Albert Charles Foremaster &
Sarah Ida Wiltbank
Items of Interest:
Letter of Recomendation for Florence Foremaster, written by H. M. Woodward
HISTORY OF ALBERT CHARLES FOREMASTER (1853 -- 1919)
Written by his daughter Florence Foremaster June 1977
The Foremasters, Frederick William and Christina Sophia Magdalena Lindau, and their daughter Mary, had lived in the "Land of Liberty" for five years. They could speak the English language, yet spoke German in their home. They felt now that they really did belong and were a real part of America. They were well established in Beloit, Wisconsin, and conditions were beginning to look up. It is true they only had one child left out of four births, but again God was kind to them and permitted another choice spirit to be born to them on the 9th of January 1853. He was so welcome that Aunt Mary says she was so enraptured with him that she bit him; but her mother forgave her, because she knew of her six year old daughter's love for her baby brother, Albert Charles, for thus they named him, was a sturdy, big boned, sandy haired child; born to cope with the rugged pioneer life destiny intended for him.
It was no wonder he was a welcomed child, for here they had been married for nine years and only one child left in their family. But what a daughter she was, loving, kind, sober, and dependable. She watched over little Albert with a motherly care while her own mother looked after her many household duties and worked in her garden. Mary always looked after her brother from then on until they reached Utah.
Frederick had the desire to farm instead of following his trade as a mason. He had heard so much about the rich soil along the Mississippi River that he decided to try his luck. He sold his home in Beloit and moved his family to Dubuque, Iowa in 1856. Albert was three years old at that time and still under his sister's watchful care.
Frederick was a very industrious husband. He purchased a farm and put in a crop. He hoped to be a full-fledged farmer, but as Aunt Mary put it "he could not hid his light under a bushel." When the Methodist Church learned of his fine workmanship, they hired him to build their beautiful chapel. They were so pleased with his work, they treated the Foremasters royally. So the Foremasters decided they should join the Methodist Church, even though they had been devout Lutherans all their lives. They proved to be faithful members and attended church regularly although they had to go five miles each way to do so.
Frederick built a very sturdy story-and-a-half log house and soon accumulated a goodly number of animals. He was always very capable in handling and always had a good team. To supplement his regular income he cut and hauled cord wood to sell in the city. He was an excellent provider and wasn't afraid of work -- characteristics his son Albert inherited.
On July 4, 1856 another son was born to them, little Wilhelm, but he could only stay long enough to get himself a mortal body and then he was called back home, July 17, 1856 and was buried in Dubuque, Iowa.
William Albrant along with 11 other Germans from Mecklenburg, Germany, had stayed with the Foremasters for a few days when they lived in Beloit, Wisconsin. They were on their way to the gold fields of California. Albrant left some of his personal belongings with the Foremasters saying he would get them on his return.
Now in February 1857 Albrant again made his appearance. Frederick could scarcely believe his own eyes. He finally asked Albrant how he had fared in California. Albrant said he had not been to California because he had stopped in Utah and had been converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and had remained in Utah. now he had been sent on a mission to convert others to the gospel. He was a very convincing missionary and the Foremasters were finally converted. Frederick and Mary were baptized in the Mississippi River in February 1857. Sophia was pregnant so she waited until Martha was born, March 25, 1857. Sophia was baptized in May 1857. Martha and Albert were blessed the same day.
Like all other converts to the Church at that time, they were desirous of going to Utah to live with the other Saints. So in April 1858 they began their trek westward with two wagons, two yoke of cattle and one span of mules. They had provisions to last them a year. Albrant, who had been recalled to Utah because of Johnston's Army going to Utah to put down a rebellion that didn't exist, was going to drive one of the teams. The spring rains had made the roads bottomless, so it took them from April to June to cross the state of Iowa. As they neared Iowa City they learned of some Fuhrmeisters living there. They stayed for several days in Iowa City to get acquainted with four relatives and their families.
They finally reached the Missouri River and crossed over to Florence, Nebraska. Then they pushed on to Genoa, Nebraska, which was the headquarters for the Mormon immigrants going to Utah. Here they were advised to remain a year. It was Brigham Young's policy for one group of immigrants to remain and raise a crop for the next group of immigrants. Frederick was a true Latter-day Saint -- he took the advice of those in authority. He bought a lot and ten acres of farming land for two seamless sacks of crackers. He built a two-story frame house and put in a crop of corn and buckwheat. They spent all winter fixing up their outfits and restocking their supplies. Here in Genoa little Isabella Henrietta was born April 14, 1859.
That spring they were anxious to be on their way to Utah. They joined the company with Beckworth as captain. They had not gone far when they met a group of missionaries coming from Utah to resume their missionary work in the East. The main body of Johnston's Army had been recalled to the East where there was much concern over the possibility of the Southern states seceding from the Union and possible civil war. Albrant left grandfather and went with the other missionaries. Now Mary had to learn how to drive two yoke of oxen. Albert was now six years old and his job was to drive their two milk cows. Now that was quite a responsibility for a six year old to walk all those miles and drive the cows. Of course sister Mary was still looking out for his welfare and when he got too tired or discouraged she changed places with him. I can well believe he got most of those freckles, he always wore, on this trip.
They perhaps didn't suffer so many hardships as some of the first companies of pioneers did because they were well provisioned and could ride except over the roughest hilly places. In Aunt Mary's history she tells of their brush with Johnston's Army and their trouble with a female passenger which I will not repeat.
They arrived at Union Square in Salt Lake City on August 5, 1859. Grandfather was desirous of getting a farm but President Brigham Young, who had heard of his skill as a mason, advised him to work on the Salt Lake Temple. They were just uncovering the foundation, which had been covered when Brigham Young received word that Johnston's Army was coming to Utah. Grandfather was a dedicated Latter-day Saint and wished to do what the authorities asked of him. So he bought a home in the 12th Ward with a nice little orchard and a garden spot, and went to work on the Temple.
Albert was now the oldest child at home since his sister Mary had gone out to work, so he had to help with the garden and help care for the younger children. His schooling began in Salt Lake City. Albert had a little sister, Elizabeth Louise, born February 29, 1861. She was not permitted to stay very long. She died September 5, 1861 and was buried in the City Cemetery. Two years later little David was born on March 11, 1863.
