LIFE HISTORY OF LAMAR BOREN, SON OF WILLIAM AND ELVA MAE BOREN
(Note: the original document included several pictures and comments about the pictures. The pictures and most comments are not included in this document
I was born in Wallsburg, Wasatch County, Utah, October 8, 1914; in the old home adjoining the home of Grandfather William Jasper Boren Jr. Anne Meacham was the midwife. I was the third son of William Boren and Elva Mae Lamb. My father also was born in Wallsburg and his occupation was farming. My mother was from Lehi, Utah. She lost her father when she was 14 years old and had to work out for others until she was married. She has worked hard all her life. My parents were industrious, hard working and thrifty Latter Day Saints. I was blessed on 6 December 1914 by William Jasper Boren, my grandfather.
When I was four years old, I had a bad accident. As I was sleigh riding on a hill near our home at dusk, a sleigh-runner pierced my right eye. As a result I lost the sight in that eye. My father took me by train into Salt Lake City to the hospital. I remember my father bringing me good things to eat and toys, while I was there.
We did not have electricity at that time. We lighted our home with gas lamps. We carried our water from a well half way between my Grandfather Boren’s home and our own, a distance of a ¼ of a block. My Grandfather Boren was one of the first owners of an automobile in Wallsburg. He was a religious man and became a counselor in the Bishopric prior to his death. One Sunday morning, my grandfather was driving to Church in his Model T. He was driving too fast, as he came to the turn, near the ditch he tried to slow down by saying, “Whoa, whoa”. And of course, he ran into the ditch.
When I was young and all my brothers and neighbors had gone to school, I was lonely. So my brothers caught a baby pigeon and clipped its wings so it couldn’t fly. They gave it to me for a pet. I loved it and fed it and watered it. When it did begin to fly, it would come and light on my shoulder. I spent many happy hours with it.
I started first grade in Wallsburg. The teacher hit my hand with a ruler each time I started to write with my left hand. I soon learned to write with my right hand. My teacher was Mrs. Cash. I still dislike writing.
My mother was always urging us to pay our tithing. She was very religious.
We moved to Charleston, Utah when I was seven years old. There my father bought a farm. Our home was much larger and better than the home in Wallsburg, and we had electricity.
I was baptized on 31 August 1923 by William Stacy Wright in the Provo River, just below the bridge leading to Midway. I was confirmed by J. Parley Edwards on 2 September, 1923.
After I had completed the eighth Grade in Charleston, I had to go by bus to Heber, a distance five miles, to attend High School. I graduated from High School and Seminary there in 1935 and 1934 respectively.
This was in the years of the great depression. After I graduated, some friends and I would go to Idaho in the fall to work in the beets to earn money to do us in the winter. We went to Blackfoot the first year. We went 3 or 4 different years. We picked up potatoes and topped beets. Most farmers had cabins for the harvest laborers. Many times, we would come in from the fields so tired; we could not fix supper and would go right to bed. We’d average 10 ton of beets a day, topped and put on a truck, it was cold and it was hard. There was usually a wind that made it that much colder.
Each year the farmers in Charleston would want Leon Ritchie and me to come to do their beets, thinning, hoeing them, because we did a better job and we were fast.
And each year the farmers in Idaho would write and ask us to contract their beets because we were dependable, fast and thorough.
Dad and Mom opened a little store when I was in Grade School in Charleston. They kept a few groceries, oil and a gas pump. The gas pump was in front of the store. It had to be pumped by hand. Dad or Mom or one of my older brothers was always in the store. Later, we rented the store to Carl Greer.
During these years, Dad rented the Tate farm in string town, over by Midway. It had 300 acres, part of it irrigated. He raised mostly hay on it. He did this to pay off his ground in Charleston. We all helped with this. It produced 2 or 3 crops of hay each summer. All the machinery, hay rakes, mowers, etc., were pulled by horses. I was one of the younger boys, not yet tall enough to throw the hay to the top of the wagon, so it was my job to bunch it or pile it on the wagon.
While I was in High School, I worked on the pea vinery in the summers. I used to stack the peas on the viner. The peas were thrown off the wagon into the shute and were thrashed. I used to stack the empty pea vines after the peas were out, into big stacks, like hay stacks. It was a stinky job. We used to work around the clock, working as high as 16 to 18 hours a day. When I finished with a shift, I’d walk home, bath and fall into bed. This work would last about 3 weeks each summer. Dad raised a lot of peas and so I had the chance to work this way. It paid fair money, but the hours were long and so it was a sought after job. I used the money for tithing, clothes and everything.
