The lives of four generations of one family — the Wilkinsons and Mendenhalls of frontier Idaho, the Albistons of Richmond, the Robbins of Ogden, and the family they became — told through their own writings, their photographs, and a century of small-town newspapers.
Two family lines, the Albistons of Richmond and the Robbins of Ogden, meeting when Bud married Jalaine in 1951. Tap any name to open that person's section.
Two families grew up a valley apart. On the Idaho side, the Wilkinsons and Mendenhalls settled the border country around Franklin in the years when no one was quite sure whether it was Utah or Idaho. On the Utah side, the Albistons farmed at Richmond and the Robbins made their life in Ogden. Over three generations these lines drew together, until in 1951 they met for good.
Rhoda & John Wilkinson raised six children on a Franklin farm before John died young in 1910; their daughter Ruby married Holly Albiston of Richmond in 1926, and the two of them raised three daughters — the “three sisters,” Jalaine, Helen, and Shirley. Meanwhile in Ogden, Wes & Vennetta Robbins raised four children, Bud, Sharon, Renee, and Dick. Bud, the eldest, was an Ogden boy who came home from the Marines and the Pacific war.
In November 1951, Bud Robbins married Jalaine Albiston, and the Ogden line and the Cache Valley line became one family. What follows is their record — the letters they saved, the photographs they took, the histories they wrote in their own hands, and the everyday news of the towns they lived in.
The frontier generation and beyond. Rhoda & John have a full section so far; the Robbins and Spencer lines are still to come — among them Daniel Spencer, who captained the first wagon company into the Salt Lake Valley after Brigham Young and became Salt Lake City's first stake president, and the Robbins forebear said to be the first white child born at Weston, Idaho.
Jalaine's parents in Richmond and Bud's parents in Ogden — the two family lines that would meet.
Sego Milk by day, the town's movie projector by night; 201 newspaper items and a life in Richmond's clubs.
Ogden, Utah · Bud's parentsA civic-minded Ogden family — Wes at the American Legion and the draft board — told in era-by-era chapters and a filterable news archive.
Ruby & Holly's eldest daughter and an Ogden Marine, married in 1951.
Jalaine's two sisters, the rest of the “three sisters” of Richmond, and Bud's three siblings from the Ogden Robbins family.
Jalaine's sister, one of the three Albiston sisters of Richmond.
The youngest of the three Albiston sisters. A page to come.
Bud's brother, an Ogden golfer.
Bud and Dick's sister, born in Ogden. A page to come.
Bud and Dick's sister, born in Ogden. A page to come.