THE LIFE HISTORY OF ARLIN RICHARD ALLRED

It was about the middle of the year of 1891 when I was first permited to see the light of a beautiful summer day in the hill country of St. Charles Idaho.  I do not remember the first few years of my life on account I was so young, but the first event I can clearly remember must have been at the age of 2 years when we lived on the Provo bench in Utah Co.  The wind was blowing hard and I was afraid the house would blow over so I pushed with all my strength on the back of the house.  It didn't blow down.  The next rememberance is of the old 1 room dirt roofed house 1/2 mile east of fairview Wyoming where we lived for a short time while father and the older boys were building our two room log house which was to house father, mother and nine boys, one younger than myself.  I recall only a few instances where I remember my father clearly, one time especially he came home with some stick candy and with the long stick in his mouth I tried to grab it while he would dodge my hand by turning his head.  I remember following his foot steps from the old dirt covered house to the new one.  Then one day while we were at play we saw uncle Orson Allred run from his house (about 1/2 block away with a bottle in his hand which contained consecrated oil,) to our house for the purpose of administering to father who was suddenly stricken very ill with a heart attack.  He lasted only a few days at most till he passed away leaving a widow and nine boys, the youngest about 2 years.  I was 4 when father died.

So life began early for us, we had nothing but a team of horses, a few cows and 10 acres of almost dry land on the Salt River bed which did not produce much.  The older boys were faithful in providing for mother and the younger ones.  In the summer we had to drink water from the flat ditch which ran open for five or six miles, and in the winter we hauled water in barrels from crow creek 1 1/2 miles, until finally the boys dug a well about 40 or 50 feet deep which supplied us with good fresh water drawn up with a bucket on the end of a long rope.

As I grew older I went to the canyon to help haul wood, as that was all we had to burn so it meant we must pile up large piles of wood in the canyon in the fall after hay and harvest, and haul down in the winter when the snow would fall 2 to 3 feet in the valley and 6 to 8 feet on our wood piles in the canyon.  When I was about 15 or 16 years I had my own canyon outfit and sold wood by the cord 128 ft. for $5.00 or $6.00 per cord.  Some days I could haul 2 to 2 1/2 cords, and others less than a cord, so altogether it was not very profitable, but there was nothing else to do unless you had a milk hauling job which took all day to make a round trip of about 10 to 15 miles with horses or mules and get $1.50 or $2.00 per day.

While hauling wood from dry creek canyon we often encountered snow slides which were common after a heavy fall of snow or after midwinter when the weather began to warm and soften the snow, one day my brother Ed and I were after a load of wood from our pile, (it was a warm day and the snow was deep).  We had loaded and gone down the canyon a mile or so when Albert Olson caught up riding one of his horses with the harness on and said that his half brother, Wm Harrison, had been caught in a snow slide, we tied one team in a safe place and rode the others back to the spot to hunt for Wm.  He had climbed the mountain side to cut down a dry tree and his weight had started the snow to break and come down covering him.  We searched as best we could to locate him by poking shovel handles into the snow, finally he was located about 2 1/2 feet under the snow, which had smothered him.  We tried for some time to revive him, but to know avail, so we carried him to the sleigh and hauled him home on a load of wood, this was indeed a sad day of experience.

One other experience with a snow slide I will never forget.  Our bishop, A.M. Nielson of Dry Creek ward, was at his mine with Olof Hoakensen from Grover, Wyo. and another partner, east of Dry Creek.  Nielson and Hoakensen went up the hill of the opposite side of the canyon from the mine, to cut a dry tree for fire wood in the cabin which was located in the bottom of the gulch, the partner remained in the mine which was up the side hill, on the north.  He heard a terriable rumble and came out of the mine to see that the snow had slid from the south side of the canyon for a block or more up and down the canyon, which covered the cabin 12 to 15 feet under snow and came within a few yards of the mine opening.  This slide of course caught the two men and carried them for some distance, so it was impossible to know where to locate them.  Men and boys from the valley answered the call to help find the bodies, we were obliged to go on snow shoes and skis for 2 or 3 miles to the place and start diging, the plan first was to uncover or dig down to the cabin by making a stair way in the snow and then station men about 4 to 6 feet apart and dig from one side of the slide toward the other so we could poke shovel handles from one trench to the other to feel the bodies.  We worked by candle light which made a ghostly spectacle.  This was carried on for one evening and all night without success.  I spent the first night and went home in the morning for rest, preparing to go back for another shift.  About mid day or later on the second day the bodies were located and brought out on a stretcher made on skis or sleds.  This was another sad day of mourning.

