I, Harry
Stratford Robinson was born in a small town called Farmington in the state
of Utah on the 20TH of Nov., 1880, of goodly parents. My father's name
is Oliver Lee Robinson and my mother's is Annie Stratford Robinson. My
father had three wives, my mother was the second wife, she gave birth
to eleven children, I being the nineth child.
I remember when I was four years of age I had my first pair of pants,
made by my mother from an old suit. I was very proud of them as I wore
dresses up to that time. My father died when I was five years of age so
I don't remember much about him, but what I have heard, he was a very
good man, and loved his wives and children very much, and took good care
of them while he lived. When he died six men carried his remains to the
cemetary to show their great love for him.
I used to go bare footed in the summer time, wade in the creek, which
ran near our house, the run and scuffel in the dusty road. Mother would
always make me wash my feet before going to bed, and they would get so
chappy and sore from playing in the water and dust, it hurt so much to
wash them, and I didn't like to do it. Some times I would stay away from
home and play till after dark, and mother didn't like that, so she told
me once if I stayed after dark again she would give me a whipping, something
she had never done. But she would tie me up to a tree or the barn when
I was naughty or ran away. But one night I forgot to go home till after
dark, having such a good time, so when I got home I was afraid to go in
the house so I crawled in some large logs we had piled near the house,
and went to sleep. I guess it was about ten o'clock when I awoke hearing
someone calling my name. I came crawling out to see what was the matter.
All the neighbors were out looking for me, some with lanterns and torches.
Some one told mother they saw me down near Big Creek about dark and they
were afraid I had fallen in and was drowned. They looked all up and down
this creek, and it was quite large. We lived in a lane; some of the neighbors
were looking for me in this lane. When I came out mother took me in her
arms and kissed me several times, took me in the house and gave me a big
bowl of bread and milk which I liked very much. I didn't get a whipping
either, mother was so happy when I was found.
When I got a little older my brother and I would have to take the cows
to the pasture in the mornings and get them at night. In the summer when
the hay was up my brother and I would have to herd the cows to keep them
from getting in the grain. One of our farms was about a mile from our
house. One day while herding the cows a tramp came along and picked me
up and carried me down the road. I kicked and yelled so hard he let me
down and you bet I ran back to where the cows and my brother were. The
tramp did this just to scare me. One night when I was bringing the cows
home. I was riding a little pony with a saddle which had no horn and only
strap styrups. Some of the cows went down a lane toward Big Creek. I went
after them and in turning the pony around quite suddenly she fell down
on her side. One of my feet sliped through the styrup. She jumped up and
ran draging and kicking me. I hadn't gone very far when I became unconscious.
She started to go across Big Creek and it was high as it was raining real
hard, but just as the pony started across, the sinch broke and I was left
on the bank. If she had draged me through that creek I would of been drowned
sure, but my life was spared. I was carried home on a door, and was so
sore and bruised that they would turn me over on a sheet because I could
not stand to be touched.
When I was 12 years old I was ordained a deacon. Our job was to clean
the meeting house and gather the Fast Offerings once a month. We would
take a team and wagon as we had quite a ways to go. We would get flour,
butter, eggs, meat, potatoes, and what ever the people felt like giving
us.
Mother didn't like us children to go away without her knowing it but one
day my brother Will and I went over to our neighbor's, Sister Aurila L.
Rogers. She had a boy a little older than we, Kert Rogers. He was going
some place in a wagon and wanted us to go with him. We knew we should
not go without asking out mother, but he coaxed us to go saying he would
not be gone long, so we went. We were all setting in the spring seat.
The wagon had a double bed so we were quite high in the air. The horses
were on a trot and when we came to a mud hole, they stoped so quick we
all fell out. Kert Rogers fell straddle of the tongue, Will lit on the
ground at the side of the near horse and I fell down in front of the front
wheel and it went over my neck, pulling the skin off my face. Will pulled
me out before the hind wheel went over me or I would of been killed..
That is what I got for disobeying my mother. I was laid up for some time.
They kept my face covered with birdock leaves, till a new skin had grown
on my face. So I advise all boys to obey their mothers.
