Born January 1, 1882- Died October 16, 1959
Education:
My father always said that he had received only a couple of years of schooling and that was only a few months each year. I cannot be sure about this because it seems now that he was never very definite about it. We all know however that he could do very little reading or writing. It is my belief and I think I remember him talking about it, that he started to tend sheep for his father at a very early age. Probably with his older brother John and stayed out late in the year. When the herd was moved to the feedyard for the winter, then he was no longer needed and was sent off to school. As soon as the weather broke in the spring and the stock could go out again, he would be needed especially during the lambing season, and his schooling would be over for that year.
He probably started to school when he was six or seven, but when he had attended only off and on for a year or two, not being passed or if he was, not being able to keep up with the other students, he would soon develop a dislike for school and resist going at every opportunity. His father must not have considered school very important and needed all the help he could get, so it is easy to understand why father never received very much schooling.
I remember that he could write but not very well. It was his custom to ask someone to write his checks, and then he would sign them. He could read well enough, however, to know if the check was written for the correct amount. Also I have noticed many times that he would be able to read newspaper headlines.
I had been around father many times when he was buying or selling stock, grain, or hay and know that he was quite good at figuring in his head. He would have in mind some total approximate figure loong before the guys with a pencil could figure it out. He always knew if they had made a mistake.
Dad was able to count his stock in the hundreds, measure his grain, but was never able to figure the tons of hay in a stack. Whenever he needed to buy or sell hay, he sent me with the measurements, to J. Peter Jensen, who was a close friend and trusted neighbor, who would figure the tons in a stack. One time in school, our teacher told us how to figure the hay in a stack and I told Dad that I could do it for him and he seemed pleased. It was quite a long time before he asked me to figure hay and I was not sure. I could remember that you had to subtract one of the figures and divide another by two and then multiply the others together but I couldn’t come up with a reasonable answer so off to J. Peters I went again with the measurements. He asked me why I did not figure it for my father and then showed me and explained why and it was so simple and easy to understand that I have never forgotten.
One of the fond memories I have of our early family life was when father and mother decided that I was old enough to set up nights, while mother read stories to dad. He would bring a book home almost every time he went to town. I think he got most of them from the library, but some were loaned to him by others. Not being able to read himself, he enjoyed these books very much. Mother would read until she became tired then father would coax her to read just one more chapter. The books I remember were mostly western and fiction. Some I remember were: “ The Light Before the Dawn”, “The Call of the Wild”, some of B.M. Bower’s books and many of Zane Grey’s.
Youth and growing up years:
Dad spent much of his youth as a sheep herder. HIs father had a summer range north of Soda Springs on Tin Cup mountain. The home ranch was at Two Mile where Bud Richards now lives. The sheep were trailed to and from the summer range. Part of that trail was the Oxford Mountain and the low foot hills around New Canyon where the lambing usually took place. From there they usually went down Cherry Creek and then north through the Downey Flats to Arimo, where they turned east up a shortcut to Demsey Creek. They would stay a day or two at Demsey Creek to let the sheep feed then go up Fish Creek to Lund. While at Demsey the herders would take a dip in Demsey Springs. ( Lava Hot Springs). At Lund, arrangements had been made for them to get supplies. This was the only place where supplies were available until they reached Soda Springs, and then would stock up before going north to Tin Cup.
This was a hard life for a young boy. Exposed to the weather most of the time, having to face the elements every day with no time off for Sundays or holidays. A lot of hard work and only what diversion he was able to make for himself. Very few opportunities for social contact or learning.
He must have been thinking about this and his future one day as he herded the sheep at the mouth of New Canyon. He told me or someone else while I listened, that early in his youth he realized that New Canyon would make a good ranch and if it were not taken by the time he became of age, he would file on it for his own, All went well until he was almost old enough when the William Williams family and his son Ben T. Williams started fencing and planting in that area. They had claimed two forties in the bottom and other land to the south and west on “Squatters Rights”. Later when the land was surveyed they had to give up one forty in the bottom and dad was able to file on it along with two others and got his forth forty on the north bench.
Most of the east forty was planted to hay in the early days. When I was old enough to remember, I asked dad one day, why the hay on part of the field was quite poor and the other was very good. He said the good hay was young hay that he had planted, but the poor hay was old hay that had been planted by the Williams when they farmed it. I also remember an old Buck Eye mowing machine standing in this part of the field. It was old and of no value but dad never touched it. He just farmed around it because he said it was a machine that the Williams’ had left there and he didn’t want anything to do with it. I had wondered if there had been bad feelings over that piece of ground. As far as I knew we were always very friendly.
