Autobiography
Harold R “Hal” and Mary Kay Southwick Bunderson
And Biographical Profiles of Our Parents, Siblings and Grandparents
The family history part of our genealogical research
CHAPTER 18
Hal’s Parents
Billy, and Irene lived on the American frontier. Hard physical work was their currency;
provident living and self-reliance their pantry and their faith in Jesus Christ; their physician and protection.
Index
• My immigrant heritage – Sweden, Denmark and England (Chapter 20)
• Overview – My parents - living in Stone, Idaho and Tremonton, Utah
Billy’s life before marriage
• Billy’s first eight years – Billy’s parent’s - hard times; hard choices (Chapter 20)
• Billy’s family move from Snowville to Stone – Billy ice-skates to school
• Grandma Fredrikke made Billy’s first suit – tailored to fit
• Billy joined his father - worked for Uncle Hans and Aunt Jennie
• The horse refused to go – Billy learns a valuable lesson
• Lightning strikes the profane sheepherder dead
• Billy was promoted to “Sheepherder” – without a camp boy
• Billy returns home – finds family destitute - gives his pay to his mother
• Unusual teenager – practical - long-term career planning
• Eighteen years old – Billy buys a farm
• Billy built a granary that served as his temporary residence, and outbuildings
• Root cellar
• Outhouse
• Hand-dug water well
• Farm animals and transportation
• Fences, corrals and sheds – fence posts and poles cut from nearby forests
• Dealing with ravenous insects and wild animals
• Ward clerk - chorister – stake music director - organized traveling quartet
• Billy played the trombone - helped form a dance band
• Billy played competitive sports - loved outdoor activities
• Thirty-year-old Billy – ward clerk – meets his future wife
• Billy ordained a High Priest – counselor in ward bishopric
Irene’s life before marriage
• My mother, Irene, was born on December 23, 1902
• Irene grew-up observing her father as a leader; her mother a gracious hostess
• Irene’s big dance- her partner for one dance, a master dance instructor
• Education – Get all you can
• Impact of her father’s Church callings on Irene
• Irrigation dam on Deep Creek; a big deal
• Construction needs for dam brought telephone service to the valley
• “I will never forget the sight and sound of the roaring water”
• Enormous tragedy – Thomas dies while at the dam site
•
Billy and Irene’s courtship
• Billy took Irene home from the dance – their 5-month courtship begins
• My father and mother’s love for each other – much deeper than emotion
Irene and Billy’s married life
• Their marriage – last day of summer – 70 miles away
• Traveling to the Logan Temple to get married – long trip – alone
• Nona’s account of farmhouse
• Stone Reservoir – Flood irrigation comes to the valley
• Billy and Irene bought more farmland
• Most of the children were born in the farmhouse
• When the children were 8-years old, baptized in Deep Creek
• School in Stone – one room - eight grades - one teacher
• Irene – caregiver for grandma, Jane Carter Harris, until her death –1933
• Tragedy – car rollover accident – Irene pregnant, severely injured
• Thomas R. is born – dies 12 days later – mother deathly ill
• Miracle – Doctor could not help – so God sent his servant – Irene is healed
• The Great Depression and Politics – my parents - life-long Democrats
• Irene made bed quilts and braided rugs for her home
• Nona’s Christmas gift – Daddy’s “magic” preserved snapshots of family history
• “Santa Clause is my Dad!”
• Disciplining children - more scary than painful
• Threshing grain was a big deal for every farmer in the valley
• Daddy’s trained dogs – “Tippy” killed the rattlesnake; saved the children
• Tippy requested euthanasia the only way he knew how
• Held under by long watergrasses - “Daddy, don’t die”
• Almost every night was Family Night
• Old “Bally,” a five-seater horse
• Life changing event – the family moves to Tremonton, Utah
• Standard of living comparison, Tremonton vs. Stone
• Animal production provided food and cash-flow for the family
• Small herd of beef cattle
• Personal money – working for farmers and food processors
• Mother worked at the tomato cannery
• Billy’s Church mission to the Washakie Indians – May 1948 to June, 1951
• Summer 1951 - my father’s terminal illness diagnosed
• Daddy knew he was dying – he and mother planned; she implemented
• Tragedy – Daddy dies – October 18, 1951
Irene’s life following Billy’s death
• Mother’s heavy burden without her sweetheart – others helped
• My father and mother had no medical or life insurance
• Stone farm buyer; attempted to take advantage of a widow
• Grieved for two years – then changed
• Mother; single parent household
• Mother’s support system – her Ward Bishop and her children
• Grade A dairy farm in Corinne – no more milking cows by hand
• Cleo sent part of his Army pay to mother
• Mother’s objective fulfilled; the farm helped her sons help each other
• Mother sold the farm – a good decision
• Mother became the dietician at the Valley Hospital in Tremonton
• Bear River Valley Mother of the Year award – March 1971
• Irene’s children were eager to be with her – she traveled to historic places
• Mother’s sportscar - Tremonton’s “Little old lady from Pasadena
• Mother refused monthly support - sell house - monthly payments - rent-free for life.
• Renting mother’s home proved problematic – sold it to Cleo and Shirley
Billy and Irene in the world of spirits – Peggy’s dream (revelation)
• Diana was dying - leaving her two baby girls weighed heavily
• On June 16, 1991, 18 months after Diana died, Diana visited Peggy
• Peggy asked, “Are you okay?”
• Peggy asked, “Who came for you?”
• I saw Grandpa and Grandma Bunderson – holding hands … walking and talking
• “What is going to happen to Kristen and Michelle (Diana’s two baby girls)?”
• Peggy asked, “Was your death a mistake?”
• “What will happen to your husband?”
• “I do not know how long the dream (revelation) lasted;” but …
• Postscript – more than one miracle
My immigrant heritage – Sweden, Denmark and England (Chapter 20) – Most of my great-grandparents and their children joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Church) in their native countries, immigrated to America and settled in northern Utah or southern Idaho. My mother’s ancestors were from England and immigrated in the 1850s. My paternal ancestors immigrated from Sweden and Denmark two decades later.
Utah and Idaho were U.S. territories when my ancestors arrived. Congress made Utah a territory in 1850 and a state in 1896. Idaho became a territory in 1863 and a state in 1890.
Overview - My parents – Living in Stone, Idaho and Tremonton, Utah - My parents, William Rudolph (1882-1951) and Lucy Irene Roe Bunderson (1902-1977), were living in the unincorporated hamlet of Stone, Idaho when they met. They were married September 22, 1921 in the Church’s Logan, Utah Temple.
My father answered to three nicknames, Billy, Willie and Will; “Billy” is generally used herein. My mother went by her middle name, “Irene.”
My father: Prior to marriage, my father was employed from late spring to mid-summer as a sheep-herder watching over a band of 3,000 ewes and lambs grazing on the western slopes of the Teton Mountains, 200 miles to the east of Stone.
When he was not sheepherding, he worked his 40-acre farm in Stone that he purchased when he was 18.
My mother: Mother’s father died from a heart attack in 1920. She was living with her widowed mother and siblings at the time she married my father a year later.
Married – living in Stone: My parents lived in a 700 sq. ft. wood-frame house with a covered porch. The house was lit by carbide and kerosene lamps and heated with a wood-burning cook stove.
My parents had eight children that survived birth (Thomas died as an infant), William Oleen (1922-1944), Nona (1924-2013), Lloyd Roe (1925-2005), Delphia (1927-2019), Vernon Odell (1929-2004), Cleo R (1932), Thomas R (1934-1934) and me, Harold R “Hal” (1936).
Except for me, mother delivered all of her children in the farmhouse. After the move to Tremonton, mother tragically slipped and fell on the front steps of our Tremonton home in 1939 - miscarriage - twin daughters.
When I was born, my parents farm comprised 200-acres; 160-acres of which had water rights. Their primary crops were alfalfa hay, wheat, barley. They also had a variety of farm animals and a small herd of beef cattle permitted to graze on federal land.
Move to Tremonton - So that their children could attend high school and live at home, they purchased a 4-acre ranchette two-miles east of Tremonton in 1939. Their plan was to keep and operate their farm in Stone; commuting weekly during the crop-growing season.
From a quality of life standpoint, their Tremonton home was an enormous step-up (see below, Tremonton vs. Stone; comparison of home life).
Commentary – It was not uncommon in those days for men, like Billy, to delay marriage until they had the means to support a family. Before Billy married, he likely employed family members to care of his livestock and watch over his farm when he was away herding sheep.
Billy’s Life before Marriage
Billy’s first eight years – Billy’s parent’s - hard times; hard choices (Chapter 20) – Billy’s father, William Victor Bunderson (1858-1927) and mother, Mary Norr (Karen Marie Andersen - 1861-1922), were living in Mayfield, Sanpete, County, Utah when they were married October 12, 1878. Immigrants from Sweden and Denmark, respectively – learned to speak English after arriving.
Billy, the third of eleven children, was born in Mayfield on December 25, 1882. Three months later the family moved to Snowville, Utah. William Victor, with the permission of his wife, Mary, married a second wife, Sarah Ellen Harris on June, 13, 1884. William Victor built separate homes in Snowville for his families. The families supported each other and got along quite well.
However, after passage of the federal Edmunds-Tucker Act of 1887, federal marshals were charged to arrest and hold alleged polygamists (as defined - below) for trial. William Victor’s status changed almost overnight from a peaceful citizen to an alleged felon wanted by the law.
The anti-polygamy laws passed by Congress were discriminatory as to whom they applied. First, they only applied to the territories; people living in the states were unaffected.
Second, application of the laws was narrow; only applying to polygamous marriages evidenced by a formal ceremony - certificate. Informal polygamous-type relationships such as multiple premarital, extramarital and similar consensual cohabitation affairs common in society were essentially exempt from those laws.
Third, the laws were politically-motivated and ruthlessly omitted any provision to remedy the welfare problems they created. Wives and innocent children of men found guilty of polygamy lost their breadwinner for generally five years (prison sentence); leaving many families financially destitute.
Rather than risk going to prison, William Victor, Mary and Sarah decided to surreptitiously take their children and flee over 200 miles east to the 6,200 ft. high, cold and sparsely settled hamlet of Grover, Wyoming Territory – a place where federal marshals generally did not go.
Church president, Wilford Woodruff, issued the “Manifesto,” prohibiting further plural marriages by Church members in 1890 (D&C, Official Declaration 1). After that, federal authorities stood down.
A year later, William Victor, Mary, Sarah and their children returned to their homes in Snowville essentially bankrupt. Billy was eight years old. They had lived in Grover for three years.
Commentary – The freedoms and civil liberties for every citizen granted in America’s founding documents has been implemented slowly. Politicians were able to stay in office by controlling the laws specifying who was eligible to vote. In late 1800s America, the classes of people who were not allowed to vote included women, certain men because of their ethnicity, such as Chinese, felons (polygamy was a felony) and mentally ill.
Anti-polygamy laws were passed by Republican majorities to minimize Democratic vote. Church members were perceived to be Democrats and voting as a block.
Territory test oath laws disenfranchised men who were not polygamists, but were members of an organization that (conditionally) approved of polygamy. In Idaho, a quarter of the territory’s population were members of the Church. The vast majority of the Church’s male members were monogamist. Because suspected Church members refused to sign the test oath and disavow their faith, they were denied their civil rights; prohibited from voting, holding public office or serving on juries.
Idaho’s test oath was enacted in 1884 and repealed in 1892.
Women did not win national suffrage until 1920. Albeit, Wyoming Territory granted women voting rights in 1869; the first territory or state in the nation to do so; Utah Territory was second; 1870. However, the federal Edmunds-Tucker Act if 1887 stripped Utah women of their suffrage rights granted in Utah’s Territorial Constitution; not to be restored until Congress made Utah Territory a State in 1896 and the Utah legislature included women’s suffrage in its State Constitution.
Congress passed the first welfare law in 1935.
Billy’s family move from Snowville to Stone – Billy ice-skated to school - When William Victor, Mary and Sarah and their children returned to Snowville, they only stayed a short time. William Victor filed a homestead claim on land three miles north in Stone and built homes.
