1892 – 1986
Henry Eugene Dalton was born 13 March 1992 in Willard, Box Elder, Utah. The farm is now known as the Grazier Farm. He was the eighth of nine children. He was always known as Gene and seemed to be full of mischief and fun. His earliest memory was when he was about five years old and had gone to visit his oldest sister Rose who lived nearby. Gene was to tend his cousin Glen, who was about a year old and in a baby buggy. Gene wheeled Glen about for a time, then seeing some steps leading to the cellar, decided this would be a good ride for Glen, so he wheeled the buggy to the top of the stairs and let it go. Gene did not remember the outcome of this bit of mischief, but it is suspected that when the two mothers got hold of him he hurt far worse than Glen.
When Gene was six years old he went to school with his brothers George, Mat, Roy and sister Mary. His first teacher was a Miss Jocobsen, and some other teachers he remembered were Josie White, Will White and Colin Woods. The first day Matt went to school, his Irish temper got the best of him and he had two separate fights with his teacher. This stopped after a stern threat from his father.
On the chilly day of 29 September, 1900, Gene’s mother decided he should be baptized. His brother threw him on a horse and they rode to a near-by pond and Gene became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. They both got back on the horse and Gene remembered a cold ride home in wet clothes.
On 19 Nov. 1901, the Dalton family left Willard to move to the Willow Springs Ranch about 5 miles south of Malad, Idaho. They had purchased the ranch from John Mifflin’s father and that winter both families lived on the ranch. The trip to Malad took three days. The first to Tremonton, Utah, the second day to the Wells Ranch in Idaho and the last day they arrived at the ranch. For several years the Willow Springs Ranch continued to be a rest stop for people going to and from Malad. People watered and fed their horses, cleaned up, ate lunch or stayed overnight before going on. At the present time the ranch is owned by Ralph Tovey and the old rock house has been remodeled and covered with white stucco.
School wasn’t much of a problem for the school house was built right on the ranch. Gene went to this school for three years. The teachers were Millie Davis, Audrey and Rose Dalton (no relation). Those attending school were Roy, Gene, Mary Dalton, Jim and George Tovey, Tom and Bill Richards, Tisha and Seamore Davis.
Gene remembered the day he went to the creek and got a bottle of water snakes and put them in the teacher’s desk drawer. He apparently was not the teacher’s favorite child.
In 1905 the schools were consolidated with Malad schools and the Daltons being on the end of the school district, drove the school bus, which consisted of a sleigh or wagon (whatever the weather demanded), and two to four head of horses, this depending on the weather too.
Sadness came to the Dalton family this year too. Brother Matt fell off a haystack and broke his neck. He left his wife Eliza and baby Lizzie. Five years later brother Roy married Eliza.
In 1906 the railroad came in from Corinne, Utah. The entire grade was built without any machines except a steam boiler used as a pile driver where the ground was marshy. All the work was done by men and horses or mules. Bruce Grant was the contractor and the commissary was run by J. Peter Jensen. He was a good man and well liked by all. Gene remembered this was where he bought his first straw hat.
Gene’s main memories of this time were of the constant work on the farm. Pulling sage, moving rock and trying to plow the land crops. The work was hard, and once his father made him re-harrow the entire field because he had missed a small strip. But there were good times too, dances in Samaria and the long ride home on the horse, but even in the winter the horse knew the way and often he just dropped the reins on the horses neck and dozed as the horse made his way home. This worked fine except for the night they met up with a skunk and when he got home he had to bury his clothes, and turn his horse out on the range for the rest of the summer.
In the spring of 1908 he and his brother Roy seemed to be constantly quarreling, so Gene put his belongings in a sack, threw a blanket on his horse and left home. He was only about 16 years old, but he rode some 30 miles to the Dairy Creek Shearing Sheds and got a job shearing sheep for Hy Sawyer,
In 1910, he went to Soda Springs, Idaho and worked for a man named Ed Arble. About this time he bought his first saddle for $13.00. That same year, back in Malad, he worked at the Flour Mill at Gwenford, Idaho for Dan and John E. Jones,
In 1912 he and his friend Bill Fredrickson rode their horses to Minadoka, Idaho. The trip took four days. Once there, they had enough of horses, sold them, took a train to Washington and worked in the grain elevators there for a year. In 1913 he worked for Taylor Brothers shearing sheep near Burley, Idaho On 3 September 1913, his father died, so he went home and worked on the farm until December 1915. Once more he went to Washington and worked in the grain elevator. At this time his nephew, Glen Facer was in Washington on a mission for the LDS Church, and Gene was able to visit with him. Traveling on he worked on a farm near the Oregon-Washington state line for a man named Pichard. He was very wealthy and had a lovely daughter named Olive which Gene thought would make a fine wife, but he seemed to lack the courage, and had nothing to offer her that would lure her away from her father’s fine farm.
Back in Idaho, he worked for a man named Lester Frew in 1917, and he and George Grub were to break a car load of mules. Things were pretty dull on the ranch, and so one night Gene and George decided they would go into Idaho Falls, which was about 8 miles away. Having no transportation, they caught two of the wild mules, tied them together by their bridles, hooked them to the tongue of the wagon with a strap, used two lasso ropes for reins, turned them loose and away they went for town on a dead run, over the old wood bridge and right up to the livery stable. The two friends spent the night in town and returned to the ranch the next morning in much the same manner as they had left, and proceeded to break the rest of the mules to pull a wagon.
While Gene was in Idaho Falls, he had registered for the draft for World War I. His registration card was #1 in Bonneville County. On December 14, 1917, he took his mother to Washington to visit brother Will and his wife Rose. While there, he decided to sign up with the Marines. On12 January 1918, he was sent to Seattle, Washington for his exam and then on to Mare Island, California for boot training, then his company was sent to San Francisco, California on 1 April 1918 to a big parade. From there they were sent by train to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. During the trip across country the men were not allowed to mail letters, but they would write postcards, drop them out the train windows, and thoughtful people along the way would mail them. Gene’s mother received every one he sent.
While in the service he was assigned as a guard over prisoners. He got along well with the men and never had any problems with them. Letters from home were not so encouraging. In 1917, Roy’s wife Liza had died and in 1918, Roy also died, and his mother was raising the four children.
A senator from Idaho contacted the military, and Gene was given a hardship release to go home and help. He was kept in the reserves for three years, but didn’t return to service.
When he arrived home, the Depression was holding the entire country in the grip of poverty, his mother had the flu, her grandson, Albert, had pneumonia and there was very little to eat. Gene tried to get a job, and finally went to work for Bert Fifield and W.H. Thomas unloading coal for .25 cents a ton. Until 1922, he took whatever jobs he could find to support the family, from feeding pigs to pitching hay.
Finally things eased up, life was a little easier, and in November of 1922, he had met and fallen in love with Dollie Thorpe Evans, who was the mother of a son Billie and who had divorced her husband. On 18 September 1923 they were married in Salt Lake City, Utah.