25 Oct 1882 – 30 May 1977
Wife of Hyrum Michael Cardon
I was born 25 October 1882, at Kanarra. Utah. Later in life, when I was 22 I visited this little town and saw the house where I was born and where my father and grandfather had served as bishops. The wife of a bishop in those days was much different than those of today. It was mother’s duty to entertain and care for the presiding officers of the church as they made their journeys from Salt Lake to St. George, so we children became familiar with the names, lives, and duties of the presiding officers of the church.
When I was about one and one-half years old, we moved to Snowflake,
Arizona, where the saints were trying to live the united order. My father was never very robust in health. and for that reason our stay in Arizona
was of short duration. From Snowflake, we moved to Escalante, Garfield County, Utah, a town nestled down in the mountains and almost isolated
from the rest of the state. My memories of this place were all quite pleasant ones, with only two or three exceptions. On May 23, 1886, my younger sister died after we had lived there about one year. She and I had been riding with my father part way to the field. When we returned to the house, she wandered around to an old surface well and fell in. I remember very distinctly the preparations for the funeral.
Another dark period was during the polygamy raids. I remember how careful and alert we had to be. At one time, the deputies, as we called them, pulled a gun on my older brother, but mother told them to put up their gun and she would see that he returned. It was the boast of the officers that they would capture my father. In order to reach Escalante, it was necessary to cross a high mountain, and when the U.S. Marshals entered town, it was generally known a short time before they reached there. And what a time we all had to keep father’s whereabouts a secret. Our house was situated on a corner lot, and at meal time we children would be stationed at different points to keep a lookout, while father ate; and every morning my brother would go all through the hay in the barn to see if any one of them could be concealed there. At one time they came to the house very unexpectedly and we knew father was in the barn. While they conversed with my mother, my oldest sister, Olive (who was a cripple) crawled from the bedroom window and crawled on her hands and knees to the barn, a distance of 3S rods, to warn father and he escaped. Then I remember how they dragged my mother, oldest sister (who they thought was father’s second wife) and brother over to Beaver, a distance of 125 miles, to appear in court in the dead of winter, but they never caught father.
My father was a fruit fancier here, and we children delighted to follow him around the orchard and help with his budding and grafting. He used to have plums and peaches growing on the same tree. My mother’s brother, Wesley Young, helped father care for the sheep which left father more time to spend with his fruit grafting and pruning.
When I was ten years old, my mother and older sisters went to Salt Lake and I was left home to take care of the younger children. I remember how important I felt when I could invite company to Sunday dinner and play the hostess. In the spring we used to go to school barefoot I remember being the champion speller in school.
Another dark period in our life in Escalante was the burning down of a huge barn my father had built. It and all the contents were completely destroyed. There was very little water there, and I remember the fire smoldered for nearly a week. Perhaps it was a blessing in disguise, because my father decided to move again. The barn was the largest one in town. ninety feet long, and forty feet wide. It was built of logs and lined with boards. It was in the fall of the year when this happened and the barn was filled with hay and machinery, and great stacks of straw were on the outside. Two little boys playing with matches set It on fire. The fire, along with other things, influenced father to make another move. His children were now getting old enough to be thinking about better schools, and he decided that Escalante was too far from good schools. So in 1894 he started out in search of a better environment. He took his second wife, Esther Ford Roundy, and left my mother in Escalante. After much looking around, be settled in Benson and wrote to my mother to dispose of the property in Escalante and join them there. We left in the spring of 1895. I was twelve years old.
We left May 16, in two covered wagons. It was a delightful trip for the children. We would always look for a cool, green, shady place to camp, and as soon as camp was made, a fire would be built. We would cook supper and then sleep out under the stars. I would like to be that young again and enjoy those simple pleasures as much as I did then. We reached Benson on May 27, traveling over 300 miles. During the journey, two of the children had scarletina and the last day of the trip it snowed all day.
The first summer in Benson wasn’t too pleasant It was quite a contrast to what we had been used to. We had lived in a small town with neighbors just across the street in every direction. Both mother and Aunt Ester had large homes, and here, for that first summer, the two families consisting of two women and thirteen children lived in four rooms and a shanty. We were not used to mosquitoes, and we surely suffered from them that first summer. We used to have what we called midnight parades, when we would arise, take our pillows. and kill what mosquitoes we could, and then try to get a little more sleep.
My father was a very industrious man, and by the following January he had erected a fine brick house, consisting of ten rooms, for my mother. When the basement was dug, the ground was so hard, I was elected to ride the beam of the plow while they plowed it. In two more years, he built a similar one for Aunt Ester. Then that was followed by a big barn and other buildings. He was a pioneer in dry farming and a very public spirited man. It was through his efforts that the railroad went through Benson and he was of much assistance in erecting a schoolhouse and a meeting house in the ward.
Father tried to give all his children a good education, and he was a very well educated man, although he attended school very little. He was a faithful Latter·day Saint and lived his religion as thoroughly as any man I knew. He always paid an honest tithing and donated liberally to every undertaking for the up building of his community and church.
In 1900, my sister, Susie, died and in 1903 my brothers passed away within six weeks of each other. This was a terrible blow to my parents.
When I was 15 years old, I was called to teach in the Sunday School and I acted as teacher and secretary for 15 years. Later I taught occasionally between births of my children.
In 1901 I was called to act as first counselor in the Mutual, and in 1903 I was called to be president, which I was unti1 1915.
Since then I have taught a class under every MIA president until I was called to be president in 1936 and then I again acted as adult and special-interest class leader until I was chosen to work in East Cache Stake Relief Society board as Educational Counselor from then. I was again a teacher from 1935 to 1947. Then again in 1956, I was Educational Counselor in the East Cache stake Relief Society and held that position from 1947 to 1955. In 1919 I was called to be the literary teacher in the Relief Society and held that position until 1936, when I was called to be president. I have taught the literary lesson for 28 years. I also taught three years in the religion class and one year in primary.
I graduated from BYU in 1902 and taught school for eight yeas: one year in Randolph, Utah; four years in Benson; one year in Hyrum, Utah; and two yeas at Franklin, Idaho. I held a state teacher’s certificate for both Utah and Idaho. The state superintendent of Idaho said he thought it was a crime for me to get married; I should spend my life teaching school.
I was married to Hyrum Michael Cardon 8 April 1909 in the Salt Lake Temple and served a short term mission in the Western States in 1911.
I am the mother of seven children. One of my seven children has preceded me to the great beyond; and. like Cornelia of old. I can say my children are my jewels. My greatest joy and pleasure is my family. All my living children have been married in the temple. which is the greatest accomplishment of all. I have been able to take care of the mothers and families at the time of the births of all the grandchildren but two.
I have served as secretary and treasurer of the Benson Bear Lake Irrigation Company for 36 years and was clerk for my father in the Benson Irrigation Company for four years.
My children are: Margaret, a graduate of USAC (Utah State Agricultual College), married to Russell R. Rich, director of the department of Church History at BYU; Doyle, graduated from USAC and spent 34 months in the French mission. and is now Junior Technologist in the Bureau of Reclamation, married to Lucille Dunn; Neva. a graduate of USAC, married to Lorin J. Hawkes, X-ray technician for Westinghouse; Nada, graduate of North Cache High School, married to Grant Stevenson, working for Utah Power and Light; Kenneth, graduate of North Cache, bishop of Benson, married to Alice Simmons; Wayne, graduate of North Cache, served a mission to Uruguay and married to Sharlene Fullmer.
–Isabelle Roundy Cardon