I was born at Benjamin, Utah on September 30, 1876, to Richard Samuel Betts and Sarah Jane Boulton. I had two older sisters, Eliza Jane Betts, and Sarah Elizabeth Betts, and an older brother, Richard Samuel, whom we called Sammy.

I remember little about my mother. When I was four years old my baby sister Laura fell into the spring. My brother Peter who was just a year and a half older than Laura, hollered, "Laura is in the spring". Sammy and I were playing by the granary and we both heard Peter holler. I could not tell what Peter was saying, but Sammy understood and immediately ran to tell father. Father and mother and Tom Hebert, a neighbor, went running out of the house and down to the spring. My father fished the unconscious Laura out of the spring and began to try and revive her. I remember my mother wringing her hands and crying in a hysterical way, and my father turning around and telling her to be quiet. After a few minutes Laura was revived.

A little while after this experience, my sister Liza was on the hayrack attempting to help father get in the hay. This hayrack was being pulled by two very frisky, high-spirited mules. To help father get up on the haystack, Liza took the hayfork she was using and pushed it deep into the hay and held onto the other end. As father took hold of the fork to swing himself up on to the hayrack, the fork gave way and father fell. He grabbed hold of the reins but the wheel on the hayrack went over his arm badly shattering and breaking it in many places. The local Doctor, Dr. Hackman, set it, but he set it straight out and it grew solid that way. Father went to Provo, Utah to the hospital there and Dr. Pyke was the doctor who waited on him. His arm had to be re-broken and set properly. It was set, I remember, in a leather cast, and they would take the cast off to exercise his arm and then rebind it. When father could touch his nose with his thumb he felt he was getting better.

After my father broke his arm so badly, I can remember seeing two men fetch him home, one on each arm. Seeing him come home in this condition was too much of a shock for my mother and she had a miscarriage. She never recovered from this and died about two weeks later. She was 27 years old.

When the doctor and relatives knew that my mother was not going to live, they put us children out to the neighbors. Before she died we were sent for and came home to find her in the bed in the bedroom. My father had a tree limb in his hand and was fanning her with it, in an attempt to keep the flies away. She took each of us children in her arms and gave each of us a kiss goodbye. She told us she was going to leave us and admonished us to be good children. She died right after this. My brother Sammy and I were taken to the home of our uncle, John Betts in Payson, Utah. My mother was buried in Payson, Utah, and Sammy and I saw the funeral procession as it came from Benjamin down the road we called "The Lane", a distance of about three miles.

Shortly after this tragedy befell the Betts family, another tragedy struck. We all contracted diphtheria. Sammy and I had remained at Uncle John Betts in Payson, Utah. Uncle John had gone to stay with father after mother died. Father still suffering with his badly broken arm. One morning Sammy got up and came and told us that our oldest sister Lizzie had died the night before. He said that she had come to him and told him. None of us would believe him and told him that he must have dreamed it. A short time later we were outside playing, we saw Uncle John coming toward the farm. Sammy said, "Uncle John is coming to tell us that Lizzie died". This was exactly the message that Uncle John had for us.

After this sadness had come to our family, our Stake President urged my father to take a trip to California. We children were farmed out to neighbors. Sammy and I went to the Hawkins family, Peter stayed with Mrs. Hanson, Laura and Liza stayed with a family in Provo. Father stayed in California all winter, about six months. He felt a lot better when he got back from his trip. When father returned from California he brought a trunk full of oranges home with him. This was a wonderful treat for us children.

When my father returned he purchased a homestead in the "Grease Woods" as they were called, in Benjamin. The farm had not been worked yet and so we had a lot of work cut out for us. We moved into a little house on the homestead. At this time I was six or seven years old. Father would leave us alone when he went to Provo to do business or visit a family he was acquainted with there. He would stay over night and return the next evening. My sister Liza, who was about thirteen, would take care of us but we mostly ran wild.

My father married again when I was eight years old. He married Julia Ann Hales on the 11th of September, 1884. She was seventeen years old.

When living with the Hawkins while father was in California I had started to go to school. They took us to school in a sleigh driven by the son, Charlie Hawkins. Charlie also went to school. Our school was held in one room. We didn't have grades as we know them today. Instead we were classed as first reader, or second reader, etc. The teacher would ring a bell and a class would go to the bench were they would have about ten minutes with the teacher and then a bell would ring and another class would come up to the bench and the first class would go back to their seats. We would sit and study the lesson that the teacher gave us. We had one session before the teacher in the morning and one in the afternoon.

