Married William Wilford Astle 20 Aug 1902 in Salt Lake City
Elizabeth-Lloyd
Died 27 June 1944 in Logan
Buried in Logan
1910 Census
1920 Census
1930 Census
This history of Elizabeth and William is by Iveine Astle and Walter Astle. If someone has a better image of Elizabeth and William's wedding photo, I'd love to have a digital copy.
When William was ten years old his father, John, felt that he should follow the teachings of the Church and married in polygamy. He married Melvina Ann Banks on April 3, 1884. This was about three months after the ninth and youngest child was born to Isabella. This marriage had a big effect on the lives of all the family. John had to spend a lot of his time hiding from the federal officers, leaving most of the farming to be done by the three older boys, John Francis, Richard Thomas and William Wilford. While putting up hay one day, the boys made lemonade in a copper bucket. The reaction between the acidic lemon and the copper created a poison. All three boys nearly lost their lives. The family was very short on money and part of the time when they ate at Millie's (Melvina' s) they ate squirrel and snake meat.
In order to avoid arrest by the federal officers, John took some steps for his own protection. One thing he did was to construct a hiding place by digging a room under the calf pen with a trap door opening in the middle of the pen. The children would all help keep a lookout for officers. When they saw one coming they would yell and John would run to the calf pen and hide in the room. One of the children would have to hurry after him to spread straw and manure over the trap door. William told how he was often the one who followed his father to cover the trap door. He also told how the children would then tease the officer by suggesting places to look.
In order to avoid arrest John decided to leave Montpelier. In the spring of 1884, John and his second wife Moved to Afton, Wyoming leaving the first family in Montpelier. He traveled back and forth between the two places for a year and then decided to move both families to Star Valley. In the spring of 1885, when they moved, William was 14 years old.
Isabella Jane and her family lived in Afton and the second family moved to the farm they homesteaded in Grover. William and his brothers would go to Grover to work on the farm and
spent some time with Millie there. The first winter William made, by hand, some chairs and a bed for his sister Violet's doll. She kept them her entire life.
As a boy and a young man, William, along with his brothers, hunted deer to help provide food for the two families. They made what he called snowshoes but what were really a homemade ski. He claimed they could out run a deer going downhill in deep snow. They would climb the mountain and get a deer and then tie its head so it would slide and let the deer pull them downhill.
Much of the time during their first years in Star Valley they had no money at all. They raised gardens and fished and hunted to help provide food. They also gathered wild berries during the summer. Often the frost would come before the grain was ready to cut but it was milled into flour anyway. It made a very sticky bread. William often described the Star Valley weather as "nine months winter and three months late in the fall." He was taught to observe where various things could be found, where deer and elk wintered and where the biggest and heaviest crops of natural fruit were to be found.
He would never swear unless he quoted some story but he could put a lot of emphasis in "By George" or "My Socks."
William herded sheep in the hills west of Afton and in the spring he sheared sheep in Soda Springs. He was quite proud of the fact that he could shear more sheep per day than most of the men. During his early twenties he homesteaded 160 acres east of Grover and worked farming it.
He was active in the LDS church and was made president of the Religion class. He was the only male Religion Class president in the church. He was ordained a Seventy and later was selected to be the Bishop's Counselor and so was ordained a High Priest. He was the youngest High Priest in the Valley.
In 1900 he received a call to the Northwestern States Mission. He left on July 3, 1900 and went to Salt Lake City to go to the temple. Some of the church authorities questioned his church membership because he had been baptized a month before his eighth birthday. This had been done to avoid the cold weather as they had to be baptized out of doors in a stream. The church leaders insisted that he be rebaptized and be reordained to all his offices before he could go to the temple. This was done and he was set apart for his mission by J. Golden Kimball. Later he was advised by the authorities in Salt Lake that his original baptism and ordinations were all right and valid.
He went first to Baker, Oregon and then on to Spokane Washington. He worked in the mission field for one year in the Spokane and Walla Walla areas. They traveled without purse or
script. The elders were poorly received. Once they hadn't had a thing to eat all day and it was getting dark. Walking down the road William saw a piece of string sticking up in the dirt. He stooped over and pulled on it and up came a little cloth bag which held a fifty cent piece which paid for their lodging for the night.
When William started his mission his father, John was already on a mission in England. Due to the influence of his father he was released from the Northwestern States mission on July 22, 1901 and was transferred to the mission in England on August 4, 1901. He actually spent twelve months in the northwest and then went home and on to England. He was assigned to the Nottingham area where his father was already working. He actually spent part of his mission with his father as a companion. The two of them also did some genealogical research. They were responsible for the records we have of James Astle and his mother.
