Bertha Purdy, Woman Ahead of Her Time.

OLIVER AND BERTHA PURDY FAMILY

More than anyone else Bertha Purdy was responsible for breaking down prejudice against Mormons in the community. Bertha was an amazing mover and shaker, in fact a woman ahead of her time considering a woman’s role in society during her era.   

Bertha was born February 18, 1884 in Beaver, Utah, not far from Ogden, in her grandmother’s log cabin. Many of her activities were chores that required feeding the animals at the proper time of day. She learned to saddle a horse and ride; to hitch a horse to a cart or buggy then drive the buggy.

Bertha records in her history, “In good weather we walked one mile to school where children from six years old to twenty years were all in the same room. The same adobe building was used for Sunday School. Sunday School, Primary and M.I.A. were always enjoyable.” 

“Because my mother was in such poor health between 1888 and 1894, I spent much time living at Grandmother Matson’s home. Before joining the church, she was a Swedish Lutheran.”

“I was thirteen when our family consisted of my father and five children, mother died while giving birth to our tiny baby sister Margaret.”

Her family moved to Ogden where the schools were an attraction as well as the church.  She graduated from eighth grade, attended Ogden High School one year then moved to Logan, Utah to take a business course for two years. 

Failure in the sheep business caused her father to call her home from school to take the place of the hired girl.  Bertha said, “This was a wonderful experience – a chance to put into practice some of my learning. Teaching a class of boys in Sunday School was the greatest challenge in my life.”

She met her future husband at a missionary farewell dance in 1904. She married Oliver George Purdy in the Salt Lake Temple the year after on June 28, 1905. Shortly after they married, Oliver and Bertha received railroad transfer orders to Sparks, Nevada. When they arrived, B Street was partly a board walk since the city had been not been incorporated yet. Jittery people passed ‘gossip’ around town the railroad would not remain in Sparks despite the obvious expense of building a roundhouse and transferring the whole rail town of Wadsworth. 

Their first child, Norman was born in Sparks in 1906. 

In her own words she said, “I came to Sparks as a bride in 1905.  I remember the little frame houses brought from Wadsworth that sat on wide, planned streets, dusty in the summer, muddy and rutted in the winter.” 

“In those days it was just as well not to mention to people that you were a Mormon. If it had not been for my landlady I don’t know what I would have done. I was terribly lonely and depressed. She was sweet and sometimes would invite me to attend her church with her.  Of course, it was nothing to compare to our Mormon teachings, but would cheer me and afford me a little social life; and social life was scarce in those days. Then we moved to Imlay in 1908 and I did not return to Sparks until 1916.”

In 1908, the Purdy family moved into a home in Ogden where Bertha took care of her Grandmother Purdy. Their daughter, Margaret was born in Ogden, Utah in 1908. Their son Paul was born in 1911, but died in Ogden as an infant of 15 months. Harlon, their son was born in 1913. 

When Oliver and Bertha decided to move their family from Imlay, NV back to Sparks in June of 1916, their three children, Norman, Margaret and Harlon laid on the floor and “howled in unison” at their plight. They did not understand why they had to leave Imlay.  Their sadness didn’t last long. The move to the new community of 607 people proved to hold many wonderful surprises. The couple’s last child, Donald, was born in Sparks on September 12, 1917.      

Bertha tells a story that when the Purdy’s were having their new home built at 916 F street in Sparks; the contractor told Bertha that she could purchase ½ of the neighbor’s land in addition to her own. O.G. Purdy was on a “run” so she made the decision on her own, to buy the land and widen the home by several feet. The neighbors told her she was foolish to put money into it.  “But, Mr. Purdy said we needed a house and we couldn’t buy one as good as we could build.”  The home was not complete when they moved in so the family lived for several weeks with a blanket for a front door. Great was their excitement to have a home with a real bath room, complete with hot and cold water, large spacious rooms and many other modern conveniences and comforts. 

