Andrew Duthie

(1857-1939)

On July 23, 1857, Andrew Duthie III, was born to Andrew Duthie and Louise Brebner in the city of Aberdeen, Scotland.  He was born of a very fine family. He heard the Gospel first preach to him by John Gray who later became his brother-in-law and was a Patriarch of Randolph, Utah for 15 years.

Andrew Duthie filled two missions for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The first was in Scotland before he was married. There he heard our mother’s beautiful voice singing in the street meetings of Glasgow, Scotland, and fell in love with her.  He was introduced to Jeannie Frazer by Elder Alexander F. MacDonald.

They were a devoted couple. They crossed the Atlantic Ocean at separate times, to be married in the temple. As the temple wasn’t finished, they were married in the old Endowment House in Salt Lake City.

My father, Andrew Duthie III, came to Utah first in 1880, and lived with former President David O. McKay’s father, who was also from Aberdeen, Scotland, and knew his parents there. They were happy to have a Scotsman of father’s character and integrity in their home and Thomas McKay helped father obtained his first job in Utah. After he had saved enough to care for a wife, mother came to Salt Lake City and stayed with her mother’s sister, Isabelle Taylor. She also had another aunt, Sister Quayle.

Jeannie and Andrew had a lovers quarrel and made up under the famous Eagle Gate on State and South Temple Street in Salt Lake City.  She had a song for every occasion. She’d sing “I Cannot Give the Hand Where the Heart will Never be.” It is an old Scotch ballad and her heart always turned to her true lover, Andrew. They were married February 22, 1883, and Salt Lake City.

Andrew had learned to be a master mechanic in the large shipyards in Glasgow, Scotland. It took him eight years to finish his training, but later in Mexico he earned as much as $50 a day in the Pinos Altos Mine, making tools and machinery. He raised nine children of his own and six nieces and nephews of the Ireland family. He was always giving to the poor and helping those in need. Brother and Sister Duthie were blessed the with good things of life, whether it was in Mexico, El Paso, Randolph, Bear Lake, or Salt Lake City. There was always a welcome place for their friends to come and stay, not just overnight, but for weeks at a time. When I was a child we lived in El Paso, and Brother and Sister Wall would come to stay and buy things for their store. Brother and Sister Taylor were welcome, too, as were Brother and Sister Spilsbury, Brother and Sister Dan Skousen, and so many others who went to El Paso to shop. They never went to a hotel or café.  Colonists were welcome, or ever the Duthie’s lived. They were loved by all.

Andrew Duthie knew he would never have a happy wife until he sent to Scotland for each of her family. So one by one, he sent money for them to come to the United States. He also sent for his own sisters, Louise and Betsey.  

Jeannie, and three children, Gilbert, Agnes, and Louise stayed in Evanston, Wyoming while Andrew went to Mexico to help his brother, John Duthie, run some mines in Pinos Altos, Mexico.  The trip to Mexico, when she finally went was hard, with the children so small, and my brother John, a baby, died. She lived among the Tarahumara Indians in the mountains, where Andrew was working. Victoria was born in this mining camp.

The colonists needed people like Andrew and Jeannie. She was a midwife, and she helped to deliver many babies in the colonies. She had had enough nursing to train her to be a spotless housekeeper, and her mother taught her to cook. She loved to make fruitcakes for the Relief Society and Scotch shortcake for everyone who came to visit. Jeannie and Andrew received joy in feeding everyone who came to the home. They sang Scotch songs together, and taught all the family to sing. People loved to hear their Scotch brogue and accent. No matter where they lived, they enjoyed helping and serving others.

When they lived in Pearson, Brother Spilsbury used to carry the passengers to and from the railroad train. Being an old friend of the Duthie family, there was always supper waiting for him, a clean bed and love and friendship in the Duthie home. Week after week the Duthie and Spilsbury family spent evenings together. I looked forward to Grandpa Spilsbury letting me ride to the train with him in the big buggy. They were always helping others financially, and otherwise, and people came when they were in trouble.

In El Paso, they kept a bedroom for missionaries, and Church Authorities ate dinner in our home many times.

Since our home in Mexico was President Abram O. Woodruff’s home, Jeannie kept it furnished beautifully and it always was sparkling clean. Here in this beautiful home, she invited many Church Authorities to eat when they attended Stake Conference in Colonia Juarez, including  President Joseph F. Smith and Apostle James E. Talmage. It was he who dedicated our home in 1920. After Jeannie moved back to Mexico, Adam S. Bennion, Apostle Melvin J. Ballard, and many others honored them as visitors. She often had delicacies from El Paso sent to serve at these lovely dinners.

Andrew’s name among the gold and silver mines in Mexico became famous because of his knowledge of mining machinery. He worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad in El Paso for many years. His previous railroad experience was surveying for the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad from Salt Lake City to Castle Gate, Utah.

In 1924, Jeannie moved to Provo, to be with Isabel and me, her daughter, while we attended BYU. She passed away in 1926 after an operation in Salt Lake City. She is buried in the Provo Cemetery. Andrew was ill at the time.  In 1929, Andrew Duthie went on his second mission for the Church. He served in the California Mission around Sacramento. While he was in Salt Lake City, he met President Anthony W. Ivins, who was happy to see his old friend. Since his wife had passed away, he tried to be both mother and father to his children. Brother Ivins knew how devoted Jeannie and Andrew always were. None of their children ever heard a quarrel. President Ivins called him to go on his second mission. We were always proud of our parents because of their great love and service to mankind. Andrew was a wonderful missionary even at 73 years of age.

In Houston, he passed away June 25, 1939 at 83 years of age, and is also buried in El Paso.

Margaret Duthie Naylor, daughter

Stalwarts South of the Border Page 143