Voices From the Past Life History of Dorcas Clayton Interviewees: Dorcas Clayton, Ellie C. Forbush, and Jeanine Forbush February 8, 1970 Tape #86 Oral Interview conducted by Harold Forbush Transcribed by: Chase Rockwood April 2009 Edited by: Erin Cervo Brigham Young University Idaho
Harold Forbush: (Inaudible) February of 1970 here in Rexburg. We have here to interview Sister Dorcas Clayton, and her daughter Ellie C. Forbush and her daughter Jeanine Forbush. Inaudible) and talk about (inaudible) in the Idaho Falls area. Sister Clayton I d like to ask you, would you kindly state your full name and your date and place of birth. Dorcas Clayton: My name is Dorcas Flord Clayton. I was born the 13 th of February 1885 in Roxboro, Person County, North Carolina. Well this takes us back a long, long way and back into the southern states below the Mason and Dixie line and I believe you re the first person to be interviewed, by myself at least, who has come from the South. Now, I think this is very interesting, could you tell us a little about your mother, what her name was? Well, it was Martha Ann Hicks Flord. And your father s name? Nochel Blaire Slaughter. And had these people lived in this community where you were born for a few generations? All of their lives. All of their lives. Were they farmers? Your mother and dad were farmers? And what crops did they grow? Well, cotton, tobacco, wheat, and a little oats, corn, sweet potatoes; I think that s about all. In this area where you were born, what large city or cities are located? Well Roxboro was the nearest city and the largest one close by me. I see. Now what other real large ones, maybe the capital? What part of the state is this located? In what part of the state? Durham, North Carolina was Raleigh was the capital.
Is Roxboro quite near? Yes, about three miles from where I was born. I see. Now in the history of your family, the Slaughter Family, did they ever hold slaves? Or would you know? My grandfather owned slaves. And they assisted him in his plantation. Worked for him. I see. Were they people who owned plantations, a large farming area? You mean Your grandfather. Oh my grandfather had a large farm. And it was your grandfather on your mother s side that Father s side. on the Father s side that had the slaves? I see. Do you recall any experience that has been handed down, concerning slave holding in your family? Well it s been a long time, I can t remember much. I do remember my father telling about one of the slave women that you know that would get something the matter with them and they wouldn t know what was wrong, and this one got sick and she died and they couldn t give an account on what caused her death, so after she died they took the hand saw and sawed her head open to see what was if they could find what was the matter with her, but I don t think they found what was the matter with her and I heard my dad say they stuck the saw in the running water you know the ground was soft and they let it stay there where they sawed her head open, and that s about all I remember about slavery. Kind of a, kind of a gory thing isn t it. Yeah, cruel.
Yeah, but a, well now had your mother and father received the gospel? No, no, none of the family but me. Where did you receive the gospel through the Mormon missionaries? Do you remember their names? Well this was, Elder Feek and Elder Godwin, I don t recall their given names. And do you know where they are from? Well Elder Feek was from Oregon and Elder Godwin was from Salt Lake City. I see. I went to his home after I came out here. And you and your husband and family embraced the gospel? And when was the gospel taken to you? Well it was before 1918. You were living on the, your husband I was married. We were living, let s see, we was living in my husband s father s, on his farm. On his farm, I see. Did the missionaries spend quite a long time with you? Spent quite a while with us. Were there other families that were converts at that time? Not of my families. But maybe of neighbors? There was a neighbor or two.
Did they come to Salt Lake, or come out west also? No. Sister Clayton, what were the facts or circumstances which induced you and your husband and family to move out to Idaho. Well I ll tell you, to begin with we wasn t respectable back there in that country at that time the Mormons were joined the church you know, and we came up here for the gospel and to have a church to go to and we wanted to and to be with people to associate with our faith, that was the main thing. Well why didn t you decide to settle in Salt Lake or some place like this? What were the facts that encouraged you to come to Eastern Idaho into the Upper Snake River Valley? Well it was a friend of ours had been out here and he was coming back to Idaho and we came with him and that s why we settled in Idaho. And now was this in the Idaho Falls area? In Ucon. In Ucon. How did you come up? On a train. On train. And at that time when you and your husband came, how many children did you bring with you? Six. You brought six children with you? {inaudible} was a baby. Now, let s see, six came with you and how many have been born to you and your husband since coming? Six more, four more. Four more. So you ve been the mother of ten children.
