Sanford,  Colorado

January 13, 1978

Wilford Ray Morgan

(At this time I am 82 years old)

   As I write the history of my life I want to give a brief record of my grandparents on my father's side as there is a good record of my mother's side of the family in the Crowther Book. I lived with my father and mother for 23 years and my father told me about his parent's lives and how they joined the Church over in England.  He said that his mother when she lived with her parents (was 17 years old) would go down town as they lived on the outskirts of the town to hear the L.D.S. missionaries preach as at that time they held their meetings on the street corners.  They would first sing a song, pray and then sing another hymn and then they would explain the gospel to the ones that would stop and listen to what they had to say.  He said that his mother would make it a point to go and see them often and the thing that she loved was the song “Oh My Father” and that it was this song she heard them sing that caused her to stop and listen to their message.  One night she came home and told her parents that she had joined the Mormon Church.  They told her to leave and never darken the door of their home again so she gathered up her few belongings and left their home and never returned.  She left that same night and walked 9 miles to another town where she got a job in a factory.  She met a young man there and told him about the Church and in time he joined the Church and they fell in love and got married.  My grandmother was only 17 years old when she joined the Church in 1850.  My grandparents, after they were married, began saving their money to come to America.  When they had enough saved they got passage on a sailing vessel and came to the U.S.A.  It took them 9 weeks to get to Daven Port, Iowa.  They came by way of New Orleans up the Mississippi River.  There was a group of Mormons going to S.L.C. in a handcart company so they got a handcart and joined this group and my grandparents pulled and pushed a handcart 1,000 miles from Iowa to S.L.C., Utah. 

    My father, George David Morgan was born at Santaquin, Utah on June 24, 1858 and was the second child.  The first child born was Thomas Morgan who was two years older than my father.  My father's family moved to Fountain Green, Utah and this is where my father grew up.  At this time I would like to say how tankful I am to the Elders who were the cause of my grandparents joining the Church and they were also responsible for me being born in the U.S.A.  How glad I am!!

    There were 8 children born to my grandparents.  As my father grew up he worked at whatever he could.  He chopped cord wood out at Ely, Nevada and could handle an ax better than anyone in those days. Deer ran wild and could be killed anytime so they always had plenty to eat.  They made jerky and when they went to get wood in the hills they would take a small sack of it and eat.  My father worked hard and bought a team of horses and a wagon and also had $300 in cash when he married my mother.  They went to S. L. C. and were married in the Endowment House on November 18, 1880 as the Temple was not completed.  They bought a lot and built a log house on it and their first child was (a girl – Loretta) born on October 30, 1881.  Frank was born on May 28, 1883. 

   Some may wonder why· my parents decided to leave Utah and come to Colorado.  Uncle Tommy Crowther came to Colorado with his father-in-law who had been called by the church to settle in the valley and after he had been out here for about 4 years, came back to Fountain Green, and told the folks how big the valley was and that there was a good chance to make it big so my parents decided to sell their home, lot, and a small herd of sheep (about 90 head).  My father made arrangements for a man to give him so much money every year until he could pay for them and to the best of my knowledge my father got cheated out of his sheep.  The man sent a few dollars for a while but it finally stopped.  They put all their belongings in the wagon and left for Colorado.  They had some livestock they drove along.  There were about 5 wagons in the group.  My father's two brothers, John and Tom, came with them and lived with my folks for a year after they arrived in Colorado.  It took the group 7 weeks to get to the San Luis Valley; they arrived here the last part of September.  After making this long hard trip they were tired and as they arrived in Richfield they never found a place to stay so they dug a pit and covered it with pole willows and straw and dirt and lived in it until they could go to the west hills and get logs.  They bought a piece of ground and as soon as they could, they built a log cabin.  They finished it the first part of 1885.  My sister, Jennie, was born May 14, 1885.  In La Jara at that time there were only a water tank, a depot and a small store. They were working on the railroad west of Antonito and south of Espanola, New Mexico so some of the men got work on the railroad laying ties and building the roadbed.  At nights they would go out to the haystacks with clubs and kill jack rabbits as the snow was so deep and they didn’t have shells to spare so this is the way they got meat to eat.  They would skin the rabbits, hang them up and freeze them so throughout the winter they would have plenty of meat and never went hungry. 

   About a mile and a half south of Sanford there was a small town called Ephraim.  When the Church leaders came out from S.L.C., they advised the people who lived in Ephraim and Richfield to leave and build on the Sanford bench as it would be a better place for a town.  My father told me that one Sunday afternoon after church, he and some other men left Richfield and came over on the bench and rode around it and said that all there was at that time was lightning brush and none of the ground had ever had a shovel in it so in 1866 Sanford was started.  My father bought two lots and build a two-room log cabin on the east lot.  He sold that land he had in Richfield and also the log cabin.  He planted a lot of apple trees, a pear tree and current bushes which lasted for a long time and gave us a lot of fruit.  In this log cabin we all had a happy life and also a lot of sadness too.  There were 7 children born here to my parents:  Hugh, Pearl, Myrtle, Jess, Wilford, Hemming, and Amy.  All of the furniture was homemade.   

   I was born August 25, 1895 and am telling the things that I remember as I grew up from day to day.  In the Crowther Book there is a picture of my father and mother and a child on my father’s lap, I am the child.  I remember the dress I wore and the color was dark and light green.  I was 3 years old when the picture was taken.  I remember when Grandpa Crowther died and I was wearing the dress when I was taken up to Uncle Will's where grandpa lay in state.  I remember that my mother lifted me up to see him in his casket and remember the color of it.  Grandpa was bald and had a white beard.  I also attended another funeral with my parents at the old Pete Cornum place.  I remember that my mother lifted me up to see this girl who was so white and had so much black hair and I asked my mother why she was in that box and she told me that the girl was dead.  I asked why she had to die and this worried me for a long time as I didn’t understand it.  My father and mother lost their first child May 6, 1887, before I was born so I was told.  She died with a brain fever and her grave was the first one in the Sanford cemetery.  My father told me the day I was born they were cutting wheat.      

   There was no machinery to harvest crops in those days as it was all done by hand.  My father could cradle 5 acres of grain in a day.  A cradle is fastened to the backside of a scythe.  As you swing the scythe, the grain falls in the cradle.  It’s dumped then someone comes along and takes part of the grain and twists the heads together making a knot, and then it’s put around the bundle.  When there is enough a shock is made.  Along comes a wagon and gets a load of bundles, and hauled in, the trasher would be brought in between two stacks of grain and it’s ready to be thrashed.  The first thrasher I remember was a horse drawn thrasher.  It’s a lot different now.  In those days everything had to be done by hand and it was a lot of hard work. 

  In the early days of Sanford there were only three types of transportation:  wagon, horseback, or foot and as soon as it got warm enough in the spring, we kids would go bare-footed and stay that way until early in the fall or when it started to get too cold to go without shoes.

   This is Monday morning, January 16, 1878, and we received about 2 inches of snow last night.  I can't help thinking of how different it is now than it used to be as we would get a lot of snow every winter and as much as 2 feet of it would stay on the ground all winter long.  My father told me in the winter of 1885 and 1886 that when they were living in the log house they built in Richfield, one night all the members of the church had a party at the church house. They put their two children (Frank and Loretta) to bed and took the baby (Jennie) with them and while they were at the party a terrible storm came up. He said that it was one of the worst storms he had ever seen; it was so bad that no one would leave the church, so as my parents had put their two children to bed at home they got very worried about them.  Two hours after the storm started my father dressed as warm as he could and went back home (the house was about 2 blocks from the church).  My father was a very strong man and weighed about 200 lbs. so he made it back ok and when he got home he saw the door had blown open.  He made a fire and stayed until the wind subsided about 4:00 a.m. and then went back to the church to get my mother and Jennie.  He said if he waited till morning to come home Frank and Lauretta would have frozen to death so you can see how cold it was and what bad storms they used to have here in the San Luis Valley.  I have heard my mother-in-law tell (as they were one of the families that lived out in Ephraim) how they put potatoes to bed with them and they would rattle like marbles the next morning and also how their wheat froze before it was harvested because it was green and it made the flour sticky. 

Many people would plant current bushes and would pick the berries and take them to Alamosa to sell going from home to home selling them for 25¢ a quart. There is a story about how Sister Block (my mother-in-law) took her son Chris with her to Alamosa to sell current berries. She would drive the buggy from house to house and Chris would ask if they wanted to buy some berries.  At one house a big dog came at him so he never stopped to knock but just went on in the house with the big dog behind him and there was a woman in the tub standing up as she finished taking a bath and called the dog in and Chris went out so they never sold any currents at that home.      

   People in those days would do a lot of different things to make a dollar. One of the biggest things was when the Mexican people from Espanola, N.M. would come up with about 50 burrows with pack saddles loaded with fruit such as plums, apples, and peaches.  This was a big day for us kids as generally our mother would have saved a few dimes so we could have a little fruit.  I remember one time the Mexicans were in town and we ran to tell our mother that they would sell a 10 lb. bucket of fruit for 25¢ and this would be a good treat for us but my mother never had a die so we didn’t get any fruit.  I remember how sad we were.  The Johnsons bought a 10 lb. bucket of plums and they gave each of us one little red plum and we were glad for that.  My father planted a lot of fruit trees when he first got the two lots and we had all the fruit we wanted when the trees got old enough to bear.  My mother was a very good cook and could make the best dessert out of currents one ever tasted and I really love it a lot.    

   In the early days of Sanford and Richfield the people built a brick kiln.  It was located northeast of Richfield and that is where the bricks came from that made the brick homes in Sanford and Richfield.  There were only two homes in Richfield and the church that were built from these bricks and they are still standing today.  In Sanford there were 7 homes and a social hall built from these bricks.  Some of the homes are torn down now, but some are still standing.  This was quite a hard job as they had to make the adobe there, stack them in the kilns, and then burn them until they got red.  My father worked and got a lot of bricks but his brother-in-law (Hollom Mortensen) borrowed them and built a home (Rulen Mortensen’s old home) and never replaced them.  At the northwest corner of Sanford there is a little hill that we used to call Brother's Hill as Mr. Brothers lived off the hill. The road that went off this hill didn't go straight west like it does now, but it    went northwest out through the brush toward the old brick kiln.  My father bought 40 acres of land out there so I used to go with him a lot and play at the old brick yard.  My father bought a lot of land and had about 300 acres at one time, 40 acres here and there in different places so he and my older brothers were always busy planting and harvesting in season.  My father went into the sheep business when I was about 4 years old so I have known and have been in that business a long time.  My father had a horse called Bird and he traded it to Peter Mortensen for 40 head of sheep.     My father and his brothers-in-law (Will, Tommy, and Frank Crowther) went down to Espanola, N.M. and bought 3,200 head of sheep at $1/25 per head.  Pa borrowed his money from Chris Jensen and they ran the sheep down at the San Antonio Mountain on the west side. There was a drought in N.M. and they didn't do very well and their loss was quite heavy as I remember.  These sheep were not like the ones I raised as they were light in weight and did not shear much wool.  From what I know now they did not know much about the sheep business.  I remember once I went down to the camp on the west side of the San Antonio Mountain and there were trees about the camp and they were shearing the sheep. The Mexicans were doing the shearing and as I was very young my father took me about a mile from the camp to a pump well where they pumped a lot of water for the sheep.  My dad saw a bunch of sheep that had gotten lost so he left me at the well and went after the sheep.  I got scared and started back to where I thought the camp was, but Uncle Frank came riding by on a horse and saw me and took me back to camp.  When pa came back with the sheep at the well he saw I wasn’t there so he came back to camp to get help to find me but to his surprise I was there and he sure was glad to find me.  I'11 never forget that experience.  As we were coming home from the sheep camp south of Antonito it was almost sundown when we saw a train coming toward Antonito.  This was the first train I had ever seen.  It was a passenger train with 3 cars on it.  The track isn't there anymore as it didn't turn out too well.  I guess it was like the sheep that my father and his 3 brothers-in-law bought.  I do not think they knew enough about running sheep and how to take care of them.  They homesteaded some land and thought there was enough feed for them to live on but you can’t raise feed without water and it got very dry at times and that was one of the times so they went broke and my father still owed the debt for the sheep.  Uncle Frank and Uncle Tolllny sold out, my father and Uncle Will kept their share of the sheep but soon went out of the business too.  My father brought his share of the sheep home to Sanford and put them in a board corral.  He put the sheep in one night and a dog got into the corral and smother 90 head so dad took what was left and rented them to a man up in Fox Creek (above Antonito) by the name of McGinnis but he got away with them all so this left my father with a large debt of about $1,000.  This was quite a large sum of money to owe and took him a long time to get this paid off.  It was at this time he decided to rent what was known as the Dr. Hamilton ranch.  This ranch was east of Antonito (about 4 miles) which I will explain later. I am telling you some of the experiences that happened before I was 6 years old.

