LIFE SKETCH OF ISABELLE WARDELL WRIGHT
Isabelle Wardell Wright, was born Nov.29,1848 in Reddington Row, Durham, England. Her parents, Martin D. Wardell and Barbara Smith emigrated to this country in 1851 when Mother was 3 years old. She had 4 brothers and 2 sisters, George, William, John, James, Annie and Hanna.  They settled in Rock Run, Penn. and lived there 10 yrs. or more, then they moved to Florence, Nebraska.
While living there in Florence the first winter the Missouri river froze over end the children would play and skate on the river. One day in early spring lo and behold George disappeared mother missed him and began looking for him near the melting  ice, when suddenly she saw his head appear above a hole in the ice and disappear again. She stood still and watched hole where she bad seen George and then he came up again she grabbed him by the heir and pulled him to safety. Though nearly dead she revived him and he lived to be en old man and raise a large family in Twin Falls County, Idaho.
Mother̓s parents decided to move to Utah but had to stay in Neb. longer than they had planned to help make tents and wagon covers for other pioneers. Mother helped a great deal in the house with the work doing work usually expected of much older girls (she was 11 yrs. old at this time).
One day when mother was carrying water from the river a terrible electric storm  came, the lightning̓ had struck a pile of lumber near by mother had noticed that a man was standing there just a few minutes before the lightning has struck, so she ran and called for help. The man had been complete1y buried under the burning lumber and would have smothered under it had not mother seen him there. AS it Was he escaped with a few broken bones and some minor  bruises.
Ear1y in spring the family started their journey across the plains, enduring. the  hardships incident to pioneer life. Uncle James was the baby at that time. The family number six. The entire company was divided into companies of ten and a captain placed over these tens arid cook provided for the same. John Young was the captain of the company. A young women cook of one of the companies ran away with one of the soldiers so her captain came to Grandfather Wardell and obtained his permission for mother, a girl of 11 yrs. to take charge of the cooking for his company during the remainder of the trip.
The men milked the cows that pulled the wagons in the morning and Mother would fix the milk in an old fashioned dash churn and it would be butter by night after the days ride on the side of the wagon.
‘“Mother saw a woman fall from a wagon be crushed to death leaving a small baby motherless. Mother helped ca re for this baby during the trek to Utah.
Mother turned 12 just a 1ittle while before the company arrived In the val1ey that Nov.. They were foot sore and weary for they  had traveled most of the way barefoot. Each child that was able had to find work to help earn his own way. Mother was hired out to do housekeeping for George Alexander and his family of 13.
When mother was l6 yrs. old she met John P. Wright and married him.. The first  of her marriage she dried 2 hundred pounds of peaches and her payment was one hundred of those dried peaches. She sold those to the soldiers for .75. per pound. A little girl was born to mother and  Father the next year, Eliza Ann While Eliza Ann was still a baby, a young Indian mother died leaving a small baby. Although mother wanted to keep the child they would not let her, but they brought the child to be nursed from mother̓s  breast twice a day so it would live.
One day the Indians came to the house while she had gone to visit they found the key and ste 2 gallons of preserved poaches Mother had just made. When they came down the road mother heard them laughing end talking and when they saw her they pointed at her and laughed harder mother grow suspicions and hurried home arid there round her empty peach preserves jar. The next thy When they brought the baby to be nursed she told them they would have to find someone else to care for the child because the Indians had wronged her by eating her preserves,

Indians who had been drinking were often very mean and one evening when mother was alone an Indian came to house end demanded entrance, Mother felt  sure he had been drinking and for her own protection refused to let him enter. He grew angry and threatening and for a long time kept going around the house and around the house trying to get in. He finally left but mother didn̓t sleep much that night.
Every two years a new baby came to mother and Father until there were four girls, Eliza Ann, Barbara, Mary Belle, and Rhoda Ann. On July 4th Father was home from working on the railroad when Mother told him to hurry to get the midwife. So father had to get a pair of mules, hitch them to a wagon and ride 4 miles to got the midwife because all the neighbors were at the 4th of July celebration in Salt Lake City. Before he returned I was born, Sarah Louise.

Work became more plentiful as time went along, so my father opened a tailor shop in his own home.. Mother was a good sewer so she helped father make overalls and jumpers. Often they would sew until the wee hours of the morning to get their orders filled.

My parents built an adobe family house 7  miles from Silt Lake City from adobo bricks they had made themselves. They built a home 1 ½  stories high and as their family grew they added to their house.

By now there were three more children in the family, and then the dreaded disease  diphtheria struck. I:t took many live of children and among them were my two  small sisters Rhoda Ann, and Mary Belle. Two years later the baby boy was born. Then another girl was born to my parents. Soon after that my father married another woman. They were all united and happy together, . Mother helped in all winds of sickness , helped those in need, besides  keeping her own  children and house in order. She was a belle among women and all the county loved her and called her Aunt Belle. My mother even helped  keep my father on a mission which he spent in Great Britain at the age of 60 for two years.  She kept the family and father, by cooking for large weddings and ce1ebrations and often traveled many miles to do her work.

On May 2, 1914, mother and Father celebrated  their 60th wedding anniversary at the old mi11 Creek home. Mother did all the planing and cooking for this affair. They lived happi1y together for four years aftor this. Then my father died Jun. 3, 1913. After my father̓s death mother 1ived aro:und with her children.

One evening at a family party they asked Mother to recite John” for the program. Just as she spoke the words, “John, will you bo there to open the gates for me?  She started to fall, the family caught her, and put  her to bed, but she never spoke again. By 2AM she died with a peaceful look on her face. We  believe John was there to open the gates end welcome her home to a hapy reunion, She was the mother of 14 children. The old home where all the children were born in.still stands and the youngest boy  lives there.

There was a little girl named Bell Wright,
who came from a country far away.
She gathered buffalo chips
Instead of Wooden Sticks
To keep the fires burning on the way.

And when she grew to be a young lady,
Decided to the alter she would go
Her gown it was a beauty,
The bride full fullfilled her duty.
By being wed in calico,

she helped her spouse to make a living
To care for the family needs.
She made a bunch of money
Chasing bees for honey
As a worker, you may judge her deeds.

She caters to the hungry and the needy
 She cooks for great and small
Wedding suppers were her best
But we must all confess,
We like her common cooking
Best of all.

And then in times of sickness
Matters not what the ailment be
Run with allyour might
And bring mister right
She̓s the doctor for our family.