Well isn t that remarkable. Now can you give me their names starting with the oldest? You don t mean their full names? Just their first names. Wilfred, Ellie, Stanley, Hyrum, Meryl, Alma, and Zelma and Eugene, Dolly and Talmage. And Talmage. Now as we re interviewing here, and it s only fair to state this, I have before, she s receiving just a little bit of help from her daughter Ellie and granddaughter Jeanine, and this is fine and if any comments would like to be made to make this recording accurate, this is fine, feel free. Now, Sister Clayton after you arrived here in Idaho did you and your husband decide to take up farming or how did you earn your livelihood? No, he was a day laborer. He worked {inaudible} I see. We had a little place we raised a big garden on. Uh huh. And you ve worked too out of the home, haven t you, over the years? I worked in the Hospital for, I don t know, five or six years I guess, and then at the temple six or seven years. Did you ever have a chance to go back to North Carolina to visit? I ve been back three or four, five or six times. And you were the only child of your mother s and father s children to join the Church. Have any of them joined since in more recent year. No. No. Do they still live back in the Roxboro area? What s living is now but three, not the three of us living. Did any of your husband s family join?
No, or did they? Oh yes, my husband. Your husband s brother joined. My husband s two brothers joined. I see. Sam and Ernest. Now that s the Slaughter name isn t it? Clayton. Oh excuse me, your name was Slaughter Slaughter. You know there is a professor here at Ricks College who has been in charge of the band music for several years, Professor Jay Slaughter, a very outstanding man; would be kind of interesting, wouldn t it, to find out? I have sent up to see if he knew anything, at least I sent my pedigree sheet up there. Oh did you? By one of my grandchildren, but he didn t know anything about it. I see. Well now you mentioned that you worked at the Hospital. The LDS Hospital? In your experiences working there you undoubtedly you have some pleasant recollections or memories of those with whom you worked, whom you knew quite well? Can you call to mind anyone or persons who you especially favored in your employment there at the LDS Hospital over the years? Well I don t believe I can. I only worked for, I worked in the kitchen a big part of the time and I liked those ladies in there, but I can t recall their names.
Who was you wouldn t know who the administrator was at the Hospital during those years? Traina was one and Simpson was another one. That were administrators? Now you mentioned that you worked at the temple, was this in the kitchen? Kitchen, linen room, baptism room. Now was this shortly after the temple was opened? Yes, I worked under President Smith and President Killpack. President Killpack yes, and President Sears he was there too. Now he would have been with the The Council. I see, now when you were with the baptismal part of it, under whom did you work? Well Brother Wole and Swindeman was too, was Fred or John, I don t know. Fred I think, Fred Swindeman and Brother Wole s, I knew both of those brethren quite well. Well this is very interesting. Well you ve, I think you ve mentioned that you came out here prior to 1918. And uh, so this means that you ve lived about fifty-two years in the Ucon/Idaho Falls area. Mm-hmm And I suppose you ve seen a great change. Quite a bit. Who was your Bishop in the Ucon area as you recall when you first came out?
Bishop Robert Andress. Robert Andress, I see. And you and your husband, I assume, were quite active in the ward? Well he was a teacher and so was I. I see. I was Relief Society teacher most of the time and I worked as a Religion Class teacher, primary teacher, I think that s. Sister Clayton do you have any comments of your church activity, any events that may have taken place that maybe should be mentioned on the tape, some important event or events that took place during those years with your family or as it might be connected with your ward that you d like to tell us about? Well, I ve had a lot of sickness and I ve had a lot of healing by the Elders, that s the biggest thing I think I can say. And this is in your own behalf or your children s? It was me and my children. And your children. And these experiences of course have magnified your faith and the power of healing and testimony of the divinity of the Church. And it s another story I d like to tell, but my speech is so bad it d be hard for me to tell this all the evil spirits cast out of a lady that lived in beside of me on that side of the house, you know. Uh huh. That was the most faith promoting thing you would ever imagine. Now this happened at After we got out here. In Ucon. No, in Idaho Falls. In Idaho Falls, I see.
Did you remember Clarence Crowley? The name is familiar, but I can t really say. Judge Crowley? Um-hmm. Well we lived right there by him and it s a long story, but we held that lady on the bed from, oh what s it, nine o clock until twelve or one o clock, until Bishop Crabtree could get from up here at Rexburg, it was conference until he could get home and come over and administer to her. She was just raging just like someone crazy and they administered to her and she turned over and thanked them and she was completely worn out, and that s the biggest thing in my life. That would be quite a stirring experience wouldn t it? There s a lot to it, but I haven t got the speech to tell it. Well, we appreciate these comments, we do. Ellie Forbush, now where does she fit in the family and then maybe you can answer for yourself Ellie; which number are you? Ellie Forbush: Well, I m number two. Your number two. Of the ten. And what was your date of birth and place? Well, I was born November the 15 th 1909 in Roxboro, North Carolina. Mm-hmm, and of course you came out with your family as a member. Yes, in 1921. And had you been baptized? Yes, I was baptized in the South. In the South. Just before we left.