John Astle had been a boy in Nottingham and had attended school with Elizabeth Ann Goddard, so he went to see her. William went with him and here he met her daughter, Elizabeth Ann Shaw. When he left for his mission he had been engaged to a local Grover girl but this had been broken off. He became interested in Elizabeth and she later became his wife. After she met William, she went to work in the mission home where he was living. There they had an opportunity to get better acquainted. John always claimed that he never went to sleep in the daytime, but one day he went to sleep in the mission home's front room. Elizabeth took some hot iron curlers and curled his hair while he slept. When he woke up he couldn't understand why everyone laughed at him. William spent 13 months in England and then returned home to Salt Lake City, Utah on August 13, 1902.
Elizabeth Ann Shaw, the daughter of Joseph Shaw and Elizabeth Ann Goddard was born November 2, 1878 in Westwood, Nottinghamshire, England. She was the fourth child in the family and the third daughter. The total number of children was at least 13. It is reported that there were two or three additional births that were not named or recorded.
As a girl she was not very well. She did help with the work around the house and often stated that it seemed like she was always tending a baby. She had light brown hair and a light complexion. At the time of her marriage she could span around her waist. When she first came to Afton, the local people couldn't understand why William had married that weak foreigner.
Her mother was a member of the Church but her father was not. Joseph, her father, was very friendly with the elders and they often visited in the home. Elizabeth was baptized on July 7, 1878 when she was nine years old. Her father was a butcher by trade and was very well to do by the standards of that time. He owned a butcher shop but also worked as manager for a cooperative that had several shops and for which he did most of the purchasing. He was considered to be very good at estimating the weight of livestock. Elizabeth worked with him in the shop where she learned to butcher and properly cut up meat. This knowledge proved to be valuable later.
Elizabeth took nursing training at a hospital in Nottingham and worked at the hospital for a time. She was a very good cook and liked to cook. Her meals were always tasty and delicious. She cooked entirely from memory.
When Elizabeth was about seven years old her mother left the girls with instructions to clear the table, which they didn't do until they saw her returning. When Elizabeth saw her coming, she grabbed the sugar bowl and started to run to the cupboard as her mother came around the corner and slapped her on the side of her head. The blow evidently broke the ear drum as she was deaf in that ear the rest of her life.
After William and Elizabeth met, she decided she would like to go to America. When she asked her father he told her he would give her the money to go provided she would wait several months to be certain that she really wanted to go. She waited, but still wanted to go, so he gave her the money. When she got on the train to leave, he save her a sack of bananas to eat on the way. These were hard to get and were considered a delicacy at that time. She didn't dare tell him that she didn't like them very well. She passed some to other people in the compartment but also ate some herself because she felt she should because of his efforts. By the time she ate the last one, she had learned to like them and wished she had kept them all. She liked them the rest of her life.
Before she left England Elizabeth bought some heavy crepe backed satin material for her wedding dress and brought it with her. When she got to America she wanted to avoid customs so she wrapped the material around her waist under her corsets and she got it through duty free.
Elizabeth left England in February l902, several months before William came home. She took a ship which was supposed to land in New York City, but the weather was very bad and it stopped at Portland, Maine. She had to travel from there to New York City by train and then on to Salt Lake City.
Elizabeth had an older sister, Lucy, who had come to America several years before with some convert emigrants and was living in Salt Lake City. Lucy was married and had a house, so Elizabeth went to stay with her. While staying with Lucy she made her wedding dress by hand from the material she brought with her from England. She lived with her sister until William came home in August of that year.
William arrived in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, August 13, l902. They had a date to be married the next Friday, but William was sick so they had to put it off. They did go to the temple on Wednesday, August 20, l902 and were married. The ceremony was performed by John R. Kinder. After the ceremony they went to Lucy's home and she asked them to stay with her children for a short time while she ran an errand. Lucy didn't come back until late in the day. They spent the rest of their wedding day baby sitting her children. They were very unhappy. The next day they left for Grover, Wyoming. They went there thinking they were still in the sheep business with some money coming in. When they arrived home they received some bad news. William's brother, Richard, who had been running the sheep business while William was gone had lost everything and they not only had no money or income but were in debt. They had to live with Richard and his family for some months until other arrangements could be made.
William went to work for the Covey sheep outfit and tried to get back into the sheep business, but did not succeed. He farmed and did some freighting. He freighted between Afton and Montpelier. He and Elizabeth made trips to Brigham City from Grover to trade cheese for fruit, mostly peaches, which they took back and sold in Star Valley. William opened a small grocery store in Grover and was also postmaster. While living in Grover their first three children were born. Iveine was born on September 26, 1903, Olive on June 4, 1905, and Orrin December 3, 1906.
While in Grover he also started to practice butchering. Elizabeth helped and taught him what she had learned from her father. He sold the meat through his store. He did his own killing and butchering and at times took Iveine and Olive with him. While he was doing the butchering they would sit on a log and cry.
