Maggie Fawcett

submitted by: Cierra Harker


This is an essay about my great, great, grandma Maggie Fawcett. She was born on April 26, 1887, in a city called Blackpool in England. She was born with a twin, and they were connected together at the ear, but her twin died. Maggie had really long red hair, and she always wore it in 2 braids. She had 7 sisters and 2 brothers. She liked to cook and was very good at it. People said she made the best coconut macaroons. Maggie also loved to write. She grew up in a big house, and they took in boarders and other people during the Great Depression.
When she was older, she had heart problems and other health issues, so the doctors suggested that she go to Australia. Her health improved there. She got a job there helping and serving a family of rich people. She liked them a lot but said they were way too fancy for her. So, Maggie moved in with a missionary. They liked each other and talked sometimes.
One night, grandma Maggie had a dream. She dreamed of a man on a little farm. In the dream, she went to his home and there was his mother and 2 sisters, and there was a China cupboard with a broken window pane in the front door of it. When she woke up, she told the missionary every detail about her dream. Then he said, "You were dreaming of my neighbor down in Utah, and his name is John Roundy. And that was what his house looked like too." So he wrote a letter to him and asked if he could give his address to her so they could write to each other. He agreed. So they wrote letters to each other a lot and for a very long time too. And finally, they wanted to see each other so much that John paid to have her come over to Utah. He even paid for the ship ride over there for her. She sailed for America in September. The ship was called Marama.
"The war was on, and we had some exciting experiences," said Maggie. "We were even chased by a submarine!" One time, the ship was stopped at an island, where the passengers got to get off and stretch for a little while, but they would not let Maggie get off because the people on the island cherished red hair and thought it was a gift from God. Maggie said she would be fine, but they still wouldn't let her get off. They even put 2 guards on the sides of her until the ship left. After a while, she felt something on her shoulder. Someone had cut off one of her braids! So she had to cut off the other one too. Since it was the time of a war, a different ship somewhere else that had passengers on it had sunk. This made the people on Maggie's ship really scared. When she was on the ship, she had 2 other men propose to her, but she kindly declined and said she was going to meet her husband. When she finally got to America, she was 28 years old, and it was October 1915. The place the ship arrived at was San Francisco. When they got off the ship, there was a big earthquake. Maggie even saw a large hotel topple down. They left the next morning with lots of other people who were very scared. She took a train to Salt Lake City, where she first met John. Before she came to America, they sent each other pictures of themselves with lots of hair. But when she saw him, he didn't have any hair because he had gotten really sick and lost his hair. When he saw Maggie, she had short hair too because of the accident on the ship. Then they told each other about what happened, then they both just laughed about it. Then when she got to Alton (where John lived), she saw it just how it was in her dream. She walked in and saw his mother and his 2 sisters standing there, and there was the crack she saw in the china cabinet. She stayed with them for a few months before they got married. They were married on December 22, 1915, in Salt Lake City. Maggie was 28 when she got married, and John was 39 when he got married. They had 7 children, 2 girls, and 5 boys. Her children's names were Fred, Nyhra, Lucille, William, Samuel, Whit, and Lawrence. Maggie loved children and made friends easily. She still loved to write and also went on writing letters to her family and friends. When her children were older, some of them got married before others. Her child named Fred married someone named Ruby Gardner, on June 16, 1938. And her child named Whit married Leora Gordon. Lucille married Clayton Hall. And Nyhra married Nyle Frampton. William married Barbara Kamlah. William and Barbara had 12 children, and one of them was my grandmother Dorcas Roundy. So Maggie became a grandmother to my grandma Dorcas. John Roundy died when he was eighty-eight years old on November 13, 1964, from a stroke. Maggie died 1 and 1⁄2 years after John, she was seventy-seven years old and died on May 12, 1966. I hope you liked my story of my great-great-grandma Maggie Fawcett. 
The End