My Grandfather was large in stature but Grandmother was quite small. My father took after his mother, small of frame but strong and very fast on his feet. I was thrilled one time when we were all down the Dave Evans ranch for a Fourth of July celebration, and Dad was the fastest of all the men there. Mother later told me that he had always won every race he had entered since she had known him. My Uncle John, Dad’s older brother, told me the same thing about him.
There were other stories about Uncle John and Dad but that were similar-about the scrapes they were in and Dad could outrun them all but Uncle John had to stay and fight. They were the two oldest boys of the family but there was a five year difference in their ages. It never seemed to me they were as close as Dad and Uncle Will who was only one year younger. I remember Dad telling about when he and Uncle Will went courting together. They both went with girls from Samaria, cousins, and Dad told of the times when jealous Samaria boys would do things to try to discourage them like cutting their cinch or turning the horses loose, He said they always went together for protection. One would always stand guard while the other went to the house for the girls. Also Dad told how they would go by the shortest route which was across the hay lands form the Two Mile Ranch. Most of the time it would be all right, but during the spring runoff or after a heavy rain, the river would be so high that they had to swim their horses.
Marriage and Family Life
As far as I know, and the record bears this out, Dad did not get serious about proving up on his ranch until after his marriage to Mother. I am sure he filed a claim as soon as he became of age which would have been January 1, 1903. Since he would have to go by horseback to Blackfoot to the State Land Office, he may not have gone until early spring.
To start with, he may have started improvements, fencing, clearing etc. with horses and equipment borrowed from his Father’s ranch. If he raised any hay or grain he probably gave some of it to his Father for use of equipment and horses and must have been able to turn some for cash to buy barbed wire, hand plow, and horses and harnesses for himself. It was a custom in those days that unmarried boys, and girls, would work for their keep and receive no wages while they were home. I have a feeling that my Grandfather was not happy with Dad trying to improve a ranch and not giving his full time to the work at the home ranch. My reason is a statement Dad once made when asked what wedding present he had received from his Father. HIs answer was “a hammer”. He said he had borrowed a hammer from his father, and sometime after he was married he tried to return it and was told he could keep it as a wedding present.
After their marriage, Dad and Mother lived in Malad at about 158 West 600 North in a little one room log cabin with a dirt roof. I was born in May and the June rains were heavy. The dirt roof leaked. Everything became wet and Mother was sick with what was called milkleg and was slow to recover. Dad realized that he must do something to get her and the baby out of that house. That it was time to make a break with his father and be on his own. He got Uncle Will, and maybe others and cut logs and built the log house that still stands on the old ranch at New Canyon. This was in 1906 and as far as I know, they lived there year around until about 1910 or 1911, when they purchased a two room log house on a five acre tract on Hungry Hill in Malad.
Vera was born December 29th, 1910. I feel sure that the folks must have purchased the home in Malad prior to this event in 1910, because we were living there in 1911, the year the great flu epidemic killed so many people in Malad. I was five years old but can remember much of the fear and suffering. Both Mother and Father were down. It was hard to get help as people feared for their lives. They would come as far as the doorstep and bring food or medicine, then back off to a safe distance and call for someone to come out and get it. I was never very sick but Mother and Dad were not able to get out of bed. Uncle John and Uncle Will took turns doing the outside chores, but we needed someone who was willing to take the risk of living with us and take care of everyone. Aunt Emma, Uncle Edwin’s wife, who had only been married to Uncle Edwin a few months and had no family to take care of, came and stayed with us. I was too young to appreciate it at the time but since then when I think about it I realized that it was a great sacrifice and act of mercy for someone so new to the family.
Our parents were also good to others. While we lived in this place it was a common practice for relatives to come and stay a few days and sometimes for months. One family, Uncle Chris came early one fall and stayed until spring. He was out of work, had no place to live or money for rent or food. He came with a team and wagon. Dad made room in the barn for the team and Mother provided beds and meals. All in a two room house. They were good to help out. Aunt Rosie helped Mother with the house work and Uncle Chris used his team and helped Dad to get fire wood and feed the stock. During the winter I remember that Uncle Chris and Dad were able to get jobs during the ice harvest.
For some reason, Dad sold this place in town about 1913 or one year before the school in Devil Creek was built. The next year I stayed with my Aunt Mary in town to go to school. The Devil Creek school must have been built about 1914 and the folks lived on the ranch the year around from then until I was old enough to start High School in 1922. From then until 1928 they rented homes in town each winter. Some of the homes I remember living in are as follow: The old Clark home which was located where Dale Vaughan now lives at 604 North on 100 West, the old Daniel Jenkins home at 591 North 100 West, the old Tanery place at 560 North 100 West, the old Marston place at 143 West 500 North, the old Thomas Lusk place at 158 West 600 North. When we lived in the old Tanery place we shared it with the Charlie Swensen family. They had seven children and there were nine in our family, a total of twenty souls finding shelter that winter under one not very big roof.