Daughter Margaret wrote, “When we first moved to Sparks there were only 6-7 families in the Sparks Branch with us. Now at last we were able to attend a regular L.D.S. Sunday School and I could be baptized. On July 2, 1917, I was baptized in an irrigation ditch near White Bridge. We attended, first in the Engineer’s Hall on 9^th Street and later on, the second floor of the old Robison’s Hall. For years the dances were held here and for several years before it was condemned and torn down it was considered unsafe as it rocked and shook when the crowd started dancing.”

“During the years we were growing up, our lives were enriched by the elders, who were frequently in our home. For many, sometimes doing the laundry, and occasionally staying with us for brief periods. Many enriching experiences ensued. Once, mother nursed an Elder Meller back to health, who had complications from an appendectomy. It was only through faith, prayers and excellent nursing care that he survived.”

“When ten years of age, I started taking piano lessons from Miss Mckenna on Sierra Street in Reno.  Once a week, Clodile Allard and I rode the street car to Reno, walked three or four blocks up Sierra Street and took piano lessons for about two years.”

“Our favorite past time was to try to jip the street car conductor out of the fare of five cents and spend it on candy at the 5 & 10 Cent Store (Woolworths). Not always, but occasionally, we succeeded in holding out the fare on the way to Reno. We seldom had any money to spend foolishly, so I longed to buy some of the nick-nacks from the store besides. Oh, if only someone would forget and leave a package! Then one day, someone did. No one was around so I picked up a wrapped package that someone had left or forgotten. What was my disgust when arriving home and opening it - I found it to be someone’s extracted teeth. From then on I decided honesty was the best policy.”

COMMUNITY SERVICE

Bertha became a civic minded, service oriented citizen at a young age. She served in her husband’s lodge and became, “The grand lady of the G.I.A to the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers” This organization had a membership of 22,000 throughout the United States. They work for the widows and orphans, as well as better conditions, insurance programs, higher pensions and other things too numerous to mention. In 1960 this efficient, grand lady, was awarded a forty-year pin from their national president. Her husband Oliver worked many years as an engineer for the railroad. Both he and Bertha were instrumental in the development of the Engineer Hall at 9^th and C Street in Sparks. 

Sometime after the Purdy’s came to Sparks, Bertha became an active supporter of the National Federation of Women who promoted and acted as the advisory council to the Sparks Parent Teacher Association founded in 1914. By 1923, she was voted in as president, in which office she served for thirteen years. Having taken a keen interest in the club’s work, she was elected president of the Nevada Federation of Women’s clubs in 1937 and served for three years.

During Sister Purdy’s term of office, the Sparks schools enrolled about 200 children in the junior high school, 100 in the high school, 325 in Robert H. Mitchell and about 135 in Mary L. Nichols, and nearly 100 in Kate Smith School. “Organizing a Parent-Teachers Association grew out of a disagreement on where money was to be spent. I called a meeting of the teachers and got them behind me. One of their complaints was that mothers never showed up at school unless Johnny was in trouble and we needed better relations between the parents and the teachers.” 

At the time Bertha was the president, there was only one P.T.A. organization in the city. Assisted by Mrs. Erickson of Reno, Mrs. Purdy organized separate units in each of the schools. Each school could then govern themselves and their finances to suit their circumstances. 

The club sponsored the state song, composed by Mrs. Martha A. Coleman then complimented each school with a medium-sized Nevada flag. 

The schools were short of supplementary reading material, so the foundation work was started for school libraries and a public library. Bertha Purdy was attributed with the power to pull off insurmountable odds to accomplish the goal. She corresponded with the Library of Congress, and U.N.R and the Reno library then more and more people became interested. When at last the library became a reality she spread out the compliments to include everyone. She said, “This project, like all of my life, has been what everybody has put into it.  It’s like fancy work or textile printing, there is always a new design. If anything on the subject of libraries appeared in a magazine, we wrote for it. It was like turning over every rock to see what was underneath. You could say that the library was brought about by the inception of progressive citizens who conceived the idea and started a library movement. I hung on to the idea, but I do not want all the credit.”

[The old Sparks Library is now the Sparks Heritage Museum on Victorian Avenue and Pyramid Way. It is a lovely building with twin stairs leading to the second story front door designed by Fred De Longchamps, who was the architect for the Washoe County Building on Virginia Street in Reno.  Inside was a unique circular staircase.]

