…. By Jennie V. Johnson Harding
I was born on the 7 day of July 1908, in Taber, Alberta, Canada, in a little small house in the northern part of Taber. I was born on my Uncle Ted Francis’s birthday. And a few years later my cousin, Harold Russell was born on the same date, then many, many years later my Grandson, Richard Taylor was born on that same date. So Uncle Ted says that is a famous day. Uncle John Henry Russell left for his mission that same night. His Mother attended my Mother at the time of my birth. My mother almost lost her life, and I was almost strangled to death, because the chord had wrapped around my neck. After I was born and revived and my Mother was out of danger, I guess my Father was very much relieved.
When I was blessed, I learned that my Father carried me up to be blessed under his arm like a sack of potatoes, and my mother was very amused.
My parents and I lived in this little house, happily for another year and one-half. At this time my father was called to go on a mission in West Virginia. My Mother took me and moved in with her parents, while my Father was away. Aunt Josephine and her little girl, Norma were already living with them while her husband was away on a mission. She worked in a store while my Mother took in sewing. My Father paid his own expenses on his mission. He had saved up quite a bit of money and he had also sold his property before he left. He also purchased a piece of land in Mapleton, Utah.
I can’t remember much of my life at this time, but I have been told about several things that I did. I wasn’t too proud of these things, but I guess they were part of my life. Uncle Ted tells me that one time Norma and I were playing with the water hose and he tried to take it away from us and we turned the hose on him and so he got all wet before he got it away from us.
Aunt Emma Peterson said that one time my Mother was out to her place visiting with them and all us children were dressed in our Sunday best clothes. Francis and I found an old can of rusty grease that we rubbed all over us. So when our Mothers found us we were quite a mess. We just didn’t stop at rubbing grease in our nice clothing, but in our hair as well.
My Grandfather Francis used to have a lot of horses, and he had one big stallion that I was very much afraid of. I called him “The Stompy Horse.” (I guess because he was always stomping, and snorting, and he seemed so big and powerful.) I would never go out in the yard if the horses were let out. I always checked carefully before I went out. One day I asked Grandpa if he was going to turn the horses out soon and he said no. I wanted to go out with Grandma to feed the chickens and gather the eggs, so I went out with Grandma, and while we were in the chicken coop, I heard a terrible racket. When I looked out, Grandpa had let the horses out, and they all came out snorting and stomping and rolling and kicking up their heels. It was very frightening to me, because I didn’t know how we were going to get back into the house, and Grandpa was laughing. I thought he had pulled a dirty trick on me, and I was mad at him. So after he had driven the horses back in the barn, Grandma gave me the buggy whip and told me to go and give Grandpa a whipping. So I went over by the well and whipped him as hard as I could. He jumped and yelled and did some fancy dancing and the first thing I knew I was laughing at his funny antics.
I remember I was complaining that my tummy hurt, and so Grandma got out some castor oil, and tried to get me to take some, but I wouldn’t. So she put this dish up in the cupboard that had the castor oil in and told me not to touch it. When she left I kept wondering about this stuff. Was it good? What did it taste like? Why didn’t she want me to touch it? So my curiosity got the best of me and I just had to know, so I got the dish and took it all down before I realized how nasty it was.
I must have been a real smart-alec kid, and it is almost embarrassing to me to know that I was so eager and anxious to perform before everyone. My Mother said I would stand up on a chair and sing and recite as long as people would listen. In fact some people would pay money to me to get me to do it. Probably my Mother thought it was cute.
When my Father finished his mission about two years later, my Mother and I went down to Salt Lake City on the train to meet him. It took at least 3 days to go on the train then, but we were going down to meet my Father, after such a long absence. It must have been a wonderful reunion. We went down to Mapleton, Utah, and I understand we stayed with my Fathers parents until we could get a place to live in. I can remember some of it, because I remember going to my Grandparents home, and we moved into a red brick house just down the road from my Grandparents home. Now this red Brick house belonged to my Uncle Hugh and Aunt Margaret. They let us live in the big front room for a year. During that time my Father started building our home on our place, I used to love to go there and play around in the house as my Father worked. I also played with my cousin Lois Johnson. They lived right by Grandpa and Grandma Johnson. There was another little girl I played with. She lived right across the road, and her name was Lucy LeRoy. I had a lot of fun with her, they had such a big house with huge pine trees in their front yard.
One time Lois’s Mother gave her a wonderful birthday party. There were so many exciting things to eat.
We moved into our new home by the time I was 4 years old. My Mother put lace curtains on the windows and we had a beautiful rug on our living room floor, and nice furniture and brass beds. My Mother was a wonderful housekeeper and a marvelous cook.
My Mother had a little baby boy who was still born. This baby was born October 1, 1912. It seemed awful to me to see that sweet little baby lying there so still and cold and we were very saddened.
We did enjoy our new home and soon my parents planted many things around it. Trees, lawn, flowers, roses, gooseberry bushes, raspberries, currants, and fruit trees of all kinds. We had a big orchard with apple, cherry, pear peach, plum and all kinds of fruit trees. We had a big porch with banisters on the sides and as I grew older I used to run and leap over them onto the ground. We had a cement sidewalk that went all around our house out to a cistern my Dad made in the back yard. The cistern was so neat because you would turn a crank and a chain would go around that had little cups on it and the full cups would come up and empty as they tipped toward the spout. Then the empty cups would go down again and fill up while the full ones would come up and empty. In later years my Father built a washhouse right by the cistern. There my Mother would do her washing and canning. She had a stove out there and table and there was a cellar underneath the washhouse where we kept all our vegetables and winter apples.
My parents took me to a circus in Provo one time, and I am told that an ice cream man came around and wanted to sell me an ice cream cone but my Mother said, “No.” But this man was not to be outdone, so he whispered in my ear and said, “Cry for it.” So I did and I got it. I think I must have used this method quite a bit in my lifetime.
My Mother was going to have another baby and she was so worried and homesick for her Parents that my Father decided that we would all go to Canada for the winter. On December 15, 1914, my brother Leo Frank was born. My Mother was very sick and my Father was very worried about her. Grandpa Francis was teaching me a song. It was, “Oh dear Doctor my son John. He went to bed with his britches on, one shoe off and the other shoe on, O dear Doctor my son John.” I went about singing this song until my Father said in exasperation, “If you sing that song again, I will give you a spanking.” Grandpa whispered in my ear and said, “Sing it again.” So I did and I got into a lot of trouble because of that. I don’t think Grandpa thought I would really get a spanking, he was very sorry but I didn’t know if I should ever trust him again or not. He was a lot of fun and I sure loved him.
My Mother was sick most of the winter and I suppose my Father had his mind on her most of the time. One time as he was going to a meeting in the buggy and I was sitting in the back I fell out and he went on without me. So when I came in the meeting crying he was very surprised because he had never missed me.
I made friends while we were in Canada that winter. They were the Hammer girls, Norah and Mata. They were wonderful friends and I remembered them when I came to Canada in 1927. Mata had polio when she was a young girl and so Norah pushed her around in a kind of baby buggy. They had a real little playhouse where we had play dinners and they had a neat swing with two seats on either side that you could sit in and rock back and forth. We used to spend many happy hours playing there.
Grandma Francis had a big folding bed that I thought was so neat. In the daytime when it was made up it was a lovely piece of furniture, but at night you could let it down into a comfortable bed.
In the early spring we took our new baby and went back to Utah. That next fall I started to go to school. I liked school very much. One day my Aunt Margaret came with her little boys to visit my Mother. I knew they would be doing exciting things. They were going to Spanish Fork and I wanted to go because I knew they would be buying candy and I wanted to go so badly. My Mother said I must go to school. I started out reluctantly so she got a little switch and helped me out. I walked along until I saw my Mother go back home then I walked along slowly. When I passed Harmers I noticed their little girl outside playing house, so I went in and played with her all afternoon. I didn’t dare go home that night so I circled around through the field and came up behind the barn. I crawled up on the chicken coop and I could hear my Mother telling my Father how worried she was about me. He came out to do the chores and discovered me so he pulled me down and took me to the barn and went to the house to get the razor strap and gave me the worst spanking I ever had. I was very broken hearted but I learned a good lesson. Before I went to bed that night, Aunt Margaret brought out a big sack of chocolate bars and let me choose one. It was sure wonderful to have Aunt Margaret come to see us.
The irrigation ditch ran right by our house full of mountain water. It was the most wonderful place to play. Big tall, beautiful trees grew by the stream, grass grew on the banks of the stream and moss in the top of the ditch, and it had little waterfalls and pools that looked deep. I used to spend so many pleasant hours playing there dreaming my dreams and in my vivid imagination I used to pretend that was a great big stream. It was always shady there and cool. When I was a little older I used to read by that stream, do my fancy work or crochet, the sounds of the water trickling along, the rustle of the tree leaves, and the birds singing. Oh to go back to my childhood and to feel as I did then. As I go back there year after year and view these places. The little ditch is not there anymore; it has been replaced with something more modern. The trees are mostly gone, the one big tree that I favored so much, and climbed in and had my little secret places in it. It was all so much a part of me. Our house still stands but it has been changed and remodeled and the orchard has been taken out but you can still tell it is our home where we were so happy with our Parents.