Experiences with Father and Mother on the Ranch
Going with mother to take a cold drink to Father as he was breaking up new land. He had a wood beam hand plow and a strong team. Most of the children should remember this plow as it was around for a long time and was used to plow the garden and irrigation ditches. The lines to the team were spliced out so they were long enough to go around his shoulder, over one shoulder and back under the other arm. In this way his hands were always free to handle the plow because it required full attention and considerable strength to keep it upright and straight in the furrow. It required that he walk with one foot in the furrow and the other out and that he be quick to swing either way to brace against the plow as it strained to cut through wheat grass or sage brush. The team would often get stuck but he could help them by tilting the plow one way or the other. It was hard strenuous work but a great body builder. Father loved hard work or seemed to, and was as hard as iron most of his life. I loved to run barefoot in the new furrows behind my hard working Father and team and stop at times to help our dog catch a field mouse.
After supper and chores were done, both Father and Mother would return again to the field to pile and burn the brush. I can remember going when I was only old enough to tend Anna Bell and Vera while they both worked. When I was older I helped to pile. We would try to get as many piles and make them as large as we could before dark. After dark Father would light them and we would watch the flames leap high. This was a great thrill for us children and we looked forward to it each day. When it was all over and the fires had burned low, we were reluctant to go back to the house and to bed. It was great fun for us but made for a long hard day for Father.
Another event remembered in part was the visit of Haley’s Comet. The news of its coming had spread by word of mouth. Each one had added something to the news of his or her own imagination until there was near panic in some areas. Mother and Father had decided that they did not want to be alone so went down to the Ben Williams ranch for the night. Some said it would crash into the earth but no one knew where. There was fear and uncertainty and although I was not quite four years old, I could feel it. The time was May 4, 1910. The part I remember most was the trip down through the field on foot. Dad had done all the chores and it was getting dark. Clouds were hanging low, no stars or moon. We hurried along not knowing if we would ever come back to our home again. Dad was carrying Anna Bell and held my hand as I struggled to stay on my feet and keep up. I remember that Mother was carrying something and always thought that she carried Vera until recently when I checked the dates and learned that she was not born yet. Mother was probably bringing food for supper or spare clothes. This is all I remember. Haley’s comet must have arrived late, after I was asleep, and was probably never seen by our parents because of the cloud cover in this area.
There was another time when we all had a scare. This time we had no warning. Father was up on the North Bench. I was out in the yard at play on a bright beautiful day when all at once it started to get dark. I noticed that the chickens were running to the coop. I ran to tell Mother just as she came out of the house and told me to run and get Father. She was very frightened and did not understand what was happening. I ran as fast as I could and by the time I reached the wash it was real dark. Father had unhitched the horses and was running them toward the house. I could not see them but could hear them coming and did not cross the wash. I stepped back away from the horses and called to Dad. He reached over and grabbed me by the hand and we raced toward the house where mother and the other children were standing outside waiting. Father let the horses go to the barn and grabbed Mother and we all huddled together. It seemed just a a very short time until it began to get light again. The chickens came out ot the coop and a rooster flew up on the fence and crowed. This relieved the tension and we all laughed and felt better.
The first crops raised were hay and some grain. The grain had to be hauled to some location where a thresher was operating, so the raising of grain was restricted to a few acres for feed and some cash. In about 1910, Dad and the other ranchers of that area formed a partnership and purchased an old horse power grain thresher. I remember how exciting it was when it came to our place to thresh. It was only used a few years when steam threshers were used. The old horse power was left at our place and later Dad made a hay wagon out of the steel wheels and axles.
The first crops were cut with a binder. It was favored by the early settlers because it cut the straw long and while it was part green. After cutting, the bundles were shocked (stacked in small bunches) and left to dry. The shocks were always stacked with the heads up and only the straw on the ground. The longer and greener straw made better feed for the stock and for filling the bed ticks.
The “header” was a later invention and came about the same time the steam thresher was used. With it the grain was cut shorter, hauled to a central location, called a stack yard and stacked in neat rows just far enough apart so the feeder of the thresher could go between them. The header required a crew of about seven and was usually owned by two or more ranchers. Dad and Uncle Ben and either Ben Williams or Charlie Swensen were partners in the header. Quite often they exchanged work for the hay harvest too. On all of these crews Dad was the stacker. Most anyone could stack hay and get the stack to stand up even if it didn’t look too good. Grain was a different matter. It required experience and skill. Dad had the ability to build a beautiful stack and seemed to do it without much effort. I cannot remember him ever doing anything on either a hay or grain crew except stack.