Do you remember where, I mean, excuse me, do you remember who baptized you? Um, Byrum Butler and Elder Nephi, I believe, I m not sure, but it was in the Appomattox River; I remember that. In the Appomattox River. Did it flow through the It was near there, I couldn t tell you I was only just a few years old when we came out here, I was, I don t remember how old. I don t remember too much about it. You remember the experience of coming out here? You bet. It was a long ride. Oh yes, I d imagine. Six kids and the youngest one was only six weeks old when Mama left, she was just a babe in arms. Now you came out her and enrolled in schooling in the Ucon area, Idaho Falls. Yeah, see my dad s brother Sam Clayton was already out here and lived in Ucon and he provided us a place to stay until my dad could buy a home in Ucon there. And we slept he had a big spud cellar and a lot of us slept in the spud cellar and helped with the farming and the house work and everything, you know, to pay our way. Under what circumstances did you meet Art Forbush, your husband? Well, when I graduated, I graduated in 1924 and I think it was 24, it s been a long time too, but anyway then my dad was up at the mine, west of Driggs, Tom Clayton they all called him, Thomas Hugh to be exact. He was mining up to Sam? Sam, around there, coal mine and he needed someone to come up there and keep house for him and I was available, so I went up and stayed with him and at that time I had a chance to go work in the cookhouse for a Mr. and Mrs. John Cluff that ran the cookhouse and I didn t take all of my time to keep house for my dad, so he said he d take me over to the cookhouse if I wanted to go take a job. So I went and worked the cook shack and for all the miners, there s about one hundred and fifty that ate there, and we cooked and washed dishes. This is when I met Art, he came in and there were four big long tables in the dining room and he went down and sat on the very end of the last table, so I had to carry everything down
there, all the food down there. There was two of us girls that waited tables and we had to carry the food around. Who was the other girl? Leida Cluff the daughter of the people that ran it. And she is now married to? Nolan Thompson Nolan Thompson. Now isn t this interesting. So anyway it kind of made me a little angry that I d have to carry all the food down there because he got up from where the rest of them were, but he just kind of stuck out in my mind and, I don t know, we just seemed to have a mutual understanding right off. Well, isn t this interesting. Now you say this was maybe in the summer of 24? 25 I believe, something like 24 or 25, something like that when I went to work. Do you remember the Michsael s? Henry and Edna. Edna Michsael, I lived with them after I quit the cookhouse for a while. She was a school teacher there and I kept house for them, they had two boys and they just adopted me as their daughter, in fact they introduced me as their daughter everywhere we went and since then she has passed away. Did she like to talk then? She never ran down, she was a good soul. You know, I knew her so well. She was a good person. I knew her so, so well. I lived with them for years.
Well, let s see; well this is very interesting, I could probably be diverted here to go into some other channels of conversation, but I guess we d better stick to the subject namely how you met Art Forbush, and you stated and you were subsequent married, what date and where? July 13 th 1927. Now, we drove from the mine up there, we wanted to be married down out down and around home and have a bishop or someone we knew, and we stopped at Rexburg to get a marriage license, and of course it was just a few minutes after time so they were closed so we hurried on down to Rigby and thought maybe we could there on time to get the marriage license so we could get married that night, and they d closed, and this President Sayer that later was a councilor in the temple was the recorder at that time. And they told us they were At the Idaho Falls Court House? It was in Rigby. Oh at the Idaho Falls, Rigby. I see. But it was they told us were Brother Sayer lived, so we went over to his house and he just took one look at us and he said, Just a minute and I ll get my hat. He knew what we wanted. He knew you were ready. So he came on down and gave us a marriage license and we went on to Ucon and Mama called up a few neighbors and friends and we went over to Bishop Robert Andress and we were married that night. And Robert Andress, the Bishop, married you? In his home. Well isn t this real fun. Well, now when you were courting Art, did he pretty much go by the name of Art Forbush at that time or was it Art? No, no it was Wood Art Wood. He had been taught that he was, well he was sealed to Wood, but they told us later on that he adopted him alright, but they didn t go through the laws of the land to change the name and we didn t know this until I got interested and the children got in school and I found out that their name was still, that our name was Forbush, so when we moved from Teton down to Blackfoot and the kids were in a new
school and new town I went to the school teachers and told them that we were changing the name to Forbush and since then we ve taken on the name of Forbush. EL: Now did you get acquainted somewhat with their stepfather, Walt Wood? Walt Wood, yes we lived with him for a while when we were first married after the mine closed down and we lost our first baby then he had to go to Jackson to find work and I lived with the Wood Family while he got employment. And, of course, you came to know their mother. Yes, very well. That is Art s mother; and what comments would you have to make about her? She was one of the best; I couldn t say anything bad about her. Of course, she was my father s aunt and I also knew Aunt May. Let s see, her full name was Clara May. Clara May and we called her Aunt May, didn t we? I was in the area of the night of the storm when the lightning struck and she was hit by the lightning and I suppose lived just a few days didn t she? And now Art had a younger or older A younger brother. A younger brother John. Just fifteen months younger, we called him Jack. And I guess he and Art were pretty close as brothers were they not? Very close, yes they were. They didn t live very close together, Jackson got married and his wife got tuberculosis so he had to move Arizona for her health which she later died and then he remarried and he just lived down there then to pay off his bills and other things, got a good job, so he stayed. But he passed
