Interview with Isaac Ervin Riddle

Isaac Ervin Riddle was interviewed on November 4, 1968 in St. George, Washington County, Utah by Fielding H. Harris, a representative of Voices of Remembrance Foundation. He related his personal history of living in various parts of Utah, Wyoming and Nevada.

FH:Would you please give your [full] name?

IR:[My name is] Isaac Ervin Riddle.

FH:[What is] your birth date?

IR:[I was born] June 21, 1894.

FH:[Where were] you born?

IR:[I was born in] Manti [Sanpete County] Utah.

FH:[What was] your father's name?

IR:My father's name was Isaac J. [Jimeson] Riddle.i

FH:[What was] your mother's [full] name?

IR:My mother's name was Clara Maria (Berry) [Riddle].

FH:[What] can you remember from [your] early childhood?

IR:One of the first faith-promoting [events] I had was [when] a little sister 00:01:00died in 1900. [Lucy Jean Riddle died December 27, 1899.] Her name was Lucy and my mother gathered my brother [Clarence Edwin Riddle], sister [Minerva Elizabeth Sharlotte Riddle] and me in the living room in front of the fireplace [to] explain to us where this little sister would go in the next life. She had no sin; therefore, she would be eligible for the celestial kingdom. Two years later, we had a little brother [Wallace Elroy Riddle] die and it was about the 00:02:00same [situation] over again. My mother was a wonderful person for having filled a [LDS] mission with my father over in England. She took time with her children to explain things as we grew up.

FH:Isn't this is powerful teaching?

IR:Yes. It was really wonderful. It was something that has stayed with me all through my life.

FH:Do you remember some of your early playmates or experiences?

IR:We had a very fine deacon's class, our quorum or whatever you might call it. I remember those boys [who] were in that deacon's class to this day. Wilford Roan, Milton Twitchell and a number of us have been bishops [that were in] our deacon's class. There were seven [of us who were] bishops.

FH:That is a good record.

IR:They have been very fine men all through their lives. I was not ordained a 00:03:00teacher before I went to school at Cedar City [Iron County, Utah]. By the time I had gone to school a year or so, I was ordained a priest. I missed the ordination of a teacher. I was ordained an elder when I wanted to get married. I 00:04:00was twenty-one years old.

As we grew up, we had Friday night dances. We didn't have Saturday night dances because it had a chance of [carrying over] into Sunday. We had Friday night dances and, generally, $.50 would pay our ticket. They were all very clean and sweet dances. We learned to square dance and [do] quadrilles as we grew up in the little town of Escalante [Garfield County] Utah. My father and mother had moved back [there] in the early 1890s [and] we had a very wholesome town. Immoral conduct was almost unheard of in that town. They were very faithful in 00:05:00attending their Sunday school, Primary, MIA [Mutual Improvement Association] and Sacrament Meetings. I will never forget my mother would take my brother, who was three years younger, and me to Sacrament Meeting every Sunday. Many, many Sundays my brother and I were the only deacons there to pass the Sacrament. This was very faith-promoting.

I remember one time when I was quite young, I couldn't have been over fifteen years old, I got really drunk. [Laughter] In the kitchen my mother had a liniment bottle with alcohol in it that she kept for medicinal purposes. She was 00:06:00away at Relief Society and a fellow by the name of Reuben Church and I found [it]. We decided to really have a time. We mixed the whole thing up and drank it. [Laughter] We started down town and met my poor old dear mother coming home from Relief Society. She was so embarrassed; I will never forget! The further we went, the more this would work on us. We finally [were] caught in the straw stack down at Ed Allen's. We had a hard time sobering up enough to get out of that straw stack. We finally sobered up. My mother didn't say anything to me that night, but the next morning she sat [across] the table from me and 00:07:00explained once again the bad effect of liquor. It was about the last time I ever did get drunk. [Laughter] I never did drink a pint of liquor altogether including that [time]. That was all I ever drank in my whole life.

I remember coming home with the other boys and we had picked up some cigars from somewhere. My younger brother, Clarence [Edwin], was coming along with us. When we [went] to our room that night, he said, "You sure did look pretty with that cigar stuck in your mouth." He said it looked like a pig's TD. [Laughter] That cured me [from] smoking cigars. I guess I haven't smoked a half dozen cigars and 00:08:00cigarettes all [of] my life because I had a mother and a brother [Clarence Edwin] watching me. I haven't had many bad habits in my life. I used to be a good hand to swearing. My mother said to me one day, "Ben Tanner told me he heard you swearing. He said that boy has one of the best vocabularies for swearing than anybody I ever saw." This kind of cured me on that. I thought: I don't want to have a vocabulary [for] swearing. As we grew up, we had some very fine faith-promoting [events] in our lives.

FH:Tell a little bit about your [education].

IR:We were living in the little town of Escalante way over in southeastern Utah, away from [any] colleges. The nearest school or college was in Cedar City. My father wanted us to get an education. I remember him taking Claude Haas and me to school. We came over in a buckboard with a span of mules that belonged to 00:10:00Claude Haas' father. My father brought the two of us over in the fall of 1912 and we went to school at Cedar City. Then it was the BNS, Branch Normal School. The next year it changed to the Branch Agricultural College, [a] branch of the [Utah State University] in Logan [Cache County. Utah]. We continued until we [had] about fourteen units of high school training.

Then I met the lady of my choice. I had gone with girls through my life and had quite a number of fine girlfriends. [They were] fine, clean [relationships]. When I saw the lady that was to be my wife, I thought: this was the gal. We started going together in the fall of 1914 on a cleanup campaign in Cedar City. 00:11:00It wasn't until the following October, almost a year later, that we went to Salt Lake City [Salt Lake County, Utah] to be married in the Salt Lake Temple. It was October 7 [2], 1915. Her name was Abby Smith, the daughter of Benjamin Bundy and Claudia Pernetta (Ward) Smith. [Abby] was [the] oldest of five children. We have had a happy life together for fifty-three years this October. We are both in quite good health, go to the temple regularly and enjoy life. We had five children [grow to maturity] as we went along through life.

FH:Can you tell more about the type of [education] you had in Cedar [City] 00:12:00before you tell about [your family]?

IR:My father wanted me to take a business course. So I did take a business course [of] typing, accounting and business law. We had the regular course of English and a class in zoology and botany and [subjects] of this sort. We took other classes, but I specialized in accounting and typing. I have done a lot of 00:13:00accounting in my life, but in my business I have a specialized accountant. I have always typed my own letters and have always typed about sixty-five words a minute using the touch system ever since 1912. This has always been a great help to me all my life. I even used it to make master sheets for running off 50, 100 or 500 copies of the special [forms] we needed.