   Jess was 2 years and 4 months older than me and got to go to school before I did. One morning he and I were taking the cows to the north 5 acres and as we were going along I saw a silver dollar in the dirt that was half covered.  I picked it up and how happy I was to find a dollar.  I went home and told my mother and she said that someone had lost it and we must find out who it belonged to.  Jess went to school that morning and his teacher asked if anyone had found a silver dollar, as she had lost one coming to school that morning.  Jess spoke up and said that his little brother had found it so mother made me give it back but the teacher gave me a dime for finding it and her name was Dixie Faucette.  In a month they had a party at the school and she invited me to come and so I went.  I was rather a timid kid.  We played outside for a while then they had the two rooms meet together and as we were being seated it was crowded so a girl by the name of Evelina Harris had to sit with Jess and me and as she as she got in on one side Jess tried to put me in the middle but I would not sit by her so Jess got in the middle. This girl only had one ear and on the other side of her head she had a hole. The kids at school called her Evelina one ear.  Well, this was the first time I had anything to do with school.  The schoolhouse was down where the recreation center is now. It was a brick building with 2 stories and had 4 rooms and they were large.  They held one class over in the church's log house. Two classes would meet in one room like the 5th and 6th or the 7th and 8th grades and as they passed out the lunch that day they gave me a large biscuit with a piece of meat and it was covered with mustard. I said right out loud that I didn't like "custard" on my meat. They came down to where we were and scraped the mustard off so I got it down but it was a hard thing to do. I think that Jess was ashamed of me. 

   Amy was born October 19, 1900 and I started to school the next year in September of 1901. I was 6 years old then and they had what was called the chart class.  I liked school very much and in the spring of 1902 my teacher who was Ella Rasmussen kept George Otteson, Guy Poulson, and me in after school and told us that she was going to put us in the first grade so we read after that in the first reader.  As my father had got in debt for the sheep he bought when he first came out here, he wanted to get rid of this debt so he rented the Hamilton ranch.  This ranch had 1,000 acres, 400 farmland, and 100 acres of pasture and 500 acres of hay land.  We were going to move up to the ranch early that spring but all of us kids got sick with some kind of disease and it went through the whole family, but little Amy did not make it and passed away on April 15, 1902.  This was very sad for all of us as she was only 18 months old and was one of the prettiest little babies I ever saw and my mother was broken hearted over her death and so were we. 

   Frank and Hugh went up to the ranch in March and batched it after our sickness and Amy had been laid to rest. The last of April we moved up to the ranch.  This ranch is about 12 miles straight south of Sanford.  It took us all day to get there.  We drove our milk cows and also the team and wagon and it being in the spring, the roads were wet and frost was coming out of the ground.  The roads were bad because they were not graded and some of them would have bad mud holes and you would get stuck.  When we moved to the ranch it was like a new world to us.  The house was about miles from the big gate.  It had 3 big rooms and a large hall about 6 ft. wide and the walls were very thick (about 2 ft.).  It had a tin roof and when it rained or hailed you could hear it.  Also, there was a porch halfway around the house. The porch had a top on it and in the summer we kids would take a blanket and sleep there until winter came.  At the ranch we had a lot to do.  We had a lot of milk cows to take care of and ma would make a lot of butter and cheese.  She had a regular cheese press and in the hall there were shelves to put the cheese on.  These cheeses were big, at least a foot across and were made of whole milk so they were delicious.  Mother would sell the butter in Antonito.  We planted about 200 acres of field peas and would cut them in the fall and harvest the peas.  Pa always raised a lot of pigs and after the harvest was through he would turn them out and it was my job to see that they never mothered our neighbors.  We had a lot of feed on the ranch but it seemed they just liked to stray off so I watched them all the time.  One time I went back to the house to ask H.V. to come and help me as it was real lonesome out in the lane and so he said that he would and he did stay with me for a while.  He soon then wanted to go back to the house and he started back and I tried to catch him and he out-ran me and went back to the house.  I used to parch peas out in the road.  (I gathered some vines that had a lot of pea pods and put them in a bunch and set them a fire and they would burn and parch so I would gather all the peas and put them in my pocket.)  After supper that night I was eating some of the peas and H.V. wanted some and I wouldn’t give any to him.  My dad told me to give him some so I went over and got a handful of salt and told him to open his mouth and close his eyes and he did and I poured a lot of salt in his mouth.  Boy he let out a yell and I got a skotch blessing.  I never did that again and H.V. never asked for any more peas. 

   Every year after the grain was all harvested and the pigs were butchered and we had killed all we could use, we kids would go to school.  We went 3 months a year; December, January, and February.  This is all the school district could afford.  We had one teacher and she would teach the first grade to the eighth.  There were about 25 kids in all.  The name of the teacher from Monte Vista was Enid Torheal and the one from Sanford was Hannah Thomas.  Hugh and Jennie were sent to B.Y.U. one year and after that they never went to school anymore. 

   A year or so after we had been on the ranch my father went into the sheep business for good this time.  He rented 750 head of sheep from John Shawcroft.  Uncle Will Crowther rented that many also and my father brought them to the ranch so instead of running a lot of pigs we ran sheep.  My father kept his land he had at Sanford so we had a lot of hay that we put up there plus 500 acres of grass hay at the ranch.  He and Uncle Will would run their sheep together every summer and then when they were brought home from the hills in the fall they would run them over on the pinion hills so we had plenty of pasture and hay to feed them.  My father soon bought the sheep that he had rented and paid off the old note he owed to Chris Jensen so we did very well on the ranch.  We kids had a lot of horses to ride.  Jess and I never went to church on Sunday as it was 7 miles to Manassa and 12 to Sanford.  We had a 22 rifle and would go over by horseback to the pinion hill east of the ranch and would hunt cottontails.  This we would do most of the time in the fall and winter as these rabbits were very good eating and the sheep camp would be somewhere over there and we would see if the herder would need something for the camp.  We would do this until we left the ranch (we were there 6 years before we moved back to Sanford).  During the week we all worked; Jennie worked in Conejos as a telephone operator and Pearl stayed at home, Myrtle also worked in Conejos.  While we were in Sanford we bought a washer that turned by hand and when were at the ranch my mother and the girls took in washing and ironing to pay for it. 

   About the year 1899 the McCormick Deering Factory made a lot of horse mowers and rakes to cut and rake hay.  As we had a lot of hay my father bought a mower and dump rake and we would get Uncle Will and his two boys to help us put up the hay.  One night around quitting time, I was taking the rake to the stack yard and going along I dropped one of the lines.  It was lucky that when I started in I raised the teeth of the rake, so instead of stopping and getting off the rake like I should I was in a hurry so I walked out on the tongue of the rake between the two horses and I put my hand on one of the horses.  He jumped and this made me lose my balance and I fell down on the tongue of the rake and the horses started to run very fast.  I wrapped my arms and legs around the tongue and went that way for a short time, then I turned loose of the tongue and it went over me but the teeth were up so I didn’t get hurt.  The horses ran into a big slue with high branches and willows and broke the tongue out of the rake and banged the rake up some but my family was glad I did not get hurt.  As I look back on my life I do know that the Lord took care of me or I would never be the age I am today.   

   When we lived at the ranch every once in a while we would come back to Sanford and stay with some of our relatives.  One time I came down with my sisters and were staying at Aunt Zill’s and Uncle Hollom’s place.  They were very poor.  We always had a lot to eat at our home.  I remember we were at the supper table and there was a large group of us (my three sisters, Jess, and me, besides their large family) and I looked at what we had on the table and said, “is this all we have to eat”?  Aunt Zill said, “Yes, we are poor folks”.  Boy I got a poke in the ribs and a hard look from my sisters and I never heard the last of that.  I remember the next morning at breakfast all we had was flour mush.  I went down to Parley Kirby’s home and he and I were playing around in the yard and Aunt Em (Parley’s mother) came out of the house and said that I bet you two boys would like a piece of cake and went in and come out with one of the largest pieces of cake.  It was a 3-layer cake with whipped cream between the layers.  Boy I believe that was the best cake I ever tasted in my life and that afternoon we went back home and I was glad to be back in our house where we always had plenty of meat and potatoes to eat.  Another time I came to Sanford to visit and if it had not been for artichokes that grew wild in a garden across from the Sanford Canal I think I would have starved to death as I remember we went to Uncle Will’s place for supper and all they had were cooked turnips and rutabagers.  These kinds of vegetables we never ate so I didn’t enjoy my supper. 

   Our nearest neighbors were about a mile away, The Jim Richardson's, and then there was a Mexican family by the name of Romero.  North of us was a family by the name of Fayes which had two girls that were close in age to Frank, Hugh and Jennie. One time Hugh, Frank and my sisters were going to attend a dance.  They came with them. Their names were Susan and Kate.     Susan was the youngest and was very pretty but Kate was as ugly as a mud fence.

   We raised a lot of horses and had one that was a very good runner.  He was a sorrel and weighed about 1,000 lbs. and would go very fast for a quarter of a mile but could not do a mile as he would wind out. The Romero's had a bay horse so Hugh and the Romero boys matched a horse race and made a track. They were to run a mile and bet $25. 00. The Romero horse out ran ours so needless-to-say that was the first and last of the horse racing.

One morning my father told me to ride up the hill (Old Porter the horse) to see the sheepherder and give him a message which I did. As I turned old Porter around toward the ranch he started to run and I could not do one thing with him, so I just sat on him like a monkey and he ran just as fast as he could all the way until he got to the fence.  He missed the gate about 100 yards so as he hit the fence he stopped and I turned him to where the gate was.  He went in and on up to the ranch.  My mother had seen me go up the hill to the sheepherder and saw me start back with the horse running as fast as he could go.  She was scared and thought I would fall off, but I stuck it out.  She said that I had better not run the horse that way again and I told her that was the one that ran away with me. 

   We were good friends to the Romero’s and when the old man died my father, Hugh, and Frank went to his funeral in Cerritos.  This place was just a little Mexican town with a store, church, and only a few homes.  The preacher who was Catholic stopped about half way through his talk and told his son Boney that he had his father preached out of hell all but one leg and it would take another $25.00 to get that leg out so Boney got up and said that if his dad could not pull that leg out it could stay in hell.  Well, I guess that by this time the old man has pulled his leg out of hell at least I hope so. 

   I liked to go fishing very much because my father always went ever since I can remember.  I remember my dad and all the Crowthers would go as soon as they got the first cutting of hay up.  They would load their families in a covered wagon and go up on the Conejos River above Fox Creek and stay a week.  The fish were plentiful and I remember at night just about sundown how they would jump and that is when we would make our biggest catch.  One morning while we were eating breakfast I got a fish bone caught in my throat.  My mother made me eat some bread and that released it.  I was sure glad because I was very scared.  We would go fishing like this every year and also would go with some of our neighbors like the Richardson family.  They had two boys the same age as Jess and me and we played together all the time.  We fished with them quite a lot and got to know them very well.  Their father would go fishing a lot of the time alone though.  One time as he got up in years he went up on the Conejos River to fish and that night never came home nor did he show up the next day.  A lot of men went up looking for him but couldn’t find him.  They did find his hat and fishing pole but no sign of him.  One night his brother dreamed he saw him at the bottom of a hole in the river that he had fished in a lot of time.  The next morning they went up the river and there he was.  Some willows were holding him down in that deep hole so they got him up and that was the last of him. 

   When we lived on the ranch we got our wood from the pinion hill.  We would take the team and wagon with a wagon box on it and would pull up stumps and limbs as there were a lot of trees that people had sawed off and left the stumps.  One time I went with my dad and we had just taken one horse with us and a chain.  We fastened the chain around the stump and I would lead the horse up and the horse would pull the stump up, then I would lead the horse dragging the stump down to the wagon.  As we were going down the hill the stump started to roll faster than we were going and it scared the horse. She jerked me and I held on for a short distance then I saw that I had better do something so I turned the horse loose and ran straight down the hill. I did this just in time to get out of the way of the stump. The good Lord was with me again.  There is no one that can tell me there is no God. I know there is a higher power than man without any doubt in my heart.