Father owned 80 acres of land on the sand-ridge, about 5 miles northwest
of Layton. We farmed one half one year and the other half the next. We
did not have any water for it, so we planted the wheat in the fall, to
harvest it the next fall. Each spring Will and I or George and I would
go up there to plow. We had a red cow that had big tits and was hard to
milk. I couldn't milk her so I would always have to go. I would drive
the three horses and George would hold the plow. We had to batch it. We
had a one room house to live in, the floor bowed up in the center and
we had a bunk in one corner where we slept. We had a table and two benches
for chairs and a small stove. We kept the oats we fed to the horses in
the house. Some times mice and lizards would get in the grain. One day
at noon time I caught a lizard with a pair of pinchers and took after
George, and you ought to see him run and bawl he would throw clods at
me. He got hit with a toad once and it made him frightened of things like
that. We used to have quite a lot of fun on these trips but it was quite
lonesome.
One night while bringing the cows home I had to cross the Organ Short
Line R. R. As I got near the track I saw a passenger train coming. I thought
I would have time to rush the cows across before the train got to the
road crossing as some of the cows were nearly to the track. I got some
of them over, but one cow went across and got confused and started back
when the engine struck her fair in the side. She went clear up to the
smoke stack and was carried there for some distance when the track made
a curve and she fell to the side of the track and slid down the grade,
dead. She would of had a calf soon. I think we got $40 from the R. R.
Co. for killing her.
When I was about 13 years of age, my brother George and I were sent by
our older brothers to our field which was a mile or more from our house,
to see if our cattle were all in our field and not in someone else's.
They would some times brake through the fence, we rode a horse down there
and found some of them had gotten in the next field so we tied our horse
to the fence and went after them. When we got them all up to the fence
we thought we could make them crawl through the fence like they came through.
We had a roan cow which was very mean. She was in the bunch, and when
we tried to drive them through she turned around and shook her head. She
sure looked mean. She started after us. George went one way and I went
the other. She took after me. George yelled for me to run. I didn't need
any telling as I was running as fast as I could go, but she caught up
to me and jabed her horns through my coat in my back and threw me on top
of her head and carried me there for some distance, finally tossing me
into the air. I fell to the ground on my back, jumped up soon as I could
and ran for the fence. Our dog kept the cow on the run. We got on our
horse and went home leaving the cows as they were. I did not get hurt
at all.
One day my brother George and I went down to the field to get one our
horses called Joe. He was a bockey (balky) roan and we worked him beside
a black mare we had. She didn't like him as he was very bockey and she
had to pull him and the load sometimes. I went ahead to catch him. He
ran behind this mare and she kicked with both feet at him. He jumped out
of the way and one foot caught me in the ear. I went over like a cart
wheel, and it seems a miracle I was not killed, but the Lord spared my
life again for some purpose.
When I was fifteen years old I was ordained to the office of a teacher.
I always went to Sunday School and my deacon and teacher meetings. Mother
always taught her children to be good and tend to there prayers. I was
never very bad.
When I was about 18 I bought a new bicycle, put it together, and at noon
one day started for Oakley, Idaho, with my brother, Will, and his boy
friend from Oakley named Roy Meacham. We were two and a half days going
up there, 200 miles or more. I was surely tired, not being used to riding
a bike. I stayed up there one year, working for a half-brother named Lorin.
He had a farm and a store. When I got back home, I learned my older brother
Lewis and his wife had gone out to Nevada to work on a ranch. He sent
for me to come out there. Two girls from California owned the ranches.
They had four ranches, one of which they called the "Home Ranch"
and the other three they kept a man and his wife on to raise hay for their
cattle, as they owned a large herd. They also owned a mine in Cortez,
a town in the mountains about 15 miles south of the ranch. They owned
a 20-mule team which hauled freight from the railroad to the mine and
from the mine to the railroad. They also owned the stage coach, using
12 horses to change off. They paid my fare from Farmington to Bewawe,
the railroad town. I went out there in May and worked on the ranch, fixing
fence first then helping with the hay. I ran a wagon and would load the
hay, take it to the stage, wait for it to be unloaded. Another man would
run the fork.
We would always have breakfast at 6:30 in the morning, dinner at 12 noon,
supper at 6 o'clock. They would serve a lunch about 8:30 in the morning.