To cut it short a bit, we [were] married in the third year [of school] instead of going on and getting our certificate. I haven't regretted it too much because 00:14:00I have had enough education to go along through life in good shape. My wife and I had gone together a year. We thought, and our parents thought, marriage would be alright, so we [were] married instead of going on to school.

FH:Where did you live?

IR:The first year of our marriage we lived in Escalante. I rented my father's farm, but we felt like we wanted to get away from there. Actually, we wanted to get a [better] idea of the world so we moved to northern Wyoming where my wife's parents had [returned]. They came from Wyoming down to Parowan [Iron County, 00:15:00Utah], but they weren't happy there. They were opening irrigation projects in a little town called Cowley, Wyoming in Bighorn County. We went there and took up a homestead. We had an eighty-acre farm and developed that little farm. We built a house and corrals. We had some milk cows and we [became] very independent and got along [very] good. Then something happened to me there that sort of changed my life. I had held [positions] in The Church [of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints] before that, but at this time my wife's cousin's husband, Harry Tippets, 00:16:00and her cousin Elmer Ayer were both well versed in the scriptures. Harry was chosen to be the stake superintendent of Sunday school in [the] Big Horn Stake. He chose Elmer Ayer for his first counselor and chose me for his second counselor. This was a great honor. We had a little one-horse buggy that the four of us, in a pinch, could ride in and we went all over the Big Horn Basin [to] all the wards. There were seven, eight or ten wards. Except in Ottawa, Wyoming where we had to go on [the] train. We would visit these wards every Sunday as [the] stake superintendancy. These men had such a good command of the English language and a good knowledge of the gospel and I felt I didn't have enough. So 00:17:00I made a decision that, after we had been in Wyoming five years, I wanted to go on a [LDS] mission.

I was twenty-nine years of age. We were married in 1915 and we lived in Escalante for one year and [moved] to Cowley, Wyoming and lived there five years. I was twenty-one [years old], nearly twenty-two [years old] when we were married. This made me almost twenty-nine years old when I made up my mind to go on a mission. I [felt] this would open up the learning of the gospel better than anything in the world. I wrote my father who still lived in Escalante. He had two stores there and the stores were doing well. I told him I would like to go 00:18:00on a mission and would like to bring my wife and three children, which we had at that time, and leave them with him. He wrote me back and said to go on the mission, they would take care of [them] and "if you need any extra money, we will be glad to help you on that."

I told the bishop I would like to go on a mission -- practically volunteered. I [received] my call [to] the mission so I took my wife on the train to Escalante. 00:19:00She and the children stayed with my father for three years while I was on the mission. She helped in the store. I sold my farm, but the fellow [who] bought it failed on me. While I was out in the mission field, I wrote my father [that] I was in difficulty. He wrote "to stay right where you are and we will send you what money you need." He did send me money to finish my mission. I filled a mission in San Francisco [California] from May 1921 to 1923. This was the greatest thing to come to me, with the exception of my wife, up to this point. I was there a short time, I think five months, and they made me a presiding elder 00:20:00over the missionaries in Oakland [California]. I believe there were six of us there.

We used to hold street meetings and do tracting. It was the old method of missionary work, but very good. Finally, the mission president, who was Joseph W. McMurrin, in Los Angeles [California] came up and called me in. He said he would like me to be the conference president, [as] they called them then; now they call them district presidents. He had me move to 1649 Hayes Street in San Francisco and that was where I spent the rest of my time in the mission field. I had forty missionaries under me and these missionaries extended from Monterey or 00:21:00Carmel by the Sea on the south to Eureka, California on the north. We had no counselors then and I was the whole authority in the Bay Area under President McMurrin. In addition to managing these forty missionaries, I had five branches that were under the supervision of the conference president. Of these five branches that were in Oakland, there were three at the time, and we organized two and made five before I left there. I understand now there are three or four stakes [in] the Bay Area. At this time, there were only about 3,000 Latter-day 00:22:00Saints in the whole Bay Area of San Francisco.

I fulfilled a very honorable mission there. I came home in the spring of 1923. From then on, I have had constant activity in the church. I have hardly been relieved of [one] responsibility [until I have] been given another one. We went back to Escalante. Then my wife and I made a decision that we must go somewhere [so] our children could get [an education]. We thought we might go to Provo [Utah County, Utah], but we came back to Cedar City because we would be a little 00:23:00closer to our homes and my folks. It would be a smaller school and [there would be] a little more personal attention there. We moved back to Cedar City and established a home there. From 1923 to 1960 I was active continually. I remember being selected to be counselor in the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association, and the Stake MIA, immediately after I [went] back to Cedar City. M. J. Urie, Jim Urie as they called him, was the superintendent and he wanted me for one of his counselors. In a year, President William R. Palmer asked Brother Urie to be the stake clerk. President Palmer then elevated me to [be] the 00:24:00superintendent of all the stake MIA's, [a] position I held for seven years. [When] I was released from that [position], President Palmer said, "You come in 00:25:00here; we aren't through with you yet." At that time he asked me to be, I believe, stake mission president. I was mission president for all of the stake missions in the Parowan Stake at that time. We had twelve missionaries.

We had quite a faith- promoting [event] during that time. One of the missionaries was Ezra Thompson [who] lived in St. George the last years of his life. He contracted double pneumonia and was in the hospital. His wife, Rose [Thompson], called and asked if we would come out and administer to him. Three other missionaries and I went out and administered to him. One of the other boys 00:26:00anointed him and I sealed the anointing. I felt compelled to tell him that he was going to get well from this pneumonia even though the doctor, Dr. M. J. Macfarlane at the time, said that it would be impossible for him to survive. He said his lungs were completely filled and he wouldn't be able to survive. His wife Rose also got the message. She said, "I knew that when you administered to him that he would get well." The next morning the doctor came and looked at [Ezra] Thompson and found he was improved. It looked like he could leave the 00:27:00hospital in a few days. From then on, Dr. Macfarlane called him the miracle man. I don't suppose he knew how this happened, but we knew it had been a miraculous healing.

I spent a lot of time in Cedar City. In 1926 I started in the wholesale flour and feed business. In 1928 I added groceries and extended the warehouse to it. For thirty years I was in the wholesale feed and flour business. [From] 1928 to 1950 we ran groceries. However, in 1950, we sold the grocery part of it and built a new warehouse across the street. I guess we handled upwards of 00:28:00$25,000,000.00 worth of merchandise during that time. During the time I was in Cedar City, my greatest joy was working in the church. I [went] from stake superintendent of MIA to Sunday school. After I had been the stake superintendent of Sunday school for several years, then I was mission president. Finally, in 1939, I was released from the stake mission. President Palmer asked 00:29:00me to be bishop of the newly organized Fourth Ward. This ward took effect on January 1, 1940. I was the first bishop of the Cedar Fourth Ward which was divided from the Third Ward. During that time we promoted genealogy and things of that sort. We had a committee of twenty-four people in that ward. We used to come down in great swarms to the [St. George] Temple. We did more temple work than any ward in the stake up there. Finally, they [received] the spirit. I 00:30:00remember the Third Ward [received] the spirit of it and they used to come down in great groups. We used to bring the people down for [a] temple excursion at least once or twice a month. We did lots of temple work.