away just thirty one days after my husband did. He had cancer of the face and they had performed several deformity surgeries on him. Well now Ellie, how did you Did you ever become acquainted with Art s father? I never met his father. He was only two years or so old and Jack wasn t born yet when his father died. I see, and his name was Elijor Jonathon or Jonathon Elijor I m not real sure which way it was. Jack was named after him, but one was reversed from the other, one was Elijor Jonathon and one was Jonathon Elijor Forbush. Now these boys had been born I suppose in the Idaho Falls area? In Iona, yes. In Iona. But you knew Art s grandfather; that is to say Grandfather Forbush, excuse me, I beg your pardon. I knew his grandmother. You knew his grandmother, I meant to say grandmother. His grandmother Kerstina. Kerstina. I knew her very well. Kerstina Jonsson Forbush. What comments could you make about her? What are some of the things you recall about the lady? Well, when we were married we were taught a little bit against the Forbush s and I made it a point to investigate on my own. My husband, I don t believe, had seen his grandmother for years and I think he was more or less afraid or ashamed to go see her from some of the comments that he d heard and so I took the kids myself when they were real little and I found out where she lived and came to Idaho Falls and took them over there and introduced myself because it was, I thought it was real grand that they could have a great grandmother and not meet her. So I went over and introduced myself and the children and she was a little reluctant at first because she was sure that the children had been adopted and sealed and everything to Bishop Wood, but I assured her that they hadn t changed their name and so she was real nice to us. She told us some real interesting things and treated us just wonderful and invited us back time and time again and we went back.
And she used to tell us of some of the old pioneer things, how she planted all of the posts around the one hundred and sixty acres there in the Iona area. Her husband hauled a post down from the hill on a horse and wagon and she would dig the post holes and set them herself. Isn t that amazing? And how she used to make dandelion wine out of the dandelion flowers and they kept it as a, well it was kind of a spring tonic. It wasn t for to get drunk on or anything, but it was just as a tonic that they used it for. Some wonderful things that she told me. Now, the ranch that they homesteaded was where the KID Tower broadcasting antenna is located. That s right. And they owned that, I guess, for many years, didn t they? In fact the old homestead home where the most of the family was born was still there. We took a picture of it not to a couple three years ago. It was still on this ranch. They were using it for stitching out shed of some kind; but it was still there and we got pictures of it where Art and Zac were born and some of the rest of the family lived. Now, when you went to visit Great Grandmother Kerstina Forbush, was this at her home on Hill Street? This was a rock home, wasn t it? Yes, where she lived at the time that she passed away. And if I recall correctly, Great Grandmother Forbush was in her 90s. 92 years old. 92. She left quite a legacy for our family although she died as a poor woman. She had it, but she left it for her family. She had gotten her endowments, hadn t she?
Prior to her passing? And had tried to be active in the church and at least she was a believer. Yes she was. She left quite a load of money for the Relief Society, as I understand. When she passed away she left some to the Relief Society. And her sons, some of them survived her, of course. Ben and Hyrum. Did Hyrum survive her? He was alive at that time. Hyrum survived. And Mary Crowley? And Mrs. Heindel I can t think of her name. Mrs. Jack Heindel. Was alive at the time. Ella St. Laurence was alive or I guess, I guess your dad and Well that would be Grandfather Forbush. Your grandfather I mean. He had passed away about then. I think he and Art s father had passed away before she did. Yeah, they had. And so that made quite a few of them, but of her children now all of them are deceased aren t they? Yes they are; they re all gone. All of her Mary was the last one. They ve all passed away.
She was a rather active lady too for her age, wasn t she as you recall? Very active. She had flower gardens you wouldn t believe and fruit trees and she just took a really active part out in the yard. I was surprised. At 90 and 91 years old she was not helpless by any means. She lived alone though. She lived alone and you d go there and she d have something always nice to give you to eat. She had something really special and she really made a fuss over the children after we got acquainted. But she s kind of hard to get acquainted with at first, but after she found out we meant no harm and we were her friends and, you know, she just really treated us nice. She had come from Sweden, as I understand it, when she was just a little girl. I am assuming that she lost all of the, so-called, Swedish accent in manner of speech. Would this be so? I think so she talked a little different, but not a lot. I couldn t detect any accent that I can think of. Did she still retain her good health physically and mentally? She was mentally sharp right up until the end. She was very active. Her eyesight and her hearing were all fine? Well that s I m glad She was a remarkable person. I m glad to know these things. Now, Ellie, following your marriage how many children have you and Art reared to maturity? We ve reared two children, a boy, Donald, and a girl, Jeanine. And Donald is living where?