They would kill a beef twice a week, keep one quarter, and I would take
the other three quarters to the mine. They surely had lovely meat. I drove
a fine team of sorrel horses, which they got off the range. They were
sure wild. I would leave the ranch about 3 a.m. and a man would get up
and help me hitch the horses up. He would stand to their heads while I
got on the seat with the lines. When everything was all ready he would
jump out of the way and away we would go, as fast as they could run. This
is all they knew, since they used to be leaders on the stage coach. One
day when I was coming down the canyon after delivering the beef, the 20
mule team was coming up. It was wonderful how they made the bends in the
canyon. The teamster drove all 20 mules with a jirk line on the near lead
mule. When he came to a bend in the road he would yell to one of the pointers,
the team just ahead of the tongue, one mule would jump over the chain
and pull up the hill. If he needed more he would yell to the next mule
and he would do likewise. They sure had them trained. They serve the finest
grub there I have ever eaten.
In the fall I went with two cowboys up in the mountains to get a bunch
of beef steers to ship east. While we were rounding up some steers one
broke away and I took after it on my horse. While going on the run my
horse stepped into a badger hole and fell with my leg under him. My, but
that did hurt. I had to ride that horse home and I was crippled up for
awhile. Soon after that the man who was doing the chores and taking care
of the stage horses quit, so the boss wanted me to take the job. I did.
I would get up at 5:20 a.m. It took me one hour to tend the horses. The
breakfast bell would ring at 6:20. We would go in and wash, have breakfast
at 6:30, Sundays and all. The boss told me any time I was hungry to go
in the kitchen and help myself, as we had a swell cook. He was a Chinaman
and always had cookies or do nuts in a jar. He could fry steaks the best
I have ever tasted. I quit there in November. It started to get cold so
I thought I would to back home, I sure enjoyed my stay out there. It is
certainly a healthy place, but lonsome. I just want to say when the cow
boys would come to the ranch, instead of blowing the candle out before
getting in bed, they would get in bed and then one would take his six
shooter and shoot the light out.
When I got home I started to school at the L.D.S. College in S.L. City.
I thought I would like to be a station agent, so I took Telegraphy, but
I did not finish the course. I could send 30 words and receive 10 per
minute. That spring or I should say in June I left home for Cardston,
Canada. My brother George was going to Idaho Falls so we left on the same
train. We left Farmington about 12 midnight on the O.S.L. Railroad. It
was there I saw the girl who later became my wife. It was the next morning,
we were sitting across from where she was riding. She was lying on the
seat asleep with her head next to the isle when someone went through the
train and brushed against her head and woke her up. She raised up and
gave him a black look. I guess I will never forget that. She had been
to S.L. City to the June Conference and was returning home. She clerked
in ZCMI in Ida Falls. She and George got off and Idaho Falls.
I went on to Canada. In going to Canada I thought I would take up a piece
of land there and make that my home, but to get land I would have to go
so far out, I changed my mind. They had a bad flood just before I got
there, washing homes away. It took the bridge out over the St. Marys River.
I got a job on a mill race which had been washed out. On the first of
July which is Dominion Day, they celebrate like we do on the fourth of
July. They had a program in the fore noon. When we came out at noon it
was raining real hard and kept up for several days, and we had another
flood washing more houses away. The house where my sister lived was some
distance from Lee's Creek which ran through the town. This was a brick
house on a high foundation. When we got out the water was knee deep. I
hired out to a fellow on a ranch about 5 miles from town. This was a young
couple who had a little girl three years old. She was a sweet little thing
and took to me right away, and so did her mother. That winter was very
cold. I would ride a horse to town Fri. nights and go to a dance, then
ride home after taking my girl home, and ford that river. I had to go
in a certain place or drop out of sight in some hole. The river soon froze
over and I would cross on the ice. It got as low as 30 below zero. The
boss's wife went to see her folks and was gone several days, so the boss
and I thought we would go to town to see a show. Well, we got our chores
done and harnessed the team. We went in and had our supper then we came
out. We saw some white clouds over in the north west. It looked like it
might snow, but we hiched the team to a top buggy. One was a colt we were
just breaking. The road led south with a fence on either side of the road
till we got to the river. It was snowing real hard and the wind was blowing
and turned much colder. After we got across the river we had no fence
to follow as there was none. Well, we got lost because we could not follow
the road and the horses would not face the wind. We wandered around for
some time, not knowing where we were. We couldn't see anything at all.
