Sixty Years of Living in the Upper Snake River Valley. Tape #59

Transcription

1 Voices from the Past Sixty Years of Living in the Upper Snake River Valley Interviewees: William J. and Elsie Lewis October 23, 1982 Tape #59 Oral Interview conducted by Harold Forbush Transcribed by: Violetta Surkova February 2007 Edited by: Jamie Whitehurst January 2008 Brigham Young University- Idaho

2 Harold Forbush: Reflections of Brother and Sister William J. Lewis on their sixty years of living experience in the Upper Snake River Valley. First of all I d like to have you Mrs. Lewis tell something about your own background, where and when you were born and something about your ancestors. Elsie Lewis: I was born the fifth of January 1902 in the little town of Lanark, right in the Bear Lake Valley here at Bear Lake County, Idaho the daughter of John and Eliza Sorenson Roberts. I was born, let s see, my mother had had a midwife all the time for her other eleven children but she decided she d have a doctor for me when I was born, and so she engaged doctor J. W. West who later came to St. Anthony to practice. But he was the doctor that was engaged for my birth. But I put in my appearance early. My dad had driven the team of horses, this was January and the snow was deep and he had gone for the doctor five miles into Paris, Idaho to get the doctor to bring him out and in the mean time I was putting in my appearance and my sisters had to run for a midwife to come and help and I was born before he arrived. And my parents, my father was born in Wales and my mother was born in Denmark and they immigrated to this country and before the railroads came into Utah. William J. Lewis: My father s ancestry came from Wales and my mother s people were shepherds came from England. My father was one of the first few hundred children who was born in Idaho having been born in My mother came when she was five years old from England and she was born there in England. My grandfather, my father s father, Joseph Lewis came into the Bear Lake Valley with the apostle Charles C. Rich in the fall and spring of 1863 and 4, Civil War time. And my father of course was born just a few years later in 1867, a native of the state of Idaho. Well now when did you people meet? Did you meet in Bear Lake? We were both born and lived on the same street in Paris, Idaho. We both attended the Fielding Academy from which we graduated and after graduation a short period of time then I was called on a mission to the Southern states. That was in 1919 to 21 with [inaudible] as the president of the mission. Inaudible Had you have met him? We lived on the same street. So you [inaudible]. Inaudible Now was the Fielding Academy more than a four year high school? 2

3 No. But it would take you the equivalent of high school graduation? Yes it did. That s how I happened to teach school then the next year I went to Albion State Normal school to prepare then a little better for school. A number of persons in those days went to the academy or I mean went to the, what did you say? Albion. Albion. State Normal. State Normal. They didn t have any summer schools up here. Now tell me just a little, both of you comment, about the Fielding Academy. After whom was it named? It was named after the mother of Joseph Fielding Smith, Mary Fielding Smith. I see. Well wasn t it that Joseph Fielding Smith It could have been. I don t know. Named after him not rather the mother. Her maiden name was Fielding. Was it just the one building on the campus? Inaudible. And this was just out of Paris was it? Just right there. Right in Paris. And was it functioning? I m wondering was it established before the Bannock Stake Academy? 3

4 I think it was about the same time. There were several church schools giving the high school curriculum and at the same time Ricks College was in that category at that time as well as other Academies. And it grew out of the pressures the gentiles and the Legislature prohibiting Mormons and so forth in teaching. Didn t it? Oh, I m not sure. In other words, the Mormons for a few years there, of course, could not vote nor could they teach in the public schools. And that s part of the reason why the Bannock Stake Academy was established here. Another reason too for establishment all it was that the Church is pretty much concerned that the students who got their schooling that they got religious training at the same time. Right. And so these Academies did serve in both areas. So we had our religion classes in there similar to what has been taken over by the seminaries today. Now following your mission you came home and married. After I completed my mission I came home and spent about a year. It was the time of the World War One and I went with some other fellows after we graduated from Fielding Academy and we... That wasn t after your mission, that was before your mission. No that was before my mission. Before my mission and then we went to Salt Lake and enlisted and turned back to come in the draft. They got so many coming in to go to the service they couldn t handle them and if they found any reason for turning anyone down why they did it and they d rather handle them through the draft because they couldn t handle them there at Fort Douglas. And I was one that was turned down and as a consequence the armistice was signed in the fall before I came up in the draft so I didn t serve and then shortly after that of course was when I was called on a mission. Following your mission, what happened then? The after I came home I spent a short time trying to get work. There was no work and that and I didn t have means to continue on with schooling but I did go to the Fielding Academy and took some commercial courses in typing and so on to fill in and then the following Spring in 1922 after I had attended the summer school at Ricks College. That was the first full summer session I think that they held and 4

5 were given accreditation by the state for preparing teachers to teach, after entering that summer school. And then I returned home and we went to Salt Lake City and were married on the 31th of August, I usually have to rely on a wife to know... And so, that was the last of August, so then we immediately went up to Twin Groves and went teaching school. I did. Brother Manwaring helped him get a job up there. So the motivation then for coming into the Upper Snake River Valley was that you had a job up here. I did but it is like about the last day of summer school sent applications out to all the schools in this Upper Valley and there was no response. They had plenty of teachers and Brother Hyrum Manwaring was the man that got, when the school board from Twin Groves came down seeking teachers he put in a good word for me and as a result of that I was employed there at Twin Groves. You stayed four years. I taught there fours years. Where did you live? Lived in the school house. You and your wife? Yes. Yes. And did you teach along with him? No I didn t. I only helped with the music. Oh, I see. They had another gal there at taught. May Erickson from From Rexburg. 5

