1 Dec 1905 – 8 May 1972
Great-granddaughter of Philip Cardon and Martha Marie Tourn
Granddaughter of Charles Guild and Marie Madeline Cardon
Daughter of William Oliver Guild and Nettie Heiner
Afton Gilson
I, Mary Afton was blessed by John A. Guild, my father’s brother. I was the fourth child in our family. There were six children younger than I, and altogether there were 4 girls and 6 boys. My oldest brother died the first year I went to school.
One year before I went to school, I had a pair of red stockings and a black patent pair of Mary Jane slippers. I just loved those stockings. Grandma Guild would darn all the stockings when she visited us. She darned my red stockings with brown thread (yarn) and I was heart broken.
I started grade school at Urie, Wyoming. The school house was a one room one. The teacher was living at our house. We had to walk about 1/2 mile to school, and we took our own lunch and water to drink. One day the teacher made me stay in and I was sure put out about it. I tried to get out of the door several times but he would always see me. When school was out for all, he had me walk home with him. I had both the water bucket and the lunch bucket because my brother Bruce had left them. The teacher carried one bucket for me. I pouted all the way home.
I was baptized 19 Oct 1915 in a pond near Piedmont, Uinta , Wyoming by my father William 0. Guild, and confirmed the same day by my father. My younger brother Le Grand was baptized at the same time.
We moved on our homestead when I was ten years old. I never went to school a full year until I was twelve. I was out of school in the winter months with Saint Vidas dance. The year we moved to the homestead my father was the school teacher. There were six of us in school. We had one room with desks and a blackboard. We were snowed in for a long while. Father made a couple of trips out for supplies. One before Christmas and one in the spring. We didn’t see anyone all winter. We were all well it seemed.
When my youngest brother Roger was born, I was I I years old. I asked mother if I could have him. She said “oh, I suppose”. I really thought he was mine. I used to take care of him a lot. When he was 4 months old, I used to go to the dances with mamma and papa to take care of Roger for them while they played the piano and violin. I used to just love to wash his head. I would put him on the back porch on his back so the soap wouldn’t get in his eyes.
Vervin Raymond Gilson
The summer he was a year old, Katie and I went to Morgan, Utah to work in the factory in the tomatoes. I spent part of my first check for slippers for Roger. When I was married I would have to bring Roger back for a while every time I went home to visit. He spent one school year with us when he was 10 years old. I was married 17 May 1921 in Brigham City, Box Elder, Utah when I was 15 1/2 years old to Vervin Raymond Gilson. He was a widower with two children. Nellie Priscilla who was 8 years old and Raymond William who was 5 years old. I tried very hard to take good care of them. I loved them as if they were my own and they showed me love and respect.
My first baby, a boy, was born 21 Sep 1924 at Lyman, Uinta, Wyoming at my mother’s home. When he was a month old we moved up to Labarge, Wyoming, on a cattle ranch. It was 50 miles to town and I never saw another woman for 6 months. The only medication I had was a bottle of consecrated oil, castoria and camphorated oil. We were very much blessed with good health. We had taken Priscilla and Raymond to Tremonton, Utah to their grandmothers’ for school. When school was out we went after them and they were happy to have them home again. We had the baby named Vervin R. Gilson.
Our second child, Afton LaFon, was born 25 Ag 1933 in Bear River City, Box Elder, Utah. Priscilla also had her first baby just two months later, We had some good times together with our new little babys.
On 15 Feb 1929, my husband and I were sealed in the Logan Temple and had Priscilla, Raymond and Vervin R. sealed to us. Since then I have spent many times in the various L.D.S. Temples doing work for the dead. Priscilla, Raymond, and Nello, a baby who had died was sealed to their Father and Mother, Nellie Muad Gardner 15 Feb 1929.
My third child, a beautiful little girl was born I Jul 1936 in Brigham City, Box Elder, Utah. We called her Verna LaRue.
Soon after we moved to Payson, Utah and spent several years there. My husband had several kinds of jobs: trucking, blacksmithing and post cutting.
I’ve been very active in the Church and held several jobs in the different wards we’ve lived in during our marriage.
On the 6 May 1940, our little daughter Verna became very ill and passed away. She had been ill for several days. She was only 4 years old. She was buried in the Payson cemetery.
We lived in Payson when V.R. graduated from high school and very soon after on 5 Feb 1944 he married Illa Jean Earlandson of Payson.
Soon after that we moved to West Ogden and lived there several years also. LaFon went to high school here in Ogden. She met and married Weston Melvin Warren on 13 Jun 1949 in Craig, Moffet, Colorado and later endowed in the Logan Temple 18 Apr 1950.
My husband worked as a blacksmith in Ogden until blacksmithing gave way to welding with electrical and acetylene. He did post cutting and various other jobs until he retired and we moved to Kanosh, Utah. We had a little stucco house and a large yard and Dad had his horses until he became to ill with sugar diabetes and liver trouble. He died there in Kanosh 11 Sep 1959 and was laid to rest in the Payson cemetery next to little Verna LaRue and with space left for myself.
I lived there in Kanosh after my husband died. I did little jobs besides working at a little antique store and I was always busy with numerous church positions. My family came yearly to visit and stay a few days. I treasured these visits and always had many places for them to take me and many little jobs needing done. My Son in Law Weston was very good to come and catch all my little fix up jobs and I anxiously awaited the time they could get back to Utah to live so that they would be near me.
I lived there 12 years after Vervin died and it was in the summer of 1971 that a buck sheep knocked me down and kept me down for ten minutes or more. A neighbor came to my assistance and had to knock the buck away with a shovel. This injury and trauma brought on a mild heart attack and I was hospitalized in Filmore hospital. I seemed to be recovering quite well and the stake president had given me a blessing when I went back to sleep and died in my sleep, peacefully and as if it had been willed of God.
Mary Afton Heiner Guild Gilson lived an unselfish life of service, and friend to all who knew her. She died and was interned beside her Husband Vervin “Smoky” Gilson and her daughter Verna LaRue in the Payson cemetery.
History: obtained from Weston Warren
Extracted from “The Descendants of Charles Guild and Mary Madaline Cardon”, pages 31-33, compiled by Susan Thomas Tippets, February 1996
Payson City Cemetery, Payson, Utah, Utah
Verna La Rue Gilson died age 4 of a ruptured appendix.
