Voices from the Past Afton Knight Little By Afton Knight Little November 1, 1970 Tape #116 Oral Interview conducted by Harold Forbush Transcribed by Brittney Law Edited by Emily Crane January 2008 Brigham Young University- Idaho
Harold Forbush: The tape recorded interview which hereafter follows was first done on real to real tape, now placed on a C-90 cassette on this 16 th day of March, 1984. HF: And made available through the facilities of the Upper Snake River Valley Historical Society with Harold Forbush acting as the technician. Oral History of the Upper Snake River Valley. It s my pleasure this Sunday afternoon to have seated across from me here in my office at 168 East 1 st South in Rexburg, Mrs. Little. The date is November 1, 1970, and we are met together for the purpose of interviewing her pertaining to early history of the Egin Bench Area, where her people settled. Later, as she went to the Teton Valley, and there met and married her husband Ray Little. Sister Little, it s with a lot of anticipation that I have looked forward to having you come here. I m going to ask you a few questions. First of all, will you state your full name and the date and place where you were born? Afton Little: I am Afton Knight Little. I was born in Slaterville, Utah November the 7 th, 1904, and at present, I m not what you would consider very old, but I have listened a great deal to the many tales, both of Upper Snake River Valley and Teton Valley, and I remember some very interesting stories that I thought perhaps might be interesting. HF: Now will you state to us the name of your father and something of the Knight family, its background as you understand it to be? AL: All of my ancestors on the Knight side, and my mother, who was a Stanford, and the Stanfords, in fact, all 12 of my ancestors walked across the plains before the railroads, and many of them came across the ocean. My father was James A. Knight, and my mother was Janet Susanna Stanford, and they came to Idaho and lived part of their life here, but the majority of it was in Utah, where the Knights originated after they came from England. My father was a carpenter, a blacksmith; he was moved houses, he built buildings, and he built bridges. He was chosen for Ogden City for a road supervisor, and for many years he was very much noted for his road building. At one time he did making, he had a job making bricks here in Rexburg, and he also was asked by L. W. Stanford as a co-contractor to build a bridge over the Snake River on the North Fork going to Parker before the present one was taken was placed there. He also moved houses at the American Falls site when there was an anticipation of them having a dam there. He was quite known for his ability and worked very hard. I am the eighth one of his children, and they made two trips to Idaho, each time they moved their cattle and everything in two wagons, and my mother with her eight children, died went with him on these trips. It took about 10 days to move cattle to Egin Bench from their home in Slaterville. HF: Now, Sister Little, let s talk a little about your background on your mother s side. Her name, I think you stated was Stanford, and her mother, in turn, was Jenkins? AL: Right. HF: Her mother, in turn, was Jenkins. Now, where did they come from originally? State a little about their background as you understand it in the motherland. 2
AL: The missionaries came to England, and it was a great wave of conversion of the Church. At that time, they came across the ocean in 1862, and at that time, my mother, who was Elizabeth Jenkins HF: Your grandmother? AL: That d be my grandmother, was a very beautiful woman. She sang before Queen Victoria, and was given a necklace for this feat. She was also known for her Welch voice; she had been born in Wales, moved to England and met her husband, Thomas Stanford. Her father was disinherited. His name was William Wills Jenkins, and he was disinherited for joining the Church. They owned the Pickadilly Cycle, now sometimes known as Pickadilly Square, and they were very, very well-to-do mostly because they held onto this precious land, and as the land rose in value, they became very wealthy. But they were disinherited of all their hundreds of thousands of dollars because they joined the Church. They sold their fine clothes and came across the plains. The Stanfords had more, but they too were well-to-do, her husband, but the father was a minister, and he sent two of his sons on the Church of England Mission. After being converted, he turned around and sent both of them on a Mormon mission to offset the bad that he had done with the two boys having gone on a previous mission. This was sort of typical strength of character that my family came from. HF: Could you mention some peculiarity as some talent or characteristic that has been handed down from one generation to another that seems to have predominated as some talent or ability, Sister Little? AL: Well, the Jenkins, as well as the Touts, seemed to have had some quite a lot of musical ability like my grandmother Stanford, who was of this Jenkins line. Her sister, Kate, married Bill Tout; they moved to Egin the same time. This is the mother of Jack Tout we know so well. Jack s two sisters were metropolitan opera singers, and my family have always sang, and I have sung, and there s also a lot of artistic ability in this family because on the it seems as though they