   I remember the pattern we had about the sheep.  We would lamb them in the spring and after the lambs were all marked, we would have the Mexicans come in and shear them.  As soon as green feed would grow up on the prairie we would take the sheep up by the town of Conejos as it was a large open space and there was a big ditch of water so we had plenty of water for the sheep.  Jess and I would tend them until Uncle Will got his herd of sheep ready, then we would drive them to meet his sheep and mix them and then they would run in the west hill all summer.  At that time there was no forest reserve and the hills were for everyone that wanted to use them.  While Jess and I watched the sheep we slept in a covered wagon.  My dad would come from the ranch every 3 or 4 days to bring us food and see how we were.  I remember the day when we were to take the sheep to dry canyon and mix them with Uncle Will’s.  Then we would be rid of them all summer, as Hugh and Alma Crowther would look after them.  My dad, Jess, and I drove the wagon and sheep for a week before we got them there and now as we go up dry canyon to fish, I often think of that time and try to turn the pages of time back and I do in my mind.  Oh well those were good time and I’ll like to go back. 

   I remember the year 1905 as Harry was born February 4, 1905.  Frank and Hugh were sleeping in one bed and Jess, H.V. and I were in the other one.  The telephone was in our room and the first thing I can remember was my dad calling Uncle Will in Sanford that we had a new baby.  That was a big surprise to me as I didn’t know that we were going to have a baby, no one ever mentioned it to me.  This was about 4:00 a.m. and we were told to go back to sleep so we did.  We all loved this little baby that came to my parents late in life so we all took good care of him and my mother would not let him go off the ranch for a long time.  Pearl and I were going to Manassa to do some trading at the store and we asked Ma if she would let Harry go with us.  The reason she had kept him in so close was that Amy caught some disease and it killed her so she never wanted Harry to catch any disease so she would not let him go anywhere.  We took him with us and as he had only seen the house we lived in he got all excited when we got to Manassa and would pass the different houses and would say “there is anuddy house”.  What he was saying was there is another house and we got a kick out of him saying that. 

When we got through putting up the wild hay on the ranch we would get ready to go to Sanford to put up the second cutting of hay there. On Monday, September 1, 1907, I heard my mother tell my dad as we got ready to leave (Hugh, Pa, and I) that Myrtle did not feel too well, that she was sick.  My dad replied that it might be something she had eaten so we left for Sanford and worked all week putting up the hay.  When we got home Saturday Myrtle was in bed and not any better so they got Dr. Worlton from Manassa.  He was a new doctor that had just arrived in the valley and had the first automobile I had ever seen. Myrtle had typhoid fever and the doctor thought he could cure her.  It is a very bad sickness and a lot of people died with it but not at that time. The next week my dad and I went to Sanford to finish the hay.  We worked all week until Saturday and on the way home stopped in La Jara to get supplies such as food, clothing, etc., at Jim McDaniel’s store (where Gambles is now).  Pa said we would stay and watch the foot race between Art Guymon and a Mexican from Espanola, N.M. There was a lot of money bet on that race.  My dad gave me 5¢ and told me I could buy some candy with it so I did and it was a real treat.  For our dinner he bought some cheese and crackers.  As the race didn't start until 2:00 p.m. we had time for my dad to do his errands and we went to the bank and it was the first time I had ever been in one. It was time for the race to start so I got up in the wagon to watch it and La Jara was alive with Mexicans betting money on their own man.  Pa told me that Art Guymon could do 100 yards in 10 seconds and said that was very good.  People were lined about 10 ft. deep to watch the race and I was glad that I was up in the wagon.  They got ready and shot a gun and the Mexican ran behind Art all the way until he got about 10 feet from the finish line, and he passed him as if he was standing still.  This broke the Guymon’s hearts and Art never ran again.  Well we got to the ranch about sundown as my dad stopped in Antonito for a short time.  We both thought that Myrtle would get better but she didn’t.  She had been sick for about 14 days.  The following Monday we went back to Sanford and finished up the hay and came back to the ranch.  Myrtle got weaker all the time and it was 28 days from the day she got sick until she passed away.  This was a sad time as she was such a pretty girl and was only 17 years old.  We just have to learn to take whatever comes and do the best we can and that is what we all did. 

   Dr. Hamilton wanted to sell the ranch to my Pa for $10,000 but mother said that she couldn't stay there and live with those memories any longer so we moved back to Sanford. It's too bad we had to leave as my dad would have bought the ranch.  We were doing very well as far as money was concerned.  Bill Braden had a ranch just south of us and after we left he sold his ranch to some man from Texas for a large some of money.  I am sure my dad could have made a lot of money if he had bought the ranch as this same man bought the Hamilton ranch and paid a $100,000 for it.  We lived on the ranch until March 1, 1908 then we came back to Sanford.  In the meantime my dad bought the Spencer house in the north part of town (Vernell Morgan's family lives in it now).  My dad paid $900 for this home.  It is a good thing that we moved back to Sanford because when we were on the ranch we were closer to the cemetery and I think back of when I would bring my mother to Sanford in the horse and buggy and on our way back to the ranch we would stop by the cemetery and ma would go to her 3 girl’s graves and how she would cry.  It made me feel very sad. 

   During our last little while on the ranch Jennie, Pearl, and Hugh would go to dances in Manassa and meet young people there. Pearl went with Jim Daniels and Jennie was going with Ernest Wright.  Jim and Ernest were cousins.  Myrtle was going with Clint DePriest just before she got sick.

   I will always have fond memories of the ranch as the San Antonio River ran through the east part of the ranch and there is where I learned to swim in the summer and hunt in the winter.  There were big deep holes in the river.  We got skates for Christmas and used them a lot and had a lot of fun. Once you learn to swim and skate you never forget. 

   I was 12 years old when we came back to Sanford.  My father had all his land and a lot of milk cows.  We bought a cream separator and mother sold a lot of cream and made butter to sell.  With the sheep we all had plenty to do and then in the fall we went to school.  I was in the 5th grade as that was the grade Parley Kirby was in and we were the same age, so the years I was up at the ranch I didn't do so bad, even if I only went to school 3 months out of the year.  I got along with all the other kids.  I had to do my share of fighting of course as when a new kid comes back to school they have to fight their way to the top and that is what I did. 

   We built a lambing shed in the 40 acres west of Bailey's home where we had stacks of hay to feed the sheep when we were lambing.  We lambed every year in March at the shed.  We always had plenty of good alfalfa hay and would get a good lamb crop.  The summer of 1908 when we had come from the ranch was the first time that I went up to the mountains by the Continental Divide (that is where we ran the sheep every summer).  We ran our sheep with Uncle Will at first then later ran our sheep by ourselves.  My dad bought me a saddle for $45.00 and gave me a pony.  He was iron gray and was one of the best ponies there was anywhere around.  Each summer I would go with the sheep and stay with the herder for a week at a time, then ride home.  Dad would take the team and wagon and would take whatever we needed for the sheep camp and we would go up by the Passby mine. There were a lot of poles standing there for a long time (before this time they had a forest fire and it had burned all the leaves and branches and left the poles standing).  This is where my father would stop and get a load of poles.  I would go about 6 miles to where the sheep were and get the burrows and put pack saddles on them and bring them where pa was.  I would put all the salt for the sheep and the food for the camp on the burrows and went back to the camp with the provisions.  One morning after breakfast I got my horse ready to go over to the Crowther camp.  On the way I had to cross a snow drift.  A big bear had been ahead of me.  He had rolled over in the snow then walked across the drift.  He sure left big tracks.  I had been in the mountains a lot of times, but never did run on to a bear, only saw their tracks. The only time I have ever seen a wild bear was in Yellow Stone National Park.

   One time I had a horrible toothache; it was one of my jaw teeth.  Pearl went with me to Manassa to Dr. Gilmore the dentist.  He lived in what was known as the old Chandler house.  We went there about noon and he put his forceps on my tooth and it just crumpled.  This left 4 roots so he took a pick and pried and worked for a long time and finally he got it out.  When I came home I had the sorest mouth and it began to swell up.  Frank and his wife lived north of us and as we were passing by she asked me what was the matter and I told her.  She went into the house and got some peroxide and told me to gargle with it.  I did and it really helped.  I have always been thankful for her.  Dr. Gilmore laid down on his couch and put a 30-30 barrel shotgun to his chin and blew his head off about a week after I had gone to him. Every time I pass his home I think of that.

   The next 4 years were about the same; I helped with the sheep and whatever there was to do. In the fall I would go to school until the next spring.  It was in the fall of 1912 that Willie Brothers who was working for Hy Shawcroft wanted to know if I wanted a job so I asked pa if I could go over and work for him and he said yes.  The pay was $1.00 a day with board.    I worked for 2 weeks when J.N. Shawcroft asked Hy if I could work for him and he said that he could spare me for a week.  When Hy wanted me back I wouldn’t go as I like to work for his brother, J.N. better.  I worked for him until all the fall work was done then I went back home and would help with whatever Pa wanted e to do and went to school.  I sold my saddle and pony to Hugh as he needed them to tend the sheep with in the hills.  I bought a bicycle and every spring with the spring work started I had a job working for J.N. Shawcroft.  I worked for him until the fall of 1914.  I would always come home on Saturday night and stay till Monday morning then ride my bike back to work.  On Sundays Pen Mortensen and I would ride around town as he had a bike like mine.  One Sunday night we rode up by the Block home and got some apples off a tree there.  We filled our pockets up and could see a lot of people at the Blocks.  Ada and Jennie Poulson came out of the house just then and some others came out to where we were and we all started to throw apples.  One of the Whitney crabs hit the window and splattered as the apples were very ripe.  Mr. Block came out of the house and saw one of the kids that was in the bunch so the next morning he saw the kid and made him tell the names of all of us that were throwing apples at their home.  Mr. Block went down to Ira Whitney, who was the Justice of the Peace, to give him the names of those involved.  I went back to work on my bike Monday and worked all week and came home Saturday night and my mother told me that I had to go up to Ira Whitney's place and pay a fine of $1.25 as I was one of the boys that threw apples at the Block home.  I had forgotten all about it. I went up and paid the fine and Ira Whitney told me that if you break the law you have to pay for it.  I have always remembered that.

   I was having a good time at the dances.  I had learned to dance when I was a kid in the old social hall.  It took 20 years from the time they started to build the old rock church until it was finished.  It was dedicated in the year of 1907 and I remember in 1908 when they held a going away dance for Alma Crowther and Will Hunt in it.  When Alma returned from his mission we palled around together.  In fact we associated all our lives until his death a few years ago.  Around this time Peter Mortensen started to build the old Tivoli. The church was against him building it but he went ahead.  They held the first dance in it July 24, 1912. There was a huge crowd.  People came from all over the valley just to dance.  It had the only spring floor of that kind around.  I believe that Pete got the idea from Saltair in Utah.  As the years came and automobiles got more plentiful parking became difficult.  Sometimes a negro orchestra from Pueblo would come and there was hardly any standing room let along room to dance.  At that time I would go to all the dances and I loved them. 

