28 Nov 1886 – 18 Mar 1973

Husband of Dency Cardon

---

MR. STOUT

Walter Milton Stout, 86, of 941 East 9th St., Upland, March 18 at San Antonio Community Hospital. A retired blacksmith, he was a native of Lemington (Leamington), Utah and an Upland resident 10 years. Member of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Survived by his widow, Dency C. Stout, Upland: five sons, Archie L. Stout, of Mesa, Ariz., Marwood M. Stout of Upland, Alden C. Stout of Beaumont, Texas, Nathan L. Stout of Henderson, Nev., and Phillip D. Stout of Upland; five daughters, Mrs. W. R. Clark of Boulder City, Nev., Mrs. Harold White of Cucamonga, Mrs. Steve Chubs of Boulder City, Nev., Mrs. Verne Mauchley of Clearfield, Utah, and Mrs. John Carattini of Upland; a sister, Mrs. Lydia Bradshaw, Bell; 56 grandchildren and 29 great-grandchildren. Services Thursday, 10 a.m. at Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Upland. Bishop Marwood Stout, conducting. Interment Bellevue Cemetery. Stone Funeral Home in charge. Friends may call Wednesday from 5 to 9 p.m.

-Published in The Daily Report, Ontario-Upland, Calif., Tues., Mar. 20, 1973, page A-4

---

A Short Sketch of My Life
by Walter M. Stout

I was born in Leamington, Millard County, Utah, Nov 28, 1886, of goodly parents. My father was born on April 27, 1856, in Salt Lake City, Utah. He died of pneumonia Mar 31, 1889, in Mammoth, Juab Co, Utah. His name was Lewis Wilson.

He was the first constable also the first Ward Clerk in Leamington.

My Mother was Amanda Melvina Fisk Stout. They were cousins. She was born in Pleasant Grove, Utah Co. Utah, January 15, 1861.

In 1892 she was sent by the Leamington Ward to Salt Lake City to study under Dr Shipp to be a Mid-wife. She waited on all the women for every child that was born in Leamington from about 1893 to 1906 or 7. She died on June 28, 1916, at Leamington, and was buried there.

She was always active in Church work, was president of the YWMIA around 1900, was a Sunday School teacher, and an active member of the Relief Society.

My first duty in the church was President of the Deacons Quorum We had the responsibility of cleaning the schoolhouse where we held church. This resulted in me having to do it myself mostly.

I graduated from eighth grade in 1906 with my sister Lydia and Alma Harder.

In Feb 1910 Alma Harder and I were sent by the M.I.A. To take a course in the Deseret Gymnasium in connection with Scout work.

I became the first Scout Master and organized the first basketball team and registered the first scout troop in Leamington.

June 12, 1913, I married Martha Elizabeth Hansen of Abraham Millard Co, Utah, in the Salt Lake Temple.

My brother and I married sisters. We planned a double wedding, but Lewis was in the Central States Mission and was late getting in.

Maren and John Alvey, Martha’s sister and husband were going through with us and being sealed etc. So, Martha and I went through and were married on the 12 and went through with Maren and John on the 13.

Lewis arrived in time to go through but it being Friday the 13 and the 1913, Lottie would not be married on that day. So, we waited until the next Wed, the 18th and we all went through together. We always called it a double wedding.

Walter Douglas was born on May 4, 1914. Archie Leon was born Sept 6, 1915, and Agnes was born March 17, 1917, however, my mother died June 28, 1916, as stated above.

Sometime in the fall of 1916 I built a little house south of Leamington to homestead some land. Agnes was born out there.

May 23, 1917, Martha and I went down to Abraham to visit her folks, while there little Douglas took down with acute pneumonia and died May 26, 1917. Martha died June 15, 1917. This is a sad day. While Martha was lying in state at the old farmhouse, we all went over to Sam and Dorotha Jensen’s for supper and while there little Virginia, Dorotha’s oldest child was drowned in the canal back of the house. I have given a more detailed account of this sad event in my story (Gethsemane) and see also my poem (a short sketch of my life.)

May 18, 1919, I married Dency Cardon, daughter of Emanuel Alonzo Cardon and Rose Violate Terry, in the Saint George, Temple. We lived in the old Die Dutson home there in Leamington.

Oct. 22, 1919, I went on my mission to the Southern states. Marwood was born while I was out there on June 25, 1920. I returned Aug 31, 1921and went to work on the R.R., on September 1, 1921, for Charley Nelson who was the section boss. I didn’t fill the regular 2-year mission because my wife was in ill health.

Nobody knew what she went through while I was away. Our Bishop, Rodney B. Ashby advised my release.

May 18, 19122, Cardon was born, He came before the Dr. arrived.

March 23, 1923, Melvina and Rosina were born. We had Dr. Banning from Lynndyl, he was there on time.

Sept 1924, I bought a blacksmith shop in Hinckley, Millard Co. Utah, and my brother Lew moved the family down Sept 5, 1924.

I sold my home in Leamington to Joseph Overson for $800.00 and bought the blacksmith shop from Bishop Charles A. Stratton.

Feb 18, 1926, Gwen and Glen Allen were born in Hinckley, Jan 5, 1927, Nathan Lewis was born in Hinckley.

Jan 31, 1929, Belva Ann was born in Hinckley.

In 1929 the panic hit the country, the farmers were hard bit and things were tough.

I invented a ditch cleaner which was successful, but the farmers were too hard hit, I had to give it up.

In Sept. 1929 I went out to Kimberly Nevada with Inthus Parker. I got a job in the Nevada Con., in the Richard mine.

Jan 15, 1931, Lawrence Kenyon was born in Hinckley while I was still in Kimberly.

The panic was still on, and all the mines shut down July 8, 1931, I was laid off and went home.

I bought a home in Hinckley from June Black. My oldest sister (Mattie) and her husband, Arthur Cody Smith, were visiting in Leamington. I saw them on the 4th of July for the first time in 31 years.

They were returning to Mesa Arizona VIA Las Vegas Nevada, and I went with them.

At St. George we picked Vera our sister and went over to Panaca where our sister Lydia Bradshaw lived. We had a family reunion; all were there but Lewis. He was living in Oak City, Millard Co, Utah was very sick, not expected to live long, (but he did).

We went on to Las Vegas and I went out to the Boulder Dam project and got a job the first day I rustled July 18, 1931.

My family was still in Hinckley. Phillip Darryl was born Sept 24, 1932, in Hinckley. (Read my story Oasis in the Desert).

The family lived in Hinckley until Dec. 20, 1935, they moved to Boulder City.

All together including the time I spent on my mission and in Kimberly I spent 8 1/2 yrs away from my family, this was a hard life for both of us. My dear wife suffered greatly during those years especially while I was on my mission. She has suffered much but has stood by me giving full support in all my labors and duties and I praise her great name, she will be greatly blessed both here and hereafter.

October 12, 1939, Dency Lee was born in Boulder City, she is the only child born out of Utah.

Nov 2, 1948, Glen Allen was killed on the highway near Livermore, California.

I worked 3 ½ years high scaling, 3 years in the steel yard, 8 years on drainage in the dam and 11 years at the city disposal plant.

The positions I held in the church in Boulder City were first chairman of Genealogical committee about Oct 1932.

