Born to stalwart pioneer ancestors, Electa was the granddaughter of Joseph and Maria Amanda Dolby Skeen who joined the Church of Jesus Christ in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Upon the advice of Joseph Smith they migrated to Utah. She was the daughter of Lyman Stoddard and Electa Philomelia Dixon Skeen. She arrived into this world on a stormy hot day on August 12, 1879 at the family home in Plain City.
Her father was 9 years old when his family arrived in Plain City to a desolate, arid land and began the task of securing a living for the family. Electa was the sixth child and second daughter born into the family. Her brothers and sisters were: Lyman, Charles, Emma Jane, Joseph, Jedediah “D”, William Riley, Mary Ellen, David Alfred, Sabra Alice and Isabell.
She soon learned that life was one of difficulty and hard work. She was required to help on the farm as well as helping in tending younger children, cooking and housework.
She was named Electa after her mother and for some reason during her days was given the nickname “LeLL” which she became known by. When she was eight years old, she was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the canal in Plain City.
Her parents taught and encouraged her to study the Gospel and to attend her meetings and acquire the faith necessary to believe in the latter day work. She was taught the importance of living a good clean life and setting a good example to her siblings, friends and associates. She was encouraged and taught the importance of a good education. She attended school in Plain City at the age of six. She was quick to learn and was an excellent student. She had many friends and participated in school activities.
She was eleven years old when her mother died on April 28, 1891. She had two brothers and three sisters younger than she. After he mother’s death she encountered additional responsibilities and hardships until her father married Annie Skelton on October 20, 1892. When Annie came into the home her responsibilities were lightened, but she still had major tasks to assume.
She completed her education in Plain City and she was able to go to Salt Lake to continue her education at the University of Utah, which was the largest University west of the Missouri River. She was able to live with her brother to help succor expenses. She graduated in the field of education and was able to secure a job teaching in the lower grades.
She became acquainted and later engaged to William Jenkins. Before they were able to get married he became ill and died suddenly. She was very devastated over her loss. She was later able to have his temple work done on September 30, 1931, as well as hers on March 28, 1901. She remained very close to the Jenkins family. She mentioned in a letter to Isabell that Laura Jenkins had sent her seven dollars to purchase Jenkins records. In June of 1935 she had 350 Jenkins names ready for the Index Bureau. She corresponded regularly with the family.
About 1910 she became restless and decided she need to become adventurous and moved to Arizona. She needed an Arizona teaching certificate and was not that satisfied with teaching so she became involved in the hotel business. He met and married Augustus Johnson, May 14, 1920 and eventually moved to Florida. They had a thriving hotel and restaurant business going when a hurricane destroyed all they had acquired. Their marriage must have been unstable because she said she would not go through another hurricane and he would not leave with her. They could not work through their difficulties and later became divorced in 1927. After a failed marriage she was sealed to William Jenkins on September 30, 1931.
She returned to Mesa, Arizona and continued to work for the El Portel Hotel. She was able to live at the hotel where she worked at the front desk and filled in as a maid when necessary.
Electa (Lell) after she returned to Mesa would come often to Plain City to is it. She would spend several days with Isabell and family and then go to Plain City to visit with her dad. A member of Isabell’s family would pick her up at the bus stop. She was very independent and insisted that she walk to Plain City. She would pack her bag and leave before it became too hot and walk the distance of 4.6 miles. She would visit with her dad and other family members before she headed back to Mesa. After her father’s death on April 4, 1933, she never came to stay for any length of time.
She had written to Isabell and said, “The happiest days of my life were those I spent with you and your children. I have always closed my mind to any other thought of home.”
Lell never had a home of her own until 1936. She lived in Plain City as a girl. Went to the University and taught school in Salt Lake, lived in hotels in Mesa, Tucson and Florida. She traveled with her work and according to her, she lived a rambling life. In a letter to Erma Charlton, upon learning of her engagement she wrote “A woman’s greatest happiness is found in the home where she is enthroned in the hearts of her loved ones. Education, travel, career, nothing quite satisfies like the home ties in the home nest.”
In 1934 she was transferred to Tucson, Arizona. According to her letters to Isabell, she was not happy there with her surroundings and neither with the people she worked with. She decided to use her savings and build her a home in Mesa near the temple. She was able to acquire a narrow strip of land one block south of the temple and build her small home. It was a three story home. It had a basement with a sleeping room and storage. On the main level was a cooking area, a small nook for eating, a parlor and a bath. The top story was a bedroom. Later she built what she called a sun room off the main level. It cost her more than she had planned and required all her savings. She quit her work and in the spring of 1936, shipped her furniture to her home and returned to Mesa.
Farming was instilled into her as a child. She planted citrus and fig trees and planted a garden. She grew lemons as large as grapefruit and you would insult her if you didn’t peel and eat her grapefruit like an orange. He had vegetables all year from her garden.