6 From Rexburg here was the teacher in the other room. Erickson. E-R-I... May Erickson. E-R-I-C-K-S-O-N. Okay. I see. And she and I handled all the eighth grades in there. What kind of facility did you have? Well the school house was, we had the two rooms, teaching areas and I had twenty seven subjects to cover a day. Sometimes I could combine those, penmanship classes and some of the others. All four grades. I had the four grades: fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth. And Miss Erickson had the others. Was she a married girl? No she wasn t. May Dayton now if happen to know her. She married a Dayton later. I see. Were those pleasant days in teaching? Yes they were pleasant years in a lot of ways. We had the old potbelly stove and they gave me custodial work in order so that I could get a little more pay. And they paid us on an eight month basis. And we had the bell that we rang and we had the outside privies and in our apartment for the school building, where we lived, we had the coal oil lamp and we had no lights in the other part of the building, we didn t the building for any purpose in the night, unless they brought their gas lanterns or things of that kind. That was the type of the building. No water. And they had no water there. And part of my custodial duties was to go down to a little creek near the school building both all winter long and I would cut down in through the snow banks and through the ice and get in to where we could get the water. And this was the water we had to use for all our washing and for the filling the big crowd jars in the two school rooms for the children, for their drinking 6

7 water. And of course I had to make the fires in the pot belly stoves each day and do the other custodial work along with my teaching. How many students actually did you have for the combined eight grades, just approximately? Oh, I would say, perhaps, forty. Fifty maybe. Maybe fifty. Between forty and fifty. Some of those eight grade kids I guess were bigger then you, weren t they? Yes they were. Some of those big boys, big farm boys, probably were what, twenty years old some of them? Well, no. Some of the girls. We had a few girls that were Fifteen, sixteen. Fifteen and sixteen. And boys weren t that old. I see. Have any disciplinary problem that should be mentioned? No, I was noted for my disciplinary work. I always demanded a good discipline all the years that I taught, the six years that I taught and had quite a reputation for that. You had mentioned that you had four years at Twin Groves. Now where were the other two years spent? Well, latter on while after I finished teaching there I came to Ricks College to get my schooling, the two years to graduate and while I was there after the middle of the year, probably the 1 st of February. What year? March. The year. 7

8 1927. That would be They had a situation out at point Cedar Point, just south of Rexburg here, at the small rural School and they had to let the principal and the teacher of the upper grades go and they were looking for a teacher and we were living in Hyrum Manwaring s basement at that time as I was finishing my schooling. I had enough credits to graduate and so he came with the county superintendent, Lornetta Goodlet, and wanted to know if I would go out and take the situation over at Cedar Point, which I did. I had a very harrowing experience the first day that I went out there. Lornetta called the students out to march in and talked to them and told them about the condition that they had there and that I was there to take over and meant business and there will be no more of the carrying on that preceded my coming there. And then she had me make a little talk, we marched the children into the school room and lo and behold at the back end in the room the school board came there to see how the new teacher was going to take care of the problems. And I didn t know they were coming and of course I hadn t made any previous preparation having been out of school and attending school. And so they stayed for part of the morning till noon and witnessed what took place there and then they left. The way that I had to do to go there to teach I catch the train in Rexburg and ride out to where they would stop to let me off to walk down a little farther to the school building. Then I d flag the train as it came back at night and then had my hike up to the Hyrum Manwaring apartment where we lived. They were concerned about the eight graders passing the tests. In those days all of the examination questions came from the state of Idaho and so I spent a lot of time waiting for the train after school and they gave a lot of extra time there going over these old examinations and what they might expect perhaps in their examinations and we did a lot of extra work in that way and all of the students graduated with no problem. I didn t have any disciplinary problems after the first day. I had one large boy there considerably larger than myself tested me out there before the school board and the superintendent of schools and he got up and was going to leave the room. And that was one of their problems. They d get up and do anything they wanted. So I just hollered at him and I told him that there will be nothing of that sort going on, that if anyone of them had to leave why they got permission before they left. I didn t know whether if he was going to leave for a few minutes but he kind of looked me over and the tone of my voice I guess, I always had a strong voice, but he finally got back in his seat. That was the only time I had any difficulty at all. Then after I left there they wanted to sign me up for a two year contract to go back there to teach but that was when Ezra Stucki came into Rexburg as the 8