I was sustained as second counselor to President Lawrence Wortley, Mar 31, 1935. I held that position until Jan 24, 1937, when I was released and sustained as Ward Clerk. I held that position for 13 years.

I served under Wortley, Clifford Knewson, Dudley M. Leavitt and R, Owen Gibson. I also worked on the Sunday School Stake Board in 1952-53.

I have several hobbies in life, 1st Poetry. I began while on my Mission in 1920 also, while I was at Kimberly. 2nd Music, I began that while working at the Disposal Plant.

In 1946 I got interested in Book of Mormon Geography. I published a book which I called Harmony in Book of Mormon Geography in 1950. It created quite a sensation, it being the only setting to pinpoint locations to make the setting and narrative jive and provoke us to the exact working of the context.

It brings order out of chaos and provokes good logical, rational thinking. It is a peculiar thing but nevertheless true that we can misquote the Book of Mormon by the yard, and it will not be detected in matters concerning the geography, or pinpointing the setting. My setting has never been impeached by quoting the context correctly.

Nov 28, 1956, I turned 70 years old and was retired by the Civil Service Commission with an income of $126 dollars per month.

May 30, I went to Salt Lake and worked in the Temple. I stayed with Conrad and Viola Vogal. Dency was still in Boulder City.

July 8, 1957, I started to work at The Deseret Industries.

We gave our home in Boulder City to my boy Phillip and my wife moved to Salt Lake.

We rented an apartment at 60 N. 2nd W. It was on the 3rd floor and Dency couldn’t take it so we moved to the corner of the 4th West and North Temple.

July 11, 1957, my wife went to Pocatello and stayed with Rosina. I moved to 279 West on North Temple.

Jan 10, 1958, Dency came back from Pocatello, and we moved to 160 W. 7th So. We moved to 153 So 8th West, and again on June 16, 1958, we moved to 144 E 3600 S. I was transferred out to Sugar House as Loom mechanic, I worked there two years and went back to Deseret Industries. I first worked in the machine shop; I made up about 25 carts to push around. I did a lot of welding etc. When I came back from Sugar House I worked as a janitor and fired the boiler. I got a city license to fire the boiler.

May 14, 1960, we moved to Hunter and lived there until we move to Upland, California.

-Extracted from familysearch.org, ID KWCG-NMH

---

White-eye and the Snakes

This story takes place during the dark ages of my life and was a good lesson to me ever after. We were living in Leamington down on the farm. My brother Lew and I were trying in our weak way to put up the first crop of hay about 1905. We had brother MC Dutson helping us.

One evening some hunters from Eureka camped in our barnyard. They gave me a drink of whiskey mixed with port wine. While they were cooking a mélange stew with rabbit, duck, etc., in walked a team of mules on a wagon, we thought at first, they were alone, but a man was in the wagon a sleep. His mules had wandered away from the road he intended to travel.

His name was Frank Little from Nephi, going to Deep Creek, Nev. He was thirty miles off the road, so he camped there all night.

The water we used was out of a surface well and strangers did not like it. Mr. Little had a quart of White-eye which he put in the water adding sugar to it. He gave me a drink and it tasted good. I did not know that White-eye and Alcohol were the same although I had heard of both.

After supper they all sat around the fire telling stories. They set this bottle of white-eye behind them. Now the whiskey, wine and white-eye I had drank was calling for more, so I sneaked around and got that bottle and drank it straight.

I got about three good swallows and sat the bottle down and made for the well, it felt like my whole inside was on fire. I drank water and ate peaches and everything I could get hold of. I don’t remember all I did do but I know this, I never had anything in my life before or since that hurt me like that did. But I took it like a man never telling anyone about it.

When it quit burning, I decided to go to bed, I was not feeling very good.

Lew and I slept out under a shed, I got undressed all but my shoes and went to sleep.

Lew came along later and put me to bed right. Sometime in the night I woke up with the snakes, everything around had snakes all over it. I woke Lew up and showed him. He tried to explain to me that they were just plain harmless cedar posts.

Morning finally came, but what a morning, what I suffered that day no one knows, only those who have gone through it.

Bro. Dutson came to work, I did not eat I told Mother that I ate out with those hunters, I did not want her find out that I was drunk.

The hunters and Frank Little left and we went to work. We hauled a load or two. I worked or was supposed to work on the wagon loading while Lew and Cale Dutson pitched on, then I was supposed to run the derrick horse. I was not doing a good job and there was a considerable amount of contention between Lew and I, finally the contention became so sharp that he came down from the stack after me, I left my horse and took off around the haystack.

There was a tall picket fence around it with a blind alley, this I had not considered in my haste to safety. Upon finding myself trapped I looked for means of escape, not any, but I did find a weapon to defend myself, and old mower side with one section on the end resembling a tomahawk. I grabbed it and marched forward to battle.

My opponent was not armed so he retreated with me in hot pursuit. Arriving at point of beginning we found greater troubles than our own. My horse decided it was time to go to work and had pulled the hay pole down. The pole encountered the hay rack, and my horse was pulling the whole outfit, the hay pole wagon and team.

Brother Dutson was holding the team back to counteract my horse. This ended World War one. We straightened things out and went to work. It was the longest day I ever put in. Much more could be said, but I think my grandchildren will do well to read this much. It will give them a faint idea of their unworthy granddad.

June 21, 1947, Walter M. Stout

-Extracted from familysearch.org, ID KWCG-NMH

---

A Job by Keeping the Word of Wisdom

I went to work on the R.R. In Lynndyl, Utah in 1909 on the rip rap track. After working a week or so I got acquainted with the Blacksmith, who was in the boiler room of the roundhouse.

I had helped some and mentioned the fact to him saying, “I would like to work in here but I guess there is no chance of that.

About a week later the boss sent me into the Blacksmith Shop, in there I found two other helpers with a hammer each, as I entered, the blacksmith handed me one too.

We had a big square iron in the fire, it was a lug bar that coupled the engine and tender.

When it was hot he put it on the anvil and said “hit it. We stood in a circle hitting in turn.

This was before they got the steam hammer. The iron had to be drawn out three fourths of an inch, we hammered until the iron was cold. It took about 12 to 15 minutes.

This was repeated 3 or 4 times, then the blacksmith measured it, and we had drawn it out one eight of an inch. The next time we hammered until the iron was cold. One fellow threw his hammer full length of the boiler room and said, “To hell with that noise” and beat it out of there. The other fellow, who was the real helper, picked up that hammer and discarded the one he had. Then I noticed the difference between. I had the 19-pound hammer and die corded the one he had. They put another man on the extra hammer, and we went to work.

Before the day was over, they had changed men on those two hammers 7 or 8 times, while I stayed with the 19-pound hammer.

Next morning I went back to the rip rap track. At night the boss told me to report at the blacksmith shop in the morning, I went in and was told to go in the office, there filled out an application for blacksmith helper. Returning to the shop I found him waiting with a big iron in the fire and the hammer I used before was by the anvil. He put the hot iron on the anvil and told me to hit it. I hammered until the iron was cold. The shop was full of men, some were looking through windows, others were in the doorways. We heated and hammered that iron several times then he laid it aside for another job that just came in. We worked at different jobs; the blacksmith showed me how to make a fire with blacksmith coal.