I started courting quite young.  I was 14 when I met Irene Call at at dance in Afton.  and of course she wouldn't let me be until she had persuaded me that she was the one I wanted (cause she tho't I was cute).  After 5 years of visiting and corresponding we decided to get married if my ma would let me.

In the winter of 1908 I attended school at Logan Utah at the B. Y. C.  I studied mainly in mechanics or blacksmithing.  I learned to do some good work, and went home in early spring and started in business for myself in blacksmithing at Afton Wyoming.  I could do a very good job of shoeing horses, shaping and fitting the shoes.  I lived with my brother Alvin for about 1 1/2 years, then I thought if I could handle my own business, I should be able to handle a wife to cook for me.  So I made it a point to see if Irene would be willing to be my cook, I don't remember weather I asked her to be my wife or if she would come and cook for me, any way she knew what I meant by the look on my red face.  So she said, "I'll have to ask mama,"  So she did and the next time I saw her she said it was OK.  It didn't take her long to make up her mind, then I got scared and was afraid I wouldn't be able to take good care of her.  I did not have any money, and no place to live so what could I do with a wife to support?  So I told her we had better wait for a while, but that didn't seem to work out, so we decided to be married in Dec.  We started to Montpelier by team and sleigh on about the 18th of Dec. 1910, it took nearly 2 days to get to Montpelier, we had to transfer from sleigh to buckboard in Montpelier canyon.  At Montpelier we transfered again to a ludlow to go to paris to see my brother Darrel who was sick and staying at Uncle Marvin Allreds home.  Mother was there to take care of him.  The road was cut into deep ruts so the hubs of the wheels would drag the ground then up and down again.  The trip was tiresome as the road was bad all the way so the horses couldnot go faster than walk.  Next morning we retraced the same way back to Montpeliar, and rode the train to Salt Lake City which was a relief.  Irene was suffering from a sore on her right hip bone which was very painful and the bouncing of the ludlow was hard to take.

Arriving at Salt Lake City we went to the court house to obtain a marriage liscence, I was informed that I could not have one without a written consent from my mother who was in Paris Idaho.  I phoned her to send her consent and we decided to go to the temple and get our endowments.  After going through the temple we were unexpectedly called up.  The consent had come to the court house, so we went and got our liscence and were married the same day.  Just how this all happened in such a short time has always been a miracke to me.  So we were married unexpectedly that day in the temple, the 22nd of Dec. 1910.

Four or five days previous to our marriage Irene had been operated on for the trouble in her hip and this turned out to be a decayed bone which took a long time to heal.

While still at Salt Lake after our marriage 2 or 3 days.  I recieved a letter from home in Afton Wyoming from the Ward Authorities asking me to come home to help replay a drama which our group had previously played.  "Under the American Flag" which of course I did, leaving Irene at Aunt Jane Calls place.  Her mother being with her.  She remained there in Salt Lake most of the winter and I in Afton, which turned out to be a fine romance without kisses and a great honeymoon without the honey.

When she finally came home we set up housekeeping in one of the upstair rooms in Father Calls house, the south east room.  We were happy and financally skimp but did not realize it enough to be hurt or embarrassed.

Mother Call paid for the gold band we got while in Salt Lake because I did not have any money.  Now you see again why I wanted to put off the marriage, but then I think it was wise that we decided to go because if the marriage had been postponed the operation also most likely would have been put off, and the results might have been disasterous as the bone decay was creeping slowly to the hip joint and could have been the means of crippling Irene for life, so we thanked God and still do thank Him for His help in our behalf.  We have always acknowledged His help in our lives and hope and pray that we always will.

