History of Mabel Helen Robins Kent Pool

Kory's maternal Great-Grandmother

This history is quite long. I have transcribed it just as I received it excepting a few punctuation changes. Mabel has such a compassionate and forgiving heart, despite what I would consider a difficult life. What an example she is to me!

As told by Mabel Helen Robins Kent Pool transcribed and edited by Marjorie M. Kent

To my children and grandchildren, who at various times have asked that I relate some of the events and experiences of my 75 years of living. I was born December 29th, 1898 in Toledo, Ohio, to Daniel Maurice Robins and Alma Bloom. I was their only child. I was termed by my parents and relatives as a sickly child, given very little chance to survive. My first memories are of a doctor and medicine. I have no memories of my father those first few years. My parents were separated shortly after my birth. My first two or three years were spent with my mother and maternal grandparents. They were German and spoke little English. I have been told that my Grandfather's name was Henry Bloom, I am not sure how he spelled his last name. Mother's name was Alma. She had a sister whom I called Aunt Molly. Of my mother's maiden name, it was Bloom or Blue, I have never been sure. My maternal grandfather spoke no English. I have been told his name was Henry Blue. I do not know how to spell the name. My mother's name was Alma and she had a sister whom I called Aunt Molly. Among my pictures, there is one of my mother and father's wedding groups. Picturing my mother Alma Bloom, my father Daniel Maurice Robins, Molly, my mother's attendant and my father's brother, Uncle Harry Robins, my father's best man.
When I was two or three years of age, my mother who worked as a milliner, moved us into a small two room apartment, with a fireplace, our only heat, and back room which served as a bedroom and kitchen with a two-burner gas plate. There was a coal house in back and on the end was cleared earth that I might have a playhouse. Just opposite this shed was the rear door of a saloon. I had many friends among the bar men and their patrons. Nights, when mother was home and entertaining, I was sent with a small tin bucket, to be filled from the beer keg on the counter. This I carried back to my mother. I always enjoyed this, for the men would put me up on the bar and give me candy.

Mother's friends usually brought boxes of candy--always some for me too. Some of this may account for the fact that I had to have dentures in my early thirties. I didn't think my mother loved me and many times I wondered if she was happy when I left her.
As a milliner, she made lovely hats, and I remember when she made me an Easter bonnet. This was kept in a box on a shelf over our bed and before I had worn it she became ill and was evidently concerned about me, should she be unable to care for me. She asked me what I would do if she should have to leave me, and I told her I'd climb up on the bed, get my new bonnet, and go to see Grandma Robins.
Shortly after this, my father sent for me. I was put on a train, in care of the conductor, and sent to Jeffersonville, Indiana, where my father was living with his family. I made this trip by train several times, spending time with one parent, then the other.
My father and his parents moved to Louisville, Kentucky. There were still three of the eight brothers and sisters of my father living at home and I loved being with them instead of being alone as I was much of the time when in Toledo, Ohio, with my mother.
My father carried a lunch pail to work. He often would have a little surprise for me when I met him in the evening. One time, it was a tiny kitten, which my beloved grandmother permitted me to keep. I named her Babe and loved her dearly until at thirteen I was sent to live in Iowa.
I am getting a head of my life story. Grandma and grandpa moved their family on to a farm about three miles out of Jeffersontown, Kentucky and I moved with them. My father stayed in Lewieville, visiting us occasionally.
I loved the carefree life on the farm - sledding in the winter, wading the creek and catching tadpoles in the summer. Thoughts of my life in Toledo were far away. One day when I was six or seven my father came to me telling me he was going to take me for a trip. We rode in a new brown streetcar, into Lewieville, and on the trip he told me I was going to see my mother, who was meeting us there. He said she wanted me to come back to her, but they had agreed that the choice was to be mine.
Before meeting her, he took me to a picture show, this was way before movies, so the pictures were still of Niagara Falls. To me this was wonderful. That is all I remember of it, as I fell asleep. Later we met my mother and I was left with her for a few days. She had a man who lived with her, who she wished me to call Papa. This I refused to do, for by now my father was the idol of my eyes. My father never had to punish me physically. I idolized him, and all he ever had to do was look like I had hurt him by misbehaving, and that was all the punishment I needed. I don't remember receiving a cross word from my father.
My mother and her friend were very good to me and made every inducement to keep me. However, when my father came, I was ready to go back to Grandma Robins and I never saw my mother again, nor did my father ever talk to me about her. Even after I was grown he avoided answering any questions about her.