I worked several days and began to get acquainted with the men around there and my work. Then one day the blacksmith offered me a drink of beer, which I refused. He said, “I thought something was wrong with you now I know there is. You don’t drink beer nor smoke.”

I had refused cigarettes also cigars. Then he told me all about it. The day I started to work I was on exhibition. It seems that I had built up some kind of a reputation that day when I used that 19# hammer against the men using the smaller hammers.

That iron I hammered on the first day was not good, they just used it for me to hammer on for an exhibition.

I could see through it myself after he told me, but he added, “It pays to take care of yourself”.

Well, it paid me five cents an hour more than I was getting, which was the big sum of .25an hour, Now I was getting .30. That was big money, skilled labor was getting 57 cents an hour.

The regular helper had taken 10 days off, when he came back, they sent him out in the machine shop, and he quit. I didn’t know that for some time after he was gone. After I had worked there a week or so, one of the machinists had a job where he and his helper had worked two days on the job where a large pin had frozen and broken off. The round house foreman took the blacksmith out to look at it, he said he could get it out, so the job was his.

He took me and my 19# hammer out there and we knocked that pin out in 45 minutes,

That started something, whenever those fellows got a job of the kind, he would send me out there to give them a lift and would add “They are to light in the lower end.”

I worked there until 1910 when they had a big strike, and I went out with them. I could stay and take over the blacksmith job, but I would not scab, as they called it.

Written June 1947, Walter M. Stout

-Extracted from familysearch.org, ID KWCG-NMH

---

Trains and Watermelons

This event happened during the dark ages of my life, yet I look back on it with a touch of humor, considering the things I did at this period of my life, it was very mild.

It is useless to say that a boy of my frame of mind would not be interested in watermelons.

One evening Carl Nielson, Heber Sorenson, and I rode up town. We had no object in view, but we found others who did. There were Fred and Wells Nielson, Alma Harder, Oxel Johnson and the most outstanding were Roy and Win Walker from Oak City, who were on their way to Eureka with a four horse load of watermelons, They were camped on the east side of a picket fence, on the east side of the lot which belonged to Joseph T. Finlinson.

We finally gathered around this spot and indulged in various kinds of sports. We were all enthusiastic because we figured in time the Walker boys would open up a melon or so.

They had asked us to stay up to meet the midnight train. We stayed willingly, but as time passed, we began to see that there would be no melons.

The R.R. Track was fifty yards away with a sidetrack, and the depot was fifty yards down from the crossing… there was a car loaded with hay near the crossing near the depot.

We tried every way to get both of the Walker boys in a race that would get them both away from their wagon, but nothing doing, one of them would stay at the wagon. I had a plan in mind as soon as the train came, I challenged all of them to ride the farthest and get off.

They all accepted it and had no opposition to the coveted melons.

I ran over and got three of the largest I could find and hid them down by the cattle chute. The boys were still out of sight, so I went for more. I made three successful trips and had 9 of the best melons in the world. (I didn’t realize that until I had gone to Boulder City)

I hid while the boys went by, then I ran down the track out of sight and came up the track and joined the rest. When they asked me how far I rode, I said “to Joe Nielson’s crossing.” It almost took their breath. Carl, Herb and I got on our horses and started home. As soon as we were alone, I asked them how many melons they got? Which brought forth comments about those fellows staying so close to their wagon. I said, I got nine all by myself. When I showed them and told my story, they had their doubts about me carrying three of them at once. So, I had to demonstrate. One under each arm one on my big belly holding it with both hands, I admit it takes practice. Now we were confronted with another problem of how to carry them on our horses. I solved that by taking off my overalls and putting a melon in each leg and one in the crotch and put them straddle of my horses neck. The others did the same and thus we went home rejoicing. (slap happy)

June of 1947 Walter M. Stout

-Extracted from familysearch.org, ID KWCG-NMH

---

My Gethsemane

This story covers a sacred period of my life, a time when I was put in the fiery furnace of life, to see what kind of metal I was made of.

It is an old story to say, I fell in love with a good girl and repented of my evil ways, As old as it is, it is new to those having that experience. I have to admit, it was the influence of my first wife that caused me to about face and try to make amends for my wasted wayward life.

Singing had a lot to do with it, in those days of the old saloon, when men would gather around a bar and sing Sweet Adeline over a glass of beer.

This appealed to me very much. I tried many times to sing with them, but only to get bullied out. This was very discouraging to me. (Thank goodness.)

About this time of my life President Heber J. Grant visited Leamington and I heard him tell his story of how he learned to sing. It was inspiring to me. My wife Martha and Dorotha, her sister, took great interest in my singing. They both had good ear for music. I had a good voice, but I am pitch deaf like President Grant.

I got so I could sing with them a little. This lured me away from the influence of the saloon,

It all worked out for my best good and benefits.

About this time, Bishop Rodney B. Ashby of Leamington, asked me to lead the singing in meeting. This started something that soon became a regular practice and I made progress regardless of my deaf ear handicap.

In our days of courtship, Martha and I sang together often. It was a good thing for me, it helped me in my work with the choir.

I surely enjoyed that work and worked very hard. I would spend a week on one song to get it ready for choir practice. I had the stake chorister, Ed Dutson, help me, He finally brought his Oak City choir over to Leamington and we practiced together. Then he added the Lynndyl choir to our groups and had us sing at a Stake Conference in Delta, Utah.

This was the beginning of that combination-choirs-singing at stake conferences at least in our stake, (the Deseret Stake). I was the least of the choristers but with faith, work, and prayer I accomplished a great work, regardless of my handicap. I received credit for this at the conference. This was very gratifying and gave me courage and confidence to go on with my work.

Let me say while passing that I had no confidence in myself to begin with. We children were all self-conscious. Mother being a widow and we were poor and were picked on and made fun of by others. I had a feeling that it was a sin of some kind for me to try to sing or do anything good or great. I thought that belonged to others of a higher class. Being bullied out so much in the saloon because I could not sing in tune, made it worse. It affected my whole life I formed habits that have taken me all my life to overcome.

After I heard President Grant’s story and heard him sing, I decided to try openly. I was afraid to sing where anyone could hear me. But I got courage from him enough to try. I did not think anyone but me had such a handicap, or found out it was a handicap, and others had it also and could be overcome by perseverance. So, I went at it, and how I did work and pray. I promised the Lord if he would bless me with talent, I would always use it for the up building of Zion.

The Lord did bless me especially on my mission. I was called the singing Elder. One time I sang in tongues. I guess you would call it that, Elder Vernal Lars Nielson and I held a street meeting in Louisville, KY. We practiced a song to sing between talks. I was the lead singer, and he was tenor. He spoke first and became hoarse. When we went to sing, he said “You will have to sing that tenor I can’t reach it, and he took off and I followed him and kept in tune.

The harmony was good, and people stopped to listen. Soon the street was blocked with people. Then it was my turn to speak. I had the spirit with me and the people listened very good and many came and asked us many questions.

I must pay tribute to my sister Vira who helped me in my struggle, she taught piano music and had the changes on the cards. I had to learn them off by heart along with the song. That is the way I got by. She went over songs with me and marked the changes in the cards. I had to learn them off my heart along with the song. That is the way I got it. After our marriage my wife and I sang with corrected notes on the paper. I had to learn them off the pages along with the song. That is the way I got by with my singing mostly.