One day I got to talking in school and the teacher made me stay after school for punishment. The sleigh went home without me. It was two miles home and a very cold day. Before I was out Mr. Hawkins was back to get me. He bawled the teacher out for keeping a small boy after school when I had such a long way to go home. He told her to never do it again. She never did. Instead, for punishment when I was naughty I would have to stand in a corner or at a window. And sometimes if we were especially mean we would have to wear a "dunce cap". It was against the law to whip a child.

The first school that I attended was in Lake Shore. When we moved to the homestead we went to a school in Benjamin. We didn't get to go very often however. When we could work on the farm this is what we did.

I remember we were usually fighting with someone at school. My stepmother was an overbearing woman, given to beating us children. Because of this we were picked on. The kids would build fights for us and we would have to fight them. Our Bishop was our teacher, Bishop Stewart. I remember a time when Mr. Stewart undertook to punish my brother Peter. The teacher had him over his knee and was going to spank him, but Peter was a little quicker and sank his teeth in the back of the teacher's leg. The teacher let out a yell and let go of Peter. Peter did not get a spanking after all.

One day a young man by the name of Bob Cowan came up to us after school and told Sammy and I that he would take us both on, as well as a little boy that was standing with us, Georgie Hand. Right after the fight started I got a bloody nose so the fight was nearly out of me right from the beginning. However, Sammy was a good wrestler and before long he had Bob Cowan on the ground. At the urging of the crowd of boys that gathered, I jumped back into the fight again. I held the boy’s nose and chin so his mouth was wide open, and Sammy and Georgie put alfalfa chaff into it. If some of the boys hadn't pulled us off we might have killed him.

The next day Bob Cowan's brother, I believe his name was Bill, came up and said he was going to beat us up to revenge his brother. Sammy had to stay at home that day so I was elected as the punching bag. He kicked my pants and beat me up. I had my horse tied there and when he wasn't looking I took a Christmas tree branch and hit him over the back with it. I hit him so hard that he doubled up like an accordion. As soon as I hit him I jumped on my horse and hurried home in a big hurry.

As my stepmother's children grew up they were picked on also. When they came home crying after a fight I would tell them that I would give them a quarter if they won the fight. I did not want them to start the fight, but if someone else started it and they won the fight I would give them a quarter. They got so good at it and were always getting my quarters that I had to cut it down to a dime, and then I quit shelling out all together as it got to be kind of expensive. I myself, became a good fighter for my age and was able to defend myself.

My stepmother controlled both indoors and outdoors with an iron hand when my father was away. One day Sammy was ploughing the field and was down at the end of the row against the fence of the land adjacent, which belonged to Kelsie Bird. Lou Bird met him down there and challenged him to a game of marbles. Julie Ann saw what was happening and sent me down there to tell him to get back to work. However, when I got down there I too, succumbed to the temptation and was busy playing with them when I saw my stepmother coming down the field toward us. I took off for the pasture and the "grease wood". She beat Sammy with a stick and then sent him back to work and then came looking for me- I got in the big ditch and then high-tailed it home as fast as I could. My job was doing the dishes, (I was a hired girl without pay) and when Julia Ann got back from looking for me, just before noon, the work was all done up. She laughed and threw the stick she carried outdoors.

I was only in the third reader when I quit school and did winter work on the farm. I then did surveying for A.J.B. Stewart, working for him approximately eight months, during the spring and summer. I was about nineteen at the time. Following this job I went to Provo and took a three year preparatory course, to catch up and get ready for college. I batched with two other fellows. They were George Miner and Will Gallop. These were three most enjoyable years for me in which I relished the opportunities to study and learn all that I could.

One incident comes to my mind during this time. There were three girls batching just across from where we were living. One day I bet my two roommates a dollar that they were too scared to go over and talk to the girls. They turned the bet back to me and so I told them to put up their dollar. They did so, so I went across the road and introduced myself to the girls. I told them exactly what had happened and this tickled them. One of the girls introduced herself to me and then introduced the other two. I told them that now that I had won the dollar and asked them if they would like to come over and I would send down and buy some candy and nuts. In those days a dollar bought a lot of candy and nuts. I went back over the road with a girl on each arm and the other girl holding on. I told the boys my plan and sent them down for candy and nuts. One of the boys went, accompanied by one of the girls and they were soon back. We had a fun time, enjoying ourselves talking and laughing. In the meantime, Brother George H. Brimhall, who was the head of the Institute, was coming home from one of his regular Wednesday night lectures, when he heard the noise. He took out his watch and noted that it was past ten o'clock. We cut up until after eleven before we finally called it a night. Brother Brimhall found out who we were and took our names down. The next morning at the devotional he got up and told how a certain group of boys and girls had carried on the night before. He did not mention our names but said that if it happened again our names would be told in public and we would be expelled from school. The three girls sang in the choir and all the time he was bawling us out they sat there and winked and smiled at us. However, we never did this again although the six of us remained good friends.

