12 Dec 1877 – 15 Feb 1960
Great Grandson of Philip Cardon and Martha Marie Tourn
Grandson of Louis Philip Cardon and Susette Stalé
Son of Emanuel Philip Cardon and Amelia Maria Merrick
Life Sketch of My Father
My father, Emanuel Alonzo Cardon, Senior was born 12, Dec.1877 in Woodruff, Arizona, the first child of Emanuel Philip Cardon and Amelia Mariah Merrick.
He had 9 brothers and sisters, of which five died in infancy.
His parents were married 13 Oct. 1876, about that time, his Grandparents, Louis Philip Cardon and Susette Stalé, were called by the Church from Oxford, Oneida, Idaho to go to Arizona to help build up that part of the country. The family all went and settled in Woodruff. The first thing they did was build a Fort as protection from the Indians. My father had the distinction of being the first white child to be born there. They later moved to Taylor, Arizona where they built homes and planted their crops.
When father was still a baby he had spasms and they didn’t think he would live. He was so small and weak. A man by the name Brother Tenney, blessed him and promised him he would get well and would live to a ripe old age. One day when his mother was asleep being worn out by the constant care of a sick baby, he had one of the spasms and Aunt Sarah, one of his Great-Grandfathers wives thought he was dead, and “laid him out”. When his mother awoke she knew he wasn’t dead and worked with him and brought him to.
He started to school at the usual age of 6 years. His first teacher’s name was Andre Wood. Father said he had his ears boxed four times the first day because he couldn’t sit still. Father said the best teacher he ever had was a relative by the name of Louis Cardon. He didn’t have a chance to get much of an education because at the age of 12 years he had to quit school to help support the family.
He drove a four horse freight wagon, hauling freight from Holbrook to Fort Apache. His father ran the farm so he could be near his Mother, who wasn’t very well.
Father had two bad accidents when he was quite young. He fell from a horse and hit on his head and was paralyzed for a few hours. Another time he was kicked by a horse, his father found him unconscious and carried him to the house. He was administered to, but didn’t regain consciousness until the next day. He had lost a lot of blood and was very weak. The Lord blessed him and he soon regained his health and strength.
Father was baptized 11 December 1885 by James Lewis of Taylor, Arizona. He was ordained a Deacon in 1889 and was made president of the Deacon’s Quorum at the age of 14. His main job was to clean the meeting house and chop wood for the widows.
In the fall of 1893, father’s parents were called by the authorities of the Church to go into Mexico to help build the country there. They had planned on building a new home in Arizona and even had the building material to start but they believed in obeying the authorities so they sold out and started for Mexico. My father drove a four horse wagon with the furniture, my uncle Clarence drove a two horse rig and my grandparents drove a light spring wagon. The roads were very bad and just before entering Round Valley, they had to go down a very steep mountain covered with snow and very slick. My grandfather, Emanuel Philip Cardon, called them all together and they knelt down and prayed to their Heavenly Father for help and guidance. My grandfather always prayed as though he were talking directly to the Lord as tho they were face to face. He told the Lord that the authorities had called them to go to Mexico and they needed His help in going down this mountain and into Mexico in safety. Needless to say they did go down the mountain without a bit of trouble and arrived in Mexico in good health. They were six weeks on the way. They settled in Dublán, Old Mexico.
Grandfather Cardon was a religious man and taught his family the Gospel, especially the Law of Tithing. In those days tithing was paid in grains, vegetables or whatever was grown in their fields. Grandfather always gave one-tenth of the very best of the crops.
In 1897 my father met the girl who was to become my mother, Rosa Vilate Terry, daughter of Nathan Harris and Margie Jannett Duzzett Terry. Mother was going to school in Dublán, Old Mexico.
They were married the 10th of May 1898 in Colonia, Oaxaca, Old Mexico. Their first child, a girl, was born the 25th of February, 1899 at this place. They named her Dency.
They moved to Tombstone, Cochise, Arizona and after about five years another girl was born, 7 November 1904, named Irene. Two years later a boy, 3 May 1906, was born, Emanuel Alonzo Cardon Jr. They moved to St. David, Cochise, Arizona where I, Rosa Vilate, was born 30 December 1907. I was named after my mother. Two years later another son, Jesse Leo was born, August 5, 1909. Then they moved to a farm a few miles from Wellton, Arizona, where dad did some farming.
In the Spring of 1913 they came to Utah. They first lived in a small town, Vernon, Tooele, Utah. I don’t know just how long they were here until they moved to a still smaller place, called Benmore, Tooele, Utah. Father took up a dry farm here and also worked in a mine close by. We really had a bad time of it here. It was so hard on Mother, she never was in very good health, after they had been about two years, Mother was to have another child, as there was no doctor or help Mother went to a ladies home in Clover, Tooele, Utah for the birth of the baby, a girl born 11 July 1915. They named her Fay. Two years later, a boy was born, Ivins Terry, on 13 September 1917 at Benmore, Tooele, Utah with the help of a neighbor woman.