9 superintendent of the schools and he knew that I was there and he called me in and he asked me if I didn t want to be the principle of the Adams school. Now Ezra Stucki also was a Bear Lake man wasn t he? Yes he was. Yes. He was from Paris. He knew me. He knew you. He knew me and all. And so he signed me up and that was the last year that I taught there. They were all women teachers there. At Adams? At Adams School. You worked on Saturdays and after school. I worked on Saturdays and after schools in the grocery store on College Avenue owned by Stuart Mason called the Blue Link Store. It was next to the post office there. So I was working full time and then he wanted me to stay there and manage that store. He opened a store in Idaho Falls and the one in St. Anthony, Bassett went up into St. Anthony and he opened that store in And I managed the store in Rexburg. Now the name of that store again? It was called the Blue Link. Mason s. Mason s Blue Link Store. And Mason s Blue Link Store, and it was on College Avenue? Yes. Where? Right next to the post office. Sam Oldenman was post master there at that time. Well now where was the Post Office at that time? Right next to the store. 9

10 That doesn t help much. Well it was right on the corner. It was south, south of the Idamont Hotel, right on the corner. It was right on the corner. But the post office was right on the corner Okay, so the Post Office was in the southeast corner of the Idamont Hotel. No, no. Yes. No not of the Idamont Hotel. Well, it was on the corner of that street that turns there. Yes, it was there. You know. The Idamont Hotel was up the street north from where the store was. And the store was just south of the Idamont and then the post office is south of the store. It s on the corner. Right on the corner. So just to reiterate here the post office was at the corner of College Avenue and Carlson Avenue and then the store was right next to it, to the north. That s right. To the north and across the street to the east were the Porter? Yes. That s right. The Porter s store. Just up the street a little ways. 10

11 I see. Now that store probably didn t remain there too long? No, I don t know how long. The depression hit then. The depression hit then and he came back and took over the store himself. Who was that, Mr. Mason? Yeah and he then offered Bassett and I to buy the store in St. Anthony. He wanted to get out of it because the economic situation was really bad. You see that was in 1928 and 9. And so we did. Merlin asked me if I wouldn t join him up there and become a partner and we d go into partnership. And the school teaching at that time wasn t, you know, it wasn t paying very much, they never had any benefits at all at that time. What kind of salary did you get, monthly salary? Well up at Twin groves Up at Twin Groves they gave me $135 a month for eight months, on a eight months basis, and that included the custodial services and everything. And I was paid as high as anybody in the rural school at that time. And was there much of a change at Cedar Point? I don t remember. I think may be... Probably $165, some where in there. Probably $150/ 65 or something like that. And how about this principal of the Adams school? It was about the same. Not anymore than $165/ $170. No, it wasn t anymore. Of course in those days that was your take home pay, wasn t it Brother Lewis? Yes. 11

12 You didn t have so many deductions taken. That s right. But you didn t have any fringe benefits. We never had any fringe benefits. We never had any insurances. We did never have any school, what do you call it, retirement. That s why you went into the grocery business. Anything of that kind. It lasted all year and the school teaching you were out for the summer and you had to have another job. What did you do with your time in that four month period from May, June, July and August? Well I went to summer school two of those summers and I think two of the summers I rouged peas for the seed companies there. I came down in this area and some time up to Rexburg. They had a lot of peas growing all over this valley and that was a big industry at that time. And so I went out rouging peas to supplement my school. Let s divert here just for a moment and insert a question that concerns me from a historical point of view. When you people came to the Upper Valley in the fall of 22, was it? Yes. Yes. In the fall of 22 when you took your job there at Twin Groves. Twin Groves. What was St. Anthony like? Try to describe St. Anthony and then make a description and your impressions of Rexburg, those two towns. Well there were no improved roads. It was horse and buggy days and there were a few cars that were being bought at that time, some of the first cars, a few of them but not much. And whenever you d travel from St. Anthony on down south, all the way, it was just dirt roads, no surface to highways or anything of that kind. The train was the main mode of transportation for a lot of the people in the Upper Valley. They use to run that train every day, the passenger train, and even when 12

13 we re out at Twin Groves, when we came up we got off at Twin Groves off the train. And when we came into St. Anthony, we could ride the train into St. Anthony, we d have to flag it and we could ride in. Or sometimes we d walk from Twin Groves if it was good weather. In some of the good weather we d just follow the track and just hike into St. Anthony. HL: HL: There were a lot of trains. But the train service was good. You could catch it twice a day. The Yellowstone special. The Yellowstone special was running then all the time going up to West Yellowstone. That would come in, what, in the early morning? About 10:30 at night we d hear the whistle, we d know that the Yellowstone special was coming. Was coming down. Was coming down. Going south Then it would go up early in the morning? I guess it did. Yes it did. It did. But that was only in the summer time. Well, yes. For the tourists, was it not? But you know, they hauled lots of grain from Victor over, you know, all the grain. They had tracks in all these places out here, you know. They d just bring it all that s trucked now, that was all hauled by freight. All hauled by freight That was a busy place. 13