When we worked in the hay, we would head for the river at the end of each day for a swim. It was a lot of fun. Sometimes there would be 5 or 6 or even 8 boys at the favorite spot or swimming hole. We never swam long though because there were still chores waiting to be done.
We milked 25 cows’ morning and night. There were pigs and calves and horses to feed morning and night too. I used to feed the cows. Early in the morning, I would have to get carrots and beets out of the pit and chop them up for the cows before school. It used to take at least an hour. I helped with all the chores. We used to cut kindling and haul wood and coal into the house each morning.
In the fall and winter, every Saturday we would go with Dad and get a load of oak wood in a wagon or sleigh, to be used as fuel for the winter. We could make a trip in a day. All this had to be cut up later for the stove by axe and muscle. We would cut it and stack it. Later, we had a saw on a motor that helped a lot.
Mother made our mittens out of denim, lined with flannel. They were warm until they got wet.
We played baseball and kick the can at night. Baseball was my favorite game. My first friend was Jack Boyden in Wallsburg. My best friends in Charleston were Bob Watson, Leon Ritchie, Bennie Wright and Lester Simmons. We used to ski on barrel staves. The snow was so deep in Charleston that we could sleigh ride down the mountain sides and over the tops of the fences. We used to sleigh ride a lot in the winters. Sometimes we built a fire at the bottom of the hill to warm ourselves.
I remember one Christmas, we got a big sleigh and we lived on it. It belonged to all the family. Three or four of us could ride on it at one time. Mrs. Watson was the first teacher I remember in Primary. She was my Trail builder teacher. I liked her. She was very old but she had strong testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel.
Wayne Whiting was my Scout Master. He was a good one. We used to play basketball in MIA, but the main thing was the Gold and Green Ball. Most of the time I danced in the floor show.
I started going to dances when I was 14 or 15 years old. I earned my ticket by printing the cards that advertised these dances. The cards were then placed in the windows of the different businesses in Charleston, Heber and Midway.
When I was in High School, Mrs. Rasband, the Physical Education Teacher, told me that I should take up dancing. But I was too bashful to think of doing that as a career.
I joined the C.C.C. s, or the Civilian Conservation Corps, in 1936. Just so many local men were chosen to train the men in the C.C.C. s. I was one of them. It paid pretty good money, more than most jobs. The Camp was located in Big Cottonwood Canyon, near Salt Lake. I lived in the barracks of the Forest Service. I was a Jr. Foreman in the Forest Service. This was the place for the C.C.C. Personal. We made signs for the entrances of the forests and canyons. They were made of logs. The lettering was burned into it. Some of them are still in use today. (1981) The men in the C.C.C. Unit that I worked with came from New York, and New Jersey. They were of every nationality. Most of the kids were from the slum areas. They cursed and swore and some spoke in broken languages. Some were lazy. But it was great to see the kids grow, develop muscles and become men. Every Saturday night, GI trucks would take the kids down to Salt Lake City and Murray to shows. As a foreman, I would have to go with them to chaperone them.
About 1938, the bureau of Reclamation took my father’s farm plus all the surrounding property, to create the Deer Creek Reservoir. So, my folks bought a lovely home in American Fork. It had a small mink ranch on it as well as chickens. There were also 3 or 4 milk cows. Later, my father invested in a farm in Wallsburg. My father was able to still use the ground in Charleston to run his milk cows on for a year or two. So Othell and I were left in Charleston to do that. Othell was married by then and I lived with him and his wife, Inez.
Then my father helped my brother, Carl, and me to get started in a Service Station in 1939. It was the Shell Service Station in American Fork. I enjoyed this work. But the hours were very long and we were tied to it. We didn’t make too much money either, just fair wages. But we did make a lot of friends we became acquainted with the people of American Fork.
I use to borrow Gus Mitchell’s car and go to Charleston once a week to date Myrle. I always filled the car with gas when I returned it. We had a lot of fun and went a lot of places in it.
Myrle and I had so many good times together. We never missed a dance. Somehow I always managed to get up to Charleston for them and especially the important dances.
In April, 1940, we went to Conference in Salt Lake City. We walked around the state Capital grounds before one session of Conference. Here are pictures of it. The trees were in blossom and everything was beautiful.
