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Mary Chadwick - Local historian remembered as Mother of the Year by Morgan County Fine Arts Club.

Mar 09, 2023 12:26PM ● By Alisha Copfer

Mary Chadwick, photo courtesy of Morgan County Historical Society

What started as a hobby compiling history turned Mary Chadwick into Morgan County’s first historian. Through her love for Morgan, she started to compile the history of Morgan County, and in 1929, her first book “Pioneering Morgan County” was published.

Mary Chadwick, then Hansen, was born May 11, 1877, in Hyram, Utah, the daughter of H.P. and Bertha Carlsen Hansen, who reared 10 children. Chadwick attended grade school in Hyrum and later Brigham Young College in Logan.

Chadwick married William Chadwick on Nov. 13, 1902, in the Salt Lake LDS Temple. They made their first home in Whitney, Idaho. Eventually, they moved to St. Charles, Idaho, and then to Hyrum, Utah. In June 1911, they moved to Morgan. The couple had three sons and two daughters. William died in 1951, and Chadwick continued to reside in the Morgan home.

As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, at age 14, she became the secretary of the Primary. She went on to become a Sunday School teacher at 16 and later the Hyrum Stake Primary secretary. Chadwick was also the Morgan Stake Relief Society President for five years, secretary for two years and Morgan Ward MIA president for several years. She worked in the Morgan Ward as class leader in the Relief Society, Primary, MIA and Sunday School. 

In July 1926, Chadwick became the secretary of the Genealogical Committee in the Morgan Stake. She has done a great deal of temple work on her own line of ancestry and also that of her husband.

An article published in the Ogden Standard-Examiner on March 22, 1957, states, “Chadwick is a historian on her own. She spends many, many hours gathering and compiling the county history. She is now working and compiling another book which brings Morgan history up to date. For 28 years, her hobby has been gathering Morgan County history.”

It was in that year that Chadwick was chosen as “Mother of the Year” by the local Fine Arts Club. A tribute was paid to Chadwick by the mayor of Ogden, Ray Wright. The Morgan Fine Arts Club presented her with a corsage of gardenias and red roses. She responded with a brief talk.

At the age of 86, Chadwick passed away on Oct. 24, 1963, at her residence in Orem, Utah. She was buried at the South Morgan Cemetery in Morgan County. She was survived by three sons, Edward C. Chadwick, Thermopolis, Wyoming; Walker C. Chadwick, Cody, Wyoming; Russell C. Chadwick, Salt Lake City; two daughters, Mrs. Dewey (Eva) Wheelwright, Ogden, and Mrs. Herbert (LaVerne) Marchant, Salt Lake City; 11 grandchildren, three brothers, Alvin Hansen, Idaho Falls; Leo H. Hansen, McCammon, Idaho; Reuben Hansen, Hyrum; four sisters, Eva Smith, Los Angeles; Josephine Green, St. Ignatius, Montana; Nora Nelson and Martha Smith, Hyrum.

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