This incident happened near the end of the semester. Following the close of school I went to Gunnison, Utah, and took a job surveying. I attended a soldier's farewell on July 4th and it was then that my desire to go to fight in the Philippines in the Spanish-American War came to a head. As soon as I finished my job I signed up, August 21, 1898. I signed up at Fort Douglas in Salt Lake City. I then got a weeks leave to go home and settle up my affairs there and then returned to Salt Lake City. I stayed there for two weeks and for that period I was attached to a Negro regiment until we were sent to Presidio, California, where we got our training.

An experience happened to me when we were on our way to Presidio. Some kind Mormon woman had given me a lovely basket of fruit in San Francisco just before I boarded a bus that would take us to Presidio. The bus was loaded and so was the running board that circled the bus on the outside. However, I barely squeezed a toe hold on the plank and held onto the rail as best I could, while holding on to my basket of fruit. The streets were steep and winding. I was doing fine until the bus took a sharp turn just before coming into Presidio. The sharpness of the turn caused the soldiers in the bus to push against my side of the bus, and this caused me to fall off. I hit the hard cobblestone road with such a force that I was knocked unconscious. When I came to I was in a hotel room where they had brought me in an ambulance. There beside me was my basket of fruit. How I ever took such a fall without upsetting and bruising the fruit I shall never know.

We remained in Presidio until the last of September. We got into Honolulu on my birthday, the 30th of September 1898. I was 21 years old.

We stayed four days in Honolulu, while they took on coal. While there I went to church. It was conference and there were twelve or thirteen missionaries there. I couldn't understand anything but I felt pretty good anyhow. The President of the Mission came and introduced himself to me and asked me what I was doing there. When I told him he took me right up to the stand and introduced me to the audience. He said, "This is Alma Betts from the United States. He is on his way to the Philippines. I want all of you to get acquainted with him." Many did this and the young people took me home with them and gave me a lovely dinner. When it came time to leave they also gave me a basket of fruit to take with me. I had a soldier friend on the boat, and when I got back to the boat he was surprised that I was able to make friends so easily, in San Francisco, and now in Honolulu. I believe he was a Methodist, and I told him I was a Mormon and this is the way the people are in my church.

We were twenty-one days on the old "Sherman" from Honolulu to Manila in the Philippines. After we docked in Manila we had dinner and then walked with full pack the eight miles to the water works. We were put in the block house there for the night. One of the soldiers looked out of the slat in the cement wall that held the gun. He saw some Chinese cooking breakfast and thinking they were the enemy pointed the gun at them and was going to shoot. Luckily the sergeant awoke and asked him what he intended to do. Upon learning what the private planned, he informed him that they were our men and that he had better not shoot them.

Next day we put up our tents. I was on guard duty between the water works and El Deposdo. The water was pumped to this place from the river. It was located on a hill and from there the water gravitated down hill to Manila. We had an uphill climb four miles to this place and then back down to camp. We walked this each evening. One evening, the three of us on duty were walking along the trail and we heard noises in the underbrush, thinking it was natives who, were going to ambush us we fired three volleys in the direction of the noise. All went quiet. On our return trip back to the camp we went to see what it was and found that we had shot a caribou. They were used for work, and to give milk and for meat.

We had pitched our tents on the river bank about twenty feet above the water. It started to rain and by the second night the river was so flooded that we were forced to move onto higher ground. We had to clear the underbrush and stick out bamboo poles several feet into the mud to make them hold. The rain continued for six months and in that time it seemed that we were never dry. We moved into an old Catholic Church which was somewhat drier than the tents.

Soon after we moved into the church we got our horses. We then had to exercise them in the rain for two hours each day.

After the rainy season was over we went back to scouting and fighting the enemy. (Doreen asked grandfather if he ever killed anyone? To which he answered, "I got as many of them as they did of me.")