14 Well now how about St. Anthony? Was it quite an industrial place then? At that time St. Anthony was Alive. Alive and really going. They had the Northrop King, they had the associated seed, they had the rouge seed company. They all had their offices there and the place where they run and sorted their peas seed and all of that was being carried on. They d go out and contract seed peas. And the farmers like that and they really made good on that besides furnishing the legume crop that they needed for fertilizer at that time. Before that they had commercial fertilizer and that was great for their farms to build up. Was that a primary crop in those days? It was a primary crop. More so than beets? Oh, yes. We did have some beets. They had some beets. But nothing like seed peas. I see. The weather didn t always cooperate and I guess that s why they couldn t. I don t know. Well now the peas were harvested, threshed out and it was dry peas, I guess what it was. That s right. So many women got work there. Oh, women employed there. They had hundreds of women who were employed in those three operations, those three seed companies. And on a Saturday, the pay day when you d see them coming from those seed houses, why they d just fill St. Anthony up, down both side walks. Would the seed houses locate within the town means? Yes along the south side. One had their office on the other side of the road. 14

15 Now at that time, though, Rexburg was still the larger of the two towns. Was this not so? Oh, I suppose in population size. Far as industry was concerned, I thought, St. Anthony had it over Rexburg. They did a lot more. The church was bigger. They grew some down in the Rexburg area but nothing like they did up there. We had the cool nights and everything was just the best climate for seed peas. Well now, Rexburg had more shopping centers and stores though. Did it not? Grocery or may be clothing stores. Their business area was larger. They had more business establishments. We thought of Rexburg as being a Church center more than we did St. Anthony. Because they had the tabernacle over here, didn t they? Yes. Well they did up there, that it was built in They had a tabernacle up there though too. St. Anthony had a tabernacle. We thought it was pretty nice. We liked it. I felt bad when we moved back from Rexburg up there. I thought Rexburg was a better town to live in. We had a lot of friends down here. It was hard to leave. And we associated with the Manwarings and the Romneys and the Christensens and the Packers. People of farm hill. All of those people up in that area. The Currs and the Stowells and Twinger. No, he wasn t up there. 15

16 Well he wasn t there because he was up in St. Anthony. Here in Rexburg? That s where we moved to live. Who were some of the community leaders in the St. Anthony area at that time, in the middle twenties, when you were up there teaching? Well, Fog and Jacobs had a big department store and a lot of them were engaged in, Fog and Jacobs they had, I think, saw mills too. Well who were the leaders, I don t remember? Oh, I don t know. I don t recall. We were more involved in Church, I guess. We knew the Church leaders. I see. Well, Scallet had a big department store there and Swing and Albright store. And we had a good thriving business section there. Shall I tell you a little about the store now? Yes. Now you ve indicated that Mr. Bassett encouraged you to come over and become his partner. Did you have an equal share We had equal share. In the management and the control of business? Yes. And what kind of a store was it? We had a store that has been owned by Ruthort, he had a butcher shop in there when Mason bought it. And then he moved his butcher shop into the corner building where Scallet and Erickson is now and then we used the other building with the swinging doors that went between the two and we operated it that way for quite a while. We had a potbelly stove there for heating. We had the covers with the bins in them to where we had the rice and beans and all things like that. Everything was weight out. They d come in with a couple pounds of rice and so on. And we waited on the people when they d come in and we d take the their order on a pad, and then we d fill the order. Self-service. 16

17 We didn t have any self-service or anything of that kind. And we had the counters where we stored quite a lot of the commodities that we weighed up, that we could weight. We had the old cheese cutter where we d cut off a chunk of cheese the size they d want and things of that kind. That was the way we started out. Then you put in the meat market. And then latter we put in a meet market and we updated it as we went along. We got in the carts and that changed it to self-service. We had everything on the shelves. And then we built our displays. Much in the way of can goods in those days? Yes, canned goods. Yes there was a lot of can goods. Not much fresh vegetables. Not much in the fresh produce line. After we went to California we made it into a California type store. We put in a big solid frame window with a wood base of the windows it was all on a wedge with cables and we d wind the wedge and open it up. We had an open front type and we started using the awning and all to attract attention. We were after tourist business. A lot of tourist people going through right past store and they d come from California and all over so we had that type of store. Then we could put all our stuff right out in front, right out on the side walk, right on the edge next to our fruit. So we went for that pretty heavy and we had quite a display of that under the awning, you know, for the effect and an open front store. And we modernized it that way, of course, and that was the way we did it. Were you associated with some chain? We were associated, after we had it, with the Blue Link that was of course entirely independently owned by Mason. But later on the Red and White people came in, and let s see, and that s an independently owned operation, but he used the same wholesaler and we all, the Red and White stores were associated together but not in the earnings or anything of that or conducting the store, just for advertising. Was that the same as the associated groceries? No. No. Associated groceries came in later. I see. 17

18 But we had the Red and White store and then we went with IGNA. IGNA took over all of the Red and White franchises and got them to go. And of course, they were all operated through the ZCMI, was our wholesaler to begin with, and then it went to the Idaho wholesale company after the ZCMI sold out to them. Who were some of your competitors there in the St. Anthony area, Brother Lewis? Well we had Edgar Westerberg came in on the south side a year or two after we were there. I think in August that they came in. Well, I believe, it was the same year, but later in the Fall. Now, let see. Let s go back. When did you move over there? We went into the grocery business on the sixth of May 1930 is when Bassett and I started our businesses and partnership. And Edgar Westerberg came in the Fall of 1930? He came that year Fred Griggs was there that time. Yeah we had Fred Griggs. Fred? Fred Griggs. G? G-R-I-G-G-S Griggs, Fred Griggs. He s from the basin. His wife was a Mickel. She was a Mickel from up there. I see. 18