Suddenly I yelled for the horses to stop. He got out and came on my side
of the buggy, and do you know, the front wheel was about one foot from
the bank of the St. Mary's River 50 feet or more down. If we hadn't of
stoped just then we sure would of been goners. He led the team away and
we got down in a low place among some trees and stayed there till the
storm let up. We thought we would both freeze. The storm let up about
midnight and we went in [to town and stayed in a hotel.] The next morning
we went back to the ranch. Several people get lost that night. It is a
peculiar feeling to be lost, especially at night like that.
Well, I stayed up there till June and came home, having had all I wanted
of Canada. But in May the 18th the boss left home with a load of wire
for another ranch. Well, it began to rain that morning and rained till
noon, then started to snow. It snowed till the following Wed. and you
ought to of seen the snow. I sure had a time trying to keep his cattle
alive. I had to go out in the field and bring in the cows that had calves
one at a time, wallowing in that deep snow. That was some experience which
I will never forget. Well, as I said before, I came home in June. I arrived
home in Farmington feeling very dispondent, just one year from the time
I left for Canada. I helped my cousin Clarence Robinson put up his fathers
hay. Then I left for Idaho Falls where my brother George was living. He
had bought a 40 acre farm. I got in Iona, Idaho just in time to help George
and his Uncles the Jeffs brothers, put up there first crop of alfalfa.
The Jeffs boys liked my work so they let there hired man go and hired
me. I worked for them till some time in December, then I went home for
the winter as all the farm work was done. That winter I went to a Barber
College in S.L. City and learned the barber trade. It cost me $45 but
I never followed it as I did not like to shave any one, though I liked
the hair cutting quite well and if I could of had a shop without the shaving
I would of followed the trade. Also that winter I met a little blonde
girl who lived in Kaysville, Utah. Her name was Zila Smith. I liked her
very much and she seemed to like me. I didn't care much for her father
though, he was a funny fellow and was so strict he wanted her in too early.
He might of known I would take good care of her, for I was a right good
fellow. I didn't use tobacco or liquor, and I wasn't bad at necking.
The next spring I went back to Iona, Idaho to run Jeff's farm as they
were contractors and builders. That summer I met the girl I saw on the
train at a dance. Her name being Mary Myler. She came out to Iona to clerk
in a store there. She and a girl friend who was teaching school there
were chuming around together, also one Sunday night Charlie Longhurst
and I were out buggy riding and ran across these girls and asked them
to ride with us. I hapened to get Mary. We had lots of fun that night.
She had a boy friend on a mission, but she seemed to like me. We would
kiss each other while going around the block, without coming up for air.
The Bishop put her in as president of the young ladies of this ward, and
they had a lawn party one night and served raspberries and ice cream.
Someone brought salt and put on the raspberries, then they put the berries
on the cream. It was sure a mess. The poor girl felt very bad about this
and went home and cried.
We ran around together part of that summer and all that fall and were
married the 15th of December. We each decided we would write to our pals
and tell them the news. I wanted to buy her an engagement ring, but she
said she would rather I wouldn't as the boys in the store would tease
her. One night some time after this I went down to see her and ask her
if she wouldn't like a ring. She said "Well, I guess so." She
was getting braver. So I took a washer out of my pocket and sliped it
on her finger. You ought to of seen her face. Well, I wouldn't buy her
one now, it made me sore when she wouldn't have one the first time I asked
her. She was one that took it in good part.
About two weeks before we were to be married I got kicked by a horse on
the leg. It made me lame for some time. I thought maybe we would have
to put our wedding off for awhile, but we didn't. It isn't good to put
such things off. That fall I was ordained an Elder. We were married in
the Logan Temple on the 15th of Dec. 1904, as the S.L. Temple was closed
for repairs. We had intended to be married there, in the Salt Lake Temple.
Mary had a girl friend in Logan by the name of Pearl Card. She was going
to be married on the 14th and wanted us to come down and go through the
temple the same day. We got in Logan the morning of the 14th but could
not get a marriage license soon enough to go through that day. They had
a wedding reception that night and we had a lovely time. They served cake
and pineapple sherbit. They had such a large wedding cake we ate cake
and sherbit for three days. I never tasted such good sherbit. We were
married Thurs., the 15th and while going through the temple, up and down
the stairs, my injured leg did not hurt at all, but was just as bad when
I came out. That seemed funny to me. It was some time before it was right
well. Saturday afternoon we went over to Clarkston to see some of Mary's
folks. This was a little country town west of Logan. We stayed there two
or three days then went to Farmington and stayed there all winter. My
brother Will and his wife Vilate were there at mother's home. We had lots
of fun that winter. It was so mild that there was not enough snow to have
one sleigh ride. We played outside nearly every day with a game. Will
had the game which was something like pool, only much smaller.
