Lulu Jane Steinagel Wall
Lulu J. Wall – Born Aug 11, 1890 in Stockton, San Joaquin County, California.
Lulu Jane Steinagel was born in Stockton, California on August 11, 1890. She was the third child of seven and the third girl of four to be born into her family.
She used to jokingly say that had she been born in China at that time she would have been drowned, because it was tradition to drown the third girl. She also said that she might have “driven her father to drink,” for it was after her birth that he developed an alcoholic problem.
She was tiny as a child, and she was also a small woman. As an adult she like to think that she was 5’1” tall, but she could never really stretch over 5’. Most of her adult life she weighed about 80 pounds.
One of her frustrations in life was her lack of education as she was brilliant intellectually. A teacher, who wanted to adopt her, commented, “Lulu is as nearly perfect as a child can be.” Although her formal education was limited to the ninth grade, she continued to study throughout her life.
She was an avid reader, and her children never brought home a school book that she didn’t absorb.
For most of her life she lived in a home where there was not enough money. As a result, she went to work at a very young age, and she worked hard all of her life. This led to a variety of work experiences, which included all types of cannery work, housekeeping, chocolate dipping, fountain work, millinery work, and practical nursing. She worked for a short while for an early “balloon man” who was preparing for lighter than air travel.
In her later life there was a great demand for her services as a nurse for new mothers who had just returned home with their babies.
She was married twice, the first time when eighteen years of age, to Elmer Flash. They were both excellent dancers, and together they won many dancing contests. He was not a member of the Latter-day Saint Church but had applied for baptism just prior to their marriage. This was never accomplished, however.
Soon after their marriage they moved to McCloud, California, where Elmer was employed in the saw mills.
From this union was born Elmer Allen Flash, later known as Eugene Allen Flash on April 6, 1910. He became seriously ill when a baby and Lulu took him to San Francisco for treatment. She was gone quite a while, and decided to surprise her husband by her return without his advance knowledge. She was the surprised one, for she discovered he had installed another “wife” in the home during her absence. This terminated any normal marriage relationship, but she hated the idea of a divorce. Finally, this became the only alternative.
She returned to San Jose with her young son, where she lived with her mother and siblings for several years.
It was during this time in San Jose that she met Leonard Wall. He was a missionary in the California Mission. She at first rejected him, because he had pretended to be married, and he had difficulty persuading her to the contrary. He finally convinced her, and they were married in the Salt Lake Temple January 16, 1918 a year after he had completed his mission.
After their marriage they went to live in Lyman Wyoming, a little town that his father had helped to establish. Most of the population was made up of members of two families, and there were the usual small town problems.
Lulu learned to love many of the people, but she disliked Lyman in general because of its barrenness. She was also extremely homesick for her family in California.
While in Lyman she also went through the tragedy of Gene’s death. He was baptized on his eighth birthday, and a short time later that same month he became ill and died as a result of food he had eaten at a Sunday School picnic.
She found it difficult to reconcile herself to the loss, and when Edna Viola was born on November 27th, of that same year, she greatly feared that she, also, would die.
Charles Leonard was born in Lyman on July 25th, 1920 as was LeRoy Albert on March 11, 1922.
When LeRoy was three months old, she and her mother-in-law came to Sacramento, California for a visit. Her mother-in-law, who was a widow, so loved California that she did not wish to return to Lyman, and it took little persuasion for Lulu also to stay.
Leonard sold his ranch and followed her to Sacramento a year later.
While in Sacramento, Betty Jane was born on July 27, 1924 and Robert Lyle was born on January 7, 1927.
They lived there until they moved to San Jose in July 1928, where Lulu remained until her death on December 1, 1951.
Although their income was extremely limited from the time of the depression, they took many young people (most of them motherless boys) into their home for varying lengths of time, thus acquiring many foster sons. This was truly a fulfillment of Lulu’s patriarchal blessing which had said that she would be a “mother to the motherless.”