My Father purchased some homestead land, along with his father and brothers, on top of a mountain, up in Spanish Fork Canyon, just above Thistle. We used to go up there and stay for a week at a time. My father built a little one-room cabin. We cleared the land of sagebrush and willows so we could plant crops of grain, hay and potatoes, and we ran cattle and horses also. Then during the summer the men would cut cedar trees for fence posts and sell them. There was a big precipice at the end of our farm and I used to walk down there, looking down into the Spanish Fork River and the road and the railway running alongside of it. Sometimes when there was a lot of run-off there would be a waterfall over the cliffs. I thought it was such a beautiful sight. The wood ticks were plentiful, as well as rattle snakes. One time I found as many as five wood ticks in my navel. It sure was a creepy feeling.
When I was quite young my father would go to Billy’s Mountain a lot and leave us home alone. My Mother used to do the milking when my Father was away. One night she had just come in from milking the cow and was at the stove to build a fire for the preparation of supper when she heard the cat meow for some milk. She had taken the lid off the stove and she left it to take the cat some milk. As she was coming back she had just stepped in the kitchen when all of a sudden our house was struck by lightning. It came down through the roof making a big ugly hole in the ceiling. I was in the other room rocking the baby. It made a terrible noise. We were all terribly frightened. My Mother said a ball of fire circled the room several times and then went out the door. She came and got the baby and we knelt down and my Mother thanked our Heavenly Father for his protecting care. I remember how safe I felt when my Mother prayed. We couldn’t sleep very well that night because of the terrible scare.
We used to often visit my Mothers Uncle Joseph Francis and Aunt Annie in Lake Shore, Utah. They lived near Utah Lake and we used to have many good times down there. My Father used to say, “Well, lets go down to Lake Shore and hear Uncle Joe laugh.” And that’s just what he did because he really was a jolly man. When he laughed it was a real belly laugh and just made a person feel good all over. (Some of his children have the same kind of laugh) Aunt Ann used to cook marvelous meals and since they had such a big family with most of them married, with children, we children always had to wait for the second table. We would be so hungry and most of the time all the good things were gone, like gravy and dressing, but it still tasted good because we were so hungry. It was a lot of fun to play with the children. After dinner sometime, Uncle Joe would take me by the hand and take me across the street to his store. He would get behind the candy counter and say, “Now Jennie what will you have?” I would pick out the kind of candy I liked and he would put it in a sack. I felt so important.
One time we were down there on a picnic, by the lakeshore. After the picnic, my parents, along with some of the other parents went out on the lake in a boat. The women all had their nice hats on. After they had gone, Gem Rose and I got into an empty boat at the shore. Wendel Francis came along and pushed us out on the lake and so we kept floating farther out on the lake. We were frightened and of course crying. Our parents discovered us so they rowed over to us. My Father got me and put me on my mothers lap and one of the men got in the boat with Gem to row it back to shore. My Father sat down quick on one side of the boat and it started to tip so he jumped to the other side and it went right on over. We all got a nice ducking at the bottom of the lake. I remember my Mother kept hold of me but I went down with my mouth wide open and I thought I swallowed half of the lake. Anyway, we weren’t too far from shore, so there was no serious accident. But as we got out of the lake we looked back and there floating away on the lake was all the ladies lovely hats.
On the 28 of May, 1916 my little sister Myrle was born and I was thrilled and happy to see her. I had wanted a sister so badly. When I looked down at this little baby, I knew my prayers had been answered because I had prayed that I would have a sister. Mother was happy and I knew my Father was too.
My playmates at this time were Fred Murry, Nelda and Marie Jensen and Stella Hatfield. Stella was older than I. I think I liked to play with Fred best because he liked to do the things I liked to do. I guess I was a tomboy because I lived to climb trees, jump from the hay loft, run fast and leap over the banister of our porch onto the ground and I think I got to be quite expert at this. (I went to Fred Murry’s funeral and when I was introduced to the family, I told them my name used to be Jennie Johnson. One little granddaughter spoke up and said you must be the Jennie Johnson he mentioned in his history.)
Stella had some brothers, one by the name of George. He was deaf and dumb and it was hard for him to make himself understood. He sometimes talked by sign language and he could write what he wanted. He could only squawk out hideous sounds and he used to go quite crazy at times. For many of those times the Hatfields used to come over to our place to get my father to help calm him down. I used to be so afraid because sometimes he had dangerous weapons. Once he chased me home with a pitchfork.
One night when my father was not home, we heard him coming because he was making those awful noises. My Mother had locked the doors but we were still afraid, so we all knelt in prayer. My Mother prayed for a long time asking the Lord to bless George and calm him down so he would go home. She really prayed for our protection. He finally did calm down and went home. We had a hard time to going to sleep that night but we were so thankful that George had left. My Mother always remembered to get us on our knees and to thank our Heavenly Father for the blessing.
When I was 8 years old, my Mother bought me a nice dress; it was white and all eyelet lace. I thought it was really elegant. Also she bought me an expansion bracelet and a locket. Then she curled my hair and put a pretty ribbon in it and then we had our picture taken – my brother Leo and I. I suppose the big occasion was my baptism because about this time I was baptized in Hobble Creek. About the most I can remember was that I was so scared to get in that creek but I also did realize it was a very special time. On the 6 of August, 1916 I was baptized.
My parents had our home dedicated. I do not remember this too well, but we sure loved our new home.
Leo and I were playing one day while our parents had gone to Springville. We crawled in a two-compartment wardrobe that we had. I put Leo in one side and told him to latch the door when I got in. Then we were locked in these small compartments and I realized I could do nothing about unlocking it. We were soon going to suffocate so I tried to tell Leo what to do but he got so panicky that all he would do was scream. So I started screaming too. Fortunately a neighbor was passing by and they came to our aid. Our Parents were sure out of patience with us for doing such a dumb thing but I think they were also grateful too that we were found by the neighbor.
I went to Eureka one time with my Mothers Aunt Hannah and her daughters, Stella and Ruby, and I stayed for a week. I had a wonderful time. I went to shows and they bought candy and gum and taught me how to properly chew gum. They were so good to me. I made friends with a nice little girl and she had so many wonderful toys. I had never seen so many toys in all my life but I did get very homesick so one day they put me on the train and told the conductor to take good care of me and sent me to Springville. I felt very important going up those streets all alone to find my Uncle Wayne’s place. I bounced my ball all the way there. Aunt Ann thought I was very brave. Uncle Wayne hitched up their fancy surrey and took me to Mapleton. I was so happy to see my dear family again.
I used to always help my Father in the hay each summer. He had a lot of hay to put up each year and it seemed to me like we put up hay all summer long. We had a 10-acre piece of land close to our home and we used to get 4 cuttings off it, so it kept me tromping hay all summer long. We had a good friend, Willy Snow that gave us an open invitation to go in his peach orchard anytime and get a hat full of peaches to eat on the way home. My father nearly always raised a lot of watermelon and cantaloupe each summer and we would feast on them on the shady side of the haystack. When Grandpa and Grandma Francis came to visit us, Grandpa used to go with us and get on the load and tromp. He was so heavy he could make quite a dent in the hay so I didn’t have to work quite so hard.
We often had time to take fishing trips up in the different canyons and many times we stayed overnight. That was so wonderful to camp out under the stars at night to be able to hear the trickle and murmur of the brook all night long and hear the horses as they chewed their hay and stomped around. I loved this more than anything else we ever did. My Father loved these fishing trips and the fish and all the food tasted so good. My Mother loved it too. She would put the baby in a box and she would read or do some kind of sewing or fancy work. It seemed like they were peaceful, lovely times. One day as I stood by the stream, I saw a beautiful flower float by in the water. I wanted to reach it so I grabbed hold of a limb and leaned out. Before I realized it there was a big long snake on the branch and I had hold of it. I let go of it right now and went plop into the water. My Mother thought I was sure clumsy.
We had wonderful Christmas’s at our home. My father loved to play Santa Claus. He was always the town Santa Claus and he enjoyed this so much. Then he always found a suitable time to visit his own family. He always sounded so jolly and real, and Santa used to play such tricks. One time he hung his stocking (and I hadn’t noticed but there was a big hole in the toe.) The next morning all the goodies for the stocking were on the floor and the stocking was empty. One time my mother couldn’t find any knives and forks and later we found them all in my Dads stocking. No one would ever know what they would find on Christmas morning.
My father loved to make furniture for us kids. One year he made a beautiful desk for me and a table with a drawer in it and a lovely upholstered chair for my little sister Myrle. One year I was sure I heard Santa coming with his reindeer. I heard him say woe to the reindeer as I heard him repeat all the reindeer’s names. I heard him stomp in the house and the rattling of sacks as he filled the stockings and I heard him say “Ho, Ho,” and leave. I heard him as he got in his sleigh and spoke to his reindeer and the bells jingling and the pawing of each little hoof. I heard him exclaim as he drove out of sight, “Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!” My Dad was out doing the early morning chores when this happened. I was so sure it was Santa himself that later that day I went out to look in the snow and sure enough there were sleigh marks, and little reindeer hoof marks, so didn’t I see and hear?