  When I started to work the first of March for J.N. Shawcroft I had in mind that wanted to go to Utah and see all my relatives my folks told me about.  I also wanted to see the S.L.C. Temple so I saved every penny I could as I was now making $1.25 per day or $35.00 per month.  I worked March, April, and May and this gave me $105.00 by June 1st.  A lot of times at night after work I would go over to the pool hall in La Jara and shoot pool. I became a very good shot, but I made up my mind that I would spend money only when I had to, so when the 3 months were up I had only spent $5.00. This gave me $100.00 to go to Utah with.  I do not remember the exact date we were to go but it was in the first part of June as they were having a youth conference and this is what I wanted to go to.  I bought a new suit shoes and whatever clothes I needed and my round-trip ticket to S.L.C. and this came to about $50.00.  This was the first time I was ever out of the valley We went by way of Pueblo and through the Royal Gorge. This was a site for sore eyes as I had never seen anything like this before.  We left Pueblo at noon and arrived in Provo the next morning and I stayed at my Uncle Frank's home in Provo for about 3 days. They had a little farm of about 20 acres there and I helped them some.  I saw the B.Y.U. Campus and at this time there were no buildings up on the hill. On Saturday I got on the train to S.L.C. and when I arrived the first thing I did was go to a barber shop and get a hair cut and shave and also a massage. This was the first one of those (massage) I ever had and I think it all came to $1.75.  I felt real smart like a city dude.  I got a room for $1.00 per day and that night I went to the old S.L. Theatre.  I remember that a train came right out on the stage and a horse got out of a boxcar and then they had a horse race on the stage. This was a great show and lasted about 3 hours. The next morning I went to Temple Square and went to the Tabernacle.  Thomas McKay was speaking and this is what I heard him say, “That peace was taken from the earth and would not be restored until Christ would come again”.  The First World War had started in the early part of the year (1914).  Germany had invaded Belgium.  Thomas McKay was the Mission President in Europe at the time.  The church had called all the elders back to the U.S.  It has been 64 years since I heard this statement and there has been war some place in the world ever since.  My mother told me about her Uncle Richard Crowther in Logan and wanted me to go up and visit them so that Monday I took the Chillie Line and went up to see them. They were very glad to see me and to know that I was Uncle George and Aunt Laura Morgan's son. This was his second family and it was very large, about 8 children.  I remember they were all girls except one.  I remember that one of the girl's name was Marilla.  Many years after this when I was Bishop of the Sanford Ward and was in S.L.C. to conference, I was walking around in the museum on temple square when I saw a pretty woman looking at me.  She came up and asked me if I was Wilford Morgan and said that she was Marilla, Uncle Richard Crowther' s daughter and I remembered her then.  I stayed in Logan 3 or 4 days, then went back to S.L.C. and Provo.  I stayed there a day or two then went down to Fountain Green.  My cousin was the bishop there and I stayed about a week.  On Friday night he gave a dance in my honor and I really had a good time.  I met a lot of pretty girls and visited all my many relatives.  On Monday morning I took the train and went up to Manti.  I met my mother’s half sister and her husband Uncle Lewis Anderson (he was President of the Manti Temple for 25 years).  I went with Uncle Lewis up to the temple that Sunday as he had some work to do in the office.  I looked around and saw the winding stairs and went up to the top.  I never thought that in about 60 years that I would be an ordinance worker there.  I stayed a day or two in Manti then went back to Fountain Green and stayed there a few days then went back to Provo.  It was getting close to the end of June and I was going to help Jim Carwin put up his hay as we Morgan's always did.  I got on the train and came home. I was gone 30 days in all.

   At this time in my life I was 19 years old and was a jack of all trades and master of none. I'd do anything on the ranch such as farming and taking care of the sheep and would do anything my father asked me to do. There were a lot of us and we made a good hay crew. We helped Jim Carwin and Oscar Jackson put up their hay. H.V. and I made it a practice to work on the threshing machine and would pitch bundles. We thought that we were the best in the valley pitching bundles into the threshing machine.  We were paid $1.50 per day and this was good money in those days as the best anyone would get was $1.25 or $1.50 and that was top pay.  Many a day H. V. and I would work hard pitching bundles all day then get in the buggy that night after supper and drive home.  We took our horse and buggy with us so we could come home any time.  We would come home on Friday nights as there always was a dance in the Tivoli and on special occasions.  I always tried to make my own spending money and always found me a job.  I remember after we came back to Sanford I got a job working for Tom Faucette.  He had a contract putting up wild hay on the Pete Hanson ranch and I got my board and took my own bed. I raked hay in the windrow and all I received was 75¢ a day and that came to $4.50 a week.  We were taught by our parents that we should always work for what we got and save our money. There is a saying that goes like this: those who buy when they do not need will often need when they cannot buy.

   Jess and I always went to the dances together. We both liked to dance and we were very good dancers and could dance with any of the girls.  After we got home from the dance one night, Jess asked my why I didn’t dance with that “little Block girl”.  He said that she was a very good dancer and was a lot of fun.  I told Jess that she was just “a kid” as I was 5 years older than her.  (I was 19 years old and she was 14) This was between Christmas and New Years and they had a dance every night.  The next night was New Year's Eve, so I danced with Ada two times that night and I really liked her.  I asked her for the "home waltz" and she said yes, so I took her home that night.  That was the beginning of our courtship.  I never kissed her the first night, but made a date with her for the next dance.  This was the beginning for me as I had taken a lot of girls home after the dances, but were never attracted to them like I was Ada.  We really liked each other and I never went out with another girl.  I would go to Priesthood Meeting in the morning, then on to Sunday School and Sacrament Meeting in the afternoon at 2:00 p.m.  She would be at church and she sang in the choir. She was a very good singer.  When she was 6 years old they had a fair in Sanford and there was a contest for all the little kids that could sing.  Ada won the prize and if she were here today she could sing with anyone on T.V.  It was natural for her to sing, it was just born in her, she really had a great talent. Her patriarchal blessing promised her that she would sing with choirs on this earth as well as the heavenly choir. 

   I’d like to tell a little about Ada’s parents.  Her father was born in Denmark and came to the U.S.A. when he was 10 years old.  When he lived in Denmark he lived on a block and because there were so many Jensen’s there his family took the name of “Block”.  Her mother's name was Boletta Poulson and also came from Denmark.  Mrs. Block was part German and was born in Manti, Utah. She told me when she was a small girl how she used to play on the hill where the temple is. They started to build the temple in the year 1877 and it was completed 11 years later.  Mr. & Mrs. Block got married in Manti and then came out here. They were some of the first ones that settled south of Sanford in the town of Ephraim.

   In the spring of the year when I started to work for Pete Peterson, I bought a new buggy and a harness.  This was a rubber tire buggy and it cost $115.00.  I also bought a nice little black mare.  I had one of the nicest outfits around and Ada and I would go riding every Sunday and we would also go to the movies in La Jara.  I also bought a nice lap robe to go over our laps. In June Ada, Leah and their mother went to the World's Fair in San Diego, Calif.  Roy Kirby was going with Leah at the time and he and I went around together and were very lonesome while the girls were gone.  I worked for Pete Peterson for 3 years and during this time I would help him drive cattle down to New Mexico.  Finally Ada and the folks came home and we were sure glad to see each other again. Pete Peterson had a son named Myron and he and I were the same age. He was going with Mar Smith (a friend of Ada's) and during the spring of 1915 it was very wet and the roads were so bad you could not pull a buggy.  Myron and I would rid our horses from the ranch up on the Capulin road (this was the only way we could travel).  I would go home and change my clothes then come and take Ada to the dance then after the dance take her home and go back to the ranch on horseback.  Sometimes Myron and I would get back early in the morning and would only get 2 or 3 hours of sleep.  Pete would come in and tell us it was time to get up as there was a bunch of cows and their calves that had to be moved.  It was like this all the time, but we got used to it.  When I got through helping Pete that fall, I went to work for Mr. White pitching bundles on the thresher.  He gave me $2.00 per day as I had worked for him before. This was the most I had ever made. When the work was through I went to high school at the new school house west of the church.  Mr. Sole was the teacher.  At Christmas time Roy and Leah got married. I went to school until the spring as Hugh got married and Jess was going to get married too.  My dad told me that if I would help him that we would share in the sheep so I helped him and did real well for myself.  I sold my buggy and horse to old man Ruff who lived in the south part of town and was glad to get them.  I bought a Model T ford and it cost me $625.00. There were very few cars in town and a lot of times people would hire me to take them places. John Young hired me to take his family to Questa, N.M.  On occasions like this I would always get Ada to go with me and we always had a lot of fun.  Ada, my parents, Hugh and I went to a fair held in Mesita, Colorado and I won a prize.  I could kick the highest of anyone there.  Will Christensen was a big tall man and he had just married Dixie Faucette and felt very smart so he tried to kick and missed falling on his back in 4 inches of dust.  We ate dinner with the Lyman Carter's (he married my cousin) and had a good time on that outing.

   1916 was a good year for me as I got the car and had a good time all year long.  In 1917 World War I was raging in Europe and 1917 didn’t look too good.  I went to high school in the fall of 1916 and 1917.  In the spring the U.S. declared war on Germany.  I didn't know what to expect so that summer I sold the car to Hugh for 80 head of lambs that I would get when they came out of the mountains in the fall.  Selling the car made it rather difficult as Ada and I were used to go places.  I told Ada that the way things looked I would have to go to war as the U.S. was at war and soon they were going to draft men.  We always had the Mexicans to shear our sheep every spring.  This was done about the first of June but my dad couldn't find anyone to do this work. St wart Company had invented a shearing machine that clippers could be used on but H.V. and I never sheared a sheep in our lives but we had watched the Mexican shear with blade so we bought a two man shearing machine and Pa was going to give us 10¢ a head. This machine cost us $140.00.  We were very green at it and got about 20 head the first day, but each day we would do a little better and we finally got them all sheared.  That year my dad got 50¢ a pound for wool.  This was very good as sometimes in the past he would only get 20¢ a pound. Hugh felt quite rich after shearing the sheep so in the fall of 1917 he got him a new Oldsmobile.  He traded the Model T that I had sold him in on it and paid my fare on the train to go to Denver and drive his new car home.  I got home on a Sunday afternoon and came right to the Block home and took Ada for a ride.  She sure did like it, then I took it to Hugh. Then I came back to be with Ada and have supper with the Blocks as I did every Sunday night since I started to go with her.  I told her that I would buy me a new car as soon as the war was over. At that time we never talked of marriage, all the work was done in the fall and again I went back to school for about 4 months. This was in the spring of 1918 and they were drafting men into the army as U.S. was in the thick of the battle in Europe.  Dan Newcomb was one of the draft board members and was also a good friend of my dad and said if I was needed to help dad they would not take me until about July so my dad told him that he needed me to help lamb the sheep and shear them as he couldn't get anyone to help.  When I told Ada that I would have to go as

soon as the work was done (this was around the first of March) we decided to get married before I left to go to the army.  I bought her a ring and we got engaged and a little later on we decided to get married the 5th of June.  My parents were building a new home on main street and I was helping them.  We got it built and they moved in about 2 days before I got married and the only night I ever slept in it was the night before I got married.  Ada and I were married June 5, 1918 by Bishop James P. Jensen at her home. We had a big dinner and the house was full of people.  We got lots of presents and had a big dance over in the old Tivoli.  We didn't go away on a honeymoon as I had a call to go to the draft board to take a test.  If I passed, I would go to Colorado Springs to attend school for 3 months.  There would be about 190 men from Colorado that would be in that outfit. 

   Before I go any further with our married life, I would like to mention Ada's schooling.  She graduated from the 8th grade and then went to Manassa for 3 years to the Academy.  This was a church school, and she met a lot of “high up in the church people”.  She became very good friends with Ray L. Pratt from old Mexico, who had a sister named Gladys Pratt who married Dilworth Young, one of the general authorities.  Ada was very good friends with her and they were in plays at the Academy.

