Raymond Peter Olsen

Born 6 July 1892 in Emery to Severene Simonsen and James Peter Olsen
Married Eudean Worthington 19 May 1915 in Manti
Raymond-Earl
Died 30 July 1982 in Ferron
Buried in Emery

1910 Census
1920 Census
1930 Census

Draft Registration Card
Death Certificate

The following is Raymond's personal history.

I, Raymond Peter Olsen, was born of goodly parents in the little town of Emery, Utah, July 6, 1892, to James Peter Olsen and Severene Simonson Olsen in a one room adobe house with a dirt roof, with a large window in the east that let the morning sun in to lighten and cheer the day and a large open fireplace in the south end that gave light and warmth through the long winter nights, where mother used to sit in her big rocking chair and sing to us kids as father hired out to M and O Ranch in winter. Her favorite song was "I'll take you to N your home again Kathleen."

I started to school at 6 years. The schoolhouse was a one-room adobe building with a large pot bellied stove in the center of the room in a box of sand. We had a few good benches. We had to march military style to the front of the room for class recitation and then we sat on a long split log bench for class recitation. Teacher's name was Albert Edwards. If punishment was necessary, a stool in the corner of the house, called the dunce stool, was where we had to sit. This building stood on the southeast corner of church lot.

My first church services were held in a long log building located in the east corner of the block (church lot), with a stage in the front and a big pot belied stove in the center in a sand box and 3 large coal oil lamps to give light. Here all church gatherings were held, home plays and dances, with Norman McDonald as the music on a violin. He was the village blacksmith. An exciting event tqok place one night. It was Maud McDonald's wedding dance, a daughter of the blacksmith. A bunch of us kids were playing on the stage as the dance went on and all of a sudden those lights hanging on long wires from the ceiling started swaying back and forth across the room and pretty soon kids from all over town started coming in, some in night clothes crying, saying burglers in house, others they were falling down. It was an earthquake, the hardest Emery has ever had. Well in the summer holiday they built a large bowery north of the building. Under that bowery they had 4th of July programs, patriotic speeches and songs and always the Declaration was read. Refreshments were popcorn and homemade ice cream and a large 45 gallon barrel full of ice water, with a large metal dipper hanging on the side that everybody drank of. That was before disease and germs came to Utah.

The 24th of July was celebrated the same way with a pioneer ________ and Indians. The Indians would always steal a wagon and team and some fair daughters; Franck and Ashmeer Miller were always the leading Indian chiefs. They lived down in Millers Canyon. That is how it got its name. They had lived with the Indians and knew their language and made a good show.

This old meetinghouse was used for many years and people were all united and enjoyed each other. At Thanksgiving they would have a community thanksgiving dinner where everybody furnished and everybody attended.

The Christmas programs were likewise celebrated as a community with Santa Claus and all that went with it.

The time came when the old log meeting house and the bowery were too small so they decided to build a new church house on the northeast corner of the church lot. They put up two adobe mills east of town, down east of the old cemetery and made the adobe and hauled the rock for the foundation from up above town and the building project began. The lumber was taken from the Jolly Mill just up Quitchenpah Canyon on the south side. Bill Jolly was the surveyor and Jim Simonson, my mother's brother, was the engineer.

In 1898 we had a smallpox epidemic. The town was quarantined. No was allowed to leave town and no one came in so they all pitched in and built the church house. Work began on the church house in 1898. I remember going with dad, hauling adobe. It was completed in 1900. I was 6 years old. Dedication in 1902. It is unique in its frame construction. It is unaltered, white painted frame with brown trim, used as a church until 1957. It is now listed with the Historical Society. Many interesting things took place in the building pertaining to my life. They stretched wires across the building with curtains on them, making 4 rooms where we held Sunday School. I remember studying Book of Mormon on a chart showing the working and ________ of the Nephites and Lamanites. It was there I received the priesthood, where I served in the bishopric for 26 years with G. L. Olsen and G. E. Anderson and was a Sunday School teacher for 26 years. And dances every Friday night, entertainment and local shows and Stock Company meetings.

A few years later they built a new schoolhouse on the southeast corner of the block above the church lot. The adobe was made just below the. school section hill and was burnt into bricks and dad worked there.