In 1907 they decided to move to Afton and open a regular butcher shop. They moved in a covered wagon. Their home was in the rear of the building containing the butcher shop. He not only had the shop from which he sold meat but also had a meat wagon. This was a covered wagon with compartments built to take care of the meat. He would fill it with cut up meat and then tour all the homes and ranches in Star Valley selling from door to door. Elizabeth would take care of the shop and worked with him. This venture was very successful. While they were there their fourth child, Walter, was born on March 17, 1908.
They soon became restless and started looking for a warmer place to live. In the spring of 1908 they sold the butcher business and moved to Delta, Utah. William bought a lot in town and a farm in the country. He planned to farm and to have a butcher shop in the new town. A dam had been built and they were supposed to have plenty of water for irrigation. His brother, Joseph Hyrum, and family moved with them. They lived on the farm in tents, but soon started a cement block house. They got two walls up to form a "V" but that night the wind came up and blew it all down. Before they could rebuild, the dam broke and caused a flood. It washed past town and a number of calves and some cows drowned. Two donkeys were caught and were having a hard time until they came to an island in the middle of the flood. When they managed to climb out on it the watching people cheered.
While working on the house they went to a gravel pit to get sand and gravel. William took all his kids, Iveine, Olive, Orrin. and Walter. While the wagon was being loaded the kids except Walter, who could not walk, found a sand bank they could slide down. They slid many times and had a good time until they found they were starting the slide over an ant hill. They had ants all through their clothes and were being bitten. William had to undress them and pick off the ants before they could go home. With the dam gone there was no water for irrigation and there wouldn't be any water the next year. They harvested what crops they could and decided to leave Delta. In November 1909, the two families moved to Salt Lake City, Utah. They rented a house on State Street just south of 17th South on the east side of the street. William and his family lived in one side of the house and Hyrum and his family lived in the other side. That winter they worked for the Salt Lake City street department hauling gravel in their own wagons.
While they were living there an ordinance was passed in Salt Lake City requiring everyone to drive their wagons on the right side of the street. Will and Hyrum felt that this was an infringement on their personal liberty. The next day they drove their wagons on the left side of the street as they went to work. As you might expect, they were stopped by the police and warned to obey the new law. Such protests of increased government regulation were no more tolerated then than they are today.
Their fifth child, a daughter, Merle, was born on December 5, 1909.
In the early spring of 1910 William went back to Afton and while there bought his old butcher shop. In March he moved his family back into the same house they had lived in. He resumed running the butcher shop and drove the meat wagon around the valley. He went logging in the winter and was often held in the mountains by snow slides. His sister Elizabeth's husband, Alvin McCombs, was killed by a snow slide on one of these trips.
Wherever he went, William took part in ward activities. While in Afton he was active in dramas and other ward shows.
Millie, his father's second wife, became sick. After some time they were convinced that she was possessed with the devil, a common belief at that time. They decided to hold a prayer meeting to cast out the devil. She was in Grover and some of the elders and their families were in Afton. When they left Afton for Grover, she told the people with her in Grover that they were coming. She let them know that she did not want a blessing. When they got to Grover they all formed a circle around her bed and began to pray. Each man took a turn being voice in the prayer. It finally got around to William and, while he was praying, the spirit suddenly left her. As it left, the spirit hit the man kneeling next to William and knocked him back on his heels. He got up, went outside, and was sick. Millie was completely healed after that.
They stayed in Afton a year and a half. On September 12, 1911 their sixth child, Lloyd, was born.
William was still looking for a better place and he heard of a new town being settled called Metropolis, Nevada. A new dam had been built and there was a lot of good farmland. He decided to move there so he sold the butcher shop, packed up and moved. They left Afton on November 2, 1911 and went by buggy to Montpelier, Idaho. They had to stay in Montpelier for a week because he could not get a car from the railroad to load their possessions in. When it came and was loaded William rode in the freight car with the livestock to Wells, Nevada. Elizabeth and the rest of the family went by passenger train.
Just after they arrived in Montpelier, Iveine came down with the chicken pox. While on the train to Wells all the rest of the children came down with it. Elizabeth had her hands full with a sick family. There was snow on the ground so William met the family at Wells with horses and a sleigh. All the sick children were loaded into the box of the sleigh in bedding and then the whole top of the box was covered with quilts. They rode twelve miles to Metropolis like that. There was no house, just two tents. All the children were put in one tent with a stove and a fire was kept going night and day until they got over the chicken pox. This was quite a job because there was no wood available and the fires were kept going with sagebrush.
William bought 20 acres of land one mile north of town. This was where the tents were located. The first wooden building on the "twenty" was the outdoor privy. It was built while they were still living in the tents and of course it was still used after the house was built. This building had a long seat on one side with three holes cut in it, each of a different size from adult to small child. The house was built next followed by a barn and a granary. A cellar was also dug into the hill east of the house.