With his parent’s encouragement, 9-year-old Billy began attending elementary school in Snowville. Billy said he got up early to be at school on time. During the winter, he carried his ice skates to the banks of an irrigation canal containing residual water that froze. He skated to school and back home again. He wrote, “The air was nippy and cold – but I enjoyed it anyway… and completed my 8th grade.”
Commentary - There was no state-sponsored public schools at that time. Community residents banded together to employ a teacher to educate their children up to the eighth grade. The closest high school was in Tremonton.
Grandma Fredrikke made Billy’s first suit – tailored to fit - At age 12, Billy was ordained to the office of Deacon in the Church’s Aaronic Priesthood. He wanted to have a suit to wear like the other boys, when he joined them on Sunday passing the Sacrament and other church duties. However, the family didn’t have the money to buy a suit for him.
Seeing her grandson’s worthy desire, Billy’s grandmother, Fredrekke Pederson (Norr) told him she had a bag of wool and would tailor-make a suit for him. Fredrekke washed, carded and spun the wool into yarn on her spinning wheel. She then wove it into cloth on her loom; dyed the fabric a reddish brown; took Billy’s suit measurements, drew a pattern and cut and sewed the fabric into a suit.
Billy was very grateful to his remarkable and talented matriarch. He said it was the prettiest suit he ever owned. Certainly, it was the only suit he would ever own that was made with love in every stitch.
Billy joined his father - worked for Uncle Hans and Aunt Jennie – Billy’s employment opportunities were limited to working for other farmers; harvesting hay, grain and herding cows – sometimes working with his father who was similarly employed.
Such an opportunity came in 1895 when Billy’s Uncle Hans and Aunt Jennie Miller wrote to his mother asking for help putting up their hay. Their farm was near Albion, Idaho, 65 miles northwest of Stone. Hans and Jennie offered to pay William Victor $1.50 a day. William Victor accepted and took Billy with him. Twelve-year-old Billy likely drove a team of horses. Unfortunately, Billy contracted measles and was unable to work for several days - his aunt nursed him back to health. Hans paid his brother-in-law $36 and Billy $5 plus room and board – a handsome sum for the 24 days they spent in Albion, loading, hauling and stacking over 150 wagon-loads of loose (unbaled) hay.
Commentary: “Jennie” is an older sister of Billy’s mother, Mary. When Jennie arrived in America, she changed her name from Christina Georgina to Christine Jorgene – Jennie for short.
Settlers from Utah began moving into Albion Valley in 1868. The town was founded as Marsh Basin in 1873. The settlers laid claim to either 160-acre parcels under the 1862 Homestead Act or later, 640 acres under the more stringent 1877 Desert Land Act. At that time, the town, excluding the outlying farm households, had a population of under 300, similar to today.
The town’s name of Marsh Basin never caught-on. The Settlers voted to change the name to Albion. Albion meant “white land” and was an early name used for England because of the chalk-white - White Cliffs of Dover that loom 350 feet above the English Channel. The Roman Empire’s first successful invasion of present-day England started in 43 AD. They then called the land Britannia.
The Marsh Basin settlers noted they had a “white land” too. The nearby 10-thousand-foot-high mountain range was snow-capped most of the year. Today, the mountain range and the city bear the name of Albion.
Measles is a very serious contagious disease for which a vaccine was not invented until 1963.
After my family moved to Tremonton; my father did as his father; often took my brothers and me with him to work for other farmers harvesting tomatoes, sweet corn, potatoes and sugar beets.
The horse refused to go – Billy learns a valuable lesson – The family was running low on wood fuel for their stoves. William Victor directed his 12-year old son to harness and hitch-up their team of horses to the wagon and go to the “Cedars” for a load of dry firewood – a 40-mile round-trip.
When Billy’s grandmother, Fredrekke, discovered “Willie” was going to the Cedars alone, she insisted that she accompany him. Somewhere in route, one of the horses balked and refused to go any further from the barnyard. Try as they might, including cracking the reigns on the horses back, the horse refused to go any further.
Young Billy was ready to abort their mission and go back home. His grandmother said no, the family needed the firewood. She instructed Willie to get off the wagon with her. They knelt in prayer and asked the Lord to bless the horse so he would calm down and they could complete their task. After they prayed, they got back up on the wagon seat; Willie took the reins and told the horses to “giddy up.” Both horses calmly pulled the wagon to their destination. When they arrived, Billy went from tree grove to tree grove; chopping down dead and dry juniper logs and limbs and his grandmother cutting the small branches from the logs. They then drove their wagon to each pile of cut logs and worked together loading the wagon; returning home without further incident.
Commentary - Billy learned a lesson from his grandmother that day; much more valuable than firewood; “With God’s help, all things are Possible.” (Matthew 19:26).
Local residents called the trees “cedar” because when cut, they give off a cedar-like aroma. The true name of the specie is Mountain Juniper. Dry Juniper wood is very hard and makes excellent long-burning firewood.
It is not uncommon for horses leaving their barnyard to balk. Horses and cows generally want to stay near the friendly surroundings of their corral and pasture. When away, and if allowed to get their head, the animals will run to get back to the food and security of their familiar surroundings. In a sense, humans are the same way, “There’s no place like home.”
Lightning strikes the profane sheepherder dead - At age 17 (1899), Billy found employment 200-miles east of Stone herding a band of sheep grazing on the west side of the Teton Mountain Range that forms the Wyoming-Idaho border (About 60 miles northwest of Grover, Wyoming where Billy lived for three years as a boy).
From his position high on the western slopes of the Tetons, Billy had an unobstructed, panoramic view of eastern Idaho and the closest city below; likely Driggs.
Billy’s title was “camp boy.” His duties included maintaining the camp area, help cook their food, wash the dishes and help herd the 3,000 head of ewes and lambs that nursed their mother’s milk and ate grass.
Billy described the sheepherder with whom he worked as a rough character; profane, emotional and a braggart. The man slept with a pistol under his pillow; at the ready, should anyone or anything surprise him (paranoia?). In reality, the only dangers in the mountains were violent storms and predators, such as wolves, coyotes or perhaps a bear. If a predator came close, the sheep dogs would alert the camp. If the barking dogs didn’t scare off the intruder, the sheepherder would use his high-powered rifle to scare away or kill the animal.
Billy said on the day the owner came to inspect the herd, he and the sheepherder were conversing several yards away. Billy could only hear the louder parts of their conversation. He said he heard the sheepherder cursing God and the owner telling the man to stop it; it was Sunday and he should not be taking the Lord’s name in vein. Whereupon, the sheepherder became incensed, cursed the more and in an elevated voice, raised his fists over his head and said “If Jesus Christ was here; I would fight him with my bare fists.”
At that instant, a bolt of lightning struck the sheepherder and he fell dead. Billy and the owner were not injured. The owner and Billy strapped the sheepherder’s body over his horse for the owner to take his remains to the closest city to report the incident and burial.
Commentary - Lightning typically strikes the highest point. The covered wagon and their horses were likely higher than a man with his fists in the air. Of course, no one knows why the lightning struck where it did, but Billy had no doubt; the lesson he learned that day was clear; cursing God can have immediate consequences. He told his family to never forget, life is fragile; “for all flesh is in my hands; be still and know that I am God.” (D&C 101: 16. Psalms 46:10).
Billy was promoted to “Sheepherder” – without a camp boy – With the sheepherder dead, the owner had no recourse but to give Billy a “battlefield-promotion.” He told Billy that he was now the sheepherder; responsible for his band of sheep. The owner gave Billy instructions; the sheep needed to be out of the high mountains by July 4 because in the high Tetons, snow could start falling in July; blizzards could come-up quickly, potentially stranding and killing the sheep.
Billy took note, but first focused on caring for the animals; continually moving them to the best grass. He also added to his own food stores. He told Irene he picked the small wild strawberries growing in patches on the mountain slopes and made cooked strawberry jam.
One day, Billy heard the sound of a marching band wafting up the mountainside, apparently from the 4th of July celebration in the town below. A few snowflakes had begun to fall. Billy was moving the sheep down the mountain when the worried owner found him.
Concerned that a blizzard was coming, they continued to move the sheep down the mountainside out of danger. When the owner counted and inspected his herd, he expressed amazement; there was no unanticipated loss of sheep and he said that the lambs were the best of all of his bands. The owner gave Billy a pay increase and asked him to come back the next season - Billy agreed.
With the sheep safely delivered to the railroad stockyards, Billy outfitted his horse and saddlebags and set-off on his 200-mile trip to his parent’s home in Stone.
Commentary – The highest point of the fabulous Teton Mountain Range that divides Idaho and Wyoming is “Grand Teton” that rises to 13,775 feet.
When deer or other wild game was not available for the sheepherder to shoot for the dog’s food and to augment his own pantry, Billy butchered a barren ewe. The owner expected herd-shrinkage for that purpose. Billy likely preserved fresh cuts of meat by putting them into a crock and covered them with brine.
The owner had more than one band of sheep that grazed for free on public lands. Weather permitting, he grazed them in the higher elevations during the late spring and early summer. Gradually bringing them down to the lower elevations as snow started to fall higher up. He would then drive the sheep to the nearest railhead for shipment. For Billy’s band of sheep, the nearest railhead would have likely been St. Anthony, Idaho, about 40 miles west of Driggs. Railroad service reached St. Anthony in 1899 and a rail-spur extended to Driggs in 1912.
At St. Anthony, Billy’s boss likely sold or loaded his grass-fat lambs for rail shipment to be sold at the major market centers of Omaha and Chicago. For the ewes, he likely loaded them on railcars and shipped them over 200 miles southwest to spend the winter on the relatively warm and dry lower elevations of the Snake River Plain in southern Idaho. There the ewes gave birth to the next crop of lambs in December. When the cold weather subsided, the sheep were shorn of their wool and the ewes and lambs were branded with paint and made ready for the next season of pasturing in the mountains.
Billy returns home – finds family destitute - gives his pay to his mother - When 17-year-old Billy arrived home unannounced, he found his mother setting in the front room of their log home doing hand-work and crying. He discovered that the farm’s harvest was poor and his father was out of work. Over her protests, Billy laid his summer’s sheep-herding pay on his mother’s lap.
Commentary - Because of Billy’s compassion and generosity, the family had enough money to make it through the winter. Billy’s sense of duty to his parents and siblings continued for years and was likely a factor in his decision to delay marriage.
Unusual teenager – practical - long-term career planning – Living in a frontier environment and only having an eighth-grade education, Billy’s business opportunities were limited. His principal assets were intangible; character, faith, focus; loyalty to God, family and country, an indominable work ethic and a passion to succeed. His cash flow came from his job herding sheep that came each year in a lump-sum and selling crop and animal production from his farm.
What he lacked in experience, education, good business role models and advisors; he made up in hard work, grit and observing how others handled their farm-business affairs. In his environment, he chose to do what he knew best, keep his sheep-herding job; save his money to finance the purchase of a farm and delay marriage until he could support his family. His choices were driven by practical considerations; not emotion, a very unusual teenager indeed.
Eighteen years old – Billy buys a farm – Billy purchased a 40-acre dry-farm in 1900. The previous owner likely homesteaded; cleared the land of sagebrush and had likely grown hard winter wheat on it for a few years before selling it to Billy. Until irrigation came to the valley in 1921, Billy likely planted his dryland farm with winter wheat, barley, rye or oats each fall.
Commentary – Successful dry-land farming depended on good amounts of snow and spring rain. The grain was planted in the fall so it could sprout with the fall rains and begin to grow before the plants were covered with winter snow and went dormant. The plants, protected by snow cover, would begin to grow when the snow started melting. Each plant produced several heads of grain – the fields of grain were harvested in July and August. The number of bushels of grain per acre produced on dry-farms was substantially less than irrigated crops
Harvesting grain was labor intensive. See below, “Threshing grain was a big deal for every farmer in the valley.”
Billy built a granary, that served as his temporary residence, and outbuildings - Likely with assistance from family, Billy built a sturdy, 250 sq. ft. granary with 10 ft. walls that would be his temporary living quarters To make the building extra tight for storing grain, he used heavy planking for the floor and 1x4-inch tongue and grove lumber for the inside wall; the 2x6 inch studs were exposed on the outside. For natural light, and to facilitate shoveling grain into the silo when he converted the building into a granary, it had one small window high-up. The door had a glass panel.
