Lake City, according to accounts received by their friends throughout Arizona.

Mr. and Mrs. Udall are spending the winter with their children in Salt Lake City, the state from which they embarked in 1880 with other Mormon pioneers who settled in the St. Johns country of Arizona.

The bride and groom of fifty years were seated under subdued lights in a profusion of flowers sent in by absent children, nephews and nieces. The more than seventy.


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years have dealt kindly with Mr. and Mrs. Udall , who still personify the pioneer spirit which led them to Arizona in 1880. Their friends write that Mr. Udall, still trim, alert and erect, looked the part of a man twenty years his junior. Mrs. Udall carried an old-fashioned bouquet and was charming in a soft gray gown of lace and silk.

Bishop Heber C. Iverson was introduced by Pearl as the master of ceremonies during the rendition of a


GOLDEN WEDDING ANNIVERSARY -- 1925

program appropriate to the occasion. The opening and closing prayers were offered by Presidents Charles H. Hart and A. W. Ivins, respectively. Toasts were proposed by Mrs. Andrew Kimball, Thomas Hull, Dr. Adam S. Bennion and Apostle Orson F. Whitney. These were in-


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terspersed with several musical numbers, among which were "Silver Threads Among the Gold," "Love's Old Sweet Song," and "Little Gray Home in the West." The principal speakers were President Heber J. Grant and Apostle George Albert Smith. From the many fine tributes paid on that occasion, there are quoted excerpts from Elder Smith.

I feel that it is a sacred moment to be permitted to be here on the anniversary of your wedding which occurred fifty years ago. I never think of Brother and Sister Udall but what I think of those sunburned prairie lands in northern Arizona that you ride over on the railway train and thence by team or automobile to St. Johns, When I first went there it was in a "white top" and I will not forget it because I enjoyed the ride. It was an eventful thing to be welcomed into the home of President Udall and to be made to feel that I was an honored guest there, and to realize the real friendship that was in the hearts of his two good wives. It is a memory that I treasure among the other memories of my life. I saw the children in his home coming and going, but I could not for the life of me tell which was the mother of the children. They were all the same. As has been said here tonight, the one good woman has finished her work and gone home. I wonder if she can look down upon those she called dear tonight, and if she can realize how much she contributed to making the success that has been attained by our good brother and sister in whose honor we are meeting tonight.

That sweet spirit that characterized the home was one of the things that made President Udall equal to the task that he set. Those of you who have been there need no description of what they found.

The experiences through which President Udall passed have enriched his life and blessed him. He was even unjustly placed in a penitentiary, but lie did what has been done in other penitentiaries--he took with him the spirit of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and be radiated an influence which I am


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sure will be remembered by those with whom he came in contact. Leaders are born. They are not made. Everybody cannot be a leader. It was a great inspiration to me to go down and see him with his flock--a very interesting experience to see him as he directed the house-building, the planning of roads and reservoirs and water canals, and directed the people with reference to their business affairs and led them into the hallowed presence of our Father in Heaven in the Churches that were built in his district.

People followed President Udall because they knew be was a man of God, and they honored and respected him because they saw in him a man who dared to do right, who bad courage. He never flinched. It did Dot make any difference what the odds were, he believed in the power that comes from our Heavenly Father and so the people grew and developed under his supervision and became bishops and presidents of stakes. What a wonderful thing it is for him now to look back and realize that by the blessings of our HeavenIy Father be has been able to assist in these things.

Response by David K. Udall:

My dear friends, brothers and sisters: It is like being in a new world to be here tonight and to listen to the many good things that have been said; to hear the kindly words and feel the spirit of kindness that has been in your hearts for us and our family. We, my wives and I, have given our lives since early youth in assisting in the building up of the Church of God, rearing our family and helping redeem the desert. In these many years of trials and difficulties of various kinds, I have realized that what little we could do and accomplish would be by the help of our Father in Heaven. Regarding the blessings that have come to our home, I say today that many of those blessings have been due to the benediction and blessings of God's servants who have come to our home from time to time and have given us words of cheer and instruction. We could not have done with any degree of satisfaction to anyone, the work we humble people have done


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without the encouragement and blessings and faith of the servants of the Lord and His people among whom we labored.