19 And they had the store that Swing had and Scallet had it and then Swing bought it. Then Fred Griggs bought it from Swing. But he was our competitor most of the time that we were there and Edgar owned the south side. I d say Safe Way was there when we first went in. And Safe Way was there when we first went up there. They sold out. They were around on the side street. But they just pulled out of all those smaller places and they pulled the stores from a lot of those smaller places and moved into larger areas. Now were the depression years a tremendous adverse impact upon your business? That was terrible thing. It was the worst depression, of course, that the United States has ever had including the present one that we passed through and are passing through. And we had several years there of rationing. We had the ERA Was that what s it called? And yeah. And it had the big eagle on it and the board and you had to display that in your window. We had the sugar stamps. We had the coffee stamps. We had the food stamps, all to contend with. And we had to stick them all on and that took a lot of the time. We passed through all of that rationing period and then they had this work program that was inaugurated and the people joined that. There were so many that were unemployed. And so they d go up and work in the forests and they d build the Government buildings, and they d repair the roads, and opened up new roads out in the rural areas and they worked at project of that kind in order to get enough to survive, and they had their camps established. End of Part One Continuing the interview with Brother and Sister William Lewis from St. Anthony. Was much of your business during the depression years done on a credit basis? Our predecessor, the man that we bought the store from, he had established some credit in order to get going. And when Bassett and I took over we decided that we d screen it because he was having difficulty those first two years working and managing for Mason. We d screen those and then try to be just a limited credit business. In other words you 19

20 We screened. You were sure that those you were loaning and giving credit would be able to pay? Now we tried to do that. Was this on a monthly basis? This was on a monthly basis. On a monthly basis. It was on a monthly basis. So this meant that you had to keep a lot of books? That s right. And keep your records. Now how about, what would you say, do you think you did 10 percent on credit? 2 percent? Oh maybe a little more than that. Maybe 30/40 percent. On credit? On credit. We had a lot of top people in the credit business that we carried over the forty years that we were in business together and it was the best kind of business you could have. What rate of interest did you charge? We didn t charge any interest. It was an open account. Even after thirty days or so on? Well, after 30 days and when they started not paying, of course, some of them left the country, some of them got away from us even, and we had quite an experience later on in collecting some of them. But taken all and all through the forty years, I would say that our lost in the credit business that we had after we had been there long enough to get acquainted and through the elimination process of bad accounts, I don t believe we took a loss of two or three percent over the whole period of time of forty years. Over that period of time did the volume of your business vastly increase? 20

21 HL: HL: It did for quite a period of time after the depression kind of eased off along in the forties and the fifties. It was a fairly good business. And then when we got tougher competition that came in with larger markets, with the big market that the Laders came in with, right across on the corner. They took over the old consolidated wagon machine company building and made that into a large Supermarket. Supermarket with all the latest things. And others. Of course we couldn t do that because of our limited space. And that s when we got our toughest competition. And then from there on it was just, we lost business for all the last number of years. Did you pretty much stay with the same wholesalers down through years, Zion s Cooperative Marketing? And the Idaho Wholesale. And the Idaho Groceries Wholesales. That s right. Yes. You didn t cater much to Scowcroft? Scrowcroft. No. Out of Ogden, wasn t it? No. Yes out of Ogden. Not too much from them? We didn t do business with them at all. We did all of our main grocery business and then of course you had your meat companies that we dealt separately and you know like Zweigart s. For all of the other companies, Zweigart s in Pocatello. Cudahy and Swifts. Did you buy merchandise, fresh vegetables, from the local people, local garden growers or farmers? Eggs? 21

22 No. We bought that from the produce companies. Eggs or anything like this? Oh, yes. When we first started in those first few years we were taking in a lot of eggs and butter and what else? But not much produce. I see. We had a Japanese boy down in Rexburg that had beautiful lettuce and celery that he grew, whenever that was on why, of course, we d buy quite a lot from him. During the depression though while he was teaching, a lot of times our checks wouldn t be any good from the teaching, that s another reason quit and went into the grocery business because sometimes we d get a warrant or a monthly check and then the bank wouldn t take it, the banks were closing. We had a rough time. Did you ever go back to teaching? No. You had a family. No, I had a family. I had six children. I see. So you had a family to take care of all those years. Let s talk a little about your partner, Tomas Mervin? Myrthen. Myrthen. Thomas Myrthen. M-Y-R-T-H-E-N. Okay, Thomas Myrthen Bassett. Is he a little older than you? No. He was quite bit younger than me. Oh was he? I was... Six or seven years. 22