One of my first experiences after our marriage showing the Lords care over me was in the spring of the year 1911.  I went with my two older brothers Alvin and Bert to set up a shearing corrall etc. in the hills east of Raymond in Thomas Fork Valley.  On our return trip we were riding in a wagon with double bed box and driving 4 head of horses.  On a good fast down grade, we were sitting on bedding or sacks of grain in the lower part of the box, suddenly the left front wheel struck a boulder at the side of the road, tipping the wagon over like a flash against a perpendicular cliff on the right side of the road.  The horses stopped immediately and the wagon lay on its side with just room enough between the box and the cliff for us to squeeze out.  We righted the wagon and found that the left wheel was badly sprung out of shape so it wobbled home but did not break down.  No body was hurt, except for a few scratches and slight bruises, it could have dashed our heads against the rocks.  When we reached home Mother asked what was the matter.  She knew something had happened and said about the same time we had tipped over, she had felt there was something wrong and she went in her bed room and prayed to the Lord to protect us, which He surely did and I have always refered to this incident as a revelation and an answer to a mothers prayer for the safety of her sons.

Soon after our marriage I took John Sizemore as a partner in my shop.  We worked together for a year or two, then I sold to him and bought 1/2 interest with Dave Williamson who had a shop on the east side of the main block in Afton about the middle of the block.  Then I sold out to Dave.

Then we moved to fairview wyoming to live and built a small shop in partnership with Eldon Allred my cousin, I worked there only a short time when I made a deal for 40 acres of land 1/2 mile east of fairview where we build a small 1 room house a cow stable and then a bigger and better barn also dug a well 45 feet deep with the help of Henry Jensen and others, we had one baby, Delsa who was our pride and joy.  Our hopes were to build a house, but finances again were lacking.  We were happy but did not realize how poor we were financially, I could not meet the payments on the place so I traded with Dave Williamson again, my equity in the farm for his blacksmith shop.  I was always able to make a good living in the shop but could not save any money.  I moved the shop off the block (it was rented ground) to a lot 1/2 block south and 1/2 block west on the street behind the old Roberts Store.  Then Dave came back and wanted to be a blacksmith again so we worked together again.  I rented the shop to him and we with two children went to the homestead in Salt Canyon to try our luck, which turned out again to be a poverty adventure but a lot of fun.

Alvin and Bert also had a homestead, there they set up a steam engine and saw mill, so after they had given up their venture I used the mill to saw logs (square) which I had gleaned from the country round (far and near) and built a house, 1 room of square logs which we were very proud of.  While there I herded sheep a flock made up of small bunches from the valley which was quite a job to keep such bunches together.

One day I decided to follow the sheep to the top of the hills for better food so I packed the tent and bedding and food on one or two horses with wife, Delsa and Norma about 4 and 2 years old.  I set the tent up loosly, without enough stakes to hold it down in a storm, then I went after the sheep.  While away a storm broke and the wind blew furiously, when I returned Irerne was setting on the tent side trying to hold it down.  It would lift her up and almost got away.  The babies were covered in the bedding to keep the dust out of them.  We decided to move camp again and found a lower place where the wind did not strike so hard.

One time we ran out of food except some sour cheese and we began to wonder what we would eat when the mail rig brought us a sack of vegetables which my brother Ed and Sadie had sent to us from their garden.  Only once in my life have I been so broke for money that I did not have a penny and only once have been so out of food as we were at that time.

Once very soon after this occasion we were driving back to the camp from Afton when I saw a purse in the road, I stopped and picked it up, it had $15.00 in bills which was certainly a gold mine to me.  There were no settelers, and no travelers except perhaps a sheep herder who might have dropped it from his pocket, there being no way to hunt an owner in the wilderness, I made use of the money.