She was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on March 15, 1903. She remained a very active member and always bore a strong testimony to the truthfulness of the gospel. She held many positions of leadership such as Relief Society President, Primary President, and Junior Sunday School Coordinator, but the position she enjoyed most was that of Sunday School Teacher to the young teenagers. She taught this group for a number of years, even until her death, and she was much loved by the young people.
She wrote poetry for which she won many prizes. She was a long-time member of the Edwin Markham Poetry Society. She said that her thoughts often came in rhyme and she had to transpose them into prose.
She was apparently blessed with ESP, or intuition, for she was often aware of events that had happened before she was actually informed of them.
She also had a certain ability for telling fortunes and in reading palms. She was asked for several years to serve as the “Gypsy fortune-teller” at the church bazaars. She became alarmed when some of her predictions came true, and some of the young people began to take seriously those things she was telling them. She then flatly refused to participate in any further fortune-telling activity.
At the age of 61 years she met violent death when killed by an automobile driven by a hit-and-run driver, who was presumably drunk. She was hit while walking along the road to her home, and she died eight hours later in the hospital without regaining consciousness.
She had dreaded the problems of old age and senility, and from this she was spared.
Showing posts with label Lulu Jane Steinagel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lulu Jane Steinagel. Show all posts
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Monday, October 5, 2009
Lulu Jane Steinagel, Letter at the death of Eugene her son
The following is the text of a letter written by Lulu Jane Steinagel Wall to her sister shortly after the death of her oldest son Eugene. This event occurred during her pregnancy with Edna Viola Wall Casady.
It was transcribed from the original handwritten letter on 19 Feb 1987. The original is written in pencil and is nearly illegible in places.
Lyman Wyo.
May 2, 1918
Dear Sister:
Your dear welcome letter was received and it seems as if I could not make up my mind to answer before, for it seemed like there was nothing much on my mind but thoughts of little Gene, and that little new grave in the cemetery.
He was only sick six days in fact not quite that, and he almost died in the arms of one of Len’s sister’s about Bessie’s age, but I worked over him and he was relieved until the doctor came.
He had not said much when he was there in the afternoon, and he told me I must remember that our first duty was to the living, for the dead were always in better hands. I thought that he talked rather queer. It was just after supper Gene was taken so much worse, and when the doctor came he worked over him for about two hours, and he seemed to be much better. Then doctor sat and watched over him after than and then he left. I lifted babe a tiny bit with his head on my arm, and Len’s sister gave him some medicine, just a swallow, and he took it, looked straight into my eyes, gave one long sigh, and his dear little head went back on my arm, and he just closed his eyes and that was all.
Oh! I pray that you may never know the sorrow of that moment, to hold in your arms your darling and have the knowledge that they are leaving you, all your longing, all the depths of your mother love cannot hold them back. I rubbed his little cold hands and feet and hoped they did not speak truly, but that he might still come back to me, until they took me away, would not let me stay any longer. I did not see him all the next day until the second afternoon when he was buried, for all Friday my heart just seemed as if it would break, I could not sleep, I could not eat I could not cry. How hard they all tried to comfort me, but it seemed as if nothing could do me any good, I longed to go with him. Then one of our friends who had laid away two beautiful children, and then his wife, leaving him with three others, came in the evening.
He shook hands with me and then he sat there and talked to me, told me of the one Who alone could heal all wounds. Then he just broke down and sobbed and said, “Little girl, think of it.” Then he told me how his own wife grieved herself to death over her babies, and he said they all loved and needed her so. It seemed like he touched something in me until the welcome tears came, and I have felt softer and better since. You see I am almost three months towards having another and they all feared for me.
What a strange world it is. God is about to give me another, and He took the one He had given. It almost breaks my heart when I know he could not live to see it.
While he lay in his little white casket his cheeks were pink and he looked like a beautiful doll. One woman told the bishop he was the most beautiful little angel she had ever seen. You could just see a sort of heavenly look on his face, and all signs of suffering were gone.
