From Phyllis Higley notes:

"I am a great great granddaughter of Thomas & Julia Ann Mitchell Woolsey. My great grandfather was Abraham Mitchell Woolsey. My mother, Gladys Rebecca Wright was the only daughter of Leah Ann Woolsey, who was the daughter of Abraham and Dianah Rebecca Radford Woolsey.

 

     My earliest memories of my grandmother Wright was of her wonderful cooking and how pretty the table was, pretty glasses, dishes, silverware & linen napkins, white table cloth and all that goes with it. Her and grandad had a fairly large house and each Sunday would see some of her folks come for dinner. Grandad's people we never had a trace of until his very late years.

 
     Grandma's house was always so clean you could eat off her floor. I've heard people say many times, her wash was snowy white and everything had a place and was in it. We, my two sisters & myself, loved to go over & eat & sit in her rocking chairs and rock. We were never allowed to abuse the furniture or "rough house" in the house. Grandmother, as I said, was very clean & later she had two strokes which left her with a slight dragging of her left leg & her left arm was partially paralyzed, making it very hard for her to clean & do things. One day she told me to clean a closet & scrub the floor, which she had called me in from playing to do, which I wasn't very happy about, so I hurried as fast as I could & left. About 20 minutes later there was Grandma taking me back & making me do it over as she said. "I didn't have time to do a good job." When I finished, with her standing over me, she said, "Phyllis, remember this, if a job is worth doing, it takes time & if it takes time, it's worth doing good." Then, I couldn't see the logic, but years have told me she was right in what she said. 

     Grandma was a wonderful cook & today still I cook dishes that she taught me how, also due to her arm, she showed & watched me make bread for her. Now I fully realize how she must have felt, not being able to do these things for herself & the patience it took to stand by & try to teach a child to cook, clean & mix her bread, but thanks to the training she gave me, I can & once in a while now still make good bread, rolls, biscuits & cinnamon rolls. She also canned so much. I never see appples or corn that I can't see her preparing them to can, along with other fruits & vegetables. 

    I never ever saw Grandma mad, nor use a vile word, cuss words or take the Lord's name in vain. She was a lady at all times, yet I realize she must of had her days when she felt like blowing her stack. She was a sober woman, she wasn't much to cut up & have fun as was her sister Clara. She smiled seldom & she took life real serious. My mother had 3 girls in four years & grandma did a lot of sewing for us. I remember many of the pretty little dresses & slips she made us & I still have some of the baby dresses she made for my first child, hemstiched, small, embroidered & so delicate, and such pains were taken with them. She loved to crochet & to make quilts. I can still see them so beautiful & colorful, & so many.

     Grandma was a religious woman & we loved to hear her tell, which wasn't often, how against her parents wishes she married this cowboy of no religion, then at the time he didn't know anything of his family as his mother died when he was a baby & his grandmother on his mother's side, who was Sarah Donaldson Butler, took them until his father, Daniel Gard Wright, married again & took the children, & he left home & made his own way at a very early age, but they were married.

 
     It was another thing I can always see & remember is Grandad Wright's L.D.S. Church books open & him studying, not out of one, but several & he said he read the L.D.S. religion "to argue again it." (He loved to argue on anything & would be for one thing one day & against it the next. [He read] just to get an argument from friends & neighbors, and in reading & studying converted himself to the L.D.S. religion. 

     He loved to hunt & I can remember him getting his guns out, getting ready to go sage hen hunting. Grandma not saying a word but seldom going. How I wish & long now that we didn't have the wisdom of age when we are young to fully understand & enjoy our grandparents as we could have learned so much & loved so more. If I could set down today & talk to them, with the understanding of age I have, couldn't it be a wonderful visit. Grandad & Grandma had a lot of company from Ririe. They would bring "pot luck" & all meet & visit - the Radfords, Uncle Frank, Aunt Doll, Uncle Clarence, the Riries - all related in ways. And when they went to Ririe to visit once in a while we could go. Boy! Clear to Ririe in a car & have dinner. It was a treat beyond compare as we didn't have a car. 

     Grandad Wright worked for the Utah Idaho Sugar Co. & he & Grandma, seeing as how she felt pretty good, made plans to go to Nyssa, Oregon to see their son Ancel who lived there, for their vacation. Looking back & thinking I wonder if we aren't in a way predestined to be in a certain place at a certain time for our death. As I've said before, Grandma couldn't use her arm well & at this time I was married & had one child & I used to wash & put curlers in her hair for her. She came over a full week before she was to go & I set her hair as usual & she said she had some last minute things to do before they left. "Good grief," I told her, "You aren't going until next weekend." She looked puzzled and then said "Are you sure it's next week because I've got to hurry." so I convinced her it was the next week. They left, got to Nyssa that nite, they took 2 days going. About 5:00 pm they had supper, then went out on the porch to visit & relax. They sat down & she said she had a terrible pain in her chest, slumped over & died. The Dr. said there wasn't anything he could have done for her, so they brought her body back to Sugar City. 

     Some day I have hopes of reviewing my association with her and Grandad. After her death, Grandad wrote this tribute to her: "She was a wonderful mother, a faithful companion & a true mate." My memories of them will always be with me & I hope some day to be able to see & be in their presence again."