He s living in Bountiful, Utah Richmond, I mean, Utah. And he has four children. He has the oldest son is in Phoenix on an LDS mission. Terminate this fall. Uh huh, did he marry a local girl? He married a girl from Idaho Falls, Jaralee Thompson. Mm-hmm, and then your daughter Jeanine is with us today, and Jeanine where do you live? Jeanine Forbush: I live with mom in Idaho Falls. Uh huh wonderful. Now I know that some years ago, two years back, you served a mission. As I remember you first you, I really became aware of you when you were working at the LDS Temple as a stenographer. Mm-hmm, I typed the men s names for their sealing s and endowments. Now you worked under President Killpack or President Killpack. President Killpack. This was a lovely experience I assume. It really was; you meet so many good people. And following this, you served a mission? Right, from 55 to 56. And where was this? Great Lakes. And since then you ve been home and working in the Idaho Falls area? No, I worked for about ten years in Salt Lake for the Church also. Oh that s right, and this is in the Church Building Department. Department. For President Mendenhall
And he more or less managed the office? He was the chairman of the building committee at that time. And did you become acquainted with some of the architects? The building architects? Oh yes. Who would you like to comment on? Gee, the architect that did the Oakland Temple and I can t think of his name right off hand and of course all of the Young s that were the generations of the architects of the temples and the buildings around Salt Lake. I became acquainted with most of the Apostles. I went over to the office of President Mckay several times. Well, you just associate very closely with all of the leaders of the Church. Did you know Mahonri Young, the sculptor? I met him once. I m just trying to think of some of the building architects of the church for the temples and new buildings. I wish I could think of this man that was the architect of most of the temples at that time. He was an older man. Was it a Stone? No. I, I don t recall now just uh He designed the plans for the Idaho Falls Temple and the ones over in New Zealand, Switzerland, England, Oakland, and had just started the Los Angeles, of course, when the building committee changed. The Church Historians Office reads this and hears it Well, no. If we can t they ll send a special letter up to inform as to who that was, and you know I should know. Me too.
I ve heard the architect s many times, his name, but I m going to I m just blank too on that. I ll go home and look at my pictures and then I ll let you know. Well, this was a choice experience. Very much so. And about how many girls they have working in that office at that time when you first starting working? In the Building Department itself we had, I would say, around 200 girls. And that s probably increased now. Well no. When President Garth wasn t put in, he went back to general contractor and of course under Mendenhall they were working under labor missionaries. And supervisors too, weren t they? Right and so, of course, the employment dropped off very, very drastically when President Garth went in. Is he still the? 41.08 As far as I know he is. He s still head of the Building Department. Umm-hmm Then of more recent years then you ve been working in the Idaho Falls area. Since my father s death. Since your father s passing away. When did he pass away? The date. Oh he passed away on his birthday, April 26, 1965. There at Idaho Falls? Uh-huh, in the hospital.
Well now Sister Ellie Forbush, you mentioned that following your marriage you had lived in the Teton City, is this correct? We lived, well we lived at Driggs until the mine closed down. Oh I see. And then we moved down to Idaho Falls. Then we moved back to Teton City and then to Blackfoot, wherever he could find work. But we did live at the mine until we lost the baby up there and the mine closed down and then we had to seek employment somewhere else. Was he involved what was he doing farm work in the Blackfoot area? He was hauling hay for Bishop Harwood Anderson down there. And then prior to his death he was in with the service station. He was with Richfield Oil, yes he did. He had other work, but that was his main occupation was Service Station Operator. During your marriage you have done quite a lot of work too, haven t you? I mean on the side, out of the home. Yes I have, I was advised to go to work. Well I m kind of a nervous type of person and the doctor said if I get away maybe it would help, so I ve been working out for the last 20-25 years. At the present time I have a drapery shop in my home and there self-employed. During these years were you somewhat involved in sewing and doing draperies and other sewing work? Not until my husband passed away did I have a shop in my home. I was working out of home and other places. Now I ve cooked at the Idaho Falls Temple too for about four years. That s about the same time your mother was there. Yes, we were there together. Oh. We were at the hospital together. We worked at the hospital together. We d just kind of fill in when we had to have a little extra money. It comes in handy.
