I was born 1 May 1885 at St. John, Idaho, a little village five miles west of Malad City, the county seat of Oneida County.
My father and mother both came from Wales. My mother, Catherine Pierce, was born in Dinas, Glamorganshire, Wales, 26 June 1855 and emigrated to America in 1866 with her mother, Margaret Thomas Pierce, a brother Thomas, two years older than she and a sister, Margaret. My grandfather, Thomas Pierce, was an excellent horseman. He died at the age of 56 and grandmother was left to rear the family of eight children, four boys and four girls. Their names were Ann, Margaret, Mary, Catherine (my mother), Thomas, William, Edmond and John. After the death of her husband, my grandmother happened to attend a meeting of some Mormon Elders from Utah and on 28 April 1866 she was baptized and came to Utah. She joined a company of saints at Omaha, Nebraska, under the leadership of Samuel Wight. It took two months to make the trip of 1100 miles. My mother being only 11 years of age walked the entire distance arriving in Salt Lake. They visited Salt Lake City for two months with a sister of my mother, Mary Bath, who had come over two years previous and then went on to Willard, Utah, where they made a home. My grandmother found work as a midwife and later married a man named John
Edwards, as did also her daughter Margaret, in plural marriage.
My father, Henry Jones, was born in Pencader, Carmarthanshire, South Wales, 13 January 1849. His father, David Jones, died when he was quite young and his mother, Rachel Stephens Jones, found the Mormon church and emigrated to America in 1868. My father was 19 years of age at the time. He settled in Willard, Utah and worked on the railroad for several years. It was here that he met my mother and they were married in the Old Endowment House in Salt Lake City, Utah, on 27 December 1875. In 1876 he came to Malad Valley and homesteaded a farm in St. John, Idaho, where he spent the rest of his life. In the fall of 1876, my mother came from Willard, Utah, having become a mother on 23 September 1876 to a son, David Henry Jones, and life began on the farm for the three of them. There were six more children born to this union namely: Thomas, Rachel, Margaret, Mary Mae, Henry Jr., and Roslie. They were all born at St. John, Idaho.
In spite of the lack of a formal education, my father was an ardent student and during his life acquired a store of knowledge greater and more useful than the average person gets today. He held many offices in Oneida County and was elected State Senator to represent Oneida County at Boise, Idaho, in 1900. He was a careful, conservative man and gave the same attention to his official positions as he gave to his own private affairs. He farmed extensively, raising grain, hay, potatoes and apples. In connection with his farm he had a model apiary and produced much fine honey which found an anxious market and commanded gratifying prices. He kept a large band of horses and used to supply most of the farmers with such draft horses as the Clydesdale and others which netted him some fine prices. He acquired 640 acres of land, all with an independent water right. His estate was estimated between 80 and 90 thousand dollars. He did this by good management and hard labor. He died 12 September 1909 at the age of 60, at his home in St. John of Apoplexy and was buried in the St. John Cemetery. My mother died nine years later, 10 November 1918 of heart trouble and was buried in the St. John Cemetery, 13 November 1918.
When we were small, my grandmother Jones lived with us and we learned to speak the Welsh language which we spoke most of the time in our home. We all attended district school at St. John, Idaho, and the first teacher of which I have any recollection was Annie Josephson. She was a daughter of one of our neighbors and I thought a lot of her. She taught mostly in the summer months as the little ones didn’t get much attention during the winter months when all of the classes from beginners up to the fifth grade were presided over by one teacher. The small room was filled to capacity with young men 18 years of age and over. There was no place to go, only to school and everyone had large families so the one room school was filled to the door. I had such teachers as William Anthony, Thomas Nibert, David Steahedn, William Morgan, and a very nice lady teacher, Lizzie Rowland Webber. She was a niece of the late Matthew Hill Sr. I enjoyed school very much and got many prizes for spelling, etc.
When I was 17 years of age I went to Logan, Utah, and attended school for one year (1902-1903). The next year I stayed home and helped around the farm and the following year Richard N. Hill, Superintendent of Oneida County school came to our home and asked me if I would like to teach school. I took the examination and passed and Mr. Hill got a school for me over at a little place called Norton or Cedarville, about six miles west of Weston, Idaho. I went over and found a boarding place with Mr. & Mrs. Charles Burbank. They had five children namely: Clifford, Lyle, (Mrs. Jake Kern), Fred, Mark, and a baby boy about one year, named Roy. He was a blue baby and died while I stayed there. I had mixed school from beginners to the eighth grade and had about thirty pupils. I made the fires and did most of the janitor work for $50 a month, paying $15 for board and washing. I stayed there six months, it being the fall of 1905 and the spring of 1906. In the fall of 1906 I taught school at Stone, Idaho, and was paid $35 a month and my board and room. I lived with four different families during the six months of school. This was also a mixed school and we had a stove in the middle of the one log room and the pipe used to fall down occasionally. I did most of the janitor work and had a boy help bring in the wood and make the fires. I paid him $4 a month. The snow was deep and I had to walk to school which was ¾ of a mile but I didn’t seem to think it was hard. In the fall of 1907, I taught school at St. John, Idaho, and it was much easier as I only had to teach the first four grades and still got paid $50 and boarded at home. I used to walk to school most of the time and had to get there early to see about the fires and get things in order. School got out in April 1908 and I was married 10 June 1908 to Archibald Harris, from Cherry Creek, Idaho, in the Salt Lake Temple at Salt Lake City, Utah. We bought a farm north of St. John at Elkhorn from John L. Jones and we paid $4,000 for 160 acres. We moved there the latter part of June and that winter I taught a mixed school again at Cherry Creek, Idaho. I was paid $50 a month and we lived that winter in Grandpa Harris’ shanty and the following spring moved back to the ranch. Arch did the farming and I raised our first garden.