One day when we were going out to find Organaldo, the head of the Philippine army, some of our soldiers got some beno (liquor) and it was not long before they were dead drunk. It was necessary to have a doctor ride along with them. We continued on until all at once we saw ahead of us some horses running about riderless. The doctor stayed with the drunk men while the rest of us went ahead to find out what had happened. One of the soldiers could not resist kicking a hornets nest. The hornets stung the horses causing them to shy and buck some of the men off. I knew something of bees and hornets as we raised bees. I knew that the less you fought them, the better off you were, and so I laid down flat on my horse and took off fast. One of the men, however, was trying to fight them and they were swarming all over him. The captain came up to assist him and pull him away. They were both in the hospital for many days suffering from hornet stings. The horses that were stung just laid down as if they were dead.

When we got back from that trip the time was approximately ten p.m. It was my duty that night to feed and water the horses. One of the horses was bad to kick and was usually tied away from the rest of the horses. This time the soldier that rode him tied the horse in with the other horses. I came around with half a bale of hay in my arms right behind this horse. He kicked and knocked me several feet. The Captain came out and asked me if I were hurt badly. I said, "No, I am going to kill that ----". I attempted to get up but fell back to the ground. My leg was broken. The Captain said, "I guess you won't."

I remember I was taken to a church and put in the convent part of it. I did not see anyone until the next day when the Captain came in to see if I wanted anything. I told him I was choking of thirst. I also told him I had not seen anyone since they had brought me in. He was surprised and told me I would not be left alone anymore. At two o'clock the same day I was put on a boat and sent to Manila. I arrived in Manila about eleven that night and the doctor and nurses were waiting for me. They examined my leg and pronounced it broken. I stayed there four or five days and then was sent to quarters in a town called Niach. I had to go to the doctor every morning and he would just tell me to go back to quarters. I missed going one morning and he just marked me to go back on duty. I was on crutches and I went out and got my saddle on my horse. The sergeant asked me what I was doing and I told him I was assigned to duty. He told me to get back to bed until he told me differently. I laid around in a hot tent for six weeks and then we moved camp. The sergeant asked me if I would be able to ride and I told him that I would, so we went to a place called Angelese. We were there for a day or so and then we were ordered to take rations for three days and go out scouting. We went through a lot of dense underbrush and many of us lost our hats. Every time we met a Philippine we would get his hat until we began to look like Philippines ourselves.

There were four troops of us and my troop was the last on the line. We had to go that way all day and then we had to go on guard duty while the others slept. We were not far from the enemy when we went on guard duty. We sat on our horses all night with our gun in one hand and the reins in the other. Along in the middle of the night the Captain came and asked if we were tired and I told him that I did not know what that was. He told me that he would take our guard duty for an hour and let us rest. We tied the horses to our feet and let them eat while we slept.

The next morning we went into the mountains after some Philippines who were camped there. We left our horses and every fourth man tended the horses while the other three went up. I had a very bad case of dysentery and should have stayed back but I wanted to remain with my troop. As it turned out, we got lost on our way up the mountain and by the time we arrived at the town nearly all the fighting was over except for a few stragglers that remained.

We came back to camp and all but fifteen of us were sick. I went to the doctor and told him I had dysentery and he told me I should be court-martialed rather than treated, and sent me back on duty. When I returned to camp the sergeant asked me what the doctor had said and I told him. He then said, "That son of a B". Anyway since we were so short of men I had to go back on duty. It wasn't long after that the world started rolling and reeling around and I had to go back to camp. The sergeant was very angry as I was the forth man to come back to the camp sick. I was sent to the Calamba hospital in Manila. I was there a week or so and then sent to the First Reserve Hospital. I remember distinctly being put in Bed 15 as the nurse told me I was a lucky man because all the patients who had occupied that bed had been sent back to the States. This proved to be true, in two weeks I was on my way back to the United 5tates.

My trip home was one of the most terrible experiences of my life. The hospital was right back in the boat over the twin screws. We bounced up and down and with a fellow as sick as I was it was pretty hard to take. We stopped in Hong Kong for mail, in Nagasaki for mail, and in Tokyo to take on coal. The coal was loaded by women.

Finally we reached San Francisco. I arrived there on my birthday, September 30, 1899. Just one year after I had left. I was ill there for a long time. In November I returned home to Benjamin, Utah and I was feeling very badly. Travelling had given me a setback and I was in bed for a week after I returned home.

