Newlyweds Begin Their Mission in Tahiti Together, 1915

The steamship "Marama,"  which carried my grandparents to Papeete, Tahiti from San Fransico, 1915

The Journey to Tahiti

My grandparents,  newlyweds began their mission together on their journey to Tahiti.  It sounds like they had a nice time on their steamship and were excited to travel and cross the equator.

My grandmother described the journey:

"It [the steamship] had three decks--a lower and two uppers.  When we first went on board, the people looked down on us because we were Mormons.  But while on this voyage,  I played deck billiards and won the prize.  When I excelled at these games,  they just really changed and were so friendly and so social and lovely--both the men and the women.  We left San Francisco on October 13th, 1915, arriving in Papeete on October 25th.



Wednesday,  October the 13th, 1915,  we sailed from Pier 25 at twelve a.m. on the steamship Marama for Tahiti. Lila, Floss, and Lily Green were there to see us set sail. At one o’clock soon after going out of the Golden Gate, the first meal was served. Of course I had to feed the fish. [I think she means that she fed the fish in the ocean below by throwing crumbs down to them.] 

We met Elders Gallager, Hinckley, Campbell, Taylor and Cox who were on their way to New Zealand to enter their mission. We had a very enjoyable time on the sea. It took us about twelve days to get to Tahiti. We made lots of friends. We played deck billiards, a deck game. Then we put on programs, and had lots of nice conversations with the people that we met. It was a very enjoyable time and especially the day we crossed the equator was a very historical day. It was a rather cold windy day though, but we enjoyed it very much. It just seemed so fantastic to be so far away from home crossing the equator.

Anyhow, like I say, we had so many wonderful friends there, and we enjoyed the meals. One of the couples that we met there,  that we were very proud to sit at the same table with, was the organist, a famous man, who played the opening organ music to open the 1915 fair in San Francisco. He and his wife were there.

                                        Arrival in Tahiti

Papeete, Tahiti,  1915



My grandfather wrote in his diary:

Monday, Oct. 25th, 1915.  We were routed out of bed at 12:00 a.m. to be examined by the physician when we found we were in the harbor of Papeete, Tahiti.  Upon looking out,  we got our first glimpse of Tahiti, which with its high, rugged mountains and palm trees certainly looked a wild place at night.  We did not go ashore until morning.  At 5:00 a.m. we watched the Marama sail away for its last time at Papeete.

Missionaries of the Tahitian Mission, circa 1916.  Elder George Compton 2nd to last on top row, Margaret Compton to the far right,  seated.

My grandmother described her arrival and early days in the mission home:

When we arrived at Tahiti, we arrived about midnight. We went to the portholes and looked out, and it was all dark. And "Oh,"   I thought, "Where are we? Where are we?" 

We had to be examined by the steamship physician. And as it began to get lighter, why I saw the most beautiful, the most heavenly place you’d ever want to see. A tropical island, all the beautiful, tropical trees and flowers and the wharf was so pretty and the water. About the early morning the missionaries came down to the boat and oh, they looked so nice in their white suits and George had gone on shore to the mission home to look things over and then he came back and we all went to the mission home.

When I saw that mission home, I was so thrilled with it-- I was just so happy because I just didn’t have any idea that I would be living in such a beautiful places. The grounds around it were so pretty, and the trees, the tropical plants. It was a ten-room house, with two halls and also, there was a little kitchenette that was built separately. And every room opened off onto a beautiful porch or veranda. And, when we went in there we saw it was nicely furnished and the elders were so nice. I think there was Elder Taos, [?] and Elder Burbidge and a number of them. They were all so, friendly and accommodating to us.

Of course one of the things they did to George was shave his hair all off. That was one of the ceremonies that they always performed.

But as I toured the house, I could see there hadn’t been a lady there to take care of the house for quite some time. The curtains were needing washing and stretching and the kitchen needed a good cleaning up. And I noticed that all the legs of the table and some of the chairs in the kitchen were standing in little dishes of water. And I thought "Oh my goodness the missionaries have been putting the dishes to soak like that," and they were kind of dirty you know,  and I said "How come all these pieces of furniture in the kitchen are sitting in dishes of water" and they said "Oh sister you have to do that to keep the ants from getting up on the tables and chairs" and they were big. And they were really large ants.

Well, anyhow, we got settled there nicely. President and Sister Rossiter weren’t at the mission headquarters at the time. So we had quite a little bit of time to get the house all cleaned up and the curtains washed up and mended and ironed and stretched and back up on the windows. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving day down there and a fine Christmas day.

