BEULAH MAE ELLEDGE was the daughter of James Harden (or Horton) Elledge (1854-1942) and Mary Ann Wilson (1857-1940).
She married Webb L. Lumpkin on 30 July 1903, at Manassa, Conejos County, Colorado, when she was 21 years old.
Beulah Mae had an LDS background, since her grandparents were members of the Church and her grandfather was on the High Council. He died in 1895 in Manassa after serving for 12 years as a High Councilman. However, Beulah Mae's parents James H. and Mary Ann Wilson Elledge, as far as we can ascertain, were not baptized until 1911, when they were in their 50's; their children who were still living at home were also baptized at that time. But since Beulah Mae had already married and left home before 1911, as far as we can tell she was never baptized into the Church during her lifetime. None of her children became members except Grace (Grandma), and that wasn't until 1933, after she was married and had her first child.
Beulah Mae Elledge grew up for the most part in the Mormon colony town of Manassa, where she helped in her father's store. She also babysat JACK DEMPSEY when he was little; he later became the heavyweight boxing champion of the world, and went by the nickname "The Manassa Mauler." He was also from an LDS convert family and was a member of the Church, although probably not too active since he smoked cigars and lived quite a rough life. The Jack Dempsey museum is in Manassa; a life-sized statue of the boxer stands outside of the log cabin in which he was born. He began his boxing career when he was only about 15 in the mining camps of Colorado, where he boxed for $1 per fight.
Beulah Mae had taught school in LaJara, Colorado for a while before she married Webb Lumpkin, who was not a member of the LDS Church. Their first child, Beulah Mary Lumpkin, was born in LaJara, Colorado, 5 May 1904. Soon after this, Webb went to open up a homestead in Duchesne County, Utah, where some of the Indian land had been made available for homesteading after the turn of the century. This was the last homestead act passed by Congress. Webb went up into the Uinta mountains to cut logs, and hauled them down to build a house for his family. Until the house was ready, his wife Beulah stayed in Vernal, Utah, where their second child, Lorena Dare Lumpkin, was born 24 Nov 1905. After the home was ready, the family moved out to the homestead. The town of Myton was located at the bridge over the Duchesne River, and the Lumpkin family later also bought or rented a home here. They lived part of the year at Myton, where the children attended school, and part of the year out at the homestead in Antelope District, about 20 miles south of Myton. The next two children, Roy Wilson Lumpkin (b. 15 Sep 1907), and Eva Cora Lumpkin (b. 25 Feb 1910), were born at Myton. The fifth child, Grace Allene Lumpkin (Grandma), was born at the homestead in Antelope District, Duchesne County, Utah on 12 Feb 1912.
Franklin Bascom Wilson, Beulah Mae's maternal grandfather, lived with the family for a while before his death. He died in Myton in 1913. After this three more children, Ada Webbie Lumpkin (b. 27 April 1914), Violet Ethel Lumpkin (b. 13 Apr 1916), and Leonard Ray Lumpkin (b. 15 Feb 1919), were born to the family, making a family of 6 girls and 2 boys.
They had some happy years on the homestead, but then the Lumpkin family went bankrupt. Everything they owned had to be sold off in an auction, and they moved to Salt Lake with a borrowed horse and wagon. They had to camp outside the city for awhile until Webb could find work, and they could rent a house. After only about two years in the city, when they were just getting back on their feet again, Webb suddenly died.
Of course Webb's death left his widow Beulah Mae in a very difficult position; she was 43 years old, with eight children: Beulah Mary (21), Lorena (19), Roy (17), Eva (15), Grace (13), Ada (11), Violet (9), and Leonard (6). She had no means of support and no work experience, and the family had already been struggling to get on their feet and get used to life in the city. It seems that Beulah Mae had been very dependent upon her husband for everything and didn't know how to cope without him, so she went into a deep depression after his death. Of course those things weren't understood or treated in those days. The older three children soon got jobs and basically supported the family, but then Lorena married in 1926 to Joseph Hugh Miles, and after a few years the oldest daughter Beulah Mary moved to California and then married in 1928 to Homer Shanks. Roy joined the Navy, and this left just the five younger children at home, and they had a difficult time. Neighbors helped them out, and also the LDS Church helped them, and the children pitched in all they could. It seems that the oldest daughter, Beulah Mary, was the one to whom the whole family looked for strength and leadership in the first few years after her father had passed away. Her mother seems to have relied on her a lot.
Grace said that her mother loved music and had a nice singing voice; Beulah Mae often used to walk many blocks from their home on the west side of Salt Lake City to the tabernacle on Temple Square, to listen to the Tabernacle Choir when they practiced or performed. Perhaps this was one of the few things that brought joy into her life.
Grace married in 1929 at age 17, after meeting LaMar Bray when she went swimming at the Municipal Pool in Salt Lake. They had only known each other a short time, when they went to visit LaMar's sister Wanda and her husband Leonard Mann, in Bountiful. Wanda and Leonard convinced them that they shouldn't wait to marry if they had decided they loved each other, so they called the bishop to come and marry them right then. Grace never finished high school, although it seems she was quite intelligent. She dropped out of school to marry (or perhaps she had already dropped out to work and help support the family).
Soon after Grace's marriage, her mother Beulah Mae took the younger four children with her and moved to California to be near her parents and her oldest daughter, Beulah Mary. In California, Ada Lumpkin married in 1934 to Charles Emison Cary, and Violet Lumpkin in 1936 to Rudell C. Cross. Eva Lumpkin, who had always been quite sickly, died in 1937 at the age of 26.
Roy Lumpkin married in 1938, and he stayed in the navy for his career, until he died during World War II, 23 Aug 1943, when his ship was sunk. A few men were picked up in lifeboats, but the only communication which his family received from the military was a letter stating that Roy Lumpkin "was not among the survivors." He left no children, and his widow never remarried. The only other boy and the youngest in the family, Leonard Lumpkin, married in 1941 in California. He worked as a fireman in Whittier, California from 1940 until his retirement in 1982, and passed away in 1997.
Great-grandmother Beulah Mae Elledge Lumpkin died in Los Angeles, California Jan. 4, 1944 at 62 years of age. She is buried in the Rose Hill Cemetery, Whittier, Los Angeles County, California.

Information Compiled
by Karen Bray Keeley

INTERNET Adaptation
by Sandra Shuler Bray