Bernice, my father's sister, was five years older than me and his brothers, Earl and Frank were older than her, but to me they were my family, my playmates, and I loved them. I felt badly when the boys moved out of the home and on their own.
I never thought my grandfather was happy to have me in their home, and for some unknown reason I was afraid of him, especially whenever the family went out at night, and because of my persistent cough I was left alone with him. It was many years later that I realized how he must have felt after having raised nine of his own, to have a grandchild thrust into his home, and especially one with the health problems that plagued my childhood. I had a persistent cough, and night after night grandmother was up using some remedies in an effort to give the family, and me some sleep.
I was soon old enough to work side by side with Bernice doing work on the farm.
Grandfather had an egg and butter route in town, also fruit and vegetables in season. Also he canned vegetables in tin cans for winter deliveries. This meant, that from early summertime and early spring until the last potato was dug in the fall we were busy, all of us. One time when Bernice and I were tired of scalding and peeling tomatoes, grandma told us that the juice was good for our complexions and would help to keep our hands pretty, so after that we freely used tomato juice and didn't complain.
Life wasn't all work for us. We did have happy times too. Sunday school was held in our schoolhouse, about a mile from home, and grandma walked with us each Sunday. I can still visualize her sitting in one of our designated seats. She was, quite a large women, as she joined in singing all the beloved hymns, there were many pleasures we enjoyed as wading in the creek, catching tadpoles, watching for the wild flowers each season and riding blind Old Dan, bareback, to the mail box which was about two miles out on the pike road, leading into town. Sometimes we walked and stopped to visit old friends along the way. All friends were called aunt and uncle.
One of the stops we enjoyed was to visit an elderly lady who had a hip that was badly deformed, causing her to have to use a cane or crutch to walk. As a companion, she had a little dog which had one hind leg seemingly crippled in the same way as she. She always had beautiful flowers, which she generously shared with us and an old Victor phonograph with the round records, which she would play for us. Sometimes we were late getting home with the mail and this would often displease grandfather who looked forward to his Socialist paper, "The appeal to reason, by Eugene Dobbs."
One of the elderly aunts, who lived way back in the woods behind our place, came to visit grandma each week. She smoked a corncob pipe and had grandpa pick up supplies for her in town including her tobacco. We called her Aunt Caroline. We liked to listen to her talk, as long as grandma was present, but never wanted to meet her out in the woods, which were thick and dark.
Bernice and I had our work to do in the winter, as well as the summer. Cows had to be milked and driven to and from the pasture, wood had to be carried in to keep the wood boxes full, hickory and walnuts had to be gathered and put up in the smokehouse to dry. Rain or shine we walked to the little one room school- house from which we both graduated from the eighth grade in Louisville. We were required to take a final examination, of which I barely passed, as our little country school was evidently way behind the city and many of the questions I had never heard of. Life wasn't all work however I had a happy life with my grandparents. Nights in winter we gathered around the kitchen table for games. We played a game called India (now called Parcheesi) a game of Flinch, and one called "I doubt it" and many others.
There were story-telling times, when grandma would tell us about when she was a girl, and of her early married life. Bernice would recite the "Leg of a Bregenz" and Uncle Earl would recite "Wolves Upon the Ice" which was scary, no matter how many times we heard it. Often a boy from in the hill country would visit us. And one evening after listening to Uncle Earl's rendition he was afraid to go home. We all tried to persuade him there were no wolves around here but he hadn't gone far before we heard him screaming that the wolves were after him Of course we all went to see what had frightened him and found one of our cows that had wandered away to give birth to her calf.
Often some of the family would visit bringing their children and that was a highlight and a lot of fun. When Aunt Clara came with Gladys and that Carol we put orange crates together making a boarding house for our clothespins, which we named Mrs. Briggs. Her guests were paper dolls, which we loved and to us were real responsibilities. Carol was younger and so we refused to let her around. Poor little Carol she must have been miserable. But in later years I learned that two can play nicely, but when a third comes around there is usually contention.
While living in Louisville, when I was still very young, my father and grandfather made the little table I have in my living room. I think each of you at one time or another has asked about it. At the time it was built it had brass claw feet, each holding a glass ball, which I remember as being green, though I may be mistaken of the color. Many a time I amused my self with my paper dolls, using the shelf as their upstairs. Looking back I seem to have a vivid imagination and the shelf was a stage for paper dolls of all nations to act upon.