have painted pictures or had something to do with the beautifying of the temple grounds in Salt Lake City, and in that strain, I would say we are quite the same in this generation. They were all students, very much knowing their own mind, and it was good to have them on whichever side they chose because they were actively doing something about their convictions. They were never known to sit idly by when there was a conflict where they were needed for help, and they worked on those things with strengths rather HF: They took sides and followed their convictions? AL: Without a doubt very strongly. In fact, because they were ministers they were good speakers, they were very intellectually inclined. In fact, some of the greatest educators in Salt Lake sought my family out to talk to them about conditions, and they had quite a lot of influence, political, whichever side they took. HF: Now, did your mom and dad meet in Slaterville and marry there? 3
AL: No, I m going back just a bit. My grandfather, Stanford, as they lived in Logan at this time, was pretty much concerned whether the truth of Joseph Smith was to be questioned at any time because of his background in religion. He walked eight miles over to Martin Harris s home HF: In Clarkston? AL: In Clarkston to ask Martin Harris if he had seen an angel, if the plates were true, and if Joseph Smith was a prophet. And, of course, he got such a wonderful answer that he immediately went for Brigham Young to bring immigrants to Utah, and on the first occasion that he was in this train, he drove his mule team, he met his wife, and this is where their courtship began. The first time he walked across the plains all the way and carried his mother on his back across the streams and the rivers and HF: Now this was your grandfather Stanford? AL: Stanford, yes, and He met the Jenkins s as they were coming across the plains. Now, she came a year before her parents and worked in the mercantile store in Ogden to help finance them across the plains and for their immigration fees. HF: So your father your grandfather, excuse me your grandfather Stanford and Grandmother Jenkins, then, apparently must have married in the Salt Lake Valley? AL: They were married in the Endowment House. HF: Endowment House. AL: Endowment House. Now it was interesting about some of these things, I ll skip over the large part HF: Well now, let me ask you first, then, it wasn t too long after their marriage that factors brought them here into the Upper Snake River Valley at Egin, is this correct? AL: That s right. In about 1883, and I was very excited over a story that they had built this nice home in Egin, which is on the same property that the store is on now, on the North side of this. HF: The Parker store? AL: No, the Egin store. HF: Egin store. AL: Egin store. And this is where the Jenkins, the Touts and the Stanfords all settled as well as the Hyatts; they intermarried with the Hyatts, one of the first bishops of Egin. In fact, Bishop Hyatt married two of his children to two of the Stanfords the same night, which was an interesting thing. 4
HF: That would be. AL: Now, another thing. Tom, the oldest son, claims to have had the farm on Egin last chance canal where sub first came to the country, and of course, this was a great boom and excitement all over the country when sub came, and they no longer had to have so much surface irrigation. HF: Well now, had your grandfather Stanford, you mentioned came there in 1883, and he selected and laid out a homestead, I presume. AL: Yes, they did, and cleared the land, and it was very much in the prairie status before this. HF: A lot of sagebrush over there? AL: Right. And as I lived with him, he had the job of Justice of the Peace and marrying people as well as taking people into custody that was not doing just right. I was told that an eagle flew down and almost took their youngest child, Jess L. Stanford, as he sat near the barnyard, and this great catastrophe could ve really been a sad thing because eagles, as we know, were around Idaho Falls, and they called that Eagle Rock, but to have it come and threaten the life of their baby was more than they could take. This was when they first arrived there. HF: The eagle swooped down, did it? AL: Yes. HF: And made an attempt to get the baby? AL : It had nine feet of wings and put up an awful fight with the ones who tried to destroy it. Mrs. Flores Daily also tells about this incident, but she didn t know that it was a relative of mine. HF: Very interesting. Can you tell us now, of course the material which you re presenting here is data which your grandfather had told you people when you were a little girl and told you when you were a little girl, I presume? AL: My mother died when she was 34, and I was two years old. My Aunt Ruth Stanford McFarland took me then to raise with her father. Her mother had died, and she kept house for her father. HF: Now this is AL: Ruth. HF: Ruth Stanford. AL: Ruth Standford, Alfred Stanford. HF: Alfred Stanford. 5
