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I Charles Richard Bridges was born of honorable parents on January 9, 1905. In Ohio at Lawrence Furnace in Lawrence County ( I think it was in Elizabeth Township.) Charles was the son of Richard Bridges who was born 25 November 1879 in Lawrence Co. Ohio. and Susan Missouri Morris who was born 5 February 1880 in Lawrence Co. Ohio. Charles had an older sister Dolly May who was born 22 October 1902 in Lisbon, Lawrence Co. Ohio. Then my parents moved from there to Bartles, Ohio where my brother Earl Kenneth was born some two years and two months after my birth. His birthday is 20 April 1907 at Steece, Lawrence Co. Ohio.
Dad was a compressor and boiler operator for a cement company, they mined lime there and shopped it to the cement plant a few miles away and some of it was shipped to different furnaces in the county. Then some two years later my other brother George Ray was born on the 29th. of June 1909 and father and mother moved to Dean, Ohio.
And this is where I started my schooling. It was a small white school set a short way from where we lived. The school overlooked the house we lived in and we could look out of the windows on our house and the road and railroad, which ran right by our house. We could look out of the windows of the School and see the train on its way as it moved slowly along towards Jackson, Ohio.
When I was in the 2nd grade my father met with an accident which later took his life. He and a neighbor were starting in life to raise a family, so naturally they were economy minded so as it was getting along towards fall and winter Dad and this neighbor opened a small coal mine where they could mine their winter's coal. One evening after work when they were in the mine a large rock from the roof of the mine fell on him and broke his back and he was an invalid from then until his death.
I was fairly good in arithmetic and some time about the 2nd grade we had the multiplication tables to learn so this teacher said whoever learned them first got a prize. I won the prize which was a pencil box and about 3 or 4 pencils which was a rare thing those days. I can remember doing all of our arithmetic on our slates and then some time when we had a test we had to copy them over on our paper and turn them in to the teacher to be graded and passed upon.
We had up to the 7th grade in the one room school and one teacher to teach all 7 grades, and he really had a job. Some of the older boys were sure rowdy and would slip out the school and hide or would play hooky and not show up but he had a way of showing who was boss. He would go out and cut a willow from one of the trees around the school of which there were many and he would march them up in front of the school and whale them good with that limb.
As Dad was laid up we had a hard time to make a go of it and mother used to have to work to try to keep us in some thing to eat and us kids had to hoe our garden and care for it in the summer, so we would have food for the winter and enough corn for our cows and horse and pigs and chickens. I can well remember many times, dad would sit in his wheel chair and watch us work our garden and our corn crop and he would sympathize with us and say he wished he could do the work in his garden, so we wouldn't have to.
He used to make shovel handles, hammer handles and ax handles also fork handles to sell so we could have a little better living and he was trying to make a living for us or help to. I can remember when we used to have to walk down the little hill from school and carry water up to the school house for the children to drink and we had to carry water to our house for all of our needs and the usual Saturday night bath in the old wash tub in the kitchen.
I had to feed the horse and cow and mule and feed the pigs and chickens and in the winter time when I came home from school I can recall the old hay loft as we would climb up and throw the hay down into the manger for the stock to eat at night and we would settle around the old grate at night and try to read by the coal oil lamps or by the reflection of the wood and coal fire. We used to have to carry our own coal from the small mines in the neighborhood. The people who owned them always generously gave us the coal we needed if we could get it home and the only way was to carry it on our backs in sacks.
In summer times we used to help pick fruit and carry the fruit home in bags so we could bottle it for winter. The kindling had be to put in for the winter during the good weather of summer and many is the times we kids would chop schumack for kindling and haul it home for winter use. Also in the winter we kids used to have to go to the hills and gather the leaves that fell for a bed for stock and pigs for the winter. We would gather dry leaves out of the rock cave mounds where they would blow and stack in. We would also drag a log or two of wood home with the horse so we would have it handy to saw up for fire wood in case we needed it.
We used to be glad when we got our corn worked the second time for then we could go and pick wild black berries for Jelly and jam. and bottle them fresh. Many is the time when I have been in the berry patch and have to wait for daylight to start picking. I would walk 2 or 3 miles over the hills in the dark to get to the berries and it would take us about 4 hours to fill 2 water buckets and then about another hour to make it home with them. I gave some jam to my schoolteachers and some of the class, also some of the class mates.
On March 26 1916 twin sisters Esta Faith and Vesta Fay were born to the Bridges family. And then on July 4th 1916 dad died and in a few years we moved from there to the town, of Irontown, Ohio, and I found a job in a nail mill through an uncle of mine and that ended my schooling.