After our marriage my wife and I sang together, I played the guitar and sang lead she sang alto. It took a genius to follow Agnes, but we did it. Our daughter reminds me of her mother so much that way. Agnes can follow me just like her mother used to.

We built a house on a homestead in the hills south of Leamington. Agnes was born there. We lived there a year or so in happy bliss until that miserable day we decided to go visit her folks in Abraham. While there little Douglas caught sick with pneumonia and died three days later. After the funeral, we lived in the old farmhouse a while.

One day I mentioned going out to our house again. She said I don’t think we will ever go out there again. I looked at her in surprise and then she added “It isn’t because I don’t want to go, I will go with you any place, I just have a feeling that we will never go out there to live again. A few days later she asked me this question, “If one of us were called away by death, which of us should go?” After we talked it over a while, I said if it were now while the children are young, it would be best for me to stay because it is hard for a stepmother to take over a family of grown children.

A day or two later she came to me and put her arms around my neck and asked me if I would be willing to stay with the children and let her go. She had tears in her eyes. I said I would if it was necessary. We kissed and both had tears in our eyes.

After her untimely death about a week later, these things came to me, and it gave me a feeling of peace. I believe we gave our mutual consent to all that happened to us and that she was inspired to ask those questions.

I look back on the death of my wife and boy as something very sacred in my life.

Yet it was very tragic in a way, because little Virginia Jensen, Dorotha’s oldest child was drowned while my wife was laid out waiting for burial, which no doubt was the cause of her death. It all was so sudden that I was paralyzed in my feelings. I could not cry, yet I suffered intensely. I wanted my mother, missed her more than anyone. I guess it is a lifelong habit to run to mother when hurt.

I owe a debt of gratitude to sister Mary Finlinson that I must not overlook. I went in the room where the Relief Society women were cleaning my house. They all shook my hand but Mary, who put her arms around me and kissed me as my mother used to do. She began to cry and so did I. This seemed to relieve the tension inside of me and I could not stop crying. I wandered out around the barn yard giving full vent to my feelings for an hour or so. After that I felt better. That night we all went over to Jensen’s for supper. After which I took Archie and went to relieve Chriss Hansen, Martha’s brother who was watching her down at the old home, while we ate at Jensen’s.

I took Archie from a group of children who were making mud pies. As I left, I saw Virginia empty sand out of a can and start toward the canal back of the house. I think she fell in and floated down the canal while Archie and I walked along the road, about 20 feet apart. This, I figured out later. I went down and relieved Chriss, went in the house, turned and saw Lottie running down the road. I went to meet her, and she said,”Have you seen Virginia?”. I told her not since I left. She said, “Then she has fallen in the ditch.” I saw Sam running down the canal and went to help him, I met him carrying Virginia. He had found her down in McIntyre’s field about a half mile from where she fell in. We tried to revive her by artificial respiration, but she was too far gone.

As we passed the road going home, someone passed by going to town. Inside of half an hour the whole town was there.

What a night that was, Lottie collapsed with a nervous break, Dorotha almost did.

We decided to have the two funerals together. There wasn’t time to order a casket, so they made one. (Alma Harder and others). There was another grave to dig. The funeral was to be at two P.M. The following day, June 16 or 17.

The whole town was at the service. The funeral was well attended, people came from far and near. The house was filled. President Hinckley and Willis Robinson were there and gave us wonderful sermons that comforted and stilled the emotions of us all. I will always remember it.

The cause of my wife’s death was a mystery to some people, some blamed the Doctor, others thought it was this and others thought it was that.

She had a temperature and was suffering some distress. We had the Elders John Strange and Nathanial Ashby, Bro. Strange sealed the anointing. On their way home Bro Ashby said, “I will be so happy when sister Stout recovers. Try as I would, I could not promise her life or health.” Bro. Ashby told me this a little later.

We had Dr. Murray come, He gave her some fever tablets and said they would take the fever down. He was right, when he came the next day her temperature was way below normal. Cold sweat was dripping from her in streams. Her bedding mattress and all was soaking wet. The Dr. came about eight a gave her a shot and asked all to leave so she could get some rest.

Sister Mayble Overson was there helping and had supper ready. They all went out to eat, I went over to my wife and put my arm under her head, felt her face, and kissed her.

She said, “I will go to sleep all right, but I won’t wake up.” I knew she was going and wasted no time on useless consoling words.

I asked about the children, and if I should marry again and what she wanted me to do.

“Leave the children with my mother”, while you are on your mission. Suit yourself about getting married but come to me as soon as you can. If you do marry, get someone who will take good care of the children. Be good to her as you have to me, and we will all live in peace together when we reach the other side. She kissed me and said “Goodbye I must leave you now.” She closed her eyes and calmly passed away in my arms. I was as calm as a summer morning when I laid her down and went to tell the others.

The Dr grabbed his medicine kit to give her a tonic of some kind, but I said, “No Doc, you are to late she has passed away.” The Doctor put ptomain poison on her death certificate but that doesn’t make any difference, she was called home by the same authority that sent her here. I knew it was for my sake that she was taken. I realize it now more than I did then, I had weaknesses to overcome that required this great sorrow to give me strength to overcome and conquer. It is up to me now to sink or swim, if I wanted her, I must live worthy of her. I could see things in a different light.

I was face to face with it and the Lord was going to prove me here with to see if I were worthy of the blessings to which I had aspired, namely 1. Priesthood, 2. Temple Marriage.

Thirty years has passed away and the fight is still on. Sometimes I feel like I have failed all together.

It was a blessing in disguise that I was tone deaf. It would have wrecked my life, had I had an ear for music to go with the zeal in those dark days of saloon lure.

All I ask is that I have that talent given to me in the resurrection, with authority to use it to help build up and sustain the Kingdom of God.

June 4, 1947, Walter M. Stout

-Extracted from familysearch.org, ID KWCG-NMH

---

Bellevue Memorial Park, Ontario, San Bernardino County California

3 Nov 1895 – 21 Jan 1987

Wife of Lawrence Marion Cardon

---

Life History of Julia May Wheeler Cardon Smith

Contributed by Michael L. Cardon

I was born the 3rd of November 1895, not very much, just 4 pounds to my parents, Calvin Wheeler, Jr. and Margaret Emma Barker Wheeler, but I was very welcome because I was the fourth child and the first girl.

I was born on my father’s homestead, located three miles down the Bear River from Wheeler Canyon, which separates Cache County from Box Elder County. A canal separates the homestead. Below the canal was the irrigated part and above it was the dry land plateau, as the canal was dug along the side of the higher elevation. My Uncle Joe Wheeler had a similar set up just east of Father. Each of them planted a five-acre plot of timber trees, side by side making a 10-acre grove. I never remembered this grove only as tall trees. This homestead was 3.5 miles from the town of Fielding, Utah, along a dirt road with no gravel or 2.5 miles if we walked the canal bank or shorter when we could cross the canal when it had no water or was frozen over; then we could walk through the dry farm down to Fielding.