They moved to Stockton, Tooele, Utah where father worked in the mines and mother took in boarders. They didn’t stay here very long then they moved to a ranch, called the Frederickson Ranch located between Vernon and Stockton, Utah. Father worked hard as did the rest of us but didn’t stay long. In 1919 they moved to Eureka, Juab, Utah. Father again worked in the mines. He had quite a cough and was very thin so they decided to move again, this time to Hinckley, Millard, Utah in the Spring of 1922, on the Al Stout farm. Mother’s health which had never been good was decidedly worse. The dust from the alfalfa and weeks made her asthma so bad she had a terrible time of it. She suffered day and night. Father moved from farm to farm but, never doing much with any of them. He worked hard but, just couldn’t make a go of any of them.
Father had a hernia operation in the fall of 1935 at the Delta Hospital by Dr. Myron E. Bird. It was at this point that Father really turned to religion. He had been born and raised in the Church but didn’t take an active part. He would go and that was about all. He had smoked nearly all of his life and although he had been ordained an Elder in 1908 by Andrew Kimball, he had never taken mother to the temple. While he was in the hospital, he had pneumonia and the doctor wouldn’t let him have his cigarettes, so he decided to quit smoking. He has never smoked since. I guess his operation was a blessing in disguise. He started taking a more active part in the Church and 11 December, 1936, he and Mother were sealed in the Manti Temple at Manti, Utah. Since then all of the children but the oldest boy, Emanuel Alonzo Jr. and Jesse Leo have been sealed to them.
Father was ordained a High Priest on 31 March 1940 by Edward Leo Lyman.
Dad and Mother both worked on the genealogy committee in the Hinckley ward.
In 1944 father and mother moved to Tod Park, Tooele, Utah. He worked at the Ordinance Depot there. Mother had it a little easier here but due to her many years of suffering with asthma, her heart was affected. She had a lot of pain in her shoulder and arm, which we know now as caused by her heart. She passed away in the Ordinance Hospital 4 September, 1944. She was taken to Hinckley, Millard, Utah for burial.
After Mother died, father just couldn’t settle down. He went from one of his children to the other for about two years, then he went to St. George, Utah, this was in 1946 and started working in the Temple. He met Harriet Woodbury Barnum, who was also working in the Temple. They were married 10 June 1948 in the St. George Temple. Father and Aunt Harriet have done about 650 sealings and endowments for the dead.
Father also had his patriarchal blessing in 1948 by George Miles.
In 1953, father had a cataract removed from his right eye in the Las Vegas Hospital in Las Vegas, Nevada, by Dr. Lochwood. He got along very well considering his age. He was administered to several times by the Elders while he was in the hospital.
On the 4th of April 1956 father had a severe sick spell. A heart attack, asthma and pneumonia. I went down with Irene and Lloyd. He was so bad we didn’t expect him to live only a few days. He seemed to know us when we first got there but I don’t think he really knew any of us again. We sent for the rest of his children on the 6th, they all came but Jesse, for two days the nurses didn’t even attempt to do any thing for him, not even feeding him, thinking that any time he would die. A “No Visitors” sign was put on the door and only the relatives could see him. We even had his temple clothes ready. During that time he seemed to be in another world. He would talk of genealogy and how simple it all was to do now that he could see the whole pattern, how simple everything was. He also saw my mother and his father. He said thee was so many children. I’ve never heard a better sermon preached than by father, given from his sick bed. It was also very pitiful – he would plead with the Lord to take him home and ask why or what was the reason, what did he have to do yet. Then he would ask for his one son, Jesse, who didn’t go to se him, Father would call for him with tears in his eyes, and say if he could just see Jesse, did Jesse get there yet? Father and Jesse had trouble years before and weren’t too friendly. Father was administered to several times and although he wasn’t promised to get well, he did, much to the amazement of every one. He rallied and started to improve. Every one of the children left to go home but Irene and I, we stayed another week then we had to go home. I had left Sandra alone and I was quite concerned about her, she was only 13 years old and never been left before.
Father was in the Dixie Pioneer Memorial Hospital 25 days. I guess it was quite hard on Aunt Harriet to take care of him but we all had our families to look after, she had about 10 or 14 days of it alone after we left and I guess it was equally hard after she got him home. Dad said there must be something the Lord wanted him to do, something he hadn’t accomplished yet. We thought maybe it was to make his peace with Jesse, so last summer at Irene’s, Dad was visiting and we all went down, Jesse came over and it was a wonderful reunion for them but Dad wasn’t the one to go, Jesse died 15 Oct 1957, just three months later.
Father is now 80 years old and is in fairly good health. He is very thin and he as asthma spells and he now uses a cane to walk with. He has a lot of pain in his legs due to arthritis, which he has had for years but all in all I think he is doing fairly well. He has been back to the temple to do some work and to me that is wonderful.
During the last few years father has certainly been blessed by our Heavenly Father and I pray that he may have many more good years of life.
Written by his daughter
Rosa Vilate Cardon Conk
25 February 1958