On the 12 of April 1918 Grandfather Francis died. My mother took Leo and Myrle and went to Canada. She stayed for about a month and we got so lonely without her and the children. My Father was taking the lead part in one of Grandpa Johnson’s plays and it was required of him that he had to make love to the beautiful heroine in the play. I was so upset by it, that I thought he was falling in love with her really. So I wrote to my mother and told her that her husband was falling in love with someone else. That brought her right home. I’ll never forget how glad we were to see them. I loved my little sister so much, and my little brother.
My father was the leader of an orchestra. He played the clarinet and he used to travel quite a bit with the orchestra. One night mother went with him. This was after we had our new car. My Father was one of the first ones in Mapleton to get a car. We sure liked it. Well my Parents went to this dance in Salem, they also took another couple with them. When they were coming home there was a terrible blizzard and they could not see any length ahead of them. My Father asked the other man to drive while my father rode on the running board so he could direct him in the driving. When they came to the Spanish Fork River there is an immediate sharp turn and before my father saw the turn the car was already heading down the embankment straight for the river. He put his breaks on but they did not hold and they slid into a spindly tree and it held the car so that it did not go into the river. They all got out and had to wait in a hotel until morning when they got someone to pull the car out. When the children woke up the next morning and realized our Parents hadn’t come home we felt pretty forsaken.
My father loved to play the clarinet and we loved to hear him. Some of his favorite pieces were Felex Mendlessons, “Spring Song”, “Kathleen Mauvaurneen,” and he loved to sing “Asleep in the Deep.” He loved band music and was always a member of the band of the town that he lived in. He was a wonderful comedian. He gave many readings and could give them without ever cracking a smile. He took many parts in plays. He seemed to love doing this and yet off the stage he was very shy and quiet. He was also very good at mimicking other people in their dialect of talking. I can remember how he would get my mother and I to sing “Kathleen Mauvaurneen,” while he played on the clarinet. He sure liked to sing that song. When my Grandfather Johnson put that play on in Taber, that is where my parents met, for my father was the hero and my mother the heroine. No wonder they loved that song so much, because that was also the name of the play, “Kathleen Mauvaurneen.”
My mother had four years of university. She taught school for two years, she was also shy and quiet in company. She had a very strong faith; it just seemed to radiate from her. She was a beautiful seamstress, did beautiful hand embroidery and often took in sewing. She made many of the wedding dresses for the young girls of Mapleton.
In the summer of 1919, we went down into Carbon County to a little mining town called Storrs, where Uncle Hugh and his family were living. My father rented a nice tent for my mother and small children to stay in. This tent had a board floor and it was boarded up on the sides. There were little small lizards that would run around all over the tent, inside and out, and they worried me a lot. My father warned me to sleep with my mouth shut so that they wouldn’t run down my throat. I went with my father and Uncle Hugh back in the mountains. Some of the most beautiful mountains I have ever seen. We pitched our tent on the side of a mountain. (Here I would like to insert some of my writings and experiences in the Timber.)
“The sounds in the forest will always be very dear to me. In the stillness there comes the sounds of the birds singing, the chatter of the chipmunks, the flutter of the leaves on the trees, the rippling sound of the brook, the cracking of a twig. It seems that all these sounds echo through the great stillness that you are aware of. Here is the grandest place to meditate in all this splendor and beauty. Pretty flowers grow among these stalwart pines.
Now I think that they cut these trees down mainly for mine props but it may have been for lumber too. First of all I think they got the order from some company to supply the poles.
The procedure started with scouting around in the mountains for the best place to work, then they would set up camp close by. They cut these trees down with an ax, chopping on one side and then on the other side. There was a trick to felling the tree in the direction they wanted it to go. Sometimes if one is standing on the opposite that the tree is falling the trunk could jump back and hit a person, this is caused by the tree falling and hitting other trees as it falls.
There is just nothing to equal the sound of chopping on a tree in the forest as the sound echo’s through the forest and then the final splintering of the tree as it swooshes and the call of “Timber,” as it falls and crashes through the forest. Then comes a lot of work cutting all the limbs off and part of the top, making a nice big pole. One year the company my father was delivering the timber to, had requested that he peel the bark off and that really did take a lot of time.
After the tree was cut, my father usually prepared three trees, and then he secured a chain around them, hooking the chain on a single tree on the harness of a horse. It was my job to ride the horse on the drag trail, (as we called it, the poles hitched on to the horse was called a drag.) I had to be very careful that the drag didn’t get caught on a stump or a tree, and if this happened I had to back the horse, sometimes loosening it, but sometimes I had to unhitch the horse and poles and put the horse on the other end of the poles or go back to get my father to help. I was to take the drag to a clearing in the forest that we always called a “landing.” This was close to the road and this is where I lined the drag up to the other poles and left them. This is where the wagons came to load and deliver the poles to their destination, either a railway car or a mine. Sometimes it was really hard to loosen the chain from the drag or to get it out from under the poles and in the event I would hitch the end of the chain to the single tree and let the horse pull it out. Then I returned for another drag. Sometimes I had a lot of time as I waited for my Father to get the drag ready. I always had plenty to do, reading, sewing doll clothes, fancy work or crocheting, so I never was bored. In fact I loved it and this truly was a nice vacation for me. My father had to work very hard and he didn’t get much rest but I know he loved being in these great forests as we lived so close to nature, enjoying all the activities of the forest. It was definitely the kind of life I always dreamed of living.
It was about 1918 or 1919 when we first started going in the timber. My Father had gone before this with his brothers but it was about this time that we all went as a family. I remember it was about a year before my mother passed away. Uncle had been living with his family in a tenement building in a little town named Storrs, this was in Carbon County, just west a few miles from Helper and Castle Gate. This town was a booming mining town. Probably Uncle Hugh had been working in the winter months. The mine needed props, my father and Uncle Hugh became interested so they scouted around for a good place to work in the timber. My father rented a nice tent in town for my mother and small children. This tent had a wooden floor with wooden walls half way up then a tent over that and necessary living necessities. As I lay on the bunks, I could see the little lizards running around all over the tent and sometimes they would get in the tent so my father told me never to sleep with my mouth open because one of these little slimy creatures might run down my throat. You can be sure I tried hard to keep my mouth closed.
My father, Uncle Hugh and I traveled up to the forest grove on the mountain where we made a camp, pitching our tents and making a corral for the horses. This was where we lived all summer long and cooked our meals on a campfire. This was the life I loved. My father had bought a whole can of pop; we would put it in the cold springs so it would be cool. Every morning we would get up early, harness the horses and go to work. We had occasional forest fires in the area. We never knew when we might have to pack up our camp and get out.
One day we went scouting for more good groves of timber and we traveled far back into the mountains, it was the most beautiful country I had ever seen. Meadows with grass growing as high as your waist and beautiful flowers, some I had never seen before. My dreams from then on were always that I could live in that beautiful area. When we came back to our camp we saw that there had been a forest fire. It had burned all the timber that had been gathered by some other man, all his summer work gone up in smoke. Our camp was still standing and we were so grateful.
One time when we were working we noticed a forest fire close by but we were not too concerned and we went back to our work. Suddenly this terrible forest fire was upon us and as we looked, it seemed that we were almost surrounded. We did find an opening as we hurried our horses out. They were terrified and we did have to run our horse fast over an area that had been burned and was cooled somewhat, but we got safely out.
One day my Father said we needed a supply of groceries and he thought that I could go down into the town. This would leave him free to work all day. He also said I could take a big long pole down to the mine. He instructed me where to take it and then I was to get the groceries. I could also go to the ice cream parlor for a treat. I hitched this big long pole on our old gray horse; his name was “Dick.” Then I started on my way. As I went down the road leading down the mountain, there was a steep part of the road with a sharp curve ahead. I was really worried about this and I tried to keep the pole as close to the inside of the road as much as I could but as we went around the curve the pole slipped off over the side of the road and started pulling the horse down the steep incline. I was terrified. I could see a herd of goats off to one side with a herder and I called loudly for help but he didn’t seem to notice me. Finally Old Dick got a footing and he stopped sliding but here we were way off the road on a steep shale incline. I got off the horse and with great difficulty we got back on the road and I was so grateful. Then we traveled on to Storrs. I delivered the pole to the mine and got the groceries and packed them on the horse and went for my treat at the ice cream parlor. (I wonder now why I didn’t visit my Mother. She must have gone back home.)
That year I earned $30.00. My father gave it to me in silver. He had made a little box with a lid on it and he had made compartments for nickels, dimes, quarters, fifty-cent pieces and silver dollars. I felt very important. I paid my tithe and my mother persuaded me to buy a dresser and there was enough left to buy a beautiful doll.
When we were at home one night my friends all got together and had a surprise party for me. We sure had a lot of fun.
On June 28, 1919 my Mother had another baby boy. Mother wanted him named Samuel. We were all so happy with our new little baby. I slept in my Mothers room on the floor so I could hear if she wanted something in the night. My Father was sleeping in the tent outside on the morning of the 4th of July. I woke up at 3 a.m. and was listening to the cannon shots for the big celebration, when all at once my Mother screamed, “Jennie, the baby is dead!” Oh it was a terrible shock. He had died of a bad heart and it was just so hard to understand.