In November 1863 Grandfather married Marie Rich as a plural wife. Grandfather then decided to move to St. George where his oldest daughter lived. He made arrangements to sell his place but could not get his pay until spring. He took his oldest son Albert, with him and went to Dixie to find a place for his family to live. Albert was then ten years old. It was a long hard trip for a boy of that tender age since he had to walk most of the way. However, he had had like experience when they crossed the plains. This was very rugged terrain and you could scarcely say there were roads, just trails where the first pioneers had gone over. It was a long hard trip, a distance of more than 500 miles, requiring approximately a month of travel. How glad Albert was to see his sister, Mary, again and how delighted Mary was to see her father and brother and to learn that they were moving south and she would be with her beloved family again.
Grandfather began right away to find a home for his family. He bought a number of lots from Oliver B. Huntington, who was discouraged with the hot dry climate, the alkali soil, the lack of water, and all the other hardships the early pioneers had to endure. He was moving his family to Springville, Utah. Grandfather also bought some farming land around the south end of the Black Hill on the Santa Clara River close to where it joins with the Virgin River. It was known as Foremaster Bend. According to the court house records, he homesteaded 40 acres which extended north and west of his lots, running up on the Black Hill. He didn't waste much time in seeking employment. He worked all winter on the St. George Hall and the Tabernacle. After working hours he prepared his land for planting crops and Albert was his right-hand man.
In the spring, March 1864, Grandfather sent his son-in-law Henry S. Maudsley and Albert to Salt Lake City to get his family and bring them to Dixie. Here again on the way back it was Albert's job to drive the cows, which necessitated his walking most of the way from Salt Lake City to St. George again. It was a long hard trip but they were all so happy and thankful that they had arrived in safety and hoped that this would be their last move.
They were used to pioneer life and hardships but this was something else. The poor living quarters was a little worse than they had hither-to experienced. It was a sod house that Oliver Huntington had built, like many of the pioneers made when they first came to St. George. The climate was extremely hot and dry with flies and mosquitoes in rich abundance. Near their location was a swamp area which furnished the supply of mosquitoes. As a result there was much chills and fever suffered. The soil was alkaline and with a shortage of water it was difficult to raise food. The quality of food was poor and limited. Bread was made from bran shorts, or corn meal or very often cane seed.
I remember Father telling of going off freighting with a little corn bread and molasses and a little side bacon. He told of eating cane seed mush with a little molasses for a sweetener. He said they often went wood hauling with cane seed cakes. One time he said they were so heavy he threw them away and if you go back there now you will be able to find them as petrified rocks.
Clothing was scarce, too. In summer most children went barefooted but this was uncomfortable. The ground was so hot it almost blistered their feet. They told how they carried a handful of alfalfa or weeds and walked or ran as far as they could stand the heat, then they would put the alfalfa down and stand on it until their feet cooled off. I remember Daddy telling me one time that his mother had to use her ingenuity to keep him clothed. She once made him a pair of trousers out of a seamless sack. Albert felt embarrassed because they were so white, so he smeared tar all over them, which made it last longer than ever. In the summer clothing was not so much a problem, they did not need much since it was so hot.
Schooling was also scarce. I mean they were not able to attend always. Schools were already established when the Foremasters arrived; in fact that was one of the first things that the pioneers did on arriving in Dixie, that of establishing schools. Albert attended school, and as I recall he said he went as far as McGuffey's Fourth Reader, and the Blue Backed speller. (I have these books in my possession). He was always interested in education and saw to it that his own children attended school and received the best education possible. He was always very generous in his donations for school buildings, putting in hours of labor with his team and wagon.
After his working hours on the Tabernacle, Grandfather began to build a large rock home, which is still standing and no doubt will stand forever a monument to a master mason. Albert of course, helped his father with this. It was a long time in the making but a blessing to the family when completed.
Frederick always owned a good team and knew how to handle them. Albert learned much from his father for he, too, always owned a good team and knew how to handle them. He was always considered an excellent horseman and cattleman.
Life was not all work for Albert. I remember one story he told me of early entertainment. On the Public Square just south of where the Tabernacle now stands, the first settlers erected a bowery, a long willow covered shed; where they held meetings and all entertainment. Here they had their dances. They had to go before dark since there were no lights. They danced on the hard bare ground in their bare feet. Their music was a fiddle and Joseph Worthen was one of the fiddlers. They paid their tickets with produce which compensated the fiddler. One time he took a big squash which was worth more than the ticket. For change he received some carrots, with which he treated his girl and their friends.
He began very early in life to work for other people. The ones I remember him telling about were Thomas Judd and and John Pymm Sr. freight, etc. Someone told Barbara (Truman Price - she can't remember who) that Albert was associated in his young life with Tom Judd in helping with his lime business. It is said that Tom made a statement once that he carried a wagon load of timber from out of the gulch and Albert drove it to town for him. This lime pit was in Middleton and at the time Albert was 17 or 18 years old. He helped haul the lime for the Temple as well as many other public buildings made at that time.
Tom Judd told Albert E. Miller that Albert was one of the finest young known. He knew Albert well, too, because he lived in the same neighborhood as well as having him work with him.
The Foremaster boys owned a breed of horses while they were on the Strip that were gray blue with a blue stripe, a most beautiful breed. William (Bill) Baker also had a team of them. Albert soon acquired an outfit of his own. He did a lot of wood hauling. I remember Johnnie Hymn told me of going freighting and hauling wood with Albert when he was too small to harness his own team. (Johnnie was the first baby born in St. George. Well, he was born over on the Black Ridge just before you come into the valley.) Uncle Pen and Uncle Ett Wiltbank went with Albert a great deal, also the Hall Brothers.
He hauled lumber for the Temple from Mt. Trumbull, 90 miles south of St. George, and over the rockiest kinds of roads. One of the worst places was coming down the Hurricane Fault because the road was steep and narrow. He and Uncle Ett hauled lava rock from the Black Ridge west of town to go into the foundation of the Temple. Papa said they would tie these big boulders and swing them from the running gears to haul them down. The best rock for this purpose was found at the south end of the highest section of the Black Hill. They came down on the same dugway we still come down from the airport, only it wasn't so wide or so well made as it is today.
Albert and Uncle Ett also contracted and hauled the lime from that little round knoll west of Middleton to the Temple. The surface of this little knell was covered with boulders of pure limestone and was burned in the gulch near the hill and then hauled by Uncle Ett and Albert. To some it seemed that these pieces of lime rock were miraculously supplied, as geologists failed to understand how the rock was formed in such a place. When the Temple, Tabernacle and Courthouse were completed the supply of limestone was exhausted and no more like it was found anywhere in that vicinity.