One of the first things he did was to fence the 20 acres to get ready to farm it. It was covered with sagebrush and this had to be cleaned off. He then laid out the irrigation ditches from the canal to his place. He did this by using a carpenters hand level to get the grade. The ditches were all dug by hand.
The house was located on a low hill toward the center of the land. It was a one story frame building with one bedroom. He soon finished it and they moved into it in the spring. That spring, before the inside of the house was finished, he got word that his mother, Isabella Jane, was very sick. It was assumed that she was possessed of the devil. William went back to Afton to help with her illness and to help cast out the devil. They did not accomplish this and she died May 16, 1912. Later it was determined that she had a stroke that affected her mind and body.
William had homesteaded land in Grover and was not eligible to get another homestead so Elizabeth filed on 182 acres of land available for desert entry. It was located five miles north of the "twenty," or about six miles from town. It was filed on the first summer. He fenced it and used it for pasture for horses, etc. He also farmed part of it, irrigating it with water from a large warm spring that cut across the corner of the place. There was also a small cold spring near the center of the north fence which was used for drinking and other domestic purposes.
A special branch railroad line had been built by the railroad to service the town. It ended at Metropolis. The first train came into Metropolis the summer of 1912 and the whole town, which was fair sized at the time, turned out for the event. William got the job of meeting the train and hauling the mail and freight into town, a distance of only a few blocks. One day while he was unloading freight at the big hotel in town, Orrin ran along at the side of the wagon and slipped so that his leg was run over by the rear wheel and was broken. A doctor came from Wells to set it.
There was a summer kitchen separate from the main house. During the summer all of the cooking was done in this kitchen. The heating stove was moved out of the front room and the rug was taken up and beaten and was rolled up and put away until the next winter. Straw rugs were put down for the summer. A water-cooled refrigerator was built by stretching burlap over a wooden frame. Water was kept running over it all the time and milk, butter, etc, were put in it to cool.
William always had cows, horses, and hogs. He purchased a pure bred white china boar from Kansas, of which he was very proud. The cows were milked and the cream was separated. The cream was put in cans and sold. The skim milk was fed to the pigs. One of his horses, named Pearl, was unpredictable. She was hard to control and tended to run away. One evening, as he entered the barn, she spooked and kicked the stall and manger to pieces. One piece of board flew and cut his face almost from his eye to his mouth and also knocked out his front tooth. He had a scar for the rest of his life.
The Christmas of 1913 they ordered presents from the Montgomery Ward catalogue. They didn't come in time for Christmas so on Christmas morning the children got up to an untrimmed tree with a note telling them that Santa had trouble and was delayed but would visit them on New Years day, which he did. After Santa had put the presents on the tree William and Elizabeth would wake up the children and let them walk around and look but they couldn't touch anything. They had to wait until morning to play with their things.
William farmed the "twenty" but it was soon evident that there was not enough water to irrigate it. The company had built a dam but there was not enough water in the creek to fill the dam. Most of the people moved away and the town dwindled to almost nothing. About fifteen of the twenty acres never did get enough water. He planted grain on it but it never did produce much. The other five acres was on the Burnt Creek flat and did not need much water. He planted oats on it three seasons in a row. The third year was the smallest yield which was 103 bushels to the acre with no irrigation at all.
William cleared part of the 182 acre farm of sagebrush and raised grain and potatoes. He used water from the warm creek that ran across a corner of the place for irrigation. The land produced very good crops of potatoes. After two years he had to stop using the water. Farmers living south of Metropolis claimed the water even though the small creek dried up long before it reached them. That ended most of the farming on the 182 acres.
While living on the "twenty" there were two additions to the family. Thelma was born August 5, 1913 and Vira was born August 11, 1915. Doctor Olmstead came from Wells to assist but they were born in the house on the "twenty." After each birth Elizabeth had to stay in bed for three weeks. After the births, William personally cleaned up and washed everything.
The town dwindled until there were only a few houses and only one general merchandise store. The fall of 1915 William bought the store and decided to move into town. The move was made in September of that year. He bought the store and the building it was in. There were no living quarters so he moved the house from the "twenty" and located it adjacent to the rear of the store. He jacked the house up onto wagon wheels and a caterpillar tractor pulled it into town. While they were getting the house into position at the back of the store, William attempted to enter the front door of the house which was directly behind the tractor. As he did so the tractor driver backed the tractor up. It caught him between the tractor and the house, partly crushing his body in the area of the hips. He was very badly bruised and had to walk with a crutch for some time. He never did go to bed. Much later in life he had an x-ray taken and the doctor said it showed that the hip had been broken some time in the past. The tractor incident was the only time it could have happened. His hip healed without medical attention.