   I went over and took the test.  There were about 7 that took it.  In the meantime H.V. and I continued to shear sheep.  One day I received a letter from the draft board saying I was to report to Colorado Springs at Colorado College on July 14, 1918.  Archie Jack and I were the two that were chosen to go so I worked hard to get the shearing done.  In those days a soldier was looked up to and everyone really treated us special so July 14 they held a farewell for us in the church and it was just packed.  At night when the train came in from the south there was a large crowd also. They had a band playing and I felt like I was going to the gallows.  I hated to leave Ada and felt so sorry as she almost cried her eyes out.  As we were leaving La Jara a man came and sat by me and asked if I had ever been in the army and I said no. He said “don't volunteer for anything” so I played it cool and this paid off I found out.  We arrived in Colorado Springs about 4:00 a.m., and we were met and taken to Cosset Hall. This is where we slept and ate and it was very nice.  Every morning we would exercise, go to breakfast and then on to school.   We were being trained for Semifore Code (the dots and dashes) and that was what we did for 3 months. During the time we were in Colorado Springs Ada came up on the train and stayed a week and another time Hugh brought her and my mother up for a weekend. Just before I left to go to Kelly Field in Texas I got a pass for 4 days so I came home to bid them all farewell.  Before I left, the Antlers Hotel gave us a party and if we didn't have a girl friend or wife to go with all we had to do was give our name and a partner would be found for us.  A lot of men who had wives at home went with another woman to this party. There were only 2 men in the outfit that didn't go and that was another man and me. While I was in the service I never went out with a woman although I had plenty of chances.  After we left Colorado Springs on the train it only took us 3 days to reach Kelly Field. Things went very well and I was assigned to a special duty at Kelly Field.     Arch Jack was put over in Kelly also and we would try and see one another every weekend and would go to San Antonio to see a movie. The flu broke out in the U.S. and it was all over the world.  This started about Dec. 1, 1918 and grew worse.  It was one of the worst diseases I have ever seen, people died like flies.  Whole families would get sick and those that died turned black as a coal stove.  Arch Jack and I went to a movie one Sunday and caught a bus that took us back to camp.  On the way back his nose began to bleed and that was the last time I saw him during the week.  Later on I heard that he was sick with the flu.  I tried to see him but they wouldn’t let me in.  Mr. Block sent a wire to my captain asking if they would let me have a furlough as some of my folks had the bad flu.  I came home and was grateful that Ada didn't get it as she was pregnant and a lot of pregnant women who had the flu died (both mother and child).  It was real cold – 40 degrees below zero.  The frost stayed on the trees all day.  The sheep had been turned loose in the north 80 acres and had not been looked after for over a week until I came home.  I was told that Ernest Wright was very sick with the flu (he is Jennie’s husband) and they have 4 little girls so as I was making my round that day I went to see him.  I couldn’t go in the house so I went to the porch and looked throuch a large window to see where his bed was.  I saw him lying in the bed and he saw me and raised up and waved his hand and he was as black as could be.  The next morning we received word that he had died and about that time I heard that Arch Jack had died.  We dug the grave for Ernest and Jim Daniels made his casket.  Two days after Ernest died, I got Hugh’s car and hitched on an old transfer buggy to the car.  (It didn’t have any seats in it).  The sun was about one hour high from going down when Jess, Uncle Will, Jim Daniels, and I took Ernest’s casket and pushed it up into this buggy.  It didn't have an end gate so we pushed it as far up as it would go.  The others were to come out in another car.  It was as cold as it could be and there were about 2 feet of snow on the ground. The other men came and we lowered Ernest to his last resting place and buried him just as the sun went down.  He didn’t have a funeral and Uncle Will dedicated the grave.  As soon as they could they sent Arch Jack's body home and I helped to lay him to rest before I left to go back to Kelly Field.  I was home for 2 weeks and the armistice had been signed on Nov. 11,1918.  On the way back to Texas I went thru the Pan handle of Texas and there were snow drifts as high as the catches on the train.  I left Kelly Field in February of 1919 and they routed us by way of Kansas City and then back to Denver and I was discharged at Ft. Logan.  I came home and we were all happy.  Ada saved up a little money as my pay in the army was $30.00 a month and when I went in I gave her $15.00 of my check and then Uncle Sam matched it so she got $30.00 a month.  There was not much left out of my $15.00 after deductions and insurance were taken out, it only left me with $6.25 and that is what I had to get along on all month.  After I got home I received a bonus check from Uncle Sam for $60.00 and they said I could keep my army suit that I came home in.  Now I had my air force life behind me. 

   Ada gave birth to Dean on March 28, 1919 and had a hard time as we didn't have a good doctor as they had not all arrived home from the war.  We got a doctor that Clara Beck had and he turned out to be a quack.  For a while Ada would have sinking spells. One afternoon she said that she was starting to sink away that everything was going black and for us to do something quickly.  Mrs. Block told me to get someone to help administer to Ada. I quickly got Bishop Jensen and he told us to all kneel around the bed and we did and he prayed for her.  He had no more quit praying than she said the light is now coming back and she didn't have any more spells after that and in a short time she was up and was as well as could be. We were thinking of where we could live and Brother Block said that he had a home that May and George Larsen had lived in when they were here so we would be going to clean and fix it up when Mrs. Block had to have an operation. This was in May and they operated on her at home so Ada took care of her and we stayed there until she got well.  It was a lot of work for Ada to do all the cooking, washing, ironing and taking care of the baby as well as Mrs. Block and us.  We didn't get moved until a year from then as Mrs. Block had another sick spell and I thought she was going to blink out but she got better. We finally got moved and were getting along fine.  Grant came along January 17, 1921.  We had a good doctor by the name of Chambers.  I bought Ada a baby buggy and it was a heavy one and when spring came and all the snow had melted (when Grant was born there was 2 ft. of snow on the ground) she would put the 2 kids in the buggy and come up and visit her mother.

   Ada's father gave us this part of the lot we built our house on and then gave us another 1/3 lot just east of our home so we had a strip of land through the block and then as he had many lots in the southeast corner of Sanford, he gave me 4 lots.  There were 2 for pasture and 2 that I planted in alfalfa.  This was sure good of him and it really helped us out. He also gave us a mi1k cow.  My dad gave me a cow and I sold her and we got $125.00 for the cow and my dad let me use the land just west of Bailey’s place which I have today.  He bought this land when he first moved to Sanford for $2.50 per acre and now I have 40 acres of the best land in the valley.  I bought 5 acres of land from James P. Jensen for $1,000 and planted it in potatoes and had a good crop and paid for it in the first year.  Everything went very well as far as money was concerned and we found out that another baby was on the way.

   In the spring after the crops were planted, the sheep sheared and all the work done, we planned to take the 2 kids to S.L.C. and go thru the temple and have them sealed to us.  Jessie Smith and Eva Morgan were living there and we were going to stay with them.  We left June 24, 1923 and took the Narrow Gauge train that left Alamosa and went north to Salida.  I had been on that train once before when I went to a stock show in Denver.  We left in the morning and we got about to Moffat, Grant had to go to the john so I took him in and before I knew it he looked down as the seat was up and he took off his shoe and threw it in.  Well it went right on the ground as the train was moving about 25 miles per hr.  Well now he only had one shoe and when we went back Ada was upset with both Grant and me.  We arrived in Salida about noon and had taken a lunch with us.  We found a park which was only a short way from the depot as the train we were to take to S.L.C. wouldn't arrive until a couple of hours.  After lunch Ada wanted me to take the boys to a barber and get their hair cut as the shop was only a short way from the park.  I took the boys in and the barber asked me what kind of a cut to give them and I told him just to cut it and went on reading the newspaper.  When I looked up he had cut their hair all off, that is he had given them a crew cut.  When we got back to the park and Ada saw their hair cut she really was upset as she had just wanted their hair trimmed a little so they would look nice as she wanted to show off her cute little boys to her sisters and family.  We arrived in S.L.C. the next day and rested a day.  On June 27th we went to the temple.  Eva went with us and looked after the boys until we were ready for them to be sealed to us.  We were very happy that we were married for time and eternity and had our family sealed to us.  We stayed in S.L.C. for a week as Ada had other folks that she wanted to visit.  One day I took Dean with me and went up to Logan as I had been there in 1914 and mother had asked me to go up there and visit her Uncle Richard and family.  We stayed all night with them and came back the next day.  The following day we came back home.  We had been away about 10 days and really had a good time.

   Donald was born on December 21, 1923.     We were doing quite well as far as money was concerned and we bought a new Model T. Ford. This had 4 doors and we had many a good time 10 it, we felt quite rich with a new car.  Ray was born to us December 6, 1925 and we now had 4 sons.  We thought that he was going to be a girl and were going to name him Virginia if he’d been a girl. 

   Things had been going very well as far as financial matters.  It seemed that I had always wanted to be financially successful.  I had worked for J.N. Shawcroft and Pete Peterson and they were very well off so I wanted to be like them.  By now I was making very good every spring shearing sheep and this was cash on the barrel.  I heard that sheep was a good price and also grain was good.  Wool was 50 cent a pound so things looked very good.  I traded the old Model T off for a 1929 Ford, it was the best Ford they had ever made.  Glen J. came along about that time.  He was born on November 2, 1929.  Hugh, Jess, and H.V. and I bought another bunch of sheep for $15.00 per head.  We all thought that this man we bought them from was going to carry us and that as we made money from the sheep we could pay them off and we could have done this but the crash of 1929 and 1930 came.  It was a shock to everyone.  Banks went broke and many closed their doors.  There were a lot of men that I thought were in good financial standing that killed themselves.  This was called the great depression.  Money was very tight and the man we bought the sheep from wanted his money and if he couldn’t get it he was going to foreclose on us.  This would have ruined us if we would have had to sell at that time so my father and brothers and I went to see Pete Peterson and he was quite wealthy and had a bank in Denver and they let him have the money we borrowed from him.  He loaned us the money and we paid Mr. Hank thanks to Pete.  I, at that time, asked if I could have my note separate from my brothers and he let me so I gave Pete my note for my share of the money.  I knew that by me working very hard shearing sheep and farming and also taking care of the sheep that I could pay Pete off in a few years.  It took me until 1935 to clear things up.  During this time I also worked on a thrasher for $1.25 a day holding sacks every fall.  We always had plenty to eat as we had our garden and meat and milk.  Ren Johnson had me shear his sheep and paid me money for some of it and wanted me to take a pig for the rest so I did.  I also went fishing a lot and would go up to La Jara Reservoir and get as many as 20 pounds of the largest fish, some weighed about 3 pounds apiece.     I also went to a lot of lakes in the west hills and always brought home a lot of fish. 

   In 1934 Ford Company came out with the first V-8 engine so I traded the 29 Ford in on one of these new cars.  We liked this new gray car very much and used it until 1938 when I traded it to Charlie Bodley that ran the Ford Garage in La Jara for a stake bodied pickup.  This was the first pickup that I had ever owned.  I used to haul a lot of wood with a team and wagon from Pot Mountain.  Now Ada and I would go down in the pickup and would fill the back of the truck full of the nicest drywood. This wood would make the warmest fire and we would make the trip in one day.  When I would go after wood or leave home I never had to worry as my boys would take care of everything.

   I would like to mention how I got active in the church.  Alma Crowther was the bishop of the ward and Stanley Best and H.V. Morgan were his counselors.  Harry Thomas was the Supt. of the Sunday School and Sid Cornum was his first counselor. Harry Thomas left and went to Utah to live so they made Sidney Cornum the Supt. and Alma Crowther asked me to be the first counselor.  I told him that I went fishing a lot and sometimes it was on Sunday. He said that if I could stop doing that, that I would be glad some day that I did so I thought about it and thought that I should take the job.  I worked in the Sunday School for 4 years as the first counselor to Sid Cornum then he left to go to Provo, Utah and then I was made the supt. For 7 years I worked as superintendent and counselor under 4 bishops.  I was then released from the Sunday School in the spring of 1944 until the M.I.A. started in the fall and then I was put in as Supt. of the M.I.A. They appointed me to take care of the money, that is I was to send out letters to all the families in the ward and ask them to donate to the church $10 or $15 per family as this was to maintain the ward and so I did this.  This was in the fall of the year and I had collected about $750 when I was made bishop. I didn't turn over any of that money to Ren Johnson as he was released when I was made bishop.  Everyone in town knew that there was going to be a change in the bishopric.

   My mother passed away April 19, 1938 after being sick about two weeks. Death is always sad no matter when or how it comes. Just before she got sick I used to go up to Lay, Colorado to shear on a big job (20 man plant). She asked me not to go this year and said that if I needed any money that she had some I could have and asked me to stay and shear with H.V. that spring.  The reason I would go up to Lay, Colorado was the fact there were about 30 days of steady shearing and I made a lot of money.  Well, I stayed home and she got sick and while she was ill one evening she was talking to H.V. and said that her father is in the room and asked H.V. if he saw him and H.V. said no. She died the next day so I do know that her father was there. My brother Hugh died on February 21, 1939 just about 10 months after mother. The cause of his death was flu and pneumonia.  He had been to a basketball game between Sanford and Manassa when he fell ill and they rushed him to the hospital in Alamosa.  Ada and I had gone over to Walsenburg in the pickup to get a load of coal and when we got back that evening we were told he was very bad so we went to the hospital to see him. He passed away around 10:00 p.m. that night. 