The next spring we went back to Iona, Idaho to run Jeff's brothers farm.
We bought some furniture in S.L. City and had it shiped up there. Jeff's
boys gave us a small house to live in, then we began to keep house by
ourselves for the first time. We were real happy and contented. That summer
I bought a little black mare for $50.00 She was a pretty little thing
and I also bought a new black top buggy with yellow wheels. We were sure
proud of them. That fall when I was hauling the sugar beets to the factory
Mary would go with me. In fact she would go with me nearly every place
I went. She liked to be out side as she had clerked in a store so long
and that kept her inside so much. Now she seemed like a bird let out of
its cage. When I had all the work done on the farm, I bought a team of
horses from Uncle Levi Simmons. I also bought a set of harness and a wagon.
I thought I would farm for myself. We moved up to Lewisville, Idaho to
Mary's old home. I thought I would rent a farm there but I found I didn't
have enough capital. I needed so many things to run a farm with and didn't
have the money to buy them so I gave that up. We could not rent one with
everything furnished. We lived in part of Mary's folk's home that winter
so she could be near her mother as we were going to have another in the
family. Well, on the 23rd of Jan. 1906 Mary gave birth to a beautiful
baby girl. She sure was sweet and pretty. She weighed 8 1/2 lbs. We named
her Geraldine. It was awful cold that winter. There was lots of snow.
I had to get up about four o'clock in the morning and go for the doctor.
When the baby was born I had to keep a fire all night and we burned wood
most of the time. I would take my team and wagon and go down on the river
bottom for our wood. It kept me pretty busy hauling wood and cutting it
in stove lengths. I did buy some coal during the coldest weather.
The next spring we moved to Parker, Idaho. There I worked for my brother
Le Grand on his farm. A man by the name of Jno. Crapo came there one day
and wanted Mary and I to go to Camas Meadows to work on his ranch there
and cook for his men. So we went up there, a distance of about 30 miles
to the north. It was a pretty place in the summer. A valley 3 by 6 miles.
They raised mostly hay as it was high and cold and there were very short
seasons. Crapo bought a steam engine and plows and started to break up
the sod to plant grain, but it rained so much in May and June we could
not do much at that. We lived in a three roomed house and had four or
five men to board. It did not cost us much for meat that summer. The boys
would do lots of fishing and in July, August, and September we killed
lots if wild chickens, After supper I would hitch a horse or a team to
a buggy and Mary and I would drive out in the field with my 22 rifle and
get some chickens. We would just sit in the buggy and shoot them. We would
have fried chicken, boiled chicken, roasted chicken, and chicken pie.
Mary would fix it every way she could think of so we wouldn't get tired
of them. Some times there would be stray cattle and horses in the field.
After supper some of the boys would run them in the corral, tie a tin
can to their tails with a few small rocks in it and then watch then run
down through the field. One night we caught a wild horse and tied a burlap
sack to his fir-top and then let him go. The rearing and bucking he did
down through the field! They hardly ever came back, but others would come.
This and playing ball with the Camas Meadow boys was the only fun we had.
One night a skunk and a cat got to fighting under the house, and the smell
was awful. I got the turpentine and gave Mary the camphor bottle which
was the best we could do to off set the bad odor. The next day I shot
the cat as the skunk would not come out in the day time. So we had no
more fights under the house. We sure enjoyed ourselves in the meadows
that summer. We hauled lots of wood from the mountain to burn in the engine
we used to plow with.
Just before we left that fall I sold my team, wagon and harness and all
I had left was a horse and buggy. We moved back to Iona, Idaho. I worked
in the sugar factory at Lincoln that winter. The following spring I got
a job in Idaho Falls with the Studebaker Co. They handled wagons, buggies
and harnesses, so we moved down there. I worked in the house putting these
articles together and setting them up for sale. In the fall the boss gave
me a job on the road so we moved back to Lewisville. That winter or in
Feb. my wife gave birth to a baby boy which weighed 10 1/2 lbs. She had
a hard time and he was a beautiful baby but only lived three days. We
sure did hate to lose him as we wanted a son so bad. I think we could
of saved him if we had a first class doctor. The one we had didn't seem
to know what to do. We buried him in Lewisville. We named him Stratford
Myler.