The store and the post office went together, so Elizabeth was appointed postmaster. Most of the work was done by William or whoever was in the store. The post office was in the same
building. He also did quite a lot of farming on the "twenty" and the 182 acre farm. He also bought a natural grass pasture of twenty acres between town and the "twenty" on which he cut native hay. William had to be away from the store and post office quite often and then Elizabeth took care of them.
William was Justice of the Peace for the area and was also a Notary Public. Neither position called for much work but he did have to hold a hearing at one time. A transient worker committed suicide by putting a shotgun in his mouth and pulling the trigger. William said it was kind of messy.
About 1917 he bought a donkey for the kids. They had a lot of fun with it but their parents didn't have to worry about the kids going anywhere on it. They could ride it around the yard but if they tried to ride away it would just stop. If they tried to force it to go it would just lie down and nothing would make it get up.
As part of the store operation William sold ice. He cut and stored the ice himself. There was a hole dug for a basement in town. In winter he would fill the hole with water. It would freeze eight inches or more of ice. He would then cut it into blocks and take it to the store. He built a special ice house next to the store. The ice was placed in this in layers of sawdust. Some of the ice was sold in the store. Some was used in a refrigerator in the store and also for making ice cream to be sold in the store. Elizabeth had a very good recipe for ice cream. They bought a very large hand cranked ice cream freezer and the kids turned the crank. The ice cream was very much in demand especially by the cowboys w ho often rode through the area.
At that time Metropolis belonged to the North Weber, Ogden, Utah Stake of the L. D. S. church. All visitors came by train from Ogden to Wells and William would meet them and take them to Metropolis. They always stayed at his place. The family was active in the church and William was Sunday School Superintendent much of the time they lived in Metropolis.
During the spring and early summer the cows were pastured on the open range. After milking in the morning they were turned out to go where they wanted. Each evening the boys had to go find them. This was not always easy. The cows often went several miles and the boys couldn't be sure where they were, but they always watched the direction the cows started off in the morning. That was the direction they started to go looking for them. After the grass hay was cut on the twenty acre pasture the cows were usually put in it.
They operated the store and post office in the one building for a year and a half. At that time a man who had a saloon across the street decided to leave town. William and Elizabeth bought their property. This included the saloon building and a dwelling on the hill to the south. The store was moved into the saloon building and the family moved into the house. This separated the store and home but they continued to operate the store as they had before.
World War I took place while they were in Metropolis. Toward the end of it William had to register for the draft even though he was 45 years old. Elizabeth was very upset. She was afraid he would have to go, but he was never called.
Two or three times each summer, Elizabeth would put up a lunch, usually a big chicken or potato pie, and the family would drive up to the dam which was about seven miles northeast. Just above the dam were some hot springs. They were quite large and formed some good sized pools and also warmed the creek where they flowed into it. They would all swim in the pools and creek and then have lunch. The trips were made in a fringed, white top buggy pulled by two horses. The family often went riding in this buggy on Sundays or on special occasions. On one of these trips the kids were playing in the buggy and Thelma fell out and was run over by the wheels. She was quite badly hurt. They went to a nearby house. William and the man there administered to her and she soon felt better. The next day she was fine.
Almost every spring the family went for a ride in the buggy to where they were shearing sheep. William would talk to the sheep men and revive old memories of when he was in the sheep business. The kids would watch the shearing and all got a good mutton stew dinner out of it.
About a year before they left Metropolis they bought their first automobile. It was a Model T Ford with two seats and open sides. You had to put up curtains in case of inclement weather. They were never put up unless it was raining along with some wind. After they bought it they used it for rides but they still used the buggy part of the time.
While living in the last house they bought their first power washing machine. Before that the washer had to be turned by hand with the boys usually furnishing the power. It was run by water power. It was hooked up by hose to the domestic water pipe and the pressure of the water system operated the washer. It worked very well. The town had a good water system and due to all the people moving away there was plenty of water. There wasn't any electricity so they also bought a gasoline-operated iron to replace the old stove top type. They also bought some gas- powered Coleman lamps to light the home and store.
Elizabeth was good at sewing and made many of the clothes for all the family. She made dresses for the girls and shirts for the boys. Elizabeth gave readings at parties and social events. The poem "The Calf Path" was one of her favorites and was often read.
Rabbits were very numerous and just about destroyed some crops. To help reduce the number they had rabbit drives. A large number of people would line up and drive the rabbits into a trap. Everyone took part in these drives. School would be let out so the kids could take part and the store would close. Large numbers of rabbits were often caught. They would be killed in the traps and were then cleaned and were sent to California where they were sold in meat markets. William also bought dead cleaned rabbits during the winter, paying fifteen cents each for them. They were frozen by leaving them outside and then were also shipped to California.