When I was nine, my father married Idora Thomas of Loogootee, Indiana. This was a turning point in my life and they occasionally took me to their home in Indiana. I was never happy there and always became ill and was sent back to Kentucky. Idora saw that I had goods meals and nice clothes for as she often remarked she did not want anyone to think of her as a neglectful stepmother. What I lacked was love and understanding, as she was extremely jealous of my father's attention to me. She had two sisters, Mildred who was younger than I and Hazel who was a year older and here again was a cause of two getting along and three not. Since growing up we are good friends and can laugh at the old days. I also learned to love Idora. Her's was not an easy life and having me sick so much I know she worried about having me around Tadd. Lynn was her first child and we all adored him, but when he was three months old I had whooping cough and he became ill with that and Pneumonia and died.
I now understand why she was concerned about having me around Tad. I loved Grandma Thomas and her mother Grandma Beard they were very good to me, also Grandpa Thomas. He owned a grocery store and often would bring apples home for us at night, of which I have never tasted the likes of since, they were so crisp and sweet. In the evening he always gathered the family around him and had prayer and Bible reading. " A wonderful humble man."
Most of the time, until my thirteenth birthday, I spent with the grandparents in Kentucky and many are the memories, some sad, some happy. I still had my cat Babe and periodically she had kittens, which my blessed grandmother would dispose of in the creek. I don't think she ever knew that I was aware of what happened to them. Bernice had a dog which she loved. It was named Tige, after Buster Brown's dog. One night it got into a fight with another dog and in trying to keep Tige from killing the smaller dog, grandfather struck him a severe blow and killed him. I cried most of the night for Bernice was in Canada and I knew how much she loved her dog. Grandmother slept with me all that night trying to console me for I fought a hatred feeling for my grandfather.
There are so many memories of those first thirteen years of my life spent mostly at my grandparent's home. I remember grandfather getting us out of bed at night to see Haley's Comet. School days in the little one room school house where we also attended church on Sundays. We walked over the hills and through the woods. Because of the deep snow we did not have church services in the winter.
When I was thirteen, grandfather sold the Kentucky home, and preparations were made by Uncle Harry to move to California. For some reason I was not included in their plans and my father was now married and settled in Loogootee, Indiana and not really wanted by my stepmother after having lost my three month old half brother Lynn. I felt that I was to blame and I always felt that my stepmother blamed me for his death. My relationship with my father was special. Whenever I went to visit him and Idora I always became ill. Yet, I idolized my father who was always kind to me. He saw that I attended Sunday School, sometimes taking me himself After services we would stop for ice cream. Being alone with him made it very special, though young as I was, I sensed jealousy in my stepmother. It was years after I had a family of my own that we became friends. I could try to forgive and try to understand her feelings about having a ten year old in her home, especially a sick, lonely, frustrated child, who when around her had the habit of bed wetting. This never happened at grandmothers.
I was sent to Iowa to help Aunt Ida with her year old twins. That winter in Iowa was severe. Snow covered the tops of fences and Uncle Charlie had to tunnel through to the barns and all out buildings. My cough became much worse and many a night, I lay in bed unable to sleep. Aunt Ida did not want me around the children, so she took me to Rollfe, Iowa, to help in a family of a dentist's for my board. I started high school there but became quite ill and they sent for Aunt Ida to come for me.
Aunt Ethel in Oklahoma had no children, so I was sent to live with her when I was fifteen. I don't think any child ever desired an education more than I did. At that time the Montes Saver method of teaching was very popular and I wished to continue his school so I could teach. Again I was enrolled only to become very ill with pneumonia and had to leave school.
Fred Kent worked on the wheat farm for Uncle John Hunick (Aunt Ethel's husband) he became very interested in my problems, and me. An elderly man visited the Hunick's while I was ill and told Aunt Ethel I should be sent West there I could get plenty of sunshine and fresh air. He offered to finance the trip for me. I overheard Fred tell him that he would be the one to take me whenever I was ready to go. Up to that time I had not been seriously interested in Fred and certainly had not thought of marriage. Shortly after this Uncle John decided to sell out and move to New Mexico. Their plans did not include me, so when they were discussing this I decided I would like to see my father, who was living in Michigan at the time, but wanted to visit the old home in Kentucky. Uncle Frank's fiance lived in Jeffersontown, she had a sister my age, so I was sent there intending to contact my father whom I was sure would send for me.