Albert was 23 years old when he met and fell in love with Mary Ann Lang. They were married March 11, 1876. He bought a home from Nephi Fawcett just across the street east of her parents, William and Mary Lang, on what was then known as Temple Street (now 2nd East). This was just the beginning of intermarriage by the Foremasters and the Langs. Later, Albert's brother Ephriam married Mary Ann's sister Ida, and his brother David married Mary Ann's niece, Mary Elizabeth, daughter of Ida's sister Jane Lang Stratton. Then much later Albert's daughter Josephine married Jane Stratton's son, Oliver Stratton.
Mary Ann died in child birth with her little son. They were buried in the same coffin in the St. George Cemetery. Albert then rented his little home and moved back with his mother.
At that time the cattle industry was the most profitable business in Dixie. The pioneer’s cattle increased so rapidly that they had to form a cooperative company, was known as the Canaan Cooperative Stock Company and was incorporated for $100,000 one dollar a share. Many people paid their tithing with cattle so the church was the largest stockholder with $10,000 worth. Anson P. Winsor was the next largest stockholder with $3,000. worth and Brigham Young had $2,500 in shares. The rest were owned by just small stockholders. The church used their interest in the herd quite extensively as a subsidy plan for the construction of the Tabernacle and the Temple. Much beef was slaughtered for the consumption of the workers on the buildings.
Joseph F. Winsor, son of Anson P. Winsor, wrote, "In 1873 we started driving thirty head of beef into St. George twice a month. We were milking 100 to 150 cows and made all the milk into cheese and butter. The cheeses ranged from 40 to 80 pounds per cheese. Father took about 13 cheeses each trip to St. George. Both beef and dairy cows ran year long on the open range. The grass was so plentiful that good fat beef was supplied every month of the year."
The cattle industry grew to quite a profitable business. The records show that one year there were 4,000 calves branded at Canaan Ranch and 2,200 at Pipe Springs. By 1883 a dividend was declared and the stockholders received 75 cents per share. The Church took theirs in cattle. In 1886-87 when the government was confiscating Church property over polygamy, the Church shipped 2,000 head of well bred cattle from Blackfoot, Idaho to Milford, Utah. Lorin Little and others went to Milford to get them and take them to Canaan Ranch. The Canaan herd reached its peak about 1888. Then reverses came about: drought and over grazing conditions, there were also internal troubles in the organization. Finally they sold to James Andrus who had been the manager for many years.
The minutes of the Canaan Company's Board of Directors and Stockholders meetings between July 25, 1875 and May 22, 1883 gives a pretty clear picture of the company's activities, which were many. During the period of its operation -- about a quarter century -- it owned ranches in Upper Kanab, Pipe Springs, Antelope Spring, Parashunt, the Harris Ranch northeast of Cane Beds and east of Shunesburg, and the main ranch at Canaan near Short Creek. It owned a farm at Moccasin Springs and a good many small springs at different locations where watering troughs and corrals were made. Both the upper and lower farms at Upper Kanab were equipped for dairying. The company adopted a policy of letting a dependable man with his family have use of the farm for two years without cost, other than improving it. He was given the use of company cows and cheese vats. for half the cheese and butter produced. The minutes of the Board Meeting an March 30, 1876 show that Superintendent James Andrus had engaged Clayborne Elder to take charge of the company's ranch at Antelope Springs.
The dairying operation must have been successful at the two places for on November 14, 1879, the board authorized President Erastus Snow and Secretary Woolley "To employ a suitable man to take charge of Parashunt Ranch and run a dairy there." The suitable man was found in Albert Foremaster who carried on dairying activities there at a compensation of $50 per month and half of the dairy products. John D. L. Pearce became manager of Parashunt Ranch in 1881 after Foremaster's period of service and he continued the dairying activities. Very little farming was attempted because water irrigation was limited.
When Albert became foreman of the Canaan herd at Parashunt in the spring of 1880, hired his brother Eph to help him. They milked 25 head of cows and made butter and cheese which they sold in St. George. They also had pigs which they turned loose to fatten on acorns. Daddy said that when they first moved to Parashunt it was like a meadow everywhere, but over grazing activities has changed that picture today.
Catty-cornered from the Foremaster rock house on the south-east corner of the block lived the Wiltbanks. Albert had worked with the older boys Spencer (Pen) and Ellis (Ett) hauling freight and wood etc. Of course he became acquainted with their sister Ida who was a few years younger than Albert. She was a very attractive girl. Life was very busy and Albert was out of town a great deal of the time but it was quite handy to jump the fence and go courting. Eph said that in the spring of 1880 out at Parashunt, Albert announced that he had some important business to attend to in St. George and wasn't sure just when he could be back. They never knew for some time what that important business was until Albert returned with his new wife, (Sarah) Ida (Wiltbank). Albert had courted Ida for a year. Ida said there were few places to spend their evenings. There were no picture shows in those days and very few civic activities. Albert didn't care to dance, so the most of their evenings were spent at home.
They were married in the St. George Temple May 7, 1880. Their dinner was cooked by Albert's mother and her family because Ida's mother had died the previous June 22, 1879. The wedding reception was also held in the big rock house and a large group of friends and relatives attended. Albert's honeymoon lasted a week at home, then he had to return to the ranch. One month later he returned and took Ida to the ranch with him. It was an ideal place to spend their honeymoon, up in the cool higher altitudes among the pines and the oak trees. Ida seemed to fit right in to the scheme of things. She made butter and cheese with Eph's help because Albert had to spend much of his time with the cattle.
They moved home in November. It took them three days to make the trip. Eph had moved in sometime before and Dave, who had been hauling wood, came out to bring the team so they could move in. Mother had been walking over the worst places. The roads were rough and icy and such steep dugways. The last morning David said, "Now this is the last bad place." So they all got into the wagon.