I believe I was about 14 when I went to work, I only went to the eighth grade and when I tried to finish my school at night but to no avail as we worked 11 hrs. a day and had to walk about 2 1/2 or 3 miles to work so we hadn't to much time at night and I had plenty of work to do at home when I got off shift so I just gave up on my schooling as I had no one to push me a little and try to tell me the importance of an education, but now I know the difference.
After a while I got a job on a Rail Road in Russell, Kentucky. This is just across the river from Lawrence for the C Of B. and was checking trains as they came into the receiving yards. And many a stormy night rain and snow we had to make the trip just the same as many as 14 trips up and down through the yards. It was about 1 1/2 miles long and we would get as many as 16 trains in our 8 hour shift.
At one time Charles worked for an undertaker in Ohio. He would transport bodies. He liked this work and even talked of becoming a mortician.
While still in his mid teens, Charles and his brother George Ray decided to go to California to seek their fortune. They hopped a freight train going west and ended up in California where they sought and found work in the construction industry. Charles worked on such projects as the Golden Gate Bridge, and the Shasta Dam. While in California, Charles also worked for the Pacific Gas and Electric Co. He also worked on the Hetch Hetchy Tunnels. During this period of time his mother died on May 31, 1925. Some time during this period the boys decided to change their name from Bridges to Bridget. We have no record of it ever being done legally.
While in California, Charles met his future wife, Vilda Sessions, from Heber City, Utah. She and her brother, Burnell went to California and lived with their brother, Cordon. She went to school in Pleasanton. Cordon's daughter, Eva, used to follow Vilda everywhere she could. Eva had no brothers or sisters and felt Vilda was her big sister. This bothered Vilda and she felt she was a baby sitter. Eva loved Vilda with all her heart and did so throughout her life.
Charles and Vilda were married in Heber City, Utah, on August 4th., 1932. The couple returned to California where Charles continued to work. On August the 25th., 1933, their first child, Gladys Jean, was born in Niles, Alameda County, California. Two years later their second daughter, Doris Bernice, was born on 22 December 1934 in San Francisco, California. It was while Charles was working on projects in the California mountains in 1938 that their 3rd daughter, Susan Janett, was born on March first. in Sonora, Tuolune County.
In 1941 the family moved to Utah were they bought a small farm in Orem, Utah County, Utah.. Charles continued to work as an Operation Engineer on heavy equipment on many of the major construction projects in Utah. For a while he worked in the mines in Park City Utah. At one time he worked at the Geneva Steel Plant but he was working for American Bridge as a heavy equipment operator and mechanic. Charles worked on the Glen Canyon Dam with his son-in-law John. He also worked at the construction site of the Bingham Copper pit mine when they added the tunnel at the bottom, so that the ore could be taken down to the bottom instead of up over the top.
He worked hard on the small farm, planting fruit trees and raising chickens. Charles developed a love for his new wife and her family. He always tried to look after his mother-in-law, Mary Janette Nelson Sessions. He drove up the canyon almost every week to check on her and her needs.
C.R., as many of his friends called him, liked to hunt and fish. In the fall he would often go East of Heber with his brother-in-laws hunting deer to supplement the family meat for the winter. The Provo River was one of Charles's favorite fishing streams, he knew every bend and hole from the dam to 8th. North in Orem. Many a night he would head up stream looking for that rainbow trout.
The door to Charles and Vilda's home was always open to those who may be in need of help or a place to stay.
In the summer of 1948, Charlie's brother George and his wife Donna ask him and Vilda if they would like their new baby girl, Sharon Ann. Thinking they were just kidding, they declined the offer. In October baby Sharon Ann was dead, Charles and Vilda deeply regretted not taking the baby. When George and Donna ask that same question when their next child was born, Charles and Vilda quickly answered, yes, and adopted Vickie Lynn, who was born 8 December 1951, and raised her as their own.
Vickie recalls that, when she was little, he would always try to leave something in his lunch box or "nose bag" as he called it. It may have been a twinkee or banana, it didn't matter. I was always excited to see what he brought me home.
Vickie said Dad used to make me help him change the oil and lube the car, this was long before I could drive, and I didn't always like it. However, now I am grateful for that knowledge. He also taught me to change a tire, which has been extremely handy on many occasions.