Fred took me to the train, and much to my surprise, he bought himself a ticket to his old hometown in Oklahoma. On the train he asked me to marry him when he was settled, as he planned to move to New Mexico with the Hunick's. While I was visiting in Kentucky, I learned that my stepmother was afraid for me to be around my brother Tad, thinking I had TB, which I did not have, she wanted to have me sent to Ford Sanatorium. I never knew whether this was true or just a rumor but I wrote Fred whom, immediately wired money, for me to go to him in Carlsbad, New Mexico. I did not contact my father but instead took the train to Carlsbad where Fred met me one rainy afternoon. We took shelter on the step of a church building until the shower was over. Here we sat and talked over plans to be married at Aunt Ethel's the following day.
Because I was under age, Aunt Ethel did not want me to marry without my father's consent. I stayed a few days with her and while getting me some new clothes, she persuaded us not to marry in Carlsbad. Therefore, we took the train to Roswell, New Mexico on April 17, 1916 We located the home of a Methodist minister. In getting the license I gave my age as eighteen, and the minister I am sure realized I was younger, for he had us sit down and talked with us for some time, but finally consented to marry us with his wife and a neighbor as witnesses. We stayed in a hotel in Roswell for a couple of days, then returned to Carlsbad and stayed with Aunt Ethel until Fred made arrangements to rent a small farm out of town. It was many weeks later that I wrote my father of my marriage and where I was living. He wrote Fred threatening to annul our marriage. Naive as I was, I realized at this time that I was to be a mother.
I relayed this information to my father and it was years before I again heard from him. We had been married but a short time when Fred's two sisters and two brothers and his father came to live with us. (Buela, Clarice, Wallace and Claude and father Frank Elmer Kent)
We were crowded but happy ones in spite of Mr. Kent trying to manage our entire home, which both Fred and I resented. For income, Fred and the boys raised alfalfa, which we all helped to bale and was readied to be shipped that fall. Fred ordered a freight car which, we were notified, was on track ready to be loaded. This same day Fred, who had not been feeling well, became delirious and was taken to the hospital with typhoid fever. We could not afford around-the-clock nursing care, so I was the night nurse. This was my first month of pregnancy and I was unable to keep food down; also at this time the rain season hit and the beautiful bales of alfalfa were left in the field and ruined. I never knew why they weren't taken to the train but there we were facing our first winter; Fred sick, a family to feed and no income. Fred was released from the hospital early in November, but it was many weeks convalescing. By Thanksgiving, he was able to come to the table. What we feasted on I do not remember, but some way the boys and girls managed it. While Fred was recuperating and I was trying to avoid all thought and smell of food, the winter passed and with it my 18th birthday on December 20, 1916.
In the spring Fred rented the farm to a sheep man, and we prepared to moved from our little bungalow to an old house on Uncle John's farm and Fred and the boys went to work at a flour mill in Lamy, New Mexico. They took wheat as part payment for their work. This they ground using Fred's motorcycle for power. We lived that summer, on whole-wheat cereal, bread made from the flour, fish from the Pecos River, which the boys speared by night and other wild birds and game. With the money they brought home Fred bought a mule which was as stubborn as its ancestors were suppose to be. We also purchased a few chickens and later in the summer we had plenty of chicken meat. Also, one hen raised a flock of black turkeys, which followed me wherever I went. The sheepherder also gave me two mother lose kids, which were loved by me, but hated by the family as they were so mischievous getting into every thing. They loved to tease the mule and chase the chickens.
June 19, 1917, our little Robin was born. We called him Bobbie as he grew up he didn't seem to like the name of Robin, so he used the name Robert, he said not realizing that it should be Robin, as he was always called Bobbie. (Mabel, insisted that his name should be" Robin" after her family name Robins. At first, friends and family called him Bobbie and later Bob. When Bob sent for a birth certificate, he found that the certificate read Robert Douglas Kent, so he continued to use the name Robert D. Kent, as was on the birth certificate.) Bobbie was a strong healthy baby and I was able to nurse him for many months knowing nothing about babies having only played with dolls. I treated him like a doll knowing absolutely nothing about babies and no one to call on for help or advise of any kind, he survived my ignorance of how a baby should be fed and cared for.
Faye Elizabeth Kent was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on April 2, 1919. The family made many moves in fact Mabel states that she made 36 moves in 36 years. She notes that they moved from Carlsbad when Bobbie, as they called him, was ten months old. First to Albuquerque to San Miguel, New Mexico, then to Santa Fe, where Fred worked for Mr. Sheet's, in drilling wells. Faye Elizabeth Kent, was born April 2, 1919, in Santa Fe New Mexico. Later the family moved to Stanley, New Mexico, where Jim Elmore Kent was born on February 10, 1921.

