HISTORY OF CYRUS EDWARD ALLRED

This history was dictated to his daughter Beulah Whiting, November 1966.

I was born 9 December 1881 in Spring City, Sanpete, Utah to Stanford Allred and Annie Eliza Robinson and was given the name of Cyrus Edward.  I was their first child.  A Brother Don Thurber Allred was born to them 24 May 1883 in Spring City.  My mother was the second wife of Sanford Allred.  His first wife being Ellen Shepherd with when he had seven children.  We all lived in the same house and when I was 2½ years old, my father was called on a mission to the Sandwich Island (Hawaiian Islands) and he was away for nearly three years.  The day my father came home from his mission, Mother, Don and I went to live with Grandma Allred (Mary Henderson Allred) because of the trouble to the Mormon’s living in polygamy.  After a while we moved in with Grandma Robinson (Emma Lucas Robinson) and lived with her until she died in 1890.  Uncle William Edward Robinson moved into Grandma’s house after she died and he and his family lived there until his death.

My father built us a log house with a dirt roof on the lot where we live now.  It had such a small south window in it that Mother took in washings at 25 cents a wash to make enough money to have a bigger window put in her house.  After it was completed father loved to sit in the rocker by the window when he visited us.  In 1900 Dad built Mother a new house, the one we live in now.  Part of the material was from wood in a school house that we tore down.  I went with Dad to Nephi to get the windows for the new house.  We had candles for lights, wood burning stoves for heat, a well for water, and an outhouse but it was a big house compared to the other one.  Dad died shortly after it was finished.

I attended school at Central school on the church grounds and was in Robert Livingston’s class and then went to A. U. Miner in a school across the street and to the adobe school house across the street east from Royal Allred’s place and to the rock school house a block and a half west of Grace’s family home.  Anton Hansen was my teacher at the rock school house.  I was often taken out of school to work on the farm or to haul logs and wood out of the mountains.  I was only nine years old when I was driving teams pulling a sleigh with logs or poles.  My feet would get so cold that I would wrap gunny sacks around them.  Later I drove teams of horses pulling wagons or sleighs from our shingle mill in Canal to town which was very hard because of steep bad roads that were often slick from rain or snow.  Lester my half-brother would ride with me to put on the brake when needed.

I was baptized on my eighth birthday as were all of father’s children.  There was a little wood house built over the spring on main street and that was where I was baptized.  My cousin Spencer Allred and I were the same age and so we were baptized the same day and then wrapped in blankets and walked to the south end of Main street to Uncle Sammy’s house to get dressed and be confirmed even though it was the ninth of December.

My father did not believe in Christmas presents so we never had any Christmas and one time Don and I hid all day so that we would not have to see our friends.  One year Lester and I did take the train to Fairview to visit with our cousins that lived there.  I had such good friends Aaron Brough, Grace’s brother and her cousin Gilbert Brough.  My cousins Spencer Allred, Herbert Allred and John Allred were also very good friends.  One time John, Herbert and I took girls and went to the circus in Mt. Pleasant.  We did not have much time for fun but we did manage to always fix things up on Halloween like taking off gates and putting outdoor toilets on top of barns.  We worked a lot with Uncle Sammy’s family and we also had some good times with them.  I always liked to dance and Grace was such a good dancing partner.  How we loved to dance to John Davis and his violin.  We seldom missed a dance in Spring City and was always one of the first on the floor and the last to leave.

Before I was eight years old, I made my first trip to Salt Lake City with Uncle Will Robinson to get supplies for the co-op store.  We had a team and a large wagon.  On the way one of the horses got sick so we had to stay in Sandy with Brigham Griffith for a week.  Uncle Will bought a cow in Sandy and we brought it home tied to the back of the wagon.  When we got the cow home its shoulders were all out of shape.  We stayed in Payson overnight with Aunt Lizzie Wall (Elizabeth Robinson).  She gave me a pair of suspenders.  I also picked by first peach at her place and I have loved peaches ever since then.  The thing I remember about Salt Lake was seeing mules pull the street cars.

When I was 18 years old just after our home was finished, Gilbert and Albert Brough and I went with 32 other men from Spring City to work at the top of Parley’s Canyon by Park City.  We were there just a week with Gilbert, Albert, Loot Zabriskie and I decided that we had had enough of road work and went to Granger, Wyoming to find work herding sheep.  We rode a freight train part of the way and walked at least the last 50 miles to a sheep camp.  They needed only one herder so Albert stayed on the job and Gilbert and I left the others and went to Soda Springs, Idaho with about 50 cents a piece.  Here we were able to get jobs herding sheep but for different companies.  I was getting pretty homesick when my herd mixed with another herd and it turned out to be Gilbert’s herd so we didn’t try to separate them for a while.  Gilbert and I stayed away for one year and then I came home to find that my Dad had passed away while I was gone.  After a few weeks, I went back to heard for the same company and took Don with me.

I had been courting Grace before I went away for the first time.  She was a sister to my good friend Aaron Brough.  We went together for several years before we were married in the Manti Temple on January 27, 1904.  It was a cold winter’s day when we got in the buggy pulled by a horse to go to Manti to be married.  We had to leave home before six o’clock in the morning.  We had a big wedding that night with all the town being invited to a chicken supper and dancing.  James W. Blain another good friend wrote the invitations.  After the dance our friends came home and spent the night with us.