As a young man, Charles picked up most of the bad habits that go along with the construction trade. Marrying a Mormon girl did not cause these habits to go away, and he would not become a Mormon unless he really believed in it. Seeing the weakness in people caused him to put off joining the L.D.S. Church. C.R. made sure that his family went to church and for many years he paid a full tithing to the Church although not a member himself. At times he would warm up to the church and then someone would say something to hurt his feelings and he would cool again. For years Charles took the missionary lessons. I think that all the new Stake Missionaries in the Stake were sent first to Br. Bridget as he knew all the right answers that Br. Brown (from the missionary lessons) should say.
Charles stopped smoking, but placed the same pack of cigarettes in his shirt pocket for two and a half years. He always kept a bottle of whiskey in the kitchen for medicinal purposes. The L.D.S. neighbors would come and borrow some of it when it was needed to be used for someone who was sick.
On February 14th., 1960, Charles called his daughters to tell them that he had been baptized that day. Charles advanced in the Priesthood and his testimony grew. On December 22 of 1961, he took his wife Vilda to the Salt Lake Temple to be sealed for time and all eternity. Their girls Doris, Susan and Vickie were sealed to them also on that day.
After Charles joined the church, he worked in many offices and callings. He was a Ward Clerk, in the Elders Quorum Presidency and always a home teacher. The church was an important part of his life. He helped build the chapel that they met in for many years. He put in many hours at the stake Farm. In his latter years he wasn't able to hear very well what was going on in the meetings but is was important for him to be there.
Bridget, a granddaughter, recalled that grandpa could have a football game on the TV, and at the same time have one on the radio, while reading the sports section of the paper, He could tell what was going on with both games and the newspaper. Bridget said that "we were not allowed to laugh at the kitchen table, it was a place to eat, we could talk but could not laugh or we could go eat with the chickens." Grandpa always had to have bread with his meal.
C.R. had the ability to make everyone feel important and he had a vast understanding of peoples problems. Bridget remembers. "When I was pregnant and went to grandma's and grandpa's for a few days. When me and grandpa was alone he ask me what was I going to do? I had made a bad mistake, he said, but to promise him that I would pray and make the right decision. I did as grandpa ask and I feel that I have always made the right decision. I remember grandpa telling mother in the hospital to accept Craig and I getting married, because he knew it was going to happen. I Love grandpa so much for bringing my mother and me together at that time in my life. Craig said that grandpa told him to take good care of his little girl."
Sarah Prestwich remembers when she was little, "Grandpa had a sore foot and he had to soak it. I would get my bucket of water, set by him and soak my foot too. I also remember grandpas big brown cushion that set in the lawn chair on the front porch. He would sit on it and hold me. I remember eating dinner around the table with the rest of the family. Grandpa wouldn't put up with a lot of laughing while we were eating. One night Vickie went to open up her can of Pepsi and it sprayed all over the kitchen, and every one, it even got on grandpa. We set there looking at Grandpa wondering what he was going to do. He started with a little chuckle, and then everyone at the table started laughing. I don't remember too much about grandpa because I wasn't very old, but I am glad I have some memories of him to hold on to."
Ron Prestwitch, Debbie's husband said, " I remember when I would come over to the house to pick Deb up for a date, Grandpa would be setting in his chair in the corner with his hat pulled down and a dime in his hand that he would hand her as we walked out the door. I can remember him out pulling weeds in his garden. He hated weeds in the garden, he was always pulling them. I noticed that he loved his grand kids by the way he treated them."
Ronda said, " I remember our summer trips, grandpa always found some one to talk to, he always had a story of something he had seen or done. Grandpa always wanted us to take advantage of every opportunity that came our way. Ken recalls how C.R. loved to show him his farm and food storage. What a blessing it has been to us to have him tell me how important food storage is, especially with the blizzards in New York this past year."
He worked as orchard foreman for Clive Pulham in his orchards for several summers, some of his grandchildren picked cherries for him there. He was a night watchman at the Barbizon sewing factory in Provo. While he was working here he had a heart attack, He drove himself to the hospital, and had to crawl on his hands and knees to get help. He also worked at a dog food plant, boy did he smell bad when he came home at night.
He really enjoyed going with the family to gather fire wood for the winter.
Charles could strike up a conversation with anyone. When He went on vacation he would go to the camp next to us and talk for a long time. He was a people watcher, he enjoyed just setting and watching people go by.
The family remembers what a fighter he was when his health got bad. There were many times when we didn't know what was going to happen, he would fight back, he did that until the very end.
Charles Richard Bridget passed away July 19,1980, in the Utah Valley Hospital in Provo, Utah. He was buried in the City cemetery in Orem, Utah.
Compiled by Donald H Wilberg
1029 East 16th. Street,
Loveland, CO. 80538
(970)667-7856
Feburary 1996