The above portion was written by Mabel, the following was taken from her notes and family memories, and recorded by her daughter-in-law Marjorie M. Kent.
Fred continued to work in the well-drilling business, here the Family was able to get ahead and settle in a place of their own. They moved to Rencona, New Mexico, where they homesteaded. Here, they at last felt they could settle down and Mabel felt that they were becoming financially secure with savings, in the bank, of a few dollars. But this was short lived, as a real turning point in her life came when Fred met with an accident and his leg was badly injured as it was caught in the fly wheel of the drilling machine while at work. He was rushed to the hospital in Santa Fe. Gangrene poisoning set in and he died on February 24, 1922 at 11 :30 AM, at St Vincent Hospital, Santa Fe, New Mexico. He was buried on Saturday, the 25th, at 10 AM. in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Mabel had no way to provide for herself and her three children, Bobbie age 5, Faye age 3, and baby Jim barely one year old. Mabel accepted a job keeping house and caring for the children of Oscar Samuel Pool. Mr. Pool had moved from Texas to New Mexico, where the only grandparent's of his son, Charles, lived. The only grandparents he had ever known. Oscar Samuel Pool was a son of Samuel Thomas Pool, born November 15 1875 and Amey Elizabeth Pollard, born December 8, 1888, in Black Hills Texas. Charles, the son of Oscar Samuel Pool was born in Sweetwater, Nolan County, Texas, March 18, 1903. Oscar Samuel Pool homesteaded land at Alto, New Mexico, between Stanley and Moriarty. He had a family of seven. Charles Arthur was the eldest. Charlie, as he was called, mother died when he was a small child. Oscar Samuel Pool remarried, a Zundle (do not know her given name) and they had six children. Charlie took care of the six children during his stepmother's long illness. Oscar's second wife died leaving seven children to his care and keeping. Charles helped on the farm. He loved horses. He had been brought up with the use of a whip to control disobedient children. He used the whip on his half brothers and sister whenever he felt it needed.
Due to a severe drought that hit the whole Estancia valley, Samuel Pool left to obtain work in the oil fields in Texas, after having made arrangement with a young widow Mrs. Kent, to come stay with his family of7 children, Tommy, Joe, Trudy, Leona, Velma and Wanita. Mabel Kent, had three children between ages one year and five. This large family was a lot of work, with little means to provide for their needs. Charlie, the eldest, went on a cattle drive to try to help out with home expenses. Mabel and the older sisters Trudy and Leona tried to raise a vegetable garden to feed the family. They worked hard to obtain food for cows and horses. There was very little water. Velma raked tumbleweeds and stacked them for food for the cattle. These were dry and had little nourishment for the cattle. They all eventually died. They kept one hog alive until it could be butchered. This was the first meat the family had for some time.
Charles Arthur Pool and Mabel Robins Kent, fell in love and went to Santa Fe. Where they were married on April 13, 1923, at the home of Rev. Marble, Pastor of the Methodist Church in Santa Fe, New Mexico. They made the trip to Santa Fe, and back, in a car borrowed from Mr. Sheets. Charlie at this time was working for the railroad. He gave Mabel a beautiful ring and they had supper at La Fonda Hotel Restaurant in Santa Fe, where they bought candy to take to the children.
Charles was but twenty years of age and Mabel twenty- four. Charles' father was very displeased about the marriage. Mr. Pool had proposed marriage to Mabel but she was in love with Charlie, so he turned the care of the younger children over to his daughter Velma. Charles and Mabel and her children moved to Stanley where Mabel had a small two room house near Mr. Sheets (Fred Kent's former partner in the well drilling business) Here the family lived for almost two years. Bobbie found a $5.00, which had blown up against the out-door toilet during a sand storm, with which a little red wagon was bought for the children's Christmas, and a Bible for Charlie, a Cupid doll was sent for Jim from Grandma Robin's. Ruby Zundle, the younger Pool children's grandmother, a close friend which Mabel's children, also called Grandma.
While living in Stanley, Charlie worked in Santa Fe at a Dairy farm. Mabel was expecting a new baby. Charlie's sister, Trudy, came and stayed for the last few weeks of Mabel's pregnancy. On Saturday October 4,1924, Charlie borrowed a dairy truck, and moved the family and sister from Stanley to Santa Fe, where friends had located a two room and sleeping porch apartment. Mabel writes, "we walked to the Capital building on Sunday afternoon and Monday morning, October 6, 1924, a son Charles Maurice Pool was born. Jim ran away. He tried to go home to the Stanley home." After Chuck's birth, as he was called, Mabel had pneumonia and Charles had to hire help, as Mr. Pool would not permit Trudy to stay with them longer.