23 Think he was six or eight years younger than I was. What can you tell me about him as the partner, as a friend, I suppose, an associate? Well, he was a good conscientious man. He had a lot of talents for certain phases of our business. He was a good sign painter for putting our signs up for our specials and he did that every week and made the banners and all of those things. And then, of course, we changed in taking care of the book keeping and that I do most of it, and then he did it for periods. And we exchanged in things of that kind. Did you associate much together out of work. Yeah we associated quite a bit. Took some trips. We took some trips with them to Red and White and IGNA conventions and that with he and his wife, Henrietta. And we had a good relationship and while we were in the grocery store he d been a bishop and he was a bishop when I was called to be stake president, and of course, that was quite a thing there. We had to do a lot for each other because of the time that we might have to be called away from the store and situations like that. But it was worked out, I think, very well and he gave good, full support to me in my church responsibilities when I became Stake President. You complemented each other, then, in your abilities in the work and the operation of your store? Yes, we tried to do that. We had our different talents and so on. And we used them. Did you have your family members assist in the operation of your business? Occasionally. We had them just maybe sometimes on weekends or, you know, or for short periods of time. How about other employees? Did you have other employees? Yeah, we had other employees. Quite a number of different ones during the time when everything was going good and we needed extra help, but after those closing years why we handle it mostly ourselves. We had a delivery business too which, I think, helped a lot. We had a lot of widows and a lot of people that really appreciated a delivery service. 23

24 Did you two fellows handle that? No, we had a man that did that for us. And at first was it with a, well I imagine, motor vehicles everything, wasn t it. Yes. Yes, he had a car. When you went into the store in 30 by that time you had a truck or a van or something didn t you? No. To make your deliveries. No. You didn t have delivery service at that time. No. We d hired this man with his pickup. Oh. And he d come in certain hours. He d go out twice a day and, boy, you d better have your orders all ready to go because he was prompt. He d go out sometimes when we were just finishing filling an order. Oh, he d finally take it but he did that to get us on the ball, that he wasn t going to be sticking around other than the hours we were paying him for. That s interesting. He was a great fellow. What was his name? James L. Thomson. Did he serve you for a number of years? Yeah a long time. We had others a few times prior to when we got him or after we got him. Make a little comment about Edgar Westerberg as a competitor and as a friend? 24

25 Well, Edgar Westerberg was a good competitor. I don t believe there s any two competitors, Bassett and Lewis Company and Edgar Westerberg s operation that got along better than we did. We exchanged whenever we d run out of something and exchanged merchandise and very accommodating. He was just one of these fellows that would do anything for you and in any emergency he d come over and helped you out at any time if you wanted him to do it. And we offered our services to him the same. We had good friends. We went on a lot of trips together. He was in the same organization as we were. He had a Red and White store on the south side. And of course, we went to a lot of conventions together. And of course he served with me as a counselor in the stake presidency. The full twelve years that I served he was with me. The others, of course, passed away and had other counselors. Well let s talk about the presidents of the Yellowstone Stake. You have indicated that you knew all of them. You and your wife were acquainted with the very first and let s go right down through them and give me just a brief statement of personality of each stake president. I had my stake clerk, after I was released for quite a few years, make up a brief statistical history of Yellowstone Stake and I think I can give this by reading these statistics. And as you ve already mentioned I did know all of the stake presidents from President Daniel G. Miller, who was the first Stake President on through. He was a great man. We knew him when we were teaching in Twin Groves and we d go into conference and hear him preach and conduct services and oh he was an outstanding man. He was the first one. Now Bannock Stake extended from Bannock County to and including Fremont County with Thomas E. Ricks as president of the stake. February 4, 1884 Fremont Stake was taken from Bannock Stake and President Thomas E. Ricks became president of Fremont Stake. January 10, 1909 Yellowstone Stake was taken from Fremont Stake and organized in a meeting held at Parker, Idaho consisting of the following ten wards: Egin, Parker, St. Anthony, Wilford, Twin Groves, Chester, Farnum, Ashton, Marysville and Ora. FH: Now those were the wards of the Yellowstone Stake? Fremont. No, Yellowstone. That was Yellowstone Stake. The Yellowstone Stake. Yellowstone Stake. 25

26 In In 1909 when they were organized. Some of those were done away. Yellowstone Stake became the 60 th stake in the Church to be organized. The General Authority present at the organizing of Yellowstone Stake were: Apostle George F. Richards and David O. McKay. The new Stake Presidency and clerk were as follows: Daniel G. Miller present, sustained January 10, 1909, released January 11, 1925, served sixteen years. Marion J. Kirk, counselor, served the same length of time. James E. Fog was second counselor and he went in at that time, have no date on his release. Chester B. Walker was the clerk and he was sustained at that time and no date of his release. At the death of James E. Fog, however, Charles C. Lloyd was sustained as second counselor. LeGrand Robertson was Stake Patriarch. Quarterly Stake Conferences were held in the Fog and Jacobs Hall. That s right across the street from where the old tabernacle was built. They started building the tabernacle between August 14 and September 24, It took approximately seven years to build at a cost of $79, and was dedicated on October by President Joseph F. Smith, President of the LDS church. January 11, 1925, Yellowstone Stake Presidency was reorganized as follows, with elders George F. Richards and Joseph Fielding Smith in attendance, John M. White became the second president sustained January 11, 1925 and served eleven years, George H. Lowe, first counselor, was sustained at the same time, no day of release, Carl C. Clinger was sustained the same date, and he was released January the fifth, He served... He served the full time. And Leonard Kingsford was clerk and he was sustained the same day January 11, Fred Mason was clerk and O. K. Meservie was clerk, they had two clerks. Due to moving away, Brother George H. Lowe was released and Bishop W. W. Spiers was sustained as counselor. How do you spell his name? Spiers? S-P-I-E-R-S OK. He was a furniture man. Then when Bishop Spiers moved away, Brother E. Glenn Cameron was sustained as a counselor. January 5, 1936 Yellowstone Stake Presidency was reorganized as follows with President of the Quorum of the Twelve Ruggard Clawson presiding, 26

