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.
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