AL: And Ruth took my sister and I and took us to Egin Bench and that was where I lived with my grandfather until about the time when my aunt got married; I was eight years old. HF: Let s see, Sister Little, then you lived at Egin from about 1904 up until about 1912 or along that period? AL: I shuffled back and forth. My father, he wanted me home occasionally, I went home long enough to get a terrible case of scarlet fever and complete one grade. I then came back often to Aunt Ruth and my grandfather. It was here that I learned so much of the history of my people in their pioneering. For instance, what s interesting to me was this, and I suppose you might laugh; I ve never forgotten it. They had built a very beautiful log house. They had put factory over the logs and just got through papering it. Well, of course they used flour for the stuff to put the paper on HF: In other words, the adhesive. AL: Right, they had no other paste. But after they got it on, a big colony, a migration of mice, came through the country, and they went behind the paper and ate the paper off all over their house, and it was really a very disheartening thing because both money and things all had to be brought in from Utah at that time. It was another migration of frogs, they told me, too, and they seemed to be traveling north, and they only lasted for a day or two, but you know those mice, what they did, they ate the fringe off my grandmother s bedspread. These are things that they declare was part of the rugged pioneer life. HF: Now what did the frogs do? AL: They didn t seem to do anything especially wrong, except just went on through the country, minding their business, I guess. [Laughter] HF: Isn t that interesting? That s rather unique, isn t it? AL: I thought so. HF: You mentioned that the Stanfords, this home that they had constructed, are you aware of some of the neighbors that seem to keep them company in the early days, 1893? The Winegars? I know the Winegar name was an early name out that way. AL: My Aunt said she was the first post mistress at Egin. Now there were more, I suppose. HF: Now, this would be Ruth? AL: Ruth, Ruth Stanford. She was a beautiful penman, as were all of our ancestors, I have specimen my grandfather s penmanship was almost like it had been put on with some kind of a machine; it was so exacting and beautiful. 6
HF: Now, did your grandfather Stanford continue to farm along with his being an having the responsibility of being the Justice of the Peace? AL: Yes, he did. He sent his son, Neunem, on a mission, and here is another interesting story I thought perhaps you might enjoy. Neunem went to Ricks College in around the 1900s, and he was chosen to go on a mission in 1902. When he returned, he got off of the railroad at what is it? Market Lake? Yes, Market Lake, and he decided he was so homesick he wanted to get home so he started crossing the desert on foot, and a pack of wolves surrounded him, and to save his life, he made fires. All night long he stayed watching fiery eyes as they threatened his life, first just one wolf and coyotes yelled and then the answer came from every direction. So immediately, he gathered firewood, and this shows how wild the country was at that time. I remember a story about the Jenkins s, how many hundreds of animals they killed out on the brakes, they used to call it, or the sand dunes, the junipers. They seemed to be just in herds like a sheep herds, the antelope and the deer and also elk and so on. I think it, to their, it wasn t right how many they numbered of these that they had killed, and I m sure they gave it to their relatives. To me, it seemed too many now that we have such a few in our midst because people killed them I think even more than they needed at that time. HF: Well, now, did your grandmother Stanford s mother and father come to America and immigrate? AL: Yes, they were the Jenkins. HF: And they had come as a family then? AL: Right, it was their family that did so much of this hunting that I m speaking of now. And the grandfather and the grandmother, they lived at Egin too. Grandfather at 72, and the wife no, he was 82 and she was 72; she died and there seemingly was nothing wrong with him. He died with a broken heart a few hours after he saw his wife s demise, and the funerals, and they were buried the same day in about the first lot on the Parker cemetery. Only a very few were there before, including some of the Winegars. HF: Now, the community of Parker was quite near Egin, wasn t it? AL : Yes. HF: And it had grown maybe a little more extensively and more of a town site? AL: Yes, it was. HF: It was a shopping area maybe before Egin? AL: It was, there were more people there earlier, and they had their homes there while they had their homesteads, perhaps a mile in every direction from their lots in Parker, and so the ward was very much established at Parker, and much of the things that went on came from St. Anthony at the time. But most of my people did most of their shopping at Market Lake. My grandfather 7