William and Elizabeth were doing very well in Metropolis but it was isolated and the town was not growing. The children were getting bigger and there wasn't much opportunity for education or advancement. They decided t hat it would be best to move to where there were more advantages for the children, especially in education. William traveled to Providence, Utah and talked with his brother Francis. They looked around and had almost decided to buy the Merc store in Hyrum, Utah. Before doing so he decided to visit his brother Richard in Rupert Idaho. They went there together and while there William looked around and decided to buy a grocery store in the center of town from a man whom he had known as a boy in Star Valley. He bought the store but did not consult a lawyer and did not take all the legal actions that be should have taken. The result was that he was liable for all the previous owner's debts. He also bought a nine acre farm with a three bedroom house on it just north of the city.
In March of 1920 he returned to Metropolis and sold the store, the building and the home. Elizabeth did not approve his selection in Idaho and was reluctant to move there but at that stage had to go. They packed their belongings into a railroad car and William went with the car to Rupert. Elizabeth and the children made the trip in the Model T Ford. They had a young fellow by the name of Fred Devaney drive the car. The trip took most of the day. In the evening, on a narrow built up road almost to Rupert, Fred lost control of the car and ran off the road into the barrow pit. The car did not tip over and no one was hurt, but they couldn't get the car back on the road and so they spent the night there huddled in the car. They got out the next morning and drove into Rupert.
They moved into the house north of town and William began to run the store. He was doing very well but it did not last long. The men he bought the store from had promised to use the money he paid them to payoff the debts they owed but they didn't do it. The creditors placed a lien on the store merchandise and then took the store and all the money that William had. He lost six thousand dollars in six weeks. The family was left with nothing and he didn't have a job. He decided to sue the men he purchased the store from but did it through the church courts. The men were found guilty and were told to pay the money back but he never got a cent. William got a job in the Paul sugar factory and hated it very much but it got the family through the winter.
Neither William nor Elizabeth liked Rupert by that time and so in the spring they decided to move to Cache Valley, Utah. They rented another railroad car and loaded the household furniture, some cows, and some farm machinery in it. He built a place among the household goods where there was room for several people to sleep. Iveine, Olive, Orrin, and Walter made the trip to Cache Valley in the freight car along with William. Elizabeth and the rest of the family made the trip in the Model T Ford. This move to Providence, Utah was made in the spring of 1921. The family stayed with William' s brother, Francis, for about ten days. They then rented a house in north west Providence and moved the family into it.
William then bought some horses and wagons and began to haul lime rock from Providence canyon to the Amalgamated sugar factory west of Providence. Sometimes the rock was unloaded in railroad cars at the siding in Providence. He later bought a second wagon and Orrin drove it. Walter had to go along to help load and unload the wagons. The loading and unloading was all done by hand one rock at a time. They would get up at 4:00 AM and go up the canyon in the dark to get to the quarry about daylight. They would load the wagons, putting about seven tons of rock in each wagon and then drive slowly down the canyon to the unloading place. They usually finished shortly after noon.
The family stayed in the Fife house only a few months and then moved up near the center of town into two buildings a short distance apart. The property belonged to the Church and consisted of a former tithing office and a small log cabin. They cooked and ate in the two room tithing office and most of the children slept in the log cabin. This only lasted a short time. William bought the lot that lay between the two buildings and constructed a two story frame house on it. He got most of the lumber for the house by going into the canyon during the winter and cutting.logs. These. were taken to a sawmill and were cut into the lumber he needed.
Elizabeth was put in as president of the religion class program for the ward. This was similar to Primary but concentrated on a study of the scriptures. William bought a pasture west of Logan. It grew a good crop of native grass and he decided to cut it for hay. While cutting it, the mower knife clogged and he got down to clear it. He stepped in front of the knife and the horses started forward. The knife cut into the back of his leg above the heel, almost severing his Achilles tendon. He was laid up for some time and had a slight limp the rest of his life. While he couldn't work, Walter had to drive one of the wagons hauling rock. Orrin still drove the other.
In 1923 William got a job in Logan at the County Courthouse doing cleaning and maintenance work. Some of this work was done in the daytime but most of it was done in the evening after regular office hours. He would often take some of the children with him in the evening to help with the cleaning. He had to travel back and forth between Providence and Logan each day. Iveine also had a job in Logan and in order to avoid so much travel they decided to move to Logan. They also decided that if they got a house big enough, Elizabeth could help with the living expenses by taking in boarders. They bought a house at 236 North First East and moved to Logan on June 4, l924.
William started to put an addition on the house they bought. He added four bedrooms and two baths to the back of the house so as to make more room for boarders. Most of the lumber was from trees that he and the boys had cut in the forest.
Elizabeth started taking in boarders, mostly college students. There were four the first year but she got more later. She usually had about ten boarders each winter. There were usually a few in the summer. She was an excellent cook and served very good meals and her place .as always in demand. During the next few years she contributed a large part of the family income. The girls helped with the cleaning and cooking.