When I was a little girl, I think I was almost like little girls now, even if it was 75 or 80 years ago. Maybe I was more adventurous than lots of girls. I climbed high in the tree to look into a bird nest to see the color of the eggs and one time got too far out on a limb and fell and came home with a sprained wrist. Another time I went too high in the swing and fell out and made a hole in my head. Then I remember when my brother was dropping rocks down through the ventilator hole in the cellar. I was watching the rocks as they were coming then no rocks came. I wondered why, so I went to look up through the hole just as a rock came down right on the top of my head. We had lots of places to play, like the big ten acres of trees, all kinds of big, tall ones and some not so tall. There were those with the pretty flowers on. Then there was the river to wade and splash in. The rocks in the river bottom did hurt our feet, but we just had to find those big clams that was nestled in the rocks. Sometimes I could find some that were opened. Those were the ones we could break apart and get the clams out and see the beautiful colors of the shell. Since we lived a long way from town, we didn’t get to go to the store to buy goodies like children do now. Can you imagine the joy of a little girl to see a large crate opened up to see a big string of bananas, just like they grow on the trees? This crate had come on the train from Ogden where my father sold things, like honey or pigs and then he would buy back oranges in a large box and the big, tall barrel that came full of candy kisses. I think it took us all one summer to eat all that candy.

It seems to me that the easiest thing I remember in life was climbing the cherry tree and eating cherries from the tree that Father gave to us kids and the birds. I think it was my first year at school that my Father and Uncle Joe hired a schoolteacher to teach us in one room of our home. Other than that, I walked to school or rode the buggy or snow sled pulled by horses in the bad weather. The horses were driven by my older brothers and taken care of at the school yard until it was time to come home at night. One year during a bad winter, I and my sister, who was just 4 years younger than I, stayed at a friend’s home in Fielding.

As soon as I was old enough, I had work to do. My aunt told me in later years that she remembered me cooking as soon as I was tall enough to reach the top of the stove. There was lots to do on our farm for a bigger part was orchard and we picked all our own fruit. It was all sold at the place. People came from far and near, by horses to buy. It seemed that Sunday was our busiest day. I didn’t get to church very often because of fruit season and bad weather and muddy roads in the winter.

I have lots of fond memories of my childhood. We had so much to play at, the river to wade and fish in and the grove to play in. When the cotton pods didn’t fall from the cotton wood trees and we had no cotton to make gum, we would pray to the Lord for some to fall. Other gum we got was to break milk weeds, so that the milk would bleed out. Then after it dried we could gather it to make gum. I did lots of carrying of water from springs down by the river for drinking water. Our garden was near a spring and I remember so well of gathering vegetables from the garden and preparing them to cook with the water from the spring and also gathering watercress. Oh yes, the watermelons Father grew, how good they were, but it wasn’t very much fun to weed the acre of onions. It would have to be done with a knife getting the little weeds around the little onions. We would follow the rows on our knees. Then when they were grown they had to be topped with a knife before they were dug.

The most and earliest sadness came to my life when I was five years old. I was with my three-year-old brother while my father was hauling hay. Mother was with the older brothers watching sheep. Anyway, my Father was depending on me to watch my little brother, Ira, but some way he was under the hay wagon when it started up to put more hay on and was killed.

The next sadness was when my only sister Maggie died. She was 9 years old and I was 13. She died quite suddenly. I remember the Stake President Wellington administered to her but she didn’t live. It was so hard to watch her pass away.

I had a great companionship with my Mother and Father. What ever Mother did I was with her. Whether it was picking fruit or canning it, ironing shirts for the boys and washing when we ironed we were together. We would heat the iron on the stove as one got too cool we would take another hotter one. The washing was done mostly on the scrubbing board.

As I got older there wasn’t much of the time I couldn’t walk to school. Father bought a home in Fielding for winter school. After we got the home in Fielding I would go with Mother in the buggy during the summer and pick currents and take care of fruit there.

After I graduated from grade school I was to go to Logan to High School. When the time came for me to go, Mother took me to Ogden to her sister. I got mostly skirts and blouses. We didn’t have so many clothes in those days. After we got home, my brother Andrew took me to Logan and we found a place for me to board at the Benson’s, just across from the B. Y. C. I had a happy year that year. My room mate was Ally Johnson from Lake Town Bear Lake. We were great friends. She was such a sweet and brilliant girl. She came to visit me during the holidays at my home. At the Benson’s in another room was Nonie James who became my better friend in later years. I had my boy friends. One special one was Tolman from Wyoming. He was called on a mission and had to leave before the school year was over. The next year, 1912, I went to Ogden to school at the Weber College. I stayed with my Aunt Lily Richards. The principle of the school was my Uncle James Barker.

I didn’t get to finish this year at school as my brother, Andrew, was called on a mission and my sister, Fawn, was having an operation and I had to be home.

The year of 1914 my Father and Mother sold their home at Fielding and on the river and we moved to Stone, Idaho in the Curlew Valley. It was a hard move and a very different life. It was a 3 room bug infested house which some southern people had lived in. There wasn’t much for me to do other than keeping house and fighting bedbugs.

We started to go to Church on Sunday in a one room schoolhouse. It was just a branch of the Stone Ward. The people who lived around there, that went to church, were us, the Wheeler family, the Bagget family, and three Clayton families. The Claytons were musical and sometimes they would furnish us with a dance. At those times young people would come from surrounding places. That first winter the Claytons decided, for entertainment, to form a theater group. They used Pearl and Rose Bagget and myself as the ladies as there were more males in the Claytons.

Anyway my part was written in a note book and given to me. The elder Claytons directed and took and brought us girls to and from Stone to practice. Their wives helped also. We put on two different plays and were each very successful. We were told that the proceeds went to the missionary fund.

The next summer Rose and Pearl Bagget, who were sisters, became my great friends. We went to our church and dances with the Clayton boys. But the next fall there was another who came into my life. A handsome strong young man came into the valley from Black Pine, looking for work in the hay field. Father needed help, so it was arranged that he should help in the hay field along with my brothers and father. The hay field was several miles from where we lived, and it was Mother’s and my job to get dinner to the men. We prepared dinner, packed it to carry, and then harnessed the horses. I remember one horse was a stallion. We then hitched them to the buggy, and we were off. Now at the hay field they were looking for us to arrive and as we came near my brother said to this young man, Lawrence. “This is my sister; she is 19 years old but don’t tell her I told you. I was very impressed with this young man Lawrence Cardon who was to become my husband.

In latter years he would tease me and say I was so attentive to him during the meal that I would say won’t you have this or won’t you have that. So that is how the romance began. From then on I had regular visits from him. It was a long way on horse back from Black Pine to the Curlew side but he did it.

That winter he went to Ogden to work and that was the winter of the flu which took the lives of so many people.

Grandma Cardon didn’t lose any of her family but they were really sick, including Lawrence.

As I have said before, Mother and I did things together. In the summer of 1917, we decided we would take empty bottles to my Mother’s home, Grandma and Grandpa Henry Barker’s, to fill with fruit. So, we got at it, packed the whole back of the buggy which was about 5-7 feet full of 2-quart bottles. Father got us two horses from the field, which hadn’t been used much, but was capable of making the trip. After all preparations were made, we were off. I did the driving and everything went well until we got to Brigham City. Now these horses had never seen a car and when they did, they wanted to turn loose. They didn’t get away from me, but I was afraid. As luck would have it, we meet up with a friend of Mothers who was also going to Ogden. He had other drivers with him so offered to drive our team of horses on into Ogden. We got the bottles all filled with fruit.