He planned to use the granary for his residence until he had a farmhouse. As such, he installed a wood-burning cookstove, shelving, cupboards and cabinets. The cookstove vented smoke outside through a stove-pipe. The tight walls kept out the wind, but not the cold; the building had no insulation.
For additional storage, he attached two pulleys to one of the rafters; built a 4x4 foot wood-box platform with a rope secured at each corner and tied to a single rope that went through the pulleys and tied to a hook on the wall. He placed containers of flour, beans, rice, sugar and other dry-goods on the platform and used the pulleys to lift the platform to the ceiling so he could walk underneath. When he needed something from the platform, he reversed the process; unhooking and holding the rope; he would slowly lower the platform to the floor.
Root cellar - Billy dug a (likely 8x10x6 ft.) root cellar below the frost-line and covered it with juniper wood, sod and the excavated dirt. He used the cellar to store his fresh potatoes, carrots, parsnips, crocks of meat cuts preserved in brine, bottled foods he canned and honey. The cellar stayed at ground temperature of about 55-degrees year-round. The cellar also served as a cooler for his milk and other perishable fresh foods.
Commentary - Clabbered milk with honey and bread was a common dish of the day. My father died when I was 15. Even when other food was available in Tremonton; I remember him sitting at the kitchen table, eating bread and honey with a glass of milk; a dish he likely enjoyed when living in Stone.
Outhouse - For sanitation, Billy constructed an outhouse that covered a deep hole he dug. The outhouse was on skids so that when needed, he could hook-up a horse and pull it to cover a new hole; then he would bury the old location with dirt.
Hand-dug water well – Perhaps Billy’s most daunting task was digging a water well. Using a pick and shovel to excavate a likely 4x6-sq.ft. hole (large enough for him to stand and dig). The hole was dug to a depth below the water table; likely over twenty feet. With the help of family and friends, he used a derrick, rope, pully and bucket to lift the excavated dirt out of the hole and dumped. When he reached the water line, he developed the well by removing mud and water from the hole until the water was consistently flowing into the hole faster than he could bucket it out. He then covered the well with planking, set a galvanized pipe from the top of the planking down into the water. He then affixed a hand-pump that had to be primed each time he drew water. There is no record of how Billy cased the walls of the well to prevent collapse.
Commentary - Digging a well was dangerous. The dirt walls could collapse, trapping the man working deep in the well. Today, wells are generally power-drilled with six-inch diameter steel casing.
Billy’s source fresh water prior to digging the well (and after) was Deep Creek a half mile away. He would take his horse-drawn wagon loaded with large empty barrels to the creek and bucket water from the creek to fill them. He used the water for his domestic purposes, irrigate his small garden and give to his penned chickens and pigs. He generally drove his large animals to the creek to drink.
Farm animals and transportation – In addition to his prized horses, Billy raised cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry. For transportation, he rode horseback; but later acquired a covered horse-drawn carriage and sleigh that could carry passengers.
Fences, corrals and sheds – fence posts and poles cut from nearby forests – Billy built sheds, coops, pens, barn, a corral for his animals and apiary (honey bees). He also built a garage for his buggy.
His livestock corrals were built using juniper logs posts, dug over two-feet into the ground and lodgepole pine logs for the fence. He harvested the wood from forests located over 20-miles to the west.
Juniper-log posts were sturdy and were almost impervious to ground-rot. His barn, chicken coop, hog pens and other outbuildings were generally made from sawn lumber. He fenced his land by stringing barb-wire on juniper-log posts.
Dealing with ravenous insects and wild animals - When his crops began to grow, Billy had to deal with a new set of challenges; creatures feeding on his crops: Jack rabbits, antelope, sage grouse (sage hen), grasshoppers and crickets. His dogs would chase off the big game. Jackrabbits could be a scourge in years they came out of the adjoining sagebrush-covered foothills in large numbers. Control of grasshoppers and crickets was problematic – effective insecticides had not been invented.
Ward clerk - chorister – stake music director - organized traveling quartet – Billy had excellent penmanship and served as ward clerk for many years. He also had a nice tenor voice and followed his mother Mary and grandmother Fredrekke in his love for music.
The details are not clear, but Billy likely received musical training from a former music instructor who had purchased a farm and moved his family into the area.
He served as ward chorister for ten years, leading the music at Church meetings. Upon his release, he was called to be the Stake Music Director.
In that position, he saw a need for musical performers that would travel between Church units in the Curlew Stake, providing vocal and instrumental music. Acting upon those impressions, he was instrumental in organizing a men’s quartet and double-mixed quartet.
These happy people were requested to travel by horse-drawn buggy or bobsleigh to other wards and branch meetinghouses to provide music for sacrament meetings, funerals and other functions. Billy’s sister, Olive learned to play the piano and often accompanied the group.
Billy played the trombone - helped form a dance band – Billy sometimes played his trombone with the local band. He also had a Church calling to be the “Dance Manager” at dances held at the local all-purpose hall. In those years, it was not polite for a single man to directly ask a young woman to dance. The accepted protocol required the young man ask the Dance Manager to escort him to the young woman of his choice and make a formal introduction.
Commentary – When I was about 13 years old, my dad bought a new trombone for me. I took lessons and played the trombone in the Bear River High School marching band – wearing the school-issued uniform; a bright red suitcoat, pants with a white stripe and hat with white braid and trim.
I was in the band during all four years of high school. We marched at local parades and played at all athletic events. The only time I did not participate was during football games – I was on the football team.
Daddy passed away when I was starting my freshman year, so he didn’t see me march in the 60-member high school band, playing the musical instrument he loved and purchased for me.
Billy played competitive sports - loved outdoor activities - Billy played on the local baseball team. Additionally, he owned a rifle and shotgun and was a good marksman, a skill he likely honed during his sheep-herding days protecting the sheep from predators and hunting wild game for food (Fish and Game Laws were limited to non-existent in those years).
As a land-owner, Billy joined other men in organized campaigns to exterminate the hordes of crop-destroying Jackrabbits that had burrows in the nearby sagebrush covered foothills and came out at night to devour the farmer’s green growing crops and the haystacks.
Commentary: Jackrabbits would not only eat anything green, but would also eat into the sides of haystacks starting from the base and munching up the side as high as they could reach standing on their hind legs. Jackrabbit eaten haystacks had the shape of huge mushrooms – and could potentially tip over if the farmer didn’t intervene.
Thirty-year-old Billy – ward clerk – meets his future wife – Billy’s ordination certificate states he was ordained to the office of Seventy in the Melchizedek Priesthood by Charles Henry Hart a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy on July 14, 1912.
Billy had beautiful cursive handwriting, a helpful talent when he was called as serve as ward clerk in the Stone Ward bishopric. Thomas William Roe, Billy’s future father-in-law and my grandfather, was serving as Bishop. Billy was serving as ward clerk when the Curlew Stake was created and Thomas was released as Bishop and called to be the second counselor in the Curlew Stake Presidency on May 17, 1915.
Commentary – When Thomas was called into the Curlew Stake Presidency he had served as Bishop of the Stone Ward for 13 years. His daughter and Billy’s future wife, Irene, was 14 at that time. While he was Bishop, Thomas likely held many meetings in his home where his clerk also attended. It is likely that Irene was home during many of these meetings and welcomed the guests, including Billy, as they arrived.
Billy ordained a High Priest - counselor in ward bishopric – Billy’s ordination certificate, states he was ordained to be a High Priest in the Melchizedek Priesthood and set apart as the first counselor in the Stone Ward bishopric on May 5, 1917 by Thomas W. Roe. Billy was serving in the Bishopric when he and Irene were married.
Commentary - Thomas Roe was serving in the Curlew Stake Presidency and was working in his administrative position constructing Stone Dam on Deep Creek at the time of his sudden death on April 17, 1920. Seventeen months after his passing, Billy and Irene were married.
Irene’s Life before Marriage
My mother (Irene), was born on December 23, 1902 (Chapter 20) - She was the daughter of Thomas William Roe (1869-1920) and Lucy Ann Harris (1868-1956). Irene was the fifth of eight children: Florence Jane (1891-1930), William Ray (1894-1981), Charles Lawrence (1896-1998), Harold (1900-1963), Lucy Irene (1902-1977), Viola Estella (1906-1954), Edna Lucille (1906-1988) and Delmar Thomas (1909-1976). Because my mother’s first name was the same as her mother’s, she went by her second name, Irene.
Irene grew-up observing her father as a leader; her mother a gracious hostess - Thomas William Roe was a businessman and had a small public accounting practice and operated a small farm. Four months before Irene’s birth in 1902, Thomas, age 33, was ordained a High Priest and called to be the Bishop of the newly created Stone Ward.
Because of Thomas’s business and ecclesiastical duties, many visitors came to the Roe home. Irene grew-up observing how her father treated people and how her mother graciously hosted visitors. Thomas also held county and federal positions as a land agent or registrar that sometimes required their home to also serve as a hostel.
Irene remembered people traveling great distances to their home to meet with her father; often staying overnight. Thus, requiring the children to give up their beds for the visitors. Irene remembers one of the visitor’s commenting, “The food here is marvelous.”
Several years later, Thomas took a leadership role in building the irrigation dam on Deep Creek and bringing telephone service to the valley (see below).
Irene’s big dance – Her partner for one dance, a master dance instructor - When Irene was 15, the Church youth organization in the area held a ball in the large all-purpose hall. The youth were to come in costume. A 5-pound box of chocolates was the prize for the couple wearing the best costume – about 200 couples were competing.
Irene came dressed as Colombia, the historic symbol of the United States of America before “Uncle Sam” and the “Statue of Liberty.” Her gown was made of satin – with a snug-fitting bodice, puffed red and white striped sleeves and a full skirt with ruffles at the bottom, trimmed with stars and tinsel.
Her future brother-in-law, Arnold Bunderson, was her escort – he came dressed as a Swedish King. Irene and Arnold won the prize. With the announcement of the winning couple, Irene and Arnold were invited to dance alone in the center of the room – Irene said that the applause was “deafening.” She was thrilled as her father waved to her.
When everyone was invited to join in the dance, Thomas cut-in to have the next dance with his daughter. Thomas, a former dance instructor, danced with precision as he gracefully guided his daughter across the floor. Irene said that it was an evening she would never forget.
Commentary –When Thomas and Lucy were married, he was the ward dance director; teaching dances approved by the Church to people in his ward and area. The fact that the Church encouraged people living on the frontier to improve their mind and appreciation for music and the arts, including dancing is remarkable. (see Chapter 20, Thomas William Roe).
Education – Get all you can - Irene’s respect for her father and his accomplishments instilled in her the value of a good education. Thomas was born into a middle-class English family of some reputation. When Thomas’s mother, Catherine Byatt Roe and her children joined the Church several years after her husband John died, they were disowned and disinherited by the Roe family and immigrated to America and Thomas’s formal education ended.
Commentary – In England, the education available to children of privilege began at an early age and focused on teaching professional and technical skills – preparing children for their career. Thomas’s British education included accounting and bookkeeping; a profession he pursued and developed after immigrating to America at age 14. After that time, he was largely self-taught.
Impact of father’s Church callings on Irene - Thomas was released as Bishop of the Stone Ward after serving 13 years and called to be the second counselor in the new Curlew Stake presidency on May 22, 1915 - the stake offices were in Snowville. The new stake crossed the Utah-Idaho border and had eight wards and two branches.
Irene was twelve years old at the time. On the plus side, Irene grew-up in a home that exhibited great faith in God, an example that sustained her in times of her own trials. On the other hand, her father’s Church callings necessitated he spend more time away from home serving others as well as hosting visitors in their home.
Irrigation dam on Deep Creek; a big deal - As a young teenager, Irene observed her father take an important role in the construction of an irrigation dam on Deep Creek, a federal Carey Act project. The Stone Dam is an earthen structure that creates a reservoir about a quarter mile wide and four-miles long. Thomas was the Secretary-treasurer of the company that constructed the dam.
Commentary – The Carey Act was passed by Congress in 1894. Under the Act, private investors were given authority to build dams on federal land and drainages and sell water rights for a profit. The dam created Stone Reservoir that crested at 4,596 feet and was a quarter mile wide by four-miles long. The top of the reservoir was about 50 feet higher than the elevation of the land in Stone and Snowville that received the gravity-flow irrigation water during the growing season through canals and ditches.