A baby girl was born to us 28 October 1909 and Dr. Ray was in attendance. Mrs. David H. Jones took care of us. We named her Millie May after a sister of my husband’s who had died the summer before. We continued to live on the ranch and a second daughter arrived 26 May 1911. She was named Orpha. Dr. D.C. Ray was the physician and Mary Smith came to take care of us. Another daughter was born 29 August 1931 and we named her Catherine. The same doctor attended and Mrs. Elizabeth Hutchison, a nurse, came to care for us. Catherine (Katie) was smaller than the other two and had auburn hair.
My husband (Arch) and I worked very hard. He did the farming and I cooked and sewed and took care of our family. I cooked for header men and it seems as though we always had a hired man. We made our own clothes in that day, our own soap, butter, bread, and in fact , everything was done by our own efforts. It was a hard row to hoe in comparison to what the women of today have. I did washing on the board and got a hand washer after Orpha was born in 1911. I thought it was an automatic in comparison to rubbing on the board. I did all the sewing and made knit stockings for all of my family. We were able to buy them at the stores later on. When we had plenty of milk I made a few cheeses which tasted very good. I learned how to make them from my mother. We were certainly self supporting.
We didn’t have any money the first summer we were married so we borrowed $50 and that did us all summer until I went to teach school at Cherry Creek where I made $300 in six months. Arch needed a wagon box and remember paying $22 for one out of my school wages.
In the fall of 1916 when Millie was seven years old, we built a home on the property I inherited from my father’s estate in St. John, Idaho. It was two rooms of frame structure 16×32 ft. In 1919 after the death of my mother and the estate was divided we built on to the house making in all three bedrooms, a living room, kitchen and bathroom. The house was built by Don Noble, Dave Nielsen and Dan Weeks.
We milked cows and eventually got a cream separator and sold cream at the local market. It helped supply the family with many needed items. We also had 100 hens which helped defray the expenses. In 1919 we sold wheat for as low as 29 cents a bushel.
After building onto our house, three more daughters were born to us. Rula was born 5 April 1920, Dr. Mauer of Ogden was in attendance. He was here during the flu epidemic. Della Vaughan was our hired girl. Mazie was born 23 January 1925, Dr. Kerns was the physician and Mrs. Aarn was the hired girl. Bonnie Rae was born 5 April 1931 at Mrs. Hamblin’s home in Malad, Idaho. Dr. Kerns was in attendance and Mrs. Aarn helped me again. I was 46 years old when Bonnie was born.
Our oldest daughter went on a mission in November 1930 to the Central States for two years and while she was there the country went into a terrible depression. She arrived home in December 1932.
Arch was put in as Bishop of the St. John ward, 16 June 1918 and held that position until 24 February 1929. I was secretary of the Relief Society for 10 years and was President of that same organization from April 1929 to July 1935.
Our girls are all married now and Arch and I are just where we started from. Millie was married to Sherwood Kubisch and had one son, Steven. Sherwood Kubisch died 29 July 1959. Millie married Clyde Courtney in 1961 and is now living in Bountiful, Utah.
Orpha married Percival Edgar Hall, 10 November 1937 and lives in Mountain Home, Idaho. They have two sons, Stanton Harris Hall, who married Sharon Price of Richfield, Washington on 30 June 1962 and another son, Richard Edgar Hall.
Katie married Theras Evans Lewis on 3 December 1934. They live next door to us in St. John, Idaho. They have a son, Gordon Theras, who married Kathleen Crane of Payson, Utah, 10 July 1964. They also have a daughter Mary LaRee Lewis.
Rula married Keith Edward Evans on 27 July 1939 and they live in Malad, Idaho. They have a son, William Keith Evans, who married Sharen Lee Nieland of Bonners Ferry, Idaho. They also have a daughter, Tamara Lee Evans who married Robert Leiser.
Mazie married Cordell Williams on 10 October 1944 and they live at Cherry Creek, Idaho. They have six children: Dainne, Cristine, Lewis, Arch, Trudy, and Kathleen.
Bonnie married Wendall H. Giles on 21 December 1951 and they live in Bountiful, Utah. They have two daughters, Wendy Rae and Christie Ann.
I was in the hospital at Malad during the month of February 1960 with a heart condition and it was with the good care of the two doctors, Drs. J. F. and Orson H. Mabey and the power of the priesthood that my life was preserved.
March 1965 –after 57 years of wedded life, my husband and I are still living in our same home in St. John, Idaho.