Do you have any comments of the individuals whom you associated at work, for whom you worked at the hospital and the temple? Any comments? Well, I don t know of anything really special. I remember it was Greta Jakes that was our boss there at the hospital and I was always one that could just dead beat, if I had anything to do I d hurry and get it done and I d have my days work done before the half the shift was gone and I didn t know what to do and so he d just say, Well, he said, The rest of them takes all day to do what you do in a half a day, so just sneak away when you get a chance. So that s the way I d do that. I thought it was quite remarkable of him that he d do that for me. And at the temple, I don t know, it was just a rich experience all the way through. They would come down and have their dinner about 11 or 11:30 and then they d get the work done and then I d probably take a session through in the afternoon before I d go home a lot of times. I thought that was really enjoyable. I enjoyed it. Now these were the years immediately after the temple opened or in the late 40s? It was the 1946, I believe, that I worked there and washed dishes, and then a few years later then I went and worked four years and cooked under President Killpack. I especially enjoyed my occasional temple visits with Brother Killpack, having known him, you know, in the Driggs area, and this is always a choice experience to go there and chat with him. He was our postmaster when he lived in Driggs after we got married and moved from the mines into Driggs for awhile, well he was our postmaster, so I knew him all the years too. And along with that, Ellie, you probably remember Evan Floyd. Yes I do, very well. He carried the mail out there to you, didn t he? Yes, he not only did that, he brought the doctor that delivered our first baby from Driggs to the mine. Is that right (laughter)? In a covered sleigh with a little coal stove inside the covered sleigh to keep warm. That was a long trip, about 12 miles he had to go into Driggs and get the doctor and come back. All this time I was impatiently waiting (laughter).
That d be quite an experience. Well now, Sister Clayton, we ve kind of left you alone there for a few minutes. I m wondering if you can recall for us some of the, oh, southern traditions or customs in the Rocksberry? Roxboro. Roxboro. I knew I wasn t quite saying it right In the Roxboro area. Can you tell us some of the southern customs that you well remember as a little girl and up to the time of your marriage and your leaving? Well Olsa and me, well I don t know exactly This is taking you back a long, long time, isn t it? I know right now, I know what was I don t know what was Some of the food might be interesting. Food? Well food was Side Two continuing the interview with Sister Dorcas Clayton, Ellie Clayton Forbush, her daughter and Jeanine Forbush, her granddaughter. It s different there from what it is here. Uh huh. It was cooked different and it tastes different. We ate lots of these black-eyed peas, turnips and greens, and oh things that you have here mostly we ate there. My dad raised a lot of cotton on his farm. Uh huh. That s what you make quilt out of. We had to pick that cotton when it, the bulbs burst open and you know, get white. We d have to pick it and then we d lay it by the fire at night and let it get hot, we picked seed out of that. Then we carded homemade cards, I mean by hand, make rolls to spin and make a batch to lay down for quilt, we did all of that on the farm. Now would you plant the cotton and harvest it all pretty much by hand? Yes, he planted it himself. In those days there wasn t much in the way of machinery to assist.
No machinery, we had to send. We didn t send the cotton off to the mill, but we did send wool off the sheep to the mill and have that in rolls, you know little tiny rolls, so we could spin on the spinning wheel and make thread to knit socks and stockings, along with the cotton thread. In other words your mother in your home and the family made quite a lot of the regular wearing clothes that you used. Now you mentioned your father also grew tobacco? Was much of this also done by hand? All was done through hand, horses. A lot of cultivation to be done I suppose. Yeah, we had a hoe work to do; we did a lot of hoe work. Now that would be with the tobacco and the cotton? And corn. And corn. Well now once you got out here to Idaho I think you mentioned that you had some very fine gardens in the Idaho Falls area. Yes I did. And I imagine you ve continued to have a garden up until quite recent years. I have until year before last, I believe, was the last garden I made. Well this is real fine, well to be actively engaged in that and it s quite amazing the amount of produce and good that a garden will do one as he
You make a lot if you stick with it and work it. Well this is fine. Have you enjoyed planting flowers and working with flowers? I haven t worked much with flowers because I d rather work with something you could eat (laughter). That s what I worked with. Ellie, have you had much experience at planting, taking care of flowers at your home? Well a few, mostly garden stuff, but we do have flowers around. We ve always had a good garden like Mama says; we pride ourselves in raising our own food as much as possible. That s real fine. Well now Sister Clayton as we close, do you have any comment that you might wish to leave to your grandchildren, your great grandchildren, any appreciation that you might wish to express about the gospel having come out to Idaho to live among the Latter-Day Saints? If you have any comments, we d sure like hear any. Oh well I appreciate the gospel very much and if they will follow my footsteps I don t think they will go very wrong. So I appreciate the grandchildren and what they ve done for me and I hope I ve helped them some. How many grandchildren do you have? Well I don t know now, I d have to count them and some of them I can t recall how many they ve got. I see. But it s quite a few. And you ve have some great grandchildren? Yes, quite a few great grandchildren and one great, great grandchild. Is that right? Well isn t that marvelous. It s been a real joy for me this afternoon to chat with you Sister Clayton and Ellie and Jeanine and the three generations here represented. I think it s real fine had we been able to be selective, I imagine we could have gotten the five generations couldn t we? Could have done it. Yeah, that s if we had been real fortunate in getting that great grandchild of yours.