I presume temple work comes to me naturally because my father, Isaac J. Riddle, was only fourteen years of age when the [building of the] St. George Temple was started. He was born [December 17,] 1857. They started construction on the 00:31:00temple [in] 1871. My grandfather, Isaac Riddle, and my father worked there the six years the St. George Temple was being built. This has always been something that has been before me; therefore, I have been interested in temple work. In my grandfather's, Isaac Riddle, autobiography he said the Manti Temple [Sanpete County, Utah] was [the] next [temple to be built]. He said they weren't able to get to Logan to help on that temple, but they did go and work until the Manti Temple was completed. They had a little home just to the foot of the hill on the south side of it where I was born in 1894. My mother went up from Escalante to 00:32:00be confined. I was born on June 21, 1894. After my grandfather had worked until the Manti Temple was completed, he stayed there and did ten years of ordinance work until he finally retired. That would be 1898 when he retired and went to Provo [to be] with his daughter.

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IR:My father was the oldest son of Isaac Riddle and was born in Pine Valley [Washington County, Utah]. He was the first male child born in Pine Valley. When they were working towards getting the establishment of Santa Clara [Washington County, Utah] and St. George and the other colonies down here, my grandfather 00:33:00had a home in Gunlock [Washington County, Utah]. He was one of the first settlers there. The story goes in his autobiography, also on a monument erected up in Pine Valley, that he followed the cow tracks one morning and went up over the hill from Gunlock [to] where he could see over Pine Valley. He said it was 00:34:00the most beautiful spot he had ever seen on God's green earth. This was just about his very words. In time, he went up there and established a sawmill. He, a man by the name of Jay Hugh Blackburn and Robert Ritchie -- those three men -- had a sawmill up there along with many others. They helped to finally get the lumber out that went into the St. George Temple. Being in that area, it was handy for him to come here and do work on the St. George Temple. During the six 00:35:00years of its construction they said --

[END OF TAPE ONE -- SIDE ONE]

IR:-- he was the highest donor [to] the St. George Temple. I presume he furnished a tremendous amount of lumber. My father was born December 18, [17] 1857 in Pine Valley. [At] the time the temple was ready for construction, my father would have been fourteen years of age. He [went] right along with my grandfather to deliver lumber and to help work on the St. George Temple. As they finished the temple, [according to] his autobiography, he was the highest donor 00:36:00[to] the Temple. I presume it was in the labor, lumber and various things.

He went down to Pinto [Washington County] Utah and had a home there. He also had a home [around] Newcastle [Iron County, Utah]. My grandfather [Isaac Riddle] had three wives, they were three Marys.

[Isaac Riddle was married to and divorced from Mary Carolin Turnbaugh. On March 6, 1853 he married Mary Ann Levi in Salt Lake City, Utah. On August 17, 1861 he married Mary Rowland in Salt Lake City. On August 29, 1863 he married Mary Ann Eagles in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah.]

Mary Ann (Levi) [Riddle] was my grandmother. She had six children, three boys and three girls. My father lived to eighty-six years of age and my Uncle "Selina"" [Jaselina Mountchesney Riddle] lived to ninety years of age. One of 00:37:00the oldest sons of my grandmother's children, George Henry [Riddle], lived only a few months. Mary Ann [Riddle] lived twelve years. Madorah [Riddle] lived until she was five years old. Laura [Riddle] lived until she was three years old.

FH:Can you tell a little about the one uncle [who] lived? What happened to him?

IR:Yes. Uncle "Selina" had a fine family and some of his sons were bishops. He lived over in Antimony [Garfield County, Utah]. They used to call it Coyote. [It was] down north of Bryce [Canyon National Park, Garfield County, Utah] about thirty miles or so. His wife [Lovina Lucinda (Jacobs) Riddle] died and all of his children were married off. He came to St. George and thought he would do temple work. He worked twelve years in the St. George Temple; not as an ordinance worker, he did endowment work. He did 6,000 or 7,000 names while he was here. He married another very lovely person here. Her name was Emma [Jane] 00:39:00(Stevens) [Riddle]. It was the second marriage for her. She didn't have much success with her first husband [George Franklin Burnham] and they had never been to the temple, so she chose to be sealed to Uncle "Selina" in the St. George Temple. They had a very happy life together for about twelve years.

FH:Tell more about your father and his experiences.

IR:My father was one of the first settlers in what we used to call Rabbit Valley over [near] Loa [Wayne County, Utah]. He had a large farm and large interests 00:40:00there, but he lived during the 1890s when the United States [Federal] Marshals were after the polygamists. My father had two wives and was the father of eighteen children from those two wives.

[Isaac Jimeson Riddle married Nancy (Russell) Riddle April 10, 1877 in St. George, Washington County, Utah. On January 8, 1886 he married Clara Maria (Berry) Riddle in Logan Cache County, Utah.]

My mother had eight children and his first wife [Nancy (Russell) Riddle] had ten children. He decided he would move down to the little town of Escalante, as it was just starting at the time, [so] that he wouldn't be bothered so badly by the United States [Federal] Marshals. He was one of the first settlers there. From 00:41:00the time he moved there, in the early 1890s, until he died he was one of the most prominent men in the town. At one time, he had three stores, a grist mill and a big farm [of] about 200 acres [and] about 800 acres of pasture land out in Wide Hollow as we called it. They would come from miles around -- [to] the Sweetwater country, Widtsoe, as they call it now, over in Henrieville, Cannonville and Tropic to the little mill my father had to get their flour and 00:42:00their wheat and grits ground. [All of these areas were in Garfield County, Utah.]

We had a little of everything on that farm. My father was a very industrious fellow. We had about 150 head of cattle that we fed in the winter time. [We] would put [them] on the range about fifteen or twenty miles up North Creek in the summertime. We grew up on the farm and learned to do everything including how to run the grist mill. My father made as good [of] cracked wheat, mush and flour as any mills make now. It wasn't enriched [as] it already had its original enrichment in it. My father's two wives could make as fine of bread out of that 00:43:00as any flour I have ever seen. He raised his family there and was a very conscientious and sincere man. My father and mother had filled a [LDS] mission in England when my mother was first married to my father. His first wife stayed with the older children and took care of the farm over in Loa in Rabbit Valley country while they were gone for two years in England.

