Way Back When Wednesday - My Great Grandmother

This account of my great-grandparents, Vernon and Vessa, meeting and marrying was written by my great-grandfather, Vernon. 

It was shortly after school started (1925) when my interest began to turn toward a certain young lady by the name of Vessa Hanchett, of the Thatcher Ward.  Bishop Hanchett had assigned me to do ward teaching at his home, so to make a good impression, I became a very devoted ward teacher.  Vessa seemed to return the interest and it wasn't long before we started going together.  The young lady in Tempe seemed to fade from my mind completely.

Along toward the end of school, it became increasingly apparent that I was being considered for a mission call.  My interest in Vessa having become quite definite, we talked together about the idea of a mission.  She definitely said "Yes," to the mission idea, so I went ahead with preparations.

I graduated from Gila in May (1926) and my mission call came through the latter part of June, to the Netherlands Mission, which headquarters in Rotterdam, Holland.  this was quite a blow, as I had been expecting a call to some mission here in the states.  Vessa and I, together with our parents, decided we would get married before I left--not too smart a decision, but it has really worked out for us.  We were married at Vessa's home in Thatcher by Stake President Harry L. Payne on July 2, 1926.  we returned to Franklin after the wedding and made preparations to leave the next morning for Salt Lake City, where we planned to be married and sealed in the temple, and I was to enter the Mission School.  My mother accompanied us.

We took the train from Franklin [at] about 8:00 AM the morning of July 3, 1926.  During the night of July 2, someone stole all of our money, my traveler's checks for the trips to Holland, [and] all of our funds somewhere between Tuscon and Colton, California.  It had been in the my coat pocket, hanging over our heads in the upper berth.  During the night a wind had come up and evidently blown the coat into the aisle where it was found by someone.  When we discovered the loss, we immediately reported it to the train officials and they tried to find it but it was impossible.

On arrival at Colton, we wired my father [in] Franklin to have payments stopped on the money order and traveler's checks and to wire us more money so we could go on.  That was a very memorable, sad 4th of July we spent in the station at Colton waiting for more money.  more money arrived and we proceeded on to Salk Lake (A year later father recovered the money-order and traveler's checks through the Post Office Department and the bank.).  Upon arrival in Salt Lake we found we were a day too late to get through the Salt Lake Temple so the Mission School Officials sent us on to Logan.  There we obtained our endowments and were sealed on July 7 1926.