3 September 1993 - Excerpt from a letter from Anna Jenkins to Elder Chad Lillian

My Dad

Today is my father's birthday—he was born in 1888. I wish you could have known him. He was the kind of Grandpa who had a very real and personal interest in every one of his grandchildren. I think if there is one best characteristic I could attribute to my Dad it would be to never hold a grudge. Do you know what I mean? He could have a difference of opinion with someone, and even a quarrel, but he was the kind of person who would speak his mind, and then shake hands or give a hug, and say, "Now let's forget that and start from here." He always said, "Holding a grudge is too heavy to carry around, and it gets in the way."

Grandpa Ogden loved children, and had such a good time playing with them. He had a cheerful disposition, and bright blue eyes that seemed always glad to see you. My Dad couldn't sing a note, but it didn't keep him from singing. We would be traveling in the car and he would start to sing, "Oh, My Father" or "Oh, Ye Mountains High" or a Samoan song that he had learned in his childhood from his older brother who had been on a mission to Samoa.

My father was a worker—he thought that "man should earn his bread by the sweat of his brow." He was a charitable man, and we put up with many wanderers whom he befriended if they wanted to work for food and a place to sleep. But he had no patience if a man wouldn't work. I remember that one evening a "tramp" came walking along the road by the ranch when Dad was milking the cows, and he said, "I sure could use a glass of that milk."

Dad got up from the stool and said, "Come on and finish milking this cow, and you can have all the milk you can drink and plenty of bread to go with it." The guy said, "I wouldn't milk a cow if I never got any milk." So Dad said, "All right, then, go on down the canyon—maybe you'll find a better offer." It was ten miles to the next ranch.

Yes, my father was a person that everybody liked and everybody in Sevier County knew him, too. And he knew so many people's names. Did you know that he took the first gold medal in wrestling that BYU gave in his weight class? When he was 75 and ill, my brother Dale bought him a “Y” athletic sweater. He was very proud of that. I think Dale was a lot like Dad, and I am glad that you got acquainted with him. I miss them both.