FH:[Did life] take a lot of faith?

IR:It was nothing then for the presidency of the church to call men that they felt could fulfill a mission. Even though my father had quite a large interest 00:44:00in Rabbit Valley, they called him to go on the mission to a foreign land. Whip Pace and various Pace [people] there [who] were very good friends with father's first wife and the family, took care of the farm while my mother and father were in England on the mission for two years.

This mission benefited my parents all the rest of their lives. I have never known a person with greater faith than my mother had. We grew up on this little farm down in Escalante. Even though we had two mothers to the family, the 00:45:00brothers and sisters were just one big happy family. I had a half-sister, her mother was the first wife, [who] was just five months younger than me. We used to go to dances and [events] together if we didn't have a partner. We were always together in the crowd. As we grew up on the farm, my [half]-brother Alfred [Levi Riddle], who was five years younger than me, was the first wife's child. My [half]-brother, Edgar [Joselina Riddle], was five years older than me. We worked on the farm together. It was our duty to help take care of the farm.

FH:Was there any friction between the two wives?

IR:There never was until we [went] down into Escalante. There, a sad [event] happened. There seemed to be quite a bit of jealousy on the part of my father's first wife. My father said it never started until they were on their way from Loa [Wayne County, Utah] down through the Gap, down North Creek as we called it, into Escalante. Then there was a little friction. It [was] so bad she finally decided to get a divorce. It was sad. I will never forget my mother telling her children, "I don't want to hear you ever say anything bad or against Aunt 00:47:00Nancy." That was the name of my father's first wife. We just grew up that way. If one of the wives was to farm in the spring, fall or summer, the children would live with the others down in town. We would go back and forth; it didn't make any difference. There was a little friction and finally, the divorce. There was quite a bit of bitterness by the first wife. She even had a cancellation [made] of their marriage in the temple.

Just before she died, she was at my sister's place, who was five months younger 00:48:00than me [and] she called for my father. [She] said, "I have never married again nor been sealed to anybody else so I want to be re-instated right back where I was before, if it is alright with you." They formed reconciliation on her death bed. When I was going on my mission in 1921, I took the letter to President Heber J. Grant. They had the cancellation cancelled so she was put right back where she was before.

FH:She didn't lose a thing by it.

IR:They didn't lose a thing by it except some years of unhappiness. To this day, the children have all been the same. We only have one of her family left, my 00:49:00[half]-brother Alfred [Levi]. Of the eighteen children, there are only four left. I have two sisters [and] myself from our family and Alfred who are still living. They have always been a fundamentally religious family. A number of them have filled missions in both families. We all have been church going [and] very religious people.

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FH:Will you tell what you did to have fun when you were young?

IR:We had a gang [group] of boys and girls [who] sort of ran around together. We would go to the dances together. My sister, Hazel [Genevieve Riddle], and I were 00:50:00part of that gang [group] all the way through our teenage years and through our lives.

FH:What kind of music did you have to dance by?

IR:We had violins, trombones, some trumpets and piano. We always had a violin or two. They had the old style music -- waltz, two steps, quadrilles and dances

of that sort. It was the most wholesome thing that you ever saw. We never danced close even in those days. The quadrilles were quite the thing. As we grew up we learned quite a bit about music. I took music lessons myself [and] it was quite 00:51:00a benefit to me all of my life. I didn't major in it, as I was away at the farm, because my father relied upon me to watch [over the farm]. Even when I was thirteen or fourteen years old, he would go away [and] I would sort of be in charge until I was married. My sister, Hazel [Genevieve], majored in music. She was very apt at it. When she finally went to Orem [Utah County, Utah] to live, up on the Provo Bench with her husband, [she] taught music. Some of her children 00:52:00majored in music and some have been music teachers in high school and college throughout their lives. She was a great musician and could play just about any [instrument].

FH:What was her married name?

IR:Her name was Hazel [Genevieve (Riddle) Liston] Liston. She had quite a sad story with her first husband [Philo Liston]. This is quite a story. Her first husband [was] stepping [out] with somebody else down in Richfield [Sevier County, Utah]. Finally, he left [Hazel] and [obtained] a divorce. They had three wonderful little boys. She took fine care of them. Her husband's brother, Don 00:53:00[Carlos] Liston, had married a woman by the name of Millie Wilcox and she died. They lived over in Boulder [Garfield County, Utah] and he [moved] over to Escalante to live after she died. This is one of the greatest proposals you ever heard of. He came up to her place in Escalante one day and said, "I have three boys and you have three boys. My wife is dead and Philo has left you. Why don't we put these two families together and go on through life?" She said, "Let me think about it for a day." He said he would come up the next day for her answer. 00:54:00They didn't have any courtship or anything. He went back the next day to her home and she said, "I have decided to take your offer." They got in a wagon and went down to Richfield to get a load of merchandise. They didn't want this to be a dead loss [trip], driving all the way to Richfield just to get married. They got a load of groceries from my father's store, as I recall, and [were] married while they were there. From then on until their deaths they lived as happy a life as any people you ever saw.

[Don Carlos and Hazel Genevieve (Riddle) Liston Liston were married August 3, 1912 in Panguitch, Garfield County, Utah.]

There was never any difference in those boys. She helped to raise his children and he helped to raise hers. They were all a fine family. They had one little 00:55:00girl named Mert. This was my sister Hazel [Genevieve] and she was a very fine person. She died a few years ago [December 24, 1965].

FH:Was she ever sealed to this man?

IR:Yes, she was sealed to him [Don Carlos Liston] and she is the mother of the seven children. The children will have two mothers in the next life because Millie Wilcox, the first wife, was sealed to my brother-in-law Don also. When she died, he said: you will have to come back in a short while for my funeral, too. He said, "I can't live without her." It was only a few months, less than a 00:56:00year, when he died after she died. They were the finest people that ever lived -- wonderful people.

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FH:[Would] you tell about your sports activities?

IR:I had a cousin named Chess Riddle [who] went to BYU [Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah County, Utah to] school and became a ten-flat man. What I mean by that is he ran the 100 yards in ten [seconds] flat. He was a great athlete and was rated in the state as one of the best athletes of his time. When we used to go to Pine Lake [Washington County, Utah] for July Twenty-Fourth, he was there. There wasn't anybody [who] could touch him as far as running. It kind 00:57:00of prompted me and I thought, when I started to go to school, I would like to be an athlete. I never did play football because it wasn't very prominent then. I did play lots of baseball and was on the track team at the college in Cedar City. My specialty was running the 100-yard dash and [the] 220. I remember a man by the name of Jack Christenson who was the coach at the time. We trained intensely because we were supposed to beat the rest of the teams and we did. We went to the state tournament two different years, I believe. Our relay team, the 00:58:00220-relay team, took first [place] in the state. I could run the 100 yards in ten-one. I never did get down to ten-flat, but I could run the 220 in darn close to twenty-two seconds. I never let up after I started.