They had a heavy load, four small porks, a five gallon keg, several five gallon cans and a number of jars of butter, a box of clothes and dishes, their bedding and other things. The wagon cover was tightly nailed down to keep out the cold. Ida was sitting inside the wagon when they came to another dugway, which was slippery with snow and ice. The wagon began to slide and David jumped off. Albert, knowing that Ida couldn't get out, stayed with the wagon trying to guide it down so it wouldn't tip over but it hit a rock and turned over alighting in the top of a pine tree. Ida fell out the rear end of the wagon and Albert fell in between the horses. Dave and Albert cut the horses loose from the harness. The horses escaped unhurt. However, everything had fallen out of the wagon except the keg of butter. It was a real hard job to carry everything back up on the road. When this was accomplished and wood gathered for a fire, snow gathered to melt for water, David got on one of the horses to go to St. George for help. Albert then laid down by the fire to rest and he passed out. Ida surely had a night of anxiety. Finally about 3 o'clock in the morning David returned with Hyrum Prisbrey and his outfit. When daylight came they got the wagon out of the tree and the things packed in again and started for home. Albert had several broken ribs. They bound him as best they could but it was a very painful trip for him. He was a number of weeks before he got over that experience.
As the little home he owned was rented, he took his wife to his mother's home, where they spent the winter. On April 22, 1881 their first child was born and they named her Annie for Ida's mother. The baby wasn't too old when they bundled her up and took her to the ranch to spend the summer. For years they continued to spend their summers out on the Arizona Strip making cheese and butter. Other families did the same and many lasting friendships were formed in those wide open spaces.
The second winter they spent in their own little home, on First South and Second East. The rest of the family were born in this little adobe home. I'm sure Albert longed to have a son to carry on his name and his business of cattle raising but no such good luck for Albert. He was blessed with four girls, Annie, Mary Sophia, Josephine and Florence. Then he gave up trying for a boy.
The minutes of the Canaan Stock Company Board Meeting tells that on Oct. 1, 1895 the Canaan Company sold to B. F. Saunders, ranch and cattle, completion of delivery to be made October 1, 1895 and thus the Canaan Cooperative Company passed into history.
The account has said little of the activities of many smaller companies and individual owners. There was the Rio Virgin Stock Company which was absorbed by the Canaan Company and the Mojave Stock Company which operated near Parashunt Ranch about 90 miles south of St. George on the Arizona Strip. Andrew Sorenson, John Pymm, the Foremaster brothers (David, Ephriam and Albert) and others established themselves in this area. James W. Nixon and others established herds on Mount Trumbull at quite an early date. William Atkin and sons established themselves at Atkinville, six or seven miles below St. George on the Virgin River, where they built up a flourishing livestock business.
In 1886 Anthony (Tone) Ivins and Heber J. Grant bought 600 head of cattle from the Canaan herd and took them to Parashunt. Albert became foreman and a lasting friendship grew between Albert and Tone Ivins.
Ivanpaugh or Ivanpatts and New Springs were stocked as early as 1876 by Pearce and the Henricks Brothers. They later sold their interest to Albert, David and Eph Foremaster. Albert and Eph had been accumulating a few head of cattle of their own and David was in the horse business. Albert also had a few head of brood mares. By 1891 Albert decided to go out on his own.
Eph married Ida Lang and took her to Oak Grove for the summer. He worked for Ivins until 1895 when Anthony Ivins was called by the church to go to Mexico. He than sold his interests to B. F. Saunders. Eph then worked for Saunders. Albert worked off and on when they needed extra help.
In 1895 there was a serious drought. Saunders, gathered and shipped as many cattle as he could and then he sold his holdings to Preston Nutter. Saunders bought Canaan Ranch and Eph went there to work for him. Albert helped, too, when they needed extra help. By 1897 Eph quit working for others and began to work with Albert and Dave with their own cattle. David had married Mary Elizabeth Stratton December 13, 1897 and to them were born two daughters Mary Jane and Martha. His son David was born after his death.
In September 1898 Dave and Eph were going to the ranch when they saw a band of wild horses. Of course horses had been Dave's first love, so he took after them. His horse stepped in a badger hole and the horse landed on top of Dave. Dave suffered all that night, but the next day with the true pioneer spirit of endurance, they want on to Ivanpatts where they accomplished what they had started out to do. Then they returned home. David continued to suffer with intense pain in his side. He had an abscess from which he died January 13,1899 at the age of 33.
Andrew Sorenson had long owned an interest in Parashunt and he and his family spent their summers there. A great friendship grew between the Sorensons and the Foremasters which lasted for many years until the elder people passed away. Albert and Eph decided to sell their holdings at Ivanpatts and New Springs to Andrew Sorenson and buy Antelope. They began moving their cattle in 1905.
Preston Nutter, one of the biggest stock holders in Utah, slipped in and placed a government script on the springs at Ivanpatts and New Springs where Eph and Albert had put in so much hard work improving them. He also put a government script on Antelope. He then decided he better leave the country. This surely did make the Foremaster brothers angry when they found out there was nothing they could do about it. They returned the money they had received from Andrew Sorenson. Albert made the remark that Preston Nutter ought to be shot. The word got back to Nutter that Al Foremaster was going to kill him. Nutter didn't dare show up for a number of years.
Finally after things had cooled off, Nutter sent an invitation for Albert and Eph to come to Salt Lake with all expenses paid to settle the affair. I don't believe they went to Salt Lake but they did settle it by giving up Ivanpatts and New Springs for Antelope. Albert and Eph also bought a spring and pasture in Canaan Gap in 1901 from two fellows named Cutler and Jolley from Glendale, Utah. Albert and Eph continued to run their cattle together until Albert's health forced him to sell out.
The cattle industry of those days was quite different from that of the present day methods. Today under the Taylor Grazing Act, each man must own and fence his own property and not encroach on others property. He is only permitted to have a certain number of cattle per section according to the feeding qualifications of the range. In olden days there were no stipulations as to how many head one could run on the open range. There were no good roads and the cattle had to be trailed for a hundred to hundred fifty miles to the railroad station to be shipped. This required weeks of toil to gather and trail them through the dust, heat and wind to the railroad station to be shipped. Many cattle were lost as well as much flesh. Today they fatten their cattle, load them in big trucks, and haul them over excellent highways to the market without loss of weight. Now round-up time takes a week or ten days riding in a fenced area. Back then it took a month or two in the spring and the same in the fall to cover the open range.
Albert had stomach trouble, no doubt stomach ulcers. His mother had the same trouble. Riding horses and being in the saddle day and night didn't help too much. The kinds of foods they had cooked over a campfire and the hours without food was anything but helpful. Sometimes when he had those attacks he would have to get off his horse and lie on the ground for hours. It finally became so bad, he had to give up riding and run the chuck wagon. He hired men to ride for him. A few I remember were, Rass Kelsey, Charlie Walker, Neils Sandburg, and Indian. I can remember mother cooking for days before father went to the round-up, baking bread and cookies, making and drying noodles so Papa could serve beef and noodle soup. She packed dried fruit and made butter and saw that his cupboard on the back of the wagon was clean and well stocked with necessities.
