No author is on the copy this was taken from, but it is one of the children
Electa Philomelia Dixon was the sixth child of William Wilkinson and Sabra Lake Dixon. She was born at Harrisville, Weber County, Utah on June 2, 1852. Electa was the first girl born in the village of Harrisville where her parents were pioneer settlers in 1851. Her cousin, William Lake, was the first boy born in the newly settled village. Much rejoicing and honor were given the “Little Pioneers” among their kindred and neighbors.
Electa’s childhood was a busy happy one. She descended through a line of perfect homemakers. Her grandmother, Philomelia Smith Lake, though the mother of fifteen children had made her home in many shifting scenes. Yet, her inborn love of home never wavered and she instilled this love into the hearts of her children. So Electa learned from her mother, Sabra Lake, to weave, to spin, to sew, to dip candles, to make cheese and butter, to preserve the fruits and garden products. In fact to become a perfect homemaker, wife and mother as those noble pioneer mothers from whom she descended.
Electa loved life. She found keen enjoyment in the ward activities both religious and social and she was a great favorite wherever she went because of her dependability when duty called, she was a busy worker in church organizations. She, with other people in the valley who were isolated looked forward to conference times when her father would gather his family together and drive to Salt Lake City in company with relatives and neighbors from their own and surrounding wards. Here for several days they eagerly listened to the Gospel Doctrines as taught to them by President Brigham Young and the Apostles of God. The young people rejoiced in seeing the interesting sights of the growing city and found pleasure in being together.
Electa became acquainted with Lyman Skeen, the son of Joseph Skeen, a pioneer of Plain City, five miles west of Harrisville. Lyman, like his father was a lover of horses. In his small carriage and behind his beautifully matched prancing team he drove with Electa through the beautiful valleys of romance. Common interest and close association taught them mutual worth and they learned to love each other. When Electa was eighteen and Lyman, twenty years of age they were married in the Endowment House at Salt Lake City on February 8, 1870. Lyman had built a log house opposite his father’s home in Plain City and there they established their home.
Electa brought into her new home all the love, devotion and home training that had been instilled into her early life. Soon the spinning wheel was busy and the little home fairly hummed with housewifely activities. Mother entered eagerly in the interest of the new ward. In the church and social activities she and father were new leaders. Their home was a gathering place for the young people of her own age. They loved to dance, sleigh-ride and attend the candy pulls, corn huskings, cutting bees and mother’s skill at quilting bees was known afar.
On July 1, 1871, a son was born whom they named Lyman. Because of the thrift and perfect management of the home, father prospered in flocks, herds, in droves of horses and land. The family increased in members as the years passed and each one found a welcome and a place in the home and affections of mother and father.
Frequently father drove one of his beautiful teams to Salt Lake City at conference time taking mother and some of the smaller children with him. They attended the State Fair, concerts and theaters. One of my most vivid memories of mother is seeing her sitting in a comfortable near the door of the Old Salt Lake Theatre with her baby, Isabell, an infant in her arms. Babies were forbidden in the theater but the usher kindly seated her near the door where she watched with delight the drama of “Hazel Kirke”.
For twenty-one years father and mother lived in happiness, peace and prosperity in the home they first established in Plain City. Their home was noted throughout the valley for its hospitality. Because of mother’s increasing duties with her family of eleven children her church activities were restricted. Father became President of the Elders Quorum. When ward conference was held in Plain City, President Shurtleff, Middleton, Flygare, William W. Wright, and other visiting brethren were delighted to partake of the feast which mother always prepared for them.
Mother was keenly anxious concerning the education of the children and planned with them for the future in their preparation for life. In the spring of 1891 our home life was a perfect and complete as a paradise on earth. Not a shadow to warn of the great sorrow hovering near.
Mother was joyous over the fact that in June, Lyman, her eldest child would be graduated from the University of Utah and would return to the home that had missed him so much. She was in delicate health and we awaited the arrival of another brother or sister in May.
In April an epidemic of Scarlet Fever spread throughout the ward. Two of the children were stricken and on April 20th, Sabra Alice, the little four-year old daughter passed away. A few days after Sabra’s death, mother became seriously ill. She passed away on April 28, 1891 when she was thirty-bin years of age. She, with her twelfth child, an unborn babe, are buried in the cemetery at Plain City, Weber County, Utah