27 Orson Hesh, President, January 5, 1936, released December 16, 1945, serving ten years. Carl C. Clinger, counselor, January 5, When he moved away he was released but there is no date. E. Glenn Cameron was the second counselor and on the same date was sustained. And O. K. Meservie sustained as clerk the same date. And they both served full ten years. Due to moving away, Brother Carl C. Clinger was released and Brother Alexander E. Archibald was sustained as counselor. Then on December the seventh, 1941 the first seminary in St. Anthony was dedicated. And December 16, 1945 Yellowstone Stake Presidency reorganized as follows with Apostles Mark E. Peterson and Matthew Cauley present, William J. Lewis, president, December 16, 1943 to December 8, 1957, twelve years. Edgar O. Westerberg, counselor, sustained the same date and released the same date. Harold Davenport, counselor, sustained the same date and he passed away and was released October 1, 1952 serving six years and nine months. Gordon Hillman, clerk, December 16, 1945 and released April 30, He also passed away, each of them as a result of cancer. And Hubert E. Hackworth was sustained as clerk, September 28, 1950 and he served until the change was made in December 8, Now President why don t we just focus attention on the twelve years that you served between, what 1943 to 45 to 57. Between 1945 to Focus on those years and perhaps you would be gracious enough to share some of the accomplishments that took place in the stake during that twelve year period. OK. Yellowstone Stake 1945 to 1957, those twelve years, consisted of the lower areas stake including assignment that we received from Steven L. Richards. All ward buildings were small buildings the stake Are you going to tell him what the assignment was there? Did you? Oh maybe you did. Alright. Were buildings with no classrooms, curtains were drawn to make classrooms for the auxiliary organizations. The First and second St. Anthony wards were using the tabernacle as their meeting places. Parker Ward had renovated their building, made classrooms, etc. Ashton was near in completion of their new chapel. Marysville and Farnum Wards were made as one ward. Also Heman and Egin were joined together into the Egin Bench Ward. The building programs were encouraged for all these wards. Seven new chapels were built during this period. In May 1947, a 312 welfare farm was purchased for 45,000 dollars and paid for in a short period, proved to be one of the great blessings coming to the Yellowstone Stake in the Church. This was during the period when the Church commodities were being sent by carloads to the starving saints in Europe. And we had terrific assignments in helping to provide the commodities with for these people in 27

28 Europe. Purchase of the Tri-Stake Girl s Camp, the two Rexburg Stakes and the Yellowstone Stake purchased the buildings and part of the land of Jack Young s ranch for this girl s camp. President, during that period of time do you have anything pertaining to the increased activity of your stake, your sacrament meeting attendance percentage and some things like that, where there is some noticeable growths. Do you recall? During the beginning of at period the sacrament meeting attendance was at the low end due to some difficult situations in some of the wards. And the facilities. And the facilities. That s why they started on the large chapel building program. And we saw an increase from 10 to 12 percent attendance at sacrament meetings to in the 30 s and up to 40 percent in some instances after we got these new Church buildings during this period. The tithing increased tremendously through having better facilities and through these other things that came in this period of time. This is a question, in the Yellowstone Stake, it embraced about what population? Now, perhaps, I should say... Membership. In the Yellowstone Stake environment or within that geographical area you had a total population of people, and how many were Latter-day Saints members? Maybe 50 percent? 60 percent? Our membership in the Stake at that time was around 50 or 5,000 membership in the Stake. About how many? 5500? No, five thousand. About five thousand? Approximately five thousand. And the county, the whole county population at that time was approximately 10,000. So it was about 50 percent. About 50 percent. And the membership at the present time, well the time when we were released was about 5,400. So it didn t increase that much after that. And I 28

29 think it remained pretty stable through the administration of the one that followed me. Who were your successors, the stake presidents? Just the stake presidents? Just the stake presidents. Who followed you? Mike C. Mortensen became the president when I was released and after he was released, he served ten years, and then Robert D. Orem followed President Mortensen as the next stake president. He served about seven years. And he was released in 1967, so that was approximately ten... No, seven years I thought. Oh, yeah. And after President Orem who served? Robert Smith. And then Robert Smith. Robert Smith followed him and now we have Neil Kunz. Neil Kunz. Well, that s great. Well, President I can believe that you were a busy person during those years with your ecclesiastical responsibilities in addition to providing a livelihood for your family in a grocery store, etc. Did you had time for some community activities? Not very much, we did socialize in the community with the both nonmembers and members in some activities. And I was a member of the Chamber of the Commerce during those forty years that I was in business. And I wasn t too active member because of the tremendous responsibility I had to putting in eight, nine hours a day in the grocery store in the balance of the time and as Stake President because I served all my period of time as the Stake President while I was in the grocery business. And then he was eight years as stake president of the Sunday school, stake superintendent of Yellowstone Stake. Before? Prior to being the stake president. 29