I was a fairly good sprinter when I was going to school. I was on the track team all the three years that I was able to go to school in Cedar City. This track team was quite famous and we used to meet with [teams from] St. George and Cedar City. I remember one time when we were [at a] meet in St. George and I was the 00:59:00first one around. It seemed liked [in] the lower climate I could run a little bit faster. I remember [when] I hit the string on the 220 here in St. George. I remember Earl [J.] Bleak, and some of the other boys, [who] were on the St. George team. We had a very fine track team.

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IR:During my life I have had a hand [desire] to sing. My sister, Hazel [Genevieve], went on with her music and was very good as a pianist. She could play the pipe organ. In fact, she had a pipe organ in her home before she died. It was an electric organ. I went on singing. I will never forget William Alvey 01:00:00coming to our home and organizing a chorus to go caroling on Christmas [Day]. He came to our home in Escalante and wanted to know if I would sing in their choir. He had heard me [sing] in church and knew I had a good voice. I was fifteen years old. I learned to sing in that choir and we formed a wonderful group -- then something strange happened. We would go there and sing after Sacrament 01:01:00Meeting on Sunday. Some didn't attend Sacrament Meeting, but they would always come to the choir. We had about fifty or sixty voices in that caroling chorus. The night we were going to [do] the caroling we met for a few minutes and the chorus [members] looked out the window. There, Grandma Heath's house was on fire. I guess half of the people in that choir were related to her. So we never went out caroling. However, I sang in the choir from the time I was fifteen 01:02:00until this day. I can hold a bass [note] very good. I could read music quite well and sing in the choir. Even here in the Sixth Ward, I sing in the choir.

It has been a hobby of mine. I remember when I was asked to be [the] bishop in Cedar City in 1939. I said, "We are going to have a choir." We [found] a chorister, Hazel Granger was her name. We developed one of the finest choirs. Demoine Jones was the choir leader in the Fourth Ward. We were so good they 01:03:00would come for [the] choir concerts [that] we furnished [held]. I remember one time we wanted to raise some money; that was one thing I very apt [at], raising money for church buildings.

When I was in the mission field, Alexander Schreiner, the famous organist in the Salt Lake Tabernacle, was on a [LDS] mission at the same time [I was]. I [became] acquainted with him and had him come up from Los Angeles to San Francisco. He put on recitals there and also in Oakland and San Jose [California] and other [cities]. He and I have been good friends all through the 01:04:00fifty years that we have been back from our mission. Whenever I go to Salt Lake [City] I try to see him or call him. He came down a time or two and played for us to raise money to finish getting the Third Ward chapel out of debt. There was still a $6,000.00 debt hanging over it from 1930 when it was built [to] almost 1940, or maybe a little before 1940, I think. The bishop, who was Samuel L. Leigh, or "Bud" Leigh, called a meeting. I was always a hand at talking, and suggested we [form] a committee, have some big dinners and raise some money. [It 01:05:00wasn't] long before we were out of debt and had the chapel paid for. The next thing [after] we got it out of debt and dedicated [the chapel], was the institute. They had to have someone to be chairman of the institute and so President William R. Palmer asked me to be the finance chairman. We went on having these $5.00 dinners. [Laughter] They got to be quite [the event] in Cedar City. We got to the point where we called them the Mardi Gras!

I will go back just a little; we did finish the institute and then came the 01:06:00stake house. We went right on with our Mardi Gras, the big $5.00 dinners. We would hold them two nights [with] three dinners a night. We would hold them from 5:00 o'clock until 7:00 o'clock, from 7 o'clock until 9 o'clock and from 9 o'clock until 11 o'clock. We fed as [many] as 1,800 people. One time when we were building the stake house and I was still finance chairman, we made $6,700.00 one of those two nights [with] six dinners. We gathered up our half of $300,000.00 to build that beautiful stake house on Ninth [Street] in Cedar City. 01:07:00I believe it was between Eighth and Ninth [Streets]. It is still today one of the most beautiful buildings anywhere.

FH:I have heard a lot about it.

IR:We always had a program that would go along with these dinners. I was generally the chairman. I came down off of the stage one night and remember Ray Baumgartner made a statement that paid me in full for everything I ever did up there [in] way of raising money for these chapels, institute and seminary. As I came down off the stage, he looked at me and said, "Old I. E. [Isaac Ervin] has 01:08:00done it again." I said, "Yes, me and about forty others. We have a wonderful committee that puts these [events] on."

FH:It takes a lot of help.

IR:I thought we were all fixed up and then one day Cumin Gardner came down. He was in the stake presidency and came to my warehouse. [He] said, "We have to have another church building." I said, "Wait a minute; we have a chapel for every ward and an institute, so what in the world do you need now?" He said, "We need a new seminary [building]. We know you can do it better than anybody. Will you be the finance chairman of this seminary?" I said sure, I would. [In] less than a year we had $50,000.00 to match the presiding bishopric's $50,000.00 and 01:09:00built that beautiful seminary building up there. There were four buildings I helped to get out of debt and dedicated while I was in Cedar City. I never hesitated asking people for money when it came to something we were going to do for the Lord. For myself, I am a little bit reserved on that. I don't care how much I ask them for, if it is for the Lord, I will bleed them for everything I can get because I know it is going to be a blessing to them if they donate to things of this sort.

[END OF TAPE ONE -- SIDE TWO]

IR:We had moved to St. George after my wife's father died in 1960. We had a 01:10:00little home down here and decided to spend the rest of our lives here. I was in the insurance business. I remember the first six months I was in St. George I wrote sixty policies, ten policies a month.

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IR:My supervisor came down to St. George and said, "I want you to go to Reno [Nevada]." I said, "No, I am not going any where, Milt." His name was Milton Allen. I said we were satisfied right here and wanted to continue on with our 01:11:00temple work and write insurance here. He said, "How about going to Las Vegas then?" I said, "No, we are alright where we are right now." My wife spoke up and said, "Why don't we go?" We had three children in Las Vegas. I could see she thought it would be nice to [be] down there with them. Afterward, I could see she was prompted to say that because we decided to move to Las Vegas. We sold our home here and the $8,000.00 from it [we] put it into one of those Pardee-Phillips homes in North Las Vegas.