After she quit work she had a shortage of money until she became of age to withdraw her pension. She would rent her bedroom upstairs for ten dollars a month and would lent it out for fifty cents a night. She also tended children for twenty-five dollars a month. She worked for the temple in research and getting names ready to have their temple work done for two cents a name. She worked the fall of 1938 picking cotton. She remarked that the recuperation time was not worth the money. She made a comment that she could live on ten dollars a month. She had a sense of humor. The comment she made of tight times was “I keep the eagles squawking and the buffalo bellowing from being squeezed so hard.”
Lell spent much of her time doing genealogy and temple work. In a letter to Isabel received June 26, 1936, she states that she had 350 Jenkins names ready for the Index Bureau, she had done 140 Lake dealings and had 40 names ready for endowments, four sheets of male Skeen names being sent to salt Lake and 14 couple sealings ready for Ruth Dixon. This would only be the tip of the iceberg of the genealogical work she had done, as she temple work for more than 20 years.
In a letter she had written to Erma Charlton Penman in November 1936, she stated that she would find more satisfaction and joy in genealogical service than any other of the church work. She had Dr. Lyman’s, her brother, who died May 14, 1906, temple work ready to do. She had sent it to the Logan Temple and called her brother Joseph (Jode) and asked if he would go to Logan and do it. Lyman’s endowment work was completed on January 25, 1907, by Joseph Skeen, his brother.
Lell had written to Isabell in July 1940, following the death of her son. She reminded her that she had Dr. Lyman’s endowment work done early and that it was not too early to have her son, Lyman’s endowment work done so he could enter into the Celestial Kingdom. She stated that we must do all we can to assist them that have moved on to help them in their work and help people accept the gospel.
She referred to the deaths of her brother, Lyman and her nephew Lyman and said that we must assist them in the patriarchal line and that we must help the dead to accept. She also said she had 300 more Skeen, Lake and Dixon names ready to have the sealings done. While going through the books of Nauvoo residents in the Seventies records, I noticed Joseph and Maria’s children, James Buires, Anna Maria, who had died in Nauvoo, and Joseph Hyrum who died at Winter Quarters, that Aunt Lell had done their temple work. I’m sure that she did the necessary work for Elisha David and Amanda.
Aunt Lell was a sociable, knowledgeable person, a good conversationalist and had many friends. She met people easily.
Aunt Lell was always anxious for family to visit. Isabell and some of her family members, Riley and family and Jedediah (Jed) and Ethel were the only family members she mentioned in her letters who visited and stayed with her in Mesa.
Often in the 1940’s and early 1950’s Isabell would go to Mesa. Aunt Lell would write to her and say she needed arrest and to come and spend time with her in sunny Arizona. Family members would offer to accompany Isabell to visit or take her down. Lell would tell her if she would get to Mesa, she would finance a trip to the West Coast. Isabell and she would travel to LaJolla Beach, north of San Diego or travel to Tucson and cross into Mexico and go to Guaymas, a small village on the Gulf of California which to them was just short of paradise. They cherished the time they spent together.
Electa left her property and money to her sister, Isabell. She emphasized that the property was not to be sold but was to be used in assisting temple workers and for it to be annexed to the temple. She wrote, “I do not want my money wasted when I worked so hard for the sole purpose of devoting it to temple and research work.”
Electa must have been a fast talker, because in spite of her insistence for independence, she became involved with the State of Arizona. They must have promised her complete care or she didn’t understand what she was signing. She ended up in a State Institution.
Isabell was awoken during her sleep with the strong realization that she was needed by Aunt Lell. She told Tom of the situation and her uneasiness and they were off to check on matters in Mesa. What she found was not good. The State rest home denied of Aunt Lell wing there. Isabell insisted she was there, but they were told to leave. She had the feeling not to go, but she had no choice. She had an inkling to check the outside area. She espied her sister sitting on a chair in her thin nightgown in the chill of an early May morning on the fenced back lawn. Isabell was able to get through the fence and go to her, put her coat over her shoulder and she caused some undo disturbance with the staff; however, she would not be released into her custody. She again was told to leave. She was able to contact the police, but everything was found to be in order and she realized she could do no more at that time. She and Tom went into the house and were not happy with what they four. State workers were there cleaning out Aunt Lell’s home and had set fire to her personal papers and genealogy materials. They were able to secure some of her lifetime work but most went up in flame.
Realizing that they could do nothing there and upon returning to Ogden, they stopped in Salt Lake to see their brother, Jedediah. Circumstances were discussed with him to see what avenue they should consider about conditions in Mesa. Before any steps could be taken work was received that Electa had passed on. Uncle Jed was able to make arrangements to have her body returned to Ogden.
Electa (Lell) Skeen Johnson’s spirit departed from her body on May 15, 1955 in Mesa, Arizona at the age of seventy-five. Her body was returned to Ogden where a short memorial service was held and her body was laid to rest in the Skeen cemetery plot in Plain City, Utah. To Plain City she arrived and to Plain City her body did return. Aunt Electa’s property was not all a complete loss. Her wishes, though not as she intended, were met. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was able to purchase her property and today it is a parking lot for patrons of the Temple. Her desires were met as her property is being used for temple patrons.