Mabel apparently complained in a letter to her father in Michigan, about difficulty in knowing how to discipline her boys. Grandpa Robins wrote a letter to the children explaining that the bears in the Michigan Zoo were hungry, and children were needed to feed the bears. He further said that, if they misbehaved, he would send a crate to pick up the boys and take them to the zoo. Robert, had never know or seen his grandfather and felt that this threat was for real so they behaved hoping that this would never happen to them.
Charlie enjoyed working on cars and gained a reputation of a good mechanic. He began working at an auto repair shop as a mechanic. The family was living on the outskirts of Santa Fe, during the summer about four for five miles from town, where the boys could roam the countryside. In the fall the family moved back to town, where Leona married. Trudy then brought her young son, Richard Wilkens, to live with Mabel and Charlie until her second son Arthur was born in their home. Robert remembers Trudy walking around the table while in labor, he didn't know why, but soon learned that Trudy had a baby.
In the spring of 1932, Trudy and Dude Wilkens, her husband, decided to move to Utah. Charles and Mabel and family decided to go also. According to Dewey, who came from Duchesne, Utah, the prospects of a better life and greater opportunity was in Utah. He was convincing. The depression years were hard and they felt a need to find a better place to live.
Charlie, by this time, owned a four door, 1928, Packard touring car with glass between front and back seat and fancy spotlights. Charlie made arrangement to obtain another car 1923, Chrysler four door. They loaded the possessions of both families in the cars (no furniture), six children, and five adults, including Charlie's brother, Tommie, who was back living with them. They camped out for three nights and arrived in Duchesne with ten dollars between them all.
Charlie soon went to work at a local garage and the family moved into an old two-story house, with no furniture but only a sink in the kitchen. The ten dollars went for faucet and groceries. The whole family pitched in and soon had a lovely garden, as it was early spring of 1932.
Trudy's husband, Dewey, found work, and they and Tommie moved into another house. The family was happy with the move, the children enjoyed the great out doors, fishing, camping. The family enjoyed many of these trips together.
The depression years were still felt in Utah as in Santa Fe, the family struggled but they survived on raised meat and vegetables from their garden, but obtained little work. The family did all they could to stay away from welfare and be self supporting. Robert or Bob, as he was now usually called, took a lot of responsibility. He worked out for a number of farmers in the area, walking to and from work several miles, he remembers walking 20 miles to Myton to work in the hay fields.
One time he helped with the haying on a farm about three miles away. A very good meal was prepared for the hay crew at the noon meal. He stayed some times to milk the cows in the evening. The first time he did this he was invited to stay for supper in the evening. They placed bread and milk on the table. He had never had just bread and milk at home. It seemed very strange, because he had no idea what he was do with just bread and milk, but soon learned that bread and milk was the menu for a supper on the farms in Duchesne. If it had been just a bowl of beans he would have felt more at home, because this was the main dish he had been use to in New Mexico.
Bob, joined the C.C.C. (Civilian Conservation Corp, a work program to put people to work during the great depression instituted by Pres .. Roosevelt) Charlie continued to get mechanic work when he could, he worked sometimes for farmers and took meat in exchange. Tommie worked at the flourmill for flour. Faye cared for children and worked doing ironing and etc. for people in the town. The boys worked for honey and fished the river for fish. They all worked in the garden and Mabel canned and preserved hundreds of cans of fruit and vegetables. Mabel later took a job at a local mercantile store(Cole's) to earn extra money. The family managed to survive hard times. Bob graduated from Duchesne High School in spring of 1935.
Faye graduated from Duchesne High School in 1937. Bob received a scholarship to go to University of Utah, which he attended for the first 2 quarters for the next three years. He quit the spring quarters and found work. He worked for the railroad or wherever he could find a job. Faye had a rough life in her teen years. Her stepfather was hard on the children. He often beat the children with a stick or his belt. Faye moved to Salt Lake for a time and lived with a minister. She later signed up with a magazine crew and travel throughout the country.
