---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Young Men's Mutual Improvement Associations
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 21
number: 5
published: 1918-03
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: "Young Men's Mutual Improvement Associations, “Four Generations,” *Improvement Era* 21, no. 5 (March 1918): 436."
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2105unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera2105unse
start_page: 436
end_page: 436
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1918-03)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2105unse
  publication_year: 1918
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1918, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# Four Generations

<!-- page:436 -->

<!-- Figure: Four Generations portrait. -->

The above portrait represents baby Josephine Preston, daughter of Dr.

Alexander P. and Josephine Herrick Preston, of Rigby, Idaho. In the center

is Dr. Preston; to the left, John L. Herrick, grandfather; to the right, Hon-

orable Joseph A. West, a well-known engineer, great-grandfather, who, in

1883-7 was assistant in the superintendency and also assistant general secre-

tary of the Y. M. M. I. A., and a faithful worker for years, up to 1881, as su-

perintendent of the Weber Stake Y. M. M. I. A. John L. Herrick, who is

now president of the Western States mission, acted as secretary of the Y. M.

M. I. A. of Weber stake for ten years, and later for nearly ten years was su-

perintendent. Dr. Preston is president of the Y. M. M. I. A. of Rigby. The

li tie girl, with an ancestry of such record in the young people's organiza-

tions, ought surely also to make her mark in M. I. A. work.