At the time Bertha served on various other boards, she served as inspector of Election in and for Sparks 5 Election Precinct. Voting happened in the Purdy home at 916 F. Street.  The carpets would be rolled up in the front room and dining parlor to make way for the equipment to facilitate voting.

She was devoted to other positions and boards for community causes. She served as a member of The Board of Trustees for Washoe County Hospital in 1934. She was the vice president of Nevada Public Health Association in 1934.  She also served on the Sparks School Board for a term starting in 1935. 

One of the inspirational thoughts she clipped and kept in her scrap book reflects her sense of devotion to a community:

            It Isn’t the Town. . . It’s You!

            If you want to live in the kind of a town

            Like the kind of a town you like,

            You needn’t slip your clothes in a grip

            And start on a long, long hike.

            You’ll only find what you left behind,

            For there’s nothing that’s really new,

            It’s a knock at yourself when you knock the town,

            It isn’t the town – IT’S YOU!

Real towns are not made by men afraid

Lest someone else gets ahead,

When everyone works and nobody shirks,

You can raise a town from the dead.

And if while you make your personal stake,

Your neighbor can make one, too,

Your town will be what you want it to be,

It isn’t the town – IT’S YOU!

Proper protocol required a woman’s name be written or listed as her husband’s name with a Madame or a Mrs, indicating she was his wife.  It is rather antiquated to us now, in fact, odd or even sexist. Bertha was a well-known activist, but owing deference to her husband she insisted the newspaper refer to her as Mrs. O.G. [Oliver George] Purdy. 

When Bertha was elected as president of the Nevada Federation of Women’s Clubs, she was to attend the National meetings in Washington D.C. as a delegate. Local newspaper articles reported her schedule and who she would be meeting.  “Mrs. O.G. Purdy At Sessions In Washington”. . . . Mrs. Purdy left yesterday for Washington , D.C. where she will represent Nevada at the midwinter board meeting of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs.  Headquarters for the sessions will be the Mayflower hotel. [Bill Clinton notoriety]  Following the board meetings Mrs. Purdy will attend the conference to be held on the “Cause and Cure of War” to be held in Washington.  [Hot topic even then.]  Members will also be received at the White House by Mrs. Roosevelt for tea. [She remembers Eleanor Roosevelt singling her out to know more about Reno as she had a child/children who lived in Reno for the required six weeks before getting a divorce.] It is expected that the president will attend the tea informally and talk to the guests at that time.  On Friday afternoon the board members will be conducted through the Federal Bureau of Investigation at the invitation of J. Edgar Hoover.” 

There is another honorable mention to bestow upon this wonder woman of yesteryear. Bertha was called to serve on the Grand Jury, a first for women. According to newspaper accounts, Bertha was called to the panel due to the fact none of the court attaches recognized her name to be that of a woman. Bertha says of the event, “I’ve never become involved in politics and I never earned a dollar in my life except on the grand jury. The men were embarrassed. They didn’t know whether they should take my coat, ask permission to smoke, offer me a cigarette or what. I told them I was a juror, not attending a social tea and I would get the same $4.00 a day they did. They relaxed.”  Since that time, judges have placed women on all federal juries.

FIRST STAKE RELIEF SOCIETY PRESIDENT

It was during a National Federation of Women Conference in Washington D.C. when Sister Purdy was called as the first Reno Stake Relief Society President. The first stake conference was held in February of 1941. Stake President Nathan Hurst sustained her completely without her knowledge. In that day, long distance phone calls were not usually done. She was not notified in any way until her return home. The Stake Relief Society board was organized by June 1, 1941.

Sister Bertha Purdy’s church service was well remembered best by those she taught in Sunday School and worked with her in Relief Society. Oliver Hansen, Vincent Keele were just a couple of the students she taught Evelyn Ainsworth and many other sisters accredited Sis. Purdy as their mentor.

FUND RAISERS

There are a couple of record books that reveal a fastidious side to Bertha. At a time when the funds of the church were handled on a local level, the R.S. maintained their own budget as well as donated funds to the general ward budget. These two notebooks identify how many hours of work were given to two events during the 50’s and 60’s.