took a load of watermelons, which seemed interesting to me because we can t raise watermelons now. And he took a load of watermelons to Market Lake and sold them for 5 dollars, and I thought that maybe the temperament of the soil must have changed a lot because they were such beautiful watermelons he raised. Cows sold for 30 dollars and a dollar and a half 100 was the price they got on their wheat. They got a dollar and a half for working on the St. Anthony canals single handed and three dollars for team and scraper. HF: Now, Sister Little, can you kind of pinpoint a time, a date for these prices you re quoting? AL: Yes, they were around most of the time it was around 1987 HF: 18-- AL: I would say, 88, 91, and 92 HF: The prices you re quoting? AL: Yes. HF: I see. AL: And my grandfather paid two dollars for his lot in the Parker Cemetery; I have the certificate. I also have some certificates to show that they were buying merchandise in Logan because they had no money that they had their own HF: Scripts? AL: Script with their bills on it, and some of them were ten cents in merchandise at the Welfare Square. HF: Do you have any understanding about how the irrigation canals were constructed and when and whom and a little something about how water was brought to the early farms? Say the Stanford and the Jenkins farms. AL: My grandfather left his books, and they were well kept. He made many notations of their transactions and also their labor. His sons and also my grandfather has quite a depth of activity in the work on the St. Anthony Canal. They got $3 for a team and slip scraper and they worked very zealous, although I think they were not the leaders in this project. HF: Now, Sister Little, as we move along here, let us change and shift scenes just a bit. Now, I d like to have you describe for me a little something about your own personal education in the preparation of a teacher and then how you came to go up into the Upper Snake River Valley and more specifically I should say into the Teton Valley. How about your educational background? AL: Well, I first went to school in Eigen Bench, and then my father wanted me to come to Utah. I was staying with my aunt and my grandfather, and then I went to Utah. There I got the scarlet 8
fever and had it for ten weeks and it was I was the only one in the family, but in those days, scarlet fever was a vicious thing and took many people s lives. It nearly destroyed me because I was never quite the same anymore. However, we were thankful that no one else got it. Some of my friends died from it. Then I came to Idaho; I stayed with my Aunt Ruth for some of my schooling. The war came along, the flu came in; this was an exciting part of my life because World War I came in about this time. I had 2 brothers that was going and a brother-in-law. Leland, my brother, was one of the first that went over with General Patton. He came home six months after the war and we were informed not to expect him to live because he had been gassed with poison gas and had pneumonia and shell shock in this serious condition. So day by day, we watched the newspapers, the extras, as they would come out because there was no television. My next brother was about to leave when the war closed, so in our window we had three stars for the flag, and I was there in Ogden at this time because, until the flu drove me away. Then I came to St. Anthony again to live with Aunt Ruth, and she had married Arch McFarland at this time, and I had a chance then to come and stay with them a year. This was the year that I had my sixth grade. Back to the war I went to stay there with my grandfather HF: Back to where? AL: To Ogden to stay, and so there was very, very much excitement when we first saw the few airplanes come across our country. This was a very unusual thing to see. Then when the war was ended, I happened to be there and had graduated from the eighth grade in Ogden. And as the soldiers came marching home, there was parades and whistles for days on end. I remember when Battery B came in, how happy we were, but how sad it was that some of my cousins had died and some many of our friends had not returned. Now my two brothers were in France together. They saw each other just as one was leaving into go into the front lines on a cattle truck. They got to wave at each other, but that was the only time they could even correspond. Even their letters didn t, were not able to get through. They had to come to Ogden then back to France. This was the only way they could make communication. So the war was a very terrible thing and so my father maybe it would be good to say that we have done so much in the war area. My father married Ellen Burt; had five more children. About this time, when I graduated, and for the war too, all three of his sons were in active combat in World War II, so I ve had five brothers actively engaged, 17 cousins on one side of my family, so we ve contributed pretty heavily toward our freedom and our democracy, and I especially have been very active in trying to keep freedom in our country and communism out and making people aware of the very seriousness of loosing our freedom; we lose both our religion and our purpose in life. HF: This is surely true. Now, where did you get your college work preparing you for a teacher? AL: I came to live with my Aunt Ruth and Uncle Arch McFarland, both of whom I loved very greatly because they made the opportunities for me to go to school. I started into high school when I was 18 almost 19 after I had stayed out of school for five years, and I looked very much 9