Now I new Lawrences’s sister Hazel. I met her at Weber High School at Ogden and when she knew I was at North Ogden, she came from Ogden to visit me and I went to her home with her. While I was there I learned that she was preparing to go by railroad to the Kelton Sinks as far as it ran and as near as it ran to Black Pine. She was going out to the farm. Some how it was decided that I was to go with her and get to Curlew. Then someone was to come back to North Ogden and bring Mother and the outfit home. Mother was afraid for me to encounter the automobiles with the horses again. That is what I did. When we got to Kelton there was Lawrence to meet us in a wagon. Mother Cardon sat in the back on some bedding and Lawrence and I was on the driver’s seat. This was the time of World War I and all unmarried men were being drafted and it was Lawrence’s turn coming up soon. Mother Cardon didn’t want this to happen so she was thinking fast. She said when I see two heads on one shoulder it is time for them to get married.

It didn’t take much persuading so when Lawrence took me home, we asked my father if we could get married to which he consented. So the rush was on. He hurried home to get ready and I made me a dress. When he came to take me to Malad to get married, Mother hadn’t got home yet and we went anyway. We got to Malad before the Court House closed so we went and got married. Then he had things to do like getting shoes put on the horses feet and his hair cut. So we went to a hotel and got a room and he was off because it was getting late. I stayed at the Hotel. It was about 11 PM when he got back and was I worried! It took so long to shoe the horses and he had to stand in line so long to get his hair cut, anyway I was so worried that something had happened.

Then the worse thing happened when we got home, Mother got home too. Poor Mother. How shocked to think of her daughter to be so inconsiderate of her as to go get married in this manner. It was awful. Lawrence went home alone to leave me there to help her with the fruit she had brought home. Now all this misery was so that Mother Cardon’s son wouldn’t be drafted into the Army. It wasn’t a month until the war was over, but Lawrence joked that his war never did get over. After a week or so he came after me and we were as happy as could be to be living in the home at Black Pine. This was October 13, 1917, that we were married. In the coming January 1918 we got a Temple Recommend and went to Ogden in the snow and blizzards and got ready for the Salt Lake Temple. My pretty white dress was made and the night before Lawrence went to Ogden to get his hair cut. The barber said, “How do you want it cut?” Lawrence said, “Cut it all off”. So, he was cut bald and that’s the way he looked when we went through the Temple. We caught the Bamburger train railroad car and went to the Temple all alone. It was still a wonderful experience.

That spring we homesteaded 320 acres of mountain land between Curlew Valley and Black Pine. Lawrence bought lumber and had someone help him and almost got a house built that is, enough that we could move in. We lived there that summer and winter. Lawrence was working in Curlew Valley and cutting post and hauling them to Ogden to sell. Also hauling water in barrels there for our stock. One little Guernsey heifer that would moo to him whenever he came around and the moo almost drove him crazy.

We lived about ¼ mile from the road that went over the mountain. One time Lawrence got very sick. I didn’t know what to do up there alone so I wrote a note and placed it in the middle of the road and put a rock on it. (In about 1965 her grown children became acquainted with Abe Clark and he told about finding the note and getting help for Dad.)

One time when Lawrence hauled a load of post to Ogden, he drove into his father’s place and a neighbor and also a doctor who had attended him when he was ill with Brights disease at age 14 came to meet him. They patted him on the shoulders and said “a living miracle”. Lawrence was such a strong, robust built young man and there he was. One doctor that had said he could never live.

We never did get this cabin finished. Half of the bedroom floor wasn’t there. In the kitchen the lathe was not all the way down making an opening between the two by fours. One night we awoke and there was a little animal. He had come up through the floor. He was so pretty, didn’t have a regular stripe down his back like a skunk and Lawrence said, “let him be, I want his fur”. So he went back under the floor. The next day he showed up in the house, so I went straight way out where Lawrence was working outside. He rushed in and the pretty little animal run up between the lath in the wall. Lawrence took a stick and started to poke and bang, woo! It was one kind of skunk. Lawrence was almost blinded and we had to rush out. We went down in the valley to my mother and father’s place and they would hardly receive us, we smelt so bad. Lawrence later put paper between the lath and the outside wall where the civic cat had been and set it afire. When it burned so long, he put the fire out. That took the smell away some.

Lawrence kept busy building stables for the cows. We got a few sheep and he dug a cellar. This is where I carded wool for a quilt. We washed the wool and with a hand carder, two paddles with wire on one side, I combed the wool into small pats. Put them matching in the quilt making it appear as one bat. Mother helped me quilt. It was so thick I had put the bats so close together. This is where I knit the one and only pair of socks for Lawrence.

Coming April 1919 it was time for us to go to Ogden to get our first baby. After preparations we left in the white topped buggy. It was warm and nice and we traveled along nicely until we got to the Blue creek where we ran into a flood. The snow had melted so fast, the bottom of the valley was a river. The creek was normally small and a bridge to travel over. Now the bridge was nearly washed away. Lawrence had to swim the horses just above the bridge. He told me to walk across the bridge and as I was walking and he was swimming the horses, I got excited because the current was so strong, it looked as if they would be swept under, I hesitated and he called for me to hurry because the bridge was going, as it did, but I got across safely. The buggy and the horses also made it. As I remember we were driving in water for a quarter of a mile.

The 22nd of April our baby girl arrived. We named her Elizabeth. We were so happy with our baby and Grandmother Cardon was so nice to us. She took care of me the 10 days that I was in bed. In those days a mother had to stay in bed that long after a birth. She was a wonderful mother-in-law. Lawrence and I stayed there a few weeks, before going back to the homestead, where we stayed until the next spring. It was a cold winter for a baby in a house that didn’t have the walls plastered nor all the floor. She had to be put in her bed or set in the high chair. Therefore she didn’t learn to walk early but she could talk. When she was only one year old, when she would hear the baby lambs cry for their bottle she said, “a little lambie”. These were orphan lambs that Lawrence had gathered from the sheep herds. Lawrence had a home made sled that he hitched old prince to. He put hay on it then a quilt. That’s the way we would ride going down into the valley. It was lots of fun, only this one time old Prince got going too fast around a turn and the sled turned over. We landed on the snow and the hay landed on top of us. We didn’t get hurt. Lawrence’s horses always stopped when he told them to.

Although we were happy up in the hills, nothing had happened to give us any idea of how we could ever get a well or the like up there and we couldn’t haul water forever. So when the word came that Lawrence’s father and mother had sold their home in Ogden and bought a ranch on the Marsh Creek near Inkom, Idaho and wanted all the boys to come and help work it. We decided to give up our homestead and move. This was a sad decision because I was leaving my dear father and mother, who had done so much for us, and loved us so much. We sold our animals and took what few things we had and made the journey to Marsh Creek.