The first notebook lists pages and pages of donation contacts Bertha called on for the Sparks Country Fair held as a fund raiser every year. The community embraced the affair, and according to the record book offered a generous amount of goods.  Business-like in nature, Bertha was the perfect emissary to gather both business and personal donations.  Since the first several pages are torn off the notebook, the first page is written on April 17, 1958, entitled the “Food Booth.”  She lists people, their phone numbers (in only five digits) and their donations.  It looks as if on occasion she asked people to donate something in particular instead of a random choice, at which she checked off the item.

Many of the names are familiar old timers: Sneddon, Schelin, Ainsworth, Collins, O’Mealy, Faragher, Inman, Nord, Bohman, Grieve, Hauder and Humphery, for example.

A sample of the local businesses that she contacted were:  Sierra Pacific, Sparks Fuel, First National Bank, Bakers Market, Boyd Stewart’s Flying A Service and Ross Photo.  The lists give insight into the working and dealings of well organized function aided by a devoted, faithful woman.

The second ledger deals fundraisers conducted in her home. She thoroughly enjoyed being involved in women’s handcrafts such as quilting. The Relief Society was well-known for their quilting expertise so Bertha turned it into a fund raiser. Not only did she sponsor quilting bees in her home for bazaars, the ladies took private orders as well. Her log demonstrates the number of hours each quilt required and the names of sisters who came through the week to donate quilting time. She recorded exactly who donated lunch and even those who offered rides to and from her home.

PURDY FAMILY CELEBRATES A CENTURY OF LIFE IN SPARKS/RENO

Bertha and O.G. had three sons serve in World War II – Harlon, Norman and Don. Their youngest, Don, was listed as missing in action 26 March, 1943. He had graduated from Sparks High and the University of Nevada and filled a mission to the New England Mission. 

Norman and Harlon returned from their service in the Navy and built homes in Sparks.  Norman made a career of bread delivery, driving all over the valley. Harlon returned to manage Baker’s Grocery.  He married Lillie Johnston and added Alan and Aaron to their family.

Daughter Margaret married a Sparks boy, Robert Baker, following her graduation from the University of Nevada.  Together they eventually built a home on 13^th and E Streets where they reared four children – Neil, Carma, Milton and Karen.  Margaret continued the tradition of church and community service. 

Robert and his mother Emma Baker purchased a small grocery store on “B” Street when Robert was a senior in high school. Baker’s was the primary grocery store from 1927 until 1966. Baker’s Furniture and Hardware joined the “B” Street business district in the 40’s.

Margaret, Robert and Karen were returning from San Francisco in their 4-place Navion airplane and seemingly lost their way; crashing into the mountain near Colfax, California in 1965. Their children Neil, Carma and Milton joined together to take care of the family home and businesses. All three graduated from Brigham Young University.

Neil developed Baker’s Interiors and moved the main operation from Sparks to Reno.  Carma and her husband Don Watts developed Executive Financial Services in Sparks, especially focusing on income tax preparation.

Milton served in the army and returned to the family operation for a time. He and his bride, Betty Nixon from Kansas settled in Orem, Utah where he pursued a career as an electrician.

Carma and Don were privileged to participate in the City Redevelopment committees-especially Don was treasurer to the Bicentennial Committee. Carma was a member of The Status of Women in Reno as well as the Citizen’s Policy Planning Advisory Committee to the City Council. She also served as Parent-Teacher President and sat on the Sex Education Advisory Committee for Washoe County School. In 1999, she served as the Reno Nevada Stake Relief Society President.

Two more generations of the O.G. and Bertha Purdy family descendants have continued to reside in Sparks and Reno. They carry on the tradition of church and community service. A great example set by their honorable ancestor pioneers. 

It has been most fortunate that Bertha Purdy kept a scrap book as well as numerous artifacts to collaborate historical research and family stories.   

Local newspapers documented much of her community service and served as a valuable resource material as well as family. A long article written from an interview of Bertha Purdy by Grace Cate from the Sparks Tribune in June of 1960 is entitled, “Sparks is Proud of Mrs. O.G. Purdy.” Bertha’s scrapbook is full of newspaper articles in reference to her great achievements and accolades.