Technological innovation has caused dramatic change in farms and farming since Stone Reservoir was created in 1921. Today, most of the smaller farms have been consolidated into large corporate businesses. Industrial size water pumps, deep water wells and sprinkler irrigation technologies has replaced flood irrigation. Sprinkler irrigation uses less water per acre and allows irrigation of rolling hills and hillsides; making otherwise marginal and dry farm land more productive.
Construction needs for dam brought telephone service to the valley - To facilitate needed communication between the dam site and company officials in other locations, Thomas and others brought telephone service to the community in 1915. The Roe home was one of the first three homes in Stone to receive service from the new telephone exchange. Irene said her father, who often remained at the construction site during the week, called home twice a day.
“I will never forget the sight or sound of the roaring water” - A year before the dam was completed, Irene said her father called home and asked her mother to bring the family to see the dam and meet the officials who had come to visit. She said the family rode in their white-top buggy with her older brother Ray driving the horses on the three-mile trip to the dam.
When they arrived, the reservoir was discharging water three-feet deep over the spillway – Irene, now about 16, said, “I will never forget the sight or the sound of the roaring water.” She said her father proudly introduced his family to each one of the officials gathered at the dam.
Enormous tragedy - Thomas dies while at the dam site - Thomas tragically died from a heart attack on April 17, 1920; he was 51 years old – Irene was 17. At the time of his passing, Thomas and Lucy had two married children, Florence and Ray. Two other children, Harold and Irene, would marry within 18 months. Three children, Estella and Edna, age 14 (twins) and Delmar, age 10 were at home and dependent upon their mother – with the assistance of their older siblings.
The completion of Deep Creek Dam in 1921 created Stone Reservoir. Most of Billy’s land became eligible for irrigation water. He worked with the other farmers building irrigation canals that delivered water to each farm – each farmer built their own irrigation ditches that they used to flood-irrigate their land.
Commentary - Lucy was just one year younger than her husband Thomas. His totally unexpected death placed a huge burden on her – she was a single parent - living without her sweetheart for 36 years.
In her later years, Lucy lived in her home in Stone, a quarter of a mile from her son Ray’s home. In the colder months she lived with her other children in Tremonton and Salt Lake City until her death in 1956 – five years after my father died.
As a boy, I remember her living with my parents in Tremonton. I regret I did not seek to know her life challenges. Now that I have a glimpse, I recognize her work and example blessed the lives of many people; even my own.
Billy and Irene’s Courtship
Billy took Irene home from the dance – their 5-month courtship begins - In the spring of 1921, 18-year-old Irene went to a Church dance with her girlfriends. Generally, the young women rode to such dances with their parents or girlfriends. The men at the dance were to see that the girls had safe rides home.
At the conclusion of this dance, Billy, whose Church calling at the time was “Dance Director,” asked Irene if he could take her home. She said yes. Because of his position, Billy was often among the last to leave.
When Irene and Billy were walking out to his buggy – with his team of horses tied to the hitching post, they discovered three other young women setting in his buggy, laughing and waiting. This was a common occurrence for Billy. As with other dances, many young women wanted Billy to give them a ride home. Irene said Billy was considered a “prize catch” among the single women in the valley.
This time, Irene said the other women were jostling to see who would set next to Billy. To avoid conflict, Billy likely invited Irene to sit where the driver sat and then he slid in next to her; the other young women moved to the second bench seat. Billy engineered private time with Irene by taking the other women home first.
My father and mother’s love for each other - much deeper than emotion - My father knew my mother most of her life. He had been to her home many times when he was serving as ward clerk during the time her father was the ward Bishop.
My mother likewise knew a great deal about my father. She observed how he carried out his Church responsibilities and his strong work ethic and judgment. How he rose from extreme poverty to develop his farm business and cared for his parents, siblings and animals.
She observed that Billy was neat and clean in his person and the maintenance of his farm, animals and equipment; that he was a man of faith, integrity, courage and compassion, gentle and kind; a man whose word was his bond.
Irene also knew that her father, in his role as a Bishop and counselor in the stake presidency, had given Billy worthiness interviews – she knew that her father had a high regard for Billy.
Not everyone in Irene’s family supported her choice. But in the final analysis, the decision was hers alone to make – and she chose Billy.
Commentary - It was not uncommon in those days for men to delay marriage until later in life when they were more established – and for women to be much younger than their husbands.
She saw Billy as a man of faith, equally matched with her own. They shared the same frugal way of living. Mother would often say, “A woman can throw more money out the back door with a teaspoon than a man can bring in the front door with a scoop shovel.”
Their 20-year age difference and the fact that she would likely outlive him, didn’t matter to her. They were both people of faith and she knew that their marriage covenant in the Lord’s Temple would be binding throughout all eternity. She undoubtedly wished her father, who passed away 18 months earlier, could have lived to witness her marriage.
With hindsight, one thing is apparent. God is involved with the detail of our lives; Billy was inspired to delay marriage and Irene were inspired to recognize Billy was to be her eternal companion.
Irene and Billy’s Married Life
Their marriage – last day of summer – 70 miles away - My father and mother were married in the Logan Temple on September 22, 1921. Billy was 38 years old and Irene nearly 19.
Billy purchased a new Model T Ford, just prior to their marriage. The car had cloth window- coverings that could be pulled closed in bad weather and started with a hand crank inserted into the crankshaft through a hole under the radiator.
Traveling to the Logan Temple to get married – long trip - alone – It was a 70-mile trip between Billy’s one-room farmhouse in Stone and the Logan Temple. Billy and Irene traveled alone. No family members were able to attend the ceremony – they traveled in in Billy’s Model T Ford on unimproved roads.
The first leg of their trip was to Garland, Utah where they stayed overnight at the home of Irene’s sister Florence (who was ill at the time) and her husband, Luther Fuller. They then drove alone to Logan the next day. After their marriage, they returned to Florence and Luther’s home for the night before returning to their home in Stone.
Commentary - The Model T was the first car to be built in the United States using assembly-line technology; it was America’s first affordable car for the mass market. The popular Model T was produced from 1908 thru 1927. When Billy purchased his car in 1921, he likely paid $260, about $3,600 in 2019 dollars. These cars had a propensity to stall when climbing steep hills.
Irene said on one occasion they had to get out and push their car up a hill. When they got to the top, they likely started the car by depressing the clutch and letting the car coast down the other side; until Billy released the clutch to engage the engine.
Nona’s account of farmhouse – At the time of Nona’s birth in 1924, Billy and Irene felt their one-room “granary” facility could no longer do. A three-room house in the valley was for sale. A nice-looking wood frame building with solid wood floor planking and a good shingled roof. Billy and Irene bought the building and relatives and friends assisted Billy in jacking-up the house and setting it on heavy pole runners or skids to which they hooked-up teams of horses and slowly pulled the building over dirt roads to Billy and Irene’s barnyard where they set it on a foundation.
Nona described their new home as follows: “There was a kitchen, dining room - family room and a bedroom. The kitchen door opened up onto a big porch. My dad had approximately 40 acres of land at that time.”
Stone Reservoir – flood irrigation comes to the valley – A several years before Irene and Billy were married, promoters announced construction of a dam on Deep Creek, four miles north of Stone (Carey Act project). Completed in 1921, the dam created Stone Reservoir, providing irrigation water for the valley below. Billy’s late father-in-law, Thomas Roe was the secretary-treasurer for the project until his sudden death in 1920. (Chapter 20, William Thomas and Lucy Ann Harris Roe – Married life; Thomas – Construction of Deep Creek Dam and Stone Reservoir)
Billy’s land was part of the irrigation district designated to receive water. His work in helping build the main irrigation canals that conveyed water to the farms helped pay for his early water assessments. The farmers were individually responsible for building the irrigation ditches that ran on their property. Billy likely built his ditches alone using a team of horses pulling plow and a Fresno Scraper that scooped the dirt.
Commentary – As a boy joining my father and older brothers to work on the farm, I remember seeing the Fresno Scraper in the barnyard.
Billy and Irene bought more farmland – A few years after irrigation water began to flow from Stone Reservoir in 1921, Billy purchased 160 acres that adjoined his 40-acre farm to the south and east, 120 acres of which was irrigated. He also bought 14 acres of fenced meadow-land where he pastured his animals and harvested meadow-grass hay.
The purchase probably more than tripled his workload; plowing, harrowing, leveling, diking irrigating, and harvesting his increased production of alfalfa hay (three cuttings) and grain.
Most of the children were born in our farmhouse – Nona recorded, “Mama told me that my grandmother, Lucy Ann Roe cared for her while Daddy took the buggy and raced three miles to Snowville to get Dr. Wardley. My mother was relieved when she saw a cloud of dust rolling up the road – it was my dad bringing the doctor.” Nona said, “I weighed 5 ½ pounds. … I had a brother, Oleen, who was (19 months) older than me.” Because Nona started school when she was seven as opposed to six, she and Oleen were three grades apart instead of two.
When the children were 8-years old, baptized in Deep Creek - The stream flowed through the valley’s grassy meadows - there were many deep holes suitable for performing baptism by immersion. Nona described her baptism, “Mother made my baptismal gown from white flannel – it had long sleeves and went to my ankles. My dad was in the water and took me by the hand and lifted me down so that I would not slip. There were maybe eight people who came for the ceremony.
After the baptism, we walked up to Bishop Cottle’s house where I changed clothes. Sister Cottle had a plate of cookies and we all visited. The next day was Fast Sunday. I felt really grownup as I walked up the isle (to the front of the congregation). My dad confirmed me. It wasn’t very often that I had a new dress, but I had a new dress for my confirmation.”
School in Stone: One room – eight grades – one teacher - All of the children attended the local elementary school. Nona described it this way, “I went to a one-room school house called the Curlew Valley School for the first 8 years of my education (there was no high school in the valley). There were approximately 30 students with 4 in my class/grade.” Nona said the children all lived within a three-mile radius of the school; the Bunderson farm was about two miles away. The children rode horses to school except during winter.
When there was snow on the ground, the children’s fathers took turns driving their Bob Sleds, stopping at each student’s home in the morning to pick them up for school; returning to take them home at the end of the day. The horses’ harnesses all had bells that jingled when they moved. The children set on straw that covered the bed of the sled; wrapped-up in heavy quilts to keep warm.
Irene - caregiver for Grandma Jane Carter Harris until her death in 1933 (Chapter 20) Jane Carter’s first husband and Irene’s grandfather, William Morton Harris died in 1870 at age 31 - married 12 years. Jane and William Morton had six children: Charles Edwin (1859-1938), Mary Jane (1861-1922), Adeline (1863-1863 – lived one day), Sarah Ellen (1864-1956 - second wife of William Victor Bunderson), William James (1866-1929) and Lucy Ann (1968-1956 – Irene’s mother). After William Morton’s death, Jane married William Robbins.
Irene had great compassion for her grandmother Jane Carter Harris. Nona recounts going with mother several times a week to help bathe Jane and change the sheets on her bed. She said that while Irene was working, Jane would tell Nona stories about crossing the plains to Salt Lake City with a handcart company in 1859. Nona and her cousins were flower girls at their great grandmother’s funeral.
Tragedy - car roll-over accident - Irene pregnant, severely injured – Billy and Irene set off in their new Ford car with roll-up glass windows – off to the Bunderson Family Reunion in Manti, Utah, 230 miles south; Irene was three months pregnant with Thomas – June, 1934. They took Vernon and Cleo and were carrying a ten-gallon can full of cream they planned to sell at the Tremonton creamery for cash.
When they reached Blue Creek (10 miles west of Tremonton), an axel on their new car broke, causing the car to go out of control and roll down the steep embankment, the heavy can of cream and the people tumbling inside the car. Nona said that mother sustained the greatest injuries; including a “huge cut across her leg, exposing the bone.”
A passing motorist saw their wreck and took them to the Tremonton Hospital. After their injuries were treated, he drove them back to Stone. Irene’s leg became infected - blood poisoning. She also developed Milk-leg - both legs.
Commentary – Milk leg is a serious and painful condition – most common with pregnant women. It is a deep vein thrombosis restricting blood flow - severe pain, major swelling and whitening of the leg’s skin – a very serious condition.