Next spring my Mother was expecting another baby and she was not well. She was very worried. She talked to me one day and told me many things she thought I ought to know. She told me she was afraid that she wouldn’t live through this confinement. I cried because I couldn’t bear to see her leave us. When it was time for her to have the baby she was so terribly sick and the doctors could not do anything to help her. They had sent for another doctor from Provo, a specialist. I had been thinning beets all day so I wouldn’t think too much about my poor Mother. We children went to a neighbors and I remembered how I prayed for my mother outside. Late on the 27 of May 1920 my Mother passed to her rest and peace. The baby, a girl, was still born. My father was so grief stricken he just walked up and down the road. Grandma Francis, Uncle Ted and Uncle Jack came and after the funeral, Grandma Francis wanted to take my little sister home with her but my Father couldn’t let her go and we would all have missed her so much. She was the sunshine of our lives and believe me we needed that more than ever. We started trying to get along without our mother. I had never worked in the house much with my Mother because I was always helping my Father most of the time. Aunt Alice came over and tried to teach me how to make bread and other things. We couldn’t seem to get along, so we went over to Uinta Basin and brought Grandma Johnson back with us. Grandpa followed later. (Actually I think they wanted to get back to Mapleton.) Grandma was 70 years old at that time and she was not well so it was very hard on her. She had to lie down so often so my Father built a little bunk for her to lay on in the kitchen. Grandma’s potato soup was so good. After a while the work got to be too much for her and so my Father built a home for them just the other side of our orchard. I learned to cook and keep house and do the washing and ironing etc. Myrle and Leo helped. My Father loved chocolate ice cream and we used to invite someone in to enjoy it. We went to shows often and vaudevilles in Provo.
The first winter after my Mother died, I stayed with Aunt Margaret who lived in Payson, Utah. Uncle Hugh could not be home that winter as he was working somewhere. Aunt Margaret hated to stay alone with her young children. She lived four miles from town and so we had to ride on the bus for three miles and walk one mile to get to the bus. In cold weather Aunt Margaret used to take us in the buggy and would meet us at night. I was rather shy and so it took me a long time to get acquainted. I loved to stay with my Aunt. She was so good to me and while they were very poor, she did all she could to make things pleasant for me. I’ll never forget the wonderful lunches that she made. I could hardly wait until noon so I could eat my dinner. Her bread was heavenly. It was really a rough winter for her. She would have to get up so early and make the fires, get us children up, and while we were getting ready for school she would go out and milk the cows, get the horse hitched up to the buggy and then drive us one mile to the corner, and then meet us at night. She used to drive into town once a week for groceries and it was usually on primary day because she taught a class at primary, and she could also get her family to primary also.
One day I was very sick after I got to school. I felt so desperate and alone. I didn’t know anyone I could go to, I didn’t tell my teacher so finally I walked to a ladies place that I knew was a good friend to my Aunt because she worked in the primary too and today was primary day. When I knocked on her door I was so afraid and I didn’t know what I would do if she wouldn’t help me. When she came to the door I started to cry, she was so nice she took me in, wrapped me in a warm blanket, gave me a hot water bottle and some hot soup. I thought she was so wonderful and I was so grateful. Aunt Margaret came in town that day for primary so this lady told her about me and my Aunt came for me and took me home.
One night a terrible blizzard came up after we were all in bed. The wind was so strong from the north that it blew the door in in our bedroom and the snow blew in with all the force of the wind. We were all shivering in our nightclothes, we finally got the door up again and we pulled a heavy dresser by it to hold it in place while we nailed it shut. It was nice when Uncle Hugh came home for visits once in a while. He would sing to us. He had a beautiful voice and he was so happy to see his family again. In their family they had a habit of reading from the scriptures every night. Aunt Margaret used to keep her home so nice and clean. It was such a joy to live with them. Aunt Margaret used to keep her home so nice and clean. It was such a joy to live with them. Aunt Margaret always built me up and made me feel important which was so good for me at that time. I did stay with them at different times.
The next summer we worked up on Billies Mountain some of the time. Uncle Hughs family lived up there part of the time also. I can remember sitting in our cabin and listening to the mountain lions cry. They sounded so much like a little baby crying. By this time my cousins were living in Thistle, Utah, and I used to like to stay at Uncle Willis’s and play with Lois. They lived just below Billies Mt. by the Spanish Fork River and it was so exciting to play there. We had to cross the river on just a narrow plank and then follow the railroad tracks down to Thistle. Sometimes we would crawl under trains as they were standing. It was really a dangerous place but exciting. The big attraction at my Uncles place was the player piano. I thought this was the greatest thing I had ever seen. Lois had a bedroom of her own. One time as we were playing there, we were running and I run into a pitchfork and run the tines through my foot. We had a hard time stopping the bleeding and I had a very sore foot for a while. My Father liked me to stay here and I didn’t know why.
That same summer Uncle Willis and my Father and I went up Little Diamond Canyon. We camped in a flat area at the foot of the Mountain. Each morning we rode the horses several miles up a drag trail to the timber on the mountain and often we would see fresh bear tracks in the trail, sometimes the remains of an animal, usually calves. The wild flowers grew in great abundance here of every description. I took the drags down to the landing and it was a very nerve wracking experience because of my fear of the bear. My father always had his rifle close at hand, but I had no protection as I went down the drag trail. That particular morning my Father wanted me to take the drag down farther for some reason. I was really worried when I got to the landing and had to go farther down the drag trail out of sight and sound of my Father. It took all my nerve, but I started on and I noticed soon in the trail fresh bear tracks going back the other way, probably right in front of me. I watched my horses ears thinking the minute he got nervous I would know the bear was near because their ears point. But the horse showed no signs of uneasiness. When we got to the place I should unhitch the drag I was pretty well terrified since I couldn’t look in all directions at the same time and still unhitch the drag. Just at that moment the horse switched his tail on the bushes, snorted and started moving around. Everything just went black before me. I couldn’t move. When I could get my senses back again, the horse was standing still, half asleep so I had the courage to finish my job and get back. One day we were eating our lunch at the Landing, I looked up the mountain and saw the back of an animal over the top of some bushes. I screamed to my Dad that there was a bear, he grabbed his gun and started to aim. Just then a cows head rose up over the bushes, my, what a scare. I wanted to stay in camp one day but my Father thought it was too risky.
One day I was trying to get the horse, probably old Dick to go a certain way and he just refused, he would not budge, so I went around by his head and tried to pull him with the reins, all he would do was allow his head to stretch out, he simply would not budge his feet, and finally he bunted me hard with his head. I just went flying into some bushes, then he looked down at me pointing his ears, and it seemed to me like he gave a big “Hee Haw”. He was really a pretty faithful horse.
That same year, in the fall, I went up to Billies Mountain with my father to help Aunt Margaret cook for threshers. When we were finished and ready to go home, my father was taking Uncle Willis’s team of white, beautiful horses down for him, they were named Molly and Pet. I wanted to ride Molly so bad. She was so pretty the way she pranced around, but my Father said, “No.” He said she had been running wild all summer, on the range, and she was not dependable, but I coaxed, and finally he said I could, if I would promise to ride back of the wagon. He put the saddle on her and I got on, she was prancing and stepping so high, it was hard to hold her in. Finally I thought it wouldn’t hurt to let her run alongside of the wagon. I felt myself going high into the air as she arched her back and then away she went, just a white streak across the field. I had no control, even though I pulled on the reins. I hoped that when we came to the gate that it would be closed and maybe she would stop, but it was open, so down the steep dug way we flew. I was so frightened and I had all I could do to stay in the saddle. All I could do was hang onto the horn of the saddle and pray. My Father and Aunt Margaret were praying also. It was a terribly rough ride because of the steep dug way and sharp curves, there was a long straight road for a ways and then a sharp hair pin curve. Then another sharp hair pin curve, and at this curve there was a road going into a field. I gathered up the reins and spoke to the horse, and thinking that I might guide her up into this field and get her stopped, but when we got there she must have had other ideas, because I never remembered any more because either the saddle turned or I fell off. Apparently one of my feet had caught in the stirrup, because when I came to you could see where I had been drug for quite a way, my shoe was along way down the road. When I regained consciousness, I thought I was dreaming and the mountains were a picture on the wall. I was so dazed and bruised. My hide was rubbed of me nearly all over my body, I hurt all over and I had a dreadful headache. I was a sorry girl, but I didn’t seem to have any serious injury. I took the short cut down to Thistle and so no one found me right away and my Father and Aunt Margaret were very worried. They met Uncle Willis, who had come back up the mountain on the horse as soon as it arrived at his place. When he met my Father they were more worried than ever because they thought I might have been thrown into the bushes. For a long time after that I was terrified of horses and couldn’t even watch a movie with a horse in it without shaking.
The next summer we went up Little Clear Creek Canyon, probably 30 or 40 miles up Spanish Fork Canyon, past Thistle. To get up this canyon, we had to go through the deserted town of Tucker. We camped several miles up this canyon, Uncle Willis and Family, Uncle Hugh and Family. The men made our camps very comfortable. They built a kitchen by one of our tents, with willows. We had a camp stove and our grub box was our cupboard, we had a little table and stumps for chairs. We put pine boughs under our bedding and it was almost as comfortable as springs. It was fun to take care of the camp that year. There were all kinds of berries for pies and jam and just eating fresh, that grew close around were we camped. Blueberries, raspberries, strawberries and alder berries. It was lovely that summer, living out under the pines, playing with my cousins.