As youngsters we would run for blocks to meet daddy and ride home with him when he returned from the round-up. He always treated us to some of the hard, dried left over cookies which we considered such a treat. I remember in the late fall, when it was freezing weather, daddy always went to the ranch to kill a beef or two for the winter. We thought it a great treat to take a sharp knife and chip off a little of the frozen meat to eat. Then when it was cut up and prepared for corning and drying, it was always my great pleasure to take a piece to each neighbor and relative.
A lump developed on the side of his nose, which he thought was a wart. He treated it with corn salve to burn it off. When it swelled and didn't heal, he want to Doctors Woodbury and McGregor. They burned it with caustic. It kept getting worse. A friend, a Mr. Sterns, persuaded him to go to Los Angeles with him and have it operated on. The doctor told him if it remained healed for two years it would be a cure; but it did break out again. Dr. Joseph Walker, who had just returned from Germany where he had been for special study, looked at it and recognized it as cancer. No one knew much about cancer in those days. If he were living now it would have been recognized as skin cancer and could have been cured in a short time. Dr. Walker took him to Salt Lake City where it was operated on again. He came home but in less than two years it broke out again.
I was called on an L.D.S. mission to California in May 1916. I went through the temple on Tuesday June 6, 1916. I went to Salt Lake City to be set apart and left for Oakland Friday June 16, 1916.
Papa's eye continued to worsen and he suffered such intense pain. Like all other cancer patients, he grasped at every chance for a cure. Papa heard of a doctor in Los Angeles who claimed he had a salve that would cure cancer so daddy decided to go to him. I received a letter from mama saying that papa was coming to Los Angeles and would I meet him there. I left Oakland on Thursday Aug. 24, 1916. President Joseph E. Robinson and his daughter Kate met me at the train. We went to look for daddy but for some reason we couldn't find him so I spent the night with the Robinsons. The next day I met daddy at the doctor's office.
We gathered his things and went looking for an apartment. President Stanley Ivans was so very kind and helpful. He drove us around and we found an apartment near the Mission Home and moved in. I don't know how papa or I could have survived had it not been for the kindnesses shown us by the Robinsons and the missionaries. They were just wonderful. He was there with me in Los Angeles taking treatments until December 13. He thought he was feeling better but it surely didn't look good to me. I was so glad that he could go home for Christmas. He needed the comforting support of his family especially at this time of the gear. But it left me in the depths of despair. I moved into the same house where my Dixie friends Sam and Chrissie Bleak were living and we tried to have a Merry Xmas. It was their first Christmas after their little boy was drowned in the Washington Field Canal.
At Conference time, I was transferred to Sacramento with Sister Johanna a little Dutch convert. We helped organize Mutual and the Bee Hive work so we were truly busy and that was good for me.
Papa kept losing weight and getting weaker and weaker, suffering such intense pain that sometimes the morphine didn't relieve him. Someone told him about the healing qualities of eucalyptus leaves. So I gathered them and sent them home for poultices. Finally he got so bad that they released me early from my mission. That fall I taught school in Washington. Papa by this time was bedfast. It made me heart sick to see him suffer so and waste away until he was nothing but skin and bones. Finally the cancer got into the bloodstream and then to his brain. He passed away April 27, 1919 at the age of 66.
When daddy was forced to sell his cattle about 1912 he bought an interest in the Nelson Grocery Mercantile Store. The stockholders were Ernest and William Nelson, Addie E. Bracken, Wallace B. Mathis and Albert Foremaster. I graduated from Dixie College in the spring of 1913 and went to clerking in the store. I think papa was pleased that I did. He had always wanted me to major in business when I was going to school. I clerked that summer and the next winter. But the next spring I went to the University of Utah and obtained a teaching certificate. The following winter I taught in Hurricane, Utah for $50 a month. I remember daddy took me over to Hurricane in his white topped buggy.
William Maudsley, Aunt Mary's youngest son, had married Arsineth Gifford from Springdale, Utah. She finally persuaded Will to take his cattle and go to Springdale to live. This left Aunt Mary alone on the ranch. Papa persuaded Aunt Mary to sell the ranch to him and buy her a home in St. George. This she decided to do and he made arrangements to buy David Forsha's old home on the corner catty cornered from our place of 2nd East and 1st South. It was a lovely home built by William Lang and it was near so that papa could look after her. She was also just one block south of her daughter, Fidelia Baker.
Papa took his son-in-law Oliver Stratton and William Nelson in as partners. They were to take over in the spring of 1916. Papa had great plans for the ranch and it seemed to give him a "new lease on life". Ivy was working for Harvey Faubion in Cedar City making brick, so papa took Josephine and the kiddies and Mr. Marlow, Ivy's step-father and went to the ranch in the spring of 1916. There was so much to be done and papa wasn't able to do it. Finally Ivy got through with his brick making in June and began his rancher's life. Ivy's two brothers, Norman and Reuben also helped. Papa spent as much time there as he could during the warm weather but was in so much pain and misery that he finally had to give up going to the ranch.
In his younger days, papa was large of stature, sandy haired and had blue eyes. He was an athletic type. He held the broad jump record for years. He didn't have much of an education so wasn't a public speaker. He was out of town much of the time and didn't attend church often but he lived his religion in other ways. He always kept his word when it was physically possible. Many people have said his word was as good as his note. He was too honest and too generous to become wealthy. He wasn't a showy type either, who gave for public approval. He has slipped many a sack of flour, or a piece of meat, or a sack of potatoes to a widow or person in need without letting others know about it.
He was public spirited. He always donated generously to all civic projects. He was much interested in education. He spent days and weeks with his team and wagon hauling rock and excavating for the district school, the college, and the library. He donated to the County Hospital and everything else that was of benefit to the community.
He was a good provider. Wood was hauled from the mountains to last all winter and cottonwood for summer. He bought flour to last us a year, sugar was purchased by the hundred pounds. The cellar was full of fruit and vegetables, beef and pork.