Thomas is born – dies 11 days later - mother remains deathly ill - Thomas was born on December 25, 1934 in the family farmhouse. Mother was still seriously ill from the automobile accident. Nona recorded that Thomas was very sick. Daddy and Aunt Lola put Thomas in the car and drove to the Tremonton hospital – but to no avail. Thomas was 12-days old when he died from a congenital heart defect (blue baby). Daddy arranged for a friend to make the baby’s casket. The funeral was held in my parents’ home so that my bedridden mother could be present. Thomas was buried in the Snowville Cemetery.
Miracle - Doctor couldn’t help - God sent his servant - Irene is healed – Eight months passed after the accident - mother’s health did not improve. Her legs were so painful she could not allow bed sheets to touch them. Daddy constructed a wood frame to hold the bed coverings away from her legs and still provide warmth. Grandma Roe came every day to wet-cloth bathe Irene and clean and dress her wound.
In late March, 1935, a man rode up to the farmhouse on his horse. Ten-year-old Nona answered the door. The rider was Joseph Larkin, the Curlew Stake Patriarch. He said to Nona, “The Lord has sent me to give your mother a blessing.” Nona described what happened next, “I remember standing at the foot of the bed. Daddy was there … (Patriarch Larkin and Daddy placed their hands on mamma’s head; Patriarch Larkin was mouthpiece for the blessing.” He said, “Irene, you have been tested long enough … the swelling will leave your body … down to the ends of your toes … you will soon be able to care for your family again.”
Nona said afterward, “I watched her legs daily to see if the swelling was going down. Each day there was a noticeable decrease in the size of her legs. As Patriarch Larkin promised in his inspired blessing …. her toes were the last to lose the swelling … (appearing) to be like fireballs on the end of her foot.”
Nona said she will never forget the day Mama walked again. It had been about a year since the automobile accident and six months since Thomas’s death. Nona said it was the summer of 1935, “we were all in the yard playing – and I saw mother standing on the porch, holding on to one of the posts that supported the roof. I remember screaming, Mamma’s up! We all ran and hugged her. We were so glad to see her on her feet.” It took a few more months before mama was fully recovered; but leaving horrible scars on her leg.”
Commentary - The medical profession of the day had limited means to treat infection or blood poisoning. Penicillin, the first antibiotic, was discovered in 1928, six years before mother’s injury. However, purification, manufacture and widespread use of “the wonder drug” did not occur until 1943 when large quantities of the antibiotic were produced to treat hundreds of thousands of wounded in WWII; saving lives or preventing amputation of arms and legs.
The Great Depression and politics - My parents - life-long Democrats – Republican Herbert Hoover (president: 1929-1933) was the U.S. President that preceded Democrat Franklin D Roosevelt (FDR, president: 1933-1945). After the stock market collapse of 1929 and the following “Great Depression,” Hoover was sharply faulted – accused of doing nothing - the assertion - he believed the economy would heal itself. FDR put forth a campaign slogan: a “New Deal.” The federal government financed jobs for building public works projects (WPA – Work Projects Administration) that included government loans to free-up money, all with the objective of putting people back to work.
However, it is now generally recognized that the New Deal had limited effect on the overall economy. What was really responsible for bringing the nation out of the Great Depression was massive government spending needed to win World War II, including the draft of millions of young men to fight and hiring millions more men and women to produce war material and services. Federal education subsidy, the GI Bill, helped finance higher education for millions of discharged soldiers; improving their quality of life and strengthening the nation’s economy.
My parents blamed the Republicans for the Great Depression that caused such enormous financial damage to them and the country - and credited FDR and the Democratic Party for turning the economy around. From then on, Billy and Irene were solid Democrats.
Commentary – Mother was excited to visit places where FDR lived. After Mary Kay and I bought our home in Granada Hills, California and Brian was born, we flew mother to Los Angeles to stay with us during the winter months. When we moved to Sandy Springs, Georgia, we did the same.
One Georgia spring, we arranged to take a week’s vacation and drive 640 miles north to Washington D.C. Our trip included a tour of the White House and the Capitol (We also saw Lloyd and Lillian’s son Kenny in route. He was serving a Church mission in West Virginia).
Another year, we drove 90 miles south to Warm Springs, Georgia, the location of FDR’s “Little White House,” where he often broadcast his “Fire-side Chats” on the radio, soaked in the warm water to find relief from the pain he experienced from his diagnosed illness; the infectious viral disease of polio (poliomyelitis or infantile paralysis – recent studies assert he actually had Guillain-Barre Syndrome). FDR was at the Little White House when he died April 12, 1945.
Mother respected FDR for his leadership in directing the affairs of our nation during the very troubled times of the Great Depression and WWII. Being able to tour these historical sites where he lived, and touch the important buildings and relics that she had only heard about, was a very moving experience for her – and for Mary Kay and me.
Irene made bed quilts and braided rugs for her home - Irene enjoyed making quilts; setting up quilting frames in her living room and stretching and thumb-tacking the often flannel backing material to the frames, laying a soft layer of batting over the backing fabric before laying the beautiful top fabric; of often colorful blocks she had cut, laid-out and sewn into an attractive design. Nona said, “Those quilts were just beautiful. She made a quilt for me as a wedding present. It was blue and ivory fabric sewed together to look like actual blocks.”
Mother made beautiful quilts for each of her children as wedding gifts. Quilting projects often provided opportunity for friends and family to bring their thimble and needles and visit while quilting each other’s blankets. Irene was very particular in making her stitches close and even – these beautiful quilts were often used as bedspreads - tapestry art with a practical purpose.
Commentary – Mother even taught me how to quilt. Mary Kay continued the craft; setting up quilting frames and stands that I made when we lived in Granada Hills. Those frames went with us on every move – finally sold to the auction company before I moved to my last home in Eagle, Idaho.
Nona’s Christmas Gift - Daddy’s “magic” preserved snapshots of family history - Nona was a little girl during the depths of the Great Depression. She wanted a Brownie camera “in the worst way – and beginning that summer she started sending letters to Santa.”
But alas when Christmas morning came and the gifts were distributed, “there was no Brownie Camera.” Little Nona said she went to her bed and laid down crying. Seeing how much the camera meant to her, her loving, warm-hearted father and mother, with little money to spare, made another Christmas gift decision.
When Nona was lying on her bed, she heard her dad, Oleen and Lloyd go outside to take care of the livestock. She then heard the hoof-beat of a horse leaving the yard. Sometime later, she heard the horse come back but paid little attention (What she heard was undoubtedly her father riding his horse two miles to the Stone General Store to make one more purchase).
She said a few minutes later her dad came in and sat on the edge of her bed. He said, “I think there are some more presents under the tree.” He then took Nona by the hand and they walked into the living room. Nona said that she saw her dad display some of his jovial antics that she should have recognized from Santa’s visit at the Church Christmas Party (see below).
Standing near the tree, her father said to Nona, “Daddy knows how to do magic.” Then Nona said, “He began dancing around their tree chanting strange words (Swedish, I think) and then pulled a package out from the branches and gave it to me.” When Nona opened the package, her heart sank. It was oranges; she started to cry “But Daddy began chanting and dancing around the tree again, reached into the branches and pulled-out another package and gave it to me.”
“There it was! My very own Brownie Camera, I was thrilled.” She had a plan, when she babysat, she received 25 cents a night. “I would save my money to buy rolls of film.”
In retrospect, Nona’s camera was providential. She said, “The only pictures that our family has from our growing-up years came from that little camera.”
Commentary - The Brownie camera was a popular series of simple and inexpensive cameras made by Eastman Kodak. Camera production started in 1900 and by the 1930s was marketed extensively to children under the slogan, “You push the button and we do the rest.”
Vernon said that the family Christmas tree was typically a (bushy) cedar (juniper) tree that our Dad harvested from the hills west of the family home. The decorations included small candles in a metal holder affixed to the extended stiff tree branches, positioned so that when lit, the flame did not get close to the branches – from which hung shiny metallic two-foot-long strips intended to represent icicles along with Christmas balls and popcorn on a string. Because of the risk of fire, they only lit the candles for short periods of time – and watched them closely for any smoke.
“Santa Claus is my dad!” – Nona said that her mother and dad worked with many others to make Christmas thrilling for the community. Each Christmas season, all of the families in the community met together the day before Christmas Eve in the Church multipurpose meetinghouse to celebrate the season – and for the children, a chance to see and individually talk to Santa Claus.
They arranged their chairs in “U-shape rows that opened to the door with two empty chairs in the center with the backs to the door so everyone could see whoever were setting in the chairs. The Christmas Party began with the people singing Christmas carols to piano accompaniment - until - someone detected the sound of sleigh bells in the distance. Everyone became very quiet as the sound of the bells grew gradually louder and louder and then stopped – then the door burst open and a jovial Santa Claus bounded into the room with his white moustache and beard, wearing a red suit and hat and carrying a large cloth bag over his shoulder. He was “light on his feet” and came dancing into the room while the pianist played jovial Christmas music. Santa would “take each child by the hand, and one-by-one danced with them.”
Finally, he set down on one of the two center chairs, and went around the room, inviting each child to come up and set in the chair next to Santa. “He took time with each child, asking their name and if they had been good, and how well they had helped mommy and daddy.” He then reached into his bag and produced a little wrapped gift for them. After the last child had been interviewed and received their gift; Santa threw his bag over his shoulder and to the sound of piano music, danced around the room until he drew close to the door - then he quickly exited the building. The pianist stopped playing and the people heard loud sleigh bells outside that gradually grew more distant.
Nona said it took a while after the Brownie camera incident and seeing her dad dancing around their Christmas tree at home, that she recognized similarities of how Santa danced at the annual celebration. But she dismissed it until she was 14 years old when she attended the annual Church Christmas Party and saw Santa Clause dancing around the room when a startling thought struck; “Santa Clause is my dad!”
Discipling children - more scary than painful - When Oleen was about seven years old, Nona was four, Lloyd was two and Delphia was a baby. Nona recorded that the family drove north 13 miles to the unincorporated town of Holbrook for stake conference. The building was heated with a free-standing coal-burning stove. The coal was stored in an outside bin that had a door inside the building next to the stove. Daddy was the stake chorister and sat on the stand – Mama and us children were seated with the congregation. As the meeting progressed, Oleen and I became unruly. Mama nodded to Daddy to come help.
Nona said, “Daddy walked down from the stand, took me and Oleen by the hand and walked us outside by the coal bin.” He lifted the lid of the bin and held us up so we could see the darkness inside. He told us if we didn’t behave, he would put us in the bin – we started screaming. He then took us by their hand and returned us to Mama, who had her hand on her forehead as Daddy returned to his seat on the stand - people were smiling, but we behaved.
Apparently, Daddy didn’t realize the sounds in the coal bin had a megaphone effect inside the building. The people attending the conference heard everything. There was a general authority visiting the conference.
Mother told Nona that the man came up to Daddy as they were leaving. He put his arm around him and said, “Now brother Bunderson, you really wouldn’t do that to those sweet little children would you?” It was Daddy’s turn to be embarrassed, but he and mother laughed about it all the way home – somehow, Oleen and Nona missed the humor.
Threshing grain was a big deal for every farmer in the valley – Until grain combines were invented after WWII, farmers harvested their grain using a multistage process. The grain was cut in the field via two types of horse or tractor drawn equipment called a “header” or a “binder.” The cut grain heads and straw were cut and bound into a bundle with twine. The bundles were loaded by hand on wagons and hauled to the threshing machine, which was generally positioned in the farm barnyard. A man with a pitch fork slowly laid the bundles on the conveyer-belt chute that cut the twine and fed the bundles into the thresher that rubbed the grain heads through rollers, freeing the kernels of grain from the chaff and straw. The grain was bagged and later hauled to granaries; the chaff and straw were blown into a large pile. The straw was spread in animal sheds and pens during the winter so that they had clean, warm place to lay down.
There was only one threshing machine in the Stone area – it was moved from farm to farm to thresh each farmer’s grain. (See below, Vernon Odell - Profile of his life – and certain descriptive experiences - Daddy taught Vernon how to be a stacker.)
It took about a dozen men to handle the threshing operation; each had assigned tasks: either hauling the header boxes full of heads of grain and straw from the field on horse-drawn wagons, feeding the grain heads into the thresher, bagging the grain and making sure the equipment was operating properly.