One day Aunt Margaret had to ho to Soldier Summit for groceries. Soldier Summit was a little town on the top of a mountain. It was a steady incline going up for 7 miles. All trains had to have an extra engine put on to help make the grade to the top. Uncle Willis family had made plans for me to ride Molly, (the horse I had the run away down Billies Mt.) They had made preparations for it with a saw bit in her mouth, so when you pulled on the reigns it had apparatus that sawed into her tongue. They assured me it was fool proof. I was still afraid of horses so I was not looking forward to this experience. We had brought her mate along, Pet. Also we had the horses tied to the back of the buggy. When we got out on the grade going to Soldier Summit, we decided this was the place, so we got out and untied the horses and got on. As usual Molly began to prance around and was raring up, this time it didn’t give me much of a thrill because I knew what she was up to. She whirled around raring as she did and came down on Pets rump leaving a big gash. She set out on a dead run for Thistle. I held the reigns tight and it stopped her. I got her turned around and went back to the buggy. I figured that was enough and I had all I wanted of her so I got off and tied her to the buggy. (At the time I never thought of what a cruel way to govern a horse and I was sorry I had done it.) But this did help because I seemed to get over my fear of horses.
I always enjoyed going for the groceries, we always made a day of fun out of it. Lois and I went up to Soldier Summit alone one time on horses. I rode on Uncle Hughs horse named Kitten. When we got our groceries we put them in gunnysacks and tied them to the saddle. I tied a bucket of lard on the other side and some more things on the back. As we were nearing our camp the dogs all ran out to meet us, barking. One dog nipped Kittens heels and she took off. My groceries fell off and were strewn all along the way. I got her stopped and went back to pick up the groceries.
I hated to see this summer come to an end. When we were going home, Lois and I had to drive a wagon and one of the wheels broke beyond repair. Uncle Willis took a big log and stuck it kind of slanting in to rest on the running gear of the wagon, secured it and one end drug along the ground. So we drove to Thistle in that bumpy wagon. We got pretty tired of hearing the scraping, rubbing noise it made. We had to go very slow so we traveled most of the night and we had a good discussion about the Three Nephites. Some of the stories we knew were a bit scary but it was an interesting subject.
That winter was quite uneventful. It seemed I could keep up with all the work at home. It was a pleasant winter because Myrle and Leo helped with the housework. I would put my little sister on the table and we would sing as I mopped the floor. My father bought some mew linoleum for the kitchen and I got to pick it out. I remember that it was a pretty blue checkered and it was so much fun to keep it clean. In the evening we read books together or went to picture shows and vaudeville in Provo. We really enjoyed this. My Father would usually invite someone to go with us. He was always thinking of the poor and lonely and was always helping someone. We made chocolate ice cream often, usually my Father made it because he loved it and we would either take it and go visit someone so we could share it or we would invite someone in. (Since I got older I never have liked chocolate ice cream.) In the evening as we were going to bed we all crowded into my Fathers bed for stories. I would lay on the foot of the bed. He would tell us the most interesting stories about animals mostly. He gave them names and made families for them. Those stories were so good and interesting. I guess that’s why I love animal stories so well. (If these stories could have been written down I am sure they would have become famous.)
Those were good times and we needed this because we were so sad and alone without our Mother. We had a family picture taken about this time and none of us smiled, we all looked so sad. I guess that’s how we felt. Our neighbors and relatives were very good to us inviting us to meals sometimes. My Aunt Toss invited us often to Sunday dinner and she had 14 children all boys except Bessie, her older sister and Mozelle the baby. Bessie used to make dresses for Myrle and I.
One incident happened in the summer time when we were putting up hay. We were out in the middle of the field. I was on the load tromping and my Father was pitching the hay on to the wagon. All at once he threw down his pitchfork and said, “Let’s go fishing.” So right there he unhitched the horses and left the wagon standing right in the middle of the field, put the horses away and we did go fishing. I thought this was much better than tromping hay.
When we were on our way to Billies Mt., which was many, many times, it usually was an all day journey. We had a halfway mark by a little stream and a slough that we called Cold Springs. We would have dinner there and could gather some watercress to put on our sandwiches. We unhitched the horses, gave them a drink and let them do some grazing. Those were wonderful trips to me. I always had something exciting to do and this gave me a chance to sew some more on my doll clothes or do fancy work, crocheting or reading. Then another place along the way was a very big resort and swimming place called Costella. There were hot springs at this place and inside swimming facilities and a big dance hall and little cabins. (One time I went with my Beehive class to this resort. We had a wonderful time. That is where I learned to swim, a bit, and dive and float.) Then we would come to Thistle, and then the last lap of our journey was going up the steep dug-way to our beloved Billies Mt. As we started up the mountain of red and yellow earth, with cedar trees here and there, and the sturdy oak tree with the acorns on it, and sagebrush, where could you find more beauty? (And when I look at it now I am older, I wonder shy I thought it was so beautiful. I have never heard anyone that didn’t live there say it was beautiful, but it certainly had a magical spell on those that did live there. Aunt Margaret called it “He Paradise Lost.” Many of us have called it “Our Shangi-la., but it eventually was bought by Robert Redford, and maybe he still owns it.
When we were coning down from Billies Mountain, it was so steep that my Father nearly always tied a tree to our wagon to keep it from running away. I must tell you about the mud, it was more like clay and the mud must have had glue mixed in it, because you couldn’t even scrape it off your boots. (I am sure it would have been just the thing for making bricks.) One day after it had rained, I put my boots on and got a pan of oats so I could catch Gladys, Grandpa Johnson’s horse. As I walked along in this mud more glue like mud would stick to my boots until it got to be quite an effort to lift my legs and certainly I had to go slow. I guess if it hadn’t been for the oats, I never would have caught the horse of course she was pretty greedy for the oats. Now that I had caught her I couldn’t get on her because I couldn’t lift my legs up. I led her in a deep ditch then all I had to do was slide over onto her back. When she looked around and saw those big heavy boots of mine, she began to buck like crazy. She couldn’t get rid of me because my big heavy boots held my firmly in place. She soon gave up and I rode her up to the barnyard.
In the year of 1923 my Father took on the project of being foreman of the construction of building a trestle over a gorge in a place near Sunny Side, Utah. This was a new mining area that was being built up and as yet, there was not much of a town there. Most everyone lived in tents; it was mostly a desert country and very hot. My Father put up our tents, and I was looking forward to fixing my tent up and a big snake crawled out from under my bed. I just would not sleep in that tent. There were so many rattlesnakes, that we had to be very careful. I made many friends and enjoyed keeping company with them. There was a girl my age who was by best friend. She had funny arms with an extra joint in them. Everyone called them turkey wings. I felt so sorry for her. I took care of the camp, cooked the meals, took care of my brother and sister and ordered the groceries. We had a delivery wagon call on us every morning for groceries from Sunny Side. Our water was piped in and we would go down with a bucket and carry the water home. There was also a place where we could get our mail or post our letters. My cousin Lois and I made paper hats all summer of every color and style you could imagine. We kept very busy. We also went into Sunny Side for shows. I always seemed to be getting into trouble with my cousin Lois, so my Father decided to send me up to Aunt Margaret and Uncle Hughs family. They were up in big Clear Creek, Garfield county, this summer so he took me up to Aunt Alices place in Castle Gate where I stayed overnight and the next morning I got up early to catch the train. When I got to Coalhurst I had to wait quite awhile for another train and so when it came, it was a freight train with one passenger car on it. It traveled very slow and in every town we came to it switched back and forth, leaving cars and picking up more. I never was so tired out in all my life before. When we reached Clear Creek it was raining and getting near evening. I didn’t have a coat and no money. I had a dreadful headache and I was hungry and I felt forlorn. My Father had given me instructions to find a Mr. Chris Houtz and ask him where my uncle was located. I inquired where he lived. I had to walk up a big flight of stairs to get to his place and by this time I was soaking wet. I knocked on the door and his wife answered. (I was just about in tears.) I told her my plight and she said, “Well my husband isn’t home and I don’t know when he will come and I am entertaining friends.” I knew she didn’t want me but I didn’t know what to do. I asked her if I might stay until her husband came home. She reluctantly said she guessed I could. She made me sit by the door and never offered to help me get dried out. It was getting dark and I knew she would not want me to stay there that night. I looked out on the road and I saw a wagon going by. The man looked like Uncle Hugh so I ran out quick but I couldn’t catch him. I followed him up a canyon and then when he turned around I could see he wasn’t Uncle Hugh so I went back. I didn’t dare go back to Mrs. Houtz place so I wandered around in the rain. I walked up the road by the tracks where I knew and no one seemed to care about me. It had a stopped raining, so I went back to the store and just when I was sure I was the loneliest girl in all the world. I saw aunt Margaret and her boys come into the store. I have never been so glad to see anyone in all my life. She was so mad at Mrs. Houtz for not being nice to me. She bought me something to eat and an Eskimo pie, that was the first time I had ever tasted one, and it all tasted so good. it is a bar of ice cream covered with chocolate. By now I had forgotten my troubles. I felt happy and secure. We went up the canyon to their camp, which wasn’t very far. I enjoyed the rest of the summer in this beautiful canyon. Aunt Margaret curled my hair every day and we always went to the store every day and it rained every day.