After the way we had been doing for so long I got uneasy to see something else and to do bigger and better things.  So we decided I should go by train to Logan and see if I could find a job, Automobiles were beginning (I bought a model T ford in 1917) I don't know how I paid for it but I did.  The winter of 1918 I went to Logan and found a job in the Cache Auto Co.  Bishop N.W. Merkley manager.  He said he could use me as a service man, about the 1st of April.  I hurried back home with the news that made Father and Mother Call feel sad (My mother had previously come to Logan and married Christopher Merkley).  In March of 1919 we packed all our belongings in a 1916 ford with four girls Delsa, Norma Josephine and Phyllis and started for Logan.  The Lord was surely with us for we did not have as much as a flat tire as I can remember.  We were pulled over the snow ice road from the old half way house on the Crow Creek route, which was nothing but a dirt road to the top of (Cravenes retreat) named after Cravene who got that far with his load, with horses and wagon or sleigh and had to retreat and go back, then we were on the south slopes toward Montpelier.  The snow was all gone after that.  I remember on one steep hill in Logan Canyon we found a suit case with clothes in it.  When we got into Logan we were able to find the owner, I don't remember how but they were prepared to go to the temple.

We rented a place in Logan 2nd ward and I went to work at $150.00 per month, which was a good wage at that time.  We were very happy till one night we saw the children scratching and on investigation found bites on them which proved to be bed bug bites, so we started hunting.  The cracks and crevices on the walls and under the paper were crowded with bugs and mites, then we had a time of rejoicing over the death of the bed bugs.  As soon as we could find another place we purchased and moved the last part of June.  We planted a garden in July and raised a very fine garden.

I worked for Merkley for about five years when business slowed to where I was not needed so on the day before New Years day I was let go.

We moved to Wellsville where I worked in a garage owned by Preston Gunnell.  Worked for him about 2 months then found work again in Logan selling and repairing batteries for William Dautre.  While living in Wellsville and working in Logan, I was on my way home after 6 o'clock.  I met Irene with dr. Christensen from Wellsville, bringing Norma to the Hospital, she had fallen from a poplar tree in front of the house where we were living, belonging to Joseph Maughan.  She lit on the top of a forked post and hung till her mother and neighbor lifted her off.  We went to the hospital and watched the Doctors operate.  The post had pierced her stomach and had torn it beyond repair.  She died very soon after being removed from the operating table.  This was the hardest blow we had ever had but we had to thank the Lord we had 3 other fine girls and 1 boy, Richard.

We soon moved back to Logan and rented a house where we stayed only a few months in the 11th ward, then we purchased a place in the Logan 6th ward, 1/2 block below the church.  Here Lila was born 28 Dec. 1924. I continued to work for Wm. Dautre till reverses came and he had to quit business.  Then I worked in the same building on main street for Bishop Merkley again until I decided to go out for myself.  I found a place in Smithfield to start in Auto repairing, so I drove all summer to work and back to Logan.  In Sept. 1927 we moved to Smithfield and rented the home we now live in.  The 3rd ward Chapel was dedicated soon after we moved there, we attended the services.  President Grant was the offical and dedicated the building.

We were received royaly into the ward which had a short while been divided from the 2nd ward, with Bishop Richard Roskelly, L. Vern Toolson and Clark Thornley in the bishopric.  I was selected as M.I.A. Supt. and acted there for 4 years, when I was released and called as counsler to Ellis Doty, Supt. of the Benson Stake to which Smithfield belonged at that time.

Juan, our second boy and last baby was born here.

I worked with brother Doty until the Stakes were divided and Smithfield stake was organized I was selected as Stake Sunday School Supt. for about 2 years then I was selected as counciler to Bishop Vern Toolson, worked with him for about six months when he was released, as was I.

I was called to be a stake High Councilor with President Read Halverson and remained as such with President Hazen Hillyard and President G.L. Rees.

In March 1953 we were called to Harrison Ark. on a mission where we remained for 6 months, which we enjoyed very much.

Juan was called to the North Central States Mission in Jan. 1949.  So I got an idea to build a house trailer so we could go east to see him and visit the Church Historical Sites at Palmyra and other points of interest.  In Sept. 7, 1949 we, with my brother Bert and wife Ella left for the visit.  We found Juan and his companion in Duluth Minnesota doing a good work, we went on to visit the Hill Cumorah.  Passed Niagra Falls, saw the Smith farm and home, and the room where the Prophet Joseph had his visitation from Angel Moroni.  We visited the sacred grove and came back by way of Carthege Jail and Nauvoo.  We traveled about 4 1/2 thousand miles and enjoyed every foot of it.