   I'd like to mention our social life. Ada and I belonged to about 3 different groups and in the winter time we sometimes were out to a party or dance two or three times a week.  Sometimes we would go up to Menke Haven which was in Conejos Canyon to a dance or we would go to Alamosa.  The main group we went with were called “The Double Eight Club”.  There were 8 men and 8 women and did we ever have a lot of parties.  This went on all the time year after year from 1925 until 1945, then about half of the group moved away and it broke up our group which lasted some 20 years.  Those were real good times.  In 1940 I bought a new car and this was a two-door maroon V-8 Ford.  We not only got a new car in 1940 but also got a new little baby, a little brown eyed girl.  She arrived the first day of March.  All the rest of our children were born in our home but this one.  There are 11 years difference between Glen J. and Janice.  There was a lady in Alamosa who ran a nursing home for mothers who were going to have babies.  Her name was Mrs. Sheesley.  We made arrangements for Ada to deliver there and when the time came which was late afternoon March 1st, we went to Alamosa at 6:00 p.m. and when Ada got out of the car the water broke and we got her in and put to bed and Dr. Anderson was called and around 8:00 p.m. M. Janice was born.  We were very happy as I had always said that someday I was going to have a little brown eyed girl.  Our double eight club was having a party that night at Walter and Stella Crowther’s place and they were playing cards when I called from Alamosa to let them know the good news that we had a little girl.  They stopped playing cards and three them all over the room and that broke up the card game for the night.  All our folks and friends were happy for us.  In July of that year Walter and Stella wanted to have a party at their cattle camp in N.M. so we all went down there.  It had rained all the way down and was late when we arrived at the camp so we ate supper and then danced until late in the night.  We stayed two nights.  We didn’t take Janice with us as Donald took care of her.  She was only 4 months old but he took every bit as good of care of her as her mother could.  When we arrived home everything was ok and we had a real good time.  We had lots of good times like this.

   We were all pretty well fixed at that time, Jess, H.V., Harry and I.  Fred Christensen wanted to sell out of the sheep business so he came to us and we talked it over and decided to buy them.  Each of us would have 200 more sheep and this would give us one more place on the forest so we bought his herd of sheep (800 head). This let H.V. and me to run together in the summer and Harry and Jess to run on our old range so that was how things were arranged.  We all got along very well.  I was glad as our range was just above the Conejos falls (12 miles above Platora) and the fishing was very good there and how I loved to fish and went fishing a lot.  At this time we had good riding horses so when we went into the mountains we always had a good horse to ride.  The price on everything was real good now and things were going very smooth and we would add something to the home. We would add a room, build a porch etc. We started to add to the home as far back as 1935 buying whatever we needed and had the money.

  Dean and Donnie went with me one time to Wyoming to shear.  Dean had bought a car and we went in it.  The work was good and we made money. That fall Grant and Donnie went over to H. Lewis at Durango, Colorado to school.  They played on the football and basketball teams and Ada, and I would go over and watch them play. On October 31, 1941 they were to play ball and we were going over but Janice had a cold so Ada stayed home with her and Alma Crowther and Stanley Bailey went with me. When I got home Ada told me that Dean was going to get married tonight.  He came home and wanted her to fix him a bite to eat and she did and he told her the news that he was going to get married that night.  I told her that it was the first that I had known that Dean was going to get married.

   Everything went along about the same only the second World War had started. Dean went into the Army in March of 1942 and 3 of my boys served in the armed forces of that war.  I told myself that if I ever had any boys they would never be a soldier as I didn't like the army.  Every one of my sons have served their country.  I have always been grateful that Janice was a girl.  In the spring of 1942, 1943, and 1944 Donald, Grant and I would go to Wyoming and Montana to shear sheep.  We were at Ringlin, Wyoing and Malta and Dodson, Montana.  These were large jobs and we did real well.  At that time a man working would get $1.50 per day and sometimes I would make as much as $20.00 per day. This is why we always had plenty.  In all my life I really never did want for anything which I am very thankful for.  After 1944 I didn’t go away to shear as the boys were all in the service of their country and some were with me part of the time, but this took the heart out of me.  Grant was in the army and Dean had been wounded and was back in the vets hospital and at this time Ray had to be in Denver so we decided to take Ray up to Denver on Sunday, Dec. 3rd so he could get to see Dean before he went into the service.  There was Stake Conference in Manassa and Ada had to sing in the choir so we thought we would come straight home after conference and leave for Denver.  In the afternoon a very bad storm came so we were afraid to go by car so we thought we'd take the train.  A.B. Bailey was going up with us. Donnie was going to take us to the train and we were waiting for A.B. Bailey to come when there came a knock at the door and it was Vernal Anderson saying that they wanted to see me at the church.  As we were going to Denver we didn’t go down to the church to see who was going to be put in as the new bishop.  I went with Vernal around to the back of the church and when we went in Elder Spencer W. Kimball shook hands with me and also the other brother who was with him shook my hand.  As we were going to Denver we didn't go down to the church to see who was going to be put in as the new bishop.  I went with Vernal around to the back of the church and when we went in Elder Spencer W. Kimball shook hands with me and also the other brother who was with him shook my hand. They talked with me and asked me a few questions about the church and then told me to go around to the front of the church and go inside and set down and not to talk to anyone.  I did and in a short time Vernal Anderson came back and said they wanted me to come back. I did and Elder Kimball told me the Lord wanted me to be bishop of the Sanford Ward. They asked me to pick my two counselors and I chose Joe Mortensen and Eugene Barr and then I went back into the church and sat down. When the meeting started and they had prayer, Elder Kimball got up and said that Ren C. Johnson was going to be released as bishop and that W.R. Morgan would be the new bishop. They called me to come up to the stand and also Joe Mortensen and Eugene Barr and said these two men were going to be my counselors.  Elder Kimball ordained me to be a high priest and then set me apart as the Bishop of the Sanford Ward. This sure was a surprise to Orval Peterson as he thought that he was going to be the bishop and so did his father, Swen Peterson.  As Ada and A.B. Bailey were at home and I was gone so long she sent one of the boys down to the church to see where I was and he saw me sitting on the stand.  He came home and told her and she didn't know what to think until I came home and broke the news that I was the new b1shop.  We went to Alamosa to the train and Elder Kimball and the other brother that was with him had a berth on the train.  I had tried to get one but they were all taken so Elder Kimball gave us the if berth and they sat up in a chair in coach all night.  One thing Elder Kimball promised me in his prayer was that all my sons would come back from the war and so they did. (2 were wounded and one was hurt in a car accident but they all arrived home and are alive today).

   The church was run down very badly as it was old so the first thing I did was clean the old church up.  We gave it a paint job, the walls and all the woodwork in the church.  It sure looked a lot better after we got through.  I would like to go back a little when I was first made Superintendent of the Sunday School – Alma Crowther was bishop and in our bishop’s meeting one Sunday I asked him if we could build a new church and he said no because that was impossible at that time.  We were still in the depression. I could see how we needed class rooms. This went on until Wilford Peterson was bishop and he was only in 2 years.  I asked him to call a meeting and he told 4 of us to go out and see how much money we could raise.  I went to the northeast corner of Sanford and all I got was $1.50.  I gave this to him.  Soon after he was released and Ren C. Johnson was made bishop.  I'm not too sure how long he was bishop but it must have been around 6 years and no one had started to collect any money toward a new church until 1943 and Ren was the one who started this fund as I have a record of everyone that donated to the new church.  On February 7, 1943, Lettie S. Jensen paid $1.00 and this is the first money that I have a record of in the year 1943.  There was $940.90 in cash and $316.50 in bonds in the building fund.  The next spring when I went to Conference, I went to the Presiding Bishopric’s office to see just what had been done about the Sanford Ward getting a new church.  To my surprise Ren hadn’t done anything about it and had not even asked for permission to build one so I had to have all the necessary papers filled out for us to get a new church.  I had all the paper work and then was told to go upstairs to see the man who was in charge of the cost of all church buildings.  I gave him the papers and he looked them over and asked me how much I wanted the building to cost and I told him around $100,000.00 and he threw up his hands and said “well you want a building as good as we have in east S.L.C.” and I said, “well we have just as good of people in the Sanford Ward as you have in east S.L.C.”.  he signed the papers and I took them down to the Bishopric’s Office and they told me that if I would sign a paper that I would be the contracting party that it would save the church and the ward a lot of money so I did.  The papers were then given to the architect whose name was Fetzer.  Now I was on the way to getting a new church for Sanford Ward.  Next I had to collect $50,000 and at this time building materials were hard to get.  We had to raise $40,000 before they would let us start so the first thing was to get enough money so we could begin.  When I got home my counselors and I got together and went over all the names in the ward and allotted each family so much.  I told the people of Sanford that all the papers were ready and as soon as we got so much money we would tear the old rock church down and start on a new one.  The members were very free with their money.  Some people gave more than they were asked for.  In 1945 we took $1,730.14 into the building fund.  I got a letter from Bishop LeGrand Richards telling me that we were really doing well in raising money for the new church.  After personal donations, two banquets were held and the first net $1,540.00 and the second $4,400.00 and also a sale netting $7,500.00.  There were a lot of people that were not members of the church that gave money and a lot of members from other wards gave money.  I handled every bit of the money both taking it in and paying it out.  I bought everything that went into this building.  After we had the $40,000 that was required by the church authorities, the problem was where we were to hold our meetings: Sunday School, Sacrament Meeting, Primary, MIA, Relief Society, Funerals etc.  I had talked it over with the school board and they said that we could use the schoolhouse for $80.00 per month.  This worried me a lot as we were saving all we could to go into the building fund.  As I mentioned, building materials were hard to come by so I went in to S.L.C. to talk to the man who was in charge of buildings for the church and asked him if we could make the building out of bricks, that is if we could make a lot of cement bricks and use them as back up bricks.  They wanted to only allow us $6.00 per thousand and I told him that we should have $9.00 so they said ok.  When I got back from S.L.C. the next Sunday morning I told the ward that we were going to make a lot of cement bricks.  We had to have a lot of sand in before winter.  This was early in the fall so I asked Stanley Bailey, as I know he went fishing a lot, if he knew a place on the Conejos River where there was a lot of sand.  He said he did and so the next day we went out to the place where the sand was and it was very good and we saw a place where we could drive in and out without any trouble.  It was an old road into the sand so we built a place to load and I took the first load out of the sand bar.  We had a lot of trucks and within a short time we had all the sand and gravel we needed piled up south of the old rock church.  Ray Morgan, my son, had bought a brick machine to make cement bricks and early in the spring we made enough bricks to make a garage for me.  The church bought it from him and it was this machine that we used to make 200,000 bricks.  By now we had the blue prints for the new church and it was the middle of February that I ordered a car load of cement and it had arrived.  We stacked it in an old coal shed that had been used for coal for the old rock church so we built a straw shed to make the bricks in and put a stove in it to kinda keep the frost out of the new bricks.  We started and filled it up really soon and made a fire in the straw shed and came home and it was no time until it burned up.  This was a blessing in disguise and I do not know why we ever thought about making the bricks in the old dance hall before.  The dance hall (old Tivoli) was the right place to do this so we moved over there in a short time, hauled the sand with a ford tractor and we had two stoves to have a fire in and plenty of room to make the bricks and stack them.  In the middle of March the bricks were all made and stacked.  Every night I would go over to the Tivoli and make two fires then about 4:00 a.m. I’d get up and go over there and put more coal in the stoves.  This way the building never got cold and the bricks turned out in good shape.  We had to work fast now as we wanted to start construction on the new church.  As soon as possible I got up in church and said that there would be only one more Sunday that we would be meeting in the old church and then we would tear it down.  I told them that we had made plans to move to the schoolhouse.  This worried me all week long and somehow I didn’t think it was the right thing to do.  The last Sunday we were to use the old church I was laying awake about 4:00 a.m. and a voice told me just plain as anyone has ever spoken to me in my life “don’t take the church to the school house, take it to the town hall”.  Ada was laying beside me and I shook her and she woke up and I told her what the voice said to me and she then said that was the thing to do.  I got up and called Joe Mortensen and Eugene Barr and also Ted Reynolds (the ward clerk) and told them to meet me at the church as soon as possible.  When they all arrived we held a meeting and I told them that we were going to hold our church meetings in the town hall.  I told them what the voice said to me.  That morning I told the ward about it then the following Monday we started to clean the town hall up and it was a blessing.  I asked the mayor if we could use it and he said to help ourselves to it and we did.  The light bill was very small and so was the coal bill and we got along very well thanks to the good Lord for watching over us. 