In the wintertime I used to visit Grandma Johnson pretty often. She told me so many good stories and I enjoyed being with her. I wish I could remember those stories or better still that I had written them down. I used to visit Grandpa in his little hide – away in the orchard. I used to spend many beautiful hours with him also.
I learned many valuable things from my Father. He tried to live a righteous life of honest and keeping the Lords commandments. His example for me was nearly perfect. His life was mostly spent in “doing good for others.” He set patterns for me that I will never forget, in teaching me the things that were best for me. I loved him very dearly, but he missed my mother so much. I think he was very discouraged sometimes. He was not very happy and I noticed this more than ever this winter. I learned many wonderful things about my Mother too. I knew that she loved Jesus Christ so deeply and how much she wanted her children to be well grounded in the beloved Gospel. We had wonderful parents and I knew it. One thing I would like to say in my history as I look back on my early life with my Parents and brother and sister, it seemed so short and so long ago, but it is still very real to me. The great love that we had and the fun and pleasant things we did and how much our dear parents desired we children should grow up and love the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They taught us many powerful and important lessons in the short time they had with us. I had no doubt in my mind what they desired to have us do. We always had family prayers and since my Father had to be away so much of the time, I loved to hear my Mother pray. Something she did often. I remember when the lightning struck our home, how terrifying it was and my Mother immediately gathered us together and knelt in prayer. While she prayed the fear gradually left me and I felt safe and secure again.
In the last remaining years of my Fathers life I suspect I was one of the reasons he had so many worries. I was spoiled there is no doubt. My Father always gave me whatever I wanted; I just had to do a little coaxing. I knew he loved me. At the age of 16 he would hold me on his lap and call me “Little Jennie”(One time my cousin Lois said to me, “Jennie, when are you ever going to grow up and quit making doll dresses and start thinking of the boys?”) Well I didn’t think too much of that because I dearly loved to make doll dresses.
My Father was very definite that we children should never play with face cards and to always remember to keep “The Word of Wisdom.” He tried hard to guide me in hood reading but he was wise to let it be my choice. I never forgot the powerful lesson I learned when I got started reading the “True Story” magazine. When we were going to the show one night I asked him if I could have a quarter, he always gave it to me willingly, so when we got home he asked me what I had bought with the money. I showed him. He just looked crestfallen and I did feel bad. He said before he went to bed that he would like me to burn it but I just couldn’t do it. I thought I had to read it first so I got into bed and started reading but every time I would look at the page I couldn’t see it for my Fathers sad face. I got up and stuck it in the stove and vowed within myself to never read a magazine like that again. It was more pleasant to me as we all read together as a family in our beautiful living room.
I want to insert another part of my life here. This happened more after my Mother died. I guess so much of my life was spent in the mountains, away from my friends, and maybe Mothers death, but I became quite anti – social. I was very shy and becoming a teenager. For a short period I didn’t want friends. I hated everyone. That was the darkest period on my life. Thank goodness I didn’t stay in that period very long because it was natural for me to have many lovely friends. Aunt Margaret always built me up so much and made me feel so good about myself, Aunt Ella also. I was always welcome to go there and she treated me like one of the family. That was my home for many years. I had many blessings in my growing up years.
The next summer my Father seemed so sad and despondent. He decided to stay home from the timberwork this summer. He worked on the farm all summer, later in the summer he longed to be up in the mountains again. That year I had a very infectious ear. It would ache and then gather and break and discharge a pussy fluid. All summer long I suffered with this so I had to be very careful and not catch cold. It just never seemed to let up. My Father finally decided that he would take a trip to Fairview, San Pete County, and go up in the mountains where uncle Hugh and Uncle Elmer and families were. It was so nice up there I hated to go back home so my Father left me there. I stayed with Aunt Margaret and had many happy and wonderful experiences. I met a gypsy girl and make friends with her. She had a couple of older brothers and they sure kept and eagle eye on her. They were most protective. We met a nice sheepherder that had all theses thoroughbred horses. He let us borrow them and every day we went horseback riding all over these beautiful mountains. Sometimes he would go with us. We were always together, the gypsy girl and I. She took me to her camp one day and it was most interesting. Some of the tents were simple elegant with beautiful Persian rugs and many sparkling and flashy things. Most of them wore lots of cheap jewelry. They traveled from place to place in wagons. My friend borrowed all my jewelry and all that she could get and that night the camp pulled out so I lost my friend and also my precious stuff.
There were two dairies up there, one was run by an older couple and their family and the other was just young kids. They wee taking care of their parents’ cows and milking them so they could sell the milk and cream. We got milk from the first dairy and we would put it in the cold spring to keep it nice and cold. They also put on rodeos at these dairies and we used to attend.
By this time I was acquainted with all the other young kids from the other dairy and they would come over every day and take me gorse – back riding. I seemed to fall for one of the boys, Sylvan Peterson, and he was my first boy friend. He was a very nice person and whenever he went into Fairview to deliver his milk or cream he invited me to go with him. So I got to meet his family. He was an orphan, but he was living with his brother. They were sure a fun family. Over at the dairy they built a little milk house over the cold stream so it kept the milk and cream nice and cold. Sylvan milked 30 cows night and morning with the help of his brother. They kept pretty busy. In the evening we would all gather around the camp fire and have a lot of fun. The kids had built a big swing that they called the “Balsam Spider.” The way it worked was, they erected a big pole into a place so the pole would be able to be free to be pivoted with a big slab at the top, much like a cross, only at each end of the slab, swings were attached, two people would get in the swings then a couple of kids in the center would posh on something and it would make the pole go around. The ones on the swings would fly out higher and higher until they were going up over the tops of the big pines and up above the camp fire. It was a thrilling ride you can be sure. Aunt Margaret always encouraged me to have a nice time. She said they were all good kids. That summer ended too soon.
In January 1925 my Father became very ill, he was sick a long time before he finally gave in and went to bed. He had been cutting trees down and sawing them up for firewood. Uncle Lewis came and did his chores and aunt Alice came and nursed him. He was seriously sick with double pneumonia. We had the Doctor come and he wasn’t able to do much for him. Aunt Alice left her own family and her sick Mother and stayed b my Fathers bedside day and night. My other aunt Alice helped out to. My Father had suffered a great deal and I had stayed up all night with Aunt Alice. The next morning he called me in. He took my hand and told me to be brave and to take good care of my brother and sister and remember my Mothers word to me before she died. He told me that his whole life had passed before his eyes like a moving picture and he had seen bands marching by. (He always loved bands so much.) Another thing he said was “I feel I have been such a failure all my life.” I didn’t know what to say to him then because I was crying too much but I wished I could have said, “How could you be a failure when you have been such a good Father.” The many things he was always done for others he always did so quietly, no one knew. I have wished so many times that my children could have known my Parents. They were such wonderful people. But my Father died, even though I still believed he wouldn’t.
After the funeral, Grandma Francis took my sweet little sister, Myrle, and we all had to be farmed out to other homes because we couldn’t live in our own home, It was next thing to being repossessed for the mortgage on it. I sure hated to see my sister go to Canada, but I knew it was best for her. Leo stayed with Uncle Lewis and Alice for a while, then we went to live with Uncle Hugh and Aunt Margaret. I went to live with Aunt Ella and Uncle Elmer. They were all very good to us and we had wonderful homes to live in but it was terrible sad to be without our parents.
Our home and property were sold, our cattle and the car and the mortgage was paid up. We children did not receive any help from the estate. (But in later years we did receive a little from the sale of Billies Mountain.)
Aunt Ella and Uncle Elmer were very poor, sometimes it was hard to know where the food was coming from, but Aunt Ella was a very hard worker, and very resourceful. She never let an opportunity go by. She worked hard in the summer to gather fruits and vegetables, and fill all her bottles with delicious jams, jellies and all kinds of fruits and vegetables as well as pickles. She could make a delicious meal out of almost nothing and so the food was very good and she always had plenty for whoever happened to come along. She took every opportunity to work out, where ever she could get a job and even though she had a big family she made me welcome and treated me as though I was a member of her own family. Aunt Frant Snow used to remember me as though I was one of her own Grandchildren. I loved Aunt Ellas little girls, Edda and Louise and used to tend them so much. I used to pick raspberries and grapes and whatever she was canning. Lenore, her oldest girl and I were very good friends and she is still very precious to me. She is my choice cousin or sister. Aunt Ella’s home was the gathering place for all the young people of Mapleton. She was always so good to everyone. I used to work out nights after school or on Saturdays, doing housework for people or baby – sitting. I made enough money for my clothes in the Mapleton store and then in the Springville store. In the summertime I thinned beets and vegetable crops as well as picked fruit. One time Lenore and I were picking cherries in a big orchard by Maple Creek Canyon. Sometimes to cool off we would get in the flume, (It was a stream of water, boarded in with boards) and coming down a very steep hill. We would sit on a board at the top and let the water give us a fast ride down the ditch, we would be soaking wet. One day the board slipped out from under me and when I got to the bottom there was no seat left in my knickerbocker pants. I had to pull my long shirt tail out to cover the hole, while I picked cherries that afternoon. We also picked raspberries and dewberries and other fruits. Lenore plowed the beets in the fall and I topped and helped to load them on the wagons for her Grandfather Snow. Aunt Ella would always work at the beet dump. Everyone had to pitch in to keep the work done up.