He loved his relatives and loved to have them come and stay with us. On Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's, he always invited his brothers and sisters and their families to have dinner with us. One Christmas I remember we counted 50 guests who ate at our table. In those days the grown-ups were always served first and the kids had to play ball in the street until they had finished. Sometimes we would be fearful that there wouldn't be any left. Then we would take turns running to the kitchen door to ask if it were time for us to eat. I never remember a time when we ran out of food. Mary and Annie, my older sisters, were good cooks and they prepared days ahead for those big feasts. There was always plenty of beef and chicken, noodle soup, vegetables of all kinds and good old homemade bread and butter, pies and cakes and plum puddings. Oh, we had the works!
Papa loved a picnic and May Day was a specialty. He always put a small jag of hay on the hayrack and piled on as many people as it would hold, with the lunch the older girls prepared. Then down to the fields we went, where he would select a shady spot under some big cottonwood trees. He always made swings, and turned the rope for us to jump-the-rope, and helped us all have a good time. He loved kids and all our friends were welcome. Even when we lived in our little house, the young people declared they had a better time at our place than anywhere else.
When papa decided to build our present home, he had to have more ground, so he bought the south half of the lot from Hughie Cousins. He built a small lumber house for Cousins at the back and south of our lot. The money he gave to the Bishop of the Ward and Cousins could draw it out as he needed it. When Cousins died papa bought a lot and headstone and buried him in the St. George Cemetery. Cousins' old adobe house and blacksmith shop had to be removed and hauled away. The ground had to be leveled off. Father and his hired help, Rass Kelsey, did all that and did all the hauling of rock, lumber, brick etc. Charles Cottam was the architect. He made the plans and did the carpenter work or hired it done. Harvey Faubion, my oldest sister's husband, was a brickmaker and mason. Papa sent for him to come and help build the house. Joseph Worthen and sons laid the lava rock foundation, three feet wide. The walls are two adobe and one brick thick. It was built to endure. It is like Apostle Ivins said, "It stands as a monument to his sturdy Pioneer character."
Acknowledgments:
Karl Larson's "I Was Called to Dixie"
Rudgar Atkin's report on "Cattle Industry"
D.U.P. "Under Dixie Sun"A tribute by his son-in-law, Harvey Faubion
"In regards to your father, under no conditions could I have anything but highest of praise for him as a man. I know that he had a feeling at all times for these that were less fortunate than himself and enjoyed doing for them in that line. I never did hear, not even one man, insinuate that he was ever dishonest in his dealings and I figure that's a whole book full within itself. He was always friendly and as a rule had a good word for most everyone. I’m positive he was a good neighbor and a good father. He was a good provider for his family. He liked clean sports. Last but not least, in my estimation, he was just a little above the average man."
A Life Sketch of Sarah Ida Wiltbank Foremaster
written 23 Mar 1935 (it is thought to have been written by a co-worker at the Temple)
Sarah Ida Wiltbank, daughter of Spencer Watson Wiltbank and Annie Sanders (was) born 16th Aug. 1860 at Farmington, Davis Co., Utah. She was the sixth child in a family of eleven children.
Her parents joined the Latter Day Saint Church in Delaware. Her father was called on a mission to that place in the year 1844, or soon after. Possibly her parents were in Nauvoo before starting to the Valley because they traveled in Heber C. Kimball’s Co. Her mother drove a horse team across the Plains when she was about nineteen years old. Her father drove a team across the plains for Orson F. Whitney, thus the two young people who afterwards became Ida’s parents, were in love with each other while traveling to the Salt Lake Valley. The were married in Salt Lake City about one year after their arrival, 20th Dec. 1848.
They lived in uncle Schuyler Everett’s house when Sarah Ida was born. Soon after her birth they were called to settle Dixie, her granfather Sanders, his sons and sons-in-law were all called at that time. About the first thing she remembers was living in a tent and her mother was making cookies, when she climed (sp) on the table, a fall leaf table, and down it went giving them all a great scare, but no damage to dishes for the perhaps were tin.
They arrived in December 1862, it seems, and lived in a tent until her father made adobies(sp) and built them a house a little South of when Dick Atkins now lives (March 1935). Her gr-father Sanders lived a little north of them and uncle Schuyler Everett a little South of them. They had no fences so they could visit back and forth very easily. Uncle Oliver B. Huntington lived on the N.W. corner of the block where Buntings now live. Most of her schooling was obtained from her uncle Schuyler’s step-mother Orpha M. Everett. Sister Everett taught school in the old fashion way by having her pupils stand around her while she pointed out the letters of the Alphabet in her own little home. Her mother taught her to pray and it became a lasting habit with her through life.
Their first Sunday School was held in the building now used for Foster’s store, all in one room and each Teacher had her Class right around her and all the Teachers talked at once requiring great concentration. It was there they studied the Catechism and learned about God.
Henry Iring was the first Bishop in St. George as she remembers it. The Day School Teacherd that she remembers were, George Jarvis, David Roger, Stephen Wells, John Mathis, Father Wallace, B. Mathis, Joseph T. Atkin’s father and others.
When they were sick they called in the Elders, Charles Smith, Frederick Foremaster, or the Bishop, who ever he might be, like George Jarvis, Walter Granger, James Andrus, Thomas Cottam, etc. After being Administered to they were invariably made better. Her oldest brother was healed of a severe fever by administration, also her younger brother was near to death when healed by the Priesthood of God.
Her mother was quite health until late in life and went to the Temple a great deal. She died with consumption the 22 Jun, 1879. Her father came all the way from Arizona by horse team to do temple work for a few of his relatives. His wife died before he moved to Arizona, so she did not live there at any time. Frederick William Foremaster, her father-in-law built the red rock house now owned by Sister Sina Bunting, he bought the lot from Oliver B. Huntington.
The first wife of Albert C. Foremaster was Mary Ann Lang, and after she and her child died and were buried in the same coffin, her husband waited three years and four months before he married Sarah Ida Wiltbank the 7th May 1880 in St. George Temple. They had both received their endowments before that so they were only sealed that day. Then had a family dinner and dance at his father's home, but it was not the custom to give presents then, as it is now.
Her husband's one room house was rented so they went to the mountains to live for the Summer, where he was employed by the Canaan Co-op Herd Co. They stayed in the Mountains until November and lived with his folks through the winter. The next Spring they went to the mountains again as it was ideal for Summer living. Later they milked cows and made butter and cheese for the market.