It seemed like I could find no peace. I could not stay in the house, but I prayed for the Lord to give me faith to say “His will be done.” I went and lay down on the bed where I thought he had lain, and I could not believe but what it had happened. I have felt so different since then, for I feel that he is not far away and I try not to grieve, for I don’t believe he can ever be happy if I am sad all the time.
So you must all try to feel that it is best, and try not to grieve, for he never could bear to see us cry, and we must not grieve him now. Let him be happy in our Father’s care.
Write often dear sister, and let the children write for my heart needs it, it is so lonely and quiet without a child in the house. Every way I turn, I see his little clothes or toy, and I wake in the night and start to go cover him up, but his little bed is empty, no tousled little head on the pillow. But he will have none of the sorrow of life to face. How many times I have prayed that he might be spared much of life’s suffering and now he need never suffer more. God Bless and keep you all.
Lovingly, Lulu
It was transcribed from the original handwritten letter on 19 Feb 1987. The original is written in pencil and is nearly illegible in places.
Lyman Wyo.
May 2, 1918
Dear Sister:
Your dear welcome letter was received and it seems as if I could not make up my mind to answer before, for it seemed like there was nothing much on my mind but thoughts of little Gene, and that little new grave in the cemetery.
He was only sick six days in fact not quite that, and he almost died in the arms of one of Len’s sister’s about Bessie’s age, but I worked over him and he was relieved until the doctor came.
He had not said much when he was there in the afternoon, and he told me I must remember that our first duty was to the living, for the dead were always in better hands. I thought that he talked rather queer. It was just after supper Gene was taken so much worse, and when the doctor came he worked over him for about two hours, and he seemed to be much better. Then doctor sat and watched over him after than and then he left. I lifted babe a tiny bit with his head on my arm, and Len’s sister gave him some medicine, just a swallow, and he took it, looked straight into my eyes, gave one long sigh, and his dear little head went back on my arm, and he just closed his eyes and that was all.
Oh! I pray that you may never know the sorrow of that moment, to hold in your arms your darling and have the knowledge that they are leaving you, all your longing, all the depths of your mother love cannot hold them back. I rubbed his little cold hands and feet and hoped they did not speak truly, but that he might still come back to me, until they took me away, would not let me stay any longer. I did not see him all the next day until the second afternoon when he was buried, for all Friday my heart just seemed as if it would break, I could not sleep, I could not eat I could not cry. How hard they all tried to comfort me, but it seemed as if nothing could do me any good, I longed to go with him. Then one of our friends who had laid away two beautiful children, and then his wife, leaving him with three others, came in the evening.
He shook hands with me and then he sat there and talked to me, told me of the one Who alone could heal all wounds. Then he just broke down and sobbed and said, “Little girl, think of it.” Then he told me how his own wife grieved herself to death over her babies, and he said they all loved and needed her so. It seemed like he touched something in me until the welcome tears came, and I have felt softer and better since. You see I am almost three months towards having another and they all feared for me.
What a strange world it is. God is about to give me another, and He took the one He had given. It almost breaks my heart when I know he could not live to see it.
While he lay in his little white casket his cheeks were pink and he looked like a beautiful doll. One woman told the bishop he was the most beautiful little angel she had ever seen. You could just see a sort of heavenly look on his face, and all signs of suffering were gone.
It seemed like I could find no peace. I could not stay in the house, but I prayed for the Lord to give me faith to say “His will be done.” I went and lay down on the bed where I thought he had lain, and I could not believe but what it had happened. I have felt so different since then, for I feel that he is not far away and I try not to grieve, for I don’t believe he can ever be happy if I am sad all the time.
So you must all try to feel that it is best, and try not to grieve, for he never could bear to see us cry, and we must not grieve him now. Let him be happy in our Father’s care.
Write often dear sister, and let the children write for my heart needs it, it is so lonely and quiet without a child in the house. Every way I turn, I see his little clothes or toy, and I wake in the night and start to go cover him up, but his little bed is empty, no tousled little head on the pillow. But he will have none of the sorrow of life to face. How many times I have prayed that he might be spared much of life’s suffering and now he need never suffer more. God Bless and keep you all.
Lovingly, Lulu
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