William and the boys worked at all sorts of odd jobs in addition to cleaning the Courthouse. They plowed gardens, hauled rubbish, and hauled manure or any other thing that was requested. All of this work was done with horses and wagon. They still kept three cows which had to be milked and also kept some chickens.
William continued to work at the Courthouse for about three years after moving to Logan. He was then laid off and decided to open a small butcher shop on north Main Street. His location was not very good and he found that they had a law that said he could not kill his own beef so it did not last long and he closed the shop.
William had a mustache before he went on his mission. He was proud of how long it grew. While he was in England, it got so long he could curl it around his ears. He shaved it off on July 23, 1926.
Elizabeth was president of the religion class in Logan for about four years. She was also in charge of preparing the church for funerals by putting white cloths on tables, stands, etc. which was the custom then.
The winter of 1927-28 Orrin had finished school and had a job teaching school in the coal mining town of Consumers, Utah. Orrin found that there was work in Consumers for carpenters and William went there and got a job. He worked there as a carpenter part of that winter.
He borrowed money and bought an old house on the corner of Third North and First East. It was a large house which he converted into two room apartments. He enlarged the rear and when he finished had five apartments which he rented.
During the l929 depression he got a job as custodian of the Logan Fourth Ward Chapel. He worked there for several years.
During the depression the banks foreclosed on many houses. Two of these were across the street from his house. They were in rather poor condition and he went down to the bank and made a deal to buy them with no down payment. He fixed up the two houses by putting in new foundations, painting, and remodeling. The three boys helped with this. He then rented them to get additional income.
In the late twenties and early thirties he went out selling knit goods for the factory Iveine worked for, The Logan Knitting Mills. He traveled through Idaho, Nevada, and Utah. Elizabeth went with him on some of these trips. They did this for about two years and were quite successful.
To illustrate some of the experiences they had while out selling I am including part of a letter that Elizabeth wrote to me, Walter, on Aug. 10, 1929 just after they got back from one of their trips. She is telling what they did on the trip. It is written here as near as possible the way she wrote it. This includes the spelling and capitilizing of letters the way she did it. This is done to make it as much like mama as possible.
Aug 6 I wrote you when we were thinking of going to twin Falls. I think we went from Rogerton to Twin Falls and spent sunday. we went back to Rogerton. From there to three creek and over to Jarbridge the mining camp and oh my for roads. Jarbridge is right in a hole. It was over the mountings to go in and get out and right up too. Just a road for one on a very high grade. Sardine was not in it at all. We were going down main st. there and our Ring Geers broke in car. had to rustle some old ones. Cost us $7.00. Went throu the Gold Silver mine. got some good rock. it was quite a experience for me. We did fairly well but as other places they mostly did not want to order till later. we thought we would make several other places and then perhaps make home sat night but when we were coming out pulling up that high grade they said very few cars made it. our car proved a Peach. it took us to about 2 miles from the top and then that old Ring Geer Broke again. Oh we were in it. did not know what to do. in bad place and very little passing. waited a long time. two Boys came along going to Elko and we tried to tow the car but could not. had to lock it up and they took us in to farm house on road for over 20 miles. had to pay for accomidating. Papa and a man went up to get the car. they had a orful time. had to take the Break from back wheels before it would move and then papa had to coast down grade where he could. it was orful. so many turns. I don't know yet how we ever came throu. I was sure thankful when they got down which took them 7 hours. we sent to Elko for the gears with the men that brought us down. They expressed them to Death and the Mail truck brought them to us costing us $25.00. then our board bill. started on our way for Death and when about a mile from grade top again the car went Punk again. We thought it was the same thing. got first one and another to tow us a while then we Coasted some of the way. then we had to tie our chains and get pulled in that way and oh the times they broke and on the back of a large car. we could not see for dirt. orful. when we got to Death papa started to take the gears out again to see and found them all OK. All the back part of the car apart for nothing and it was sure hard to get wheels off. then we spoiled the threads on one. when we got a man then to help us out and it proved to be the transmitter all broke and had to buy one wheel to fix it a bit and he told us it would cost us much to get a new one. he said he would bolt the thing together and he thought if we were careful we would be able to make it to somewhere better to buy if we left it in high and stop only on hills. Well we were crazy enough to take the chance and we started at about noon monday and throu Wells over the Desert to Salt Lake and following the highway had to be towed up one hill. got on state st at Salt Lake. had to stop for those lights and oh the cars. OH MY. If you could only of seen us. Didn't we make some noise when we started finally. got off there and on our way to Ogden. Fixing Roads. Could not make it. had to get pushed up one bad place. got Ogden finally and Orrin he Brought me up and came to see if we were alright. Coming up Sardine Vira rode with papa to help pull the little plug. Maid it alright but right on top of Sardine. the worst place a Blow out. well we got that fixed and pulled in home OK but we had to camp on highway Monday night. We read till 10:30 then kept our lights on. started out before daylight and oh for the Mosquitos but we were blest we came throu all in high.