My father was in England doing genealogy when I returned home. I found that the cows were not being taken care of and four of them had died. As soon as I could, I bought several tons of hay and brought the cows home and fed them, saving the rest of them. I began to get better as soon as we got the cows home and had fresh milk. My father returned the next summer.

I went to work in the mine at Mammoth the following July or August. I worked there for a year and then after that I stayed with Barlow Nielson's folks. I was going with their daughter and then I went to Oregon with them. In order to get there I hid in the Nielson's freight car. After some close calls nearly getting caught, we arrived at Legrande, Oregon.

In Legrande I worked for a widow in the winter splitting wood, etc, for $15.00 a month and my board. After I had been there ten days she raised my salary to $20.00. I always had a way with women. However, I couldn't get along with her daughter's so-called boyfriend so I quit working for her and got a job working in the timber. I worked there two months. I was helping to haul logs to the sawmill and the boss came up one day when we were loading lumber. I had turned my team loose and let it go up ahead and I rode with him. He asked, "What time do you get back on Sunday?" "About three o'clock," I told him. "Well, I'll have to dock you some pay on that", he stated. The man that was working with me said that if we loaded the lumber Saturday night we could save time on Sunday to shave etc. The boss said we could not have that time and that he would dock our pay. "Not me", I said, and jumped off. I quit and so did the other man that was working with me, leaving the old man to take care of the two teams. We don't know how he managed to get the two teams down.

I then went down to the valley and got a job thinning beets. I worked in these for three or four weeks. I was helping Mr. Hatch with his beets and when they were done Clark next door sent a boy over to tell me that the girls said they could beat me at thinning beets. I took on two rows at a time and the girl thought that because she got to the end of the row just ahead of me that she had won, but I showed her that I had done two rows to her one.

After the beets were thinned I got a job in the harvest for $1.50 a day on a header wagon. After I finished I helped an old man that was stacking grain heads to allow him to rest. After the boss asked me if I would take the job as the old man was quitting. He offered me $3.00 a day so I took the job. I was then asked to handle the nets. These were rope nets in the wagons. They would drive the wagons along beside the railway cars then fasten the nets to the railway cars and then roll the load from the wagon to the car. I worked for Mr. Clark about a month until the beets were finished.

One family that had the small pox wanted me to go there and manage their crew while the man was sick. I told the man that I wouldn't be quarantined, and on this basis I would work for them. He did not agree to this but I worked for them anyway. When it came time to pay my bill Mr. Hatch wouldn't give me my money. A friend, Mr. Rushdon, told me to give him the bill and he would collect it. A while later I went to a dance near where the Hatch's lived. Mr. Hatch asked me to come outside, and he apologized to me, telling me that he now understood why I didn't want to be quarantined. I got my money and everything was fine.

I then went to school in Provo and took a missionary course. I stayed until the end of the semester and then I went to Canada as my folks had written that they wanted me to come.

My folks were living in Raymond at the time. I arrived May 3, 1903 and I can remember that there were six inches of snow on the ground. I had brought a carload of cattle with me, and when I arrived at the border I tipped the inspector $5.00 and he held the train at Coutts until my cattle were inspected, and then I went on to Raymond. There were eight more cars of cattle that came up on the same train. The owners did not tip the old inspector and the cars of cattle were held in quarantine. When I unloaded the cattle at Sterling, my brother who had come over from Raymond to help me and bring horses for us to ride, noticed that one of the steers was a fighter. He told me to get hold of the steer and fetch it down. I did, and the steer bunted me in the belly. I got a hold of that steer by the nose and twisted it's neck until it went down, and then I kicked it around a bit to the delight of my brother Peter. We got them home the eight miles that day and then I went to help my father in the field. He was ploughing some land. I took the team and went to ploughing, I was very sleepy. I then drove out to the field with a wagon which contained hay to feed the horses. While they were eating I lay down in the hay for a short snooze. It was warm when I went to sleep, but I woke up with a start to find it had turned very cold and that a storm was coming up fast. I hurried home and just as I got the harness off the horses the storm broke. We did not have a place to shelter the horses so they came near the house for as much shelter as that afforded. We soon noticed that the horses were shivering so I got four army blankets and covered each horse. A stray had got in with the horses but I did not have a blanket to cover it with. A few hours later we found that horse was chilled to death. As soon as the storm was over my father went to Lethbridge and bought horse blankets but we never did have occasion to use them after that. That was the worst storm I can ever remember.