   To show how the lord answers our prayers – Panola Reed became very sick, and she could not get well and she couldn’t die so one day at church Orin Reed asked me to come to his mother’s home that Monday night.  I went and the family were all there and they asked me if it was alright if we had prayer and ask the Lord that if she couldn’t get well would He take her out of her misery as she had been laying in bed for 3 weeks.  We all went in and knelt around her bed.  John B. Reed offered the prayer and the next morning she passed away.  This just shows how our Heavenly Father answers our prayers. 

   During the 7 years that I was bishop I gave all my time to the church.  The boys took care of the sheep in the mountains and I didn’t even get to go fishing as this job took up all my time.  Well the old church had to be torn down and hauled away.  I received a letter from the Presiding Bishop that there was a man over in Farmington, N.M. who had just about finished a job of remodeling their church over there and for me to go over and see him and if a made a deal with him it would be ok with them.  The morning that Albert Mortensen was to take is dragline and knock the old church down, I invited Stanley and Irma Bailey to go with Ada and me to Farmington.  We arrived there just as they were through for the night and the first man I met coming out of the place where they were working was Charles Schofield. I talked to him for a few minutes then went in and saw the man the church had sent me to see.  He, in some way, didn’t impress me at all so we drove over to Charles Schofield's home and talked to him.  I told him that we would like hi to come to Sanford and supervise the building of our church and we made a deal.  I told him we would give him $2.00 per hour so the deal was made.  We had a nice trip, stayed all night and came home the next day.  When we went on trips we always left Donnie in charge of Janice.  When we got home the old church was laying in a heap.  Charles Schofield moved over here and Eugene Mortensen said that he could use the rock so he brought in a lot of trucks and hauled it away.  As I bought all the building materials I bought all the steel from the C.F.&I. at Pueblo.  On April 17, 1948 Charlie Schofield and I moved the first shovel full of dirt.  I paid as low as 50¢ per hour from some help.  It was after we had put the corner stone in and the building was going up pretty well that we had a party over at the town hall.  I went to see if the well had been turned off and when I got back Ada was not at the party so I asked what had happened to her and they said that she had turned sick and that Almina Lennington had taken her home.  I left the party and came home and this was the beginning of her sickness. 

  As the building went up we ran out of cement and we could not buy any at all.  All we could do was wait, there was such a demand for it.  The Stake house in La Jara was going to be built and Bishop Manning had a car load come in but he wouldn’t let us have it.  I went to President Shawcroft and asked him if he would talk to Bishop Manning and he wouldn't so we lost a full month. One day I went to Pueblo and found 250 sacks of cement and got a valley truck to bring it over here.  After that I picked up enough to keep us going and didn’t have any more trouble about building material.  The architect was here only once and this was when we were about 2/3 done.  I met him at the airport in Alamosa and Ada fixed a delicious dinner and we invited Charles Schofield to eat with us. That night the architect told me that we sure would have a beautiful church when it was finished.  As I took him back to the airport we spoke about the steeple that was going up on the church.  It was all finished and laying on the ground. He asked how far it was to Pueblo and I told him 160 miles and he said that was too far to get a big crane to get the steeple up.  As Mr. Fetzer got on the plane he said "well bishop, you will find a way to do that" and I did find a way, the Lord showed me. One morning as I was in bed, I saw just how this was to be done.  It was so plain that I remembered every little detail about it.  After breakfast I went to the church and told Charlie that I knew how we were going to put the steeple up. I told him and he said that sounded reasonable.  He measured it and found that we had 2 inches to spare.  After 2 days we set it in the hoist and the next morning inside of 30 minutes it was in place and bolted down just like I saw how it was to be done. 

   Very few people know about the following.  The company that insulated the church after they were through and were paid sent me a check for $450.00 made out to me.  I could have cashed the check and used it for myself but I put it right back into the building fund.  We were about to finish the building and I saw that we were going to be short about $2,000 on the Sanford Ward’s part.  I traveled all over and paid my own expenses to places like Pueblo, Denver, S.L.C., etc., and was doing or had done what the man that was looking after the stakehouse in La Jara was doing.  He was getting 11% of the cost of the building and I was paying my own way.  I decided I had better do something about raising money either collect the $2,000 more from the members or go in to S.L.C. and see the Presiding Bishopric to get something for my labor.  They were paying the man at La Jara about $11,500 for his work and was not doing any more than I was.  I also had to go to S.L.C. to settle up with the architect.  I took the plane and was there by noon.  I went up to the architect’s office and talked to the father of the man that did the blue prints for us.  They were to get 5% but as then only had to make one trip out to Colorado.  They cut it to 3%.  I explained our situation to him and he thought they would do that.  He went over with me and the head man was there.  I told him my story and after he listened he gave me the coldest no I ever heard in my life.  I talked to him a minute and Bishop Worthlin came by the door and Mr. Fetzer said for him to come in and he did.  We shook hands and he asked me how the new church was coming along as he had been in our home one time when we had conference.  Mr. Fetzer asked him to hear my story.  I told him what I had done that I had given it my full time and I had always paid my own expenses as I made these trips and now wanted them to give the money to the ward not to me as the ward was going to be short.  He asked me how much I wanted and I told him I had it all figured out and we needed $1,875.00.  The bookkeeper was only a few feet away and he called him by name and told him to give the Sanford ward credit for the $1,875.00.  I was sure thankful to that good brother...  This solved all my troubles and the trip on the plane was really worthwhile as I had saved having to ask the ward members to dig up money again. 

   The Sanford Ward Chapel was dedicated September l8, 1949 at 7: 00 p.m. {after the quarterly conference that was held in Manassa).  We had $225.00 in the Presiding Bishopric's Office in S.L.C. and $125.00 in the La Jara Bank. This money was all that was left of the building fund after everything was paid. I stayed on as bishop of the ward until. December 3, 1951.  After a short time I was put in as the Stake Superintendent of the Sunday School and held that position until the next fall when I was released.  I was then put in as President of the High Priests and held this position under two stake presidents, Fred and Leonard Haynie.  I was released and then was asked to teach the Gospel Doctrine Class in the Sunday School and have taught it up until just a few months ago. 

   During World War II when I became bishop, the church would not let us send missionaries out into the world so it was after it had stopped that we were allowed to send them out. The following are the ones I sent:  Ray, G. Morgan, Ralph Mortensen, Norman Crowther, Jerry Martin, David Peterson, Fred Mortensen, Everett Crowther, Tommy Martin, Eleanor Jensen, and Lamont Morgan. The couples I married while I was bishop are: Grant B. and Tish Morgan, Donald B. and Dorothy Morgan, Willis and Alma Crowther, Bob and Nancy Morgan, Jay and Joyce Morgan, Harry Woodard and wife, Richard and Opel Morgan, Alice Poulson and husband, Wesley and Alice Mae Stevens and L.W. Carter and wife.  These are all I can think of at this time.

   At one time within 10 years I had pneumonia, blood poison in my right knee, and was operated on for gall bladder.  When Janice was born, Glen had pneumonia and Grant shot his finger off. I would go into more detail about each one of these things but it would take too long.  I want you to think about these different sicknesses that I had in such a short time and they were all very bad. 

   One night a long time ago when Glen was just a small baby, Bishop Jensen came to see us and asked how we were and Ada told him that we were ok only that we didn’t fast on fast Sunday.  She told him that every time I fasted I got a terrible headache. He turned to me and said this “Wilford Morgan in the name of Jesus Christ if you will fast and go to church on Fast Day I will promise you that you will never have a headache again from fasting”.  The next Fast Day Ada asked me what I was going to do and said she would fix me breakfast if I wanted it but to remember what the bishop said.  I told her that I would fast and I did.  When we got home from church she asked me how I felt and I told her I felt well and didn’t have a headache at all and I never had had one since and that has been almost 50 years since Bishop Jensen gave me that promise. 

   I would like to turn back the pages of time to the year 1925 when I bought a moving picture machine from a man by the name of Lickman who had one over at Mesita.  I paid him $325.00 for it and got the church to let me have movies in the old dance hall (Tivoli) but I didn’t like the people I had to deal with in the church so I built a motion picture house.  I built a new one and showed “The Ten Commandments” and a lot of big movies like that.  The reason I didn’t like the people in the church was that I had to pay them for using the dance hall and then there were about 7 on the committee and they got in free to every show.  I built my own theater and did as I pleased.  I ran the machine, Ada sold the tickets and Leah Kirby played the player piano.  We went up to Denver a lot of times as that is where we bought the pictures.  I made a lot of money doing this especially on western and dog shows like Rin Tin Tin. Sometimes we had a full house.  We would make as much as $50.00 or better a night.  I theater in Alamosa was remodeling so I bought the old chairs.  One night about 10:00 p.m., Swen Peterson’s store caught on fire and as the theater was close by it caught fire too and they both went up in smore.  That was the last of the theater…

   After I was released from being bishop I was free to do what I wanted until Ada became sick. She had a bad heart and I took her to a lot of different doctors.  We read about the clinic in Albuquerque, N.M. and went there for a week and she went through it…  When she finished and we were ready to go home, I saw Dr. Dillingham (who was one of the best heart doctors in the west).  He said that she had a very bad heart and that nothing could be done that she would have to take pills when she felt one of those bad spells coming on and to lay down and rest until her heart slows down and goes back to normal.  He also said that it would keep getting worse until it put her to bed and that it would finally quit.  She had a heart in a million, it could fliberate.  I took her to every heart doctor there was trying to find one that could help her but the only doctor that spoke the truth was Dr. Dillingham.  We went to Denver to see the doctor that puts valves in hearts.  He said that her heart was beyond repair even with a valve and it wouldn’t help a bit.  After this trip I knew that it would only be a matter of time and it was just a question of how long she could last with this heart condition. 

   We did have a lot of nice trips out to California when Ray and Billie got married and also Glen and Diana and when Janice went to high school in California.  We went with Donald and Dorothy to Mesa, Arizona when they were married in the temple.  We also took Janice back and forth to B.Y.U. and also visited her in S.L.C. lots when she worked for the Presiding Bishopric's Office.  (When Ada had a stroke in 1964 she came home and stayed about 3 months and then Donnie took her to Denver and she worked there for a year until she got married.)  We also visited Grant, Tish and family in Texas a lot.  We went to California when Janice got married and so we had a lot of nice trips both by car and by plane and we always had a good time.  We spent about 3 months during the winter of 1957 in Santa Monica, California and came home by way of Texas and visited with Grant, Tish and family.  In June of 1952, we went down to visit Glen at Biloxi, Miss. where he was in the air force. On the way down we stayed in Dumas, Texas with Grant's family and then went by way of New Orleans. We took a tour of the city and saw the old french quarters and went through one of the oldest churches there.  We also saw the place where President Lincoln watched the slaves being sold and saw the books that had a record of the different slaves and how much they were sold for.  Some would bring as much as $1500. 00 and some were sold for $750.00.  We were taken to a park that covered 360 acres and there was a large oak tree and the limbs were 15 ft. thick and came out of the truck of the tree about 10 ft. high. This tree was called “Hangman’s Oak” as nearly every morning someone would hang himself. They would bring a box with them and stand on it and tie the rope around their neck and around the tree and kick the box out and then that would be it.  We stayed there about a week and visited Glen.  We loved the area there as the water on the gulf was so beautiful and we would watch the shrimp boats come in. They say that it is the longest beach and the most beautiful in the world. On the way home we stopped by Nauvoo and Carthage, Ill. We went straight up through Mississippi and then through the western part of Kentucky and crossed the Ohio River into Illinois.  We crossed over the old wooden bridge that a short time later collapsed and a lot of cars went into the Ohio River and a lot of people lost their lives.  This bridge is about a mile from where the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers come together.  As you go over the bridge into Illinois, the blue and gray cemetery is the first thing you see and it is very pretty.  We went to Springfield, Illinois and stayed there all night and saw the place where President Lincoln is laid to rest.  We then went west until we came to Carthage and got there about sundown.  We went to the old jail where Joseph and Hyrum Smith were killed.  This was really interesting to see.  The next morning we went to the caretakers and they told us about everything as though we were not Mormons.  He locked me in the jail where the Prophet had been. This is something that I will never forget. We then drove west to the Mississippi River.  It was a beautiful drive right on the bank of the river.  It was about 14 miles from one town to the other.     As we drove into the city of Nauvoo there was a sign over the road which said something about it being the home of some kind of beer and green cheese.  We went up to the site and talked to the L.D.S. man and woman who were there taking care of the church's interest.  We saw where the Relief Society was first organized and where the graves of Joseph and Hyrum are. The graves are under a tree by the Mississippi River.  All of the streets in the city are named after the noted men in the church who lived there at the time.  We saw the Mansion House and all the interesting things.  At that time there were only 1200 people that lived there. We crossed a bridge into Iowa and came home.  We really enjoyed our trip had had a good time as usual.

