Our first boy, Alden D., was born on August 2, 1908. I now had a
family to support so I went back to the sheep camp all that winter. I came back
to the farm in Indianola in that spring and stayed there until 1911. We had
many friends and good times.
During our earlier
married life we used to go to Fairview to visit old friends and relatives and
many times we ran into thunderstorms and got good and wet because our old
lumber wagon didn't have a top on it and it can really rain in that country.
One time we decided to go for a weekend and my wife had just bought a nice
summer hat. About five miles on our way we could see that we were going to get
rained on so we stopped and unhitched the horses and got underneath the wagon
to keep dry. We were not there very long until a stream of water about a foot
deep came down the road and we had to get in the wagon again. She kept her new
hat covered with a large quilt to save it but when the rain stopped we were wet
through. She said, 'Well, I saved my new hat anyway.' But when she took the
quilt off, the hat looked more like an old dishrag than anything else. The
pieces in the quilt had faded and the colors had run and now the hat was all
colors. We just threw it in the gutter and went back home. {The Good Old Days!)
It was during this
time that our second son was born, Ewrin Aristol, on February 28, 1910, at
Indianola. In the spring of 1911, I went to Wilmer, Idaho with some old friends
who were moving there. Water had been provided for this country by the 'Great
Twin Falls Reclamation Project ' with a dam crossing the Snake River at Milner,
Idaho. This had just been built and there was good opportunity to get a farm
there. Just before leaving home, I had a dream in which I seemed to be in Idaho
and I saw very plainly a small ridge running east and west with a canal going
down one side of it around the point and back up the other side. North of the
canal over the ridge was a beautiful level piece of land. I went to Idaho in
March and got employment right away. I looked all over for a farm that I could
file on, but I couldn't find any that were vacant. Then in May, a friend of
mine told me that one day as he was riding the canal and looking around, he had
found forty acres of land on a canal about five miles north of there. It was
still vacant, so the next Sunday, I got a saddle horse and rode over to
look at the property. I recognized the land that had been shown in my dream
before I left home. I filed on it and made my home there. I have always felt
that the Lord directed me to that place for I had work to do there among His
children."
Elizabeth stayed
home with her two little boys. Frank returned in July and moved his wife and
family with him, leaving Utah on August 2, 1911. This was a very trying time
for Elizabeth as the country was new and unsettled and very different. She
missed her parents and family very much. The ground had not yet been broken up
and they moved right out into the sagebrush. There were no houses so they had
to live in a tent until they could build a small one room house. By November,
we were moved in and quite comfortable. We were now in a new country to settle,
make new friends and neighbors. It was five miles to the store and ten miles to
a doctor. All the roads were dirt, and we had nothing but a team and wagon to
use.
As their family
grew larger, they added other rooms. These were very trying times. Money was
scarce was work was plentiful. Elizabeth was very understanding and did not
complain and worked very hard. She was delighted to live in a place where most
anything would grow and she could raise a good garden. Both climate and the
soil were conducive to raising vegetables. There were drawbacks however. The
jack rabbits were so numerous they would eat anything within their reach. The
first year the family lived there, the rabbits destroyed the entire crop,
except the garden that Frank fenced off with netting wire. Thus, Elizabeth
raised enough vegetables to supply the family through the winter. Because of
the crop failure, Frank had to work away from home to earn enough money to buy
food for the farm animals. Elizabeth also helped outside the home with the
milking of cows and other things which she could do to help. Within a few
years, they were successful in fencing off their crops with netting wire to
keep the rabbits out. They began to raise good crops and acquired a good dairy
herd, which resolved their financial burdens.
"After we
were there one year, I received word that my father was very sick and probably
wouldn't live but a few days. I decided to go back to my old home and see him
again. I was very glad that I did for he died the day after I arrived, on
December 15, 1912. He was able to talk to me and I appreciated it very
much."
The winter of 1913
had been a hard one with much snow and Elizabeth delivered another baby, but
the baby was premature. The roads were muddy and impassable. They sent for a
doctor, but he did not get there until the next day. On March 5, Elizabeth gave
birth to their third son, Simeon Woodrow, with her husband, Frank, acting as
both midwife and doctor. A neighbor lady came to help them about an hour after
the baby was born. Elizabeth apparently got along fine, but about three weeks
later she began to have chest pains, and this became the beginning of a very
serious heart condition. Woodrow was the largest baby she had, but he was a
very good natured one.
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