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Show February 15 03.qxd 12/7/2021 3:36 PM Page 9 THE OGDEN VALLEY NEWS Volume VII Issue IX Page 9 February 15, 2003 Biography of Agnes Ririe Burnett By LaVerna Burnett Newey Agnes Ririe Burnett was born March 27, 1874 in West Weber, Utah. She was the youngest child of James and Ann Boyack Ririe’s twelve children. The first nine years of her life were spent in West Weber. Agnes was ten years old when all of the Ririe family moved to Ogden Valley at the east mouth of Ogden Canyon. Her father and older brothers had built a big new rock house a short distance from the Artesian Well. The spot is now covered with Pine View Dam. Agnes went to school in Eden, Utah, the little town to the north of her home. She sometimes walked several miles or rode horseback. In the wintertime she came to school in a bobsleigh. She won fifty cents once as a prize for the best attendance at school. With this money she bought the fourth reader which became her study book for three years as they used to read the same books over and over. She went as far in school as they taught at that time, which was the Fifth Reader. When Agnes was eighteen, she started going with David Burnett who was at the time a counselor in the Mutual in Eden. He was born in Harrisville, April 25, 1870, a son of William and Sarah Wilde Burnett. David, a tall, good-looking fellow used to go three-and-a-half miles in horse and buggy to get the pretty little Agnes to take her to a dance. One night after Mutual, the snow had drifted too much for the horses to pull the sleigh through. That never daunted David. He merely unhitched the horse and took her home by horseback. Two other times, the wheel of the buggy rolled off and dumped them unceremoniously on the ground. David and Agnes were sweethearts for five years. Of these they were engaged three. Agnes, being the youngest daughter, and with a great deal of respect and love for her elderly mother, felt it her duty to remain with her for a few years, especially since her mother was sorely afflicted with rheumatism. While waiting patiently, David worked in North Fork Canyon and obtained logs for his barn and grainery. He also began building his home and homesteading some land for a farm of his own. They were married in the Salt Lake Temple on June 23, 1897. Two days later, the Ririe’s gave them a wedding reception in the big rock home. One hundred and thirty-five people were invited to the wedding supper which had chicken and all that goes with it. A dance was held after at the Wilbur dance hall. Her father also gave her a cow for a wedding pres- ent. Three years after they were married, David was called to Scotland on a mission for the Latter-day Saint Church. At the time they had two little girls, Vila and Clista. The baby Clista was but six months old when he left. It took a lot of courage to part at a time like this, but devotion to the church was one of their principles. While her husband was in far off Scotland, the baby Clista took very ill. Agnes knelt down and promised the Lord that if he would heal her baby, she would work in the church as long as she was able. This promise she kept all the years of her life. She was in the presidency of the Mutual organization for twenty-two years and raised her family besides. She also taught in the Sunday School and was a literary teacher in the Relief Society for seventeen years. Shortly after David’s return, he built five more rooms to the house and they added three more little girls to the family. They were Olive, Amy and Lola, In 1910 he was called on another fulltime mission to the Western States. Without faltering, he accepted and Agnes struggled on alone, always maintaining that they lost nothing financially by it and gained much spiritually. David had as one of his companions on this mission, a nephew of Agnes, Alex Hogge. While he was on this mission, she would walk up past the cemetery with her children trudging behind her to milk the cow. Once some one asked her if she were not afraid to pass the cemetery in the dark and she replied, “I’ve never hurt any of those dear dead people and I’m sure they would not harm me,” After David’s return from his second mission the sixth baby girl was born and was named LaVerna Elizabeth. When she was but a year old, David bought some land in Delta, Utah. They spent one summer down there living in a tent. By Fall, the dreams of new land pioneering became too rugged, so they sold their claim at a loss and were happy to come back to their home in Eden. It was from this home that the wonderful tidings went out to all their relatives and friends that at last a baby boy was born to the Burnett family. They named him David Ririe Burnett and how they all loved him! Those were the happy days! Books for each one were always given at Christmas and birthdays, participation in church opportunities was always encouraged, an example of daily prayers was always set, the big pantry off the kitchen always had something good to eat in it. Each fall the threshing machine came lumbering up the road to stay a week at the Burnetts. Agnes was an excellent cook and weeks in advance plans were made to feed the threshing crew three times each day. The shelves in the outside rock cellar were always filled with the labor of her hands. It was in this rock cellar that she once came across a porcupine. No menfolks were around at the time so she beat it to death by herself. She had the courage and fortitude of any pioneer woman who preceded her. One winter, when her husband was on his mission, she doctored a colt back to health. Other times, she packed bucket after bucket of water to pour on the backs of bloated cows. Each fall, Agnes and her sisters, Isabelle and Elizabeth, would pack a delicious lunch and with their children in the surrey go to spend the day in the hills picking chokecherries. Every 4th of July and Christmas, each of her six girls usually received a new dress, all daintily handsewn. The children were always taught respect for their elders. Cousins who were older were called Cousin Annie, Cousin Louie, and Cousin Alex. Agnes never had an abundance of worldly goods but there was an abundance of love, confidences and contentment in the home that she and David built together. With the sweet, however, there came also the bitter. One cold December evening in the year of 1919, Vila, the oldest daughter at the age of twenty-one passed suddenly away with the dreaded influenza of that year. She was the third to be buried in one week of the same disease in the little town of Eden. David, in his heavy fur coat, drove a sleigh through the canyon to purchase the burial casket. Agnes’s sisters and the Relief Society dressed Vila for burial. The day of the funeral, David, the father, and another daughter Amy both lay dangerously ill with the same disease. For days it was a battle of work of faith and prayers to save their lives. Neither one fully regained their health. On June 23, 1927, David R., their twelve-year-old son, found his father lying in the path on the way to the barn. A heart attack had taken his life on the day of their 30th wedding anniversary. From then on it was a struggle for her; a struggle to make ends meet during the “Depression” years, a struggle to provide a higher education for her children; a struggle with the culinary water to get enough for the daily needs, and a struggle with incurable illness that crept into the family. Through it all, she remained faithful, patient, and was loved by all who knew her. She lived to become grandmother to five girls and two boys of Lo la’s and LaVerna’s children. Two of these were twins. On October 3, 1944, at the age of seventy, Agnes passed away of pneumonia. All of her children hurried from California and elsewhere to her home. As they knelt in fast and prayer at her bedside, she rallied from her coma to say “Please, girls, let me go home.” When she breathed her last, David, her only son said, “Father and Vila will be just as happy to see her as we are in sorrow to see her go.” She left this earth in her quiet unassuming way. Never in her life did she seek praise, but her children cannot help but praise her many virtues. “Nay Speak No Ill,” was her favorite song and she lived its theme. It was sung at her funeral. As the gates of death closed after her, her children said, “We cannot see her, but she is with us still. A Mother like ours is more than a memory. She is a living presence.” Historical Photo Now is the time to start Singing Lessons Gain confidence as you improve your vocal and performing abilities! Space is limited, so call soon to reserve your spot. Tessa Bailey 745-3694 BARBARA BEALBA INTERIORS Custom Draperies Blinds, Shutters & Shades Reupholstery Design Consultation 745-2269 E-mail: barbarab@konnections.net Sisters of Minnie Farrell: Maggie (Ririe) Farrell and Annie (Ririe) Farrell Center unknown; Rebecca Farrell? Photo courtesy of Karen Wilbur Hansen of Eden. The OGDEN VALLEY NEWS is looking for Ogden Valley and Ogden Canyon historical biographies, stories, and photos to use in its publication. Please mail, email, or call Shanna 745-2688 or Jeannie 745-2879 if you have material that you would be willing to share. |