I drilled oats for a while and then went to discing for the Sugar Company. I worked long enough to pay my father's debt of $400.00. After this I took cattle out on the range to herd. My brother Peter had lost eighteen head of cattle in that storm. I had to ride and herd these cattle, one day they were nearly down to Coutts and the next day to Lethbridge, a distance of sixty-five miles. The wind would drive the cattle before it no matter which way it was blowing. I had a shack at Terrell's Lake which I stayed in at night. Finally I bought lumber and put up a corral and when the storms came up I would put the cattle in the corral. I also had made up my mind that I wouldn't herd them out in the winter time without feed, so in the summer I put up 100 tons of hay and after that I did very well. I weaned 84 calves. There were 42 steers and 42 heifers. My stepmother began to think I was getting the best of it and started to raising trouble over it so I gave all the cattle up. My father was going to sell them for $10.00 a head but I knew I could do better and sold them all to Mr. Hobbs in Raymond for $20.00 a head.

(Inserted by Reatha Watchuk.) I can remember Grandfather telling me that Julia Ann, his stepmother, was the proverbial wicked stepmother. One tragedy which occurred, that granddad didn't put in this biography, happened in 1887, three years after Richard Samuel Betts and Julia Ann were married. It happened in Benjamin, Utah. It was the duty of Granddad's older brother and himself to put the cows out in the morning after milking, and to bring them in, in the evening for milking. On this evening the two boys were unable to find the cows and returned home without them. Julia was angry and mean and sent the boys to bed without any supper. In the morning she got them out and sent them to look for the cows without any breakfast. Sammy was so hungry that he ate poison parsnips that were growing in that area. Granddad said that Sammy would not let him eat them. Consequently Sammy died. He was 12 years old. Since this tragedy was not told to Doreen when Grandfather told her this story of his life, I wondered if it was true. This year, March 1995, Aunt Lena, her son John and his wife, stayed with us overnight and I asked Aunt Lena about Sammy, and if this story was true. She said it is what happened, and that Sammy had suffered a very excruciating painful death.

I got tired of staying alone on the homestead. No girls or anything, so I quit and went into town. I met a girl at my sister, Laura's place. At this time I was 26 years old. She wanted me right away, but I didn't want her as she was very young, only 15 years old. I went with other girls, but whenever we broke up, well, she was always there, so finally it happened, Effie Ann Wixom and I were married the 30 May, 1905.

We settled down in Raymond, Alberta. I had bought a house and had it all paid for before we got married. My brother-in-law was living there and I had to give him free rent to get him out of the house. I went to work in a brick yard for a while. My stepmother found she could charge things against our wages from the brick yard until we would have nothing left on our payday. I was able to get only $35.00 for a summer's work after she had squandered it all. With this I paid our wedding expenses. Because of my stepmother I quit working at the brick factory and went to work in the sugar factory for $35.00 a month.

Soon a child was underway and I had to run into debt at the Mercantile to buy her clothes. I thought that $10.00 or $15.00 would easily cover the baby’s needs, but when it came to $28.00 there was not much left of the months wages to live on. Ilene was our first little daughter. I worked at the Sugar Company for about two years. After a while another baby came to our place. He was about six weeks old when I got up one morning and built a fire in the fireplace and then went out to do my chores. The house caught fire. We were able to save a little, our bed and our clothes. While we were carrying things out a bunch of English kids were taking some of the things home. We had to leave a man out there to watch our belongings. When the house caught fire I hollered at the man at the water tank but there wasn't any water. The fire was spreading fast so I told my oldest daughter Ilene to get out and take the baby to the neighbors. I had bought Ilene a pair of red shoes which she treasured dearly. One of the shoes was left and the other burned up in the fire. The house was completely burned down. The people of Raymond took up a collection and raised a little over $100.00. There were a few going to help build a house but I got another place already built for $300.00. I had a $100.00 that was given to us and the rest I borrowed from the bank. I paid it back all right.

I sold this place and rented a farm from Ray Knight. I stayed on the farm about three years until after Effie was born. I had 135 Acres of beets in , and that was too many. I hired Indians to thin and top, etc. They slept in the barn and they got in the habit of going back to sleep after I had called them. I got them a clock and told them if they went back to sleep that they would be finished. They were fine for about a week and then one morning they slept in. I went and called them and told them to come to the house and collect their time. They were very sorry and asked for another chance. I gave in and from then on they were fine.