At noon, each farmer was expected to provide “dinner” for the crews; called dinner - for good reason. The meals were feasts, generally prepared by each farm family’s women and children.
Nona recounted that mother began preparations for the meals (on a wood stove) about a week in advance. When the crew arrived at their farmhouse for dinner, they washed their faces, arms and hands in a wash basin on the porch. Then they surrounded a table to eat. Mother often served fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, vegetables and fresh-baked bread, pies and frosting-coated loaf cakes. Nona said, “They ate a lot.”
Nona also recounted that it was her job to keep the dishes washed and dried - by hand. Young kids were required to stay away from the threshing equipment and not interfere with the workers and the noisy operation.
Commentary - Threshing machines, binders and headers were commonly used for threshing grain until the late 1940s when they were gradually replaced by a new technology called “combines.” So termed, because it combined into one operation, the previous grain harvesting processes of cutting, binding/heading and threshing grain.
As a 17-year-oldI had personal experiences with a thresher - In the summer of 1953, I was hired by a neighbor, Loan Garfield, to drive his John Deere diesel tractor that pulled his threshing machine to various farms in the Tremonton area. My job included positioning the thresher in the proper place, moving the tractor to face the front end of the thresher so that the tractor’s pulley-wheel on the side of the engine was facing the thresher’s pulley, and positioning a 20-30-foot-long heavy 12-inch-wide belt that stretched between the power-drive wheel on the tractor to the drive-wheel on the thresher. When the belt was sufficiently taut, I put the tractor’s pulley wheel in gear and as it got up to speed, the threshing operation commenced. When not otherwise involved, I pitched bundles of grain from the wagons into the mouth of the threshing machine feeder-chute.
Daddy’s trained dogs – “Tippy” killed the Rattle Snake; saved the children - Daddy not only cared for his horses and other barnyard animals, he had special relationship with his dogs. His affection for good dogs likely began when he was a sheepherder. He relied on his trained sheepdogs to keep the sheep together when he moved them and protected them when they were grazing or settling down for the night. His dogs were his friends that promptly responded to his calls; they detect predators by their scent - alerting him of danger.
When my parents married, my dad kept a sheep dog he named Tippy. The dog responded to Billy’s every command. As the dog grew old, it favored one leg and walked with a limp.
Nona said when she was about six years old, she saw Daddy stroke Tippy’s head and talk to him. He told Tippy to stay at the house and watch us kids. She said, “Me and the other children were playing under the trees close to the house when she heard Tippy growl. She turned to see Tippy jump over us; grab something in its mouth; shaking it (violently) back and forth. We started screaming and mother came to the door. When (Tippy) dropped what was in his mouth, we saw it was a dead three-foot long rattlesnake.”
Tippy requested euthanasia; the only way he knew how – Nona said it was more than a year after the Rattle Snake experience, she was watching Daddy chop wood when the very old and sick Tippy came up and “put his head on the chopping block. Dad talked to the dog and pushed him back. But Tippy came back and again, laid his head on the block and whined … my Dad understood what his dog, body wracked with pain, wanted. He held Tippy in his arms and cried.” When it was over, he carried his dog’s lifeless body to a burial spot on the farm. Nona said, “My dad had other dogs, but none were like Tippy.”
Commentary - The wood chopping block was used to split wood and slaughter chickens for a family meal. Daddy killed the chickens by holding the chicken’s legs and wing feathers together with his left hand, laying the chicken’s neck and head on the chopping block. Holding the axe with his right hand – he killed the chicken with one quick blow. Tippy had undoubtedly seen this procedure performed many times.
Held underwater by long watergrasses - “Daddy, don’t die” – Nona described a near-tragedy. It was a hot summer day; Daddy was cutting hay on his meadowland.
“Before noon, Mama packed a picnic lunch and took us kids on the wagon to be with Dad. She found a shady place next to the creek for us to eat. As Daddy walked to join us, he decided to remove his shoes and cool off by jumping in the crystal-clear, cold, fast-flowing water of Deep Creek. He chose a place that appeared to be a relatively shallow hole. Long water grasses were moving at the surface, disguising the true depth of the hole. When Daddy jumped in, he found the water was well over his head. As he sunk to the bottom, the plants entwined around him; holding him from rising to the surface.
Mother was alarmed when Daddy didn’t immediately come up. She ran to the edge of the stream with the children, unable to do anything.” Nona said; I remember crying, “Daddy, don’t die, Daddy, don’t die.”
Nona, said that it may have been but a minute, but it seemed much longer before Daddy’s head emerged from the water, gasping for air. Mother grabbed Daddy’s hand and helped him crawl onto the bank and expel water from his lungs. He laid there for several minutes. His body was covered with water grass and weed. Nona said, “He looked like a green man;”
Mother said the “haying” work would have to wait for another day. She brought the horses and wagon and Billy got on - the family went home.
Nona said that later that evening, Daddy told the family, “While I was under the water being held by the water plants, I prayed with my whole heart to be able to live to rear my children.” Nona continued, “He then said that when we really need help, we need to (remember to pray and) ask Heavenly Father” for help.
Almost every night was family night - Nona said that almost every night, the family would gather together to discuss the events of the day and sing songs - Daddy loved to sing. She said, “We would always have family prayer.”
Old Bally, a five-seater horse – Nona said when the weather was good, she and Oleen and the children that lived on the adjoining farms, rode a horse bareback two miles to school; no more than two kids per horse. Nona and Oleen rode “Old Bally,” a very tame, dependable horse that was good with kids.
One day when they came out of the schoolhouse to go home, old Bally was the only horse standing at the hitching post; the two horses belonging to the three neighboring children were apparently not tied securely and got loose.
But that presented a problem; five kids wanting a ride home and one horse. Oleen got on first and held the reins and the other four kids got on one at a time; holding on to the kid in front. The risk; if one fell off, they all fell together. Our cousin, Russell, was last, setting way back over the horse’s tail. Nona said the kids wanted to get the horse to trot home. Even though it was the normal urge for horses to race home to the familiar barnyard and food, Old Bally would have none of that. He was trained and perhaps had a disposition to be careful around children; he walked.
Nona said that when the horse walked into the barnyard with five riders on his back; mother couldn’t believe it. She directed Oleen to give the horse a drink of water and put him in the corral and give him some hay. Nona said that Old Bally lived about 18 years, “We all cried when he died.”
Commentary – Old Bally was a brown horse with a broad white strip running down the length of its face – markings that horse owners often called “bald.”
Life-changing event – the family moves to Tremonton, Utah (Chapter 19) - In 1939 my parents sold many of their animals for a down payment on a 4-acre ranchette about two miles east of Tremonton. They kept their farm in Stone, commuting weekly from Tremonton during the crop-growing season. I was three years old at the time of the move, but vividly remember certain scenes.
The principal purpose of the move was to keep the children at home while they attended high school. Previously, Oleen and Nona had to leave home to attend high school. My parents paid room and board for them to stay with an older couple living closer to the school.
Compared to Stone’s small general store and one-room school house; Tremonton had many stores and shops, a bank, a movie house, both elementary and high schools with hundreds of students and classrooms for every grade, a fully staffed hospital, the electric and telephone utilities had offices in town.
Standard of living comparison - Tremonton vs. Stone – The difference between living in Tremonton vs. Stone was stark:
Electricity - Tremonton home had electricity, Stone did not.
Domestic water - Tremonton had pressured well-water in the kitchen and bathroom; Stone had a hand-pump water well. Water was carried into the kitchen in buckets.
Bathroom - The Tremonton house had a bathroom with a porcelain tub, sink and a flush toilet; Stone had an outhouse.
Washing clothes - My parents purchased an electric free-standing clothes washing machine with a wringer that pressed the water from the cloths before hanging them on an outside clothesline to dry. In Stone, mother washed clothes by hand in a tub; rubbing them over a scrubbing board.
Heating water - The Tremonton home had hot water piped to the kitchen sink and bathroom; heated by passing pressurized water through pipes in the stove’s firebox to a 50-gallon storage tank standing next to the stove. In Stone, water was heated in a pan placed on top of the wood-burning kitchen stove.
Radio entertainment and news – My parents bought an electric-powered radio. We had state and national news and entertainment. Entertainment radio programs had sound effects so realistic; the stories came alive in your mind’s imagination. Important events were broadcast on the evening news. In Stone, no electricity, no radio.
Refrigeration and ice - In Tremonton, my parents rented a freezer box in a commercial food-freezer located across the street from the high school, two miles away. The facility consisted of a walk-in freezer with banks of individual rented lockers on either side of each aisle. When my parents slaughtered an animal, they cut and wrapped the meat in white “freezer paper” and stored it in their locker. They also stored packages of fresh peaches, berries and vegetables in the locker. Trips to the locker to pick up frozen food for a meal generally coincided with other trips to town, thus diminishing the inconvenience. Later, they bought an electric refrigerator for our home that had a small compartment with a few 3x8x1 inch trays in which they made ice cubes and frozen desserts. In Stone – no electricity, no refrigeration, albeit some homes had ice boxes where a block of ice kept food cool until the ice melted. Perishable foods were best eaten fresh. Blocks ice was sawn from the reservoir in the winter, hauled and placed in the ice house and covered heavy layers of sawdust or straw for insulation. Ice so placed in ice-houses melted very slowly, sometimes lasting most of the summer and fall.
Commentary - I was too young to appreciate the wonderful improvements to our quality of life, but as I grew older and commuted with my father and brothers to work the farm in Stone, I quickly learned the difference – ou quality of life in Tremonton was much immensely better.
Animal production provided food and cash-flow for the family – During the initial years in Tremonton, we milked our small heard of cows by hand, ran the milk through a separator, sold the cream to the creamery in town and fed the milk-whey to our pigs and chickens.
Later, the creamery put our farm on its truck route, picking up 10-gallen cans of non-refrigerated milk. The milk, termed Class C because it wasn’t refrigerated, was used to produce salted butter and cheese.
My parents brooded baby chickens; sold the cockerels at 6-8 weeks as fryers and kept the hens for laying eggs which we sold to a local merchant. They also fattened and sold cattle, pigs and wool my dad sheared from our small flock of sheep.
Production from their farm in Stone was their principal livelihood; commuting to the farm each week during the crop-growing season; leaving Tremonton Monday morning and returning Saturday night. When I was older, I went with them. Alfalfa hay and grain not sold directly off the farm in Stone was hauled to our ranchette in Tremonton.
Small herd of beef cattle - My father had grazing rights on public land for several cattle under the 1934 Taylor Grazing Act. He kept as many cattle as his grazing permit allowed; branding them before turning them to out on the public range west of Stone until fall.
Personal money – working for farmers and food processors – My brothers and me worked for other farmers thinning and weeding sugar beets in the spring and later helping with the harvest of sugar beets, green peas, sweet corn, tomatoes, grain and potatoes. My brothers worked at the green-pea vinery in the summer and at the sugar beet factory processing the year’s harvest into sugar during the late fall and winter months.
Mother worked at the tomato cannery - Mother was a hard worker and worked at the local tomato cannery each summer, removing scalded skin and stems from the tomatoes before processing.
Commentary - The women at the cannery were paid based on production, not hours worked. Each worker put the scalded tomatoes they had cleaned and cored into a tub; each full tub of tomatoes was weighed and credited to the worker before being dumped into a vat for processing. Mother made it a personal goal to be the top producer on her shift.
Billy’s Church mission to the Washakie Indians – May 1948 - July 1951 – Billy’s last Church calling was a stake missionary to an enclave of Shoshone Indians at Washakie; 15- miles north of Tremonton. His service was part-time; limited to Sunday and teaching investigators one night a week. He said it was a very rewarding spiritual experience.
Commentary – The U.S. Army attacked a gathering of several hundred Shoshone Indians camped on the banks of the Bear River, north of present-day Preston, Idaho in January, 1863. Non-military writers called the attack the “Bear River Massacre.” The military called it “The Battle of Bear River.” Eventually the Shoshone and Bannock Indians were forced to live on the newly created Reservation near Pocatello, called Fort Hall. (Appendix 8).