That spring
I got a call to go on a mission. The call was for the Southern States
Mission. They gave me a farewell party in the Ward. I sold my horse and
buggy. We had a little money saved up. I bought an Edison Phonograph.
One day my brother George and his wife came up to see us and we made two
records. George and I sang "You Can't Change It" and when we
played it for the first time I thought we would burst our sides laughing.
It was sure funny. I sold this before I left for my mission. We went to
S.L. City for April Conference. Our baby girl was two years old, and a
sweet little thing. I did not leave S.L. till the 29th of April so we
stayed with my brother Lewis till then. He had some tomatoes growing in
a box to re-plant. Geraldine pulled most of them up. I felt like paddling
her but didn't.
When I was set apart, I was placed in charge of the Elders in our group.
I think there was eight or ten of us. We arrived in Chattanooga, Tenn.
in the morning May 3, 1908, the headquarters of the Southern States Mission.
Elder Ben E. Rich was President and was a fine man. We had a meeting there
that morning and spent the afternoon looking over the city. Monday we
went up on Mt. Look Out which had a large roundish shape. We went up on
a train pulled by an engine on a 50% grade. When on top we could see for
miles around. I was assigned to labor in South Carolina. I arrived there
on May 8 in Columbia, S.C. the head quarters. Elder Chas. A. Callis was
conference President. I was assigned to labor with Elder Stewart in York,
Cherokee, Union, and Chester counties. We were told to go the Katobia
Indian Nation where we had several Mormon families and stay there until
Pres. Rich and Callis came and we would hold conference. They had a little
white church. We arrived in Rock Hill in the evening the nearest town
to the Indian Nation, a distance of 10 miles. We got a ride 4 miles and
walked the other six. I was sure tired and sore when we got there, not
being used to walking. We stopped at Brother Brown's as he was the nearest
and had supper with them. Brother Blue was a local Elder. Brother Blue
had a daughter about 18 who was very sick and had a high fever. When he
learned the Elders were at Brother Brown's he sent for us. We went down
and administered to his daughter. She began to get better right away and
was out to Sunday School the next morning. This was the first time I had
ever helped administer to any one. We were there about three weeks when
Pres. Rich and Callis with two lady missionaries came. It was awful trying
on my nerves to stay there so long. The people and county were so different.
I was glad when we could leave and get to traveling. I wanted to be on
the move as I was getting homesick staying in one place so long. We traveled
in the northern part of the state. The people were quite bitter but we
found some Mormons up there. We would tract and hold meetings when we
could. We slept out two nights in June. One night it rained nearly all
night. We slept under a big pine tree used my grip for a pillow. The next
morning our clothes dried as we walked along the road. About all we had
to eat was blackberries, as they grew wild along the way.
I was transferred to Columbia and put to the job of looking after the
work there, as Pres. Callis had been chosen a Pres. of the Mission and
Pres. Rich had been transferred to the Eastern States Mission. I quite
enjoyed laboring in the city of Charleston and Columbia, but it is too
expensive for a poor man. In October Pres. Callis and Apostle George Albert
Smith came to Columbia to hold conference with the Elders of S.C. I conducted
the singing at a our meetings and was appointed to look after the Elders
while they were in the City keeping track of their meals at the hotel.
That winter I labored with Elder Belknap in the southern part of the state
Collenton County and met some very nice people down there. Especially
Bro. and Sister Fox and their family. He had quite a large family, three
grown daughters, Marie, Ethel, and Nellie. They sure liked the Elders.
I liked Marie best of all. Bro. Platt lived about 5 miles from Bro. Fox's.
He had 3 grown girls, Zella, Carrie, and Julia. Elder Belknap baptized
them Sun., the 7th of Feb., 1909. We had a nice meeting at the water's
edge. I confirmed Zella and Julia. He confirmed Carrie. That night after
we had supper we sat around the fire place and talked and sang. Elder
Belknap and I sang "Oh My Father". It seemed to touch the girls
as tears trickled down their cheeks. We went from there to Walterboro,
procured lodging at the Knight boarding house and canvased the town of
about 2,000 people. We held one meeting in the show house and had about
25 out to the meeting. After the meeting we went back to the hotel. They
would have us come in the parlor and sing. We sang nearly everything we
knew. We sang quite well together.