By the time Christmas day came President and Sister Rossiter had arrived at the mission home, and of course then things started popping. Then we started in with our class work and our meetings really in earnest.

Courting, Engagement, Marriage and Mission

COURTING, ENGAGEMENT, MARRIAGE AND MISSION,  Margaret tells about meeting her future husband,  George Albert Compton.

George Albert Compton, 1915 in the front yard of the Compton home in Morgan, Utah

Grandma tells about her courting and engagement with my Grandfather in an oral history recorded by  Michael Eckersley in 1976:

"While I was going to high school a young man, George Albert Compton came from Morgan Utah to work at the railroad here in Ogden. And he boarded at the home of Caroline Wiggins, who was a widow at this time and was running a boarding house. And we were introduced to each other and saw each other back and forth in the neighborhood there, and I think we were encouraged a little bit by some of the people in the boarding house who kind of kidded and said, "Why don’t you take Margaret out on a date?" I was real young at the time-- I think I was only about fifteen. He did, he invited me to go to a show, and I kind of believe we went to a carnival or something like that. But my Aunt would always say yes, I could go, and sometimes I’d question. I’d look at her, and I’d say "You’d just let me go anywhere with Mr. Compton wouldn’t you?" and she says, "Well I think he’s a very fine young man."

And so, anyhow, we went together for years-- in the neighborhood of about three years-- but my Aunt passed away January 1915, and that was just a few months after I had turned seventeen. And at that time, George received a call to go on a mission. I thought how wonderful it would be if I could go with George on his mission, and somehow they found out that President Rossiter’s wife was alone, more or less, down there in the islands and needed a companion, and so I received a call to go on a mission.

But during this time, my Father had insisted on me coming up to his home at 28th and just about Jefferson and live with he, his wife, and his family. He and his second wife had five children, a boy and four girls. And so I moved up into my father’s home, and George and I were still keeping company.

And this one particular holiday, I think it was Labor Day, and I was supposed to stay home and get lunch for Dad, my Father, because he was going to be in town and would be coming home about lunchtime. And George and I had decided to go somewhere on a date--I don’t remember just where.

But anyhow, when George arrived right there at my Father’s home the same time my Father did, they both walked into the house at the same time and stood there in the front room. And George had been telling me "When will your Father be home so I can ask him if you can go on a mission with me-- if we can be married we can go on our mission." And I said, I kept telling George, I says "I know very well he won’t consent, because he’ll think I’m far too young." And he says, "Well maybe you’re wrong."

But so, anyhow, when my father and George walked in there together, why, they shook hands, and George got the courage up to say "Well Mr. Mattson, what would you think if I asked you, if we--Margaret and I could be married, and she could go on a mission with me down to the Islands to Tahiti?" And my Father looked at him, very pleasantly, and smiled, and said, "I think that would be wonderful!" and I was standing there just ready to go right through the floor, because I didn’t have any idea that he would say yes. And do you know what his answer, his remark was? He says "If you think for one minute that you’re going to go on your mission and leave her here bawling her eyes out because you’ve gone away, I just... that can’t be."
So that was my experience of being proposed to, and being accepted by my Father.   Anyhow,  then we made our preparations to be married.

Margaret' wedding picture, September 1915.

George Albert Compton, wedding picture, 1915

[I don't know why my grandparents didn't have a picture of the two of them together when they got married.  If anyone knows of one,  send it to me and I will add it to this blog.]



We were married on the 29th of September 1915. And we had lots of parties and showers and activities-- getting everything ready for our mission.

And we left Ogden, October the 6th, 1915 and we had a lot of friends to just see us off and there was plenty of rice thrown on us. It was a very exciting time and besides, George’s Mother and Father, David and Mamie and my Step-Mother. There were many,  many other friends who saw us off.

George A. Compton and myself were married September the 29th 1915 and David O. Mckay married us and he set us apart for the mission and married us the same day in the Salt Lake Temple. And Mamie and David Evans were with us in the Salt Lake Temple, and it was a very wonderful day-- very spiritual, and of course we were all excited about our marriage and going to the Tahitian Islands on our mission.

We left Ogden, October the seventh, 1915, and we had lots of friends and relatives to bid us goodbye, and it was the first time either George or myself had slept in a Pullman car.

When we arrived in San Francisco, we were met by some of our folks, and some of the girls that I was raised with, and while we were there in Frisco, in the few days we went to the 1915 Worlds’ Fair, and we took a lot of side trips and tours and had a very enjoyable time there."

[I don't have any pictures of them on their honeymoon,  but I will have some marvelous pictures of them on their mission in Tahiti,  so stay tuned.]