OCR Text |
Show n'fr n IHC? UiUUUOUUUlL fF..u )o uyuirai 7 Volume 2, Number 41, December 13, 1989, Fifty Cents News and Views of Sciiilaquiu, Utah . Home of Cherry Days and Rugged Individualists.'1 Chronicle Page 9 Geneva Openshaw, Fit and Surviving Alone at 93 Geneva Greenhalgh Openshaw, who will turn 94 this February 26, bom in 1896 right here in Santaquin, is the second oldest Santaquin-bo- behind Olive Greenhalgh. m woman, In fact, shes experienced a number of interesting "seconds" in her long lifetime. "We were the second in town to have a telephone," she recalls. "The LeBaron Store had the first, and we had one next because Merle her husband. Merle Openshaw was on call at the power plant up the canyon, and we had to have one." "We also had the second television in town. Darvel Peterson had the first one, and we had the second because I won it in a contest The newspaper had one of these pictures where you had to find so many things in it for prizes. ItwasaWes-tinghous- e TV, and Doug Doug Openshaw, her grandson who lives in the mouth of Santaquin Canyon still has it, and it still works." If Geneva was second in Santaquin to have a telephone and television, shes first in vitality. At 93, she still takes care of a demanding yard, growing flowers, mowing the lawn (with the best Snapper you can buy), and hoeing weeds with three separate hoes to choose from. Some of those flowers are descendents of flowers brought across the plains in pioneer times by her mother and grandmother, who pulled a handcart. Those flowers are yellow Harrison roses and white roses that spread fast and keep Geneva busy controlling them. She figures her love of working outside in the yard stems from the time she was eleven or so and had to work in the fields, plowing behind a team of oxen all day. Very alert with a great memory, Geneva enjoys an independence few of us can look forward to at such an advanced age. She remembers all her school teachers, from the first to the last, and she remembers very well traveling to Payson High S chool in covered wagons driven by Wil Taylor and John Johnson, who contracted with the school. "We used to leave at 7 a.m.," she remembers, "and it took a good two hours to get there." Sometimes Geneva was registered for late afternoon classes, which necessitated a walk home. When she got home she had to milk cows, separate the milk, and do other chores. "Kids today dont know how good they have it," she six-mi- le I 1 ! says. Geneva Openshaw will be 94 in February. Geneva attended the old Santaquin School, built in 1903, even before it was finished. "We used to hold classes in the. basement part," she says, "before the building was finished. The re was an entrance to it on the north side of the building." She remembers her first school teacher, a Miss Bowen from Spanish Fork, and she also remembers very well Joseph A. Rees. "Everybody liked him. He was sure a good teacher," she notes. (Mr. Rees has an elementary school named for him in Spanish Fork.) She also recalls the day he died. "I remember it was the fourth of March and he got up to go out to the outhouse at the school. He said, Boy, it sure is a beautiful day, and the next thing we heard, he was dead." Another thing she remembers well from school is hearing the first radio. "Allen Kirkman and Wells Richman demonstrated the radio at the school," she recalls, "and all we heard was Hello, hello, hello, were now talking over the wireless telephone pole." The first car in Santaquin, she says, was owned by Dr. Mott, Santaquins first doctor. "I remember Angus (Greenhalgh, her brother) and Art Wickman started that old Model T up and took it around the block just to test it out. Willie Hudson had the next car. It was about like going to a circus to see those first cars. I remember when the main road ran past our house, wed hear those cars chug, chug, chugging and run out to see them. The dust was this deep where they ran." (She measures about a foot and a half with her hands as she tells this.) Geneva, who married Merle Open- shaw when whe was nineteen, had worked in Salt Lake as a housekeeper for a wealthy man named Ben Rosenbloom just after high school graduation. His home is right across the street from the Kearns Mansion on Sixth East and South Temple, which is now the Utah Governors Mansion. When she married Merle, he was the operator of the electrical power plant at the mouth of Santaquin Canyon. But when changes in his job came and he was expected to travel and train other men, he quit and began working in the Eureka mining district on the air compressors. His work there eventually led him to the mill near Warm Springs in Genola, where he was in charge of the roaster ovens. One day, returning from work in 1922, he was involved in a car rollover which left him seriously injured. By then, he and Geneva had three of their four boys, and, as Geneva puts it, "I was left with three kids, a man with a broken back, and a bank that went broke." She explains that the Payson Exchange Bank, where she and Merle had been saving for home improvements, folded and left them without their nest egg. Geneva took care of Merle and provided for the family by milking her cows, gathering eggs, and raising other farm animals for food on their lot at the comer of 100 East and 100 North, a home they had moved into in 1917. When Merle s health improved, he became an automobile salesman and worked for several agencies in the valley. The family eventually included four boys Eugene, Jay, Rheul, and Blake. Jay once owned the largest Chevron service station in Salt Lake City, and Blake worked in a management capacity for Chevron for forty years before his recent retirment. Blake has won national awards for his marksmanship and has a sideline of handcrafting guns. Rheul, who was stationed much of the time at Hill Field, was for many years involved in top secret missile work for the military. 'Tve seen some changes," says Geneva with a wry grin. "Ive seen it go from oxen teams to men on the moon. I remember when the biggest entertainment was slide shows instead of movies." But throughout all these changes, Geneva has kept herself busy, and not just in the yard. Besides seeing her family through trying times with Merle laid up and youngsters to feed, Geneva had helped provide entertainment for the town. "Grant Johnson and I helped put together programs. We once had the Salt Lake Symphony down here, and we put togetherlots ofprograms as fundraisers." Genevas social activity was slowed down a great deal, though, after Merles injuries. "Ive seen the town go from 600 population to 3,000," she says of Santa- quin. "Ive seen telephones, electric power, and the water system come in. (She remembers when drinking water was hauled in by bucket) She says her brother Henry Greenhalgh was first to have an electric stove and first to have running water in the house, located at about 50 West 100 North. i Automobile Accident Claims Lives of Former Resident's Son & 1Grandson . Alan Ray Peterson, 38, and his son, Mark alan Peterson, 1 of Queen Creek, Arizona, died Nov. 30, 1989, in Mesa, Arizona following an automobile collision in which the driver of the other car crossed the center line and collided with them head on. Another son, Brian, who was also a passenger in the car, was severely injured but is recovering in a Phoenix hospital. Alan was bom Oct. 24, 1951, in Provo, Utah. He graduated with honors from Basic two-yeHigh School in Henderson, Nevada. He then attended school at UNLV and served a mission for the LDS church in France and Belgium. Upon his return he attended and graduated from Ricks college in Rexburg, Idaho. He then attended and graduated from B YU and received his MBA from Idaho State University in Pocatello, Idaho, for the past eleven years he has been an employee of Garrett Corp. of Phoenix and has resided with his wife and family in Queen Creek, Arizona. He is survived by his wife, Renae, whom he married in the Idaho Falls LDS Temple on August 11, 1977; two sons, Brian and Scott, and two daughters, Lanae and Da Nae, all of Queen Creek; his parents, Donald and Arlene Hudson Peterson; two sisters, Valerie Marsh and Janine Peterson and a brother, Brent Peterson, all of Phoenix. He was preceded in death by an infant son, Matthew. Funeral services were held Monday,Dec. 4 in the Queen Creek LDS Ward Chapel. Graveside services were held in the Santaquin City Cemetery on Dec. 9 at 1 1:30 a.m. ar |