Remembrances of Atella Wiltbank Haws by Shelby Slade

Atella Wiltbank Haws in 1978

     I don't remember my great-grandma, Atella Wiltbank Haws, much.
     She was 96 when I was born. I was 5 when she died.
     I know my father always took me to visit her, but, in the way a child's mind works, I remember the titter-totter and the pig-nosed walnut shells in her yard more than I remember her.
     I think I remember her being fragile and quiet, but I can't be sure. On one visit she fished her teeth out and chattered them at me. I ran and hid my face in my pink fleece sweater.
     In the past couple of months I have been helping my dad transcribe some of her journals from the 70s and 90s. While I have done so I have discovered her true identity by trying to decipher her writing and restrain myself from punctuating her sentences.
     She was a strong, faithful, sturdy and genuinely lovely woman.
     She has become a personal hero I wish I could have known better in the few years our lives overlapped.
     Grandma loved learning. She began taking classes when Northland Pioneer College opened in Eagar in the late 70s. She consistently attended her ceramics class faithfully each week to make several "crude, little pots." She also took an institute class each semester. When my brain is stuffed with facts and figures, I try to apply her love of learning in my life.
     Grandma was strong, both spiritually and physically. While in her late 70s she continued to grow her large garden and would often spend a whole week in the spring preparing her yard for the new growth. She also experienced great struggles in her life, but her faith in God never weakened. Instead, in trials she positioned herself closer to Him through trust, prayer and scripture study. As trials fly at me I try to use her tactics and remain strong.
     Grandma was one of the most loving people I have known. She was constantly dedicating her life of service to others. She would use her talents and time to serve others. She visited people, made them quilts, magnified her duties and loved. This is one of her greatest characteristics that permeates her journals. It is the train that has touched me the most.
     Even though I was very young when Atella Wiltbank Haws died, that hasn't stopped me from getting to know her and becoming friends. As I have studied her life I have come to see the vibrant young woman, the caring mother and the guided servant of the Lord she was.
     I am closer to my great-grandmother than I ever would have imagined.

-Shelby Slade great-granddaughter

Shelby is daughter of David Slade who is a son of Dorothy Haws Slade who is a daughter of Atella Haws Wiltbank

Atella as vibrant young woman

Atella as a Servant of the Lord

Atella as Loving Mother 1940

Atella and Daughter Dorothy 1952

Atella Wiltbank Haws - New Years Resolutions

Shelby and I have been transcribing the Journals kept by Atella Wiltbank Haws. Below I have listed some of the years where she mentioned her thoughts at New Years. I believe that she sets a good pattern of analyzing how she has done the past year and then lists what she needs to work on for the new year.
I especially like her statement made Dec 31 1992 "Have I felt Joy?" I hope that you enjoy this brief look into Atella Wiltbank Haws' journals.

January 30, 1975

I come to the end of another year of my life, feeling sad that many things have not been accomplished. I believe my chief regrets to be in the field of record keeping my own personal journal and diary, also a big field in bringing up to date the group sheets of my family and loved ones, I am grateful for some days spent in this good work during the month of Dec, when I made many new group sheets for new families, relatives who had married this year, and began homes of their own- but I only scratched the surface, probably every sheet in my record books need some entries made of births, deaths, marriage, baptisms, endowments, and sealings, hopefully I will set some goals along the lines and get some results during 1975. We did some enjoyable work, Harvey and I during home evening through Nov and Dec after a lesson from the manual. We worked on our picture albums for each of the children in our family, thereby preserving many pictures we had accumulated during the years. These we used for presents for each family for Christmas. This nice book given me each year by my nephew Ronald Wiltbank is not being properly used, it is with sadness and regret I put away the 1974 book with most of the pages blank. I am very much aware of the commandment to keep records and I believe but I procrastinate and am aware that is sin, that needs repentance from by me. Probably the things I write are not very important but just the same it is a commandment and had not Nephi and the other men in the Book of Mormon kept this commandment, I shudder at what we would have missed. I love the Book of Mormon like to read it and have received great pleasure and I hope some knowledge, by listening to the recordings we have, as I sit and quilt or braid rugs I have listened to several times.

January 2, 1990

I start out the new year hoping to improve by overcoming some of my faults & failing, being less selfish, more forgiving, have more patience and self control. I feel certain that improvement in these areas would give more peace to me and to those near & dear to me.
...
My body is getting older & stiffer and full of pains & aches so I don't do as well as I wish I could, but thanks to the kindness and help of my family I was able to get 34 endowments done in the [Mesa] Arizona temple this past year and I have made & given away a goodly number of quilts & rugs.

December 29, 1990

Another year is ending. It reminds me that I am probably nearing the end of my time here on earth, and presents the question, How have I done? Nothing could please me more than to think that my judge just might say well done. At lease I do have the desire and do put forth some effort each day trying to do better.

December 31, 1992

The year is drawing to a close, time to consider has it been well spent? Have I accomplished anything worthwhile? Have I felt joy? If so in what area was that felt? All of these questions can give me serious thought, and it seems the answer is service, given willingly it can bring joy.

January 1, 1999

Ready for a good 1998. Just be more trusting, have more faith in our Lord and Saviour. He loves us and would like to help us if we can follow in His footsteps. I am grateful for all I have been given and pray for strength to carry on until the end. 

Remembrances of Atella Wiltbank Haws

Hollyhocks like those at Grandma's House

By her grandson David Carl Slade

My earliest remembrance of Grandma Haws was from my family’s summer trips to Eagar Arizona from California where I grew up. We would make the 12 hour trip, first on the train and Grandma would pick us up in Holbrook, and then in later years we would drive the whole way. We always stayed at Grandma’s house and she was always the kindest host. Her homemade butter and fresh milk always made for wonderful breakfast meals.