Myrle and I were married on June 6, 1940 in the Salt Lake Temple. It was a happy day. My parents had given us a wedding dance in Charleston at the school. It was a lovely affair and everyone was so generous and gave us such lovely presents.
That evening the Johnson’s in Mapleton gave us a wedding supper. It was a lovely evening too. We’ve had our ups and downs but things have always come out right. And for the most part, we have had almost 41 years of happiness.
We were blessed with a fine son the next year. We named him Dee LaMar. We loved the mountains and spent many happy hours in the American Fork Canyon. In the fall of 1941, we bought a basement house. We were very proud of it. It was very small, only 2 rooms, but it belonged to us and we were very happy.
I got my next job with Wheeler and Tempest Construction Company. We improved the streets of American Fork, widening them and laying more cement. It was hard work. We were paid 50 cents an hour which was good wages at that time.
In January of 1942, I went to Southern Utah, Modena, 75 miles west of Cedar City and worked for 3 or 4 months. It was a job between jobs, so we could get along.
Deanna Rose was born to us that June. Then Wheeler Construction Co. got the bid to lay thecement for the runways at the Salt Lake airport. So I went back to work for them. It was extremely hard work. We were on our knees a lot when we were finishing the cement. We also put in water lines and sewer pipes in Salt Lake, on 33 South, towards Kearns. We put in one pipe that was 36” in diameter. We corked the entire pipe. We’d put a snake or hard rope around the pipe. Then we’d put wet clay tight around the pipes where they came together and tamp it. At the top an opening was left where we poured hot lead into it. This lead went all the way around the pipe. We had to have the pipes water-tight and able to sustain hundreds of pounds of pressure. Mandel Simpson and I did most of this kind of work. Later, I also did this kind of work during a 90 day Steel strike.
When the construction of the Steel plant at Geneava began, I got right on as a carpenter. The Union dues for a carpenter at that time was $50 an unbelievable amount of money. They let us pay these dues in 3 monthly payments. I also had to buy my tools and they were costly. But it paid off. I made good money. That’s when we began doing things. I worked overtime and we were able to build our first nice home.
When Dee was seven years old, he developed measles which resulted in encephalitis. He was in the American Fork and Salt Lake hospitals 26 days. He was unconscious all that time. But by the grace of God, he was restored to good health.
By 1944, the construction of the Geneva Steel Plant was completed and I got a job in the production end of it. I had to keep track of the brick that was used and how many we had on hand, so we would not run out. I also kept time for the yard labor and locomotive trainmen and the brick layers and formen. But I hated that job. As the work load increased, they promised me more pay, but they never gave it to me. As soon as I got a chance, I went to Dick Benton, Rolling Mill General Foreman, and he said I could come right over and work for him. And that’s what I did. I worked in the Slab Mill, Plate Mill, Structural Mill and Sheet Mill for 32 years as an oiler, then as a Bub Machine Operator. But I had shift work every week of those 32 years. I was scheduled for more graveyards than any other shift. And I could never sleep much when I was on graveyard in the day time. Once in awhile I’d get an hour out at the plant to relax and rest while on that shift. I got so tired of lunches, bosses, shift work, the terrific noise, the filth of other men, the dirt, air pollution and gases from the furnaces. The screeching of the steel rubbing against one another was unbearable, so long, so constant, it caused me to lose part of my hearing. I worked in the Structural Mill last.
I took an early retirement because of my knees were gone. This was in 1976. Every step was most painful, full of agony. But the Steel Plant was a great thing for Utah Valley. It brought in a lot of other industries in the valley. It also brought in a lot of air pollution. For the County, it was a Godsend because of the many jobs and money it brought to the people here.
My brothers, Othell, Carl, Vern, Keith and myself have all worked at the Steel plant and made a good living at it. Now, our son Bill and our son-in-law, Brent Millward worked there and is doing very well.
Mother was a good cook. She made the best pies. She spoiled us. But she was most proud of us always. My father and mother worked hard all their lives. From the first I can remember, they were hard workers and they taught us to do the same. They taught us to be honest too. I am proud of them.
In 1954 we purchased almost 14 acres of land, a small frame home, large barn, 3 big chicken coops and a brooder coop, corral, pig pen, blacksmith with a forge and all that goes with it and several other sheds. There was also another 2 roomed home on a basement. We moved that over beside the home to provide more bedroom space for us. We lived in that little home for 8 years, and then I built a big home on the highest part of our property. The farm was a lot of hard work but it helped the children develop muscles and taught them how to work, as well as supplemented my income. We moved into our new home August 4, 1962. George Sykes had given me many pointers while I was building it. My brother, Othell came and helped me many times. I did appreciate him. He often came in the cold of the winter and we worked together until we were almost frozen to death. Carl Smith, a coworker at the Steel Plant and a very good friend, spent so many many days over here helping me with my home too. He always made work a lot of fun. He helped me with every part of it and saved us countless amounts of time and money. He was a friend indeed.