Well we ve enjoyed it, as well. Well I appreciate you being here. Thanks a lot to you both. Thank you. Thank you. In the interview with Ellie Forbush some comment was made relative to the Forbush name and owing to the fact that there are a very, very few Forbush families in the area. I am taking upon myself, Harold Sanford Forbush, the one making the interview, to give some supplemental information about the Forbush name. It s my understanding that about 1645 in the Battle of Dunbar which involved the forces of England lead by Cromwell the rebellious Scotch had been defeated and as a punishment Cromwell ordered that the families who were in opposition to him and who had been defeated at the Battle of Dunbar, should be deported or expelled from the kingdom. So it was that in and about 1645-1650, along that time, a Forbush family, Daniel I recall, immigrated to America to the Massachusetts Bay area at Salem or Situate or Cambridge, some of those small communities in and around what is now Boston, to commence the Forbush family. Now they came bearing the name of Forbes or Faubes, various corruptions of spelling of the name and I don t rightly recall as to when they, as a family, decided to use and have the name fixed, that is the spelling of the name, fixed to F-O-R-B-U-S-H. But with Daniel and then others, there were various generations using the name of David and eventually we come down to approximately 1847 and at that time it s my understanding that a Sanford Forbush, who was my great grandfather, and for genealogical purposes I have given him and placed with him the term Senior, Sanford Senior was born at Council Bluff, Iowa, I believe. He being with his parents who apparently were members of the Church coming out from the exodus of Nauvoo on their way to the Great Salt Lake Basin. My great grandfather, Sanford Forbush, was a twin; he having a twin sister Mariah who subsequently and later married a Hyrum Vance of Provo. As I recall this account I do not have the names of other brothers and sisters of Sanford Forbush. He being born, I think I stated, in about 1847. The family did come to Salt Lake and I think this Sanford Forbush early in the 1870 s, 71, I believe, was married to a Kerstina Jonsson, an immigrant from Sweden, who s father and mother had passed away and who was in affect an orphan with one or two brothers and maybe one sister, or something like this, who had lived south of Salt Lake in the Spanish Fork area. Kerstina and her new husband decided to immigrate into the Upper Snake River Valley sometime in the early 80 s I presume. Anyway, they came up here, it s my understanding, when Idaho Falls was known as Eagle Rock. Their oldest son Sanford Forbush Jr., my grandfather, was born in 1872 there in Salt Lake and other members of the family were born before leaving Salt Lake. I think a total of eight children were born to this couple including Sanford Forbush, Hyrum W. Forbush, Ben Forbush, Jonathan Elijor Forbush, Mary Forbush Crowley, Marie Forbush Heindel, Ellen Forbush St. Claire, and maybe one or two
others. They settled on a ranch and homesteaded a piece of property in the Iona area, Iona district, where they proved up on the place and established a homestead as reported elsewhere in the interview with Ellie Forbush. Mrs. Kerstina Forbush apparently fenced much of the one hundred and sixty acres by digging the post holes and planting, making firm the posts into the ground, posts which her husband had brought down from the forest. I do not know the date when Great Grandfather Forbush passed away, I understand because of inflammation of the bowel commonly know known as appendicitis, but she was left a widow and had a responsibility of rearing and training these children. I m sure that times were tough in those days of Eagle Rock and the town subsequently came to be known as Idaho Falls approximately in and about 1885. It s my understanding that Sanford Forbush Jr. married Sarah Amelia Fenton in about 1894 and their first offspring was born at Willow Creek near Iona on the 14 th day of November 1895 who s name was Elmer Forbush, also known as Charles Elmer Forbush, he being my father. Sanford Forbush and his bride and one child, Elmer, moved into the Teton Basin area, the Teton Valley, now Teton County in and about 1905 over in the community of Cedron. Being in the Southwest part of the Valley there picking up a homestead grubbing away the tall sagebrush which grew very rank evidencing good soil, and Grandfather became rather a successful wheat farmer. Aunt Sadie was born to them and the couple had but the two children, a son and a daughter. In the meantime there was another family; Jonathan Elijor who was married to a sister, a younger sister of Sarah Amelia Fenton. And to this couple were born two sons, Arthur Forbush and Jonathan Forbush, the last being born after his father had passed away. Shortly thereafter this young widow, with her two small children, were taken into the home of Walter J. Wood who married Aunt May Fenton Forbush and provided a home for these two sons. They in turn, later in their mature life, changed their name from Wood to Forbush. Now of the Sanford Forbush Jr. side, only Elmer Forbush is responsible for the other Forbush s now living in the Upper Snake River Valley; and he fathered ten children. These children in their order and their names are Harold Sanford Forbush; Clarence Forbush, deceased without issue; Elmo or Bill Forbush, reared and have offspring living at Parker; Jack Forbush; Don Forbush; Benny Forbush; and Robert and Max Forbush, currently unmarried. A number of male children have been born to these, thus preserving and adding to the Forbush name in the Upper Snake River Valley, but these are young children who have not married and who have not, of course, been parents. Now going back to the other part of the family, the brothers and sisters of Sanford Forbush Sr. whose names I presently do not have, these people lived in the Salt Lake area and around Midvale and Union and others of them must have gone south and over the mountain into southern Utah into the communities of Monroe and Richfield etc. etc; and of these I know very little. I know that the Forbush s, the Forbush name and characteristics are, generally speaking, rather a tall people, though my grandfather, whom I remember, was rather a short man not too stocky, but his son Elmer, my father, was 6 1 and weighed well over 200 pounds and some of his sons are huskies, but all in all the Forbush or Forbush Family are rather a tall, husky type of people. I think they, generally speaking, are characterized as being