Father was skilled in many of the things that were important to him in his time. Early in his life he used to whittle. He whittled cows, horses and other things, but his favorite was chains. These were cut from long soft wood sticks up to three or four feet long. He would let us play with them if we were careful not to break them. They didn’t have much value but he was able to cut out many things that were valuable. I have been with him in the canyon when the doubletree broke. He would pick up his ax and within minutes would have a new one made from the nearest tree. It was a simple matter for him to cut out a breake block for the wagon and I have seen him do it in the canyon many times. He did all his own building and had some of the best out buildings and yards in the area.
There was a saw mill in New Canyon on Cherry Creek. Dad could get lumber and slabs by cutting logs and bringing them to the mill and trading them for whatever he wanted. Most people did not want the slabs which are from the first cut taken from a log, but Dad took load after load and used them to build his yard fences. Whatever he built, he built well. The posts to support the fence were large long lasting cedar, taken from the mountain to the East and set deep. If he set pine he always charred them so they would not rot.
All his life Father was very strong physically. When I was first married I needed some cedar posts to fence my yard. Dad invited me to come to the ranch and he would help me get them. Dad needed some posts too so we took a team of horses up under a high cliff as high as they could go, then climbed farther up to where the cedar had never been cut before and where we could get good posts. Dad selected an area and left me there to cut while he went farther over.
I cut and trimmed as fast as I could and when I had about 25 or 30, started to pile them in a central location. I had just started when Dad came back and helped me. When we had then gathered I picked up four or five and started down to the horses. Dad picked up four or five under each arm. When we got down to the edge of the cliff and were throwing the posts down near the horses, I was shocked to find out that Dad had cut twice as many posts as I had and had them all down ready for drags. He seemed still fresh and I was exhausted. He was about 50 years old and I was about 25.
Dad was a great horseman. He loved and trained them well and never had to whip or mistreat them to get results. When I was quite young he brought home an outlaw horse that had been given to him because no one else could break him. Several had tried but each one had only made him worse and he was now a man hater. Dad worked hard to break and train him and the horse grew to trust Dad and would come to him and follow him around, but it didn’t work out because he became a one man horse, and could not be trusted around us children or anyone else so Dad got rid of him
Dad had a team of large horses he named Maude and Tobe. This same team was one he used in the woods for logging. It is dangerous to drive a team down a drag trail pulling logs. Drag trails are usually narrow and brushy and the logs roll from side to side as they are dragged over the uneven ground. There is no safe place to walk. Dad had trained this team and they could be turned loose. He was very proud of them.
I was with Father one time in the canyon after the first snow. He had cut some pine logs for firewood and had sent the team down the drag trail with the logs. They were already out of sight and we followed, walking in the hard packed trail left by the logs. The trail was easy and smooth, almost like a sidewalk. Dad mentioned this and asked me if I didn’t think it had been worthwhile for him to train the team;? I agreed that it was and to me, my Dad was the greatest. At one point in the trail he pointed out something that I might have missed. There was a short steep pitch with a turn at the bottom. The logs had run loose and straddled a clump of trees. Tracks in the snow showed plainly what had happened. The team had swung back up the trail and pulled the logs loose. They swung back and continued on down to the loading area and were standing beside the sleigh waiting when we arrived.
Father had a strong healthy body, was hardly ever sick and although he lived to age 77 he never wore eye glasses. He was skilled in all the things that were important to him as he provided for his family. He and Mother had established a home where they could be almost independent of any help from the outside. Besides grain in the bin they had their own meat in the form of pork, beef, chicken, ducks, geese, turkeys, and wild meat from deer, chickens and rabbit. Dad had bees that gave him all the honey we could use. Mother canned fruit and vegetables and had a root cellar full of potatoes, apples etc. Mother could sew clothes for her children and all she needed was an empty flour sack if that was all that was available. Father could mend his own wagons, harness, and machines. I have seen him replace a worn out bearing in the mowing machine with a chunk of pig rind and it worked for several days and then he replaced it with another. He could repair our shoes with a shoe last and some cow hide. Yes we had a two year supply and then some if it should be required.
Mother passed away suddenly at an early age (48) and Father was left with seven children at home, the youngest only seven years old. Father was crushed and never fully recovered from this great loss. For a time he could not go to the ranch and then later he would go but could stay only a short time. He said that everything there reminded him of mother. He aged rapidly and no one was able to give comfort.
I will close my account about Father with an experience that made me appreciate him even more. I had been called to serve as a Bishop over the Malad 3rd Ward. I wasn’t ready for such responsibility and felt very unworthy. I had just been sustained in Sacrament to the Ward membership and we were then going to someone’s place for dinner and a social. Dad and most of the family were in a car and they had stopped at the church to pick me up. My family were very proud of me and let it show by what they said, but Dad had not said anything. Then Vera asked him if he were also proud of me and I shall never forget his answer, “ I am proud of all my children”. I am grateful to him for his effort to never favor any one child over the other.
Hubert