On April 23rd 1881 out first child was born in St. George at his mother's home, with Jane Barnes in attendance as Mid-wife, we had few Doctors then and relied on the Lord through the Priesthood, gr-mother acted as Nurse as well as General House Keeper, the Mid-wife calling for ten days. As soon as the baby was a little older they went to the Herd for they had a good log house there so they lived quite comfortably. They spent their Summers in the mountains for ten or twelve years. Bro. Nephi Faucett built their first home, an adobie (sp) house for himself and later sold it to them.
On the 28th Sep 1916 Sister Sarah Ida Wiltbank was called to the Temple as an Ordinance Worker being set apart by Pres. David H. Cannon. That same year was called as 2nd Counselor to Henrietta A. Morris in the East Ward Relief Society. She was called to the Office of Matron in St. George Temple about 1926 being visited by Thomas P. Cottam and George F. Whitehead concerning the matter. She offered excuses, saying she did not feel worthy, but they encouraged her to take it and she consented saying she would do her best, was given to understand that there was no pay in it, of a material nature. Before that time the Sisters took the main part for a term of two week each. When Sister Foremaster had taken the part a while Pres. Cottam asked her if she needed help, and it was then that Sarah Jane Atkin was appointed to help. A while after that Sister Amanda R.R. Williams was also appointed to help that part.
She acted in the East Ward Relief Society until the Bishop, Isaac MacFarlane, was released as Bishop then they too were released. She has had spiritual impressions at times and has been healed by faith at different times in her life. She says her faith grows stronger with the years and that her knowledge of her Father in heaven is worth more to her than anything else in the world.
Lately (1935) she feels that she cannot go through the temple as much as she used to do, because of a week heart. She had taken the main part in the Temple hundreds of times and has gone trough for the dead thousands of times. She take the part very, very well, the main part, I mean.
She had four girls, did not have her children very close together, she feels satisfied with them even if she was not given a boy for the four girls are perfectly formed in mind and body and that they all have faith in the Gospel. The one (Florence) has filled a mission of twenty one months in Calif.
She made a splendid missionary and came home on account of the illness of her father. He was in California part of the time that his daughter was there, in care of a Doctor, he tried a great many Doctors in the hope of recovery, but nothing could help for his disease was cancer of the face, he suffered a great many years, went Calif. twice and to Salt Lake City but could not be cured and was at last resigned to go, because even his trips to the Temple availed his little and he concluded he must go, he was 66 years old when he died. He was a good husband and father and did all he could for the comfort of his family, was a hard worker and a great sufferer even before cancer developed, had gall stones, in all probability, his pain was so severe. He always had family prayer and paid his tithing and tried in every way to serve the Lord. She is happy with the thought that he was the father of her children, and his honesty and dependability was unquestioned. If Mormon girls understood the advantages of marrying in the Church they would be more determined to choose faithful L.D. Saints for companions.
Sister I.W. Foremaster has an outstanding personality and congenial nature. She is kind, well controlled, perfectly groomed and with the gift of wisdom thoroughly developed, is unasuming (sp) and retiring in nature, and seems entirely unaware of her noble and God given talents. She is a perfect Matron in the House of the Lord. A stranger entering the Temple would at once single out the Matron even though he had never a hint of the individual before. No Temple ever had one more fitted for the work, by looks, nature, demeanor, disposition or faith than Sister Sarah I. W. Formaster.
(I am indebted to Ronald E. Wiltbank for the following history. Whatever is not in bold print is what I have added)
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SARAH IDA WILTBANK FOREMASTER
Written January 1940, in her 80th yearMy father, Spencer Watson Wiltbank, was born in Wilmington, Delaware 22 October 1824. His parents died when he was very young. He was reared in the home of his uncle, Cornelius Wiltbank, until he was grown. He received the gospel and moved to Nauvoo, Illinois. He then migrated to Utah in the Heber C. Kimball Company. They arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in 1848. 25 December 1848 he married Annie Sanders, daughter of Ellis Mendenhall and Rachel Broome Sanders. She was born in Wilmington, Delaware 11 January 1832. She came to Utah in the same company as my father. To this union were born eleven children: Brigham, Spencer, Rachel, Ellis, Annie, Sarah Ida, Charles, Wilhelmina, John Roberts (who died in infancy), George, and Franklin. They lived in the 19th Ward in Salt Lake City until they were called to go to Fort Supply. Then they were called to go to Farmington, Davis County, Utah. Here my father rented a farm from Israel Ivans. I was born there 16 August 1860.
In 1862 my grandfather, Ellis Mendenhall Sanders, with all his sons and sons-in-law, was called to Dixie. All accepted the call except Nelson Kerkley, who went to Cedar Valley. The family, except for Leonard Conger, settled in the southwest part of town. It was the only place then where we could all get city lots together. Leonard Conger first lived on the block where William Atkin now lives. (It was Cameron’s home then.) He later moved to Heberville for a short time. He moved to California for a while and then to Santa Clara. Here they lived in the old Jacob Hamblin place. Later he moved onto the Conger Farm farther up on the Santa Clara Creek.
We passed through all the hardships of pioneer life. My parents had a large family and we all had to help work on the small farm owned by my father. Father spent a great deal of time laboring for other people, especially during the grain harvesting season as he was a very expert cradler. Cradling was a method of cutting the grain in which a five- or six-tined cradle-shaped fork was attached to the scythe, which laid the grain in a swath. This work took Father away from home for a considerable amount of time. The two older boys, Spencer and Ellis, (Penn and Ett, as they were called) spent most of their time freighting or working on other jobs. They hauled lumber (a great amount of it) from Mt. Trumbull to be used in the construction of the temple. Ett also helped burn the lime used there. Albert Foremaster and Ett supervised the production and delivery of the lime.
Books were very hard to get and my chances for an education very, very meager. I went as far as the Fourth Reader under Sister Orpha H. Everett and Prof. Schultz. Sister Everett taught school the old-fashioned way. She had her pupils stand around her while she pointed out letters of the alphabet.
My father made adobe bricks for an addition to our house and I helped carry the adobes. I helped pick cotton in the cotton fields and made molasses. After the grain was harvested, we girls gleaned and sold the grain to buy material for our dresses. For summer, we purchased gingham at twenty-five cents a yard, which was made at the Washington Cotton Hills. For winter wear, we used linsey-woolsey. The money we got from gleaning was our own to buy the little luxuries dear to the heart of every girl. I remember when I was about eleven-years-old, I used my gleaning money for a straw hat for the Fourth of July. It was called a “Sundown” style. The brim was wider in the front than in the back and there was a droop on the sides. I also bought a yard and a half of three inch wide blue ribbon to wear on it. These were purchased at the Co-op Store so I felt very well dressed.