I left for my mission April 1908 and was released April 1910. I baptised
13 people.
When I came home from my mission, my wife and daughter now four years
old, came to Salt Lake to meet me. After Conference we went to Lewisville,
Idaho where her folks lived. We bought a home there and I worked around
for different ones that summer. That fall we got the Post Office. That
helped us out some especially in the winters as there wasn't much work
on the farms. In 1912 I was ordained a Seventy by Wm. J. Chandller in
Rigby, Idaho. In 1915 Mary's two brothers and my self filed on some dry
farms east of Dubois on Camas Creek. We had 320 acres apiece. I had three
horses, a wagon, harness, buggy, cow, and two colts. We moved up there
in the spring and I built a shack to live in until I got our log house
built. I hauled the logs to build out houses 30 miles and made the trip
in two days. I built a nice two roomed house with a tar paper roof. We
had lots of fun while proving up on our farms. We had fun catching fish
below the falls with a pichfork in the spring of the year. Before I got
our log house built, Mary would set pans and buckets around to catch the
water when it rained as it came trickling through the roof. Those were
good old days. Breaking up land with heavy sage brush piling and burning
it. My brother George and cousin Eben and their wives came up one Sunday
from Idaho Falls to see us. We had smoked fish, and fresh fish I had just
caught. They sure enjoyed their dinner. We raised some very good potatoes
and garden stuff. We had fine water melons, not large but very juicy and
sweet. Everything tasted so good, grown with out water. You ought to of
seen Mary ride a mare, I called her Bird, bare back with just a halter.
She started on a trot and Mary fell off in a sage brush. One night a rat
got to running up and down the wire door and on to the house, so I got
my shot gun and put by my bed so the next time it ran up the door I grabed
the gun and shot the rat. We had no more trouble with that rat.
The first winter I took a contract to haul the school children from the
flat to Dubois, so we moved down on he flat and rented a house to live
in. Oh, the fun I had that winter, wind and snow, snow and wind. After
Christmas I quit the job. Mary and Jerry went down to Logan to her folks
and spent the rest of the winter. I took the five horses and cow and went
up to Kilgore or Camas Meadows to work for Jim Harmon, milking cows and
working on his farm. They had more snow there than we had on the flat.
I will never forget that winter bucking snow. The next winter we went
to Salt Lake. I got a job with a building Co. puting up some large auto
buildings. I quite enjoyed that winter and in the spring we went back
to our dry farm The next winter we spent in Idaho Falls I worked in a
seed house.
The next spring I came down with the smallpox and then Mary came down
with it, too, but Jerry did not take it, although she slept with her mother.
Rather strange I think. When we proved up on our farm we went back to
Idaho Falls. I got a job with the C. W. and M. Co., a large impliment
house which sold every thing from needles to threshing machines. I worked
there one summer and in the fall I got a job in O. P. Skaggs grocery store.
The next August I was transferred to Salt Lake City. I didn't like it
down there with them. The hours were too long. I worked from 7:00 A.M.
till 10:00 or 12:00 at night. So I quit and got a job with the National
Biscuit Co. and worked for them nearly five years. We bought a nice little
home which was cream colored brick with five rooms on Hollywood Ave. near
4th East in the Wells Ward. My health got bad and I had to quit my job.
I was enemic.
So we sold our home and came to California with Jerry and her husband
in an old Ford car, a turing car. This was Sept., 1925. We did not have
much money so Mary and I went up town looking for a job. The May Co. was
having a sale and we both got on there for the sale. Then we got on at
Walkers for their sale. I soon got a job with Ralph's Grocery Co. at 35th
and Vermont in the shipping room. I worked there till the next year when
I took sick again and was laid up for some time. Mary got a job cilisiting
on the street for a real estate firm, getting $15.00 per week and commission
when they made a sale for her. We lived in a home on Washington Blvd.
free for Mary keeping two or three rooms clean. We sure had a time. I
thought I never would get well again.
In June, 1926 I got a telegram from my brother Lewis in Farmington that
our dear mother was dying and to come home if I could. I got a ride home
with two boys from Salt Lake City who were here on a visit. I was sure
lucky. I got there on Wednesday noon but mother did not know me as she
was unconscious all the time till she died Sat. morning about 5:00 A.M.