One small band led by Chief Sagwitch escaped the carnage and befriended by Church members and stayed in Utah Territory; many joined the Church. In 1880, the Church purchased a 1,700-acre farm north of Portage, Utah that they named after Chief Washakie, a historic Shoshone leader, and offered the land for the Indians to farm and settle. The Church built a meetinghouse on the property for them; the building in which my father attended when serving his mission.
By the 1970s, most of the Indian families had moved away. Today, the farmland, a cemetery and Church meetinghouse, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, remains.
Summer, 1951 – my father’s terminal illness diagnosed - My father was experiencing pain in his abdomen. His doctor in Tremonton ordered tests that disclosed he had stomach cancer and bleeding ulcers. He was admitted at Dee Memorial Hospital in Ogden for surgery. Surgeons’ removed two thirds of his stomach and put him on a bland diet to reduce the amount of acid that was aggravating his bleeding ulcers. Daddy commented - he missed eating red tomatoes.
Daddy knew he was dying – He and mother planned; she implemented - In the days leading up to Daddy’s death, he understood his illness was terminal, but he remained somewhat lucid at times. It was then that he and mother discussed how she should proceed living alone.
Tragedy - Daddy dies - October 18, 1951 – Daddy died in the Dee Hospital. Cleo was with him when he passed away. Other family members were nearby at Nona and Jim’s home and immediately went to the hospital.
Commentary – Interesting comparison: My father and mother lived alone as adults for more than two decades. From the time he was 18 in 1900 until he married in 1921, my father lived alone. My mother was a widow for 26 years; from 1951 until she died in 1977.
Irene’s life following Billy’s death
Mother’s heavy burden without her Sweetheart – others helped – At the time of Daddy’s death, my parents owed several thousand dollars: Real estate mortgage, automobile loan, Daddy’s medical bills and burial costs. The sales contract for the farm in Stone had not closed. Albeit, they had moved their cattle from Stone to Tremonton; with plans to sell the steers.
At that time, the older children were getting on with their lives. Nona and Jim were living in Ogden where Jim was working and going to Weber College under the GI Bill. Lloyd, also a WWII veteran, had 12 months left on his 30-month Church mission in Norway.
Oris, using the GI Bill, had graduated from college and he and Delphia were living 360 miles southeast in Monticello, Utah where Oris was working for the Utah State Agricultural College as San Juan County Agent.
Vernon and Rita were living in Deweyville next to Rita’s parents. Vernon was employed locally.
Cleo was 19 and the Army Draft Board had given him a deferral until Lloyd returned from his mission. I had started my freshman year in high school.
On his death bed, my father said to my mother, “At least the cellar is full (bottled, frozen and root-cellar food)” and Cleo will have to take the lead. Cleo said when mother told him about his Father’s charge for him; that became his primary focus. Albeit, he had started his college education.
Commentary – One can only imagine the stress and emotion my mother experienced. This prayerful lady, with limited formal education was forced to navigate “unchartered waters.”
My father and mother had no medical or life insurance - Daddy's medical bills totaled $6,000. Mother didn’t know where to turn. However, Nona had graduated from the Dee Memorial Hospital School of Nursing four years earlier and personally knew the medical professionals that attended Daddy and hospital administration officials. Those wonderful people reduced their bills from $6,000 to $600.
Commentary: Without the reduction in medical charges, mother financial challenges would have been overwhelming. To put it into context, the average wage for a manufacturing job at that time was less than $1.50 an hour.
Tragically, my mother and father had no medical or life insurance. Those products became generally accepted after the war. In today’s world, adequacy of public and private health insurance is still an issue. It is wise to not over-insure; but insure against catastrophe: medical, accident, death, disability, health, home and liability; with highest deductible you can afford.
Stone farm; buyer attempted to take advantage of a widow – My parent’s farm was under a sales contract before Daddy went into the hospital – price: $20,000 (around $200,000 in today’s dollars). My parents were planning to use the proceeds to pay bills and make a down payment on another farm closer to Tremonton.
After my father’s death, the buyer tried to get my mother to renegotiate the price down to $16,000. Mother refused. The man completed his transaction.
Commentary - The buyer’s action and my mother’s courageous response are instructive. Irene was grieving for the loss of her husband, she faced large mortgages, medical bills and burial expenses. She had a minor child at home and no employment. She showed enormous courage in refusing the buyer’s attempted revision.
The buyer, on the other hand, showed the opposite character traits. He had the opportunity to follow the admonition of the Savior and increase, rather than decrease the price so as to help a widow in need. But instead, he turned away and tried to use the situation to enrich himself.
The Savior takes a dim view of those who injure or seek to harm widows and orphans. “I will come near to you to judgement; and I will be a swift witness against …those that oppress … the widow and the fatherless …saith the Lord of Hosts.” (Mark 24: 5). The Apostle James taught. “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this; To visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction …” (James 1: 27)
Grieved for two years – then changed – Mother told me that she grieved for two years before she could move on. The turning-point for her was after she baked some cookies for Cleo and me. She observed that we were so hungry for cookies that we ate them all in one setting. She concluded that she had allowed her grief to get ahead of her need to care for her children and grandchildren.
Commentary - Looking back on that time, I am amazed how my mother successfully dealt with her many challenges – and how Cleo, fresh out of high school, responded to the crises as a mature man would do.
Mother; single parent household - Soon after Daddy died, mother found employment providing home-care in Tremonton. She also received an $18 a month check from Social Security – paid under the “dependent widow with a child in the home” provision of the law. When I turned 18 years old in September, 1954 (mother was 52), the payments stopped.
Commentary – Mother, as a single parent, was grateful (as am I) for the money Cleo sent home when he was in the Army. Under the “New Deal” bills introduced by Franklin D. Roosevelt during his presidency, including the Social Security Act of 1935, mother gratefully received federal Social Security Assistance.
Mother’s support system - Her Ward Bishop and children - Mother was devastated by Daddy’s death. The man who was called to be our Ward Bishop, was also a local businessman. He visited with mother routinely to make sure she was okay. For example, he told her to not worry about Lloyd who was serving his Church mission in Norway and needed money each month for living expenses; he would ask others to pay those costs. Our house was heated by a coal stove in our living room; the Bishop had a truck load of lump coal delivered to our coal shed each winter.
Grade A dairy farm in Corrine – no more milking cows by hand - Cleo sold the steers and the sale of the farm in Stone closed. Mother used the proceeds to pay bills and she and Cleo, began looking for a farm to buy. Mother purchased an 80-acre dairy farm west of Corinne in 1952 – cash and a real estate mortgage. The purchase included the seller’s herd of several milk cows and farm equipment, including electric milking machines and tractors.
On the day of sale, Cleo commuted 15-miles to milk the cows that evening. And each morning and evening thereafter. We sold our milk to Cream of Weber, a milk processing company in Ogden whose truck picked-up the cold milk each day.
When Lloyd returned from his mission in 1953, he married Lillian and took over running the farm; Cleo was immediately drafted into the Army for two years. I worked on the farm when I was not in high school.
Commentary - Grade-A meant a high standard of cleanliness was maintained, both in the room where the cows were given grain to eat while they were milked with mechanical milking machines and the room where the milk was strained, immediately cooled and refrigerated and the equipment washed and dried. The floors of both rooms were washed following each milking. An inspector made surprise visits to insure we complied.
Cream of Weber paid us for our milk each month, less the cost of any cheese, butter and supplies we ordered from the truck driver. The 80-acre farm produced most of the hay, corn-ensilage and grain that we fed to our cows and animals.
Cleo sent part of his Army pay to mother - When Cleo was drafted into the Army (1953-1955) he utilized the Army’s family-support policy to have part of his pay deducted and sent to a dependent relative. Mother received a check each month Cleo served.
Commentary - Cleo augmented his Army pay by making payday loans to other servicemen who overspent when they went out on weekend leave. Many came to teetotaler “Bundy” for a loan – give me $5 now and I will give you $10 on payday (See Cleo R, profile of his life, below).
Mother gave me a Christmas gift – I unwrapped, used it and re-wrapped - My school wardrobe was small. Mother made some of my shirts – beautifully done. Mother left home for work before I caught the school bus. I returned from school before she got home. I found her wrapped Christmas gifts. She had purchased two very nice shirts for me. I couldn’t wait to wear them to school, so one morning I took a shirt out of its package, wore it to school and carefully folded and returned it to the package before mother got home – she never suspected a thing.
Commentary - Years later, I confessed. Mother loved and sacrificed for all for her children – Oh, how I love her.
Mother’s objective fulfilled; the farm helped her sons help each other – When Cleo was discharged from the Army in 1955, Vernon was employed at the Ogden plant of Gould National Batteries, carpooling 30 miles to work from his home in Corinne. He got Cleo a job at Gould, and Cleo started going to night school.
Vernon and Cleo were so highly regarded at Gould, management made a exception of hiring three people from one family; they offered a job to me.
Lloyd, Cleo and I also operated the dairy farm in Corinne; divided the work – taking turns milking the cows, irrigating, etc. (Vernon chose to not be involved with the farm but was deeded an acre next to Lloyd and Lillian’s home lot to build his and Rita’s home.).
I continued to live in Tremonton; and was able to ease mother’s financial pressures and was able to save $800 of my pay for my planned Church mission – called in September, 1958 to serve in the “Northern States Mission,” headquartered in Chicago.
Mother sold the dairy farm – A good decision – By 1959 it became clear that the farm was more of a liability than an asset. The farm was not profitable, a drain on our wages and adversely affecting Lloyd and Cleo’s family life. Mother agreed the farm had to go.
Lloyd and Cleo handled the sale of 75 of the 80 acres and the livestock – Lloyd was deeded four-acres with his home and barnyard. Vernon already owned his one-acre lot and home. After all bills and the mortgage was paid, there was little money left over. Clearly, the decision to sell was a wise choice. For me, I could focus on getting an education when I returned the following year when I returned from serving my mission.
When I returned home from my mission in September, 1960, Lloyd and Cleo were employed in the chemistry lab at Thiokol Chemical Corporation. Vernon was employed at Thiokol’s stores department. They helped me get a job working the night shift in the Lab extracting product samples and taking them to the lab for testing.
Marvelous! I could fulfill my plan of working and going to school full-time, year-round and graduating in three years. With income from my job, I bought a car to commute from home, to school (Utah State University and later Weber State University) and work; delaying the thought of marriage until after graduation.
Mother became the dietician at the Valley Hospital in Tremonton – About four years after the dairy farm was sold, Dr. Edgar White, the owner of the hospital, employed mother as the hospital lead chef and dietician. Under the hospital’s food procedures, doctors ordered the type of food their patients could eat and sent the order to the hospital kitchen. Mother took it from there – using her recipes and applying her incredible talent for cooking wonderful meals. She got up at 4:30 am so that breakfast was served by 7.
She personally delivered the meals to the rooms (there were about 20 beds in the hospital). She made and wore colorful starched and ironed, aprons over her attractive white hospital dress uniform. Over the many years she worked at the hospital, her food received rave reviews from patients, particularly those who had stayed at other hospitals. Many commented to hospital staff, “The food at the Tremonton Hospital is fantastic.”
Commentary – While Daddy was alive, mother established a name for herself as an excellent cook. She was often in charge of food preparation at the Church fund-raising dinners. The big Church dinner in November typically included turkey, bread dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy - and old-fashioned English steamed carrot cake with lemon or caramel sauce for desert. Mother said that the quality of the gravy was critical to the success of the main course. Mother had a reputation for making “fantastic gravy.”
Dr. White was a member of our ward. It was likely at one those dinners when he decided he had a job for mother as his hospital’s lead chef and nutritionist. Mother said he often added his name to the list of people receiving her meals.
Mother chose fabrics for making her aprons with a dual purpose in mind. She cut the unsoiled parts of replaced aprons into blocks that she sewed into the design of a new quilt top.
Bear River Valley Mother of the Year Award - March 1971 – The Tremonton Women’s Civic League named her “Bear River Valley Mother of the Year.” The Award stated she was a “Gold Star Mother” (Federal recognition given to mothers in the U.S. that lost children fighting for their country – and referenced her son Oleen, “a bomber pilot losing his life in Italy during WWII.”). Further, she had been a widow for 20 years, during which time she worked as a practical nurse and dietitian at the Tremonton Hospital. It summarized the service aspect of her remarkable life: “Service to her husband and eight children; Church service that included serving as a counselor in a ward Relief Society presidency; Community service that included President of the Ladies Farm Bureau, 4-H leader and active in the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers organization.”