I am sometimes reminded of what a wise man told me when I was a young man--" It is better to be underestimated than to be overestimated." I hope we have not been too greatly overestimated here tonight. We have tried to live and order our lives consistently, and according to our faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We have known and I have taught my people that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. The question arises, how do you know it? Have you seen Him or heard His voice? Have you felt His influence and power? Yes, I have felt that influence and power and I have believed that what Joseph Smith said was true--that he had seen the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. I believed in Joseph Smith from the days of my youth when my eyes became opened to the divinity of his mission.

Our daughter Luella stated:

As we looked into father's face and listened to his words that night of the Golden Wedding program, Grandfather David Udall's prophetic words in the Preface of his journal, came clearly before our minds. Father stood there in the midst of God's chosen servants as the very embodiment of a fulfilled promise written by grandpa in 1851 in which he said, "I know I shall have a posterity--I request that they keep the commands of God and live soberly, honestly and industriously and attend to every virtuous principle and I promise them in the Dame of Jesus that they shall be blessed temporally and spiritually throughout time and eternity."

[ Comment: Absent children all wrote greetings to their parents on the happy occasion and arose up "and called them blessed and praised them" (Proverbs 31-28), which, with tributes from David's brother, Joseph, and many old-time friends, were read by Dr. Maude Callison as a part of the program under the heading "Messages from Home."]


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Three of these messages follow:
 

Eagar, Arizona, January 26, 1925
Dear Brother David and Sister Ella,

Forty-one years ago when father, mother and baby, Nell, the first of this branch of the Udall family arrived in Arizona to help pioneer a formidable land, they found already established in the struggle, Uncle David and Aunt Ella ready to welcome, help, comfort and cheer them in their task.

As the years have passed, the ties have grown stronger and a bond of love and sympathy has united our families as one. We have shared in sickness and sorrow, joy and happiness. We have known your care and love. Now upon this happy occasion, your Fiftieth Wedding Anniversary, it is our joy to express our love and appreciation and wish for you every happiness and blessing you may desire. May your future years be filled with reaping the good you have sown.

Your loving brother and family,
Joseph Udall, Emma J. Udall, George A. Winsor, 
Ellen E. Winsor, Joseph K. Udall and family, 
Henry G. Udall, Dorinda L. Udall, Karl G. Udall, 
Blanche L. Udall, Harry E. Colter, Joyce U. 
Colter, Edwin Pratt Udall, Orma Udall, W. Ellis 
Wiltbank, Alta U. Wiltbank, Lula Udall. 
Thatcher, Arizona, January 25, 1925.
Dear Friends,

When we look back at our first acquaintance with David and Ella and Ida, we can see David working on that farm as hard as a man ever worked, directing the farm and the mail contracts and giving his time to public matters. No man or women ever worked harder than David and Ella and Ida to make this venture a success, but the wind and the drought and the frost and a hundred other things made it simply impossible. I have seen David leave the farm not once but many times when his presence was needed there, to make a tour of the stake, giving everything that was in him for the advancement of his people, in whom he had an everlasting


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interest. He had the courage of his convictions and was always hopeful of the outcome of the land over which lie had been called to preside, and he has possibly stimulated and encouraged more men to go on than any man living.

After you came to Springerville, our association grew into friendship that seemed to grow stronger as the days and years passed, even after we left Apache county and came south. I spent a term in the legislature with David, and while be was representing the Republican party and I the other side, we roomed together, slept together, ate together without a regard to politics. The only thing he ever refused me in his life was to support me in a campaign for office, and I thought more of him for it than anything be ever did. He would not have been acting consistent to have done it.

May the blessings of Heaven be yours, and may the winds of adversity blow but lightly as you walk life's way from day to day as long as life is sweet to you.

    Believe us to be sincerely and affectionately yours,
Mr. and Mrs. W. W. Pace.
Thatcher, Arizona
January 29, 1925
Dear Friends,

I regret my inability to attend the Golden Wedding of a couple whom I bold in such high esteem as yourselves.

While you have no doubt bad hopes and aspirations which have not been realized, I feel that your lives have been eminently successful in all the worthwhile things--your family, friends, and your faith in the Gospel--as well as the privilege of living together in love and harmony and happiness for half a century. I can think of no more blessed, fortunate or deserving people. I am happy to have known you and have some small claims to your friendship.

May you be blessed with health and peace and increased spirituality to crown your remaining many years and be prospered in all your desires is the wish and prayer of

Yours sincerely,

Inez H. Lee.


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Arizona Pioneer Mormon:
David King Udall: His Story and His Family, 1851 - 1938

Published by Arizona Silhouettes
Tucson, Arizona
1959