The Brigham City Library has over 400 oral histories on file available for research. Kathy Bradford, our historian will be highlighting different ones on the blog and through the Box Elder News Journal. Kathy is available to do presentations on these oral histories at your club or church. The first one will highlight World War II, the Idle Isle Cafe and the Knudson Family.
Verabel Knudson and her husband Percy were the original owners and managers of the Idle Isle Cafe in Brigham City. During World War II, the War Department built Bushnell General Hospital, a 60-building medical facility, just south of town to treat servicemen wounded in the war. In a 1983 oral history interview, Verabel described the impact of Bushnell on the small community and on the Idle Isle specifically. Here is an excerpt from that interview:
Everybody had to open their homes to the influx of people that came – even when they were building the place. I used to get up at 5 o'clock in the morning and go down and open up the Idle Isle in order to feed the workmen breakfast and then put up their lunches. We used to have to put up about a hundred and some odd lunches every morning at the store. I used to get up first and go down and get things going. Then I'd go pick up my girls. The workmen came in for breakfast before 7 o'clock because they had to be on the job at 7. Oh, my daughters didn't like the idea of getting up every morning that early, but we would have to close up then for two or three hours during the day in order to get food prepared for the workmen when they'd come back from work to eat.
Later on after the hospital opened, my daughter Dorothy really had been working hard, and she had been invited to go to San Francisco to visit friends. We decided that she'd better go. I took her down to Ogden to catch the train. When they called that the train was going, I noticed a young couple sitting on a bench with a little child about two years old. The three of them were asleep, and I thought, Well, I'll bet they're going out on that train. I stopped and woke them up and said, “Are you going on this train to San Francisco?”
The man said, “No, we're going up to a place called Brigham City to Bushnell Hospital.” They'd had a blanket over them. He threw the blanket back, and I saw that heonly had one leg.
He said, “I'm a patient.” He explained that they were going to amputate part of his leg and get him a new one. He said, “We came in, and there was no way until in the morning that we could get up to Bushnell.”
I said, “If you want to go back to Brigham with me, I'll take you as soon as this train leaves.” So I put them in the car, and I said, “Have you got a place to stay?”
He said, “Yes, they know I'm coming. I imagine that my wife and baby here can find a place to stay.”
I said, “I don't think there's an empty bed in Brigham City.”
The Red Cross had a place where they had put beds for people to stay. When we got to Brigham, I called them and said, “I've got a young wife and her baby and this patient of the hospital that I brought up from Ogden. What am I going to do with them?”
The person answered, “Well, we're full. I don't know of a bed in Brigham that's vacant, and you brought them. Now it's your responsibility.”
We had about 20 different ones staying at our house, but I thought, Well, there's Dorothy's bed that she just vacated. So I took them down to the house. I put them to bed, the three of them, in Dorothy's bed. Then I went back to work.
Marcell, my sister from California, was living there because her husband was overseas and she didn't want to be alone. She later said, “Oh, I've never been so embarrassed! I went into Dorothy's bedroom, and I could see somebody in bed, so I yelled at her and said, “I thought you went to San Francisco. What happened?”
A strange man sat up in bed and said, “I'm going out to Bushnell Hospital in a little while.”
There I was in my pajamas, and there were three strangers in the bed!
Everybody had to open their homes to the influx of people that came – even when they were building the place. I used to get up at 5 o'clock in the morning and go down and open up the Idle Isle in order to feed the workmen breakfast and then put up their lunches. We used to have to put up about a hundred and some odd lunches every morning at the store. I used to get up first and go down and get things going. Then I'd go pick up my girls. The workmen came in for breakfast before 7 o'clock because they had to be on the job at 7. Oh, my daughters didn't like the idea of getting up every morning that early, but we would have to close up then for two or three hours during the day in order to get food prepared for the workmen when they'd come back from work to eat.
Later on after the hospital opened, my daughter Dorothy really had been working hard, and she had been invited to go to San Francisco to visit friends. We decided that she'd better go. I took her down to Ogden to catch the train. When they called that the train was going, I noticed a young couple sitting on a bench with a little child about two years old. The three of them were asleep, and I thought, Well, I'll bet they're going out on that train. I stopped and woke them up and said, “Are you going on this train to San Francisco?”
The man said, “No, we're going up to a place called Brigham City to Bushnell Hospital.” They'd had a blanket over them. He threw the blanket back, and I saw that heonly had one leg.
He said, “I'm a patient.” He explained that they were going to amputate part of his leg and get him a new one. He said, “We came in, and there was no way until in the morning that we could get up to Bushnell.”
I said, “If you want to go back to Brigham with me, I'll take you as soon as this train leaves.” So I put them in the car, and I said, “Have you got a place to stay?”
He said, “Yes, they know I'm coming. I imagine that my wife and baby here can find a place to stay.”
I said, “I don't think there's an empty bed in Brigham City.”
The Red Cross had a place where they had put beds for people to stay. When we got to Brigham, I called them and said, “I've got a young wife and her baby and this patient of the hospital that I brought up from Ogden. What am I going to do with them?”
The person answered, “Well, we're full. I don't know of a bed in Brigham that's vacant, and you brought them. Now it's your responsibility.”
We had about 20 different ones staying at our house, but I thought, Well, there's Dorothy's bed that she just vacated. So I took them down to the house. I put them to bed, the three of them, in Dorothy's bed. Then I went back to work.
Marcell, my sister from California, was living there because her husband was overseas and she didn't want to be alone. She later said, “Oh, I've never been so embarrassed! I went into Dorothy's bedroom, and I could see somebody in bed, so I yelled at her and said, “I thought you went to San Francisco. What happened?”
A strange man sat up in bed and said, “I'm going out to Bushnell Hospital in a little while.”
There I was in my pajamas, and there were three strangers in the bed!
Kathy Bradford, historian.
1 comment:
Interesting story! It sound like the Bushnell Hospital had a huge impact on Brigham City.
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