She always had a big garden and grew raspberries. I loved raspberries and would pick and eat them. I loved to see her flowers and she always had a lot of them growing around her home. I especially remember the tall holly hocks. They would be tall and colorful.

A Braided Rug made by Grandma Haws

 She was a hard worker and I would often see her working in the garden or making cheese or butter. She would not waste anything. One example of this was her braided rugs. She would use the fabric that she could not turn into a quilt or something else useful to braid into rugs. I have one of those rugs that she gave me as a gift. I was always amazed at the number of quilts that she made because she always seemed to have a quilt to give away at most occasions.

Grandma was quite an artist. She was an artist through her quilts, tatting, and other things that she made. She often had a quilt on the frames to be quilted and it would take up the entire living room.  I have some beautiful quilts made by her and some of them had tatted lace on them. I was always amazed to watch her work her tatting with the little shuttle she used. I tried to learn from her once but I failed to learn it. I remember her continuing to quilt in her last couple of years even sitting on her bed with a little quilt frame. She did not ever just quit doing the things that she had always done in her life just because it became hard in her last few years.

A tatted Bookmark made by Grandma Haws for Terri Ann Slade

Grandma loved to play scrabble and so there was often a game of scrabble going on in the evening. I also know that grandma read a lot and she had a love of learning. She always kept her mind busy doing good things such as reading good books or playing games that would challenge her mind.

Grandma loved all of her family and was always serving them. She would write letters to them visit them, make quilts, rugs, tatted lace and peanut brittle for them. I saw this on trips we made with Grandma around the White Mountains and in Mesa. We would stop and visit so many relatives such as Cora Sharp in Shumway and she was always welcomed by those that she visited. One time she told me I should get one of her great nieces that I did not know to go to young adults. I got to know this niece and later married her.

When I enlisted in the US Army many of my relatives thought I was making a big mistake and even questioned me about it. However, Grandma Haws supported me. She came to my graduation from Army Basic Training in Missouri.

Grandma loved peanut M&Ms. At least once at a family reunion she had a jar of peanut M&Ms and if you guessed the number in the jar you got the jar and the M&Ms.

Patience was one virtue that Grandma had. There were always a lot of grandkids around and she did not yell at them or me. She always had cookies in her camel cookie jar. We grandkids loved to play in grandma’s yard. I remember games of “piggy wants a motion” or “kick the can” with her front porch being the base. There was also the rocking horse made out of a tree that had three limbs and was laid on its side. It was rode by sitting on the top limb and the two bottom limbs were shaped so that it would rock back and forth.

The gospel was important to Grandma. She was a great example to me of the gospel in action. She always knew who was sick or needed help and made sure that help was provided. She read her scriptures and attended church. I also remember when it was time for a meal that we would kneel by our chairs for family prayer. I think that we did this for breakfast and supper. Grandma was always teaching me. During her last year when she spent a lot of time in bed I asked how she was doing and she said that she was just trying to endure to the end.

Atella Wiltbank Haws 90th Birthday Article

Recently I found a very good newspaper article that was written at Atella's 90th Birthday. It appears in the Round Valley edition of the Falcon newspaper on 29 November 1989. In this newspaper there were 20 adds with birthday wishes to Atella Haws. The people of Eagar and Springerville really loved Atella Wiltbank Haws.

I sure do miss Grandma and her passion for being righteous. If anybody knows what year the picture up front was taken I would appreciate knowing this.

Testimony of Atella Wiltbank Haws

I recently found a testimony written by my Grandmother Atella Wiltbank Haws. It reminded me of how spiritually strong she was. I wanted to share it will all of her descendents.

"Having been asked by my daughter Dorothy to write my testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ, to be used in their family home evening in November, 1965, I approach this eagerly and willingly, but humbly, knowing I am inadequate to do it as well as I would like it done.
I am extremely grateful for an ancestry who had accepted the gospel of Jesus Christ and moved with the body of the church, when and wherever called, from New York to Nauvoo, to Salt lake, to Dixie, then on to Arizona; for parents who believed in the principle of eternal marriage enough to make the trip from Eagar, Arizona to St. George, Utah to the temple of the Lord, by horsedrawn, covered wagon, taking 19 days each way, that they might be sealed by proper authority for time and eternity; For a father who always kept these marriage covenants sacred and who believed in paying an honest tithing on his income. For a good mother who taught us to pray, to love the church and to accept any calls made to us from our authorities; who went with us to primary, Sunday School and Sacrament meeting, even though this usually meant walking the 2 miles to the church house.
Looking back, after 67 years of life, I am sure the church has meant more to me than any other factor, in making my life what it has been.
My years at the church academy, my nurses training at a church hospital, my marriage, being made eternal at the Salt Lake Temple, are the high lights of my life, I sincerely appreciate the many opportunities for growth and the development of my abilities and talents, which have come to me because of the call to different offices and positions in the auxiliaries of the church. I am deeply grateful for a good clean kind husband, who endure much suffering in this life, and for the children whom God gave to us. They have been good, obedient and thoughtful and desirous of living the Gospel.
For these many things, I thank my Heavenly Father and want you, my children, to know that I know that God lives, that we are his children, that he loves us so much that he gave his Son, Jesus Christ, that we might be redeemed and again be united in the Kingdom of our Father.
I know too, that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored in this day, through the Prophet Joseph Smith, and that we are being led by prophets today, who received revelation for the good and upbuilding of the Kingdom of God here on earth. I realize that this life is a time given us to test our ability to do as we have been commanded; I also know that the more nearly we can live in obedience to the laws the greater happiness we will enjoy. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."