like maybe the freshman s parents when I went in because of my age, however, I was determined to get an education. I wanted to know, and I had done a lot of reading; I had read the scriptures while I was out of, without any schooling, and so I became very well informed on the scriptures because of reading by the lamp light alone each night for many years. Then I went to St. Anthony. It seems as though I was very excited over this education because one year at a time is all I ever expected to get even as I went into college because money was so hard, finances terrific, and there was no transportation. So my uncle was very generous, and my aunt did very many things to put me through. HF: Now, Sister Little, did you pursue your education to the point where you graduated from Ricks College at Rexburg? AL: Yes, I got the last two years of high school here, so I graduated from high school in 1927, and then I went out to teach. It was at this time that I was asked to be a stake counselor in the MIA in the Yellowstone Stake, but I had received and accepted a contract to go to the Cache District in the Teton Valley to teach school in 1927. I was very happy about this. I took summer schools each summer to increase my education and taught school each winter. I taught two years at Cache and stayed with Ed and Nell Lewsley, who were great inspirational people and marvelous souls. They almost took me as their own; to me, they were Mom and Dad. I enjoyed the school very much at Cache. Each summer I had my summer school. I worked very hard at this, and in 1929, word came in May that everyone would have to have a year of college in order to teach. I went back and asked Brother Manwaring about it. He said, Yes, you ll have to take two quarters in one, and I did by extension. So I did four years work in three and teaching at the same time. This is sort of representative of the worries I had because I didn t know whether or not the state would accept my certificate and my credits because they were jammed in so fast, and I worked so hard and difficult to get my certificate to teach. I continued on after teaching in Cache for two years to my teaching until I went out to Arco in the Moor district, Lost River, they called it. Then at Parker; I stayed there a year. My other teaching experience has been in Oregon. I stayed there two years teaching at Burns, and then I graduated from the BYU and got a Bachelor s Degree in Science and also Education and Art was my majors. Then I spent the last seven years of teaching at Rigby, where my health broke, and I was retired. HF: Now, Sister Little, I presume when you taught at Cache at the time when you met your husband, should we go into that aspect of your life indicating his full name and something of his background? AL: Ray was a mild-mannered fellow; very quiet but very industrious. He too had a similar background that I did. His name was Ray Wallace Little. He was born September the 22, 1892, and he died August the 26, 1954 of a heart attack while we were putting up hay together in Burton. He was born to Edwin S. Little and Zina Wallace up in Clawson or at Haden just south and west of the Teton River. There s a little problem about the date hour of his birth because the same midwife delivered another child the same night, and it was, he claimed to be the only and oldest one that lived being the first boy born in that valley. 10
His parents were pioneers in the Teton Valley and also his grandparents. His grandfather was a Pony Express rider and had a very exciting background. I can t inform you on all of the details, but his grandmother made the first flag for the first Fourth of July celebration, and this was his mother s his father s mother. They also had a livelihood of running a hotel for the people who was doing, spending their time going in and out of the valley. They usually would come and stay overnight at this hotel. They also ran the mails for which my husband spent several winters taking the mail out to St. Anthony for his grandfather who was the first man to have the mail. Also, my husband did quite a bit of work for bringing in Express, I guess you Express. They had more Express at that time because there was no train into the valley. Now Ray was the third child, and of course the family moved into the valley without any home. They built log homes, and then later his father was a bishop, high councilman, and for 27 years he was a county assessor and was never challenged for his position. Yet, my husband did the homework for him and took care of his 3 farms. Ray was a very industrious and very conscientious. At this time, this early time, his father sent away for a very expensive stallion; cost $8,000, and perhaps there was a company of them that went in together, but this was the beginning of the best horse racing done in Teton Valley. They had trotting horses on carts and very many of the most wonderful horses to this day can be traced to the blood of that time. My husband had 16 and 18 horses, and sometimes he loaned them out for combining wheat because there was no tractors or combines, so we have, as it was run by machinery. So we see this was very much the life of those people. They loved beautiful cattle, beautiful horses, and had a lot of excitement in their races in that area; people would come from all countries to go through Yellowstone Park. My father-in-law, Ed Little, used to take them from Salt Lake City because he was related to he and his wife were related to Brigham Young on two sides and they were very familiar with all the Church dignitaries. They came into Teton Basin. From there they would go one through the Yellowstone Park with his guidance. At times, the funny or interesting thing to me was that how Mr. Little would sell woolen goods over into Jackson and Kemerer, Wyoming and often times took his family to pick the wild fruit while he had his business to give. Ray had 160 acres that he dry farmed and proved up on, but he sold it to another man. He cheated him out of this and because of the taxes and Ray lost his 160. However, he was lucky enough to win a lucky number which gave him the 80 acres he had when we were married. I met him the last night of my school experience there, and we went together after that very steady, but we were married in 1932 after I had taught at Lost River. SIDE TWO HF: Side Two the interview concluded with Afton Knight Little AL: The first three years we couldn t raise a crop because of drought; there was not enough late water came down in the canals. The wheat grew up to be eight inches high, turned white, turn over and die. This was the kind of problems we had for three years. 11