It didn’t turn out to be such a big deal. There were too many families for the amount of land. Lawrence was given the job of plowing and planting the unirrigated land on top of the Marsh Valley. We didn’t get enough rain and it didn’t produce much. My personal things were put in a little building some where near by (I didn’t ever see it). There was all my treasures like needle work and it was all stolen. This move wasn’t all a loss as we had lots of good times together. We got to know each other more. Brother Ernest and his sweet wife Eva and their little family and brother Roy with his wife Ann. She was such a sweet, precious, little lady. We had Marsh Creek to swim in and wild berries grew along the creek. Also in wet weather lots of mushrooms grew at the foot of the lava rock.

Lawrence and I were blessed that year with another little baby girl, Emma Hazel, and of course it was grandmother Cardon that took me to Ogden to Lawrence’s sister’s home for her birth.

The winter that we were living there on March Creek, one cold day the men went in the canyon for logs. When they got home late at night, Lawrence was in chills. He had come down with pneumonia. He may of died if he had not had his mother nursing him, but one mistake was made with mustard and lard. Too much heat was applied and the lard melted away and the mustard blistered his back. After that I think the burns were more painful than the sickness. By the time the sore back was healed the pneumonia was gone. I was so thankful to have him well again.

The family had to give up this ranch. Grandfather Cardon and grandmother went back to their home at Ogden.

Lawrence and I rented a place just a few miles away. It was a farming section in the rolling country up from Walker Creek. Some water was taken from the creek to irrigate some alfalfa. Most of the land was dry farmed and there we moved with our little family and our love for each other. It was a little 2-room house along the side of a gully with just enough leveled for the house and small garden, watered by a spring of water which was our culinary water. We would bring it to the house in buckets for washing clothes and everything. Our nearest neighbor was a mile farther down the creek.

Lawrence went to work plowing all the wheat ground and planting it. He irrigated the hay ground. He had to follow the little ditch around to Walker Creek where the water came into it and keep it cleaned. He killed many rattle snakes along his way. We had some cows and of course horses to do all the farm work. The corral and hay stack was up above the house on a level spot. The wheat was fall wheat which would mature the next summer.

This first summer Lawrence made a trip to Soda Springs to find some money which his Aunt thought was buried in the barn under the manger. A fortune teller had told her that her husband had hid it there before he died. He worked hard at it just to please her. Anyway she gave him some things to bring home. One was a milk separator. Now we could separate the cream from our milk. It would take about 2 weeks to fill a 10 gallon can. When it was full, Lawrence would drive to Pocatello and sell the cream. With the money he would bring home needed things. That was our only source of income except we grew 2 pigs of which we sold one and dressed the other out for our use.

We were happy, we had our two little girls to take care of and rock, sing and tell stories to and another baby on the way, also our big wheat crop coming. It finally got ready to cut. Lawrence got a header and someone to help cut the wheat into a header box. He drove the team of horses along under the spout until the box was full. Then they would take the heads of grain and make a stack with the hand fork. It took many header boxes to make a stack and we had many stacks. Now it was time for the thrasher to come and thrash the wheat out, but the thrasher didn’t come. He was too busy thrashing other peoples grain. We would have to take ours in turn. It was getting to be late fall and then the rain began to fall. It rained and rained.

It was getting near December when the baby was to come. Lawrence took me, Betty and Emma to Ogden. He had to leave us there at his mother’s and go back to his stacks of wet grain. December 2, 1923 another baby girl came to us from heaven. We named her Netta Rachel.

The thrasher finally came and thrashed the wet wheat that had grown green on the top of the piles. Of course it didn’t thrash and we weren’t able to sell what we got. Whoever had charge of the unused schoolhouse down Marsh River road let Lawrence store the wheat there and he sold it for pig feed. It didn’t bring much for all the summer work.

In due time I and our little family of girls came home and that was happy times. We still lived in the little house up in the hills until spring at which time Lawrence was able to rent a ranch just a few miles away on the Marsh Creek. The creek made the east line. This was much different than the home we moved from. A larger house with no bed bugs. All along the lane coming into the place was lined with tall trees on both sides.

This was the first year that Betty went to school. Lawrence drove 2 miles with a team of horses to meet the bus that traveled on 5 miles further. This bus was a horse pulled covered wagon with a stove in it to keep the children warm. Coming home from the bus the first day, her Dad asked Betty what she had learned that day. She said, “Ogles, and push pulls”, he wondered if it was worth it all.

At this time, he bought our first car. We were on top of the world. It was a Model T Ford. It made our little Emma nervous, every time her Dad would start it, she would cry. One special experience happened at Marsh Creek ranch. Betty had gone to school in the school wagon at Inkom. Lawrence was supposed to pick her up after school at the designated place at the old Walker school. Time passed and she didn’t come. I was so worried. I got in the new car to go get her and as I had never driven before, and I crashed it into one of the popular trees that lined the lane. I was devastated but still needed to get Betty, so I walked to get her and really worried when I came upon a herd of cattle. When I found her, I asked how she got by the range bulls. She said, “I hid under the shay brush. “

We did well on this farm. Our dairy herd grew which we milked by hand and separated the cream from the milk by turning a hand separator. Lawrence grew alfalfa hay and also grass hay. We lived there about four years. This place was a sheep trail for sheep moving from the lavas across Marsh creek on out to more pasture. Sometimes Lawrence would let the sheep men shear their sheep there. This was exciting for the children. I always took the chance to visit the lady that cooked for the men. Each afternoon that I went, I took one of the girls with me. She made delicious pie which we were treated with.

Our fourth baby girl, Florence, was born here on Marsh Creek, May 29, 1925. I remember the turkeys that drowned during a rainstorm during my confinement.

Betty continued on to school, only now the little schoolhouse was made ready for school and we had a teacher for all grades. Betty rode her horse we called Bum to school. She didn’t like to go alone so she planned a scheme to get Emma to go a lot of the time. We didn’t know that the teacher hadn’t asked. She even planned to get Netta there at times even though she was only three years old. They took part in a school program. On occasion the mothers brought hot lunch. The children’s favorite was my home made tomato soup.

The first land we owned was a 40 acre place across the creek, was half lava. We were living here when Lucky Lindy flew across the ocean and how I would love to hear Lawrence sing the songs about him. He had such a beautiful voice.

One of my favorite activities was fishing in Marsh Creek while Betty and Emma watched the little ones. It was not only a pleasure but it furnished many a meal.

One of the delights for the children was at Easter time. I would gather green leaves for green, laundry blueing for blue, onion leaves for yellow and beet juice for red. With the use of vinegar, I stained the eggs very artistically which made Easter special. The baskets were made of things at hand.

We had a lot of friends at Marsh Creek, when it was holidays or other occasions we often gathered together and shared our dinners. Some of their names were Chris and Martha Kilesguard, the Charlie Halls, and the Morises.

The spring of 1927, I stepped back off the porch and broke my ankle. I tied my leg to a chair and hobbled around and did my work. It was a long spring and very difficult as I had a garden, chickens and children to tend and was also expecting a new baby.

A great sadness occurred July 25, 1927 when my 5th child was born. Although a doctor was there, complications developed that he could not handle. So Lawrence went to Inkom to get another doctor to assist. He had to come from Pocatello. Because of the seriousness of the problem and the time involved, our little girl was stillborn. She is buried in the Inkom Cemetery. Her grave is under a pine tree and has a pretty little head stone.