We first lived in the Neilsen home one block west of Main street across from the park and then in Bishop James Allred’s house a block south of the Neilsen place.  Reverl was born in the Allred house.  We also lived in George Brough’s home where the Spring City park is today.  We lived for a short while in Chester and then bought the house east of town where the rest of our children were born.  After Mother died we moved into her home and built on an extra bedroom for the boys.  Later when we had the water piped into town, we remodeled and added a bathroom.  For years we got our water form a deep well but it had some advantages - our neighbors also got their water from our well so we visited with them every day.

We were all blessed with good health and even though we did not have a lot of things we always had good food on the table.  We also had good friends and both Grace and I enjoyed being with others.  We had lots of company in our home, relatives and friends.  Ada and Leon Allred, Floyd and LaVee Draper and Lorna and Earl Jensen were among our best friends in the last years.  Ada and Leon ate many meals in our home and we played Rook with them.  We also went to many movies together.  Lorna and Earl lived by us for many years and I always enjoyed visiting with Earl and now nearly every day he stops in for a visit as he goes east of town to look after his turkeys and often I go with him.  Gilbert Brough and his family moved to Tremonton soon after he was married but they have visited with us often and we have been to their place for special occasions.  

For years after we were married, I had to be away most of the time herding sheep to earn a living and Grace managed at home alone.  After Mother died and I inherited her property and sheep, I stayed at home and farmed.  Aaron Brough and I farmed together most of the time and with our boys would cook our dinner in a shack on his farm each day rather that take the time to go home.  I also had a close association with Grace’s cousins, Joseph and Osmer Beck.  Our farms were side by side and I could always depend on them if I needed help.  When Clarence was very ill, Joseph Beck took us to Provo so that he could have an operation.  They were also right there to help when I nearly lost my foot after dropping a heavy iron on it when Grace’s brother Frank died.  

We enjoyed parties with the Beehive Club.  One that I especially remember was a Halloween party planned by my cousin Manette Allred.  She invited the men without the women knowing they were coming and we were to be in costume.  Beulah helped me dress up like a ghost and not even Grace knew me.

One of the sad things in life was having my brother Don killed in a snow slide in Provo Canyon at Bridal Veil Falls, on March 29, 1924.  He was under more that 100 feet of snow and his body was not found for seven days.  He and Pearl had no children but he surely did love each one of ours.  My Mother and our family felt such a loss when he was killed.

Our children have meant so much to me.  We have always been so proud of them and what they did.  We have especially enjoyed having them cone to visit us and to bring our wonderful grandchildren.  Lyman spent many summers with us as a young boy and we had Joe stay with us when he was small.  The others have visited us often with their parents.

Things I remember about my Dad by Beulah A. Whiting

June 20, 1972

Dad was one of the most gentle, kind, loving men I have ever know.  He was quiet and did not feel that he was able to take part in church but he could give the most beautiful prayers and blessings on the food that I have ever heard and was so sincere.

He loved to read and had read the Book of Mormon many times.  For years he took and read the “Saturday Evening Post”.  It was a sad time for him, I am sure when his eyes failed and he could not read anymore.  He never complained, however about his problems and accepted life as it was.  He never grumbled about crop failures, wool or lamb prices or sickness and troubles that came his way.  He was always cheerful and happy and for the most part even accepted Mother’s bossiness without a work of complaint.

Dad worked hard to provide for his family.  We didn’t have fancy things but we had good food, clothes that were needed and a warm and comfortable home.  We had one of the first radios in town and at conference time many came to our house to listen.  We also had one of the first bathrooms.  Later the folks enjoyed a nice phonograph and a television.  They also had central heat for at least ten years.  They made their money go a long ways.  One summer when Dad was in his 70's, he and Uncle Aaron Brough took Reverl, Sheldon, Clarence and Harold on a horseback trip to the top of Big Horseshoe.  Before they left home Dad got the horses ready, milked the cows and made a trip to the farm.  When they arrived home his four big sons flopped on the lawn worn out and ate their supper standing up while Dad took care of the horses, milked the cows and irrigated.

He always looked so young and handsome on a horse.  He was so straight and tall in the saddle.  He rode a horse up to the day he died.  The last summer of his life, he would have to saddle Shorty and then rest a while before getting on but he would not let anyone do it for him.  The day before he died he rode to the other end of town to see Ruth Robinson Osborne, a cousin who was ill.  She had her daughter who was with her help her to the window to see Dad ride away.  She said that he reminded her so much of her father, Will Robinson and that he never walk a horse but rode at a gallop.  A man who was visiting in town met Dad for the first time that day and when ask how old he thought Dad was, replied that he must be in his late seventies.  He was 87 years old.

Dad bought his first car when he was 69 years old.  How he enjoyed it but not as much as Mother.  He became a chauffeur for all the widows in town.  He seemed to run a taxi service to Relief Society, Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, quiltings, parties and trips to Mt. Pleasant.  This he did cheerfully.  Often he would have to make two trips.

At 79 he suffered his first heart attack (coronary occlusion).  The doctor told us that he would never get out of bed but my husband gave a wonderful blessings and in a few weeks, he was up and going again.  He had several other attacks in the coming years but would rest up and then feel better again.  He had been quite ill just before their 60^th Wedding Anniversary and we were planning on an openhouse to celebrate.  We were about to cancel it but they wanted to have it.  They both seemed so sick that morning but as more and more people came they kept looking better and better.  It turned out to be a good and a memorable day for them.  They both loved company so much.