HF: Sister Little, as I understand from my conversation with you, Ray, as a young man had gone about on horseback gathering first hand stories from the pioneers. Will you just add somewhat to that as you understand it and the background for it? AL: President Ezra C. Dalby came into Teton Basin as principal of the Teton High School. He was such a tremendous personage and influenced so many lives that nothing could ever give him enough credit for the great good he did. He asked my husband at the graduation exercises to go around and get a combined history of all the residents and pioneers of that valley. He had also, in the first place, been the one to get my husband to come to school after he had stayed out for many years. He was around 20 years old before he went to high school, and it was Ezra C. Dalby who came to his father and said, I want you to send that boy to school. He had so much talent and that was the reason he gave him this great assignment. He had 14 pages of typewritten history on the immigrants and the pioneers of that area. It was read at his commencement exercises and really set everybody afire. They were so excited to hear their names placed in this first combined history of Teton Valley. It was later lost, both the printed Teton Valley copy, and for some reason or other, he lost it. Tara Butler, his cousin, was able to get the last seven pages retrieved from Ben W. Driggs who compiled the famous history of Teton Valley. It s our feeling that he used much of the original manuscript or materials, anyway. HF: Well now, Sister. Little, I understand that your husband did possess a real writing talent in poetry. Before we close the tape, would you comment on this and give us two or three samples of his poems? AL: My husband Ray W. Little wrote this poem in 1946. It s entitled, My Strength As the Hills because we lived right under the Teton Peaks, and we loved them more than our words can tell. As I gaze upon the Tetons with the rising of the sun, With its glowing, brilliant colors And my days hath just begun, And it stimulates me onward To do my level best, They seem to give me strength To meet my daily tasks, Then I gaze upon the saw tooth As the sun is sinking low, With the peaks all red in amber And the skies are all aglow, Now my footsteps trudging homeward After all my tasks are done, I thank God for our mountains, For my strength and victories won. In the year of 1934 it was the worst winter Teton Valley had had for many years. The worst blizzard came the night that our second daughter, Janet Phillips was born. 12
This is given by my husband to that baby infant when she was a year old and give you some idea of the terrible night that we went through to bring her safely into this world. Spencer Little was his brother; he lived as a neighbor to us, and we got him to come and take us after the snow in front of our sleigh box kept us sliding forward as the horses were drawn. As he turned around to come back in the mile that we had, the snow was so bad he had to unhook his horses and ride his horse home from the sleigh hay rack. The next morning, to tell a picture of this, only the top of the hay rack could be seen where you tie the lines. The top six inches and many windows were blown out of the windows of the stores in Driggs, and it was a vicious time, the doctor couldn t even walk forward, he had to walk backward to get his breath. This is one lady died because the train didn t come in for 29 days. She died with a ruptured appendix because of the need of a doctor. The poem is written and entitled Snow bound. Twas just a year ago tonight when the sun was sinking low That we received a summons to hurry up and go The wind was wildly raging; the snow was falling fast, But we must hurry up and leave, and face this icy blast. Our team I quickly harnessed and hitched them to the sleigh, And in a moment later we were started on our way. But when we reached the highway, we found we couldn t go For it seemed the impossible to buck those drifts of snow. I hastened for the neighbor, and he brought another sleigh, And with his kind assistance, he helped us on our way. For hours the storm we battled just to go a mile or so And it seemed that we would perish and be buried neath the snow And at last we reached a farmhouse where they had a telephone, Where we received assistance and made our troubles known. Here we summoned out the state man, and he ordered out a crew, And with his kind assistance, the drifts were blasted through. We waited in that blizzard till the bright lights did appear, And had they been the lights of heaven, they could never have been more dear. They ordered us to follow close behind this huge white plow, Lest the raging, howling blizzard should separate us now, But with the shoveling and struggling, we finally made our way, Till we reached our destination just before the break of day. Here the nurse and doctor waited, and the stork was soaring high, And at five a.m. that morning, we heard our child s first cry. We knew that God had helped us, as our pilot through that storm, As our child and mother resting in a bed now safe and warm. Our friends and kin all marveled in the glory of our fate, But we know; we bow our heads in reverence, to our maker, kind and great. Ray had a very great gift for telling stories; he loved to entertain people, and he always was in the center of a crowd at the thrashing crew and wherever. He was very diligent in his religious work. He was a high priest when he died. He and I decided we would get 50 endowments in the 13