In 1931 and 1932 Elizabeth began to have trouble with high blood pressure. The spring of 1932 she was in the hospital for a while and was quite sick. She had grown quite fleshy and they put her on a restricted diet. She was limited on salt and some foods and the doctor gave her some pills. The pills seemed to help and she was always of the opinion that if something was good, more was better. She increased the number taken each day and soon took too many. The result was she became very confused and did not know what she was doing. William started giving her the piils and she soon returned to normal. They had no real cure for high blood pressure and it bothered her the rest of her life.
William decided to combine all his property investment in one by enlarging and improving the first apartment house on Third North and First East. He sold the old home and also the two houses across the street. He used the money received on the apartment house. He extended it to the front by adding two three-room apartments on each of three floors. He also added some rooms at the rear. This changed the building into a rectangular building three stories high with a flat roof. He brick-veneered the entire building. When he was finished he had twelve apartments that he was renting. He also had a three bedroom apartment at the rear on the ground floor for living quarters for the family. He did all this construction after he was 65 years old. He did most of the work himself. Lloyd helped some with the wiring and some with the building. The two older boys were no longer at home.
When he was building the apartments at the front of the building he worked alone most of the time. One day after he had completed the frame work, but before he added the flooring, he was working on the third floor when he slipped and fell. He fell the full three floors into the basement. He was knocked unconscious and lay there for some time before Elizabeth found him. She called Olive at work and they took him to the hospital. H soon recovered and went back to building. After the fall he had trouble with seeing double a lot of the time.
The family, those still at home, moved into the large apartment in December 1938. He rented the first apartment in the new building in August 1938. All of the apartments were furnished. He bought most of the furniture in Salt Lake City.
William was not afraid of high places even after his fall. He would walk around the building edge just to show he could. After they moved into the apartment house they mostly stayed there and took care of it. William did all the maintenance work like painting, plumbing repairs, carpentry, etc, and Elizabeth kept the curtains and windows clean. She also did other cleaning. The third floor was not completely finished when he move in but he soon finished it.
William made his first trip to California in 1936. He was very anxious to pick oranges from a tree, which he did. He could hardly believe that he was crossing the desert on his way there. He said a desert had to be flat and that southern Nevada and California had hills.
They were both active iri the church. He complained a little that the leaders didn't have much use for older people. He went to the temple regularly. Elizabeth went with him part of the time but not as often as he did.
Elizabeth was bothered with high blood pressure but still led a normal life. She took care of the house and did all the fruit canning, etc. that she had always done. She enjoyed going to town shopping and going to shows. At Christmas 1943 she caught a severe cold and couldn't seem to get over it. The latter part of January 1944 she had a stroke or cerebral hemorrhage. From that time she was completely helpless. She talked very little and didn't always know the people around her. This gradually got worse until June 27, 1944 when she died at home with all her children around her. She was buried in the Logan cemetery.
William went up to the cemetery and bought two lots. Each would hold eight graves. He said it was enough room for the entire family and that perhaps he could get the family together in death since he couldn't in life.
William continued to live at the apartment house and Iveine lived with him and helped take care of him and the apartments. She helped with painting, papering and in the management.
On July 24, 1947, William and Iveine traveled to Salt Lake City for the Centennial celebration activities there. In the evening after a concert in the Tabernacle he was hit by a car in the crosswalk on South Temple in the center of the block by the south entrance to the Temple grounds. He received a severe blow to the head and was taken unconscious to the old County Hospital on Twenty-first South and State Street. While waiting for the ambulance Iveine sat in the street holding his head in her lap. When he recovered consciousness, Walter asked what he remembered. He said he couldn't remember anything but that one thing puzzled him. He said he remembered seeing Iveine sitting in he middle of the street holding an old man's head in her lap.
He continued to work in the church. For two years he was put in charge of the ward teaching in the Fourth Ward and had to check up on it each month. He continued going to the Temple frequently. During l953 and 1954 he performed more endowments in the Logan Temple than any other patron.
During the first year after Elizabeth's death he went to the cemetery every evening and placed flowers on her grave.
He took care of the apartment house and did all the lawn cutting and other maintenance work until 1954. It then became evident that he was no longer competent to take care of it alone. Iveine quit work and took over the care of the apartment house and of him. He gradually failed in health and became somewhat senile and had to have constant care. In the fall of 1956 he became seriously ill with a kidney infection and had a markedly elevated temperature and blood pressure. On November 30th he had a stroke and died December 2, 1956. He was buried in the Logan cemetery December 5, l956. 1
1 comment:
Thank you Erica for putting this history up. You do such a great service to make these available for the family. I hadn't seen this history for many years and never received a copy of it before. I appreciate getting it now, because of you. It was so nice to remember these stories that I haven't heard since I was small.
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