My wife and I raised eight children. Two of them were born while we were on the Knight farm, Lena and Effie. In the spring of 1913 we moved out to Ketchum, a homestead south of Manyberries. It was quite a trip out there. We had four kiddies and just one team and wagon. I loaded everything I could on the wagon box. I loaded forty chickens, six pigs, and flour and the stuff we had. I built the box up and put a bed spring on top of that and the wife and kids rode on top of that. I took a cow and two heifers along with another man's heifer. He had agreed to pay me well for taking it but when I got to Ketchum he gave me $1.00 for taking the heifer 100 miles. The cow and the heifers I tied along on the side of the wagon and I let my wife drive while I followed along behind them. After the first six miles the animals started to come along fine by themselves. We would go out on the prairie until we found a little slew and then we would turn the animals out to feed and water and we would eat our lunch. We took it easy out there, taking three days altogether for the journey. We also had a buggy on behind the wagon loaded with stuff. This made a heavy load. We came to a big coulee hill and it was a pretty stiff grade and I untied the buggy from behind and started up with the load. My wife was so frightened she cried all the time. I had to get a big rock and every time it would stop she would put it behind the wheel. It took us an hour but we finally made it to the top to my wife's relief. We went the rest of the way without too much trouble.

We lived here for two years and then I bought a house and fixed it up. It was full of bed bugs. I took some lathe and plastered it and it stopped the bugs.

By this time we had added Thorold and Lawrence to our growing family.

We got Sunday School started going in Ketchum. President Allen came out and made a Branch out of it. We brought in quite a few members. We had 60 in our Sunday School, part of which were non members and part converts. I was made Superintendent of this Sunday School. We homesteaded in Ketchum for almost eleven years.

(Inserted by Reatha Watchuk) When grandfather dictated this biography to Doreen he goes right from the years he lived in Ketchum to 1945 when he went on a mission. I think the years he has omitted were years in which he suffered a great deal of heartache and pain. About 1940 grandmother became very ill suffering from dropsy, which is a build up of serous fluid. In grandmother’s case it accumulated in the feet making it very painful to walk. At one time Mrs. Pacy, Lena's mother in law, filled a hot water bottle with boiling water and put it to Grandmother's feet. Grandmother was either not able to move her feet off of the hot water bottle, or she did not feel it. In any case her feet became badly burned which added to her other problems. Granddad made her a wheel chair by adding wheels to an easy chair and this is how she got from place to place. When Aunt Lena was here we were talking about this injury and she was the one who told me that Mrs. Pacy put the hot water bottle to grandmother's feet. I visited grandmother while she was so ill. Mother thought that I may be able to give granddad a rest from looking after grandmother, but I was useless. I was probably thirteen.

After returning to Raymond they added the last two chi1dren to their family. Harold, 22 Dec 1925, and Laveve, 30 Mar 1931. Granddad opened a shoe repair shop. All the time I knew Gramps, as I called him, he worked in the shoe shop.

Gramps was a one man entertainment. He was forever singing or reciting. He did not like icing on his cake because he wanted to eat it in milk. He ate bread and milk, cookies and milk, and he liked cake in milk. On a Sunday when we went to Raymond Grandma always made a cake and left one end un-iced for Gramps.

Grandma died 31 December, 1943.

After grandmother's death granddad did not want any reminders of the painful experience of having to look after a very sick wife and watching her die. He tore up everything that would be a reminder of her or this time. This is much to our regret now. Some time later, when I had children, granddad told me that he never could consider marrying again because of the painful experience of watching grandmother die.

I was seventy years old, and living in Raymond, when I was called to serve a mission in Eastern Canada. I was called by President Grant, but he died soon after so my Papers were signed by President Smith. The year was 1945.

While in the Mission Home in Salt Lake City, I got word from Bud, who was in the Navy, that he was coming home. I showed the letter to the Mission President and he told me to go home and that when I was finished my visiting to go on to the mission from there. I did not find Bud when I arrived home but figured he must be at the movie, so waited until the show was out and found him. We had a good visit and then I went to the mission field. Bud accompanied me on the train to Lethbridge.

I left Lethbridge on route to Toronto by train. When we arrived in Medicine Hat it was after midnight. I was able to get a Pullman and went immediately to bed. I had sent a telegram to the Mission President telling the time of my arrival and when we arrived President Ursenbach and others were there to meet me.