Bob, in the spring of 1938 also joined up with a magazine crew, as it enticed many young people to join and see the country. It sounded exciting to travel and be paid while seeing the county Bob and his crew started out from Salt Lake to Denver and met with an accident, in Echo Canyon during snowstorm. Sliding on a slick road rolling the car down the bank, landing the car on its top. Bob suffered a stranded hip and pelvis. He was taken to Denver to the hospital to be checked, staying over night. He soon found out that he had not only a hospital bill to pay, as well as food that would be taken out of his commission. So, there was nothing to do but stick to the crew, until he could get out of debt. They went on to Chicago, Sue City, Ohio, South Dakota, Cleveland, Concord, New Hampshire, Maine, and back to Detroit, Michigan, and Niagara Falls. Bob quit the Magazine crew, as his hospital bill was now paid and he decided to go see his grandparents that he knew only through letters. Bob hitchhiked to Saginaw, Michigan to see and visit his Grandfather Robins.
This was his first and last visit with his grandparents. He had a great visit. Grandfather took him around to meet Tadd his son, and other family members. After visiting with his grandparents, Bob hitchhiked his way back to Duchesne taking a week or so to get to there. He had spent five month with the Magazine Crew seeing the U.S.A. Bob worked for Ashton Service Station in Duchesne, taking the night shift for one dollar at night. Then, in October that fall, he obtained work with the State Road Commission on a Road Survey crew.
While Bob and Faye were away working with separate magazine crews their family decided to move back to New Mexico. They moved back into the house they had moved out of six years before, the house on Mackenzie Street, in Santa Fe. The Pool's found hard times again in Santa Fe. An old friend asked them to move out to his ranch to care for his home and dogs while he went to England. Charlie's brother, Joe, worked on Mr. Whittaker's ranch caring for the horses. Jim and Chuck were still at home and they drove to Santa Fe to go to school in the ranch truck. Charlie worked at a garage in Santa Fe.
After a few weeks, Mr. Whittaker returned and Charlie decided to go to Carlsbad and look for some acreage but in a few weeks he returned and obtained work in Pecos, New Mexico. So another move was made to Pecos. Here Faye came home and her daughter, Mary Ellen, the first grandchild, was born in Santa Fe. And, Mabel found that she was to have another baby.
The summer of August 1939, Bob brought his girlfriend, Marjorie Moon, and Trudy to visit his folks in Pecos, which was about 30 miles out of Santa Fe. Faye was in the hospital having just given birth to Mary Ellen and Mabel was pregnant. Charles (Chuck) was fifteen years old and Jim was seventeen. Jim returned to Duchesne with Bob to attend his last year of High School and Chuck was sent to go to school in Albuquerque. On February 13, 1940, Charlie rushed Mabel to Santa Fe where their daughter, Virginia, was born.
After Virginia's birth the family moved back to the Whittaker ranch where they lived in an abandoned milk house with three rooms and a shower, all cleaned and painted. With Mabel's great talent to make a home, no matter what circumstance or conditions, she made the best of
what she had. With her embroidered towels, pillowcases, tablecloths, she made it look very homey.
In late August 1943, during World War II, Charlie, Mabel and Virginia came to Salt Lake, staying with Bob's family until Charlie received an assignment to be moved to California, living in Lancaster, California. Charlie worked as the Western States Fire Inspector for the Army. After the war ended, they moved back to Salt Lake. Here they lived for eight years on Edith Street close to Liberty Park in a duplex.
Trudy and her family had also moved back to Salt Lake and bought a home on 3500 South 13th East, Salt Lake City. In approximately 1950, Trudy's family moved to Phoenix, Arizona. Charlie, Mabel and Virginia made a visit in the spring of 1952 and decided they would like to live in the Phoenix area. They took their saving that they had accumulated during the war years and invested in a two building lot and planned to build a home. This was to be the first home they ever tried to purchase. They felt this would be a good place to live for work and for Mabel's health.
Charlie went back to Phoenix to work with Dude Wilkens, doing electrical work. Charlie had a heart attach and Mabel went to Phoenix to be with Charlie. Virginia stayed in Salt Lake, with Bob and his family. Virginia was in the sixth grade.
Marjorie, Bob's wife, made Virginia's sixth grade graduation dress and shortly after school was out, Bob and his family and Virginia made their first trip to Phoenix. Mabel and Charlie were staying with Trudie's son Richard. Charlie had just gotten out of the hospital.
Many problems developed over the property title of the building lots they had purchased. They were unable to get the title and unable to build as they had planned. They finally obtained a small home in exchange on 4800 East Culver Street where they lived for a number of years. Charlie suffered poor health and in between hospital visits he carried on as a mechanic.