temple each year, and we did so, and I have tried and kept up this number and had it as our goal through the years. We were head of the genealogy board in several wards, and we have enjoyed this particular area. He was president of the elder s quorum, and in the stake he had a lot of activity as a ward missionary and a stake missionary. He went into Jackson for six months; he had a very active life. He used to take the stake dignitaries from Salt Lake over the Jackson pass into Jackson for their stake meetings. He did a lot of extra valiant things; it seemed as though if there was anything contributions, he was there with his money first and more. He helped to build nine churches and was head of the church farm one year. Like his father who was a bishop for many years and also high councilman for 27 years until his death, he too was very diligent and a great father, kind, and had many friends. HF: Sister Little, as we close the interview, will you state the children, the names of your children born of this union, you and Ray? AL: Luenna was our first daughter; she came to our household when we were both old maids, and we enjoyed her so. Her name was Afton Luenna Lenning. Janet was our second daughter, came 18 months after. Her name is Janet LaRae Phillips; she married Kenneth Phillips. Iris was our third daughter. She married Tom Williams, and they are all either school teachers and graduates from college or in very progressive families and doing real well. I have 14 grandchildren and we re very proud of them. HF: Sister Little, just before we close, can you share with us a poem or two which you personally have written? AL: Ray and I had very similar interests; we used to write our love letters in poetry. Here is one of my better ones that I think you ll love. Our Idaho I wish I were a poet, I d write of Idaho, Of its green and fertile valleys; of its peaks white capped with snow, Of its streams of crystal waters and its fields of waving grain, Of its herds of roving cattle and its sheep upon the plain, Of its minerals and its forests, of its scenic beauty rare, Of its wildlife and its craters, of great waterfalls so fair, Of its treacherous untamed rivers, of the Snake we love so well, How the blue lakes lured the sportsmen of strong homes where patriots dwell, Of its red men and their struggles, of the covered wagon trains, Of the business growth they made here, of railroads and traffic lanes, Of its temples and its steeples that are high into the blue, Of our school upon the hillside, how each help to build men true, How its sons paid dear for freedom to save our nation s flag, How that nation paid high tribute to its most distinguished lads, Of the many things unmentioned, though her loyal sons all know, She s the Gem State of the nation, oh hail to Idaho! Another poem, If the Tetons Spoke was written a month ago, and we lived right under those Tetons; I taught school right under them. And each night they d change colors as I d walk home 14
to the Lewisly Ranch. And twice a year the full moon came over the top of the Grand Teton, we always watched to see. That was exciting times for my husband and I. This is the name: If the Tetons Spoke. I d like to write great deeds of the West That was witnessed by our Teton peaks While they would judge men at their best. They surely saw the master each hour of the day, Painting colors from purple to pastel shades, Teasing artists who came their way. Like the Alps, they were conceited for their biting, icy blasts They called and kept the tempest, Only giants endured to the last. They saw vicious battles lost on the valley floor Between red men, thieves and herdsmen, For land and water that they stole. They watched man moving forward, From homes on wagon wheels, To build a modern city and prosperity soon congealed. They reechoed soundly the first whistle of that train, For these poor patriots gave their blessings, And this great project was sustained. They approved hungry saw mills with the destiny to build, Molding bridges, homes, and churches Next, strong schools soon would be filled. The settlers threaded fences for their telephones, And tenderly laid the candle molds to rest When a power plant lighted homes. Those Tetons celestial symphonies, vibrating through their crags, Sent inspired voices heavenward And cultured artists top and stayed. Now the valley has few landmarks, It cost tears, lives, and work, To build this mighty empire Because dedicated men did not shirk. Tall men, strong men, endured poverty and cold, 15
Like the Tetons inspired greatness, Made world leaders enshrined in gold. I appreciate making this contribution and this is done by Afton Knight Little, November the 1 st, 1970. 16