U.S. Congressman Gun McKay from Utah called her from Washington D.C. to congratulate her. She said when the call came, she was so scared she could hardly speak, but considered the telephone call the highlight of the award.
Her children were eager to be with her – she traveled to historic places - All of mother’s children were attentive to her needs and desires. Grandchildren commented about their visits; hearing family stories and learning.
When Mary Kay and I lived in the warm climates of Granada Hills, California and later Sandy Springs, Georgia, we persuaded mother to spend the coldest winter months with us; what a joy. Mother was nervous about flying at first, but soon acclimated.
In those days airport security systems allowed her providing ground transportation to stay with her until she boarded the plane - and on the other end, her children were at the gate waiting for her to get off the plane.
Under mother’s tutelage, Mary Kay learned marvelous cooking, quilt-making, knitting and crocheting skills. Typical of mother, while they worked, she told family stories and taught sage lessons about life. Mary Kay said, “Our mother filled a huge void in my life.”
While mother was staying with us in California, we drove to visit Oris and Delphia in Oregon and returned home driving the Pacific Coast Highway (California State Route 1) where we saw beautiful parts of the California coastline and the Redwood Forest – and Willits, California where Mary Kay grew-up.
Another time, we took mother to see Jim and Nona in Illinois and drove with them and their children to see the Hill Cumorah Pageant in New York and many other Church and national historical sites along the way.
While living in Georgia, we drove with mother to Washington D.C. where she went on a tour of the White House and the Capitol as well as visiting other historic places and resorts such as Colonial Williamsburg. We took her to Warm Springs, Georgia, the location of Democrat U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “Little White House” where certain of his “Fireside Chats” during the war years originated.
These vacation visits occurred during the last nine years of mother’s life. She was deeply touched to be able to see and walk inside these historic places that heretofore she had only read or heard about.
Mother’s sportscar - Tremonton’s “Little old lady from Pasadena” – When Mary Kay and I bought our home in Granada Hills, we needed to be a two-car family – I often drove over 100 miles a day and Mary Kay had to drive as well. To insure we always had dependable vehicles, we traded ‘our cars for a new one every four years. Thus, the age of our cars were always two years apart.
Mother’s car failed in 1973. She was dependent on family and friends to get around. Mary Kay and were living in Sandy Springs, Georgia. We owned a smart-looking 1970 model Mercury Cougar (purchased in the fall of 1969 when we lived in California) – tan color, two-door, with a dark brown vinyl roof - it was in good running condition. We offered to gift the car to her.
She had ridden in the car two years earlier when we made a 1,500-mile round-trip from our home in Granada Hills to visit Oris and Delphia in Oregon. The car had front bucket seats, divided by a center console. Mother was able to deftly get in and out of the car by holding the inside roof handles.
Mother accepted our gift and Oris, Delphia and their daughter Vickie said they would fly to Atlanta to pick-up the car and drive it back to Tremonton. They were planning a visit anyway because Delphia had just completed making custom draperies and curtains for our new home; she and Oris would install them.
However, mother’s “new car” elicited occasional teasing – she was Tremonton’s “Little old lady from Pasadena,” a song popularized by “The Beach Boys” in 1964. Actually, I believe she enjoyed driving the smart-looking vehicle.
Mother refused monthly support – but would sell us her home – live rent-free for life - Mother was fiercely independent. To the extent she could, she wanted to pay her own way. When Mary Kay and I offered to send a $100 a month, she refused. However, she would accept the money if it was for the purchase of her home – we agreed - with the proviso she could live in the home rent free for life. We drew-up the real estate contract dated September 1975 – we would buy her home for $10,000 and make monthly payments, principal and interest, of $108. Unfortunately for us, mother only lived another 18 months; age 75.
At the time of Mother’s passing, Mary Kay and I were living in Georgia. After the funeral, we flew home with a few mementos in our suitcase, including mother’s family history book. We paid mother’s medical and burial bills from her estate that consisted principally of our real estate contract.
Commentary - Mary Kay and I had observed that in some families, sharp conflict can occur over dividing property when the last parent dies without a written will, as did mother. “Which child gets what” can tear a family apart – particularly when there are significant assets. That was not the case when mother died.
Renting mothers old home proved problematic – sold to Cleo and Shirley – After mother’s funeral and before Mary Kay and I returned to Atlanta, we asked Cleo to watch over the property and try to rent it. He found renters, however, the renters did not care for the property.
At that time, Cleo and Shirley were living in a three-bedroom home in Tremonton and needed more space for their growing family - they wanted to buy the property.
Mary Kay and I transferred from my firm’s Atlanta office to Boise in July, 1977. A few months later, we sold the property to Cleo and Shirley at our cost, with them paying the balance of the real estate contract to the heirs.
Cleo and Shirley completely renovated the old house and built an attractive two-story addition. Thus, beautifully preserving a family historical site.
Commentary – Selling the property was difficult for me – emotional attachment. However, my beautiful and wise sweetheart helped me separate fact from emotion. Mary Kay counseled, “Your live and work in Idaho; you will not be going back to Tremonton. Cleo and Shirley need a larger home and yard. We should sell it to them and not profit from the sale.” I followed Mary Kay’s advice and many lives were blessed – including my own.
Billy and Irene in the world of spirits - Peggy’s dream
Cleo and Shirley’s daughter, Diana Bunderson Whetman passed away on December 19, 1989; seventeen months following the birth of her second child, Michelle. A short time after Michelle was born, Diana began to experience pain in her chest. X-Rays disclosed a mass; advanced case of cancer - Hodgkin’s Lymphoma – terminal. Diana had requested and received Priesthood blessings to be healed; but her health did not improve. (Priesthood blessings are always conditioned on the faith of the parties involved - and God’s will.)
Diana and her sister, Peggy Bunderson Chournos, were very close; Peggy was caring for Diana’s two baby daughters, Kristen and Michelle. The prospect of Diana dying and leaving her two children weighed heavily on Diana and Peggy. Both have great faith in Jesus Christ and frequently discussed the part of Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation regarding what happens after death. Peggy assured Diana that she would continue to watch over her children. In fact, Peggy became their surrogate mother. But the events surrounding Diana’s death left Peggy with burning questions pressing upon her mind and expressed in her frequent prayers.
On June 16, 1991, 18 months after she died, Diana visited Peggy – The revelation came in the form of a dream. Peggy said she had never experienced anything like it. They communicated without verbally expressing a word – they read each other’s mind. In her mind. Peggy asked a question and it was answered with words in her mind and in some cases, a scene “like watching a silent movie.”
Diana said, “I have received permission to come and answer some of your questions.”
Peggy asked, “Are you okay?” Diana said, “I am very happy.” Then Peggy said she saw a room full of people dressed in white visiting together. Diana told Peggy, “I’m still being introduced to people.”
Peggy asked, “Who came for you?” Peggy then saw a scene of Diana in her hospital bed at the time of her death. But this time she saw what Diana saw; two women standing at the foot of her bed beckoning for Diana to come with them. Peggy said that she immediately recognized the women as Grandma Bunderson and Grandma Kunzler – Peggy recognized her Grandma Kunzler even though she died when Peggy was a child. Peggy then saw her grandmothers take each of Diana’s hands and leave. Peggy observed that Diana’s left arm, shortened because the umbilical cord wrapped around it while in the womb, was whole.
Commentary - The experience of Diana being greeted by her grandmothers is consistent with people going to the Temple for the first time. In the Temple, women are attended and escorted by other women, often a family member and an ordinance worker. Likewise, men are attended by other men.
“I saw Grandpa and Grandma Bunderson - holding hands - walking and talking.”
Peggy asked if she was staying with Grandma Bunderson? Diana said no, and chuckled, saying she sees Grandma Bunderson frequently – but always with Grandpa Bunderson. Diana said that they are very much in love and excited to be with each other – always holding hands - walking and talking. Diana said that seeing them together was new to her because Grandpa Bunderson died 10 years before she was born - and she had never thought of her grandmother in context with her grandfather – being so in love – and with each other.
Commentary - The Lord has taught that when we die there is a preliminary judgement. We go to one of two places or conditions; one is called Paradise and the other Prison (The separation is based on both faith and ordinances.). During the three days Jesus Christ’s, body was in the tomb, he was organizing his followers in Paradise to teach of his pristine Gospel to those living in spirit Prison - so that everyone will have the opportunity to choose. (1 Peter 3: 18-19). “For for this cause was the Gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.” (1 Peter 4: 6, D&C 138 and Appendix 1)
In the spirit world, we only have memory of out mortal life. Our memory of our pre-mortal life will not return until our final judgement and resurrection; when our spirit body is inseparably reunited with the elements of our mortal body as was Jesus Christ, the first to be resurrected. The resurrected Jesus Christ said to Mary outside the tomb, “Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father, but go to my brethren and say unto them that I ascend to my Father and to your Father; and to my God and to your God.” (John 20: 11-17). And as Jesus Christ later said to ten of his Apostles assembled in the upper room, “Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.” (Luke 24:36-43). “… For man is Spirit, the elements are eternal and spirit and element inseparably connected receive a fullness of joy (D&C 93: 33-43).
Peggy asked - “What is going to happen to Kristen and Michelle – will they be okay?” Diana said that she could not answer those questions, but that she was not far from her little girls.
Commentary: In partial answer to those questions, both girls are doing well. Both have worthy husbands; have married in the Temple and have families of their own. Kristen graduated from college.
“Was the timing of your death a mistake?” Diana said, “No, we all have a specific time to go. It is not calculated down to the exact minute or day, but we all have a time to go - it was my time.”
Commentary: The Lord has promised that, “… he that hath faith in me to be healed and is not appointed unto death, shall be healed.” (D&C 42: 48). The time of our mortal death is known to God; as is the timing and place of our mortal birth. We are all spirit children of heavenly parents. In our pre-mortal world, God determined our time and place on mortal earth – “And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth (black, white, yellow, etc.), and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation (Thus, God set the time, place and parentage of our mortal birth when we were still living in our premortal world - based on our premortal merit and His will).” (Acts 17: 26). His purpose: “For behold, this is my work and my glory - to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” (Moses 1: 39)
“What will happen to your husband?” Diana said, “That is his choice.”
Commentary - If we conform our plan to God’s Plan, we will not limit our growth in our eternal world, rather, we will live in God’s environment and progress eternally. It’s our choice; if we desire to be with our eternal family, we will repent, forgive and strive to be like them. When we slip; we need to repent and move forward.
Peggy said, I do not know how long the dream (revelation) lasted - But when she awoke, the experience left her physically weak – but very grateful to have her questions answered and blessed to have had a glimpse into the world of spirits where we will all live following the death of our mortal body.
Postscript – More than one miracle – At a proxy-sealing session in which I was the officiating sealer at the Boise Idaho Temple on December 23, 2015, a husband and wife came a little late in joining the rest of the patrons performing proxy sealings for their deceased ancestors.
After preforming several ordinances, I had to stop and give my voice a rest. During the pause, I was impressed to tell one of Peggy’s experiences – “Was the timing of your death a mistake?”
At the end of the session, the couple for whom we had waited to join the session came up and in front of everyone, thanked me for telling the story. The woman was weeping. Diana and Peggy’s experience answered their questions – they finally had peace about the death of their son.
They explained that two years ago, their 23-year-old son died. Many people offered condolences, saying things like, “It should not have happened” or “He died before his time.” Those type of comments only served to increase their pain. They needed something more, a witness from God. They went to the Temple whenever they could.
That day, they planned to attend an endowment session as was their routine. But in-route, they decided to inquire about attending a sealing session. The sealing coordinator for our shift, Boyd Hill, informed them that a session was just starting and asked them to hurry and get dressed. He then hurried to the sealing room where I was about to close the door and asked that I wait. The couple arrived shortly thereafter.
Commentary - I believe, as did the couple and the other patrons in the sealing session, that we observed more than one miracle that day. The spirit was strong. The couple were desperately searching for answers and peace – and the Lord provided it to them. When I was alone, I prayed and thanked our Heavenly Father for the marvelous blessing we all experienced – and the answers he allowed Diana to give to Peggy 24 years earlier.