I was sent to Brockville but President Ursenbach stated that I would probably be moved shortly as there had been missionaries there for two years without a convert. He told us that he would be coming there in a month or so and if things did not improve I would be moved some place else. When he did come he asked me what I thought about things there. I told him that I thought there were some very fine interested people there in Brockville. I stayed in a hotel there for awhile as I couldn't find a place. I finally found a Mrs. Goodison who gave me a room.

My companion was an Elder Eveson. We were supposed to go tracking together but he did not like to go. He wanted to be alone, and in order to be alone he would go to the library and stay all day and come back at night. President Ursenbach asked me how I was getting along, and I told him I was meeting the people fine. He then asked me how I was getting along with Elder Eveson and I told him that we didn't go out together. President Ursenbach told Elder Eveson that the mission rules were that the Elders were to go out two together. We went together after that but it only lasted a few days. After that he would say, "You take one side and I will take the other". I would get into a house and when I came out he would be nowhere in sight and I would find out that he had gone back to the library. He never would knock at a door. We finally had words over it and he came back and we went out together for awhile. We had a real experience one day. When we had made the rounds and were going home I notice the number on one of the houses that I recognized as one of the numbers on the list we had been given. We went in and there was a woman who was awfully glad to see us. We weren't there long until two neighbors came in and they were so interested that I asked them if they would like to have a cottage meeting. We held one and the spirit was strong, if it had been as it was in the early days of the church we could have baptized them right then and there.

President Ursenbach moved us from Brockville to Kingston, and then on to Cornwall where we were asked to open up the mission. Elder Eveson would not go so I had to go alone. One day on my way back I stopped at Brockville and went to see all the people who were sympathetic to the church. I was going past this house again where we had the meeting, and the woman who lived right across the street, Mrs. Kirkson greeted me with a friendly greeting and shook my hand. She said, "You do not know how pleased I am that a servant of the Lord would shake hands with me on my birthday". She was 72. I told her I was pleased that she considered me a servant of the Lord, where upon she answered, "I will never be any closer to the Lord on this earth than I was at that little meeting". Their husbands objected to their being baptized at that time and I never knew if they joined later. We had three applications for membership before we left there.

I went back to Brockville but I did not get along with my missionary companion, Elder Eveson. I tried very hard but I just could not. He would not go out tracting or to meetings with me. He was also very argumentative and would say things that were absolutely unfounded on truth in order to make me angry if he could. Finally he wrote to President Ursenbach complaining of my treatment of him. President Ursenbach wrote back and told me to fetch all my belongings and come to Toronto, and I followed his instructions. When I arrived there was a letter from some missionaries saying they were going to make an excursion down to the Hill Cumorah and we were invited to go. I went alone and we had a wonderful trip down there. We had two chartered buses. One broke down on the way so we had the unexpected pleasure of spending four hours in Niagara

Falls and viewing this phenomenon of Mother Nature. We were finally on our way and arrived at the Hill Cumorah at 10 o'clock at night. Someone had made a reservation for supper at a restaurant but we stopped first at the Hill for a prayer. I stood on the edge of the monument and gave the prayer and then we went on to our supper. The waitresses looked like they were tired as we got there so late. After supper we were taken around to the places where we were to sleep for the night. I was privileged to sleep in the Martin Harris’ home. The next morning we went into the Sacred Grove and held a Testimony Meeting. There were sixty-four testimonies born there and after they were over President Ursenbach asked me talk. It was my second extemporaneous talk. At first I didn't know what to say. Then I asked the missionaries if they knew why they called this place the Sacred Grove? None held his hand up. I told them there was a time when the adversary was in this grove at full force. I told them that when Joseph Smith came to the grove to pray that the adversary was so strong that he thought he was going to be killed, and just before that happened there was a light came down from Heaven and the Father and the Son revealed themselves to Joseph Smith. Since that time it has been known as the Sacred Grove. On the way home President Ursenbach sat down beside me and he said that there were sixty-four testimonies born there that day and no one had mentioned the Sacred Grove. He appreciated me talking about this important event in my talk.

Next morning President showed me a letter from Bishop Nicken that Laveve had become so lonely in High River that he had given her the money to go home to Raymond. She met the Bishop there and told him she wanted her Dad. He told her that I had served over a year and that it would not be long before I came home. However, Laveve was so lonely that the Bishop felt I should be released so I could come home. This did it. President Ursenbach released me and I went home. I arrived in Lethbridge to find that Laveve had been there but I had just missed her as she had gone back to High River. I phoned Effie to tell her I was home and to put LaVeve on the first bus back. When she arrived she was so excited she ran and jumped at me and nearly put me down.