I hadn't been in Las Vegas but a few months [when] the stake president called me. He said he wanted me to be in the High Council. I had been in the High Council in Cedar City before I was bishop. I was glad to [serve]. I found out later that this was just a feeler. After I had been in the High Council for about six months, they invited me out of it one day. When I came back in, the other members of the High Council, which consisted of about fifteen of us altogether, had long faces. I thought: what are they going to do with me now? I didn't ask anybody or say any more about it as I had coined a phrase a long time 01:13:00ago in my life. That is, to always live within the bounds of propriety. It wouldn't be within the bounds of propriety to be prying into what they had been talking about. Two weeks later, President William L. Taylor, who was the great-grandson of John Taylor, was the stake president [and he] called me in again with the stake presidency. He said, "We want you to be bishop of the Thirteenth Ward. I had been bishop once and also [in] the High Council once. I said, "If that is what you want me to do, I will do the best I can with it." I was sixty-seven years of age at that time. He said, "We feel you are just the 01:14:00man to do it. We want you to go down there and build that chapel." I got in my car after talking with him for a bit, and started home. I thought on my way home that this is what I came to Las Vegas for. I did have the knack for gathering funds and plans for chapels and got plans out for buildings and finished building them in Cedar City. I knew the presiding bishopric and the building committee. We had worked with them closely with the buildings up there. I said, "This will be fine. I will do the best I can." I selected two wonderful 01:15:00counselors down there for the Thirteenth Ward. Kent Poulson was my first counselor and Dean Rabintick was the second counselor.

We began making ways and means to get the money for a starting fund. We flew to Salt Lake City in a little Cessna airplane that one of our members had and met with the building committee. I was acquainted with the men in the building committee, especially W. [inaudible] McDonald [who] I had known when he was branch president in Oakland, California. When I went in, they knew me from the 01:16:00other buildings I had built. My wife's cousin's husband was also a member of the building committee.

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ER:His name was Brother McClure, Myra Lyman's husband, [and] was a member of the committee. Between him and W. [inaudible] McDonald we were able to get plans and get into action right away. McClure flew down several times to Las Vegas and was very helpful.

There is something about that building down there that [should] be told. There 01:17:00is a man down there by the name of Marion Earl. He was in the High Council of the Las Vegas Stake and his brother, Rulon [Earl], was the president of the Las Vegas East Stake. He [Marion Earl] had some land that he had bought right where we wanted to build [the] chapel in Las Vegas. We talked with him about that and he said, "I will be glad to sell you five acres of land for that chapel." At that time, he could have gotten $2,000.00 an acre for that land, but he refused to charge us any more than what he paid for it. He didn't even get his interest out of the money from the time he bought it. This is the kind of Latter-day 01:18:00Saint he is.

We got busy starting [a] fund with the $5.00 dinners and then we jumped to $10.00 a family or $5.00 a person. It wasn't any time before we had $50,000.00. The stake presidency had a plan down there and had the whole stake working towards building funds. This general fund was to be used. "We want you at this dinner because it was getting money ready for Bishop Riddle's new chapel down there." We got the $50,000.00 and they said they would give us $25,000.00 back 01:19:00out of the general fund to get our starting fund because they said we needed $75,000.00 before we could break ground. We had the $50,000.00, but it was a tussle to get the $25,000.00 back from the stake presidency that we had helped them to raise by using our name from the other dinners we had. We put the heat on pretty strong to this man, William L. Taylor. He came down, met with us. I said, "An agreement is an agreement. We feel that we should have that $25,000.00 we helped get, to make it up to $75,000.00 so we can start the chapel."

Something very dramatic happened right there. He said, "We will see about it." I said, "In this Sacrament Meeting we are going to announce to the people one of two things: we have the starting funds or that we weren't able to get the $25,000.00 from the stake presidency; therefore, we will have to go on for a few months until we get $25,000.00." When we went to the Sacrament Meeting that afternoon here was the stake presidency sitting up on the stand at the chapel on Twenty-fifth and Tonopah [Streets] in Las Vegas. I was taking charge and started the meeting. I said to the stake president, "Is there anything you have to say?" 01:21:00He said, "Yes, I do, when it comes time for the business part of it." I announced that President Taylor and his councilors were here and that President Taylor had something to say.

He [stood] up and gave us quite a little boost about how we had gathered the $50,000.00. He said we were supposed to give $25,000.00 from the stake's general fund for all wards. "I have a present here for Bishop Riddle today. I want him to come up here and get it." I went up and he took a $25,000.00 check out of his pocket and handed it to me. I said, "I could just squeeze you, President 01:22:00Taylor." He said, "You go on back and sit down." He gave a nice little talk about how [well] we had done as a new ward, because this was a new ward. We were part of the Seventh Ward and then they made it a part of the Thirteenth Ward. I might say that was the highest numbered ward in Las Vegas at that time. I understand there are twenty-eight wards down there now and 35,000 [members].

The Mormon people are certainly doing wonderful in Las Vegas.

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IR:That bishopric went right on. We got the chapel started and the plans [were] 01:23:00approved. We were two short years building that chapel and it cost $446,000.00. In the meantime, I was released and my first counselor took over. He went right on. I was put back in the High Council, but I went right on and helped build the chapel. Before I finished that I had put $700.00 cash into the building and $1,600.00 worth of labor in it. I worked there every day on that chapel until it was completely finished. We felt we had done quite a thing. That chapel has a 01:24:00recreation hall, chapel in the main part of the building and there are twenty-four classrooms around the outside. That seems to be a pattern the church is following. I noticed the [chapel] just east of the temple here in St. George is just like that. We had another chapel down there that was built and they borrowed our plans. We had three or fours sets and we loaned them one [set]. They built another chapel out on Lamb and Fremont [Streets] in Las Vegas.

We did a lot of good down there. My wife was the chairman of the genealogy committee there. This was where my heart was. We brought groups from there up 01:25:00here. Now, people are coming up from Las Vegas more than they ever have. We feel like we started a pattern there. We were out-doing everybody. We used to put out a report on genealogy work down there and, month after month, we were tops in that report -- getting the most endowments done and most research -- whatever the report called for.

As I said, I was put back on the High Council. A man by the name of Harold Johnson was the manager of the Vegas Village Stores down there. One of the finest friends I ever had. [We] worked close together on the building program. 01:26:00From then on, we were helping others get their building started. We really enjoyed our years down in Las Vegas. I felt it was getting a little bit vigorous and maybe we should move back here where it could be a little quieter.

We tried to sell our home down there, but they had built so many new homes that sold for $100.00 down and $95.00 a month. Up to now, we haven't been able to get ours sold and get back the money we had put into it. To me, this didn't mean too much because as long as you are comfortable, you have a place to live, and enough income, [you can] get along. If we can help the Lord's work, that is the 01:27:00main thing. We enjoyed ourselves in Las Vegas and made thousands of wonderful friends there that will go with us through eternity. Some of the warmest friends we have on earth are down there in the wards and stake we belonged to.