About this time dad took up a homestead in the John Lewis flat and lived there in the summer months. We lived there in a one room sawed log house with a bowery in front and a little porch to the south. We would come to town on Sundays and go home in the evenings. They would spread a quilt in the bottom of the wagon. Us kids would lay there and soon went to sleep. Dad would carry us in the house Many things happened there. A voice from the unseen world. I was about 10 years old, Elmer about 12 and dad had us level a piece of ground while he went to clean a ditch about a mile from us He told us to be very careful in turning around as it would tip over. As hay and grain was very scarce those days, we had a box about 1 foot wide, 3 feet long, filled with chaff and corn for the horses for noon. He took this box and fastened it in the middle of the levlor for us to sit on and started us off and he left to work the ditch. Things went fine for a while and then we got to playing and stopped to let the horses rest. As we sat there on the box, I heard a voice say "Be careful as you are going to tip over." I turned to Elmer and asked "What did you
say?". "I didn't say anything." I told him someone did. We raised up and looked all around. No one to be seen. So we started again playing and at this time we turned a little short and tipped over and one of the horses was under it and the other horse on top. Dad could see we were having trouble and came running and got us straightened out. Result of not heeding the warning.

Once we were pulling shadscales for the pigs and herding cows and a little bunch of sheep as the coyotes were bad. We had to watch them very close. I remember one night dad sent Elmer and I up the ditch to take out a dam. Coyotes were howling all around us. Dad had a thin bladed knife and he opened the blade and gave it to me. And he said, I will use the shovel if they attack.

One day I went with dad down in the field to tend the water. We saw a horseman coming toward us. He was riding a nice bay horse As he got near, we noticed he had a rifle on his saddle and a pistol on each hip and a big black hat. Asked if he could let his horse eat here. Yes, said dad. He got off his horse and took his rope off the saddle and tied one end to the horse's leg and the other end to his wrist and the rifle on his other wrist, laying on his back and soon went to sleep. After we got the water tended dad said we'd ask him if he would like to come up to the house for a bite to eat. He asked if there would be anybody around. No, said dad. So he came up and tied his horse to the fence and mother put the wash dish on the bench and laid his hat there while he washed and went in for dinner. Elmer and I sat outside watching. We had a big pup. He came out from under the house, grabbed the hat and took it under the house. Elmer said we have got to get that hat or he will kill all of us. So he got under the house, got the hat and held the dog. A few days later a $500.00 reward offered for Jim Mickel, for sheep stealing up on Price Mountain. Milt Bennis, Carbon County Sheriff, was killed. The guy was making his way back to Robbers Roost. Jim Mickel was one of the Butch Cassidy gang.

I was beginning to get uneasy and wanted to do something for myself. When I got in the 8th grade I got the urge to trap coyotes. Got me a trappers guide and some traps and started to trapping, besides attending school I averaged $45 per month selling coyote pelts. At Christmas time I quit school. My education was finished. I sold pelts to Ham Duzett and got me a second hand saddle and bought my first calf for $14.00 as I wanted to go into cattle business. I worked for L. P. Jensen for $.50 a day hauling and stacking grain, then one summer up at Quitchenpah Ranch for Ham Duzett and the next spring for Joe Jensen. My pal and I made application to Manti Live Stock Co. for a job for $40 a month. And they put me as irrigator to water the north field out at Oak. It had just been broken up, hills, hollers and all sand. Then when haying time came I drove a wagon in the hay crew of 5 wagons. I never did work harder trying to keep up with the other men, but I made good with my boss, R.E.L. _________ and he gave me a choice pair of colts to break, and I got along fine (Cap and Hahn). Then the first crop was up. We went to the Mountain Ranch and put up wild grass hay; then back to Oak for second crop. We had one holiday, the 4th of July. We came to Emery on our horses and had to be back next morning at 5:00 a.m. for breakfast.

In the fall of 1912 dad's brother David (Dave) wanted to sheep herd. He came from Willow Lake on Ferron Mountain to Emery horseback leading two horses. And Elmer and I took the job. We had had so much storm and floods. That was when the Quitchenpah Creek got washed so deep. Before the storms fell I could jump across the creek. Well on October 8, 1912 we saddled up and headed for Willow Lake; got there way in the night. Uncle Dave got out the mutton sack and gave us a mutton and sour dough late supper. Next morning Uncle and I headed for Manti. Elmer stayed there with that and Uncle took me to his other herd on the mountain east of Manti. When we got there it was raining. Uncle handed me a sheep pelt. Take hold of the 2 hind legs around your neck and go help Perry gather the sheep to the bed ground. We stayed there until the last of October and then moved to the Red Hills of Pettyville. In a couple of weeks Elmer came down with his herd and we mixed them 4,000 and ________ ________ some herd and they ________ us with them. We held them there and on the __________ River until it started to snow so we could go west.