Another time, when I was about thirteen-years-old, my sister Nan and I gleaned barley at Grass Valley. We gleaned, dried, and then flayed the barley by hand. We then sold it to Father and my brother Penn, who was freighting from Pioche, Nevada for Umpstead Rencher. We bought a double woolen shawl for $14.00. We cut it into two pieces and each had a shawl. These were our winter wraps, the only kind used by women then.
In 1879 my father and brother, Ellis, went to Arizona to make a new home in Round Valley, later called Eagar. My mother always seemed to have a desire to go somewhere. While they were gone, my mother died of tuberculosis 22 June 1879. My father came back in the fall and spent the winter here. He returned to Eagar the next July to make his home. He took Wilhelmina and the three younger boys with him. Ett had married Hannah Mary Hall. They had a small family for which he wanted to make a good home so he went also. Penn married Mary Ellen Rencher and moved to Texas. Later he moved to Arizona also and settled in the same locality as the rest.
(On) 7 May 1880 I married Albert Charles Foremaster. We had lived on the same block for most of our lives so our courtship was a convenient one. Albert just had to cut across lots through the block to be at our back door. We kept company for about a year before our marriage. There were very few places for us to go to spend our evenings, as there were no moving pictures, very few civic activities, and Albert didn’t care to dance. Our wedding dinner was cooked by Albert’s mother and her family. It was attended by a large group of people. Albert spent about a week at home and then he had to return to the ranch. One month later he returned and got me. He was in charge of the ranch belonging to the Canaan Co-Operative Cattle Company. This ranch was located near the Colorado River in the Parashaunt country in Arizona. We spent the summer there, taking care of the cattle and making butter and cheese. Albert’s brother, Ephraim, who was about fourteen, helped me tend the calves and around the house.
I had been at the ranch a short time when it became necessary for Albert to leave the ranch for the day, leaving Eph and me there alone. He had not been gone very long when four Indians rode into the yard on their ponies. They dismounted and asked for “Foremaster.” We told them he had just gone out on the range to ride. They sat on the ground, circled the only door to our small log cabin, and started chattering back and forth. I was desperately afraid. Reports of Indian hostilities were frequent and I didn’t know what they might do. I asked Eph to get the axe and stand it behind the door. It was our only means of protection. We couldn’t do anything but stand and watch them for fear they may start something. In the afternoon, after living in mortal fear all those long hours, I mustered up the courage to take them some biscuits, hoping to make them feel kindly toward me. That must have been all they wanted because they immediately mounted their ponies and rode away. I only remember two of their names. One was Big Mouth Charley and the other was Little Artichoke. They didn’t return to molest us but I was very thankful to see Albert ride into the ranch that night.
We moved home in November. Eph had gone home sometime before and David, who had been hauling wood, came out to bring the team so we could move in. There was snow on the ground and the roads were icy besides being rough. It took us three days to come in. I had been walking over the worst places. The last morning David said, “Now this is the last bad place,” so we all got in the wagon. We had a heavy load, four small pork, a five-gallon keg of butter, several five-gallon cans and several jars of butter, a box of dishes and clothes, and our bedding, etc. The cover was tightly nailed down to keep out the cold. I was seated inside when we came to another dugway that was icy and slippery. The wagon began to slide and Dave jumped off. Albert, knowing I couldn’t get out, stayed with the wagon. He tried to guide it down so it would not tip over. But it hit a rock and turned over alighting in the top of a pine tree. I fell out at the rear and my husband fell between the horses. David and Albert cut the horses loose from the harness and they got out without being hurt.
Everything had fallen out of the wagon except the keg of butter. It was quite a job for them to carry everything back up on the road. Then they gathered wood for a fire and melted snow for water. Then Dave got on a horse and went to St. George for help. Albert lay down to rest by the fire. He fainted and I had a few anxious hours. Dave returned about three o’clock the next morning with Hyrum Prisbrey. I was surely thankful to see them. When daylight came they got the wagon out of the tree and we started home. Albert had a rather painful ride. He had broken several ribs. We taped him as best we could to relieve the pain. It was some time before he could get about again. We lived that winter with Albert’s mother down at the old Foremaster place. It is still standing down in the southwest corner of town.
(On) 13 April 1881 my first child was born. I named her Annie for my mother. We continued to go to the ranch in the summertime until 1891. My husband had a ranch of his own and was the foreman for a ranch belonging to Anthony W. Ivins also. We formed a very close friendship with Andrew Sorenson and family in those years. They were our nearest neighbors. My second daughter, Mary Sophia, was born 9 December 1883 in St. George, Utah. They were a joy to me always. On 6 March 1902 a baby girl, Ruth, was born out of wedlock to my daughter Mary. We raised her as our own child. She was as much a joy to us as our very own in the small adobe home we lived in at 95 South 200 East, St. George, Utah.
When my children became larger, I was called to work in the Primary. I also worked as a teacher in the Relief Society for many years. In 1916 I was called to be Second Counselor to Henrietta Morris in the East Ward Relief Society. I labored in that capacity until Bishop Isaac C. MacFarlane resigned in 1921.
In September 1916 I was called by President David H. Cannon to be an Ordinance Worker in the St. George Temple, where I worked for twenty years. In September 1925 I was chosen by President Thomas P. Cottam to be Matron of the Temple. I held this office until the temple closed for repairs in July 1927. Everyone was released then. Since then my health has not been good and I have not gone to the temple much. However, I always considered the work in the temple one of my greatest blessings. I loved the work and loved the people I worked with. I made many dear friends with those that came to work in the temple. I have a Friendship Quilt made by my fellow workers that I prize very highly.
We have a home on Temple Street that we have had all our married life. In 1913, a new brick home replaced the small adobe home we had previously lived in. In these homes we raised our five girls, Annie, Mary, Josephine, Florence, and Ruth. Annie passed away 28 September 1932 at Boise, Idaho. The rest are still living nearby and that is a real source of pleasure to me in my declining years.
My husband died of cancer 27 April 1919 after being an invalid for several years. During this invalid period and for several years after we kept boarders. My daughter Mary kept the house and my daughter Florence taught school. I feel the Lord has blessed me in many ways and I am grateful to him.
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