On October 29, 1957, Charles Arthur Pool passed away with another heart attach in Phoenix, Arizona. Charlie had suffered for a number of years with heart problems. Services were held Friday, 2:30 P.M. November 1, 1957 at the Colonial Chapel, Mortensen-Kingsley Funeral Home conducted by Reverend William D. Bostrom. Interment in the Greenwood Memorial Park Cemetery.
After Charles death Mabel felt she needed to go to work. She worked in housekeeping for Del Webb Motel located near her home. After she received her Social Security she obtained part time work at the Deseret Industries and on June 2, 1962, she and her daughter Virginia were baptized and confirmed in the Fourteenth Ward, East Phoenix, by her long time friend and Stake Missionary Brother Roland E. Tennant, who was once their neighbor on Edith Avenue in Salt Lake City.
On December 6,1963, Mabel received her endowments in the Mesa Arizona Temple. Her dear friends in her ward accompanied her. On September 24, 1962, she received her patriarchal blessing, given by Patriarch Ivan Call. Mabel did what she could to help her youngest daughter Virginia, giving her financial and moral support in completing her nurse training. Virginia married Edward J. William on October 24, 1964, in the Methodist Church in Phoenix, Arizona. Virginia requested that her membership from the Church of Jesus Christ of Later- Day Saints be removed as she preferred to attend the Methodist Church to which her husband was a member. Mabel continued to live alone in her home at 4817 East Culver Street, Phoenix, Arizona. She still owed a mortgage on her home with a $50.00 per month payment, which her son Robert took over making the payments, and paid off for her, when Charlie died. Mabel made a number of trips to Salt Lake to visit her family there; Jim, Chuck and Bob. She was encouraged to write her history and to work on her book of remembrance, which she did. Mabel spent time compiling geological information and doing temple ordinances for her family. She did the work for her deceased husbands, Fred Kent and Charles A Pool. She also did temple work for her father and other members of her family.
As she became older and her health began to fail, she realized that she could no longer care for herself so she sold her home and her daughter Virginia and Edward sold their home in Paradise Valley and together they purchased a home at 4701 Palm Lane, Scottsdale, Arizona. Here, Mabel had her own private bedroom and bath. Mabel enjoyed again being close to Virginia and Ed. and being with their two children Kent and Holly.
Early in August 1979, she decided that she wanted to come to Salt Lake to visit her sons and to see if she couldn't get to feeling better. Bob sent an airline ticket and she arrived in Salt Lake. As the plane approached the airport an ambulance was sent out to the plane. Her family, who was standing by waiting her arrival, felt sure the ambulance was for their mother. It was for their mother. She said, she wasn't feeling very well, so the attendants ordered the ambulance, but Mabel seemed to feel better after the plane landed so they brought her off in a wheel chair and she went home with Jim and Georgia to spend a week.
She had a hard time getting sleep and did not improve as she had hoped she would. She then went to her son Charles and Rhea and spent a few days; still she continued to weaken and was very restless. After coming to her son Robert's home she was very weak and her body was puffed with water retention and her legs were swollen. She was taken to the doctor and put in the hospital for a few days to relieve the water retention problem. The doctor advised that she should be taken to Doxey-Hatch medical center where she could get the medical attention he felt she needed, and would be unable to get at home.
Arrangements were made and she was taken to the Doxey-Hatch Medical Center, where she stayed through September and October. She began to have a longing to go back to Phoenix. The family visited her everyday and tried to do all they could to help her. About the last week of October Mabel got up one morning and tried to make her way to the bathroom, when the nurse came through the swinging bathroom door knocking Mabel down and the fall broke her hip. She was taken to the L.D.S. Hospital and the family was called. Her hip was operated on and a support pin was put in, but she never regained her strength and by the first of November she was in serious condition and the family sent for her daughter's, Faye who lived in St. Joseph Missouri, and Virginia in Scottsdale, Arizona. Mabel lay in a coma most of the day of November 2. That evening, Dean Menlove gave her a blessing, and on November 3, when her daughter's, Virginia and Faye arrived she rallied and did visit with them. She sat in a chair and asked for some candy. The next morning on November 4, 1979, at 6:56 A M., she passed away peacefully, at the L.D.S. Hospital. Her passing was a little more than a month of her eighty-first birthday. A viewing was held at the Larkin Mortuary in Salt Lake City and her body was flown to Phoenix where a funeral was held and she was buried beside her husband Charles Pool, on November 7, 1979, Greenwood Memorial Park cemetery.