When we left the Red Hills east of Sterling we went west across Antelope Valley, then further west to the Warm Creek area, holding there waiting for snow. While there Uncle Dave came out with supplies and he asked Elmer if he wouldn't like to go to Sterling for a few days. He said yes. So that left me responsible for the sheep. That night I had another dream that came true. When I got up the next morning the sheep had left the bed ground and gone. I started to follow the trail I saw in my dream. Up over a hill in a draw I found 7 sheep the coyotes had killed and split the herd in 4 bunches just as I saw it in my dream. Uncle went home and Elmer came back the next time Uncle Hanse brought supplies out and told us he had made us 2 blind dates with 2 girls in Sterling for a big dance--Maggie Peterson for me and Leona Funk for Elmer. We had our clothes stored at Uncle Hanse's in Sterling. We got ready and were shown where the girls lived--we should go introduce ourselves. As I came to Maggie's house, I knocked on the door. She came and invited me in and introduced me to her mother and off to the dance we went. When we got there Elmer hadn't come. After a while he came in with Uncle Hanse and his wife. He had gone to the Funks house and knocked on the door twice and was told to stay out so he left. Then after a while Leona came in and Uncle went and asked what was the matter that she wouldn't let him in. Her little brother had been fooling her. He would go out, stay a while and then come knock on the door. After he had fooled her a few times then Elmer knocked on the door and she said stay out, thinking it was her brother. She apologized and went on with the dance, a real howdown--Pete Peterson on violin and Iris _________ played organ.

It was here that I met my dream girl, who became my sweetheart and wonderful wife. This was the latter part of October. We made an open camp on the top of those red hills, the sky and stars our covering.

One night I dreamed we went home. Came home Saturday night. Dad had come in his wagon and got us. So Sunday morning we went to Sunday School. Elmer and I had each got us a new suit. Quite keen we thought. On our way to the Church house this day we went kitty corner across the Church lot on a trail. As we approached the building I noticed two girls coming toward the Church building on the east sidewalk. As they came up to the southeast corner of the building we met. It was Eudean Worthington and Delia Foot. We stood and talked for a while and then the girls went in at the south door and Elmer and I went at the east door. After Sunday School I went out of the east door and went across to the candy shop of a Parley Anderson, Eudean' 5 uncle, and met her mother, who treated me very nice, and then I woke up and I layed there gazing at the stars wondering what it all meant. Now this was in the latter part of October and we came home in June the next spring and re-enacted the same thing. Came home Saturday night dressed in our best, went to Sunday School, met the girls in the same spot. They were dressed in the same white dresses with red polkadots and ruffles on the sleeves, but this time when I really came home and went down to Uncle Parley Anderson's shop the girls came there and I made a date and that started a life long association.

During the Christmas holiday of 1914 I gave her a diamond and in May were married. Dad took us to Manti in his wagon and Eudean' 5 mother went with us. When we came home it was quite late. We had no place to go. Dad didn't ask us to stay. Neither did her mother. So we went down to her Grandma Anderson's place and she told us to go over to the old place. There was an old iron bed and she gave us some quilts and there we made our home for a couple of years.

Dad gave us a Jersey cow, one pig and 12 brown leghorn hens. Things got pretty tight but believe it or not we sold a few eggs and a little butter. Then I got a job out to G. L. Olsen's on Quitchenpah. Carl Albertsen was foreman. We got $40.00 per month and we were very glad for that; and then in the summer Eudean came to the ranch and they paid her $20.00 to cook. They gave us a tent to live in. It was boarded up. Earl was just a small baby and we would put him to bed at night while we washed dishes and got things ready for the next day. We had saved enough by working on the ranch and on the saw mills to have our house built. We would drive in from the ranch at night after work and work on our house, finishing the floors and making ready to move in. After two or three years we quit the ranch and bought a team and horses and wagon. And I went working saw mill again. Got enough lumber to build me a barn and then I took part of dad's farm or _________ and his ________ and was doing pretty well we thought. Good crops and then in the spring of 1918 were sitting up to our table one evening with our coal oil lamp when a knock came to the door and in came Uncle Parley Anderson and Pet Andersen, the Elders Presidency. After some time they asked me if I would accept a call to go on a mission. I was stunned Didn't know what to say. I asked for a few months to think it over. They said they would call back again later. After thinking it over for some time I told them I would go. It was a very hard decision to make, to leave my wife and little boy. So they sent it in and I got a call to the Northern States Mission to leave Salt Lake November 19, 1919.


Memories of Earl R Olsen transcribed by Iris Olsen




He studied the scriptures all the time. He was well read from the book Josepheus. He was like his dad in this way. Grandpa Peter Olsen was always studying the scriptures. I guess where Raymond really got his testimony was when he was on his mission. His desires of the heart were pure before God. He was Counselor in the Bishopric for 16 years, with Bishop Gerald L. Olsen.

His interests were reading the scriptures, Cattlemen's Association, and playing rook.

His last years were spent in the nursing home in Ferron, Utah. He was very well liked there and spent much time converting people to the gospel, and he was loved for this. His personality was very mild and caring for other people. He enjoyed talking with people and they enjoyed talking to him.