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FH:Will you tell about your children now? Start with the oldest one first.

IR:We have a very fine daughter. She only has two children. She married a fellow [who] was one of my truck drivers in Cedar City. They have [had] a lovely life together and it is still going along nicely. Her name is Bernice (Riddle) 01:28:00Farnham. She married Eugene Lyle Farnham. They have been married a little over thirty years. She had some difficulty with her health and could only have two children, which made her feel bad as [much] as us. Both of them are fine children.

Our second [child is] Cluff Smith Riddle. By the way, all of our sons had my wife's maiden name, Smith, for their second name, so it was easy to trace in the genealogy. My second son has been married for the third time. He has had a sad life as far as [marriage] is concerned, but he has a very lovely wife now and 01:29:00they are going along fine.

My third [child], Rixey Smith Riddle, has been manager of the A. M. Lewis Wholesale Grocery down in Las Vegas. He has worked for them for many years and he is their best man. He does all the buying for the A. M. Lewis Wholesale Grocery business in Las Vegas.

Our next [child] is Ben Smith Riddle. He has been a wonderful boy throughout his life. [He] married a fine girl in Cedar City, Luwanna Wood. She is one of the finest sopranos we have ever heard. I don't know of any soprano I have ever 01:30:00heard on television or otherwise that was any better. She has always been a leader in the choirs or operas.

My youngest [child, Budd Smith Riddle] is married to [inaudible] girl [Marlene Fife from] Cedar City. They are happily married and he has been president of the Elders Quorum, as well as my next-to-the-youngest son. They [our sons] have been good church men through their lives.

Altogether we have twenty-seven grandchildren and seventeen great-grandchildren. In our tribe, we now have about fifty, I guess. We have a nice family. They are 01:31:00all good, honorable people, are all on their own and doing well in the world. My oldest son seems to be specializing in car sales. He is generally the head salesman wherever he goes. He is in San Francisco selling cars there. Our daughter works in lady's wear. She has been head clerk where she has worked for many years in Las Vegas. We are very proud of our children.

FH:Can you tell what you have learned from life? [Were there] any lessons you 01:32:00have learned?

IR:Yes, I learned some good lessons alright. The most important thing in life to us, which may not be important to everybody, [is] our church work. [It] has been the most important. We have been quite successful and, as I said, [in] the wholesale grocery and feed and flour business in Cedar City we handled about eighty-five percent of all the merchandise for many, many years. We handled a lot of money, but we weren't able to keep much of it because of the overhead. Starting in the late 1930s and 1940s, when the age of inflation came along, 01:33:00instead of paying a man $185.00 a month, which was a good wage, we were paying him $400.00 to $500.00 a month. The wholesale business is hard to operate when you have ten or twelve men at $400.00 or $500.00 a month. We would make $90,000.00 a year and clear $7,000.00 or $8,000.00 a year, at the most. That would be [inaudible] depreciation of our outfits. We had diesel [trucks] that we ran throughout the country [area] and bob-tail trucks that we [used to] deliver out to our eighty-four accounts. I know we aren't taking any of it with us even if we had a billion dollars, [but] we might be able to help more people if we had more money. We have always tried to help humanity and our fellow man any way 01:34:00we can, but the fact we haven't been financial tycoons doesn't bother me.

I look back on our lives, our children, grandchildren and the great-grandchildren that we have, the church and temple work we have accomplished was more important than anything in the world. Right now, I spend more time at [the] Visitor's Center, which used to be called the Bureau of Information, here at the temple in St. George than any four or five attendants. 01:35:00I feel even if there is no financial benefit to us that it will have a lasting effect more than anything else. We have had some wonderful experiences there. I [received] a letter from one of my brother's granddaughters in Fort Worth, Texas. A couple by the name of Williams came into the Visitor's Center here two or three months ago. I took them through and showed them a video and what [literature] we had. They went back to Fort Worth. It just so happened that my brother's granddaughter happened to be the missionary to teach these people. 01:36:00They had my card with them. I said, "When you join the church, I would be glad to hear about it. I would like you to write me." When she found they had been here and they had my card, she said, "That is my grandfather's brother." She wrote me a letter telling me about it. This is the payoff. I think, like Brother Sheffield says, that this is but one of thousands that we haven't heard about. It is a joy to know that we have done some good to somebody. I know I enjoy it. I figure if we can spend the rest of our lives serving the Lord, that is the 01:37:00main thing we are interested in [doing].

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IR:I wanted to tell about one more faith-promoting incident that occurred down in Las Vegas. There was a couple down there by the name of Snell. Her name was Sharon Snell and she was about five months along to have a child. [It was to be] her second child, I believe. I had been out visiting them in their trailer just east of Las Vegas, [the] Perkins Trailer Court. I was a bishop at the time and 01:38:00we were just getting [ready] to retire. It was about eleven o'clock and her husband called on the telephone. He said, "I wish you would come back out because Sharon is about to have a miscarriage." She had already had one miscarriage and wanted a family so badly. I went back out there. He had anointed her and I sealed the anointing. I told her she would have no more difficulty, that she would get well and this child would be born perfectly normal.

That was on a Thursday and I didn't see him again until [the following] Sunday. I said, "By the way, how is Sharon?" He said she was fine and that she never had a pain after I had left. He said, "I know we would have lost that child if we had not administered to her."

This was another of many faith-promoting incidents that occurred in my life. It seems I have been a party to administering to numbers of people [who] have been cured and healed through the Priesthood. The Lord thought fit to answer our prayers and healed them. I have been quite demanding. [Laughter] I felt that as 01:40:00long as it was consistent and they should get well, I have been strong in rebuking the power of the evil one to get out of the person's life so they could get well. As a result, the Lord has heard our prayers for those I have helped to administer to and a number of them have gotten well.

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FH:It seems to me [that] using the power of the Priesthood, that you mentioned, is the way it should be -- all of us should be doing it this way.

IR:I feel that way. I saw it in Wyoming when we were out [there]. I have seen it in Cedar City [and] Las Vegas. I have always felt that this is a wonderful 01:41:00privilege we have in holding that power which is greater than all of the doctors because the Great Physician in the heavens is the One who does the healing. We are just the instruments, the ones [who] hold the Priesthood to help get these ordinances performed. I have had quite a bit of experience to get people into the church and those in the church to the temple. When we were in Las Vegas, my business took me into a lot of homes. I would work the conversation around and I 01:42:00had a briefcase [with] Bishop Isaac E. Riddle on [it]. They would see that and they would know I was the bishop or had been the bishop. So they would begin asking me [questions].