I tried so hard to get her to speak to me. If a boy ever loved his mother
I sure loved mine. I have administered to her several times after I came
from my mission and she always got better right away. This time when she
was so sick with pains in her head the Dr. kept her druged so she wouldn't
feel the pain. On Fri. morning this drug wore off and she was in such
pain Lewis ran for the Dr. but I got the oil and administered to her and
she calmed down right away and was sleeping nicely when the Dr. got there.
As I said before she passed away about 5:00 A.M. Sat. morning without
knowing any one. We burried her in Farmington Tues. evening. Apostle George
F. Richards came from S.L.C, and preached the funeral sermon. He married
my half sister Alice. I stayed in Farmington and S.L.C. a few days and
came back to Los Angeles where my wife met me at the bus depot.
I didn't do much work till August. In Sept. I got a good job with the
Pacific Coast Biscuit Co. I worked with them till 1930 when the National
Biscuit Co. bought all the P.C.B. Co. factories as they had several on
the coast.
In 1934 Mary and I went up to Marin Co. across the bay from San Francisco.
We stayed up there living in San Anselmo and San Rafeal. Our daughter
and family were up there and wanted us to come up. While there I was chosen
Supt. of S.S. in San Rafael also chorister in the branch. We came back
in 1935 and went back to work with the National Biscuit Co. and I am still
with them. I have a good easy job with them which I hope I can keep as
long as I want it.
In 1937 I bought a second hand Plymouth car which was the first one I
ever owned and learned to drive it, with my nephew Max Steed teaching
me, who came here from Cardston, Canada. He stayed with us. In 1938 I
traded my car in on a 1934 Studebaker. This was in July. In August we
took a trip to Utah. I had not been back home since 1926 when mother passed
away. We visited in Logan with Mary's sister and family. In Farmington
and Salt Lake City we were only gone one week. We expect to go back this
summer for two weeks and go up to Idaho. I haven't been there since 1920
so if all goes well we will take this trip.
I was ordained a High Priest by Patriarch George T. Wride on the 1st of
January, 1928 in the Adams Ward. He was ordained by Apostle Richard R.
Lyman, he by Joseph F. Smith, he by Brigham Young, he by Oliver Coudery,
he by Peter, James, and John, they by Jesus Christ.
I was sustained as Chairman of the Genealogical Society in the Adams Ward
the 27th of Jan., 1931 and set apart by A. Merlin Steed, the Los Angeles
Stake Representative, and labored in that capasity till 1933 when I resigned.
I was called soon after that to act as home teaching leader, then was
chosen to be the counselor to Dr. R. J. Pace, and labored with him till
we moved out of the ward. We moved in the Elysian Park Ward in 1937. I
was chosen to act as Rep. of Genealogical Society and I am still working
in this capassity and like the work very much. Some times I get discouraged
and feel like quiting, but I know this is the Lords work and I should
do all I can.
Additional Notes from Book of Remembrance
Dec. 27th 1952
Annie Statford Robinson was born at Malden- Essex England May 4th 1843-
Mother passed away at Farmington, Utah- June 12th 1926- her funeral was
held at Farmington 6-15-26.
Minutes of Funeral
Farmington Ward Choir sang "When First the Glorious Light of Truth"
Prayer by Pres. E. B. Clark
a quartet composed of E.A. Cotterel, Frank Stevenson, Arch Brown and Elder
Gregory(later was Bishop of F.)
Remarks by Elder Wm. Haight, Frank W. Stratford(a nephew)
Solo by Elder Jesse R.S. Budge, "Oh My Father"
Remarks by Apostle Geo. F Richards
Singing by Maragret Steed Hess and Choir "Rock of Ages"
Benediction by E.C. Stratford (a nephew)
Grave was dedicated by E.A. Stratford.
The quartet sang at the grave "The Christian's Good Night"
Pawl Bearers were Wm. R Coombs, Wm. Perkins, E.J. Robinson, Warren Garrett,
Geo. A. Robinson, Jesse Odell Robinson
June 1940
While visiting my oldest sister Lucy in Farmington Ut. this summer she
said my father Oliver Lee Robinson was baptized in Nauvoo, Ill. by the
Prophet Joseph smith, and came to Utah in 1848 when 16 years old. My mother
came from Eng. when 18 years old.