30 And on the high council. I was on the High Council for two of those years and I was on that because of the rationing. Gasoline. Gas rationing. So I represented the stake presidency on the high council for the last two years that I served as stake Sunday school superintendent, took care of the Sunday school. Eight years of that. Prior to going on to stake president. And then after I was released from the Stake President I served as Area Supervisor for the Stake Mission, for all the Stake Missions in eight stakes in this area, from Idaho Falls North Stake to all those Star Valley, Teton, two Rigby stakes, two Rexburg Stakes, Yellowstone Stake, Teton Stake. That s a tremendous responsibility there. Yeah. There was that and I was traveling whenever they had a quarterly conference and when they had any missionary conference on the Saturday Nights, so I was called out to participate in that and also visiting the Stake Mission Presidents on various occasions. And then after that I was called to Ricks College, served there on High Council for five years and then called back into Yellowstone. Which Stake did you serve? 1st Stake was organized and we went in when the 1st Stake was organized with J. Wendell Stucki. As the Stake President? Stake President. I see. And then following that they called me back into the Yellowstone Stake as Patriarch. And you still are the patriarch? I m 30

31 You still serve as a patriarch. Yes. I am still the patriarch, you re always a patriarch. Once you re a patriarch When you ordained a patriarch it s ordination of course it remains with you and I ve, because of the moving to Arizona for about half the year that I put... [phone rings]. Inaudible. Let s turn just for a few moments as we come to the close of this sharing and have you Sister Lewis tell us about your community activities. Of course, you had a family and I d wanna talk to you about your family in the next question. But first, during those, some forty years, that your husband was laboring and serving and so on, did you have occasion and opportunity to lead the home and your family enough to be involved in some community activities? Well, it was mostly Church. I did belong to the Federated Women s Club and was active in that, gave book reports and things like that. And then I did a lot of singing in choirs and as a sextet, there were six of us who sang at lots of funerals and seemed like that the bishop of the ward was always calling us if the family didn t know who to have and they d have us. And I did a lot of secretary work. I started at age thirteen to be a secretary and I ve done an awful lot. The eight years he was the superintendent of the Sunday school, I was a stake Sunday school secretary and then when he went into of stake president I used to type up his letters. I was sort of a secretary to him as he was the Stake President. And then when he traveled with the missionary work I also did that. And I ve served in all the organizations as the secretary and as counselor. I have never served as a president of an organization but I ve taught in all the other auxiliaries and served as secretary in some of them, but I ve done quite a considerable teaching and spiritual living leader in various Sunday school classes in the Stake Primary. And I ve been active in Church along. Who sang a lot with you in the sextet? Well, Ada Christensen was the instigator you may say. She was the one who was in charge of us and, I ll have to think, it was in the early days. Did Blanche? No I was never able to sing with her. 31

32 She didn t Not only in choir I used to sing with her in stake choir. Why don t you share with me something about your family? How many children, and their names and brag about them a little bit and their accomplishments. Well, William J. Lewis was our first baby and he was born in the school out in Twin groves and he has his PhD from the University of Florida. He s in communications. He s in University of Vermont in the winter time and in the summer he s now twenty eight years at the University of Vermont. And he was active in the Church and District President and president of the branch in Burlington, Vermont. And in the summer time for twenty eight years he spent, not a ranger really, a communications man up in the Yellowstone Park, the last few years been holding seminars with the newcomers who come in there to tell the Yellowstone story, the story of Yellowstone. He s been holding these seminars and helping them to really tell the Yellowstone story in the right way or the way they like it to be told. Right now he s in Seattle at the University of Washington on a leave of absence. He has four children. And then our daughter Marilyn she s, their living in Fall River Mills in California at the present time. She s active in Relief Society and she was one of the charter members of the Melodares up at the St. Anthony before they moved away. Then Margaret is our daughter and she lives in Boise at the present time. Both the girls attended Ricks College, but they didn t graduate from there. And she s married to Ted Ellis and he s an administrative officer of the Idaho Bank and Trust in the state of Idaho and Ted Ellis is a native of Rexburg and for the last year and a half they ve been in Boise since he got this new position. And that s where we held our sixteenth Wedding Anniversary this year. And then Robert spent a lot of time in the air force, married and has five children. Twenty-two years in the air force and he s a lieutenant colonel, and oh what shall I say about him. He graduated from the BYU, been active in various church activities and he s in business in Richmond, Washington at the present time. Then Carla, she married Jerry Hicks from here and they were in the service and he was in the army. He retired as lieutenant colonel. He s in business in Reno, Nevada. And she also attended, took some classes from Ricks, however dd go to the Y. She s active in church. Then our daughter Karen is out baby. She came nine years after the other children were born and she was our bonus. She graduated from Ricks College and also from the BYU, and she is very active in the Church, and her husband s active in the bishopric and she s teaching spiritual living. And he belongs to a Law Firm in 32