   As I have told about all of the kids when they got married there is not too much to mention from this time on.  We just worked with the sheep.  I planted grain in the spring and cut hay in season.  Ada was sick all the time.  She was in the hospital one after another and first one doctor then another.  She stayed home alone during the day and I would be at home in the evenings.  It was really a hell to have a loved one sick and not be able to do a thing for them or have the hospitals or doctors do anything.  As I could not look after thing I took Donald in as my partner.  This must have been in the year 1958.  We got along real well.  Ada never improved, only got worse all the time.  She really suffered.  I think it was in the year 1966 or 1967 that I sold out to Donald as I was not in too good of health myself.  We always took care of a garden and so I felt like if I just took care of things a-round the house and looked after Ada that it would be enough for me to do as she had not been able to do any shopping for years.  I took Ada to the hospital the first of May in 1968 and she had been in there for about a week and I brought her home and she made me promise not to take her back to the hospital.  I told her that I would not take her back as long as I could take care of her and so she never sent to the hospital.  Janice and Rod came from Las Vegas, Nevada around June 1st and Ada was not too good.  When she went to bed that night of June 4th she told me that she wanted to thank me for being so good to her and then she went to sleep and never woke up.  She passed away on June 5th, just 50 years to the very day and time she and I were married.  We were going to have a big dinner for our 50th Wedding Anniversary.  I had bought a turkey and Dorothy was going to cook the dinner and bring it down but we didn’t have the dinner.  No matter when death comes whether you expect it or not it is a terrible shock to the ones that are left.  It was very lonesome after all the kids went home.  During the last part of July, Janice and Rod sent me a plane ticket to go out to Las Vegas so I left Alamosa and flew to Albuquerque, N.M. and then on to Vegas.  I stayed with Janice about a week.  While I was there Janice and I flew over to California to visit with Ray’s and Glen’s families.  I flew home and Donald, Dave and Mike picked me up at the airport as I was staying home.  I thought that I would go to Arizona in the winter time so I stayed in Mesa until March 1st.  I rented a house from Ollie Jensen who lives in Manassa while I was in Mesa and it was a nice little home.  I made arrangements for it before I left the valley.  I was there about 3 months and I worked in the temple doing endowments for the dead.  While I was there that winter I did 70 names.  Walter Crowther and I would meet every day in the temple and would go through together as his wife Stella was sick and couldn't go.  We watched out for one another and we became very close as he and I had been in the mountains with the sheep when we were younger many times.  Now that time has passed it was nice to be with him in the temple and I will never forget those times while we were there.  They would invite me to come to their place and so would Orin Beck.  One night I asked both of them to come over and we had a card party.  They used to belong to the old double eight club we had in Sanford.  I left Mesa on March 1st and went to Las Vegas, Nevada to see Janice.  It was her birthday and we went out that night and celebrated.  One day we were in a store where there were 10 one armed bandits back to back.  She asked me if I wanted to play them so I kissed a dime good-by and pulled the handle and out came 50 dimes!  Janice worked for the Dean of Students at the University of Las Vegas and Rod worked for Western Air Lines.  I flew over to Los Angeles to visit Ray’s and Glen’s for a few days and then flew back to Vegas and then on to the valley where it was cold and I wished that I had stayed back in Mesa.  I stayed with Donald and Dorothy for 6 months as I had rented my home out to Preston Stanley and his wife.  I helped Donald with the lambs. 

   It was July 1st when I took Mary Martin out to a movie. The reason I asked her out was that Lena May Hansen was working in Kelloff's market in La Jara and we needed some milk to feed the lambs so I went over there to get it and Lena May asked me if I was going to marry again and I said that I thought that I would so she told me what a good person Mary Martin was and that she was a lot of fun so I took her out.  Grant and Marie sent me a plane ticket to come down and visit them in San Antonio, Texas so I went and was gone about a week.  When I got off the plane that was the first time I had ever met Marie and Kandi.  In the meantime Janice and Rod were living in the Washington, D.C. - Virginia area and she wanted me to come out there. I got ready and left here about the 24th of July and stayed with them in Alexandria, Virginia which is across cross the Potomac River.  We used to cross the river to go into Washington, D.C. as that is where Janice worked.  I often wondered about the story of George Washington where it said that he threw a dollar across the Potomac River.  Well I do not believe that anyone can do that.  They showed me all around the area; we saw the old Ford Theatre where Lincoln was shot and across the street where he died and the bed he died in.  We saw the Smithsonian Institute and all the things they have in it like the Spirit of St. Louis and the capsule that John Glenn went around the world in.  We went by the White House, Capitol and also to Mount Vernon and to the Lincoln, Jefferson and Washington Memorials and also to the Arlington Cemetery and to a lot of other places.  I really had a good time.  I then got on the bus and went down to San Antonio, Texas to see Grants again.  Grant wanted me to come back and help him in his stores and I told him I would be back the first of September as I had written to Stanley Preston asking him to move out of my house by August 20th as I would be home then and was going to move back in.  When I sent them that letter I didn’t know that Grant wanted me to work for him and I sent Mary a letter telling her I’d be home and would like to see her again.  As soon as I got home I came to the house and the Preston’s had already moved out.  I started to clean on the 23rd of August, 1969 when Stanley Bailey called and invited me to go fishing with him and Zelma.  I did and we had a nice time.  I caught 4 fish and the next day I went over to Mary’s and took her 2 of them and asked her to go out with me to another movie in Alamosa.  On the way back I asked her if she had ever thought of getting married again and she said she hadn’t given it much though and I asked her to marry me.  I told her I was going to San Antonio, Texas to work and that we could write to one another and that had to be in Texas the first of Sept.  The next day we went to Chama, N.M. and had dinner.  The next day I left for San Antonio and Mary drove with me as far as Santa Fe, N.m.  I stayed in Lubbock, Texas that night and arrived in San Antonio the next day.  When I got tired I would stop and rest by the side of the road.  Mary and I wrote a letter every week until we decided to get married.  I really enjoyed my stay in Texas. 

   I left San Antonio the first of January to go to Mesa, Arizona.  It took one and one half days to get there.  Walter Crowther helped me find a place in Chandler to stay.  Mary arrived in Phoenix and stayed at Verna Bernman’s place until we were married in the temple January 6, 1970.  We stayed there a week then came home.  We would have stayed longer but I talked to Donald and he said that the kids had rented my home had moved out and the pipes on the porch had broken and he had fixed them.  We decided to come back home.  It was 40 degrees below zero.  We stayed in Mary's home for a month while we cleaned up my house then we moved over here and have lived in my home ever since and plan to stay here until we both leave this life.

   The first time we went fishing was with the Baileys, Mary caught one fish and then she got the bug.  This is the first fish she had ever caught in her life.  This was the start of a real nice time in my life as I had been fishing many times in my life but always had a lot of other things to do but now that I am retired I really do enjoy fishing and seeing my kids.  We have owned 3 campers and 3 different pickups to pull them and have loved each one of them.  They are so nice to go camping in and we do this all the time and will continue to do so as long as we are able to go.

   Mary and I have had a lot of good times in these past 8 years.  We have been to San Antonio a lot of times and on to Mesa and to Los Angeles and to the St. George and Provo Temples.  We have done many endowments, I think I have done 250 of them.  We want to go and work in the temple as long as we can and are able to go.

   When I was bishop I would go into S.L.C. many times and each time I went I always had a desire to go to Fountain Green but I thought that I was too busy and would say to myself that I would go the next time.  Once when Mary and I were going into Conference in the fall of 1971, I told Mary about my feelings and we decided to leave Provo about 5:00 a.m. and go to Fountain Green.  We went to the cemetery where my grandparents are buried.  We got there just before sun up and I stood and read their names on the headstone and looked where their graves are.  There was a feeling of satisfaction that I had paid my respects to the people who had made it possible to be here in this good land of America. We then left and drove to Manti and went thru a session, ate dinner and drove on to St. George.  We went thru the temple there that night and went on to Las Vegas the next day.  We went to San Bernardino, Calif. that afternoon and stayed at Mable Gibson’s. I called Janice that night and told her we would be in L.A. the next morning.  She lived across the street from the L.A. Temple.  We stayed there about a week then came on home. The next year (1972) we went out to Provo, Utah to the dedication of the temple.  This was around February 9th and was a marvelous experience.

   There were 2 different times we were asked to go on a proselyting mission but there were reasons that we could not go.  One was that I had a heart attack and we were advised by the doctor that we had better not go.  In March of that year we were asked by President Flaven to go on a mission and work in the Manti Temple as ordinance workers.  We told him that we would go.  They brought us some forms to fi11 out and they had to be sent along with our temple recommends to the President of the Manti Temple then he in turn sent them to the First Presidency of the Church in S.L.C.  This took some time.  On May 2, 1972 President Garris called us and said that President Christensen of the Manti Temple wanted us to be at the temple in Manti on May 4th.  As I talked to him I thanked him for the President of the stake calling us to be ordinance workers in the temple.  He replied that it was not the Stake President that called us but that it was the Lord that had called us.  He told me that when they were notified that they wanted a couple from this stake to work in the temple so the 3 brethren (stake presidency) could not decide who to ask so they decided at the next meeting they were to each put a name in the envelope and they were not to let the other know whose name they put in.  Each one had put both Mary’s name and mine in the envelope so that is the way we were called. 

   After finding a place to live we came back home and got everything ready so we could leave things and we went back and started our mission on the 24th day of May.  We were set apart by President Christensen.  I think that this was the greatest blessing I have ever received in my life.  This certainly was a great challenge to try and learn all the parts and I want to assure each and every one that reads my history that it was through the blessings of the Lord that Mary and I were able to do this and I want to thank my Heavenly Father for helping me.  We got along very well and made a lot of new friends that I will never forget.  I think sometimes that they are the best of all the friends I have ever made and do hope they won't forget me.

   My knees were bad when we went to Manti and while we were there in the spring of 1973, I fell on a cement step and hurt one of my knees so I went to the doctor and he told me to have it operated on so I did.  This took about 6 months for me to get over this operation so we came home and stayed until sometime in November of 1973.  We went back to work in the temple in November and worked until the next April 1974.  Then as my knees were getting very bad and gave me a lot of trouble, President Black gave us an honorable release.  Mary and I took the two major part 30 times.  The last week we were there I was told by the president of the temple that we had taken the parts the best of anyone he had ever known.     He said “I want to tell you that I do not say this to everyone that I see who takes these parts”.  Mary and I have always tried to do our best when we worked there and thank the Lord for this privilege.

   Since that time we have gone fishing a lot and also camping.  We will do this as long as we are able to go. At the present time we have one of the neatest campers and pickups there are anywhere and we love what we have and intend to go and see our children where ever they live.

   This period of time that I have lived in from the covered wagon to the jet age has been one of the best times to live in of any other period of time from 1895 until 1978 and now as I close these few remarks that I have written down, there is a lot more that could have been said but this is what I remember without any notes.  Of course, there are a lot of things that have been unsaid.  As I look back over these 82 years I do not think I would like to live them over again as you should know that no matter where you live or what period of time you live in there has always been ups and downs.  If you have not had trouble as of yet don't worry, you will have it as it comes to everyone bond or free.

W. R. Morgan 

I was baptized by Holm A. Mortensen 9-6-1903

Confirmed by Marcus 0. Funk  9-6-1903

Ordained a deacon by Marcus 0. Funk 1-25-1909

Ordained a teacher by L. H. Mortensen 12-30-1912

Ordained a priest by James P. Jensen 2-20-1921

Ordained an elder by Alma J. Christensen 5-26-1923

Ordained a high priest and made bishop by Spencer W. Kimball 12-3-944

Married Ada Block 6-5-1918

Married Mary Martin 1-6-1970