In the spring of 1928 we moved from the ranch to Oxford, Idaho. We had about 38 cows and calves that had to be herded there by horse. Lawrence hired a man to help but he never showed up so Betty (age 8) rode the horse with Lawrence. They were two nights on the road. They had to find places to corral the animals at night. I helped to get them started but needed to be with the younger children until Lawrence came back for us. We had purchased the farm in Oxford through the mail. The house was old and needed a lot of repair. Times were good in 1928 and on June 27, 1929 we were finally blessed with our first and only baby boy. He was named Lawrence Boyd. He was born at Downey, Idaho at a Maternity home.

Good times were short lived as the “Great Depression” began in October of 1929. We had the dairy cows, which made our living. The farm produced the feed for the animals. We separated the milk and sold the cream. I always had chickens and pigs for meat for the family and a large garden. Times were very hard, eggs sold for $2 a case of 30 dozen. We got $2.30 for a ten gallon can of cream. We never made a principle payment because it was all we could do to pay the interest. To get some more income we later built a large chicken coupe for 2,000 baby chicks. We later sold fryers and eggs. The chickens were fed the curds and whey from the separated milk. I also had a large strawberry patch and sold berries.

We had a lot of friends. Lawrence served as Ward Clerk. I helped him by copying all the minutes neatly. Later he was also counselor to the Bishop. Our main entertainment was visiting with couples in the Ward. A highlight with my children was a contest at school for drama reading. I encouraged Betty and she won at the grade school and then went to Preston where she also won there, was I proud!

My brother Henry lived at Trenton, Utah at that time and he told us what a nice place it was to live. By this time, we could see that our move to Oxford was a mistake. Probably because of the depression and the drought but when we had the offer of $500.00 for our equity, we were ready to move as Lawrence had located a farm in Trenton that we could rent. This was 1934. We drove the cows and brought our few possessions. The house we had lived in wasn’t much, but our new home was 2 little rooms, which we soon added a large room for kitchen and living area. There was 160 acres in the farm, but no one had been able to get the irrigation water on it. Lawrence dug a huge ditch and was able to do so. There was a river bottom with 16 acres where Bear River looped around.

The owners decided they wanted to sell the farm and we had no money. I think through our prayers a miracle happened. When we had sold our farm in Marsh Creek, Mr. Toston had owed us $1000.00. Lawrence had made many trips to Oxford, trying to collect the money, with no success and had finally given up. Well at this time he needed a clear title on the land and came with a check for $1000.00. Just the amount we needed for a a down payment. We built a barn for the cows. The children were now old enough to help milk and work in the sugar beets and our farming was very successful. We bought a new Terraplane car and later built a beautiful home.

Emma and Betty had both married and both husbands had gone to the Service. After World War II was over Milton and Emma decided to move to Burley, Idaho. Dad wanted the children to be together and went looking for a new farm. He sold our Trenton home and we once again had not so good house at Springdale, a community outside of Burley. Netta had married and she and Bob Giles also moved to Burley. Betty and Clint Cook also came and worked on the farm. In 1946 for a time we were all close together.

Lawrence built a barn for his now herd of registered holstein cows and the 160 acres produced a good living. We all worked very hard. Florence, Boyd and Maurine were all married during the time we lived here and we were now alone. During this time Lawrence worked in the Sunday School and we both completed a 2 year Stake Mission.

Boyd decided to move to Washington and it wasn’t long until we sold our Springdale place. I was then about 65. We spent our summers helping Boyd and our winters in Mesa, Arizona doing Temple work. Some days we could get in five sessions. We had many friends there and had good times together. Also Betty and Clint now lived in Mesa.

We bought Netta’s house in Declo, Idaho, next to Florence and Floyd. We continued to spend winters in Arizona and did Temple work. We were now in our 70’s and our health wasn’t as good as it had been. Lawrence announced, no more Arizona.

I had heart failure, which I was treated for with digitalis and almost died of an overdose before it was regulated. Lawrence also had heart problems after getting heat stroke working in the garden and fruit trees. It was nice to just stay home and enjoy our grandchildren. Each Sunday after church I would take a cake to Florence’s as they lived close, and had Sunday dinner.

November 3, 1972 Lawrence had a stroke which left him paralyzed and couldn’t talk. I was blessed to have him live for three years. I took care of him myself in our Declo home. On December 23, 1975 he passed away. I was devastated. Florence and her children took turns staying with me at night. I spent winters with Betty in Arizona. I would go and see Clarissa Gillette in Twin Falls and one day I met her cousin Don C. Smith who was selling hearing aids. He came to my house to sell me a hearing aid and continued to visit. My health improved after getting a pacemaker for my heart.

In 1978 we decided to get married. We spent many winters with Betty in Arizona. We enjoyed each others companionship for many years until my health got so bad I went to live with my daughter, Netta. Don went to live with his daughter in Blackfoot, Idaho. For a while I was able to live there too.

The last few years she lived with Netta again. These were hard, sad times for mother as she was nearly blind and couldn’t hear. Netta was very good to her. We had a nice 91-year birthday party with great grandchildren and all. One day Floyd, Florence and Netta took her to Arizona to see Betty and spend some time. Glen came later. We were there a week when mother had a stroke and passed away, January 21, at the age of 91. We flew her home, and she was buried in Burley by her beloved husband Lawrence.

---

Julia Cardon Smith

DECLO – Julia May Wheler Cardon Smith, 91, of Declo, died Wednesday at St. Luke’s Hospital in Phoenix.

Born Nov. 3, 1895, in Fielding, Utah, she moved with her family to Stone, Idaho, in 1915. She married Lawrence Marion Cardon Oct. 13, 1917, at Malad.

The marriage was solemnized in the Salt Lake City LDS Temple Feb. 3, 1918. They ranched and raised Holstein cows on Marsh Creek, near McCammon, moving to Oxford, and then to Trenton, Utah. They finally settled in the Burley area, where she had lived since. After retirement, they spent their winters in Mesa, Ariz., and summers in Declo. Mr. Cardon died Dec. 23, 1975. She married Don Cleveland Smith in January 1978.

Mrs. Smith was a member of the LDS Church, where she and her first husband were active in temple work in Arizona.

Surviving are: her husband of Blackfoot; five daughters, Mrs. Clint (Betty) Cook of Mesa, Mrs. Milton (Emma) Payne of Burley, Mrs. Glenn (Netta) Baum of Twin Falls, Mrs. Floyd (Florence) West of Declo and Mrs. Robert (Maurine) Strout of Manteca, Calif.; a son, Boyd Cardon of Hood River, Ore.; 28 grandchildren; 92 great-grandchildren; and a great-great-grandchild. She was preceded in death by a daughter and 2 grandchildren.

The funeral will be held at noon Tuesday in the Declo LDS Ward Chapel, with Bishop Elden Lind officiating. Burial will be in Gem Memorial Gardens in Burley.

Friends may call at the Payne Chapel in Burley Monday from 6 to 8 p.m. and at the church one hour prior to the time of the service on Tuesday.

-Published in The Times-News (Twin Falls, Idaho), Sunday, January 25, 1987, Page B-2 (14).

---

Gen Memorial Gardens, Burley, Cassia County, Idaho, Plot: Rainbow L, Block 13, Space 2.

–