Lenore and I went up in the mountains with Uncle Elmer part of one summer, and to Billies Mt. to help cook for threshers. I was running down the hill one time and going very fast, as I was about to put my foot down, I saw a big rattle snake right in the place where I was going to put my foot. Quickly I gave a further push and landed on the other side of it, luckily it was August when rattlesnakes are sluggish so it didn’t strike me. It was the biggest rattler I ever saw and had the most rattles on it.
Sylvan used to borrow his brothers’ car and come and see me once in a while. I thought he was very nice and I liked going with him. I also knew he was planning on going on a mission.
Lenore and I were in a bad horse accident one time. We were both on one horse and riding at night. As we neared a streetlight, two other horsemen met us coming the other way. The glare from the streetlight blinded all of us and since we were all traveling fast, all three horses collided. It was a terrible crash, one horse hit our knees hard, and we were all thrown off. One boy was thrown clear across the fence. Lenore and I were both laid up for a long time with sore knees. I still had ear trouble and was so sick with as well as a bad case of ulcers of the stomach, during this period I had to go to bed and have bed rest. I could only eat milk products. Aunt Ella always had plenty of milk. All this time my dear Aunt tended me and took good care of me, but I could not attend school at all regularly. It was finally decided that I would have to go to a specialist in Provo, so I started going to Provo every other day on the inter urban to take treatments from the specialist. I quit going to school, as I wasn’t able to attend anyway. The specialist said I had mastoid trouble and that if the treatments didn’t work, he would have to operate. At that time it was considered a very dangerous operation. I did not get to feel much better.
Uncle Ted Francis had been wanting me to come to Canada to live with them and help them. I decided to go because my little sister Myrle was up there and it would be so nice to be with her again. I waited until spring because my aunt Ella was having a baby and she wanted me to help her. In April 1927, I left far Canada. Aunt Ella had helped me get ready. I had bought a lot of new clothes, a light summer coat and such a sweet little hat. It was pale green crepe de chine with little pink rose buds on it. I felt very good. Aunt Ella had made me a nice and she and Uncle Elmer took me to Salt Lake to meet the train. There I met the lady I was to go with, Ida Wood, and her three children. I had a very pleasant journey with them and I kept the children entertained all the way, telling them stories, and singing songs with them and playing games. It took three days. The first night we slept on the train, our births were made up. The next night we slept in a hotel in Great Falls, Montana, and the last day we traveled the rest of the way to Taber. When we arrived the wind was blowing very mournfully and it was cold. I noticed the lack of trees and the bald headed prairie. I wondered how I could ever like to live here. I wanted to turn around and go back but I saw my dear sister eagerly waiting to greet me. I forgot all about going back. It was so wonderful to see her again. I knew she had looked forward to this day. She had all her friends with her and for a while I didn’t know what I had got myself into. They all crowded around me and I made many long and lasting friends out of those girls. I know they had been told by my sister, Myrle, how wonderful I was, the trouble was that they believed her, so they are still misguided. Well we all walked down the streets of Taber. People would peer out the windows and come out of the stores. When we got down to Hammers place, I immediately recognized my friends of years ago, Norah and Mata. They were always the best friends I ever had and many times I have been so grateful for them. It was so good to meet Grandma and all my relatives, but most of all it was good to be with my sister.
I went to live with Uncle Ted and Aunt Eva. They had a big family, so naturally there was a lot of work. Especially as Aunt Eva was not well. I made friends with so many nice people in Taber. I could hardly wait from one Sunday to the next to see them all again.
Now I have to tell you right here that I never had any more trouble with my ears. Whether it was the treatment I had in Provo or whether it was a change of country, I don’t know. But I was grateful to be freed of all that sickness.
Another thing I would like to mention is that before I came to Canada, I was going around with friends who were going off the deep end, so to speak. They were fooling around with drinking and smoking. I felt it was getting out of hand, but they were my friends from way back. I kept having these disturbing dreams of my father and he always seemed so sad, but when I came to Canada I never had those dreams again. I knew I was in with a real nice crowd of young people.
Now one more thing I want to add is that almost as soon as I arrived in Taber, Uncle Ted said to me, “Now Jennie, there is a fine young man here in Taber, and his mane is Willie Harding. He comes from good stock. Now the procedure for getting married is that you pick out a nice boy, you find out his good qualities and if he comes from good stock, then you fall in love.” Well, I didn’t like that idea at all, in fact I knew I was going to hate this Willie Harding and I would never have anything to do with him. Well to save me the trouble of hating him, he was going to school over in Raymond.
It seemed to me that it rained all the time in this country, and it was cold. Uncle Ted had a lot of sheep and they were all having lambs, so I had to help Uncle Ted a lot of the time. We had to bring the lambs in the house in order to save them. It sure made a lot of work. I was terrible homesick and I wasn’t well at all. I had constant headaches and was sick to my stomach. I just did not seem to have any strength. Even though I was very sick I sure hated to miss church where I got to meet all my friends. One Sunday I was desperately sick but I would not tell anyone, because I wanted to go to church. All day long I ached and was almost blond. The crowd was going to walk to the river, it was such a nice day, no rain, it was just unbelievable and I wanted to go so bad. That night I thought I would die. I stayed with Grandma that night and the next morning I could not get out of bed. Uncle Ted and Aunt Eva came and they sent for Dr. Hammon. He could not tell what was wrong with me but he said I was a mighty sick girl. Uncle Ted took me to the Lethbridge Hospital on the train. When they got me in the Hospital, they said it was typhoid fever. So I spent the next month in the Hospital. I guess Aunt Josephine sent someone up to see me each day and many others came but I was not aware of it. When I was well and able to walk again, I stayed with Aunt Josephine for a while. Then I went back to Taber. I stayed with Grandma for a while. It took me a very long time to get my strength back and I was terrible thin. Then I finally went back to Uncle Ted’s place. I started to lose my hair. Uncle Ted said I needed to get it shaved off so the other hair could start to grow. I suffered him to shave off my remaining hair. That was a terrible day in my life. I saved some strands of my hair and sewed them inside my little green hat so when I went out in public I could make believe I had hair. I also was plagued with boils. 22 at one time. Some of their boils were as big as eggs. I felt pretty low at this time. I went out in the field and topped beets with these boils. (I guess I wanted to make some money so badly) Soon my troubles were over the boils healed and I was able to buy Christmas presents for everyone because I had some money. It was a happy Christmas for me.
Uncle Ted let me go to work for McPhees around Christmas time and I really enjoyed being in town and having a little money. Up to this time I had seen no sign of hair growing and this was a great catastrophe for me. I began to despair of ever getting hair, but soon after I started working at McPhees it looked like my hair was starting to grow. I coaxed and prayed. I treated my head so tenderly and finally I did have hair again. It came in so curly and beautiful. I felt very rewarded for the long wait and I was very grateful.
I had to go back and help Aunt Eva because she needed the help so much. We soon moved into the new home the other side of the farm. We fixed it up real nice and I had a room of my own. I herded sheep for Uncle Ted, I got a lot of time to read this way, and I sure enjoyed that.
I had met Willie Harding briefly the summer before, but I thought he was a stuck up so and so. I didn’t pay much attention to him. This summer I noticed that the kids called him Bill and that made me look at him twice.
The next summer in 1929, Grandma became very ill with cancer. I stayed with her so help her most of the summer. She died that summer and so my poor little sister once again was left and had to go and live with her aunts. We had to be parted again. She got so lonely in Lethbridge with Aunt Josephine. The next winter I got a job sorting pea seed. We worked in an old cold shed and sorted pea seeds on a belt. We would get so cold and then I would walk home. I used to think that I would never get home. I would be so cold. I remember now I would run two telephone poles and then walk one.
Now I was beginning to get very interested in Bill Harding. I was working for Leona Conrad and I had also worked for Ruth Fuller, who was running a private hospital. I worked in Conrads store also. I was going out occasionally with Bill, (there was something special about him) He had a car and he was so handsome. When he looked at me with those gray eyes, I almost flipped. Iola was one of my best friends and it was due to her that I could see Bill often, because naturally, I went down to her place to visit her, but I guess I couldn’t help it if Bill happened to be there.
Uncle Ted and Aunt Eva were very good to me, they let me invite my friends to their home anytime I wanted and they were so nice to them. It wasn’t long until all my friends were calling them aunt Eva and Uncle Ted, as long as they lived. They were sure good sports. I learned many wonderful truths from Aunt Eva. Her life was full of hard work and pain, (because of her legs). However she always did what was expected of her. Her faith was strong. Uncle Ted was a wonderful friend as well as a good Uncle. He wanted me to go with Bill because he thought that Bill was all right.