Carl Smith and his wife Belle and their family spent many happy camping trips and fishing trips with our family. We had a lot of really fun times together.
When Bob went on his mission, we were finally able to buy our first brand new car. It was a white station wagon, a Chrysler. We were really excited with it and we had many many lovely trips with it. Neldon Walters had one just like it. And when we got one too, his wife, Arleen, was so happy for us that she made curtains for the windows of it, just like hers.
Mom used to come a lot of times for Sunday dinner. It was always a special time when she was with us. And she seemed to enjoy the meals so very much. We were always glad to have her. She was a widow 15 years.
At Christmas time in 1977, all of our children were at home. What a joyous occasion. Bob took pictures of us. Bob and his family had come from Texas. Leon was here from New York. Kent was home from his mission. Jim and family were home from Colorado.
I should have said we were all here but Richard who could not get home at this time. It was a special occasion.
During the summer of 1969, we had the privilege to host two scouts from Leed, Yorkshire, England. We tried to show them as much as we could of Utah, while they were with us. Jim and Kent were busy in scouting at this time and we expected the scouts from England to be near their age. However, they were quite abet older, more like Mary and Janeen in age. We enjoyed them and found them to be very interesting. Their names were Tim Fieldand and Ray Fisher.
I was trying to save a lamb by bringing it into the house and getting it warmed up and dried off and full of milk. Some I saved and some I lost.
The children made me a king for a day. They put a crown on my head and a scepter in my hand, and presented me with the Boren Coat of Arms.
During the summer of 1979, we had 3 lovely grandchildren born to us. I loved holding them. They were Aaron, Shantell, and Bryan. David and Corinna were with us during this time.
I have been a Ward Teacher most of the time since I was ordained a teacher. I was a Priesthood Adviser of the Deacons in 1946 in the 5th ward. I was also the Ward Teacher Supervisor for several years in the same ward. Then I was put in as First Counselor of the Elders Quorum Presidency in the 5th ward. Chairman of the Post. Again I was the Ward Teacher Supervisor in the 10th ward. Later I was put in the 10th Ward Bishopric as Financial Clerk. I held this position for 16 years. I worked under Bishop Brady, Bishop Coombs, Bishop Savage and Bishop Kennnington. I enjoyed this work.
Since I have left the plant, I’ve had to have an operation on my neck to remove some spurs that had grown inward from my spine. It was a most delicate operation. Dr. Gauffin was the neurosurgeon. He did a fine job. I had to wear a neck brace for several months after. That operation got rid of my black headaches.
I had a hernia operation while I was working at the plant. In fact, I had to have the hernia operation when I moved from the office at the Steel Plant to the maintenance Department. I was off for 30 days for this operation.
In June and July of 1979, I had 2 total knee replacements. Dr. MacArthur did this and he also did a fine job. I was in the hospital 19 days. It took me several months to recuperate, but the operation was a complete success. And I could finally walk again without the pain and agony of years before.
I built a pontoon boat. I took it out to Strawberry Lake and we used to go fishing whenever I got a day off.
We took several trips. We went up and down the coast. We went to Canada several times, and took the family to Disney Land and Mexico in 1968. We toured the Yosemite Park, Zions, Bryce, and Cedar Breaks that time. We went on Route #1 on the Pacific Coast and saw all the giant Redwoods. Kent drove across the San Francisco Bridge.
Trying to get a place and home and provide for 10 children and have a decent living has been one of the most important things in my life. Trying to raise the children right, to be honest upright citizens is a big job. Maybe I’ve gone about it the wrong way, but I’ve tried and done my best. My Dad was always on us with a stick or his mouth, he never knew any other way.
The Church is one of the most important things in my life and to give Service. But I’ve always been shy. It’s hard to speak in Public. I could never think of anything to say.
I know the gospel is true. Spencer W. Kimball is a true prophet today. Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God. The plan of salvation is correct. I’m thankful for the good health I have had and for my wife and family, and for all the blessings we have had. I’m thankful for all those in authority over us. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
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