hardworking individuals in the soil and in the trades and, I think, a loyal people. The Forbush s coming up here from Salt Lake apparently had very little to do with the Church. The Forbush s remaining in Salt Lake and going into southern Utah I am not sure as to their church affiliation as to whether they were active in the Church. This completes, in very brief sketch, something of the Forbush Family. The forgoing entry was made by Harold Forbush in and about 1970, some thirteen years, twelve or thirteen years have lapsed and it s proper that I make some corrections because of added knowledge that has come to my attention and to bring up to date, as it were, the statement of the Forbush Family. And more particularly I do this for and to you my double cousin, Jeanine Forbush Yassi who I am writing, or whom I am visiting with this early morning of the 26 th of October, 1983. Yes, my and our great grandfather Sanford Forbush was a twin and was born in Iowa in 1847/48, the exact date is known, but I don t have it and he was with the rest of the family, were on their way out to the intermountain area, the Great Basin Kingdom, or Deseret where Brigham Young brought the Saints from their exodus from Nauvoo. Now, we, at this point, do not know where the Forbush family had located in Missouri and also in Nauvoo. We know that they were once in Kirtland, Ohio with the gathered Saints, but at this point we don t know what has happened, or what occurred. Our great grandfather, with other members of the family, were taken by his parents and incidentally his father was also Sanford Forbush and mother was Mary Sophronia Gaylord. They took their family, probably in the late part of the 1850s, to the new area to be settled and colonized, Manti, or the Sanpete area of Utah of the state of Deseret and there the kids grew up and our great grandfather grew up and found a wife, Kerstina Jonsson, who had been brought to the United States as a child from Sweden. And Kerstina and Sanford Forbush were married in Salt Lake in 1871, and their first offspring, Sanford Forbush, my grandfather, was born in Manti, and other children were born in Manti and other places that they had moved to. Eventually, this family of several children was brought into the Upper Snake River Valley, presumably the first Forbush with the Forbush name to come into Idaho or into the Upper Snake River Valley and settled at the community of Willow Creek which is now Iona near the den community called Eagle Rock, which in 1892 was renamed Idaho Falls. In June of 1884, it is believed, they had arrived and homesteaded 160 acres, the location of which is now identified by the KID transmitters which were subsequently erected onto this property. Our great grandfather passed away in 1894 which means that he had perhaps helped his wife Kerstina improve on the homestead and so forth only about 10 years before he passed away and he was buried on the ranch and one of the last child, well at least Edgar as an infant was, well a small child, was buried on the ranch. The family were, pretty well, therefore had to be reared by the widow, surviving wife Kerstina who had taken some nursing training and was an outstanding lady in many respects, she reared the family and Kerstina passed away in Idaho Falls as, I believe, a very respected lady in 1941. She was
approximately 91 going on 92 years of age. Now my grandfather Sanford continued to live with his mother. The Forbush Family became acquainted with the Fenton family, Francis Eugene Fenton and Caroline Richan Fenton, who had settled maybe about the same time, maybe just a wee bit later, at a community called Rudy which is now Ririe, and the community is really, in mileage, are not too far apart. My grandfather in 1894 married Sarah Amelia Fenton and my grandfather s younger brother, Jonathan Elijor married a sister Clara May or often named Maymi Fenton. My grandfather had two children: Elmer Forbush and Sadie May Forbush, who married Owen Daniels. Your grandfather, as you have indicated in the past, had two children, two sons: Arthur Forbush, who was born first and Elijah Jonathan or Jonathan Elijah who was born a few months after his father, at an early age, had passed away. This left Clara May Fenton Forbush a widow and she married Walter John Wood and the two boys took the name of Wood for a number of years before that was corrected. My father Elmer married Blanche Mackley and they had eleven children. The first child, a girl, died in infancy and the ten other children grew to manhood, virtually. There were eight boys and two girls. My mother was left a widow with the death of my father in 1955 and my mother at this present time is eighty-two. She has thirty-five grandchildren and thirty-four great grandchildren, and the boys who carried the name of Forbush, to my knowledge at this time, are the only Forbush s in this part of Idaho or in any place in Idaho and they stem from Elmer Forbush. Now of course, Jeanine, your father and mother had two children that survived and have offspring and your brother Donald, who has sons, but as I understand it those sons bearing the name Forbush live in Utah. It s exciting and I trust that I have accurately stated the situation with the Forbush name as of this date.