The next summer Cloy Francis came to Canada to stay with Uncle Ten. We had lots of fun together; we worked in the field, and then went to parties and dances. Cloy was quite a charmer. He played the piano be ear and it was very exciting to hear him play. Bill was away shearing sheep at this time. When he came back I thought he had another girl and so I decided to go to California with Cloy. Aunt Mabel said she would send me the money if I wanted to come. I left Taber thinking I would probably never go with Bill again. I was so happy to visit in Utah again, but it wasn’t near all I had expected it would be. Then Cloy and I went on to California. Uncle Jack and Aunt Mabel met us in Los Angeles, and took us to their home in Santa Anna. I loved it in California, the country was so beautiful, the orange groves, and every kind of fruit, flowers and cactus and such lovely growth.
I would like to insert a thing I left out when I was in Taber. Right soon after I arrived, they asked me to teach in the kindergarten class, Julia Conrad was the teacher but she was sick with a bad heart so much of the time, that I mostly taught the class. I think there were 45 students and one teacher had her hands full, but I loved that job. Then the winter before I went to California, Manitia Price was asked to be the Y.W.M.I.A. President and she asked me to be one of her counselors. Her Father was the President of the Y.M.M.I.A. and he had asked Bill to be one of the counselors, so Bill and I were thrown together a lot. He used to take me home after these meetings, and our relationship did grow. I did enjoy these times but as I said I went to California the next summer.
I did the housework for my Uncle and Aunt in California, and that included all laundry from the office. And so I ironed most of the week. Oh, yes, I had to take the children to their music lessons and primary. Aunt Mabel helped in the office. She bought the groceries and I planned and prepared the meals. The meals were pretty simple. Mostly vegetables and fruit, no meat or rich pastry. I could make puddings mostly I made salads, some cooked vegetables. We could have potatoes twice a week. We bought whole wheat bread and Aunt Mabel would buy lighter bread for lunches for the children. What I thought was so neat was all the fruit we had, melons of every kind, grapes, and all kinds of fruits, oranges especially. We could make all the orange juice we wanted and eat lots of figs. They had an orange grove, a fig tree and a walnut tree. It seemed so wonderful to me. Many times we would eat our breakfast in the fig tree.
Uncle Jack was a doctor and we got used to calling him “Doc.”
The church at that time was mostly a missionary ward and a branch, so there was a lot to be done. I taught Sunday School again and primary, and Cloy and I were chosen to be the dance directors in mutual. Then I was asked to be a counselor in the primary. The missionaries had a standing invitation to come for dinner any time. Sometimes I had to take care of the office, when the Doc and Mabel weren’t there. That was a lot of fun, because I always had a day of doing mostly what I yearned to do.
When I first went to California, I didn’t know how to drive a car good yet. Bill had let me drive his car a little, so one day; Doc and Mabel had to go to L.A.and I needed to get to the office. They had to leave too early for them to take me so Aunt Mabel said, “Well we will just have to let her drive herself.” I was really afraid because I had to drive in this big city and park, etc. I prayed and I imagined my Aunt and Uncle were praying too. I did all right at least I didn’t have and accident or get arrested by the police. I soon learned to drive so I could drive the kids where they needed to go. Cloy drove when he could.
Aunt Mabel used to call me sometimes and say, “What are you doing?” and I would say, “Ironing.” She would say,” Put it away and prepare a lunch and take the children to the beach.” Sometimes she would say, “Come down town and we will go shopping.” She was full of surprises, and she was very generous. My Uncle was more practical.
I saw many beautiful things in California. There was a beautiful bird sanctuary in Tustin, and I could walk to that place, which I did several times. There were so many different birds. It was so fascinating to watch them. The beach was fun and the children dearly loved to go there. It was the first time I had seen the ocean, and the big waves looked like so much fun. They didn’t seem to be bothering other people, so I went in to meet them. I never stooped when they came. I guess I hadn’t noticed other people do that, so I got the surprise of my life. When the breakers hit me, and whipped me over, I hit the ground hard. It flipped me over several times until it finally threw me up on the beach, beaten and bruised. I heard someone laugh and say, “Well, there’s a green horn.” One time Thora and I went out on the pier. There was a wall on one side. While we were out there on the end we saw a big high wave coming toward us. We started to run back, and Thora yelled that we’d better get on the wall. We jumped on the wall but we still had to run fast so that when the wave caught up with us it was pretty run down. If the wave had caught us we surely would have been washed out to sea.
Doc and Mabel took us to L.A. one time to a Canadian Reunion. While we were there, they took us to a big cafe called “The Round Table.” It was a fabulous place to eat. It was smorgasbord and there was every kind of food you could imagine.
All the family went to San Bernardino Mountains one summer. We had a grand time because you know how I love the mountains.
I visited the “FORREST Lawn Memorial Grounds” and all the famous statues and buildings. We saw quaint little churches in beautiful settings. Cloy took me to the opera one time in L.A. and we saw many famous movie stars. I also had the privilege of visiting the Catalina Islands, and seeing the Chicago Cubs and New York Giants play. i also went with friends to L.A. We visited famous Chinese Theater and also other theaters, as well as China Town and Spanish Town.
I rode on the Giant Racer in Long Beach.
I couldn’t seem to get Bill out of my mind. We did correspond, but he didn’t seem to write back very promptly. Although I read between the lines, I was sure he loved me, but he didn’t exactly write it out. I used to meet the mailman faithfully, every morning, and be disappointed so many times. When I went to dances and was dancing I used to shut my eyes and imagine it was Bill. I could never seem to have any interest in anyone else. I guess it was hopeless. I was in love with Bill.
I had to take Fern and Beth for their music lessons. The boys had already given up and Cloy already played by ear. Their teacher became my devoted friend. Uncle Jack asked me if I would like to take music lessons, he said he was tired of spending so much money on his family, when they wouldn’t respond and apply themselves. Well I was overjoyed, so Miss Elliot gave me a few lessons, and she really taught me a lot. Miss Elliot and I corresponded a long time after I went back to Canada.
I was chosen Queen one year at the Gold and Green Ball.
I was very busy with scrapbooks and my ‘Treasures of Truth’ books. I had a lot of fun in California; they just treated me elegant the two years I was there. Christmas was just grand.
In 1932, I came back to Taber, and surprised Uncle Ted and Aunt Eva. I was so glad to be back home. They were glad to see me too and of course my dear sweet sister, Myrle and brother Leo. I went to work for Laverne Harris and I worked for her all winter. I also enjoyed the courting days with my present husband, Bill. At Christmas time he gave me a sparkling crystal necklace. I always just loved it. In April we were planning to get married and the prospect made me very happy. On April 26, 1933 we were married in the Cardston temple by E.J Wood. That was a day never to be forgotten. I felt the presence of my Mother and Father there that day. I am sure that they were as happy as I was. (Uncle Ted’s advice was good wasn’t it? He picked Bill out for me. Bill was the one for me. I love him.)
Now that my story is written, I forgot to include a very important happening in my life. When I first came to Canada, my Grandma Francis asked me one day if I was saying my prayers. I had to tell her “no.” Then she said, “Don’t ever forget to say your prayers and ask your Heavenly Father to help you keep your virtue.” Well after that I never did forget to say my prayers and pray for what she said. I felt that was a great strength in my life, and I know it helps me. I was always grateful to my Grandmother for that. Some things in my life helped greatly toward guiding me to do what is right. The first influence of course was my parents. They both talked to me before they died and cautioned me to be a good girl. After they died I know that their influence was with me when I needed it. I lived with good living people, my dear Aunts and Uncles. It seemed that I had more than my share of good influences.
One time, when I was in California, a General Authority came to speak to us in our Branch. I was so impressed with his talk. He said that the Lord would bless us with any righteous desire we had, if we would remember to keep the Word of Wisdom, keep the Sabbath day holy, pay our Tithes, and keep the Lords Commandments. Those words seemed to be burned in my heart and I could not forget them. I believe it completely. I know I guided my life by those words.
My dear Grandchildren, another good way to help you through this world is to decide before hand what you are going to do. Then when the situation comes along the it is easy to do what you ought to do. I do pray for all my dear ones that you will be strong and overcome the pitfalls you will meet.
I’d like to add a little about my Grandmothers life after she was married.
Grandma had her first baby January 20, 1934, William Blaine Harding. Her second baby followed two years later, Donna Joan, born on 11 June 1936. Glenn was born 26 August 1937, James Edward, 19 October 1941, David John was born, 25 November 1943, Keith Evan, 30 October 1945 and Brenda Kae born 20 July 1947.
During their married life, Grandma helped Grandpa out in the beet field often. She nursed her children through various illnesses, often at very difficult times.
Grandma was widowed the 5 of January 1982. Grandpa died in the Magrath Hospital but was buried in Taber.
Grandma was saddened by the death of her son, James Edward, on 10 November 1990. He died quite unexpectedly and tragically at the age of 49. He never married but was missed just the same.
Grandma has always been very concerned about her children and grandchildren. Like her parents before her, she also wants to see all of her children and grandchildren make choices that will keep them on the straight and narrow path so that we can all be together once again in the next life. I do believe that someday, because of her determination that will come to pass, perhaps not in this life but in the next.
JENNIE V. (JOHNSON) HARDING (1908)
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