I remember Burnell Hunt, who was the mission president of the North Las Vegas Stake, said one time that I had given the stake more referrals than any other man at that time. This was only natural as this was where my heart was. The good Lord when He was on the earth said, "Where your treasure is, there will your 01:43:00heart be also." That was what we were interested in, so when I would see somebody I would try to get them to take the missionary. President [David O,] McKay had said, "Every member is a missionary. I would ask them the two questions: do you know much about the Mormon Church? Do you want to hear more? Those were President McKay's two questions that he asked us to [use]. I am always pleased to know we have helped some others to get into the true church of Jesus Christ. I know and I don't know when I haven't known. As I mentioned in 01:44:00the beginning, my mother buried two children; one was a little sister in 1900 and a little brother in 1902. Each time she would [gather] us around the fireplace and explain where these little babies had gone. I never questioned the validity and truth of that from then until now. I was only five or six years old when it happened.

FH:Have you done a lot of reading?

IR:Yes. This has been where my heart is. We specialized in books [written by] Joseph Fielding Smith and James E. Talmage. I have a bookcase full --

[END OF TAPE TWO -- SIDE ONE]

IR:-- of their writings. They are two of the best! I have books there I wouldn't take a fortune for. I also have the documentary history of the church. We have made quite a study of that. One time, one of our new converts in Oakland, California wanted me to have The Works of Josephus. The man's name was Jay 01:46:00Futtrel and it enabled us to look back in ancient history. Our children have most of them now. The main [ones] we have kept are our church books that are marked from cover to cover. We aren't the smartest people on earth, but what we have done we have enjoyed. One thing I have enjoyed all of my life is that I believe very few people have had better interpretation of the doctrine of the church than I have.

FH:You have had a gift [inaudible].

IR:Apparently I have. People have asked me for the interpretations of this and 01:47:00that. If I didn't know, I would look it up and give them the exact references where they could find it. People would then be able to satisfy their minds to how this should be.

I remember down here at the Visitor's Center a lady came to me one time. She had just lost a twenty-year-old son in the Vietnam [War]. She was afraid this boy would not have a wife and children in the next life. After she had gone through the [inaudible] and film, she was waiting, hesitating like she wanted more 01:48:00information. She asked me about what his chances might be because she couldn't find it in the scriptures. I said, "Just give me your name and I will get you the references." When I had time, I got the Joseph Fielding [Smith] Doctrines of Salvation, The Way of the Perfection, and The Standard Works, [Holy] Bible, [The] Book of Mormon, [The] Doctrine and Covenants and The Pearl of Great Price down. [In] no time [I] had the 133rd section of the document or the 132nd and the very page in the Doctrines of Salvation by Joseph Fielding Smith. I rate him 01:49:00as one of the best men on doctrine there has ever been in the church. I have his and his father, Joseph F. Smith, books here. I wrote her and satisfied her mind that her son would have just as good an opportunity in the next life to have a wife and children as if he had remained here. It would be unfair if they didn't. Many children have died before the age of eight [who] were worthy, but this is the good Lord's plan. This is my testimony that these things do exist. I never have questioned it in all my life because I feel these things are true.

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FH:After this wonderful lifetime of service to the Lord and all of [your] 01:50:00experiences, I think you [should] give counsel to those who come after you and bear your testimony.

IR:My counsel would be: as far as I am concerned, it is the only explanation. I can't see any other way on earth. I have talked with thousands of people through my life [who] belong to various other churches and they all do well. I think there are fine Christian people in all other churches and they do a lot of good for humanity. They teach Christ and Him being crucified, but when it comes to the true church of Jesus Christ on earth, there is only one church on earth that has the Priesthood, the right and authority to act in the name of God, only one 01:51:00church that has temple work that will seal husband and wife for eternity and children for eternity to them. They will come up in the next life as husband and wife and as a family unit. It is the only church that has the power of the Priesthood to baptize and help people become members of the true church of Jesus Christ.

It has been organized under the direction of our Heavenly Father through the Prophet Joseph Smith. It is the only church that has the twelve apostles, prophets and pastors, teachers and bishops. We also have the greatest auxiliary to those than any church on earth. There are five major auxiliaries. They are 01:52:00the Young Men, Young Ladies Mutual Improvement Association, Primary, Sunday school and [the] Relief Society. There aren't any auxiliary organizations on earth that do the teaching and the good for humanity. We have the greatest missionary program of any church on earth. Since I have been going down to the Visitor's Center, I have been reading some about the Reorganized Church [of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]. They are not an apostate church for the Mormon Church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that came west. All you need to do is ask them, "What about the temple work? When are we going to get with this if you are with the right church?" They have to stop right there because we are the only true church that has brought temples back into existence. We have thirteen [temples] in use now and [have] built fifteen 01:53:00[temples] altogether. Two more [temples] will be built in the next year or two. [There will be one] in Provo and one in Ogden [Weber County, Utah]. I believe before this century is out there will be perhaps fifty or seventy-five more temples because it is going to get more intense.

We know during the millennium there is going to be three particular things done. Number one is going to be genealogy work. I am proud of what the Riddle tribe has done about that. We have gathered the genealogy with the help of my father and grandfather, cousins and those that are associated with me in the Isaac Riddle Family Organization. By the way, I was instrumental in getting my cousins together and getting that organized in 1956. We have about 250 members and meet 01:54:00once a year. Everyone [should] get organized into a family organization. We have what we call The Isaac Riddle Family Organization. We have a complete organization with presidents, counselors, researchers for the dead, researchers for the living, and people [who] handle our finances. [There are] doctors, lawyers and every kind of man in the Riddle tribe. This is the main thing. After we get the genealogy, we all go to the temple and we have the baptisms performed 01:55:00and the families sealed together.

I was proud when one of the brethren said to me here in the temple in the last few months, "We had your name, the Riddle names, in this temple for years". My wife had a cousin named Janet Ott and I am telling you there was never a finer researcher. Before our family organization was perfected, Janet Ott and a couple of other people were our paid researchers. Janet Ott wouldn't take any money. She would give it back after we would give it to her. We would get names after names and sheets after sheets [of names] and take them to the temple. Like I said before, I must have had it in my blood because my father, grandfather and 01:56:00my wife's people were always interested in it. It has been a part of our lives. This was [our] way of life

If we don't accomplish another thing [other] than to raise our families as we have, encourage them, make them feel at home, welcome others into our home and there is a good feeling [between] our children, grandchildren and [great-grandchildren]. We hope we will get them all in the kingdom of heaven where the Lord is in the celestial kingdom in the world to come.

[END OF TAPE TWO -- SIDE TWO]